This was my 1st time racing in Seremban. I wanted to do it last year, but I forgot why I didn't come. Seremban has always been close to my heart, having spent a couple of years there to finish my diploma back in 1997. A lot have changed since then, it's a booming town with highways, etc.
Preparation
As I was still carrying an injury, my preparation was less than ideal to say the least. Nevertheless, I managed to complete one LSD the week before, a crucial element in my preparation. Since I can't really run everyday due to my injury, I had to make every session count. So I upped the intensity of every training. I didn't do any intervals, but focused on tempo training. After my last training on Tuesday (10K), my left foot hurt so bad that I didn't run at all until the event day.
Raceday
I just bought a new cellphone & I dunno why but the alarm didn't ring. I'd earlier set it up to ring at 4am. When I got up it was already 5am. I knew I had to leave by 5.30 or I'll never make it. I got to Seremban at 5 mins to 6am, practicaly flooring the pedal all the way, driving at 180km/h, hitting 200 at times. If there was any speedtrap camera along the way I was sure I got caught in at least a couple of them.
I was lucky I found a parking spot very close to the start. I performed my Subuh prayer next to my car. The start was right in front of the Majlis Perbandaran Seremban building. As I made my way to the start I found Choi. He said that the course is a fast one, he did 1:45 the last time he did it. Well, I wished I could do it too. My primary goal was to do better than SCKLM & to break the 2-hr mark as a secondary target.
The race started at 6:45am, very late by Malaysian standard. As a comparison, SCKLM started at 6. Nevertheless I decided not to wear any headgear, although the weather forecast stated a clear & sunny day.
There was less than a thousand participants for the half marathon category by my count. It's not unusual for a local race. U have to be extra careful with local races like this, traffic control normally is less than adequate. Ipoh International last month was one bad example when runners need to manoeuvre heavy traffic with buses, etc.
About 3km into the race we encountered the 1st major climb of the race. Although it was nothing like the one in Malakoff Penang route, it was pretty long. After that it was pretty much flat throughout. I had set a benchmark of 6:00min/km for the race. My left foot didn't give me much problem thankfully. I hit the 1st 10K at 58mins, the 1st time I did sub-hour for a 10K in a half marathon. It kinda spurred me to go faster.
At KM12 I had side stitches bad enuff to hamper my breathing. Maybe I was going too fast. I tried to shake it off but it stayed there for a good couple of kms. My feeding & hydration plan was on track. So I was quite puzzled by the emergence of the stitches. The water stations was adequate, I guess the low number of races made it easier for us at the water stations. Plus I was among the front pack, so all is well.
The route took me through some familiar places, like Taman Koperasi Guru, where my aunt used to stay. Paroi was of course a familiar place, but once we got into the residential areas and the villages, I was kinda lost there. I never knew some of the places during my time there, but then again, I didn't really explore all of the places in Seremban.
I was kinda stuck in no man's land alone for quite sometime. There was a group in front of me & there was another a few minutes back. But I was alone. Once we hit the road towards Lake Garden there was heavy traffic with all the fun runners. Most of them are schoolkids & they were walking instead of running & they occupied one whole lane sometimes. It was so packed I had to shove a couple of kids outta my way. Unfortunately I hit the 2hr mark at the MPS building, with some 500m to go. Nevertheless I pressed on & hit the line at 2:01, a new PB.
Lotsa firsts
I had broken the 6:00/km average in this race by going 5:59. I also did the 1st 10K in 58 mins, another first. The medal we got was quite nice. Although I didn't break the 2-hour mark in this race, I was pretty darn close & to achieve it running with an injury, breaking the 2-hour is not impossible. I plan to go for the Penang Bridge International Marathon again this year & I hope that's where I'ma do it. I'ma give myself time to recover from this injury during the fasting month & I hope it won't be a long-term injury. Until then.
Livestrong
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
End of the road
The past 2 weeks I went to watch sequels to two of my favorite movies : Transformers & Harry Potter. Those sequels were the last in a very long movie sequence, especially Harry Potter. They've been in the movie since they were kids & now they've all grown up.. must've been difficult ending such a long journey.
We watched both movies in 3D, the 1st time we watched any movie in 3D. But I'd have to say that the Transformers was a better 3D movie, maybe becoz it was shot in 3D. I felt that HP was just a normal movie then converted into 3D, hence the 3D effects wasn't that revealing.
Transformers : Dark of The Moon was a very long movie, 2 hrs 40 mins, & maybe becoz there was so much to tell. There was action from start to finish, typical for a Transformer movie & even with a new babe, well, the babe was in the action as well. & I dunno whether there will be any spin off movies after this, like the X-men movie, there was no rumor about it. The movie was great, story was great albeit very illogical. & the ending was .. well.. the end. That was what I always look for in a movie of this nature. How the director ends the end of the movie. The LOTR trilogy's end was good. This one was good as well.
But the HP's ending was like... well, in the end I was like,"That's it ? That's all ?" After 7 movies altogether, I was expecting a more dramatic ending. But of course, it ended well enuff, all the characters in the movie ended up with their respective love interests & their kids went to Hogwarts, exactly just like them. But really, that's it ?
Visitors from abroad.
The Malaysian football team is having the time of their lives this couple of weeks. 3 EPL teams, Arsenal, Liverpool & Chelsea are making a visit to the country & play friendly games with the national team. Like what K.Rajagopal said earlier, even Brazil dun get to play 3 EPL teams in 2 weeks like we do. Yeah, but maybe there's a reason for that. Anyway, those players must be living a dream.
I went to watch my favorite team of course, Arsenal. The last time they came it was in 1999 & I didn't have any money to buy the very expensive ticket back then, I was still in university. So when the news got out that they're coming this year, I couldn't let this opportunity pass by. Armed with my new 125th anniversary jersey, I went to the Bukit Jalil stadium for 2 straight nights, to watch them train & play. Sure enuff, the national team was no match for the Arsenal & got thumped 0-4. Nevertheless, we were behind the national team the whole time & I thought we were cheering more for the national team than the Arsenal.
Against Liverpool we managed to score 3 goals, unprecedented for a team of our ranking. Safiq Rahim confirmed himself as Malaysia's dead-ball specialist by scoring from a freekick. Safee Sali scored twice.. the stadium erupted. Good morale-booster for our team ahead of the Singapore tie.
Watching Arsenal in their training session.. they still do a lot of drills.. passing, stopping the ball.. drilled set plays.. Our team dun really do that. Which is why they're so good the Arsenal. Even at that level, they still practice drills religiously.. practiced set plays until it's embedded in their brains & they can do it by memory. Try telling our youngsters, even at state level to do that & U'll be met with a somewhat confused stare from them.
Our athletes, they dun like to do basic, fundamental things. Why ? Becoz they tend to believe they're good enuff already & to progress they need to learn more advanced, difficult moves. But when they fail to do the more difficult moves, they get frustrated & upset & eventually stop playing whatever game they're playing. Seeing Arsenal players, who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars weekly, try to work on their passing, dribbling countless times, to make them perfect... was just an eye-opening experience. I hope those youngsters watching, or even parents of aspiring youngsters will take note of this & keep this in mind. Practice makes perfect & dun get satisfied easily.
Baby coming
My wife's into her 35th week of pregnancy & we're getting pretty much restless waiting for our baby to come into our family. Next week we're gonna have the last check up with our doctor & then it's just a matter of time. I'm on a flexible dateline here at work, I need to get everything settled before I go on leave, so that I can go with a piece of mind.
Seremban Half Marathon
I didn't manage to register for the last race before Ramadhan, the Men's Health Shape Run. My fault really. So to make up for that & for my very poor SCKLM, I decided to go for the Seremban Half Marathon on the 24th. That's gonna be my last race before Ramadhan. I'm not really interested to run phantom at Men's Health. I'm still carrying my plantar fasciitis, but the shin splints seems to be okay for now. I keep telling myself to go all-out for this Seremban, even with my injury, & then I can have a month's rest. I dunno if I can improve on my PB, I dun really know the course. Hopefully I can run a better race than SCKLM. That's all I want.
Livestrong.
We watched both movies in 3D, the 1st time we watched any movie in 3D. But I'd have to say that the Transformers was a better 3D movie, maybe becoz it was shot in 3D. I felt that HP was just a normal movie then converted into 3D, hence the 3D effects wasn't that revealing.
Transformers : Dark of The Moon was a very long movie, 2 hrs 40 mins, & maybe becoz there was so much to tell. There was action from start to finish, typical for a Transformer movie & even with a new babe, well, the babe was in the action as well. & I dunno whether there will be any spin off movies after this, like the X-men movie, there was no rumor about it. The movie was great, story was great albeit very illogical. & the ending was .. well.. the end. That was what I always look for in a movie of this nature. How the director ends the end of the movie. The LOTR trilogy's end was good. This one was good as well.
But the HP's ending was like... well, in the end I was like,"That's it ? That's all ?" After 7 movies altogether, I was expecting a more dramatic ending. But of course, it ended well enuff, all the characters in the movie ended up with their respective love interests & their kids went to Hogwarts, exactly just like them. But really, that's it ?
Visitors from abroad.
The Malaysian football team is having the time of their lives this couple of weeks. 3 EPL teams, Arsenal, Liverpool & Chelsea are making a visit to the country & play friendly games with the national team. Like what K.Rajagopal said earlier, even Brazil dun get to play 3 EPL teams in 2 weeks like we do. Yeah, but maybe there's a reason for that. Anyway, those players must be living a dream.
I went to watch my favorite team of course, Arsenal. The last time they came it was in 1999 & I didn't have any money to buy the very expensive ticket back then, I was still in university. So when the news got out that they're coming this year, I couldn't let this opportunity pass by. Armed with my new 125th anniversary jersey, I went to the Bukit Jalil stadium for 2 straight nights, to watch them train & play. Sure enuff, the national team was no match for the Arsenal & got thumped 0-4. Nevertheless, we were behind the national team the whole time & I thought we were cheering more for the national team than the Arsenal.
Against Liverpool we managed to score 3 goals, unprecedented for a team of our ranking. Safiq Rahim confirmed himself as Malaysia's dead-ball specialist by scoring from a freekick. Safee Sali scored twice.. the stadium erupted. Good morale-booster for our team ahead of the Singapore tie.
Watching Arsenal in their training session.. they still do a lot of drills.. passing, stopping the ball.. drilled set plays.. Our team dun really do that. Which is why they're so good the Arsenal. Even at that level, they still practice drills religiously.. practiced set plays until it's embedded in their brains & they can do it by memory. Try telling our youngsters, even at state level to do that & U'll be met with a somewhat confused stare from them.
Our athletes, they dun like to do basic, fundamental things. Why ? Becoz they tend to believe they're good enuff already & to progress they need to learn more advanced, difficult moves. But when they fail to do the more difficult moves, they get frustrated & upset & eventually stop playing whatever game they're playing. Seeing Arsenal players, who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars weekly, try to work on their passing, dribbling countless times, to make them perfect... was just an eye-opening experience. I hope those youngsters watching, or even parents of aspiring youngsters will take note of this & keep this in mind. Practice makes perfect & dun get satisfied easily.
Baby coming
My wife's into her 35th week of pregnancy & we're getting pretty much restless waiting for our baby to come into our family. Next week we're gonna have the last check up with our doctor & then it's just a matter of time. I'm on a flexible dateline here at work, I need to get everything settled before I go on leave, so that I can go with a piece of mind.
Seremban Half Marathon
I didn't manage to register for the last race before Ramadhan, the Men's Health Shape Run. My fault really. So to make up for that & for my very poor SCKLM, I decided to go for the Seremban Half Marathon on the 24th. That's gonna be my last race before Ramadhan. I'm not really interested to run phantom at Men's Health. I'm still carrying my plantar fasciitis, but the shin splints seems to be okay for now. I keep telling myself to go all-out for this Seremban, even with my injury, & then I can have a month's rest. I dunno if I can improve on my PB, I dun really know the course. Hopefully I can run a better race than SCKLM. That's all I want.
