In the Pick of Time

As we set off from Glass House the vibe was that of the glass being half full, despite the wintery chill in the air. This evening we were off to assist the Friends of Locke Park with the park's upkeep. On the way up to the park a couple of people we bumped into on the way were very friendly with greetings as we ran past them, maybe they know of us or recognized what we were carrying on our backs- litterpickers sticking up like battle flags!

Flying solo tonight, we were without members of the Friends group. We were in the park with the express aim of clearing some problem bushes of rubbish. We know the park very well after many visits so we're familiar with the bushes which attract the most trash. The plan was to work our way up to the southern wall and then make our way east along it, clearing any bush islands we encountered on our journey.

Thankfully there was scant sign of rubbish in the bushes on our trek up to the southern wall, only the odd wrapper here and there, mixed in in between phantom packets which kept turning out to just be frosty leaves. Upon reaching the wall, we started to make our way along it, creeping and crawling into cramped crevices to retrieve the rubbish from within. We found an interesting array of items, as per; some notable ones from tonight included patterned tobacco tins, an array of sanitary products, lots of condom wrappers and some drug use paraphernalia. This led to some (Christmas) spirited trash talking! We're becoming quite the connoisseurs of crud.

Beauty is only bin deep

Having picked rubbish in the pitch black for around 45 minutes and filled 2 sacks, it was time to hang up our pickers for the night and go in search of the strength bars. After a short jog in the dark we spotted the frames on the dull horizon and made our way through the dew laden grass to do our fitness session. We did (or at least attempted) a set of exercises- 10 tricep dips on the parallel bars (half of the challenge is just getting into position to be able to start the reps), 10 pull-ups on a low-set bar with feet stretched out in front on the ground and hands facing away (specifically useful for climbing conditioning), 10 pull-ups with hands facing towards with legs in the same position, 2 climbs up and over the high bars facing in the same direction ascending and descending, hanging upside-down to complete 5 ab-curls, a dead hang for as long as possible, then a forward roll over a bar for good measure. Feeling strong, we set of on our return journey, all the while looking out for a street bin to deposit our purple bags. We didn't spot one on the whole run back so ended up with a bit more of an arm workout! Daniel was super speedy on the runs to and from the task, getting a bit of sprinting practice in for future Strava segment running activities, which we'll be doing at numerous future sessions! Arriving back at Glass House, we headed into the stairwell to stretch off and do announcements in the relative warm. We're looking forward to assisting with a brand new task next week, one which will utilise our running abilities.... and burn off a bit of festive weight!