Week #4: ON TRACK....for AHM

The track intervals is one of the special element in the PowerFLIGHT segment of Ops Kingfisher, the other being hills of course.  Most of the trainees await such track sessions in anticipation yet with a certain amount of positive anxiety...much like preparing for a track meet or race, something that brings back fond memories of their school and college sports meets.

As such, the track program is always well attended by the Kingfishers, and poses a little challenge in terms of coordinating the big group of runners on that track which is shared with other runners and exercise pundits - still, we had a very productive, effective and fun-filled evening of mile trials, 800m intervals, floats with room for stretches pre and post workout.

After claiming their appetizer mile time trial and getting the proper 800m coordinates from the Interval Pace Chart, the Kingfishers along with their respective pacers and trainers were dished the main menu of 800m sets (with reduced rest time from the first session), with a 'float' served in between to spice things up a little.

As we watched and kept time by the sidelines, we were impressed by the good training attitudes and passion that these Kingfishers have for track....something challenging and hard, yet the feeling and sense of accomplishment after each hard set of 800m produced many satisfying smiles as the runners cross the set finish and getting their timings shouted out.

With a good sense of what pace they should be training at (SpeedyBird effort), the majority kept good paces with the ringing reminder of 'sustainability is key' in their heads.  To their pleasant surprise, they did better timings without rushing in the early sets, and achieving their targets over the prescribed number of 800m sets served.

The trainees by now are using lap-timers from their running watches to keep personal timings, which when uploaded to the computer/log, serve as good information for improvements as training progresses.  After the delicious main menu of 800m sets and float, there was no special dessert (much to the relief of some) as they cool off with a good round of static stretches to round off a great night at the track.

With 2 weeks to the Army Half Marathon, the Kingfishers have secured a reasonably strong base of strength and speed as they progress to put them into pace training, requiring them to run at sustained HM race pace over progressive distances.  Train Smart, Race Easy - that will be the mantra for all the Kingfishers as we 'fly' towards race day on 9 Sep 2012.

Kingfisher Photo Slideshow by CK Chin