Goodbye 2009 and Happy New Year 2010

This is my final entry for year 2009.

Just to recount what I have done in the running circuits this year:

1. Completed 1st and 2nd marathon runs but fell short of the sub-5 target. Ya need to try again..

2. Completed 2 half marathons - Bidor and Adidas King of the Road.
3. Completed a 20k race - Great Eastern run.

4. Completed a 15k race, a 12k race and 2 x 10k races.

5. Completed KL Towerthon.

A short list but it has been a tremendous year.

I look forward to 2010 and more friends joining races with me:)

Here it goes again...

Another one..

More on PBIM

I promised to write about the race report in the last entry but couldn't find time until now.

My PBIM trip started at about 12:30pm on Saturday when I head off from KL to Penang driving on my own. CP had travelled with his family a day earlier.

I couldn't join him because I still need to bring the kids to their Kumon class on Saturday morning.
I reached Sunway Hotel at about 4:30pm and went for a quick meal in a old restaurant at the famous New Lane just beside the hotel.

Then I sms to inform CP I'm here. He invited me to join his daughter's birthday party at his in-law's place in Island Glade. I joined them at around 7:30pm for a quick dinner. I must apologise to Ashley for not bringing her a present. I promise to get a bigger one next time:)

After the dinner, I head back to the hotel for a short nap, wake up at 12:00am and head to CP's place again at 12:40am to fetch him to the starting line.

Even though only 600 plus full marathon runners, the venue is surprisingly packed with a lot of people. Some even setup a camp there to save on hotel fee. There are a lot of quarter marathon and half marathon runners. Many of them are students.

The marathon started sharp on time at 2:30am, officiated by Penang Chief Minister YAB Lim Guan Eng. Drums rolling along the starting line to accompany all the runners. The atmosphere was magnificent.

Very different and well organised compared to the recent SCKLM.

I started the race fully charged and was setting quite a good pace, now proven to be too fast. Reached 5km mark at 27m40s.

After the u-turn near Seagate Plant, we headed to the bridge. I was still running at sub-6 mins pace. Reached 10km mark at 57m45s. I will suffer for this pace towards the end 3 hours later.

Running at the bridge was a nice experience. The sea breeze was cooling and I paced myself with someone who looked like a veteran runner from Melaka. We reached 15km mark at 1h31m10s.
I stopped at the banana station and grabbed 2 bananas. Proven to be another wrong decision. My stomach muscles started to get uncomfortable with the load in it.

The 20km mark is after turning back from the toll gate. I reached the mark at 2h05m03s. Just 5 mins above my PB for 20km. Still going strong.

We joined up with the half marathon runners just before the mid point of the bridge and the road is full of people after that until the 30km mark. The atmosphere was party-like with a lot of half marathon runners taking leisure walk at the bridge. I reached the 25km mark at 2h41m19s.

The 30km mark is after the turning to the Jelutong Expressway. I keep looking for the signboard indicating this distance but can't locate it during the run. Based on the GPS, I reached 30km at 3h20m17s. I need to beat this timing in the up coming Pacesetters 30k run.

I saw CP who is on his way back after the final u-turn somewhere between 30km to 35km. He looked tired. I called to give him a cheer.

After a long and suffering run at Jelutong Expressway I finally reached 35km mark at 4h01m41s and then 40km mark at 4h41m22s.

The distance measured by GPS and organiser's marker is completely out of synced after the 30km mark. The organiser placed the 35km marker at 33.9km according to the GPS but placed the 40km marker at about 41km based on the GPS.

Based on the GPS I reached 42.2km at 4h57m38s. In the final official result I did a 5h08m. GPS reading said the distance is 43.8km.

I think GPS is measuring actual travelled distance while the organiser is measuring the course distance.

CP was there as promised when I crossed the finishing line. He had to wait longer than expected because my sub-5 target didn't materialised this time. Nevermind I will try again, maybe sooner than expected:)

After the run I walked around to cool down and did some stretching to avoid any cramps. I went over to the medical tent to get some ice for the calves while CP waits for his wife who is doing the 10k fun run.

3 of us went over to Island Glade for breakfast before I said goodbye to them and head back to the hotel.

