DOING GOOD

We braved the drizzly evening to do a good deed for a local church; the majestic Saint Lukes located in the Stockbrook area of Derby City.

The church community are hosting a Christmas fayre on the 30th November & wanted us to let as many of the local residents know as possible so that the local people can come together & celebrate the festive period. They're also hoping that through this event, those that don't know much about the church - but live gazing up at its impressive spire - will find out more about the church's services & feel more able to access them - win win for the people of Stockbrook!

As always, the heroes in red delivered... literally!

We flyered the local streets (in our usual fashion of a right & left-side team) up & down the terraced houses until all 300 flyers had been successfully handed out... Apart from the couple that got used for kindling, but that's a story for another day. We even managed to greet a few of the local residents & Rachael got to play the role of Indiana Jones in a gated housing estate... Innnddiiiii!

WHILST GETTING FIT

As if delivering 300 flyers & running all across Stockbrook wasn't enough for trainer Dani (moi), she insisted that the Derby GG'ers had a little extra work to do before heading back to base...

We (royal we there) found a decent sized space in Abbey car park on our run back to the Jurys & it was just too perfect not to stop for a cheeky speed work session. Hehe.

Paired up, speed work commenced in Paarlouf style, with a couple of pretty unorganized rounds (sorry) before a more structured two sets of two laps to finish everyone off. Panting, puffing & pretty worn out, time to head back to base for a second round of the circle walk game & then a dose of stretching to sort our pins out.

A tough evening of running covering between 6-7km & doing another good deed, well done team! It's a good job we warmed up with a round of creepy tuk-tuks :)

BENEFITS OF SPEED-WORK (sorry, not sorry)

So that you don't all think I'm sadistic for adding speed-work into our fitness session, here's some reasons why it's awesome & why you should love those few moments of full effort & pain...

1. Caring for your muscles... really! Muscle mass starts to decrease from the age of 25 (not that any of you are older than this anyway.) The good news, the slow-twitch muscles used for long distance running are pretty resilient. The bad news, the fast-twitch muscles (used for faster bursts of running) decrease faster, at a rate of 1% per year. Speed-work helps to slow this decrease & keep the muscles strong. Use it or lose it guys!

2. Fat burn When you do steady exercise, about 50-70% of your energy comes from fat sources in the body. When you push at full throttle, whether that's running or doing resistance work, your body uses energy from carbs & then once you stop, the body replenishes itself from your fat reserves, 100%. Come at us bourbon biscuits!

3. Better at running Running for short, fast bursts is hard work; we feel as though our lungs will burst & the heart pumping wildly. The more time you spend at maximum effort, the less oxygen your body needs to run at that pace as it gets used to this faster work. This means that when you come back to your slower pace, it'll feel easier as your running economy will be improved.

For more inspiration on why speed-work is awesome, check out the article here where I stole these ideas from (disclaimer.)

THANKS YOUS

Big thanks to Nathan for back-marking & to Helen for visiting from Sheffield GG - good luck on getting to your 200th good deed run before crimbo! Thank you to Emma for helping to marshal the infamous speed-work session. And a BIG well done to Tracey who has just hit her 10th good deed run!

You lot are on fire! Just like those two flyers...

UP NEXT

The LAST flyering task of 2019! Danny is a volunteer with the Samaritans & we're helping a cause important to him & to many people, by letting local residents in Normanton know of the ways that they can support this amazing charity. Want in? You can sign up here, we'd love to have you join us!

Big Loves x