Run Group in Footscray
Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 5:45am. A supportive running group building strength on the hills of Farnsworth Avenue — where the work is real, the squad is welcoming, and the results show up everywhere else you run.
📅 When Tuesday & Thursday 5:45am — 6:45am
📍 Where Farnsworth Avenue, Footscray Inner west Melbourne
💰 Cost Casual: $8.50 5-week block: $75 First week: Free
What happens at Farnsworth Ave
Farnsworth Avenue is where RD Run Squad does its strength work — and runners who show up here consistently are the ones who notice the biggest changes in how they run everywhere else.
The long, steady climb of Farnsworth Ave is the kind of hill that earns its reputation. Sessions here focus on hill repeats, building leg strength, improving cadence, and developing the mental resilience that comes from doing something hard and not stopping. It's not about getting up the hill fast. It's about getting up the hill well — and then doing it again.
Hill running builds the glute strength, ankle stability and cardiovascular base that flat running alone can't replicate. It teaches your body to be efficient under load. It makes tempo runs feel more manageable, race day feel less daunting, and your everyday running feel stronger than it did six weeks ago.
Farnsworth Ave is in the heart of Melbourne's inner west — gritty, unpretentious, and the kind of training ground that quietly produces better runners. If you've been avoiding hills, this is the session that changes your mind about them.
Who is this for
Farnsworth Ave sessions are for runners who want to get stronger — regardless of where they're starting from.
You don't need to love hills to benefit from them. Most people in the squad didn't, at first. What changes isn't the hill — it's what happens to your body and your confidence after a few weeks of showing up and doing the work. Runners who dreaded the climb start to look forward to it. Not because it gets easier exactly, but because they get better.
Easier options exist within every session. Walking sections of the hill is completely fine, and nobody is measuring how fast you're going. The goal is effort relative to you — and a coach who's watching your form, adjusting the session if needed, and making sure you're working in a way that builds you up rather than breaks you down.
The squad is mostly women, which creates a culture where showing up matters more than performance, where progress gets celebrated no matter how small, and where the hardest sessions also tend to have the best energy.
Your first week is free. Come and find out what Farnsworth Ave does for your running.
About your coach
Dale Ipsen — known as RD — is an Athletics Australia Level 2 accredited run coach with 15+ years of running experience, including 10 marathons and a 100km ultra event.
Hill sessions done wrong are just suffering. Done right, they're one of the most efficient training tools a runner has. Dale structures Farnsworth Ave sessions so the effort builds progressively — warm-up, activation, structured repeats, cool-down — and so every runner leaves having done real work without having overdone it. The sessions are hard enough to matter and smart enough to keep you injury-free.
RD stands for Race Director — because he's the one who organises the runs, keeps the group together, and makes sure nobody is ever left at the bottom of the hill alone.
The other locations
Farnsworth Ave is one of three locations RD Run Squad rotates through each week. Depending on the session goal, you might also find us at:
Williamstown Beach — flat foreshore running along the bay, ideal for tempo runs, deload weeks, and sessions focused on rhythm, confidence and getting your breath back after a tough hill week.
Newport — flat waterfront speed work along the bay. The place to find your pace, work on holding it, and discover what you're capable of when the terrain isn't the challenge.
Follow RD Run Coach on Instagram or Facebook to see where we're heading each week — or get in touch and we'll keep you across the schedule.
Ready to take on the hills at Farnsworth Ave?
Your first week is completely free. Come and see what Run Squad is about — then decide if it's for you.