A friend who came back from UK called to meet up with him and a few others in G Plaza for a quick lunch before I depart home.

The journey back to home was quite tough since I didn't sleep the whole night and didn't have any rest after the run. I reached home after 6 hours of drive with many stops for rest. It's safer to take a public transport next time.

Signed off from PBIM 2009.

PBIM - the long journey

Running a full marathon definitely isn't in my new year resolution. I've surprised myself to have done it - twice.

I started going outdoor in late 2006 with a broken bike (it cost me RM149 from Tesco).

A couple of months later I stopped riding after a bad accident with my elder son.

Then I started to walk. I tried to run at the beginning but couldn't last for more than 5 minutes.

I continue this throughout 2007 and the target was to complete a 1000km journey. I did it with a daily routine of 4km a day. The routine started at 6am but sometime it's too late when the kids wake up so I changed it to 530 and at the end 5am.

2008 is the year I started to run more.

After the 1000km, I realised I have a better stamina and can run continuously for 4 to 5km. So I started to look around for a road race to participate. I was searching for something 5 or 6km but the nearest I could find is the Mizuno 10km run.

It's now a history but Mizuno 10k is the starting point of a more serious running engagement, leading to 2 marathon finishes this year.

I trained for the run, but unfortunately injured my big toe a day before the run in a company futsal game.

Despite the injury I still showed up and took that important first step with my buddies - Will, CP, Janice and James and it was hell limping all the way to the finish line.

That was the toughest run for me so far. In my mind it topped the final stretch along Jelutong Expressway last Sunday.

Nothing is ever the same again after that.

I participated in 2 more run - IOI 7km and Malakoff 12km that year.

A big breakthrough happened in Jan this year on a rainy Saturday morning. I did my first 20km run with CP, Ken Wei, Andre and Jon. It was the notorious 2 x reverse double hill route.

The next race I participated in was the Great Eastern 20k. I did my first sub 2 hours finish. I was feeling good even towards the end.

I can't remember how it all started but the thought of running full marathon started around that time. CP used to say - "Marathon is the furthest I would go". I must ask him again after his sub 4 finish last Sunday:)

After that 3 of us (CP, KW) started to train on longer distances. 21km, 25km, 28km and finally a 30km run. That's when I decided to commit myself to a marathon.

I registered online for PBIM on the first day, the 4th person to register for the full marathon and given the bib number of A00004.

Then came the news about SCKLM. At first we were not sure whether there is enough time to train for it. But after a lot of thought, all of us, including a surprised candidate Ravin, signed up for the race.

The rest of the stories on SCKLM can be found in this blog.

I continued to train after SCKLM and participated in a few more races. However my timing seems to have hit the plateau and can't improve further. On top of that I was constantly hit with knee problem and had to take it easy.

Despite all the difficulties, I'm glad to still manage to get in shape for PBIM and set a new PB.

In a positive way, I leave a lot of room for improvement and this will keep me motivated to continue my marathon journey.

Until the next race... PBIM race report coming up next...

PBIM - The result is out

That was fast. The organiser released the official result almost immediately after the race.

Here are some interesting facts:

1.654 participated in full marathon category. Only 66 women.
2. 520 from host country Malaysia. Singapore is the next largest with 46 followed by Kenya (14), Japan (13), Thailand (12) and USA (8).
3. Men Veteran outscored Men Open by 295 to 293.

4. 87 runners managed to get a sub-4 finish. Highest number of runners finished between 5:00 to 5:30.

5. My official result is 5:08:37. Position 157/293 in Men Open. 316/588 in All Men. 358/654 in All categories.
6. In term of Malaysia only. I'm 265/520 overall. 117/239 in Men Open. 246/484 in All Men.

Quick update from Penang Bridge Marathon 2009

Another mission accomplished.

Finished my 2nd marathon this morning with the time of 5 hours 08 minutes. A big improvement from the first one (5 hours 42 minutes).

The only regret is I didn't manage to get below 5 hours. Argh... it was so close.

Anyway it's a good lesson learnt for me. I pushed too hard too early in the run and as the consequence suffered badly from 30km onwards.

