Les Croupiers Running Club Forum

Following a review of the Thursday night Club runs we plan to make some changes to the structure, there will now be designated groups based on 5K times and we will now offer a “Tempo” type run. The groups will be staggered and going off in small intervals. There will be a link to the groups here, on facebook and on the training page of the Club website.

In effect the club membership would be split into training groups and each member would be allocated a group based on 5k times, this should mean that people should be in a group with people of a “similar” pace.

The groups won’t be fixed, members can move up and down groups depending on what they wanted out of that weeks run. Some weeks you may want an easier run so you can drop down a group, if you wanted a bit of a challenge you could go up a group.

The idea would be to make the session more of a tempo run. The groups will naturally split but hopefully in a slightly more organised way, and the pressure is off with regards trying to keep everyone to stick to one pace.

Copies of the Groups will be placed in the changing rooms on a Thursday night.

Between 6.55pm and 7.00pm all runners will be moved into the UWIC car park, and then put into their groups. The Group Leaders will then take charge and co-ordinate the groups. The GL will find out who is doing the “session/tempo”, who is doing their own thing/steady run, and who is doing the 10 mile. The GL will only take charge of those doing the “session/tempo”.

While waiting for the off, the GL will get the group ready to go and be responsible for starting them off.

Phil

We'll break you in nice and steady Mel, how about Group 3?

I welcome the introduction of more groups as I previously found that that I was too slow for one group but too fast for another. Therefore more groups should in theory enable people to get a match to their pace at threshold/tempo pace.

Whilst the 5k times could be used as the guide for grouping, I suggest that indicative min/mile pace be added too as a guide. I'm no training specialist but could vdot be used as an indicator of what the pace should be for each group for a tempo/threshold run e.g

Group 1; 15:30-17:45; vdot 57-66; 5:28-6:09
Group 2; 17:49-19:18; vdot 51-57; 6:09-6:44
Group 3; 19:22-20:58; vdot 47-51; 6:44-07:10
Etc

However based on the times of Group 2 yesterday, the above suggested paces might be too fast over a distance of 7 miles.

Also, there was some confusion once out in the car park as to the other alternative options made available on the night e.g steady on normal 7 mile route or tempo on slightly safer shorter route with less road crossings.

This is not a criticism but merely constructive feedback for continuous improvement. :-)

Just another comment - I tried to meet up with the "Tempo" group on Ryhdhelig Av and didnt have a clue what was going on, who was doing it et. Completely missed the tempo group.....maybe a quick pause for everyone to regroup before the tempo starts on George V?

Hi All

To follow up from the posts above, we've made a suggestion of a change of route for those who intend doing a Tempo run or a session, the reason behind this is that it cuts out the need to cross roads and junctions which can be dangerous when trying to ran at a harder/faster pace. For those doing an easy/steady run on the 7 mile or 10 mile route then these will remain unchanged.

The suggestion is that the first section of the run is done as a Warm Up, this will go from the Club, up to Gabalfa, thru the underpass,along Caerphilly Rd, turn right down Rhydhelig Ave, and then regroup at the roundabout at the start of Heath Park. The Warm Down will be the reverse of the Warm Up.

The loop for the Tempo run / sessions will follow King George V Drive around the park as per the normal Club route, but before the 3rd roundabout, turn right and follow the footpath that follows the Heath Hospital fence back along to the start point - this path is tarmac and is well lit. The lap is 1.66 miles, so for the Tempo look to do 2 or 3 laps depending on how far you want to run.

Below are links to maps of the routes.

Phil

Warm Up and Warm Down route
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6755574

Tempo Run route
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6755575

The 5 mile option is still there, the normal routes of 5, 7 and 10 are unchanged

Jess, the idea of the groups is just to split people up so they're with runners of similar ability. It's based on 5k times for this year, so you should be able to work out which group is best suited to you. You don't have to stick to that group every week. If you want a harder run one week then you could move up a group, or move down a group if you want an easier run.

Yep, sorry about that Stuart. The starting early was entirely down to me in group 2 forgetting to check the watch and setting off early! Lesson learned! 7pm next week!