Chapter 114

() For students just entering junior high, eight hundred meters is already enough to make them gasp; plus one thousand five hundred meters, they'd be exhausted.

Zheng Tan looked at Jiao Yuan with eyes full of pity.

However, now Jiao Yuan and the others want to uphold brotherly loyalty, so as not to embarrass Xiong Xiong, the sports committee member, they plan to train over the weekend the day after tomorrow to see who has the best stamina and take on the toughest task.

The spots for the eight-hundred-meter and one-thousand-five-hundred-meter races haven't been decided yet; Jiao Yuan isn't sure which he can run, and he's agreed with the others to go early tomorrow morning to the sports field closest to the family dormitory compound at Chu Hua Da Xue to run.

Regarding this, Jiao Ba supports the idea, but still tells him to act within his limits, since there's only one week left before their sports meet, and seven days allows only limited preparation.

Recently, Jiao Ma has also improved the diet, preparing to give Jiao Yuan extra nourishment.

The next morning, Jiao Yuan got up early, finished breakfast, and ran out to meet the others in the compound.

Xiao Youzi was also bored at home; there wasn't much homework, he'd already finished more than half the night before, and the rest could be done tonight, so after watching a bit of TV, he told Jiao Ma and went out with Zheng Tan to find Jiao Yuan and the others at the sports field.

Holding the bike keys, Xiao Youzi pushed out the children's bike; the two rear stabilizer wheels had already been removed, and the seat had been adjusted by Jiao Ba according to Xiao Youzi's height.

Zheng Tan jumped onto the bike's cargo area, and Xiao Youzi rode the bike toward the sports field.

At this time on Saturday, there were still quite a few people out and about; some who planned to go shopping had gotten up early, and the weather wasn't cool either, so few people were staying in bed.

People passing by often notice the duo of Little Pomelo and Zheng Tan, giving them a curious double take, and they'll even greet familiar faces they encounter. In the mornings, many people walk their pets, and Niu Zhuangzhuang is one of them. From a distance, Zheng Tan can make out the somewhat misshapen build and the dark circles around the eyes.

Actually line 12 does not mention Old Man Yan. Wait line 13 mentions Old Man Yan:

Whenever Zheng Tan saw Old Man Yan taking Niu Zhuangzhuang out for a walk, he felt it was actually Niu Zhuangzhuang leading Old Man Yan—Niu Zhuangzhuang walked ahead, leading the way, the leash taut, and every so often he'd find a spot to lift his hind leg and urinate.

Over at the sports field, there were also people doing morning exercises, with many runners.

After parking the bike in the bike shed, Xiao Youzi and Zheng Tan came to the edge of the sports field; Jiao Yuan and the others were easy to spot, a few kids huddled together, apparently arguing about something.

Shi Rui, the little girl, sat on the horizontal bar, swinging her legs, and scolded them one by one.

Jiao Yuan, Su An, Lan Tianzhu, and Xiong Xiong—the four of them—two sat on the ground, one propped himself on his knees, another leaned on nearby exercise equipment, all panting.

"With you guys, even eight hundred meters is enough to make you gasp; you might as well not even try the fifteen hundred."

As Zheng Tan walked over, he happened to hear Shi Rui say that.

Looking again at Jiao Yuan and the others, it seemed their training was off to a bad start.

Seeing Xiao Youzi and Zheng Tan approach, Jiao Yuan was surprised, then felt embarrassed, as if he had lost the dignity of an older brother.

Even more embarrassing than Jiao Yuan's feeling was Xiong Xiong's—after all, he was the sports committee member; being criticized like this left him without face, and he looked at Shi Rui sitting on the horizontal bar and said, "Hey, Shi Rui, you say that easily—why don't you go run?"

"I don't have to run this; I only do the two-hundred-meter and relay. Besides, we girls have a secret weapon, so we have nothing to worry about—we're just waiting to break records and earn points. What about you? It won't come to the girls placing first and the boys coming in last, dragging down the team score." Shi Rui said leisurely.

In their class there's a famous sports prodigy, and she's a girl; although she didn't attend elementary school here, Jiao Yuan and the others aren't familiar with her, but they've heard she was very renowned at her own elementary school, often breaking records and even competing in city meets.

Yin exuberant, yang waning. Zheng Tan thought of that phrase. However, Jiao Yuan and the others were also miserable, being looked down upon by the girls, making it hard for them to bear.

"I don't believe we can't see results after a week of training!" Xiong Xiong waved his fists in a determined pose.

After a pause, Xiong Xiong added, "Who knows, we might even accidentally train ourselves a good physique!"

Everyone: "……"

"Well, Xiong Xiong, I'm not trying to discourage you, but some things are innate." Lan Tianzhu said.

It seems that since childhood, Xiong Xiong has been quite sturdy; his bulk hasn't diminished much, although of course he's not as obese as those people whose bodies are just balls of fat. He's stronger than the average classmate, and this time he signed up for the shot put event.

Jiao Yuan caught his breath, patted the dust off his pants, and said, "In theory, it's about red muscle and white muscle."

The others looked at Jiao Yuan, waiting for his explanation.

Jiao Yuan felt a bit pleased; he had come across this by chance while flipping through a magazine his father subscribed to, cleared his throat, and continued his explanation.

"Human muscles are divided into red and white types; red muscle serves endurance, white muscle provides absolute strength and explosive power. Literally, one relates to endurance, linking to long-distance running; the other relates to explosive power, linking to sprinting. However, muscle type is innate—that is, the amount of white and red muscle one has is inborn—so some people are naturally gifted with endurance, while others are naturally gifted with explosive power. Therefore, our training can only develop these muscles further, but cannot change their type."

