Mood Recovery

Last weekend was tough! The hazy and hot weather is bad enough but it just getting worst over the weekend.

It started from Friday evening, with DSAI case. Then after my hazy Saturday morning run, I got the news of missing MH370. The mood just dip into the bottom. Come Sunday morning, it was just too hazy to run (API > 100). I was terrified with these 2 unidentified persons boarded with stolen passports. I will be flying to lots of places this year! Lucky I got another novel at home for my consumption, else my family will sure suffered from my bad mood.

Anyway, did a short & quick run this morning. It helps to stabilized the mood. But I need more than stabilizer on a Monday! Hence I plugged my earphone to my mobile, play the "Spirit of the Marathon" over the phone, just listen to it when I am working. The movie was fantastic, I watched it many times so I don't need the video. The music, the conversation, the noise over the race field, the foot steps, the starting horn, the progress reported over the Chicago Marathon, kept me calm, and slowly pull me up into positive side. I think this is the benefit of having some highly energy good/positive addiction. The issues happened over the weekend still disturbing me, but I felt I got more energy to deal with it now (at least emotionally).

Have a good week ahead, keep running and keep smiling!

Project Sub 4

I had this plan in mind since I was injured in early January. I saw the benefit of the structural and demanding training program, and I wanted more! The feeling of able to run faster from race to race is fantastic! And I started to wonder what will be my finishing time if I concentrated to only full marathon training. It seems to be a big leap because my PB marathon was done with 4:59’57” in Munich, and I wish to shed 60 minutes from my PB. But after following thru the training program for 3 months, I achieved 3 PB in 3 races (10k, 21k and 25k) with each race completed without burning out. Hence it seems to be very natural to aim high, provided I completed the whole 18 weeks program faithfully.

Aim to finish with sub 4 hours, like a superman :)  (photo from internet)

The key learning from the injury was played too hard and too many races between the high mileages training program. With the high intensity training program (70-90km per week), the body don’t have enough time to recover between races. I crashed after completed a training month with 318km recorded training mileage. First thing that get between me and the training program will be races. So I made a decision to not register or running any new races until my target race: SCKLM (registered Kuala Kangsar 15k, so I will still go for it).

The plan is, after Titi50, I will restart the 18 weeks training program with 4.5 hours FM target time. Round one will finish around June. Then I will continue with another 18 weeks program with 4 hours FM target time. This will help to condition the body to high mileages training, and workout the pace for sub 4 marathon. Anyway, my work demanded more travels this year. I will need to deal with that so lots of training will be expected over the treadmill. Apart from the travels, the most challenging part for this plan will be no clicking on those races registration.

There will be less race report posts in this blog, but I will sure update regularly on my training progress here. Wish me luck.

Race Report: Titi50

My first ultra marathon, trained hard for it but some how the training was held up since January,  by injury and subsequently flu. From some self assessment, I more or less concluded the stamina will be sufficient, but some parts may give way as there are not seasoned to take the extra long distances. Hence the realistic target for the race will be just complete it without injury and gain some experiences.

The 100k race start at 4pm. From some photos posted on the FB, it was hot like hell. For 50k, we were lucky to flag off by mid night. Reached the venue around 10:30pm and the site was packed with enthusiastic runners. Checked in myself, race briefing, then we were flagged off on 12am.

The first part was easy 4km before reaching the Bukit Hantu. I used this section to adjust the hydration waist belt (concluded that the waist belt type is not suitable for speed. It was doing fine when walking, will put up a review later). Started to brisk walking right at the start of the climb. Then ran at 7min pace when descending towards the first check point. Took some watermelon and refill my Gatorade bottle, then I left for CP2.

Running toward CP2 under the moonlight, thanks Victor for the photo.

From CP1 to CP2 was easy. Kind of familiar with the route (RJM route). Going at a decent 7min pace, reached CP2 ahead of my plan. Took some bread and refill water, then I left for the long ascending to CP3. 9km climb with 300m elevation, I will say it was not really tough. The elevation are segregated along the 9k nicely, and I think my engine was warmed up totally. I almost ran all the way to the peak. The night was cooling and windy. It's helped a lot to cool down my hearth rate and maintained it around 150-165BPM.

