Training

Canterbury Harriers provide a comprehensive and varied programme of training thanks to their coaches headed by Gerry Reilly who is a UK Athletics senior (level 4) endurance coach. The club now has sessions taking place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights with additional long runs at the weekends.

Programmes
Our coaches draw up training programmes for varying abilities and for different goals. In particular, Gerry Reilly annually produces a training schedule for the London Marathon. These programmes are integrated with the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday sessions. The following current training schedules and coaching advice are available online (note that the PDF documents will require a viewer such as Adobe Acrobat Reader):
  • London Marathon 2010 - PDF
  • Fartlek - Spicing the Run - PDF
Tuesday Night Speed Sessions
Tuesday night sessions, which commence at 7pm sharp at the King's School Recreation Centre, mainly comprise speed work or hill work. These sessions are actually very good for people relatively new to running since they can rapidly improve strength, aerobic efficiency and endurance. Furthermore, the number of repetitions attempted can be built up over time.

In the winter (between October and March), the venues used include the following (each hyperlink goes to a map pinpointing the location):
In the summer, the venues used include the following:
In addition, there is usually a group of runners that will forego the heady excitement of the speed session and instead go out for a steady run.
Wednesday Night Track Sessions
A recent addition to the Harriers' training regimen has been the Wednesday night track session at the Body and Mind track at Canterbury High School, CT2 8QA. The club pays for all members to use the track in that session, saving each member £2. The session, which commences at 7pm, consists of hard (but very rewarding) interval training, with the recovery between efforts decreasing.

NB Please come along to one of the Tuesday or Thursday sessions before attempting one of the Wednesday sessions.
Thursday Night Runs
Thursday night sessions, which start at 7pm from the King's School Recreation Centre, normally consist of steady runs of between 5 and 8 miles (8 and 13km). People will run in groups according to their pace.

In the summer (between April and September) the routes can vary, going westwards along the Stour Valley Walk or up on the North Downs Way or north and east to Tyler Hill, Broad Oak, Sturry and Fordwich.

In the winter the routes are around the city. We have the following routes, as drawn up by Gerry Reilly, with maps (each in size of 150-220KB) obtainable via the icons on the right:
  • Route 1 (medium difficulty - 11.1 Km, 6.9miles, 50 metres of ascent) : Map icon Centre – St Stephens pathway – Beverley Inn – Beaconsfield Road – Forty Acres road – London Road –underpass – Rheims Way – Habitat – underpass – city wall – footbridge to East Station – footpath to Nunnery Fields – South Canterbury Road – through hospital to Nackington Road – top Old Dover Road - New Dover Road – Barton Road – Pilgrims Way – Spring Lane – Longport – Burgate – Palace Street – King Street – Mill Lane – Causeway – Centre. (optional + = Cathedral loop) (optional - = Barton Road/ Spring Lane) (optional - = use footpath Old / New Dover Rd)
  • Route 2 (easy / medium - 12.2 Km, 7.6 miles, 50 metres ascent) : Map icon Centre – St Stephens Road – Broad Oak Road – Vauxhall Road – Sturry road – Brymore road – Council offices – law courts – North Holmes Road – St Martins Hill - Spring Lane – Pilgrims Way – Barton Road – New Dover Road – Old Dover Road – Nackington Road – hospital – Nunnery Fields – footpath to East Station – over footbridge – Castle Street – Cathedral loop – Watlington street – Causeway – Centre. (optional + = Rheims Way / London Road – West Station from Castle Street) (optional - = use footpath New/Old Dover Rds)
  • Route 3 (tough - 9.3 Km, 5.8 miles, 80+ metres ascent) : Map icon Centre – St Stephens pathway – pathway past church – Farleigh Road – Tenterden Drive - Longmeadow way – Downs Road – St Stephens Hill – footpath to University – loop through University past playing fields to start of old summer relay loop – relay loop to Sports Centre – Eliot hill – Salisbury Road – Forty Acres Road – Roper Road – West Station – Centre.
  • Route 4 (easy – 45/50 mins - 8.7 Km, 5.4 miles, 40 metres ascent) : Map icon Centre – St Stephens Road – St Stephens pathway – Beaconsfield Road – Salisbury Road – bottom of Eliot College hill – footpath all the way to Whitstable Road – Clifton Gardens – Harcourt Drive –Westgate Court Ave – Davidson road – London Road – Rheims Way – Habitat underpass – city wall – underpass (Safeway side) – Safeway car park – Longport – St Martins Hill – North Holmes Road – law courts – Council offices – footpath to Leopards head – Sainsburys via footpath – Riverside path – Causeway – Centre (optional + = from Council offices loop via Sturry Road / Vauxhall Road / Broad Oak Road - Centre – add 10 mins approx)

The above routes are all in a Winter Routes PDF document (792KB).
Weekend Long Runs
If there isn't a race on, members will get together for a Sunday morning long run. Typically this may be from the RSPB car park at Blean Woods at 9:30am on a Sunday. Come along on a Tuesday or Thursday to find out who will be organising such a session.