Thursday 17 July 2014

Thursday Evening Core Training!

Good Evening Blog Lovers.

Now for no.2 blog for todays exercise!

The 7:30 start came around way to quickly for me!  I was a tad late!  The group were already on their first lap around half the green (the park had two football matches going on today) so we had just park of the park to do our work outs in.  It's great when our local parks are well used.

After the 2nd lap (my first lap, but I did cycle down any way) we did the usual drills.  Well there was a a new drill that I hadn't done before and that was 'Drumming Majorettes'. Its where you have to raise your legs up and touch opposite hand to ankle! While moving forward in a Majorettes style!  I think she must have noticed a lot of bending down hand to ankle though, as she made us do it again with our ankles coming up to meet our hands!

After that it was straight into the core training, planks, push ups, crunches etc.  I am afraid I only managed to do the minimum seconds for the plank, for both the first discipline of the core training and the last discipline!  After that it was into the running sections.

It was Helen who was todays leader, and she had this plan of doing relays using the trees.  Running to one tree, touching it and running back to our team with the baton, there were about 8 trees and we had to touch each one, in any order, but only touch it once!  But the footballers had taken up place where she first had this idea, so she quickly counted up the trees on the other side of the part and we had to do it there.  About 10 trees in all!  It was all great fun.  Everyone decided to sprint to the furthest one first and then get nearer and near trees to run to.

After the running we came back to the front of the pavilion to do our stretching out, which we did all while sitting on the floor!  Stretching all the necessary muscle groups all while sitting on our bottom! perfect end to a perfect day!

I may just had a rest day tomorrow though! Doing two double exercisers in the three exercising days is pretty good going for me :-)


Tuesday Club Night

Hello blog lovers.

Well this is going to be a bit of a longish blog as I have a couple of reports to do!

This is for 15th July, Tuesday its group 0 time!....except I was the only member there today.  So I didn't actually go running, I just waited for the main club runs and sat on the bench enjoying the sunshine!  I do like summer.

So on to group 1 runs.  There were an awful lot of members that day! I was sweeping at the back, although I hadn't ran group 0, I still like it at the back, and besides I can encourage anyone else who is at the back, let them know that being at the back is just as much fun as being in the front!

Illustrious Leader was leading us today, and it was through the woods we go!  My fav place to go running of course! We went in through 'Dog poo' Alley, and the we took a left path to run along with the railway on our left! But instead of going all the way along till we got to The path that leads up to Botany Bay Lane, we took another one.  It's a path that my running club use as part of our October 10k, but usually the entrants are running down it!  It was quite a warm evening on Tuesday and I was 'glowing' a bit, but I was looking forward to the end of the run, as our newly appointed Social Secretary had planned a social at the local One In The Wood!  After group runs we were all going to descend on the new micro pub!

That was a lovely thought actually and it kept us all running along quite nicely! The hills were a bit challenging, especially as it was so warm, but the thought of beer at the pub was a great 'encourager' and we soon 'ate' those hills up.

We went along to the left to run past the back of the school and the down Goss hill.  I do like hills........erm running down hills that is!  We got to the river but instead of going out of the woods we turned left to run along side the river.  The woods is just too nice a place to leave while there is light!

The group started to get long now as the faster runners made up some ground on the down hills, so I.L. sent them off with PhysioMike to keep their legs going, and they were to turn back and run back to us!  When us back runners got to the bottom of the hill the main group had already started the run along by the river.  We had a quick breather and then followed on after.

We didn't catch up to them until we got to the footbridge over the railway lines.  As we had some faster runs with us, PhysioMike took them on a slightly fast jaunt up and over the two bridges, and then headed back to the rec, with just a little detour around the outside of the rec before they had finished.  SingstarJo who was sweeping with me decided to go along with that group also, pick her pace up, but also it's good to have a sweep for them as well.  Me and I.L. took the slightly shorter route back to the rec, and then joined in the the stretches when we go there!

A great run, a great route!  I love running!