Next time I must know my realistic pace and pace it from the beginning. Call this pacing strategy:)

I started with a fast 5.5mins pace in the first 10k and slightly over 6mins until 20k. This sort of pace killed all energy storage in the muscles after 30k because I wasn't trained for it.

Anyway despite my underachievement, I was very happy to find out CP managed to do a sub 4 hours run. His finishing time is 3 hours 57 mins. What a blistering pace. The pace I can only dream of.

A BIG congratulation to him.

This sub-4 finish will make him one of the marathon elite in the running community. He even finished ahead of notable runners like Kenny Tan, Eugene, Frank etc.

New Lane

Due to late booking, all the places near Bayan Lepas have been fully booked.

So I end up staying in the Sunway Hotel beside New Lane road.

My friend from Penang told me this street is famous for its pork porridge and port intestine noodle (correct translation for 猪肠粉?).

I will try them tomorrow after my run.

Another thing, I just realised this place is very near to the Magazine road. No wonder the buildings look quite familiar when I was searching for the hotel.

I used to come here very often before schooling and when grandmother is still staying around here.

Final kilometres

After 16 weeks, 577km and various cross training, the hardest part of the journey is finally over:)

The last 42.2km shouldn't be that difficult and it should be over in less than 5 hours (I hope:).

I'll be heading to Penang after lunch today. Still need to settle the kids' kumon class, parent teacher day and the most important part, need to bring them for breakfast.

Hopefully there is time to take some rest before heading to Queenbay Mall tonight.

Wish me luck..

Final Checklist

I will be heading to Penang around noon tomorrow.

Here is the final checklist:

1. Running shoes (including a pair of spare shoes) with shocks

2. Bib and timing chip

3. Water belt and bottle

4. Accelerade powder

5. Power Gel x 2

6. Powerbar

7. Knee guard

8. Head band and a cap

9. Ipod nano

10. Watch

11. Phone charger

12. Spare clothes

13. Small plastic bag to protect the phone if it rains

14. Armband for the phone

Did I miss anything important?

Last push for PBIM

Last week's training went well according to the plan.

I managed to do my last long run (21km) on sunday and followed it up with a few 10k runs.

Total mileage logged is 70km. Highest mileage in a week so far.

I hope that will be enough to last me for the full distance. Let see whether this unconventional training method works or not.

Next week will be tapering and carbo loading week.

My plan is to continue with 5 to 6km easy run everyday until friday. Saturday will be rest day plus travelling to Penang.
I haven't book my accommodation in Penang yet. Anyone with spare room or bed to offer please let me know:)

PBIM race pack has arrived

The PBIM race pack reached me 2 days ago.

Nothing much inside.

1 running vest which look a bit too small and uncomfortable for me.

1 yellow backpack with DiGi's logo on it which I don't think I will carry. It's against my green nature:)

1 race guide with some speeches from Lim Guan Eng, DiGi's CEO etc. The running route in the guide is quite vague to me but perhaps I'm not living in Penang so can't really appreciate all the landmarks.

The rest are bits and pieces of sponsors' samples.

My race bib is A00004. The 4th person to register for the full marathon event at my age group. It would have been nice if I waited for 3 more persons to register ahead of me:)

Peak Mileage

Less than 12 days to Penang Bridge Marathon.. and I've yet to put in that "must do" 30k run to survive the full distance.

In fact my longest distance in a single run todate is 21.3k run which I did on Sunday.

Time to panic? No. I'm actually experimenting (or should I say gamble) with a training program that totalled up to 60k per week but with shorter daily run.

If this work, I will use it again in my future marathon trainings. It allows me to have better consistency in term of commitment. You don't feel like giving up before that 30k run or demoralised due to a bad run.

I started this method after I injured my right knee. Works well so far and my weekly mileage has exceeded 60k last week.

Will do another 60k this week before I taper off next week.

Yasso 800

This technique is discovered by Bart Yasso, the Chief Running Officer of Runner's World magazine.

It will help you to predict your marathon time with some adjustment depending on your running experience, type of course and weather condition.

Here is how it works, if you can run Yasso 800 (10 x 800 meters interval run with equal amount of jog in between) in 4:00 (min:sec) per interval then your marathon time will be 4:00 (hour:min).

