We are very excited to be partners in the Worcestershire Ambassadors Walk the Walk 2021. Their aim is to walk (run) to the moon and raise money for local Mental Health services at the same time, and we are really pleased to be helping.

We know how important exercise is to our mental health, many of our blog posts shout this out.
Sometimes it is hard to get motivated to go out and exercise, there are many things that put us off, we had a recent thread on our facebook group about this.
For some it's the weather, too hot, too cold, too wet, for some it's the thought of having to get your kit together and get dressed, for some it's  work, dark nights and mornings, staying in bed, going out on your own....  any of these things can make us want to stay at home.

BUT when we do go out to run or walk, and feel that improvement in our mood, that's when we remember why we do it, why we love it once we are out there! 
If you can keep the memory of that feeling in your "feel good box" and look at it when those barriers pop up, if you can recall how much better you feel once you have, you'll find it that bit easier to get up and go.

Some days you can't wait to get out there, some days it's like wading through treacle, but at the end, there is always the satisfaction of a job done.

Running has kept me going through some tough times, illness and anxiety, it's not always been easy, but it's always been worth it!

The 4  weeks of lockdown are now behind us and I think for runners and walkers it was slightly better than the summer lockdown as we could get out with a buddie.

When the lockdown rules were announced we wondered how we could help everyone find a buddie to get out with, so we set up some WhatsApp groups for all our regular sessions and people applied to join their group.
It was a roaring success, people linking up and running/walking routes that were new to them. 

Motivation was high and so many more of us kept going through this lockdown.
We had some good fun on our Facebook group too, Challenge Tuesday made a comeback and Fun Friday was.....fun!

Now we are settling back in to our groups, it's really great to be back with friends we haven't seen for a few weeks, catching up on news, discussing Christmas plans and, oh yes, running and walking!

Getting back to groups is so much more than the exercise, it is about the running and walking of course, we all want to get fitter, or get outside, or be able to eat a few treats without worrying about our waistline, but it's also about the camaraderie, the friendships,  the chat, the connections, all the things we missed so much during lockdown.

We do keep to all the UKA Covid-Secure guidelines, and our groups are smaller so that we can keep to the rules. We are constantly monitoring the space between us and we fall in to single-file when there are other path users. We want to make sure that everyone is safe!

We may face another lockdown, who knows. The vaccine is here but it'll be a while before we can all benefit from it.
​So until then, Stay Safe everyone!






 