My next run was today, It's Thursday and I ran this morning with my usual group 1 paced ladies. Only there was just one lady today, Andrea.  This is the first time that I have met Andrea, and she didn't like the idea of me running by myself so decided that she would come with me.  Now when Andrea told me that she had ran a sub 60 min 10k, I thought that my little plod around the woods was going to be too slow and maybe too short for her!  I was going to have to try and keep going as much as I could. No pressure!

But Andrea was lovely! Chatted the whole way around, and thoroughly enjoyed running through the woods.  In fact she loved it so much she is going to bring her friends along as well, and also learn some of the routes and paths that go through here for her own free running group that she does for her friends and mums!  This running lark is such great fun, and when you're running through beautiful woodlands it just fills you up with......with.......good stuff, good feelings, and great fresh air!

I took on the same route that we did Tuesday, the one I just written about above! Mainly because I wanted to see how far we had run on Tuesday, as I had forgotten to switch on my Garmin! I am getting worse in my old age! The other reason is because its all in the woods!  We had got back to the two bridges, but I wasn't ready to go on the roads! So I decided to stick with the woods and follow the path back to 'Dog Poo Ally'.  I am sure it is slightly longer than going over the two bridges to Little Thrift, but it's Thursday and I'm not in any particular hurry!

When we got to the alleyway the distance seemed way to short, and we still had plenty of time, so we carried on up the hill! The hill parallel to Birchwood, running up on the inside of the woods.  It does mean that we have to run down on the outside of the woods, but as its down hill, it don't matter, any hill that I am running down is great fun!

It was a great run today, and Andrea was great company!  There could be more ladies the next time I do the Thursday morning runs.  It's the school holidays coming now, the long six, so mums will have their kids with them, and I will probably have my grandson!  I wonder if I can get some mum and kids running games sorted? Now there's a thought!

Geeky stats for this run, and look out for yet another blog later this evening as its Thursday summer core training session!




Thursday 10 July 2014

Spirit of Running Man

James 'Running Man' Gilson
Posters by Owens Weddings as
 part of their contribution
Hello Bloggers.

There are few people that inspire us as we trundle through life. Some actors and politicians (occasionally), soldiers, police officers, teachers, our friends and our family.  And occasionally, as in my case, a total stranger.  A stranger that I have never met.  He has never been on the telly, he has never been in any of the national newspapers, well none that I used to read! I didn't even know his name.  And little did I know that, after first seeing him in the 80's,  he would  inspire me to keep on with my own running,

But for years (at least 30 in my case) I saw this man going about his daily run, using the same route, wearing exactly the same thing, year after year after year, day in day out.  Well, "What is so inspirational in that?" would be the question you'd be asking me.  Well this guy, this ordinary guy, who to me has always looked 'old' even way back in the eighties!, this guy ran every day, a 10k distance, wearing only a pair of shorts, sunglasses and running shoes! And I mean every day! Occasionally if it was particularly cold he would adorn a vest if the snow was coming down particularly hard! In the last couple of years he had cut his daily route down to 5k.

The first time I spotted him running half naked in the middle of winter, with his greying ponytail behind him flying in the chilly wind, I thought I must be imagining it!  But there he was.  Year after year I used to see him, and with each passing year my smile seemed to be a little broader, a little wider.  It was as if he bought just a tiny little bit of un-normality into life.  A little bit of humour, a sense of  'wowness',  After a while I started to look out for him.  

Over the years my smile grew to admiration.  Twenty five  years down the line I thought to myself, "Yeah, good for you, Running Man, keep on running"  Seeing him also helped me with my running.  On the days that I struggled with my running thoughts of 'Running Man' helped me to keep going, "If he can do it in the winter, a bit of rain is not going to hurt you" I told myself. I am sure others used to think like that as well.There was a time after that I didn't see him as much. I used to try and run on his route in hope of 'bumping into him, and having a quick chat on route. But that never happened.  You then start to think the worse.  But then last year someone had posted a photo of Running Man of facebook, saying "Guess who I saw?"  Do you know what, I felt as happy as she did!  "This guy deserves a facebook page" I had thought to myself, and on a whim I created the 'Fans Of The Running Man" facebook page! And in my naivety I thought that I would probably be the only one that was impressed that he was still going, apart from the young lady that posted the picture in the first place!

