Progressive Health and Fitness Training in a Team Environment

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Home » Training Options » Current Cardio Training - Running Club

Current Cardio Training - Running Club

'Smart Heart' running training: 

'The Monday Runs'

This involves a fit, devoted group of runners who meet every Monday morning at 6:30am on the corner of Dixon st. and Taranaki st. in Wellington Central city and run for an hour session in ALL weather conditions, all-year round. This 'no worries' approach and week-in, week-out mentality means that people get great results:

"...If you've just been mindlessly running with no results, then it's time to train smart!"
- Greig Rightford, Cardiovascular Trainer

The intermediate-advanced session at 6:30am consists of tempo runs (holding a steady pace), interval training, hill runs (increasing strength/stamina, stride-outs (lengthening stride), recovery runs (used to recover along with stretching) and even the occasional sprints session (used to develop power). These sessions are prescribed to suit each person's own heart rate training threshold so they can get optimum results!

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Your Trainers

       

Greig Rightford and Emma Ellis, prescribe and train along side the other runners to lead by example.

Join the Team

If you have decided to join but don't know what to do next then email info@hfd.co.nz and let us know!    

Waiver form: Please print this out, fill it out and bring to your first session with us. 

Recent Accomplishments

Antony Paltridge (a Monday Runs' Runner) telling his story on his completion of the Christchurch Marathon in June 2010:

If I made one mistake, it was underestimating (and forgetting given I lived there for a year), how cold Christchurch can be in winter, even with no wind and just occasional showers and drizzle.  I decided not to wear my gloves thinking my hands would naturally warm up (as they do in even the coldest Wellington southerly).  It just didn't happen (probably because I was running so much slower than a half marathon pace) and I lost all sensation in the small finger on my left hand for much of the race.

However, I kept to my game plan.  I wrote all the five km splits on my left hand (for a 3h30m finish) and for the period up to 35km I was about 2.5 minutes ahead of that.  I kept a steady pace, was not tempted to speed up as people passed me (I caught several of them as they ran out of steam in the 2nd loop), I drank water at every stop, and looked up whenever I was tempted to look at the ground.  In the area from 20-32km I felt so strong that I thought I could just keep running for miles. 

But I also knew that beyond 32km I would be in virgin territory.  And so it was.  At 36-37km, the muscles on the front of my legs began to tighten and it became harder and harder to lift them up.  I was tempted to stop and stretch but was worried that if I stopped I wouldn't start again.  As well, a dull ache at the point where my left arm joined my left shoulder started to get extremely painful.  I was always worried about pains in my legs and never expected a pain there (maybe I slept on it badly, I'm not sure).  The result was that I slowed considerably and I suspect my stride became ungainly as I favoured the other shoulder (friends who saw me at the end said I seemed to be running with one shoulder higher than the other).

And then the strangest thing happened.  A runner I had passed a couple of times (he kept stopping to stretch a calf muscle), came up beside me at 38-39km and asked what time I was aiming for.  I said it was my first and I wanted to do 3h30m.  He said, he always did that time and told me to stick with him.  And as he pushed ahead, I dug deep, sped up again and kept with him.  He stopped again at 40km to stretch but urged me on and said he would catch me again, which is what did with about 1.5km to go.  At 41km, he said quite calmly: "It's time to go for the finish now" and I just took off.  I don't know where the energy came from and I passed a couple of people as I headed to the finish.  The photos on the internet of me heading for the finish are a mixture of determination and pain - I've never seen that look on my face before.  Even though I knew my net time would be under 3h30m, I wanted my gun time to be the same and made it in 3h29m41s (3h29m19s net)

Runner's high or a second wind?  Never experienced it.  A great test of physical and mental stamina and amazing sense of satisfaction at having achieved what I'd set out to do?  Definitely.  While I know lots of people have completed marathons, I still feel I've achieved something that not everyone manages to do in a lifetime.  I'm pretty certain I never would have made it without your training and advice - thank you so much.  I could sense the disappointment of the people I passed in the last 10km who had been reduced to walking.  I know that without your training I would have been one of them. 

Cheers and thanks again.

Antony

Results - 5km Charity Run

1. John Browning, 19:29 min: 10km - 0:40:38; 21.1km - 1:29:31; 42.2km - 3:06:53

2. Antony Paltridge, 19:31 min: 10km - 0:40:42; 21.1km - 1:29:40; 42.2km - 3:07:13

3. Nic Fitzgibbon, 21:41 min: 10km - 0:45:27; 21.1km - 1:40:38; 42.2km - 3:30:04

4. Clive Lloyd, 23:07 min: 10km - 0:47:54; 21.1km - 1:44:51; 42.2km - 3:36:45

5. Denise Armstrong, 23:50 min: 10km - 0:49:45; 21.1km - 1:49:42; 42.2km - 3:48:12

6. Ayesha, 28:16 min: 10km - 0:58:37; 21.1km - 2:08:25; 42.2km - 4:25:37

Next week's Intermediate/Advanced run: 6/9/10

Hey Guys! Nice job for a challenging session last Monday round Te Pa Pa! O.k so this week we'll be meeting from our usual spot; at the corner of Dixon Street and Taranaki Street at 6.30am. We'll head to down Taranaki Street towards the waterfront, past Te Pa Pa, running past Waitangi park, stopping at Freyberg pool. Here's where we'll start our work. We'll be running 800 metre intervals Freyberg pool to Te Pa Pa, giving ourselves roughly 1-2 minutes rest (until our heart rates have dropped by forty beats), then running the same way we came for our second interval. This will be tough work guys as its all about flat and fast, building on the strength and power work we've been doing over the past month and adding the fast interval work to build our speed. So we'll be pushing ourselves at an 85% capacity, remembering to work on  our sprint technique; nice and relaxed, big arm drive, high knees, flicking our heels to our bums, foot landing underneath our hips. Lets really concentrate on technique as well as speed this week guys, as its important as runners that we are effiicient at different ranges of distance and speed. We should be a ble to get a fair few intervals done, so lets go hard! As ever you all make my Monday Mornings worth getting up for!  Look forward to seeing you all team!