Let's get ready to Rumble!

A huge thank you to Coach Wendy Rumble for leading this Wenderful training session! We all learned loads and got a great workout too. It was a pleasure to be out at the MAC track on a sunny April evening, and to see so many red GoodGym t-shirts out training together.

The focus of today's session was knee drive: learning how to increase running efficiency and power by picking up the feet and lifting the knee up level with the hip. We also learned how to do this with flexed feet, or 'dorsi-flexion' so that we strike the ground with our mid-foot, from where we can drive forward, rather than striking with our heel, which can act a bit like a brake.

We warmed up with a gentle and chatty lap of the track and a series of dynamic stretches including opening and closing gates, herding mini sheep, sumos and side steps. We weren't the most elegant bunch doing these, but we had a good giggle and got nice and warm.

Then onto some drills. These are specific stepping patterns that allow us to practice good form, helping us move efficiently and training our mind body connection so that our neurons fire up the right muscles more effectively. These definitely got us thinking and challenged us to think about our form a lot more.

Then we split into three groups and did a circuit with 3 'stations' and 5 minutes on each station. One involved a series of side steps, lunges and fast feet to power up our legs, the second was like a little obstacle course with a ladder and even some hurdles (!), and the third was our chance to run round the track and put what we had learned into practice. We had the option to push our pace on the straights and go slower on the bends, so even in just 5 minutes we covered some decent distance and got our heart rates up.

Finally we re-grouped for a cool down lap of the track, and Wendy took us through a series of stretches covering all the key muscle groups we had been training. This included imaginary bananas and trays of drinks to get us all positioned safely and effectively.

If anyone feared at the beginning that our session would leave us ready to gRumble or cRumble, they needn't have worried: Wendy got us ready to Run-ble!

Just when our tummies were about to Rumble, Laura produced an amazing cake and we presented Sophie Lack with a medal to celebrate her reaching 50 good deeds on our litter pick earlier in the evening. Well done on your epic achievement Sophie! Thank you for the cake Laura!