Livestrong.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Week in, week out
SCKLM 2011
2 weeks ago I ran my 2nd half mara of 2011, despite a less than ideal build up & very minimal training. Reason being, I was still hampered by injury. Plantar fasciitis & also shin splints. The shin splints was showing some signs of recovering though. Despite all that, I chose to go ahead & run SCKLM. I didn't run the race last year & this year I've actually made it my target event.
The day before the race, I went for a picnic with my colleagues to Sg Tekala. It was my 1st time there. Maybe it was a mistake. I took a dip in the very cold river (not ice-cold, but very the cold nonetheless). I felt fine after that, & even slept for almost 2 hours there ! I just tried to rest as much as I can. When I went to bed that nite everything was fine.
But when I woke up at about 4:30 Sunday morning, I felt stiff. I had a slight temperature to add to my list of injury. It didn't feel all that bad before the race, but it got worse as the race progresses.
Overall I felt really bad. I couldn't push the pace. I was scrambling for isotonic drink at every water station, with the hope of getting some sort of relief. But it wasn't to be & I felt really bad. About 30 mins into the race there was drips of rain, but it stopped after that. With my condition that day, rain would've been disastrous.
The route was great. Great for breaking records or doing PBs. It was flat, especially the stretch in Cheras. As with any event of this magnitude, it was well-supported. Water stations was good. There was even a small tunnel with cold drips of water to cool the runners. But I was feeling really, really bad. Just another bad day at the office I guess.
I finished the race in 2:18, my 3rd worse time in half mara. I thought I could emulate Penang, but I just couldn't. As soon as I got home I crashed & slept.. I haven't felt this way for a long time. Hopefully things will get better, soon.
Livestrong.
2 weeks ago I ran my 2nd half mara of 2011, despite a less than ideal build up & very minimal training. Reason being, I was still hampered by injury. Plantar fasciitis & also shin splints. The shin splints was showing some signs of recovering though. Despite all that, I chose to go ahead & run SCKLM. I didn't run the race last year & this year I've actually made it my target event.
The day before the race, I went for a picnic with my colleagues to Sg Tekala. It was my 1st time there. Maybe it was a mistake. I took a dip in the very cold river (not ice-cold, but very the cold nonetheless). I felt fine after that, & even slept for almost 2 hours there ! I just tried to rest as much as I can. When I went to bed that nite everything was fine.
But when I woke up at about 4:30 Sunday morning, I felt stiff. I had a slight temperature to add to my list of injury. It didn't feel all that bad before the race, but it got worse as the race progresses.
Overall I felt really bad. I couldn't push the pace. I was scrambling for isotonic drink at every water station, with the hope of getting some sort of relief. But it wasn't to be & I felt really bad. About 30 mins into the race there was drips of rain, but it stopped after that. With my condition that day, rain would've been disastrous.
The route was great. Great for breaking records or doing PBs. It was flat, especially the stretch in Cheras. As with any event of this magnitude, it was well-supported. Water stations was good. There was even a small tunnel with cold drips of water to cool the runners. But I was feeling really, really bad. Just another bad day at the office I guess.
I finished the race in 2:18, my 3rd worse time in half mara. I thought I could emulate Penang, but I just couldn't. As soon as I got home I crashed & slept.. I haven't felt this way for a long time. Hopefully things will get better, soon.
Livestrong.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
SCKLM build up
Yesterday I broke the monotony of my training by going for a volleyball game with my officemates in Pancarona. I decided to see how my legs are doing, so I ran to Pancarona. If I'd taken the direct route, it'd took me about 10 mins maybe, it was less than 2km away from my office. So I took a longer route, the route used during PACM NB 15K earlier this month. The problem is, it was my 1st time to Pancarona & I didn't really know where it was. I just thought I went by that place during the race. So I had to gamble a bit & got there after about 17 mins. My legs felt okay, I'd use my Newtons & calf sleeve, just in case. & it was okay. So I guess Sunday is a go.
The volleyball game was great. The only thing bad was that while diving to retrieve a ball I'd scratched my Newtons a bit. My bad. I shud've known better than to use my race shoes for a volleyball game. I ran back to the office after the game. Good workout overall.
At home I was feeling some pain again. My plantar fasciitis. This really puzzles me. I just dunno what else to do. Maybe some ibuprofen would help. But I dunno where to get it.
Well, as a build up to the race, which is this Sunday, I'm drinking lotsa water. This is important to stay hydrated. Just wanna keep myself hydrated & well-oiled for Sunday. I've some pace options in mind. & I'll see how I feel in the 1st half of the race. My target is to break 2 hours of course.
Death of a marathon runner.
Earlier this month Sammy Wanjiru, 2008 Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist was killed in an apparent suicide. But that's got nothing to do with cardiovascular weakness or anything, he jumped off a corridor in his house. The death I wanna talk about is one that was brought up in LYNet forum this morning.
A friend of a forumer died of heart attack. He said that the deceased was a marathon runner. So he urged everybody to do medical check up & dun assume that becoz U run marathons, Ur in perfect health.
What he said makes perfect sense to me. Sometime ago I read a study that found marathoners who run too much, they have weaker blood vessel. The reason was that those marathoners run every race there is & they dun allow sufficient recovery time. I know of some runners who runs one race in KL at nite & then drive all the way to JB for a marathon in the morning. & she's a senior vet. I thought that was just too much. Sometimes U feel fit, but nobody knows what's underneath, especially if U haven't done any medical check ups.
I've signed up with a healthcare provider for annual medical checkups for the next 5 years. My wifey & I did our first one last year. So with that I hope I can detect if there's anything wrong with me at an early stage. Maybe all marathoners, or athletes shud do the same. When I was cycling with the Selangor team, we had medical checkups every year before we start the season.
The thing is very active ppl, they sometimes believe becoz they lead a healthy lifestyle, nothing can happen to them. That they're immune to cardiovascular diseases like heart disease & all. They shud really take a deeper look at that matter. Athletes consume a great deal of isotonic drinks & those drinks contain lotsa sugar. We run like there's no tomorrow & we dun allow our body to recover from that effort. As the saying goes, too much of anything, even good things can be bad for you. We live in denial just becoz we think we're healthy & nothing can happen to us.
I've been more selective in my choice of races since last year. Last year I ran 12 races (or was it 14 ?) & I think that's too much. But some ppl ran like 20-25 events, half of them are 21km or more. I ran 4 half maras last year. & this year, even in June, I'm only running my 2nd half mara, although I did run the Malakoff 26km in March. I think 4-5 half maras is my max. 10-15km races is different becoz they dun exactly exert that much effort from our body. I've been more selective in terms of events that I use as training, events that I really wanna do well in.
Sometimes things that we thought is doing us good, is actually doing more harm to our body & health than we thought it would. So, it's actually a virtue to live in moderation.
Livestrong.
The volleyball game was great. The only thing bad was that while diving to retrieve a ball I'd scratched my Newtons a bit. My bad. I shud've known better than to use my race shoes for a volleyball game. I ran back to the office after the game. Good workout overall.
At home I was feeling some pain again. My plantar fasciitis. This really puzzles me. I just dunno what else to do. Maybe some ibuprofen would help. But I dunno where to get it.
Well, as a build up to the race, which is this Sunday, I'm drinking lotsa water. This is important to stay hydrated. Just wanna keep myself hydrated & well-oiled for Sunday. I've some pace options in mind. & I'll see how I feel in the 1st half of the race. My target is to break 2 hours of course.
Death of a marathon runner.
Earlier this month Sammy Wanjiru, 2008 Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist was killed in an apparent suicide. But that's got nothing to do with cardiovascular weakness or anything, he jumped off a corridor in his house. The death I wanna talk about is one that was brought up in LYNet forum this morning.
A friend of a forumer died of heart attack. He said that the deceased was a marathon runner. So he urged everybody to do medical check up & dun assume that becoz U run marathons, Ur in perfect health.
What he said makes perfect sense to me. Sometime ago I read a study that found marathoners who run too much, they have weaker blood vessel. The reason was that those marathoners run every race there is & they dun allow sufficient recovery time. I know of some runners who runs one race in KL at nite & then drive all the way to JB for a marathon in the morning. & she's a senior vet. I thought that was just too much. Sometimes U feel fit, but nobody knows what's underneath, especially if U haven't done any medical check ups.
I've signed up with a healthcare provider for annual medical checkups for the next 5 years. My wifey & I did our first one last year. So with that I hope I can detect if there's anything wrong with me at an early stage. Maybe all marathoners, or athletes shud do the same. When I was cycling with the Selangor team, we had medical checkups every year before we start the season.
The thing is very active ppl, they sometimes believe becoz they lead a healthy lifestyle, nothing can happen to them. That they're immune to cardiovascular diseases like heart disease & all. They shud really take a deeper look at that matter. Athletes consume a great deal of isotonic drinks & those drinks contain lotsa sugar. We run like there's no tomorrow & we dun allow our body to recover from that effort. As the saying goes, too much of anything, even good things can be bad for you. We live in denial just becoz we think we're healthy & nothing can happen to us.
I've been more selective in my choice of races since last year. Last year I ran 12 races (or was it 14 ?) & I think that's too much. But some ppl ran like 20-25 events, half of them are 21km or more. I ran 4 half maras last year. & this year, even in June, I'm only running my 2nd half mara, although I did run the Malakoff 26km in March. I think 4-5 half maras is my max. 10-15km races is different becoz they dun exactly exert that much effort from our body. I've been more selective in terms of events that I use as training, events that I really wanna do well in.
Sometimes things that we thought is doing us good, is actually doing more harm to our body & health than we thought it would. So, it's actually a virtue to live in moderation.
Livestrong.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Moment of Truth
Pacesetters NB 15K 2011
I realized today that I haven't wrote anything about my last race, the PACM NB 15K. The race was just about 2 weeks after PSP2011 & my preparation for that race was far from ideal. I had plantar fasciitis just after PSP, so I took a week's rest, just swimming & doing weights. I had to attend a course in Melaka, so I took that opportunity to rest summore. The hotel I stayed in had a swimming pool & a gym. I ran on the treadmill for 45 mins & felt good. Not that the injury had gone away, but it seemed that it didn't really gave me any problem anymore.
I haven't done any long runs in May, as I prepared for PSP. Thus my mileage for May was less than 60km, less than half the previous month's mileage. But the NB was only 15K, & it's in Putrajaya, so I guess it was gonna be fine. About a week from the race, the organizers scrambled an email to participants telling that the race will start at 6.30am instead of 7.00. I guess the hot weather nowadays made them think twice.
I wanted to take the race as training, becoz I didn't really train for the race. But these days, I guess I can run any distance below 21km without so much of a training. I know I can finish, the question is just how fast. I'd set my target pace to be between 6:00 - 6:30, good enuff to finish the race in 1:30 hrs.
LYNet runners had planned to meet up before the run, although I got to the start pretty early, I didn't go to the meet up point. I struggled with my Garmin at the start... sigh. 3 months already & I haven't mastered the usage of this seemingly complex device. Even during the run, the target pace alarm seemed to not functioning correctly. I'm really puzzled by this.
Well, the run went well. I maintained my target pace throughout & didn't really feel that bad. Only with 2km to go did I really put the hammer down becoz I knew where the finish line is & I know I was able to sustain that pace, about 4:30 - 5:00, for that distance. & I hit the line at 1:30:00 flat. Not bad. Given my conditions. Not bad at all.
