THE HARRIERS HERALD No. 265, March 2015 Editor: Sue Francis Contents, features, reports, results Thursday night schedules for March and April Correspondence received Membership subscription renewal reminder Boundary Run & Walk preliminary information Ridgeway Challenge 2015 – request for volunteers to man checkpoint 5 Race results: Bramley – Three Harriers finish 20 mile road race; Bourton 10K – Martin wins category prize with fast time; Bath Half – Philomena enjoys West Country race; Goring 10K – Jeremy in top 20, as Rich returns to racing; Oxford Mail x-country Race 5 – Good finishing positions for Harriers at Harwell Handicap Race – Nitish wins with a sub-13 time Webmaster’s article – Mo features: The evolving Compton Harriers website; Ultra races; Balancing speed and endurance; and forthcoming races of interest Thanks to Mo for this month’s contributions to articles and photos Copy date for next Harriers Herald – 31st March
Thursday night schedule for March Thurs Thurs Thurs Thurs
5th 12th 19th 26th
Tom to lead Mo to lead Philomena to lead Handicap Race
Thursday night schedule for April Thurs Thurs Thurs Thurs Thurs
2nd 9th 16th 23rd 30th
Final preparation for Compton Downland Challenge Martin to lead Handicap Race Pete O to lead Sue to lead
Sender South of England Athletics Association (SEAA) Association of Running Clubs (ARC) SEAA
Correspondence received Subject matter Information update including 2015 championship events Information for Clubs wishing to affiliate to ARC instead of England Athletics Affiliation fee renewal for 2015 / 2016
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Membership subscription reminder Fees for 2015 Club membership (£3), England Athletics competition registration (£12) and Institute Rec. Soc. membership (£24) are due. Please send your completed forms and membership fees to Jonathan. Payments received after 31st March will incur a £2 penalty! Thanks to those who have already renewed. If you do not wish to renew your membership this year, please let Jonathan know so we can update our records accordingly.
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Boundary Run & Walk As discussed at the Club’s AGM, I am looking to organise the Boundary Run and Walk on an earlier date this year, to hopefully avoid the problems with overgrown tracks. I am looking at Thursdays in late April, or in May, and hope to be able to confirm soon once I have liaised with Rec. Soc. regarding availability of the bar and holding a post-race BBQ. For those new to the Boundary Race: Participants run or walk around the Boundary of the Institute estate and farms, a scenic 8-mile route on tracks, through fields and woods. Runners and walkers of all standards are welcome – it’s competitive at the front of the field, but many choose to take part for fun and to enjoy the scenery. There are trophies for the first men and lady runners and walkers. It is not a ‘formal’ race: There is no entry form, no entry fee, no race insurance, and no race permit; the course will be well-marked, but not marshalled. Compton Harriers, Institute staff members, local runners and their families are all welcome to take part, and all are welcome at the bar and barbecue afterwards.
Ridgeway Challenge Sue This year’s Ridgeway Challenge takes place on 29th August. For those not in the know, it’s an 89 mile race along the length of the Ridgeway, and usually attracts about 120 competitors. For a number of years, members of Compton Harriers have organised, or helped at, race checkpoint 5 at Goring village Hall. This is approximately halfway through the race, and our role is to record the arrival and departure of each runner, provide the runners with hot meals, reunite them with their kit bags for changes of clothes, liaise with the marshals at the next checkpoint to log withdrawn runners, and generally assist with anything else the runners need before they continue in the dark to the next checkpoint. Last year, some Compton Harriers helped at checkpoint 5, with the help of several members of Didcot Runners. Race organiser Tim Mitchell has recently mailed me to ask whether I and other members would be willing to help out again this year (somehow I have managed to become his main contact, despite my efforts to avoid this!). Didcot Runners have confirmed that they are able to assist again this year, and I am willing to help. I know the race is almost 6 months away and your plans may change between now and then, but please could you let me know if you think you may be able to help, so that I can give Tim an idea of the number of helpers Compton Harriers will be able to provide.
Race Results and Reports Bramley 20, 15th February
Three Harriers did well in the Bramley 20 mile road race. Philomena finished in 2:44:51 (388th) and was first in the FV50 category, while Terry and Emma were 677th and 678th in 3:28:22. The race winners were John Sanderson (Guildford & Godalming, 1:51:25) and Samantha Amend (Belgrave Harriers, 2:03:05).
Bourton 10K, 22nd February Martin and Lucy travelled to Gloucestershire for the Bourton 10K. Martin made the trip worthwhile, finishing in his fastest time for a while (38:56) which placed him 83rd overall and 1st in the MV50 category. Lucy was feeling a bit under the weather, but still recorded a good 46:44 (268th) with over 200 runners behind her. The race winners were Will Ferguson (CLC Striders, 32:37) and Rachel Felton (Shaftesbury Barnet, 34:18).
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Bath Half Marathon, 1st March
Philomena enjoyed the race, and finished in 1:41:47, 5th FV50 and 1677th overall.
