This is the week that was…the Breakfast Run!

And what a run it was! We had three groups heading off to catch the trains. The first group to Berkhamsted to run 15 miles back along the canal; the second group to Tring to run 11 miles back along the canal; and a third group to Cheddington to run 5 miles back.  Of course the wind came back overnight on Saturday causing some damage to the overhead cables meaning the Cheddington train was cancelled! Drama! Not to worry. They still found mud and fun along the canal running an out and back instead.  The canal saw us battle mud, puddles, trees, and included a water crossing.  Thankfully the sun was shining for us all morning.  Shout out to Julie Makinson who joined the Berkhamsted group and ran her furthest ever distance! All in training for London Marathon. She had her own personal support crew on the run from Martin and was greeted by her family at the clubhouse. Superb work.  Thank you to all the run leaders Martin, Andrew, Michelle, Gavin, Dave and Kelly. You looked after us all! And a HUGE thank you to the shoppers, chefs, helpers and supporters back at the clubhouse. The breakfast was super scrummy and the perfect finishing munch after a muddy run.  It was our first event supporting our new charity this year and we raised over £300! Superb! Of course that was not the only running this week. We had our usual club runs including our first cake night with a new Captain leading us! parkrun Day (which coincided with International Women's Day) saw LFRs at St Albans - where Phil Brogam was running his 50th parkrun, Bedford, Milton Keynes, Linford Wood, Sewerby, Houghton Hall - where Matthew Kelly ran a new PB, Aylesbury, Parke, Rushmere, Sixfields Upton and Littleport. We also had some LFRs running at events.  Adam was at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 10K running 59.30! And Coach Matt was putting his training to the test at the Thames Meander Half running a stonking PB of 1.29.10! He also topped his age category and was 7th overall. 7th! Ridiculous. And finally we had a multisport LFR taking part in the Wendover Woods Duathlon. 5K Run.  20K Bike. Followed by another 5K run. Ian Bisby took to the woods where he came 30th overall! Brilliant! That's all for now. Have a great week, LFR!

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This is the week that was…the AGM…and still a bit windy…

AGM The big news of this week was our AGM where we have some new members joining our committee and where we chose the club’s charity for the coming year.   Look out for the AGM minutes which will be published on the LFR website. New Committee Leaving the committee this year was Dan.  Thank you so much for your contributions to the committee and the club as Captain for the last three years.  We are all extremely grateful for all that you have done and continue to do. We have some continuing members and some new members to LFR’s Committee.  Staying on in the roles are: Steve Ellerton - Chair; Sandra Dunsterville - Secretary;   Andrew Heale - Treasurer;  Jennifer Garner - Communications; Caroline Mann - Membership;  Lindsey Rigby - Kit; Tracy Cardno and Michelle-Evans-Riches - Events & Fundraising; Matt Gilbert and Annis Turner - Coaches. James Smith is now Captain James P Smith, moving up from Vice Captain to take on the Captain's role.  And we have two new Vice Captains.  Welcome to the committe, Emily McLelland and Chris Stenner! The website will be updated in due course with confirmation of the above.   Our webmaster is currently having all the fun on a mountaintop with a snowboard. Charity The club charity for 2019/20 was Reclaim Life and LFR are making a donation to them of £5,289.95.  They have also received already £200 via Andrew Heale's fundraising and £635 via Katharine Smith's fundraising.  We donated these amounts to enable their efforts to be match-funded by their employers meaning more funds for the charity! We are also making a donation of £1,000 to KidsOut from the funds raised at Santa Dash. Finally….we are delighted to announce that the club’s chosen charity for 2020/21 is the MK Hospital Charity - Cancer Centre Appeal.  Every family has been affected by cancer and goes through the arduous and emotional experience of treatment. A purpose built Cancer Centre is being built at Milton Keynes Hospital for patients to receive their surgery and treatment. The Cancer Centre appeal is raising money to make the environment and experience much better for patients, families and friends. Many patients spend an inordinate amount of time receiving treatment, so making them feel more comfortable and relaxed is so important.   You can view full information about the charity and their appeal on their website:  http://www.mkhcharity.org.uk/cancer-centre-appeal/ Onto the running.... It was the annual pancake run on Tuesday.  The Pace Groups all set off to the Green Family Kitchen to gorge on all manner of pancakes, vegan, gluten-free, gluten-full.  Scrummy!  Thank you, Greens!  Wednesday had JK on the whistle dishing out the Fartlek fun, lots of spints and regrouping; Smiff was leading the Improvers for 400m reps in the park; and Jenny led another lovely social Friday run along the canal. Glorious. parkrun day was also Leap Day which saw LFRs battle Storm Jorge at Milton Keynes (in reverse), Clevedon Salthouse Fields, Market Rasen Racecourse, Gnoll, Sewerby, Wendover Woods, Aylesbury, Houghton Hall, Linford Wood and Rushmere.   At home in Rushmere, Ria Pugh was running her first EVER parkrun!  Welcome to the parkrun fam, Ria. It was a weekend of half marathons with Jo at the Wendover Woods Half; Nolan at The BIG Half (I don't know why it's so big) and Jen, Paul (and Erin!) and Anna (and the whole Mead gang!) down in Eastbourne for the Eastbourne Half!  He is not in LFR, but he is an LFR friend - Billy Mead who runs for the other club ran the half in a superb time of 1.16...which got him 1st place!  Swift. There was some ultra marathon madness from Paul, Emma and Wes at the muddy LDWA Hannington Hike. And finally Team LFR took to Berkhamsted for the Half Marathon and Five Mile Fun Run.  I'm still unsure why it's called a fun run.  I've done it twice.  There's a mountain in Berkhamsted (this may, or may not, be correct).  And they make you run up it.  It's big.  Anyway....a gaggle of LFRs took to Berko to take on this mountain and..well..they did have a lot of fun...  well done guys! That's all for this week.  Let's all wish for a wind free weekend this week, yeah?  Yeah. Have a great week, LFR!

