Club Training Monday 27th February

Reps on Monday only this week with another race weekend approaching (many racing on Saturday and some Sunday) and hence an easy run on Thursday. Monday's session is at Langlands Place and is:

8 x 400m @ 5k pace, 1 minute standing recovery, 8 x 200m at slightly faster, 200m jog

The purpose of the session is to condition the body to be able to hang on to or even increase pace in the final km of a race. As we progress this session, the number of reps will increase slightly but the main thing will be cutting back the recoveries in the 400's as the weeks go on whilst maintaining the same pace as now.

Take the usual warm-up to Langlands Place and the usual cool down back to the club.

Alan

National Cross-Country Championships - Callendar Park

Several thousand club runners of all ages descended upon Callendar Park, Falkirk from all corners of Scotland for Saturday's National Cross-Country Championships. The weather and underfoot conditions were near perfect with only a gentle breeze and hardly a trace of mud to be found. Consequently the small contingent of Harriers had a good chance to finish the cross-country season with a hard, fast run.

In the senior ladies race, we had three Harriers, Alison Lessells, Julia Petchlof and Frances Ferguson competing over 3 laps and about 10.5km of undulating terrain. In her best race of the XC season, Frances Ferguson was the first Harrier and our highest age grade finisher of the day. After a strong start by all 3 ladies on the first lap, Frances moved into the leading Harrier position about half way around the second lap with Alison continuing to chase hard. Frances crossed the line in 51:22 and 5th F55. Alison was not far behind, finishing in 51:40. Julia had her strongest cross-country race of the season too and was certainly the fastest Harrier on the final climb through the tented hill, pacing the race very well to finish in 53:45.

The men's race was over the same 3 lap course and in this race we had Duncan McKellar, Gerry Connelly, Andrew Buchanan, Jim Holmes, Gordon McInally and Russell Couper running. Duncan, Gerry and Andrew remained close for the first lap but a stumble by Gerry and a general tiredness meant that he pulled out about half way around the second lap. Meanwhile, Duncan had tweaked a hamstring on the first lap and his stride was very constrained for most of the race. Meanwhile Andy was demonstrating the great endurance base he has developed and looked strong throughout the race. Duncan finished in 43:10 with Andy crossing the line in 44:35.

Jim Holmes enjoyed the firm conditions which meant that endurance rather than strength was the main factor. Jim finished in very good form in 52:01. Gordon is still struggling with a niggling injury which is limiting his training volume. Gordon ran steadily to finish in 55:59. Russell is benefiting from his gradual increase in mileage and looked to be strong all the way through the race, finishing in 59:11.

Well done to all the Harriers running and thanks to those Harriers supporting around the course (Stephen and Frances Phimister, Lorraine Buchanan and Shaun Mochan to name the ones that I saw).

Some photos of the race leaders and all the Harriers in this album.

Alan

Grand Prix - Glasgow University 5 Mile Road Race

It's a bit of a late announcement for this one, but entries have just gone live for the GU 5 Mile Road Race on 11th March. Entry and full details on Entry Central: https://www.entrycentral.com/glasgowunirr. A nice, low cost race over a familiar, undulating course.

This one is usually in the Grand Prix and so I have added it in again. It gives us a good finale to a block of 3 races over a 2 week period (National XC, Scally and GU Road Race). Then we have a good few weeks rest before the next block of GP races. As a reminder, here is the list of GP race dates so far decided.

Thanks to Richard for highlighting that this race had opened for entries.

Alan

Club Training Thursday 23rd February

Thursday's run is a pre-race run ahead of the National XC on Saturday. The route is down the Kingsway to The Whirlies, East Mains Rd, West Mains Rd to McDonalds and back up the Queensway to the club. Within your packs, fit in 5 sets of faster strides of about 50 to 100m distance on flat or downhill sections. A different person should be nominated by the pack to choose the start and finish of each "rep", starting the strides and then just raise your hand and shout "finish" when you feel that is enough. The aim is to feel light on the feet and easy during the strides.

