Thanks Jo, what a great website, I didn't know about it. 2 of my daughters are on there with their national rankings. Unfortunately I am not listed, which must mean they don't class me as an athlete, just a jogger or something.
Just trying to confuse everyone, Datchet Dash being a 10K race in the Summer, although sure someone will point out is new Dorney Dash.
Great to have XC series off to a good start, great seeing some new faces out. I hope for those who came for the first time it was a good experience, hopefully see you for many more XC through the season, and please encourage others to come.
Thanks Colin for drawing the Wicat to everyone's attention. I must admit I didn't really understand what it was before and was really interested to see the tables as it gives you something to aim for. Although I prefer to call it WhizzCat......
Whoops! Thanks Mike I do seem to have misunderstood how you were organising the Wicat scheme on the web-site, I should have realised that every club member gets their times included in the scheme by default, but clearly I didn’t. In my announcement I was trying to promote the scheme to the membership as it seems to me that it should have a greater exposure than it has over recent years.
I would be surprised if any club member did mind that their age can be deduced from their star ratings – it’s a really good advert for our sport (and club) after all. Nevertheless, I think that you are right to be cautious, this information is in the public domain and people should have the right to confirm that they want their star ratings to be put on the web-site. Could I ask, though, that you make the reason for signing up for the scheme a bit clearer on the web-site results page so that other people do not have the problem that I had, and that you also try to find a way to give the Wicat scheme greater exposure than it has at the moment.
just by way of explanation - when I set up the website I made it so that everybody's race results & times gets calculated for a Wicat score and other age graded times.
I might have been a bit over-cautious but I thought that people might not be too happy if this information was published 'by default' because it can be used to (kind of) work out how old you are - so on that basis I made publishing the age graded information something that people could choose to say 'yes' to once they created a website account.
All of the committee can still see *everybody's* Wicat scores irrespective of whether they are published or not, and the awards are made on the basis of all of the scores - not just the published ones. So you won't miss out on an award if you don't have a website account or haven't ticked the right box.
The point remains however that for individual members to see / track their age grading information they need to sign up and tick the box.
It would be very easy to change this to display it for everybody in the club by default. What do people think? Would anybody be unhappy with this approach?
Not a good year for your first experience of doing the Beachy head marathon but if you come back I promise it gets better without the rain! Well done to all you first timers!
Having first completed this marathon back in 1996, (when it was still called the Seven Sisters Marathon) I was only 16 years old and I walked it all with my Mum, I love going down every year with the club to not only complete a challenging run but to have a good social weekend. I think I have done this race 9 times now (it may be more but I can only count 9 medals!) and even tho most people who know me think i'm a bit mad I think i'll be back next year when i'll be 30 (arghh!) and doing the beachy head for the 10th time! (it's gotta be done!)
I'm so thankful that my Mum is still part of the club (as i'm sure she will be for a good many years to come) so that I can still be part of the club, even living in Winchester! It's great that so many of you old faces keep on going to this marathon weekend, even if you are not doing the full 26.2 miles, joining in, doing what you can and having fun is what it's all about.
oh, and no matter how tired you are a little dancing in the evening is nothing compared to 26.2 miles of running up and down hills! but a little alcohol does help - helps you forget what's hurting anyway!(until the morning!)
Great photos be the way Jenny, thanks.
See you all next year! (if not before up the lookout or maybe up another hill somewhere!)
in the words of Martin Bulger, "Living makes you Run Longer"
Fully agree with the idea of age related awards. If it helps, I am currently in a 'virtual' competition at work that has 3 different competitions in one;
1) Participation. Points are awarded every time you race with more points going to longer events. Also you get bonus points for doing your 5th, 10th, 15th event etc.
2) Age related. Just as the WiCat works. It is your average performance level across your best 3 races of the year
3) Virtual track meet. Which is basically the fastest times at any given distance. 30 for first, 29 for second etc.
