Race Report: River Jungle Marathon 2013

3rd time running in this event and due to some landslides, we had a new route.

My attempt to sub 5 again failed but I really enjoyed this race.

Split times on the arm.

We flagged off with some firework from the school at 5am. It was quite pack when we leaving the small Bt18 village heading towards the T-junction. The pack only eases up after the first water station at 5km point. Its helps on my pace cause no way I can ran too fast at this stretch and I was only planned a 7:15 pace all the way to the peak at the 1st u-turn. The early morning weather was humid but cooling with light wind, and it was very dark for the first 10km. Finally, when you able to look out far, 11km passed and the T-junction greeted you with a 4km long steep incline all the way to the 1st u-turn point. I was happy to reach this point because my pace still very steady and I actually ran all the way up to the peak. Time checked when I reached the peak, 1’45” behind my plan, great! Let’s push harder now when going down hill! Obviously I underestimated the decline part. This stretch taxed me more that I anticipated and left me a black toe nail with very sore quads muscles. I can’t pushed up to my target pace, and the climb at 20km really beaten me flat.

The other issue I had was the upset stomach. I tried new energy bar before the race, taken the new gel around 14km, the stomach started to felt rumbling. Managed to hold up until 20km then doing my first release. It was ok for a while, when I passed the 22km fruits / water station, it started again. I walked a bit from the fruit station (didn’t take any of the fruit because I don’t want to challenge my stomach further), and I realized that I will again missed my sub 5 target. I walked about 2 minutes and finally able to regenerate enough strength to continue, but can only kept a slower pace cause the stomach rumbling again. After the 2nd u-turn, went straight to the porta-potty for 2nd release =.=

I corrected my mistake this time. On previous race, I usually walked quite a bit once I missed or gave up my target, and often felt regretted. This time, I did a better mental check and knew that I still have some chance to hit 5:15 but for sure I will sub 5.5. Hence I pushed again from 30km, until I really hit the wall at 36-37km (or may be it was just the sun came out…), then I plugged in the run-walk strategy (ran for 5 minutes and walked for 2 minutes). Until I reached the mark of 40km, I gave myself a longer walking break. Then I charged all the way to the finish line. Finished my 10th marathon by 5:26’45” (net time). I stayed back for another 2.5 hours to snap lots of runners returned to the finish line. Enjoyed lots of happy face :)

Overall,

Great things about this race,

1. Well organized marathon, improved with fruits station (when coconuts became a norm). Being part of the marathon series also gave additional excitement when we received the extra t-shirt. Great medals design!

2.  The detour or alternative route is even better! We were like a bunch of runners having a great party over the 42km! The 2 u-turns gave you lots of changes to cheers or being cheers by your fellow runners.

3. Safest parking. We parked into the police station!

Possible improvement,

1. Shuttle service from town. Parking will be an issue if the number of runners kept the same growth rate. Some of us parked along the roadside and may create some inconvenience to the local.

2. To have an official cut off time. The race without cut off time is not very healthy because we tend to draw some participants who run without training. To complete a full marathon with sufficient training itself already a challenging task, without training will only make the situation worse and increase the injury rate. I think if we wish to encourage more runners to take part in full marathon, may be we can set the cut off time to 8 hours.

This is a race that all runners can enjoy. Had very challenging route for seasonal runners and long / no cut off time to ease the stress for FMV. Scenery route for everyone to take a break from the traffic packed city races. I will sure return in 2014! Now, back to training plan to revisit my sub 5 target in SCKLM.

RJM Preparation

In less than 50 hours, I will be running my 10th marathon in Hulu Langat. Looking back on my training record, I should be ready to handle the distance, but the sub-5 target will still be questionable. And I am kind of nervous cause this is only the 4th race in 2013, my last race was Island Ocean Marathon in Langkawi (in April, official) and Seremban Half Marathon (in July, bandit). Anyway, as promise to myself, I will give my best and push to the end.