,​My running blog. 0 - 26 miles in 18 months - by Paul
It was a sunny day sitting on Brean beach with my friends and parents, I had recently been off work with depression / anxiety. It came up in conversation that Cheryl (my friend who was there with us on the beach) was to run the London marathon, the next week. Being me at the time I could not even comprehend that this was even possible and was sort of stunned that someone I knew was going to be doing it.
I did however think it was quite exciting and found out that it was possible to track her progress on the phone. Sun 28th (marathon day) soon came round, we were actually at a van meet that day but I was eager to get the app on (unfortunately due to technical difficulties the chip didn’t work, so I couldn't follow the progress anyway)
I was back to work the next day. Even though I felt well, I didn’t feel the reason I was ill in the first place had been addressed. Because of this I did want to change things to try and reduce the chances of a repeat illness in the future. So with this in mind, I was back home watching clips of the London Marathon, including Cheryl finishing ) and I literally said to myself "this time next year I want to do that" and I entered the ballot as soon as it was open.
This was quite a tall order (no pun intended as I’m only 5ft 3 ) but as I hadn't run for over 20 years and even when I had, it was just because it was PE at school and wasn’t through choice. I was also 13 stone 5. To start with, for a couple of weeks, I did a lot of walking. Even that was energetic for me, but I realised I was enjoying it. A friend of mine agreed to do a couple of short runs with me and even though I was slow (I mean people on zimmers were coming past) I was enjoying it. She also introduced, me to park run which I remember well, it took me 45 mins and I couldn’t run it all (but it was ace!) and the next one I did I remember knocking 3 mins off.
I was enjoying it so much I booked up 3 events (I needed this so I had something to aim for) - 10k March for Men (9th June) - 10k Race for life (14th July) - Cheltenham half marathon (29th Sept)
By now I had managed a couple of 5ks and wondered where to go from there, I wasn't a fan of running alone and remembered that Caitlin ran with a local running club. So on Friday 31st of May I joined Happy Feet, it was the best decision I had made so far (and still is) it’s been brilliant.
Over the next few months I got stronger and got my parkrun time down from 45 mins to 35 mins, all within 4 months of starting. I also got my distance up to 10k to complete both the March for Men and the Race for Life which was my first official run. I was now starting to up my distance to get prepared for the Cheltenham half marathon in September. This soon came round and there I was standing towards the back of the start line thinking it’s better to overtake (like that’s going to happen) than be overtaken. Apart from losing my headphones and being overtaken by a few people, the start went well. I was adamant I wasn’t going to rush at the start and it paid off. Not only was I not being overtaken but I was overtaking those who shot past me at the start, I had met someone to run with and I was having the best Sunday morning ever.
Although my aim was just to finish, I really wanted to come in under 3 hours. All was well until mile 10 I think, when my running buddy wasn't feeling well, I said we would stick together and even though we had to walk a little we both finished at 2hr 57 mins, a bit close for comfort lol.
It was shortly after this that I found out I was unsuccessful in getting a space in the London marathon. I then found out that Stratford marathon was on the same date and it looked like a nice one, so I booked to do that. From then on, I was getting as much training in as I could, trying to get as fit as I could. Ready to start doing longer distances after Christmas, to be prepared for the big day.
Shortly after this I unfortunately picked up an injury, possibly caused from over training but I think if would have happened anyway. I had what I thought was a bad ankle and tried everything to try and sort it.
I didn’t run for at least 4 weeks, possibly longer. Everything I tried just didn’t seem to do anything and it got to the point that it actually hurt to walk, I really thought I had no chance to be ready for the marathon now. Then a glimmer of light. The University of Worcester were advertising that they would be happy to take on case studies for the students to learn and with that I contacted them.
Straight away they pointed out how bad my balance was and quickly diagnosed my problem as peninsula tendonitis. Over the next few weeks, I had exercises and stretches to carry out and I quickly began to see improvements. By early February I was back to it but I had lost about 5 weeks of training. Even though I didn’t think I would be ready for a marathon in April, I restarted training again and within 3 weeks I  was back up to half marathon distances and getting more confidence.
March continued with progressively longer runs, but I was thinking that perhaps a run/walk approach to the big day might be safer. I thought it would give me a greater chance of finishing. By the middle of March however the world had different ideas and with Covid taking over, the marathon was postponed. I was gutted as it meant a lot to me to do it on the date, but it was out of my hands and I really didn’t want to do it on my own.
Throughout lockdown I didn’t do the longer runs as I didn’t want to burn out not knowing when the race day would actually be. By July I was itching to get going again, I changed my goal to just doing a marathon sometime in 2020. I then found out that Ian ( a friend from Happy Feet) was training for a marathon, he wasn’t sure when or where but kindly said I could join him and we started training with the idea of running a non-organised marathon at some point in the year. Shortly after this Jenny, another friend from Happy Feet Fitness and Shane a friend from camping, started to join us.
This was great, our own little group for the day. Back in September half marathons were “if I finish it would be great” now they were a regular occurrence! I think it was 5 or 6 , in 3 months and 1 of them even banking a medal, even though it was a training run (always making it more worthwhile ).
Ian found out that the London marathon would now be a virtual event on October 4th, it was great that we had a date to aim for. Time was suddenly going extra fast, juggling life and training was hard work, but I persisted with long runs most Saturday mornings. This meaning being up at 6am on the weekend, but I knew it would be worth it and that it had to be done - even better I was enjoying it.
Before I knew it I was doing half marathon + mileage, and not before time. The big day was just around the corner, plans were being made. I planned our route, which I really enjoyed and thankfully the others were happy for me to do this. Water stops were all organised and it was all becoming very real, I was actually going to do this!
The weekend before, plans were made with fellow runners who said they would join us, which as I found out on the day would be a god send. My friends all teamed up to come out to support me on the route, I felt like everything was falling into place.
After a week where for the first time ever I had the best ever excuse to eat loads, the weekend was finally here. Obviously there had to be one final disappointment (like in the films), my friend Cheryl, who I mentioned at the beginning, was unable to attend due to issues out of her control. I don’t know who was more disappointed me or her. I knew if I was going to succeed, I needed to get myself back onto a high and after talking to a few friends, I was back on form and ready.
6am Race day, up for my normal bowl of granola and a banana and just for good luck a few jelly babies. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great, but at 8.35am we set off for what I kept telling myself was just a long training run.
We set off in great spirits all of us having a big build up to the day, all was going well and we were bang on schedule until mile 19, with the odd struggle mentally, not physically, I gave myself a good talking to and overcame this.
Mile 21 came and unfortunately Ian’s knee started to play up after an injury earlier in the year. I had always said I would possibly have to run/walk the last 5 miles, and so I wasn’t too upset to do this. I'm not sure if I could have run the rest or not, but the aim was to finish.
At the last water stop it felt like we had been going for ever, and now the tables had turned. My head wanted to get finished and was saying push, and my legs felt like they had been attached to lead weights, but I was so close to finishing and this feeling was incredible, so many feelings and emotions!
The final few yards, and apart from accidentally pushing Ian into a puddle, I got the "YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE 26.2 MILES" for the Virtual London Marathon! Giving me a massive boost to put a sprint finish on, and I’ve never, ever, felt so good!
I had finally done it. That night sitting in my recliner I remembered that day 18 months ago when I made the decision to do it, it took 4 days for it to really sink in that I HAD done it!
 
