Women’s Run Club

pace womens run club

Share This Post

OzSquad Women’s Run Club with Pace Athletics

On Sunday 1st July, 40 or so women hit the pavements around Manly for the first Pace Athletic Women’s Run Club with OzSquad. Donned in bright blue Brooks T-shirts and hard to miss, it was a great launch – perfect running weather for it and great running chat!

On the run, I was asked “so why just a Women’s Run Club?”. I would usually opt for offering an equal opportunities mixed session myself and I enjoy the dynamic that running a mixed bootcamp creates in fitness sessions (yep, especially when the girls beat the guys!). However run groups can be intimidating at the best of times with concerns such as ‘Will I be able to keep up?, how far will I have to run?, is it just for fast ‘proper’ runners?’ common and often enough to put off those new to, or returning to running after a break from joining in.

Women particularly often put off starting to run with kids, work, life and excuses getting in the way and we wanted to remove some of the barriers and fears by creating a welcoming, safe environment for women to run in.  Sorry guys, one way to do that was make it a Women’s only run club where the gals would know there at least wouldn’t be any super-fast guys to keep up with and where running questions about pelvic floor and boobs weren’t taboo!

We also wanted to make the Women’s Run Club inclusive for all abilities of female runner. It is common when groups of mixed ability are running together for faster runners to speed off and wait for the back of the pack at a designated landmark or junction. Whilst the faster runners often don’t  mind this at all, slower runners can feel like that are holding people up and become stressed out, don’t enjoy the run and therefore don’t return to the group! Further, as soon as the back runners reach the fast group, the fast group are rested and ready to run again whilst the slower runners are puffed out so the cycle begins again.

Our route was devised to combat this with faster runners given more loops, double/backs and hill repeats until the group was all together again – and also meant everyone was the same level of puffed-out-ness!

In alignment with OzSquad sessions, our run wasn’t ‘just a run’ either and the first Women’s Run Club covered cadence drills and running technique with some upper body tips too. A fast stride rate will mean that you are in the air for less time and will therefore land more softly, which is more efficient and puts less strain on your joints.  Check your cadence when out on your next run – the most efficient stride rate is 180 steps per minute, but anything around the 160-170 mark and you are doing ok.

So ladies, don’t be put off, come join us at the next Women’s Run Club – just ask OzSquad or Pace Athletic in Manly for details.

ozsquad run club pace run club pace run club manly womens only run club manly beach run club ozsquad running pace womens run club ladies run club run around manly brooks run club north head running run club north head ozsquad learn to run manly beach running club winter running in sydney

More To Explore

Blog

OzSquad Intro Pass

OzSquad Bootcamp Intro Pass Manly Beach Sign up now to receive one month of Unlimited OzSquads for just $59. Available for a limited time only!

Blog

10 years of OzSquad. Say what?!

The following was intended to be delivered as a speech at our 10-year anniversary big bash. However, the party vibe in Bucketty’s was strong and

Free Trial Session

We offer a free OzSquad session.
Register for yours here:

try us out!


Claim a free trial group session here - no obligation, no heavy sales pressure and no joining fees or long lock in periods if you subsequently sign up. Add your details below and we'll be in touch via email to get you going.