Currently we have 50 teams from across the globe in the competition with 6 participants each (currently 1200 races run this year!), which just shows how popular something well thought out can be. I am not proposing something quite as complex as this but it is all food for thought.
I also support the 3000m idea on the track! Just purely to see how much I could lose by.
The number of races has varied a bit over the years, and adding a number of shorter runs, including a 5K would encourage more people to enter. And why not one at the track, to give the "sprinters" a chance.
Greater point variation might be needed if only 4 races count, perhaps worth reviewing at the end of this season.
The fastist runner in the club, if they do the races does generally win the award.
This year the champship does seem to have many more people taking part, which is great. I believe some years, specially the ladies very few actually do the four races. Perhaps this is the power of the web site.
It would be nice to have enought people doing the 4 races to introduce some "age related" awards as well. Although perhaps that is covered by the witcats.
It looks like your old coach was more or less in agreement with the views I expressed in my article, you also seem to have similar opinions. This topic is one that will be argued about for ever, but we will try to keep abreast of current thinking.
This is a really interesting article and is something I have thought a lot about in the last couple of years due to injuries and attempts to prevent them recurring in the future.
The coach at an old club of mine was adamant that pre-session stretching is not necessary but that some drills were essential. He tried to do a drill to engage all of the main muscles that would be used in the upcoming session - striding, bounding for height, side running, star jumps, static twisting from the hips, squats etc. All done one after the other with short jogs in between. I am convinced that these really helped and made the sessions very productive.
As for stretching afterwards - I am pretty poor at this as all I want to do after a session is sit down and eat!! So, having recognised this weakness, I now schedule a couple of half hours per week where I go through a stretching routine in front of the telly. I also get my wife to shout at me if I don't do it. Treating stretching as just another session in the weeks plan helps to make sure it happens and has helped me to stay injury free and improve my times. Its not rocket science, it just needs patience and persistence, like everything else in training.
Well, George, the obvious answer is "it's up to you", given that the whole path is point-to-point, and you usually have to return along the same path unless you devise a circular route taking in only part of it.
A run that I love, used to do a lot from my house, and have done with my Sunday group occasionally, is to park in a small carpark along the Lower Sandhurst Road (OS Ref: 806 627) then run a few miles on the BVP around the lakes, leaving it to run up and over Finchampstead Ridges, through Simon's Wood, past Finchampstead Church, and down to the Tally Ho (now Bluebeckers) at Eversley, and returning back along the BVP for a few more miles to the start point. A distance of about 8 miles, and undulating.
If we do it again this summer, I will be in contact.
George, I too have run several sections of that path, and have led club rambles along parts of it too. We are so fortunate to live in, what I consider to be, one of the most beautiful counties in England. There are numerous long-distance paths that are great for running or rambling.
One I have been using for years, since I live near Finchampstead, is the Blackwater Valley Path. This is a 34km path that runs along the Blackwater River, from Aldershot to Swallowfield.
I love that run George. I work at Oracle in Thames Valley Park and in the summer months when I am lucky enough to get a lunch break I head out that way, great for bike riding too
- can someone call the fire brigade to cut me free?
I'm going to need to see that demonstration I think.
Mike
P.S. My one and only hot tip for laces is to suggest you always check they're double knotted as part of your race start-line routine. Stopping to have to lace after a few miles really throws you out!
The continuous running-steady state training can either be at a pace that does not allow for conversation, such as a tempo run for say 3 to 5 miles, or the slower longer run of say 20 miles, which does allow for conversation. The important thing is that they are run on a fairly level terrain so that a steady pace is maintained.
The Lookout runs are an excellent example of fartlek running, you have to vary your pace because of the terrain, they are a form of continuous running - mixed intensity. Your Windsor Park training , as you describe it, is again a fartlek run where you have "artificially" set different pace goals.