Workload
I'm currently handling more workload at work, more than before. But it was to be expected becoz I was recently promoted & also becoz I was among the most senior PSU at my section, I was given some extra tasks. I dun mind all that. But what bothers me is the "lain-lain tugas yang diarahkan dari semasa ke semasa" thingy. U know, we oughta remove that clause from our job description. Becoz that gives the opportunity for our bosses to give whatever task to ask without us having any say on it. Heck, it seemed like that is my main task nowadays. & worse, if U get a hard time from Ur boss from Ur perceived inability to focus on that job. Which job exactly ?
My baby
My wifey is now almost 8 months into her pregnancy. That means in a little over a month's time, I'ma be a father. I really hope & pray that the baby would change some of the aspects of my life, for the better. I dun really know what's gonna happen of course. How the baby would change me. Change my life. All I know is that I can't wait to have him into our family.
Livestrong.
I realized today that I haven't wrote anything about my last race, the PACM NB 15K. The race was just about 2 weeks after PSP2011 & my preparation for that race was far from ideal. I had plantar fasciitis just after PSP, so I took a week's rest, just swimming & doing weights. I had to attend a course in Melaka, so I took that opportunity to rest summore. The hotel I stayed in had a swimming pool & a gym. I ran on the treadmill for 45 mins & felt good. Not that the injury had gone away, but it seemed that it didn't really gave me any problem anymore.
I haven't done any long runs in May, as I prepared for PSP. Thus my mileage for May was less than 60km, less than half the previous month's mileage. But the NB was only 15K, & it's in Putrajaya, so I guess it was gonna be fine. About a week from the race, the organizers scrambled an email to participants telling that the race will start at 6.30am instead of 7.00. I guess the hot weather nowadays made them think twice.
I wanted to take the race as training, becoz I didn't really train for the race. But these days, I guess I can run any distance below 21km without so much of a training. I know I can finish, the question is just how fast. I'd set my target pace to be between 6:00 - 6:30, good enuff to finish the race in 1:30 hrs.
LYNet runners had planned to meet up before the run, although I got to the start pretty early, I didn't go to the meet up point. I struggled with my Garmin at the start... sigh. 3 months already & I haven't mastered the usage of this seemingly complex device. Even during the run, the target pace alarm seemed to not functioning correctly. I'm really puzzled by this.
Well, the run went well. I maintained my target pace throughout & didn't really feel that bad. Only with 2km to go did I really put the hammer down becoz I knew where the finish line is & I know I was able to sustain that pace, about 4:30 - 5:00, for that distance. & I hit the line at 1:30:00 flat. Not bad. Given my conditions. Not bad at all.
Workload
I'm currently handling more workload at work, more than before. But it was to be expected becoz I was recently promoted & also becoz I was among the most senior PSU at my section, I was given some extra tasks. I dun mind all that. But what bothers me is the "lain-lain tugas yang diarahkan dari semasa ke semasa" thingy. U know, we oughta remove that clause from our job description. Becoz that gives the opportunity for our bosses to give whatever task to ask without us having any say on it. Heck, it seemed like that is my main task nowadays. & worse, if U get a hard time from Ur boss from Ur perceived inability to focus on that job. Which job exactly ?
My baby
My wifey is now almost 8 months into her pregnancy. That means in a little over a month's time, I'ma be a father. I really hope & pray that the baby would change some of the aspects of my life, for the better. I dun really know what's gonna happen of course. How the baby would change me. Change my life. All I know is that I can't wait to have him into our family.
Livestrong.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Dealing with injury
Here we go again. I've got a week to go before my target race, the Standard Chartered KL Marathon.. & now I'm down with shin splints so bad that just to squat in the toilet is a challenge for me. Now I've to find a way to train for the half marathon, with a target time of sub-2 hour, without running. I'm not quite sure where I am now in terms of fitness, I haven't done a long run for 2 months already. Why ?
Well, first, some background. After PSP, I was down with plantar fasciitis that I decided to take a week off. But everybody knows that my week off isn't exacly "off". As long as my other limbs are moving, I will do some training of any sort, just to keep things moving. If I can't run then I'll swim, bike or lift weights. If I can't do all three then there's something really wrong with me or my body. That means I'm really down. Okay, after I decided that my plantar fasciitis was okay, I began to run, just to accumulate mileage so that 21km won't come as a shock. But I guess at my level now, I know I can finish 21km, the question is how fast ? So I did lotsa 10km tempos, race-sims, etc. But then my shins started to give me problems.
For me, the shin splints comes & go. It never really did go away. I'm very much puzzled why is it so. Shin splints normally happens to very heavy runners, those with less than efficient stride or those who run with shoes with bad cushioning. I dun belong to any of those categories, albeit, I might be a little on the heavy side. I ran PACM 15K without any problems, & managed to clock a respectable time, despite my taking it somewhat easy. & 2 days ago I did a great 10K tempo without so much of hint that I had shin splints. But on Friday, on an easy run, it hurt so much that I had to walk the rest of the way. Why ?
& yesterday I was supposed to do a 2hr LSD, my last prep for SCKLM. I had to call it off after 4km, & had to walk back. I was wearing my compression tights & to have that kinda injury even with compression wear on, that's serious. The first person I called once I got back to my bike was my friend Hardy, a physio who works with MSN. Unfortunately he was on his way to Singapore, so I had to wait for him to come back next week. I really need an expert opinion, I'm scared that the injury might be more severe than I thought. Worse, a fracture.
So now I have to resort to riding my stationary bike, go swimming & lift weights. Or all three at once. Hopefully it'll heal before Sunday. Last year it was the same situation before Putrajaya Night Marathon. Let's hope I can come away unscathed from this one.
Livestrong.
Well, first, some background. After PSP, I was down with plantar fasciitis that I decided to take a week off. But everybody knows that my week off isn't exacly "off". As long as my other limbs are moving, I will do some training of any sort, just to keep things moving. If I can't run then I'll swim, bike or lift weights. If I can't do all three then there's something really wrong with me or my body. That means I'm really down. Okay, after I decided that my plantar fasciitis was okay, I began to run, just to accumulate mileage so that 21km won't come as a shock. But I guess at my level now, I know I can finish 21km, the question is how fast ? So I did lotsa 10km tempos, race-sims, etc. But then my shins started to give me problems.
For me, the shin splints comes & go. It never really did go away. I'm very much puzzled why is it so. Shin splints normally happens to very heavy runners, those with less than efficient stride or those who run with shoes with bad cushioning. I dun belong to any of those categories, albeit, I might be a little on the heavy side. I ran PACM 15K without any problems, & managed to clock a respectable time, despite my taking it somewhat easy. & 2 days ago I did a great 10K tempo without so much of hint that I had shin splints. But on Friday, on an easy run, it hurt so much that I had to walk the rest of the way. Why ?
& yesterday I was supposed to do a 2hr LSD, my last prep for SCKLM. I had to call it off after 4km, & had to walk back. I was wearing my compression tights & to have that kinda injury even with compression wear on, that's serious. The first person I called once I got back to my bike was my friend Hardy, a physio who works with MSN. Unfortunately he was on his way to Singapore, so I had to wait for him to come back next week. I really need an expert opinion, I'm scared that the injury might be more severe than I thought. Worse, a fracture.
So now I have to resort to riding my stationary bike, go swimming & lift weights. Or all three at once. Hopefully it'll heal before Sunday. Last year it was the same situation before Putrajaya Night Marathon. Let's hope I can come away unscathed from this one.
Livestrong.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
PSP2011 post mortem..
The 2011 Pesta Sukan Perbendaharaan was concluded recently, with my personal medal tally at 0-0-3.. 3 bronze medals from 4 events. That means I failed to medal only in 1 of the event that I signed for. How does that compare to my performance last year, with 1 gold medal ?
Javelin
I kicked off my PSP2011 campaign with the javelin. I was the defending champion of course. I felt that I've made significant progress since then. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with my performance in the javelin, I got 3rd with 33.15m, which was shorter than my gold-medal winning throw last year of 35m. But the winner threw a 36m & the 2nd-placed thrower had a 33.80m. But the difference between us could've been a mere 1mm & still that would've separated between gold, silver & bronze. What went wrong ?
For starters, out of 6 regulations throws, I only managed to register 1 good throw, that was my 33.15m. The rest was either fouled or purposely fouled by me, due to lousy distance. But I wasn't happy with that. Last year all my regulation throws was over 30m. I think that had to do with my technique. If I wanna maintain this event as my pet event, I gotta train more, get a coach to correct my technique or something.
U see, in javelin I was considered the favorite, even before the PSP started. I'd bought a javelin spike before PSKK last year, & my warm-up routine would send shivers down my opponents necks... half the battle was won before the event started.. it was me who failed to live up to their expectations. Shame on me. I also felt my body, even though it was stronger than last year, wasn't strong enuff. There was no power. Maybe the reason was that my weight program didn't really included power exercises. I did do some power-specific workouts about 2 weeks before, but it wasn't enuff. It was even more evident during the discus event. I'll come to that later.
This is what I wanna do next year. I'ma use my contacts at MSN & SSBJ to find a javelin coach. I just need the coach to tell me whts wrong with my technique & form so tht I could fix it. I wanna do javelin-specific training at least 2 months before & I wanna throw farther than 45m. That's a big ask. But I wanna do it. I must do it.
Medley
This is one event that I didn't even expect to run. Even Pengurusan wasn't supposed to run it becoz we couldn't find anybody to run it. We managed to put together a team out of nothing & we had to ask permission from managers of the rest of the team becoz we didn't register. I think they thought our team was just making up the numbers. I also thought the same. In fact, I was thinking to run in my jeans even..
Then Diana made a great start & managed to pass the baton to En Wahid in 3rd position.. En Wahid surprisingly managed to hold 3rd, but the gap was growing. Then Hazizi was further left behind & the 4th placed runner was making up ground. I received the baton & ran the last leg of 400m. I've never run 400m before. I just ran as fast as I could on the bend when the other 2 runners was already entering the back straight. Surprisingly I felt really fine & I was able to hold my speed & saw that I was gaining ground on them & was increasing the gap on the 4th placed runner. I managed to enter the home stretch & increased my speed even further, but failed to catch the front runners. If there was another lap I would've been able to catch & even passed them.. I was very sure of that, judging on my speed & my ability to hold that speed.
That event was an eye opener of sorts for me. I had the speed & the endurance to run 400m at a competitive time. I might do that event next year, I was confident enuff to think that I can even run the 400m relay.
10,000m
I had to skip this event last year due to a calf injury. During my absence last year, a guy from Keselamatan got 2nd with a pretty good time of 54++. Before the event I wasn't sure how I'd do.. at the previous week's Larian Bomba I managed to do 58 mins over almost 11km. So I was confident I repeat that in the track. There was one issue : the discus event will be held about 2hrs right after the 10k. So that would put me in a difficulty. Discus was a new event for me.
There was only 7 ppl in the starting lineup. Only 4 looked like runners. There was a new threat, Kimi from Housing. I knew he played football & he has good built of a distance runner. Afri from Keselamatan was also there & of course the defending champion Amri was ever-present. I've always said that in this event we're only fighting for 2nd place.
We started off late, at 8am. My goal for this event was just to improve on my previous best, I ran a 59mins in 2009, the 1st time I did this event. I followed Amri as long as I could & lasted 3 laps behind him before I decided to peel off. Kimi was able to stay almost halfway before Amri decided to up the pace. I couldn't find Afri until he went past me at maybe lap 10. I kept him within striking distance.
At one point I felt like quitting so that I could conserve my enery for the discus. But with 7-8 laps Afri was slowing down considerably & I was right behind him. I was thinking whether I shud just stay behind him until about 2-3 laps to go before going past him. But I could see that he was really losing speed so I surged past him with 5 laps to go. I wasn't sure if I could maintain the pace all the way to the finish, so I just kept on pressing. After a while I could no longer here anybody close to me from behind, I crossed the line at 3rd with a new personal best of 54:50.03. That gave me my 3rd & last medal of PSP2011.
