Weekly News – Sunday 5th July


Sunday 5th July

Westbury Harriers – Weekly News

Editor’s Piece

Another week goes by and more races cancelled. One of my favourite races, the Tintern Trot was to have taken place last week. I’ve also been notified today that my Fast 5000 track event has been cancelled too. 

A lot of the major events have been deferred until October. Less than 90 days’ now until the London Marathon is due to take place but will it really happen then?

On a more positive note I do have a virtual 5k, running up and down the Portway, to look forward to!

Treasure Hunt 

Laura has been taking part in most of the Treasure Hunt’s and this week was no exception. Laura’s or perhaps I should say Alex’s song title was White Wedding.

And a reminder of last week’s ’somethings’. Theme was guess the song.

  • Something gold
  • Something beginning with ‘A’
  • Something spiky
  • Something you can catch
  • A cone 
  • A number
  • Something plastic

Your treasure hunt something’s for this week are below:

  • Theme: Guess the film title
  • Something silver
  • Something beginning with C
  • Something smooth
  • Something that turns/spins
  • Something that reminds you of Westbury Harriers
  • A cuboid
  • A defibrillator (optional as this may be tricky)

Interval Session – Variety or Repetition?

Couple of suggestions this week depending on whether you like variety in your session or are happy to slog through 8 reps of the same length.

Option 1: 8 sets of 2 minutes with 1 minute recovery between reps. 

6 x 20 seconds of 20 seconds recovery to finish.

Option 2: 1 set of 4 x 1 minute with 30 seconds between reps. 4 x 2 minutes with 1 minute recovery between reps. 1 set of 4 x 1 minute with 30 seconds between reps

Take 90 seconds recovery between each set.

In amongst all this field type training don’t forget to put some hill work in.  Maybe on one of your shorter runs find a suitable hill and go up and down it a few times.  Normally we leave the hill work to one side over the summer as we are training at Blaise on a Monday where a couple of big hill climbs are generally inevitable!

Any queries drop me a message or email the coaches on senior.coaches@westburyharriers.co.uk. Please remember to warm up before you start your session and to do a cool down jog and stretch afterwards.

Remember……all training must follow current government guidelines.

Good Luck – have fun and take care.

Katie

Westbury Harriers Iso Challenge 2020 – 5k

This weeks challenge is a 5k and will have overall male and female winners. The Iso challenge runs can be submitted from the 6th to the 13th via Strava.  

It’s important to note that the the EA 5k champ runs (details below) need to be submitted by Monday 13th July. If you plan on combining the two events using a single run you will need to submit by the Sunday.

Alex

England Athletics Virtual 5k Road Running Championship 11-13th July

The virtual element of the race means that runners sign up using the OpenTrack virtual running platform and are then required to evidence their run post-race using GPS data. England Athletics and OpenTrack have created new rules for the Championships which help make racing as fair as possible. Entry to the event is free and open exclusively to runners registered with England Athletics via an affiliated club. Participants must complete their run between 00:01 Saturday 11 July and 11:59 (am) Monday 13 July.  

Evidence of the run must then be uploaded by 23:59 Monday 13 July, with official results to be announced on Tuesday 14 July. So whether you’d planned to compete in the original 5k Championships, or you’re looking to enter your first national 5k race, now’s the time to get registered, pick your route and lace up those running shoes!

https://www.englandathletics.org/athletics-and-running/england-competitions/virtual-competitions/virtual-5k-champs/

What the FKT?! By Dan Summers.

You may have heard phrases such as “FKTs” or “Fastest Known Times” during lockdown (or before) as people look for alternatives to the cancelled races.  Attempting Fastest Known Times on routes was growing in popularity even before lockdown started – now they are booming.

An FKT is simply the fastest known completion of a particular route.  Think of it as a Strava segment on some of the classic routes in the world!  In the UK they vary from routes such as the whole South West Coast Path – 630 miles (current record held by Damian Hall in 10d 15h 18m) and the Pennine Way – 268 miles (record of 2d 17h 20m 15s held by Mike Hartley has stood since 1989) to the Gordano Round (27 miles in Portishead and Clevedon – no current record) and the Limestone Link (40 miles from Shipham to north of Bath – more on this below!).  They also have different “styles” – Unsupported, Self-supported and Supported.  The differences are sometimes nuanced and not always logical but try to define how much outside assistance the runner has had in completion of the route.  There are currently over 2,000 listed routes on www.fastestknowntime.com and you can see reports, photos and times of every completion that has taken place.  It’s a great place to get ideas for projects!