Conclusion
If you want to do it you can, it just takes persistence, time and patience but it can be done.
What now?
Well as proud of my achievements as I am there was a sense of sadness, as I had completed my challenge so what now ? - Well I’ve set myself a goal of doing Stratford marathon in 4 hr 30 next year, but as we all know, plans don’t always go to plan. So, watch this space lol.

So, we seem to have a battle of the groups on our hands!
The Monday morning, evening and Friday morning groups are trying to out-do each other in a Boomerang challenge!
Sadly I can't rotate one of the clips!
​As you can see the evening group is giving in gracefully this week....but they have plans!!!!!

The weekend of 5th, 6th and 7th September 2020 was the first Virtual Worcester City run.

Due to covid restrictions we couldn't all run together, but lots of us signed up anyway, as profits were going to the Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust.
Events of the North organised it from a distance, and all we had to do was enter, download the app, run or walk the distance and then submit our proof.

We stayed in our normal groups and either did the 5k, or did a bit more and got up to 10k, a few hardy runners managed the half marathon!

There were some pretty pleased runners as you can see from their photos!

It was nice to feel that we had participated, but we can't wait till next year when we hope we can do it for real!

​Keep running and walking, and keep safe!

Over on our FaceBook page we had a post this week about comparison, and it generated quite a discussion.
I've been mulling it over for a few days and thought I'd share my thoughts....

When I stared running I didn't have a running watch, I didn't even think that much about time, I did need to know how long I'd been running for as I was doing a version of couch to 5k, but that was it.
As I started to run more I became more interested in how long I'd been out running and I think I used a phone app to see how far I'd run, I then had to work out on a calculator how fast I'd run, I had no idea there were gadgets out there that would work that out for me!

