Race Report: Pacemakers 8th Anniversary Relay Run Series 1

This is my first relay event. Thanks for KY who brought us together from Dailymile to take part in this event. The event organized by Pacemaker in conjunction to celebrate their 8th anniversary. This is the series 1 which flagged off in Tapak A at KL Lake Garden, with the distance of 3.2km per leg. Four of us (Lina, Nick & CK, KY last minute pulled out due to injury) will run the same distances and same route, which inclusive rounding the lake for 2km, and then climb up many stairs before continue for the balanced 1+km.

Team photo before the race

About 1.5km rounded the lake, before the dreadful stairs

Final km, after the dreadful stairs

Happy faces team photo, after the completion

This is a high speed event, so I put in some speed repeats for the last 2 weeks workouts. It’s turned out the effort well paid off. I ran the fastest 3km in my life with the 4:38 & 4:54 minutes pace for the first 2km. Running in 2nd leg after Lina. Like most of the participants, I sprinted to my limit for the first 2k until the stairs, and then walked up those stairs. Finished my leg with 16’30”, and the team finished in a total time of 1:08’53” for the 4x 3.2km, placed 44 out of the total 80 teams. Happy with the result and glad that we will not going for the series 2 eventhough we will missed the medal in Autobat design (the organizer claimed that is a much challenging route compared to series 1).

An overview of the stairs on the 2nd km of the route

Finisher Medal - Decepticons

The relay was really fun and we can go all out for sprinting as the distances are short. The other great experience is cheering and being cheer by the team members and others. Many photographers were supporting this event. The FB wall is flooded with photos from this event. The above photos taken by varies supporters from FB.

Now is about time to restart my training plan for the sub-5 marathon goal, a nice 16 training weeks from the APBIM. But life won’t the free from obstacles and went smoothly. My works and family demanding more time at this moment, and the hazel just returned to KL. Lots of adjustment needed to fulfill my goal, but all these obstacles will only make the final result taste better. I will return to my first marathon race, RJM for its 2012 edition on 9/9/12. Looking at the elevation at Bukit Hantu, I will be happy if I complete this marathon within 5.5~6 hours.

Happy Running!

Races Report: Men’s Health Night Run and Seremban Half Marathon

Often we saw some hardcore runners doing back to back races, some even packed in Full Marathon in the combination. I though it will be fun if I can try it out. Further more, it is July and there will be no race during the fasting month. We raced like a bear that preparing itself with food before the hibernation in winter :p  I took part in both races 2011 editions.

Men’s Health 2012 took a difference route, but it is still rounding the similar Putrajaya Night Marathon route. Missed the limited medal last year, but as this year there are 500 units allocated for Men-Open category, so I am not worry at all. Game plan, hang in the race and flow with the crowds’ pace at about 6 minutes, conserve my energy for the big game next day. Seremban HM is the same challenging route like last year. Limited medal too, but I am not very worry to miss that cause as usual it will be not many runners running in this event as there are lots of other races in Klang Valley. Game plan, trying my best to sub-2.

Yes I planned big for these two races, but there are some variance came into picture later. I got an urgent training assignment to Pakistan, and need to travel until 14 July morning. My coughing and phlegm conditions are still moderate, yet to fully recover from the flu I got since end May. This means I will have very minimum training before both races and will run in sub-optimum conditions. When I touched down in KLIA on Saturday 11am, I felt to DNS both races. But I got some sleep in the afternoon and decided to follow the plan for the night.

Reached the starting line around 6:40pm, still had lots of time until the flag off. Met Nick with his new handsome running shoes (GoRun Ride), and then just did my routine warm up until the starting pen open. As I had no intention to push for speed, just took a place about 30+ m from the line. Lots of people tried to get closer to the line, but obviously some of them are none runners. Started in the few meters closer to the starting line but walked from the first few km on the race? I find it hard to understand the logic behind this move, but that is usually happened when the race is too commercialized. You will found more of these people in coming Adidas KOTR or Nike WeRun.

After few races last year in Putrajaya, I become very familiar with the route. We headed out to PICC, then turn into the dreaded final stretch of the Putrajaya Night Marathon (30km onwards). If you kept your eye on the asphalt, you will notice some distances marking. Btw, the route is very quiet this year. I am actually looking forward to be cheered by those cheerleaders like last year or any other races done by Twenty-first Century. Further more, I maintained a very boring 6 minutes pace all the way from the start. I start to felt bored after the hilly part of the route at the final 2km. Saw GusGhani running in Barefoot, have a quit chat with him on the BF experience, and I started to cheering the walking people around me. It is a great experience! But I think I annoyed some of them :P   Charged to the finish line after the last turn. Finished the race at 1:11’48”, got my limited medal.