3,000 likes in about 2 weeks I realised that I wasn't the only one. It was then I decided I had better contact Mr. James Gilson, to ask for permission to continue with the page (although I was a little late in asking).  Thankfully he was quite happy with the page,  and he even thought it was a bit of fun, even with people stopping him to take photos of him!  He was bemused by it all but would always give a wave or a smile to those that tooted him from their cars when they saw him running on the street.
James happily posing for
a passing 'fan'

With the Facebook page republished it soon crept up to  5,000 likes, and my running club, Pettswood Runners, even asked him to be the official starter of our own 10k, which I am glad to say he agreed to. That was the first time I had actually met this, now, famous guy!  For the next 4 months after that he was continually spotted running his 5k route, he was continually photographed by his 'fans' and he was tooted by all who saw and admired him.  We had become 'Fans of the Running Man'. It was nice knowing that I wasn't the only one that thought this guy was an inspiration!

James at the Pettswood 10k
It was a very wet day!


The last time any of the FOTRM saw 'Our Running Man was in January of this year.  No one even wanted to ask about him, 'just in case'  But then I had heard the sad news that James had died. At the end of March we had lost Our Running Man.  During the times when James was still here, the fans wanted to run 'his route' as a fun charity run with him, but now that wasn't going to happen.

What happened instead was a memorial run. 'The Spirit Of Running Man!'  And I was the one going to 'organise' it.  I had never organised anything like this before.  I could just about organise a sausage on a plate!  But I felt a memorial run in his memory would be only right.  

So now the organising began.


Spirit Of Running Man Tribute Run

How do you go about organising a run? The idea had been suggested, I had said it was a great idea! And now what?

There was I, with over 5,000 fans,  over 200 hundred of them wanting to take part in a run  in James Gilson's memory.  It was just as well I had connections in the right places,  Pettswood Runners!  Our coach at PWR is Richard, and he is on the committee of our 10k race.  He knows all about how to organise a race.  So after the decision was made to go ahead with it, Richard went off and started getting a brilliant team together, the marshals and registration team, and had made enquiries about medals for all who will take part, while I set about seeing exactly who would come and do this run, as well as get some of the local businesses on board to help make it a fantastic tribute run to our local, iconic, Running Man.

Orla, (second on right) with her fab registration team!


I wanted to make it a morning where the whole family can take part, so I didn't want it to be just a run.  James bought about many smiles, not just to runners, but to people pushing buggies, dog walkers, business folk, people in their cars, in fact the whole community, so it would only be fitting to be able to include everyone possible.  I 'billed' it as a tribute run/walk, The Spirit of Running Man.  And we were going to keep as much as we could to his two routes, his 10k and his 5k,  and as safely as we can make it.
The medals


We also had to decide how much the runners pay for registering, because not only were we going to run his route in his memory, we were also going to raise money for two charities.  One was St. John Ambulance and the other was Cancer Research UK, as both these charities had  significance to the Gilson family.  James had ran 6 marathons and he used to raise money for St. John Ambulance but it was cancer that eventually took James and his family wanted to raise money for the CRUK.  All who wanted to run also wanted to be able to donate to his favourite charity.

Our fantastic St. Johns Ambulance!


With Richard wearing his 'Course Directors' hat, we walked, for the first time ever, the Spirit of Running Man route.  With Richards' keen eyes, and my idea of  'touching' on James's two routes, we planned the way around.  The high street, where so many people had seen him and photographed him,  down Southborough Lane heading towards the A21, where in the winter time James carved out lonesome running figure passing the leafless trees and bushes.

But kept the route just shy of the A21, as it's quite a busy road. We want to keep safety foremost  for all the children that would be taking part. We cut down a path that bought us by two schools and came out by the local park, and then we can bring the runners and walkers through the local housing estate  and back to the high street, so in effect cutting the 10k route in half.  The  finish will be at the Royal British Legion and they can collect a medal, just a small memento of the occasion.

