Great to see everyone tonight for the first run of 2020 and a warm welcome back to Fiona who is fully up and running again!

The first task of the year was going to be a litter pick for Solihull council. Due to the unexpected downpour we had tonight, it was decided we wouldn’t do the litter pick but go for a long run to help burn off some calories after the potential over indulgence from Christmas!

Once we set off, it was clear that we had made the right decision and felt good to be running as a group again. We headed the longer way to Brueton Park then onto Tudor Grange where we did tonight’s fitness session.

We were straight back into it with a pyramid session - no rest for the wicked I’m afraid! This involves thirty seconds of hard running followed by forty five seconds of not so hard, then one minute at race pace, back down to forty five seconds and to finish off with a thirty second blast all with a thirty second rest in between. This intense exercise is good at building up your stamina and helping to to increase your VO2 Max.

Chris showed us that even after Christmas he’s still got the speed, Rachel and Fiona helped push each other during every interval, and a special mention to Meera who did it for the first time and had great stamina - even keeping Chris behind on the last 30 second sprint!

Next week we will be doing more great work and will have fingers crossed for no rain!

See you then, Rob