The Doncaster Pacers specialise in beginner runners and to ensure you get the best support possible we limit our beginners courses to 2 each year, this is so when the beginners graduate we then put all our resources into helping them develop furtherto join our intermediate groups. All our beginners courses have 2 coached sessions each week. We are part of Doncaster Athletic Club.
For anyone who is already a runner (6 minute miles to 14 minute miles no problem), we offer various training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday evenings to cater for ALL abilities, just call down at 6:15pm or call Martin on 07916 659740. Try us for free for a few sessions, no obligation.
We are often referred to as a drinking club with a running problem, lots of social events in town and further afield (Belfast parkrun this year, Benidorm in 2020).
My first experience of RED was in January 2018. I had been a member of DAC for just 5 months and didn’t know many people. We all did our own thing for RED but during a conversation with Julie Cull she suggested we did a run together on 31 January and have something to eat to celebrate. I put a post on facebook and 13 of us met up to run and have a meal at the Eagle and Child.
The
following year I decided to set up a RED support group so we could post our RED
activities and meet up to run together. We had 80 members and 46 of us came
together to celebrate at Whitby’s after Janet Powell approached them to see if
they would cater for a large group.
Before I
knew it RED 2020 was fast approaching so I set up the support group, but as the
days went by I didn’t feel I was in the right place mentally to take on the
role of running the page. I asked John
Atkins and Claire Beegan if they would run it for me which they kindly agreed
to do.
Then one
Saturday morning a letter came from DAC to say I had been nominated for an
Award at Awards Evening. I was absolutely shocked and overwhelmed but that
nomination gave me the lift I needed to ‘snatch’ my page back and start looking
around for motivational memes ready for January.
Approximately
40 of us gathered at the Cheswold on 1 January for our first run and walk and
that was it we were off! Everyday we
posted our activities and received praise and encouragement from group members.
RED is a tough challenge but by sticking together we managed to tick off the
days and edge closer and closer to our goal of completing it.
On 31 January 2020 70 of our 97 group members came together for our final run and walk and to celebrate at Whitby’s. Special mentions could go to many members for various achievements during the month but I must mention Isabelle Reynolds our youngest member who ran every day and clocked up 48 miles. She also did her longest ever run of just over 4 miles one evening which I feel honoured to have been with her for. A second mention goes to Mazza for doing the earliest run of the day and starting the ‘fahvayem’ club. Although I feel Amie Knott and myself may try and beat that next year!
I think we
have proved that however difficult the challenge you can make it easier by
sticking together and supporting each other.
Being part of a group gives you the push to go out and do something on
the days you really don’t feel like it. Let’s be honest no one regrets
exercising once it’s done, the hardest step is the one out of the door!
On a
personal level being part of RED has shown me daily exercise is essential for
your mental health. Life is tough, demanding, stressful and sometimes
overwhelming but taking time out for YOU can give you time to re-set your brain
and enable you to deal with your world again.
Thank you to
every single member of the class of RED2020 for being awesome and here’s to
RED2021. Let’s make it BIGGER and
BETTER!
If you have a smart phone then you should check out the following apps which will track your runs in real time and give you lots of information. All of them work on Android phones, Iphones and Mapmyrun will work on BlackBerry phones. My favorite is Strava but give them all a try (and if you find another good app please let me know).
If you plan to use your smartphone you might want to get an waterproof armband to carry it. Its always a good idea to run with a phone if your by yourself! Although they are a slight hassle to run with and of course you don’t want to get it stolen.
Some phones are better than others at recording accurate data and you might find yourself wanting a sport watch with GPS built in, we can give advice on these devices.
Another great app is Glympse, this is available on Android, Apple, Windows and Blackberry phones. This allows you to send a link to someone who can track your location in real time. You can specify how long the person should be able to track you for up to a maximum of 4 hours. I can think of lots of uses for this apart from running such as sharing your location with some people you are going to visit in a far away city, they would be able to see how far away you are. Or you could track your kids location. Its free.