Goring 10K, 1st March The Goring 10K was as popular as ever this year, with 970 finishers. Jeremy ran an excellent 38:57 on this hilly course, to finish 18th. Rich (see photo), making a gradual return from injury, did well to record 45:19 (113th). Meanwhile, Tamsin and Aubrey, who have recently started running with the Harriers, completed the course in good times – 50:46 (283rd) and 52:19 (337th) respectively. The race winners were Charlie Pearson (35:58) and Claire Maxwell (43:01).
Oxford Mail x-country, Harwell, 1st March Sue Four Harriers enjoyed the final race of the Oxford Mail xc series, on Rutherford Appleton land at Harwell campus. On a bright and sunny but windy day, all ran really well. The course is predominantly flat grassland, but includes a gradual ascent on a gravel path to big chalky hill, which the ladies tackled twice and the men three times. It provided an excellent viewpoint of the whole course for supporters and photographers, including Mo. The ladies race was won in fine style by Newbury’s Sophie Crumley (23:34) who had a 30-second lead on her nearest rival. There were 113 finishers. I had my best run of the series to finish 10th (25:55) beating several runners who are usually a few places ahead of me on the more muddy courses. With Helen Preedy 19th (26:29) and Lucy 38th (28:27) the team finished 2nd in Division 2, both on the day and in the whole series. In the men’s race, regular winner David Brace was beaten into 3rd place by two Swindon Harriers, winner Ben Cole running 28:34. Martin (92nd, 36:07) and Jonathan (132nd, 38:58) were amongst the six scorers for Team Kennet, the team finishing 3rd in Division 2 on the day, and 5th overall. Colin missed this last race, choosing to spend his Welsh national day in a warmer climate! In the overall individual ‘age category standings’ at the end of the series, I was 6th FV35, Lucy 6th FV45, Martin 6th MV50, Jonathan 13th MV50, and Colin 29th MV50. Many thanks to Colin for coordinating the team in such an efficient and welcoming way, and to Mo for photos.
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Harriers at Oxford Mail cross-country, Harwell
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Handicap Race Sue A dark and wet evening greeted the February Handicap Race contenders. Nitish was in fine form, as he smashed his previous best by over 30 seconds, for an excellent sub-13 time and a winning margin of 27 seconds. His success may have been down to eating some large cookies for afternoon tea-break! Aaron took 2nd place, very close to his best time, apparently having found that honey makes him run fast. The other runners followed in very close succession, with Martin taking 3rd place in another good sub-12 time. Colin improved considerably on his January time, and just managed to hold me off at the finish. Pete O ran well in his first Handicap Race for several months, just ahead of Dick, Lucy and Richard. Well done Nitish, and thanks to Jan for timing, with help from Tom. The next Handicap Race is scheduled for Thursday 26th March, around the Village Lap route. I will be trying a cookie and honey diet that day! Finish Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Position on handicap 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Name
Start time
Nitish Aaron Martin Colin Sue Pete O Dick Lucy Richard D
2:34 3:03 4:08 1:10 3:48 2:50 2:09 2:23 2:57
Finish time 15:25 15:52 15:54 16:02 16:03 16:21 16:24 16:27 17:43
Actual time 12:51 12:49 11:46 14:52 12:15 13:31 14:15 14:04 14:46
Handicap Beaten? -0:35 -0:08 -0:06 +0:02 +0:03 +0:21 +0:24 +0:27 +1:43
Handicap Championship 2015 After two races Nitish is leading the Championship, with Martin just one point behind. These two are currently well clear of the other contenders, with Sue 6 points behind in 3rd. Pos.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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Name
Nitish Martin Sue Colin Lucy Aaron Dick Jonathan Pete O Richard D
Race 1
Race 2
10 12 8 6 7 5 9 -
12 9 7 8 4 10 5 6 3
Race 3
Race 4
-
-
Race points Race Race 5 6 -
5
-
Race 7
Race 8
Race 9
-
-
-
Total of best 5 22 21 15 14 11 10 10 9 6 3
Website update‌ http://www.comptonharriers.org.uk Mo Updating the website layout and format over the past month has gone well and will continue over the next month or so as I gradually update older pages and content. As pages are being updated on a regular basis, you may need to 'refresh' your browser occasionally to ensure you are viewing the latest content rather than browser 'cached' content. This will apply particularly to the Challenge Entries page which is updated weekly. Links of interest this month For anyone who is looking for a new ultra challenge, the London-2-Cambridge 50km Challenge takes place in August; the well known London to Brighton ultra is in May; more ultra challenges coming up are the Grand-Union-Challenge-50km (June) and the Thames-Path-Challenge-50km (September). For more information on these and other challenges, follow this link: http://www.timeoutdoors.com/challenges/Action-Challenge . For a detailed listing of ultra events at home and abroad, RunUltra is the site