As a member of Hutt Valley Harriers we want to ensure that you enjoy your time with the club. On club run days we organise “packs” which are designed so that you can run (or walk) with a group of people who run at a similar ability to you.
The idea of the pack run is for people to run at a pace that is comfortable to talk. A pack run is NOT a race.
On each club day run, as well as having a walking pack, we will announce four running packs.
Running packs have a set pace / distance that they will run.
The packs Hutt Valley Harriers run are:
- A Fast pack – for people who run close to 4 minutes per kilometre pace
- A medium pack – for people who run between 4:30 and 5 minutes per kilometre pace
- A slow pack – for people who run approximately 5:30 minutes per kilometre pace
- A joggers pack – for people who run approximately 6 minutes per kilometre pace.
Another way to look at the pace is if you have run:
- 5km in 30 minutes, then you are running at 6 minutes per kilometre and should look at running initially with a joggers pack.
- 10km in 50 minutes, then you are running at a 5 minute per kilometre pack and should look at running initially with a slow pack.
- 10km in 46 minutes, then you are running at a 4:36 minute per kilometre pack and should look at running with a medium pack.
To determine your running pace simply divide your running time by the distance you ran.
Overtime as you find that you can run comfortably, you might want to step up and try the next level of pack. This is a far better approach than over estimating your ability and going out with a pack faster than your ability and struggling to keep up or to last the distance. Going out with a pack that is too fast will not be enjoyable, so we recommend that you start out with a pack that matches your current ability and to build up to a faster pack.
A pack will generally aim to be out for an hour, so if you are not used to running for an hour it is important that you let us know so that we can cater for you. Our slower packs will often cover shorter distances and therefore be out for less time that the medium and fast packs, which go out for an hour and will cover between 10 and 13 kilometres in a run.