Tuesday - Loving Cross Country

The main focus of the day was the Cross country session. The course sits at the side of our hotel and is approximately 2k long. It was used for the European Cross Country in the 80/90’s. This course is tough! It winds backwards and forwards, up and down on a sandy surface.
After a lie in and relaxed breakfast, we headed to the track for the Blizard Run Club dynamic warm up, led by Jenny and drills coached by Dave. 

One easy lap of the course to warm up. Then the session - 1 x 20 mins at marathon pace, 3 mins recovery followed by 4 x 5 mins at 10k pace off 2 minutes recovery. The beauty of this session is that small groups form, who worked together to keep the effort hard. It’s one of those sessions you don’t look forward to but are really pleased with the outcome. 

A cool off in the pool to, aid recovery too! Note that no one went above the hips!

After a healthy replenishing lunch some of the team went a walk to checkout the gym. Some have even had time to do a cheeky gym session!

On to the teatime practical movement session, again on the track using the hurdles. This certainly gave us a hip mobility workout and was really enjoyable and fun. 

Next was the optional second run of the day. We had several bikes riding with us too on this run.

All groups: Orange grove and equestrian centre 

A small amount of free time before our daily debrief and next day planning meeting. We are anticipating some rain overnight or even in the morning so our Yoga location may have to change and we may have to get out the lightweight rain jackets. Also we are all excited to find out who our guest speaker will be tomorrow afternoon. An elite marathon runner!

Onto dinner and chat over a few drinks prior to the second biggest event of the day, the hotel Bingo. Dave was runner up in the Quiz but feels like his bingo luck is in! Dabber at the ready!