Three Blogs in one

Hello blog readers.

Club Night

After a very 'bad' weekend, consisting of booze (well just 3 pints on Friday night)  illness, (I am sure it wasn't due to beer)  two takeaways (left overs on Friday and full takeaway Saturday) and chocolate (chocolate was medicinal of course).  I was really ready for a nice gentle jog with group 1's.  I knew I had someone coming back to the club after not running for a while so I chose my 'go to easy route'.  The nice flatish one that everyone enjoys.

We had 9 in our group, a nice number.  Some of our group 1's have moved up to the new group 1 1/2, exactly like they should be doing!  It was a great run, we all more or less stayed together, and I could see that there are still some runners who could quite easily move up to the next group, but I am sure they will try next move up week, or when they have enough confidence!

I kept the faster ones occupied by letting them run ahead at a bit of speed, I had Michael with me, he just wanted to come along in our group just for fun!  That's what we are like in PWR, a friendly bunch, and we just love to chat to everyone, even if that means running in a slower group to do it!

Geeky stats

Thursday Morning Run

So fairly up to date now, this mornings run was done in just perfect weather conditions.  The sun was shining and everyone was so looking forward to going through the woods.  Illustrious Leader was here too, she will be able to come most Thursday mornings now! Brilliant!  My route this morning including hills, of course it does, it's in the woods, and besides which, I need to still lose extra pounds before the big day next week!  So we went in through the woods via Poo Ally and turned left.  I wanted to go straight up the path that the PWR 10k took, so not along the rail lines and up Botany Bay, we could still see the flour on the floor that was marking tree routes and possible trip hazards.

We ended up at the top of the woods and then still continued upwards as we headed into the big posh housing estate!  It's lovely this route, looking at the lovely houses.  It's a pity that it's not possible to do a winter nights run down there with my group because I can imagine Christmas lights would be amazing down there.

After running up to the top we crossed over and then ran through Scadbury Park and then back over the road to our woods, running all along the side of the road and then down along the rail lines to Poo Ally!  It was such a lovely run this morning, we took slightly longer than usual but it was so worth it!

Geeky stats.

Track Session

I went to track session this evening, no shopping to do so no excuse not to!  I do enjoy track sessions though, I try very hard to push that little bit harder!  The session was an 8 minute warm up run and then 40 secs run with 30 secs rest, 90 secs run with 1 min rest, 4 mins run with 90 secs rest times by three!  It was pretty tough going, I didn't think that I would be able to keep going!  It sounds easy, mind you running for 6 minutes sounds easy, running sounds easy!  But it's not!  There were loads of runners there today, all trying their hardest, some are there training for the marathons, and for some that is coming in a about a weeks time!  Others are starting their training for the London in April next year.  Me?, well I am just trying to keep the weight off, initially, until the wedding, and then hopefully keeping it off and taking even more off!  I have proved to myself that I can do it, but then, with the stress.......excitement of the wedding finishing after next week I am hoping that I can still stay focused and not just give up and say, "well that's it then, all done, finished"

I must try to at least keep on losing weight and keep on with my training and running.  Getting in the doldrums would not be good, what with this stupid hormone changing thing happening I can imagine it would be quite easy for me to just say "Feck it, I can't be bothered!"  I must remember the feel good factors that come with finishing a run, race or track session with PhysioMiketheMod.

It was a great session, I kept going, I ran when I should have and I walked when it was rest!  I was working hard, even PhysioMiketheMod mentioned that I was sweating well, I didn't have enough breath to say to him that blokes sweat women glow!

Geeky stats

Solo Run

Hello blog readers

I had an early finish today, so I got back home, quick tidy up, put some washing on, put clean clothes away and chopped up some salad. There was only one thing left to do, and that was to get changed into some running gear.  I haven't been out running since Thursday and it was only the one in the morning as I had to go out shopping Thursday evening to get more stuff for the wedding!  I have been a bit under the weather since Saturday, in fact Friday I wasn't feeling 100% anyway, but I just put it down to tiredness.  This evening was the first since Thursday morning! 

