BRR Blog – 1 April 2024
Liz Stokes and Steve Colloff before their respective 5k and 10k races at Victoria Park on Good Friday
Hi there, Road Runners!
Happy Easter everyone. I hope you have had a good weekend, however you have chosen to spend it.
The clocks have gone forward and it is really starting to feel like the winter is behind us, although looking at the weather forecast we can expect April showers for the next week. Much as I dislike losing an hour’s sleep, it always feels good to have lighter evenings. It is so much nicer being able to run when there is still some daylight, and we might even be able to save Everyone Active money by not having the floodlights on at track for the whole hour of our training session. Not that they will give us a discount on the track hire costs!
In the meantime, I have just completed my second month of the 30-day squat challenge. Dee Spencer-Perkins has had an Easter conversation with our tree-house dwelling friend, Dottie Dear, and it appears she has also been taking on the challenge…
Dottie Dear’s almanac for April: Buns
Dottie loves to read the Running Club Blog (especially the ones that have her Almanac in), and she was mightily impressed to read about the beneficial effects of doing lots of squats (BRR Blog, February 12th, 2024). Especially intriguing was the guaranteed prospect of developing your glutes into Buns of Steel – something that appealed to her because she is, shall we say, a bit on the spindly side in the posterior department. Dottie also felt that having steel buns would help her when going up and down the rope ladder (having fallen off in February). Furthermore, she had seen several of the Barking Road Runners bounding through the clearing around her tree house, like little gazelles. Clearly all that cumulative crouching was having a dramatic effect on their performance, and she had dubbed them the Bunrunners.
The magical 30-Day Squat Challenge chart was printed off: a seemingly innocuous programme of incremental exercises, in which the number of squats performed each day increases by 5, with lots of rest days factored in. The starting point was a paltry 15 squats. Not a problem! How she longed to be a Bunrunner – and it would only take her a month. She would start the next day.
Unfortunately, when Dottie woke up the next morning she realised it was going to be a High Horse Day. This was when an irritating thought might enter her mind as something of a niggle, but would finally end up as a full-blown rant. (This was what her cousin Bossy Beena dubbed being on her High Horse.) On this particular day, the High Horse was fuelled by thoughts about words and grammar and such-like – and aren’t we all experts at that? Dottie was no grammar-guru, but she knew when something didn’t sound right.
Anyhoo, language issues notwithstanding, she decided she had to get a grip on the squat thing, and keeping the Steel Buns in her sights she banished the High Horse to the bottom of the rope ladder. Let’s start the squats…….
She had got up to 7 when it suddenly occurred to her that it’s incredibly annoying when people add in superfluous syllables to perfectly good words – like when someone says Wem-ber-ley, or Ath-er-lete, not to mention Bee-u-tiful. Irritating, or what? The thought really put her off her squat count, so she decided to go back to the beginning and start again.
She was doing OK up to 11 this time, but then the High Horse’s long nose poked itself into Dottie’s face and another irksome idea intruded: since when had it been OK to say so fun? No! It’s not so fun, it’s such fun. What are people thinking of? Who is coming up with these things? Bah!
This one really cheesed Dottie off, and she lost count again. Dang! Back to 5 and start from there. Right - nine, ten, eleven - all going well up to 13, but the High Horse just kept on delivering. This time, he was jumping up and down and his head kept appearing above the balcony railing, causing Dottie to wonder who decided it was OK to chop off the ends of words in a silly sort of way, like obvs for obviously (which is hard to say anyway) or defo (for definitely). In this case, it looked a bit like our antipodean friends might have had something to do with it (with a bit of help from social media), but we couldn’t help noticing that Dottie herself wasn’t averse to a bit of word-shortening when it suited her (see Almanac for August 2023).
One more attempt at the squats, but this time the Horse came up with something that really got Dottie’s goat. The day before she had distinctly heard someone on the radio say “The proof is in the pudding”. No! The proof is so NOT in the pudding. As everyone knows, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. THE EATING! Grrr! Dottie was fuming.
By this time, as you can imagine, the squat-counting had gone hopelessly out of the tree-house window, and the High Horse was threatening to bring up the subject of apostrophes. Dottie sighed and looked out to see a flock of BRR Bunrunners galloping through her clearing, showing off their impeccably sculpted glutes and bouncing healthily on well-squatted legs: prime examples of finely tuned bunliness.
Dottie decided that she was never going to make it to the promised land of Bunstantinople at this rate, so perhaps it was time to give the High Horse a snack. In any case, the only kind of buns you need at this time of year should be Hot and Cross.
