One hot weekend of training

Another brief update.  It was to my great amazement that all 8 crew members got together for not just one, but two training sessions over the weekend.  First off we all met at Cantabs rowing club at 5.30pm on Friday for an hour session on the ergos.  We had planned 90 minutes, but the erg room was a sweltering sauna, plus the one person who we needed to arrive on time to let us all in was almost half an hour late, as is the way with these things.  Although we cut the time down we did step the session up by doing intervals of hard efforts.  Everyone was well and truely dripping with sweat by the end of it.  A beer or two was most definitely well earned that evening.



At Cantabs rowing club.  Back row: Steve, Dennis, Andy, Gary. 
Front row: Alan, Richard, Jonathan, Jason.

 Then on Saturday morning Dennis, Jonathan, Gary and Richard made it to Milton Country Park to take part in the weekly 5k parkrun.  There weren't any PBs this week given that it was already very hot by 9am.  I was delayed at home as I was finishing off a sign board to help attract attention to what we're doing.

Following the parkrun Jason, Steve, Andy and myself met up with the others for a one hour kettlebell session.  We had a good long warm-up before I put them through a challenging programme, which I call my 30s challenge.  The aim is to do seven exercises and complete 30 reps for each exercise, as follows:

• 30 one arm swings on each arm,
• 30 bent over rows on each arm,
• 30 squat thrusts,
• 30 snatches - 15 per arm in one set per arm,
• 30 press-ups,
• 30 kettlebell squats - 15 with kettlebell in rack on right arm and 15 on left arm,
• 30 shoulder presses - 15 per arm in one set if possible.

We didn't quite end there.  We then did a lot more swings and a series of core exercises.  Then Jonathan made us pose for a series of photos:

The Kettlebell Crew at Milton Country Park.
Andy, Gary, Steve, Dennis, Alan, Jason, Joanthan & Richard.

The Misfits.  How on Earth are we going to make it to France?

That wasn't quite all for my weekend.  With an utra marathon also coming up, I set off this morning for a 20 mile training run.  I left the house at 8am, but it was already warm.  I don't know how hot it was by 10am, but at this point I was flagging and decided to cut my run short by 2 miles.  Fortunately, I had the option to do so.  What a scorching weekend it has been for intense training.