Training Schedule

Tuesday and Thursday evenings are our training nights. We understand that people run for different reasons – for those who want to have a regular group to run with, have fun and feel safe in a group, there is always a mix of different speeds and distances and you will be very welcome.

• The winter is generally road running, with some trail running and you do need a reflective vest and a head or body light to be safe (come along to the club and ask advice if you are unsure). We also really encourage people to join in the Thames Valley cross country series, as a great strength-builder. During the dark of winter we also use Maidenhead track for two sessions a month – the first and third Tuesdays at 7:30pm.

• The summer is a mix of trail running and some road running. We are lucky to have lovely routes through Burnham Beeches and also have access to the Cliveden Estate on Thursday evenings. We do encourage runners to wear long socks and insect repellent and to be tick-aware whenever running in areas with long grass, since Lyme Disease now covers the whole country (www.lymediseaseuk.com). We also encourage all members to join the Thames Valley summer 5K series (with refreshments afterwards).

For those who want to improve their times (whether breaking through a magic number, or working to represent England or Great Britain in age group racing), we have a group of 20 coaches and run leaders on hand to help you with any questions. In general we tend to focus the sessions on interval work (for those who want to do this) on Tuesdays and more of a tempo run in groups on Thursdays. The sessions are usually posted on the members Facebook page and you can decide which you want to join, or whether you just want to have a run with friends at the club.

We also offer a set of development programmes through the year:

Spring Marathon Programme – we start the year with a kick-off evening on best practice for endurance running. This can cover topics like using heartrate for training, recovery, foam rolling, nutrition. Then there is a programme that builds to spring marathons, with the Tuesday and Thursday sessions at the club – all welcome to join, whether they are planning to run a marathon or not. For those who do complete a marathon, we do have a celebration dinner together and share stories and tips.

A faster 10K – the summer is focused on speed over the 5K and 10K distances. We generally focus the start of the summer on getting faster through the 5K series (May-July) and then the late summer on a progressive programme to a fast 10K, linked to our monthly ‘Staggered Jog’, which is a 10K with the start times staggered so that runners of all speeds should be sprint finishing together! This can be especially exciting in the October race, which is the last event of the Club Championship and can often be a decider with some amazing personal bests!

Keep moving through December – we are always conscious that the festive season can be hard for fitness. So we have a daily 1 mile challenge (walk or run 1 mile each day and post a photo), which is a lot of fun and also do some fun events like ‘Rudolph Relays’ at the track and a fancy dress Staggered Jog.