Cat writes… I’d forgotten how tough and wonderful Tuesday training sessions are. As a result of working in Bournemouth for a number of years, it’s been a long time since I attended one.
The ladies changing room hasn’t changed, the line up at 6.45pm was a sea of familiar faces and the sound of chatter on the warm up all felt like a welcome back. No Tony but Nick and Andy covered the recent team successes, particularly at the Macclesfield Half marathon. Then Nick gave a helpful briefing on the intervals ahead….and track etiquette of moving to the right instead of tucking into the left. That surprised a few of us!
On assembling into groups, I stuck with Jan hoping that she’d be a good marker for me. We joined Kate, Andy W, Ian R and Sally P. The first set of reps were anaerobic with short recovery: 100m then 150m then 250m on the field, repeated 6 times. The second set of reps were aerobic with 2 min recovery: 6 x 530m around the trail. Kate was an excellent team leader, exact on timing, consistent on pace and encouraging.
After the first rep, I thought “I’ve joined the wrong group, I’ll never keep up”. I was finding the pace tough and felt immediate build up of lactic acid in my legs. I resolved to stick in for the first 6 and drop down a group for the next 6. Then I thought, “I’ll stick in for the first 530m”. I grasped onto every motivation….the group were supporting me as I came in at the back, Nick was always there encouraging good form and effort, my pride kicked in each time on the home straight to keep up as best I could. So I was able to keep with my group for all of the reps.
There were some funny moments too: remembering a Tuesday evening in the past on the same field thinking “this is wonderful, I’m a 40 year old woman running up and down a muddy field in the pouring rain when most people are watching TV. We’re all mad!” and here I was again at the age of 50 thinking the same thing! I spotted the back of Jeremy’s T shirt with 1.40 on it and thought that must be the time of his half marathon, how interesting to put your time on your T shirt. I’m sure he can run faster than that though. Doh… of course he can, that’s obviously his pacer shirt. For a moment that was my motivation to be following a 1.40 shirt one day! As we did our last interval and the fastest groups began their warm down, I begged them not to over-take me on my lap!
When we finished and had the breath back to chat on our warm down, it was good to catch up with the girls and have that lovely feeling of endorphins, tiredness, stiffness and satisfaction that only comes with a Tuesday session. Thanks to Nick and my group for a great first night back. Unfortunately, lots of travels mean that my presence will be intermittent but I delighted to be back at the Club.
Cat
Great to have you back with us, Cat