Walkers and Buggies


With just a few words on the FaceBook page, "So, who would like to do a tribute run then, just add a 'yes' comment here" was it all took, 250 replys later and we had our run entrants, and even some of those said they would be bringing friends and family too!  I was beginning to think I had committed to something that was way to big for me to handle, but with Richard as my perfect planning partner I felt assured that it will be a success.

The next thing for me to do is to find some great prizes as spot prizes for the entrants.  It always makes for a good event if you come away feeling brilliant, with a little memento and a prize!  I thought I would just start right at the spot that I had the thought in my head.  I was in the local Supermarket, Morrisons, and I just decided to ask a member of staff who I would need to talk to about getting something for a spot prize for the entrants.  It was that simple!  She put me through to the person in charge of charity donations and voila, I came back that afternoon to collect two bottles of wine! 

"That was easy" I thought to myself.  After that popping into the other businesses became easier to do. But the thing that made it so much easier is that all the businesses knew Running Man, they all missed him and they all was willingly giving of their products and services.  I wanted to show the FOTRM exactly what sort of community we were living in, and I put up pictures of everything that I got from our business folk!  

James was still inspiring people, but now he was inspiring a caring and giving side of a community that was missing their iconic 'celebrity'.  People who used to live in the area and had moved out to start their own businesses found a way that they can say 'Thanks James Gilson for bringing about years of smiles' as they gave their services and products as prizes.  It truly was a joy to watch the whole thing unfold, and become a community event!

The Royal British Legion  came up Trumps!  They had offered their carpark for us to all meet up in, and to have the finish line, not only that, but they were going to open up the bar for tea and coffee (and beer when it became a decent time!) for all that came along to watch, enter and wait!  Plus they even got out the outdoor grill and tempted everyone with bacon rolls and tea and coffee at a brilliant price!  Who can resist the smell of bacon.

John Caitling, Chairman of the
Pettswood Royal British Legion


The One Inn the Wood, a new micro pub also played a great part in the community spirit, by 'fining' customers who got out their mobiles in the pub!  And I do believe a few cussing words were dealt with a shake of the tin as well! That soon filled up with coins! 

Fired Up Pottery Painting Studio gave a fantastic donation to the run,  Sarah Buck, owner of the business, painted a plate of the Running Man. I wanted to add to the whole fun and spirit of the event and I auctioned it off to the highest bidder exclusive to Fans of The Running Man only!  The plate in the end went to Claire Gilson.  A most fitting place for the plate to go to, James's daughter!  Yes, James' daughters, all three of them was going to be there as well.  Caroline, Claire and her husband and children and Frances were going to be there and were going to take part.  They were also going to say a few words and give the 'Ready steady go'

Painted by Sarah Buck
Fired Up Painting and Pottery Studio


There was no need to worry that the family wouldn't be heard as one of the many fans from FOTRM had given freely of his services, his Personal Address system.  Keith Young made sure that the family could be at the start of the race, not only that but he and his son Harry kept the crowds entertained back the Legion with some  favourite tunes of James, and he also counted  the runners as they came back!  

I was feeling most proud of our local community and all that they had done to make it a well worth Tribute Run to an inspirational local character, James 'Running Man' Gilson.  The whole thing came together so well. We had so many prizes coming in the only thing that could be done was to raffle some of the off.

We had over 50 donations, the prizes ranged from vouchers from the local food restaurants, hairdressers and barbers, the local bike shop came up trumps with an electric pump. And even Evans Flooring gave us something thing. We had flowers from the 3 shops we have in Pettswood and also another beautiful bouquet from one of the FOTRM who didn't have a business in the High Street, but like all the fans, she had grown up seeing him and wanted to give.

