I joined Burgess Hill Runners at the Lewes track last night for their monthly session there. Despite being an interloper (this is Kim’s club) I was once again made to feel very welcome indeed… they truly are a wonderful bunch of people and Stuart is an excellent coach!
I warmed up with a gentle 1600m, although when I say warmed up I mean just my muscles – my hands started to get incrementally colder with every passing minute from the moment I got out of the car! It was fweezing!
Next came hops, skips, jumps, scissors, running backwards and a stretching session to create a little pliability from the part-frozen bodies present. This was followed by a session where we ran slow until the whistle, then fast until the next, slow, fast, turning round to run the other way when it sounded twice. This enabled everyone to run at their own pace without stretching too far around the track.
The main course of the evening was the interval session, with 1,000m sprints followed by 200m walks, or staggers in my case as the session progressed. I started by trying to hang onto Stuart’s coat-tails but quickly found Jo’s pace (a few seconds slower at 3 minutes 55) more to my liking… at least for the first three intervals. The last two intervals I hung onto Jo until the 500m mark, then fell away to come in 100m back and then only 50m back.
Next came all-out 100m sprints with teams of three relaying. 600m later and I was very grateful when the circuit lights were extinguished!
We stretched out comprehensively by the light of the swimming pool (they looked oh SO warm in there!) and it’s a testament to Stuart’s stretches that I can still walk this morning! My hands even got warm again. But only after about 20 minutes in the car on the way home!
I’m already looking forward to the next session – if my behaviour in the meantime is good enough to get invited again!