Month: March 2012

News Release: 25th March 2012, Claire wins 5k

Post author By Tracy Pez
Post date March 28, 2012
140 Comments on News Release: 25th March 2012, Claire wins 5k

CLAIRE WINS 5K
Spartans at Sandy + Sport Relief

There was an excellent turn-out of almost 60 Spartans for Thursday evening’s Handicap 5K, with 53 finishers from 54 starters, fantastically supported at the start and finish by Liam Herbert, Mark Beasley and Andy Prior; and those who helped others around the course — Bill Tuck, Chris Leigh, Sharon Crowley, Barbara Wilson, Lee Reynolds and Andy Prior.

On a beautiful evening for running 40 of the 53 finishers recorded their fastest 5K of 2012, with 12 personal bests (PB) and 6 season bests (SB) including, in addition to those mentioned below, Kieran Feetham +2:09 to 20:57, Victoria Sealy +0:39 to 28:26 and Sean Millwood +0:11 to 30:55.

First to finish, in her first 5K with the club, was Claire Coker in an excellent 27:10, 2:50 ahead of handicap, closely followed by Jo Eley, supported by Andy Prior, who continued to improve her 5K PB, this time by another 2:43 to 41:35, and with Jennifer Robertson third in a new PB of her own of 22:29, 3:51 quicker than previously.

The winning man was Steve Pike, in a new SB time 24:17, 2:26 ahead of handicap and 46 seconds quicker than his previous best SB time, followed by Dan Sims in a new PB of 23:44, 1;09 quicker than before, and with Steven Dobner third man in a new PB of his own, 2:01 faster at 27:50.

GRANT RAMSAY was the fastest runner on the evening in a new Year Best time of 16:45 to move from 53rd position at the start to 12th position by the end, with Rebecca Newstead & Lee Reynolds second quickest in yet another female Handicap 5K course record, smashing another 38 seconds off her time set in February, to 17:43.

Rob Willis was also well inside 20 minutes, with 18:44, as were Todd Gray 18:59, Steve Williamson 19:06 and Graham Blackburn 19:47. Next quickest female was Katy Jinks in 22;04, with Tracy Pez third quickest in a new year’s best time of 22:22.

Next month will see the final Handicap 5k before a break for the Midweek League. It will be on Thursday 19th April 2012.

Sandy Ten

Spartan LEE THORP beat the hour in his first ten mile road race which was Sunday’s Sandy Ten. He finished tenth out of the 500 competitors in 59 minutes 13 seconds. Club Secretary STEPH MAYFIELD ran a new personal best to finish 288th in 1 hour 24 minutes 29 seconds.

There was a good turnout from Fairlands Valley Spartans with the club’s other runners including Graham Blackburn 1:07:13 (61st); Steve Mayfield 1:09:58 (94th); Pete Smith 1:10:30 (103rd); Claire Haddleton 1:11:25 (124th); Mike King 1:11:25 (125th); Davie Stafford 1:12:17 (137th); David Moss 1:13:04 (149th); Rob Brady 1:13:30 (156th); Maddie Pritchard 1:24:45 (290th); Paul Holgate 1:24:54 (294th); Karen Ellis 1:27:47 (323rd); Maria Thorne 1:30:26 (350th); Sharon Crowley 1:32:00; Dania Heath 1:33:30 and Mark Cheadle 1:49:15.

Busy Bell

Recently SIMON BELL ran the Milton Keynes 10km race in 38 minutes 22 seconds and was second Vet 40. He also ran the Finchley 20 in 2 hours 15 minutes 48 seconds

Round The Rowing

TREVOR and KERRY SETTERFIELD ran a warm, flat half marathon around the Olympic rowing venue at Dorney Lake, near Windsor on Sunday. Trev finished in 1 hour 47 minutes 6 seconds and Kerry in 2 hours 24 minutes 5 seconds.

Spartans Help Sport Relief

Many Spartans helped organise Sunday’s Sport Relief event in Stevenage.

Amongst those running was LIAM HERBERT who did 25 laps (“10K”) in 39:44, in the full stripy outfit (oh yes the shorts!), with blue stripy face paint and neon blue hair. His inspiration was Sonic the Hedgehog (fast with spiky blue hair) but he received comparisons to Braveheart and Avatar as well! He says it was a great event to be involved in, for a very good cause!

SIMON HARRIS ran 10K in 1 hour 11 minutes 21 seconds and MATTHEW HOLGATE ran a mile in ten minutes 17 seconds.

ALISON SUCKLING completed the Brentwood Half Marathon in 2 hours 13 minutes 7 seconds while several other Spartans were amongst the 455 enjoying the Stevenage Start of Summertime Specials (SSoSS) cycle rides.

The Spartans weekday training sessions are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Now the clocks have changed they will be even more popular. Go along to drama studio next to the gymnastics centre at Marriotts School — a Sports College, Telford Avenue, Stevenage (SG2 0AN) at 7p.m. Up to five running groups go out on training nights — there will be one to suit you!

The Spartan Starter group starts from Marriotts at 7.30p.m. every Monday (except public holidays) and 7p.m. every Thursday.

Coming Events

Many Spartans will be enjoying a busy programme of races, social and training events over the next few weeks including the:

– Spartans Track and Field Championships on Sunday 15th April.
– Handicap 5K in Stevenage on Thursday evening 19th April.
– London Marathon on Sunday 22nd April.
– EVAC track and field in Stevenage on Wednesday 25th April.
– Mid Week Road Race League 10K in Stevenage on Tuesday 15th May.
– Fairlands Valley Challenge (Off Road) on Sunday 15th July.
– Relays in the Park on Thursday evening 19th July.
– County 5K Championships in Stevenage on Sunday 9th September.
– County 5 Miles Championship in Stevenage on Sunday 23rd September.
– Stevenage Half Marathon on Sunday 4th November.

