After the very long holidays it’s the best time start burning those unwanted calories or simply to get back into shape.  Tonight’s session was the first this year and after the recovery sessions last December (the last ones I attended) it’s time to get back to business.  This time it’s about actually starting to realize your running goals.

It started by putting together participants with the same goals (for March at least).  Coach Rio asked us what our goals were for March (when the Clinic officially ends) and so our training programs were designed accordingly.  Some aimed for a 10K (possibly a first for many especially the ladies), some a full 42K, but for me it was just a 21K.  Those aiming for 42K and 21K were grouped together (so I had to run with the pros!) and so were those gunning for 10K. I arrived later than planned so I had to start with a group that had a few laps already, and later switched to my final group after the first group was done with their laps.

Warm-up:
5 laps around the oval (5x400M = 2K)

Main Activity:
I’m not sure how many laps the 42K-ers took since I didn’t join the group from the start (although I’m hearing it was 12 laps or 4.8K total), but for 21K-ers it was 9 laps with rest after each set (3.6K).  The 10K-ers also had 9 laps but with a more forgiving 300M, also with rest after each set.

Cool-down/Stretching:
It was either that the session took longer than planned or Ultra had an earlier “lights-out” time so we were only able to finish our stretching routes.  It was the first time I encountered this in Ultra.  There goes our core exercises.

Session Total: 5.6K

Season 2?
The clinic seemed like it was entering a second season—the clinic is entertaining new “recruits” so if you’re not yet one of us you may start doing so by registering for free on the Nike Running website. Another was that the intensity of our runs is starting to become more intense on track with our goals. It was like starting over but of course now we’re on the next level.

To our inactive classmates, I strongly urge you to attend Friday’s session.  Coach Rio had a bunch of very good news for us which I dare not mention, for you to find out for yourself during the session (or try to find some “leakage” from our other classmates).  I promise it’s really good!

Running with the pros wasn’t easy, not to mention keeping up with their pace.  Our pace was normally around 1:30/400M, give or take a few seconds.  That’s about 3:45/km or 16km/hr!  I don’t think I’ve ever run this intensely!  The first group’s leader normally finishes the lap seconds below 1:30/lap and thankfully my final group (my final 3 laps) was more forgiving as they didn’t mind finishing the lap at around 1:30.  For the 9 laps my time was between 1:37—1:28/lap

Just before finishing my 7^th lap I had a minor injury—cramps!  I had to avoid a fellow runner on the area on the end of the lap and it’s probably caused by a little dehydration (as Coach Rio said).  This was why my slowest time was a bit far from my fastest.  This was my first lap with my final group and I was actually up front during the last few meters when this happened so there goes my “pogi” points.  Thankfully the coaches were very helpful when they saw my condition.  A few minutes later I’m off running again to complete my 9 laps (had to take it a bit easy though) so I think I already did a trail run (by trailing my group mates 🙂 ).

Despite a minor injury this was actually one of the best session night I’ve had, probably because I missed it and my classmates badly during the holidays.  It was nice to see you guys again after some time.  Special thanks to my group mates!  I had fun running with you guys, hopefully I didn’t slow you down.

Thanks again to all the coaches!  And of course thank you Nike Philippines for the support!