Club Training Monday 31st January

Monday's Brancumhall session is basically a threshold session but with a couple of shorter reps to start with to get the heart rate up and to simulate the usually fast start to a race before easing back into a sustained threshold effort and then a final effort to simulate picking it up at the end of a race.

The session starts off with 2 sides at 5k effort, 1 side jog. Do this twice and then after the final 1 side jog go immediately into 1 x 10 minutes at threshold effort. After the threshold effort, jog for 1 minute and then do a final 2 sides at 5k effort. That's it.

In these cross country sessions, experiment with your stride length and cadence until you find the sweet spot for you i.e. what feels most efficient to maintain the pace. A shorter stride/faster cadence may work better on softer ground whereas on firmer ground, you may lengthen to a more powerful stride.

Probably best to programme this on your watch as:

1 x open rep (until button press), 1 x open recovery (until button press) (repeat these steps x 2) and then 1 x 10minutes + 1 x open recovery (until button press) + 1 x open rep (until button press).

Alan

Devils' Burdens Hill Relay Final Instruction

For the team members (Leg 1 me, Leg 2 Kenny/Jim, Leg 3 Frances/Geo, Leg 4 Chris, Reserve Gordon) here are the final important instructions issued by the race organiser today. 

NOTE POINT 1 IN PARTICULAR THAT NO VEHICLES SHOULD ENTER THE ESTATE VIA FALKLAND AND THE EAST GATE. ALL VEHICLES SHOULD ENTER VIA THE PILLARS OF HERCULES RD, AVOIDING FALKLAND COMPLETELY. FULL INSTRUCTIONS BELOW. 

LEG 3 HAS CHANGED A LITTLE - The difference is that the gate about halfway up the "motorway" is no longer a check point. All other checkpoints are the same (Gate at top of "nasty den"; hill-top fort; emergent spring; forest track junction.

BRING A MARKER PEN - SEE POINT 6 - FOR CHECKPOINT RECORDING

The full instructions from the organisers are as follows:

As usual, we are indebted to Adrian Stott of “Run and Become” for his generous sponsorship and his offer of discount to all participants (see the reverse of your race number for details).

1. Do not approach the race site by coming through the village of Falkland and attempting to access the Estate via the East Gate.     Instead, exit the A912 (Falkland to Strathmiglo road) at the Pillars of Hercules and follow a farm road (ignoring a no entry sign) to the race site.    Falkland Estate have made this conditional on their permission to the staging of the race, so please ensure full compliance.

2. Parking: there is parking available in the Playing Fields (maybe “soft”) and in the Estate Carpark just off the A912.

3. Registration will be in the Playing Fields adjacent to the Start / Finish / Changeover.

4. Please note there was an anomaly between the published instructions for Leg 3 and the corresponding map.    The map has been altered to reflect the instructions and can be downloaded from the Fife AC website, our apologies for this error.

5. Leg 3 runners must wear the red numbers.

6. Due to the continuing presence of COVID-19, there is a change to the recording of the checkpoints this year.     To minimise the risk of transmission, there will be no punches at the checkpoints.     An orienteering card will be in your race pack, corresponding to your team number, and this should be used to record the various checkpoints which will be marked with circular pieces of slate each having a random letter of the alphabet.    This recording card should be passed baton-like to each successive leg and handed to a designated official at the end of the race (completion of Leg 4) and will act as a record of completion.    Please ensure that the team members carry a marker pen or pencil for recording purposes.

7. Again, due to the continuing presence of COVID-19, there will be no provision of post-race refreshments or a prizegiving in the Falkland Community Hall.    Toilets will be sited in the Playing Fields adjacent to the Start / Finish / Changeover area.    Complimentary soup, tea and coffee will be available for competitors at the rear of the Stables Café within the Estate from 10:30am onwards.    There will be signage local to the Café directing competitors to the relevant area.     Prizes will be sent by post to the Team Organiser/Captain.

8. There will be space for club / team tents in the playing field.

9. There is a probability of mass starts on legs 3 and 4 for the slower teams.    Final decisions will be made on the day.

Frank McLaren - Fife AC

Club Training Thursday 27th January

Thursday is another easy run around the 4-hills (except for those doing the Devils' Burdens Hill Relay - see instructions at the end for your run). Although it is an easy paced run, the 4-hills is never easy due to the amount of climbing involved. Therefore, don't be tempted to hammer it; the benefit will be achieved (particularly those who are stringing together plenty of miles between club nights) through the cumulative effect of these easy miles and the ups and downs of the course. In fact you will get more aerobic benefit from running this route slow and easy as you will be training for a few minutes longer than you would be at a faster pace.

For those doing the Devils' Burdens, you need to keep the legs fresh for the climbs on Saturday. Therefore, follow the 4 hills as far as West Mains Rd (i.e. do Markethill only) and then come all the way up West Mains Rd to McDonalds and back up the Queensway. Fit in a few 50m strides, running light on the feet to get the legs moving on the flatter stretch of the Queensway before the town centre.

Alan

Club Training Monday 24th January

 As we move towards a block of races in February and March, we take the heavy load off the legs (hill reps) and move back to running light and fast on the flat to bring everyone towards race fitness. 

The session for Monday is 12 x 400m at slightly faster than 5k pace with 60 seconds recovery. The session is at Langlands Place using the 400m straight as usual. Assuming the weather is fairly calm, the aim is to be absolutely consistent on every rep to within a second of each other.

For pace guidance, those running:

18 minute 5k should aim for 1:24 per 400m

20 minute 5k should aim for 1:34 per 400m

22 minute 5k should aim for 1:43 per 400m

24 minute 5k should aim for 1:52 per 400m

26 minute 5k should aim for 2:00 per 400m

All of the above 400m times are a few seconds per 400m faster than the indicated 5k time.

For the warm-up and cool down, run up the Strathaven Rd and and then around to Sainsburys and up the hill to Langlands Place. If there are road works making that route impossible, take whatever safe route is available.

Alan

Club Training Thursday 20th January

Threshold Thursday this week. The route for the run is Queensway all the way down to the Holiday Inn and then turn right to Morrisons, right again and down the lane leading to West Mains Rd. Along West Mains Rd to Lidl and back up to the NEL roundabout and on to the club. The session is 2 x 10 minutes threshold with 3.5 minutes jog recovery. The first threshold effort starts after crossing West Mains Rd at McDonalds.

The aim with these threshold sessions is to get to a state where you could only gasp out a few words if asked to speak but could keep this effort going for no more than an hour in a race situation (probably a lot less than an hour for less experienced/trained runners). So that puts the effort somewhere between 10k effort and 10 mile effort, depending on ability.

Alan

Club Training Monday 17th January

 As I don't think anyone did the Brancumhall session two weeks ago, the session this week is the same:

2 sides of the Brancumhall perimeter at 5k race effort, 1 side jog. Repeat until 8 efforts have been completed.

Alan

Club Training Thursday 13th January

Thursday's run is the 4 hills. This route fits in well with this strength building phase of training. The pace should be relatively easy i.e. conversation is possible throughout.

Alan