The promenade lawns
Bootcamps and one-to-one in good weather
Flat, mown, by the water; the meeting point is the bench by the boathouse.
The park
A gym with no walls and a lake in it.
Roath Park has flat grass, a lit path round the water, a flight of steps, a hill in the woods, big trees for the rain, toilets and a coffee kiosk. Six spots we use, what each is for, and where to find us on your first morning.
The six spots
The trees by the conservatory
Everything when it rains
Big enough canopy that you stay mostly dry; the ground is bark, not mud.
The lighthouse steps
Step-ups, shuttles, the Saturday finisher
Thirty-eight steps; the record is held by a woman of sixty-one.
The lake path
The running group, warm-ups, intervals
A flat 2.3 kilometres round the water, lit in winter.
The Nant Fawr to Cyncoed
Hills, the long run, the people who ask for hills
Three kilometres of steady climb through the woods; optional, always.
The kiosk
Coffee after, the plan on paper, the check-ins
Open from 8am; the Sunday group has a table.
Your first morning
The bench by the boathouse, Lake Road East side. We will be the ones with the kettlebells.
Park on Lake Road East or West (free before 8am), walk to the promenade, and look for the pile of kit by the boathouse bench; one of us will come and say hello before you have to ask. The running group meets at the lighthouse at the far end. If it is raining, we are under the big trees between the promenade and the conservatory, which you can see from the bench.
- Buses 27, 28 and 28A on Lake Road East, the 52 on Ninian Road
- Bike racks at the boathouse and the conservatory
- Toilets by the conservatory from 7am; the kiosk from 8am
The park and us
We have a licence to train here, and we leave the grass as we found it.
Commercial training in a council park needs a licence, and we have had one since 2016: a fee to the parks department, insurance they have seen, a limit on group sizes, and rules about where we set up so the lawns recover. We rotate the bootcamp spot across three lawns, the kit never goes on the flower beds, and we pick up other people's litter on the way out because it is our office. If you see a trainer here without a licence, that is who the council fines, not you, but it is worth knowing.
The first session is free. Come and stand by the lake.
Tell us what you are after and roughly when you can train, and we reply within the hour between sessions with a time for a free first session: a walk round the lake, a look at how you move, and an honest answer about what it will take. Or just turn up to a bootcamp, the first one is free too.