Reading Roadrunners

Today was the day. After two aborted attempts to get my assessment/H&S/general info & rules session, I finally made it. In fact I was 35 minutes early! Partly because I left home with 75 minutes to make it there. I took one look at the traffic and decided that my best course of action would be to not take the Ring Road.

The car park was empty when I arrived, I parked up, opened the door and stepped out, after being in the car with the heater on for half an hour it was quite a shock to step out into the cold, to see my breath. I grabbed the beanie off the back seat and cursed myself for not bringing my gloves and headed off to the track. Upon arriving I contacted Jumile to ensure he was coming - there was no way I was going to go through tonight without him suffering too. Once I'd spoken to him briefly I introduced myself to the welcoming committee who passed me on to Tom ( I think that was his name) who showed me the facilities. Once we'd done the tour I left my car keys with the welcoming committee, filled my water bottle and headed out to the track.

The 400M track looked a helluva lot bigger tonight when I knew I was going to be running around it than it did a few weeks ago when I arrived (very) late for my induction thing. As the number of people grew, a quick scan showed I was the only person there of my shape. Jumile turned up a couple of minutes later and shortly before a brief news update, after which we split up into groups, I was one of a handful of people - 6 0r 8 excluding myself, there for the first time and we were led off together. The first order of business was a quick explanation of the lane layout, usage policy and track etiquette.

There were a number of groups of runners undergoing coaching at different levels or monitored running. There were also a number of people just running.

Our first objective was a 1/2 lap, which I think was as much to get us out of the way of other groups as anything else. Once there we stepped off the track onto the cycle track which rings the running lanes. We we taken through a few simple stretches and after a brief run down of what lay ahead of us, we were taken for a single circuit of the track to be carried out at our own pace. I set off in the middle of the group, was a little slower than the others but wasn't going to be forced into running faster than I felt comfortable with.

After arriving back, we gathered round to have explained to us exactly what we'd be doing next.It's hard to explain. We had to a series of 'odd' running styles, which exercised particular muscles more than the others, we ran maybe 50yds each time at a slowish pace, looped back did it again and then shifted focus to another muscle. After doing this six times it was all pulled together, running with a combination of all of the previous exercises, this time however we were to run a bit further and accelerate up to our maximum and slow down gently.

After a couple of minute break to get our breath back, we ran 1/2 lap back to the main stand/starting point.

By this time I was starting to develop pain in my shins, I knew what it was - shin splints, I have experienced them on and off since starting running again. I attempted the next exercise, which was slow pace round the curves, raised pace on the straights for two laps. After half a lap - at the end of the first fast pace 100M the pain in my shins was growing. I think what brought it on was the fact that I had been running faster tonight than I have done in years - many years. I sat out the rest of the session, I am not in this to injure myself and had a word with the coach afterwards. It was suggested that I for the next few weeks run at my own speed to build up my leg muscles. rather than try to mix it with the coaching groups.

While the balance of the group was running the last few laps of the evening, I did my stretches and then headed home after having a quick word with Jumile.