Club Training Monday 1st July

With a break from racing every week, we are back into quality sessions with a 10k race focus. Training for 10k provides us with the flexibility to drop down to 5k and step up to 10 mile or half marathon as the sessions aren't much different.

The session is 8 x 1km with a recovery approximately equal to half the rep time. As before, the recoveries will be set within the pack to be a reasonable compromise for all in that pack. The recoveries are therefore:

10k range    Recovery
35 - 40        2:00 minutes
40 - 45        2:15 minutes
45 - 50        2:30 minutes
50 - 55        2:45 minutes
55 - >60      3:00 minutes

Take account of who is in your pack and what their 10k race pace is before choosing the recovery time for your pack. I will try to adjust the packs to be as evenly matched as possible.

This will be done as a continuous session out in the country. Warm-up through the glen to the bridge at the Strathaven Rd and climb up the bank, run out to the Crutherland, cross over and turn into the country road on the right. Gather at the usual 90 degree left hand bend where we often start reps. Start the first rep there. At the junction with Leaburn Rd, turn right along Leaburn Rd, stay on Leaburn Rd all the way to the end where it turns downhill. At the bottom of the hill, turn right and run back into Auldhouse. At Auldhouse Cross, turn left, back past the new houses to the finger posts and then Greenhills Rd. Turn right on Greenhills Rd and back to the club via Strathaven Rd.

It is important to not start too fast so that the quality can be maintained until the end of the session. If in doubt, run slightly slower than 10k pace on the first rep until you are warmed up. The first rep will be slower than 10k pace anyway because of the hilly terrain.

Alan

Trail Race Final Information for helpers

Just a few things to note regarding Friday's trail race.

Please see the spreadsheet in this post to see what you are doing on the night and when you need to be there. Note that the spreadsheet has been updated today.

If you are a marshall, please report to Jim Holmes on arrival. He will be based in the main hall. Jim will show you on the map where your position is and you will be taken out to your position by one of the trail race directors. You will be given a hiz viz marshall bib and lanyard with emergency contact details on it.

I would recommend a midge net if you have one.

The main hall is set up for registration. It gets very busy. Please do not hang around unless you need to be there.

For those on Registration, please report to Russell in the main hall where you will be allocated your role. Registration opens from 4pm

If you are down to cover the water station, please find Gordon McInally who will put you to work.

First Aid this year will be provided by St Andrews First Aid and will comprise of 2 first aiders.

For the first time we have electronic chip timing which will be provided by ProTay timing. This will be for all races with the exception of the toddler dash.

NK Physio will be on site to provide complimentary post race massage for athletes. If the weather is ok, they will set up a tent on the grass across from the start/finish line.

We may need to move this indoors in the event of rain.

There will also be representation on the night from 2 Raccoons who are a local company who are looking to do some research on long distance runners. They will be offering a free banana smoothie (produced by cycling a static bicycle attached to a smoothie machine!!!) to anyone who completes a short survey for them.

This year, we have not 1 but 2 Pipers who will be playing out on the course. Gregor Boyd (Catherine's son) and Tom " Tam the Piper" MacArthur

Catering as last year will be provided by Bruce and the bar staff in the sports club. This is first and foremost for race participants.

We have found that in recent years we have under estimated the number of people required on the finish line. If you are down for finish line duties please be in place for start of first race.

Several of us will be in the park from 10am on Friday morning to set up the courses. If you are free even for an hour or so during the day, the help would be appreciated.

Midges.....we will have a midge spray bar at registration for athletes to partake of. If you have any spray lying around the house please bring it up

This is the opportunity for us to promote the club and continue to enhance the reputation within and out with the running community. Let's put on a show.

Jim

Trail Race Roles

An updated  version of the various roles for the trail races are listed here. The list also details the times you must be in place by. Please let Jim know as soon as possible if you have any difficulties with those arrangements.

