Club Night - And Short Sleeves!

Hello blog lovers.

Group Hero

Well, what a brilliant night it turned out to be.  First of all, turning up at the rec in broad daylight was just brilliant.  It's nice to see every ones faces for the first time in what seems like ages! And then also to see CupcakeMoy who is back among the fold again.  Six members today, and because I was not organised it was just me with my whistle to keep the group together. Denise was back with us as well, after her fall last week it's always a bit scary coming back out again.  But, runners are runners, they just get on and do it!  Also here in the capacity of just 'coming along and see how I do' is SingstarJo.  And because I have seen her name of facebook I feel I can add it here!  And I was most pleased she was here as well because she kept Michelle company at the back, while I sorted of floated between the others, well the others that were just in front of SingstarJo and Michelle.

I was still aching a bit from my 6 and half mile run yesterday, I think its because I didn't stretch out properly after it.  I just came in a quick, 15 second stretch and then collapsed in my chair. Not good, and certainly not what we do at club runs!

Anyway the route today, was the Birchwood route.  I will find a nice 2.5 mile route through the woods soon, get group Hero back to where we belong running, PWR's woody trails!  Fresh air, traffic free, muddy bits (just a few remaining spots now) and peace! That's what its all about!

The up hill of Birchwood seemed like ti was just a slight bump with everyone easily running up it non stop! Various differing paces, but they all just got up it on the hoof!  Made me very proud.   I was also doing the loop backs with them.  And just to be a little demon, I whistle them when they were running up Birchwood!  The came back to me running at their usual pace.

I did the whistle trick a couple of other times.  But I think they were feeling a little as the last couple of times I used my whistle, they just jogged on the spot!  But that's what its all about.  We all started off together and we will all finish together.  Anyway, back to the run.

The nice down hill section was welcomed by us all, it feels good to just let the downward pull of the hill take you over, and all you had to do was just lift your feet up! Simples.  Towards the end of the down hill section, I asked if S.S.J. wanted to do the very short cut and get back to her car, but she kept on with us.  Just doing the nice gently easy pace is just what is needed to help boost your confidence about running after an injury, and it also just let you know exactly how much you can push yourself without hurting yourself again, and also without the pressure of keeping up with others in the faster groups.

We managed just over two and bit miles, along with the warm down and warm ups we were back at the rec just as the first of the 8 o'clock runners arrived.  A great run this evening, and I feel very blessed that I can be here to help and encourage all our runners back to fitness and get back to group 1 pace and maybe even beyond that.

Geeky stats for you.

Group 1

It was still quite light when all the runners started to arrive at the park.  It really is great to see familiar faces with the familiar voices coming from them.  It's all seems such a long time ago!  Our Leader today was Illustrious Leader.  She described this route as fairly flat with just the hill at the end.  Well, as I have said before, beware when leaders say 'It's fairly flat' because you just know there is a couple of nasty little blighters hiding among the flat bits.

I was being sweeper again today, along with Janet. This is her first run since holiday away, so she said would deffo be at the back.. Still has holiday indulgence to get rid of.  I can't believe how my legs still hurt.  Even though I did the warm down stretches with group 0 I still feel very achy.  I was really going to have to be tough on myself to keep up with the others today.

The first test was St Johns road.  It is a slight incline up.  I kept on the road to run, keep away from the ups and downs of the driveways, and keeping away from the tree roots.  I was still behind the main group and there was a bit of a gap, but I tried not to let it get too big a gap.

We were going to turn right, cross over the road and then turn left.  This road leads to a dead end, (probably what I will feel like when I get there!) where I.L. will send the front runners to do a little loop back while the back markers and anyone needed a rest will wait by the little path way which we will take. 

After this it was doing a little twiddly bit before heading up to that dreaded hill, Cardiac Hill.  It's a frightening hill if you hear the name for the first time. In fact its a frightening even if you know the hill!  I was going to try and do as much running on it as possible.  Jan was there to help me get up it.  Using the same tactics that I used with her when she first started running.  See how 'The pupil becomes the teacher'!  But not matter how much you run you can always use people there to encourage you on to do you best!

I did run up some of the hill, not all of it, but that is something I am going to have to work on. I may even use this route to create a long route for me next Monday! It's going to be 7 miles or so next Monday, and I do need to practise hills!

After we ran the hill we headed back towards Crossways, now Jan noticed that either the group were running slower or we were just keeping up nicely with them because there was hardly a gap between us!

It was a good run, and so very warm!  I was absolutely sweating......oh hang on there was something said by the ladies earlier that 'ladies don't sweat, we just get warm' or something.  Well I was warm, very warm!  My face was so warm I felt it melting on to my tee shirt!  Brilliant!  Love summer, even though running during warmer days seems to be tougher than running in the winter!  But just love it!

Oh and I did mention to the ladies that I really fancied one of the cold cans left over from mothers day celebrations, chilling nicely in the fridge! Yeah, that went down a treat!

Geeky stats for you.