OMG I joined a running club ...

not just a NORMAL running club BUT a Triathlon Club!

Have I truly lost hold of my senses?!!!

Anyhow, when I contacted them I told them I had no intention of doing Triathlons because I'm a crap swimmer but might try a Duathlon! They said this was fine and I could go to the running and cycling sessions only. Last night was my first running  session with the club. After my previous experience of joining a running club I was slightly nervous - it was the most humiliating experience of my life, everyone was so much faster and better than me, and I never went back!  :-(

Determined to be strong I went, and hoped and prayed there would be other females running too.  Fortunately for me there was 2 other women, and 7 men.  They were very friendly and welcoming and explained the usual routine.  Unfortunately I had come for the first session on the worst possible night - it was hill reps!! I groaned inwardly when he said this but put on a brave face!  We did a warm up jog first before stopping to do lots of other warm up exercises, which were taken very light heartedly and were made fun but we still worked hard!  Then the time came to head to the hill!  Arrrgghh ... the speed of the "jog" to get to the hill was probably at my "fast pace" but although I couldn't keep up with the men in the group I was about the same speed as the other 2 women so I wasn't bothered.  We got to the hill in question and congregated at the bottom whilst the coach talked us through the plan of action! (good opportunity to have a quick breather!).  The idea of the hill reps was to run up as fast as you could and then recover by having a slow jog down before repeating again!  The others in the group seemed to miss the "slow jog down" part, and although I could hold my own going up the hill I was left behind running down!  However, lets be positive I hate coming down hills so forcing myself to do this in a group will surely build my hill confidence as well as improve my general speed. After several hill repeats, and receiving good advice from the coach on how to improve my style etc we headed back to base where we did cool down exercises and stretching.  Something I tend to neglect when I run on my own!  I enjoyed the experience and will go again next week - I wonder what we will work on then?  Surely not hills again!  Fingers crossed!  Once I come back from my New York holiday I am going to try one of the Cycling sessions which are held on a Saturday Morning!

It's really good as the session lasted 1 hour 15 minutes and there is no charge, I got a lot of advice from the coach and probably pushed myself harder than I would on my own!

Only 7 weeks until the Keswick to Barrow walk and apart from my running I have done no walking training at all!  Best pull my finger out, especially since for a week of the 7 weeks I will be in New York!  This weekend I am going to do my first "Long Walk" starting at around 20 miles!  The weather looks like its going to be fabulous so when I inevitably get lost it won't be too bad! :-)    I somehow need to fit about 6 more "long walks" in building up to a 30+ mile walk sometime before the big day ...!