So for those who are aiming to go for sub-4, you should test out at 3:50 per 800m with similar amount of jog time in between.

Bart Yasso said you need to make 10 to 15 mins adjustment for newbies. His definition of newbies is those who has run less than 10 marathons:)

One more thing, it is advisable to do this 2 weeks before the actual marathon date.

Not there yet

The knee is getting better after 2 weeks. My guess is it will take another week for it to be fully recovered.

Meantime I'm continuing my daily training with short runs. Slightly longer, upto 12k, during the weekend and keeping the pace slow and easy.

So far I have managed to build up a mileage of 55km last week.

Will continue with the same strategy next week and hopefully will recover in time for a 30km long run on saturday or sunday.

Mizuno Run 2009

It was a very productive week both in work and running.

I managed to get the mileage up again and hopefully can maintain it there for the next 3 weeks despite the knee problem.

My knee started acting up again after the 10k run on Monday. I managed to run through the slight pain throughout the week and the good thing is it didn't worsen.

The problem shifted to the right knee this time and it's quite different from the injury I had before SCKLM. This time the pain occur every time I stretch out my leg. So in order to prevent the pain, I have to land my leg as softly as possible and push it back further than usual to compensate.

Luckily this hasn't caused any big imbalance to the running style so far.

At first I wasn't quite sure whether this style of running will enable me to run at 6 mins pace until I tested it out in the Mizuno Run this morning. I has tested it at 7.5 to 8 mins pace before and it was working fine.

More about the Mizuno Run.

I started the run this morning among the big crowd and wasn't even aware that the race has been flagged off until I saw the front runners sped off the starting line.

Then it was 2-3km of runners sardine. I had to run off the road many times to get ahead of slower runners. The track started to clear out after 3km and that's when I started to pick up the pace slightly into my cruising speed.

According to my GPS, I reached 5km mark at 28:38 with average pace of 5:43 per km. Way beyond my initial expectation:)

I reached the 8km mark at 44:56 and average pace improved to 5:37 per km after the crowd clear out.

The route become more hilly after that. Despite that I managed to maintain the steady pace and reached the 10km mark at 56:43, still keeping the pace up at 5:40 per km.

The biggest challenge of this run is the last 1km before returning to the stadium. I think the organiser meant to make it the "heart-break hill" for this run. I had to walk some 200m up this hill to catch my breath before speeding all the way to the finishing line.

My race time: 64:14. Average pace 5:43.

Total mileage this week: 46km

Balancing Act

(This was posted last sunday - 1¹Oct but somehow didn't go through. This is the last post from Shozu)

Work has taken a lot of my waking hours in the last 2 weeks.

As a result, I have to skip a lot of my morning run to get enough sleeping hours.

However this wasn't such a bad thing after all since my knees is starting to give problem and I needed the rest anyway.

I started my run again this friday with a 12km run and it felt good. I did 11km more yesterday and another 7km this morning without any uncomfortable sign.

I had to cut short this morning's run due to late start and rain. Hope to catch up on the mileage tomorrow morning.

Overall I'm happy with the pace that I'm able to put in right now which is about 65 mins per 10km. The challenge will be to maintain it to at least 25km. That will be my goal pace in the Penang Bridge Marathon.

More training to go and I need to start hitting the distance of 25km or more..

No more excuses

Less than 35 days to go for the Penang Bridge Marathon.

You could be interested to know how is my training going so far?

Two words could summarized the whole situation - "No good".

It has been 3 weeks since I did any serious running. What I have done so far is only patches of 10 to 15km runs.

Time seems to be flying past and suddenly I found myself in a situation no better than when I was training for KLIM. At least during that training I had a valid "excuse" to skip some of the runs. I was hurt with knee injury.

I must give myself no more excuses starting from next week. Marathon training is not something that can be cramped into the last 2 weeks or one will suffer greatly during the run.

Here I come..

Test post from CellSpin

Test

Another low mileage week

Had another low mileage week last week. Total mileage is only 24km.

Both my knees are feeling the pressure of running frequently again. I had to take it easy to not repeat the injury on the left knee I encountered during the KL Marathon training.

It's still more than 6 weeks to go before the race and I plan to only train up to 30km distance once this time.

