As the coach of Jiang University’s track and field team, Li Rui had a keen eye for athletic data.
The moment he heard that an amateur like Chen Jue had managed such a high-level javelin throw, Li Rui’s brow furrowed and his expression turned serious. "Xiaochen! I still haven’t had a chance to properly thank you for you and Xiaofang saving Haohao."
"Since you’ve come to me on your own, I’ll definitely make time to create a training plan for you."
"However, I have a practical training class in a little while. If you have the time, you can join the sophomore P.E. students for their session. After class, I’ll run you through a series of physical assessments like the ones they take."
"We can’t just create a training plan blindly. It needs to be supported by scientific data."
Chen Jue was delighted that Li Rui had agreed to his request.
He had been fumbling around blindly, relying solely on his panel. Without systematic, professional guidance, it was easy to develop injuries or bad habits.
In particular, Chen Jue had never even heard of the post-exercise injuries and side effects Li Rui mentioned during the sports massage lecture, like muscle adhesions, muscle knots, and soft tissue edema.
This was because it all fell under the scope of "Sports Medicine" and "Sports Massage"—fields of knowledge that were complete blind spots for him.
After all, no one is born omniscient. Even with his panel’s help, knowledge on subjects Chen Jue had never encountered wouldn’t just materialize out of thin air.
Besides, Chen Jue had a feeling that his recent high-intensity, high-load workouts must have caused some hidden injuries and side effects to accumulate in his body.
It was just that he lacked the understanding to identify them, and he didn’t have any professional medical equipment, instruments, or the relevant knowledge and practical experience to discover them.
If left untreated for a long time, these minor injuries would surely accumulate and erupt. Chen Jue couldn’t even guess what sort of major problems that would lead to down the line.
The only way to mitigate those risks was through a scientific training plan, combined with professional guidance, massage, and stretching.
...
Chatting as they walked, the two soon arrived at the track.
It was just a few minutes before class was scheduled to start, and a group of very well-built sophomore P.E. students began to gather on the track.
Li Rui took out a metal whistle, blew it, and had everyone fall into formation.
It seemed they hadn’t seen Coach Li in a while, as the group erupted in welcoming applause.
Chen Jue set down the large backpack slung over his shoulder and, under a flurry of suspicious gazes, slipped into the back of the formation.
"Alright!"
"Stop looking around! This is a senior who’s here to sit in on the class. It’s been a while since I’ve had you all for a drill."
"This afternoon’s practical session will be our usual physical conditioning and flexibility training."
After Li Rui blew his whistle and announced the training plan, the entire class of over forty student-athletes began their warm-ups in formation.
They started by mobilizing the more fragile joints of the body—wrists, ankles, knees, hips, and neck. After about five minutes of warming up, the entire group moved onto the track and began a slow jog.
Since this was his first time in a practical class like this, Chen Jue felt a novel sense of excitement, as if he were back in a high school P.E. class.
’The P.E. teacher finally didn’t have to call in sick!’ Chen Jue thought wryly.
However, it was clear that a university-level P.E. class for student-athletes was on a completely different level of intensity from a regular high school gym class.
Take the jog, for instance. After following the group for two 400-meter laps, Chen Jue was stunned to see no sign of the group stopping.
Back in high school, after a single 400-meter lap, someone would probably have been yelling about needing the bathroom or complaining they felt sick and wanted to drop out.
"Hey, how long is this jog going to be?"
Seeing Coach Li in the distance ticking off names on a roster without any sign of calling a halt, Chen Jue turned to the tall guy closest to him and asked.
"Senior, this is endurance training," the tall guy said, forcing a pained smile. "We run until we can’t run anymore."
Don’t be fooled by its simplicity; in the eyes of a student-athlete, a long-distance jog was right up there with the fascia scraping tool as one of the "Ten Great Tortures" of training.
"Until you can’t run anymore?"
"You train like this every day?" Chen Jue asked, his curiosity piqued.
"Not every day," the tall guy said quietly. "From Monday to Saturday, we have morning and afternoon sessions, and we train something different in each half-day. We only get Sundays off."
Chen Jue was stunned to hear this.
Ever since he’d gotten the panel, he’d been keeping a strict schedule from morning to night and thought he was training plenty. He never expected this group of college students, who looked to be in their early twenties, to train even more intensely than he did.
And they switched up their routine every half-day, too. No wonder they all looked so strong and full of life, able to jog for several kilometers without even breathing hard!
’Looks like I’ll have to redouble my efforts!’ Chen Jue thought, psyching himself up. ’If I have a panel and still lose to these student-athletes, wouldn’t I be a disgrace to all the other system-users and transmigrators out there?’
...
A standard modern track is 400 meters long with nine marked lanes. However, since jogging was just a warm-up, there was no rule that they had to stay in their lanes.
Most of the students stuck to the inner lane, as it was the most efficient route and helped conserve energy.
After about five laps, a distance of two kilometers, some students in the group began to slow down.
Because the student-athletes in the class all specialized in different events, and because of the natural differences in stamina between individuals, the gaps in their fitness levels began to show the longer they ran.