Pumpkin iron!

19 awesome runners ran 4km to shovel sand and soil at Christchurch School!

It was a lovely autumnal evening down in Greenwich last night! The evenings are getting shorter each week but it's not stopping 19 of you guys from running and doing good! Let's see if we can keep it up when it gets REALLY cold!

We welcomed new runner Robert to the gang and congratulated our 3 amazing Ealing racers from last weekend. 3 incredible PBs from Amy, Ben and Laura showing that when it comes to running there are no shortcuts and you absolutely get out what you put in! Super proud!!!

We spent a few moments getting nostalgic and talking about everyone's fave film growing up then headed off for a warm up and gave the carioca drill a go. This is how you do it in case you wanted to practice! It's a good one for coordination and agility. Granted most running is done in straight line but it's important to train the body to move in different directions and work on fast agile feet in case you're out there and quickly need to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge out of the way of things!

After a quick pic we set off along The Thames with our beautiful city glistening and gleaming in the background. 10 minutes or so later we arrived at the school and were greeted by the always lovely and super friendly Fiona and Patrick. They had two main jobs for us, one was emptying a big bag of sand into an area which will eventually become the greenhouse. And also there was a mountain of soil that needed moving to give them a bit more space to work in the garden.

Everyone grabbed a shovel and got stuck in straight away, filling wheelbarrows with sand and dumping it in the pit where it would be raked and levelled off ready for some slabs to go on top. While half of the group was taking care of the sand, the others tackled the huge soil mound at the back of the garden. It wasn't being moved very far but it was taking up a lot of room where it was and just needed to be shifted a few meters back to underneath a little shelter.

After 30 mins, the sand had all been emptied and it was time to tamp it down and level it as best as we could. Over on the other side, the soil had been cleared and the two huge bags of bark/soil and been moved as well... amazing! All the flower beds had been watered and it was time to go! But not before feasting our eyes on the huge Cinderella pumpkin! It's going for a weighing at the weekend and then instead of being turned into a carriage, will be made into soup, and pie and all other pumpkin related things!

Whatever floats your boat

We ran back to the uni and did a little bit more running, this time some intervals but with some float recoveries (as well as some jog recoveries). The idea being to train the body to run at a high velocity without straining, so you run the hard part of the interval as normal and then instead of coming back down to a slow jog or complete rest, you keep your momentum and a high speed but with less of the effort. A fast yet relaxed kind of pace. Running intervals like this alternating between fast and float pushes your lactate threshold and is a great simulator for race day but the workouts are tough! We did 4 minutes adding in some jog recoveries as well just to get the breath back and then headed up for a stretch!

Great work at the task last night gang! You got so much done and Fiona & Patrick were so pleased! Amazing running as always! See you next week!