Tuesday is our main club night of the week and by far the busiest in attendance. Tuesday sessions rotate on a weekly basis rotating between pace groups, out and back, loops and “5CAKE night”. All our sessions are inclusive and suitable for all. In the Summer months we incorporate trail running into the rotation, which is hugely popular. On a Tuesday we meet at the clubhouse first and then after a few announcements we head out on the run.

Pace Groups

On a pace group night we offer approximately 8 different groups varying in distances and paces to suit all. Each group will have a run leader who has pre selected a route that has considered available light and traffic and of a suitable distance for that pace. These groups range from 7:30 min/ mile pace all the way to 11 min/mile and social groups, covering everything in between. Runners have the choose to opt for a pace according to their ability, or the option to push a bit harder if they want to, in a more demanding group. Distances vary between 3-8 miles. No one is ever left behind in a group, and the run leader will ask the groups to loop back or wait as appropriate. The social group is led at the speed of the slowest runner.

Out and Back

These runs are where the club heads out together on a set and known route with the objective of running 25 minutes out and 25 minutes back. There are several club routes used for this, so it’s not the same each time. Additionally, the evening works for a variety of runners because it gives rise to sub-objectives, for example some runners try to run 25 minutes out then get back to the starting point in less than 25 minutes – simulating a negative split. Others try to push to see exactly how far they can go within the 25 minutes and use that as a yardstick for the next time to gauge their improvement. Finally, there are runners who use this as a social run and run at their own pace with friends for set amount of time before returning to the start point.

5CAKE

5CAKE night happens on the first Tuesday of each month. The idea behind this is that the club meets to run a set 5 km or 5 mile distance. After clapping in all runners, everyone makes their way back to the clubhouse for drinks, CAKE and light conversation.

Trail

Trail running is very popular, especially in summer months, but also in winter for those who love the mud. That said it’s more difficult to run off-road at night in winter but specially-trained run leaders do take groups out from time to time on well-known routes at night in winter. These ‘headtorch’ runs are very popular, however, in the summer months the club often runs off-road on Tuesday night, making the most of the beautiful Bedfordshire countryside, often starting from and meeting back at a countryside pub.

Thursday sessions

Thursday runs have become the new Tuesday, and are pretty popular! Runs vary but generally we offer a social group, a coached session and pace around 10 min /mile for 6 miles, which is very chatty. We sometimes offer fartlek, Caterpillars or jeffing runs.

The coached runs are performance-based training sessions. These sessions are aimed towards anyone at all that is interested in improving as a runner. We have all levels of ability at these sessions, from beginners, to the very experienced, and it also provides a unique opportunity to train with people that you would not ordinarily train with and for that reason the sessions have been described as being highly sociable. The high-level aim of the sessions is to improve running performance over time, through high-intensity training. These can by intervals, pyramids, hill reps or a like.

In the weekly Newsletter we let our members know what sessions will be on. The group normally meets at the clubhouse Thursday evenings at 7.15pm or 7:30pm.

Friday Morning runs

If you’re lucky enough not to work on a Friday or can swap that morning meeting then you’d be wise to join the Happy Friday trail runners. We are blessed with beautiful trails only a short journey from Leighton Buzzard. Every Friday we have a group head out at 9:30am either from Rushmere, Woburn, Eaton Bray, Ashridge or Ivinghoe to enjoy 5-6 miles on the trails. Come rain or shine it’s always popular.

Other Sessions

Run leader availability dependent we do some times offer a Wednesday evening run or a weekend daytime run, so always keep an out on the weekly Newsletter to see what’s going on. These standard sessions a side there is also a host of LFR annual events, such as the Pancake run, Breakfast run, Watchless 5, BBQ Run, PJ run to name but a few.