The Monday Social Run is a sociable group run covering around either 8km or 6km, taking around 40-50 mintues depending on speed and distance. The aim is to chat and be social, and this is a great session if you are new to the club.  Come along at 7pm if it's your first time and join the first-timers briefing.

We meet at the Clubhouse at Trinity Fields (on the corner of Burntwood Lane and Beechcroft Road, see map here) for a 7:10pm start.   There are toilets and changing space, and everything is locked when we set off so you can leave bikes and belongings there while running (although please note there are sometimes other organisations using the Clubhouse and Clapham Chasers can't accept responsibility for anything left there).

We split into a number of different pace groups:

Group	Pace (min/mile)	Pace (min/km)	Distance (km)
1	7:00 - 7:30	4:20 - 4:40	8 - 9
2	8:00	5:00	8 - 9
3	8:30	5:15	8 - 9
4	8:45 - 9:00	5:25 - 5:35	8 - 9
5	9:15 - 9:45	5:45 - 6:00	8 - 9
6	9:45+	6:00+	8 - 9
7	9:45+	6:00+	6

Groups 6 and 7 stop to regroup (and have a breather) along the route.  They also both have a tail runner to make sure no-one ever gets left behind.

There are currently three different route options (with a long and short version of each), and we run them on rotation:

Commons Route	Tooting Route	Windmill Route
8.3km route 6.2km route	9.2km route  6.3km route	8.6km route 6.2km route

Track is all about improving your speed, and we meet each week inside the Millennium Arena at Battersea Park by the 200m line at 7:10am and 7:20pm.  Each week there are standard and advanced options so you can tailor the session to what you need, examples include:

• Short Reps: 10 x 400m off 70s
• Long Reps: 5x1k
  
• Speed play: 2x1k (2 min rest) 5x400 (75s rest) 1k
  

The session leader will gather you together and brief you on the session before dividing you into pace groups.  Remember: 

• Run in an anti-clockwise direction
• Try to remain tight in Lane 1 for reps, unless you are overtaking
• Bring a bottle of water to grab between reps, particularly if it's hot/humid
• If you are overtaking, try to do so as safely and quickly as possible, before moving back into the inside lane
• Once you have finished your rep, either move on to the infield, or one of the outer lanes (if safe to do so), as quickly as possible
• Reps should be hard, but you should not be racing. Aim for consistency over the session
• Recovery time starts once the last person in your group has finished their rep
• If someone yells TRACK that means watch out
  
• Above all, please be aware and respectful of other track users

Tempo is all about improving your endurance, helping you run further and faster before you start to fatigue from a build up of lactate in your legs. We meet outside the Millennium Arena at Battersea Park for 7:10am and 7:10pm, and gather for the session pre-brief at the junction of Carriage Drive East and Central Avenue.

The sessions are looking to benefit runners of all abilities no matter what races they are training for - we get people at the sessions who are new to structured training right through to seasoned marathoners.

There are several types of sessions that we use in our Tempo runs, examples include:

• Tempo intervals, i.e., 3 x 10 minutes off a 2-minute float recovery or 3x 1 Medium / Large lap off a 90-second float recovery;
• Tempo fartleks, i.e., change of pace during a session so you run sections at Tempo pace or slightly slower or faster than Tempo pace during a session;
• Tempo pyramids, i.e., 4 mins, 8 mins, 12 mins, 8 mins, 4 mins off a 2-minute float recovery between each rep;
• Continuous Tempo runs, i.e., 20 minutes continuous

Groups and Pacing - Runners will be split into one of 5 main pace groups before the sessions (and possibly split into sub-groups as per the table below depending on numbers attending and Tempo pace which the session leader(s) will take care of) to ensure that everybody runs with those of similar abilities. 

Pacing a Tempo Run

The pace of a Tempo run is often described as the fastest pace that you can comfortably sustain for 1 hour. For slower runners, it is closer to their 10k pace and for faster runners, closer to their 10 mile / half marathon pace. Pacing the session well is key to get the full benefit and increase both your Anaerobic Threshold and Lactate Threshold, without creating undue fatigue with negative effects on future sessions.

Too often runners run Tempo runs too hard or too quickly as they either try to keep up with their friends or treat the session as a race, and therefore do not get the full benefit of the session and wonder why they are not improving or taking longer to recover. So pacing is key and will improve with experience and the more Tempo runs you do.

Tempo paces can be found by using an online calculator. There is a good one from Runners World https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/training/a761681/race-time-predictor/#training-pace-calculator, but many other websites exist offering similar estimates.

In terms of effort levels, it should be a 6 or 7 out of 10 on the RPE scale (Rate of Perceived Effort) or put simply comfortably hard (so not as if you were running a parkrun hard on a Saturday). You are still working relatively hard to run to maintain your Tempo pace but it should be in a controlled manner with you only being able to say a few words in a conversation. Often running to effort is a much better gauge rather than always looking at your watch and trying to hit your Tempo pace as runners may feel more tired before one session compared to another session depending on where they are in their training plan and their current fitness levels.

Links / Useful Articles:

Below you will find some useful articles on Tempo running which not only back up the information above but also give you additional guidance:

https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/training/the-tempo-run-training-your-anaerobic-threshold

https://therunexperience.com/what-is-a-tempo-run/

https://www.podiumrunner.com/training/what-exactly-is-a-tempo-run/

https://www.jopavey.com/tempo-run-explained

Throughout marathon season (January to April) we run marathon-focused sessions to build confidence and ability around those specific marathon paces.

These sessions are for everyone aiming to hit specific paces in the marathon. For less experienced runners, they will be very beneficial but also taxing on the body, so please be careful when choosing your pace / distance / weekly schedule. In particular, newer runners may want to build up mileage with steady social Sunday long runs for the first few weeks. Even the most experienced runners will only be doing 3 hard Saturday sessions out of 4, so listen to your body when taking part!

Note that with Battersea Parkrun we need to be mindful of the parkrunners so please let’s stay out of each other’s way!!

Example sessions include:

• 4 x 5km
• 6km / 5km / 4km / 3km / 2km / 1km off 1km floats
• Half marathon at marathon pace

After each week we'll head over to The Pear Tree Cafe to recover, debrief, and look forwards to the rest of the weekend!!

On top of Super Saturday, we now have a Sunday Social Long Run, of a recommended 90 minute duration finishing at a cafe or pub. This is an ideal entry into longer running if you're newer to endurance training or building up slowly before your event (e.g. early stages marathon training). It is also a good addition to the weekend for more experienced runners who want to back up their Saturday session with a second, more conversationally paced run.

As with Monday social, we break into pace groups before regrouping for coffee at the end.