Discus
I've never did the discus in my life. But I've always imagined throwing the discus & I felt that I was able to do the event quite well. During training I never did get a grasp on the discus technique, it was far more complicated than it seemed. Nevertheless, becoz I've committed myself to the event, I went on with it.
The event was just after I completed my 10K, less than a couple of hours. I had prepared for this as soon as I saw the schedule, so I made 2 bottles of Endurox instead of the usual 1. But my strength never did came back & I did only 1 throw of over 20m. The rest was rubbish. & the winner got something like 25m. I knew I was already out of it, so I skipped the last throw. I guess that was gonna be my very last throw indeed.
Choices....
I really need to make some serious choices. I'm doing 4 events of a completely different nature. I need to lighten up for the 10K, but if I was too light then I couldn't generate enuff power for the throwing events. But I really have some bulking up to do. This PSP also served as an eye opener that I could actually do middle distance events quite well, the 400, 800 & maybe the mile. I guess I'ma need to do more gym & field work at least 6 weeks before the actual event. & I'm gonna drop the discus event, there's no point competing just to make up the numbers. I'ma try more events next year, insya Allah.
Until then, Livestrong.
Javelin
I kicked off my PSP2011 campaign with the javelin. I was the defending champion of course. I felt that I've made significant progress since then. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with my performance in the javelin, I got 3rd with 33.15m, which was shorter than my gold-medal winning throw last year of 35m. But the winner threw a 36m & the 2nd-placed thrower had a 33.80m. But the difference between us could've been a mere 1mm & still that would've separated between gold, silver & bronze. What went wrong ?
For starters, out of 6 regulations throws, I only managed to register 1 good throw, that was my 33.15m. The rest was either fouled or purposely fouled by me, due to lousy distance. But I wasn't happy with that. Last year all my regulation throws was over 30m. I think that had to do with my technique. If I wanna maintain this event as my pet event, I gotta train more, get a coach to correct my technique or something.
U see, in javelin I was considered the favorite, even before the PSP started. I'd bought a javelin spike before PSKK last year, & my warm-up routine would send shivers down my opponents necks... half the battle was won before the event started.. it was me who failed to live up to their expectations. Shame on me. I also felt my body, even though it was stronger than last year, wasn't strong enuff. There was no power. Maybe the reason was that my weight program didn't really included power exercises. I did do some power-specific workouts about 2 weeks before, but it wasn't enuff. It was even more evident during the discus event. I'll come to that later.
This is what I wanna do next year. I'ma use my contacts at MSN & SSBJ to find a javelin coach. I just need the coach to tell me whts wrong with my technique & form so tht I could fix it. I wanna do javelin-specific training at least 2 months before & I wanna throw farther than 45m. That's a big ask. But I wanna do it. I must do it.
Medley
This is one event that I didn't even expect to run. Even Pengurusan wasn't supposed to run it becoz we couldn't find anybody to run it. We managed to put together a team out of nothing & we had to ask permission from managers of the rest of the team becoz we didn't register. I think they thought our team was just making up the numbers. I also thought the same. In fact, I was thinking to run in my jeans even..
Then Diana made a great start & managed to pass the baton to En Wahid in 3rd position.. En Wahid surprisingly managed to hold 3rd, but the gap was growing. Then Hazizi was further left behind & the 4th placed runner was making up ground. I received the baton & ran the last leg of 400m. I've never run 400m before. I just ran as fast as I could on the bend when the other 2 runners was already entering the back straight. Surprisingly I felt really fine & I was able to hold my speed & saw that I was gaining ground on them & was increasing the gap on the 4th placed runner. I managed to enter the home stretch & increased my speed even further, but failed to catch the front runners. If there was another lap I would've been able to catch & even passed them.. I was very sure of that, judging on my speed & my ability to hold that speed.
That event was an eye opener of sorts for me. I had the speed & the endurance to run 400m at a competitive time. I might do that event next year, I was confident enuff to think that I can even run the 400m relay.
10,000m
I had to skip this event last year due to a calf injury. During my absence last year, a guy from Keselamatan got 2nd with a pretty good time of 54++. Before the event I wasn't sure how I'd do.. at the previous week's Larian Bomba I managed to do 58 mins over almost 11km. So I was confident I repeat that in the track. There was one issue : the discus event will be held about 2hrs right after the 10k. So that would put me in a difficulty. Discus was a new event for me.
There was only 7 ppl in the starting lineup. Only 4 looked like runners. There was a new threat, Kimi from Housing. I knew he played football & he has good built of a distance runner. Afri from Keselamatan was also there & of course the defending champion Amri was ever-present. I've always said that in this event we're only fighting for 2nd place.
We started off late, at 8am. My goal for this event was just to improve on my previous best, I ran a 59mins in 2009, the 1st time I did this event. I followed Amri as long as I could & lasted 3 laps behind him before I decided to peel off. Kimi was able to stay almost halfway before Amri decided to up the pace. I couldn't find Afri until he went past me at maybe lap 10. I kept him within striking distance.
At one point I felt like quitting so that I could conserve my enery for the discus. But with 7-8 laps Afri was slowing down considerably & I was right behind him. I was thinking whether I shud just stay behind him until about 2-3 laps to go before going past him. But I could see that he was really losing speed so I surged past him with 5 laps to go. I wasn't sure if I could maintain the pace all the way to the finish, so I just kept on pressing. After a while I could no longer here anybody close to me from behind, I crossed the line at 3rd with a new personal best of 54:50.03. That gave me my 3rd & last medal of PSP2011.
Discus
I've never did the discus in my life. But I've always imagined throwing the discus & I felt that I was able to do the event quite well. During training I never did get a grasp on the discus technique, it was far more complicated than it seemed. Nevertheless, becoz I've committed myself to the event, I went on with it.
The event was just after I completed my 10K, less than a couple of hours. I had prepared for this as soon as I saw the schedule, so I made 2 bottles of Endurox instead of the usual 1. But my strength never did came back & I did only 1 throw of over 20m. The rest was rubbish. & the winner got something like 25m. I knew I was already out of it, so I skipped the last throw. I guess that was gonna be my very last throw indeed.
Choices....
I really need to make some serious choices. I'm doing 4 events of a completely different nature. I need to lighten up for the 10K, but if I was too light then I couldn't generate enuff power for the throwing events. But I really have some bulking up to do. This PSP also served as an eye opener that I could actually do middle distance events quite well, the 400, 800 & maybe the mile. I guess I'ma need to do more gym & field work at least 6 weeks before the actual event. & I'm gonna drop the discus event, there's no point competing just to make up the numbers. I'ma try more events next year, insya Allah.
Until then, Livestrong.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Energizer Night Race 2011
ENR2011 was my first half marathon for 2011. I've been preparing for the race for a good 10 weeks, following the same plan I followed last year, which was Ryan Hall's training plan. But I guess this year I was able to follow maybe 80% of the plan, compared to just maybe 60-70% last year. & for that I'd expected to be in a better shape this year. The race turned out to be an event to remember, partly becoz of my running but mostly due to the very unorganized nature of the race, with a lot of firsts for me.
Race Build-up
Although I tried to stick to my training plan as much as I can, there was some things that we can't really control. After I came back from Penang for Malakoff, I got sick & never really recovered until last 3-4 days before ENR. & I really dunno the exact reason. I had sore throat that seemed to go on forever. I took maybe 3 days break after Malakoff, but the thing was that I was never able to train at the level that I was supposed to even after that break. I even had to cut short my final long distance the week before ENR becoz I was so tired. I had trouble keeping to my target pace & a host of other problems. So my race build up was far from ideal.
New equipment
I've been considering a new training watch for quite sometime. I've been using my Polar RS300sd for more than a year (since Oct. 9th, 2009). Of course I had experience with Polar before during my cycling days so it was fine. But the more complicated my training becomes, the more I feel the shortcomings of the Polar unit. Especially during intervals.
So I began to study Garmin products. Particularly the Forerunner 210. It was one of a newer model from Garmin targetted at intermediate runners. It was on sale for RM945 during last month's PC Expo but at that time I didn't think much of it. But after much studying, I decided to go for it thru one of the resellers. Unfortunately the deal was called off even after I'd placed a deposit for the product as it didn't include the footpod. Of course the 210 is a GPS device, but I also do intervals indoors on treadmills, so a footpod is necessary. I decided to wait for the PC Fair.
Unfortunately the distributor didn't have any stock ready during the PC Fair. I'd taken a day's off just so that I can go to the PC Fair (something I've not done for quite sometime, I used to be a loyal visitor to PC Fairs) to get it at RM899. After much consideration, I decided to go for the current top-of-the-line Forerunner, the 410. It costs only RM200 more with more features, but still without the footpod. But I guess that'll have to do for the moment. & guess what ? I bought the 410 just 4 hours before I was supposed to start the ENR.
Equipment choice.
Shoes. I've been training with my new Asics Gel Speedstar 5 for about 120km, including the Malakoff. But something was just not right. I'd even replaced the laces with Lock Laces. It was light alright, but I guess I need more time with it. So I decided to go with my tried & tested Newton Neutral Racer. I used it for my final hillsprints on Thursday.
Tights/shorts. This was an easy choice. I bought CW-X compression tights just 2 weeks before the race & although I only had less than 10km with it, it was so comfy that I decided to use it for the race instead of my usual Nike running tights. Good choice.
Vest. I had two choices for tops. Usually I'd use my fire engine red Nike vest, which was really, really light. But after I bought the green-colored Speedstar 5 I bought another similar Nike vest in green as well. I thought it was the same as the red one, but it was different. & although it was the same size, the green one felt roomier. So I went with the green one.
Tackonz. After Malakoff I bought one of those Tackonz from Azam. With Tackonz I dun need to use pins to stick the racebib to my vest. & tht'll put my bib belt out of action as well. But it turned out that sticking the bib with the Tackonz was not as easy as I'd thought.
Ultimate Directions fuel belt. I went with it as usual & this time I really needed it coz the water stations was just disastrous. I also brought 3 GU gels with me, the 1st time I'm using Gu for races, usually it was Powergel.
Headgear. I decided not to wear any caps, instead I went with just my Oakleys.
The Race.
I got to the circuit pretty early, at about 6:45. So I waited to perform my maghrib prayers before proceeding to the start line. The start line was pretty far from the entrance where the surau is, so I did my warm up on the way there. I didn't see any counter or signages that points to the headlights collection, & when I got to where it was supposed to be, all that was left was just empty boxes. No matter, I thought, one less thing to carry.
Once I got to the track, I made my way to the start & I saw one group of runners was flagged off. It was the marathon runners. I'd earlier thought they were flagged off much earlier, at 6pm or something. With a 7:45 start time, it's gonna be way too late for even the average runner to finish the marathon. It'll take at least 4 hrs I'd reckon. So a 7:45pm start is very, very late.
I dun even know those in the starting area was the half marathon runners. I knew the start time was 8pm, but there was no announcement or reminders. Even as the so-called race director brief there was no mention of the category. He was busy reminding everybody where the water stations are & for everyone to step onto the timing mat. It was really bizarre to have just one small timing mat, which was no bigger than a lane on normal road, for 5000 runners to step onto. That will comeback to haunt us later in the evening.
My raceplan was run between 6:15-7:00 pace in the 1st 11km & then run at my goal pace, 5:45-6:15 until the end. Half marathoners will have to do one loop round the outside of the circuit, then re-enter the circuit & do another 2 laps. Each lap inside was about 5.5km. I was able to go faster than my planned pace for the 1st 11km, although I did try to stay below 6:15 for fear of blowing off too early. Nevertheless, I felt good & light, which was a good sign. True enuff, the water stations was a chaos, I didn't make a single water stop at the water stations, relying entirely on my bottles. I also didn't see a single sponge on the road, although the race program said that there will be sponging stations at every water station.
