Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Day 17: A Speeding Star...

By Frank

Earlier in the evening, I joined Ronnie and Geraldine for some speedwork training at Lake Gardens. Instead of using my usual shoes, I decided to give the adidas adistar Cushion 6 a try.

The speedwork that Ronnie introduce is pretty similiar to the one that I have previously practiced, only that his distance is further. We did a 300M sprint maintaining our heart rate between 80% to 85%. We sprinted from one end to the other and the best part is, there was a gradient of at least 4% to 5% halfway through the distance. Upon reaching the target point, we slow jog back to the starting point, where this is considered the recovery phase. No rest is allowed in between as we are not allowed our heart rate to drop to low. And also, we wouldn't want to risk cardiac arrhythmia. We did a set of 12 and for the first 6 sets, I managed to complete each set with an average time of 66 seconds. The last 6 sets I managed an average time of 75 seconds. As torturing as it is, this training has the advantage of helping in strengthening our heart and also leg muscles as there is gradient involve.
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So how did the shoe perform? As usual the cushioning was great. No pain was felt after 12 sets of torture. As for the weight, I could bear with it during the early sets but as my energy level depletes at the later sets, the shoe pulled both my feet down. It was so draggy that I couldn't lift my feet high enough to avoid rubbing the sole with the tarmac. Therefore as expected, this shoe isn't for fast runners. In fact, I knew it all along but I just wanted to put the shoe to the test. As some people might believe, when we train in a heavier shoe and then going for races in a lighter race shoe, we can run faster. Just a theory but it's up to you to believe. But anyhow, it was a comfortable run with the adidas adistar Cushion 6.

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