"Many people do aerobic exercise to lose weight because aerobic exercise uses red muscle, whose characteristic is that it's not easy to develop and can continuously consume a lot of energy, so you can see from those long-distance runners on TV that hardly any of them are bulky and muscular." After saying this, Jiao Yuan glanced at Xiong Xiong, the bulky, muscular guy.

Xiong Xiong rolled up his sleeves, making a motion to beat someone up.

"And I'm not afraid of him either; continuing, regarding Xiong Xiong's comment about a good physique, that should be the kind of lengthened muscle—meaning making the muscles bulk up. Muscle hypertrophy mainly trains white muscle. The growth of white muscle requires high intensity, even greater speed. That's why many people buy dumbbells or other equipment to train, rather than slowly practicing tai chi or yoga."

Su An nodded seriously, then pointed at Xiong Xiong and said, "So if this guy wants to become that kind of well-built physique, he should first run long distance to shed this bulk, then do the muscle-lengthening exercises."

"Probably." Jiao Yuan picked up his water cup to drink; after saying all that, plus the earlier run, his throat felt a little sore.

"Xiong Xiong, the fifteen-hundred-meter is yours—those formidable eight-pack abs are waiting for you ahead!" Lan Tianzhu patted Xiong Xiong's shoulder and said.

Xiong Xiong made a "tsk" sound, saying, "'Ahead' is too far; I can't see it."

After just two laps they were nearly collapsing; besides, that's still less than eight hundred meters—eight hundred meters would be two laps plus a bit.

"Well, strictly speaking, not everyone can have eight-pack abs." Jiao Yuan continued to show off.

The others looked over again.

A sense of accomplishment welled up in Jiao Yuan; indeed, reading more of his dad's magazines gave him an edge.

"There's something called tendon inscriptions; it's what makes the abdominal rectus muscle appear in distinct blocks—four tendon inscriptions divide it into eight abs, three into six. But unfortunately, this tendon inscription is innate; it doesn't increase or decrease with training, so some people have six-pack abs while others can train to get eight-pack abs, and this is related to genetics."

Xiong Xiong stared for a moment, then lifted his shirt to reveal his fat-covered belly, took a deep breath, hoping to see whether he had trained those distinct blocky abs—alas, there was only fat.

The formidable physique of eight-pack abs had become so unattainable.

"Oh my, Xiong Xiong, you're being a rascal!" Shi Rui covered her eyes and shouted.

Zheng Tan: "……"

"Regardless of whether we can train eight-pack abs, we still have to run this leg."

Zheng Tan and Xiao Youzi sat on the nearby steps, watching them run two laps, then rest a bit before running again; they were all just jogging, and since they don't usually run, a sudden bout would tire them out—maybe they wouldn't feel it then, but the next day they'd surely be worn out.

After running half a day in the morning, in the afternoon Jiao Yuan and the others prepared to rest properly, and would continue as usual tomorrow.

At dinner, Jiao Ba asked Jiao Yuan how his run felt today; Jiao Yuan replied with one sentence: "The unattainable eight-pack abs."

Hearing Jiao Yuan say tomorrow's training would proceed as usual, Jiao Ba and Jiao Ma exchanged a smile and didn't say more.

Sure enough, the next morning, after the alarm rang and Zheng Tan turned it off, he slipped on his slippers and went to the master bedroom, preparing to call the others; he felt sore all over and really didn't want to move.

Before Zheng Tan could even pick up the phone, it rang—it was Xiong Xiong calling; he was in the same situation as Zheng Tan, not wanting to go run.

Besides Xiong Xiong, the others' situations were similar; since Xiong Xiong wasn't going to run, they also decided to just stay home and rest.

Because they hadn't fully warmed up before yesterday's run, starting to run without proper warm-up, Jiao Yuan and the others have now reaped the bitter fruit. Although they usually ride bikes and occasionally play basketball, they've truly never run like that before.

The most depressed one is still Xiong Xiong; if this continues, who will be able to take on the long-distance quota?

On Sunday morning, each rested at home; in the afternoon, several kids gathered again to discuss. This time Xiong Xiong produced a list—it was the class roster, which he had obtained with some effort—and he asked Jiao Yuan and the others to help think of ideas. However, Jiao Yuan and the few others had never served as class officials, had little contact with other classmates, and their familiarity with those people was still inferior to Xiong Xiong's.

As for Shi Rui, she was the study committee member; she knew most of the class, but mainly the girls, and wasn't very familiar with the boys, so she couldn't help with this either.

"What should we do? I've already boasted about it; if I can't pull it off, I'll be despised!" Xiong Xiong slapped the list against his face.

"You're just worried the deputy class monitor will look down on you, right? Don't worry—I know her well; I'll speak up for you when the time comes!" Shi Rui said righteously.

Zheng Tan lay on the tree listening to those guys' conversation, and couldn't help sighing, "Ah, the verdant years of youth!"

After thinking back, Zheng Tan recalled that from elementary school through university he had never participated in a sports meet or similar events; he rarely joined group activities, and whenever such occasions arose he would take people to the arcade to play all day, leaving no impression of sports meets—actually, he did have an impression: it seemed that in high school he and a few fair-weather friends had gone specially to the playground to ogle a long-legged girl, though his memory of it is a bit hazy.

At a middle school sports meet, you probably wouldn't get to see any well-built girls, but Zheng Tan was still quite curious—why not go and have a look when the time comes? (To be continued...)