Hello blog lovers.
Feeling a little jaded (after celebrating my 30th wedding anniversary yesterday!) and also very snotty I decided to do just one run today. With the philosophy of 'Germs above the neck' ok to run 'Germs below the neck' stay in with lemsips and chocolate.
I was expecting just the one person today, Auriol, for group zero so it was very nice to see a new member to the group, Ruth, who turned up today. She is a lapsed Group 1 runner and is wanting to get back into it. So she came along. It's just a shame that I am not feeling that well today.
As we still had the light, even though dusk is coming a lot quicker now, a jog through the woods would be most welcomed, I guess this must be the 'perks' of being a leader is that you can choose your favourite routes, and also the distance! The route we were going to do is one of the shorter ones, but as I was feeling not too good I felt that this would be enough for me, and also we have the uphill slope to do. This is a challenge for all of us in group 0 to see how far that we can get up there before we need to have a walk.
Today we all did pretty well, we can almost see the top of the woods, so that was most pleasing! My headache, too, had gone, now that could be because we are in the woods, it smells so fresh and all that lovely clean air is doing me tons of good, but I think that maybe the paracetamol was taking affect.
We all managed to run most of the way back, and we even managed to stay in there woods. We had the option of finishing our run by running on Birchwood, but daylight was still with us and we chose to carry on in the woods!
It felt great being out but I was pleased that I had chosen the shorter route as now I was ready to go home and look for the chocolate and sip on some lemsip!
Here's the geek stats.
Tuesday, 16 September 2014
Sunday, 14 September 2014
Sunday Recce!
Hello blog lovers
This morning was a perfect morning for our club's 10k! Well, we are a bit early for our 10k, this is a run through for our members! As it is such a pretty route, with lots of twists and turns, ups and downs, woods and pavements, it's the only time that we all can run it together.
When I got to the rec however, there was barely anyone there, just Hannah sitting in her car. I thought that maybe I had the wrong day! but soon after, there were more and more PWR's coming along. I think that we maybe had about 30-40 members, a representative from each group.
Groups 1-2 were going to be running together, 3-4-5 were another group and 6-7-8 were the last group. We all set off about 10 seconds apart. We were doing the full 10k which means that we ran around the rec first! It bought back memories for me from 2010, the first time I did this run as a competitor. My first run of that distance, my first run that I had 'competed' at. The race I did before I did the 10k, I saw as my fund raising fun runs.
This time however I wasn't nervous, I wasn't at all fazed by the distance or the terrain. No, this was my favourite place to run, and 10k just doesn't bother me at all anymore. Ok, it's still a tough distance, and I still run/walk it, but I have decided that is just me! That's the way I get through my running, so I am just going to have to work on running faster and walking faster!
We wasn't too far into the run, about 2 thirds, when our group split into two. We told David that we will (thats me Illustrious Leader and Hannah) run at our own pace. Besides which, it will give I.L. another chance to make sure she knows the route for her team of marshals in October.
We got to Goss hill and the faster runners were out of view. This hill always gets me. I have only managed to run up it in one go only the once, and that was when the Old boy was with me. But I thought I would try and try as hard as I can to run as much of it as I can. Half way up here, however, a chap with a rather wet and rather dirty smelly dog appeared on the footpath. It had obviously been in the stagnant pond and having fun! But know he was out and needed to have a shake! Guess who was in the 'danger' zone of the wet dog's excessive pond life? Yup, yours truly!
We carried on up the hill to find the the faster runners having a quick breather. They carried on soon after I arrived and then we walked for a bit after them. Just have this path, just on Botany Bay Lane is where I.L.'s marshaling patch starts. So she took the lead to reinforce the route firmly into her inbuilt satnav! Her patch is a mixture of downs little flat bits and ups! But because it's in the woods it just doesn't matter, there is just too much distracting you from the inclines!
There was just one spot, at the top of the woods which was a bit iffy, but as I had been on the the previous 'getting to know the route' run before I was able to point the right way! We ran passed the Willet Memorial, a huge stone in the middle of a clearing, it's to commemorate William Willet and his brilliant idea of the Daylight Saving!