 

Didn’t stayed long, I left the venue once collected my goody and cool down. Straight to the bed after cleaning up myself. But heck, the adrenaline still active, I can’t sleep very well and the alarm clock sounded as it was already 4am. Left home around 4:50am and reached Seremban around 5:40am. Got another book from Melvin before the flag off on 6:30am. It started to drizzling around 6am and we had a wet flag off. Eventhough the weather is superb for running, but I knew very well that I will not able to achieve my sub-2 HM. The body felt refreshed by the drizzling, but its’ still tired from the flight and the 12km earlier. Tried hard to start and maintaining a 6 minutes pace, but hit by the climb right in front of the Seremban Carrefour and the pace start to drop to 7 minutes. Decided to run this as another LSD at 7 minutes pace. Used the same trick last night and start to “encourage” (i.e. disturbing) other runners who started to walk. Btw, I was started to run-walk-run strategy from about 16km. Caught by Melvin after about 1km run-walking, got my new energy source via chatting with him and avoiding the school boys & girls. Completed the race at 2:21’48”, got the limited medal too.

There are lots of race reports talking about the pro and cons about these two races, I will not repeat them here. I will only focus on my key learning,

1. It is not fun (at least not now) to do back to back races. May be this is due to my lack of training, other commitments or the total distances (covered 33km in total). At my current condition, I am obviously not ready for this.

2. Game plan is great to ensure a comfortable race and achieving the preset goal. But the execution power is also importance. I had a relatively easy and enjoyable race in Saturday night, but struggle on Sunday morning as there is nothing left in the tank to execute the plan.

3. Talking to others and cheering others up in the race is very enjoyable experience, and it’s helped to divert the stress (and sometime focus) from the race.

After 2 days off from running, I restarted my training this morning. There will be another race next Sunday (4x3.2km Relay @ PAR8), then we will break for Fasting month and Hari Raya. And the rest of the year will be focused to the sub-5 Marathon target.

Gambateh!

Coffee anyone?

I started as a coffee drinker around Form 3 or 4, which is about 16 years old. It started from the good image projected from those movies, novels and readings. Didn’t really like it in the first place, but as it does help to kept me awake until late night and the Chinese radio station just started to have 24 hours broadcasting and it play great songs during midnight. I would woke up all night long just listen to those songs, and the side effect is my academy result improved  :P

The same coffee mud used for 20 years.

Eventhough I am with coffee for about 20 years but I am not the choosy type of coffee drinker. I only take 3-in-1 mostly, and whatever available from the coffee venting machine in office. When the Nescafe White Coffee first introduced to our office venting machine, I was happy to have an extra verity on top of the common 3-in-1. Everyday, I took 1 cup 3-in-1 early in the morning before any activity (even before the routine running). The 2nd cup will served upon reaching the office and the 3rd cup will be after lunch. These are the minimum volume of coffee intake in a regular working day. The addiction went up together with the workload and stress factor. I could take up to 5~6 cups of white coffee in the office in a single day. On a weekend, I only take 1 cup 3-in-1 in the morning.

As I started running, the weight dropped from 80kg to 70kg, but it’s stayed at 70kg for really long time since October 2011. I though it is due to over-feasting during holiday and CNY, but that proven not to be the reason after few month. Then I tried to cut back the lunch portion, but that only reduce the weight 69kg. I really seat down and look thru my diet. I got no control over dinner (promised to take & clear anything that cook by wife, no choice), so I look into the snacks, lunch & breakfast. Then I come across this article. A point made about black coffee, led me to have search on the energy contained on my drinks.

Nescafe 3-in-1 Regular

The early morning 3-in-1 give 86kCal and each of the White Coffee throughout the day give 144kCal each, so my daily minimum energy from coffee alone is 374kCal (for comparison propose, energy from McChicken is 398kCal, or typical 5km routine run for me take about 350kCal). Looking at my normal coffee drinking rate, I will normally take in 400~600kCal in a normal working weekday. That’s actually explained the reason why I am losing 1~2kg for the week I stayed at home taking care my children in early June. I need the caffeine but not the energy. I need to do something about the coffee. I slowly let the 3-in-1 stock at home depleted without replenishment. Brought some stock for the Nescafe powder, and only take black coffee from the office’s venting machine. The black coffee will only give 2kCal per cup and I can feast them until I overdosed with caffeine.

