Thursday 28 October 2010

This week's runs - 25th and 26th October

A great run for all 6 of us in the 10 mile Great South this year! And it was the furthest ever run for all bar me - combined with fantastic times and over £1K raised for charity. Well done Clare, Jayne, Kelly, Pauline and Michelle - impressive achievement. Aching legs meant that I coached from the bike this week. We completely skipped the Monday advanced session and decamped to the pub to compare Great South stories - sorry to Jess as I failed miserably to let her know about this change.

Monday 8pm 6.57km in 46:48 558 calories
Tuesday 7pm 5.95km in 35:17 486 calories
Tuesday 8pm 3.72km in 34:47 213 calories

Beginners on Tuesday will be doing a 31 minute session - 15 mins running, 1 minute of walking then 15 minutes running.

Wednesday 20 October 2010

This week's runs - 18th & 19th October

Well done to Kerry who did the Cancer Research 10K on Sunday in a very creditable 63 minutes - fantastic achievement, especially as she's only been running a few months.

On Monday, the 7pm group are decamping to the pub as we'll be recovering from the Great South. All welcome - but be prepared to be subjected to our tales of the run! Monday's 8pm run is unaffected (but I might be coaching from my bike).

Monday 7pm 5.80km in 37:56 480 calories
Monday 8pm 5.78km in 43:19 442 calories
Tuesday 7pm 5.88km in 39:20 488 calories
Tuesday 8pm 4.01km in 33:58 249 calories

Beginners next week are doing a 32 minute session with walk breaks at 10 minutes and at 21 minutes.

Friday 15 October 2010

A bit more about... when to stretch

There are many views and studies on when to stretch – what follows here is the WRN line on stretching:

There are different types of stretching.

Static Stretching is what most of us think about when stretching – getting into a position to hold a stretch for 10 seconds plus. Muscles shorten when we exercise, so this form of stretching is best done after your run to help ease your muscles to lengthen. There is some evidence that performing static stretches before exercise can hinder endurance, strength output and explosive movement. Also be aware that stretching cold muscles is not recommended – it can cause injury – and this gives a timing problem. If you warm up & then pause to do static stretches, you heart rate will start to go down – so you may lose some of the warming up benefit.

Dynamic Stretching is a bit different – it’s where muscles are stretched during a dynamic movement. This type of stretch isn’t held and it uses momentum. We do have some of this stretching in the warm up – knee mobilisation, weaving (aka baseline/grape vine) and hacky sacks, skipping are all dynamic stretches. It’s designed to increase mobilisation, allowing more blood flow to your muscles and flexibility – all of which can help performance and help prevent injury. If running from home, btw, try going up & down stairs as part of your warm up as this can be a useful dynamic stretch. More about dynamic stretching - click here.

Include dynamic stretching in your warm up, leave static stretching until afterwards. If you’ve worked hard in your run, do make sure that you devote time to static stretching – and you can stretch safely all the time that your muscles are still warm. That includes after your post run shower or bath!

Tuesday 12 October 2010

This Week's runs - 11th & 12th Oct

Just one run on Monday as I was away on a long weekend. Louise did her first sub 30 minute 5K - and did 6k in under 36 minutes - great work!

Great South Runners - if you do a long run this week, take it easy & don't do more than 10-12km. After Saturday, no more long sessions, just some gentle runs to keep your legs moving. The aim is to be fresh & injury free on race day.

Monday 7pm 6.07km in 36:25 497 calories
Tuesday 7pm 6.07km in 40:14 501 calories
Tuesday 8pm 3.8km in 34:01 210 calories

The beginners will be doing 33 minutes on Tuesday - 3 walk breaks at 8 minutes, 16 minutes and 25 minutes.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Great tip on keeping kit smelling fresh

I hate it when I take a running t-shirt out of the washing machine & it still has a lingering smell of old sweat, even though it's theoretically clean. Wickable technical fabrics seem to suffer the most from this and I suspect that washing at lower temperatures may not help.
Got an interesting tip from Helena - put the offending item in the deep freeze. The bacteria causing the whiffiness won't like it.
So on Sunday, a loved-but-smelly-despite-having-been-washed t-shirt went in the freezer (dry). Took it out tonight & all lingering smell had gone. Remarkable!
And with an eco(ish) head on, packing stuff into spare freezer space is good for keeping it running efficiently whereas occasional washes at 60 or more are very un-green and bad for kit durability.
Most impressed!

Tuesday 5 October 2010

This week's runs - 4th & 5th October

Nice running conditions this week - dry, not windy, not too cold. The advanced session included a threshold component - working at the upper limit of aerobic which is great for development, but less good for chatting! The Beginners nailed looping back - very good to see - and we determined that we're split fairly evenly on X Factor vs Strictly....

Mon 7pm 5.19km in 35:00 407 calories
Mon 8pm 5.81km in 37:41 482 calories
Tue 7pm 5.01km in 36:19 391 calories
Tue 8pm 4.32km in 42:02 241 calories

Next week, the beginners will be:
  • Warming up (includes skipping revisited)
  • Jog for 34 minutes with 1 minute walk breaks at 6 minutes, 13 minutes, 20 minutes and 27 minutes
  • Cool down
  • Stretch