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This is the week that was…Storm Ciara!

The February Cake Night took a dramatic turn when three...yes THREE...of us hit the deck.  The battle scars are real.  Back to the clubhosue for antiseptic wipes and cake.  Thank goodness it was cake night!  Be careful out there folks, watch your footing in the dark, and don't get blown away in the wind tomorrow! Anne took to the Fartlek whistle on Wednesday with a mischievous grin; Captain Dan and Coach Matt put the Improvers to the test on Thursday; and JK led another glorious trail run on Friday. parkrun Day saw LFRs at Oxford, Milton Keynes (where Ian Bisby ran a PB!), Linford Wood, Sewerby, Houghton Hall, Rushmere and Dunstable Downs (where Jim was testing out the new short course).  At home in Rushmere we had PBs from Joe Bidlake Hill, Jo Green (again!) and Catherine Thackray (again!) - well done all!  And KGL down for a visit again and returing from the other side of the world the day before...came in 1st lady! Another quieter weekend thanks to Storm Ciara (if anyone can pronounce this, do tell) with some events cancelled including the London Winter Run which many LFRs had been training for.    And Matthew Ma called it quits 35km into his Brecon to Cardiff ultra when hypothermia and Storm Ciara came to get him. Think you made the right decision, Matthew. The big, big, BIG, news of this week was our Coaches heading off to be assessed for the Coach in Running Fitness Qualification.  Three of them went.  And three of them came back as qualified coaches!  CONGRATULATIONS Matt, Annis and Debbie!  Excellent work! That's all for this week.  Happy running, LFR!

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This is the week that was…the end of January!

