Thursday 16 June 2016

From Gentle Running to Running like a steam Train!

Hello blog lovers,

My Thursdays will be a bit different for a while.  If I can get a run on a Thursday morning that that will be good! So today it was good to get out at 10:30 to meet up with Tracy.  She has been off for two and a half weeks with injury! She said she is biting at the bit to get back at, running again!

So I went to hers to see how she can achieve this. When I saw her walking just briskly I thought "This is going to be tough for her!"  I was thinking that maybe jogging would be difficult let alone running.  So our warm up walk is so going to be necessary!  To keep it to a nice pleasant route we went through Jubilee park and not down Southborough Lane which I first planned on!

We walked up to the top pass the library and then turned left into Crest View Drive.  From there I suggested she just run for 30 seconds, no more than that.  As soon as she did I could see she was struggling, I was thinking that maybe we will just walk to Bickley Manor and then back again.  She did try and have another run, but I think we both knew that it would be best to just walk it.

When we were walking back I had a brilliant idea, I wasn't sure how she was going to feel about it!  But I thought, just a couple of exercises, out there on the grass, in front of everyone, if there was anyone around, and just see what we can do!  She agreed!  So I started to think about a couple of exercises that could strengthen the core, the glutes and the upper body!  When we got back into the park and the open space I looked at the grass!  It was longer than the grass that was in front of my house up until yesterday, and almost as long as one of my neighbours!

I noticed that the paths had been cut, so we are just going to have to  requisition a quieter one to do our session.  The first one was squats, just 10 of those and then it was on our fronts to do some planking, about 30 seconds.   Straight on to our backs to do some ab crunches, just gentle ones, lift the shoulders off the floor.  I thought that would be enough, and I said about doing burpees next time. "Whats that?" she asked, so I showed her.  She wanted to have a go at that too!  So five burpees done!

After that we walked along to finish the route.  But just as we walking along I asked her about the way she ran.  She was landing very heavy footed, and I was wondering if that was aggravated her injury more!  So I told her about the PhysioMike's Scooby Doo style running. This I have told her before, when we run over the walking bridge, keep light on your feet, run on the front of your feet.  She tried it and she said it felt better!  We finished our walk once back outside her house.  She was so pleased that she did it, made a start to get back to running!

Here's our geeky stats, but you will noticed that there is extra bits in there, and that's from my house to hers, from hers to Bickley and back and the from there to back home!  Was good to get out, and just what I needed too.


Core Strengthening and speed.

With the threat of rain supposedly happening at some point to today I was really hoping that it was going to be during our session this evening.  But I am sure it wouldn't have stopped most of us getting out there anyway.  DiscoRich was in lead position again and he had some new plans for us.  Easy plans for us in Groups 1, 2 and 3 at least.  He has obviously noticed the quality of our running, and needs to protect us from being overtaken too or pushed to much on the first warm up laps.  He splits the group into two, the slower groups take the inside line and the faster groups take the outside line and we run around the rec to get warmed up!  Perfect, I think we all finished the first lap together.  And then for the second and even third warm up lap we had the choo choo trains!

I know I have mentioned the 'train running' before, its where we run in a straight line and then on the sound of a whistle the runner at the back runs to the front and leads the line, and so on and so forth. I decided to 'cheat' a little, by going in the front.  I thought that maybe he would blow his whistle to finish before I had to do the fast sprint!  But, just to show me that cheating is no good (just as that bloke from TOWIE sister!) I soon found out that maybe being the first one to sprint would have been better!

I can't remember all the names of my running buddies in my group but there there were, one after the other getting in front......and making the pace quicker each time!  JennyLongLegs sprinted on past and that was it! The train that I boarded was a nice slow steam train, JennyLongLegs comes along like a Japanese bullet train! Mind you, she has done so well with her running, moving on up from group 1 to group to group 2.  Becky was next (I think) but with each runner after that the train stretched longer and longer!  (just like concord used to do, I believe and that's how fast we were running).  So when it came to my turn to run to the front I got there and immediately put on the brakes!  Just so that Auriol and me could catch our breath!  It was good fun though.  And we had to do it twice!

After that it was a quick drill session, the quickest drill session with only one drill done and then we were into our speed running.  Pyramid running to three cones all set out about 100 meter intervals.  We were to run at about 80% of our maximum to each of the cones, first to the 100 meters, then run back to start, then to the second and run back, then to the third.  It was tough going!

After that we had our core exercises, with some of the exercises I did with Tracy included!  Laying on the damp grass again!  After that it was our favourite running, parlufs, or relays!  On my last leg of the relay I set off with the baton to give it JennyLongLegs after Auriol had handed it to me.  Becky was about 40 ish meters in front of me. "Right" I thought, "Old girl you need to race, just catch up to Becky and run next to her"  I thought it maybe a bit of a tall order, but I focused in on her, I imagined drawing her nearer to me, closing the gap, getting faster.  I couldn't believe it when the gap did start to close.  I even started to think I could beat her to the next base!  I was just slightly on her left, so I had the inside lane but I kept at it, running faster, Ralph and someone  else (sorry didn't see who it was)  ran on the very outside passing both me and Becky!  "Go on Old Girl"  Becky said as I passed her! 

We got to the next base and I stopped!  I did it! "Thanks for the race!" I said smiling!  It was just as well that was the very last leg I had to do.  We went back and did our cool down stretches!  a great session this evening, and not a raindrop in sight!

Geeky stats, just mainly for heart rate, I like to see if I could work a tad harder!

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