Team Tina Covid19 Challenges

Staying with Tina last year

My friend Tina is a prime example of one of the fabulous people that I have met through running. She is a teacher who lives with her family over in Perth, Australia, and although we are of a similar age and have lots of things in common, we would not have met if it was not for our favourite hobby - having "raced" together internationally at World Champs and other big races such as Comrades.

When I was looking at potential GP work in Australia last year, Tina had me to stay and introduced me to another British GP working in Perth as well as showing me around (yes the city and a possible practice, but also running routes and great cafes). We discussed our mutual transitioning into coaching whilst still wanting to run ourselves, although maybe not as competitively/seriously as in our "glory days".

Go Team Tina!

When Coronavirus hit Australia and some form of lockdown occurred.....in the sense that running groups were no longer allowed to meet and exercise was only allowed "either solo or with another member of your household"....Tina came up with the perfect thing to keep people motivated/preserve our sanity. She set us "Team Tina" challenges - usually 2 per week - that we could do wherever we were (most people were in WA, though not all based in Perth, but I was in NSW and another guy was in Qld) as long as we uploaded our Garmin/Strava data to the Team Tina Facebook page as proof that we'd given it a go.

I have to say that it was brilliant - not at all what I would have done if left to my own devices, as I'm staying in a fairly hilly urban area, and so, without any races or goals ahead, I would have just gone out for slow plods (admittedly I still did a few of those.....and walked up some of the steeper roads and multiple sets of steps that there are). The challenges were definitely out of my comfort zone, but I didn't want to let the side down and so I managed to all of them. We would be on tenterhooks on a Sunday night (though sometimes it was a Monday morning before I found out as WA is a few hours behind NSW in timezones) to find out what she was "challenging" us to do that week. 

The "flat" run!!

Eurgh...trying to do
a kilometre progression run!

Some of the hardest ones for me were the short, fast efforts such as a 1K and a 2K time trial, a flat run (gaining no more than 30m elevation during the run whilst I would get that just running up the street outside), a shape run (Strava art is definitely a new one on me) and anything involving distances/progressions in kilometres (as I still run in miles and the only pace I know is in minutes/mile). 

The Sydney Harbour Bridge

The "elevation" run

Some of the "easiest" for me to complete were runs showing bridges (the Sydney Harbour Bridge is less than a mile from the front door), runs showing water (I managed to post pics of the sea, the harbour, a creek, a sewage outflow, a tap etc etc), elevation runs (how much elevation you can gain in a maximum distance of 10K...and I got to just under 700m going up and down a street I hate - and always walk up when it's near the end of run).

A city dawn...

Some of the most "fun" were the postcode run (Australian postcodes are 4 digits and you had to show them in some combination in the download of your run), the dawn run (Australia does some beautiful sunrises and sunsets....even in cities) and the 10KM -ve split run (getting the maximum differential between the first and second 5Ks with no walking allowed.....so trying really hard to jog as slowly as possible for the first half, and then going as fast as you could for the second half......tough but kinda fun.....OK so not during the fast 5K, but afterwards when doing the maths). 

A beach dawn just to
balance it out!

WA opened up (well within the state as their borders are still closed and locked down) before NSW so I was quite jealous to see that the others could do some of their challenges together, but I managed to push on and complete all of the 10 weeks that Tina set us. The Perth guys all met for a final run at the end of the challenge, whilst "we interstaters" had a session to do so we could be with them virtually. Darren (up in Queensland) did it first which motivated me to find a flat place to do it myself, though quietly I was dreading it as it sounded too hard for me. 

Knowing that I would have to report in was the kick up the backside I needed, and so I headed over to Centennial Park to avoid any big hills and road crossings, and then treated myself to a gooey chocolate brownie (whilst watching the surfers braving the large swell on Bronte Beach) whilst mentally thanking Tina for all that she'd done for us all during this difficult time, and knowing that I'd also made some new friends that I can't wait to actually see in real life just as soon as we're able to travel! All in all, it shows what an amazing thing the running community it....not just for physical health but for emotional and mental support too.....go Team Tina!!!