to visit at http://www.runultra.co.uk/Ultra-Marathon-Listings Another link for fans of British sport is the re-vamped Government-backed UK Sport site, complete with a countdown to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio: http://www.uksport.gov.uk . My article for this month: The Balance between Speed and Endurance. Having decided to train for a longer distance event, you may have concerns about the possible adverse effect this could have on your speed over shorter distances. Although endurance training will increase your ability to achieve good running performances over greater distances, there can be a downside in that it does have an affect on your maximum pace and therefore it can also have a knock-on effect on your times over shorter distances. Various studies have shown that by sticking to an endurance-only training program, as the runner becomes leaner, the crosssectional area of muscle fibres decreases which in turn reduces the maximum muscle output force and hence maximum running speed. Put in another way, endurance training tends to reduce top-end speed, although it increases the percentage of that top-end speed that can be sustained over greater distances. There is plenty of scientific research to suggest that endurance performances can be improved when runners make adjustments to their training programs by including some sprint training in an effort to preserve top-end speed over shorter distances ... the secret is in striking the correct balance! To illustrate the point, if your 10K speed is 50 percent of your maximum speed, and your maximum flat out speed is 30k/h (about 19 mph), then you can run 10K at 15k/h pace (about 9.5 mph) in 40:00 min. Now, if you are on a speed program which increases your maximum speed to 32k/h (about 20 mph), then 50 percent of your maximum speed becomes 16k/h (about 10 mph) so you should now run a 10K in 37:30. However, if you are on an endurance program, it doesn’t quite work like that as the training required to increase your maximum sprint speed will reduce the percentage of maximum speed that can be sustained over longer distances. Therefore the runner who begins with a maximum speed of 30 k/h (with the ability to sustain 50 percent of that speed over 10K), could find that he or she can now only maintain 45 percent of his or her maximum speed over 10K and therefore goes from being a 40:00 10K runner to a 44:30 10K runner. In summary; by including the optimum amount of sprint training in your endurance program you should be able to maintain somewhere near your top-end speed for shorter distances, without compromising your endurance gains. By carefully adjusting the balance between endurance and speed training within your program, you should still be able to achieve a 10k time that is closer to your previous performances. HH Mar 2015 6
Events of Interest – see Website Training & Events Calendar for more details Sun, Mar 8: Sat, Mar 14: Sun, Mar15: Sun, Mar 22: Sun, Mar 29: Fri, April 3: Sat, April 4: Sun, April 12: Sun, April 19: Sun, April 26: Sat, May 2: Sun, May 3: Mon, May 4: Wed, May 6: Sat, May 9: Sun, May 10:
Sun, May 17: Sun, May 24:
Sun, June 14: Sun, June 21: Sun, June 28: Sun, July 5: Sun, July 12: Sun, July 19: Sun, July 26: Sun, Aug 9: Sat, Aug 29: Sun, Sept 6: Sun, Sept 13: Sat, Sept 19: Sun, Sep 20 Sat, Sept 26: Sun, Sept 27: Sun, Oct 4:
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Bearwood 5/10K +Family 5K; Thames Meander ½ & Mthn Cholsey Chase 9 Miles MT; Flying Monk 10 & Fearless 5 Brooklands Half Marathon Banbury 15 Combe Gibbet to Overton 16 Maidenhead Easter 10m Downland Challenge 40/20 Brighton Marathon & 10k Bungay Half Marathon Fuller's Thames Towpath 10 London Marathon 2015 Hurstbourne 5 MT Race Three Forts Challenge Chalgrove Festival 10K Silverstone Grand Prix 10K Chieveley Chase ~ 5.7mile MT Deddington Four Farms Challenge 5k & 10k Marlborough Downs Challenge 2015 Blenheim 7k Berks AA T & F Champs
Wargrave Charity 10K Cheltenham Challenge (MT) The Gibbet Challenge 10K Ridgeway Relay Grant & Stone Wycombe ½ Mthn & 10K; North Downs Way Marathon "Down Tow Up Flow" ½ Mthn Bearbrook 10K Road Race Thames Meander ½ & Full Mthn Maidenhead Half Marathon 45th Chiltern Marathon Hereford Festival of Sport Hereford Festival of Sport IOW Fell Race Series 2015 IOW Fell Race Series 2015 Reading O2O 10K
City of Salisbury 10 Mile
Devizes Half Marathon
Devizes 10k Road Race Silverstone Half Marathon Fleet Half Marathon
Meon Valley Plod 20 miles
White Horse Half-Marathon
Wokefield Park 10k MT
Highworth 5 Danesfield Dash 10k MT Incurro Urban X 10k run Ridge Off Roader 10k & 6.5K
Reading ½ Mthn
Fairoaks 5mile & 10mile Southampton ½ Mthn & 10k
Shinfield 10K & Junior Races
MK Mthn & ½ Mthn
Bracknell Half Marathon
Grant & Stone Marlow 5
Oxford Town and Gown 10K Royal Berkshire 10K & 3K Wallingford Thames Run 10k & 5k
Hungerford Harey 8 Tadley Runners Summer 10K New Forest 10
Fort William Marathon Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 Trail Mthn
Rutherford Appleton 10k & 5k
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Tewkesbury Half Marathon Royal Windsor ½ Mthn,10K & 6K Trail Runs