The CP3 located at 26km, hence from that point onward, I knew the race will be over-distanced. Used the toilet at the check point, took more watermelon and refill my bottle, then I u turned and heading back to CP2. The time was only 3:26am. I can't help but started to think if I can complete this by 7 hours. And lucky the descending to CP2 brought me back to reality. I am strong during climb the slope, but extremely weak when it come to descending one. The first part of the descending to CP1 already taken it's toll and now every steps going down the slope were painful. If I was not bounced into one of the crazy 100k runner and pushed each other to clear to last 4k descending with some speed, I would had did the 9k climb faster (71 minutes) than my 9k descending (67 minutes). Again repeated those eating and refilling, then I left for CP1.

Not much left in the tank, run-walk-run-walk and I finally reached the 42.195km mark on my Garmin around 5:35am. Now, every steps is unknown. The CP1 located around 43km on the way back. Cleared the check point, and I was heading back to finish line. I planned to walk up the Bukit Hantu, then run all the way back. But I was over optimistic. Not only the tank was emptied, the legs were so painful until my will to push was emptied too. Tried to restart the enigine to running mode, but failed. Part of me wanted a good finish time (I will be sub-7 if I ran the balanced 7km), and part of me understand the risk and don't want to push. Finally, walked almost all the way back, and only able to start running again about 1km from the finish line. It was due to panic cause at 7:15am the Garmin marked 51km and the finish line still not in sight. I pushed cause I don't want to missed also the 7.5 hours mark. Finally, finished at 7:23'36".

Hard Earned finisher pack

Food intake during the race,

1. 4 packs of PowerGels.

2. 2 loafs of bread, with some jam or butter inside (too tired to taste).

3. 5 pills of salts.

4. Plenty of watermelon.

5. 6x 500ml of water (mainly, only started mix in 100Plus and Revive after the u turn), plus 1 liter of water from the hydration bladder (almost finished toward the end).

Race plan versus actual

Elevation vs Time, almost symmetry chart. 2nd half of the race not slowing down too much.

Overall, this was a great experience. The challenging route, the use of hydration bladder, the helpful volunteers, the moonlight, the sleepless night, the loneliness, the company and the long winding road, all these will be an unique remark on my running journey.

Titi50 Preparation

With the recent injury on my left foot, the training plan ruined and training mileage on running dropped back to my norm period. With only 9 more days to my first ultra marathon, I am actually kind of uncertain about what to look ahead for in this 50km race. The recovery is so far so good, now I am able to run at easy pace up to 20km and run at sub 6 minutes pace up to 7km without any problem. But these legs are far from their peak and I will not able to follow thru my initial plan of finishing in 6 hours. Hence I need an all new game plan.

After tinkering around with the route map and elevation plan, confirming the brisk-walking pace in Bukit Kledang, and I put up this new game plan. New target time, 7.5 hours for the 50km race. The plan will be simple, I will run with easy pace 7-8 min/km whenever possible, and will shift to brisk walking gear when pace dropped below 8 min/km. The planned brisk walking pace will be 10-11 min/km. I should be finished the 50km within 7.5 hours without much of the issue. Anyway, I may still be too optimistic. Even the time off from injury may only post less than 10% losses on my stamina (I kept cycling during the break from running), but the body parts may not able to survive the 50km. Blisters and muscles clamps may kill me half way....