I start to observe my weight reading dropping in June and it moving between 66~68kg now. There are two things I did differently in June compare to norm, I fell sick for almost the whole month and I cut back the coffee. My training mileage is at the 12 months low but I still lost some weights. You may comment that I lost weight because of the sickness and you may actually right. As I had no control over the sickness, I will stick with what I can control to enjoy a more sustainable weight loss. Need to nail it down at below 65kg to achieve my target BMI of 24.

BMI reference

Race Report: Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2012

This is one of the biggest running event in Malaysia, and also a highly anticipated event by lots KL runners because this is our home ground, as its route will cover part of the weekly BA-Sri Hartamas route along Bukit Tunku. I registered to this event almost immediately after the registration open. I was doing my first half marathon last year and this year got myself upgraded to a Full one :)  I was worried as the hazy condition lingering around West Malaysia on the week before, but lucky it started to rain when we get closer to the event. As per my previous post, my condition and trained mileages doesn’t really grant me to improve my run, but I will still going to try out the sub-5 target here. The game plan is straight forward, but the execution may be a challenge.

Nice Bib number.

Woke up 2am on Sunday morning, gave myself amble of time to prepare myself. Leave home on 3am and arrived at Bukit Aman on 3:20am, the car park lots were full. I parked at the side lane and enjoy my breakfast. Still got some slight blocked nose, but I think it will clear once I started warm up. Get myself ready, and start walking to Dataran around 3:45am. I wished to collect the Run for Bersih bib from Julie, but she is not at the Church as planned, so I run without the special bib :(   Met Nick and had a short chat when I walked around to find a spot for my light warm up, he looked quite comfortable + confident on his first FM (and he did it in 5:20, which is a very good timing for first FM). Met my ex-boss who get me into running, he is doing his first FM too, wished him luck and we are almost ready for flag off.

I am in the middle pack inside the starting pen and it’s crowded. If you used to run FM in Malaysia, you will properly know that usually we have few hundred or one thousand plus runners only. We had 3000+ runners in FM this morning, this one sure is the biggest running event in Malaysia and more people seem to start running in FM now. Flag off on 4:30am, I only crossed the line about 2 minutes after the official gun time. The crowd only starts to ease when we reached the National Museum. The pacers start to working on their pace and moving fast from the back of the pack. Met and had a quick chat with Tan before we turned in to Brickfield. The 5HR pacers are almost out of sight. So I pushed on to chase them, Plan A, stick like a superglue to these 5HR pacers.

Rain started to drizzle on and off when I reached MidValley. Strong wind blew away our heat and created the most comfortable weather to run with. No much comment about the route as we are emerging back to the HM route very soon, and most of the time I didn’t manage to enjoy the scene of early KL city, I am busy chasing these pacers. Both legs and the foot soles were doing fine initially but the right sole start to form hotspot around the toes area after 26km, and I had no choice but to slow down and let the pacers go on the 30km water station.

Met Nick again on the 34km water station, both of us are now taking up plan B which is running from water station to water station. We paced for a while and I pushed on towards the Duta Roundabout, and back to our familiar playground – Bukit Tunku. Passed the water station @ 36km and both Choi & Kak June’s aid stations without taking any supply cause the stomach had just too many water/isotonic. Then we met the worst climb on this route, I walked. Plan B continued until Bank Negara. I brisk-walked from that stretch until the u-turn point, and gave the final push to run until the finish line. Crossed the line on 5:11’31” with a big happy smile on my face.

Post Marathon, the tired feet in VFF accompanied by the finishing medal

Split time, getting slower towards the end

Eventhough I didn’t achieved my sub-5 target, but looking at my condition, I sliced 31 minutes from my previous PB from SCMS. I couldn’t ask for more, at least not in this race. I am surprised that I am running with very comfortable and consistence pace and heart rate, both stayed at 6:40-7:10 pace and 150~158BPM all the way to 29km. Must be the effect from those speed works! But obviously I still need more LSD between 30~40km to let the body (especially those foot inside the VFF) used to the demand.

 

Good about the event,

1. More than sufficient water stations, distances markers on every km.

2. Challenging route especially on the final 5k.

3. Staging starting time for 10k category.
4. Very nice finisher T-shirt.

Things can be better,

1. Traffic control, especially on the intersection on Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Ipoh. Obviously not enough polices/officers to handle the traffic, drivers keep jumping out.

2. Road surface, especially on the Jalan Ipoh and Jalan Kuching. Suggest the organizers to survey the road condition and carry out the required patching a week before the race.

3. Final stretch on Jalan TAR. There are lots of runners/walkers from 5k, 10k and HM, joined us at this stretch. No issue on the runners, but we forced to zigzag to avoiding those walkers. Some supporters also obstructing the flow, some of them are standing on the route but not the sidewalk. May be we can use some barricade here to separate 5k & 10k and  HM & FM runners, with barricade on the side to improve the flow.

