C19 and Training Update - 16 May

COVID-19 Update

As of tomorrow, Monday 17 May, the Welsh C19 alert level will reduce from 3 to 2. Critically for us, this will allow up to 50 people to take part in organised outdoor activity (up from 30). This includes our training sessions and social runs.

Should conditions continue to improve, it is likely that the government's next 3 week review will see this figure increase further to 100 from 07 June.

Of course the exact number of our attendees may be constrained by infrastructure, so this does not mean a free for all!

What are we going to do now?

From Monday 17 May:

Tuesday Training

Due to the Club Championship 5k race, there will be no training on Tuesday 18 May, with the next sessions on 25 May. From now, Drielauf will no longer be a core offering; while a useful mechanism to get back to training initially, it is overly clunky and restrictive for current conditions.

We will continue to offer two sessions, both of which will be on the 400m track, with attendees likely increased from 16 to 24. Using the model of the 400s session I expect that we'll be able to offer a wider range of sessions. It is also my expectation that we can move away from so many enforced restrictions; so for example, instead of saying no overtaking on the track, instructions will be you can overtake but must remain 2m from other runners.

Thursday Runs

From this Thursday we are going to bring the run timings forward slightly. We'll also have 8 groups of 5 runners and will utilise all four of our risk assessed routes (Piercefield Park, Great Barnets Wood, Mathern and Boughsprings). There will also be walking groups, and groups to do a traditional out and back 45 minute run. We are removing the restrictive need for a COVID trained lead runner in each group, to simply say at least one person must know the route to be run.

What are we going to do next?

From Monday 07 June if numbers increase as planned:

Tuesday Training

Future changes will likely revolve around capacity i.e. making sure that everyone who wants to come and train is able to do so. Please continue to register as a reserve if needed, to help us track this.

Thursday Runs

I am hoping that these will almost return to normal, with up to 100 runners gathering at the same time, splitting into groups of 6, and running any given route.

What else is going on?

C25K Course

The next course is planned to start on Wednesday 26 May under the guidance of Rich Milliken, and I know people have already volunteered to help out, thank you.

As always, any questions please ask.

Dickie.