We then joined the path that goes through the middle of the woods and headed down towards Dog Poo Ally, with a sharp left turn to do we continued through the woods. But this was a part of the route that neither of us was quite sure about. We took some paths and then headed on up again. We arrived at the exit of the woods just by the new bridge. Now I know we took the wrong path. But we carried on running, doing the pavement section. And there was no taking a short cut, even though I said that as we had gone the wrong way we may as well just go straight to the rec. But I.L. being the leader that she is said "No, we shall continue to finish the course" And so we did.
It' turns out that we still did just over 6 miles anyway, so we still covered 10k! But a lovely run, through some of the best woods that's around!
Geeky stats.
This morning was a perfect morning for our club's 10k! Well, we are a bit early for our 10k, this is a run through for our members! As it is such a pretty route, with lots of twists and turns, ups and downs, woods and pavements, it's the only time that we all can run it together.
When I got to the rec however, there was barely anyone there, just Hannah sitting in her car. I thought that maybe I had the wrong day! but soon after, there were more and more PWR's coming along. I think that we maybe had about 30-40 members, a representative from each group.
Groups 1-2 were going to be running together, 3-4-5 were another group and 6-7-8 were the last group. We all set off about 10 seconds apart. We were doing the full 10k which means that we ran around the rec first! It bought back memories for me from 2010, the first time I did this run as a competitor. My first run of that distance, my first run that I had 'competed' at. The race I did before I did the 10k, I saw as my fund raising fun runs.
This time however I wasn't nervous, I wasn't at all fazed by the distance or the terrain. No, this was my favourite place to run, and 10k just doesn't bother me at all anymore. Ok, it's still a tough distance, and I still run/walk it, but I have decided that is just me! That's the way I get through my running, so I am just going to have to work on running faster and walking faster!
We wasn't too far into the run, about 2 thirds, when our group split into two. We told David that we will (thats me Illustrious Leader and Hannah) run at our own pace. Besides which, it will give I.L. another chance to make sure she knows the route for her team of marshals in October.
We got to Goss hill and the faster runners were out of view. This hill always gets me. I have only managed to run up it in one go only the once, and that was when the Old boy was with me. But I thought I would try and try as hard as I can to run as much of it as I can. Half way up here, however, a chap with a rather wet and rather dirty smelly dog appeared on the footpath. It had obviously been in the stagnant pond and having fun! But know he was out and needed to have a shake! Guess who was in the 'danger' zone of the wet dog's excessive pond life? Yup, yours truly!
 |
| splattered legs! |
We carried on up the hill to find the the faster runners having a quick breather. They carried on soon after I arrived and then we walked for a bit after them. Just have this path, just on Botany Bay Lane is where I.L.'s marshaling patch starts. So she took the lead to reinforce the route firmly into her inbuilt satnav! Her patch is a mixture of downs little flat bits and ups! But because it's in the woods it just doesn't matter, there is just too much distracting you from the inclines!
There was just one spot, at the top of the woods which was a bit iffy, but as I had been on the the previous 'getting to know the route' run before I was able to point the right way! We ran passed the Willet Memorial, a huge stone in the middle of a clearing, it's to commemorate William Willet and his brilliant idea of the Daylight Saving!
We then joined the path that goes through the middle of the woods and headed down towards Dog Poo Ally, with a sharp left turn to do we continued through the woods. But this was a part of the route that neither of us was quite sure about. We took some paths and then headed on up again. We arrived at the exit of the woods just by the new bridge. Now I know we took the wrong path. But we carried on running, doing the pavement section. And there was no taking a short cut, even though I said that as we had gone the wrong way we may as well just go straight to the rec. But I.L. being the leader that she is said "No, we shall continue to finish the course" And so we did.
It' turns out that we still did just over 6 miles anyway, so we still covered 10k! But a lovely run, through some of the best woods that's around!
Geeky stats.
Thursday, 11 September 2014
Run Off!
Hello blog lovers.
