If you are a keen runner or keen to stay fit and challenge yourself physically then we’ve got an exciting opportunity for you to get involved in an online running club!
Associated & Catholic Colleges of WA (ACC) have set up a virtual run club on the Strava platform called Exceed. The purpose of the club is to create an alternative to the usual school cross-country training programs and ACC carnival in Term 2. The concept is to establish an online community for ACC students so that they can record their training runs and complete an ACC cross-country course run over 3km or 4km at a community location near you. The ACC office will track the performances of the students on Strava and publicise student performances on their web site and social media.
Individual training runs
Students that join the Exceed club will be encouraged to record any runs they do on Strava and the ACC Exceed Club will display a leaderboard with the weekly leaders in distance run, average pace and vertical climbing. Distances here are irrelevant and students can run at their own fitness level. This is a great way to motivate yourself to keep active and running on a regular basis. You can follow your friends and competitors at other schools to compare your performances.
Virtual Race Events
As part of the Exceed club the ACC will also set up club events with specific course routes marked out over a 3km or 4 km course to match the ACC Cross Country distances. Routes will be set up in a number of different locations in Perth. These virtual races will remain open for a number of weeks and students can complete the course as many times as they like while the event is open, trying to improve their performance each time. For the ACC virtual Exceed club races, the ACC is asking students where possible to complete the run with a buddy and run as a pair. Each pair should be supervised by a parent or guardian. Students may not run in groups larger than ten and should not advise other people the time and date that they plan on completing a race run.
There will be no cost to students and the ACC will manage this service in lieu of the regular cross-country carnival. The virtual event races are informal and simply for fun and the ACC will not use the results for any “formal” competition between schools and students. The results will not be used to select winners, award trophies or pick an all-star team.
If this is something that you are interested in being a part of then please follow the guidelines below in order to sign up. The URL for the ACC Exceed Run Club is below where you will be able to create your own profile: https://www.strava.com/clubs/exceed-acc-run-club
GUIDELINES
- Each student must have their own Strava account and profile. When you set up your profile please use your correct name and not your social media handle or Avatar name. This allows the ACC to verify your identity as an ACC school student.
- There is an important privacy location setting that you should set for your profile settings. There is a short video on the ACC YouTube Channel with instructions: https://youtu.be/CaXz9qqjKQM. This setting just provides a geo block around your home address so that people can’t track the beginning point of your runs to find where you live!
- As well as a free Strava account, you will need either a smart phone or a fitness device that can be linked to Strava i.e. Garmin. The device records your activity and feeds the data to the Strava app. You can just use a smart phone with the Strava app, a fitness device like a Garmin watch is not essential.
- Obviously we still need to be aware of the current restrictions around gatherings. No more than ten people should currently be gathering for any outdoor activity. However, if you can get together in a small group to challenge each other that would be a great way to push yourselves.
If this is something you are keen to be involved with then may I encourage you to sign up. We will be rewarding a $30 iTunes voucher to the male and female in each year group who has clocked up the most kilometers over the next two terms. Nothing like a bit of incentive!
If you have any questions please contact Mr Tweedie at the College.
Mr Sam Tweedie
Deputy Head of Health, PE and Sport