Race Report: CICM Responsible Care Run 10km

This is the yearly event that my office took part in the corporate category, and few of us tasked to take the trophy back to the office. We did that for the past 2 years, and we hoped to get a 3x streaks this year. The boss committed to pay for 50 participants and we did some promotion of this race within the company, hence we have a much bigger group joined this race (~50 compared to 5~7 in the past 2 years).

To me, this is the final trial exam before the SCKLM. My plan was to test out my capability to run the equivalent pace for a sub 4 marathon in the 10k race, which is 5:06 min pace from McMillan site. The sub 4 project been going on for a while (more then 6 months now), its time to check out the result and fine tuning the final stretch with only 34 days from SCKLM. Anyway, as my last race was >3 months ago, I was excited to join a race to again taste the rush of the adrenaline in the blood stream.

Not much special preparation on the race and the 18k training run on the Saturday before felt terrible. I think the body was yet to recover from long working night on Thursday. Both legs like steel rods and I was really in doubt. Should I just go for 5.5min pace like last year (which is very manageable effort now), or should I continue my plan to test out the 5.1min pace? On top of that, the PF syndrome at right foot still occasionally caused some pain. Lucky when I woke up Sunday morning 4:30am, the body felt normal, not overly excited or too tired for a short race. Left home at 5:10am and it took me 45 minutes to drive to the race venue, SMK Bandar Tasik Puteri.

There are many other races in KL city, hence this event only have less than 1000 participants. Half marathoners flagged off around 6:20am, I think less than 200 participants started. After a few warming up lap, I get myself into the starting pen around 6:40am. The crowd of 10k was more than the half marathoner, but I was not in the mood to count. Tuned my mind to the racing mode, waited in the 2nd row from the front. Then “Bang!” Charging out from the school, the expected adrenaline kicked in but I was still consciously hold myself back so that I will not going out too fast.

After 1km, the number of fast runners reduced to only 20-30, and I knew at least 2 other colleagues were in front of me. The rush of adrenaline pushed my pace to 4.9min, but the body seems to taking in positively with a heart beat rate of around 160BPM. I was looking for a chance to slow down to 5.1min pace. The first 3km past just like that, until I saw one runner in uniform (other company representative) running not too far in front. Then I pushed, past him. Then I realized one of my colleagues was not too far in front. I pushed, past him too. Closing up to the first u-turn point, I counted the returned runners on the other side. Less than 20 now! And there was another colleague not too far in front of me. After the u-turn, I pushed, past him at 6km. From that point onwards, I told myself, WTH, and started to push all the way back.

Approaching the 2nd u-turn point, I did another count of runners in front of me. Hell! Less than 10 now! For sure the top few runners could have finished, but I may still be able to take home one of the individual trophy! I dropped the hammer and thrown in all I had. Past the last lady in front of me and charge back to the finish line. Hack! Finished 49’16”, only 6 second behind the 10th placed in Men Open category. If only I pushed earlier... (I am fully aware that my current capability is yet to enable me to finish on podium, I get these close to it only because of many speed demons when to other races in KL city) On the Corporate Category, as all 5 of us came back before 52 minutes, we won. Our top runner finished with 4th placed in Men Veteran category with a respectable timing of 46min.

Team Linde Malaysia

Overall, the race was ok. We are running around the golf course hence the weather and the route is very nice. Almost no traffic observed during the race but still, occasionally a car or motorcycle zoomed by, overall traffic control actually quite poor. Also the venue is really too far and it directly impacted the number of participants.

Anyway, I still packed home my 10km PB. With a 6 minutes improvement from last year, I couldn’t ask for more. The trail exam completed with a result beyond my expectation. I am very comfortable now for my sub 4 project, I only need to keep going with 5:40min pace for 42km or 4 hours. Now the challenge will be on the new SCKLM route. The elevated highways sure will increase the total elevation, but I will only know the full impact until I tested it out. Hopefully it will be like what their race director said, “A route to produce new course record”.

33 more days until the final exam.

Happy Running.

Project Sub 4 Update

I will be doing my first full marathon in 2014 in about 19 weeks from now. As Hanson Marathon Method typically goes with 18 weeks training plan, I think now is time to reflect my progress and may be do some final adjustment on my training plan.

