Thursday Woody Venture!

Hello blog lovers.

It's great to be back into the fold and back to running through y beautiful woods!  It's all great stuff having a holiday and I just love going to different places, but it don't 'arf play havoc on your waist line! 

Today I lead out group 1 paced  run through the woods.  I know there has been some rain about, but I was hoping the two days of sunshine has kept the old puddles at bay. There were quite a few members today for group 1, six of us were heading through the woods, I had a basic idea of where I shall be taking them, with maybe a little detour if I think we need just a little bit extra distance!

As it happened the woods were a tad sticky in places and we all had to step our way around them.  It seems they all pretty much know that if I lead then it's through the woods we go!  They won't be bringing their brand new running shoes on a Thursday morning run!

Now that I have given out my target goal weight I am going to have to work hard to help it all come off!  Going through the woods always guarantees a hill somewhere along the line!  This morning it was Botany Bay Lane.  I stood to the side to let all the others head on up the hill as fast or as slow as they want!  I knew that I was going to struggle getting up there, holiday belly is reminding me that we had great time away for a week, despite the 4 days of running!

I am hoping over the next 3 months to really push myself as hard as I can but without losing that "I just love being outside running" feeling.  There is nothing worse that trying to do some physically hard that you really don't enjoy or has become a chore!  I did that during the marathon training during 2012!  Although I am going to be training like I have a marathon to do!  Why not, you can never know what's around the corner!

I watched as the group made their way up the hill.  They all did really well!  I did the rest of the leading from behind!  We were going to go straight to the very top this time, to do our only other small bit of road work before going back into the woods along Chislehurst road.  We were running along one of the group members training patch.  I believe she has come from the spring beginners group, and she completed her first park run last Saturday.  The shoes she is running in are the FFV, vibram running shoes.  They have the little toes in the shoes and they are for barefoot or minimalistic running!  Not usually for the beginners, but she has been doing things bare foot for a long time, she tells me.

Anyway, after going through the woods on the other side of the road we crossed over again and headed back towards Chislehurst!  Why would I chose to do that?! Well, we still had a bit of time left and also it added just a little bit further to our run.  Everyone seems to be having fun so.....why not!  It meant that we had the nice long down hill section of the run all the way through the middle of the woods, one of my favourite paths to run down!  Running up it is not as fun! But I know that when I have run up it then that is more or less the hills done!

It was a great run today, the ladies in the group certainly enjoyed it. Here is the geeky stats.

Thursday Core Training

It's back!  The core and speed training!  This is great fun despite what all the groans and moans we hear!  "Oh thank goodness that's done," and "Quick blow the whistle"  we are all really enjoy pushing ourselves just that little bit extra to see what we can get out off ourselves.

I decided to cycle to the rec where we all meet up and when I got there they had just started on their warm up lap.  I didn't mind too much as I was pretty warmed up from the short cycle ride anyway. 

First off was the drills, knee high runs to the end of a set of cones and jog back, then butt kicks followed by twisty turning side runs, or just ordinary side runs. Then it was the first of our running sections.  We had to run about a third of the way around the rec and about 80% of pace that we can manage and then the next third was just a nice little jog out before completing the loop! That was to last about 10 minutes. Then straight into the core training stuff.

This is where all the moans and groans come from!  But you know that people are just happy doing it!  I'm glad we were not given burpees today, because I really do thin there would be a few more groans!

After that it was the second of our running sections.  A relay style running.  This year we have batons to use, which means it's just that tiny bit harder as you can call from 100 yards away for your team mate to start the run, you had to actually hand the baton to them.  No cheating! Darn it!  But it was great fun!  And it felt really good to be passing and taking a baton!  I don't think I have done that since I was at school!

I didn't take my Garmin to this session, but I may take it next time, and use the HRM to make sure that I am training at the best level I can do!