Subject: V S Update - Training sessions
for April, Events, Map reading, Marshals, Results, Reports from Tokyo and
Jurassic Coast
Sent: 28 March 2013 12:56
Training
Despite the weather,
all four training sessions took place on Tuesday. The juniors and
beginners probably had the best of the conditions, running on crisp snow on the
rugby pitches, but the other two groups managed to find some ice free
pavements.
Please note some
changes from the normal training schedules for April
Tuesday 2 April –
juniors & beginners joint session at 6pm, Grace’s intermediates at 7pm,
experienced runners 3 by 10mins at 7pm
Tuesday 9 April –
juniors & beginners separate sessions at 6pm, Holly’s intermediates 7pm
location to be agreed, experienced runners at Leeds Met track at 7pm
Tuesday 16 April
·
juniors
& beginners 6pm will include recce of Meanwood Valley Trail junior race 1
mile route,
·
other
groups also doing recce runs on the Meanwood Valley Trail senior route, start
6:45pm prompt. One group will go as far as 7 arches (3 miles), another
group as far as the ring road (5 miles), the third group the full route (7
miles)
·
followed
by food
Tuesday 23 April –
the juniors and beginners 6pm sessions may be using the track at Grammar School
at Leeds. Watch this space!
Tuesday 30 April –
club handicap 5 miles at Eccup Res 6:45pm, preceded by club junior one mile
race at Eccup Res 6:15pm. Followed by food
Other dates
It’s the Guiseley
Gallop this Sunday 10:30 from the retail park at Guiseley, approx. 10k of
trails, trees, towpath, road and more trails and trees.
This is also the
first race of the Leeds Race Series see www.leedsathletics.net for details, free to
enter
Next Sunday is the
Baildon Boundary Way, there are now have 3 entries available Alun Davies [email protected] Sue Sunderland [email protected] and Joe Hanney [email protected] Sue’s is only available
till this Sunday so maybe try her first
·
We will accept swaps but this is something you must
organise; we do not act as an introduction agency! We do not have the
time to attempt to match people up. If you have arranged a swap, please email
us at [email protected] heading your email
‘BBWAY SWAP’ with full details. In particular we need the new runner’s:
full name, postal and email addresses, phone number, date of birth,
running club (if any).
·
We will email a swap form for the receiver of the race
place to complete. We MUST be notified of the change of details and the
receiver of the race place MUST complete and sign a swap form BEFORE the
race. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION.
Map reading
Message forwarded by
Amanda Seims
Navigating your way
around is an essential skill for any explorer, and with the help of Cotswold
Outdoor’s interactive classes, navigation is easy. We will be offering a free
class, delivered by Ordnance Survey experts, on the 7th of May. The
workshop, which is aimed at beginners, will begin at 6:30pm, for one hour and
will be followed by time for questions at the end. Attendees will learn
essential map and compass reading methods, including understanding map symbols,
taking grid references and reading compass bearings.
The event will be at the Cotswold Outdoor store in Leeds: Unit 6, The
Core, Lands Lane, LS1 6AW
Tel: 0113 245 0879 Email: [email protected]
Meanwood Trail –
Saturday 20 April
We’ve now got
two-thirds of the number of marshals that we need - please email [email protected] if you can help.
If we get more than
necessary then Striders will be able to run the race – email as above, saying
“would like to run if possible”.
Who’s Running Where?
Paul Smith is leading
the Grand Prix “Any Other Marathon” category with his marathon at Tokyo – see
report below
The European season starts properly next week with Paris - Andy Stoneman, Alex Watson-Usher and Gemma Midwood will be representing Valley Striders there.
