Back to the Fuscia

A big Brighton GG welcome to Jess joining us for the first time tonight. Jess is already coach verified and hoping to be paired soon and great to have you along for your first group run. Jenny also came along for her second good gym run which is her 409th consecutive day that she’s run! Flipping’ awesome!

After the intros we changed the warm up this week to a focus on posture. Anyone who sits at a desk all day will know the perils of rounded shoulders and tight hip flexors, both of which are not good for running. So tonight we warmed up with a focus on shoulders back and down and opening up the chest and then on high hips with some exercises for hip mobility.

Helena led us up the hill to tonights task with myself back marking on bike due to a rapidly improving foot injury. We met Amy & Jane who are involved with community groups to improve the environment of the Pankhurst estate. Tonight’s task was planting late spring bulbs on a grassy bank at the entrance to the estate to help create a good first impression and cheer up the area. There were aliums, Dutch Iris, gladioli, anemones & fuscias. You made short work of it and got them all planted within about 20 minutes leaving plenty of time for a fitness session.

We headed off to the charming Tarner Park which serves as the best late night outdoor gym in Brighton! Continuing the focus on posture we did exercises focussing on upper back and glute strength to help you keep those shoulders back and down and those hips open and high. The wall angels were fun as you looked like you were lining up against a wall to be shot! And great that you all took the ‘hardcore’ option on the second round of adding in a wall squat at the same time! We also used the swings for pull ups and suspended lunges before finishing with a ‘plank off’ which we capped at 2 minutes, with 6 of you making it all the way and some of you looking like you could stay there all day!

A quick jog back to base, during which the temperature seemed to drop by about 10 degrees, before finishing the evening off with with our monthly social.

Thanks yet again to Roy for tonight’s pun.. third week in a row, great work!