Was it Jim or was it Jen, bent that little trowel just then?

Its was Jim... it was Jim!!!!!

Hello children... we have been having a lovely time in the garden today havent we but Jim is so naughty he doesnt know his own strength.!!!

It was a pleasure to be back in the saddle tonight in the absence of Huw - who in the end wasnt actually absent - to lead on what was probably one of our most interesting and rewarding tasks.

The location of St Matthews House allowed us to run along one of my all time favourite routes, The Leicester Canal - OK so I am easily pleased, but its peaceful, tranquil, FLAT, no traffic, what more could one ask. Jimmy told us of the existence of a new bridge for us to try out so after 60 years of living in Leicester I got to cover a bit of new ground... running is like that, one is always making new discoveries.

The gentle jog with lots of chatting allowed everyone to keep together and we were soon in the heart of St Matthews where our planting task awaited.

Its always great to get to ask task and the taskmaster has everything prepared. Key lock code provided, alarm code provided, we were into the building and there before us a trolley load of plants - I think I saw lupins, sweet williams, begonias, marigolds, petunias and many more, he team at St Matthews had certainly done a big shop at the garden centre. We had 2 planter boxes and 3 tree surrounds to plant up and the team were soon hard at work.

All eyes turned to Sharon our interior designer who was keen to point out she was an INTERIOR designer! - notwithstanding, she set out the first bed which looked superb and it provided a lead idea for everyon else to follow.

The ground was to say the least hard and we were struggling for water - we had to improvise by filling the crate that all the gloves and tools came in and using it as a water supply - only near the end of the task did Lindsay spot an outside tap but sadly it was isolated inside the building and try as I might I could not move the valve - we did our best and Huw will be emailing the site in the morning to make sure they give the beds a drenching - plantings need to be really well watered,

By the time we finished our 30 minute session we had planted over 70 plants hopefully they will all thrive and the beds will look a picture I am sure there will be a future task nearby so we can go take a look.

After the good doing it was fit getting so a short jog to the track for a 4 rep parlauf session.

On the way back I chatted to Lisette and Sheila about a warm up routine specially designed for a 5k race or perhaps a PB attempt. I thought perhaps others might be interested so I have set it out below...

Aim to finish the following session 10 minutes before the start of your race..

Walk for 3 minutes to wake up your muscles Jog for 5 minutes at an easy conversational pace Run hard but controlled for 3 minutes - near enough to race pace Do 6 reps of 15 second accelerations starting slow and finishing flat out at the end of the 15 seconds - then walk to recover until ready to do the next 15 second rep. After the 6 reps cool down for a couple of minutes then totally relax for 10 minutes

If you try it, let me know how you get on.