Alan

Club Training Monday 20th February

As this is a pre-national XC week for some, there are no strength sapping hills this week. Instead Monday's session is a 5k pace speed session and Thursday will be an easy pre-race run with strides.

Monday's session is at Langlands Place (usual warm-up via Sainsburys main entrance) and then:

10 x 400m at 5k pace, 1 minute static recoveries + 4 x 200m, 200m jog recoveries at 3k pace (slightly faster than 5k pace but definitely not sprinting flat out).

Alan

Club Training Thursday 16th February

Thursday's threshold session will require very good control of effort. The session is once again on the Stewartfield loop and is 3 x 10 minutes with 3.5 minutes jog recovery and the usual warm up to Stewartfield.

As these reps are longer, the effort needs to be very controlled to avoid blowing up before the end and should therefore be at the lower end of threshold effort i.e. 3 or 4 word effort and definitely not 1 or 2 word effort, hanging on for dear life. When looking at the graph of Heart Rate after the event, it should be totally constant after the initial few minutes build up. 

After all these weeks of threshold sessions, there should be a noticeable difference in fitness for those who have managed most of the sessions.

Alan

Man cave addition!

 

All the way from New Zealand, club stalwart, former club president and honorary lifetime member of Calderglen Harriers, Malcolm Buchanan sends this photo of the latest addition to his "man cave".

This is probably the most pristine and beautifully presented club vest I have ever seen! All it needs is a sign saying "In case of race, break glass"!

Alan

Lanarkshire XC Championships (Bellahouston Park) - Results

As mentioned in the West XC League post, the race also incorporated the Lanarkshire XC Championships. The unique feature of the race was that it was not even in Lanarkshire! All the results in all the age groups have been diligently collated by the Lanarkshire AA results team; no easy task given that all runners from the same club wore the same number. The full results are here. Most notably, our ladies team of Karen Allen (7th), Alison Lessells (11th) and Frances Ferguson (13th) finished second team. Well done ladies; your medals are in the post (maybe)!

Alan

Club Training Monday 13th February - Brancumhall

With both the National and the Scally following in relatively close succession over the next 2 to 4 weeks, we are starting to sharpen up the training a little bit. Tomorrow's Brancumhall XC session should be relatively dry underfoot and therefore good for faster paced running. The session is as follows:

10 x 2 sides at 5k effort, jog 1 side recovery. The Brancumhall lap has 4 sides of different lengths therefore, the efforts will vary by 50 to 100m or so. The total lap is about 800m, so the reps will be 400m give or take 50m to 100m.

Alan

West XC League Race 3 - Bellahouston Park

The final race in the West XC League took place in Bellahouston Park on Saturday afternoon. Although there were only a relatively small number of Harriers running, we were represented across a wide range of age groups from under 11 to masters. The course was mainly quite firm under foot thanks to the relatively mild conditions, with only the racing line on some of the corners turning a bit muddy by the end of the senior/masters race. The seniors/masters competed over 8km, comprising 1 small lap and 3 large laps of the quite flat and fast course.

The league is purely a team event with no individual rankings or prizes. The great thing about this league format is that every Harrier who turns out for the club makes a difference to the team position, either as a counter for one of our teams or by generating penalty points for incomplete teams fielded by other clubs. Following the excellent performance of our teams at race 2 in Kilmarnock, our slight lack of numbers in some teams in this final race did count against us. However, we did do well in the senior ladies event, despite being one runner short of a complete team of 4. Karen Allen, Alison Lessells and Julia Petchlof were our three competitors, completing the 8km course in 10th, 18th and 23rd position. Unfortunately being one runner short incurred a 37 point penalty which pushed us down to a still impressive 4th position behind Ayr Seaforth AC, Victoria Park-Glasgow and Cambuslang Harriers. One more senior lady may well have given us second or third place.