We already run intermittent running sessions on the track, this is just another name for interval or repetition training. I am currently reviewing these and a set of new sessions will be posted onto the website shortly. There will also be an accompanying article for the "Coaching Information" page to explain the thinking behind these
Hi Colin - thanks for the write up. So putting the three types of runs into a format for the typical Bracknell Forest Runner I guess we might have:
A run more than about 20 minutes in length at an intensity level where you can hold a conversation comfortably with others - the 'Continuous Running - Steady State' run. Our Sunday runs at The Lookout would be good examples of this.
A run where you choose easy markers as 'go fast / go slow' transitions for the 'Continuous Running – Mixed Intensity' runs. I'm lucky enough to work right next to Windsor Great Park and the easiest way I find to do this type of run is to tell myself 'fast uphill', 'slow downhill' and 'medium on a flat' (and then choose a flat route ).
An interval track session on a Wednesday with the club for an 'Intermittent Running' session
Thanks for your reply Mike. I hadn't seen this site before, and it certainly adds value to this topic.
I also believe that nothing replaces being well hydrated before and after a run, and have even helped our Sunday marathon group out with a 'bottle drop' when our route crosses my drive in to the Look Out, but this becomes a logistical problem sometimes.
I spent some time looking into this in the Winter of 07/08 when I was doing a lot of long distance training runs. It was quickly clear to me that the guys who produce these iso/hypotonic & energy drinks are laughing all the way to the bank - the profit margins must be absolutely astronomical.
I found a couple of good websites including - this one from the Harrow Rugby Club which has a good general write up as well as details for how to make your own without exceeding the recommended levels of salt and sugar. I modified the recipie so the 1 litre of water was 250ml pure orange juice, 750ml water with the 30g of sugar reduced by how much sugar was in the orange juice.
Hello - i are you at the track tonight? Can i bring you a memory card to put it on for me?
I have a .wma Version that can be played in windows media player (and burnt to CD..)
I can email it to you if you like? it's about 2.1Mb
Scott.burrows@seiko.co.uk
Scotty
Great, I am on there too back in 2000 from my Bracknell AC days (as a female vet age 40, although I was only 24 then!)
Thanks Jo, what a great website, I didn't know about it. 2 of my daughters are on there with their national rankings. Unfortunately I am not listed, which must mean they don't class me as an athlete, just a jogger or something.
Just trying to confuse everyone, Datchet Dash being a 10K race in the Summer, although sure someone will point out is new Dorney Dash.
Great to have XC series off to a good start, great seeing some new faces out. I hope for those who came for the first time it was a good experience, hopefully see you for many more XC through the season, and please encourage others to come.
Thanks Colin for drawing the Wicat to everyone's attention. I must admit I didn't really understand what it was before and was really interested to see the tables as it gives you something to aim for. Although I prefer to call it WhizzCat......
Whoops! Thanks Mike I do seem to have misunderstood how you were organising the Wicat scheme on the web-site, I should have realised that every club member gets their times included in the scheme by default, but clearly I didn’t. In my announcement I was trying to promote the scheme to the membership as it seems to me that it should have a greater exposure than it has over recent years.
I would be surprised if any club member did mind that their age can be deduced from their star ratings – it’s a really good advert for our sport (and club) after all. Nevertheless, I think that you are right to be cautious, this information is in the public domain and people should have the right to confirm that they want their star ratings to be put on the web-site. Could I ask, though, that you make the reason for signing up for the scheme a bit clearer on the web-site results page so that other people do not have the problem that I had, and that you also try to find a way to give the Wicat scheme greater exposure than it has at the moment.
Many thanks Mike, Colin
Hi Colin,
just by way of explanation - when I set up the website I made it so that everybody's race results & times gets calculated for a Wicat score and other age graded times.
I might have been a bit over-cautious but I thought that people might not be too happy if this information was published 'by default' because it can be used to (kind of) work out how old you are - so on that basis I made publishing the age graded information something that people could choose to say 'yes' to once they created a website account.
All of the committee can still see *everybody's* Wicat scores irrespective of whether they are published or not, and the awards are made on the basis of all of the scores - not just the published ones. So you won't miss out on an award if you don't have a website account or haven't ticked the right box.