My goal this time is to run a sub-5 hours marathon. This is achievable if I can maintained a 7 min/km pace throughout the run. Looks easy but things could get very tough after 30 or 35km.

50km

I was planning for a 25k run this morning but somehow the legs don't feel right from the start. Part of the quad and calf muscles is still aching from yesterday's run.

In the end I managed only 16k with half limping pace. It was a good run nevertheless.

Total mileage this week = 50km

Holiday in Penang

Did I say I was born in Penang?

Both my parent were from Penang. My grandmother owned a coffee shop at Magazine road (they call it Tao Tiaw Lo or road number 1).

Since my grandmother and almost all my relatives are in Penang, I was a frequent visitor until age of 7. But since I started primary school, the trip down to Penang has been very few.

We decided to take this long holiday break to bring the kids to Batu Ferringi beach to enjoy the sand and sea. It was a choice between Terengganu or Penang. Penang is the winner after considering the distance and potential traffic during raya. The judgement on traffic however is quite far off. It took us almost 9 hours to get to the destination.

Penang is a food heaven. I wasn't aware of this until I landed in KL. Everywhere you go, you can see hawker stalls for Penang hokkien mee, Penang laksa, Penang curry mee, Penang Kuay Teow T'ng, Penang rojak, Penang this and Penang that. All the foods that you have taken for granted is so famous out there..

I took the opportunity to try out a few famous eating places during this trip.

First up was a restaurant beside New World Park, famous for Choo Cha. The bean sprout with salted fish is the best I've tasted before.

The next morning we went to the famous Lam Heng restaurant to try out the Or Kuih (Yam Cake), famous sisters char kuey teow and lobak.

The dinner is at a hawker center near Batu Ferringi. I had a Oh Chien, chicken wing and Hokkien mee.

The next morning we went to a restaurant near Pulau Tikus market. The place is jam packed with people and we had to wait 15mins for a table. There I tried the Char Kueh kak, Chee Cheong Fan, Muah Chi, Tang Yuen and Ban Chien Kuih. Yummy... Imagine you have to wait 30mins for a Ban Chien Kuih...

In the afternoon we stop by the famous Siin Se Kai restaurant for lunch. I had the famous Majestic rojak.

The trip to Ghee Hiang was a waste because they have ran out of the famous Tambun biscuit.

We head to Alor Star to my hometown.

Road to Penang Bridge Marathon (Week 7)

Another low mileage week due to many other commitments.

Those who train for marathon will soon discover the training itself is not that tough but finding time to train is the toughest part.

The best time to put in the mileages will be early morning before work and during the weekend. However the plan can easily be derailed if one has to work late. Weekend is always a juggle between family and long run.

I spent a lot of time in the weekends doing my long runs during the KL Marathon training. A typical schedule look like this: wake up at 5am, drives to Bukit Aman or Taman Bukit Jalil to meet up with the gang, run for 2.5 hours or more, chit chat and cool down after the run, drives home. It'll be 10.30am by the time I reached home.

Because of that, I actually prefer to run around my neighbourhood. I can start a 20k run at 6.30am and it can be done before 9am. I can then head home immediately and bring the kids out for breakfast after a quick shower.


Total mileage this week = 6km (2km at Batu Ferringi beach)
Also did a 3 x 17 (floors) stairs run with Will on Thursday and a swim.

It's a very relaxed week.

Road to Penang Bridge Marathon (Week 6)

I finally did my 21k run after 6 weeks into the training.

Woke up at 5.30am this morning to do this week's long run. Unfortunately it rained again. Not too heavy but I decided to wait until the rain ease off. Don't want to risk getting sick around this time of the year.

I waited until the rain stopped at 6.30 and started my LSD for this week at 6.45. I brought along a bottle of Accelerade and hide it somewhere along my running route.

The route is 3km per loop

I did 7 loops around this 3km route this morning. The guards and people who saw me running must be wondering what am I doing running round and round for more than 2 hours:)

For the first 6 loops, I was able to run comfortably with the pace of slightly more than 20 minutes per loop on average. It was already close to 9am when I did my last loop, the heat plus lack of water (I only had one 600ml bottle) really make the last 3km a bit difficult. I managed to finish it 2 mins off the pace with the heavy legs. Nevertheless I'm very happy to have put in the required LSD for this week. Still a lot of 20k or more LSD to go before the race day. Must stay healthy and avoid any injury.

