Race Report: Oren Sport Half Marathon

This is the 2nd half marathon I registered in 2015. The hazy weather lingering I was once decided DNS this race, but the thirst of adrenaline flipped my decision. Unlike the most of the race which usually held on weekend, this one is special as it tagged to the Malaysia Day, which is a Wednesday this year. Over the weekend, the API reading peaked at 180, then it dropping towards 100. Hence I decided I will run this race, if the API reading below 100 at 3am on the race morning. Came race day morning, I woke up at 3am, check the reading. 90! Straight a way I pack my running gear and drove to Klang town.

This was my 2nd time running a race in Klang, the first one was 2 years ago Run For It 7, which on the Klang Botanic Garden and Pandamaran side. This one is located in the center of Klang town. We ran past all the famous landmarks in Klang, via the Federal Highway of course. The race flagged off on time, 5:30am from the Stadium Padang. We ran past the Istana, then heading to Port Klang via Federal Highway. For the long battle of 7km of highway run, I kept a manageable pace at 5:15min/km. But I felt the needs to slow down after the U-turn. Nothing really bothers me at this point, only problem was the haze. It’s reduced my engine efficiency. My heart rate pushed up to 165-170BPM. I knew I will be able to sustain the pace until 21km, but the body will probably need lots of time to recover after that. Running in hazy weather is tough. I slowed down a bit to around 6min/km pace.

Finally we back in the town area 6km after the U-turn. The 10km runners joined us. The traffic control is ok, most of the major junctions was blocked by traffic police. We were directed to Taman Eng Ann, then back on the Federal Highway towards Bekerly roundabout to make the final U-turn. I decided to push again. My pace now back up to 5.5min/km and I was cruising back to the finish line. The route is over distance by 800m, hence I finished this race @ 2:02’44”. Still sub2 HM with an average pace of 5:35min/km. For all the HM finisher completed within 125min, we got the special souvenir of 125 years anniversary of the start of Local Authority for Klang Town back in 1890.

Overall, the race was well organized. The route is flat mostly, and it does bring you around the Klang town center. Good traffic control plus sufficient water station. Anyway, the air quality is the problem in Klang town. Not only the haze from the forest clearing activities in Sumantra Island, but the port itself with the sea traffic will generate lots of pollution. That’s why you always have Port Klang API reading higher than the rest of the Klang Valley. 

With the rain lately, the hazy situation seems to be under control now. Really hope it will subside in the next 2 weeks because I need to condition my body back in shape for SCKLM. There were hazy too last year SCKLM (around 60-70 API reading if I recall correctly). Hopefully we have a clear sky this year.

Race Report: River Jungle Marathon 2015

Signing up this race was an accident. I was looking for another marathon as replacement to SCKLM, as I cancelled my registration when it first planned to shift to 10 Oct. The cancellation was mainly due to unhappy with the last minutes of change for a major event like SCKLM. RJM was in the list because it had a new reversed route compared to 2011/2012 edition, and I missed the 2014 edition when this route was first in use. It will be good too, to return to this full marathon event, where I started my first full marathon 5 years ago.

Lately my marathon training hitting the wall, hence I didn’t have much plan for the race. Just ran at easy pace, enjoy the tough route and finish it before 5 hours. I got a 526 in 2013 RJM, so 5 hours will still be a nice personal improvement. Instead of pushing hard, maybe I just spent the time to reflect my current relationship with running.

I reached the race site around 4am, it was packed with cars and running. We had around 800 participants in this event. I didn’t expect to see so many people and car in RJM, lucky the starting line moved from the Chinese School to the Water Front Restaurant (same place as TITI100), else the parking itself will be a disaster. We were flagged off on time at 4:30am, we ran towards the city before turned towards the Batu18. We had some rain on Saturday hence the weather was perfect for a run. I just let the pace carry me along and it settled around 5.7min/km where I trained the most for the sub4 target. Can I hold to this pace until finish? Of course not. As we getting closer to the climb, the fog around the area was getting thicker. I was running alone around 17km (6:10am) and there was a light flashing from my back but I didn’t hear the running sound. I was too into my thoughts and also it overtook me quickly (I just took note of it for about 5minutes), it was kind of spooky when I recall the incident now. The light turned out to be from a lady riding a bicycle to support the race (maybe).

