Club Championships 2023

 Hi Everyone,

The moment you've all been waiting for :  The Moorfoor Club Championships 2023 !!!!

After the success of last years event (thanks to you all for making it happen) we have selected some some exciting races for you all to target over the summer.

Martin Holt is the current holder of the Golden Boot and  will be looking forward to defending his title is 2023.

This year's championships open on 1st May and will run until Sunday 19th November.  

Points will be awarded per unique Parkrun during the championships.  We have also added 3 age graded time trails (two 5k's and one 10k).

If you run an event and/or get a podium let me know so I can update the results.  

Also if you want to be excluded from the champs let me know so I don't need to look for your results.

Please follow the link below to see the list of races and results throughout the summer.

Club Champs 2023

All the best and have a good one !!!!

Dean and Gillian

Club Membership Renewals - 23/24

 

Club Membership Renewals are now due for 2023/24 

(Year runs 1^st April 2023 to 31^st March 2024).

 

We have kept to the same system of  renewal as last year with Entry Central. The costs are also  the same as previous years (Entry Central costs are being absorbed by the club).

 

Please click on the relevant link depending on your membership type:

 

Link for Individual Memberships (£15):   https://www.entrycentral.com/club/106659

 

Link for Couple/Family Membership (£20; https://www.entrycentral.com/club/106660

 

Link for Junior Membership (U18) (£10):   https://www.entrycentral.com/club/106784

 

There are a few people who have joined within the last few weeks and  I will email these members separately to clarify that they have already paid up for 2023/24

How Hard is a Marathon Road Race ?

 

Some hard races wot I have dun....

I recently ran the 2023 Manchester Marathon...it was hard !

But that got me thinking...how hard was it, and was it harder than other races I have done in the past ?

Strava has a Relative Effort measurement, which relies on (i) measuring your heart rate during your exercise, (ii) setting up your heart rate zones correctly for you (NOT just accepting Strava defaults!), (iii) measuring your HRM accurately (a chest strap is a lot more accurate than a wrist based optical measurement). 

The time you spend in higher HR Zones and overall duration of your exercise, increases your Relative Effort score. Note that a 'big score' is not necessarily a good thing...ultimately it is all about 'efficiency', particularly for endurance events. You may be able to sustain 'Threshold' HR for almost an hour in a 10K race, but you will typically fail in a Marathon at this HR...you need to ease back and try to sustain 'Tempo' HR (ideally just below Threshold !) for as long as you can...

I do measure my heart rate (I am a bit obsessive in the HRM department), have fine tuned this over the years for me and always use a chest strap, so this seemed like a good moment to do some investigation....

Manchester Marathon 2023 Relative Effort 449 (HR Zones 87% Tempo, 11% Threshold)

So how did this compare ? (see pic above)

So it turns out this was quite hard...for a road race...with more effort than my last Marathon Road Race - Boston 2018 (Relative Effort 363)

Off road, Lairig Ghru Hill Race was harder (Relative Effort 486), which sounds about right...similar distance but more elevation...

But unsurprisingly, the hardest race on my palmaris is our local favourite, The Two Breweries (Relative Effort 496), which although shorter (30km) is much hiller (1455m), and (for me at least) is considerably longer (4 hours)....

Note also that Glentress Trail Half Marathons are up there in 'the league of suffer scores'...and 'Feel the Burns' punches high for its mere 20km!

So there you have it...if you are looking for a hard race (and you think a road marathon would be too easy), the local Two Breweries fits the bill very nicely...don't say you weren't warned !

Happy running!!