RunCamp part 2

This morning was my second Run Camp (part 2) session . I tried to make the early start better by getting my clothes ready last night… By I wasn’t prepared for the weather when I got up. Yesterday, was beautifully warm and sunny, but it was raining hard at 6am today. My orange t-shirt went back into the drawer to be replaced by a turquoise and yellow one that vaguely matches my turquoise and purple jacket. The positive was that I got to wear one of my new Bondi bands (“You can be tired when you’re finished!”… Apologies to American readers, but I wish it said ‘you’ve’ instead of ‘you’re’ – that’s the geeky English teacher in me!)

Stuart is still recovering from London Marathon, so I went to the session on my own. Fortunately, Katherine and Jenny were there. We did our usual warm up with some high knees and kick backs, followed by some leg swings, before we went over to the usual path. I quickly observed that Any wasn’t carrying his ‘bag of tricks’ (mini hurdles and cones), so I thought we might be in for an easy session. However, we started out with some A skips and B skips:

I feel so awkward when I do them – they just don’t come naturally to me at all.

Drills at Run Camp

We then did three reps of drill sequence:

• 500m run up the hill/gentle incline and back
• 20 second rest
• 12 low squats on left leg (holding partner’s hands)
• 12 low squats on right leg
• twig hopping*
• 12 jumping lunges (alternate legs).

I did the first km in about a 5:25 pace. We were meant to be doing it at our 5k pace, so that was rubbish, although it accurately reflects how I’m running right now. The second 5k I did at about the same pace, and the last one I did VERY slowly. I was beaten by Jenny on all three legs and by Katherine on the second two. Again, I blame my weight gain and bad diet for me being unable to move more quickly!

*Twig hopping was a variant on the hurdle drills we’ve learned, but Ant kindly gave each of us our own stick. We had to hop forwards and backwards over it twelve times on each leg, and then turned the twig 90 degrees and then hopped over it sideways twelve times on each leg. At last, an exercise that seems relatively easy for me!

When I got home I wanted to cheer myself up, so I had a look at what was on offer on SportPursuit. Why did I do that? I knew I would end up spending money! I’ve now ordered another trisuit and a tshirt!

My diet has been rubbish for weeks now, so maybe some new clothing will make me want to lose weight.

This evening, I finished writing my application to train as a coach at my running club. Fingers crossed my application will be successful!

Tomorrow is parkrun time. Most of my friends are going to the inaugural Winchester parkrun, but I’m going to go to Southampton parkrun to catch up with Gary and some others.