I'd programmed my 410 to give audible alert to enable me to stay within the planned pace. But becoz I'd locked the bezel, I couldn't activate the backlight or change the view, so I had to totally rely on the alarms. The reason for this was I read in many reviews of the 410 the bezel could be accidentally activated even by rocking motion.. so in my quest for a personal best I wouldn't want any misreading from the 410. So I locked the bezel. More on this later (in my review of the 410, hopefully). I thought there were 2 water stations on the outside loop, but there was one long stretch of road that was unlit, unsupported & unescorted... if any bad thing were to happen during that stretch, help would be very slow.
Once we reentered the circuit, there was some light & I finally can read the 410's display. We've only covered about 9km, so I guess the overall distance would be short by at least 2km. I decided to wait until 10km for my feeding, I didn't really feel that hungry anyway. But once we hit the starting area, I saw one whole bunch of runners... they've just flagged off the 5.5/11km runners !!! I knew there would be disaster.. that's the risk of running in laps. 10,000 ppl running in a 5.5km lap can't be good, there will be confusions. Before we reentered the circuit we were given a marker band. Then before we start the 2nd inner lap we were given another, but no one seemed to keep track of which category got how many bands. I got 3 I think, I dunno how many we were supposed to get. Then at the start of the 2nd lap everybody had to step onto the timing mat again, that caused a considerable loss of pace on my part..maybe tht was where I lost the 3 mins required to break my 2-hr target. I saw at the line I was at 1:16, so I guess I was really on track to break the 2hrs... too good to be true actually.
In the second lap I really put down the hammer all the way. I was running out of water & I began to feel the need to have another gel. But becoz I didn't have enuff water left, I was worried I won't have enuff to wash the gel down. I was hoping that by the 2nd lap, at least one of the water stations would've been cleared enuff so that I can have at least some water. But it was still the same. So I pressed on. For some reason, my 410 stopped giving the pace alert, so I didn't really know how fast I was. I just ran as fast as I could without risking a bonk. So at the finishing straight I switched on the KERS system (?) & clocked 2:03:50... besting my previous record at Setia Alam by about a minute. That was a high point for a nite of lows..
There was two long lines along the track, almost as long as the pit area, I knew that was the queue for the goodie bags. Nobody greet us at the end, there was no clearly marked finishing gate, nobody handed over water or any sorta drink... I decided to just skip the goodie bags & headed back to the parking area, where I knew 2 bottles of Gatorade would be waiting.. I was close to collapsing in the walk to the parking, the tunnel was still empty at this time, around 10pm.. in the news everybody was complaining about the stuffed tunnel. I could only imagine. I had to take the gels or I would've bonked bad.
Once I got to my bike I straightaway guzzled one bottle of Gatorade right after another. What a relief. I'd forgot to prepare my Endurox.. heck, I didn't even had them when I got home. But at that time, nothing in the world tasted better than the Grapefruit flavor Gatorades... Nicol David never looked more beautiful. After putting on my track bottoms & changing to a long sleeved shirt, I headed home. Once I got to the outside loop, there was still some marathoners just beginning their second lap. & there was still 3 inner laps to do. I can only imagine... with the water stations poorly manned, no medic on sight... haih.
I was happy that I managed to improve on my previous best. But I was less than happy becoz I didn't go below 2 hrs. But considering the less than ideal build up that I had, coupled with a bunch of other external factors that might have slowed me down, I couldn't really ask for more. But ENR2011 left a lot of bad memory to a lot of runners. It was the first race that I didn't get a single thing from the organizer, not even a bottle of mineral water. I heard the situation was so bad police had to be called to control the very angry crowd. What a dark night for Malaysian running scene.
Livestrong.
Race Build-up
Although I tried to stick to my training plan as much as I can, there was some things that we can't really control. After I came back from Penang for Malakoff, I got sick & never really recovered until last 3-4 days before ENR. & I really dunno the exact reason. I had sore throat that seemed to go on forever. I took maybe 3 days break after Malakoff, but the thing was that I was never able to train at the level that I was supposed to even after that break. I even had to cut short my final long distance the week before ENR becoz I was so tired. I had trouble keeping to my target pace & a host of other problems. So my race build up was far from ideal.
New equipment
I've been considering a new training watch for quite sometime. I've been using my Polar RS300sd for more than a year (since Oct. 9th, 2009). Of course I had experience with Polar before during my cycling days so it was fine. But the more complicated my training becomes, the more I feel the shortcomings of the Polar unit. Especially during intervals.
So I began to study Garmin products. Particularly the Forerunner 210. It was one of a newer model from Garmin targetted at intermediate runners. It was on sale for RM945 during last month's PC Expo but at that time I didn't think much of it. But after much studying, I decided to go for it thru one of the resellers. Unfortunately the deal was called off even after I'd placed a deposit for the product as it didn't include the footpod. Of course the 210 is a GPS device, but I also do intervals indoors on treadmills, so a footpod is necessary. I decided to wait for the PC Fair.
Unfortunately the distributor didn't have any stock ready during the PC Fair. I'd taken a day's off just so that I can go to the PC Fair (something I've not done for quite sometime, I used to be a loyal visitor to PC Fairs) to get it at RM899. After much consideration, I decided to go for the current top-of-the-line Forerunner, the 410. It costs only RM200 more with more features, but still without the footpod. But I guess that'll have to do for the moment. & guess what ? I bought the 410 just 4 hours before I was supposed to start the ENR.
Equipment choice.
Shoes. I've been training with my new Asics Gel Speedstar 5 for about 120km, including the Malakoff. But something was just not right. I'd even replaced the laces with Lock Laces. It was light alright, but I guess I need more time with it. So I decided to go with my tried & tested Newton Neutral Racer. I used it for my final hillsprints on Thursday.
Tights/shorts. This was an easy choice. I bought CW-X compression tights just 2 weeks before the race & although I only had less than 10km with it, it was so comfy that I decided to use it for the race instead of my usual Nike running tights. Good choice.
Vest. I had two choices for tops. Usually I'd use my fire engine red Nike vest, which was really, really light. But after I bought the green-colored Speedstar 5 I bought another similar Nike vest in green as well. I thought it was the same as the red one, but it was different. & although it was the same size, the green one felt roomier. So I went with the green one.
Tackonz. After Malakoff I bought one of those Tackonz from Azam. With Tackonz I dun need to use pins to stick the racebib to my vest. & tht'll put my bib belt out of action as well. But it turned out that sticking the bib with the Tackonz was not as easy as I'd thought.
Ultimate Directions fuel belt. I went with it as usual & this time I really needed it coz the water stations was just disastrous. I also brought 3 GU gels with me, the 1st time I'm using Gu for races, usually it was Powergel.
Headgear. I decided not to wear any caps, instead I went with just my Oakleys.
The Race.
I got to the circuit pretty early, at about 6:45. So I waited to perform my maghrib prayers before proceeding to the start line. The start line was pretty far from the entrance where the surau is, so I did my warm up on the way there. I didn't see any counter or signages that points to the headlights collection, & when I got to where it was supposed to be, all that was left was just empty boxes. No matter, I thought, one less thing to carry.
Once I got to the track, I made my way to the start & I saw one group of runners was flagged off. It was the marathon runners. I'd earlier thought they were flagged off much earlier, at 6pm or something. With a 7:45 start time, it's gonna be way too late for even the average runner to finish the marathon. It'll take at least 4 hrs I'd reckon. So a 7:45pm start is very, very late.
I dun even know those in the starting area was the half marathon runners. I knew the start time was 8pm, but there was no announcement or reminders. Even as the so-called race director brief there was no mention of the category. He was busy reminding everybody where the water stations are & for everyone to step onto the timing mat. It was really bizarre to have just one small timing mat, which was no bigger than a lane on normal road, for 5000 runners to step onto. That will comeback to haunt us later in the evening.
My raceplan was run between 6:15-7:00 pace in the 1st 11km & then run at my goal pace, 5:45-6:15 until the end. Half marathoners will have to do one loop round the outside of the circuit, then re-enter the circuit & do another 2 laps. Each lap inside was about 5.5km. I was able to go faster than my planned pace for the 1st 11km, although I did try to stay below 6:15 for fear of blowing off too early. Nevertheless, I felt good & light, which was a good sign. True enuff, the water stations was a chaos, I didn't make a single water stop at the water stations, relying entirely on my bottles. I also didn't see a single sponge on the road, although the race program said that there will be sponging stations at every water station.
I'd programmed my 410 to give audible alert to enable me to stay within the planned pace. But becoz I'd locked the bezel, I couldn't activate the backlight or change the view, so I had to totally rely on the alarms. The reason for this was I read in many reviews of the 410 the bezel could be accidentally activated even by rocking motion.. so in my quest for a personal best I wouldn't want any misreading from the 410. So I locked the bezel. More on this later (in my review of the 410, hopefully). I thought there were 2 water stations on the outside loop, but there was one long stretch of road that was unlit, unsupported & unescorted... if any bad thing were to happen during that stretch, help would be very slow.
Once we reentered the circuit, there was some light & I finally can read the 410's display. We've only covered about 9km, so I guess the overall distance would be short by at least 2km. I decided to wait until 10km for my feeding, I didn't really feel that hungry anyway. But once we hit the starting area, I saw one whole bunch of runners... they've just flagged off the 5.5/11km runners !!! I knew there would be disaster.. that's the risk of running in laps. 10,000 ppl running in a 5.5km lap can't be good, there will be confusions. Before we reentered the circuit we were given a marker band. Then before we start the 2nd inner lap we were given another, but no one seemed to keep track of which category got how many bands. I got 3 I think, I dunno how many we were supposed to get. Then at the start of the 2nd lap everybody had to step onto the timing mat again, that caused a considerable loss of pace on my part..maybe tht was where I lost the 3 mins required to break my 2-hr target. I saw at the line I was at 1:16, so I guess I was really on track to break the 2hrs... too good to be true actually.
In the second lap I really put down the hammer all the way. I was running out of water & I began to feel the need to have another gel. But becoz I didn't have enuff water left, I was worried I won't have enuff to wash the gel down. I was hoping that by the 2nd lap, at least one of the water stations would've been cleared enuff so that I can have at least some water. But it was still the same. So I pressed on. For some reason, my 410 stopped giving the pace alert, so I didn't really know how fast I was. I just ran as fast as I could without risking a bonk. So at the finishing straight I switched on the KERS system (?) & clocked 2:03:50... besting my previous record at Setia Alam by about a minute. That was a high point for a nite of lows..
There was two long lines along the track, almost as long as the pit area, I knew that was the queue for the goodie bags. Nobody greet us at the end, there was no clearly marked finishing gate, nobody handed over water or any sorta drink... I decided to just skip the goodie bags & headed back to the parking area, where I knew 2 bottles of Gatorade would be waiting.. I was close to collapsing in the walk to the parking, the tunnel was still empty at this time, around 10pm.. in the news everybody was complaining about the stuffed tunnel. I could only imagine. I had to take the gels or I would've bonked bad.
Once I got to my bike I straightaway guzzled one bottle of Gatorade right after another. What a relief. I'd forgot to prepare my Endurox.. heck, I didn't even had them when I got home. But at that time, nothing in the world tasted better than the Grapefruit flavor Gatorades... Nicol David never looked more beautiful. After putting on my track bottoms & changing to a long sleeved shirt, I headed home. Once I got to the outside loop, there was still some marathoners just beginning their second lap. & there was still 3 inner laps to do. I can only imagine... with the water stations poorly manned, no medic on sight... haih.
I was happy that I managed to improve on my previous best. But I was less than happy becoz I didn't go below 2 hrs. But considering the less than ideal build up that I had, coupled with a bunch of other external factors that might have slowed me down, I couldn't really ask for more. But ENR2011 left a lot of bad memory to a lot of runners. It was the first race that I didn't get a single thing from the organizer, not even a bottle of mineral water. I heard the situation was so bad police had to be called to control the very angry crowd. What a dark night for Malaysian running scene.
