I hope you enjoy this lackluster chapter
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"...this will also train the biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus." The words coming from Ego had been talking about training the different muscles in his hips and legs, each method of training being created to strengthen different muscles in the attempts to make it easier on North's body.
'So it is to train parts of the hamstring.' North thought, his pencil gliding across the piece of paper. His paper was already filled with different information, the different training methods being connected with the different muscles.
North was sitting in the team room, Ego was writing on the whiteboard in the room, explaining the plan he had created. North was on his third piece of paper, the other 2 being filled with different basic styles and some niche ones.
"What the hell are those words?!" Charles' voice pierced the concentration that North was in, the face of Charles was showing the confusion he had as he stared at the words on the whiteboard. His hands were tapping on the screen of his phone, a methodical tap that sounded out in the room only being covered by the sound of a faint tune coming from the phone.
"hah, it is the hamstring." Ego answered, his sigh showing that he was annoyed by the disruption of Charles.
"Did you not know that?" North asked, his eyes looking at Charles with confusion, similar to that of looking at an idiot. "We learn it from the classes."
"I didn't pay attention to the classes, it was annoying when I could just run instead." Charles answered, his voice being covered in a venom. A smile on his face appeared as he looked at North, it was easy to see that it was straining to do so.
North, being the slightly incompetent person he is in social settings, ignored the look of slight anger that Charles was giving him. He looked back to the whiteboard that had bulks of information on it, Ego just letting out a soft breath from the interaction he had just seen.
"Going back to the topic, I will have you doing some resistant sprint training, using a weighted sled that you'll have to pull up a hill. This is to train your spurt and strength in the….."
Ego's words continued to ramble on, North listening and writing down each method of training at the muscle it correlates with. This continued on till the sun was starting to set, taking 5 hours for Ego to finish the lesson for today. This has been the schedule for the last week, Ego teaching North on methods to train and his muscles along with varied running styles.
As North and Charles left the building that was holding the team rooms, the sun was barely visible as it was being blocked by trees and buildings. The sunlight that passed through created a painting of shadows that melted into the scenery, each leaf becoming part of something greater but just as important to create the painting.
"It is rather pretty to look at, the way the shadows kiss the areas that are hiding from the sun. It really creates beautiful scenery. C'est magique!(It's magical)" Charles' spoken words showed that he appreciated the scenery, the french words, despite not being something that North fully understood, spoke on his thoughts of the view.
"It indeed is, Utsukushii keshiki desu ne(It is a beautiful view, isn't it)?" North said, remembering a saying he had heard before. With the words he said, he continued the walk back to the dorms, silently appreciating the view that he saw while ignoring the stare that Charles was giving him.
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April
With each movement of your legs, shift the weight of your waist to put more power into it. As the weight of movement is put into the pushing of your mass, you launch yourself forward with a higher burst of speed.
Extend the leg at the maximum length possible, use the large strides to be able to put more force into pushing yourself up. With the excess power in the legs, it gives a small bounce to the strides, which gives a larger amount of momentum to the body.
Swing the arms like a pendulum, each swing generating momentum that is being used at each push forward. The swings balanced the body, creating ease of control when turning or stumbling.
Each and every movement that is done during a race is the accumulation of training and habits. The way people use their bodies is a sign to how they think and train, and by watching these little things, the process of learning from them becomes a natural process.
Connect each style to the common forms, find the way they are connected before watching which muscles are being used. Analyze the form, process, and usage of everything they do until you finally understand.
It is the process of copying that I had learned, the knowledge that was taught by Ego became the key for me to copy the others with higher ease.
It was the process I was using to copy the racer in front of me, the finish line coming into view, signaling the end of the race. The process was lengthy, it took more or less than 3/4th of the race for me to finally get it down.
The shifting of his weight was steady, taking a steady approach that was appropriate for his position, and the length of his strides were somewhat lengthy. It was good for controlling his stamina and keeping their position but the way he swung their arms was out of pace compared to the rest of their body, a sign of exhaustion that surrounded them.
'Best to put it to the side for now.' I thought to myself, putting away the copied style of theirs I needed to use a burst of speed to catch up with them, not a stamina conserving style.
Putting strength into my step, I remembered the style of a racer I had watched in a video Ego gave me and used the way they shifted the weight of their body to push myself forward.
By pressing your weight onto the leg you are about to use, you can put more strength into it by using the pressure of your body and momentum. It lets you have a better footing onto the ground, it is important to not use too much weight as it could instead make you become unbalanced, throwing off the rhythm you had.
With my foot pressed onto the ground, I lifted the soles of my feet, pressing the toes inside of the shoes I was wearing. The strength was now gathered solely onto the part contacted with the ground, and with the burst of strength gathered, I launched myself forward.
Hearing the sound of me encroaching on him, he quickly turned to glance at me, watching as I quickly got past him. He slightly stumbled, having a hard time to control themselves as their balance was slightly off from the swinging of their arms.
"HAYATE NORTH DASHED PAST STEEP DREAM BEFORE REACHING THE FINISH LINE WITH A HALF LENGTH LEAD!!"
I controlled my deceleration, putting myself to a stop. I took a deep breath, letting the pain come in from the mistake I made during the copied style. The faint tingling of pain was focused onto my foot, mostly sticking to the toes.
I put too much of my weight onto it, causing it to be slightly overwhelmed by the strength that was used. The muscles, while strong, were not enough for the momentum that was gathered from the speed I was using, add that in with the weight, it caused the muscles to use more strength than originally thought.
'Another failure…' I thought to myself, remembering the practices that I had done before the race. Each attempt to copy a style never led to me perfectly copying it, there were always small mistakes that I can't seem to fix.
It was becoming more annoying with each attempt, always the smallest mistakes that appear and the attempts of me to fix it always end with failure as another mistake just appears. If I tried to get stronger, to strengthen my body to hold the strength I was using, nothing would happen.
My body just didn't get anymore stronger, it was stuck in its current state with training only keeping it at its peak. It was maddening, no matter how hard I trained, how hard I tried, I couldn't get stronger.
'breath…' I let out another sigh, letting my body relax from the anger of my thoughts. I looked at the other Umas, they had already steadied themselves, taking their time to talk with their trainers for a moment.
I let my eyes glance over to Steep Dream, he was breathing hard, the mistake of losing his balance and rhythm causing him to lose a large amount of his stamina. He was talking to his trainer, taking glances at me. His eyes looked at me with anger, sadness and hatred, the losing of a race he assumed that he was going to win visibly affected him.
I just turned away, going back to my thoughts of how to better myself.
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I had trouble with creating this chapter but I at least think that it works.
Have a good day.