January finally came to and end this week, but before that we had our final club runs of the month.  It was an Out and Back Tuesday with Dan practising his photography skills; the return of a Fartlek Favourtie (Welcome back, Mark!) on Wednesday; Captain Dan's Improver session on Thursday; and JK's social trails on Friday.  A great set of runs! We are still looking for run leaders for all our club runs.  If you fancy giving leading a go, whether it be a pace group on a Tuesday, blowing the whistle of doom on a Wednesday, beasting the Improvers on a Thursday or leading the chatter on a Friday, just let the Captain or Vice Captain know. On parkrun Day we had LFRs at Salcey Forest, Rushmere, Buckingham, Aylesbury, Cheltenham, Houghton Hall, Sewerby, Linford Wood, Kettering, Oak Hill, Milton Keynes (where Matthew Ma came in first….again!), Trelissick (where’s that Len?) and Luton Wardown.  At home in Rushmere, we had a PB from Mike Clark!  Well done!  Great running, everyone! It was a fairly quiet weekend for events this week.  Matthew Ma fresh from his 1st place parkrun, came 2nd at the RSPB Race for Life 10K on the Sunday!  There were just two of us at the Watford Half Marathon.  A very hilly half, Sally stormed round and VC James was an official pacer pacing the 1:50 gang helping many runners fulfil their dreams of running with the most encouraging chap around...an running a 1.50 half too.  Mark B was also running, although supporting the runners rather than running himself!  Excellent. Now....not an event, but SOMEONE quietly ran round Willen Lake at the weekend and casually ran her fastest ever 10K!  Well done, Jo Green! Whilst there have not been many events, this, of course, does not stop us from running and there were many, many, MANY LFRs putting the miles in for their training.  We have runners training for 10Ks, half marathons, and marathons all coming up in the next few months. But first, what will February have in store for us? Let's see! Happy running, LFR!

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This is the week that was…the Watchless 5!

It was the return of the Chartmoor Loops on Tuesday night with some determined running from all.  Great efforts on a cold night!  The Fartlek Six took to the streets led by JK on Wednesday.  Coach Matt did a 1-2-1 session with Andrew on Thursday...lucky Andrew! And Jen led the Friday morning gang for a social run along the canal. Saturday always means parkrun Day and we had LFRs at Luton Wardown, Sheffield Hallam, Milton Keynes, Highbury Fields, Crystal Palace, Linford Wood (where Matthew Ma came in first!), Sewerby, Houghton Hall, Buckingham, Tring, Rushmere, Dunstable Downs, Oriam (where is Oriam, Anne?) and Bear Brook.  At home in Rushmere, KGL on a visit home (and just six days from her marathon PB) smashed round with a PB and came in first lady...5th overall!  Also running a stonking PB was Brendan.  Great running! Wes, Emma and Helen took a wander to Derby for 33 muddy miles ar the Wilmot Wander.  We thought Dunstable was muddy at the cross country.  Just check out these shoes... Great work, ladies.  Brutal.  It's done. Getting some marathon training miles in, we had a gaggle of LFR head to the Gade Valley Harriers 12 mile training run on Sunday.  GVH have two more marathon training runs coming up: 17 miles on 23rd February and 20 miles on 22nd March.  These runs are very popular and they have cake at the finish which rival our own! Full details here: https://www.gadevalleyharriers.co.uk/training/london-marathon-training-runs/ AND FINALLY.  It was the long awaited Watchless 5!  What is this Watchless 5, I don't hear you ask.  WELL. The objective of the Watchless 5 is to guess how long you would take to run 5 miles and, after submitting your time in advance, to race it without a watch. Each runner sets off at a different time according to their predicted completion time, aiming to finish at 11:30. In theory all runners should finish at more or less the same time. The winner is not the first runner to complete the course, rather the runner who completes the course closest to their predicted time, i.e. closest to 11:30. A very exciting morning with the runners all finishing within 140 seconds of each other!  First across the line was Steve Baker, a whole 1.50 quicker than his predicted time.  Last across the line was Gavin Prechner, just 30 seconds slower than his prediction.  But the winner, who was just 10 seconds quicker than her predicted time was Emily McClelland!  Brilliant pacing, even when runners were overtaking her, she stuck to her own pace and won the day!  Full results below... Very well done to everyone who took part.   Big thanks to Dan for organising, Steve for seting up the course and all the helpers involved.  A great start to the Sunday! That's all for this week.  Happy running, LFR!

