Saturday, March 21, 2009

Night Hawk #3 - Return To The Nest

Field Report #1
- Filed by FatBird Anthony
- Photos by FatBird Spencer (FaceBook Album)

The Nest @ PlayGround

This week's NightHawk LSD had us returning back to the nest at ECP, The PlayGround @ Big Splash. The place was already all set up for the AVIVA 70.3 race the next say, Sunday. A good number of NightHawk runners were already there by 7am. The regulars made up about 70% of the runners, with about 30% new ones. By 7.15am, attendance was taken for the 50+ who were there in the morning. David Shum, Lai Chee were among those who joined for the first time....really happy to have them join us, and bringing their friends too. Eugene was there to do another 18km, after the previous evening's 18km with Team Coconut :)

Ops NightHawk - Session #3 Briefing

FatBirds Anthony and David gave a quick brief of the route, as well as introduce the NightHawk Central Team of pace setters/run motivators made up of Group A (Anthony, Keonz, David, YN and Terry) leading the 20km-26km and Group B (Jancy, Spencer, Beng) leading 10km-15km. The skies were cloudy but the runners were in high spirits. Since it was fat-burn training, we started off at an average 6:30min/km pace for Group A, and 7:30min/km pace for Group B. The rather large group running towards Bedok Jetty, NSRCC and Changi Coastal Road was a sight to behold.

After about 3km, the various timing groups have settled into their paces. Lots of getting-to-know-one-another and chatting were happening among the various NightHawk runners....it was good to know they were having fun on a Saturday, doing what they love. We spotted many familiar faces along the way...tekko, raven, sumiko, Sarah, weng kong, siew lee, et al....some doing Ninja training runs, others roller blading and having fun. I was chatting with various people along the way, watching my heart rate to ensure it was averaging 135bps. A number of runners were asking about the compression tights, while others discussed about their progress with Sundown preparations....all making the runs enjoyable and taking the mind off the road...hehe.

With the mileage projected on my Garmin, I was able to mark out the 12km shelter, which was the U-Turn for the 26km distance. Max was there too at the 3rd Shelter, and he mentioned a number of the runners had gone for the 28km distance. We rested for a bit, chatted about Gold Coast, cheered a few NightHawkers on their way back, before moving back to catch up with the rest. I gestured to Beverly, ericx, and those running towards me to the U-Turn in front. The remaining 10km was spent running an average 138bps with a few of the 26km runners, exchanging pointers and tips on marathon preparations, including proper gear, nutrition, diet, and training.

NightHawk Central - Run Leads

The 10km-15km group of about 15 runners had gone home by the time I finished the 26km in 2hr46min. We had some refreshments, before I gave them a brief of how to get some of the 2XU tights and Ultimate Direction hydration systems. We took the customary group photos, X-Men and NightHawk Central 8 poser shots. Instead of raining as predicted by the weather forecast, the sun came on rather strongly. Since all the runners have learnt not to rush during the LSD, they enjoyed the easy paced run, and found that they had lots more energy at the end.....just a little tiredness felt. We went for wash-up at 11am, before adjourning to Old Airport Road for lunch.

Field Report #2
- Field Report by Keonz Quek

It was saturday morning. The NightHawk training has reached the 3rd session since it started 3 weeks ago. It was a morning run for this session and it was held at ECP with the starting/end point at The Playground, Big Splash. I woke up pretty early as usual. Earlier than my usual day. Stomach was not feeling good. Nevertheless, i made my way to ECP and reached quite early at about 6.35am. Waited for a while before Spencer and YN came. Had a short chit chat with SealBoon while waiting.

Soon, Spencer and YN arrived at about 7am. Quickly, i put my bag in the car and proceeded to the start point where most of the runners have arrived. It was quite a big group. In fact, the attendance seems to get bigger and bigger week by week, which is a good thing. More runners are joining us to train together. Some were training for the upcoming marathons, while some just joined us to keep fit. Great to see that more and more people are into running. :)

Anthony and David did some breifing before the training began. An introduction to the pacer and leaders for the various distances was made to the participants. I was assigned as the Team Leader of Team A which comprise of YN, David and Anthony. We take care of distances ranging from 22-26km. Team B comprise of Jancy (Team Leader), Ah Beng and Spencer and they take care of runners do distances ranging form 10-20km. The weather was nice, the sun was lazy and was not up then. The ECP was still as nice as usual, but the AVIVA setting were all set up and ready for the event to be held tomorrow.

Soon the run began. YN and I led a group of front runners all the way till NRSCC where we ran together as a group. I told the usual dasher like Choon and Darren not to follow my pace today as i am on official duty to take care of the runners. So i told them i wont be dashing today. And after i told them that, Darren really dash ahead and disappeared. Haha.. It was nice to run at a slower pace again, but quite tiring as i actually spent longer time on the road than my usual pace. But it was a good session to train my endurace and patience and also to burn some of my fats that has accumulated for the past one week for the lack of daily laps swim.

Soon, i reached the U-turn point. I thought that was the 26km u-turn point. But i found out later that i actually overshot to the 28km u-turn point. Some for the runners followed me and did the same u-turn point as i did. I stopped at the u-turn point to ensure most of the front runners made the u turn at the correct point before i continued with my run.

The sun was finally up for a while during the return route. Saw Anthony and David along the way. They were all doing strong and chatting, motivating some of the runners they were running with. By the time i reached ECP, i could see that the cloud started to turn abit dark, but not to the extent of thunderstorm approaching. I maintained a constant pace all the way through, without having any sip of water and fianlly reached the ending point where most of the runners were back. Had a few cups of 100-plus. Chatted awhile and finally with a big group pic and the HigntHawk committee pic. I realised that the 2-XU tights that i was wearing seems to be quite useful in preventing my ITB from hitting me. Usually, my ITB pain will come in after along run on the hard group like ECP. But today, it seems ok for me or is it becos i was not dashing today? I dunno but what i know is that the tights is useful afterall in compressing my leg muscle.

Washed up and had lunch at Old Airport Road. Feeling very tired. Went home and had a nap all the way till evening before i proceed to the pool to do my swimming. Did a slow 40 laps recovery swim. And back here blogging.

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