Photos Credit: Alan Tan
The Kookaburras entered into Week #8 of training with the second longest paced run (18kmHM, 33kmFM), this time in the morning for that little bit of heat conditioning. A smaller number turned up as many were still resting from their recent Sundown Marathon a week ago, but still, a highly-charged group was at ECP bright and early to set the tone for the morning's training.
We welcomed a few new trainees followed by a quick briefing of the requirements and route. Optimal Pace Bands were handed out to help guide the pace for the trainees' eventual target GCAM finishing times. With Pace Runners assigned to the respective groupings, we headed out towards NSRCC/Changi Coastal in what can be termed one of the cooler temperatures in local weather.
It was a good session of catching up of the past few week's of training and racing, as well as getting to know the 'new birds' who were rather enthusiastic about pace training and extending themselves to see where they are up to in terms of endurance. By the 9km mark at NSRCC, the groupings were looking strong and still close-knit.
After the water-fountain pause, the smallish HM group turned back while the FMers ventured onto the long Changi Coastal stretch of shelter-counting and mind-draining experience. It is usually at this stretch that the challenge of the training sessions come in to dislodge the runners' resolve...we did well to keep busy chatting and enjoying the scenery around to reach the U-turn and subsequently returned strongly back to ECP.
The cooling weather gave way to the heat from the rising sun after 1.5 hours of running. We were feeling the effects with rising heart-rates and slowing foot-strikes. Calls from the Pace Runners to make 'water-dousing' stops at alternate ECP toilets helped much to keep the runners cool, although a a few did eventually have to take walk breaks to stave off minor over-heating symptoms.
Although there will be a rising sun at GCAM, esp. after 25km, it will not be the same sort of heat coming from a tropical and humid climate like Singapore. The Kookaburras were happy to treat this as conditioning and toughening up for 1 July - some exclaimed at the end of the run that Gatorade mix never tasted that good :). The bananas provided a form of quick replenishment for that hard workout, where most of the Kookaburras covered 18km and 28-32km.
Many of the runners completed what would be their longest run in recent training, and were happy to know that they were in pretty good shape after this morning's training/trial run. They were advised to rest and let adaptive recovery take charge for the week, with light recovery and steady tempo runs mid week, before attempting the longest run in the training program of 21kmHM and 35kmFM next weekend. The whole session was completed well before High Noon, and as the Kookaburras were making their way back home, they were thinking of how they would be looking in their new bright-red Kookaburra finisher tops at the GCAM.
Run Kookaburra, Run Kookaburra, Gold Our Race Will Be!
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