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This is the week that was…

Storm Brendan was blowing his way across the land this week and almost put a stop to our Tuesday club run. Some hardy soles set out in the wind and came back in a monsoon. Wonderful. LFR Brendan (who may or may not be related to Storm Brendan) took the Fartlek Three out for some intervals. Improvers this week was taken by The Outdoor Fitness Coach. He put our runners through some strength work in the mud and rain. Brave souls! An amazing workout, if other members fancy checking out The Outdoor Fitness Coach and seeing what it's all about, have a look here: https://www.theoutdoorfitnesscoach.co.uk/ The sun arrived by Friday for our social morning run and the gang went out with Jenny for another glorious run. parkrun Day saw LFRs at Salcey Forest, Jersey Farm,  Wendover Woods, Rushmere, Rubbenbruchsee, Aldenham, Cassiobury, Tilgate, Gadebridge, Houghton Hall, Sewerby and Milton Keynes.  Can anyone guess where Rubbenbruchsee is? Taking on another ultra this weekend were Matthew and Paul...30 miles at the LDWA Winter Tanners.  30. Miles.  Paul came in 10th and Matthew came in 1st!  1ST!  Well done, both!  Amazing efforts. KGL - although now running for another club *sad face* - ran herself a great marathon PB of 3.27! Her first ever sub 3.30! No egg outfit this time though! Sam took on the Stowe Winter Trail race. A lovely race she would definitely recommend. 6k and 12k options. And run all on paths so minimal mud! Nice running, Sam! And the final event of the weekend was the Fred Hughes 10 Miles. Slippery and hilly, but Chair Steve, Lindsay and Sally all made it round in one piece! That's all for this week. Happy Running, LFR!

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This is the week that was…the final cross country race of the season!

It was the first cake night, the first Fartlek and the first beep test of the year this week!  A great first full week back with the second Friday Morning run too. Big news from Katharine Smith.  She received confirmation through of her match funding and raised a stonking amount for both our club charity for 2019/20, Reclaim Life, and another local charity, KidsOut by running seven half marathons in 2019. Well done Katharine. You smashed it! On parkrun day we had LFRs at Southsea, Ashford, Milton Keynes (where Matthew Ma came in first!), Linford Wood, Sewerby, Houghton Hall, Rushmere, Ellenbrook Fields, Fire Service College, Dunstable Downs and Bearbrook (where Kerry Garfitt came in first lady!)  At home in Rushmere, Catherine Thackray ran ANOTHER PB.  Is that two weeks in a row, Catherine?  Well done! Getting their own muddy trails in at Cliveden were Mr and Mrs Smith... And finally...the cross countey season came to and end with Race 5 at Dunstable.  It was the muddiest, sloppiest, most brutal, but amazingly fun race. Results on the day: Men 4th; Ladies 8th; and Team 6th. And with the final race came the final results and the best season LFR have ever had!  Results..... Overall league results: Team 7th Men 6th Ladies 7th Category results: Tom Ellerton 3rd 25-29 Martin Crane 3rd 45-49 Mike Clark 3rd 60-64 Paul Thomas 3rd 70-74 Rosie booth 2nd 40-44 Zoe illingworth 2nd 45-49 Chris Ayers 1st 65-69 A brillaint team result and some fantastic individual results from LFR!  Great racing team. We also had some members making huge progress across the season.  Everyone made such an effort.  Well done. A huge thank you to everyone who took part and made the season what it was and of course, a massive thank you to JAne and Tracy - cross country extraodinaires - for looking after us all season! Until next season... See you next week, LFR!

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This is the week that was…the start of a New Year!

