RunUrban

25/02/2018

Congratulations to Janet for finishing the Tokyo Marathon in 3h 20 minutes, her 3rd World Marathon Major after Berlin and London. Kudos for turning it around, picking up fitness during the last 6 to 8 weeks.

At same time, John was in a great shape and unfortunately had to drop out of Tokyo following a cold. Hard decision, but always best to follow doctor’s advice and put your health first.

Yesterday, in the English National XC, Suzy was back in action at Parliament Hill and managed to get inside the top 200 (out of 1,100). Suzy’s first National, well done!

Last week, we had a nice long run with the Striders of Croydon. It was the third visit as part of England Athletics’ Club Run Initiative. Group did a great job and were very determined.

“It has been a valuable experience having Coach Urban along for the talk and runs, those attending will surely have learnt something from your relaxed style of explaining and it will make them think of different ways to improve their marathon performance.” – Krzysztof Klidzia, Striders of Croydon

14/01/2018

After weeks of foundation training John tested his form in the RunThrough Victoria Park 1/2 Marathon and achieved a PB, well done! John is training for the Tokyo Marathon.

Over in Wimbledon Common, Surrey XC League, Suzy continues her good build-up with another consistent performance. Allan 'Al' took a break from pounding the roads and was chuffed to return to racing in the XC at Coulsdon.

This weekend, long runs continue for the spring marathon. Next weekend, two England Athletics Club Run sessions coming up. On Saturday, we will be at Trent Park RC, while on Sunday visiting the Striders of Croydon for a long run.

07/01/2018

The cross-country season continues with the county championships and building up towards the English National. A fine performance by Suzy in the Surrey XC Championships finishing in 25th place. Over in Mallorca, running in more pleasant conditions, Vic came 2nd in her race in the Cros Popular Torre d'en Pau. Congrats and well done both!

For the others, it's 'bread & butter' marathon training. Coachees have been busy doing extending their long runs and start introducing a bit more specific training when building up towards the spring marathon. Athletes are preparing for Tokyo, Boston, Manchester, London and Vienna.

01/01/2018

To all the runners, those on the injury bench and those having a passion for running a Happy New Year and successful 2018 running campaign.

RunUrban coachees threw down the gauntlet on where they stand performance wise and got their first marker of the year.

Latest addition Vic raced the Hidrobal San Silvestre in Calvià, Mallorca on New Years Eve. A fine 7th place and an improved performance compared to the previous year.

Over in a London, at the traditional Start Fitness Serpentine New Year’s Day 10k in Hyde Park, John set a new PB in the 10k, which positions him well for the marathon.

Allan tested himself at the Tooting Common parkrun. 3rd finisher and a confidence boost. So far training is progressing well after a couple of weeks of consistent training.

Well done & all the best for 2018!

15/12/2017

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10/12/2017

The Milton Keynes Winter Half had to be postponed due to the poor weather conditions. No half marathon before x-mas and Ula will have to wait until 2018.

Allan will be targeting a PB in Manchester and Victoria is taking up the challenge to exploit her full potential in the half marathon / marathon. In the meantime, Allan clocked a swift parkrun time in Fulham Palace, while Victoria came 3rd women in East Surrey XC. Well done!

Update from the Ally Pally Runners - Pleased to see Ed running in the parkrun acting as a guide runner for a visually impaired runner. Unfortunately, there is a lot of snow around Ally Pally at the moment and we thought it is best to cancel tomorrow's social. We don't want anyone getting injured while training. What started out as a trial has turned into a nice little running group, somehow everyone improved, and we are having more regulars. Thanks for everyone, in particular Rickie/Ray for all their support. We will resume in the new year.

Last Wednesday, on behalf of England Athletics, I delivered a Club Run Session for the Striders of Croydon. The Striders of Croydon are a really friendly club and welcoming! The theme for the evening was 'Achieve more in the marathon'. We had a lot of questions around hydration and fuelling, training specifically for the marathon. We will have two marathon training sessions in January and February, looking forward to it.