I am really enjoying having my first born home, and it is showing! Of course on Tuesday evening I didn't go for a run with my club as I had a family celebration of my daughters wedding! Although she married in February because she was married in Australia we couldn't be there to celebrate with her. So when she and her husband was here we celebrated then! On a school night too! But that is only because her husband had to go back to the USA (where they both live now) the next day!
Of course it meant that Wednesday was a complete right off when it came to any for of exercise, it was had just getting out of bed! Today however, all is well, but then I was working during the day, unusual for a Thursday, which meant that I didn't get out for my 9:30 run.
So that just left me with this evening. I decided that I do really need to run off the heavy celebrations, I need also to run off the curry we had on Wednesday, due to the fact that none of us wanted to cook. I also needed to run off the 'inactivity'! Running to the rec for the 7 pm core and strength training was the only way I could think of.
A stressful day started to melt away as I started my run toward the rec in Willet Way. I took it nice and easy to the rec, just using the jog there as a warm up for the warm up laps. And we done two laps of the park, I am sure last week we only did one warm lap.
After that, and before we can say, 'What's next' DiscoRich was giving us instructions for the drills, five or six drills to the cricket crease with a jog back. There were still only four of us by the time we finished the drills, we had a quick drink and then we started with the speed running, doing the pyramids. At first it was quite easy, as there were four of us there was a nice little respite from the speed session, but then we had a late comer, Jo. After her warm up lap she started with the pyramid running along with us.
But then DiscoRich split us into two groups. Himself and Marmite in one group, and us ladies in the other group, three against two, doing the pyramids. Of course they will finish first, being as they had only two in their group, and they we faster than us and they were chaps!
Then it was the core training, we all chose a couple of core exercises to do, we did them for either one minute or a minute and a half! Why do I always chose burpees!! I do think this particular exercise is hard, and I am beginning to notice that I can do them slightly better than I used to be able to do. It must bean than I am getting better, surely!
After core training it was back to some more running. But we stuck with the pyramid running, but this time DiscoRich changed the team members, putting Marmite with Illustrious Leader and Jo and then I was in DiscoRich's team! So therefore I was running with a little less break between each cone run!
Our usual warm downs saw the end of our session for the evening. It was just then that I thought "Now I have to run home!" Maybe I could have been a little less enthusiastic on the speed running!
Still, it was still a great session, and we are still not ready to give up on our core training sessions just yet! Same time next week!
Geeky stats
I am really enjoying having my first born home, and it is showing! Of course on Tuesday evening I didn't go for a run with my club as I had a family celebration of my daughters wedding! Although she married in February because she was married in Australia we couldn't be there to celebrate with her. So when she and her husband was here we celebrated then! On a school night too! But that is only because her husband had to go back to the USA (where they both live now) the next day!
Of course it meant that Wednesday was a complete right off when it came to any for of exercise, it was had just getting out of bed! Today however, all is well, but then I was working during the day, unusual for a Thursday, which meant that I didn't get out for my 9:30 run.
So that just left me with this evening. I decided that I do really need to run off the heavy celebrations, I need also to run off the curry we had on Wednesday, due to the fact that none of us wanted to cook. I also needed to run off the 'inactivity'! Running to the rec for the 7 pm core and strength training was the only way I could think of.
A stressful day started to melt away as I started my run toward the rec in Willet Way. I took it nice and easy to the rec, just using the jog there as a warm up for the warm up laps. And we done two laps of the park, I am sure last week we only did one warm lap.
After that, and before we can say, 'What's next' DiscoRich was giving us instructions for the drills, five or six drills to the cricket crease with a jog back. There were still only four of us by the time we finished the drills, we had a quick drink and then we started with the speed running, doing the pyramids. At first it was quite easy, as there were four of us there was a nice little respite from the speed session, but then we had a late comer, Jo. After her warm up lap she started with the pyramid running along with us.
But then DiscoRich split us into two groups. Himself and Marmite in one group, and us ladies in the other group, three against two, doing the pyramids. Of course they will finish first, being as they had only two in their group, and they we faster than us and they were chaps!
Then it was the core training, we all chose a couple of core exercises to do, we did them for either one minute or a minute and a half! Why do I always chose burpees!! I do think this particular exercise is hard, and I am beginning to notice that I can do them slightly better than I used to be able to do. It must bean than I am getting better, surely!