Total mileage this week = 46km. LSD = 21km.

Total mileage todate = 205km

Road to Penang Bridge Marathon (Week 5)

I consider this as a fairly good running week except for the LSD that didn't happen yesterday.

I started some interval training this week to improve on my stamina.

In the first interval training, I did a 2 x 200m and 5 x 400m speed intervals. It was such a challenging run and I was completely out of breath after each repetition.

I did another interval on sunday. This time it was 3 x 600m. Very challenging indeed. On top of that my shin is still hurting 2 days after the run.

Total mileage this week = 36km. No LSD.

Total mileage todate = 159km.

Road to Penang Bridge Marathon (Week 4)

This is a low mileage week due to many reasons (or excuses??:)

1. I was down with flu, luckily not H1N¹but it was enough to make me feel dizzy in the morning. So 2 days is gone just to recover.

2. Raining season has started and it rains almost every morning. I ended up doing stairs training on friday due to that.

3. Lazy bug hit me:)

Anyway I was determined to make it a good week yesterday by trying to do a 20km LSD.

I started the run a bit late at 6.30am and by the time I finished 16km it's already almost 8.30am. Had to cut short the run because it's time to head home and bring the family out for breakfast.

Total mileage for today is 6km. 2 x 2.6km for the pacemakers run plus some warm up strides I did while waiting for the gang to arrive.

Total mileage this week = 23km. LSD = 16.5km

Total mileage todate = 123km

PS: finally met Yin in person today. She is on the right of the emcee in photo above. Much taller than I have expected:) Kopi O satu or is it Milo O??

The 5th Pacemakers Anniversary Run

This is my first participation in a race hosted by the Pacemakers Network.

It's a 4 x 2.6km relay run around the Lake Garden track.

My team consist of myself, CP, Janice and James.

Janice took the first leg, CP 2nd then James and me took the last 2.

The greatest challenge of this run is the first 500 meters uphill run then followed by a 200 meters steep downhill before hitting the loop around Lake Garden.

Before my turn, CP has warned me about the punishing climb and asked me to take it easy but when my turn come, I still made the same mistake of pushing too hard on the climb and suffer greatly for the rest of the run.

In any case it was fun to push very hard all the way. You can almost hear the pumping sound of the heart. (not recommended to do it everyday:)

This is the time split of our team:

1. Janice - 13:49 [Pos. 14]
2. CP - 11:42 > 25:31 [Pos. 13]
3. James - 16:12 > 41:43 [Pos. 24]
4. BP - 12:30 > 54:13 [Pos. 26]

We finished in position 26 among 33 teams.

Other interesting facts:

- The champion team finished at 38 mins sharp.
- The fastest runner's time is 8m 27s (ave 3:15 per km)
- My time ranked 80/132 overall and 72/91 among the male runners (this is an elite field:)

- 8/41 female runners are ahead of me. The fastest female runner's time is 9m 50s (ave 3:47 per km)

My average pace for this run is 4:48 per km. I'm quite happy with this and of course there is always a lot of room to improve:)

Road to Penang Bridge Marathon (Week 3)

Woke up at around 6am this morning to do my weekly long run, however less than 2km into the road, the rain started to fall heavily. So I have to make a detour and run home instead.

I was getting ready to do some stair training indoor when the sound of the rain subsided. Quickly, I walk out of the house to check on the rain and it has reduced to small drops. So I put on my New Balance shoes again and go on the road to continue the unfinished long run.

My body felt unusually tired only after 6km, anyhow I pushed on until 11km before calling it a day. Total distance covered is 13km including the 2km before the rain started.

Overall this week's program went well as planned.

I did a 10km at marathon pace yesterday and did a good tempo run during the week at sub 6 mins pace. The plan is to get the tempo run distance up to 10km gradually.

Total mileage this week = 41km; LSD = 13km
Total mileage todate = 100km

Running is bad for the knees?