Club Training Thursday 27th June

Thursday's session is a group recce of the 10k Trail Race course. Keep your eye's peeled for any issues or hazards which might not be obvious to a runner on their own but which come into focus in a group situation. Report any such issues back to Jim and Davie.

Alan

Club Training Monday 24th June - Chatelherault

Monday's session is a straightforward, easy paced Chatelherault lap. If anyone has not been to our fortnightly Chatelherault session before, it is a 7 mile trail run which is very undulating and brilliant for building strength whilst being low impact underfoot. We meet in the car park on the right of the main drive having entered off of Fernigair Rd. The map and further instructions are in this post.

Be careful if the landslip near the start/finish of the lap is still unresolved. 

Thursday's session will be our usual trail race 10k recce.

Alan

Club Training Thursday 20th June

The Vertical Mile. The final race of this year's Grand Prix. Take a nice and gentle warm up via Newhousemill Rd, turning left at the top and following the back roads to Auchentiber and down to the start at the bottom of the road.

This mile is on a public road which can be busy. Therefore, in the early stages keep to the pavement as soon as the field breaks up and thereafter where there is no pavement, keep to the right hand side facing any oncoming traffic.

Eddie and an assistant will tell you how the race will be started and will do the timing. 

I hope it goes well. 

Could last year's VM trophy winners please remember to bring them up on the night if not already handed back.

Alan

Harriers 40th Anniversary Ceilidh

As part of the harriers 40th anniversary celebrations we will be hosting a ceilidh on Saturday 26th October for past and current members. The hall and band have been booked so save the date and spread the word to those you think would like to attend.

Club Training Monday 17th June

Monday's session is 8 x 3 minutes at 10k race pace/effort with a 2 minute jog recovery. The route is along Strathaven Rd and around by Sainsbury's to the 90 degree bend at the bottom of the hill just after the Auldhouse 5k start. The reps start at this corner. From there run up past Park Farm and turn left on Leaburn Rd and then immediately right to climb up to the crossroads where you should turn right again. Follow the road until it comes all the way back down to Leaburn Rd. Turn right and left and down and up to Auldhouse Cross. Turn right at Auldhouse Cross and back towards Langlands (if the boardwalk is open, take that route, otherwise come back via Langlands Club House, Sainsburys and Strathaven Rd. This is a very traditional Harriers summer rep loop!

Remember that the final race of the Grand Prix, The Vertical Mile, is on Thursday. There are still places to play for. Once again, I will be away with my work, so I would need a couple of volunteers to start the race and take times and results at the top. Let me know. It should not take more than two people! (first volunteer is Eddie, so one more needed, first come, first served! ). 

Alan

Strides Summer Sessions

 We have been asked to share the below with members:

In the next of Strides summer sessions, we are delighted to announce we will be joined by International athlete Robbie Simpson for an evening of trail running in the Kilpatrick Hills. 

The event will take place on Friday 21st June at 6.15 from Old Kilpatrick Bowling Club carpark. 

Robbie will be joined by his sponsor Adidas Terrex who are kindly bringing along their new trail shoes for everyone to participate in.

The event is open to all ages and abilities and I would be very grateful if you could share this with your club members. They can sign up using the link below. 

https://www.strideathletics.co.uk/booking-calendar/trail-night-robbie-simpson?referral=service_list_widget

The event costs £3.50 and this includes the session led by Robbie, trail shoes for the duration of the session and Q&A/social event in the bowling club afterwards.

Kind regards,

Callum Matthews 

Stride Athletics

athletics.stride@gmail.com

https://www.strideathletics.co.uk/

Club Training Thursday 13th June

Thursday's session is a short, lighter rep session than usual, given that many will be doing the second of the Victoria Park parkruns as part of the Grand Prix on Saturday morning.

The session is 10 x 1 minute at 5k pace with 1 minute jog recoveries. Warm up along Strathaven Rd and around by Sainsburys. The session starts at the junction at Langlands and heads past the club house to Auldhouse. Turn right at Auldhouse Cross and back to Greenhills Rd. Return to the club via Greenhills Rd and Strathaven Rd.

