Last Saturday we started our new beginners course, from couch to 5k in approximately 9 weeks! We should have started the week before but the 'Beast from the East!' was around and so we postponed it. We had a fair few people turn up the following week though, in spite of all that snow the week before. In fact last week it was positively spring like, well, I think maybe there was a hint of rain, free hydration I call it!
We had 29 people wanted to reach that goal of 5k parkrun, completed, in what every pace they chose. All they want is to just do it! And so at Willet Recreation ground is where they all came. That was the hardest bit. Getting up from a nice cosy bed and putting on running shoes to go out and run with complete strangers, or coming back to running after leaving it behind for a couple of years. It's hard to do. But once they were all there, standing there, looking at ZippySherry, RefMichael, me and a host of other PWR's to help them on their way to Rundom, parkrun family and hopefully after that to being park of Petts Wood Runners!
They all looked terrified.........ok, a slight exaggeration, but they looked nervous, but not as nervous as I was feeling. I was first to lead this March 2018 session, the spring session, and I was also to introduce everyone to our members. Well that was a first for me! Usually DiscoRich would do that and the pass the baton to me and Sherry, but last week he was in Crystal Palace with about 1000 school children! Yup, crazy I know. That postponed week threw us all off balance, but I am sure that DiscoRich will come along and introduce himself to our newbies next week, that's next week from today, not last week that I am writing about....er....um.... well I am sure you know what I mean.
After trying to put everyone at ease I was ready to start doing the drills........uh ah! nope, it should walking around the rec first! See what I mean about being nervous! We started our brisk walk around the green, twice, at a nice brisk pace just to get our heart rate up and start warming up muscles in our legs and arms. Once that was done then we did the drills, some gentle skipping and side steps and butt kicks up to the imaginary cones, I had forgot the cones, but and this is going to be silly, not only had I forgot the cones, forgot I had the cones, and not only that I didn't even notice I had the cones with me in the car when I changed my shoes to my muddy ones! Yup, this is me, a 'not a morning person' leading new comers.
After the drills done then we got on to the best bit, the running! We were only going to be running for 1 minute and then walking for 5 minutes, five times, it sounds so easy doesn't it! Well, if you have never run before then try it, is all I can say about that! One minute seems a lot when you're running, especially as you are not quite sure of the breathing, if you should be running fast, just plodding along, how long strides etc. I know when I first started running I tried to run like Mo Farah does! I know, it was ridiculous for a 13.5 stone woman of well over 40 years old, especially when I hadn't ever done any sort of running or exercise before! It just goes to show, that if you carry on, don't give up, you can do it!
I did do my usual thing of missing the prompt on my super duper Garmin! On the third rep of running I was chatting to someone who was really struggling, so we slowed to a fast paced walk for the running sections, it was only when RefMichael shouted from the other side of the park "Old Girl, time" that I realised that we had actually been running for about 3 minutes! When I say we, I of course meant everybody else apart from me and this lady I was talking to! Everybody seemed to have coped well with my 'planned' mistake! Just to show everybody that actually running for three minutes is possible even on week 1. ..........No, I don't think they bought that excuse either!
We continued to do rep 4 and then 5, and that was it! All done! Fantastic, everyone still had a smile on their face as we were doing the cool down stretches. Sherry gave out the big 'H' word...homework, there is always homework! And that was it. Week one complete!
Week Two
Wow, week two! Week 2 was more like week 1, the original week 1 where we had all that snow! That was what it was like today! We had a decision to make, to run or to stay in bed and wish we had run! ZippySherry had put something out on twitter and the facebook page that we are going ahead! So I got my gear on and went for it! The snow was coming down quite fast, it had settled on the grass and the grass verges, my car had a thick coating of snow but there was no snow on the roads of the pavement, it had melted! Well that's good, I think. I drove to the rec and saw ZippySherry on the way, she was nearly there actually but I stopped to pick her up. RefMichael came into the rec next and then we saw just a couple of other people who had got their early but were sitting in their warm cars. "Ok" I thought to myself "We could have more leaders than runners this morning" But as it turned out there were people coming in all the time after that, we even had new people come and join us! It totally made it worthwhile getting here. I was thinking to my self "These guys are hardcore" They really want to this 5k under their belts, I mean if they are prepared to come out here in this weather to run around a wet soggy muddy field then they really, really want it!
I was so pleasantly surprised to see not just 1, nor 2 but 6 new people joining our group! In the snow! Hard core, that's all I can say. RefMichael was doing this weeks session, it's his first time leading the beginners out! No pressure RefMichael! But really, he did an amazing job! At least he was doing it in the right order! He lead us all out for the two lap walk of the park, you know, the brisk, get the heart rate up, type of walking. You know what, my legs were warm, by body was warm and my arms and hands. Even my ears were warm because I put on my headband over my cap! It was my face that was freezing! I tried to put my buff up over my face but that just made my glasses steam up as my breath crept up and over the buff! If I smile while running at least my my face freezes it will have a lovely smile on it!
Then we did the drills of course, RefMichael drew a line in the snow, where we were to jog, skip and butt kick a way there. I think if I put the cones down they would have been covered in snow in no time! Then it was time for the running. I was looking forward to this, at least RM was deffo going to be watching the watch, no accidentally running for longer. So we ran for 2 minutes, then walked for 4 minutes. We did this 5 times! Twice as long running as last week, well, apart from the little hiccup we had on my shift! It is difficult, mentally it's difficult but I think this week the difficulty really was getting out of the door.
I was flitting about chatting to as many people as I could, I felt more confident doing that this week as I am not leading, so no missing vital whistle times! There was one young lady I was chatting to. She was finding it hard this week. She joined because she had heard about the beginners course, she has given up smoking only a couple of months ago! I know that, because I gave up smoking (again) on January 2nd. There has been a couple of relapses for me, but on the whole pretty good! I just wanted to really encourage her to keep going. Now she was running pretty fast, for someone who hasn't ran before. I told her to slow her pace down, and to concentrate on her breathing. If you get your breathing right you can run very well indeed. It takes practise though, and you are not going to get the practise in if you are trying to speed along and then get short of breath! It becomes hard, you get disillusioned and lose energy quickly. So slowly, slowly, practise running with a nice steady breathing patten. You will be surprised just how well you can do. That's why these beginners courses are brilliant, you find out all this stuff, not only that but you find new friends too! One other lady said to me that she finds easier to run with people.
The whistle went for the first rep of running, then the second rep, the third, forth! That fifth rep seemed to have come around really quickly, I mean here were all were, running in the snow, on a soggy muddy park and everyone looked like there were enjoying it, and it went by so very quickly! There was this one guy there, when I say we were all hardcore for being out their in this weather, well this guy turned up in shorts! I took a photo of his knees (with his permission of course). Now that right there is an athlete in the making! In fact all these people are!
Well done March2018 group, I really am totally impressed by you all! Oh and just as we were about to do our stretches, Hannah turned up to give support! She was out for a run anyway and thought that she would just see if any crazy people turned up for the second session and she was totally amazed by them all!
One last thing, this is one of lady's that came along again, she allowed me to use her picture of her, arriving back at her home! Don't you agree, PWR Beginners ROCK!
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| Yup, the course was on today! |
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