Other people who had moved from the area and had business started to contact me with gifts and prizes to be added to the ever growing list.  So you can see why I put the word 'organising' in inverted commas.  It was the fan page that had actually organised everything, I was the go to person.  What a fantastic feeling it is being part of a community that recognises something extraordinary in just one person, and want to show it! Computer techs and photographers, reflexolists and candle makers! Bed Post and Personal trainers, Pubs, bakerys, gift shops and drycleaners, even a solicitor gave a hour free as a raffle.  And if someon couldn't give something from their business then they improvised, they gave gifts sets of Pimms and a £50.00 gift voucher!

From the very beginning of the day till when the last of the entrants and their families left the R.B.L. I was busy, making sure everything was going ok.  Richard had taken the marshals to their posts, and the marshals that hadn't managed to get to the walk throughs the weekend before, were quickly told what to do and where to be.

Registration for the entrants was from 9 o'clock till about 9:30 then once that was all done we all walked through the high street where all those fantastic businesses are, some of who were opened on a Sunday, and can see just how many people were taking part!  It felt like a celebration, it wasn't a sad occasion, the sad occasion was when Our Running made his last journey through the high street back in April.  The fans came and paid their respects to him then, to see his last journey through Pettswood high street.

But this day, this day was different. We were here to remember a man who bought about many smiles to many people, for many years.  People chatted and laughed and I am sure spoke to each other about when they first saw the Running Man.  There were people with their shirts off, there were mums and dads with their children.  The dog walkers were there with the pets. There were even granparents that had come along.  This really is an event for all!

Keith Young had gone 'mobile' with his public address system and Richard could give out saftey instructions to everyone.  He then handed me the mic.  I hadn't written anything down to say, I hadn't really though what I was going to say.  The even wasn't about me.  But it was good to 'show' everyone who it was behind the FaceBook page, I think someone though it was a chap! But it was good also to introduce the Gilson sisters, now they had things to say.

They said that their dad would have been totally overwhelmed by all that is happening here, but mainly they wanted to say thank you, thank you to all that was here today to remember their dad and to raise money for CRUK and St. Johns Ambulance.  Then they gave the 1,2,3 go! and the throng of people started up Southbough high street.

After they all went I walked back to the RBL to check on things there.  I wanted to see how the raffle tickets were going.  They girls had been extremely busy!  In fact they had sold so many I had to change boxes to put all the tickets in.  What I had negleted to tell them though, is that all the tickets were to be put in the box separately!  But as the girls and guys had been writing their names on just the first ticket and then just putting a line through the rest of them to say they belong to said name, they had to quick write all the names on all the tickets!

These are things I didn't think about, and I was busy helping with them when I heard Keith saying that the first of the runners were coming in!  It was manic after that!  I tried to get as many tickets ready for the box as I could, all the registration team were now on the 'ticket team!'  What would I have done without them!  I had to leave them  with the tickets though and go down to the finishing line to see them coming in.  It was while I was down there that I realised I had left the fantastic finishers medal up stairs.  This was one of the many prizes from the fantastic folk we have here and I had to go and get it.

But just those few mishaps and errors, yet no-body complained.  In fact everyone though it was a well organised event.  Considering we had everything sorted within a couple of months then really, I was a brilliantly organised event!  But still, after everyone had gone, I had sat with my sister and her boyfriend and my friend and just burst out cyring!  It was an emotional day!  One that I truly loved being part of, and I will feel honoured to be the 'Go to person' again next year!

Mike took some great footage of the event, and it can be found here. I think he managed to capture the atmosphere of the day!  There are many more photos that can be seen on the running man page which you can see by clicking here

Here are just a few more pictures of the event, more can be seen on the FaceBook page Fans of The Running Man,

It's all all to the pumps, ok, just blow up the ballons!


The queue starts!

This way please!

One of the two charities we were raising funds for!

The Gilson Family

Our canine friends.

The first back! In true Running Man style!

The prizes!

Everyone got a medal!







Tuesday 8 July 2014

Tuesday Club night

Hello blog lovers.

Today has not been a good day.  You know sometimes you wake up, there's a smile on your face, the sun is shining, and you feel like a million dollars! Well today it was the total opposite of that.  I just couldn't put my finger on it, but I felt sad.

