SELF-ISOLATION TRAINING
A week is a long time nowadays with changes afoot daily if not hourly! It’s difficult for many folk at present, so our thoughts are of course with any in ill-health or those who are caring for them. Our thanks to those who are in the caring professions or providing essential services, and to any volunteers out there. A blow as well to those youngsters who were gearing up for exams and end of year work – that’s tough – but let’s see if at least we can try and stay healthy by pursuing our athletics. Given the lack of formal Harrier training sessions (paused since March 12th) we’ve scanned the horizon for some ideas and dug into the vaults to help us stay focussed and motivated. READ ON FOR TRAINING PLAN
TRAINING
As announced last week, all the Harrier sessions are cancelled for the foreseeable future (see here) and since the past weekend (20th March) we’ve also got to keep our distance from each other to stay safe with solo running, or running in a family group, virtually the only training we can do safely following Government guidelines. Fortunately there’s lots of training ideas out there which we can still do on our own. Perhaps somewhere to start is the session plans set by Athletics Weekly, the ‘Bible’ of the sport which has a host of good articles and news to keep us motivated. Take a look at their latest article on 'Self-Isolation Training' – it’s really good and will maybe help you to think about your own training. (juniors under 14 and those who are new to running or don't have time to run every day should think about spreading the programme over two weeks rather than one)
(btw Taking out a subscription to AW is a good idea)
SPORTS VIDEO OF THE WEEK (with added Theme Music!)
At last the IOC have finally pulled the plug on Tokyo 2020 and instead are going for Tokyo 2021 (fingers crossed!). It’ll be something to look forward to but in the meantime how about acquainting yourselves with Tokyo 1964? The official video is a bit of a slow burner but does have some great action. I think they must have just invented slow motion recording and playback as there’s a fair bit of that – but that gives us a good chance to look at athlete form and tactics. It’s also the Games where our Club Hon President, Mary Rand, came away with three medals and a world record – Gold and world record in the Long Jump; Silver in the Pentathlon; and Bronze in the 4x100m relay team for GB. It's not all about athletics but there's a good deal of track & field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHt0eAdCCns
(PS Skip the first 25 minutes to get straight to the sport!) and then at 35 mins in - Ann Packer wins 800m Gold; 57mins - watch Lynn Davies win Long Jump Gold in amazing conditions; 63 mins athletics pauses and other sports get a look in; 1hr 39mins athletics again with Race walking; finishing withcoverge at 1.42 into the video with the Mens marathon with Basil Heatley winning Silver to Abebe Bikela (Ethiopia)
Mary Rand short video of her 1964 achievements
1964 Olympics Official Theme Music
BLAST FROM THE PAST
Almost exactly ten years ago the Harrier men’s team were celebrating winning the Gwent XC League Division 2 Title – these photos were taken on 16th March 2010 – how many in the photos can you recognise? The win followed on winning Division 3 the previous year (2008/09) and Division 4 the year before that when we made our debut in the League (2007/08). We went on, naturally, to win the Division 1 trophy in 2010/11. That was a great sequence. Photos taken on a Tuesday night at the weekly training session at Millfield track the week after the final Gwent fixture of the season.
That's left to right: Paul C, Jon Gilling, Ed Tickner, Ian Carpenter, Andrew Deamer, Adrian Marriot, Jon James and Simon Prior - members of the Harrer winning team
& the wider group that particular Tuesday evening:
& finally, don't try this at home unless you are really desperate: Man runs a full marathon on his balcony....
Please forward suggestions, ideas or articles for the website to Paul by the Monday evening at 8pm for inclusion in the next week's web posting. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. If any parent has a report or photos on Harrier performances at the English Schools XC Championships we'd be more than pleased to include that next week, and likewise any report on Harriers at the Bath Half Marathon too. Have a good week!