For The Love of Cricket!

Last night my boy, Josh, asked me if I'd like to go on another training run with him but this time to Mt Eden. I have to admire him because he is in between the cricket season with no games until he heads back to school. He is motivated to be as fit as he can which should ultimately improve his game. That's how much he loves cricket. All of his friends are enjoying the break, probably at the beach, surfing somewhere and he wants to go for a training run. I was a little reluctant after the last run he took me on for cricket training as it requires a different level of fitness to what I'm used to yet I found myself agreeing to go with him. MAD!

Off we set this morning to Mt Eden. We parked the car at Clive Road at the bottom of the mountain and started to warm up. Something I've never been very good at as I just take off for a run and build up in my speed slowly. I consider that my warm up. Josh's warm up was to sprint up a hill approx 50m and then walk back down. 7 times! By the 7th time I was left wondering if I had any puff left for the rest of the run.

We then ran up the mountain to the summit, familiar territory for me and so although my legs were a tad wobbly, I knew I could handle it. Josh led me back down and towards the steps that lead down to Glenfell Rd. If anyone knows Mt Eden then you'll know the steps I'm talking about. The goal was to run up them as fast as we could 6 times. Well, I managed 5 before my legs wanted to wobble off and leave my body and I was breathing SO hard that I felt sick. Josh managed 6 times and still had plenty of puff. I can tell he has done this before! Good on him.

Then we ran back to a path which had a steady incline about 30m long and we had to run up it as fast as we could before walking back down. My knees were shaking and by the 4th time, once my breathing regulated, I finally started to feel like it wasn't too bad, I was ready to run. We ran back to the car and headed home, however, my legs were like jelly and stopping at red traffic lights was a problem.

Ordinarily Josh would have done a run around Auckland Grammer first before the warm up and run etc followed by the gym for a bit of kick boxing. Once done he'd have to make his own way back to New Lynn from there and so hats off to him. That's what he wants to do for the love of cricket!