Lockdown Activities

Written by Mike Eldridge on 11/02/2021. Posted in News

Friendship and Support

Last Saturday the Pridhams and Spriggs/Osbornes got together (they are a bubble) to go out and take part in the February Shakespeare Race.

Becks plotted the route, it was decided on an out and back, giving us the opportunity to support each other and hopefully not lose anyone!

As not everyone would be up to the distance or want to run, we had Georgia and Toby on bikes and what fantastic support they gave us.

We staggered the set off. It was freezing cold, even though Maisie-Joy was feeling warm and wearing just a crop top and shorts!

Becks and Hannah ran as quick as they could for fear of the pitter patter and fly by of Caleb & MJ’s quick feet.

Kate dug deep and gave it her all, coming back to more run training in recent weeks, this was a fast effort for her and she was well supported coming in to finish.

I think we are all conscious of the fact that the length of this current lockdown is causing all ages a considerable amount of stress.

While not undermining the difficulties faced by older age groups and parents, would it be fair to say that our younger members, those who are in education, are finding this lockdown particularly difficult to cope with both mentally and physically ?

This being the case and with apologies to the senior members of the club, this newsletter is almost exclusively geared to acknowledging the difficulties faced by our juniors and attempting to enthuse and motivate them by suggesting programmes and challenges for them to take part in.

This suite of programmes has been a collective effort by many of the club’s volunteer age groups leaders and coaches with the hope that many of our junior members will take part, meaning that they will be fit and ready when normal training/competing resumes.

While putting these initiatives together there was an awareness of the difficulties faced by parents with children home schooling and hopefully, the various activities listed are not too complicated and children will be able to act largely on their own initiative, while following all of the safety messages included and fully complying with all of the relative Covid restrictions.

It is hoped that these activities will help both the mental and physical health of our junior members and, really importantly, that they will have a lot of fun taking part.

Hannah Spriggs sent me a couple of wonderful photos and a bit of copy on what she, her children and the Pridham’s have been up to, for which I am most grateful.

I know lots of you are taking part in various activities, virtual challenges, virtual races etc. If you are, please send me details. I realise many of you post details on WhatsApp and Facebook etc but I’m sure many of your activities would be on interest to the 800+ subscribers of the newsletter.

Finally, Becks Pridham has sent me this link to a BBC fitness show for 11-16 year olds.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2021/workout-the-wright-way

Take care.

Best Wishes

David Jones

SUAAC Juniors: Spring 2021

This programme is in two parts:

• The Stratford AC 1⁄2 Term Challenge

• The ‘ready for track’ running programme.

The Stratford AC 1⁄2 Term Challenge is an activity that we would hope everyone will get involved with during half term

With an eye on a return to training probably in the spring, the ‘ready for track’ running programme is a bi-weekly programme that is aimed u13/u15/u17 track & field athletes who might benefit from more structured training during the lockdown i.e.

(a) to keep motivated & active as lockdown drags on and

(b) so athletes are ready to resume track and technical training in the spring.

The programme is all about the individual athlete and the content is a guide that can be tweaked to suit the individual athlete’s ability level, the conditions and locations.

Don’t be afraid to start slow and build up speed and distance over time.

A lot of thought and planning goes into the initiatives that the coaches put together for the benefit of our athletes and so please have a read so that we can get our athletes engaged, motivated and ready for action when we get back to the track.

Don’t forget to warm up and cool down

If you have any questions regarding this programme please contact your respective Age Group Leader.

Warm -up (all sessions)

5-10 minutes easy jogging

Dynamic drills (for example):

Grapevine/carioca (20m each side)

Straight legs (‘can-can’)

Fast feet (20m)]

Heel flicks (20m)]

Backwards running (40m)

Skips for height (20m)

High fast knees (20m)

Acceleration with tall form (80m)

Stretching & Cool Down

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1/2 Term Challenge

With Half term coming up and a lot of our usual activities not available because of the lockdown, what can we do to challenge and entertain ourselves ?

How about The Stratford AC 1⁄2 Term Challenge – 5 activities over the 9 days of half term and there will be the prize of newsletter kudos (pictures too please) for the most interesting and best performances.

For safety the activities must be during daylight hours with a parent, responsible person, a sibling or at least one friend and only run where & when it is safe to do so.

What we want to see:

5 Days of activity between February 13th and February 21st including

A minimum of 5 miles (10 miles if you do a bike ride ) over the 5 days.

At least 2 different disciplines over the 5 days e.g walk and run, cycle and run, roller-skate and run.
One sprint session e.g.
10 sprints – minimum 50m each sprint
7 accelerators – minimum 100m each run
5 hill sprints – minimum 100m each run.

Don’t forget to warm up and cool down

How to record .

You have 2 options :

1 – Fill in the form (see below) which will be sent out by the respective Age Group Leader.

2 – For the over 13’s download Strava (make sure you use the free version) on your phone and set the app to record for each activity and stop at the end.

Once complete send the form or copy the links (you can copy links under share) to each of you Strava sessions to

suaac-challenge@hotmail.co.uk with any stories or picture of what happened on the way.

SUAAC Juniors: Spring 2021 ‘ready for track’ running programme guide.

Only run where & when it is safe to do so
Dress for the conditions

• Take a parent, sibling or one friend

• See below for some examples of possible running locations

• Don’t be afraid to start slow and build up speed and distance over time

If you only run once a week, do session 2 (grass fitness).
If you run twice a week, add session 1 (speed + power)

• When running 3 times per week, add in timed runs (session 3)

• Avoid running on consecutive days until/unless you are fully fit

• Alternate running with other fitness and conditioning work (e.g. Tuesday zoom)

• Vegetable throw and Bunny hops – there will be the prize of SUAAC Newsletter kudos (pictures too please) for the most interesting and best performances.
This is just a guide – always be ready to adjust to the conditions

Other Opportunities

In addition to the above activities, all relevant age groups will have been notified previously of the following:

Paul Bearman’s Lockdown Challenge and daily/weekly programme, which includes varied sessions i.e. running, mobility & flexibility together with strength & conditioning.

If you have any questions about this, email Paul at

suaac@hotmail.com

Tuesday U13 Zoom session

The U13s will do Zoom sessions every Tuesdays at 6pm until they get back to the track and get back to normal training.

Junior Endurance Group.

Virtual Shakespeare races, where distances are relevant to the junior members’ age
The EA 5 mile race for age 15 & over, recommended for this weekend.
The mile race for all, recommended for the final two weeks of the month.

Toby Spriggs

Toby isn’t a natural lover of running and it doesn’t come quite as naturally or bring as much enjoyment as it does to his brother and sister. With football off and screen time likely to be higher with lockdown, he decided to commit to running at least a mile a day during lockdown. Each day we go out and run, come back and record it, counting up to a marathon and more.

School PE day’s we’ll head out and do 2 or 3 miles. Wet, cold, snowy days are more likely to be 1 mile! By day 37 he’d completed his 2nd marathon!

As you’ll see from the pictures he’s got out and run to stay fit and healthy – whether it be sunny, pouring or in the freezing snow. A small challenge and positive focus in these difficult times.

Stratford upon Avon Athletic Club

Swans Nest.

Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire CV37 7LS

United Kingdom

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