Livestrong.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Malakoff 2011 Penang
Finally I get to run in my first race of 2011. It's been quite slow ths year, well, I would've ran in my first race early ths month @ Bareno, but I had to skip that one becoz I had to go kayaking in Langkawi. I've never run more than a half marathon, so 26km, although just 5 km longer than a standard half marathon distance, is gonna be challenging. After I came back from Langkawi I did a 23km LSD just to prepare myself for the distance. I did that in a little under 3 hrs, averaging around 7:38. My race plan was to go easy (somewhat) in the 1st half, then push up to my half marathon goal pace in the 2nd half. Good enuff I guess.
Trip to Penang
I went to Penang with Azam, we've been running pretty much together in races since early 2010. We've agreed to share the hotel room, along with Chin Leong, another runner from the LY Net forum. Chin Leong would meet up with us @ Penang while I drove from KL with Azam.
It was raining pretty much all the way from Ipoh I think.. & the rain didn't stop in Penang. It was raining when we collected the racekit, & it didn't stop until we went out for dinner at about 8pm. As soon as we checked into the room, we went out for lunch, I was starving, Azam as well & we went to town. After that I was just trying to get as much rest as I can, but it was difficult coz my stomach was so full. Nevertheless, I did manage an hour's powernap.
For dinner we went to Padang Kota. Penang is known for it's very winding & confusing roads, so I was lucky Azam was there as my navigator, we found most places in a matter of mins. It started raining again while we were having dinner... I had RM8 worth of pasembur, one of Penang's signature food. On the way back we stopped at a petrol station to buy some food for breakfast.
The Race
It was still raining when I went to bed, but luckily it stopped when we got up. The starting point was just a walking distance from our hotel. But I guess we were among the last runners to leave the hotel..
My race plan was simple. As I wanted to treat this race as a race-sim, I'd spend the 1st half in a comfortable pace, then push to race pace after the halfway mark. In total there was less than a thousand runners, so the crowd seemed so small. When we went out for dinner, we saw the course markings & thought the course would be flat. We were dead wrong. About 3km into the race, we hit the biggest, longest climb I've ever ran in a race. It was about a kilometer & half long... It reminded me of my days racing in Penang. Penang race was my favorite race becos of the climbs. I didn't have much problem tackling the climbs, I didn't push that hard.
The halfway point was at the Esplanade. The sky was just about to open up when we got there. But it did for just a moment so all was well. & I really opened up to my half marathon goal pace once past the halfway point. But the bad thing was that I was only able to maintain that pace for maybe 6K, then I slowed a bit & when I hit the 21K mark I was virtually slamming on the brakes. Not a strange thing but, my limit seemed to be 21K... after that I realized that I had another 5K to go & I was starting to wobble badly... so bad that I had to walk for maybe 2-3K...something I've never done in a race.
It was a lesson learned with great pain. But after the race I guess it was okay. I got to the finish line alone... & the announcer said,"Here comes a runner, on green shoes with matching green tops !" Hahah... it was really funny. The skies really did open up as soon as I finished my post race meal, so we had to stay there until the rain stopped. Azam had finished about 5 mins earlier & Chin Leong got to the finish in 3hrs plus...
All in all it was a good trip to Penang & although I really suffered in the last 5K, I think I'ma come back nxt year.
Livestrong.
Trip to Penang
I went to Penang with Azam, we've been running pretty much together in races since early 2010. We've agreed to share the hotel room, along with Chin Leong, another runner from the LY Net forum. Chin Leong would meet up with us @ Penang while I drove from KL with Azam.
It was raining pretty much all the way from Ipoh I think.. & the rain didn't stop in Penang. It was raining when we collected the racekit, & it didn't stop until we went out for dinner at about 8pm. As soon as we checked into the room, we went out for lunch, I was starving, Azam as well & we went to town. After that I was just trying to get as much rest as I can, but it was difficult coz my stomach was so full. Nevertheless, I did manage an hour's powernap.
For dinner we went to Padang Kota. Penang is known for it's very winding & confusing roads, so I was lucky Azam was there as my navigator, we found most places in a matter of mins. It started raining again while we were having dinner... I had RM8 worth of pasembur, one of Penang's signature food. On the way back we stopped at a petrol station to buy some food for breakfast.
The Race
It was still raining when I went to bed, but luckily it stopped when we got up. The starting point was just a walking distance from our hotel. But I guess we were among the last runners to leave the hotel..
My race plan was simple. As I wanted to treat this race as a race-sim, I'd spend the 1st half in a comfortable pace, then push to race pace after the halfway mark. In total there was less than a thousand runners, so the crowd seemed so small. When we went out for dinner, we saw the course markings & thought the course would be flat. We were dead wrong. About 3km into the race, we hit the biggest, longest climb I've ever ran in a race. It was about a kilometer & half long... It reminded me of my days racing in Penang. Penang race was my favorite race becos of the climbs. I didn't have much problem tackling the climbs, I didn't push that hard.
The halfway point was at the Esplanade. The sky was just about to open up when we got there. But it did for just a moment so all was well. & I really opened up to my half marathon goal pace once past the halfway point. But the bad thing was that I was only able to maintain that pace for maybe 6K, then I slowed a bit & when I hit the 21K mark I was virtually slamming on the brakes. Not a strange thing but, my limit seemed to be 21K... after that I realized that I had another 5K to go & I was starting to wobble badly... so bad that I had to walk for maybe 2-3K...something I've never done in a race.
It was a lesson learned with great pain. But after the race I guess it was okay. I got to the finish line alone... & the announcer said,"Here comes a runner, on green shoes with matching green tops !" Hahah... it was really funny. The skies really did open up as soon as I finished my post race meal, so we had to stay there until the rain stopped. Azam had finished about 5 mins earlier & Chin Leong got to the finish in 3hrs plus...
All in all it was a good trip to Penang & although I really suffered in the last 5K, I think I'ma come back nxt year.
Livestrong.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
The urge to venture into multievent sport..
Ever since I can remember being in a competitive sport, I've always been involved in several sports at the same time. But currently of course I've been focusing on running as my main sport, but at the same time I do play badminton, I still can hold my own in basketball & of course swimming & weightlifting have been part of my routine.
I'm pretty big & well-built for a runner. In fact, most ppl dun really believe that I run in half marathons. & since I am a pretty good swimmer, ppl thought that I was a triathlete. My previous involvement in cycling made that possibility even stronger. Some of my friends, especially those who knew me as a cyclist before, encouraged me to venture into triathlon. I would've.. & I think that if I hadn't sold my bike back in 2001, I would've been involved in triathlon.
Triathlon is a combo of 3 very challenging events : swim, bike & run. There are several distances for a triathlon event: the sprint, olympic & ironman. The sprint is the shortest distance, 750m swim, 40K bike & 10K run. The Olympic is as the name suggested, is the distance competed during the Olympics : 1.5K swim, 80K bike & 21K run. The Ironman is the most challenging of all, especially since the world championships has always been held in Kona, Hawaii : 3K swim, 180K bike & a full marathon. Just to run a full marathon is an achievement in itself, imagine the what a challenge it would be to run a full marathon after swimming for 3K & being on the bike for 6 hrs... extraordinary.
My weakest leg would be the swimming. While I'm a pretty good swimmer, a strong one I am not. I couldn't last 200m continuously. Maybe with training I can. I dun think the bike leg would give me any problems, but still, I need to train.
Perhaps the biggest problem is I dun have a bike. Bikes nowadays costs an arm & a leg. RM4000 would proly get U a mediocre steel/aluminium frame with entry level Shimano Sora/Tiagra components. If I'm lucky maybe I can find some bikes with SRAM Red parts. I dunno how good the bikes can be & to invest that much on a bike.. well, I need to do some CAF.
Recently though, I've been reading articles about duathlon. This is for me a much more doable sport as it consists of run, bike, run. I was researching about its popularity in the country. The event has the support of a pretty big corporation : Malakoff. Malakoff has been organizing events in th country & the biggest event is the Malakoff duathlon in Lumut. It also organizes the Duathlon University championships, consisting 3 or more events throughout the year. If I wanna invest in a RM4000 bike, I wanna make sure there's enuff events for me. & 4-5 events a year sounds just fine.
What fascinates me about this multievent sports is the ages of the participants. In the recently concluded Ironman World Championships, the winner was 38 years old & more than 60% of the participants are 35 or older. I'm gonna be 35 this year. Of course my target have always been to run in a full marathon by next year, which is a definite possibility, insya Allah. So the question now remains : shud I buy a bike ?
When & if that happens, competing in duathlons are a very interesting & definite prospect.
Livestrong.
I'm pretty big & well-built for a runner. In fact, most ppl dun really believe that I run in half marathons. & since I am a pretty good swimmer, ppl thought that I was a triathlete. My previous involvement in cycling made that possibility even stronger. Some of my friends, especially those who knew me as a cyclist before, encouraged me to venture into triathlon. I would've.. & I think that if I hadn't sold my bike back in 2001, I would've been involved in triathlon.
Triathlon is a combo of 3 very challenging events : swim, bike & run. There are several distances for a triathlon event: the sprint, olympic & ironman. The sprint is the shortest distance, 750m swim, 40K bike & 10K run. The Olympic is as the name suggested, is the distance competed during the Olympics : 1.5K swim, 80K bike & 21K run. The Ironman is the most challenging of all, especially since the world championships has always been held in Kona, Hawaii : 3K swim, 180K bike & a full marathon. Just to run a full marathon is an achievement in itself, imagine the what a challenge it would be to run a full marathon after swimming for 3K & being on the bike for 6 hrs... extraordinary.
My weakest leg would be the swimming. While I'm a pretty good swimmer, a strong one I am not. I couldn't last 200m continuously. Maybe with training I can. I dun think the bike leg would give me any problems, but still, I need to train.
Perhaps the biggest problem is I dun have a bike. Bikes nowadays costs an arm & a leg. RM4000 would proly get U a mediocre steel/aluminium frame with entry level Shimano Sora/Tiagra components. If I'm lucky maybe I can find some bikes with SRAM Red parts. I dunno how good the bikes can be & to invest that much on a bike.. well, I need to do some CAF.
Recently though, I've been reading articles about duathlon. This is for me a much more doable sport as it consists of run, bike, run. I was researching about its popularity in the country. The event has the support of a pretty big corporation : Malakoff. Malakoff has been organizing events in th country & the biggest event is the Malakoff duathlon in Lumut. It also organizes the Duathlon University championships, consisting 3 or more events throughout the year. If I wanna invest in a RM4000 bike, I wanna make sure there's enuff events for me. & 4-5 events a year sounds just fine.
What fascinates me about this multievent sports is the ages of the participants. In the recently concluded Ironman World Championships, the winner was 38 years old & more than 60% of the participants are 35 or older. I'm gonna be 35 this year. Of course my target have always been to run in a full marathon by next year, which is a definite possibility, insya Allah. So the question now remains : shud I buy a bike ?
When & if that happens, competing in duathlons are a very interesting & definite prospect.
Livestrong.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Training revisited
Beginning February I've started my half marathon training, with the target being going below 2hrs & the targetted race is 2011 Energizer Nite Race which will be held in .. or shud I say, around the Sepang F1 circuit. Although after a couple of years racing, the ideal course to target a personal best is Setia Alam, I was cautious about having that as a target event. Why ? Becoz as of today, no date has been set for that race. Although traditionally, it's always been around April or May. But then again, once I reached the peak of my training, which shud be around mid April, I'd reckon that I can hold that form for about 2 months. Hopefully I can do exactly that. If that happens, then I can still target Setia Alam, which has grown to become my favorite hunting ground so far.