Items to be pack with me during the race,

1. Torch light + Head lamp (with spare AA batteries)

2. Back blinker light (with spare AAA batteries)

3. CamelBak FreshFlo, with 1litre of water (as spare reservoir)

4. Gatorade 500ml bottle with water

5. PowerGel, 6 packs

6. Salts Stick, 6 pills

7. Plastic Plaster, few

8. Vaseline, 5g

9. IC, driving license & car key

10. Phone (turned off to save power)

11. Running cap (useful when the night getting too cold)

12. Sponge (for cleaning salty surface in the water station)

Running attires,

1. Run for It 7 finisher-T (bright enough)

2. 2XU Compressed short (with bamboo fabric underpants)

3. Garmin 910XT

4. RoadID

5. Vibram FiveFinger KomodoSport

Optional (tentatively left inside the car)

1. PowerBar or bread

2. Bath and cleaning kit

3. Brooks LSD Lite running jacket

I will do my last long run before the Titi50 this Sunday with the PAC CNY Potluck party in Padang Merbuk. Next week will be travelling on business, should be in low training mileages for the body to rest. Carbo-loading...... started since Chinese New Year......

Good luck if you are running Titi100 or Titi50, SCHKM, Tokyo Marathon or other races in February.

Injury Update

I wished the last bar were from running, but all those 144km were did on a bicycle

For the longest time since I recording my running activities, I was not running for 2 weeks. Tried 2 times test run (last Wednesday and today) but the injured foot don't seem to fully recovered. After many reflection, I can more or less pin point the causes of this injury - over trained.

I am following the Hanson Marathon Method beginner training program since November 2013. The weekly mileage was ramp up to 85km when I was injured. I can't blame the mileages for my injury, and I only got myself to blame for. Why? The intensity of the training. My target marathon time was set to 4.5hours, hence I should follow the relevant target pace for all types of trainings in the schedule. My problem, not following the plan and not recognize my limit! All my training pace was at least 30sec faster than the target pace and that went to the extreme especially in the race. Example in MPIB, it was my 26km long run day with target pace 6:51min/km, but I was doing 5:40min/km for the 12km route, right after my 14km warming up. Both pace and mileages went up and tear down my body and resulted this injury.

The injury hinder my training for my first 50k Ultra. Out of running for 2 weeks (maybe more) will definitely undone some of the fitness level I gained. For now I can only depends on cycling to maintain my basic fitness. Good thing is the weight maintained even though the training intensity went south, and this reconfirm my weight lost approach worked!

Key learning from this injury,

1. Build up slowly during training. If choose to follow a program, followed thru.
2. One or 2 races during the training program is ok, but avoid back to back,  and avoid any race if possible.
3. Listen to the body carefully especially at the peak of the training. Pushing over an uncomfortable feeling at the peak of the training program will cause serious damage.

How am I going to deal with Titi50 in less than a month? Well, I will have to let my foot healed completely before any serious running. Scale back my target accordingly and may be have a good 9 hours walking in Hulu Langat during the race. Anyway, I will start to mix my workout with brisk walking before and after. Aimed to rehabilitate my foot for running with those brisk walking/weight bearing exercise.

Look at the bright side, I am doing my secret training for 2014 PowerMan. May be I will join for difference type of fun if my cycling training coming out good.

Race Report: MPIB 2014

This was a simple short 12km race around double hills area and Padang Merbok. I love to run in that area, but with the raising crime rate and shortage of parking, I cut back my visit since 2013. Race will be a best opportunity for me to visit and run in this area comfortably. The training menu some how indicate a key long run of 26km on that day, hence I will need to start earlier to complete a 14km, then continue with the 12km race.

Started the day early around 5:10am and decided to park at the parking next to the Lake Garden Club house entrance. The area was still quiet and I was the 3rd car at the parking. Started in the Lake Garden loop and I only encounter 3 others runners. Later I found out part of the Lake Garden loop is under construction, may be this was the reason of less runners looping there. I too don’t like the looping, hence made the decision to heading out. Knowing that the race marshals will soon start to set up the route, I should have no problem to warm up on part of the race route. The warm-up took place from Jalan Parlimen – Jalan Sultan Salahhudin, about 4km each loop, and I did 2.5 loops (last loop cut short from Padang Merbok to Jalan Sultan Salhhudin). Total warm-up distance of 14km finished by 6:50am and felt great.

