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