Although Frances Ferguson was our lone masters runner in the ladies race, adding Frances to the 4 senior ladies gave us a complete combined senior/masters team of 4 which finished in 6th position in the combined ladies competition (14th, 27th, 30th and 34th) with no penalty points. In the masters competition (teams of 3), with only Frances running, we accumulated 2 sets of penalty points for the 2 missing runners and finished 9th team (10th position for Frances plus 56 penalty points).

For the men, our masters team (teams of 3) was complete with Davie Watt, Gerry Connelly and Gordon McInally combining to a total team score of 68 (10th, 14th and 44th) and 6th position behind EKAC, Cambuslang, Shettleston, Bellahouston RR and Ayr Seaforth. Russell Couper was our 4th masters runner and by competing for the club, contributed 1 extra penalty point per missing runner in each of our competitors' teams. Martin Howell did well to even be here today but was struggling and dropped out half way through.

Andrew Buchanan and Jason Grant were our only senior men competing and consequently the team was incomplete (4 for a team) and accumulated 120 penalty points. However Andy and Jason's 36th and 43rd positions combined with the penalties placed us 12th senior male team. In the combined senior/masters men competition (4 per team) we finished 10th (Davie 39th, Gerry 53rd, Andy 55th and Jason 81st) with no penalty points.

Our juniors were racing in the U11 boys (Callum Lloyd), U13 girls (Zoe Hutton and Holly Lloyd) and U17 (Emma Hutton) categories and gave their absolute all around a very good course for juniors. As we had two in the U13 girls class, we were only one short of a complete team and finished 13th team in a very competitive field of 56. Well done to all our juniors.

Although the West XC League is finished for this year, hopefully our results at Bellahouston and Kilmarnock have demonstrated that we can be competitive at this true team event but we do need to absolutely flood the field with Harriers to be in with a chance in the league tables and we should certainly target the 3 events that make up the league next year.

The event also incorporated the Lanarkshire XC championships but I have not seen the Lanarkshire category results yet.

Following the race, Karen and Jason continued their marathon training with an easy run back to Cambuslang, a very useful double session for the day!

Some photos from the senior/masters races in this album.

Alan

WEST XC LEAGUE RACE / LANARKSHIRE XC

 The West league xc incorporating the Lanarkshire xc Champs is tomorrow

Venue is Bellahouston park and seniors race is approx 2pm

The start and finish is next to Mosspark Boulevard at the High flats end.

Runners are 12.15pm Callum Lloyd

                     12.30pm   Holly Lloyd,  Zoe Hutton

                    1.30pm     Emma Hutton

                    2.00pm   F Ferguson, A Lessells, J Pechlof, K Allen, R Couper, A Buchanan, D McKellar, G McInally, J Grant, G Connelly, D Watt.

If anyone listed is not going to make it let me know and if anyone wants to run let me know as long as you have an SA membership. Myself, Frances and Gordon are going late morning to set up the tent for the Juniors and to give them numbers if i could ask the seniors to be there for 1pm for warmups and number distribution.

Russell

Club Training Thursday 9th February

It's a threshold Thursday this week. No surprise there! Once again we return to the Stewartfield loop via the usual route (I prefer doing long reps like this on a long loop rather than loads of short laps; but others may think differently). The session is 5 x 6 mins at threshold with a 2 min jog recovery. This is our longest total duration yet and we won't really be going any further than this.

As always, the session only works if it is done at the correct effort level i.e. 2 or 3 word effort ("I'm all right" or "away you go"!). If you can't talk at all, its too fast. If you can hold a conversation its not fast enough. If you have a heart rate monitor chest strap, your HR should remain absolutely steady after the initial minute or so of build up, corresponding to a constant effort but your pace will go up and down depending on the slope of the pavement, head wind or tail wind. Gradually accelerate up to the effort level; too fast too soon and you will over stretch yourself and not be able to sustain the correct effort.

