The short walks had taken a bit of a back seat with the focus shifting to longer training walks for Isle of Wight Challenge. However in Novemeber we managed to fit a short and long walk in.
On the 15th November we did a 6.4km walk along the trusted Nutbrok Trail. We've done the walk so many times but it's so simple and easy to do and the views are great all year round.
The Power of Nature
By now you will have figured out that there is a great little coffee shop on the Nutbrook Trail called Nutbrok Coffee Shop. This was our aim for the walk to get a nice little "healthy"ish snack and a warm drink.
We had a good group of us from some Ilson Glowsticks members to other clients just enjoying a morning walk away from work with their family.
Nutbrook Coffee Shop and the Nutbrook Trail
This walk wasn't about pace, distance or anything serious. It was all about a stretch of your legs, some fresh air and a nice social time.
Bring on the next walk on 21st November for the Long walk and more Isle of Wight training.
Team IlsonGlowsticks love a random run, something a bit different to a 5/10/half marathon event. We've done a few mud runs :- Mens Health Challenge, Water Wipeout etc.
Now it's time to combine a few events into one with the Color Obstacle Rush a nice mixture of paint, foam, 5km running and obstacles. The event we ran was at Uttoxeter Race course but there are others around the country, check out their website for more details.
We had a team of 7 all looking to have a blast. I did take the GoPro with me to this event so check out my videos of the event on YouTube - Color Obstacle Rush Playlist.
But here's a little clip of what to expect.........
It took us about an hour to do the event because we ended up trying different moves in the paint stations from paint swimming, to crab walks, making snow angels and just having massive paint fights with each other.
I won't give the obstacles away, you need to watch the videos to see them but here are a few photos to see the before and after look for us.
As a festive treat for my clients I hired the sports hall at Kirk Hallam School where I do group sessions for an hour of dodgeball.
After a little warm up we set up the foam balls and off we went. teams of 3 or 4 depending who was in which game. Just like laser tag I took the GoPro camera with me to get some footage of the day. We didn't keep score as we changed the teams most games, it was all about having fun.
It was very surprising how energetic it was, when we finished all of us were dripping with sweat and by that evening I had messages of people starting to ache already. When you think about what we did for an hour it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise really:-
Running around
Jumping
Ducking
Throwing
Catching
Diving around
For an hour is always going to be tiring. Add to that last dancing to the cheesy music we had on it was a good calorie burn.
This just highlights that exercise doesn't need to be a gym session, there's so much more out there for improving your health and fitness. As highlighted in the blogs this year, walking, running, sports, activity days all get you off the sofa and active. To see the different things I offer for Personal Training visit my website - www.adamfretwellpt.co.uk There is also a newsletter sign up link then you can receive information about other days out like laser tag, walks, and dodgeball in 2015.
Once again thanks to Alistair Carvell for the music I used on one of the videos, the other music was that on the GoPro software. Bring on more activities in 2015.
I organised a trip out for fitness clients to Wild Park Derbyshire for an afternoon of woodland laser tag. 18 of us went with a mix of 9 males, 9 females, aged 7 to 59. It was a very random bunch of people and it worked perfectly. Some people had played laser quest before, others had done paint balling, but it was the first time for all of us playing woodland laser tag.
We all got issued our camo jumpsuits, vests and weapons. I added the GoPro camera to my outfit with the chest and head mount so we could get some footage of the day.
Laser Tag Fitness Day Out
They put us into 2 teams Yellows V Pinks and we had 6 different games over the afternoon. 2 x capture the flag, 2 x attack/defend the van, and 2 x bomb the fort, with each game was worth 20 points.
Yellows too an early 40-0 lead after the 2 games thanks to Simon running like Forrest Gump and capturing the flag.
If capture the flag suited the Yellows, Attack/Defend the van suited Pinks as by the end of game 4 it was 40-40. Thanks to Lexie and myself attacking and capturing the van in game 3, and Rob and Danny getting very well camouflaged and defending the van in style in game 4. This game had a van at the bottom of the hill with one team defending and one team attacking. When attacking you had 5 minutes unlimited lives so it was all about how quick you could run up and down the hill to take out the enemy and get back up to re energise before going again. It was a killer on your legs!!!
2 games left all to play for!
In game 5 Pinks were defending the fort with Yellows trying to carry to bomb into it. Things weren't going well for Pinks as all but 2 people were killed. However those two who survived turned into Rambo and took out every single Yellow as they charged to the fort with the bomb. THEN!!! Rob picked up the bomb and carried it into our own base blowing it up! Doh!!!
This had the scores at Yellows 60 - Pinks 50 because even with every yellow dead the fort was blown up, but we claimed 10 points for killing everybody.
Winner takes all in the last game!! Who will come out on top?
PINKS!!!!
With a charge from Lisa and the two little minions into the fort clearing the way, it allowed myself to use Danny as a human shield and charge with the bomb into the heart of their fort.
End Scores Yellows 60- Pinks 70.
A brilliant day out and we will definitely be back for more laser tag and probably archery too. A top quality venue for team building, parties or just a fun day out. Really good instructors and good prices.
October has been a busy month so we haven't been able to fit many walks in. The one we managed was to take a long route to get to Ilkeston Fair. We made our way down to the Beauty Spot on the Nutbrook Trail and headed along towards Swan Lake. Usually for the Fair weekend it's cold, wet and miserable. This year it was dry, mild and really nice. So as we walked along the trail with the sun setting slowly, leaves on the ground it was a really nice evening for a walk and chat. There was about 11 of us on the walk and the bulk of us getting excited for laser tag which is coming up this weekend. The others were chatting about the what food to eat when we get up there haha.
In the end we ate at Patti House a local small business who sources all her products locally and makes the burgers herself. She had on a fair special hot dogs from the local butchers, so they included high quality meats with amazing seasoning. It was a nice treat especially with her home made salsa on top, a nice bit of autumnal heat. It's well worth a visit especially as you can have a nice lean chicken burger, no bun and salad making it a health option.
We got round towards Manor Floods and headed up into the Industrial estate, from here a little walk in Victoria Park which looked lovely with all the different coloured leaves falling from the trees.
Once up the fair the night only got funnier, after winning unicorns on "Hook a Minion" and going on a few rides, it culminated in seeing somebody producing projectile vomit off a ride that splatted a few people in the queue to go on it next. It wouldn't have been nice for them at all but from a by standers point of view it was a pure £250 "You've Been Framed" moment......but none of us caught it on camera dam it!!
We also saw some rather amusing sights on the bulls with bodies flying all over the place.
Then finally a group of us went on the Fun House, be warned don't have a sign saying "children and adults welcome" when us lot are around. You've seen us on the ziplines haha.
The next photo sums up the Fun House!
Simon taking a tumble.
This happened to a few of us including myself attempting to spin all the way around it in a handstand position. The slide at the end finished it off as you had to shuffle all the way down so there were a couple of pileups.
According to mapmyrun the walk was 8km but I'm not sure how accurate it was this time seeing as it was left running while we went on rides and I think they may have added a few metres.
Magic Mouse and Jump & Smile according to Map My Run haha.
