Despite a last minute task cancellation seven wonderful runners joined me in Brent to do what I dubbed an ‘all gym no good’ session!

We were unfortunate to have a our shed building task cancelled at the last minute, but no problem, these things happen! Instead a little run around the neighbourhood followed by some technique and hill reps – just what the doctor ordered!

#RunandTalk

We did a quick intro discussing the fact that today was a #runandtalk session, a wonderful initiative from England Athletic highlighting the positive impact exercise can have on mental health. Have a look at the information on this initiative here and check out the wonderful blog from Tower Hamlets trainer Laura here.

We mentioned the social from last week (great Brent turnout!) and the impending GG Brent social on the 17th October for the Queensbury pub quiz and then I laid out the plan for the evening. We then did a quick stationary warm up with high knees, heel flicks, lunges, quick step and my favourite the spotty dog!

We had a good run taking in the Mapesbury Dell Pocket Park and then headed off to Gladstone park where I knew of a good hill for us to use for our reps.

Incline

Before starting the hill reps I got everyone to think about running upright (imagine that balloon), thinking about the high knees exercise we had done to drive ourselves up the hill and we did a little ‘pocket to socket’ session to think about how our arms move and how we can use them to drive ourselves up the hill. With that three reps up the hill, everyone did great and it was great to see improvement in everyone’s technique and form. If you want to read more about technique for hill running a quick google search will give you loads of videos and articles, here’s a nice one that breaks it into tips and also includes a final tip re coming down hill.

After that, we posed for a couple of photos, spotted the 12% incline sign (that is hard work!) and then we headed for a gentle job back. Thanks for all your efforts tonight, apologies again re the task but hope you enjoyed a bit of technique work. Sign up here for next week – we are either back to the shed or delivering leaflets. Page will be updated soon.

Cheers, Pritesh