After core training it was back to some more running. But we stuck with the pyramid running, but this time DiscoRich changed the team members, putting Marmite with Illustrious Leader and Jo and then I was in DiscoRich's team! So therefore I was running with a little less break between each cone run!
Our usual warm downs saw the end of our session for the evening. It was just then that I thought "Now I have to run home!" Maybe I could have been a little less enthusiastic on the speed running!
Still, it was still a great session, and we are still not ready to give up on our core training sessions just yet! Same time next week!
Geeky stats
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
Happy Running!
Hello blog lovers.
I feel real good this week, my gorgeous eldest daughter and her husband came home from the USA last night, it's the first time I have seen her since she because 'The Mrs!' So I was really excited to see her. So this morning while she was over visiting her nanny I got ready and ran my usual 3 and half miles. I had a huge smile on my face and I was feeling brilliant. It's helped that the sun was shining and it is lovely and warm outside.
I did have other plans today, otherwise I could have gone for a longer run, but that doesn't matter, it's good to be out running even if it was only a mile it would be good. I was in two minds which route I would take, but settled on the Turpington Lane route. Straight up to there, down Greenway, Magpie Hall Lane and then Southborough. I think the last time I did this route I was desperately trying not to beat myself up, but try and keep happy thoughts. Well today there was no beating up, I felt happy all the way round!
A great run today, it doesn't matter that it's not the fastest time, but it mattered that it was a good quality, feel good run! And this evening, well, it's going to be family time, meeting up with everyone to finally be able to celebrate all together my daughter and her husbands nuptials!
Geeky stats.
I feel real good this week, my gorgeous eldest daughter and her husband came home from the USA last night, it's the first time I have seen her since she because 'The Mrs!' So I was really excited to see her. So this morning while she was over visiting her nanny I got ready and ran my usual 3 and half miles. I had a huge smile on my face and I was feeling brilliant. It's helped that the sun was shining and it is lovely and warm outside.
I did have other plans today, otherwise I could have gone for a longer run, but that doesn't matter, it's good to be out running even if it was only a mile it would be good. I was in two minds which route I would take, but settled on the Turpington Lane route. Straight up to there, down Greenway, Magpie Hall Lane and then Southborough. I think the last time I did this route I was desperately trying not to beat myself up, but try and keep happy thoughts. Well today there was no beating up, I felt happy all the way round!
A great run today, it doesn't matter that it's not the fastest time, but it mattered that it was a good quality, feel good run! And this evening, well, it's going to be family time, meeting up with everyone to finally be able to celebrate all together my daughter and her husbands nuptials!
Geeky stats.
Thursday, 4 September 2014
10 to the Dozen
Hello Blog lovers
I do love Thursdays, and I do love Thursdays when kids are back at school! It means I get to run with my buddies from PWR for an extra run! Thursdays are jammed packed with fitness stuff!
It's the first morning session back after the school holidays but this one is a little different, as we will be doing some of the 10k route for our up coming event in October. Illustrious leader was there this morning and she wanted to go over her teams section. So she arranged to meet DiscoRich and David and the rest of the faster morning group at the bridge by the stream. I didn't have anyone running at my pace today so I said that I would also meet her there at 10:00.
We all took off, DiscoRichs group first doing the lap of the rec and out the back entrance, and me, I decided to go straight through to the woods, through Dog Poo Ally! I have never really paid attention to how long it takes me to get to certain places, I just know that I can do a certain route in a certain time (ish). So I really didn't know if I could go straight up the middle of the woods and then come back down to Botany Bay Lane and be at the bridge for 10.
So I decided that I was just going to take a few little paths at the side of Dog Poo Ally, and just make sure I didn't get lost and get to the bridge in time. So that's what I did, but I was still way too early by the bridge. So to fill in time I ran down to the river towards Botany Bay Lane and then up again, Still with time to spare I did some running up and down the stairs! Well no point it just waiting is there!
