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Weekly Sessions

All sessions have a range of pace groups so that you can find your people.  Scroll down for overviews of each session and check out the training section for the schedules and how to get the most out of your sessions.

Day
Time What is it?
Who/What is it for?
Where is it?

Monday

 7:10pm

Club Social Run

 A relaxed run in a social environment, covering 6km or 8km within an hour

Trinity Fields

Tuesday

7:10am & 7:20pm

Track

Shorter high intensity intervals to improve speed

Battersea Park

Millennium Arena (200m line)

Thursday

7:10am & 7:10pm

Tempo

Building stamina and speed endurance

Battersea Park outside Millennium Arena

Saturday 8:30am Super Saturday A marathon-focused session held in the build-up to spring marathons, with long intervals (e.g. 3 x 5km, 13 miles at marathon pace..)Battersea Park outside Millennium Arena
Sunday9am Sunday long runA steady 90ish minute run, conversational pace. Building endurance. Various

If you'd like to try out a session before you commit to joining then please come along early (7pm) to either the Monday Social Run or Thursday Tempo sessions. You'll be given an overview of the club, get your questions answered and then join the main session in whichever pace group you choose. Please note that sessions don't run on bank holidays or between Christmas and New Year and if there are any changes or unplanned session cancellations these will be posted on our members' Facebook page.

Session Etiquette

With the exception of Super Saturday sessions which are specific to the marathon distance, these sessions will benefit runners of all abilities no matter what races they are training for, from 5k to the marathon. That said, the sessions will be planned in 4-month blocks depending on what races / distances people tend to be training for at that specific time of year - in particular the sessions in the Spring might take a more marathon-centric approach, while over summer they may focus on shorter intervals.

Arrive warmed up to be able to get the most out of the session and avoid the risk of injury.  The more effort you expect to expend in each session, the more dynamic and thorough your warm up would idealy be. This should ideally involve at least 10 minutes of light jogging, some dynamic warm-up exercises and some strides at session pace.

If the session takes place on public roads, please observe the Highway Code and use common sense at traffic lights and road crossings.  Please stick to the left wherever possible, and give plenty of space to other pedestrians and cyclists. Around Battersea Park we don't have right of way over other park users so please be courteous!

Please remember these weekly sessions are a menu, not a training plan. You don’t have to do every session, and in fact very few will!

Monday Social Run

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

6.2km route

8.6km route

Tuesday Track

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

    Thursday Tempo

    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.