Spicing up wednesday's training

I arrived a little late at Tmn Rakyat yesterday. So far I had spotted three cars, but could not spot Albert's or Ajeep's vehicles. This might mean I would end up running with Lee and Peter again (having mixed feelings now). On one hand it would be good since I have decided to increase the tempo in my training runs, on the other hand I was feeling like an easy run that night (the old lazy self reappears).

Anyhow I was right about Albert and Ajeep. So when Peter and Lee arrived at the centre court, I joined them and hit the main hill. My first lap was their third, but it seemed like they were already tiring which meant that they must have really pushed the pace in the first two. I clocked 17m37s for the first 3 laps (3.5k) and then eased the pace in the fourth.

Upon reaching the centre court and seeing the others warming down, I joined them at first, but there was this dissatisfied feeling inside asking me to run at least another lap. I was thrown a challenge for a one lap speed trial and accepted. The worst part of starting at the Centre Court is that the first few hundred metres is a very sharp slope.

I started by pushing up that hill with a little caution and increased the pace upon clearing it. Another challenge running here at night is the lack of lighting when we reach the halfway mark on top of the hill. For those who are not familiar with the route, it can be very dangerous, especially when coming down the slope back towards the pond. Once reaching the pond, I pulled in my finishing kick all the way back to the centre court. Lee shouted out my time... 4m26s!

It was good to inject this kind of challenge into the otherwise very routine training. The guys are now all fired up to break my mediocre time of 4m26s next week. I believe a little competitive fun is what we need to spice up our fellowship runs and also help us improve our speed.

Later at the supper table, we got to know Mani's friend Chandra. I had quite a facsinating conversastion with him as he shared his running experiences. He has been into 10k races and is now hoping to train for a 21k. He said he would try to join us regularly on Wed nights.

Captain Lim has now decided that we shall soon be starting another casual run session on Sat mornings at Tmn Rakyat. This might be a good time for us in getting more runners and joggers join the club, as the park is quite crowded on Saturday mornings. The Wednesday and Sunday trainings would be catered more towards race preparation and getting into shape.