Beginners Week 4

Hello Blog readers.

Yesterday we had a fourth session of beginners running!  I was leading!  I just love doing this, watching each runner as they achieve their potential.  They are even surprising them selves!  It does your heart good in more ways than one when you start running, leading, encouraging others!

I think there were about 20 runners that morning, with some of our fabulous PWR's to help all those runners to keep on going!  Sometimes you have just have to forgo parkruns or racing to come and chat with these new budding runners!  Getting back to just running for running sake, running just because you can, is sometimes where you need to be!  And there is no better place to do it that than with the beginners! 

So there we are, with our magnificent PWR's volunteering, running around with our beginners we had a fab time!  We really did!  The weather held off, it had been raining sometime beforehand so it was a bit squishy in places, but that just makes for a nice soft underfoot, a massaging each step you took.  As usual we started with our two laps of walking. Walking is a great way of getting to know more about our beginners.  Time to chat, help them put aside all negative thoughts about whats going to come next.  Time to breathe, wake up a bit, get the lungs working, ready for the running.  After that we had a drills to get our muscles warmed up. Then it was the running.  With 4 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking, so began the step up to becoming a fabulous parkrunner and (hopefully) a PWR.

Everyone really did well, of course they were all thinking "When does this get easier"  Well, readers, we all know the answer to that don't we?  We just think about that fabulous feeling after we have finished the session, the run, the race!  Which ever one we have signed up for!

We end with our usual drills and that was that! All done until next week.....apart from the homework during the week!

Loving these sessions, love PWR!  What more can I say!

Club Run - So Wet!

Hello blog readers.

This evening it was club run, I wasn't leading, in fact I was that close to not even going!  The weather has been totally barmy.  Huge dark clouds this afternoon, lightening, and torrential rain!  I thought it was in for the rest of the day!  But thankfully it cleared up.  I was hoping to be running with a friend of mine from the club, a huge motivator for me to get my backside out of the door, but then I had a message saying there it wasn't going to happen!  By then I had already text Wendimoo and Auriol that I would be coming!  Oh my goodness readers, I was so close to staying under my lovely cosy blankets!  But Wendimoo has a very persuasive way about her and I got myself ready!

It was just slightly raining by the time I got outside J.J.s house, I felt a bit more relaxed about our run, maybe it won't rain anymore.  All through the annoucements it kept off, it wasn't even that chilly!  I felt sure we were going to have a nice dry run!  So with my running mojo hiding again, poor Auriol who was leading, having a sore knee and a couple of the the other runners in our group all wishing that actually they were home, we did set off!  Wendimoo was there, it was good to see her, so really, I was glad I came out.....mainly because she had nagged me to get out!

After all the announcements had been done we set off for our run.  Auriol went with her plan B route, easier on her knee, plus, if the rain did come down hard we could take a short cut home!  Everyone was up for that!  We ran along Crossways towards Petts Wood Road and crossed over.  The rain just started to come down just slightly.  "Maybe it won't get any worse than this" I thought to myself! Well, all the thoughts in the world could not stop the rain from falling down even more!  We ran along Willet Way and then down Priory Avenue, then on to St Johns and out on to Tudor Way.  Auriol had some sprints planned for us to do on the other side of the tracks!  But by the time we had gone under the bridge the rain was coming down quite hard!  It really wasn't pleasant!  I know this is typical British weather, and we should just suck it up and deal with it, but, I really didn't want to!  I think the others were just about grinning and bearing it all.  Auriol took us along to where were would start our sprinting, a loop of Nightingale, Lakeswood and Woodhurst, but it really was very wet, sprinting in that would not have been fun.  We opted to just head straight back to the rec from there, via Crest View.

We were all like drowned rats by the time that we got back.  There were another couple of people from another group who had decided to cut short their run too.  But do you know what, not one of us said 'I wished I hadn't come out"  It's amazing really, even though we didn't like being out in the cold, wet dark night and while we were running we were wishing that we were at home, we all still said "Well I am glad I came!"  We are the most weirdest people I think!!

Beginners Week 3 - RefMichael is Back!

Hello blog readers.

Saturdays seems to come around pretty darn quick!  But it's good, because I love Saturday mornings, I love watching the beginners realise, that they can do it! They can finish this course!

I got there with Naggy, she is still on sidelines encouragement as she heals from her broken toe, RefMichael was there, raring to go, Sherry was busy with the clipboards, we still haven't managed to get emails to all our beginners.!  One day, it will all happen so perfectly it will be scary!  All our lovely beginners were there, I am sure feeling even more amazing than they were that first week!

After Sherry introduced our RefMichael to all the beginners he got straight down to business and put them through their paces.  First with the warm up routines of skipping, butt kicks, sideskipping and karaokas (?) I think that is how and what you call that funny little twisty run that we do! Then it was our 3 minutes of running and 3 minutes of walking!  Same amount of run/walk ratio!  There were a few nervous giggles and chitter chatter going on, but, when I looked at all of them I knew they would all do so well!  I felt sure that from this week on they will go on to surprise themselves and really start to feel confident about their running!

The running section started and everyone was just so eager to get going they almost always forget about pace!  There is one chap that just wants to run off at speed but fortunately one of our PWR volunteers got along side of him to keep him focused on building stamina rather than speed!  Speed will come a bit later!  We always have a great turnout of PWR's to help with our beginners!  Even though it's RefMichael, ZippySherry and me, who are the leaders, we really couldn't do without our regular army of volunteers that come along.  Some forego their parkrun every week others come and join us every other week!  Brilliant, love our club.  I am sure the beginners appreciate them running along side them too.

Our running was soon all over, the chitter chatter turned to "Oh my goodness I didn't think I could do that" and "I was dreading this week but it wasn't as bad!"  It really isn't as bad, as long as you follow the program, you can and will run a 5k! 

RefMichael led them all through the cool down stretches gave them their homework to do and then sent them over to me, I still have some email's pinging back to me as incorrect, so I tried to upload them directly onto the google doc as they were standing there!

I am so looking forward to next week!  It's going to be brilliant!