Confession time, the weekend was full of big fat 'do not do's' if you are on a diet!  Beer, curry, takeaway, chocolate and in activity!  I really was feeling like crap!  I didn't even get out to do the beginners course because I was feeling ill.  Sunday I was feeling better, but still not right, chocolate seemed good to try and cure whatever it was I was suffering with!  Even this morning, in the early hours I woke up with a tummy ache!  It could be that I just had a very crap eating weekend!  Anyway, back on track this morning, it's only 2 weeks now to my daughters wedding, still time to lose a bit more weight....or at least to lose the extra pounds I just put on this weekend!

Well, that's the reasons and the excuses laid out for why this run was a particularly bloody hard one!  My legs just wasn't in it, my mind was somewhere else, just not on my running, my breathing was, well I was breathing, I guess that was good!  And my running style was just not even on a scale of bad to worse!  My head was down, I was tense and not relaxed at all!  My back was niggling just a bit which I think wasn't helping at all!  I tried to think about just being out, at least I am not sat on my chair watching crap t.v. eating yet more chocolate. 

Just running up Farringdon Avenue I could feel my shoulders starting to ache and had to just stop running and try to relax, shake out my arms and roll my head and neck and then get started again.  I started to think about my daughters wedding, try and get in a good mood, try and listen to some good tunes on my ipod.

Running along Southborough lane and my form is all but lost again, head down, and just not even trying.  I gave myself a telling off, after all these times running should be good!  "Head up Old Girl" I said, a still quiet voice was there, just briefly!  "Keep going, don't stop, no turning back, keep on running"  I thought, I just ran, head up, heart beating like crazy, just keep on running!  Before I knew it I was turning on to Turpington Lane and then on to Greenway.  On the way home now, passed the point of no return, back home for dinner, a nice salad with salmon fillets.  Hows that for healthy eating, mind you......there is still one last piece of chocolate......a pudding maybe!

Geeky stats.

PWR 10K - Report From The Rec

Hello blog mates.

Today was my clubs annual 10k! This year I am back on the rec in Team CoachHels!  I love being in the rec team, you get to see the start, the finish and all the bits in between!  NaggyNeighbour and her boy picked me up and we  went to the rec together to get our orders for the day.  I knew what my duties were for the day it was to help with out our sponsor Sinclair Hammelton. Both me and ZippySherry were to help set up the table and just help as much as was needed and then after we were on water duties.  So before that we had a walk around the rec so that all of Hels team were aware of where everything is, there were people busy putting up gazebos, the bbq's were up and ready, with the smell of bacon coming from our very own bbq, just for PWR volunteers.  The public had their own bacon stall, with tea coffee and cakes to be sampled.  All proceed from the cakes going to  our sponsored charities St. Christopher's, The Maypole project and the National Trust. So until our sponsor turned up I busied myself supplying teas, coffees and bacon sandwiches to those marshals already at their posts, baggage team, the Crossways entrance team and the Towncourt entrance team.

Here, these are a few pictures of the 'calm before the storm'

Registration team

St. Christopher's Team

Baggage Team!

A quick selfie

Katherine Sinclair and her team arrived and I went straight over to the table, ZippySherry and baby Gorilla was already there and we got stuck straight in to blowing up balloons!  Fortunately there was a huge helium canister there!  Made it a lot easier to do! 

Me with Katherine Sinclair!

It was busy, the people were coming in to pick up their numbers, their families staying around to cheer them on, it was such a perfect sunny morning!  It was positively summer like!  The bacon was smelling so good, the cakes on the tables next to us looked fantastic, some of them were baked by our very own PWR's and donated to raise funds for our charities.  We do have some master bakers in house!

Emma was doing the warm ups with the runners which meant that the start was pretty near.

Emma and baby gorilla!

I cant believe how quickly those two hours had gone!  I quickly went over to the start line to try and get a picture of those at the front, I managed to capture this chap, he is really fast!