Hit the first big climb at 20km and I slowed down to 8min/km. The climb is actually quite short and I slowly regain the pace back to 6.5min/km range. I reached the u-turn point at 23km and durian was waiting. Still not dare to take the durian and I just continued the race. I still not very good in handling the descending, lost some speed and only keeping a slower pace for now. Very soon, I arrived at the 2nd big climb at Bukit Hantu. The memory from 2013 Titi50 still haunting me. It took me 1:36 from this point and not much improvement in this round; it still took 1:15 to clear this session. I am still very weak in descending. Finally, I completed my 17th full marathon with a time of 4:34’49”, with this under distance route of 40.9km.

Overall, this is still the best full marathon in Malaysia. Scenic route with challenging climbs with long cut off time (sweeper at 8 hours pace if I remembered correctly), there will be something for runners from all difference level. The finisher medal is very nicely designed too. Anyway, the only area to improve will be the under distance route. Please move the 23km u turn point to 23.7km, then the course will be measureable to 42.195km. It’s kind of ironic when the finisher medal and t-shirt are highlighting the 42.195km but the actual course itself is short in distance.

Race Report: Kuching Marathon 2015

This will be my 2nd full marathon in 2015 and the starting of the 4 marathons in 3 months kind of crazy ride. I have been barking too long for my sub4 and I won’t need to plan too much this round. I am going to set up my GF910XT visual partner to 5:36min/km pace. With the recent half marathon result, I am kind of confident that I am going to sub4 this time. Then the story turned sour.

I did 300km in July with the 3 to 4 times a week work commuting as part of the routine. Then early August I started some weight lifting training too. The body seem to have some trouble to fully recover from the double workouts a day, and the body muscles soreness from the weight lifting lasted longer than expected. I was obviously over trained. The body and mind struggled to keep up with the demand especially from the few double workouts routine. Even though I was looking forward to run in Kuching, but I was not ready to get the sub 4.

From my experience in Seoul, travelling to just run a marathon doesn’t work for me. This trip was booked before the Seoul marathon hence I just need to bear with it. I booked a guest house which is only 200m away from the starting line. Great guest house but poor marathoners stayed in the guest house. I don’t understand how people can stay up late (at least 11pm) on the Saturday night when they had a marathon to run 3am in Sunday morning. I hit the bed around 9pm, but waken by these noisy neighbour few times. Only got like 3 hours of broken sleeps before my alarm finally rang at 1:30am.

I walked to the starting line around 2:30am, met some running friends and joking a bit trying to ease my stress from the poor sleep. The event flagged off on time. I started off from the mid of the pack, then slowly picked up my pace to the target 5:36min/km. I was on the dot for this pace until 21km. Then I lost my push to maintain this pace. May be the long lonely stretch of road, may be the tiredness finally caught me, or may be…… finally, completed the race in 4:34’42”.

Overall the race is very well organized with sufficient water stations and manned with supporting volunteers. The route is flat and straight, it can be quite boring if you need external stimulus or attraction to assist in your race. The last 5km full marathon will join with half marathon, but no issue here because there are not many runners in both categories. Anyway, traffic control can be improved especially in the final stretch when we back in the town. The medal is really nice and the extra "top 200" finisher t-shirt is great too (just I didn't managed to get one).

On my end, I will need to rest until I am fully recovered from the exhaustion, then rework on my training plan if I seriously wanted to run to office few times a week. I will also adding in some weight lifting to build my core for next stage. I noticed that my mind doesn’t work very well to stay focused if I ran with my sun glasses. I think I gave up too early for all 3 races I ran with it. And I did well in Seremban half marathon where I actually forgot to bring the sun glasses. The sample size is too small to make any conclusion but maybe I need to give it up in RJM, run with normal glasses only.