What a busy festive period we have had.  Even with a break from the usual club runs! We replaced these with some glorious, muddy, trail runs on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.  Thank you so much to JK, Michelle, Tam and Karen for leading these.   Other members got together to run, others solo – including Nolan in his rather fetching Santa hat – and of course it wouldn’t be Christmas without seeing lifetime member Pete’s Christmas Suit offering.  Remarkable. Since my last write up (which was on the 23rd) we have had four – yes FOUR – parkrun days! Some members found a parkrun on Christmas Day; the usual Saturday parkrun took place on the 28th; New Year’s saw many parkrun doubles; and then we had the latest parkrun on the 4th!   And on those four separate parkrun days we had LFRs at:  Luton Wardown, Crystal Palace, Linford Wood, Houghton Hall, Aylesbury, Buckingham, Watergrove, Cassiobury, Portsmouth, Salcey Forest, Milton Keynes, Marston Vale, Exmouth, Ashford, Lydiard, Newark, Exeter Riverside, Queen Elizabeth, Horton Park, Rutland Water, Hogmoor Inclosure, Wendover Woods AND of course….Rushmere!  So many parkruns!  I would like to know where Lydiard is please, Andy, and also Hogmoor Inclosure, Mr and Mrs A.  Thanks! I am sure there are many fantastic results from those four days, however please forgive me for only looking at the latest…at home in Rushmere: Ian Bisby, after cycling 5K up to Rushmere, came 6th AND ran a stonking PB of 21:25.  He then cycled the longer way (14K) home.  Duathlon training he tells me! Also smashing out some PBs at Rushmere were Steve Molyneaux and Catherine Thackray.  Well done! The weekend just gone saw some racing from Team LFR…. Phil took on the second of the Thetford 10Ks.  He’s already done one and the third is in February.  Here he is cuddling up to the Gruffalo.  Great work, Phil! Paul Little and Matthew Ma decided a marathon was the only way to shift any Christmas indulgence and took to the sticky, sloppy and claggy trails at the LDWA Stansted Stagger.  Wonderful stuff. The day before this Matthew had also run with Team LFR at the Beds AAA Cross Country Champs - there’s no stopping this guy! We had some great results from the Team at the champs: Mike Clark won the over 60’s; the men’s vets team came 3rd; and the men’s senior team came 4th!  Great running, champs, on a tough course.  Just look how exhausted our Chair looks…. Also some great results from a couple of mini LFRs (who are technically mini LBACS, however I am CERTAIN they will change allegiance once they are of age):  James Parker (son of David) won the U11 boys and Ana Green (the Captain’s daughter) came 4th in the U11 girls and won the team! The festive period and the New Year saw lots of people heading out on training runs, first runs, getting back to it runs and it is wonderful to see so many LFRs out and about in this winter weather.  There are some big goals for some LFR folk this year: marathons, 5K, half-marathons, 100 miles, 10K, even some triathlon and cycling goals.  Whatever your goal for this year: whether to complete your first run at a particular distance; a particular race; to run a PB; or perhaps you simply want to keep on running…..good luck! It’s going to be a great year and I cannot WAIT to see what we all get up to. That’s all for this week. Happy New Year, LFR!  And Happy Running!

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The Running Injury Learning Curve by Emily McClelland