From which it can be concluded:
· never bite off more than you can chew;
· only chew what you can bite;
· some people are meant to have spindly bottoms (it’s genetic)…and
· they also serve who only stand and eat.
(Apologies to John Milton.)
Obvs……..
Goodbye (almost) winter handicap, hello summer handicap!
We’re in the last week of the winter virtual handicap but, don’t despair, the summer ‘real’ handicap will be starting soon. Each race will take place on the Barking parkrun course, with the clock starting at 7.00pm. Organiser Greg will give each runner a handicap, with the slowest starting first and the fastest starting last. The handicap means that everyone has an equal chance of winning. Here are the dates for this year’s competition:
1. 2 May
2. 16 May
3. 30 May
4. 13 June
5. 27 June
6. 18 July
7. 8 August
Entry is £1, with a tenner prize to the first person across the finish line in each race. Also trophies for first second and third place in the series, based on the best 5 of 7 results. The handicap means that everyone has an equal chance of winning, so come long and have a go!
All aboard
Photo credit: Ed Roe
Here’s something to look out for at the London Marathon this year. Jackie Scully from Greenwich, South London will be aiming to complete the race with nine friends in a bus costume, to commemorate 10 years since she finished chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer.
The team of ten will be dressed in costumes to represent everyday heroes, with Scully herself dressed as a bus driver. The goal is to raise £100,00 for various charities. At the same time, the team is also hoping to break the current Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon time in a 10-person costume, which stands at six hours and 55 minutes.
Train like an elite
Norwegian Olympic and world champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen may not be my favourite athlete but nobody can deny he’s pretty speedy. So, if he suggests a workout, why not give it a try?
Ingebrigtsen recommends the following session if you are trying to build speed and fitness for a 5k or 10k race:
Two sets of 12x400m (24 reps total) with 30 seconds of rest between reps, at a pace corresponding to your goal race pace. Three minutes rest between sets.
To prepare your body for the workout, start with a 10- to 20-minute warmup followed by a few strides to prime your body for the intensity ahead. After completing the workout, finish with a 10-to 20-minute cool down to aid recovery.
According to Ingebrigtsen, this session will help you become more comfortable with race pace in training for both the 5K and 10K distances. For optimal results you need to ensure you match the reps to your race pace; not too fast or too slow. The idea is that you will stress your body without creating excessive fatigue, allowing yourself to maintain speed and effort throughout the session.
If the session sounds daunting, Ingebrigtsen recommends:
1) Start slow: If you’re new to this workout, begin with fewer or shorter repetitions to gradually build endurance and speed.
2) Focus on hitting paces: Aim to reach your desired pace early in the session and maintain it evenly throughout. Avoid the temptation to increase pace with each repetition.
3) Adapt and progress: Over time, gradually increase the number of repetitions and pace to challenge yourself.
“By breaking the 10K distance into manageable repetitions, runners can simulate race conditions and enhance their ability to sustain that pace over longer distances” says Ingebrigtsen “Due to the short break, you’re still not getting enough rest to recover, but are still getting enough to maintain speed and effort.”
On this day…
Not made in the EU?
On 1 April 2016 the EU declared that European-made GPS watches could no longer record in miles as they were not part of the metric system. I bet some runners in the UK thought it was an April Fool’s joke, but the EU was dead serious. In the meantime, I think I need a new running watch.
Greg’s Race Report
Several Barking Road Runners’ members entered the Good Friday Crown to Crown 5k race organised by Pitsea Running Club at Westley Heights Country Park near Laindon. Finishing times for the BRR runners were Nikki Cranmer 35:00, Rob Courtier 35:02 and Alison Fryatt 35:30.
Rob, Nikki and Alison after the Crown to Crown, with supporter Alan.
At the Good Friday races in Victoria Park, Hackney, Steve Colloff ran in the 10k race finishing in a time of 56:21 and Liz Stokes ran in the 5k event in a time of 40:31.
Emma Paisley took part in her first Ultra-marathon in the Camino Ultra at Lea Valley finishing the 50k run in 6 hours 19 minutes.
BRR parkrunners
Barking - Mark Odeku 21:42, Belinda Riches 23:22, Joshua Ezissi 24:09, Rosie Fforde 25:06, John Whan 25:52, Jason Li 26:43, Martin O’Toole 26:46, Isabel Pinedo Borobio 27:29, Andrew Hiller 28:29, Martin Brooks 28:34, Rob Courtier 29:14, Paul Molina 30:17, Veronica Barikor 32:22, Nikki Cranmer 33:16, Lizzie Beth Garraghan 33:18, Les Jay 33:59, Darren Graham 49:59, Alan Murphy 55:52 and Micky Ball 58:54.
