Foxy Ladies Running Club

Tag: Colour challenge

  • What’s been going on?

    What’s been going on?

    Well you maybe wondering why it’s been so quiet on the Foxy Ladies Blog post for a few months. That’s because we have been so busy. Even during this third and hopefully final lockdown, where we have been restricted to running with just one other we have managed to find time to put a lot of fun into our running.

    What have we been up to?

    You may have seen in our January blog we got creative with “running map art” and the virtual team Colour Challenge http://sme.e22.mytemp.website/blog/ . Since then we tasked our members with a streak challenge. The ladies set their own length of streak, some chose a few days on the trot, others aimed for a week or two. Some members achieved the whole of January, running everyday and raising money for various charities along the way. A few well experienced runners even went beyond that, eventually finishing in February or March. Foxy Lady Kari, finished with a very impressive 100 day streak and some ladies are still going now squeezing a mile a day in between other runs to keep the streak alive! We witnessed ladies pushing themselves way beyond the goals they set which was fantastic.

    It was not compulsory to take part in any of our challenges, they are just there if the members want to. Most of them receive a good response and we hoped by setting different aims there would be something that appeals to everyone. Depending on how the Ladies prefer to operate – solo, pairs or virtual teams and what they enjoy doing, there was hopefully a task set to suit. There were more serious ones for those that like to push themselves. Or funny light hearted ones like spotting and jotting things. Ones to appeal and express mental health, with emotion and feeling led posts. Others to take them out of their comfort zone and to try new and different things.

    Challenge Accepted

    Over the last 3 months here are some of the Foxy challenges the ladies took part in;

    • #5kbpb which was helping a run buddy gain their 5km personal best
    • #Frebruage – run your age in miles/ Km’s within the month of February or within a week or double it if they could.
    • Duathlon – Bike / Run /Bike varying levels available depending on ability and a family option to get the kids involved.
    • LOVE – to tie in with Valentines day the ladies were given a week to say something on every run post that they LOVE about that run or running in general
    • #trysomethingnew involved options for the ladies to try on each of their runs- see below
    • #trysomethingnew
    • #runthemeanstreets
    • #Runthemeanstreets – run every street in a small zone close to your home – you will be amazed how many miles you clock up!
    • Frebemoji – post only with emojis, reply in comments only in emojis – a lot harder than you think.
    • DUOSPOTATHON – the ladies could work in pairs to tick random items of lists and rewarded with different level status from Bronze through to Platinum, depending on number of items ticked off.
    • #lockdownrunninglife to identify a ➕positive a ➖negative and ✅something they achieved during the 3rd lockdown whilst running.

    What else?

    As well as all these challenges we also continued with twice weekly online strength sessions. We had some live “cook along with me” online cooking classes. This was a fun way to get together to make healthier choices for pre or post run fuel. We made protein & energy balls, cereal bars, overnight oats and stacked yoghurts along with tasty homemade granola whatever like it.

    St Patricks day – Craic 10k

    62 Foxy Ladies signed up to support the Spar Craic virtual 10k on 17th March making us the second biggest team taking part. Turning out in green running wear or fancy dress to take part in this big event that was live streaming through out the day led by our very own Emerald Isle leader Sinead.

    Last but by no means least

    Many of our ladies have also been taking part in some of the virtual charity runs or challenges that have been taking place. These have come in many different guises: either month long challenges, completing a set number of miles; or virtual races set on a certain day and all raising money for great causes.

    Although these challenges have kept our members busy and perhaps offered them some headspace outside of home, family and work life, what has been testament to our club culture is the way the ladies have supported each other at such a unpredictable time. Well done Foxy Ladies for getting through the latest Lockdown.

  • Bringing a little colour to the grey wintery days.

    Bringing a little colour to the grey wintery days.

    The Foxy Ladies members remain colourful throughout this team challenge.

    We all know how hard it is to stay motivated to go out for a run in the COLD or RAIN or WIND or in the dark on a frosty evening or when its still covered with a blanket of ice first thing in the morning. So what better way to keep going then with the support of a virtual team taking part in the fun Colour Challenge?

    Communication is key

    As well as encouraging the members to keep going out running for their mental and physical health, we also wanted this challenge to be about communication. To involve members that are perhaps more remote and don’t have access to a +1 running buddy at the moment, or those living alone or having to shield or isolate. To have a bit of banter, exchange messages and photos with like-minded people in a “WhatsApp” or “Messenger” group can really make a difference to someone’s day, especially at the moment with the current pandemic affecting everyone’s lives in some shape or form.

    Team tasks and tactics

    The members were tasked with choosing a colour for their team which they must try to wear during the challenge and provided with a shopping list of tasks they had to complete as a whole team. Each team consisted of 5 members and 20 teams took part. Their shopping list looked like this;

    They had to plan which team member would cover which task on which day – lots of the Foxy ladies members are taking part in RED (Run Every Day) for charity or continuing a previously set streak challenge which meant quite a few could easily tick off item no 2. run every day with just one team member!

    Their were adaptions made for injured members or newer less experienced runners and everyone wholeheartedly embraced all the tasks.

    Presentations

    The 20 teams were then asked to evidence their tasks and publish their photos in any form of media onto the clubs private Facebook page. Some teams produced imaginative collages and others individual photos of collective tasks, we also received some amazing creative videos.

    The 20 teams who took part all donned team colours!

    After seeing the team’s presentations of the challenge, it was clear to see they had all really enjoyed it and had put a lot of time and effort into doing it. The feedback was great, they had a lot of fun taking part, some trying new things they hadn’t done before, meeting new foxy members or running or chatting with members from different groups. It also helped pass another week of lockdown and most importantly new lines of communication have opened and new friendships made.