Our top crew of guides and VI runners returned to Paddington Recreation Ground Track for our weekly group session- first of 2022!

Achilles International are a smashing organisation that offers opportunities for visually impaired athletes (and athletes-to-be) to train regularly in social settings, and Goodgym have been proud to help out as best we can!

The weather (wet, chilly and a bit brisk!) had caused a few cancellations in the lead up to our run, but we were thrilled to run with Mark for his first run with us for a while. Area Activator Simon first met Mark at our Green Park summer runs, where he agreed to help out with watching bags for other VI runners while playing his guitar most weeks. It was wonderful to be there to help with his own training after all the assistance he had offered us over Summer!

Although our number of guides outweighed the number of VI runners this week, we had a plan in advance to offer a coached workout session for anyone who isn't on hand to guide.

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Our workout was as follows:

Warm up drills, followed by 800m easy jog

4 x 400msteady/tempo pace, 200m recovery jog

2-3 minutes rest

Repeat

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The session proved to be a success, so I intend on offering a similar interval workout next week as well.

After our cool down, H brought us together and offered us some special "3 Kings Cake", a traditional New Years treat in France. The cake is served to guests as part of a game. Each participant in the game is offered a slice of cake in order (and each receiver of a cake slice selects the next person to have a piece), until one of the guests finds a tiny porcelain gift baked within the dessert. Paul found a small croissant in his slice, and was promptly crowned "King for a day!", and gifted a crown for the rest of the evening!

It was really lovely to catch up with all of our runners (and to meet a couple of new faces attending for the first time). We will be back again next week, 6pm from Maida Vale Underground Station!