Club Training Monday 31st March

Except for those who were racing Tom Scott (who should do this run as an easy run if coming up to the club) the session is becoming more 10k to 10 mile specific as we approach the Summer racing season.

The session is at Langlands Place and consists of 6 x 800m at 10k pace, with 1 minute stand/jog on the spot recoveries followed by 4 x 400m at 5k pace with 1 minute recoveries.

Thursday's session is a threshold session at Carron Place. I will be overseas with work, so the session may get posted at a strange time.

Alan

Club Training Thursday 27th March

The return of threshold Thursday. This session is a repeat of the session from two weeks ago which is 5 x 6 minutes at threshold effort with a 2 minute jog recovery between reps. As before, use the Sainsburys Loop in a clockwise direction. Check back on your Garmin to see how consistent (or not) you were the last time we did this session. Did you start the first effort too fast and slow down as the reps progressed, or did you start too slow on the first rep. When done correctly, your heart rate should build up to a level and stay there from about the second minute to the end of each rep and each rep should achieve this same heart rate.

For those doing Tom Scott on Sunday, this session is far enough away that it should not impact your race performance. In fact, it would be a good idea to try to maintain the effort you plan to achieve throughout the 10 mile race. Unless you are running the 10 mile in 60 minutes, then your 5 x 6 minutes should be at the slower end of threshold.

Alan

Strathclyde parkrun Takeover Volunteer Roles

Calderglen Harriers are going to do a parkrun takeover at Strathclyde parkrun on Saturday 24 May.  This will be the third year of us doing this. For those that are new to the club this involves members of Calderglen Harriers filling all the roles at parkrun that Saturday. Parkrun will provide us with a run director.  You may be familiar with some of the roles but if you are not sure then ask about as there are many of us at the Harriers who are familiar with parkrun and we can explain what the role is all about.  A list of the roles we need covered are below. Please select all the roles you would like to do using this form and one will be allocated to you. parkrun also need your parkrun membership number (the number below your barcode), so please have that ready to enter on the form.

The roles to be covered are:

• Timekeeper- 2 
• Barcode scanning - at least 4 (but can add more on)
• Marshalls - 3/4
• Finish Tokens -1 + Finish Token Support - 1
• Funnel Manager - at least 5 (but can add more on)
• Number checker - 1
• Pre-event set-up - 1/2 (will be needed from about 7.30/8.00 but could go home once they have helped with the set-up). The race director will help the volunteer with this.
• First Timers Welcome - 1
• Tail Walker - 1
• Photographer - 1
• VI Guide - 1 (although dependent on whether they are required for this role on the day) 

Thanks

Julie B

Club Training Monday 24th March

Monday's session is another basic speed endurance session at 5k pace, the eventual outcome being that the slower paces required for longer races (10k, 10 mile, half and full marathon and beyond) will seem easier. Remember that training is not practicing racing (except for some specific race pace sessions intended to allow race pace to be achieved automatically based only on feel); training is intended to adapt the different physiological systems that are used in races and specifically, training is not racing so should not result in the same levels of deep fatigue that result from a race. Hence training is broken down into intervals with recoveries.

Monday's session is at Langlands Place again and is 12 x 400m at 5k pace with a 1 minute jog around/stand recovery. It is simple training, but it works!

Thursday is another threshold session.

Alan

West Highland Way Relay 2025 - accepting participants!

As announced last month, the Harriers' West Highland Way Relay weekend is from Saturday 17th May (early morning start) through to Sunday 18th May (afternoon return) and will cost £108 per person, dinner, bed & breakfast. The minibus cost will be covered by the club. We stay the Saturday night at the Ben Nevis Hotel in Fort William.