Chalkwell Beach - Antony Leckerman 21:15.
Clacton Seafront - Joyce Golder 28:23.
Joyce and Monty at Clacton Seafront
Dover Waterfront - Rory Burr 23:25.
Rory and friend at Dover Waterfront
Gunpowder - Doug King 27:38 and Stephen Colloff 28:20.
Steve Colloff and Doug King at Gunpowder
Hackney Marshes - Stuart Mackay 21:36.
North Yorkshire Water Park - David Botterill 26:34 and Emma Paisley 28:25.
Sherringham - John Lang 29:56.
John Lang and niece Morgan causing trouble at Sheringham
Storeys Field - Sunny Bulchandani 23:18
Sunny at Storeys Field
Valentines - Kevin Wotton 25:12 and Andrew Gwilliam 55:55.
Highest BRR Age gradings this week were Belinda Riches 73.54% for the women and John Whan 69.01% for the men.
BRR Diary – April
w/c 30 March - Virtual Handicap 07. Last week in the 2024 Winter Virtual Handicap season. Post your result by close on Friday, 5 April.
7.00pm, Tuesday 2 April - Speed development. Jim Peters Stadium, Mayesbrook Park. This week we have zigzags. It may seem counter-intuitive that the recovery gets longer the shorter the rep, but that’s because the shorter the rep, the faster you will be running it – if you don’t need a longer recovery period after the 1 min rep, you’re not running it fast enough!
Four sets of:
· 3 mins 6/10 effort, 30 secs recovery
· 2 mins 7/10 effort, 45 seconds recovery
· 1 min 8/10 effort, 1 min recovery
Rate of Perceived Effort:
6/10: I can talk, but am slightly breathless
7/10: I can still talk, but I don't really want to.
8/10: I can grunt in response to your questions and can only keep this pace for a short time period
7.00pm, Thursday 4 April – Road Run. From the Castle Green Centre/Jo Richardson School, Gale Street, Dagenham. All abilities welcome.
10.30am, Sunday 7 April – St. Clare 10k (GP02). St Clare Hospice, Hastingwood, Essex CM17 9JX. The second race in this year’s GP series, and it’s a pleasant jaunt around the country lanes of Essex, all raising money for St. Clare Hospice. Sorry, sold out if you haven’t already entered.
Map of the St. Clare 10k route
In case anyone has missed the race day instructions, the only parking available at the Hospice is for those with limited mobility. The rest of us are asked to use the PARK & RIDE service, from Shooters Football Limited, Rayley Lane, North Weald Bassett, CM16 6AR. The journey should take six minutes by coach (it is 1.4 miles). I know some folk are thinking of walking, but I am not sure there is a pavement, so do keep safe. There is a bag drop, so do make sure to bring a warm top with you to put on after the race.
10.30am, Sunday 14 April – Hadleigh Legacy 10k. Not an official club race, but if you enjoy cross country at Hadleigh Country Park you may enjoy this. Details at: https://www.eventrac.co.uk/e/hadleigh-legacy-10k-9886
Sunday 21 April – TCL London Marathon. Whether you are running the marathon or volunteering on the Mile 14(ish) water station, it will be a full-on day for the Club. We will be arranging some drinks for the evening, to wind down and to hear all those marathon stories.
Cracker Corner
Last week I joined a new support group for procrastinators. We haven’t decided when to meet yet.
My friend can’t stop telling jokes about airports. I hope it’s not terminal.
A depressed chocolate rabbit went to see the doctor. The doctor asked ‘what’s wrong?’ The rabbit replied ‘I don’t know, I just feel hollow inside.’
Boom! Boom!
Quote of the week
‘If it’s not hard, you’re not dreaming big enough.’
Shalene Flanagan
And finally…
The Metropolitan Police issued a warning recently about crooks using diversion tactics to rob people when they are taking money out of cashpoints. So I was on my guard when approached by a couple of people whilst getting some cash from the ATM at the petrol station by the Ilford Lane entrance to Barking Park on Saturday. One tried to distract me by saying ‘hello, you look like a sensible person, can I ask you a question?’ I was not to be distracted: anyone who thinks a person dressed as a large white rabbit looks sensible is either up to no good or as mad as a March hare themself…
This is NOT a sensible person!
