Cross Country Looms - Good!

The cross country and winter road running season is not far away and with the short relays starting with the George Cummings Race at Kilbarchan it is maybe time to look ahead. We used to start to get ready for the relays at the Strathallan Gathering at the start of August by running in the three miles team race (other meetings had two mile races but they had to be different) and maybe the mile as well. The guys who ran the half mile and mile used it as a step up towards the winter and the road runners usually saw it as an initial sharpener. It was followed by Bute and then Cowal at the end of the month where it was a two miles team race plus the handicap mile. The fact that Cowal no longer has athletics is a shame - it was a great meeting with huge crowds to run in front of. But the principle remains the same: if you want a good season, winter or summer, it pays to prepare before it is sprung upon you.

There is a good case for the club captain, vice captain, coach or whoever is organising Tuesday and Thursday training to start sharpening the guys and gals for the relays and impressing upon them the importance of the events for the club and for their own development. There are weekly 5K races in Glasgow at the Parkruns where many club runners - Kath Scott, Yvonne Green, Bobby Young, Roisin McShea and others - have already raced this summer. It would be good to see a really large group of the main men and women out in that event in September - other than the week of the Great Scottish Run of course. The week before wouldn't harm your chances in the longer runs, the week after would also be good as it leads straight in to the winter relays. It wouldn't affect your training for the remainder of the week - there should be two effort sessions every week anyway and one of them should be at about 5K pace, if it is in rep form then the total distance could even be 6 or 6.5K.
Were the club to have people like Kath, Ann, Pamela, Marina, Gerry, Gary, Ian, John, Bobby, Ryan etc available for all or even just the championship relays then we would perform better than in most recent years. A genuine reachable target would be to win the County Relays.
So come on folks - at least 6 runs a week including two effort sessions and race every week you can!