Alan

Chatelherault World Championships

 

On Monday 10th June it was our annual Chatelherault World Championships which is part of the Grand Prix series. We had 13 harriers taking part on the night with Frances Ferguson and Eddie Reid doing the timing duties. There is currently a landslip on the path between the start/finish and the first set of stairs. We had a bit of debate about where to start with most harriers hoping it was going to be at the top of the stairs but Eddie was pretty insistent that we set off just after the landslip section and we would finish at the top of the steps instead of running back down them. We were set off in 3 packs with 4 minutes between each pack. It didn't take Jordan Stewart long to catch the middle pack (catching them all after about 4k) and he continued this form to finish first by over 8 minutes in a time of 42:43. Stephen Phimister was next harrier and trying not to race too hard before Thursdays Kirkintilloch 10k finished in 50:52. Julia Pechlof had a fantastic run and left her pack out of sight at the log jam finishing well clear as first female in 52:00. Alison Lessells was next harrier in with a close battle with Jim Mearns finishing in 53:30 and Jim in 53:36. Jason Grant was next harrier in a time of 53:39. Claire McSorley was next in, despite her complaints about being moved up a pack her time showed the reason why, as she finished strongly in 54:42. Tammy Hutchison was next harrier and could have went a bit faster if she knew the route, running well to finish in 57:38. Well done to Gordon McInally who managed to save enough breath to shout directions to Tammy while finishing in 57:52. Kenny Leinster was next harrier home finishing in 60:19, with Richard Lawton running strongly to finish not too far behind in 60:52.David Searil was next with 67:59, followed by Russell Couper with 71:05. Well done everyone who ran and thanks very much to Eddie and Frances for timing. the next Grand Prix race is this Saturday morning at Victoria Parkrun, followed by the final race - the Vertical Mile on Thursday 20th June.

Club Training Monday 10th June - Chatelherault

Monday's session is the Chatelherault World Championships Grand Prix race, the only occasion where I say go as fast as you want on a lap of Chatelherault! As I am away with work, Eddie and Frances will coordinate the event and the gathering of times. Everyone please take your own time on your Garmin as a backup.

The course may be shorter than usual. If the landslide which Julia identified near the start of the course is still present, then the run will start and finish on the far side of the landslide for safety. It may be that the fist section of the trail is closed completely, in which case the run will start and finish at the top of the first flight of stairs (i.e. we will do the usual lap except that first and last bit along the side of the gorge and that first/last steep set of stairs).

I will split everyone into 3 packs, A, B and C. Pack C should start first, pack B 5 minutes later and pack A a further 5 minutes later. This means that everyone should finish fairly close together and nobody will be left isolated without seeing anyone for the whole lap.

Have a good one!

Alan

Harriers 40th Anniversary Sports Night

As part of the harriers 40th year celebrations it was decided we should host a fun sports night and quiz for past and current members. As Billy Buchanan had previously organised a sports night for us that was thoroughly enjoyed by all who took part he was roped in again to organise this one. I think everyone will agree that Billy and his team of helpers did a fantastic job (they may even get roped in to do it again one year…)

On the night names were put in a hat and drawn out to form 8 teams of 4, with the 8 teams rotating around 8 different stations.

Frances Ferguson had enlisted the model car club to let us try out their racing cars for the night. I thought I might have been good at this as have played with the kids remote control cars but driving them aimlessly round the living room crashing into things didn’t translate into steering accurately around the track and I was off the track more than on it… Jordan Stewart who was part of the ‘Young Ones’ team along with Geo Ferguson, Claire Denholm and Bill Sturrock was the star performer at this with a total of 8 laps (tho the results show a few others with 8 laps also). The team Menabrea performed best as a team at this with a total of 28 laps between the 4 of them (Alan Derrick, Stephen Phimister, Lorraine Buchanan and Lauren McPhilips).