As time went on I found out about GPS watches, and invested in one. Wow, I was hooked! I could see at a glance how far I'd run and how fast I was going, in the beginning that was really motivating, if I felt tired, I'd look at my watch and think, only half a mile and I'll have reached my target, so I'd push on..... Luckily I didn't injure myself doing that, but I have seen others do so, not wanting to stop until the watch shows the magic number can become a bit of on obsession.

I have used my watch to help me train for races and improve my times, and I really do like having that instant feedback with me but.....as the years went by I became more focused on that task master on my wrist, I'd catch myself thinking "last week I was 3 seconds faster at this point" and I would beat myself up for that perceived failure.  Eventually I started to vary my routes more so that I couldn't do that en-route comparison as easily.

My comparison has always been with myself, about how I could have run those few seconds faster, gone those few 100 meters further, been more even with my splits......on and on that comparison goes, there was a time that I thought that I wasn't making any progress and felt like giving up!

Then along came the running community apps, yet more opportunities to compare myself to others. To be honest, by the time I got round to joining (I'm definitely not an early adopter!) I was much more comfortable with my own running and was more interested in other people's stats than comparing them with my own.
However I do notice others talking about how they compare themselves with others, feeling that they should be running further or faster or for longer, that so-and-so hasn't been running as long as me, but has improved quicker, that mega mileage is being done by running friends and that they can find the time to do it so why can't I....

Gadgets are great, I still love mine but I use it for my own benefit, my watch also counts steps and some days I love just saying "Yah-Boo" watch, I'm not going to do to target you've set me and I DON'T CARE!

In our groups we really try to embrace the health benefits of running and walking, rather than just looking at speed and distance.  The improvements to our mental and physical being are huge, the social feeling is so important too. 
All our groups are mixed ability which means we have some really quick runners alongside those at a more sedate pace, this might look a bit unusual to start with, but we know that for us it works. No one gets left behind and as all our paces vary slightly we don't really compare ourselves to each other on the run. I'm not saying we don't have some good natured competition, but at the heart of it we are all working as hard as we can, be that at 6 minutes a kilometer  or 11, and we all respect the effort that each one of us is putting in.

Sometimes I think that I should leave my watch at home, that I shouldn't upload to that running community app, but you know what, I do like to see what I've done, I'm proud of every step I take and I'm proud of the steps that others take too!
​
So is Comparison the thief of Joy? Yes, I think it can be. Comparison with ourselves or with other can take away the Joy we feel in the pure energy of running, but only if we let it. X
​

For the last 5 weeks we have been running and walking as groups of 5 plus a leader, and it has been brilliant!

When the Government changed the regulations at the beginning of June, we were really excited and straight away we looked at how we could get back to social running. We looked at all the guidance available and put together a plan for us all to follow, to make sure we could meet again safely.

Our biggest priority is to keep everyone safe, so we keep a 2m distance when we walk, run and stretch, we arrive at our meeting places on time so we don’t have to wait around, if anyone feels unwell in any way we ask them to stay at home and we keep to quiet roads and paths to minimise our contact with other path users.

We were all really excited to get back together, we have all kept motivated in the virtual world, with our great “Challenge Tuesday” and we have had strength and conditioning and stretching classes live online, but there is nothing quite like being out in the fresh air together.

We were all a little apprehensive to begin with, after all this virus has not gone away! But we knew we needed to restore a little normality to our lives. Exercising outside is so important for both our physical and mental health, and we had all been missing it!

So, on Sunday 7th June we started back, to begin with we offered a few groups on different days, they were immediately oversubscribed so we slowly added more groups in to the mix and now have 15 going out each week. It’s great to be able to offer most people at least one group run a week.

We are so grateful to our leaders too, for taking out groups and keeping everyone safe.

We are already looking towards the future; we can’t wait for the time when we can restart our popular Couch to 5k groups and our longer distance runs.  We will need to wait for further relaxation of the guidelines before we can plan these though.

For now we will keep on providing a great, fun, safe environment for our runners and walkers.

