Saturday Ritual

In what's fast becoming a Saturday morning ritual when I'm not strapped to a marathon training program, Geraldine, Kenneth and I took on the Double Hill route this morning. While it was Geraldine's first return to the dreaded route in half a year, this was Kenneth and my 2nd run there in 4 Saturdays (I think). We attacked the hills with some vigour and was rewarded with a great workout. I believe the Double Hill route offers as good a workout as the Hartamas route, if ran at a steady to progressive paced effort.

Indeed many good hill runners in the Pacesetters club honed their strengths by making Double Hill their weekly training ground. As we all know incorporating hill training into a training program improves running economy besides the obvious improvements to strength. Mastering hill running will provide unparallel advantage as you'll be maintaining your effort going up when others are struggling. Blended into your racing strategy, hills can also be the times when you put in surges to drop your competitors.

I looked forward to this morning's run for another reason - the chance to test out the Brooks Nightlife long running tights. Recently purchased at a good discount, I wanted to experience the benefits of wearing compression tights. Of secondary interest would be on the thermal properties of the tights. Compression gear has a loyal following among a small group of athletes out there. The concept of compression gear is simple - provide support to the working muscles, making them less susceptible to fatigue. Strategically placed compression spots can sequentially target muscles much like a massage. This increases blood flow to the muscles while ridding the accummulated lactacte. This is the philosophy behind asics' Biomorphic Compression. Nike too have their own Nike Pro line (read review here). Under Armour also is a popular choice while CW-X's Conditioning Web technology (sexy gear, view the video in the website) are some pretty hitech stuff. Since these brands (except Nike's) are non-existent here, I settled for Brooks'. And I'm glad to say they're not shabby at all.

Incidentally the tights I bought complement the shirt which Ronnie bought for me for a mere RM15 at a warehouse sale. The Nightlife series are designed for early morning/night runs and incorporate many reflective detailing. I don't have to say that putting on and taking off a pair of tights require slightly more time than the conventional shorts. But I immediately felt comfortable in them and with the exception of the knee support, didn't notice that I was wearing them at all. Both the top and tights were light with the tights offering a little warmth to the legs. This is certainly an ideal gear to wear to a race where the temps are below 15C. And get this: I DIDN'T FEEL ANY MUSCLE FATIGUE following my workout. I'm a convert to tights! This doesn't mean that I will discard my airy shorts. I'm saying that tights has its place in a runner's wardrobe. And guys, you shouldn't be too self-conscious about wearing one. In fact with our tight rears, we should be proud to wear it :)

Check out Brooks tights at their boutique in The Curve or Berjaya Star City. They stock some good stuff there - gear and accessories that you can't find anywhere else in this country such as compression tights, Waterboy tumblers, blinkers and more.