Towards the finish line, thanks Tey for the photo

After I changed to a dry vest and reached the starting line, the 12km Men category already flagged off, and the lady already lined up. I got no problem to start with Women category (over heard that Jamie said the lady whom started with the Men category will be disqualified, hopefully the guys were ok to start with the lady). The start line was packed, and the first climb rights after the start really slow me down (lots of lady started to walk...). Initially I was still ok to hold back my pace at relaxed 6.5min/km, but after dodging thru lots of obstacles, the fire built up. I decided to speed up after the climb, cruising with 5min/km pace at the descend part of Jalan Sultan Salahhudin, and started to caught few guys who started earlier. I kept the fire on and entered the Bukit Tunku area, completed the stretch with 5.4min/km pace. And I think I went bonked after climbed the incline of Jalan Sultan Salahhudin for the 3rd times. Pace dropped to about 6min/km, and finally finished the race in 1:09’15”.

 

I am happy to found another gear within. According to the training manual, the long run and the weekly mileages was designed to simulate the last 26km of a Marathon. If I could firm out the realisation of this new gear within to appear in all my races, I will be still pushing hard on the last session of the marathon towards the finish line, without crashed into the Wall.

Anyway, after few weeks of high mileages training, the body decided to login a complaint. The left foot suffered a syndrome that similar to extensor tendonitis. Need to slow down and have a day or two off from running.

Caught by Mohan during my post-run icing (while waiting the traffic jam to clear off)

Race Report: Newton Challenge 2013

Newton Challenge was one of the race that offering the unique distances (15km & 25km) on the very challenging route in Bandar Kinrara. This was also the 3rd Newton Challenges in the past 2 years (twice in 2012) and I was running in the first one, now I returned to this race as it was one of the most challenging route with the Amah Hill and her two daughters.

This was a good testing ground to gauge my training result. I ran the first Newton Challenge when I was in relatively good form and took down all the climbs without much issue. Running on identical route served a good indication of one’s physical form. Anyway, the new route added in another climb towards the 20km just to make it more challenging. I planned to have an easy ride on this race to practice my target marathon pace (6.4 min/km). From the recent 2 races, I knew I don’t need to push too hard for this pace, but those were only 10k & 21k. I would like to find out if I can last for the 25k.

Closed to 1500 competitors lined up for 25km category. I started at the back as usual. The race field was packed from starting line all the way to the first water station, and then the pack eased up further when we turned at the traffic light to take down the first climb. I maintained a good average pace from start, at 6.3-6.4min/km. The situation started to be tricky after reached the top of the daughter hill. My legs felt extremely itchy, there descends was calling them to charge... no choice but just listen to the body and charged on. From there, the pace increased to 5-5.5min/km when descending, and 6.1-6.2min/km when climbing. Basically that’s what repeated for the rest of the distances left.

Towards the finish line, photo taken by Vivian.

Refuelling becomes very important when you are pushing for the race. I took a heavy breakfast (coffee with 2 tea spoons of Chia seed, plus 4 loafs of bread with cheese), but start to felt hungry after 12km. Took the PowerGel at 14km, but it can’t last until the end. The route joined with 15km category from 19th km onwards. I again felt hungry around 22km, and this time I didn’t had another PowerGel. No choice so I pushed even harder so that I can fill up my dummy at the finish line. Saw the water station at 23km, and I was hoping to see 100Plus, but only plain water available. Finally, got to the final turn and finished the race with 2:30’37” net time (gun time 2:32’16”, position, Men Open 164, overall 282; 12 minutes faster than previous). But I was disappointed to found no food at the finish line. Only watermelon was served, and I think I took at least half of a watermelon :P

The average pace from the race is 17 seconds faster than my target pace, and the heart rate averaged at 146BPM, with overall max at 161BPM. This showing that the training program hard brought me to a much better physical form. I am confident that I am doing fine now and heading towards my target of sub4.5. Looking at the pace chart, I think I will need some hill-repeats cause there will be more hills to climb in Titi50. Bukit Kledang at my home town will be my best friend come Chinese New Year :)