Training
There is a wide variety of training activity within the club and a wide range of coaching capabilities. Most of our coaches are UK Athletics (UKA) level 2 or above and have many years of coaching experience amongst them. Sessions are seasonal and mainly focused on races coming up in the club race calendar.
Codes of Conduct
We are a friendly and inclusive running club and are England Athletics affiliated. As a result of this all our members, (and any guests joining us) are governed by the codes of conduct stipulated by EA whilst undertaking any club activities. The codes of conduct below apply to all members regardless of whether they hold an EA registration.
Please follow this link for more information.
Tuesday training
Tuesday training is led by fully qualified coaches and usually focuses on speed and strength. This can be core, sprint reps, lactate threshold, hill work or a combination of these.
We meet at Victoria Park, Knutsford Road, Warrington WA4 1DG on Tuesday evenings. For half of the year (April-September) we lead the sessions, and for the other half of the year (October-March) our friends at Lymm Runners lead the sessions.
Details of upcoming sessions are also posted on the Spectrum Striders Facebook group every week.
Schedule
A reminder that subs are now overdue. If you haven’t yet, please pay as soon as you can to continue accessing track sessions.
Access to track: from 6.30pm
Warm-up: 6.45pm
Session start: 7pm
Each session includes warm-up drills and a short aerobic run of 5-8 minutes before speedwork starts. Sessions are mostly split into two parts, with two activities in each one: time-based and distance-based. You can focus solely on one or the other, or do one part on distance and the other on time – whatever you feel like!
1 September
Distance-based session
Part 1 – 600m efforts with 200m recoveries (15 minutes)
Part 2 – 200m very hard alternating with 200m easy (10 minutes)
Time-based session
Part 1 – 3 minutes hard with 1 minute recoveries x 4
Part 2 – 1 minute on, 1 minute off x 5
8 September
Distance-based session
Part 1 – 1km reps at target 3k pace, short static rest after each one (15 minutes)
Part 2 – 800m/2 lap efforts with 1 lap easy (15 minutes)
Time-based session
Part 1 – 4 minutes effort with 1 minute walk/jog recoveries x 3
Part 2 – 3 minutes efforts with 2 minute recoveries x 3
15 September
Mona fartlek* with 5 minutes easy on either side (30 minutes)
*2 x 90 seconds with 90 seconds recovery; 4 x 60 seconds with 60 seconds recovery; 4 x 30 seconds with 30 seconds recovery; 4 x 15 seconds with 15 seconds recovery
22 September
29 September
Distance-based session
Supersets | 28 minutes of repeat pattern: 200m sprint, 600m at 5k race pace, 100m walk, 300m at mile race pace
Time-based session
Efforts of 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3 minutes with 1 minute recovery after each
Social runs
Social runs are very informal and ad-hoc, which gives us greater flexibility to meet the needs of our members. It is administered via WhatsApp groups “Thursday running“, “Social Runs“, “XC Teams” and “The dark side” (i.e. fell running).
Additionally there are WhatsApp groups for specific events, for example the Warrington Way 40 mile ultra, Calderdale Way Relay, etc.
Once you have joined any of the groups you have access to apply to join any of the other groups.
Thursday Group
For the Thursday group, there is usually a session at 6:15 PM , but start time, location, and distance may vary. The sessions may differ each week, with different run leaders, start locations and distances.
Social Runs Group
This generally caters for social runs over the weekend / bank holidays. Any member of the group can post a session, all he/she needs is to know where they’re going! The session may be in, say, an hour’s time or a week’s time.
XC Teams
For Cross-Country training / events
The “Dark Side”
For Fell training / events
To request to join any of WhatsApp groups please complete this form (you can join other groups once you have joined):
Important note for Winter Training
Wear reflective clothing: It is compulsory to wear a light-coloured top or (preferably) a proper reflective bib or jacket after dark for winter road training with Spectrum Striders, otherwise you will not be allowed to run with the group.
This is for obvious safety reasons – you know it makes sense! Please note that black clothing with a few limited reflective stripes is not acceptable. The Kit Secretary has stocks of reflective bibs for sale at very reasonable prices.
Cross-country training
Cross-country training starts a few weeks before the cross-country season, usually in early October. It carries on each Sunday until the last cross-country race which usually ends Feb/early Mar.
We meet at 9:00 am at the Birchwood Forest Park Ranger Centre car park and the session lasts about an hour. Sessions are suitable for all abilities. If it’s not too wet, you could probably manage with trail shoes in the first few weeks. As it gets wetter, fell shoes or cross-country spikes will be needed.