Training - Astley Ainslie, 24 October 2018

Brian Miller reports:
“We met (in the dark obviously) at one of the pedestrian entrances to the extensive Astley Ainslie Hospital grounds. These are largely wooded and contain many separate buildings of varying ages and purposes, surrounded by grassland, deserted access roads, and a myriad of paths, large and small. The hospital specialises in geriatric rehabilitation and the secluded grounds in the evening are therefore very very quiet. From an orienteering map point of view there are also lots of additional features like statues, park benches, short flights of steps and suchlike.
There was a good turnout of all ages and the session started with a set of warm-up exercises. Running in various different gaits in a zig zag fashion around cones plus a subsequent set of interval runs up a gentle hill soon had us raring to go.
The theme of the evening was “How do you eat an elephant?” You had to be there!
We all took a map (different degrees of difficulty on offer) and ran, jogged or walked off at intervals, torches ablaze, around some very carefully crafted courses.
Altogether this was a very well put together session which would appeal and be appropriate to anyone wishing to practice orienteering in a very sociable atmosphere, whatever their level. Top marks to Ian.”

 26th Oct 18   Sally Lindsay

Categorized under: Coaching / Training