Dartford Sweatshop Running Community and Strava Segments

My home Sweatshop Running Community venue is Dartford. The route here is 5 kilometres and has its fair share of undulations.

Below is a map of the standard route. I thought it would be fun to some weeks use it for a spot of interval training so as I am using the Strava app to log my runs I thought I would set up a few segments. Not all of the segments below were set up by me (1,2,3,4,5 and 8 are the ones I set up) but here are the ones that are currently active on the route that I'd use for running the interval or fartlek style training. There are two others, the first half and the second half, but they are not relevent to the training in this post.

1. Darenth Road From the un-named Side Road up to Dene Road (0.2km flat-ish)
2. Is the length of the bus-only section of Darenth Road (0.4km slightly uphill)
3. Princes Road, from Darenth Road to Lowfield Street. (0.6km downhill)
4. Heath Lane from the roundabout to Sycamore Road (0.3km uphill)
5. Sycamore Road - Halfords Car Park Road (0.3km uphill)
6. Princes Road, Heath Lane to the Highfield Road South junction (0.9km downhill)
7. Princes Road, from Lowfield Street to Darenth Road (0.6km uphill)
8. Darenth Road - The Final Sprint (0.1km flat)

Of course these segments are too close to each other to run all of them at a hard pace all on the same run without going for an all-out 5k effort (which is of course another training option), but by mixing them up from week to week it should keep things interesting. For example, last week I ran hard on segments 2, 4 and 7 but ran an easier pace (approx 10k pace) for the rest of the run.

All of the segments avoid sections where I have to cross a road, so I can concentrate on running them at my chosen pace and not be tempted to take risks crossing a road at speed or without looking. I'm finding this segment thing quite addictive at the moment so I'm also setting up others around Dartford - The library to the bandstand (and bandstand to library) are two others that I set up - so far I've only run them while being out with the toddler in the running buggy, but that just adds to the challenge!

Update: As of the end of 2013, the Dartford Sweatshop store closed down and despite some initial hope that the run would be able to continue, Sweatshop HQ have decided that it cannot do so under the SRC name. Runners that would like to continue getting their stamps to earn their rewards will probably end up running with the Bluewater branch of Sweatshop, but as it does not run on the same evening it may not be convenient for all. Other options, which do not include Sweatshop, are being considered for the Tuesday night running group. I will update this post when things settle.

Sweatshop Running Community

A few months ago I registered with the Sweatshop Running Community and recently I finally got around to running my first session with them. I ran my first and second sessions with the Dartford branch as this is going to be my SRC home, my third run was at Rathbone Place, in London.

The process for signing up is simple, you just fill in the online form and they send you a welcome email containing your unique registration number.

When you arrive for your first ever run the store will issue you with your 'run record' card, which lasts for exactly 52 weeks, and a SRC wallet to hold it. Each week you can have your card stamped to record that you have run that week (you can run at as many sessions at as many different branches as you like but you can only have one stamp per week).

In order to encourage you to keep running, Sweatshop offer rewards for each milestone you hit within your 52 week period.

5 Weeks - Free Adidas Sweatshop Running Community technical t-shirt

Sweatshop Running Community technical t-shirt

25 Weeks - Free Lucozade nutrition pack (isotonic drink / 2 x dual fuel gels / jelly beans / yoghurt coated cereal bar / protein and carbohydrate bar - although it is possible that contents may vary)

the nutrition pack

30 Weeks - Free foam roller (worth £25)

new best friend?

50 Weeks - Free Garmin Forerunner 610 (worth £329.99)

garmin 610

Please note: The rewards above were current when I registered. I believe the current rewards system offers a foam roller at 30 weeks and a pair of running shoes at 50 weeks. Always double check with Sweatshop for the latest information.

You don't have to go to the same branch every week, but in order to qualify for the rewards you do need to have the card stamped each week - so it's a bit like parkrun's barcode system in the sense that you have to remember to bring it with you each week in order to have the run recorded.

The runs vary from branch to branch - you can see the full list here. Some branches have one all-ability run per week, some have a few different types of session and one branch (Trump Street, London) has three two runs per day from Monday to Friday - that's fifteen ten opportunities per week. With so many options it's tempting to start touring around the different Sweatshop branches, but I'll hold back on that for now.

For example, my former home run at Dartford which has closed (Bluewater is now my home store) did the same 5k route every Tuesday and I had set up a few strava segments to use for a spot of interval training. Rathbone Place do a Monday 5k (or even 6.9k if you take a wrong turn - whoops) for beginners and intermediate runners which always heads over to Regents Park, but doesn't always follow exactly the same route plus a few other sessions throughout the week.

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For the record, I ran the 50 runs without missing a week and was presented with my Garmin 610 at the Sweatshop store in July 2014.

50 week reward presentation