Hi everyone,

For those of you with kids at ASL, I hope you had a nice break!   I look forward to hearing about it on tomorrow’s run.

For our run tomorrow, we will be running a total of 22 minutes, slipping in a few 4 minute blocks.  Going forward, the amount of time spent running starts to increase more quickly since you have built the base you need to start to run longer.  It is really important to get that second run in each week so you keep that base up and build from there.  Anyone on this list who hasn’t been out running with us – now is the time to jump in before we are too far along in the program.

I know some of you have asked for more structured warm up and cool down exercises.  The walking we do at the beginning of our runs in intended to warm up our muscles.  For the level of running we are doing, this should be sufficient to avoid injury due to starting out “cold.”  We will make more of an effort to walk briskly, however, as that will get those muscles warmed up better, especially as the weather turns cooler.  If you are experiencing any soreness or aches, consider using a roller like Meg demonstrated prior to coming out in the morning.  Also, please remember that none of us are officially trained in either fitness or physio.  If you are feeling aches and pains, PLEASE ask us for recommendations for a physio.  We highly recommend seeing someone early, before a problem really develops.

For post-run, again the walking is intended to act as a cool-down.  As we have said, it is very important to stretch after the run which is why we build in that time before heading in to Starbucks.  We have demonstrated a few stretches but this link provides a few more in addition to what we have done:  http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/c25k/Pages/how-to-stretch-after-a-run.aspx

We are happy to help demonstrate these, but again remember that we are not trained in this so we can only show what we have found to be helpful for ourselves.

See you all tomorrow!

Your coaches