Parksrun

With just a couple of hours notice, tonights task was unfortunately cancelled. I had a message from the Chair of the Spring Road Allotments saying that while they had been preparing the area for our visit during the afternoon they had disturbed a large wasps nest. One of their group had been stung and they were concerned that the same fate might happen to a Goodgymer. In view of this they felt it wise to cancel for tonight.

We have rescheduled the task for a few weeks time when, hopefully the wasps won't bee (Haha) an issue!

Left without a task at short notice I devised a the idea of a park run - not the 5k timed run at 9,00am on a Saturday morning version. Mine consisted of run route taking in 3 of Ipswich's wonderful parks with a little challenge to complete in each park.

So we set off to our first park - Holywells Park - taking one of our regular routes along the Waterfront. Once there and regrouped the challenge was revealed - a series of exercises challenging balance and co-ordination - Split squats and single leg "Running Man" - interspersed with running intervals. Then exiting the park up a hill and off in the direction of Alexandra Park - which involves climbing a fairly steep hill just to get to the entrance.

This was the venue for our second circuit challenge - this time based on core strength and stability - press ups, planks and mountain climbers performed in rotation. Once completed we were off to our 3rd park - Christchurch Park.

Christchurch Park is renowned for it's hills...... so it would be remiss to come to the park without taking on a hill climb. Starting about 1/3 of the way up the longest hill in the park the challenge was to ascend almost to the top of the park at effort speed. Following a few tips on technique we were off with Alex leading the way at great pace. He was going well...so well he just kept going and going way past the crossroads designated as the re-grouping point. Despite calls and shouts he was rapidly disappearing over the second stage of the hill towards the park gates - luckily the gates acted as a stop point and Alex turned to see absolutely no-one in his wake!

A calmer run around the edge of the park and then through the town centre brought us back to the Waterfront - around 4.5 miles of running plus a challenge at each park - Terrific work by everyone.

Next week we have a task at Survivors in Transition - find out more and sign up HERE