03/12/2017

Weekends are always a nerve racking time for coaches.

There has been a couple of fine performances.

First up was Celine, testing the waters in the half marathon. All went well and the build-up to the Virgin Money London Marathon continues.

Suzy was building up during the last couple of month for a trail marathon, in fact it's more an ultra with 27.3 miles. Glad to report an excellent third place in the Mouth 2 Mouth Trail Marathon.

The rest of the Ally Pally Runners turned up for the 6th anniversary of the Ally Pally parkrun. While was on pacing duty helping runners to get a PB, Nathan continues to improve and a ran a fine PB. Nicola starting to train with us and finally she managed to break 24 minutes, took a big chunk off her time (almost breaking 23 minutes), a fast improver. Well done!

26/11/2017

Congrats to a couple RunUrban Weekend Warriors.

A fine run by Ula, winning the women’s 3,000m at the London University Indoor Championships. It was Ula’s first Indoor race too, great job!

Kudos to Suzy for finishing first female in her local parkrun.

Over in the South East, Celine tested her fitness in the Southwold 10 km with a fine run.

Update from the crew – Ally Pally Runners – it was Raymond’s comeback after a hamstring ni**le and Angelo running better than ever by setting a parkrun PB at Ally Pally. Ed setting a massive 50’’ parkrun PB at Gunnersbury.

Congrats all! Well done!

19/11/2017

Kudos to a couple RunUrbanites with strong cross country performances this week.
Wimbledon Common, Ula competed well in the 3rd fixture of the London Universities & Colleges Cross-Country League.
Suzy got back into action at Parliament Hill with an improved performance in the London Cross Country Championships.
Caroline from the Ally Pally Runners crew, enjoying training with us for a couple of weeks while visiting from Barcelona got a parkrun PB on a tough course too.

Well done 👍

14/11/2017

Big congrats to Suzy who ran the Surrey League Division 1/2 Match on a muddy cross-country course and delivered a strong performance, over two minutes quicker than last year.

10/11/2017

Just a quick one. Had a really fantastic time at the TCS New York City Marathon weekend. Many thanks to everyone who donated towards the Shoe4Africa Children Hospital, including all coachees, the Ally Pally Runners, work colleagues and all running friends. So far we raised $436 and I am a couple of bucks short of the fundraising target. On behalf of Shoe4Africa thank you very much for your support.

Shoe4Africa is a very important cause (for the last 10 years) to me. During the weekend, Shoe4Africa founder Toby Tanser reported on the impact of the pioneering work at the Children’s Hospital. More than 300 kids, kids who didn’t chose to be born in poverty, experience now basic health care at the hospital on a daily basis and benefit from child friendly nutrition. We have many more plans for treating kids with cancer, dentistry, etc., though like for any sustainable change, Shoe4Africa needs support and funds.

Please consider joining the Shoe4Africa team at the NYC half marathon and marathon. Running for a purpose and supporting kids in Africa gives that level of extra commitment to achieve more.

The next Shoe4Africa event will be the x-mas party at the hospital, when Kenya’s running heros like Eliud Kipchoge and Mary Keitany will hand out small presents for the kids in the hospital.

If anyone still wants to make a small contribution and help to reach the target, my fundraising page is still live. Thank you!

Thank-you for coming to my fundraising page you are GOOD! :-) I am running the TCS New York City Marathon on November, 5th for Team Shoe4Af ...

22/04/2017

A nice thank you note from John. After 3:05:09 in the 2016 Berlin Marathon, John was determined to get the sub-3 hour badge in the Brighton marathon. After a quick transition, he followed a 15-week build up, improved his base endurance. At the end of this phase, he set PBs from 5k to half marathon. Specific long runs helped him to build confidence and sustain his pace. The result, he finish a well executed race in Brighton in 2:59:35 on a hot day. It's been very easy to guide John, hardly missed a training session, provides excellent feedback, follows a training plan, constantly build on his form, prepares well for races, manages his learnings etc. Really happy that he got the reward for his hard work. Congrats!