In the lead up to the spring and autumn marathons, the club hosts a long run on Sundays.  These are open to all members, with a marathon in their plan or not, and will include routes along the Thames path, Richmond Park, and Hyde Park.  With a range of distance and pace groups, and associated chat groups, there is a good chance you will find the right running gang for you.

Monday Social Run

The Monday Social Run is a sociable group run covering around either 8km or 6km, and taking no more than about an hour.  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:

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:

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

• Yasso: 10 x 800, off 90 secs static recovery
• Pyramid: 1200/1600/2000/1600/1200, with 70secs recovery
• Sharpners: 14 x 400m off 70s

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
• Use the inside lane for reps, unless you are overtaking
• 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
• 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. 

The sessions will benefit runners of all abilities no matter what races they are training for but the sessions will be planned / designed (usually in 3-month blocks) depending on what races / distances people are training for at that specific time of year, i.e., the sessions will be race / distance specific.  The variety this brings helps you to train different aspects of racing like consistent pacing and picking up speed on tired legs, as well as keeping things interesting.

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

• Tempo intervals, i.e., 3x 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 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. 

Note that Tempo Pace is slightly slower than your 10k pace

Tempo Pace Calculator - To calculate your Tempo Pace, based on what you think you could currently complete a 10k in (based on current fitness levels), use the Tempo Pace Calculator here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-1mtdoEOvnByxUgTsglYWUknmi5OjS4J/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100502460735692744402&rtpof=true&sd=true