Hello to this week’s Grasshopper update,

I’m excited to remind you that this week we restart the SocialFriday FoodBank collection. In November we collected nearly 20kg of food to donate to the Portsmouth Food Bank at a time of unprecedented demand on Food Bank services.

At each SocialFriday run please bring a can of food / bag of pasta which would be suitable for a local family that needs a little support as we approach the end of the year. If you don’t attend the SocialFriday run but do join in one of the TrackTuesday sessions then you are most welcome to share your support here instead.

All food donations will then be ‘run’ to the Portsmouth Foodbank on Friday December 23rd at a time, between 9am and midday, when as many of you as possible are able to join in. Please indicate in the Grasshopper App. event that you can join and in the event comments indicate your preferred departure time – from Broadway Coffee Roaster café on Highland Road. The run to the foodbank is approx. 3 km.

This weekend is the RNLI Reindeer run on Southsea Common – I’ll be volunteering on the registration so hope to see you there 😊

It’s been fab to watch so many of you maintain your track consistency on TrackTuesday despite the occasional soggy session! These training sessions, which you are committing yourself to now, will pay dividends in the New Year and for the Spring racing season and many of you are already providing feedback on your new PBs for both short and longer distance runs, which is brilliant news, and based on consistent participation in the TrackTuesday sessions.

On Sunday December 11th we’ll return to the New Forest for another adventure run and cake! There will be some great views, really varied running terrain and no doubt wet feet will be part of the fun. Please indicate in the NF Adventure Run training session in the Grasshopper App that you are joining. There are limited spaces available… this is not a race but an opportunity to enjoy & explore new locations and maybe new running buddies.

The free 7.15am Saturday hills session is popular but still room for a few more runners. If you’re keen to develop some additional strength, running form and endurance then this session should be considered – we often call into the Great Salterns parkrun after the session for some additional flat kms on soft ground. In December we may plan a double hills session by heading to the QE Park parkrun after!!

I look forward to seeing you on the trails or bitumen or maybe in the gym – the winter is a great time to develop run specific strength. Let me know if you need some support with this vital component of your running diet.

Have a safe and fun week of training.

Thanks,

Cheers Steve.
Grasshopper Coaching

PS feel free to hop into the Grasshopper Training WhatsApp group where you’ll find plenty of training ideas and encouragement – shoot me a request to be added – thanks.