The point remains however that for individual members to see / track their age grading information they need to sign up and tick the box.
It would be very easy to change this to display it for everybody in the club by default. What do people think? Would anybody be unhappy with this approach?
Mike
well, it sounds like your hooked now Paul!
Not a good year for your first experience of doing the Beachy head marathon but if you come back I promise it gets better without the rain! Well done to all you first timers!
Having first completed this marathon back in 1996, (when it was still called the Seven Sisters Marathon) I was only 16 years old and I walked it all with my Mum, I love going down every year with the club to not only complete a challenging run but to have a good social weekend. I think I have done this race 9 times now (it may be more but I can only count 9 medals!) and even tho most people who know me think i'm a bit mad I think i'll be back next year when i'll be 30 (arghh!) and doing the beachy head for the 10th time! (it's gotta be done!)
I'm so thankful that my Mum is still part of the club (as i'm sure she will be for a good many years to come) so that I can still be part of the club, even living in Winchester! It's great that so many of you old faces keep on going to this marathon weekend, even if you are not doing the full 26.2 miles, joining in, doing what you can and having fun is what it's all about.
oh, and no matter how tired you are a little dancing in the evening is nothing compared to 26.2 miles of running up and down hills! but a little alcohol does help - helps you forget what's hurting anyway!(until the morning!)
Great photos be the way Jenny, thanks.
See you all next year! (if not before up the lookout or maybe up another hill somewhere!)
in the words of Martin Bulger, "Living makes you Run Longer"
Alison
xx
John,
Fully agree with the idea of age related awards. If it helps, I am currently in a 'virtual' competition at work that has 3 different competitions in one;
1) Participation. Points are awarded every time you race with more points going to longer events. Also you get bonus points for doing your 5th, 10th, 15th event etc.
2) Age related. Just as the WiCat works. It is your average performance level across your best 3 races of the year
3) Virtual track meet. Which is basically the fastest times at any given distance. 30 for first, 29 for second etc.
Currently we have 50 teams from across the globe in the competition with 6 participants each (currently 1200 races run this year!), which just shows how popular something well thought out can be. I am not proposing something quite as complex as this but it is all food for thought.
I also support the 3000m idea on the track! Just purely to see how much I could lose by.
Mike
The number of races has varied a bit over the years, and adding a number of shorter runs, including a 5K would encourage more people to enter. And why not one at the track, to give the "sprinters" a chance.
Greater point variation might be needed if only 4 races count, perhaps worth reviewing at the end of this season.
The fastist runner in the club, if they do the races does generally win the award.
This year the champship does seem to have many more people taking part, which is great. I believe some years, specially the ladies very few actually do the four races. Perhaps this is the power of the web site.
It would be nice to have enought people doing the 4 races to introduce some "age related" awards as well. Although perhaps that is covered by the witcats.
John Roberts
Mike,
It looks like your old coach was more or less in agreement with the views I expressed in my article, you also seem to have similar opinions. This topic is one that will be argued about for ever, but we will try to keep abreast of current thinking.
Thanks for your positive response, Colin
This is a really interesting article and is something I have thought a lot about in the last couple of years due to injuries and attempts to prevent them recurring in the future.
The coach at an old club of mine was adamant that pre-session stretching is not necessary but that some drills were essential. He tried to do a drill to engage all of the main muscles that would be used in the upcoming session - striding, bounding for height, side running, star jumps, static twisting from the hips, squats etc. All done one after the other with short jogs in between. I am convinced that these really helped and made the sessions very productive.
As for stretching afterwards - I am pretty poor at this as all I want to do after a session is sit down and eat!! So, having recognised this weakness, I now schedule a couple of half hours per week where I go through a stretching routine in front of the telly. I also get my wife to shout at me if I don't do it. Treating stretching as just another session in the weeks plan helps to make sure it happens and has helped me to stay injury free and improve my times. Its not rocket science, it just needs patience and persistence, like everything else in training.
