North London based Trent Park Running Club is one of the clubs who has recently completed England Athletics Club Run programme. The Club Run programme is aimed at supporting ‘off-track’ and road running clubs wanting to achieve more.

Trent Park RC, as the name suggests, is based around Trent Park and has its headquarters at the Southgate Hockey Centre. Ed Simmons, the club’s Coaching Coordinator applied for the free programme for England Athletics affiliated clubs with the aim of how the club can develop their runners for the Mid-Week Road Race League (typically 10k road races) and improved their running sessions.

England Athletics qualified endurance running coach Urban delivered three sessions on behalf of England Athletics Club Run Programme. The three sessions were well attended. More than 80 members attended the three sessions in total with an average attendance of 30 runners per session.

• Session 1: Mixed Intervals (Short/Long) on a hilly route
• Session 2: Fartlek Session (Monaghetti Style) in the park
• Session 3: Fartlek Session in the park

The three structured sessions consisted of a dynamic warm-up, running drills, a main session around the park followed by a group stretching activity.

“I wanted to make sure the session is inclusive and cater for a wide range of abilities. A fartlek type session around the park worked really well, giving opportunities for the faster runners while others running a moderate tempo can be part of the session too.”

Coach Urban.

Ed Simmons has now a couple of ideas on how he can plan his running sessions in preparation for the Mid-Week Road Race League. He has incorporated the session in the wider training plan and will be making use of the park, but also getting as many people involved in the session.

Trent Park appreciated the support England Athletics has provided and the session Urban has delivered on their behalf.

“Coach Urban was great and we really appreciated his coaching.”

Ed Simmons, Trent Park RC

For anyone living in the North London catchment area, Trent Park RC is a friendly running community catering for runners at all ability levels. Please visit their website  for more information.