Saturday 3 February 2018

Andy's Man Club Take Over Bradford Parkrun


Men's support group Andy's Man Club again takes over another Parkrun, the international public-park-based 5km dash. After the success of last month's Halifax event, AMC will return to the Parkrun scene, marshalling or running in branded AMC gear, this time in Bradford in 2 weeks today. Both of these towns provide branches of the group for men to talk about their issues, and the movement is having a great effect on people's lives and the perception of mental health in the UK.

At the Halifax event I marshalled, wearing the branded outfits and cheering on the runners. This time, I'm going to run. Yikes! I haven't ran in a long time, and when I did it was a long time since I'd ran before that. The weight I'd gained had caused a setback, shall we say, and I'm even heavier now. So here's the plan for getting fit.

I keep records of my personal bests when I visit the gym. My oldest PB- the movement that I've left unimproved upon for the longest- is, you've guessed it, running. I've not beaten my 10-minute run record since 14th May 2013, running at 14.1km/ph, a fair dash.

My second-oldest PB is chest press, at 103.75kg, set on 29th November 2014. So here's the plan: work on these two movements in every gym session, between now and the 17th. I'm very unlikely to beat the running PB, and bench probably won't happen either, but I'm aim to beat both of these, starting from 7km/ph and 5kgs respectively. I'll be at the gym 6 times a week, although 2 of those visits will be classes, not actual gym sessions. I may also throw in a few short outdoor runs on my days of too. Current body weight: 82.4kg. I'll try and get under 80kg by the 17th.

Bradford isn't exactly local to Oldham or Manchester but the camaraderie and interest between Parkrun and Andy's Man Club was fantastic last time. Members from various groups made it down It's worth getting there for 8:30am!

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