So, second week in and, apart from a pulled muscle in my
collar bone (yes, I know you don’t need to say anything, only I could injure
myself in such an obscure way), I’m feeling pretty good about myself.
This week the Green group saw themselves having to leave the
relative safety of the park and run on the mean streets of St Albans. Across
roads and everything - yes, it IS as scary as it sounds. Although I did feel
for the Amber group who apparently had to do hill training on the Tuesday. Sorry
guys, rather you than me.
Tuesday, we met the lovely Julie who will be our run leader
for the Tuesday sessions going forward. As an ex ‘Get Started’ member herself,
she detailed exactly what we would be doing in our session and instilled the
group with confidence. More intervals – running for up to 5 minutes in total
with one minute walks around Prospect Road, Cottonmill Lane, Holywell Hill, the
Abbey and of course the obligatory lake circuit. The group found itself
inadvertently playing a game of ‘Simon Says’ as we ran – bellowing all
obstacles that would cross our paths. Starting with Julie, it would then echo
its way down the group much to my amusement (they don’t call me Foghorn Leghorn
for nothing). What the residents of St Albans would have made of us I don’t
know, but definitely kept my mind off the fact I was running for 5 minutes
straight. Mileage for that session was 2.65 miles.
Thursday was particularly tough for me. The flatmate was
suffering from a nasty cold and had decided she wasn’t going to join me on the
session so she wouldn’t exacerbate it. Along with the freezing, drizzly weather
I must admit I was very tempted to ‘Bunk off’, stay in my nice warm house and
watch rubbish television with her. But apparently you get runner’s guilt very
quickly so I soon found myself shivering by the running track at 7pm with calls
of ‘Blogger, you’re back’ from the other Striders.
Abby was our run leader
again, and apparently was still as evil as the week before, in the nicest
possible way! This time, she got us up to a 6 minute run and up a very steep
hill. Although I MAY have complained all the way throughout this run, Abby was
fantastic at keeping us going and congratulating our efforts and hard work. We
ran for 2.89 miles (so close to that elusive 3 miles.... maybe next week). I
also managed to run my fastest mile, so in effect I can already run for faster
and for longer, my recovery is already much better and it’s only my second
week. Thank you so much Abby & Julie!
I can’t believe what I have achieved already and how quickly
my stamina and endurance has built up with running. Of course, having a group
of like-minded individuals helps, and the camaraderie is great. Whether you’re
growling at each other over a particularly vicious hill (when I say growling, I mean the sound a dog would make rather than being horrible to each
other), or encouraging other members who might be struggling that they CAN do
this, having this kind of support is not something I would have expected would
actually help so much. And what is really great is that there is no
competitiveness. We’re all in this together.
The homework for this week is 5 min and 6 min runs with a
hill. I think I’ve got my course mapped out and am planning on doing it
Saturday morning with the flatmate. And if I think I won’t? That old runner’s
guilt is there to chivvy me on.
Jemma Western
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