Shipley Walk

This was the start of an active weekend, today's walk followed by a half marathon tomorrow. Today's walk was meant to be The Miller's Walk starting and ending at Hollies Farm Cafe but unfortunately they were having some building work done ready for their new farm shop. We all still wanted a walk so decided to redo the Nubtrook Trail to Shipley Wood walk we did towards the start of the year.

We started the walk from Nutbrook CC and headed to the Nutbrook Trail at Manor Floods. From here it's straight along the trail until you get to the old American Adventure site, at this point we took the steep left path up towards the wood. At this point you have lovely views down over Shipley Cricket Club and the surrounding fields. The first little tea room (Derby Lodge) we got too were closed so we carried on to the main visitor centre at Shipley Park. It was at this point we remembered the park that was installed a while ago with some things for adults as well as kids. As you can see on the video below we had to try out the zipline, visit my YouTube page to see Simon tackling both ziplines at once.  

The zipline and park added some interesting sections to MapMyRun as I forgot to stop tracking the route while we had a bit of fun. The park was actually helpful as 3 of us on the walk have since taken on the Men's Health Challenge which involves monkey bars and other obstacles that we had a little practice at on this walk. It was now time to head back to Nutbrook CC so we headed back to the trail. As we crossed the old American Adventure car park into a field we got spooked out by a row of sheep as they were standing in a perfect line either side of the path. We all made it out the field alive and left the sheep to enjoy freaking people out.

This walk clocked in at around 12.5km taking the years total walking to 152.5km or just over 94 miles.

The next walk is Saturday 18th October 5pm visiting Ilkeston Charter Fair in the evening.

Coffee Morning for Cancer Research UK

On Sunday 6th July I organised a post Boot Camp Coffee Morning at Nutbrook Cricket Club in aid of Cancer Research UK. Rather than asking for sponsorship for every race I'm doing this year I thought people deserved something back and a little naughty treat too for all their hard work.

Saturday was spent in the kitchen making lots of mess and hopefully nice tasting cakes and cookies. First up a little bit of cheating but so the kids had some little cakes they would enjoy we made the standard Disney style cakes from a box adding an egg to the packet. It also gave us a nice easy start and got the oven warmed up for the other items too. Next followed cornflake cakes, chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes. Decorating the cupcakes was brilliant pretending I was painting an Airfix model as a client again haha.

 

 

So far all is going well and I'm thinking thank god I'm a personal trainer or I would have eaten every single item by now with a few pints of milk to wash it all down.

Then a client arrived with their cake for the event as they couldn't attend due to work. A lot of thought and effort went into this cake as the event was at the cricket club she made a cricket pitch cake. In the time she made the cake her husband sat making a little set of stumps to go on top. His effort was worth it as the cake looked awesome. As she couldn't attend the event the following day I let her sample (for a small donation) one of the white chocolate cornflake cakes and apparently it was "the bomb". This gave us confidence the rest of the food wasn't a disaster.

Mum then entered the kitchen as it was her turn to give us the master class. Not that I'm jealous of how easy she made it look or anything but it was just effortless.

Here comes Sunday morning, I'm setting up Boot Camp while Mum and Lauren are in the pavilion setting up the cakes and getting the kettle boiling. What we hadn't realised was there would be an under11 hardball match that morning as well as the Nutbrook Petanque team down there. Before we even finished boot camp they had a queue to the door and had made over £30 before we really started. Slowly more friends, family and clients arrived bringing all sorts of cakes which looked so tempting.



Personal Trainers nightmare but all for charity.



Quality home made cricket pitch cake with handmade stumps.

I did have to try a small slice of the chocolate beetroot cake and it was amazing!

As we was just about to sort out the last remaining cakes I was asked if I could play cricket for the 2nd team in the cup match at the club. So I drove home to drop off my boot camp kit and pick up my cricket bag. We don't need cricket details as we lost but their scorer donated his fee from the game to the coffee morning too which was a lovely gesture.

Overall we raised £245.50 which I was thrilled with. Once it was bagged up Monday morning it was paid onto my JustGiving site for Cancer Research UK to access.

Now to focus back on Running for the Leeds and York 10k.

The Miner's Walk

On the 12th April a little group of us took on The Miner's Walk, it's route No.3 from the Erewash walks - Erewash walking guide How ever rather than setting off from The community centre in West Hallam we set off from Nutbrook Cricket Club which turned a 5 mile walk into a 9 mile walk.




Rob enjoying a core workout mid walk.

The added 4 miles didn't add any scenic value as we walked along High Lane from the cricket club to the community centre.

They did however add some good childish moments with a few parks, some having outdoor gym equipment on. It would have been rude not to use it.








Once we the "officially" started the walk at the community centre it was nice to get into the fields, most of which none of us had been in even living around the area most of our lives. Obviously we had more walks as kids around Kirk Hallam rather than West Hallam. The walk then brought us to Stanley Common where we had to take an added detour with the path closed with a little housing development being built.