For those new to the club we hire a 17 seater minibus and leave East Kilbride about 3:30am (pick-up time will be confirmed nearer the time) on the Saturday morning and drive to Milngavie where Alan will allocate a section of the Way to be run by each person (although you can, if you wish, run with others on their legs). All but one of the legs are reasonably short and in any case we give the longer legs to the fastest runners such that we stand a chance of arriving in time for dinner. The plan is to arrive in Fort William early evening for a swim if there is time and dinner with some refreshments. Depending on the weather we may do an outdoor activity on the Sunday before arriving back in East Kilbride around 6pm. As places are limited it will be a first come first served basis upon giving Frances a deposit of £40 from Thursday 27th March at the Sports Club when entries will officially open. As Frances has to pay the hotel in full two weeks before the event, the balance of the payment is due by 31st April.

Alan

6+4 STAGE RELAYS TEAMS

 This Saturday were off to Livingstone for the National 6+4 stage relays.

Race starts at 11.30 so if everyone could be there by 11.00 am at the latest to allow the early legs a warm up. I will be there before this and collect the numbers.

Parking is at Livingstone FC   Almondvale stadium and the start is at the Acadamy on the other side of the river.

A Team   Leg 1 I MacLean     short,     Leg 2  S Hair   Long,    Leg 3  R Couper     short,    Leg 4   C Ferguson   Long,      Leg 5  V Sahasrabudde   short,    Leg 6    R Gibson     Long.

 

Club Training Thursday 20th March

Thursday's session is a pre-race run in advance of the National Road Relays at Livingston. The session is at Langlands Place and is 12 x 200m at 5k pace with a 200m jog recovery after each rep. i.e. run half of Langlands Place at 5k pace and then slow down to a jog to the end of Langlands Place before turning around to start the next rep. No sprinting just fast running!

Alan

Club Training Monday 17th March

Monday's session is another threshold session (unless you were racing over the weekend, in which case it is an easy run on the same route as the efforts). The session is 4 x 8 minutes at threshold with a two and a half minute jog recovery. For a slight change of scenery, do this session around Carron Place. The warm-up is up the Strathaven Rd onto Greenhills Rd and then first right into the Kelvin and on to Carron Place, starting the first rep at the usual location near the post box and running the reps around Carron Place in an anti-clockwise direction. With these slightly longer threshold reps, it is particularly important to start off at the correct level of effort and not to go too fast. The idea is to finish each rep feeling like you could have kept going at that effort level for much, much longer (theoretically up to one hour). Therefore, you should not be bent over double and straining at the end of each rep. This should be controlled discomfort.

Thursday's session is shorter, pre-race reps at Langlands Place.

Alan

Club Training Thursday 13th March

Thursday's session is back at Langlands Place and is keeping us in touch with faster paces and maximum oxygen uptake compared to Monday's threshold session. The session is 12 x 400m at 5k pace with 1 minute stand/jog around recoveries. As usual, keep a close eye on the pace, be realistic with respect to your 5k pace and be consistent with every rep. The pace chart is below for reference.

Alan

Club Training Monday 10th March

Monday's session is threshold efforts on the Sainsbury's Circuit (clockwise). The session is 5 x 6 minutes at threshold (comfortably hard, 2 or 3 word effort, sustainable for no more than an hour if you were in a race situation) with 2 minute recoveries.

For those who did the 10k race yesterday, do easy laps of Sainsburys loop. The training effect of the 10k race and the threshold reps is similar for those running 50 minutes plus for 10k.

Thursday's session will be back at Langlands Place at a faster pace to keep the VO2 topped up.

I lost track of the day of the week, hence the lateness of this post!

Alan

Club Training Thursday 6th March

Thursday's session is back to working at VO2 max effort. The purpose of these sessions is to maximise the ability to use oxygen which translates into better running economy at all slower paces over longer distances, whether it is a 10k race or an ultra. The session is at Langlands Place and is 6 x 800m at 5k pace with a 1 minute stand/jog on the spot recovery. With many having just run 5k at the Scally, 5k pace should be fresh in your minds! Try to make every rep as close to the same time as possible.