The Start.
Alex, in the Orpington shirt

His name is Alex and he runs for Orpington runners!  He has been at track sometimes when I have been there.  So back to my duties with the balloons for half an hour more and then I was on water duty.  That's all it took for the first runner to come back.  He did it in 34:09, incredible!  We had to use a slightly altered route this year, because the rail people have still to put back the bridge they took out an age ago, so you can say that is a course record.  And if the rail people don't pull their finger out then people can quite possible try for a PB next year!

As soon as the last pen had started the race the whole rec team worked like magic to the get the kids race organised, the tables ready for the water and the bananas and also samosas, once again supplied by our favourite local curry house, the Raj Doot in Petts Wood.

It all went like clock work!  Team PWR work like clock work in the rec.  The people that were in the rec to support their friends and family were having a great time, the glorious weather helped with that.  The Sinclair Hammelton balloons were bobbing around the rec, the laughter and chatter happening on the green, the music and the commentary from our Paul coming over the loud speakers was smile inducing.  The races for the children was well under way, just the one lap around the green.  I remember once, in 2013, that very wet 10k, I decided that I would kind of run behind the kids, just to encourage them!  Well, they know no pacing, they just take off at lightening speed as if they have just been let loose in Hamleys to grab as many toys as they want for nothing! Paul was doing a great job of commentating on those races! If the kids needed to get rid of anymore steam then they could bounce away on the bouncy castle! The whole atmosphere in the rec was like one huge big picnic with a run added for extra fun!

There were bananas and samosas to hand out as well as the water, so from just after Alex came in......oh did I tell you, it was Alex that came in first, I managed to snap him at the beginning, but I couldn't get a picture of him crossing the line as I was a bit busy!  There was a steady stream of people coming in after that, including for the first time this year some PWR's as well!  Just 7 of them, we had 7 places to give away to our members, there were certain criteria that had to be met, but as it happened I think only 7 people applied anyway, so they all got the places anyway!  The first PWR back was our youngest member Matthew Pond!  He is a zippy fellow, one to watch out for in the future!  Once Fred and Wilma crossed the line we knew that all runners were back in the rec receiving a new design of our PWR's medal.

Fred And Wilma Fl

So almost all done, just a walk around the rec to collect as much rubbish as I could and that was it for another year!  You will notice that I haven't mentioned One Inn The Wood yet, well mainly because I was steering clear of them this year!  I have the wedding in two weeks and as I am busing trying to lose weight and keep it off avoiding the deliciousness of the brown beer had to be done!  But I know that One Inn The Wood is most definitely a much loved attraction at our 10k now!

Another great even put on by the most friendliest running clubs around! Can't wait until next year!

Solo Run And A Not Solo Run

Hello blog readers.

My daughters wedding is getting nearer and nearer, so much to do and really so very little time!  And getting fit and losing some pounds is still very much high on the list of 'to do's'.  So Wednesday afternoon I had an afternoon spare and so I decided to go for a run.  The weather was just perfect, not too hot or too cold.  I grabbed my tunes after getting my running kit on and was out of the door.  I really needed to run! 

Weddings, well, my kids weddings, always gets me nostalgic.  I was thinking about my own wedding. how my mum came with me to chose my wedding dress (even tho I had to cancel it because of an unexpected little person that I was growing!) We had such a lovely afternoon up in London. I was thinking about it all as I ran around my little 5k route, let me tell you I did get a little emotional!

But I did it, I was pleased I went out, there will be less days to be able to get out and run now as the date gets nearer.  So much to do!

Geeky stats.

Thursday Morning

This morning I had a chance to get out and run with the girls.  I got to the rec around 09:28, I looked at my Garmin as I was walking into the gate.  That's on time in my book!  There were quite a few people there, so it looked as if there will be 3 groups running out this morning.

There were six of us in my group, me, Tracy, LittleJ, K, PinkLadyJo and Paula. I decided to do one of my usual routes through the woods but in the opposite direction, as long as I don't forget to pop out of our woods and cross over the road to head for Scadbury.  

