Running club?

Here is another post that mysteriously sat around in my drafts folder waiting for me to click 'publish', can't work out why its been there for nearly 3 years but anyway some thoughts from back in the day when I was new to the run club world... Written Sept 2018...

Over the last little while I have been exploring and then enjoying running club life, which was initially born out of my experience of swimming classes early in the year which had a club feel. Coming from a history where I was once an active rowing club member it could be seen as a little odd that it has took me as long as it did to seriously consider and then join a running club. For a number of reasons I have arrived here and so I have been dipping my toe in the waters and have actually come to some conclusions.

My story was a tale of two clubs. There are of course many more than two clubs I connected with, and I suppose living in a capital city you could perhaps expect that. Although tracking them down can be a bit of a journey in itself.

Narrowing the list down to two clubs for me was based on the following considerations:

• location
• days of the week they meet
• size of the club
• outlook / ambitions of the average club member
• UK Athletics (UKA) / Welsh Athletics (WA) affiliation - lets face it basically for event discounts, and insurance
• facilities
• kit
• feel - perhaps the most subjective and one that ultimately sealed the deal

The two I visited were the Maindy Harriers and the Pegasus Running Club, and the first thing that has to be said was that both were fabulously friendly, approachable, welcoming and understanding. It felt a little cheeky saying "can I come along, not join, and have a couple of runs with you to see how it is?", but it was absolutely the right thing to do. I would encourage anyone to do the same - maybe the club is too competitive, or not competitive enough; maybe they don't offer as many sessions as you'd like; maybe you don't 'click' with the coach / run leader - whatever sense you get will help you decide and moreover help you get more out of being a club member.

I had the pleasure of doing a couple of sessions with the Maindy Harriers before I tried out Pegasus, and by the time I arrived at my first Pegasus session I was absolutely sold on joining one or other because club running just felt right. As a long time 'lone wolf' runner it was definitely the right time to come in from the 'cold'.

In the end I went with my heart because the Pegasus club is based out of a rowing club that I used to row for (the one that forms a lot of my earlier blog posts), and so it felt like a place I wanted to be associated with again (albeit in a new form).

Both clubs can be found in the Welsh Athletics club listings, by searching with a search engine, on social media (a Facebook search will find them).

Race Report - Welsh Virtual Road Relay 12-14th Feb 2021

One from the vaults of 'stuff I wrote and then never clicked send, so finished or not here it is from back in February...

I ran a race! - Welsh Virtual Road Relay 5 miles 12-14th Feb 2021 - so why not do a race report like the 'old days'?...

My impressions from the day: I picked Saturday of the three days that were on offer. With Friday being a work day and Sunday being Valentine's day, there was really only one choice of day for me to be honest!

Course: 9/10 - a very simple, familiar, flat, quick, well designed course with only a handful of road crossing to negotiate - well the Strava explore route design tool (available in the paid version of the app only I think) certainly found me a familiar and straight forward route to run. I was a bit worried about how busy it would be as it covered some common run routes in the area, but it was okay on the day.

Marshalling: 5/10 - no marshals around the route for this event of course, however everyone I passed by was very good at social distancing and were generally very cheery and smiley to be outdoors.

Facilities: 10/10 - after years of supporting various running and sports events the household was well set to provide everything that the runners needed - clean toilets, great food outlet (a very homely kitchen looking affair, something that more events could think about laying on), excellent changing facilities, good runners village entertainment, and a super supportive atmosphere.

Organisation: 7/10 - given that the event is all organised online I can't really fault the overall organisation, I can though fault my own ability to remember a password from one log in to the next... I could try and blame a busy lockdown brain, but truth is I am always rubbish at that.

Fellow runners: 0/10 (10/10 online)- with no one allowed to run the same route at the same time this of course was always going to make the most difference to the event. No one to pace off of, no one to chat to, no one to arrange to meet in the finish zone, etc, etc. I can though say that the fellow runners in the online club environment were fabulous, and it was nice to be involved in an event again.

Crowd: 0/10 - really not the biggest of crowds... well lets face it there wasn't a crowd - of course, d'uh!

My performance: 8/10 - pleased with my pre-run plan and application during the run. I am trying to be comfortable with the outcome, as I know I could have gone faster. I ran within myself with control and with a sense of lets enjoy it and not have it hurt (during or after)

My time: 48:43 was pretty solid but in the back of my mind I thought I could have done more. Though truth be told this was a solid run and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Cardiff Parkrun - #65 (#60 at Blackweir) and my first one back after you know what

Back at Blackweir (Cardiff) parkrun for my first parkrun since January 2020, and it was an absolute blast. I had a great experience of being back out there in parkrun world, with the organization and marshalling utterly en pointe today. The biggest change I noticed was the shortened run brief at the start and truth be told I preferred it to the old ones. The atmosphere in the pack was good, the camaraderie certainly has not been diminished at all in the time since my last run.

Random phone pics of the event today

In terms of my finish time, I couldn't can given a monkeys what it was really. I ran as comfortably as I could, I looked to pace with caution and respect the backend of the distance. Certainly I feel I managed my run well, and that is at the moment what I want - I want to manage my expectations and just out and out enjoy my runs. The biggest give away that I had contained my over-enthusiasm was that I did not sprint finish (!), and come on what's the point right as it is only a run after all, its not a race.

For the record my watch recorded 31:50, parkrun officially clocked me at 32:43, and I was the 489th runner to cross the line out of 644 runners at Blackweir parkrun today.

