Club Runs

We have regular weekly club runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays including track training, hill training and standard club runs ranging from 5km to 10km routes with different pace groups. Please check the calendar on the website for further details and contact us before attending.

Hill Sessions

Training on hills improves leg-muscle strength, quickens your stride, expands stride length, develops your cardiovascular system, enhances your running economy and can even protect your leg muscles against soreness. In short, hill running will make you a stronger, faster and healthier runner. What’s more, the benefits are relatively quick to take effect. In as little as six weeks of regular hill training you can expect a significant improvement in your muscle power and speed.

Our hill sessions combine various exercises to improve your ability to take hills in  your stride, and improve your overall strength and power.

BRJ Senior Track

BRJ offers senior track sessions most Wednesdays at the St Ivo Outdoor Centre. Members can pay individually to join track sessions, or purchase a track pass covering attendance at all of the senior track sessions for the membership year.

Track sessions provide an opportunity to introduce speed and intensity to your training. The sessions are devoted to short, repeated drills with periods of recovery. Sprinters and middle-distance runners rely on track training, but it has a lot to offer those who run longer distances. Bob Glover says in, ‘The Runners’ Handbook.’

“Most runners run their first few races at a nice easy pace, they are happy just to reach the finish line. But once that’s accomplished, they begin to think beyond just ‘finishing’ – they want to run faster. At this point, you’ll still be able to improve your speed somewhat by getting stronger through steady runs but you’ll take a big step forward if you do speed training.”

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What do track sessions have to offer?

  • It is different, the track is an even and uniform surface, the distance is accurately measured. This provides an opportunity to concentrate on other aspects of running rather than not tripping up or avoiding traffic. The track is a very safe environment in which to experiment with your running.
  • Track training will help develop judgement of pace. Running at different levels of intensity, maintaining speed over specific distances, builds endurance.
  • The sessions will enable consideration of running style and efficiency. The sessions will focus on some of the key elements of your performance and provide feedback for future development.
  • Recovery plays a key role in all the sessions and has important physiological and psychological benefits.
  • Each session begins with a warm up and are desined around your ability on the day not on their best performance ever.
  • Coaches will guide you through the sessions and will gauge the intensity of the sessions to your needs.
  • The sessions end with a comprehensive warm down to help avoid undue strain or injury.
  • Track sessions are fun. The mutual support from other club members is central to all BRJ training and this is true of sessions on the track.

Frequently asked questions
I don’t sprint so I don’t think the track is for me, is it?
Track sessions are designed to get you to run shorter distances than the longer club runs. These will include 200m -1000m. The pace at which you run these distances uses your own perception of the amount of exertion you are making to run at this speed. This is the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). This scale covers a level in which you are making hardly any effort (but not quite as passive as sitting watching Eastenders) to running flat out, and everything in between.

Understanding and using Rate of Perceived Exertion
The sessions will help you gauge your RPE and run at that level of intensity over a given distance. Most sessions will be designed around the 4-6 level and 7-8 level. You may be placed in groups of similar pace and ability as not everyone’s pace at a given level of RPE is the same.

I’m quite new to running should I do the track sessions?
As a new runner you should be running at least three times a week for over 30 minutes and please speak to a coach before coming to the sessions.

I may not be able to come every week, will I miss too much?
The track pass allows you to come along to the track session without having to book into a whole block of training. Each session is designed to fit within a general development programme but with specific aims for each session so nobody needs to attend all of the sessions to benefit from them.

I run to relax and this sounds like hard work and not much fun, what’s the point?
Running over any distance at a higher level of exertion than conversation pace feels hard, but it does not last long because the distance is short. Then recovery allows a period of recuperation before the next repetition. Running efficiently is about running relaxed and building endurance. These sessions are not brutal but help you make a gradual improvement in your ability to run faster over longer distances, and give you a chance to enjoy your achievement.