Soon I heard Illustrious Leader's voice on the bridge, and then moments later I heard the rest of the group coming along the path that I ran on to fill time! After quick chats David took the lead and showed I.L. where her section will start from and go to. I thought I had been running along the right paths all this time, I was generally in the right direction, but just the wrong path, so its quite good knowing the exact route. I may even run through these woods doing the PWR 10k as a solo run! Or even a Sunday run.
Once we started going back down to Dog Poo Ally I finished my run, I.L. went back to the bridge, and the rest of the group went left to finish some more of the 10k. A nice easy paced run today, and it's great to be back after the long school holidays running on Thursday mornings!
I do love Thursdays, and I do love Thursdays when kids are back at school! It means I get to run with my buddies from PWR for an extra run! Thursdays are jammed packed with fitness stuff!
It's the first morning session back after the school holidays but this one is a little different, as we will be doing some of the 10k route for our up coming event in October. Illustrious leader was there this morning and she wanted to go over her teams section. So she arranged to meet DiscoRich and David and the rest of the faster morning group at the bridge by the stream. I didn't have anyone running at my pace today so I said that I would also meet her there at 10:00.
We all took off, DiscoRichs group first doing the lap of the rec and out the back entrance, and me, I decided to go straight through to the woods, through Dog Poo Ally! I have never really paid attention to how long it takes me to get to certain places, I just know that I can do a certain route in a certain time (ish). So I really didn't know if I could go straight up the middle of the woods and then come back down to Botany Bay Lane and be at the bridge for 10.
So I decided that I was just going to take a few little paths at the side of Dog Poo Ally, and just make sure I didn't get lost and get to the bridge in time. So that's what I did, but I was still way too early by the bridge. So to fill in time I ran down to the river towards Botany Bay Lane and then up again, Still with time to spare I did some running up and down the stairs! Well no point it just waiting is there!
Soon I heard Illustrious Leader's voice on the bridge, and then moments later I heard the rest of the group coming along the path that I ran on to fill time! After quick chats David took the lead and showed I.L. where her section will start from and go to. I thought I had been running along the right paths all this time, I was generally in the right direction, but just the wrong path, so its quite good knowing the exact route. I may even run through these woods doing the PWR 10k as a solo run! Or even a Sunday run.
Once we started going back down to Dog Poo Ally I finished my run, I.L. went back to the bridge, and the rest of the group went left to finish some more of the 10k. A nice easy paced run today, and it's great to be back after the long school holidays running on Thursday mornings!
Core Training
Of course my exercises didn't end there for the day, oh no. We still have daylight so we are still doing the core training in the rec, ok so we have had to come in half an hour earlier to the rec, but we are determined to enjoy these sessions for as long as possible. There were ten of us today which included a little lad who is just like a like a little whippet! He is fast! He comes along with his mum, and he does our timing and if we need an extra in a team he joins them!
Anyway, we started of with the usual warm ups, and as DiscoRich is here as soon as we had finished that it was straight into drills! No talking, no what drills shall we do, no having a quick slug of water! Drills, drills and drills!
Then after that D.R. sorted out a pyramid run. The cones were set really far apart, and not just three of them, there were four! Plus, he set them out so that we were running slightly up hill! Talk about task master! But, this is what we are all here for. It's all about building speed, stamina and strength. So I tried my hardest along with all the other lovely ladies that was here, and the young whippet. In fact his pet dog just sat by the side and watched us!
Back to the bench after pyramid running and then core training. "I want a dozen push ups" said DiscoRich, and so we all drop down to give him 12. He stuck to the dozen them as each discipline we did a dozen of everything. Then to end the core training we did a 1 minute plank!
Relay racing was our next discipline, three teams with the whippet on timing duties! Ten minutes or so of relay running! I tried to keep up with the faster ladies but came in about 10 seconds behind them!
A great session, and I took my garmin, obviously not to look at the route but to get my heart rate recorded so as to get a more accurate stat for calorie burn!
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
Tuesday Club Run
Hello blog lovers.