New Route

Elevation Profile

This year will be the 4th River Jungle Marathon, and its my 3rd times running in this race. Due to some road repair work, the race route will be diverted and we are now making the first U-turn only after 15km, and the scene Bukit Hantu 3km ascent plus 2km descent is skipped. I don’t know what to expect on this route, but looking at the elevation profile, my game plan will need to break into respective stretches.

It will be a slow start with 7:15 pace all the way to the first peak, I will then speeding down the descent and repeat that when the next ascent/descent hit. If everything according to plan, I will still have few minutes to spare. The key to achieve my sub-5 plan will be the last 12.5km. I will write this plan on my palm and try my best to stick to it during the race. We shall see.

I will also pack my TG-2 for this race. Hope to take some good pictures in this scenic route. And it will be useful tool to distract myself from focusing too much into my tiredness during the race.

Found this inspiring song, suit for my spirit to aiming for my sub-5 target.

See you guys at the starting line "today" :)

Running in English Garden

My current role come with some travel opportunities, one of it will be attending the training in Munich Germany. I will be visiting this beautiful city (and some small towns surrounding it) 4 times in 2013. The first 2 visits happen in January and May, which the weather is too cold in Jan, and too wet in May, for running. Third visit happened recently in early August, which is summer time in northern hemisphere. The best time to run! I ran every morning for a short 6-7k before the start of the class, and able to visit the famous English Garden on a Saturday morning LSD.

On that Saturday morning, I left Motel One Munich City OST around 6:30am to start my LSD. I can’t capture the whole map into my memory, so I stick with the main direction from the hotel to the English Garden. It was a nice cooling morning. After a nice warming up for about 1.5km and the statue “Angel of Peace” indicated that I stepped into the boundary of the English Garden. I also took the opportunity to practice my TG-2, but obviously still lots of room to improve.

Starting point

Angel of Peace

Map of English Garden Part I

Map of English Garden Part II

I didn’t manage to round the park (not even on its perimeters). I was in hurry after the time past 8am because I need to catch a flight on 12pm and with the 2 hours check-in time, and 50 minutes of train, I left not much time. On my way back, I took a “short-cut” after I pass the “Angel of Peace”. But after the 2nd turns, I was confused with the direction. Nothing looks familiar because the sun was shining now. The only comfort that I had was the Garmin, I will sure able to find my way back to starting point with the return to start point function! After few crossing few more junctions, finally I came across the familiar construction site I passed by earlier. Finally I reached the hotel around 8:30am.

Prince Regent Theater

Running dog.... faster than my LSD pace :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinesischer Turm

Overall a good experience and it will be even better if I am not in hurry. I will return to Munich in early October for another training session. It just happened that Munich Marathon is right after my training week and I signed up without any hesitation. The marathon finish line is set inside the Olympic Stadium that used in Munich Olympic 1972. Not many change to enjoy a finishing in an Olympic scaled location! For sure I will enjoy the once in a life time experience!

Roll Away ITBS

I got my ITBS previously just before my first marathon 2 years ago. I was setting it at bay by mainly stretching and strengthening. That was my left leg. Recently (may be not too recent though), I got my right hip pain, which again is part of the ITB or some say connecting muscles issue. The nagging pains on the outer hip can only temporary ease by the stretching. I think this arise from my long hours of standing in the training class, and long hours of sitting in the office (keeping the same muscles stressed post for long hours).

Also, this may caused by my running form. My right side of the body is less flexible. Which in the running context, I normally used my right leg to propel forward (cause it is more stable due to less flexible) hence it worked harder and I really can’t blame it for having problem :P

 

The picture took from a very good article posted by Andy. I will say the picture actually reflecting my problem. I rectified partially during my first encounter with ITBS, but clearly there are some more works undone. More effort needed to adjust my running form. But meanwhile, I must first taking care the ITBS. Stretching and the strengthening exercises do provide some relief, but the nagging pain will still come back. Then I venture into roller.

The foam roller selling in the market is expensive (range from MYR90~200). I got the idea from Paul Liong (a barefoot master) and TriStupe to make my own first PVC 3” pipe roller. Tried few weeks and its help, but the PVC pipe is too soft and it start to deform into oval shape (make rolling difficult). Then I look into difference material.