We had some beautiful weather again this morning, well, I should say eventually we had some good weather.  It really threw some rain down about 08:45 ish, just as all the kids have to go to school!  I am so glad that I don't have to do a school run anymore!  By the time it was ready for me to leave the house to head for the rec blue skies had started to appear as the dark rain cloud was heading off to rain on someone else!  By the time I got to the rec the sun was shining.  Which is why we were heading into our woods and not along the Cinder path by Crofton school!  I had made sure I had my old trainers on, just in case it was a bit sticky in the woods, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

We ran through Poo Ally, turned right and headed towards Orpington road.  We ran along the side of the woods until I saw the opening we needed to cross the road and go towards Scadbury.  Then we crossed over the road and ran towards Scadborough.  As we were running through we noticed the excavation site and went over to take a peak.  It's Scadbury Lodge and it's being renovated, but the archeoligcal society had been excavating in the area.  I am not sure what they had found, I think I should try and look it up. The cottage that is there being lovingly restored looks just gorgeous, with a new thatched roof!  Someone is going to be very luch to live in there.

We continued to run through the woods, taking another slight detour to look at another lovely house and then finished our run through Scadbuy.  We had to cross back over the main road and we headed down Manor way, passing the lovely house along there.  Back into our own Petts Woods to finish our run heading down the middle path to Poo Ally!

A lovely run and some lovely friends to run with!  

Geekys stats. 

Club Run - Going Backwards

Hello blog readers.

This evening it looked as if the whole of club had turned out for this evenings run.  Here, take a look at this picture, it's a bit dark but you can see them all lit up in their hi-viz!  We now have 14 groups going out! Groups 6 and 7 have been split so there are two group 6's and two groups 7's, we just have so many runners now in our club!

Michael on the left in the yellow, with JJ. by his right elbow!

In my group 1 however, there were 8 of us, 8 happy runners.  I had told them that we were going to do one of the hilly routes in reverse which means that all of those hills that we usually run up, well, we will be running down!  My group were very happy about that.....until K said, "Don't forget people, we still got to get up to the top of those hills before we run down them!"  Happiness lasted but just a few seconds!  Actually my group really love a hill......that's what I have been telling them they do anyway!  The challenge for me is to make sure that I don't actually go the wrong way!  I know that sometimes when I used to do a route in the opposite direction in the woods I get a bit lost!  I am hoping that the road signs will be a more helpful than a familiar looking tree, or a certain little opening in the woods!

I was in two minds whether to add the little extra bit in the beginning of the run because usually that is the bit of route that I could cut out if we were running out of time!  I was running along towards Kingsway, "Turn right or straight on" were the thoughts in my head "Stuff if, lets go for it, lets do the extra bit" I said out loud.  Michael heard me, he was all up for it, but then he usually runs in group 3 or 4 or is it even 5 these days?  He's doing brilliantly.  But for this evening Carole and Michael wanted to run in group 1 today, just to run with their friends for a nice gentle one! Carole, we love ya!

We ran up Kingsway and turned left along Towncourt and then we had that lovely run down hill once we got the top of Petts Wood.  It was round about then that my group was figuring out just where we were going!  Yup, right up Petts Wood Road to the big round about, and then we were turning left.  As long as we stay at group 1 pace we can do this.  All the way to the top, non stop from Crossways, we can do it!  And we did, Michael ran back to the back of the pack to stretch out his legs a bit more but we were really were running fairly tight together, not too big a space between me and the sweepers! 

I was really enjoying my run, just a nice steady group 1 pace, chatting away to Michael and Carole, Alison and Selena.  J.J. and Janet were doing brilliantly too.  J.J. has had a couple of weeks off from running.  People always 'fear' losing their fitness if they miss a week or two, but it doesn't go as quick as you think.  As long as you take it nice and steady, all those running sessions before the break will not be so quickly forgotten! Getting up that hill and still seeing some smiling faces, you know that 'you got this'!

