Tuesday 17 June 2014

Club Runs! Woods and Tamac!

Hello Blog lovers.

Yay! It Tuesday again, a busy day with the whole keeping fit thing!  Cycling in the morning, some attempt at housework in the afternoon, and the running two runs in the evening!  Brilliant!

As per usual my cycling blog will be on the cycling blog ("where else would it be?" I feel you all asking) And so to record my club runs today.

I met up with my group zero to hero people at 7:00 pm.  Another young lady came back to the fold after being away for some time, and is quite pleased that its here at this time.  Her hubby has only gone and joined PWR as well, so they have the whole babysitting issues!  But it's good that they are getting fit, and showing their young children just how things should be!

After my 30 odd miles this morning on my bike, I was going to take it a little easier on the legs, but still keeping it a challenge for the group.  The route today was going to go straight up the middle of the woods, and the turn right at the top!  We are doing Birchwood route in the opposite direction, for two reasons really.  One is to stop any of those negative thoughts about yourself, when you do a usual route, all those marker points in your mind has now gone out of the window.  So there is no more "Right, this is the bit I walk at" or "Oh yes, I usually feel really knackered round about here!" 

And two, is because the nice long Birchwood road is always tough to run up it, and it's good to be able to run down it!  What I didn't really realise is that going the usual anti-clockwise direction the path running parallel to Chislehurst road is also still continuing upwards, although ever so slightly!  So going the other way round was just perfect, everyone had a great time!  Anyway I am running ahead of myself (excuse the pun)

The first of the hill!  Up the middle of the path and all the ladies were doing well.  Of course this group is about going at a pace that you are comfortable with, to build your stamina up at your pace without any pressure to go faster than your are ready for.  The ladies today did brilliantly, getting to the top of the hill, with maybe just one or two little walking paces for a couple of us.  And then it was the right turn. 

It's funny how things look at little different going in the opposite direction to what you have done before.  I haven't ever taken Group 0 in this direction before! Can you believe that? I have always gone straight up Birchwood, and then turn left. And when I go up the middle of the woods I usually always turn left then as well! So it was a new experience for me too.  and I just hoped that I would take one of the many paths that lead off to places I didn't want to be!

But it all went well.  The ladies were flying along.  It was then that I realised that it is all on a slight decline almost from the moment we turned right in the first place!  We were really moving and I just knew that we would be back in the rec in plenty of time, in fact we will have time for a loop of the park as well, just to start building in more distance!

When the more noticeable downhill section came, just by the railway lines, we were all really relaxed having enjoyed all of the slight down hill declining path!  We cam out of the woods through 'Dog Poo' ally of course and to add a bit more to our legs (stamina training and all that) we ran up Towncourt lane! When we cam to the rec I told the ladies to go through the gate and turn right, to go around the green.....while I just went straight to the pavilion!  A case of 'do as I say and not as I do' situation going on.  But I did assure the ladies that I would be running in group 1 at 8:00 pm!

A great run, the ladies enjoyed it, I enjoyed it and that is all that matters.  Keep things fun and enjoyable and you are more likely to keep on wanting to do it!

Geeky stats.



Group 1

Sherry was taking group 1 today.  Now Sherry loves her running, and if the group keeps up then she keeps on running!  Sometimes we have had to 'reel her in' as she has been really enjoying the run.  The pace sometimes gets forgotten about!  But sometimes that's good! It challenges us.  Just like when DiscoRich helped out at Group 0 a few weeks back and the Heroes kept up with him, even though he was really upping the pace! 

But guess where Sherrys route was going to take us? Well, it was an interesting route to say the least, well after, that is, doing almost the exact same route I did with group 0!  Her way had us running up Birchwood, on the outside of the woods, and then running down Birchwood, on the inside of the woods, and then back up in the middle of the woods, just as I had done earlier!

But, how can I complain!  It's the woods, I just love it!  But I realise that not everybody has this love of running through trees, and tree routes, and nature.  Sherry had devised a route that would almost have 50/50 roads and woods!  Anyway when we ran up the middle of the woods, coming up a path to out left was Mr. S.  He had become separated for his group, I believe that will be all I shall be saying about that.  But he decided that he will finish his run joining us in group 1. 

Mr. S has such a sense of humour, and is loud and proud and we just love him.  Whilst running along he just comes out with random jokes, and one that made me chuckle was (and by the way I am useless and telling jokes) A man bet a woman that he could make a car out of spaghetti! She thought he was being ridiculous but she soon shut up when he drove pasta!   All these sorts of jokes while we are running along!  The laughter or groans goes a long way to help ignore the niggling aches and pains and the 'I want to walk now' thoughts that are going on!

Anyway, so after getting to the top of the woods, we turned right! And then ran along the same route as I did earlier! Brilliant, loving it so far! But then she took one of the paths that I mentioned earlier, and we came to the road and crossed over and turned right.  We ran along the road for a bit before turning left into the woods. 

We ran through there for a bit and then popped out onto a road that I didn't recognise.  Where I thought we would come out.....well.....we didn't!  I deffo have to keep an eye on where the leaders go!  I know we have been this way before, but I can never remember how to get there.  This is why I love running in groups.  Going different places, different routes, different challenges.  Love it!

Eventually we ran along to somewhere where I did recognise and I knew that we were not very far at all now.  One of the group members was struggle a little, however, and the group leader Sherry still wanted to go just a tad further to make it to at least 3.5 miles.  But I said that I would run the shorter route (down Birchwood on the outside) and meet everyone else back at the rec!

A great run with group 1 today, a challenge for me to try and get up the hill a second time was great, even though I didn't quite make it!  I shall have to keep on doing longer runs!

Geeky stats for group 1

No comments:

Post a Comment