I know I won't be doing parkrun every week and I am happy with that as I want to avoid getting on the "better, better, better" treadmill of parkrun time chasing, and stay with the "enjoy, enjoy, enjoy" rhythm and stay injury free.

Hope you have a good weekend of running or moving, A

Where I am - re-starting from a low baseline, and pulling out of events

 It it safe to say that I have been here before and no the way, but also that I know how long the journey is and how tough it will be to get to where I want to go. Two recent runs with the Pegasus Running club crew have shown me what I already knew in my heart about my current fitness level, and a recent trip to the GP surgery reminded me just how low I had let my fitness ebb. Recognising the problem is they say half the battle and I very definitely know that I have a battle ahead.

How bad is my fitness? Well lets just say that I am where I was before I started this blog, and am like then learning to run again. I have no dramatic injury, it is simply that I am simply unfit. I weigh too much for my physiology, and my body is labouring with exertion just now.

So, Brighton Marathon 2021 is a "no" from me unfortunately. This is a race that I really want to do but it will have to wait one more year, a year where I have a lot of work to do on myself (I am though happily signed up for next years race and will all being well have that option). For the time being I hope to ease back into running events with local series' and races.

The reason that I am pulling out of races and at a very low fitness ebb is multifactorial - so much so that it could really fall into the category of "well life got in the way" - between the pandemic, working from home, job insecurities, major family member ill health, other family issues, poor choices around food, and lack of recognition of my own health needs there is little wonder I am where I am.

As I said I know the road I want to travel and so lets go!

February and beyond... there is a marathon on the horizon and fundraising for Mind

Looking at the horizon through the month ahead and into the rest of the year I felt I had to put a bit more of a plan or at least some milestones to aim at into the calendar. So all being well I will do my first club run for Pegasus Running Club over the weekend of the 12th of February, and I have set up my deferred deferral for the Brighton marathon for the 12th of September - plus I've got a deferred  Wormshead 10k in October to keep me good and busy on the milestone side of things.

Fundraising for 2021...

So as the issues around the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic continue to impact us all in so many different ways, I have decided to try and do a little bit to help support Mind, the mental health charity.

I am donating Christmas 2020, my birthday and my running efforts as I build slowly towards the 2021 Brighton marathon (which I have had to defer twice, once because of injury and once because of the pandemic - hopefully it will go ahead this year!).

If you are able and comfortable with doing so I would love it if you would lend a bit of support to a charity that assists in supporting the mental wellbeing of so many among us. 

My fundraising for Mind, is if you have followed my blog in the past via the justgiving.com platform, which is easy to use and super reliable. The page for this 'challenge' or the build up to the marathon is Andrew Hollins is fundraising for Mind (justgiving.com) 

Happy busy new year - where did January go?

It has been one of those starts to the year where you blink and wonder where all of the days have gone. I have been busy with lots of different things, but the main commitment that I have been trying to keep is moving every day to cover at least 5km. This was something that I started in mid-December when work finished for the year and I had the headroom and time to instigate some new habits with the intention of trying to make them stick through the festive period.

So how is it going? Pretty well... I have just finished @REDJanuary2021 where I moved myself everyday over 5km, 29 walks and 2 runs. I wold have liked to have run more but I listened to my body and allowed myself not to rush into arbitrary run every other day schedules that would have probably not worked for me just now. Wow, that sounds contrary I know but my body just isn't in a state where I could have run to that kind of schedule or volume (even a starters couch-to-5k volume).

In the end January was about watching what I ate and getting into the habit of being more active again... 10lbs (4.5kg) down over the month is testament to that working pretty well. There is a long way to go but it is a start, the goal is a long way down the road and I have the time to try and do this really well.

All in January was not too shabby at all, here's to a 2021 that turns out to ultimately be better than 2020 was.

A bit of a flavour of my month from my Strava feed:

RED day 31 - It is always a good run when you run into people you hadn’t planned to, and after a brief chat with Rhys it was onwards to another brief distanced chat with Julia and Ali (Pegs assemble!). The snow got heavier throughout the run, which was a bit... well, lovely actually. Granted the second half of the run I was running with the snow at my back which was much more pleasant than the opposite! The run had a bit of everything which was fabulous, and I even managed to resist the urge to go faster - always a bonus on only you second run in months.

#redjanuary2021 is done and I covered at least 5km every day - 29 days of walking with two runs thrown in. January was about changing habits and laying the groundwork ready for the foundations to be laid for a future marathon. January is not the end of that process but part of the beginning that started in December, going to try and keep the progress going at its own pace and we’ll see how much building happens along the way. This is a marathon not a sprint afterall.

The one with the pushed pace #RED2021day18 - There were moments on this walk where I could have comfortably broken into a run, yes I was doing that funny kind of walking where it looks like the teacher just told you not to run in the corridor. I have the sense that a run isn't too far away now, but I know that this particular run was powered by stress release and a 5km run would not have ended well.

Another day another RED 5km walk.... done.

The one in foul weather dodging fallen (Christmas) trees #RED2021day11 - Not a pleasant walk with the wind, cold, rain and all the now unwanted tree house guests left out on the street to fend for themselves. Couldn't walk this morning so it was a late one, which with the weather deteriorating all day was a bit of a kicker but it was what it was. 5km again on a regular route with a grumpy greyhound for company.