I took them along Orpington Road, past the Tillingbourne Green turning (I think they all secretly pleased about missing that little pleasure) and took them to Malling Park road.  We are going to do the little loops around the streets, in the opposite direction of course, and then back to the main road to enjoy the lovely down hill of Birchwood!  It seemed a lot easy going this way round, and also it took away those thoughts about which hill you walked on and which hills we struggled on and which hill we ran up.  It's all backwards, it's all new, so we just had to see what we could do!

That running down Birchwood was great, relaxing, letting the hill do all the work.  It's almost like a rest!  I said that Michael could lead the faster ones back to the rec while I ran at the back with the sweepers all the way back to the rec.  A brilliant run with some fabulous running friends!  We love hills.......when we are running down them!

Geeky stats, its our K-9 route!

Members 10k - ish

Hello blog readers.

I woke up this morning and looked outside, a great day for running through our route in readiness for next weeks Petts Wood Runners 10k!  How I just love this particular event, first of all because it introduced me to PWR in the first place.  I first knew of them when I signed up to do this race way back in 2010.  Just a memorable year really, The PWR 10k on the 10/10/10 at 10:10 am!  I think they held back for those ten minutes that year! That was my longest run back then, and I loved the marshals and the route and the whole shebang that I just had to be a part of it.

The best bits of our even is the running through the woods, so that was the only bit that we will be doing (hence the 10k ish).  We all met up at 09:30 am, no need and listened to the leaders of the 5 groups that would be going out.  I was going out in group 1, IllustriousLeader was leading us through the route and I was going to sweep.  Some of our group haven't run further than the usual 5k that we do, they were really excited and a little nervous about it!

It had been raining during the night which meant that the woods will be a little sticky in places, I had made sure I put my old trainers on.  At the rec there were quite a few PWR's there to enjoy a Sunday morning run with pals.  Once the leaders announced themselves, and at what speed they were going at our group went immediately to the back gate to wait.  We were the cheering crowd to cheer them all on their way as all the other groups were doing the lap of the rec first.  Here is some pictures of the five groups.

And in group 1

We all followed after them and turned left instead of right, we just couldn't wait to get into the words and we were taking a shorter route!  Up to the walk over (troll) rail bridge, which is where the new route of our 10k is going to go, the railway still haven't put the bridge back in they took out last year! So all our runners next week will be running over the Troll bridge, I tell my group 1 runners that they have to run over this bridge as quietly as possible so as to not wake the troll!  Then they are concentrating on their running technique, just like PhysioMikethemod told me to do.  Things like that really do help, especially when you are feeling tired, it just gives you something else to think about, even if you forget to actually run softly and quietly! We were running along Crest view when the first of the faster groups passed us by.  I am not sure how many groups would be passing us, it could be 2 or it could be 3. Thankfully we were all running and not having a walking rest!

We ran through Jubilee park where we were overtaken by another of the faster groups, and then down Barfields Road.  This is the road that takes us back into the woods.  We ran all the way down and then turned right and had a walking break towards the gate that takes us to Goss hill.  I noticed a van at the bottom of the hill, I know this is where the railway people gain access to inspect and work on the railways.  As I got close I heard "Go on, keep running"  it was the Old Boy!  I popped over and gave him a sweaty kiss and ran on with my pals, who didn't even notice that I did that!

We walked/ran our way up to the top of Goss hill, I am sure there was a group already up the top that was taking a little break too! They had started running by the time I got to the top tho.  My group just had a little stop for a breather and some jelly babies!  Becky had bought along a much needed sugar boost for us all!  She had just opened the packed and the ZippySherrys group started to come to the top!  Once there were all there I took a quick selfie of us all, but I'm not sure if we had actually shared the jelly babies with them......there were quite a few of them!

I have not idea why we are all looking so bright!