I'm now into the end of the 4th week of the program, which takes 10 weeks to complete. The issue is dividing between running & weights. I'm also into Week 4 of my weight training program, which is divided into 2 phases of 4 weeks each. After the end of the 4th week, I'll take a week's break from lifting. Currently my program is being laid out like this:
Monday : Intervals
Tuesday : Rest
Wednesday : Weights
Thursday : Tempo run
Friday : weights
Saturday : Long
Sunday : rest
After a month I found that my rest days are too close together & by Friday I've become really tired from all the weights & road pounding. Also, having to run tempo immediately after a very intense weight session is taking it's toll on my body. Yesterday I was supposed to run 25 mins tempo at 10K goal pace. While I was able to complete 25 mins, the pace was nowhere near my 10K goal pace. Why ? Becoz I felt really stiff in my lowerback & legs.. result of almost 200lbs of deadlifts, split squats & also reverse lunges I did the day before. So after the very frustrating run yesterday, I began to rethink my program layout. This is what I've come out with :
Monday : Weights
Tuesday : Intervals
Wednesday : Rest
Thursday : Tempo run
Friday : weights
Saturday : Long
Sunday : rest
So the changes is on Monday & Tuesday. Although I still have to do the intervals after the weights on Monday, I think it's better this way. Becoz now my program is spread out 2-1-3-1, with the rest days more evenly spread out throughout the week. Intervals are mostly short sprints or mile-repeats at most, so stiff muscles shudn't be a problem. But still, I'ma test it out beginning next week & hopefully this will yield a better result.
I did my Polar VO2 max test last week & I'm still in my 58s, which is good. & the weights I'm lifting, is the heaviest I've ever lifted, thanks to a better understanding of breathing technique & a better form. Nevertheless, I'd welcome the week's break from lifting, to give my body time to develop & grow.
Good luck & Livestrong.
I'm now into the end of the 4th week of the program, which takes 10 weeks to complete. The issue is dividing between running & weights. I'm also into Week 4 of my weight training program, which is divided into 2 phases of 4 weeks each. After the end of the 4th week, I'll take a week's break from lifting. Currently my program is being laid out like this:
Monday : Intervals
Tuesday : Rest
Wednesday : Weights
Thursday : Tempo run
Friday : weights
Saturday : Long
Sunday : rest
After a month I found that my rest days are too close together & by Friday I've become really tired from all the weights & road pounding. Also, having to run tempo immediately after a very intense weight session is taking it's toll on my body. Yesterday I was supposed to run 25 mins tempo at 10K goal pace. While I was able to complete 25 mins, the pace was nowhere near my 10K goal pace. Why ? Becoz I felt really stiff in my lowerback & legs.. result of almost 200lbs of deadlifts, split squats & also reverse lunges I did the day before. So after the very frustrating run yesterday, I began to rethink my program layout. This is what I've come out with :
Monday : Weights
Tuesday : Intervals
Wednesday : Rest
Thursday : Tempo run
Friday : weights
Saturday : Long
Sunday : rest
So the changes is on Monday & Tuesday. Although I still have to do the intervals after the weights on Monday, I think it's better this way. Becoz now my program is spread out 2-1-3-1, with the rest days more evenly spread out throughout the week. Intervals are mostly short sprints or mile-repeats at most, so stiff muscles shudn't be a problem. But still, I'ma test it out beginning next week & hopefully this will yield a better result.
I did my Polar VO2 max test last week & I'm still in my 58s, which is good. & the weights I'm lifting, is the heaviest I've ever lifted, thanks to a better understanding of breathing technique & a better form. Nevertheless, I'd welcome the week's break from lifting, to give my body time to develop & grow.
Good luck & Livestrong.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Rezeki anak
The past few weeks have been very interesting for me & my wife of course. I've been able to restructure my financial commitments to the point that we have nothing to pay for monthly.. well, at least nothing major.. except for my personal loan & car, the rest are just normal utility bills. This is what ppl call rezeki anak, & I certainly am very thankful to Allah for everything that has happened.
The Batmobile
I still have problems believing that I'm driving a new car, & although that car is not really my dream car, which is Mazda 6, it is still my kinda car, sport-sedan. Of course, for someone who's been driving a beaten-down Iswara before, to drive this car now is like a dream come true. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning & open the front door to see my Batmobile, I still can't believe my eyes that the car is in my front porch.
The car's been great. I've yet to fix the spoiler, I hope to be able to do that this weekend. I believe with the spoiler will give the car that rally-car look. I've always liked rally cars, no doubt about that.
Expensive lesson learned.
I bought a New Balance 759 shoes a couple of months ago. At that time I was really optimistic about the shoes & the fit. But even after almost 100km I still couldn't adjust to it & in the end I concluded that the toebox is just too wide. My toes had too much play & that's made me feel very uncomfortable up front, especially on long runs. My toes really hurt after long training runs, something I've never experienced before. So I went back to my Newtons & instantly the problems disappear.
I thought I'd taken everything into consideration before deciding on that shoes. I did, but the mistake was to buy the same size as my other shoes, which had normal width toebox. The 759 had 2E toebox, so I shud've bought a size or half a size smaller. That would've settled it. Now I'm using my RM320 shoes just for easy runs, becoz during easy runs I'll go easy & it's less than an hour, so my toes won't hurt that much.
After that very expensive mistake, I think I'll just stick to what works for me. That is, I'ma buy the same shoes so that I dun have to take time to adjust to the fit of a new shoes. So I'ma buy another Newton, to be used as my race shoes. I know Newton works.
During my 2-mile interval yesterday, I was using my old Adizero Ace. I thought that even after almost 300km the shoe still performs admirably. & I began to compare it to my new Asics Hyperspeed 3. The Asics is lighter of course, but it didn't have that spring in the form of Adidas Torsion plate. I had a very pleasant run with that Torsion plate in place, it helps propel my feet forward. With the Asics there was no such assistance, I had to carry my feet forward.
I think I'ma stop experimenting with shoes & just stick to what is tried & tested. It's kinda expensive for me to try new shoes & the result is uncertain. So, I've decided to stick to Newtons for long distance & Adizero Ace for short ones. Tht shud do it.
Pregnancy
Yesterday I went to HUKM with my wife for her regular check up. The baby is now almost 15 weeks old. & the baby is in perfect health. Scans show that my wife had a lump called fibroid in the womb, but the doc assured that it's normal. Okay. well, 21 weeks to go...
The Batmobile
I still have problems believing that I'm driving a new car, & although that car is not really my dream car, which is Mazda 6, it is still my kinda car, sport-sedan. Of course, for someone who's been driving a beaten-down Iswara before, to drive this car now is like a dream come true. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning & open the front door to see my Batmobile, I still can't believe my eyes that the car is in my front porch.
The car's been great. I've yet to fix the spoiler, I hope to be able to do that this weekend. I believe with the spoiler will give the car that rally-car look. I've always liked rally cars, no doubt about that.
Expensive lesson learned.
I bought a New Balance 759 shoes a couple of months ago. At that time I was really optimistic about the shoes & the fit. But even after almost 100km I still couldn't adjust to it & in the end I concluded that the toebox is just too wide. My toes had too much play & that's made me feel very uncomfortable up front, especially on long runs. My toes really hurt after long training runs, something I've never experienced before. So I went back to my Newtons & instantly the problems disappear.
I thought I'd taken everything into consideration before deciding on that shoes. I did, but the mistake was to buy the same size as my other shoes, which had normal width toebox. The 759 had 2E toebox, so I shud've bought a size or half a size smaller. That would've settled it. Now I'm using my RM320 shoes just for easy runs, becoz during easy runs I'll go easy & it's less than an hour, so my toes won't hurt that much.
After that very expensive mistake, I think I'll just stick to what works for me. That is, I'ma buy the same shoes so that I dun have to take time to adjust to the fit of a new shoes. So I'ma buy another Newton, to be used as my race shoes. I know Newton works.
During my 2-mile interval yesterday, I was using my old Adizero Ace. I thought that even after almost 300km the shoe still performs admirably. & I began to compare it to my new Asics Hyperspeed 3. The Asics is lighter of course, but it didn't have that spring in the form of Adidas Torsion plate. I had a very pleasant run with that Torsion plate in place, it helps propel my feet forward. With the Asics there was no such assistance, I had to carry my feet forward.
I think I'ma stop experimenting with shoes & just stick to what is tried & tested. It's kinda expensive for me to try new shoes & the result is uncertain. So, I've decided to stick to Newtons for long distance & Adizero Ace for short ones. Tht shud do it.
Pregnancy
Yesterday I went to HUKM with my wife for her regular check up. The baby is now almost 15 weeks old. & the baby is in perfect health. Scans show that my wife had a lump called fibroid in the womb, but the doc assured that it's normal. Okay. well, 21 weeks to go...
Friday, January 7, 2011
Training benchmark
Let me tell what I think about intensity & training.
I've been involved in sports for more than half of my 35 years living on this earth. I've been involved in competitive sports, up until the highest regional level, & now I consider myself a fitness enthusiast & I still play some games just for fun although the bulk of my activity consist of running & weights. I've always been interested in sports science & have always applied sports science in whatever sports I'm playing.
There's no right or wrong methods when it comes to training. But there are some fitness myths & urban legends I'd say, some which are totally incorrect. Some methods work for some ppl, it might not work for some ppl. Some believe in high intensity training, some dun. There are millions of studies dome by reputable institutions. But those studies sometimes are done with specific samples, & most of them are done by countries like Australia, USA, European countries which are already far ahead of us in terms of sports science. & the results for those studies normally are never concrete or set in stone, they are merely suggestions. If U read these studies U'll notice the word "suggest" & its derivatives used extensively.
Back in the early 90s the belief is that to burn more fat U have to exercise at 60% of Ur max heart rate. Then when there were more improvements in the technology, we discovered that max heart rate is not a correct benchmark to be used in training or exercising, they came out with AT or anaerobic threshold, the point where human body is in the state of oxygen-debt. Then some scientists suggest that LT or Lactate Threshold is a better benchmark. LT is the point where our muscles began to produce lactic acid. This benchmark was used by the 1996 US Olympic team in their training. so which one is correct ?
I believe that if U want quick results & if Ur an athlete, high intensity is the way to go. But I shud warn that high intensity is not for everybody, merely becoz of the punishment it gives to Ur body. & it might be very demotivating for some ppl. So for these ppl, it's perfectly okay to go slow, at 60% of Ur max heart rate. This will work for working ppl, ppl who just wanna do something to burn excess energy or fat. But the trade off is the effect might be so slow that by the time U notice it, U've began to counter the effects by eating, etc.
Perhaps the best way is to mix it up. If U study most training programs for most athletes, there are the so-called hard days, in which U really push Urself at the highest intensity. These are the days that is most effective in Ur training, Ur training under race conditions. Then there are tempo days, in which U train at a high intensity but not high enuff to match race/competition conditions. Then there are easy days, in which U go really, really easy. I believe this is the best way to maximize fat-burning & to increase endurance & lose some weight.
Livestrong.
I've been involved in sports for more than half of my 35 years living on this earth. I've been involved in competitive sports, up until the highest regional level, & now I consider myself a fitness enthusiast & I still play some games just for fun although the bulk of my activity consist of running & weights. I've always been interested in sports science & have always applied sports science in whatever sports I'm playing.
There's no right or wrong methods when it comes to training. But there are some fitness myths & urban legends I'd say, some which are totally incorrect. Some methods work for some ppl, it might not work for some ppl. Some believe in high intensity training, some dun. There are millions of studies dome by reputable institutions. But those studies sometimes are done with specific samples, & most of them are done by countries like Australia, USA, European countries which are already far ahead of us in terms of sports science. & the results for those studies normally are never concrete or set in stone, they are merely suggestions. If U read these studies U'll notice the word "suggest" & its derivatives used extensively.
