Week 2 Newsletter
Settle In
Work on the habit
Week 1 down, you are doing well, it is great seeing you back!
Remember body care outside of the sessions is important - can you shout yourself a massage or spare some time to have a warm bath with Epsom salts? Anything you can do to help your muscles recover and repair will set you in good stead for the next 7 weeks.
Week 2 Sessions
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Monday 4 September, 6.00am
Meeting Point: Waitangi Park Playground
Map of Meeting Point: Click here
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Wednesday 6 September, 6.00am
Meeting Point: Waitangi Park Playground
Map of Meeting Point: Click here
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Saturday 9 September, 7.30am
Meeting Point: Leonie Gill Walkway, Lyall Bay (see map below)
Map of Run: Click here
Course Description:
All roads are open, and please keep left on the pathways.
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After the circuit, we start the walk/jog sets
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Run down pathway to Lyall Bay Parade. Turn right.
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Cross over to waterside pathway where indicated via zebra crossing.
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Continue along Lyall Bay Parade towards Houghton Bay and then towards Island Bay until your turnaround point.
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KM Markers out: 2.5km for those of our team doing the "Return" level, this is on the pathway.
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All our other runners are running to time.
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Out and back course for all (come back in exactly the same direction).
Entrance to Meeting Point:
Click on image to enlarge
Saturday's Course:
Click on image to enlarge
This week's quick tip:
'Just focus on one week at a time and the programme will take care of you.'
– Jo
Education
What does "run faster" mean?
In the Return to Get up to Five programme you will have noticed that there are 'run faster' sections. In designing this programme we want to add a bit of intensity as well as longer duration in your running. So how do you know if you are you are doing it correctly? Here are some tips that will help you get to the right place in these faster sessions.
Step 1, keep to 6/10: One of the keys to being successful with this programme is making sure you still stick to 6/10 in your longer, normal sets. If you try to increase the speed during that stage of your run you increase the chance that you will need to stop and you won't have the energy to push a little bit harder when you are meant to run faster.
Step 2, know what faster feels like: When you are running at 6/10 it should almost feel easy, you can hold a conversation, your breathing rate is at a steady pace, and can feel relaxed. When it's time to do your faster sets the responses you get will increase in intensity. The aim is to get to a place where you notice that your breathing has increased, you are a little bit uncomfortable with the intensity but you know you can hold this intensity for the whole duration of the set, and you would no longer be able to hold a conversation. We would call this 7.5/10.
Step 3, don't go too hard: Like we mentioned above you should feel that you can maintain this intensity for the whole duration of the set. If you start a set of 5mins faster and 30secs into it you think you need to stop you have probably gone too fast. Use the indicators above to help you find the place where you know you'll get to the end of the set. If you do feel you have gone out too fast it's ok to slow down.
Step 4, find small success markers: Even when you find the correct speed and intensity for the faster running sets you will probably still be mentally challenged. A good tip here is to break down the whole set into small chunks that you can focus on. For example, in a 5min set you could focus on working through every minute. Once you get to the end of that minute you can tell yourself you are doing well and then refocus on the next minute.
Step 5, enjoy the high: Faster running is harder but at the same time there's a pretty great mental reward that comes when you get to the end of the set. Make sure you stop for a moment and allow yourself to enjoy that place, let yourself enjoy the high of the work you have done.
There are so many benefits of doing the faster run sets in your training. By using the tips above you will be more successful in getting all of those benefits.
Inspiration
We are runners. We are all different shapes, sizes and ages and we share the same bond - the appreciation and understanding of how great it is to be able to run.
Other News
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Consistency is the key to improvement.
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Remember that if you are feeling any soreness that you feel is beyond reasonable muscle fatigue - prevention is better than cure. Make sure you get to a physio and get it checked out.
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Can you make sure you know what you are doing in the session before you turn up for your Saturday runs. We want to keep the briefing short so if you can do that it would be really helpful.
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If you aren't on our private Get up to Five Facebook page yet make sure you get on there, it is a way that you can keep in touch with each other and we often post tips on here too: Here is the Facebook Group page to request access: Click here