Looking at current condition and the route, I will be very happy if I can sub 5 in RJM. 3 more weeks to go.

Race Report: Seremban Half Marathon 2015

After 2 years of working with my full marathon timing, I finally signed up a half marathon. I was looking forward to fulfill my sub-2 half marathon target which missed for many years. My PB for HM was 2:03’35” in GM Klang Run For It 2013. There are actually too many half marathons available nowadays, but I picked Seremban HM mainly due to it is a familiar route and small town event.

This is my 4th times running in this HM (3x official racing, 1x bandit run on own support). Most of the issue (pro & cons) remained unchanged, so I won’t elaborate here. Seremban town area had not much changes compare to my first visit 15 years ago. But if you going with the HM route, you can see the urban area was moving really fast. The numbers of cars were growing too. Lucky the people still, roughly follow the small town style. Traffic will usually slowing down when they approaching, and will wait patiently when stopped by traffic police while waiting for runners passing the busy junctions.

On the other hand, I think runners really need to improve our running etiquette. Most of the time I observed runners took up the middle of a lane without any reason. Some cross the road without considering his / her owned safety. If you are familiar with this HM, you will know that the traffic controls for most sessions on the route actually none exist. With the narrow kumpung style 1 lane trunk road, you really need to run at the road side and be careful with the traffic.

Back to my race report, the game plan was simple, run at 5.4min/km pace until finish line. Knew the route is under-distance by about 1km, this will give me a nice 150 HM PB. The race flag off on time, lots of people sped out from the start. I need to hold back to maintain at my target pace, from the starting line until we left the town center. At the long inclines up to AEON Big and McD at Forest Height, I started to overtake others. This basically continued for the rest of the race. I kept overtaking others, few on the flat, and many more on the 13/14km stiff incline where we finally turning back heading to town center. Pace maintained at 5.2-5.5min/km thru out the race. To certain extend, the consistence pace is a bit boring, but it paid off nicely towards the end. The pace was held back until 18th km, then after the final incline where we merged with the school boys and girls. I dropped the hammer and sped to the max, clocking 4:30min/km like how I did in my speed intervals. I finished as 58th, with 1:47’20”, a nice PB for my HM.

SHM 2015 Finisher Medal 

Need to work on my posing while running in front of the camera man. TQ Tey.

Turbo mode ON! TQ Allan.

This year the Royal Selangor pewters only for the top 10 position (or 20?) so I only got a cheaper version of limited medal. The field were extremely competitive and crowded too (650 participants in HM compared to 320 participants in 2014). The organizer should really start to address the traffic control issue if they wanted to grow the numbers. The finishing area support too was obviously overloaded by the growing numbers of participants. Overall, if you are looking for a short break from the usual KL / Selangor race, this is the best nearby alternative. Muar and Bidor are too far for a touch-and-go race.

9000KM of training mileage

Today I registered my 9005th kilometers ran into my running log. 5 years of running bring me lots of changes and I am glad that I am still keep going. Now I am using it as a transportation option to work. Daily commuting of 15km thru and fro and I planned to do this 3 to 4 times weekly. This removed some pressure to wake up 4am to login the required training mileage, but on the other hand add in pressure to restart the running momentum before the body fully recovered in the evening. So far, I completed this in past 4 weeks, logging in a decent 60+ km per week. The body seem like going to adapt to the new training approach, but I also observed some over-trained syndrome started to surface. Need to take extra caution to have more rest and stretching to avoid injury.