Please continue to
email [email protected] with the marathons
that you’re running this year, and to see who’s running where, click on www.valleystriders.org.uk/vslondon.htm
Race Results
Ashby 20
(Leicestershire)
37 Dave
Penman 2:09:21
564 Alex Watson-Usher
2:55:44 }picture on facebook
565 Gemma
Midwood 2:55:44 }
East Hull 20
49 Kevin McMullan 2:16:51
74 Myra Jones 2:22:17
76 Joel Giddings 2:22:38
157 Nick Barnes 2:36:00
178
Mike Robins 2:39:15
Trimpell 20
(Lancaster)
122 Sue Sunderland 2:37:34
Thirsk 10
Chip Gun
15 Simon
Midwood 0:58:19 0:58:20
18 Paul
Kaiser 0:58:41 0:58:42
60 James
Tarran 1:03:42 1:03:51
142 Howard
Jeffrey 1:09:50 1:10:00
146 Tim
Towler 1:09:54 1:10:10
178 Eric
Green 1:12:10 1:12:15
193 Lisa
Wilyman 1:12:49 1:12:57
201 Paul
Sanderson 1:13:52 1:14:09
215 Sharon
Tansley 1:14:41 1:14:52
239 Sue
Sunderland 1:16:10 1:16:21
576 finished
You’ll see a picture
on the Valley Striders website homepage of our runners and riders at the
Stokesley Duathlon – hoping for race results and a race report next time!
Race Report – Tokyo
Marathon (24 Feb) – from Paul Smith
Following a
speculative entry (American marathons were too expensive, I’ve never been to
Japan, looking for something a bit different etc.) I managed to get 1 of 35,000
spots (350,000 applications) to run in about October last year.
Arrived in a sunny
but very cold Tokyo on the Friday before the race on the Sunday and registered
in a frenzy of Mascots, Mizuno and Macdonalds sponsored helpers (is it right a
burger joint sponsors this sort of thing?)
For the first time I
actually did some effective, constructive and targeted training only to be
hampered by a very bad chest infection 2 weeks prior to the race. Adding in a
16 hour flight and too much excitement to sleep gives me enough excuses but still
hit the time I trained for of 3hrs 29mins, miles faster than any road marathon
I’ve ever done before but slightly disappointed as my training suggested maybe
10mins better than that and went through halfway in a comfortable 1:40 before
my cold started to hurt me.
Course was good and,
despite the usual picking your way through the crowd in the first 10k, is
mostly flat with 3 or 4 stiff climbs over bridges in the last 10k. Organisation
was excellent; very clear where to be at start despite everything being in
Japanese, easy to get there, easy to get back afterwards. No waiting around for
bags or stuff at the end and the freebies are good too. They take you past a
lot of the major things/areas to see in Tokyo too and a couple of parts of the
course are an out an back effort which was early enough in the race to see the
leaders come by and get the atmosphere from that. The support was constant
throughout the race and I’ve never high fived so many people during and after a
race as it did seem a novelty to the crowd to be a non-Japanese entrant.
Sensible locations for food and water and sports drink stations and from 5k in
they appeared about every 2.5k, never had tomatoes during a race before tho!
If there was a
downside it was the temperature and icy wind (-5 with wind chill they reckoned)
that really got you at certain parts of the course but a minor point in the
scheme of things especially as there was bright sunshine to go with it.
Even better than the
race though was the holiday afterwards. If you fancy the going that far I
recommend the race and the country. Admittedly I got a good deal on the flight
but together with the race entry, accommodation etc it wasn’t as expensive as
you might imagine. I would definitely do it again.
Sayonara
In terms of
marathons/race entries that you were looking to compile I’m entered for these
on your “who’s running where”. Filter them as you see fit as there are quite a
lot
24th
March Ultra 26 Rivington – approx. 30 mile off-road navigation by the guy who
does the Lakeland50/100 events (Did the Grizedale one with Kim in Nov – on the
pricey side but excellent event)
13th
April Calderdale Hike (37miles trail)
27th
April 3 Peaks
11th May
Eco Mountain Marathon, Brasov, Romania
1st June
Wharfedale Marathon
29th June
Mont Blanc 42km
7th July
Coniston Marathon (Lakeland trails) – if I’ve recovered from week before
17th
August Race the Train only 14miles I think but slightly unusual challenge
(North Wales somewhere)
Race Report –
Jurassic Coast Challenge – from Richard Adcock
The Jurassic Coast Challenge is billed as 3
marathons (78.6 miles) in 3 days along the 'steep rocky cliff paths, shingle,
sand, mud and a bit of tarmac' of the South West Coast path.