Alan

NATIONAL 6+4 STAGE ROAD RELAY

With 8 males listed ive entered 2 male teams so there are 4 spaces available to fill. As we dont need to declare the running order yet we are allowed to list reserves so below is the pool or runners we can choose from so if anyone on the list that didnt declare there entry wants to be added to the team selection let me know     Russell

Vivek Sahasrabuddhe   Peter Moyes    Craig Ferguson    Iain Maclean    Scott Hair
Jordan Stewart    Kai Wheeler   Kieran Rooney    Robert Dewar   Jason Grant
Paul Lucchesi    Robert Pattinson   Robert Gibson    Andrew Buchanan   Kevin McPhillips
George Ferguson   Martin Howell   Jim Mearns   Gerard Connelly    Colin Banks
Kenny Leinster    Stephen Phimister    Alan Derrick    David Watt    Gerard Mullen
Jim Holmes    Russell Couper     David Searil

 This years 6+4 stage relay will again be held in Livingston on the 22nd March

Start time is 11.30 for the men and 11.40 for the women

teams are 6 for men and 4 for women and legs are run with alternate distances of 3.15m and 5.8m

If we have more names we will run partial teams too so everyone that wants to run can

Entrants MUST be members of Scottish Athletics as this is a National championship

Cost is £7 per head and should be paid before race day

If you wish entered please add your name HERE. those already registered are listed HERE.

I need names by Tuesday 4th March

Strathclyde Parkrun Takeover - Choose your dates

Edit - Saturday 24th May is most popular vote and Julie Beveridge is liasing with the Strathclyde run director to check this date is suitable. When we hear back we’ll ask about preferred roles.

Following the success of the last couple of years takeover of the Strathclyde parkrun by the Harriers, we have decided to try the same again this year. What is the parkrun takeover? This is an opportunity for a club to take over all the volunteer roles (or the majority) for the parkrun for one weekend (with the assistance of the regular race director to keep us right), providing good publicity for the club and putting something back into the sport. The first step in the process is to find out to choose the most suitable weekend. To make this a success for us we will need members to come forward and volunteer. At this point in time we need to choose a Saturday that will suit the majority of our members. We have selected dates for April/May/June as hopefully the weather is better but it is before the summer holidays start. Note that the weekend of the WHW relay has been left blank, along with the 2 dates for the parkrun that are in the harriers grand prix.

The dates (all Saturdays of course) are listed in this form. Please select as many days as you could make and we will pick the most popular one.

Alan Scally Road Relay - Relay Enjoyable Event

 We had another great day of racing on Saturday at the Alan Scally Road Relays in Glasgow Green, there was some light rain in the morning and again in the afternoon after the event but it remained dry for the duration of the relay event. This year had a record entry of 301 teams!

On the day we had 3.75 mens teams and 1.5 ladies teams.

On the first leg for our senior mens team we had Jordan Stewart who is also in training for the Paris marathon, however the miles haven't affected his speed and even with being sick on the course with 100m to go this didnt stop Jordan dipping under 17minutes for the first time and gaining a new PB of 16:57. 

Jordan passed over to Andrew Buchanan, who also had a great run, running their fastest 5k in several years finishing in 18:51. Jason Grant was 3rd leg for our senior team and also in marathon preparation, using this race as part of a longer training run, running to and from Glasgow Green along the Clyde Walkway from Cambuslang, Jason was another on PB form running an excellent time of 19:15. on the final leg of the senior team was our U20 athlete Kai Wheeler who has been running PBs in just about every race lately, well Saturday was no exception and Kai stormed round in 19:02 (much to his dads disappointment at no longer being fastest in the household!), bringing the senior team home in an overall 80th place.

Our mens V50 team and senior mens team were quite closely matched, Stephen Phimister was first off in the V50 team having a strong run but disappointed not to break 20, finishing in 20:08. Scott Hair was was first off for the senior team and had a great run, finishing not too far behind in a new PB of 20:25.

