Weekend LSD

Thanks God for the good weather over the weekend. I manage to run 14km and 12km respectively on my schedule Long Slow Distant (LSD). Btw, these are not really LSD although the speed does qualify for it. I start all my weekend by jogging slowly to the MPSJ track from my home. Then follow by 30 minutes speed work (2.5 minutes per lap of 400m for 12 laps, kind of beginner level of speed work), and start to round the USJ5 and other housing area until 9am. I used to drive to MPSJ track, but I stop that after my car start to smell too much of my sweat. After all, I am suppose to have my long jogging out there, the additional 1.5km slow jogging as warm up is no big deal.

My hearth rate sustained at 140~150BPM on the LSD sessions after the speed work. It’s contributed to my loss weight program too. I ate hell lots more over the weekend and normal lunch, but my weight is dropping. But I figured that I will need to add in some control later when the dropping rate slow down, I should start to control now. Eat good breakfast, normal lunch, light dinner (as my wife cooked, this is the tough one, I promised to clear the table if she cook) and no junk food. I also faced some dehydration problem after each weekends’ LSD. I need to consistently remind myself to drink 500~1000ml of water every hour thru out the weekend to avoid the headache syndrome from mild dehydration.

I also worked on the running gait. Surprisingly my forefeet strike is working fine even in my NB1226. From the study of the shoes’ outsole, I am obviously heels striking previously. All marking on the “NDurance” markings on both side are gone. And now I am working on the Blue color part of the outsole. I begin to belief that the “proper form of running doesn’t come with the type of shoes.” Although some minimalist shoes do help to promote your leg for the proper running form, but you don’t necessary need those to practice a good running form.

http://www.barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/index.html

After both long runs, my knees don’t feel the sharp pain. I only felt tiredness on my crafts and Achilles. The knees still felt some pain, but I think it’s due to the previous damage as I didn’t totally stop my running for it to recover fully. As the current NB1226 had gone thru 500km, I am actively looking for replacement and plan to get one before 800km. After looking around for comment and with the poison from Born To Run, I think I will wait until New Balance role out the MT10 in their Malaysia store or Singapore store. I don’t think I am in the position to try the VFF or go real barefoot. My feet still need lots of strength training to cover more mileages for my coming half marathon in June, and it will be a race in my NB1226. Anyway, the searching will be on-going.

Other note, I finally brought my Garmin Forerunner 405CX thru my brother in Singapore for SGD499. The unit still in Singapore and I will only have access to it until May (may be can use it during the 14km Kuala Kangsar race). I will post my review after I got it (although it’s a post model).

Until next time.

Energizer Night Race 2011, Race Kit collection

The collection of race kit started today at E-Curve. Heard the event is fully sold. I a bit kiasu and decided to collect my race kit by today lunch time. Don't think that will be many people want to collect during the working hours. Drive from office to have a quick lunch @ Chow Yang and then take LDP to The Curve. Surprisingly not really jam.

Arrived E-Curve (previously called Cineleisure, the building next to The Curve and Ikano) collection counters around 1pm. Not much people. For 11km, 21km and 42km, collection counters are at the main hall. For 5.5km, the collection counters located outside next to the Laundry restaurant, together with counters for PowerBar, PACM members registration, and Energizer promotion items. You need to get a number (like the bank counters) and process to the counter number when they call your number. Saw plenty of counters available, so belief even pick hours they should be able to cope. You only need to present your postcard (which is also the discount voucher for the Energizer and Schick products), and your IC to collect your race kit.

Race kit for 11km only have a FILA T-shirt and running bib. The organizer said the head lamp will give away only on the race day (except for full marathoners). But I don’t think I will need the head lamp while running in F1 circuit at night with 10000 people.

Energizer also included the fitness talk and workshop for all participants. Just walk in to Fitness First at The Curve (below schedule) with your bib and running gear.

My target on this race will be 60 minutes for 11km. Hope it will not be a very jammed start like Bareno, and I will look for a start position closer to the Starting Line. If I stick to my training plan, I should be able to accomplish this.

Earth Hour(s)

Is again the time of the year – Earth Hour.

I walked into the office this morning just to catch up with the Take5 session on Earth Hour. The theme for this year is: “Go Beyond the Hour”, which answered most of the criticism on this initiative. The presenter asked us to write down the 1 thing that we going to do “beyond the 1 hour” and place it on the wall.

Coincidently, while I am driving to the office, some very interesting thought crossed my mind. I hated the traffic jam every morning. It take like 30 minutes for that 8km on the infamous Federal Highway, and the fuel are just wasted to keep the car engine turning in most of the journey. Why don’t I just run to my office every morning? It’s just 11km in total. With my normal 9km/hour pace, it will only take less than 75 minutes. It can replace my weekday morning run, start from my home at about 6~6:10am (and you will not late to work anymore).

Some of the other concerns seem to be resolved (or soon) too:

Q: How about coming back home after work?

A: Wife office is only less than 1km away, else by all means you can still run back home.

Q: Need to fetch SY to babysitter place before heading to work.

A: SY will start his playschool in May; wife should be able to handle both YY and SY to school at once.

