If you take a look at the website and in general the training pages you will see we have just revised some of the groups, distances and run times; at Heeley on Monday and both Graves and Hillsborough on Wednesday.

These changes have been forced upon us by the recent influx of people trying out club nights and new members joining the club, both off their own backs and via our own beginners group programme. We say forced upon us, but we are thrilled that we have to make changes because of new members.

The club are delighted to announce that on both Monday at Heeley and Wednesday at Hillsborough the club will endeavour to try and run a dedicated slower group each week. These slower groups will only run 6.0 – 7.0 miles and for no more than 60 – 65 mins. These groups are aimed at both newcomers and the graduates from our own beginners groups.

It has not gone unnoticed that previously our slow groups had a tendency to get carried away with themselves and go faster and farther than they should have, especially if the same people were in them week after week and themselves getting faster/stronger.

The SLIMS (slower and improvers) group at Heeley on Monday has also too now got a fixed/maximum distance and run duration of 7.0 – 8.0 miles and 70 – 75 minutes. This is to provide a logical and achievable step up from the slower group and a stepping stone onto the faster groups on the night.

Thus leaving the slower and SLIM groups just for the people needing that slower pace and lower distance and the medium and faster groups for those who have progressed.

But this announcement does bring with itself some issues, who will lead these groups on a regular basis? It would be very unfair to ask the same person within the club to always take the slower and SLIMS group.

So would other members be up for taking a slower group just once in a while?

We hope this will be the case and we can get volunteers at Heeley and Hillsborough to help out. It would be a great way for you to meet new members, give them some support advice etc and also give you some experience of leading runs. We hope you can support the club on this?

We may consider a rota if we think that might work as well as a small number of set and familiar routes at between 6.0 – 7.0 miles that we can rotate and use for the slower groups.  The thinking is that if someone new takes the group they don’t have to worry about creating a route and can just use a predetermined one.

The addition of a permanent slower groups at Heeley and Hillsborough leaves the group structure at each venue like this.

Heeley: slower, slower/improvers (slims), medium, medium/fast, fast
Hillsborough: slower, medium, fast
Graves: slow/medium, medium/fast

We have decided that its currently not possible to offer a true slow group at Graves as attendance numbers don’t allow this.

And once the midweek race season starts, numbers at all venues may be affected and there could be a merging of groups on some weeks.

Please take the time to review the Heeley on Monday and both Graves and Hillsborough on Wednesday training pages.

Your feedback on these changes would be very welcome.

Please direct all comments and if you would like to volunteer to Steph Street via the contact form