Club Announcements
The Sandhurst Joggers Bake Off and Quiz Night is back! We would love you to put your culinary skills to the test once again and sharpen up on your knowledge base in order to join us at the Sandhurst Sports Bar (next to the Sandhurst Memorial Hall) on Tuesday 29th January 2019 at 8.00pm. If you would like to enter the Bake Off, we ask that you arrive at 7.30pm with your amazing cakes so that they can be grouped together for the judging panel of SJ members to taste. The Quiz will commence at 8.30pm to allow those runners who wish to participate but are running that night, to join us after their run. So if you wish to get together with some friends in groups of 4, or prefer to make up a team on the night, then we welcome you along to have a bit of quiz fun. Prizes will be available for both Bake Off winner and Quiz team winners. You will also be able to purchase drinks from the Sports Bar in order to wash down those delightful tasty treats.
The Sandhurst Joggers Annual Ball will take place once again at the Easthampstead Conference Park, Off Peacock Lane, Wokingham, RG40 3DF on Friday 29th March 2019 at 7.30pm. The cost of the tickets will be £35.00 per person. SJ Social Secretary Lisa Harrold has sent all the details by email. Please respond to secure your tickets by January 31st.
Cooper Test results
It was great to see so many down for track last Friday, the cold didn’t put too many off. The cooper test is simple, you run as hard as you can for 12 minutes round the track. The distance you covered then enables Coach Carl to calculate your V02max. This is how much oxygen is consumed during maximal exercise. It is expressed in millilitres per minute per kilogram of body weight. In English, your vo2 max depends on the efficiency of the cardiac, respiratory and vascular systems.
Here are your vo2max scores, if you want to see how you compare for age and sex there on evaluative sheets on brianmac.co.uk.
Carl was the only one to this and the last test back in October and he saw a slight improvement. It was good to have a few first timers complete the Cooper test, if they keep coming to track they will improve as well. We will be doing them every 8 weeks so you can see your improvements. The next one will be in beginning of march.
Onto the weekend running and starting with parkrun…
The parkrun popularity continued at Frimley Lodge parkrun with 533 runners in attendance. Of those 18 Sandhurst Joggers lined up with Clive Rolfe the first member to complete the 2 lap course. Clive finished in 10th place overall and 2nd in the VM40-44 category. More category 2nd places with Dave O’Toole, Sam Weller and Alurie Dutton. Janet Venables and Sarah Hyatt both claimed 1st place in their respective categories. Big congratulations to Simon Tigg for an outright PB of 23:55!
We had another 12 members tackle the 2.5 laps of Great Hollands Rec at Bracknell parkrun where Jane Pond recorded another ‘Best’ as she claimed a course record. Martin Steadman led the club members home as he claimed 2nd in the VM50-54. He was closely followed by Charlie St Aubyn who took 3rd in the same category.
A select SJ group of four members ran Rushmoor parkrun with Dave Breslin making a rare appearance at the venue as he was first member to finish.
The SJ parkrun Explorers Collective made the trip to edge of Reading for Woodley parkrun. 10 of the 19 members in attendance were running the venue for the first time and Julie Fowler took the opportunity to run a parkrun for the very first time. Our first member into the funnel was Alistair Ingall-Tombs en route to his fastest ever parkrun. Woodley regular Jon Green also claimed an outright PB as he gets faster and faster, this run also marked a more significant milestone as it was the first time he beat his Dad George. Dave Bartlett and Sarah Alexander also had speedy runs taking course records.
Lots of parkrun Tourism this weekend. On the local scene we had Lisa Hale and Stuart Overhill at Bedfont Lakes, Nick Metcalfe at Alice Holt, Martin Gould at Woking and Jane Ralls at Higginson Park, Marlow. The regulars John Tovell and Andy Summerskill ran at Crane Park and Houghton Hall as usual.
Furthest afar this week was Kate Parker who combined a trip to New York with a tricky trip to Delaware and Raritan Canal parkrun. Her endeavours were rewarded with a PB of 23:18, a fourth place overall and first female finish.
Other Saturday events…
The second round of the G3 Fitstuff series took place on another hilly course. Patrick Wadsworth and Jane Bannister both had good runs.
Sunday events…
Good conditions greeted participants in the Winter Tanners event which included Katie Herrington, Dave Ayling and Richard Boese. A very enjoyable 30 mile route was successfully completed by all with Richard knocking 11 minutes off his PB.
Saturn Running held their Embrace the Race event at Greenham Common near Newbury. Nigel Evans, Mark Neve, Martin Gould, Tina Acock and Lance King completed the marathon and added to their tallies. Meanwhile Liz Evans had a fantastic run to complete her first half marathon.
Jess Metcalfe took on the First Chance 10k on a course around Exeter Riverside Park where she finished in 1:05:03.
At the Windsor Winter Half Marathon Sarah Pendlebury had a great run knocking a massive 21 minutes off her PB to finish in 2:11:16.
Sunday saw the penultimate round of the Thames Valley XC with Tadley Runners hosting on a muddy course. We are long overdue an update on the TVXC league so will cover in more detail later in the week.
Strava
This week on Strava we managed to hit the magic mark with 100 members logging runs on Strava. Richard Boese claimed the top spot thanks in part to his great run at Winter Tanners. To take part in this just create a free Strava account and link it to the club in your profile. Here’s the top 10 from last week:-
Club Events for the week ahead…
Tuesday Club Run: The biggest club run of the week will as always offer multiple groups to cater for all abilities from beginners through to faster and more experienced runners. It’s perfect for novices and those coming back from injury or a long lay-off because you can start with an easy group and work your way upwards. The start time is 6:30pm as always this week from the regular start at Sandhurst Memorial Park.
Tuesday Intervals: Later the interval sessions will meet at The Tythings in Yateley at 8pm. The session will be a Pyramid session at Waitrose with efforts from 1 – 5 minutes. (30 seconds recovery between each interval). You can read more about the Tuesday night intervals here
Wednesday: Variety is the spice of life and the Wednesday crew have some surprises for you this week with a mixture of great routes and some fartlek style efforts. Join them at Sandhurst Memorial Park at 7pm. There will also be run options for those that graduated from the 10k and 10 mile courses to ease you into the regular run.
Thursday: This week the threshold/improvers run will be on the Crawley Ridge route. Meet at Sandhurst Sports Centre at 7:30pm and don’t forget lights and high vis clothing. The run is a great way to improve fitness by running as a group at a slightly harder intensity. There is a shorter route available and a sweeper so nobody gets left behind.
Friday: Track is still free and the coaches have some great sessions planned for all abilities to improve fitness and technique. This is a great way to improve your running form and fitness, get faster and help prevent injury. If you’ve never ran on a track before give it a try, it’s a lot of fun and you are never more than 200m away from the start.
Saturday: Lots of members will be enjoying their weekly Parkrun fix at 9am on Saturday morning. Wherever you are parkrunning – Don’t forget your barcode!
Sunday: The lookout run has been hugely popular with different groups of varying ability so check Facebook to find out who is running this week from 9am.