Keep safe everyone!
​Marie and Rhiannon

Its been a little while since I’ve written a blog so I thought it was about time I put pen to paper!
I have absolutely loved being back at ‘work’ over the past few weeks and it’s been awesome seeing so many of you out with us.
Over the lockdown we have all had our own highs and lows, some of us have managed to get out training and some just haven’t and that’s completely ok.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed some of you have felt like you are failing, can’t keep up and just generally found running/walking hard.
Lots of you will have heard me and Marie talking about our heart rate and how important it is for good training results so thought it would be a perfect topic for my blog.
So lets talk about max heart rate and training zones, first of all we need to be able to determine our maximum heart rate.
There are several ways that we can do this and most of them involve a laboratory style assessment however we can all work out a rough estimate of our max HR by using a simple formula
220 – Your age
Although this is a very general calculation it will give us all a good base and from there, we can tweak the number to suit us.
So, I am 33 meaning my Max HR should be 220-33 = 187.
I would consider myself to be fit and I do regularly monitor my heart rate during my training and I know at my absolute maximum effort my heart rate will be around 191 so it’s a pretty good estimate.
Once we have worked out our maximum heartrate we can start to understand how it can affect how we feel during training and after.
When I am in my top zone (so in my top heart rate zone of 90-100% of my maximum), I can’t talk, thinking is hard and its not maintainable for a long period of time.
Whereas when I am in my 1st, 2nd or 3rd zone I can comfortably talk, I feel comfortable and relaxed and providing my legs will allow me I can keep on going.
My body utilises my energy stores effectively rather than using the most easily accessible sources which can leave you feeling exhausted.
Are you questioning what are these zones? Our heart rate zones are a reflection of the percentage of our max heart rate.

​Zone 5
90-100% Max HR
Duration - Less than 5 minutes
Benefits – Increase maximum sprint race speed
Feels like – Very exhausting for breathing and muscles
Recommended for – Very fit people/ athletes

Zone 4
80-90% Max HR
Duration 2-10 minutes
Benefits – Increase max performance
Feels like – Muscle fatigue and heavy breathing
Recommended for – ‘Fit’ people and for short exercise

Zone 3
70-80% Max HR
Duration 10-40 minutes 
Benefits – Improves aerobic fitness
Feels like – Light Muscular fatigue, easy breathing, moderate sweating
Recommended for – Everyone for typical, moderate long exercise

Zone 2
60-70% Max HR
Duration 40-80 minutes
Benefits – Improves basic endurance and helps recovery
Feels like – Comfortable, easy breathing, light sweating

Zone 1
50-60% Max HR
Duration 20-40 minutes
Benefits – Improve overall health, helps recovery
Feels like – Easy every day moving around
Recommended for – basic training and novice exercisers and active recovery

 
As you can see from the table it is important to make sure we aren’t pushing ourselves too hard because our heart will be in a zone that is not maintainable, and we will have to stop.
The longer we exercise the harder our heart will have to work to metabolise the energy we need to keep going.
A good training plan should be a mix of using zones 1-4. To improve our resting HR and Max HR we need to push ourselves into zone 4 but only for very short periods and certainly not during every run.
We must let our bodies recover in between sessions, by also training in zone 4, you will experience symptoms of exhaustion.
We should be looking to run at a comfortable chatting pace, this is a really good indicator that your heart is in the correct zone (zone 2-3). Your runs will become easier, your heart will thank you and so will your other muscles.
Realistically you only need to try and push into zone 4 for a few minutes once a week to increase your cardiovascular fitness and that can easily be done by a short burst that is relative to your level.
In summary – slower is better, your muscles will be receiving the oxygen and nutrients they need, they will be able to utilise your bodies energy in the most efficient way and most importantly you will be looking after your heart.
Please remember, no one is ever too slow for happy feet. Take your time, enjoy your run and we will always muster
Much love
Rhi x