You can see I am very happy with my result :P

After the race, met with Tan again and congratulated him on achieving his target time. Also met with Melvin to collect 2 books from him, “Chi Marathon” and “Run Less, Run Faster”. Believe both will help to improve my training and marathon time.

No time to relax for now, I will be doing 3 races in July. With back-to-back Men Health’s Night Run and Seremban Half Marathon, plus PaceMakers Anniversary relay, I not only need to focus on Speed, but I will need to improve my Endurance. Men Health’s Night Run is revenge from last year where I finished 18th place before the limited medal, but as they increase the limited medal to 500 for Men-Open, I think I will be entitled one if I go with 6 minutes pace for the whole 11.8km. Tentatively Seremban Half Marathon will be my last change to secure my goal of completing and sub-2 half marathon in this year, sure I will throw in all I had on that race. For the PM Anniversary relay, each of us only needed to complete 3.14km, another speed event that I never experienced before. If all the plan and training when well, I will try to do it with a 5 minutes pace.

Run Happy!

Preparation for SCKLM

This will be my first Full Marathon in KL city, also my 5th Marathon. Last year I did my first half marathon in the 2011 SCKLM, the experience running around KL city is definitely something you can’t find from other races. Compare to SCMS, this event is less crowded, and you are really traveled 75% of the KL city on foot by the FM route. I signed up for FM almost immediately when the registration is opened. And I planned to challenge a sub-5 FM in this event. That’s target stayed unchanged so far, but I am not too sure if I manage to handle it now.

Like what I wrote before, I followed the SmartCoach training plan from RunnersWorld. But I can’t follow thru, the plan went out the window right after PJ Dawn. And the training mileages decreased drastically after March. May be due to family commitment, workload or just plain over-trained, I felt tired after pushed over 220km in March. And I slow down when I supposed to push harder in April & May. Further more, I was sick for the pass few weeks and body is yet to recovered fully from it. From the result in ENR2012, tentatively I will not sub-5 in SCKLM. The body is yet to back in condition after the long 2 weeks break from running. Anyway, the tuning of the body these few days went well. There will be another 2 runs for this purpose before I rest for tapering.

So what is the game plan? Plan A is simple. There will be pacers in this race. So I will stick with the 5 hours pacers and stay on the course as long as possible. Is it weird that I need a pacer when I run with GF910XT? Nope, running alongside with some one will definitely give you the push factor to out perform yourself. Even if the pacer run with difference strategy that may ruin your own pace, but you will still benefit by knowing that someone is aiming on the similar finishing time with you, and he/she is still insight :P  I plan to run at consistence 7 minutes pace from start till end. Hopefully one of the 5 hours pacers is using the similar strategy. Plan B? Whenever I ran out of fuel, I will fall back to the 5:30hours pacers.

It may be utterly optimistic for me to hope for a BP in my current condition, but if you are not trying, you will never know. I think I didn’t push enough in my passed marathons, and the dominant factor is all about the mind. My best is yet to happen as I am not really wanted it. This round, all I need to do is totally commit myself to the target, and the rest will follow.

Btw, some runners initiated a side track on Facebook. I will run with this special bib on my back. Click the link to find out more.

See you this Sunday 24 June, in Dataran Merdeka.

Path to running a Marathon with VibramFiveFingers

Many people running with VFF or barefoot, all with difference types of reasons. Some said it helps to prevent injuries; some belief that BF or VFF allow a better biomechanical form in running. Some like it simple, and some may even think this is hot and sexy by doing something out of ordinary.

My reason of running in VFF/BF is because it is simple. There are no/minimum barrier between you and the road surface make you felt that all your senses are activated and you are running as a WHOLE person. There are so many disturbances on our daily life, most of the time we do thing half-heartedly but hoping for the best. Running is one of the activities that you can throw in the whole of YOU and working towards your personal best. Running in VFF or BF put it to an extreme (try day-dreaming via running in VFF/BF, and then you will understand this). And this feeling is very addictive.

I am with my KomodoSport for 10 months now. I lost track on how far it goes, but guess it should be only >500km. Due to my lazy feet, the outsole is in bad condition. Both legs have similar problem but the left leg is slightly better. Other parts are still in good condition.

How to start running in VFF?