1. The gray color pipe is the said 3” PVC pipe.

2. The white color pipe is a 2” PU pipe.

3. The blue color pipe is a 1” ABS pipe.

4. Form roller – “Iron TheFitBar”.

The item 1 – 3 are plastic water pipes from hardware shop, which only cost me less than MYR10 (sand paper included to round the cutting edge). Both PU and ABS are harder than PVC, and more suitable to work as roller. But they are not very common material in the market and you will need to pre-order for anything bigger than the 2” PU or 1” ABS pipe. Rolling the big muscles group like ITB or hip with smaller diameter roller take more skill and adding more stress to already stressful life. Hence I start to look for a marketed “proper” foam roller. Btw, the 1” ABS pipe is actually perfect for calves’ muscles rolling.

I came across the TheFitBar brand in Athletes Circles during early June. They are selling at MYR125 with discount in conjunction of SCKLM. So I bring it home but I didn’t seriously roll on it until after my India trip last week. The poor road condition in Mumbai and overnight flight back home made the nagging pain to unbearable level. And I started to roll on the FitBar on daily basis (10 minutes per day). After a week, the nagging pain still lingering, but at least I felt its start to easy up and perhaps it will cured if I continue rolling on it. Compared the FitBar with the other plastic water pipes, the rolling is easier on the big diameter (6”) and the foam is light weight but as hard as the ABS material. You may able to find some similar PS foam from the art or stationary supplier, but those are low density and soft.

If you suffered with ITBS, apart from the stretching and strengthening exercise, I will recommend that you get a foam roller and roll those big muscles groups regularly. Do you need to spend MYR125 for a FitBar or other similar marketed foam roller? Nope, the smaller diameter pipes will still perform the task (but you need to adjust and lower down your body further for the rolling). On the other note, don’t go for those softly padded foam rollers, if you are hardcore runner that needs to deal with your tight muscles regularly, get the hard surface. Yes it will be more painful to roll on the hard one, but the impact is also better.

Happy Rolling!

Tempo Run

I changed my training plan to only doing tempo pace (about 6min/km) in the weekdays training and long run at target marathon pace over the weekend. 3 to 4 workouts per week and all other days will fill with cross training on bicycle.

I made this adjustment because I am looking for an effective training approach to achieve my 2013 target to sub-5 in a full marathon. My PB for full marathon is 5:11 in 2012 SCKLM. Back then, I am doing fine all the way to 30k and lost the push after that. I think my WALL will be still around that same place this year if I follow the same training plan.

First I looked into the First Program, but it needs lots of discipline and more time for training (compared to my laid back easy training mode). I would say the program’s tag line of “Run Less, Run Faster” is very attractive, but the true is the time you saved from running less, you are spending them in cross training and core building now. I am totally agreed to the approach, but I got a very busy schedule this year so I decided to KIV…

Then I ran into the Yasso 800s. I spent few weeks on this speed work program, but it hurt! I put the blame on my running form / gaits, and the weak core muscles. These muscles and form is getting very hard to control after the first 800m @ 5min/km pace. Although the speed work repeats do improved my running strength but I don’t foresee I can last until the 10th repeats (maximum I did was 4 repeats only, so far), without injured myself! On the hindsight, I can’t connect the speed work to my marathon pace. I found it hard to go with my target marathon pace of 7min/km on my long run. I will normally started too fast and when bonk half way. Again, another KIV…

Then I came across this sharing in FB. It gave me an idea on how to build my training plan, and spend the limited time I had for quality training. I visited the McMillan site and calculated my current pace versus target pace. After analyze the number, I think I found the root cause for the inability to keep up with target pace came from lacking of Stamina, and the solution: Tempo Run. Tempo run aimed to perform the workout at certain level of effort (prefer at the lactate threshold level, which is 80-90% of max hearth rate). Fast but under control pace. I can spend time to adjust my form / gaits from time to time and reduce the risk of getting injured by going too fast. The key is to mix up the short-normal-long tempo run. My current level, short will be something less than 5k, normal is between 5-10k and long is more than 10k, in the tempo zone.

