Virtual Park Run 3.0

Members of the Shiplake community were together in spirit last weekend for the re-launch of the Shiplake Virtual Park Run.

Pupils, parents and staff were invited to join the College’s Strava Club where times and distances could be recorded for the event. And lots of you were out in the sun clocking up those miles. 

The aim of this half term’s Strava Challenge is to travel the distance to Kikundiku Primary School in Kenya. Shiplake has an association with the school and it seems a realistic target for the community to cover during the lockdown park run efforts. The distance to Kikundiku is 4380.96 miles or 7050.48km. There will also be awards and recognition given to individuals and families throughout the lockdown. 

Mr Ed Bowden, Head of Athletic Development, said: “What an amazingly active first lockdown Saturday we had from the Shiplake Community. It was great to see the activities flooding in throughout the day.”

The total distance covered on Saturday was just over 1,000km which got us to the Provence Region of France.

Our leaderboard for Saturday was as follows:

Other highlights were:

• The Bell Family Walk
• Mr Bradley (our new Head of PE) going out for his run with his son
• The Morgan Family being very active during the day 
• Mr Brown and son and Old Viking Ollie going out for their run together

If you missed the event on Saturday and would like to get involved in future efforts to reach Kenya, join our Strava Club here https://www.strava.com/clubs/242438

Our virtual park run will take place every Saturday during the lockdown.

Please do send photos or evidence of your activities to [email protected] and most importantly enjoy your exercise!

Introducing Mr Bradley's Blog

Mr Dan Bradley, Shiplake's new Head of PE and Physical Wellbeing will be writing a weekly blog about exercise in lockdown and his endeavours in the Shiplake Virtual Park Run. Here is is first blog post:

Hello

I am Mr Bradley and I have had a strange start to my new job as Head of PE and Physical Wellbeing.  However, I already feel part of the community and Shiplake team after only one week. I love the idea of the Strava events and thought I would share my experiences of doing this each week. 

Personally I have never taken to fitness sessions, I have always played my sport and gained fitness through playing team sports; namely hockey. Lockdown 1 put an end to my time as a player - I played for Marlow 1st team and previously Reading. Turning 40 in November also seemed to slam the nail firmly down on my hockey ‘career’.

I have found it quite easy to get on my bike during the past few months, but not to run.

The challenge of getting my son to join in

I am sure there are many parents concerned about screen time and inactivity of our children (and possibly ourselves). My son, for example, was a very lively boy and always keen to run around, get on his bike, play football… but lockdown seems to have blocked this, for most occasions when it comes to doing something out of the house his answer now is a firm ‘NO'. I decided that the 5k park run could be used to get him up and out every Saturday - for me the act of persuasion to get him into the mindset to do this begun on Friday evening; here is how it went:

1. ‘My new school is doing a 5k - we are running from England to Kikundiku Primary School in Kenya - Can you help?’
2. Then followed the usual ‘NO’
3. 10 mins of ‘discussion’ and ‘persuasion’ - you can plan the route on the iPad, you can be captain, we can put the run on Strava, people might give us Kudos (whatever that is? then explained)
4. He seemed cautious - but the ‘NO’ became a ‘I am the leader right?’
5. Saturday morning, getting sports kit on and out of his monkey onesie..another challenge 
6. Much negotiating of which socks he would wear, which shorts…. Apparently that top he wore yesterday is really tight and itchy…... 
7. Back came the ‘NO’ - not doing it and under his bed he went….
8. OK - if you run for 15 mins you can have an extra 15 mins of iPad (he is allowed an hour of gaming each Saturday with his friend in America)
9. ‘REALLY’ - ‘OK’
10. So we agreed that for 15mins of running time and every extra minute thereafter that was added to his gaming time...
11. And you can sit in the front seat of the car (we went to his primary school and did his route…) 
12. Off we went - he loved it and felt great.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4590565669

We ran, walked a bit, we drew the letter S on the Strava map. I think he is keen to go next week, I will let you know…

We all know that our children love their sport and Shiplake is a place where this is encouraged and catered for - but we all need some motivation to get up and start. My son is only 8 and the incentives above worked for him - maybe the pupils at Shiplake need different ones - but stick with it, be creative and let’s get active! I am sure next week I will have to do it all again…

And then my own run!

https://www.strava.com/activities/4590811794

As mentioned in the introduction, I have never been one for fitness sessions. When I was playing hockey sessions for weights, core, flexibility etc were not commonplace. So I got fit by playing the game. Fast forward and out I go for my first 5k in a long time…

It hurt - after 2 miles my right hip flexor all but ceased up (I think it was asking why are you doing this all of a sudden, why haven’t you thought about me every week for the last few years) I had plenty of excuses but no answer. So I gritted my teeth and got my 5k done. 

Really hoping next week is a little less painful, but I felt good for doing it. Maybe I might even go just a little quicker? 

Best wishes

Mr Dan Bradley