WHAT HAPPENED… On the final half mile of the Tuesday evening club run I pushed hard wanting to get that all important sprint finish in…. That’s when I felt a sharp unknown pain on my knee across the knee cap. I ignored it and finished the run. My knee ached for the rest of the evening. The following day I could hardly walk, I couldn’t bend my left leg, the pain with every step and knee bend changing position made me feel nauseas. I knew it wasn’t good. It took 5 days for the pain to subside and with that I attempted a little run, then another, and then one more before the sharp pain returned again. I stubbornly repeated this pattern for some 8 weeks hoping by some miracle that each week I’d be ok again to run one of the many races I was booked into. As the weeks went by I cancelled one race by one, only managing to run the MK Rocket 5k after the osteopath had “pulled me about” to promptly break a few days later. Finally I gave up, realising (eventually) that I needed proper rest. When I cancelled my next 3 months of races it took the pressure off so I could concentrate on doing nothing. In short – I got injured by doing too much too soon, I added on too many miles before I was ready and then I never let myself recover afterwards, that was the final nail in the coffin. There you go, I said it out loud! The effects of not running hit me hard immediately from the first week; I was no longer getting the huge benefits of endorphins that each run released, I could no longer eat the same amount of calories in a day, I no longer had my de stress run that I’d learnt to rely on and the hardest thing of all, my running goals had been removed from my sights; No more first marathon with an aim for a GFA, no more 3x half marathon goal, and thus it went on – I felt lost, completely de motivated and lost all get up and go. I regularly saw the sports therapist and an osteopath, I wanted and needed to get better; however my body was reacting and was being taken over by tension and stress; I needed to handle and deal with the emotions so my body could relax and become capable of recovering. THE LEARNING CURVE…. As different parts of my body hurt it was hard to be diagnosed with exactly what was wrong. The pain in my knee was “runners knee”, an excruciating pain across the kneecap and inside of the knee, to touch it felt bruised and every time the knee bent it felt like a bruise was being pushed. However the knee wasn’t the root of the problem it just took the brunt of what was going on and reacted to the many tight muscles and ligaments. Piriformis syndrome was talked about, as was limited pelvis and lower back movement, hamstring tightness and hip flexors. I wanted to learn and understand more about running and the human body. I started off with the motivational book “Born to Run” by Chris McDougal about the Mexican tribe of ultra runners and the USA’s famed ultra runners; I took confidence from the fact that we are born to run… for all the reasons explained it made perfect sense; on a distance test we could outrun the fastest of mammals, the way we are designed to sweat as we run, we are upright mammals to absorb less heat, the only purpose of our achilles is to run, and thus the list went on. Next I read Ross Edgley’s “The World’s fittest Book”, he spoke in-depth about the importance of core and basic strength to be able to perform any chosen sport and how important these basic principles are to avoid injury. Next up came the book “Eat & Run” by USA’s ultra runner Scott Jurek, more of an autobiography but it encouraged me once again of how we are born to run and just how capable and able the human body is. All these books touched on barefoot running and this made me realise how important foot placement is. I’m not yet ready to run down the street shoeless in the barefoot method just yet but I understand why modern padded trainers and how orthotics actually create problems. Each foot is made up of 28 bones, 30 joints and 100 muscles and we wrap that up in a padded shoe, in essence we put our foot in a coffin and then expect it to work; as the saying goes with equines; “no foot, no horse”. Whenever possible we should be walking around barefoot to allow the whole of our foot to function as it is meant too. My osteopath begged me to read Helen Hall’s “Even with your shoes on” and by the first chapter I was hooked, she puts the utmost importance on our posture, vertical sagittal plane; most of us aren’t straight, we’re wonky as hell thanks to modern life. Helen talks in great depth about form with a step by step guide to injury free running starting with being vertical; it all makes perfect sense. “Chi running” by Danny Dreyer backs up what Helen says with the added be at one with nature approach. But the final book to link it all together was “Primate change” by Vybarr Cregan-Reid a fascinating read on how modern life is literally killing us – after reading this book I feel positively allergic to sitting in a chair; our glutes are not designed to be sat on, they are meant to drive us, sit on your glutes and they fall asleep which explains why mine don’t fire. Further more sitting down shortens your hip flexors which restricts the movement of your pelvis and your lumbar area which can result in an anterior tilt pelvis (which I have). None of these things are good! If you isolate an area of your body, be it a joint for example for just two hours it will start to lose it’s ability to do as it’s meant to, we know this from when people are in a cast having broken a bone and they have to relearn to use the hand, motion, body part etc. Most of us are sat for 15 hours a day and unless we can change our career we aren’t able to greatly change that. When possible we need to get up and move; we NEED to be active. These books all quote Gary Ward’s “Anatomy in motion” like the gospel and his YouTube videos are great for some exercises. WHERE AM I NOW… From all the reading I feel far more in tune with my body, and my body sensory is far improved; am I vertical, where is my foot landing, is my pelvis tilting, am I relaxed, etc. if you expect your body to perform you need to understand it and treat it well. 14 weeks post injury, 6 weeks off no running and 2 weeks of complete rest I started to run again; slowly, short distances only using everything I had learnt and I am still learning as I continue to read Helen Hall’s book like my bible. After 2 weeks complete rest I felt incredibly tight, but then that makes sense, I’ve been sitting, my pelvis is hugely restricted from all those shortened ligaments; but I am doing my pelvis wall cogs, glute bridges, quad lifts, and thus the list goes on. 3 weeks into running I was running 5km, I felt incredibly unfit, my cardio ability has unsurprisingly disappeared however I am delighted to be running, I am relaxing into the run and when something feels uncomfortable I do not ignore it I think about it and my body and assess what I’m doing, I think vertical, relax my legs from the hips so they swing a little more freely and make sure my arms are not swinging across my body but are controlled yet relaxed going with the motion of my body, then that uncomfortable feeling goes. It took 3-4 weeks for any aching in my hamstring to go which was in direct relation to the injury. I recall one day at work where I had been sitting in the car, work and car for 11 hours straight with less than 1000 steps taken, my left leg was extremely uncomfortable. I could feel it spasming in different areas, I could feel everything tightening like it was screaming out to move; it was meant to be my rest day however “resting” right now would be being cruel to my body, it needed to get out. I felt like I was taking a big risk, I could run and I could push it and end up back at square one. However with my new found knowledge of my body I did go out for a run, but not before doing my 10 minute walk warm up, (Helen isn’t big on pre run stretching but she does preach 10 minutes of walking to get the blood around to all parts of your body muscles and ligaments. Next check you are vertical and then do some ankle flexes to open up your ankle joints – I run a steady 5km and walk for a good 15 minutes post run. My leg felt tonnes better post run. Many people will think I am running too much at 5 times a week. However I’ve come to realise that my body needs movement, so as long as I’m being sensible on pace and distance I know my body will thank me for being active; I will strive for a run or a decent walk everyday and I will look to incorporate swimming and cycling back into my routine. It takes me back to my horse days; a half hour hack around the countryside was a day off for my competition horse because it was good for him physically and mentally, when he had a few days off he stiffened in his shoulder which affected his whole body and then cost me dearly with the physio! I’m now nearly 9 weeks back running with 34 runs complete, I’m doing my long runs according to heart rate zones, working on interval training and doing my best to get my fitness to where it was pre injury. I’ve got my first half marathon in the middle of October and where I don’t expect to run it at my original goal pace I’ll be delighted to do it and pick up some bling! I’m not naive enough to think I won’t become injured again but I will strive to continue reading and learning about running and the human body in a bid to not fall down the same path again. NB. Emily wrote this back in August. Since writing, she completed that half marathon in October at Oxford and ran her second half at the Dirt Half in November. She has also run a Rushmere parkrun PB and has been competing in the cross country league for LFR. Emily is now training for the London Marathon. Look out for her blogs in the future on her training! You can see more of Emily on her personal blog here:  https://mywonderland.blog/

