Good Run Guide: 40 Great Scenic Runs in England & Wales

Product Information

If you are a medium distance runner and your goal is to improve your running performance, you can calculate a recommended weekly training schedule using our Training Pace Calculator. Enter a time from a recent race and the distance you run each week and we will suggest a training pace and weekly distance for each type of run. If you haven't run a race recently then we recommend that you map out a 5K flat route using our Route Measurer and run this as a time trial to estimate your current race pace. TRAINING PACE CALCULATOR Each finisher receives a mug, chocolate bar and fruit. There are series and individual medals/prizes. Adjust your training pace for strong headwind or difficult terrain - Bear mind that the paces recommended by our Training Calculator are based on running on flat, even surfaces, without a headwind. If this is not the case, you should aim for a slower pace so that you are still running at your target level of effort. If possible, try the pace out on a flat route in good conditions to get used to the level of effort required. This will help you to judge the right level of effort when conditions are more difficult. Predicting Race Times - You can use you current Age-Graded percentage as a method of predicting finish times for races.

If you are relatively new to running it is not always easy to translate the target level of effort into how fast you should run. Select the Saved Route you want to edit and then simply continue drawing. New points will be automatically added to the end of the route. You can save the extended route with a new name. This should be a comfortable conversational pace and should make up the bulk of your weekly running. It will include warming-up and cooling-down before and after harder running sessions and races, which you can log in your Good Run Guide Log Book as Multi-Part runs. Select a race where your finish time reflects your current performance level and where the race is of a simailar type (hilliness and terrain) to the one you plan to run, as this will improve the accuracy of the prediction (i.e. don't choose a hilly cross-country race if you are predicting a time for a flat road race).Comparing with other Runners - By factoring out age and sex it is possible for two different runners to compare their performance for the same run on even terms, enabling people to compete with each other regardless of age and sex. You will often find that Running Clubs talk a lot about Age-Grading as it provides a way for Club Members to compare their race performances, irrespective of how old they are. Age-Grading is a way of measuring your running performance taking into account your age and gender. It enables you to produce a percentage score for each run based on how old you were when you did the run. It also takes into account your gender so you can use the percentage score to compare your performance with other runners, regardless of both age and gender.

The above advice provides a guide to a developing a regular weekly training schedule but if you are planning a race, you should consider developing a longer-term schedule that builds your training over time with the race date as a goal. The following table provides some general advice on developing a longer-term training schedule for a medium distance race (3 to 10 miles). You should use this in combination with the training pace guidelines above and should recalculate your target paces as your training progress. 8 - 12 WEEKS

How much running should I do each week?

Due to ongoing Covid situation the First Race is now on 21st July. Dates of 2nd and 3rd not changed. This is hard running at near maximum effort and should only be undertaken for short periods at a time. Generally, Interval sessions should be around 2-5 minutes bursts each with equal or less time of slow recovery jogs in between. Fartleks are sessions with intermittent hard and easy running, with varied length bursts and slightly shorter recovery times in between than with Interval running.

One of the best ways to improve your overall running performance is to combine several different types of running into a structured weekly schedule. By doing this you will improve different aspects of your fitness, provide greater opportunity for recovery between training sessions and reduce the risk of injury. In addition, not only will it help to better condition your body for running, it is likely to provide added interest and variety to help keep you motivated. The calculation uses data collated by the World Association of Veteran Athletics, to adjust your performance for age and gender. It takes World Record performances for each age and disatance, for men and women, and uses these as benchmarks. So, for example: if the World Record for a 40 year old man running 10 miles is 46:31 and another 40 year old man runs 10 miles in 58:30, he has an Age-Graded performance of 79.5% (46:31 divided by 58:30). We recommend Easy rather than Steady Runs as part of a training schedule aimed at performance improvement. However, if you would like to include Steady Runs in your tarining, we suggest that you substitute them for some of your Easy runs.The Long run can be increased if you are training for a longer race, but limit the time to under 2½ hours. As your score is a comparison with World Record times don't be dissapointed if it is a long way from 100%. As a general guide, if your percentage comes out as 90% or above then either your watch has stopped or you can count yourself as World Class! Over 80% is typically National Class, over 70% is Regional Class and over 60% is local Class. The following table describes a number of common types of running and the benefits of each. It also sets out our recommended guidelines on effort levels and distance for medium distance runners (running distances between 3 miles to 10 miles) who are aiming to improve performance. When you log runs in your Good Run Guide Log Book, you will be able to calculate an Age-Graded percentage for each run. This factor reflects your ability to maintain your average speed as the length of the race increases. This varies for different types of runners. Ultra-distance runners tend to have very low factors (as low as 3%) while sprinters have very high factors (as high as 30%). Our suggested default value is 8% - in rough terms, this means that your speed declines by about 8% when the distance doubles.