Q: My capability to run? Am I fit enough for this?

A: After few months of training and few races, I belief the distant is no longer an issue, unless I am doing it for daily basis.

So the thought in my mind matched the theme perfectly and I know very well that I can do something “Beyond the Hour”. To start on the safe side, I only put in my note for:

“Running to work (office) once a week.”

Guess I can start doing this as part of my training plan in May, for the preparation of the 21km in KL Marathon. The only problem left now, is where to find a shower place near office after my run…

If you too want to support the Earth Hour initiative, please visit:

http://www.earthhour.org/Homepage.aspx

Updated 9pm : after checking with wife, she comment that the road condition is too hazardous to run on, banned my idea... :(

Moving on...

I felt much better after Saturday (12km) and Sunday (11km) LSD...

I didn't focus on my pace, which eventually turned into very slow (~8min/km) and my hearth rate maintained at 140~150 BPM. This give me a refreshing run and I didn't felt the post run exhaustion. It's also left some gap for me to rethink the current situation that I am trapped with.

I think I need to do better than what I am doing now. I didn't put in much effort since day 1, so I am not in the position to blame other for this. All I need now is Focus, Endurance and Talent. And all these are part of the lesson we learned from running. If I can stay focus, endure the situation and repeat it until I finally reaching the goal, I belief I will eventually find my passion (talent) on this.

How to cover a long distant like a 42km Marathon?

Keep yourself focused, and move on. Step by step!

Other matters:

Over the weekend, attended the AGM for PACM.

I getting a good feeling with the club and think the exco are doing their best for the club and its members.

Registered the 22 May 14km Larian Hari Keputeraan Sultan Azlan Shah 2011 @ Kuala Kangsar, and planned for the early June PACM 15km. These two races should be a good preparation and warming up for my 1st Half Marathon in 26 June.

Insight…

The week had been filled with stress and depression. I am still very fine with my running plan, and I guess all these feeling are works related.

I am literally hitting the wall at my works now.

I am going no way with my job and I have no idea how to overcome this situation.

I lost focus.

The one lucky thing I do have, I am running now.

It’s hard to imagine what will going to happen if I am the same old me back in mid last year. I may just walk to the dead end and God knows what is going to happen then. With running, I still able to prove to myself there are still triumphs and success in my life. I loss total of 4kg and moved 1 buckle’s hole backward from my waist belt (waist size should be around 32~33” now). And I just completed Bareno 10km by ~26 minutes less from previous race on the same course.

Now, I found it difficult to seat inside the office, knowing that my job is going to no way and all the deadlines are catching up. Seriously looking forward to weekend, which will be my long run days. Looking forward the 2 hours, with me alone meditate the situation I am stucked in now. If I still have no solutions for the problem after the 2 hours run, properly I need to run more or I will not going to have any.

I still belief life is full of opportunities and there is never ran out of choices. I will run into other venture, if there is really no way out from my works.

Good luck.

Bareno Run 2011 Race report

The event had been upgraded to a half marathon, so, I only took part on the sub-category – 10KM. The race starting time is kind of early 6:30am for the 10KM and 5:30am for the 21KM.

Heard that the event is full, so a big crowd is anticipated. I planned to arrive early to avoid parking issue. Wake up around 4:45am, and left the home on 5:15am, reach the Stadium around 5:35am. Change my shoes, use the toilet and warming up by jogging few rounds in the VVIP parking area (no car mah), and its time to move to the starting line.

The starting line is located at the back of the stadium; we are taking the inner road behind the Stadium Bukit Jalil to Stadium Putra then heading out to the Puchong-Technology park highway. The race flagged off on time (6:32am), although there are not gun/hon /siren to indicate the start, all runners just start when the people in front moved……

Many people in the 10k too, we had a slow and jammed start up. The crowd only eased when we finally reached the highway (about 1km mark). Then it was the usual running in the Sunday morning. I slowed down in both water stations for some water, to keep myself refreshed for the 9~10km/hr average speed. This is actually about my training pace, so I better keep myself from dehydration. When we complete the highway round and venture into the resident area, we joined the 21KM runners who started on 5:30am. Those runners are amazing and still running strong. I admire one day I will be the same strong runner like them.

Finally, after an hour of hard work, arrived at the finish line. Btw, there is a long queue on the F category??? Are we run too fast and those FTAAA officers can’t cope? Don’t have this problem on the CICM 10km back in Nov, guess that time I am very slow so the queue in finish line get cleared before I completed the race :P

Time: 1:04’25” (318^th)

Hopefully I can go below 1 hour on my next 10km (11km) in Energizer Night Race.

Bareno 10km preparation, Heels Striking and pain…

The raining session seem to have started now. Its rains in most of the evening, night and some time until dawn. This is affecting my training plan. I made a 155km total mileage in February (short months but I ran a lots), and I think I will be too tired for my Bareno 10KM if I keep pushing on. The rain gave me some reason to slow down, so in March, so far I only did 30km. And I only planned to add another 10km until my Sunday race.

