Good Run Guide: 40 Great Scenic Runs in England & Wales

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Always warm up and cool down for approx. 10 mins. before and after Tempo, Hill and Interval sessions. The Long run can be increased if you are training for a longer race, but limit the time to under 2½ hours. If you are a medium distance runner and your goal is to improve your running performance, you can calculate a recommended weekly training schedule using our Training Pace Calculator. Enter a time from a recent race and the distance you run each week and we will suggest a training pace and weekly distance for each type of run. If you haven't run a race recently then we recommend that you map out a 5K flat route using our Route Measurer and run this as a time trial to estimate your current race pace. TRAINING PACE CALCULATOR Predicting Race Times - You can use you current Age-Graded percentage as a method of predicting finish times for races. The following is an example of a weekly training schedule for someone who runs 25 miles a week. MONDAY

Select the Saved Route you want to edit and then simply continue drawing. New points will be automatically added to the end of the route. You can save the extended route with a new name. This should feel like 'comfortably hard' running. A typical Tempo run would be a non-stop run at this level of effort for 20-60 minutes (deending on the overall distance you run each week). Or, you can split it down into a few shorter sessions of approximately 10-15 minutes each, with a short recovery jog between each one. It is possible to run as little as 10 miles per week and still achieve a good level of fitness and participate in shorter distance races. However, if you want to train for medium distance races and achieve your best possible performance for the time spent training, a good goal is to run between 15 and 40 miles a week (depending upon time constaints, the speed you run, and how well your body copes with training). Always monitor your own health and tiredness levels each week so that you don’t overtrain. Also, cross-training such as cycling, swimming and strength training, can have a beneficial effect, so it is worthwhile considering adding this to your weekly schedule if possible. The above advice provides a guide to a developing a regular weekly training schedule but if you are planning a race, you should consider developing a longer-term schedule that builds your training over time with the race date as a goal. The following table provides some general advice on developing a longer-term training schedule for a medium distance race (3 to 10 miles). You should use this in combination with the training pace guidelines above and should recalculate your target paces as your training progress. 8 - 12 WEEKS

How good is my Age-Graded percentage?

We recommend that you aim to build in one long run per week to be run at an Easy pace. If you are training for a medium distance race, this should be geared to the length of the race and how far off it is; you should be able to comfortably run the race distance as your long run as you get near to the date of the race. This is hard running at near maximum effort and should only be undertaken for short periods at a time. Generally, Interval sessions should be around 2-5 minutes bursts each with equal or less time of slow recovery jogs in between. Fartleks are sessions with intermittent hard and easy running, with varied length bursts and slightly shorter recovery times in between than with Interval running. Motivation - As we get older it is reasonable to expect that we won't be able to run at the speeds we achieved when we were young. This can be demotivating for runners who are 'past their peak' even if they are running well for their age. So, rather than focusing solely on how fast you are running, it can be more motivating to focus on your Age-Graded performance.

Why is Age-Grading useful? ...it is possible for two different runners to compare their performance for the same run on even terms...regardless of age and sex.

How is my Age-Graded Percentage calculated?

These maps have been put together using open source mapping to highlight cycle paths and routes. They can often provide better detail for offroad mapping of runs and cycle rides than other sources but may be incomplete in some areas as the maps are still under construction. What is Age-Grading Age-Grading is a way of measuring your running performance taking into account your age and sex....you can effectively score every run you do. Learn to judge how easy it feels - You should be able to hold a conversation while running at an Easy pace and should be able to run at the same speed for at least 20 minutes at a Tempo pace. If you are finding it very hard to do this or you are finding it very easy, adjust your speed as necessary, using a stopwatch to pace yourself if it helps. Over time you will get used to judging how fast you are running, even without the aid of a stopwatch. This is very much dependent on your personal goals, your current level of fitness, the time you have available and most importantly, how much your body can cope with; there is no set recommendation that suits everyone. This should be a comfortable conversational pace and should make up the bulk of your weekly running. It will include warming-up and cooling-down before and after harder running sessions and races, which you can log in your Good Run Guide Log Book as Multi-Part runs.