Due to recent heavy
rains causing the cliff to collapse in places there are a number of
diversions adding approx 5 miles to the course; getting lost on these
diversions adds on another couple of miles (and loses you 15 places!)
I thought this would
be a nice easy trail run, I didn't think they had any hills down south; I
certainly didn't think they had that many, that big
and that steep!
Day 1 - 27.4 miles
Lyme
Regis to Weymouth
'Muddy'
27 miles of slippy
ankle deep mud into a 20mph headwind and rain, trying not to fall off the cliff
top is entertaining for a while, then it's not!
5:17:51
(22/193)
Day 2 - 27.4 miles
Weymouth (round
Portland) to Lulworth Cove
'Steep steps'
Less mud today,
replaced with steep climbs and lots of steps (pic1 doesn't show the 200
steps down (almost to sea level) and then another 200 back up to
the checkpoint).
And just in case you
were missing the mud from yesterday, it got muddy for a few
miles before reverting to being hilly again - the coast past Durdle door and Lulworth Cove would be
lovely in the summer.
5:39:49
(27/197)
Day 3 - 30.4 miles
Lulworth Cove to
Shell Bay, Studland
30.4 miles is not a
marathon, it's torture on tired legs.
Today was a
combination of the previous two; muddy and 'undulating', starting
straight off with a lung busting climb out of Lulworth Cove up to the cliff top
and spending the day enjoying running where we could,
climbing/slipping/falling when we couldn't until the final climb over Ballard
Down (where you can see the finish 5 miles away!), back down to sea level and
finish with 2 miles along the sandy beach into a gale -the finish line was a
welcome sight after that.
7:22:11
(52/153)
Total time:
18:19:51
Total distance: 85.2
miles
Finish
position: (not known yet)
It was a very
well organised, friendly event, and fair play to the organisers for keeping it
going in the worst conditions they've ever had.
Pictures (click JCC 2013)
Richard
Request
for marathon runners to participate in MSc research project
Email
from Gary Cochrane, research student at Leeds Met
MSc
Research Project: application of a 3:1 positivity ratio can increase
resilience and positive affect in marathon runners.
I
am a keen marathon runner and a mature student, currently studying for a
Masters degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology at The Carnegie Faculty, Leeds
Metropolitan University. As part of my studies I have to complete a final piece
of work known as a Major Independent Study (MIS) and to do that I am looking
for participants who have entered a marathon, which needs to be completed by
the end of May 2013.
My
study is based on increasing research which demonstrates that people who are
able to make positive adaptations in the face of difficult challenges can
experience long-lasting benefits physically, socially and psychologically.
In
running terms, I want to see if a self-talk technique called the 3:1 positivity
ratio, can be used to increase positive emotions and resilience in runners.
Simply
put, the 3:1 positivity ratio, requires a runner to use three strong positive
thoughts to counter any one negative thought that occurs during a run. Research
shows it takes at least three (relevant) positives to counter the one negative
thought.
This
area of study is taken from a branch of psychology known as positive
psychology, more specifically as the Broaden & Build Theory of Positive
Emotions. The aim of which is to enable individuals to enhance their wellbeing
and live fuller lives. So far it has not been extensively studied in an
endurance sport context; which adds to the interest.
This
research study has been signed-off by my local ethics coordinator at Leeds
Metropolitan University, in compliance with the university’s Research Ethics
Policy and Procedures guidelines (a copy of which can be provided on request).
The
formal elements of this request are attached.
If
you think you might have runners who are about to run a marathon, whether
novice or experienced runners, and you think they might wish to participate
please pass on my details and ask them to contact me. The study is not
complicated or time consuming but it could help shed some light on an
interesting topic and it might also provide your runners with a new way of
approaching mental preparation for marathon training.
Thank
you for your consideration.
Yours
sincerely
Garry
Cochrane