Guidance on running at the Center Parcs: Sherwood Forest

Here is some guidance on running at the Center Parcs: Sherwood Forest.

The first thing to say is that the place is completely fenced in so expect to do loops. You can do a 5k without repeating a road.  Here's a copy of a map of the place.

If you get time before going familiarise yourself with the map. Otherwise schedule your first run as a slower paced run to get to know the area. 

The best time to go is between 7am and 9am as later on there are too many cyclists.  Don't worry about vehicle traffic as cars are not allowed on site during the week.  

Mainly the terrain is undulating (gentle hills) on tarmac.  If you want a bit of off road then there is about a mile's worth running along the top (north) side.  The full trail is not shown on the map but the nature trail shown in the far right top corner (as a loop) is one end of the mile.  To get onto the loop you need to go right to the end of the road that has chalets in the high 880s on. 

If you want to do intervals there are a couple of nice half mile sections that also have Strava segments on. Here's a copy of the segments for you Strava lovers: 

Note that the best 1/2 mile reps I found were around the East side of the camp. 

Hoka Huakas Review

There are lots of reviews on these shoes around the internet and I’m not looking to put just another review out there. If you want a general overview of the shoe this is a good place: Link (roll over me to see where I go) What I want to add is that you shouldn’t be too scared to modify this shoe (or any other shoe for that matter). A lot of people say that the Hoka Huakas are too narrow in the toe box and the ankle collar is too high. I found this too but after some modifications they seem to be OK. The modifications I made were to just cut the ankle collar off with a pair of scissors. Then with the toe box I laced them up differently (missed out the lower holes completely). This seems to have worked but if you need to go further you can cut a slit in the side of the shoe were it rubs. I’ve done this with another pair of trainers and it’s fine. It doesn’t keep ripping when you run in them.

Maximum Aerobic Function update

As you may know I've been running MAF since Christmas day! So about 2 months. I've stuck with it. No intervals, no tempos, just MAF or slower. The main goal is a 100km in May. I've been very tempted to do 8x800, my favorite interval session, but resisted.

Last weekend I raced a half marathon in 1h13m, my forth fastest time, ever, and I've done 16 of them. I'm pleased with that considering the fact that I have not ran at that pace, 5m33s a mile, since mid December (apart from one 4 mile race).

If the half was my main goal I would have thrown in a couple of tempo runs and I don't think it would have taken many to get a personal best. Hopefully this MAF training will continue to suit me. Next up is a marathon in 3 weeks.Hopefully a PB there because MAF training is better suited to the longer stuff.