Quick Update

I have to admit that I lost my driving force or motivation to updating my blog. May be I am too busy in my work and traveling. Or may be the election result hit me really hard. Or may be just plain lazy. Anyway, this is just a quick update about how myself doing lately.

I was busy at work since April. Knowing very well that this will be an extremely busy year for me, I only signed up a handful of races. Attending trainings, conducting trainings and catching projects deadlines will be the main focus of the year. The sub-5 marathon target only comes after these, but I think I enjoyed doing them so far. Conducted 6 trainings (varies length from half a day to 4 days in a roll), attended 2 weeks of training and completed 1 project so far. From the plan I had, I am more or less at the mid way point now, just another 7 more trainings to conduct, 2 more trainings to attend, and 2 more projects to seal. All these will done by October, and after that, I can realign the focus to running again :P

I got myself a new training partner – a hybrid bike. Very basic unit and don’t cost me an arm or a leg (~RM750, whole set with helmet, carrier, mudguard, lighting and speedometer). I think I am working very fine with it now. Cycling become my cross training activity and I think it helped to build other supporting muscles that not functioning or trained in running. I also changed my training plan. No more easy run at training, all my weekdays run is now short (4k) / normal (7k) / long (>10k) tempo run with hearth rate at 150~165BPM. Saturday / Sunday will be my long run of at least 20km at easy pace. I started to felt the impact of the new training plan. I am now able to sustain at 6 minutes pace for longer than 10k without stretching into 160BPM range. But the down side of the story is I get quite tired in the weekdays after those normal or long tempo runs :)

 

Not really working on my barefoot now because I am not able to afford any down time in training. Got myself another toy (Xerox Shoes or Invisible Shoes), still need some adjustment on the laces to avoid some potential hot spots. Will stick to my VFF for may be another year or 2.

I did my LSD in Putrajaya and bandit in the Mizuno Run last Sunday. Planned to do a 30k but was first time doing LSD here and it take me some time to find a secured parking lot in the wee hours (4:45am). Only enough time to finish 14k, and start tailing the race pack all the way from behind as the race started 20 minutes earlier. As I am just another normal-middle-pack runner, not many chances for me to passing so many runners, it was a good experience for me. Unfortunately, I puncit after 9km into the race. The flyover after the 9k water station gave perfect reason for me to start walking. Then the rest of the race is mainly walk-run-walk-run repeats. Met with fellow Ipoh mari-barefooter Lee CW around 10k mark. As my VFF is totally wet, I took it out and barefooting for a while. Not really a clever move, my soles were soften by sweat and no seasoned enough to handle the rough surface. It forced me to stop, clean up my soles and put on my VFF just after the bridge heading back to Precint3. Again walk-run-walk repeats, until the last turn into finish line and I stopped at the parking lot. Clocked only 29km for that day, but I walked so much and clearly I was not in the condition to push for another km. Hopefully this Saturday can challenge the 30km again nearby my home ground.

Another 2.5 weeks to SCKLM, I am not too sure if I am ready to sub-5 in this marathon. I think I trained to my best effort, but the problem is my working schedule and the mental preparation. To me, doing >30km in training will prepare you both physically and mentally. Is all about the mind after you hit the wall :)

Good luck in your training and stay healthy for the rest of the 18 days. See you guys at the SCKLM starting line.