On the other hand, SCKLM / KSB issue caused me signed up to River Jungle Marathon in September. Now I had 4 full marathons in 3 months. If adding in the half marathon I signed up, I will be racing 4 FM plus 2 HM in the next 94 days. Seem like I am going to have a great time enjoying the rush in adrenaline in all these races, provided if I don’t injure myself. For sure, I won’t survive it I go all out in all 6 races. Some prioritization required here but I am obviously not really good in holding back. Let see how I survived these :) 

Gear Review: Merrell Bare Access 3 & Newton Distance 3

This is both old models. As I always do, I get it when the model almost obsoleted. The Bare Access 3 (BA3) was at 20% discount, not typical stock clearance price, but MYR240 for running shoes is very reasonable now. For Newton Distance 3 (ND3), I got it at around MYR350 (which is stock clearance price for Newton which usually start from MYR500++).

As the VFF built quality deteriorated, I am looking for some shoes to replace them. It’s a hard decision because I was running in Komodo Sport for the past 4 years, or 80% of my running career if you want to exaggerate a bit. I had a pair of Bare Access 1, which I had some problem to run in it when I first got it. But recently I think as my core and running gaits improved, I have no problem running in BA1. I even complete a 20km trail run and a 68km road ultra with it. This is the main reason I go back to Merrell, now BA3. For ND3, I really based on the comment from other running friends and also the discount. I don’t do the usual lengthy open box review. I will just descript shortly my experience in both.

For BA3, the fit is slightly narrow with hard insoles and nice durable Vibram outsoles. After my fair share of running, my feet actually expanded into size 9 (I usually wear US8, or Europe 41, before I start running). I found it a bit narrow in both toe box and the arch area, but not until the type of fitting that will create hot spots and blisters. So far the longest distance in 1 run is 19km. And I had completed few speed intervals with it at around 4:30min/km pace. My opinion, you can basically take it as racing flat shoes, with very durable outsoles. The shoes have great response on the speed and a solid built. I can clock lots of mileage in it without worry to get another replacement really soon. It should last for about 1500km, and I plan to ramp it up for marathon in Kuching and SCKLM.

For ND3, the fit is great with soft insoles and the special 5 lugs outsoles. The toes box is only typical D width, but the upper top used the soft material that doesn’t squeeze your toes together. The sizing is a bit weird and I took a US size 10. The 5 lugs outsoles needed some time to getting used to it, and I really enjoyed the running in it. My last running shoes with soft insoles was 4 years ago, you can imagine my feet have some great time running in pampering mood. The insoles absorbing part of the impact hence the response over the speed were poorer compared to BA3. But mind you when I said poorer response doesn’t means ND3 is a slow shoes. The popping from this shoe really worked wonder, and you are speeding without knowing it. Only problem is the 5 lugs system didn’t lasted very long if racing and toes off. This makes ND3 good racing shoes but durability really off. I only clocked around 100km in this pair of shoes, but some part on the EVA plastic on the lugs showing bad wear and tear. The ND3 only have the EVA plastic on the lugs section, the rest of the outsoles are constructed with the soft material which usually used in midsole, and these parts wear off even faster. Don’t think it will last until 500km, and probably the EVA lugs will finish before SCKLM. May be my running gaits and the speeding put lots of pressure to those lugs, but I can’t help cause it’s really difficult to slow down in ND3.

When I first started in these 2 pairs of shoes, BA3 is only for short distance and ND3 for longer distance. Now it slowly changed to BA3 for all distance plus speed works, and ND3 for easy run only. It may be more to my personal taste and preferences. I only have limited experiences on running shoes. When I ran more in shoes then I may have a more objective taste, or may be that never will be the case. Anyhow, running is very personal. Your take, your preference, your experience all played an importance role in how you perceived certain issue. Like my barefoot running journey.

