I feel great. I’m sitting in the office with the heating on, and a hot water bottle in my lap, drying out from the Tuesday morning track session that was rudely interrupted by persistent rain.
“Why do we do this to ourselves?” Claire question mid session, “we are paying for this, we must be mad?” she added.
At the time I would probably have agreed but the feeling of satisfaction as I dry off and note down my latest thoughts, was well worth the exertion. 11 of us ignored the weather forecast to push our limits this morning around what is an excellent, underused facility.
Hopefully as this latest initiative from Play Sport gathers momentum more of you will brave the winter conditions to seek that improvement in your fitness and running. I’ll certainly be there to offer encouragement each and every Tuesday morning, whatever the weather chooses to throw our way.
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It was a good week for me personally, clocking my largest mileage in over 14 months as my marathon plan starts to get serious. Inspired my other members of the team, such as Alison, Sue W, Kate and Sarah, I’m keen to improve my strike rate over the 26.2 mile distance.
The Team continues to grow and with the spring race season now entering our thoughts, there has never been a better time to join.
I’ve reached about 80% capacity, saving a few slots for runners currently nursing a niggle, so if you are interested I would recommend acting swiftly. I want to ensure I can offer a good service to all of the team, so will be capping it around the 30 runner mark, thus leaving about half a dozen slots currently free.
I’m also wary not to overload myself and ensure the numbers are manageable going forward. I want to continue improving my own running, but also my coaching knowledge. So keeping numbers limited will ensure I have the time to do both.
I’m really proud of the coaching platform I’ve built to compliment the service currently on offer and I’ll continue to make updates to the pb runner website.
Enough about me (finally). Well done to Mark Dunn who completed his 2nd training plan at the weekend. During the 16 weeks he ran two 10k PBs, at the Barry Richards 10k and then Beckley.
On numerous occasions in recent weeks he’s run further than ever before. He continues to support other runners, whether it be helping out at track, marshaling at races or pacing at parkrun.
Mark is now looking to kick on and has entered the Hastings Half Marathon in March. I’m delighted to keep working with him and have him as part of the Team.
On Sunday we had the Winter 5k with a great turnout from the Team. Anna Baker completed her first Hastings Runners race and also smashed her PB.
Alice Tigwell also ran a 5K PB despite the tricky conditions. Both are recent additions to the Team and I did have a quiet word, suggesting they could have waited a few more weeks before setting these new records, so I could take a bit more credit 😂.
I’ll finish this blog by mentioning the weather. It’s been grim. But that’s part and parcel of life as a runner. We’ve all signed up to training plans to improve and the schedules are created to help make those gains. So don’t make excuses folks. Follow the plan, run the time allocated and ignore the demons in your head.
Debbie & Sue were a perfect example of this, doing their 1km reps in the pouring rain last week. Use them an inspiration. If the weather is poor, it’s your opportunity to get out there and make improvements whilst the rest are hiding indoors.
You Got This!!!
