Race Report: Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2013

This race was postponed from it original schedule from June due to haze condition. I thought it will be a great opportunity for me to be more ready to sub-5, but turned out this is an unfinished business for my next marathon.

I arrived at Dataran Merdeka around 4am, walked a bit and said hello to some familiar faces. Then we gathered into the starting pen and ready to go. The weather is hot. I consumed almost half of my 500ml water, which never happened before the flag off in other races. I knew that it will be very challenging race. As the biggest marathon event in Malaysia, closed to 4000 marathoners flagged off together, and it took me 4 minutes to cross the finish line.

Before flag off, look so not into running mood...

I started off slowly and ramped up to target pace of 7 minutes. The route is packed with others but still manageable. After about 5km, I finally caught up with one of the 5hrs pacers and I planned to stick with him until we done. The only hold back is my condition, not able to sleep well before the race (anxious) and the running nose bothering me. The pace is slow, but the effort is high with hearth rate averaging at 160BPM. Tried my best to keep up with the pacers, but it getting harder by time. From 18-24km, I can only tail them from far, and I lost sight of them after KLCC. The traffic from that points onwards was havoc. The whole stretch of Jalan Tun Razak, Bulatan Pahang until Jalan Ipoh was in mess. Don’t feel comfortable or safe running on this stretch.

After turn into Jalan Ipoh (27km), the mind started to play trick. “The sun so hot, the pacers are gone, walk-lah…”, repeated in my mind whenever I struggled. Then, I gave up and started some walking around 30km. Repeated the last year mistake, started off too fast and got into other’s race (pacers). Then the rest will just the usual running from water station to water station. Planned to back in running after 38km mark, but the engine was too cool to restart. After merged with the 10k runners/walkers/shopping goers, the last drop of my will to push on gone. No mood to speed, I just walked most of the stretch for the last 2km and only sprint to finish after past those crowd blocking the way. Completed my 11th full marathon in 5:24’06”, only 2 minutes better than the RJM with much tougher route.

At 36km, not much steam left to run. Photo by Kelvin Tan.

In front of camera, have to pretend running a bit. Thank Lina & Zaini!

2013 SCKLM Finisher Medal and T-shirt.

Like what I observed last year, the race is still a very well organized and happening event, but none of the area for improvement resolved. The Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman still jammed by walkers and supporters. Especially the junctions with Jalan Tun Perak, people just block off the road and only left a small gap to let past 3-4 runners at one time. I appreciated the spirit to support, but please at least don’t obstruct the traffic! Ok, I think I going to kept this post a short one, else these complains will continue.

Unofficial Result.

The result page is now more like the one I got from Singapore 2 years ago. Looking at the statistic, not much changed, I am still fit perfectly into the middle pack of runners. May be is time to look into a difference running and training approach. Meanwhile, I got unfinished business with the sub-5 target. Look like I can’t go by my makan agin pace in Munich, but to give in my best. Need to focus on a good recovery now.

Race Report: Back to Basic 30KM

Like last year, PACM arranging a training event in order to support our preparation on the coming marathon races. This race happened in Mardi Serdang this year. I intended to use this as my last LSD before the SCKLM, and judge my fitness level to look at how much harder I can go during SCKLM.

The event started at 5:30am and target to end by 11am. Knowing well my LSD pace will only cover 30km in 4 hours, I planned a solid 30km as minimum and hoped to go further than that. So the key is to arrive there early and may be do a few km warming up. Anyway, I am not very familiar with the place so I missed the SKVE entrance from LDP and went straight into Putrajaya. Only arrived at Mardi around 5am and I got no more moods to cover some extra distances up front. Just hang around the starting point and chatting with friends. The race director conducted a briefing, and at 5:30am we let loose to do our long slow distances. I didn’t aware about the last minutes change of route, until I completed the 1st loop at only about 7km. May be the race director announced it but most of us can’t heard what he said without a loud header.

4th loop, I was looking at the party happened at the finish line.

Running in the Mardi / MAEPS for the first time, I seriously love those rolling hills. It let me practicing how to scale back my strides and adjusting from running to brisk walking when climbing a slope. But I think I haven’t fully recovered from the RJM, the tights and calves were not doing very well in descending. Covered the first 3 loops with steady pace (slightly slower than my target marathon pace) but the mind was keep debating how many loops should I go. The finish area was partying since we started. PAC will give you the finisher medal as long as you completed one loop; hence lots of runners didn’t continue but chose to hang out with their friends at the finish area. This made the decision to continue the next loop getting harder as more runners joining the party after each loop. Finally, at the end of 4th loop, I decided to just continue and I left the finish area alone without anyone running in front or behind in sight. The sun was overslept and the volunteers did a good job to keep us running; it will be completely wasted if I didn’t continue for the 5th one. The last lap was tough, but I am glad that I did it. Learned the real meaning of "bloody nipper" during this training, now I can claim myself one bloody hardcore runner.

Hard earned medal and finisher t-shirt

I really enjoyed the event and thanks PAC to organize the run in a new venue. Now is time to zone into tapering mode and get myself ready to push real hard for the sub-5 target in SCKLM. See you guys next weekend at the starting line :)

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!