Frances Phimister was hosting the tennis, where the aim was serve an ace. The team ‘And The Winners Are’ (Russell Couper, Eddie Reid, Robert Gibson and Gordon McInally) were the clear winners of this scoring 106 serves in 12 minutes.

Júlia Whittle was hosting the hockey where she has devised a circuit with drill ladder, dribbling and scoring with bonus points for a chipped goal and 5 keepy uppies. The ‘Young ones’, ‘Menabrea’ and ‘Simple Minds’ (Jamie McMonagle, Andrew Buchanan, Lorenza and Lorraine Gill) tied for the lead on this one with 35points each. 

Golf was hosted by Jim Holmes and the aim was to score as many golf balls into the box from set points with bonus points for yellow balls scored (furthest from the box). ‘And the Winners are’ were clear winners of this with 94 points scoring more than double of the team ‘Fittin Forty’ (Frances Ferguson, Allan McLellan, Lisa Greer, Julie Thomson and Karen Allen) who scored 44.

The other outdoor sport was rugby hosted by Emma Mearns where the aim was to score as many kicks over the goals as possible in 12 minutes. A bit of a recurring theme where the best team at this were ‘And the winners are’ with 24 points.

The other challenges were rowing, hosted by Chas Steven’s and Andy Henderson where each of the 4 team members had to row as far as they could in 3 minutes. The top performer at this was Andrew Buchanan with 905m. Simple Minds had the highest combined team distance of 2996m.

Billy Buchanan hosted the darts with points earned for hitting the 20. Again ‘And the winners are’ were top scorers however it was Allan McLellan who had the highest score of the evening with a treble 20 and a double 20 in one go. I’m informed Margaret Mary of DAMS and Blast (Davie Searil, Alison Lessells , Margaret Mary & Stuart Gibson) had the most unusual technique but Billy doesn’t think it will catch on as it was a work in progress…

Finally Alison Searil hosted the pool where the game was to alternate turns and pot the red, yellow and black in that order. The Young Ones were the leaders of this potting the black 7 times. The Classics (Jimmy Stewart, Richard Lawton, Lucy Irwin & Jim Mearns) need to brush up on their pool skills as they only potted the black 3 times.

The overall winning team were confident from the start naming themselves And The Winners Are…. The winners of the wooden spoon were Fittin 40.

After the sports contest Billy hosted a quiz with questions on the harriers from each of the 4 decades. It was a close contest with Charlie’s Angels (Martin Howell, Colin Banks, Morgan Beaton & Júlia Pechlof) tying for 1st place with Menabrea. After several tie break questions Charlie’s Angels eventually came out on top to be quiz champions. Allan McLellan and team Fittin 40 must of really liked the expertly painted wooden spoons as again they finished bottom to win the wooden spoon again. 

A few photos from the night are here . It would be good if everyone also uploaded their photos into the album for us all to see.

A big thank you to Billy Buchanan for organising the night, to Frances Ferguson for getting us access to the different sports equipment, to the model racing club for hosting the car races, and to the sports directors: Julia Whittle, Frances Phimister, Jim Holmes, Emma Mearns, Andy Henderson, Chas Stevens & Alison Searil.

 

Club Training Thursday 6th June - Auldhouse 5k TT

Thursday is the June edition of the Auldhouse 5k time trial. Please fill in the registration form as normal as this list then forms the start list for the timing. I will be there on Thursday. 

Warm-up via Strathaven Rd and Sainsburys and gather at the start. After a near record turn out at the May time trial, hopefully we have a good turn out for June too, although I realise there is a clash with the Brian Goodwin 10k, so we may be down on numbers a little.

Alan

Strathclyde parkrun Takeover Roles

The roles allocated for our parkrun takeover at Strathclyde parkrun on 8 June are listed here. If anyone has any questions then please speak to Julie Beveridge.