If you follow my running journey, I seem to moving away from barefoot running? Nope, I still belief in barefoot running, but I corrected or adjusted my take on why I run barefoot. Barefoot running to me is more like a drill or a tool to correct my running gaits. Do I need to barefoot run in a whole marathon? I actually prefer not to do it. One may argue that if I can’t barefoot for a race, my PB is not my body really tuned to do, and one day the body will be overly stressed and injury is inevitable. I won’t argue that may be the case, actually if you run long enough without a balanced training intake involved cardio, core, muscles, skeleton/bone strength, and recovery (you can analogue this example with your diet), injury is really inevitable. Barefoot give some stimulus in both physically (the soles, the muscle and the sensitivity of our body response to the running) and emotionally (the feeling, if you ran barefoot before). Your current running capability is a summation of the above. The injury rate will skyrocket only if you pushed too far from it. My body had enough restriction to limit my speed, and I listen to them (do I?). Hence I just don’t need another limit switch to tell me to slow down.

Meanwhile, I will continue to have fun with my running shoes and looking forward the half marathon 3 weeks later.

Start of a New Racing Season

18 more weeks to my yearly highlight race SCKLM, and now is the best time to start another round of training cycle. The previous training cycle actually dragged much longer than 18 weeks and it’s kind of back to back so often I felt drained after each major event I trained for. This time, I took 2 weeks off (almost totally off) from running, and went for shopping instead.

I got myself a pair of Merrell Bare Access 3, and a pair of Newton Distance 3, with good discount. With the good experience from R68 in Bare Access, I decided to explore my shoes running options. As there are lesser channel nowadays to get VFF in Malaysia, plus the build quality is deteriorating, I need some other options.

Bare Access 3 like its previous version, was a minimalist shoes. But it’s not really that minimalist anymore in this version. It’s heavier and harder soles; narrower in both toe box and arch area; make it more like a racing flat compared to the usual barefoot running shoes.

Distance 3 on the other side, with lots more cushioning and softer soles, flexible toes box (it’s still consider narrow, but the upper layer actually quite flexible and you won’t felt your toes restricted inside), with the strange feeling to running on those 5x lugs system.

Both shoes providing great stimulation to difference part of my legs muscles and also the workouts. Together with the 2 VFF, I am rotating shoes on daily basis. This also helped by taken away some routine from the running. As I am now so used to VFF, I usually just ran. I don’t check my gait, my posture, my form usually. But now I will need to adjust myself in every workout. Not to the extent of changing my gait, posture or form every time, but at least I am going thru my running form check list again. Lower back straight, kept those feet land below my centre of gravity, body lean forward, head upright, kept a high cadences, etc.. But with all these shoes added into my arsenal, now my wife started to question me regarding the number of running shoes I had :P

I will still follow the Hanson Marathon Method 18 weeks advanced training program and SCKLM will be my target race. 2015 SCKLM will be using the same route like 2014, I will be able to estimate and plan better to face the challenge now. Hence I am moving up my goal to finish this marathon in 345. Btw, this year the SCKLM sold out in record pace, only 4 days and all categories were filled. 6500 participants will be running full marathon. As this year the starting pen will be go by estimated finishing time (just estimated, no proof required), I don’t expect to have any issue at the starting point. 

The key challenge like last year, located at 37km when we joining the half marathon participant for the last 5km. I hope my training will allow me to go faster than 345, than the human traffic should still be manageable. The peak actually around 345-415, the full marathoners speeding at 5:20-6:03min/km pace will be facing the half marathoners who will be finishing around 2.5-3 hours with the 7 to 8min/km pace. The 1-2 min/km pace difference is too big so we will be blocked. The water station will be packed. I will make sure I run with my bottle this year, and padded up my elbows!

There are some races lining up in these 18 weeks, total of 2x half marathons (Seremban & Malaysian Day), and 1x full marathon (Kuching). All these races had their own target now aligned to my 345 goal.

Let’s train hard and aim high!

Race Report: Route 68 Challenge

This is my 2nd ultra marathon that’s goes beyond the usual 42.195km, and I started the preparation of it with a really ambitious plan. The publish route indicated a 1900m elevation gain in total out from this 69km course (for comparison, Titi50 only 900m elevation gain in total out from 52km). In the end, I only completed this ultra with the similar speed like I did in Titi50 2014.

Around 20km, thank Tey for the photo.