Start with walking in it first. I used it as shopping shoes for 2 weeks before I start running with it. There are not guidelines for how long you needed in this stage. Take your time to enjoy the walking in VFF until you are comfortable with it. You should not attempt your normal mileages right away, build you mileages in VFF with the usual practice you had with normal shoes. Start with short distances of 20~30minutes. Slowly increase in weekly basis and stop pushing further when you encounter pain especially in knees, heels or ankles.

Running in VFF or BF is all about landing on your mid-forefoot. So, if you are a forefeet striker, tentatively your calf muscles are more ready then other to adopt the additional load from its barefoot liked running style. If you are heel striker, then you need more time. While adapting to VFF via walking, you can also train up your calf muscles by hill works. Focus on your landing and make effort to land on mid foot on each step. This can be done relatively easy in slow pace, try it with 1~2 minutes on top of your normal marathon pace (or 9~10min/km). Shorten you strides, but fire them rapidly. Your cadences should be faster than 170~180spm. The fast churning will not only help to regulate the breathing, it also prevented you to overstrike.

How far and how soon you are ready for a Marathon? Its all depend on how flexible and adoptable your feet are. Some runners took years just to moving from heel striking to mid foot landing, some just took a few weeks to adjust. You will need to listen to your body to avoid TMTS (too much too soon). When should you start running Marathon in VFF? I would suggest you to consider that only after you done a 32km LSD in VFF without feeling abnormal amount of pain especially in your calves and soles. It will be definitely a painful experience to run 32km or a Marathon, the judgment I made is at least your calves and soles are ready to take the pain.

Retiring VFF KomodoSport

New VFF KomodoSport

New VFF KomodoSport Black & Silver Color Scheme

I completed my first VFF Marathon in ENR2012. I got my second pair of VFF KomodoSport (Black and Silver color scheme, I still prefer the previous Yellow color scheme) and the New Balance MR00. I will be on full time minimalist running shoes. Next race is to challenge the sub-5 Marathon in SCKLM with VFF. Not too confident I can do it, but I will try.

New Balance MR00

PJ Dawn 2012 Race Report

This is another half marathon starting at 3am. My first HM started at this difficult hour is the last Penang Bridge International Marathon. But this time, I don’t need to travel so far and stayed in a noisy hostel. The pre-race preparation went well. The whole family went to bed around 8:30pm (I don’t know about the rest, but I collapsed around that time once light out). Wake up about 1am and felt fresh and excited, and the coughing and blocked nose seem to at ease.

Left home around 1:45am, drove to Kelana Jaya Stadium but the organizer blocked off the entrance of Old Airport Road from Federal Highway. I guess that is a good sign as they are putting some effort on the traffic control (but it can be hard to others whom less familiar with the other access ways to the stadium). Reached the parking around 2:20am. Done some usual stretching, warming up, and then standing in the starting pan wait for the flag off. Met my colleague who took part in 12km. Took some photos.

Race flagged off few minutes before 3am, I think this is the first race that flagged off before the planned time. Usual start off jam only cleared until we reached the Old Airport Road. I stay with my 5.5~6 minutes target pace all the way until we turned into the Ara Damansara after 9km, and then drop the pace to 6.2 minutes. The initial part of the race is very hot without any breeze; we only felt some breeze after few km into Ara Damansara. I lost my pace around 13km when facing the climb before the 2nd U-turn. May be due to the blister forming in my toes, the light breeze, or the very quiet Ara Damansara. I don’t feel like pushing it back to target pace after the U-turn. Stayed at 6.5 minutes all the way until finish. Again missed my sub-2 goal for 7 minutes. Anyway, still a PB in HM distances.

Look back to my HR records, the average HR only 157BPM, typical tempo running mode. And it is inflated too as I pushed at the final 1km back to 5.4 minutes pace. I imagined the average HR will be someway around 165~170BPM if I pushed all the way. It may not be a sub-2, but it will land closer or may be right on the target. I think the issue laid on myself i.e. I am not ready to die for the sub-2 HM. Read Jamie’s blog about this, I think I am still lagging the will to pushing all the way till the end. Need to include some training on the endurance in the mental stage.

Next race will be the SCKLM, I will do my first attempt of sub-5 marathon, but seriously I am lagging of training lately. The workload is catching up and I am currently down by coughing and flu. The training plan went out the window for about 2 weeks now. Hopefully I will be fully recovered by this weekend to squeeze in LSD that more than 32km. Else, I will only have one more chance for a 32km LSD before SCKLM. This is importance for the mind/mental stage training.

Next importance issue, get a replacement of my VFF KomodoSport. Brought the New Balance MR00 last week and tried it on BA-Sri Hartamas 20km, don’t think it can replace the VFF. Stay tune for more detail review next week after I put in more mileages to MR00.