Tonight we warmly welcomed Amro to the group for his first run and welcomed back Harriet who returned for her second run after a couple of weeks off.

There was so many ‘big ups’ to get through on the intro speech as our group had a very busy running weekend. Helena and myself took part in the SEAA road relays and our team finished in the top quarter in a competitive field. Juliet did her very first parkrun, Michael ran further than he ever did before, Beth did an epic Tough Mudder and Louise ran a whopping 21 miles as part of the Ragnar Relays! What a weekend of running, well done to all!

We had a quick lesson in running cadence during the warm up. Cadence means steps per minute and we checked ours by running for 30 seconds and counting every time our right foot hit the ground. You can then multiply this number by 4 to get your cadence, the number of steps you take in a minute. 180 is a good target, if you run to music download some tunes at this BPM and run to the beat to get your cadence up. You can go higher if you like!

Tonight’s task took us back to the Salvation Army. We were there a few weeks ago to help them sort out their garden. Lyn met us and told us about the work they do to support homeless people, feeding up to 90 every Wednesday. Tonight we continued to focus on the front drive and surrounding beds. The hydrangea in front of the church got a pretty severe haircut to bring it down to below window level and let more light in to the building. We also weeded some beds and tidied up the driveway and achieved a huge amount in just half an hour.

We headed off the The Level for a couple of fitness games involving racing, squatting, press ups, sit ups and plank. Well done guys you are now fitter than you were yesterday!!

Thanks to Frances for the pun, although she missed the run due to illness she was kind enough to let me have her offering this morning and my brain got the day off from trying to think of one!