The team
Gethin started it with a car boot of kettlebells in 2016; Hanna joined in 2019 because she wanted a running group that started slowly enough. Between us we run every session, write every plan and answer every text. The certificates are below because you should ask any trainer for them.
Founder. One-to-one, the 6:30 bootcamps, the plans
Played rugby to a decent level, got injured, retrained, and spent four years in a chain gym watching people pay for a building they were frightened of. Started training clients in Roath Park in 2016 with a car boot of kettlebells and has not been indoors since. Level 3 personal trainer, outdoor fitness and older-adult certificates, first aid. Writes every one-to-one plan by hand and says "nice" when you get it right.
Trainer. The 7:30s, the running group, online coaching
Came to running at twenty-eight after a decade of not, which is why the walk-run group exists and why she runs at the back of it. Joined Lakeside in 2019 from a sports science degree and a stint as a physio assistant. Level 3 personal trainer, running coach, pre- and post-natal certificate, first aid. Runs the 7:30 bootcamps, the Wednesday and Sunday running sessions, and the online coaching for the people who moved away.
The paperwork
The qualification that lets someone write a programme for you rather than just supervise a class. Both of us hold it; Hanna also holds the running coach award and Gethin the older-adult and outdoor fitness certificates.
Emergency first aid at work, renewed every three years, and the defibrillator that lives in the kit bag. Hanna\'s pre- and post-natal certificate covers the mums who come back to bootcamp.
£5 million public liability and professional indemnity, renewed every October, and a licence from the parks department to train commercially in Roath Park, with the group limits that come with it.
Before the first session you fill in the standard pre-exercise questionnaire and we read it. If it says see your GP first, we say so, and we have sent people away until they have.
The car boot
Twenty-four kettlebells from 6 to 32 kilos, two sets of battle ropes, a sled, forty cones, twelve mats, bands in four strengths, a speaker nobody asked for, a first-aid kit and the defibrillator. It goes from the car to the lawn on a trolley at ten past six every morning and back at nine. Everything is wiped down weekly and replaced when it frays. You bring trainers and a jacket.
Where it all goesTell 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.