Summer Run Clinics Start Soon!
Is time speeding up? May is gone, which means it is time to get serious if you are planning on doing a fall race event. Luckily, Frontrunners Victoria just announced the start dates of their summer running clinics, which align with the possible end goal of entering one of the Royal Victoria Marathon races in October. Running clinics are an awesome way to meet other likeminded people, provide motivation, learn useful tips, and establish good habits to sustain your running journey going forward.
In order to get your body race ready, you must move through a planned succession of progression and adaptation in a program that creates a healthy balance for you. It usually takes about 16 weeks of varying levels of intensity and recovery as you slowly build strength from base to peak to taper, each stage building on the work before. Besides the fun environment and many learning moments, the Frontrunners clinics are designed to ease you into the building blocks of run training. The upcoming choices of available clinics are: Marathon and Half Marathon; Return to Run/ Maintenance (RTRM); and Learn to Run 5k (First Steps) & 10k (Next Steps).
Working with a plan is important for creating structure and mindfully introducing changes each week that slowly and safely help to build strength, endurance, and speed. The running clinic that you choose will have a prerequisite that determines your level so you need to be honest about your current fitness abilities. Start with where you are at and build from there. The clinics allow for shifting between the levels if you should find yourself either unchallenged or overwhelmed. It is not uncommon that people do not know where they fit in until they do one of the workouts. That is okay. You can either change your goal or simply move to a more suitable pace group within your chosen clinic.
It does not matter whether you are new to running or experienced, the stages are in the same order with the same purpose: to make you a better, stronger runner. At first, the training load will be modest while you establish your base level of fitness, but in order to adapt and progress, your workouts will slowly become more difficult. This means that you will increase your mileage and intensity. Frontrunners clinic coordinator, Jonathan Foweraker, says that they aim to set their participants up for success. “The purpose of our clinics is to take runners from a certain level of fitness to being race-ready. For a beginner runner or someone with a smaller running base, it might mean getting them ready to complete their goal race. For more experienced runners it may be ready to compete – by challenging a time goal or personal best.” Increases in intensity are graduated, with various types of interval or speed workouts and hill training which develop strength and power. Wendy Cohen, another Frontrunners clinic coordinator says one of the planned workouts mid-week introduces a variety of workouts that runners would not necessarily know how to do on their own (plus, it is more fun to do with others). “Our Wednesday workouts follow solid training principles such as tempos, fartleks, Yassos, and speed ladders.” Another value added component to your running lexicon comes from the speaker sessions which offer in-depth information from experts.
Each program consists of a complete training schedule so you know what to expect. For the Marathon, Half, and RTR/M clinics, participants meet twice a week starting June 14, with homework runs in between. The Learn to Run clinics, beginning July 4, meet once weekly as a group. In the time between meetups, runners can still stay connected to others through email and a private Facebook page. With clinics downtown, Shelbourne, and Westshore there are plenty of location options around the city. Visit www. frontrunners.ca to register.