This evening we ran around 3km to work in Wilford Road Rec Community Garden

It was lovely to be back in Croydon after a few weeks away in bonnie Scotland – no rain (yet) and smiley runners in red t-shirts. So tonight 14 eager runners headed out on a shortish run to Wilford Road Rec where Sparkle has set up a Community Garden. She had a few tasks for us tonight including staking some flourishing tomato plants, weeding the containers, planting some bushes she’s been given by the Sensible Garden and general pruning and watering. Since it was a large group six runners split off and armed with litter picks and bags headed round the rest of the park to clear away any leftover litter. We had a few debates about whether some plants were weeds or not but luckily Stephen knows his vegetation and made sure we didn’t pull up the wrong plants.

As it was such a short run I planned a slightly longer fitness session in the Rec. After a quick warm-up we did some arm drills to demonstrate how what we do with our arms affects how our legs move and our overall running style and speed. We ran with arms tight across our chests, twisting from side to side, clasped high overhead and finally concentrated on driving the elbows back and keeping the arms moving straight forward. What a difference that made to how we all looked and ran. The next exercise was practicing accelerating to make sure we can overtake at parkrun or prevent small children beating us to the finish line. For this the runners started running slowly then accelerated between two cones to around 80% of their maximum speed really concentrating on high hips, upright body and strong driving arms. After 5 sprints and watching each other the difference was amazing. Special mention to Stephen who had such lovely technique that I used him to demo the exercise to the class and then they channeled their “inner Stephen” on their next sprint. It also helped me when I spotted my tram later that evening and was able to get there just in time.

After the run we stretched and had a chat about puns (sorry I forgot yours Stephen which is why it’s such a lame one again!), Starter sessions in September, Missions and the London monthly social.

Next Tuesday’s run will be heading to Heavers Meadow to help clear up the area - and this time it’ll still be light and we will be able to see more of the meadow and wildlife