Today was a good day. The sun was shining, I was busy doing things for my fabulous running club, (still tons of work to be done though) and I had a great run with group 1 this evening. There was no takers for the group 0 this today, so of course I had tons of energy (yeah, who am I trying to kid) to get around SingstarJo's planned route. Her planned route is the (Non Flat) Flat Route as we have affectionately name it!
Me and my buddies took up position at the back of the pack, which seems to have grown over the week! They have all obviously come back from their holidays and were keen to get back into their running. We also had a couple of new people to our group as well.
We set off in the direction of Cardiac Hill, but we will be running down it, always a relief! But then of course we do have the undulations from there until we get back. But today, although I was at the back, and not just because I volunteer to be sweeper, I feel the hills were at little easier this time round for this route. Now that could be be me wishful thinking that it feels easier, or it could be that I am building my running stamina up again, slowly slowly!
I do so enjoy running along with group 1, belonging to a club certainly keeps you running, even if its for that one club day a week, which some of our PWR's do. If I just did that, then I deffo wouldn't be able to graduate from group 0!
I don't think we held up the main group for two long, the built in stops gave us time to catch our breath, and I don't think the others minded to much. A brilliant run today, even though me and a couple of the other ladies went the short cut, being sweepers we like to make sure that those who need to take the short cut, well we like to make sure that they get back safely! That was our excuse anyway, three sweepers and two who wanted to take the shorter route back to the rec! Well, one of the ladies is actually two people, she has a little passenger! And the other lady is working her way back from injury!
Anyway, geeky stats
Today was a good day. The sun was shining, I was busy doing things for my fabulous running club, (still tons of work to be done though) and I had a great run with group 1 this evening. There was no takers for the group 0 this today, so of course I had tons of energy (yeah, who am I trying to kid) to get around SingstarJo's planned route. Her planned route is the (Non Flat) Flat Route as we have affectionately name it!
Me and my buddies took up position at the back of the pack, which seems to have grown over the week! They have all obviously come back from their holidays and were keen to get back into their running. We also had a couple of new people to our group as well.
We set off in the direction of Cardiac Hill, but we will be running down it, always a relief! But then of course we do have the undulations from there until we get back. But today, although I was at the back, and not just because I volunteer to be sweeper, I feel the hills were at little easier this time round for this route. Now that could be be me wishful thinking that it feels easier, or it could be that I am building my running stamina up again, slowly slowly!
I do so enjoy running along with group 1, belonging to a club certainly keeps you running, even if its for that one club day a week, which some of our PWR's do. If I just did that, then I deffo wouldn't be able to graduate from group 0!
I don't think we held up the main group for two long, the built in stops gave us time to catch our breath, and I don't think the others minded to much. A brilliant run today, even though me and a couple of the other ladies went the short cut, being sweepers we like to make sure that those who need to take the short cut, well we like to make sure that they get back safely! That was our excuse anyway, three sweepers and two who wanted to take the shorter route back to the rec! Well, one of the ladies is actually two people, she has a little passenger! And the other lady is working her way back from injury!
Anyway, geeky stats
Monday, 1 September 2014
Motivating Monday!
Hello blog lovers.
Three Positive Things.
Point 1
I went out running! Nothing was going to stop me today from getting out for a 3 miler, Work was over and done with early, meetings done first thing this morning as well as shopping! House was tidied and the rain was coming down. But I was going out rain or shine!
Point 2
It had stopped raining! Ok, so I was going to go whether it was raining or not. but starting a run in the rain is not so........inspiring. I don't mind when the rain comes after I have started, and in some cases I welcome it. But to walk out of the house with maybe just a tiny little spot of rain left over, it was probably rain drops blowing off the roof and the trees, that was coming down on me than actually from the sky!
Point 3
I didn't beat my self up because it was a slow run for this particular course! So what if it was slower, I was still faster than some others that were just sitting around doing nothing, Still more active than most people around, even the ones that go to work! And I was trying to keep happy thoughts in my mind. I even walked past the Chequers pub that I make myself run past, because I want to show off about being active! My running is not about that, it's not about racing and it's not even about the bling (although it is just so good to have to look at) My running is about me, about keeping fitter that I used to way back before 2008. And that's what I have done!
What's more to say about this run?!
Geeky stats
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