Club Training Monday 3rd June

Monday's session is shorter reps, given that the Auldhouse 5k TT is on Thursday and we want to keep the legs fresh. The session is 12 x 2 minutes at 10k race effort with a 2 minute jog recovery (regrouping into your packs during the jog recovery).

The route is through the glen to the Strathaven Rd bridge and then up to the Crutherland and along the back road to the 90 degree left hand bend where we usually start reps. Start the reps there. Turn right on Leaburn Rd and then along to the Auldhouse turn off, down the hill into the dip and up the hill to Auldhouse Cross. Turn right at Auldhouse Cross and follow the road to Langlands. Turn left at the junction and back towards the Sainsburys loop. If you still have reps to do, continue using the Sainsburys loop in a clockwise direction to complete the session.

As always, it is important to do the session at the correct pace. Faster is not better. We could all run most or all of a 12 x 2 minutes session at faster than 10k pace but that is not the objective of the session. So please do keep the pace under control and limit it to your 10k race pace/effort.

Alan

TTC 2024 Registration

08/06/2024 We have added a further 5 places (a 3 and a 2) in a different hotel a few hundred metres along the street from the Dreadnought giving a total of 29 places. This gives us enough places for those still on the waiting list and those still to pay their deposit. Could those still to pay the deposit please do so asap so that we can finalise the numbers. Any further entries will go straight onto the waiting list as we have to close the finances based on the number of hotel rooms now.

07/06/2024 Thanks to a brilliant response, we have filled the 24 hotel spaces in record time and deposits or full payments have been made for all those spaces. I shall be trying to add 2 further twin rooms to the booking tomorrow as we have another 4 signed up. If you have not paid the deposit, please do so as soon as you can to secure those spaces and let Russell know when you have paid.

05/06/2024 Thanks all who have signed up. We are almost fully booked now. Just a reminder that names will not appear on the list at the link further down until the deposit is paid and Russell has told me, at which point I update the published list. There could be a few days delay between filling out the form, paying the deposit and your name appearing on the list.

The Trossachs Training Camp 2024 weekend is now open for registration. The event is from around 1730 on Friday 20th September to 1100 on Sunday 22nd September and once again we are accommodated in the Dreadnought Hotel, Callander. The costs have remained more or less the same as last year and with the aid of our generous club sponsor, we are keeping the cost to participants the same as last year. The cost of the weekend is £95/person. The price includes a shared twin room in the hotel, breakfast goods for Sat/Sun which we shall supply (similar to last year), a lunch voucher for Saturday (alright, it's a fiver, not a voucher) for use in a shop or any of the many eateries near the hotel (the hotel's restaurant is run as a separate business, McNabs, who are doing breakfasts/lunches/dinners, so that may be an option but note that it is completely separate to the hotel), 2-course dinners Fri/Sat in the Lade Inn (third course available for extra charge) and the TTC T-shirt. We have booked a block of 12 x twin rooms. 

The format will be similar to previous years:

Friday

17:30 approx - easy run.

19:30 - dinner at Lade Inn

Saturday

08:30 - medium length run

early afternoon - strength/conditioning/mobility

late afternoon - rep session in the form of a relay

19:30 - dinner at Lade Inn

Sunday

07:00/07:30 - long run (note that the hotel won't give us a late check-out this year, so this is one hour earlier than previously).

11:00 - last check-out from hotel

The training is suitable for all levels of running ability as we will be split into four separate packs, each with a leader. Once we see who is signed up, we will finalise the routes for each run and for each pack to be certain that everyone will manage. The pack leaders will be doing a recce of the routes a week or two in advance to be (reasonably) sure they know where they are taking you on the runs.

Please fill in this on-line form if you wish to register. To secure a place on the TTC, please fill in the form and pay either a £40 deposit or the full amount (speak to Russell for payment options). The list of those who have registered and payed at least the deposit is here (it will be updated every few days when I have confirmation of payment from Russell). Registration is on a first pay first served basis.

If you have any questions, please drop me an e-mail (w.alan.derrick@gmail.com).

Alan