The group started off from MacRitchie Reservoir Park after a quick brief, and immediately proceeded along the Northern Trail @ MR in their respective pace groupings. We had a slight change of the route after Northern Trail to skirt past the private road of SICC via the 1.5km Venus Trail.
This trail portion made the overall workout a tad challenging as we normally would run along the concrete road which was a lot smoother. Still, all the Sunbirds were able to keep to their respective Basebuild pace, and if anything, most were running closer to Marathon Pace.
Once into Lower Peirce Reservoir road, we were back in familiar territory. We headed towards Casuarina Road and then Old Upper Thomson Road (OUTR) before the Half Marathon (HM) groups turned back for their 15km requirement of the morning.
The Full Marathon (FM) groups proceeded into the rolling slopes of Upper Peirce Reservoir Road to 2 sets of tough hills run, which most of the trainees fulfilled to the trainers' satisfaction.
Once the mental 'distraction' were out of their minds, the trainees performed very well to overcome any imaginary obstacles that they might have envisioned before plucking the courage to sustain the good effort.
By the time we completed the rolling hills repeat, there was only 10km remaining, which boosted the morale of the Sunbirds - it didn't seemed too difficult once we had completed the challenge on hand...a good confidence booster for all.
The run back along the trails were meant to tax the Sunbirds as they would have expended a fair amount of resources after the slopes. The runners would have to draw on their physical reserves and mental strength to tackle the 5km of trails back to the finish, and that was no mean feat.
"It was the hardest workout I've had in my life", uttered quite a number of newer Sunbirds. They were glad they overcame the challenge presented to emerge stronger and happier that they have accomplished a tough workout.
All the groups completed their morning run by 10:30am, achieving most of the training requirements expected of them in Week #5.
The Sunbirds will look forward to Week #6, where we enter the Pace Run Phase, doing longer runs of 70-85% of their race distances at Marathon Pace (MP), conditioning them to eventually sustain a good race pace for the whole duration of their HM and FM races.
The Sunbirds Ran Well At The Trails & Rolling Hills
Photos by FatBird Onin