On the 2nd leg for the V50s was Martin Howell who hasn't been able to get in much training lately due to work commitments finishing in 23:16, Robert Gibson was 2nd for the senior team and was chasing Martin down all the way, closing the gap slightly to finish in 23:10. Iain Maclean was next off for the V50s and managed to stretch the lead away from the senior team running a strong 20:52, Craig Ferguson was next off after Robert and ran hard to finish in 22:18. Last off for the V50s was Richard Lawton who has had a long battle with injury lately so he was delighted to finish in roughly the same time as last year, running 24:33. The mens V50 team finished in 10th position in the V50 category. Peter Moyes took over from Craig on the last leg and is another who has been getting regular PBs, getting yet another, improved his 5k time down to 25:08.

Russell Couper was 1st leg in our incomplete V40 team, followed by Vivek Sahastrabhudde and Andy Rycroft (2 of our Tuesday night improvers club), Russell improved on last years time at the Scally and ran 27:37, Vivek was delighted to get a new PB of 28:30 and Andy had a strong run finishing in 28:42.

Our complete female team was made up of Clare McSorley, Lorraine Buchanan, Lizzie Dewar and Alison Lessells. Clare had a strong run, finishing in 22:42, getting the team off to a good start, Lorraine was next off and ran 28:37 to set a benchmark down for the season (pleased to get round injury free), after a lot of disruption lately to her training with injury. Lizzie was 3rd leg and had a brilliant run, setting a new PB of 26:21, Alison was last leg and finished in a time of 22:03 (slightly disappointed to not break 22, but happy that it was faster than recent years).

Our final incomplete ladies team was also made up of 2 of our Tuesday night runners, both had brilliant runs taking chunks off their previous 5k bests. Carolyn Donnelly was first leg and ran a brilliant PB of 28:26, handing over to Pam Rycroft who also ran a brilliant PB of 29:45.

Well done to all who ran and thank you to those who came down to support - Alan Derrick, Frances & Geo Ferguson, Colin Banks, Jim Holmes, Robert & Eilidh Dewar and Charlotte Buchanan.

Club Training Monday 3rd March

Monday's session is a post-race run, ending quite an intense block of training since the start of the year. The route is the old faithful Queensway to the Holiday Inn, all the way along the bypass to the Stewartfield Loch roundabout, turn right up the hill into Stewartfield and then turn left at the mini-roundabout at Stewartfield Rd, down the footpath parallel to Stewartfield Rd, left on West Mains Rd to Churchill Avenue and up Churchill Avenue to the NEL roundabout and back to the club. Take this as an easy run; no strides.

Thursday's session will be back at Langlands Place.

Alan

Grand Prix Races - the next batch!

At the committee meeting on Thursday, we have agreed the following races to conclude the Grand Prix. Some dates yet to be confirmed and some entries are not yet open most of the races do have Scottish Athletics permits so will be on. 

Land O'Burns date is still to be confirmed. Have assumed the same Wednesday (but better weather) than last year. 

A change of parkrun was decided as Victoria parkrun is becoming too crowded making the second lap difficult whereas Polkemmet is a similar distance/time away and is relatively quiet. As usual, there are two dates for the parkrun; you can choose either one, however, only the time from the first one you do counts. 

Entries are not open yet for Dechmont Law but it does have a permit and is in the SA calendar. There is also a 2.5km juniors race there which makes it good for all the Harriers. 

Chatelherault World Championships and Vertical Mile will be slotted into the schedule once we get nearer to the time with the Vertical Mile being the last race of the Grand Prix as always.

Alan

10	13/04/2025	Dunbarton AAC 10 mile Road Race	https://www.dunbartonshireaaa.co.uk/10mile/
11	11/05/2025	Loch Leven Half Marathon	https://www.entrycentral.com/LLHM
12	21/05/2025	Land O'Burns Ayr 10k (date to be confirmed!)	to be confirmed
13	26/04/2025	Polkemmet Country parkrun (1/2) and race 2/2 on 31/05/2025	parkrun
14	15/06/2025	Dechmont Law 10k Trail Race	https://www.lothianrunningclub.co.uk/trail-race/
15	tbc	Chatelherault
16	tbc	Vertical Mile

Allan Scally Road Relay - Some Photos

Feel free to add photos to this album. Thanks to Geo for adding his photos. Looking forward to a race report from one of the participants. Well done all.

Alan