Race attires,

Nike We Run KL 2010 T-shirt, 2XU compressed short, Injinji socks and Merrell Bare Access.

Rudy Project Argon Impact X2 sunglasses, running cap, Ultimate Direction SJ 2.0 vest with 1x 500ml Gatorade bottle (plus all mandatory kits).

Didn’t slept very well and woke up at 1am, so I decided to left for the race site earlier and arrived at the starting line around 4am. Got nothing much to do and just hang around looking at busy volunteers getting ready for the race. The weather was great, no rain on the night before but not very hot too. Did the final preparation and get myself ready for the race to start at 6am. And off we went!

I broke the total 69km into 4 sections (about 17km each). First quarter was 17km of incline and I planned for 2:15 to reach A3 check point at Genting Sempah. Then 17km of descending, I planned for 1:45 to reach the A7 check point at the u turn. Coming back will be similar cause it is an out and back course.

The first quarter of the race went well, in fact very well! The inclines were fun and adrenaline rushed; I reached A3 in 1:45! This should be the pace I used for descending, but now I did that in ascending the 17km! I was happy, but quietly took stock. The body seem to be doing just fine hence I only slowed down a bit after A3. Slowly but surely, the fatigue kicked in, I was struggle to kept a 6min pace after 30km. Then I finally arrived at A7 after 3:56 time lapsed. The incline after the u turn point was still gentle, so the body still pushed on with a 7-8min pace. At 38km I bonked totally.

Mostly run and walking from there onwards, tried really hard to keep the average pace around 8-10min. Finally, arrived back in A3 after 7:00 lapsed. Gave up running altogether and I decided to walk the balanced 17km back to finish line. It should take me less than 3 hours to complete this torture! I swore to myself that this would me my last ultra marathon. While descending to the A2 water station, one cyclist called out “3.2km until the next water station.” 

Suddenly, I felt angry! 

“I should have completed this by now!" 

"Why I can’t make it happen?" 

"How many more training required for me to achieve my goal?” 

While I hated myself for another failure, I slowly picked up my pace. Back to run walk routine and made sure that all my split time average maintained below 10min/km. Anyway, later the flame ran out of fuel and I reduced back to walking mostly after A1 water station. 5 more KM later and I completed this race in 9:47’58”. Overall position 67, with total of 26 competitors overtook me in the last quarter of the race.

Key learning from this race, pacing is top priority in ultra marathon. Likewise in marathon, the result will be 99% based on what you put into practice and training. Merely 1% of the result may be on luck. And to deliver according to what we practiced, we need to pace accordingly. I planned, I practiced/trained, but failed to pace. Btw, looking at the overall result for the rest of the participants, 8 hours finishing time is somehow too ambitious. If everything went well, mostly I will still finish by 8.5 to 9 hours only, but I will felt much better compare to the defeated sour taste left in my tongue now.

Another stumble block in this race was the coke and rather emptied stomach. I took a refill of coke near 25km A5 water station into my bottle. Most of the water stations didn’t serve much food (banana, orange and biscuit, only A5 had bread). I did bring along energy gel, but my plan was to fuel the run by real food. From A5 to A6 water station, when coke met with the rather emptied stomach, it caused gassy stomach condition which is damn painful to run with.

Overall, the race was well organized. Only my execution part failed to deliver. There were no chafing or blister in any part of the body (inclusive the feet, which were first time running in Bare Access for such a long distances and period), only both big toes nails are painful now. Probably due to too much of pulling from the new Injinji socks.

Will there be any more ultra marathon for me in future? I am not very sure now because the painful experience still fresh in memory. At least it won’t be any more for 2015. Now, I will take some time off from running. The next marathon training program will start in first week of June.

Keep running.

Training report: Training week 14, 15 & 16, MURA Challenge68 Route LSD

After the communication and arrangement with the house chores on Saturday, I totally dive into the heat training sessions. This week, I started the Saturday training only 10am. I spent 3 hours under the hot sun and the body was doing fine for the first 20km. After that auto defenced mode turned on and the body was heading to wherever the shades were. The racing attire was confirmed from this training. The NIKE We Run 2011 short sleeve t-shirt plus 2XU compressed short.