Well, George, the obvious answer is "it's up to you", given that the whole path is point-to-point, and you usually have to return along the same path unless you devise a circular route taking in only part of it.
A run that I love, used to do a lot from my house, and have done with my Sunday group occasionally, is to park in a small carpark along the Lower Sandhurst Road (OS Ref: 806 627) then run a few miles on the BVP around the lakes, leaving it to run up and over Finchampstead Ridges, through Simon's Wood, past Finchampstead Church, and down to the Tally Ho (now Bluebeckers) at Eversley, and returning back along the BVP for a few more miles to the start point. A distance of about 8 miles, and undulating.
If we do it again this summer, I will be in contact.
Glad you like it Alex. Envious of those lunchtime runs.
John, where is a good place to start the Blackwater run? Is there convenient parking? Cheers George
George, I too have run several sections of that path, and have led club rambles along parts of it too. We are so fortunate to live in, what I consider to be, one of the most beautiful counties in England. There are numerous long-distance paths that are great for running or rambling.
One I have been using for years, since I live near Finchampstead, is the Blackwater Valley Path. This is a 34km path that runs along the Blackwater River, from Aldershot to Swallowfield.
John
I love that run George. I work at Oracle in Thames Valley Park and in the summer months when I am lucky enough to get a lunch break I head out that way, great for bike riding too
Alex
- can someone call the fire brigade to cut me free?
I'm going to need to see that demonstration I think.
Mike
P.S. My one and only hot tip for laces is to suggest you always check they're double knotted as part of your race start-line routine. Stopping to have to lace after a few miles really throws you out!
Hi Mike,
The continuous running-steady state training can either be at a pace that does not allow for conversation, such as a tempo run for say 3 to 5 miles, or the slower longer run of say 20 miles, which does allow for conversation. The important thing is that they are run on a fairly level terrain so that a steady pace is maintained.
The Lookout runs are an excellent example of fartlek running, you have to vary your pace because of the terrain, they are a form of continuous running - mixed intensity. Your Windsor Park training , as you describe it, is again a fartlek run where you have "artificially" set different pace goals.
We already run intermittent running sessions on the track, this is just another name for interval or repetition training. I am currently reviewing these and a set of new sessions will be posted onto the website shortly. There will also be an accompanying article for the "Coaching Information" page to explain the thinking behind these
Colin S.
Hi Colin - thanks for the write up. So putting the three types of runs into a format for the typical Bracknell Forest Runner I guess we might have:
Is that about right or have I got it wrong?
Thanks for your reply Mike. I hadn't seen this site before, and it certainly adds value to this topic.
I also believe that nothing replaces being well hydrated before and after a run, and have even helped our Sunday marathon group out with a 'bottle drop' when our route crosses my drive in to the Look Out, but this becomes a logistical problem sometimes.
I spent some time looking into this in the Winter of 07/08 when I was doing a lot of long distance training runs. It was quickly clear to me that the guys who produce these iso/hypotonic & energy drinks are laughing all the way to the bank - the profit margins must be absolutely astronomical.
I found a couple of good websites including - this one from the Harrow Rugby Club which has a good general write up as well as details for how to make your own without exceeding the recommended levels of salt and sugar. I modified the recipie so the 1 litre of water was 250ml pure orange juice, 750ml water with the 30g of sugar reduced by how much sugar was in the orange juice.
Yes, i've just seen that too, maybe another time then as I'll be doing Wokingham too.
Emma
Looks good. I would have been up for it but just seen the Wokingham half has been rescheduled for the 24th May so will be doing that
From Wokingham Half Marathon website:
"Weather Info: The course will be examined on Friday when a decision will be made if we can still hold the event. "
http://www.wokinghamhalfmarathon.co.uk/
So check back on Friday I guess for an update. I believe that this is due to a predicted -3 temp on Sunday and -9 wind chill. Could be interesting !