OSB Weekend #4: Sunbirds revisit the Western Hills

True to our objective of building a good foundation of strength and speed, the Sunbirds were ushered through the Mt Faber Hills region for a 15km (HM) and 26km (FM) run at BaseBuild Pace.

The weather was cool and windy, making for a good opportunity for the Sunbirds to test their sustainable paces in a challenging route of rolling slopes sandwiching 30min/60min of hill repeats.  

With the spirits high and the attentiveness of the flock, the training brief was short and sharp, taking the runoff at 7:15am.  After 5km of rolling hills, we arrived to the Mt. Faber Loop carpark for the 1.6km hill repeats.  

The respective pace groupings made their way according to the prescribed duration.  Because of the cool weather and also the better foundation of the Sunbird trainees by now, there was not much walking spotted in between laps, resulting in the HM groups able to do 3 loops and the FM groups doing 4-7 loops (depending on speed of the group).

The lean training crew was very effective in crowd management and provided much of the leadership throughout the whole 3hr training duration - well done, Sunbird trainers.  The trainees too 'played ball' and achieved their targets well and in good time.

By the time we reached back to SAFRA Clubhouse (start point), the HM have completed 15km and were cooling down and chatting with their respective trainers & pacers  The FM trainees covered about 18-20km, and did another 5-8km to complete 26km in strong fashion and on-target training pace.

It was another good training session, made a lot more comfortable with the nice weather.  Training ended a tad earlier, leaving the many satisfied Sunbirds with time to chitchat over brunch and for others to meet their families to enjoy the weekend.

The distance will be progressively increased in Week #5 and we will be back to the Macritchie/Pierce Reservoir trails and roads for more hills and strength conditioning of the legs.  At the rate of progress we are going, the Sunbirds are moving in the right direction towards a good race day on Dec 7.

The Sunbirds Have Grown To Love Hills!

Facebook photos from FatBirds Ronnie, CK Chin