Saturday 31st August - Alderley Park

The Start

Today 12 group members met at 9.00am at Club AZ (Mulberry's) at Alderley Park (next to AstraZeneca). After a decent warm up we did almost 5 miles through the AstraZeneca grounds (gardens, farmland, woods, Radnor Mere) and then tackled 'scruffy hill' where some people did a massive hill-rep. After the hill we headed down Bradford Lane and then Hocker Lane and back into AstraZeneca. We returned via the trails through the woods and finally back through the site past Parklands and Alderley House to the starting point.

There was some good hard running today, especially on 'scruffy hill'. ... and what can we say about Heather C today - on a mission or what!

The session ended with about 1000 calories of cake per person...

Keep running...

Neil & Alison

Alderley Park

Through the farm...

Pink team...

Some good loop-back

A gentle hill

Ali & Margaret and Bev

Sunshine at Radnor Mere

Radnor Mere

Hocker Lane

The field before 'the hill'

Ready for hill-reps...

Louise on her way to the 'king of the mountains'...

This is steeper than it looks...

Nearly back...

Near Alderley House...

Food ... glorious food....

  

Wednesday August 28th - the Magic Mile

UPDATE: The Magic Mile is still on BUT there are no planned attendees from Macclesfield Run England now - for various reasons everybody has dropped out.
 
Magic Mile

The organisers of Congleton Parkrun are putting on a unique no frills race - 1 mile (one accurately measured lap around the spectacular Astbury Mere).

It takes place at 7.30pm on 28th August 2013.

There are very few one mile events locally and we believe that Astbury Mere is super fast and great for anyone aiming to get a PB. This event is to raise funds for The Astbury Mere Trust (a registered charity) and money raised will help keep Parkrun at this fantastic venue.

There will also be a kids 1 mile fun run shortly after the grown ups have had their race.


This event is also part of The Marathon Talk Magic Mile, an international initiative (more details about this can be found here) .
http://www.marathontalk.com/events.php?event=2947
http://www.marathontalk.com/challenges/magic_mile.php?action=details

If you have any queries please email astburyraces@gmail.com

£3 entry fee - proceeds to Astbury Mere Trust. 

Neil 

Sunday 25th August - Macc Half stand at Treacle Market

The Macc Half committee have secured a stand at the Treacle Market on Sunday 25th August. We are looking for people to help man (or woman!) the stand for an hour on a rota basis. Please let Neil know if you can help out.

Many thanks

Neil

Saturday 24th August - CAFOD routes

The Start

A good turnout of 16 runners today. We split into three groups - one with Cheryl and Linsday starting her 'C25K' program, one group with Alison doing a slightly shorter CAFOD route and the other group with Neil doing the full CAFOD and trying to catch them.

The 'tension' with one group trying to catch another seemed to make people run a bit faster - and who says we are not competitive!

After 4 miles the second group caught sight of the lead group and tried to catch them but the lead group saw them coming and managed to hold them off until the end. Victory to Alison's group!

Well run everybody ... a well earned coffee/tea/cake afterwards at the Waterside.

Neil & Alison

Margaret,Jo, Divya - can we beat them?

Heather

Heather - me, competitive?

Ali's group keeping ahead...

Can we see them yet?

Still in front...

Come on ... we can beat them...

Flippin 'eck - tried our hardest and still did not catch up

Mel and Wendy - leading the 2nd group.

Catherine

Nicky

Jane and Savitri

On a mission ... but can we catch them?

Post race discussions..

Savitri - smile for the camera

Post run stretches....

Saturday 17th August - speedwork on the Middlewood Way

The Start

Today 18 Run England group members came along to the Clough Bank CP for a 'speed-work' session on the Middlewood Way. Prayers for rain (excuse not to come along!) were not answered and it was dry for the whole session. We did a warm up in the car park then a 'gentle' jog along to the bridge at Clarke Lane (there were a few comments along the lines of 'is that it then'?).

We did a pyramid session of 15s, 30s, 45s, 60s, 30s, 15s at 7/10 effort - some very good running was displayed and a number of group members commented how different it feels to run at speed with elevated heart-rate and breathing - gauging how far to push it is tricky!

After the pyramid session we did a 'timed' one kilometre run so that everyone could see what their 'minute per mile' pace was - there were a few people sub 8.00 min/mile and a lot under 9.00 min/mile - very well done.

I strongly recommend that you put a bit of speed-work into your runs - it is SO good for you!

A goodly crowd had tea/coffee/cakes at the Waterside afterwards (we did a bit of furniture removal!)

Neil & Alison

Gentle run to the start of the speed-work

Heather & Karen

Sarah, Jo, Mel & Louisa

The rest of the squad

Smile for the camera

Tired looks during speed-work

How fast was that?

Paced Kilometre - Gemma & Wendy S

Wendy S - sub 8 min/mile...

Savitri

Go Sarah!

The faces say it all  ;-)

Louisa..

Go Jo!

Everybody made it ...

Cheryl - post holiday mode!

Post kilometre review - tired?

I did it how fast?????

Bev & Heather - well done!

Jo & Mel...