That was the last of the groups that passed us,  we had the rest of the run to enjoy and not worry about being overtaken by the others.  IllustriousLeader led us all the way down Botany Bay Lane and along the rail tracks.  And then we ran back up the woods!  Memories of my very first 10k came back to me, how I hated hills, (still do) but how I just love the woods (I didn't back then though, I was a total city girl) I do remember thinking never again, give me pavements, give me 5k, give me a pint of beer!  The marshaling on that day though was truly inspiring!  I just loved how they cheered me all the way, I was one of the last runners too!  Their enthusiastic cheering did not diminish one iota!  That is what got me around my first 10k!  This time though I am thinking that I could use this path for a Thursday morning run and even for group 1 runners on a Tuesday evening during the summer!

Once at the top of the woods we continued along the top until we came to the sundial and then ran through the clearing.  We rejoined the middle path and headed towards Dog Poo Ally.  We had ran well over our usual group 1 distance and Kathy was very pleased with that, she felt that she had done enough though and wanted to head back to the rec. So while Illustrious leader led the rest of the group up the path towards Orpington Road I ran with Kathy to Crossways.  There we parted, she walked back to the rec to see if her husband was waiting while I ran up Birchwood to meet the group as they come out of the woods to run back down.  I had managed to get right to the top, almost before they came around the corner.  I am sure I.L. said that "We weren't really waiting around the corner, just so that you had to run up the whole of Birchwood" she said with a smile!  It was good to have a little challenge anyway!  I was hoping that I could push a little bit harder up the hill in time to meet them at the top anyway!

We ran back down Birchwood and then into the rec to do some stretching!  A fabulous run with some fabulous people!  Have I mentioned that I run with the best running club around!?  Thanks Anne for leading such an enjoyable run this morning!

Beginners Week 3

Hello Blog readers.

Week three already for our beginners!  Although a few have dropped out due to injuries and life getting in the way, we still have quite a number of very enthusiastic runners.  There were even a couple of people who decided to join us for the first time.  It's all exciting stuff anyway!  It was my turn for leading on Saturday, I don't know why, but I still feel like a wobbly jelly out there.  All I can think about is that I, this middle aged, slightly cuddly woman standing in front of these eager, excited, maybe anxious people,  "Oh my goodness, don't forget anything, don't forget walking, drills, and timing"  I have been on the leadership course, I know how to warm up, have some fun while we do it, but I still panic!  I know it shows in my voice! One session last year I am sure I did the drills first before even getting them to walk round the green first!

Nerves ignored I get straight down to business, asking about emails, and homework and stuff. Then it was the walk, the brisk walk to get the heart rate up slowly.  It's also a great opportunity to talk to people, for the beginners to talk to our PWR's about their homework they have done during the week, and above all to start forging running friendships!  We did the drills straight after and then we were ready for the session.

Three minutes of running and three minutes of walking. Equal amounts, and this is the last time that running will be less than the walking, from next week we will be running more than we are walking!  Already I was hearing positive remarks, "I didn't think I could ever run 1 minute and now I'm about to run for three minutes"  It just goes to show that if you build something up slowly it does work!  After we walked around the park we got straight into the drills, which were skipping, butt kicks, side steps and running backwards!

The start of the 3 minutes of running.  I told the group to take it easy, it's not a race, that comes later on, after graduation!  Hopefully by then everyone will want to be tracking down the bling!  Slowing down the pace will help you go faster later on, right now we are just building up the stamina, thinking about how to breathe properly while running technique as well.  The newbies who turned up on Saturday for the first time were doing really well indeed.  It's not easy coming into a course that has already started, joining in on the third week, but the ladies that did were doing brilliantly. 

We ran the rep 5 times, run/walk although I kept trying to pretend that we had done less than we had but everyone could remember exactly how many times we had ran!  It was all over in a flash!  It's amazing how quickly it goes and there it is, session no.3 done!  I know that all the ladies and gentlemen will be busy doing their homework  during the week because they all were so thrilled with what they have already achieved!

I am so looking forward to next week when they will be running for longer than they will be walking!  It's going to be great! Oh I do love helping out with the beginners, so rewarding!