I was supposed to go for a cycle ride with my sister, but we had a lack of communication and it all went pear shaped.  I had thoughts of just going by myself but I just couldn't shift this yucky feeling.  So I thought I would try and cheer myself up, putting money back into my account by taking something back to the shops that I bought but didn't need.

So this evening I really wanted to get out for a run.  Even though my mojo was way down in my boots I got myself ready for my evening run.  My group 0 often thank me for taking them out, they often say "if it wasn't for this group I would have given up" but today I should be thanking them.  If it wasn't for the fact that I had this group to lead tonight then I would continue to veg on my chair.

The route that I had chosen is the easier route, although that hill in the beginning is quite a challenge! but once at the top then that's it for the hills.  It's all down hill or flat.  The ladies were really running very well indeed.  Once we got up that hill the running was just brilliant.  Almost easy going.  They were both chatting and (I am sure) having fun!

As we were making such good time, I decided to go 'exploring'.  Jayne had noticed that there were lots of paths in the woods.  We often just run past them without giving them a second thought.  As there were three of us, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to go on one of these paths.  You can't get lost in these words (Isn't that right Jayne!) I hadn't a clue where the path would lead us too, but as long as you head towards the sound of the rail tracks then we will know exactly where we are! Simples.

But where I though we would come out of and where we actually came out of was completely different. I felt just to quick to be there.  Maybe the path that I had taken was a short cut, but there we were coming from a path just by 'Dog Poo' Ally.  So there was only one thing to do, and that is to extend the run into the other side of the woods.

We ran on the path that was parallel to the rail tracks on our left, and we ran towards the first of the bridges across.  It had been raining everso slightly and on of the stickiest puddles that hadn't quite dried up like all the rest gained a new lease of life and we had to use the little path to the right of that. We ran and we chatted, it was just a really pleasant run through the woods.

Although it was still a bit chilly for a summers evening, we did work hard and we were quite warm from our running,  We soon got back to the rec, but only after I took them up Towncourt road, well, what's one more tiny hill!  The run didn't quite get rid of my bleak mood, and my headache was still there, so I decided I wouldn't push it with a group 1 run and came home!

A great run today though, totally love being out in the woods running with my friends!  Now to find out if the Garmin site is working yet.





Monday 7 July 2014

Sunday Long Run

Hello blog lovers

I have not been for a long run for what seems like ages, so today I made sure I found the time to get out there and do it. 
I got my music in my ears, my usual route on my mind, and my running shoes tied tightly!  I just set my Garmin (which at the moment is just not uploading on to the site!) and set off.

It was raining earlier but now the sky has cleared and the sun looks as if its going to show its smiley face.  I hope it won't be too hot, I am not bringing any water with me.  I left my house with a smile on my face. Yes, I am going to look forward to this run.  I am going to try and nag myself nicely to keep running for as long as I can, and if I do walk then I will gently nag myself to pick up the running again.

So that was my plan.  I know 6 or 7 miles is not a long run, but to me it's quite a long run.  If I hear any good news come October then I will be doing a long longer runs!  But until then, 7 miles or in this case (as I had forgotten to switch my Garmin) 11k.

My whole technology seems to be packing up on me, from my lap top to my Garmin, but I think the Garmin could quite possibly be 'Mr. Garmin' himself as they sort out the new site!  Why they have to change things I do not know!

So I started this blog yesterday before my lap top had a melt down, and is now under a black cloud, i.e. a black screen and I have no idea how to get it back!  So I am finishing this on my desktop.

So where was I! Oh yes, 11k I did yesterday, and a very pleasant 11k it was too, its a pity I can't show you just yet, but I did it in 1 hour and 29 mins, not bad for an Old Girl, on her own listening to some tunes!  It felt good to be just out running with no-one but me. Sometimes you need to do that, whether its to just test yourself to see if you can run by yourself, to see if you can push yourself to run further that you would with other people. At least running by yourself you can run as far as you want to,  at your own pace.