In my recent race report (15k at Kuala Kangsar), I was confident that I am going to sub 4 in October. But the situation is changing now. I felt into sick (flu, cough and running nose) for 2 weeks. That jeopardized 15 days from my training. I only managed to restart slowly from last Wednesday. Eventually, after a week back into training, I felt the sickness and break didn't take away too much of my trained stamina and endurance. But that will be too early to tell. I was so looking forward to my mid term exam – Ipoh International Half Marathon to gauge my current progress and score my first sub-2 half marathon. Unfortunately it was postponed to November now. Hence, all training plan back to drawing board and I have to adjust my plan only with what I had from the 15k race.

I will be following the Advanced Program in Hanson Marathon Method, with a target finishing time set to 3:45 hours (target pace 5:20 min/km). The main difference of Advanced Program compared to Beginner Program was the tempo run. It’s kick in from week 3. Progressively increased from 9.7km to 16km. Towards the end of the program, I should have completed ~191km of tempo run at target marathon pace, which hopefully will map the pace into my muscles and body movement. My heart beat raise by only looking at the pace chart. The problem will be my speed. I haven’t run that fast before and the speed works recommended a pace that I recognized as my top speed previously (4:41-4:53 min/km). I may want to review the plan around week 7 or 8 after I did a few longer tempo run.

Some key lessons learned from my attempt to follow the Hanson Marathon Method program twice,

1. Avoid joining races in training plan. I was racing too much in my first attempt to follow thru the training plan. These races some how proven the effectiveness of the training program, but I was just too excited in racing and injured my leg back then.

2. Stick to the planned pace, especially if you are going to a totally new territory. If you are aiming too high, better play safe. Especially on the strength and speed intervals, your system will be under high level of stress. Pushing too fast not only jeopardized the quality of the workout, it will also invite injury.

3. Stay away from sick people. The training program is very demanding even on the Beginner Program. Some study found that running long distances will actually reduce the capacity of your immune system. I will suggest that as the high intensity of running will need more time and effort from the body to recover between workouts. These recovery activities will definitely reduce the capacity of the body’s resistant of sickness.

4. Have enough sleep. This comes hand in hand with the above. Sufficient sleeps improve the recovery and helps to ensure quality workout session.

Happy Running!

Vibram Agrees to Settle Class Action Lawsuit

Some of my friends and families sent me this article, cause they all know I ran in VFF. 

http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/vibram-agrees-to-settle-class-action-lawsuit

I don’t have much to said about the “scam” putting up by VFF, it was just merely a slogan or marketing gimmick that we usually saw in many campaigns or promotions. If VFF is guilty for this, then all other company that jump into the barefoot bandwagon too are guilty. As runners, I only belief that running is an activities that based on yourself (being your legs, foot, muscles, core and others part of your bodies). And obviously, running should not be the type of shoes that you are wearing. Most of my thoughts were described in this article here. 

http://www.drnicksrunningblog.com/my-thoughts-on-the-vibram-fivefingers-lawsuit-and-why-minimalist-shoes-do-not-create-injuries/

Have a look, think and working on what you believed in.

Loved my experience in my first Full Marathon in VFF

Loved my barefoot running too, but BF is in the back seat now.

Race Report: Kuala Kangsar Larian Hari Keputeraan Sultan Azlan Shah 2014

I was running the previous edition of the same race, which was only 12km back in 2011. The experience was great. As I missed 2 years on this race, I signed up immediately once it opened for registration in December. Then I tuned down my races appetites after the burn out in early January this year. Initially I was thinking of DNS, but after I worked out my plan for sub-4 in SCKLM, the race served right as a trial exam to gauge my training progress. So I decided to give my best and see if I am on track with my aim. The game plan is simple, set my Garmin Virtual Partner to 5.5min pace and go for it!

Figured out that few races happened during the weekend, we may not have many photographers taking runners photos, hence I tagged along with my Olympus TG2 for some photos during and after the race. I reached the event site early around 6am, met some running kaki and taken some photos. But the TG2 not taking very good night shoot (may be is my scene setting issue) hence only few of them can be used. We gathered in the starting pen 10 minutes before start, some 7km school children queued in and joining us. As there are not marshal manning the starting pen, this is not surprised me. Told some of them to start later, but eventually some were flagged off together with us.