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This is the week that…the legend ran his 250th marathon!

We started the week with LFR's annual Christmas Quiz run on Tuesday. The winner's this year were Dave and Kelly - The Dogs Bollox! Kudos to Kelly who went from wooden spoon holder last year to this year's champion! Superb quizzing. Fartlek returned for the last time this year and Dan put on a Gut Buster session for the Improvers on Thursday. The last Friday social of the year saw another pub stop, this time at The Globe for some tea and toast! On parkrun day we had runners at Luton Wardown, Hampstead Heath, Linford Wood, Houghton Hall, Marston Vale, Salcey Forest and Rushmere.  One PB from our runners in Rushmere, from Steve!  Well done!  And mini LFR, Bear, was completing his first ever parkrun!  No longer in the buggy! At home in Rushmere on the 28th we have some LFR milestones to celebrate. Beefy (Will - another Will) is running his 50th parkrun. James will be volunteering for 25th time. Jen (that's me!) will be volunteering for the 50th time (although that's not a real milestone and unfortunately I won't get another t-shirt *sad face*). And Clare Kleanthous will be completing her 100th parkrun! Come on down to run and support! Captain Dan put on Part 2 of his Christmas Gut Buster on Sunday. Brutal fun in the cold. We may have moaned at the start, but we enjoyed it in the end! And finally...our legend of a marathon man was out running on Sunday at the Portsmouth Coastal Marathon completing his 250th Marathon/Ultra Marathon! 250! What an amazing achievement. He did tell me that he would never run a marathon again after this. I think we all know this isn't true. Well done, JK. Legend. Hero. Extraordinary. What a guy. That's all for this week! Have a wonderful Christmas, LFR! Happy running!

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