I started to trim down my training plan by removing the easy run and speed work. I don’t need to run very fast for a sub-5 marathon, and my half marathon result showing that I am fast enough for the 7min/km target pace. I used the short tempo run as one to one replacement to easy run, and normal length of tempo run for speed work. Ideally in 3 workouts weeks, I should do 1x short, 1x normal & 1x long run. In 4 workouts weeks, I should do 1x short, 1x normal, 1x long tempo and 1x long run. But I got limited time in the morning so it’s extremely challenging to perform a long tempo during weekday (so far I only got once).

Now I followed the new plan for about 3 months and I think I am doing the right thing. One significant improvement is on my ability to hold on to 7min target pace during my long runs. Will continue to following this home made training plan. The result in the next Marathon will tell.

Happy training!

Race Report: Seremban Half Marathon

I got no plan to run this year Seremban Half Marathon. It’s only because of the postponement of SCKLM, and I am starving for some race, I decided to join. This is my second bandit in a race. The registration actually extended to 5 July and I still able to register online, but the draw back is the race kit collection. I will need to drive 2 hours to just collect my kit from Seremban on 6 July. I am ok to drive that far for a race morning, but not for just race kit collection. Hence I decided to just bandit in this race.

Seriously lack of mileages due to laziness and work, I knew this will be just a race in training mood. Target pace will be the marathon pace @ 7 minutes and should complete the run in about 2:20~2:30 hours. Arrived in Seremban town 6:10am, decided to park the car at the pay parking area near by the padang and next to some budget hotels. Went straight to the starting line and surprisingly seem to be more participants this year. May be all runners are starving to put their training in to test due to the postponement of the SCKLM.

Flag off on time, and we will do the same route like the previous year. I felt lacking of traffic control since the first km. Few cars trapped at the traffic light in front of Seremban Parade when we flagged off. They are allowed to go by the traffic police even before all HM runners cleared that stretch. I thought that was just one off coordinating issue...  As usual, Seremban HM route give you a difference feeling compared to the usual city races we had. We covered mostly sub-urban area and kumpung area. As usual, we ran on the road side which most of them had zero traffic control. But I felt the traffic was heavier now compared to previous years. The situation getting worst at the last 3km, the road get narrower and after that, we emerged with the school children from 10k category. Runners forced to share the 2 lanes climbing roads with lots of walking students, motorcycles, cars and buses.

The support in term of refreshment is good though. Gatorade and sponges was aplenty. But may be next time can use paper cups instate of PS cups. Also observed serving of half bottle of mineral water in the water stations near the D-tag check point. Perhaps they ran out of cups, I think the half bottle is fine, but just wonder what happened to the other half of the bottle :P   As I bandit to the race, I ran with 2x 500ml Gatorade (500ml water plus 500ml Quiet Storm). It proven the 1l of fluid is enough for me to survive the 21km. The only problem is my right arm’s muscle was not used to the water bottle, it sore until now.

Around 11km, thanks Zaini for the nice photo

This was the 3rd times I ran this route, the easy pace game plan is gone after 8k in the race. Felt great and decided to play harder! Pace increased to 6:30~6:45, also the hearth rate went up to 160BPM. Body was doing fine and holding the pace all the way until finish. This is a short distance course of 20.3km and finished on 2:18’. I loved the herbal tea that the organizer served in last 2 years at the finish line, but this year they changed it with some diluted grape favorite solution and no more Gatorade at the finish line too! Another minus point is the same finisher medal, again! In conclusion, tentatively (learned from previous experience, you will never know) I will not return next year. If I need another half marathon, I will join Bidor next year.

As SCKLM postponed, my 10th Full Marathon will be the same River Jungle Marathon that I did as my 1st ever Full Marathon 2 years ago! And it will mark the 3rd running year in my life. 55 more days to go and I am aiming for a sub-5 full marathon this round :)

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.