The flag off is 2-3 minutes earlier than the plan 6:50am, but I am ok with that. Stuck with the usual jammed start, but still the starting pace was furious! Not much slowdown in the first KM. The jammed eased after we turned into the main road. The first water station emerged after we came down from the bridge (2.8km). After the water station, finally some one was checking the 7km and diverted them into difference route. We continued into the kampung area. Nice view and friendly villagers cheering the runners to keep going. The feeling was great!

The 2nd water station at 5.8km and the 3rd water station at 8.2km where we made our u-turn back to the town. The sun was rising beautifully before I made my u-turn. I kept consistence pace at 5:10-5:20 for the whole stretch except took brief stop in every water stations. The heart rate was averaged at 160BPM. As I was pushing all the way, I didn’t noticed much what is the content in each water stations. Before the start, I heard there are more then the usual water and isotonic served, but I didn’t pay much attention to that. I noticed there were one local food stall in the kampung area that allocated some of their food with a board said “Free for Runners!”, but I was not able to take a photo. There were coconuts served at the final water station at 11.6km, I gave it a miss as I was still feeling strong and eagle to see how far I can sustain this pace. The finish line approaching fast, I decided to push harder to finish strong.

Sprint into finish. Thanks Sean for the photo.

Overall the race was very well organized and really value for money (RM20 registration for timing chip, medal, t-shirt, socks, shoes bag and buffer breakfast). Live entertainment, special water stations (coconuts and fried banana), marshals and traffic control, all made this event near perfect for runners. The only area for improvement will be the route. The 15km route no longer going to the palace and town area, it will be perfect if we can have the route cover that part of the royal town. Saw one incident of a collapsed runner when I near the finish line, hope he is doing fine now.

What is the feeling of staying 160BPM or 86% of max heart rate for 15km? Tough! But one has to recognize that you really need to push, and then you can expect a break thru. I have confident in my training regime and belief all the hard works had transformed and built my body to go with that pace and rate. The result? I completed the 15.6km with total time of 1:21’59”, average pace 5:15min/km. The fastest pace achieved at the final 1.6km @ 4:52min/km without injury (but left with some very sore muscles, I think it was mainly due to no stretching after the run, I continue to take photos right after my ice-cream).

My conclusion, I am on track in my Sub-4 Project. I think I am ready to first sub-2 in the half marathon. The next test will be in Ipoh Half Marathon on 22 June. Frankly, I still think Ipoh Half Marathon (or the official name is Ipoh International Run) is suck. Until today their official website is not fully updated and functioning (but I registered online since the online registration part is working, yet I can’t check my registration status). I signed up with only one reason, to do it in 5.5min pace, in order to gauge my training progress. I will fine tune my training plan for SCKLM with the outcome from this half marathon. I wish to see how fast I can go.

The finishers photos taken stored in my FB page HERE.

My VFF Komodo Sport

My collection of VFF Komodo Sport

I owned 3 pairs of VFF Komodo Sport. The first one is the earlier version (yellow colour) and the other 2 of them are the current version (sliver colour). Loved this model and completed countless miles with them.

I got the yellow unit in July 2011, and it retired after my first marathon in a VFF during April 2012 Energizer Night Marathon. If I remembered correctly, I made a hole at the right outsole after 700km on them, and the total mileages logged with this pair was less than 1000km. I got a replacement, and this was the pair that takes me thru the rest of the 2012 and the whole of 2013. I stayed with this only pair until around August 2013. Only after the higher training mileage and intensity at this stage causes the shoes to be wet by sweat and I started to use the 3rd pair as a back up or racing shoes. This time, a hole formed on its left outsole after SCKLM last year. But I still run in it regularly, only retired recently as my index finger can now get thru the hole. Hence the second pair of VFF logged way more than 2000km. Less than RM0.20 per km, definitely value for money!

Hole on the right sole

Hole on the left sole

After I gave it a final wash, I realized that I can still running in them by combining each side which is still good! You will now see me running in Yellow + Silver VFF Komodo Sport, at least for the next 2 coming race in Kuala Kangsar and Ipoh.