Back in the early 90s the belief is that to burn more fat U have to exercise at 60% of Ur max heart rate. Then when there were more improvements in the technology, we discovered that max heart rate is not a correct benchmark to be used in training or exercising, they came out with AT or anaerobic threshold, the point where human body is in the state of oxygen-debt. Then some scientists suggest that LT or Lactate Threshold is a better benchmark. LT is the point where our muscles began to produce lactic acid. This benchmark was used by the 1996 US Olympic team in their training. so which one is correct ?
I believe that if U want quick results & if Ur an athlete, high intensity is the way to go. But I shud warn that high intensity is not for everybody, merely becoz of the punishment it gives to Ur body. & it might be very demotivating for some ppl. So for these ppl, it's perfectly okay to go slow, at 60% of Ur max heart rate. This will work for working ppl, ppl who just wanna do something to burn excess energy or fat. But the trade off is the effect might be so slow that by the time U notice it, U've began to counter the effects by eating, etc.
Perhaps the best way is to mix it up. If U study most training programs for most athletes, there are the so-called hard days, in which U really push Urself at the highest intensity. These are the days that is most effective in Ur training, Ur training under race conditions. Then there are tempo days, in which U train at a high intensity but not high enuff to match race/competition conditions. Then there are easy days, in which U go really, really easy. I believe this is the best way to maximize fat-burning & to increase endurance & lose some weight.
Livestrong.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
New Balance MR759
New for 2011 !!!
This would proly be the only running shoes I'll be able to acquire for the new season 2011. Reason being I've gotta save some money for our upcoming baby (8 months away though) & I actually have 3 active shoes from last year. More on that later.
I bought this shoe using the 30% discount coupon I got from Penang Bridge. I'd planned to use it on a new pair of heavy, durable trainer as a replacement for my Newton Neutral Racer, which has been upgraded as my half marathon race shoes. All runners will get that New Balance 30% off coupon by entering any NB-sponsored race & this is the 1st time I've used the coupon. My decision to buy my first ever NB shoes is based on the fact that NB actually makes one of the best running shoes & it doesn't actually cost tht much. I've been eager to try NB & I guess the time is right.
I've been considering a few NB models, one of them is lightweight trainer/racer 828. But what I need is actually a shoe tht can go the distance, more than 500km. So far only my Mizuno Wave Aero has ever achieved 500km or more. So after much consideration, I finally settled on the not-so-heavyweight & neutral MR759.
The 759 is categorized as a cushioning shoe in NB website. & for a good reason. The amount of cushioning is just massive. NB's best cushioning shoe is 1064 & the 759 is the lightest of the cushioning shoes at 11oz. Heel drop is massive, the heel is even taller than my retired Mizuno Crusader 2. Not really a surprise with Abzorb cushioning.
The highlight of the NB cushioning technology is the Abzorb, which is placed at the heel. These looks just like Nike's Shox elastomers, albeit maybe a bit softer. But since I'm a predominantly a forefoot striker, it's very likely that the heel cushioning will barely be able to see action. I had to search 2-3 shopping malls before finally finding the size US11 I need for this shoe. Normally I'd take a size 11.5 or 12, but the shoe fits wide, so 11 is fine for me. The wide forefoot makes this shoe feels very roomy upfront, & I had to tie my laces extra tight to prevent heel slippage. I tried to tie my shoes differently but with that lacing it felt a little tight & restrictive of my heel movement. So I decided to go with the conventional lacing.
Much thought has been given into the design of the shoe & also the outsole, signifying the wide experience of New Balance in producing running shoes. The outer part of the forefoot & inner part of the rearfoot was built with a very durable Ndurance material. The 1064 had a very thin Abzorb material at the forefoot, which aids in forefoot cushioning, but I found it too heavy & thick, which sacrifices road feel. & it's very comfortable, proly my most comfy shoes to date. The extra width, the extra cushioning all contributed to the comfort. The forefoot is thick enuff to give extra cushioning but thin enuff to allow sufficient road feel. I've yet to try this shoe for LSD runs, but I bet it's gonna be superb & proly I can go further with less fatigue.
With a pricetag of RM300 (RM230 after discount), this shoes is a real bargain. Looking forward to an enhanced running experience with the 759.
Livestrong.
This would proly be the only running shoes I'll be able to acquire for the new season 2011. Reason being I've gotta save some money for our upcoming baby (8 months away though) & I actually have 3 active shoes from last year. More on that later.
I bought this shoe using the 30% discount coupon I got from Penang Bridge. I'd planned to use it on a new pair of heavy, durable trainer as a replacement for my Newton Neutral Racer, which has been upgraded as my half marathon race shoes. All runners will get that New Balance 30% off coupon by entering any NB-sponsored race & this is the 1st time I've used the coupon. My decision to buy my first ever NB shoes is based on the fact that NB actually makes one of the best running shoes & it doesn't actually cost tht much. I've been eager to try NB & I guess the time is right.
I've been considering a few NB models, one of them is lightweight trainer/racer 828. But what I need is actually a shoe tht can go the distance, more than 500km. So far only my Mizuno Wave Aero has ever achieved 500km or more. So after much consideration, I finally settled on the not-so-heavyweight & neutral MR759.
The 759 is categorized as a cushioning shoe in NB website. & for a good reason. The amount of cushioning is just massive. NB's best cushioning shoe is 1064 & the 759 is the lightest of the cushioning shoes at 11oz. Heel drop is massive, the heel is even taller than my retired Mizuno Crusader 2. Not really a surprise with Abzorb cushioning.The highlight of the NB cushioning technology is the Abzorb, which is placed at the heel. These looks just like Nike's Shox elastomers, albeit maybe a bit softer. But since I'm a predominantly a forefoot striker, it's very likely that the heel cushioning will barely be able to see action. I had to search 2-3 shopping malls before finally finding the size US11 I need for this shoe. Normally I'd take a size 11.5 or 12, but the shoe fits wide, so 11 is fine for me. The wide forefoot makes this shoe feels very roomy upfront, & I had to tie my laces extra tight to prevent heel slippage. I tried to tie my shoes differently but with that lacing it felt a little tight & restrictive of my heel movement. So I decided to go with the conventional lacing.
Much thought has been given into the design of the shoe & also the outsole, signifying the wide experience of New Balance in producing running shoes. The outer part of the forefoot & inner part of the rearfoot was built with a very durable Ndurance material. The 1064 had a very thin Abzorb material at the forefoot, which aids in forefoot cushioning, but I found it too heavy & thick, which sacrifices road feel. & it's very comfortable, proly my most comfy shoes to date. The extra width, the extra cushioning all contributed to the comfort. The forefoot is thick enuff to give extra cushioning but thin enuff to allow sufficient road feel. I've yet to try this shoe for LSD runs, but I bet it's gonna be superb & proly I can go further with less fatigue.
With a pricetag of RM300 (RM230 after discount), this shoes is a real bargain. Looking forward to an enhanced running experience with the 759.
Livestrong.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
2011
Happy New Year !!! Well, okay, it's the 4th day of 2011 already & it may sound belated, but what the heck !! Well, as some of y'all might have known edi, the reason I'm very, very excited about 2011 is that my wife & I will be welcoming a new member to our family in 8 months' time !! Finally. After 7 pretty long & challenging years, we're gonna have a complete family. Allah knows how thankful I am for this mighty great gift. Although raising a kid in this era is no easy task, we're gonna try & be the best parent tht we can be.
Sick
Well, I celebrated 2011 with a cold. Lemme tell U tht cold is proly one illness that can really bring me down. Although in 2009, I ran the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 10K with a cold, it can really bother me sometimes. I didn't really know how it started, but I guess it was a culmination of all those outstation trips I've been to for the past 4 weeks or so, beginning with the JKTU recon trip early in December. Ending with the ascent up the pretty chilly Gunung Jerai in the final week of December, I guess I deserved the rest. I missed a couple of days of training as a result.
2011 season
I'ma have to do things slightly differently this season, as my wife's due in late August & I proly won't be able to do much for the rest of the year. So I'ma have to do all my major races before August. Last year I did some mistakes :
1. After PSKK I pretty much didn't follow a set program, everything was ad hoc
2. I put my running around my weight training,instead of vice versa
3. I screwed up big time on my weight training, resulting in an under-developed body
So to fix it this year, these are what I'm gonna do :
1. Focus on running up until May or June, around time for PSKK
2. During that period, I'ma run 4 times a week, & do weights twice, with 1 full rest day
3. I'ma try to run in 2 sessions on my running days, proly waking up early morning to do easy 30 mins, just to kick things off
4. I'ma set 2 races as my primary race to set my PB this year : the Energizer & Setia Alam
5. My PB target would be to go sub 2-hour, maybe 1:45-1:50 (very ambitious, but I'll try)
6. For PSP, I'ma focus on throwing & proly jumping event, most proly javelin, discus, triple & long jump.
7. If there's one track event I wanna do, it'd be the mile (1,500m)
8. For that period, it's gonna be 3 weights sessions per week.
Considering that my fastest 10K is 55 mins this year (distance is questionable though), a 1:45 half mara is pretty ambitious target. At that pace, I can finish the half mara in 1:56 proly. But that is my target & Ive got all the time in the world to work towards it.
My primary mistake this year was I designed my running training around my weights, which shud be the other way round. I'll refocus on weights for my field events.
Also, my wife's pregnancy means that I'ma have to train more closer to home. I'd proly have to do more weight work at home, since I have most of the equipment at home. Proly I'ma have to add some more weight plates & proly get another set of dumbbells.
Well, I hope this year will be a more successful year in terms of running. & I certainly hope our child will brighten up our lives more than ever before.
Livestrong.
Sick
Well, I celebrated 2011 with a cold. Lemme tell U tht cold is proly one illness that can really bring me down. Although in 2009, I ran the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 10K with a cold, it can really bother me sometimes. I didn't really know how it started, but I guess it was a culmination of all those outstation trips I've been to for the past 4 weeks or so, beginning with the JKTU recon trip early in December. Ending with the ascent up the pretty chilly Gunung Jerai in the final week of December, I guess I deserved the rest. I missed a couple of days of training as a result.
2011 season
I'ma have to do things slightly differently this season, as my wife's due in late August & I proly won't be able to do much for the rest of the year. So I'ma have to do all my major races before August. Last year I did some mistakes :
1. After PSKK I pretty much didn't follow a set program, everything was ad hoc
2. I put my running around my weight training,instead of vice versa
3. I screwed up big time on my weight training, resulting in an under-developed body
So to fix it this year, these are what I'm gonna do :
1. Focus on running up until May or June, around time for PSKK
2. During that period, I'ma run 4 times a week, & do weights twice, with 1 full rest day
3. I'ma try to run in 2 sessions on my running days, proly waking up early morning to do easy 30 mins, just to kick things off
4. I'ma set 2 races as my primary race to set my PB this year : the Energizer & Setia Alam
5. My PB target would be to go sub 2-hour, maybe 1:45-1:50 (very ambitious, but I'll try)
6. For PSP, I'ma focus on throwing & proly jumping event, most proly javelin, discus, triple & long jump.
7. If there's one track event I wanna do, it'd be the mile (1,500m)
8. For that period, it's gonna be 3 weights sessions per week.
Considering that my fastest 10K is 55 mins this year (distance is questionable though), a 1:45 half mara is pretty ambitious target. At that pace, I can finish the half mara in 1:56 proly. But that is my target & Ive got all the time in the world to work towards it.
My primary mistake this year was I designed my running training around my weights, which shud be the other way round. I'll refocus on weights for my field events.
Also, my wife's pregnancy means that I'ma have to train more closer to home. I'd proly have to do more weight work at home, since I have most of the equipment at home. Proly I'ma have to add some more weight plates & proly get another set of dumbbells.
Well, I hope this year will be a more successful year in terms of running. & I certainly hope our child will brighten up our lives more than ever before.
Livestrong.
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