From a personal perspective, after having nearly all my objectives this year cancelled or set back I was looking for something local and interesting.  That’s when I saw the Limestone Link listed on the FKT website.  It has not had many completions and I thought I would be in with a shout of getting the FKT.  The 40 miles from Shipham to Cold Ashton were hilly at either end and quite flat in the middle.  The biggest problem I could see was how would I refill my water?!  At the time it was during the heatwave and I reckoned I’d need 4 litres – I didn’t fancy carrying that all the way unless I had to!   At this point I asked around a few friends and one friend offered to cycle down to the route with some water and resupply of food – job done.  He’d have a lovely day out on the bike, I’d get my water and we’d both enjoy catching up.  This nearly worked out perfectly – the weather conspired to ruin the plan as it poured with rain all morning on 19 June meaning my friend nearly got hypothermia in mid-June!  Aside from that, we had a lovely day out, the route was muddy but great fun.  I navigated off a GPS device as I didn’t know the route but this allowed me to relax into the run and surrounding countryside.  I started just after 7am and finished around 1pm with a time of 5hrs52mins – this got me the FKT but technically the other completions were “Unsupported” so although the others were all slower they are not directly comparable.  I was happy though as I’d had a great local adventure, caught up with a good friend and was now an FKT holder.   The downside of this all was that I had to cycle back to the start after finishing the run – that ended up being real “Type 2” and sometimes “Type 3” fun (https://www.rei.com/blog/climb/fun-scale)!

By Dan Summers

Cotswold Way Virtual Relay

This will be taking place and all runs need to be completed by the end of July.  You will need to organise your own transportation to and from each leg and this will need to be undertaken following the latest government guidance. For example car sharing can only be with your household or those in your social bubble.

A minimum of 5 need to be in a team and you will need to organise this. The individuals and team name will need to be provided to Eithne, a suggestion to do this is via Facebook.

Eithne Noonan

Informal Club Runs

Don’t forget to keep any eye on facebook for informal club runs. Do let the author of the post know you are intending to run so they can keep group sizes to 6 and below. 

Pictured below are some of the gang from last week’s Wednesday run.

Club Training

Later this month the Coombe Dingle Sports Centre will reopen for outdoor activities. The club are intended to book areas within the site so we can recommence club training activities.

Obviously, due to Covid-19 guidelines there will be a number of restrictions dictating what we can and can’t do. Coombe Dingle have also stated that there will be a tightly controlled booking system in place to ensure correct group sizes.

Please do ‘watch this space’ as further details will be provided relating to when and how we train at Coombe Dingle in the near future.

Kit Shop

Just a reminder that club hoodies and vests can be purchased direct from the club, perhaps try your next virtual challenge in club kit! Payment and collection can be arranged through Katie. Just let her know via the coach email address or facebook.

We also have branded kit that can be purchased via our clothing supplier. Take a look via the new Westbury Harrier website, link provided below.

https://westburyharriers.co.uk/about/kit-shop/

Congratulations

Some impressive running again by Henry Watson. This time he was taking part in the British Milers Club (BMC) 3k virtual Time Trial. Henry did this distance in a very quick 13:19.

Strava Results of the Week

Impressive running by Tim Carr who I think I’m going to rename ‘Botanical Tim’! Most mornings he gets a quick run in and his Strava postings are always interspersed with pictures of the local flora. This week we had Self Heal and Yellow-rattle.

Yesterday though he went slightly further afield and did half of a Gordano Round achieving a couple of Personal Records on route. Tim achieved the Strava Segment ‘Down and Out Again’ in a time of 7:15. I couldn’t see any Harriers in the top 10 so this ones yours Tim!

Diary Dates

6th-12th July Weekly Interval Suggestion. This weeks intervals are ‘22nd-28th June. Variety or Repetition?

Iso Challenge Series. 5k in combination with EA 5k Champs

11th-13th July. England Athletics 5k Virtual Championships

23rd May -26th July. Bristol and West Virtual Challenge Event 3 (29 June -12 July) SW Bristol multi-terrain 20k and Event 4 (13-26 July) Surprise finale.

http://www.bristolandwestac.org/bristol-virtual-challenge/

Saturday 21st November. Club Awards Night at Westbury Village Hall

Further (non-virtual) events have been removed until further notice, pending outcome of Coronavirus.

Editor this Week

Ian Gawinowski is Westbury Harriers Communications Officer

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