In Sharp Crocus

19 hardy souls met up at Vivo Health Club for what threatened to be a wet run to Bedminster to plant bulbs. We huddled under a little bit of shelter, and with a few warnings about slippery leaves, person-hole covers, and mud, and of course some introductions (double Davids and Emilys on this run, including a brand new Emily, welcome to the gang!), we headed off in to the rain.

BUT....

The rain gradually stopped and half way through our run we just had the lightest precipitation to keep us cool - and we needed it. Luckily winter is taking it's time to come along, thank you winter.

We got to a small patch of grass on the far end of West Street and met up with Way Out West/The Patchwork Project, or at least 2 ladies who embodied these two projects which are working to make small spaces into little green gardens for the communities of Bedminster and Southville. Fab work!

We were given a massive bag of daffodil bulbs and a slightly smaller bag of crocuses, tooled up with trowels, gloved up with...er...gloves, and the gang set to work. It took only 20 minutes for this mighty sack to be safely stowed away to slowly germinate over winter. Come March, a host of flowers worthy of Wordsworth will delight the denizens of West Street. Plus provide a great food source for newly emerging insects. Hurrah!

We headed back to the centre of town and did some plyometric squat jumps. Apart from being a great way to kill 5 minutes as well as some calories, these moves create explosive power in our legs, and given that running is a series of small muscular explosions, it's a great one to do for training.

Here's the science bit: There was a special focus on landing back in a squat - 'sticking' the move. One of the most common ways that we get injured as runners is in our landing, when our muscles have to absorb the impact of your body plus extra gravity created by your momentum. So by training our bodies to take this force, by 'sticking' the squat, you are strengthening joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles, bones and this will help to prevent impact related injuries. See! I don't do these moves just because I have (to quote Caroline) 'vaguely masochistic tenancies'. I also want to keep you guys up and running!

To cool off, we strolled across the square and had a good stretch to ease out any aches that may have built up, and some of us then had a little chat about various races and events that we'd like to do next year as a GoodGym team.

I've got a few thank yous: Thanks Chris for leading us to the site - when you said go past the Job Centre and keep going you were not lying; we ran almost all of West Street! Thanks Kim for back marker-ing. Thanks Emily (new one) for coming. Thanks Emily (t'other one) for coming back! Thanks Paul for coming up with a really lovely pun, and for Dave for our back up pun, Flower to the People. We can use that another time. Thanks to EVERYONE for coming - once again we prove that it never rains (much) for GoodGym.