Our Sessions
What we do and when
Our Monday Sessions: start at 7pm (S&C) / meet at 6:30pm (Run Dev.)
Alternate weekly Strength & Conditioning and Run Development sessions:
STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING (members only):
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All good runners include strength and conditioning as part of their training.
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These sessions are designed to help you reduce risk of injury whilst running by improving your agility, balance and coordination, as well as helping you run more efficiently by becoming fitter and stronger. They are suitable for all runners, no matter your experience or fitness.
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We currently hold these sessions every two weeks, alternating with our Run Development session; booking is not required. These sessions are now held indoors in the Dance Hall at Sport@Kenton. Please bring with you a yoga style mat and a pack of resistance bands. Other items such as light weights can be substituted for items like bottles of water.
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If S&C falls on a Bank Holiday, this will be replaced by an additional Run Development Session as the centre is closed.
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RUN DEVELOPMENT (members only):
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These are training sessions that are designed to help you run more efficiently and they are suitable for all runners who are able to run 3 miles without stopping, no matter your running experience, adding variety to your running compared to always running a set pace. Our sessions include: 200m, 400m, 800m, 1600m reps; 1mi reps; hill repeats; running continuously with varying faster sections followed by recovery runs.
We hold this session every two weeks, alternating with our Strength & Conditioning session. It is held at various places throughout the city depending on session type; booking is not required.
Our Wednesday Rainbow Run: meet at 6:45pm
Tempo Club Runs (members & new runners):
Our dedicated members always look forward to this session, especially when there is cake afterwards!
Wednesday evenings are when we meet for our Rainbow Run, which is a tempo run. We meet outside Gosforth Leisure Centre; booking is not required to attend these sessions, but new runners will be notified when they may attend.
A “tempo run” is running at a pace that you could sustain for up to an hour; it is a pace somewhere between your 10K and HM pace, and you should be able to speak in short sentences. We incorporate different types of tempo runs within our Wednesday sessions, such as hilly runs, runs with hill repeats, Fartlek runs, and step-up runs where you run an extra mile.
NFR has 6 groups that are based on predicted 5K time; they have been assigned a colour of the Rainbow, a pace range and distances starting from 1 mile up to 7 miles. The paces get quicker and the distances increase as you progress through the groups. You need to be able to run 1 mile non-stop at a slow pace to take part in this session.
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RAINBOW RUNNING GROUPS
Slower than 12:05 per mile
Quicker than 12:05 per m
Quicker than 10:37 per m
Quicker than 9:33 per m
Quicker than 8:29 per mile
Quicker than 7:42 per mile
Our Leader Led and Ad Hoc Runs: anytime & anywhere
Long(er) & Easy(ier) Club Runs (members only):
In place of our former Sunday Runs, we are now offering Leader Led Runs and these runs can be on any day of the week BUT we are not requiring a Leader to put a run on - it is at their discretion and availability. This is a big change from how the club organised Sunday Runs previously but it has allowed us to be more flexible, venture further afield and find new routes and passions such as trail running. Many members see these as social runs as they tend to be slower and longer, therefore allowing more time to chat and get to know each other. They are often followed by coffee and cake or indeed brunch! Booking is required to attend these sessions.
The leader will decide the date, time, start location and distance of the run and they will suggest an approximate pace for the run and which Rainbow group it may be suitable for. These runs will be added to the Leader Led & Ad Hoc Run spreadsheet and advertised in the appropriate ad hoc run discussion forum on Team app.
We appreciate that this may mean there are not runs available for everyone every week; therefore we encourage members to organise their own buddy runs as well within the Rainbow run forums on Team app.
Cross Country / XC: during XC season
Mud, Cake, Run (not necessarily in that order)
Cross Country or XC season begins in late September and finishes in March and NFR takes part in the North East Harrier League (NEHL) series of races each year.
Runners must belong to a club to take part and, as luck would have it, you are all eligible! You must wear your club vest or t-shirt to compete and you are issued with a race number which lasts for the whole season whether you run just one race or all of them, so don’t lose it! The races take place at different venues across the North East, with a wide variety of terrains included, but all are off-road and trail running shoes or spikes are needed. Races in recent years have taken place around: Wrekenton, Druridge Bay, Aykley Heads, Temple Park, Thornley Hall Farm, Alnwick Castle and Lambton Estate.
The races are run with a Handicap System which means the slow pack starts first, followed by the medium and fast packs at 2.5min intervals. The senior men’s race is around 6mi and consists of 3 loops with the senior women’s race being around 4mi and consisting of 2 loops, the senior women run before the senior men. You don’t have to be a particular standard to take part, all abilities are represented. There are strict rules and you could be disqualified for wearing someone else’s number, not wearing club colours and other reasons.
The league is divided into Divisions and runners are awarded points depending on where they finish with the points being added together for each team of 6 males or 4 females. The teams are then ranked in the division which they are in. Individual runners or incomplete teams also play a part in the ranking! That being said, it’s not all about times and rankings… it’s the fun of taking part and sometimes just getting it done.
Many of our runners consider this a social event, as we congregate in the club tent sheltering from the elements, eating cake & biscuits whilst drinking a hot cuppa and comparing how hard that hill was and who has the most mud on them emerging only to discover everyone else has packed up and left!
If you love mud, message Jo Morrissey for more information about how to take part.
Grand Prix
Grand Prix (members only)
Welcome to the Grand Prix. This is a competition held by NFR every year, where members earn points for attending various events throughout the year. The aim is to earn the most points by the end of the year, with prizes handed out at the AGM meeting in November. Members also have the opportunity to try new types of running events, attend races, and compete against their previous records, all while socialising with other members.
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This years events can be found here
Couch to 5k (C25K)
The club offers rainbow runs from 1 mile in place of a Couch to 5k programme. Therefore you need to be able to run 1 mile non-stop at a slow pace to take part.
If you are not able to do that, we would recommend you look at doing a Couch to 5k programme, building up to running a mile before coming along. There are several local organisations that offer this or you can download a C25K app on your smartphone.