Court between a drill and a hard pace

Six GoodGym Haringey stalwarts gathered on a rainy Wednesday evening to run 1km to Grow Tottenham.

Just as run leader Sarah promised, the rain stopped at precisely 7pm and after a quick warmup, we were on our way.

Unfortunately upon arriving at Grow Tottenham we discovered there had been a mix up and they weren't expecting us.

Fortunately, Sarah had been waiting for just such an occasion to arrive. With the full attention of the group, not distracted by such trivial pursuits as the donation of time towards communal good, it was time to treat (or subject) the group to Sarah's Running Masterclass, and we headed to the tennis courts in Down Lane Park.

First up was a cure for lazy glutes. Sarah explained that many running niggles or injuries can be blamed on weak or disengaged glutes. She demonstrated how the knee turns outward when the glute is engaged.

The group then did some squats and split squats, and for those with already dodgy knees we did glute bridges and runner's arabesques. Everyone did as many arabesques as they could manage with good form - then homework is to practice it daily adding one more arabesque each day.

Everyone is going to feed back on the state of their bums tomorrow. Sarah predicts DOMs.

These exercises were accompanied by various running drills including running as quietly as possible and helium head. We also did several fartlek-style runs using the tennis court lines as a guide.

Finally, we practiced "running as controlled falling", using gravity to propel us into motion and to speed up and slow down, and the concept of cadence and keeping the same number of steps per minute whether running fast or slow. This is something we got to practice straight away on the way back to base, on the famed cycle lane sprint. That deserved a round of Haringey High Fives - especially when we discovered Rita scored a new segment record.

On our return back to base we discussed community mission ideas for December and future group run task ideas. Finishing up with some stretches, some Veggie Percies and a second round of high fives.

Thanks to Dave this week's pun.