We eventually got back on track thanks to a very friendly lady giving us some directions to another path we could use.

On entering one field I felt like I had walked onto the set of Shawshank Redemption with the stone wall being replaced by the path heading towards the oak tree. However there was no Morgan Freeman or a buried letter waiting.

 

 

After passing Little Wood we could see the spire of Morley Church so quickly found the correct route again.

Having been doing different walks around the area for the last few months now it's been amazing seeing the changing seasons with all the trees and fields coming to life once again after a long dull winter. Such vibrant yellows in the rapeseed fields and blossom starting to bloom.

Walking total with clients for the year is now up to 80km. The next walk is this coming Monday 21sh April. Route No. The Whittlestone Walk.

All this walking is for many reasons with the first being health and fitness benefits. Secondly it's because in August I'm walking/jogging the half Isle of Wight Challenge (56km in a day) all for Cancer Research UK. If you wish to donate to Cancer Research UK please visit - www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt


Hermits Walk

On the 29/03/14 we set out again on another walk. This time we tackled route no.1 Hermits Walk but added an extra couple of miles by setting off from Nutbrook Cricket Club. Overall the walk was a nice 13km or 8 miles depending which measurement you use.

I don't know how we keep doing it but for the 5th (I think) time this year the weather was beautiful for the walk. 10 of us plus Chuck the dog set off from Nutbrook Cricket Club along the Nutbrook Trail towards Kirk Hallam. From there we headed across the fields out towards Hermits Cave. The views were really nice and childhood memories from walking up there years ago came flooding back for a few of the group. After a nice picnic stop with a very friendly horse haha we headed back across the fields to Kirk Hallam and back along the Nutbrook Trail. These walks have been so enjoyable and the time flies by with everybody having so much fun.



The Beauty Spot - Nutbrook Trail

Hermits Cave

Walking total with clients for the year is now up to 65km. The next walk is this coming Saturday 12th April. Route No.3 The Miner's Walk but setting off from Nutbrook Cricket Club again just to add a few extra miles.

To see some more photos from walks, runs, random sporting events check out my Instagram account.

All this walking is for many reasons with the first being health and fitness benefits. Secondly it's because in August I'm walking/jogging the half Isle of Wight Challenge (56km in a day) all for Cancer Research UK. If you wish to donate to Cancer Research UK please visit - www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt

Fitness for charity

The last two years I have held a Fancy Dress Circuit Training session just before Christmas and all the money from the sessions has gone to Cancer Research UK. I support Cancer Research UK for a number of reasons and probably feel the same as a lot of you out there, too many loved ones have been lost to cancer and it would be amazing to see a cure discovered in our lifetime. www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt
 
This year I've been recruiting clients who want to go that extra mile and really test their fitness level. Danny did amazing beating his target time for the Awsworth 5k and hopefully this coming Sunday I can help Eran beat her target time for the Underwood 10k.
 
Next month I will be trekking up Mount Snowdon with a few clients/friends, I think after the 10 mile trek our tents will look very appealing even if it is raining.
 
In August I will be hosting the first Fancy Dress Boot Camp, just to mix it up from the Christmas theme and that will be at Nutbrook Cricket Club.
 
I will hopefully manage to assemble a small team to do the Nottingham leg of the Men's Health Survival of the Fittest.
 
 



Fancy Dress 2011

 



Fancy Dress 2011

 
 



Survival of the Fittest 2012

 
 



Fancy Dress 2012

 



Fancy Dress 2012

 






Fancy Dress 2012



Awsworth 5k 2013



Photos from future events will feature on their own blog, so look out for a sweaty picture uploaded soon from the Underwood 10k.

If you wish to donate to such a good cause as Cancer Research UK please visit www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt

Cricket

So far this Summer I've made 3 appearances for Nutbrook Cricket Club, could have been more but I have had other things on and knew I couldn't commit to play each week. After giving up the sport for a few years for many different reasons the 8 matches I've played between end of last season and start of this season have been so much fun and you've got to love a good competitive match.

This season has been a lot of fun especially giving my legs a real good run around playing for the 1st team in the cup taking 2 catches and covering about 7k. Also getting the nickname of "Pro-fielder" off half the team and "The Gazelle at deep cover" off Max the Overseas player (Unlucky for him being an Aussie as they have just crashed out of the Champions Trophy, hopefully their Ashes are just as poor so England thrash them). We won the match by 13 runs, big hitting in the first innings by Henshaw and Sanderson gave us the total required for victory.

This weekend I played for the 2nd Team in the cup and hit a quick 19 runs at the end of the innings before running around in the field and taking a catch at Cow Corner which ended the match with a 104 run victory.

Hopefully over the season I can help save a few more runs in the field and take some more catches. Unfortunately none of my catches are in the same category as this beauty by Brendon McCullum but I can try my hardest as I hate dropping a catch!!

 

To find out the results and general updates for Nutbrook Cricket Club follow them on twitter @NutbrookCC