It's also good to just run with a clear mind, not thinking about anything or anyone else around.  There is none of 'I wish we could run further' or 'I wish they would run slower' because the time is all yours to do with as you want.  Sunday for me was just that.  I had my route, I also had in mind that if I wanted to go further I could, if I wanted to walk I could, but now I am repeated my self!

Run, for running sake!  That was my Sunday run, and bloody good it was too!

Thursday 3 July 2014

I'm Still Here!

Hello blog lovers,

I know! I know! I have been neglecting my blogs for goodness knows how long. But I am back, I am blogging, and I hope to keep on running and cycling and blogging!

I know I have been neglecting my blogging but I have not been missing out too much on my running and cycling. But considering I have the memory span of Dory (see Finding Nemo to get significance) then I am just going to talk about todays efforts, and also just upload todays running to this blog.

So this morning, I went running! "Doh, really Old Girl, I would never have guessed" I took my Thursday group out and we ran the route that we did on Tuesday evening!  I kept it quite from on our ladies today, just to keep it..........exciting! (and also to not panic her thinking that she can't do the distance) I had to quickly wink at one of our ladies as she said "Oh its that long hill!" but I think she got the message with the wink.

Now, I don't like hills, but (according to 'they') they tell us that hills are good for us.  They help build muscles, speed staminia and others stuff that we need to keep us running longer distance and (if you want to run faster) they can build speed. But why anyone would want to speed through the perfect woods that we have is beyond me!

There were four of us going out at 9:30 ish this morning and I know all of them are quite capable of doing the distance within the 1 hour time slot that we have.  DiscoRich and his faster, longer distance runners went off and we traipsed behind them, just doing our thing.

I decided to go along the road to little thrift, it is a bit shorter distance as I was trying to disguise the it all the time.  Trying not to saying anything about the route to anybody in fact, but one lady who had done the exact same route with me on Tuesday knew exactly where we were heading!

Once we reached Jubilee park, however, Auriol realised exactly what hill we will be tackling!  But I assured her that we will all be doing at own pace, in our own time.  Walking, running, just getting up it in our own time is what is on order! 

It was tough, the weather would be classed at bloomin hot in Death vally, and we were tackling a 20% hill! (ok maybe a slight exaggeration on both counts) but it was still a tough little section! We are started on it, one a time, I went first, I knew I would flag out at some point on the hill, but in my mind as I was leading I though having them all behind me would motivate me to push further than if I was by myself!  I was right, but I still stopped and took a breather, and even walked some of it!  They others did really well, going further than me before taking a walking break!

Just one more hill to do after that, but before then it was the flat(ish) sections to cope with.  It was really a great run, I was enjoying it, it was a tough run as well, a great opportunity to work out how much water you need, if you need to carrying water with your over a certain distance, etc.  A great learning run.  It was then I suddenly realised that I didn't have my phone with me!  I like to carry a phone for emergency!  But fortunately it wasn't needed!

The run down the path in the middle of the woods is always the nicest part!  I even felt myself just going with the hill, wanted to let it do its best and just carry me on down and down.  I had to kind of bring my self back out of the 'zone' and to check I wasn't leaving anyone behind me, but I am sure they all had  found that zone as well as they were not more than a couple of strides behind me!

Back at the rec we still beat DiscoRich and his group back, all under under an hour!  A lovely run!


Of course Thursday evenings it is still light and so we have our Thursday evening core training sessions.  These are lovely times spent with my fellow club memebers,  We all groan and moan that its hot hot hot, and hard! But we all come back each week to have more of the same!   it really is a great core workout session.

DiscoRich was taking this evenings session and he had some hard workouts for us today!  In all this heat as well.!   Just so glad I remembered my drink!  it is going to be necessary!

Disco Rich had some hard training for us today, some planking (done on the side) some V situps, and also some pretty hard running pyramid type of things!!  Brilliant!

Anyway, that is me up to date with y exercise,  all data for other runs is of course on my Garmin site, but only todays run is here on this blog!

It's good to be back! My Garmin appears not to be uploading at the moment, so I shall get that sorted and upload geeky stats as soon as possible