Club Run Report
The Piranha Club Run is back and open to all members at all levels. Every Saturday at 10am the run sets off from the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park, with a thorough warm up and then drills and running to build speed and strength. All members are encouraged to come along for a very worthwhile running session - you'll learn drills that'll help you with your own solo training, and you'll get to see what everybody looks like without a swimming hat on!Here's a rundown of what's been going on in the last few training sessions. If you've been to the sessions and have feedback, ideas, questions, please post them up...
The Phoenix Park is an amazing facility to have on our doorstep; so it's no wonder that bright and early on weekend mornings it's packed with cyclists, runners, walkers, deer and the occasional piranha. The local football team were even there; ploughing up and down the high hills around the fort, demonstrating to us the way not to go through a training routine.
The Club Run session started with a thorough set of warm up stretches and drills, followed by a 3K lap of the pitches - all done at each individual's own pace.
The main drill set was done on the hill opposite the fort. We did a 5 lap set of high knees, jumping strides and sprints, followd by a recovery jog back to the bottom of the hill (shown in the graphic below). This week, the soft ground on the hills meant that the drill had to be done on the pitch at the top of the hill, but we did 7 reps instead of 5, with a longer recovery jog, and then did two 3K laps of the pitches - adding up to a more intense run than last week in a similar time.
The drill is designed to build leg strength after the winter layoff. Personally, having done very little running over the winter, I found it tough - but it felt good to get back to running in a group with a proper warm up and cool down - something I have a habit of avoiding (wrongly) when I run on my own. The total distance covered last week was just over 10K, slightly more this week. Not a bad day's work! Special thanks to Liuwe and the training committee for their hard work running the sessions.