Happy mix!

More mileages!

I got another pair of VFF Sprint last November but it still in the box. May be is time to break them in cause the training is getting tougher now and I will sweat the shoes almost right after each run. Another pair of spare shoes will give time for me to clean them before use. And may be is time to get another pair of VFF Komodo Sport whenever its sale.

Since I ran, I spent 1.5 years in conventional type of running shoes (NB1226, NB905, MR00, GTS10), and after that all running done with VFF Komodo Sport (with some very small percentage of barefoot mileages). I think I changed my running style/gaits lots, from heavy heel striker to light forefoot striker. Even when I running with VFF, my running gaits still improved progressively. That’s the reason why my VFF can last longer now. Btw, I think I really need to find out why the left foot now is heavier compared to the right one.

What about barefoot running? It’s taken a back seat now as I am chasing my sub-4 speed with aggressive training plan and pace. The understanding on how one can run in barefoot safely is definitely helping my running gaits. I belief the day will come when I ran completely barefoot, but now I need the gloves on my feet to protect the foot sole.

Run safe! Run happy!

Champion

Recently I just got the Memoir of Meb Keflezighi. It was about the early life of Meb until his 2009 New York City Marathon win. I will now say this memoir published too early for a true champion like him. The London Olympic Marathon 4th placing and the recent win in Boston with a PB, showing that the story of him is still too early to conclude. 

If you are a runner, you will understand how difficult to get a PB. Further more, a PB at his caliber (2:08'37"), at the age of 39, is mission impossible to most of us. I would said this give me hell lots of hope & inspiration! Near that age, I am seeking out my own limit and dig deep into my potential now. I aimed high and dreamed big.

“But I also realize that winning doesn't always mean getting first place; it means getting the best out of yourself.” ― Meb Keflezighi, Run to Overcome.

** 2014 Boston Marathon finishing photo obtained from internet, copyright credit to the photo's owner

Garmin Forerunner 910XT Update & Wrist Band Replacement

I got my FR910XT 2 years ago during the race expo of Brooks Half Marathon. The unit is great and I loving it. It got long battery life. It may not capable to do 20 hours now, but for the past 24 months, I never drained it. During low training mileage (<140km/mth), I may charge it once every 6-7 weeks. Even with high training mileage (250-320km/mth), I only need to charge it fortnightly cause I ran with the back light on during my weekly speed repeats. Run my first ultra 50km with full charged battery, and it still had 50% left after the 7.5 hours race. Anyway, after few firmware update, those issues that I don’t like from my previous review still remained. I just need to get use to them.

Snapped at the right hand side, cut the left to remove the piece for installing the expender band

Yesterday, when I prepare to heading out for the routine morning run, I found out that the wrist band snapped! My wrist is only normal Asian sized, hence there is actually some gaps between my wrist and the FR910XT. This created a stress point over the wrist band and finally it gave way. No choice, hence I held the FR910XT on my hand for my 4k easy.

Knew that Malaysia authorised distributor will sure have replacement, but I tried to search online for its pricing. Amazon selling at about USD$19.90, with postage should be around USD$25 (MYR82-85). And I saw some interesting comment in the users’ feedback: there is an expender band came with the FR910XT box, which you can use it as temporary fix for the snapped band. Then I called AECO yesterday to order their stock to PJ Digital Mall, so I can collect it today. And it cost MYR100 from AECO.

This morning, I dig out the expender band for the speed repeats. I have no problem to hold it on my hand (I usually race with a 500ml bottle on my hand, did that for my 50k too), but it will be big disturb during a speed repeats. The expender band holds up the snapped band nicely. Nonetheless, the snapped part left only very short section for the expender band to hold on, it was a bit loose. It will no be a comfortable replacement for the snapped wrist band, but it served well during this emergency.

Snapped Wrist Band with Expender Band

Expender band in action

Expender band in action

Original Replacement Wrist Band from Local Distributor

Replacement Kit, the 2 screwdrivers used to held the screw from both sides 

Done! Fixed in 10-15 minutes

Garmin is coming up with new and better product, like FR620. But I will stick to FR910XT for another 2-3 years (or earlier if the battery gone flat). It will be a very important partner for my sub-4 journey.

Happy Running!