Tip for the week - planning and mapping routes

This is a tip I've borrowed from Kirsty and Clare. Online tools like gb.mapometer.com are really useful for planning out routes before you go out and/or for seeing how far you've run afterwards. And are free. Combine with a watch, and you have a great, free training aid!

However, they only show roads - not paths. The clever bit - if you switch the view from "map" to "hybrid" though, you should be able to spot most paths - especially if you know the area. And you are not restricted to plotting routes on roads. Kirsty and Clare have used this technique to work out the length of routes around their local park on paths.

And Helen pointed out to me that the tool also shows altitude - useful if you are comparing routes form a hilliness perspective.

BTW, I don't recommend saving and sharing routes with others that go from your home from a safety perspective.

This week's runs - last week of Feb

The Eastleigh 10K is getting closer - so it was great to run the full route on Thursday night. Everyone did really well, and Lisa was able to make it who hasn't been running with us for a while - she managed a PB for the Winchester 10K 2 weeks ago! Louise also made it to the Monday group for the first time since injury.

• Monday 7pm - 6K in 38:54, 497 calories (hill work)
• Monday 8pm - 6.16km in 46:26, 456 calories
• Tuesday 8pm - 3.85km in 34:57 - no calories as my GPS was misbehaving
• Thursday Eastleigh 10K route run- 10.03km in 70mins, 825 calories

PLEASE NOTE - Monday's 7pm group will be starting earlier on Monday 1st March at 6:30pm so we can squeeze in a 10K run. No change to Monday 8pm or any of the other sessions.

Beginners next week: total session time is just 33 minutes with 3 walk breaks at 8 mins, 16 mins and 25 mins. It's important that we keep the pace really gentle so we can complete the session comfortably!

See you on Mon/Tue!

Gin

Thursday - extra 10k run

Thursday 25th, 7pm, meeting up in the lobby of Fleming park leisure
centre (not the Hub) and we will do the full Eastleigh 10k route.
All welcome and don't worry about speed as we will loop back as
required.

Regards,
Gin

Tip for this week: enjoying running

I am a firm believer that no pain means no pain! It's great to push
ourselves - but not every run. It's a good idea to include runs where
you are focusing simply on enjoying your running - not clock watching,
not attempting a great feat of distance. Just choose a route you know
you will enjoy, ideally daylight so you can enjoy the scenery, see if
you can get a like minded buddy to join you - or even get your
children to join you on bikes in the park for example - and relax into
a no stress run!
Gin

Runs this week

Monday 7pm 6.0km, 37:11 mins

Tuesday 8pm 6.7km, no time recorded

Monday 8pm 4.45km, 38:01mins, 283 calories.

My GPS is behaving again so should be back to normal levels of data reporting next week.

There's an extra session next week on Thursday 25th at 7pm, starting from Fleming Park lobby (NOT the Hub!). We will cover the Eastleigh 10K route - good prep for anyone planning to take part in this event this year.

And on Monday 1st March, the 7pm Advanced group will be starting at 6:30pm (from the Hub) so we can do 10K - if you are a Standard group runnner, feel free to join as we will loop back.

Beginners for Tuesday:

4 walk breaks in a 34 minute session this week - that means no more total time running than last week. Walk breaks are at 6mins, 13mins, 20mins and 27mins.

Don't forget curry night!

Wednesday 7:30pm at the Cricketers on Chestnut Avenue, Eastleigh, £7.55 for a curry (there is a choice of several) and a beer. It's fine if you'd like to join us later as you collect your own meal - so there's no issue with waiting for all to arrive (if that makes any sense). A table's booked in my name and feel free to bring partners and/or buddies.

Thanks so much to the Monday 8pm group for getting themselves back tonight - and to H for smiling despite injury. I'm hoping for a drama free set of Tuesday runs!

Race for Life 2010 - WRN link up

Women's Running Network is linking up with Race for Life this year - and I'm hoping to get us involved with both the Winchester and Southampton events.

