Speed Session! Don't Laugh!

Hello Blog lovers!

Well, I thought I would go along to one of Kitmans Interval Sessions, get some tips, find out stuff, check out things with our coach. Guess what! He gave us the 'drilling' and the route that we had to do, and then said, "Erm sorry, people, I am not going to be there, its my sons 21st today!" Of course we forgave him. Drinking and celebrating, or cracking the whip in the cold and rain! ....Exactly!

But there were four brave souls that turned up, to try and complete Kitmans last interval sessions for the year... Well, I say four brave souls, I meant 3 brave souls and a complete 'leagally Blond, clueless' Old Girl, namely me! I didn't know what I had let myself in for. Well I had done something like it before, when the Thursday sessions first started. Illustrious Leaders other half, Daddancer Richard. I remember going to one of his sessions, and the whistle blowing. Apparently when you heard the whistle you were supposed to run, and then when you heard it again you slowed down to a jog!

Well, back then I was even more unfitter (is that a word?) and I remember people lapping me. I couldn't even remember doing the running faster bits! But I though to myself, I have been running for quite some time now, I have entered the marathon and I am going to need all the help from all over, and as much as I can get! So Kitmans Mike speed session is where I am at.

We met at the Corner of Towncourt Lane, funnily enough quite near to where Kitman lives, maybe we should all pop in....... no, no, speed session. I arrived first. I was looking around, no one was about. I checked my facebook page to make sure I was at the right place. Then I saw some one run up to the corner. I got out of my car and walked over to him. "Hi" I said to him, "I believe there will be two others turning up"  I said as we waiting around. "What group do you run in" I guesstimated that he ran in group 7, and I was right! "Blimey, he will be lapping me several times" I thought to my self. we waited a few more minutes and then Alison came up the road too. I found out that she was in group 4 (Is there not going to be any group 1 runners) Then out of the woods emerged Mr.S. Well, he is deffo not a group 1 runner. He is a.....group 3,4,5 or what ever group he decides I think!

Now Mr.S has decided that he wants to do the barefoot running thing. He has been 'practcing' in some sort of shoe that he was wearing about the office, and he finally got him self his very own 'monkey feet' of FFV to those of you in the know, and to those that don't know they are called Five Fingers Vibrams.

Mr.S. new shoes

Literally soles for your feet and toes, nothing else, not cusioning, not 'special' insoles for over/underpronate, no gel/air filled heels. Just soles. The look like monkey feet, and yes he does take them through the woods!

Mr.S, dirty new shoes!

Mr.S very kindly decided to run with me, he was here to do exactly that, (plus he gets a couple of more miles in his FFV) See, I am useful for all sorts of things. We decided to just set off, no chatting, as it was quite cold. And with that the three of them took off at break neck speed "What the.......?!" I tried desperately to keep up! There was no warm up into the first half mile. But then, when you think about it, these guys, it probably was the slowest pace!

Then I heard Mr.S say "Ooo, better slow down a bit!" And I just said "Oh, thank you, thank you" My sides hurt! My breathing was...., well, anyone would think I was having a panic attack and I was going to hyperventilate! But I got into the groove once it had all settled down.

It was on the first mile Mr. S. got the measure on this Old Girl. "I'll tell you what, we shall do 1 mile then stop for a minute, then do that twice more" Yep, I could live with that. Going up the hills was awful, but Mr.S non stop chatter somehow kept me going, (mostly) but when I stopped running I thought maybe he had been in cahoots with the Old Boy, "No, we don't stop on hills, just run to that car, it's just up the top" I managed to start jogging along again. "I got to do these hills 3 times?" I thought to myself.

I was quite surprised at the first mile. We had done it in under 11 miles. That has not happened for quite some time! It must have been that breakneck speed we had done in the beginning. Geeky stats are at the bottom if you want to check out the speed we went at!

The second mile was more a sedate one. A typical Old Girl mile. Moaning all the way round, while Mr.S kept up the constant chatter. How it does it I don't know. I kept having to keep up with him because he was in the middle of stories that I want to hear the end of, or words that, who knows one day I might use. The longest word in the dictionary is........... darn it I forgot! I'm sure Mr.S will enlighten me again. Stories of, his students, of his work, of drinking wine, cider, beer, running barefoot with Duncan, the relentless chatter that he gives to the Pettswood members on a Tuesday all kept me from noticing the rain coming down.

The third mile was half way done. And as we had already decided to only do 3 laps I was feeling ok with what I had done. Maybe its not the most speedy of speed sessions Kitman Mike has ever had on his training sessions. But to me getting up 'them thar hills' was an achievement. Ok, so I walked the second on, but the first one, on this lap I had ran up the whole of it.

As we were approaching the 'finish' of our 'speed' session Mr.S said "I think we could do just half a lap more, what do you think" Well I knew what I thought, if I did half a lap then I might as well go the whole hog and do the other half! Whats the point in doing things by halves. (I know my speed sessions have a lot to be desired!) So we went around again.

The forth lap is when we finally bumped into on the other other runners! We hadn't actually seen them! I thought they would have passed us by a couple of times at least, but here on our finally lap we bump into Alison. "I knew you were still running" she said "I could see your foot prints on the road, The Old Girls shoe prints and your feet!" she described them "They look like a yetis footbrints" We were being hunted by Alison!

We carried on with the last of the laps together. By now the rain was falling down, very softly, and misting up my glasses. "I can't see Mr.S" I said "Oh good, so you can't see the hill, there is no hill anyway" With that thought in mind, and Mr.S's constant chatting, and now with Alison joining in the chatting I managed to jog the whole way up the two hills! With hands held high I tried to shout with joy, I'm not sure I did! "Don't stop now" the both said, "It's all down hill!"

I carried on with my jogging, I tried to pick up the speed a little bit more, I'm not quite sure I had managed it, but over the top of my glasses I thought I could see the end of the road "Is that the end there Mr.S" I said,
"Yes, that's it" he replied
"Great, now lets sprint the rest" and with that I took off leaving the other too slightly shocked!
"Blimey, if you can do that now, why didn't you do that back there" Said Mr.S as he ran, and 'slapped' his feet down on the tarmac "You're making me run in me monkey feet" he called out, Alison was sounding a bit surprised to "Oh wow" she said, "lets go"

So that was my 'speed' session, I just hope I didn't hold Mr.S. back too much, but thanks so much for running along with Jez.  Michael, had already said that he would shoot off straight after the session, we didn't see him at all on our laps! I'm sure he made up his own route.

Geeky stats, and don't forget to check out the speed in the beginning and and the end! I feel quite proud of that :-) (big smile)

Photographs curtesy of Mr.S.