Week 14	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy 9.7km	Easy 4.3km
Tue	Strength 2x 5km	Strength 2x 5km	Shorter recovery
Wed	Rest	Rest
Thu	Tempo 14.5km	12.6km	11km in tempo pace
Fri	Easy 9.7km	5.1km
Sat	Easy 16.1km	27.5km	Started 10am,  heat
Sun	Easy 16.1km	22.1km	Hill training
Total Done		83km

Training week 15 started with an easy run. The strength training is getting tough too mainly due to the fatigue were yet recovered from the weekend training. Special agenda was arranged for Saturday as the Sunday Challenge 68 route LSD was postponed, I will be looping in the stadium at noon time for heat training! The ultra-lady Fujii planned to do some crazy 9 hours LSD for her coming 12 hours race, so I joined her for some fun in the UM track. Arrived the stadium around 12pm, but it was occupied by some other event. We only started around 2pm. First 5km I was sticking very hard to my 6min/km long run pace. But after that, I need to cool down in the toilet because the heart rate went above 165BPM. The heat was unbearable. I was probably thrown the white tower if I did this training alone. But now as there was someone else in the training, I had no choice but to continue. I was still managed the pace until 15km, until I ran into the wall. The stomach filled with too much of water/Gatorade and I can’t swallow any food. I was dried and emptied. I even struggled to run 1 complete lap of 400m track. Seriously I need to relook into my hydration strategy, in this kind of heat condition. Finally, 30km done and 4 hours gone, I called it a day. But the ultra-lady still continued strongly. She over took me around 18km and never looked back. Obviously I still need lots of training in order to embarking ultra-running.

Week 15	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy12. 9km	4.3km
Tue	Strength 3x 3.3km	Strength 3x 3.3km
Wed	Rest	Rest
Thu	Tempo 14.5km	10.6km	9km in tempo pace
Fri	Easy 11.3km	Rest
Sat	Easy 12.9km	30.1km	Started 2pm @ UM
Sun	Long 25.8km	13.6km	Easy pace
Total Done		72km

I was traveling on business in week 16. No running for the 5 days cause I was having some light fever. In fact the whole family was downed by fever and flu. Reached home on Friday night and still got some light fever (37degC) before my short workout. Lucky, the body temperature dropped to normal that evening. Decided I will still join the MURA LSD in Genting Sempah. 

The training run started around 5:45am and took the Challenge68 race route. It was 17km descending, then u turn and heading back to where we started. My game plan for the actual race was to cover this section in 4 hours. Hence I flied down the descending with 5.6min/km pace and completed the way out in 1:40. The main challenge came after the u turn, 17km incline. I was still go on with the planned pace until 11km ascending. Shifted gears to try out the run-walk strategy and I decided to call it a day after completed total of 30km. Saved the best part for the actual race day. Walked back to where we started, with a training of 904m elevation gain in the bag. Overall this part of the route is very fun to run. I am glad that I joined this rehearsal because I will not able to enjoy the scene come the actual race day.

Week 16	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy 9.7km	Rest	Sick
Tue	Strength 4x 2.5km	Rest	Sick
Wed	Rest	Rest	Sick
Thu	Tempo 16.1km	Rest	Sick
Fri	Easy 9.7km	Rest	Sick
Sat	Easy 16.1km	5.2km
Sun	Easy 16.1km	33.6km	MURA Route LSD
Total Done		39km

Now, with another 2 weeks to the race, I finalized my game plan. The 8 hours finishing time look realistic now and I am sure I will go out hard to get that.

Meanwhile, I also signed up another short race even, the Kuala Kangsar 15km run. This year, the date shifted to 29 November and heard some changes in the starting point too. But one thing not changed, the cheap registration fees, RM20 for 10km and 15km. With the finisher package are similar to a full marathon event, the cheap registration fees make it really attractive. This is one of the small town race that very well organized and highly recommended if you looking for something difference compared to the usual KL/Selangor races. Click on below link to register.