Eastleigh WRN will be providing training programmes timed perfectly for these events - and the link will hopefully result in some publicity. I'm planning to run 2 programmes - one for absolute beginners and one for "re-runners" - those who've run the event in the past but who are feeling a little rusty & would appreciate some support and motivation in preparing this year.

It will be brilliant to see Eastleigh WRN runners taking part. Dates are:

13th June Winchester

11th July Southampton

If you are able to volunteer to help at either event for marshalling, stewarding or other volunteer type stuff, do let me know. I've volunteered for Winchester (will be on hols in July though so can't do Southampton). If we provide some volunteering support, we can have marketing material distributed at the events.

I'm really pleased about the link up - it's the Race for Life that got me running in the first place & it's an amazing event for a very good cause.

Gin

Running wc 8th Feb

The only problems this week were mine on Tuesday when I didn't get the 7pm group running promptly - so had a mad dash for the beginners - and forgot the Beginners' handouts...

It was pringle week for the Beginners - running with a crisp in each hand is a useful posture exercise (honest!).

We tried out tempo running in the Mon 8pm group - building a "pyramid" of faster intervals to help to develop strength and speed. Earlier that day, the Advanced Group tackled the big hill from 2 directions.

Monday 7pm 5.75km in 37:11, 471 calories

Monday 8pm 5.00km in 34:22, 403 calories

Tuesday 7pm 5.38km in 45:30, 340 calories

Tuesday 8pm 4.13km in 36:55, 243 calories

Next Week's Beginner Routine is the longest and we'll be doing over 30 minutes of running. It's the last week when we focus on the length of the running interval - from week 6, we are counting walk breaks instead. It's really important to watch your pace at the start - better to start gently and have some energy to finish the session with aplomb than to run out of energy!

4 minute runs alternating with 1 minute walks up to the walk at 15 minutes. After that, 5 minutes run, 1 minute walk up to 38 minutes.

See you next week.

Gin

This week's runs

Patricia, Vanessa & I had a play last night on the mysterious new equipment that's materialised outside The Hub recently. Apparently, it's a cross trainer, strider and a skiing machine. I hope that they get used as free al fresco gym equipment is a fabulous idea - I guess that parents may even be able to use whilst keeping an eye on kids in the playground??

This week's runs:

Monday 7pm 6.11km in 39:25, 507 calories

Monday 8pm 5.30km in 40:27, 393 calories

Tuesday 7pm 5.06km in 44:28, 279 calories

Tuesday 8pm 3.68km in 33mins, 220 calories

Monday's 8pm group made mincemeat of the big nasty hill in Old Bishopstoke - don't feel that you've missed out as I will be inflicting this on both the Tuesday 7pm and Monday 7pm groups soon! Beginners are up to 3mins of running already - most impressive.

Week 4 for the beginners next week:

• Warm up
• Run 3 mins, walk 1 min up to 13mins
• Run 4 mins, walk 1 min up to 36mins
• Cooldown
• Stretching

Gin

Curry Night

Wednesday 17th February - fancy shelving the trainers for an evening & undoing all the good stuff running is doing for us with a curry and pint at the Cricketers?

7:30pm ish, partners and buddies welcome, and we'll see if we recognise each other when not wearing running kit!

Gin

Marketing Joy

I'm doing some work on publicising the group - as my day job is marketing, I don't really have any excuse for not doing more! So I have added the group to Southampton local pages on Mums Net and onto the Hampshire Chronicle what's on listings. I've also sent an article about our brilliance to Eastleigh Borough News.

It would help enormously if you can let me know what local media you think I should be in - for example, take out an ad in the Echo, or any online groups or listings. Also please let me know if you're able to put up a poster at your workplace or anywhere else (e.g. village hall noticeboard). I can also provide copy for online classified adverts.

Cheers!

Gin