Comparing with other Runners - By factoring out age and sex it is possible for two different runners to compare their performance for the same run on even terms, enabling people to compete with each other regardless of age and sex. You will often find that Running Clubs talk a lot about Age-Grading as it provides a way for Club Members to compare their race performances, irrespective of how old they are. Good Run Guide brings you another Wednesday evening trail race series. The races are 5 miles each long and loosely based on one of our recommended running routes through scenic and sometimes challenging parts of Wimbledon Common. They start at the iconic windmill and offer a mixture of adventure, fun and challenge all set within the lovely Wimbledon Common and completely traffic free. However conveniently there is a large free car park at the start. As your score is a comparison with World Record times don't be dissapointed if it is a long way from 100%. As a general guide, if your percentage comes out as 90% or above then either your watch has stopped or you can count yourself as World Class! Over 80% is typically National Class, over 70% is Regional Class and over 60% is local Class. If you select "All Time" from the drop-down list above then the PB's listed will be your best times ever logged for each route. To show your Season PB's select the year you are interested in. This will show your best times logged that year for each route logged more than once in that year. This factor reflects your ability to maintain your average speed as the length of the race increases. This varies for different types of runners. Ultra-distance runners tend to have very low factors (as low as 3%) while sprinters have very high factors (as high as 30%). Our suggested default value is 8% - in rough terms, this means that your speed declines by about 8% when the distance doubles.

More Calculators

We recommend Easy rather than Steady Runs as part of a training schedule aimed at performance improvement. However, if you would like to include Steady Runs in your tarining, we suggest that you substitute them for some of your Easy runs. Each finisher receives a mug, chocolate bar and fruit. There are series and individual medals/prizes. The calculation uses data collated by the World Association of Veteran Athletics, to adjust your performance for age and gender. It takes World Record performances for each age and disatance, for men and women, and uses these as benchmarks. So, for example: if the World Record for a 40 year old man running 10 miles is 46:31 and another 40 year old man runs 10 miles in 58:30, he has an Age-Graded performance of 79.5% (46:31 divided by 58:30). If you are relatively new to running it is not always easy to translate the target level of effort into how fast you should run.

Use our Training Pace Calculator (see below)- This will suggest a target pace and weekly distance for each type of run based on a recent race result and the total distance you run each week. Review and recalculate - As your performance or weekly distance changes, recalculate your target paces so that you are training at a level that reflects your current ability. The Good Run Guide Log Book also takes into account the hilliness of the run when calculating an Age-Graded percentage, so you can fairly compare your performance between runs, regardless of how hilly there are. This means you can effectively score every run you do. Age-Grading is a way of measuring your running performance taking into account your age and gender. It enables you to produce a percentage score for each run based on how old you were when you did the run. It also takes into account your gender so you can use the percentage score to compare your performance with other runners, regardless of both age and gender.You should only follow these guidelines if you are already reasonably fit e.g. you can run 5km without stopping. Adjust your training pace for strong headwind or difficult terrain - Bear mind that the paces recommended by our Training Calculator are based on running on flat, even surfaces, without a headwind. If this is not the case, you should aim for a slower pace so that you are still running at your target level of effort. If possible, try the pace out on a flat route in good conditions to get used to the level of effort required. This will help you to judge the right level of effort when conditions are more difficult. If you use the Good Run Guide Log Book, we can analyse races you've logged to estimate your Performance Degradation Factor. Vary your training over time with new goals - Don't continue with the same weekly schedule for months on end or you could get bored, disillusioned or even injured. It's a good idea to base your training around a specific goal or race; choose a goal, train towards the goal, then allow some recovery time (perhaps just running at an Easy pace for a few weeks or alternative exercise), and then set a new goal. Due to ongoing Covid situation the First Race is now on 21st July. Dates of 2nd and 3rd not changed.