Not set in stone but a progression as you join the intermediates
Running 3 times a week is great and you will continue to benefit from this as you increase the length of your long runs. Having 4 rest days will aid you in recovery between sessions.
When time allows try to fit in a 4th run, I personally recommend making this a fartlek (speed play) where you will keep varying your pace from slow to fast for a minute or 2. Or do a long run. Adding the 4th run you will see massive benefit to your running. However don’t run on 4 consecutive days!
Following this plan will get you running for 1 hour and depending on your pace this will be between 4 miles and 6 miles.
I have put parkrun for the weekend runs just because we are there to support you and its nice to run with other people but feel free to do it elsewhere. Similar duration to the Tuesday run.
If you feel an injury coming on ease back on both pace and duration and hopefully it will go away, if it does not then stop and seek advice. As all our interval training is around lakeside if you are worried about a niggle you can run around the lake nice and steady.
When you can happily run for 60 minutes keep adding more building up to 90 minutes. You can add a lap of the lake to the end of your run on Tuesdays.
Week Number after graduation
Tuesday
Thursday
Weekend
1
Interval training
Running for 35 minutes
Parkrun with 5 minutes warm up and warm down.
2
Interval training
Running for 40 minutes
Parkrun with 5 minutes warm up and warm down.
3
Interval training
Running for 45 minutes with 2 or 3 short efforts of 90 seconds (faster than race pace with at least 2 minutes jogging between them)
Parkrun with 5 minutes warm up and warm down.
4
Interval Training and a lap of lake after
Running for 50 minutes
Parkrun with a lap before to warm up
5
Interval Training and a lap of lake after
Running for 55 minutes
Parkrun with a lap before to warm up
6
Interval Training and a lap of lake after
Running for 60 minutes with 4 or 5 short efforts of 90 seconds (faster than race pace with at least 2 minutes jogging between them)
Parkrun with a lap before to warm up and a lap to warm down
7
Interval Training and a lap of lake after
Running for 60 minutes
Parkrun with a lap before to warm up and a lap to warm down
8
Interval Training and a lap of lake after
Running for 60 minutes with 4 or 5 short efforts of 90 seconds (faster than race pace with at least 2 minutes jogging between them)
Parkrun with a lap before to warm up and 2 laps to warm down
9, 10, 11, 12…..
Interval training
60 Minutes
Keep adding more time to your weekend run(s) building up to 90 minutes
Alternate 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking, for a total of 20 minutes. Faster ones:Alternate 60 seconds of running and 60 seconds of walking, for a total of 20 minutes.
Same as Tuesday
5 minutes brisk walk then alternate 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking, for a total of 20 minutes
2
Alternate 90 seconds of running with 2 minutes of walking, for a total of 20 minutes. Faster ones: Alternate 90 seconds of running with 1 minute of walking, for a total of 20 minutes.
Same as Tuesday
5 minutes brisk walk then alternate 90 seconds of running with 2 minutes of walking, for a total of 20 minutes.
3
Two repetitions of 90 seconds of running, 90 seconds of walking, 3 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking. Faster ones 2 x 90 sec run with 60 sec recovery then 3 min run with 90 sec recovery up to 20 minutes then run back to start (say another 3 minutes)
Same as Tuesday
5 minutes brisk walk then Two repetitions of 90 seconds of running, 90 seconds of walking, 3 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking.
4
3 minutes of running, 90 seconds of walking, 5 minutes of running, 2½ minutes of walking, 3 minutes of running, 90 seconds of walking, 5 minutes of running.
Same as Tuesday
5 minutes brisk walk then three repetitions of 5 minutes running, 3 minutes of walking.
5
5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of running.
8 minutes of running, 5 minutes of walking, 8 minutes of running.
20 minutes of running, with no walking.
6
5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 8 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of running.
10 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 10 minutes of running.
Doncaster Park Run or 25 minutes of running with no walking.
7
25 minutes running
Interval Training
Doncaster Park Run or 25 minutes of running with no walking.
8
28 minutes of running
Interval Training
Doncaster Park Run or 25 minutes of running with no walking.