Alan

The History of Cross Country

Here is an interesting article summarising the history of XC running as we approach the annual World XC Championships. Quite inspiring and the author of the article is scheduled to compete in the M80 category at the World Masters XC Championships and exudes enthusiasm for our sport. Enjoy!

https://www.outsideonline.com/health/running/culture-running/history/world-cross-country-winter-sport/

Alan 

NATIONAL XC CHAMPIONSHIP ( FALKIRK )

This years National XC Championship will again be in Falkirk on 25th February

Ladies race is at 12.55 with the men at 14.30

Cost is £8.50 per head

10k for both Ladies and Men

I need names by Tuesday 7th February and please make sure your SA number is up to date both for the entry date and race date.

If you want entered add your name HERE.  Those already registered are listed HERE.

Scottish Masters XC - Tollcross

 

Perfect weather greeted the hundreds of masters runners who descended on Tollcross Park from all over Scotland (and further afield) today. The Harriers had a relatively small contingent with a few last minute call offs and indeed Kenny Leinster failing a fitness test after the warm-up as his knee injury became aggravated. The course was the usual undulating but firm 2km circuit of Tollcross Park but with an extra down and up  zig zag added to the hill at the end of each lap to increase the length of the lap as this course has traditionally been quite a bit short. This change to the course also meant an uphill finish which resulted in some interesting sprints for the line.

Frances Ferguson was our solo representative in the F40+ and M65+ 6km race and ran very consistent laps to finish in 31:40 and 13th F55. The M40's to M60's had 4 laps of the course to contend with and the age groups soon became well strung out over the first lap. Both Harriers were in the M55 category with Gordon McInally and Russell Couper finishing in 45:56 and 48:47 respectively. Well done both.

Thanks to Jason Grant and family for their vocal support of the Harriers which was much appreciated.

Alan

Club Training Monday 6th February

As we are still very much in the strength phase of training (until the National XC), Monday's session returns to Lickprivick via the usual route (Crooked Lum, Murray). Then the session is:

4 x 3 mins + 2 x 1 mins + 2 x 30 seconds, jog down recovery

The 3 min reps should be at 5k effort level, the 1 min reps a little harder and the 30 sec reps harder again. The scientific evidence suggests that reps like this are most effective at increasing aerobic capacity when they step down in duration and increase in effort as the session progresses as it is possible to maintain a higher effort level to the very end of the session rather than doing 5 or 6 x 3 mins and fading over the last few reps. So that's why we have been doing this type of hill session over the Winter.

NOTE THAT AS I AM AWAY WITH WORK TOMORROW AND WILL BE ON A FLIGHT AT 6PM, I WON'T BE UPDATING THE PACKS ON MONDAY EVENING. JUST SPLIT THE PACKS AT THE USUAL BUBBLES.

Alan

MASTERS XC CHAMPIONSHIP

 Tomorrow ( Sunday ) is the Masters XC Championship in Tollcross Park.

Ladies start at 1pm with the Men at 1.45pm

I will collect the numbers and be at the start area for 12.30 and would appreciate everyone there for 1pm at the latest. Come ready to run as theres no changing and we wont have the tent with us.

Those running are F Ferguson,   R Couper, G Connelly, K Leinster, G McInally and S Phimister

If anyones not going to make it let me know

Russell

Club Training Thursday 2nd February

Thursday's session is a little reminder of pace. The session is 10 x 400m at 5k pace with a 1 minute standing/walking recovery at Langlands Place. For a reminder of 5k pace over 400m, see the table below. As we haven't done this sort of session for a while, aim for your current 5k pace rather than target 5k pace.

5k Time 400m time

16:00 01:17

17:00 01:22

18:00 01:26

19:00 01:31

20:00 01:36

21:00 01:41

22:00 01:46

23:00 01:50

24:00 01:55

25:00 02:00

26:00 02:05

27:00 02:10

28:00 02:14

29:00 02:19

30:00 02:24

Warm-up via Strathaven Rd and around via Sainsbury's main gate and up the hill to Langlands Place. Recovery is via the direct route back. Those marathon training may wish to tag on a few extra easy miles at the end (e.g. 3 laps of the Sainsburys loop)

Alan