Ops Kingfisher: Blazing The Tracks

After the first week of hills and thrills, the Kingfishers were primed with positive anticipation of the second week's menu of speedwork and track intervals.  Being the first time to Serangoon Stadium for many, most of the Kingfishers made preparations and work arrangements to make it earlier for the track work....and boy, were they pleased to have arrived early so as not to miss out the important elements of training.

 After the required warm up and dynamic stretching done, we got underway with a quick briefing on the requirements and then off they went....for what would be the very first mile (1.6km) timed run at MaxBird speed.  Because our training group of 80+ was rather large, we arranged into 2 sub-groups with respective trainers and timers to help with the Kingfishers' maiden track experience.

With the mile timing captured, we were able to recommend more specific paces to adopt for 400m and 800m track runs for the runners.  After the welcome drink and appetizer, the main menu of 800m sets were served to the delight of the trainees and trainers alike.  The soccer spectators in the Stadium were also having some entertainment watching a bunch of runners seemingly running very hard but enjoying every lap that they went through.

The trainees certainly came well prepared as they lapped up the 800m intervals without too much of a complaint, although they were always anxious to find out how many sets they would have to do, so as to leave sufficient spares to complete the whole workout in one piece :D  Before they could catch their breaths in between the controlled rests (intervals), they were called again to line up for the next 800m sets.

Time passed rather quickly that way, and soon they were told that they were to just complete a final 400m set, with a 2-lap cool down to round off the night.  That immediately set off glittering smiles all round, as they ran with all their hearts to finish the final lap in sheer exhaustion.....just having sufficient juice left to continue the slow-jog routine to cool down.

The trainers conducted a nice post-run group stretching for all, followed by a nice group photo under the still brightly-lit spotlight.  After such a big workout, the trainees were all too happy to refuel their tanks as they dispersed in different groups venturing into the heartland eateries and food centres.  The training objectives were well met with a high level of participation and commitment this evening, giving the training team a nice sense of satisfaction that the Kingfishers have enjoyed their track training and are ready for the rigours of the continuing Kingfisher journey in the weeks ahead.