On the other hand, I feel some persisted pain on my left knee. The pain started after I ran my first 15km on training back in 20 Feb. It’s vanished after the come Monday rest, but returned after my 14km run on Saturday. Could it be the cement trail at the playground? Or the mileage I am pushing thru? Or the supports underneath the shoes are dying as I had put 400+km on it? I didn’t know. This is the pain that slightly difference compares to my previous pain on my right inner knee, and overused syndrome and stretched the patella tendon. I browsed the internet for potential answers, and on the same time, I had my audio book version of “Born to Run” (Christopher McDougall). I start wondering if my pain is actually started from my running gait.

I am a big time heels striking runner, especially when I exhausted. I must be kicking too much on my heels when I am doing my 15km training. I have to agree that the cushioning in the running shoes is a big helps after a hard workout to exhaustion. By landing on the shoes’ cushion thoroughly, its feel really good when you push your entire heels into the cushioning. After the exhaustion point and the body turned into enduring mood, I have high tendency to repeat heavy steps and purposely landing on my heels to feel the push from the ground to continue moving forward.

http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2010/01/humans_that_had_to_escape.php

As I am aware of the potential mistake I made, I starting to work on my gait. On the last Saturday & Sunday, I ran with 80+% on my forefoot and covered about 17km. You need to belief it’s very difficult to use forefoot strike in NB1226. Every step you take, the heel is right between the ground and your forefoot. I feel like running by dipping my toes, and it’s put a blister on my left toe after the first 10km on the first day and some part of my body that never pain before due to running, started to ache (hamstring, lower back, gluteus & the usual calf is more painful then usual). Anyway, those pains soon gone after some rest. The second run was great; after the run, I don’t feel the pains like day 1. However, the knee pain is still persisted, but it does seem to getting better now.

Until today, the knee pain is getting better. I am not sure if the rest or the changing of gait playing a more significant role in this recovery. I will maintenance my rate, until the Bareno run on Sunday, and give it my best.

I got the poison too, from the book “Born to Run”. Exploring barefoot running and the minimalist running, but I guess I will still need a shoe to running with. VFF? Saucony Kinvara? Saucony Grid Type A4? Brooks Mach12? Nike Free Run? I don’t know. But one thing I am sure of, I have no money for any of them, not until April. I should park this problem some way, and focus on my coming race.

Until next time.

Running, so far…

After few months of running, I attended few races to push my moral on keep my training schedule.

1. Malakoff 7km, on 19/12/10

2. FTAAA Cross Country 8.2km, on 23/1/11

Both races are good experience to me.

The killing steep slop going up on to the National Science Center at Bukit Damansara, the after race walking towards Desa Sri Hartamas to get my car, the muddy sidewalk on Lebuhraya Mahameru after the “jungle tracking” and the peaceful run in Taman Tasik area. Although the race times are lousy, I am totally enjoying it. I may curse when I running on the course, but I am enjoying my move deep in my heart. The feeling of moving on, enduring the tiredness, catching up the short breath, and the paint of few days after the events, I guess I am addict to them now.

After the Cross Country run, I signed up my self for the half marathon, on coming KL Marathon (26/6/11). From the estimated finishing time (3hrs), you will know that I am not too sure I can manage the distant, but I will give it my best.

I started organized a training program. The program started with 30km per week (in Jan) to 50km per week (in May). So far, I am sticking into the program and ran 150+ km in Feb (30~45km per week). Its included 3 weekdays short run (5km) and LSD (Long Slow Distant, for endurance training) on Saturday and Sunday. I am also adding some cross training (resistant training) now starting March. From the research I made on the internet, the amount of training will give me sufficient preparation towards my 21km race in Jun.

Btw, talking about the LSD, I took part on the 13/2 PACM LSD. As usual, I am late to the starting (6:45am at Taman Tasik, still looking for parking). What I saw was the training is like a race event, many participants running on the side of Padang Merbok towards the bank negara. After I parked my car (of course on the road side, the parking lot is full), I quickly stretch a bit and start myself. There are few runners started late too, so I tagged along. As I am new to this event, I have no idea where are we heading to, what I know was kept running, else I will be abundance in the dark at some way around Bukit Tunku. Anyway, as I am slow runner and other who started late has a faster pace, I lost my way. I am not too sure whether I should cross the Jalan Duta towards Sri Hartamas, or there is some other passes compare to the highway with traffic.

I ventured into Bukit Tunku, referred twice on my Sports Tracker map (good to have something to tell your location), and I manage to ran into Mahameru and back to the familiar FTAAA cross country route. I ran alone, without a single sight on other runners, most of the time. This gave me some special feeling about running. I am still enjoyed, even I am lost. Running around an unfamiliar ground provided some extra dose of endorphin and I don’t feel exhausted at all. The total distant is actually more than what I ever ran before. I guess it’s good to add some variety to our running route. Before this, I thought some day I can run the whole 21/42km on my training day on the MPSJ track (which equal to 52 and 104 laps respectively). Now, I have problem to contain my foot on the track for 15~20 laps. It’s screamed to go out and run the side walk and the asphalt road. Thus, I started to round USJ5 and USJ11 area…

Until next time.