Join The Spartans

Live in or near Stevenage? Like running? Fairlands Valley Spartans is your local running club and is on the up! The club was voted the UK’s Best Running Club in 2010. It now has over 430 members and encourages participation by all. The Spartans have a varied training programme to suit those who want to run 5 kilometres through to full marathons.

The Spartan Starter group starts from Marriotts at 7.30p.m. every Monday (except public holidays) and 7p.m. every Thursday.

Most long Sunday morning training sessions start 9.30a.m. sharp. Spartan track training sessions are held at Ridlins Athletics Track, Woodcock Road, Stevenage most Saturdays from 9.15a.m. There are events to enter every Sunday. Newcomers are very welcome — those who have not done very much running yet might prefer to start with a Thursday, Saturday or Monday session.

Try a few sessions before joining. Membership is only £27 per year. Concessions are available. Membership forms are available on the Spartans website www.fvspartans.org.uk Please ask if you would like a paper copy.

If you want to know more about the Spartans please contact Jim Brown (01438 354505 or 0793 968 7509), Stephanie Mayfield 01438 815859 or visit their websitewww.fvspartans.org.uk

E N D S

More from Jim Brown (Press Officer) 01438 354505 / 0793 968 7509 or Stephanie Mayfield (Secretary) 01438 815859

www.fvspartans.org.uk

Club

1st April: Club 20 miles (10 / 15 mile options available)

Post author By Tracy Pez
Post date March 28, 2012
108 Comments on 1st April: Club 20 miles (10 / 15 mile options available)

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Injury Clinic

Dealing With Injuries & Injury Proofing

Post author By fvsadmin
Post date March 27, 2012
26 Comments on Dealing With Injuries & Injury Proofing

When it comes to injury we all need to accept that occasionally we are going to get injured! Some may be lucky and only have a minor injury and some very severe injuries. Injuries happen; it is how you deal with them that will improve your chances of getting back to your best. Below are some useful tips to help you reduce the risk of getting injured.

Roll your ankles 30 seconds one way 30 seconds the other. This increases your synovial fluid in your ankles giving you more shock absorption while running. Many tears are created in those first few strides! Every time you land when you run 4 times your body weight goes through your body so this is very important!
Balancing exercises. Your brain relies on nerve endings to tell it where your foot is during the landing process. If you’re weak on balance (proprioception) you’re more likely to roll-over on your ankles. A simple exercise to do to improve this would be to stand on one foot while brushing your teeth, swapping every 30 seconds for the 2 minutes of brushing. The last minute should be with eyes closed. This makes it harder because it takes away one of your senses but trains your brain and nerves effectively (much more difficult but important as you age!).
Warm up properly. Take 5-10mins (dependant on ambient temperature) to get up to ‘pace’ as part of your warm up followed by some dynamic stretches and maybe a few strides (before intensive work).
Don’t run hard workouts back-to-back (see the Hard-Easy-Hard-Easy method)
Stretch religiously after to bring your muscles back to a state where they can recover quicker and maybe to correct imbalances!!!
If you’re tired don’t train. Fatigue is a big cause of injury as the muscle cannot function properly leading to muscular tear — injury. Change that session into a light stretching session instead.
Ice baths. When you train you create micro-tears in the muscle which the body repairs improving its stress capability: that’s how you get bigger/more capable muscles for the use they’re being trained. A cold bath followed by a warm shower after intensive sessions will not only help the healing process (increased metabolism) but allow the body to flush out any lactic acid accumulated in the muscles to help with your recovery from the training session.
Warm down properly. You need to allow your heart to come slowly back down toward your resting heart rate (below 100 pulse). Failure to do so will cause blood pooling in the muscles and could lead to fainting!

What to do once you have an injury? Remember PRICER

Protection — Protect the injury site from further injury.

Rest — Immobilise as far as possible to allow it to heal.

Ice — Reduces the pain, slows down the swelling.

Compression — Will stop it from swelling.

Elevation — Keeping the limb above the heart if possible will reduce blood flow from the damages blood capillaries.

Rehabilitation — Seek help. Don’t think by leaving it that it will magically heal itself and you’ll be as fit as before. Normally an injury leaves the area weaker and prone to further injury!

Icing is very important for the first 48 hours. You need to ice every 2hours for 20mins. This should then be followed by contrast bathing (hot and cold: to speed up metabolism in the area). As the table below will show you need to gradually add heat to the treatment because once the inflammation stage is finished (0 — 72hrs) you want to add heat to kick-start the healing process.

Days	Start	Ice	Heat	Finish
0 — 2	Ice	20 mins	–	Ice
3- 4	Ice	4 mins	1 min	Ice
5-6	Ice	2 mins	2 mins	Ice
7 — 8	Ice	1 min	4 mins	HEAT
9 +	HEAT	–	20 mins	Heat

The process lasts for 20mins. So for example Days 3 — 4 you start by icing for 4 minutes then heating for a minute then back to ice for 4 minutes and so on until you do 20mins. Make sure you finish on the right contrast as stated above. You can use ice bags or frozen peas for your icing and hot water bottles for your heating.

Kieran Feetham 01438-748923/ Mobile 07817-995475)