Play hard! Race hard!

Training report: Training week 12 & 13, Heat & Hills Training

With the ambitious to add in the evening run, I started week 12. But lately the evening rain ruined the plan. Also I made effort to spend time with the kids for them to pick up bicycle. So the evening run session now backed to the shelf. May be one day I will need it. The high light for the week was the first heat training. The Saturday long run completed between 8-11am. Been quite a while I didn’t run around under the 10am sun in Malaysia. Most of the races will finish by 8 to 9am. The body responded to the heat and I had to slow down to keep the core temperature low. I ran with the Nike 2011 Run t-shirt, compress short, cap and the sunglasses. Totally burned down by the heat and all I can do on Sunday was an easy 15km run.

Week 12	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy 9.7km	Easy 9.5km	2 sessions
Tue	Strength 4x 2.5km	Strength 2x 2.5km	Not enough time for 3rd repeat
Wed	Rest	Rest
Thu	Tempo 14.5km	12.5km	11km in tempo pace
Fri	Easy 9.7km	6.4km
Sat	Easy 16.1km	23km	Started 8:15am
Sun	Easy 16.1km	15km
Total Done		75km

Training week 13 started with a day off to give extra time for body to recover from Saturday’s heat training. Did the Strength repeats and tempo run without any issue (except for not enough time to complete the planned distances as usual). Come weekend, I forgot how badly the heat training can be, and started another session on Saturday. This time, I started after sending the kids to their art class, 9:40am. The run continued to 12:30pm. I was going with long run pace for the first half. After 10k I had to drop to 6.5min pace, subsequently walking after 18k. I wanted to give up, but managed to convince myself to stay under the hot sun, checked 19k, 20k, 21k then 22k. I walked most of these last sections. Very slow, but the training objective achieved. I used the blue long sleeve t shirt from Seoul Marathon. Felt too hot under the sun and too heavy when soaked with sweat. I preferred to run lighter.  

Week 13	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy12. 9km	Rest
Tue	Strength 3x 3.3km	Strength 3x 3.3km	Recovery cut short to 400m
Wed	Rest	Rest
Thu	Tempo 14.5km	11.8km	10km in tempo pace
Fri	Easy 11.3km	4.3km
Sat	Easy 12.9km	22.7km	Started 9:40am
Sun	Long 25.8km	22.2km	Triple Hills route
Total Done		73km

The body responded better to the heat this time. I still felt the heating impact on Sunday when I wanted to start the long run in triple hills route. I decided not to push, just took easy pace around 6.5min, and focus to concur the hills. The Petronas station at the Hartamas end reopened, but I didn’t plan for any replenishment. I ran with my 2x 500ml Gatorade bottles, one with water and the other 100Plus with chia seed. Had a great run and practiced some descending skill.

After this hills training, I think the Plan B for R68 is more realistic. I will find out myself on the MURA R68 route racee on 19 April (2nd part from Genting Sempah to Bentong hot spring). I was also doing few running sessions with the Bare Access to condition the legs to getting use to go with some shoes. I should be surviving with VFF, but after 20km they will be soaking with the sweat and very wet, causing potential blister issue. Bare Access on the other hand, very well ventilated, hopefully with the DryMax socks it will keep the feet dry.

Today the Osaka Marathon 2015 (25 Oct 2015, 3 weeks after SCKLM) opened for registration. I registered the marathon, but still not sure if I will actually joining. The entry will be selected with ballot system and announcement will be made on June. This is the 2nd largest marathon event in Japan (after Tokyo). With the Japanese currency weaken recently, running in Japan seem to be more affordable. May be this will be my first marathon in Japan if I was selected.

Meanwhile, 5 more weeks until the R68 challenge. There will be another set of back to back heat training plus hill training this weekend. Have fun!