Question: Is there a point to them? I'm pretty anti-social. I did have a running
partner in high school, but since then, I've always run alone. I mean,
what do you do in a running club, or is it one of those attempts by
single people to try meet each other using a shared interest?
Answer:
I'm not in a running club per se, but I think you'll find it varies a
lot by club. The groups I'm in are oriented toward training, group runs
on trails (safety reasons), and sharing knowledge. At least half the
people are married, and most are women where I am, so it's definitely
not singles club.
I am in a snowshoe club, which is mostly snowshoe runners, and 1 walker.
The group is small (about 6-7 people usually) but ranges from redline
ultra runners to beginning slowpokes like me and one walker. We chat
about snowshoeing and running at the beginning, then take off on the
same trail at the same time and each return according to our skills,
endurance, time commitments - ranging from 1 to 5 hr or so. I enjoy that
group a lot. We learn from each other. It's a great way to get
introduced to a new trail since the more experienced may introduce the
others to it or everybody gets lost together finding the trail head. In
a new situation, it's nice to know there's others from your group around
- even if you aren't near them - esp. in Alaska winter. We all run at
our own pace, so I'm not too pressured to keep up with anybody and can
get a workout that's good for me. But we don't always know what the
trail will be ahead of time - flat or hills - to be able to plan
training. Once I get close to races, whether it's snowshoe or regular, I
focus on my own schedule and don't go on the group runs. If the snow
isn't appropriate for snowshoes, we just run on the snow or ground. This
is free group and meets every Sunday from about Dec to Apr, iirc.
There's a cross-training group that has a large number of women from the
local women's running "team" (really a club) that meets on Sat morning
from Oct through late April, I think. I participate in that group for
about 10-12 weeks from Oct until Jan - before we start getting good snow
for snowshoe running. This costs about $28 for 4 consecutive weeks,
iirc. It's coached by a gymnast / mtn runner / martial arts / lifter and
not sure what else he's done in the past. It's useful training for some
things, although I don't think he explains some things that well all the
time. But we always have the option of passing on something that may be
too much stress on an injury or we can't keep up with the group. It
works well for my periodization between summer and snowshoe, but I'm not
an indoor person so can't handle it for too many months. The coach is
knowledgeable, but there's also a lot he doesn't know. There's generally
about 12-18 people most weeks - redliners to people just trying to get
in a little bit of shape. We run barefoot on mats so it provides a
unique type of training that's great for strengthening feet and ankles.
Training includes plyometrics and form drills and a bunch of other
things - general conditioning and strength.
I've chosen not to join the women's running team since it's about $100
for April to August - in the past because I'm in the field during
summer, and now because I don't want that level of structure just yet. I
only run 3 days a week, and I want a summer of freedom before I take on
any regular commitments. They have coached (coaches are paid) track and
trail nights (Tues, Thurs) about 1 hr. My training goes best if I adjust
individual workouts to what I need for building time / elevation for
upcoming races and how much recovery I need. I would lose that
flexibility in a summer group when most of my races would occur.
There is some overlap between all 3 of these groups. I have run with the
team once, but there's about 30+ people and it had too much of a
madhouse feeling to it. But I do know many of the members and try to
hook up with them for race day logistics on point-to-point trail races
where the RD doesn't supply shuttles. Some of these people are also in
trail club that helps with maintenance of trails, trail advocacy, etc.
There's been a couple times snowshoe running where I've tried to run
side by side with someone and talk, but an easy ss run for me is still
more like a medium effort, so have trouble trying to manage my effort
and conduct intelligent conversation over racket of snowshoes.
Intelligent conversation involves hearing and comprehending what the
other person is saying, then responding. This probably wouldn't be as
difficult in summer, but I've not had that opportunity yet.
So for the most part, I run alone and am happy that way - reduces injury
risk for me. When exploring some new trails more in the backcountry /
bear habitat, I'm probably more relaxed with a small group to make noise
to keep bears away, deal with emergencies, etc, but otherwise, I'm happy
alone. The clubs do provide some training and logistics benefits when
they fit my schedule, and I'll use them more in the non-race season for
training and learning.
Others here will provide very differnt experiences, I'm sure, since I
tend to be different from most everyone else here :)
In my case, we race together, and do some training together (especially
speed work, and long runs). I understand this is fairly common among running
clubs -- I suppose speed work and long runs work well as a group activity.
In the case of speed work, I think training in a group increases the
effectiveness of the workouts. You just train harder in a group setting.
There are lots of different running clubs with different demographics and
different agendas. Some are basically drinking clubs. Some are different
mixes of part running, part socialising. There's a "powered by dim sum" club
in my area who appear to be some sort of chinese food/running club. A large
number of the people in my running club are married, so it's not just for
single people.
If there's no point in jogging, it's safe to assume that a jogging club
is pointless too.
I run with a group one weekend day. Sort of a compromise.
Other times nearby runners disturb my runnung meditation,
mainly by making both of us feel like racing.
Can be a mixed blessing. Left to my own devices, I'm better able to
stick to a given pace for a tempo run or intervals. When I've tried
speed training with a group, it was hard not to race all-out or close
to it. That's probably less of a problem if you have the discipline to
back off, or are young and recover exceptionally well, or won't put in
the effort without the group; but for me it was a big contributor to
injury.
Yeah, I've noticed their name, and if there is a group for me this
might be it. :-)
Know anything about the composition of the group - i.e. is it a
(Chinese food)/(running club) or a Chinese (food/running club)?
or jogging is to a running club as masterbation is to a circle jerk
I've seen people injure themselves because they had no base and went ballistic
in anaerobic workouts (e.g. short hill reps) but at least for the more aerobic
workouts, I don't think running them "too hard" will cause injury. It may
cause overtraining or mental burnout, but that's another issue.
If you only do one such workout a week, that's a lot of time to recover. But
it depends on how the workout fits in with everything else you're doing.
I know very little about that group.
I have met up with the New York Flyers on a few occasions, you might want to
take a look at them. Very large running club, broad range of abilities (though
not many competitive men), good mix of running and social activity.
OK then, adding too much intensity of speedwork -> overtraining ->
injury. You don't have to buy it; but adding the group speed sessions
(replacing similar volume of somewhat slower solitary speedwork) was
the only obvious change I had made at the time, ran everything "too
fast", and ended up injured about 4-5 weeks into this.
Clearer: I turned that little nagging injury which slowed me down into
a much bigger one which stopped me running altogether, by resuming the
too-fast group sessions, too soon. Yeah, my fault; but my point is
that the racing instinct can lure some of us - especially if we're
brittle old farts who took a 15 year sabbatical from exercise after
college - into trouble.