Contrary to what most people believe, according to this article, running actually enhanced the knees. Hmm... I guess right running technique must be one of the key factors as well.

So friends, let's continue to run...

At the end of the decade, the active runners showed “no adverse long-term consequences…” while the runner who hadn’t run over the course of the 10-year study showed “severe deterioration of the internal structures of the knee joint..

Usain Bolt's New World Record

Wow... amazing run... and they said human limit is 9.2s... still long way to go Usain...

Road to Penang Bridge Marathon (Week 2)

Only managed 2 weekday runs this week but managed to catch up on the lost mileage yesterday and today.

I put on the heart rate monitor today to see how is my heart rate during the long slow run. Quite surprise to find out the heart rate can stay below 140 bpm most of the time and go slightly higher to 146 bpm when I run faster at 6:20 pace.

I used to be able to run comfortably at heart rate of around 155 bpm and peak close to 175 bpm when I'm pushing the pace.

This drop from 150 to 140 must be the effect of many LSDs done during the previous marathon training.

Even though I have no problem with the heart rate and breathing throughout the LSD today, my legs especially the knees still feel uncomfortable after 12km. I guess still need to do a lot of strength training to build the leg muscles. That will be part of the training in the next few weeks.

Total weekly mileage = 32km. LSD = 15.5km
Total mileage todate = 59km.

Skytrex Teambuilding

Skytrex is located inside Taman Pertanian in Bukit Cahaya, Shah Alam.

The entrance is quite difficult to find if you're not familiar with this place. A number of my colleagues were lost initially but managed to get there after a few detours around Shah Alam and Kelang.

Before all of us were allowed to venture into the real Skytrex challenges, we have to go through a training and warm up session with 3 mini challenges.

The mini challenges is vertical climb of about 5 meters then we have to walk over a hanging bridge, do a rope swing to a spider web and finally end with a flying fox back to the ground.

It was a challenging experience already for some of us, before we see the full challenges which is about 20 times harder.

The first hurdle for the full Skytrex challenge is a vertical ladder climb of about 17 meters. From there we have to walk through a hanging net across to another platform then through another hanging bridge before we hit the first flying fox.

We need to go through many types of obstacles. The most challenging ones are the swinging tubes and the hanging bridge with a large gaps. We have to jump and swing from one step to another. I almost fell in one of those challenges.

On top of that the interesting part is there are no less than 6 to 7 flying foxes. Flying foxes became quite fun after you've conquered the first one. I really enjoyed flying above the trees from one end to another although I almost failed to land on the tree in the last flying fox.

The weather was quite kind to us throughout the day as well. The rain started just after we finished the Skytrex session and while we were having our lunch break.

In the afternoon, we had a few fun teambuilding activities. A small treasurehunt, a couple of magic rope challenges, building a pyramid with balloons and a couple of brainteasers.

Overall it was a well organised event. Kudos to all the committee. I look forward to another one towards end of the year but it has to be zero cost version...

Road to Penang Bridge Marathon (Week 1)

Week 1 Training Plan

After a challenging half marathon race last week, I kick started my training program for the next marathon this week.

Last week's Adidas event see a tragic ending with a young runner found dead in the stadium tunnel a day later. A lot of tributes from various runners here, here and here. Life is so fragile and unpredictable. Who would have thought a young healthy runner will end his life in such unpredictable manner. My heart goes to his parents and family members..

Rest in peace Gary Leon Robert.

Back to my training this week. The training program is meant to be aggressive with mileage of around 50km for week 1. Anyway in reality it is very difficult to find enough time to train that long even in the morning unless I wake up 4.30am in some of the days. A lot of 8.30am meetings these days...

At the end I managed put in 27km mileage this week. Not such a bad start...

PBIM is on week 47. Exactly 16 weeks away including this week.

Training log:
Week 01 = 27km, Total todate = 27km, LSD = 10km, Tempo run = 2km @ 6m pace

Adidas King Of The Road Shah Alam 2009

This is my first competitive run after the KL Marathon at the end of June.

I suffered quite a bit during this run due to lack of training. The longest distance I've done in July is only 10km so the outcome is sort of expected.

In any case, I'm still very happy with this run. Turned out I'm only ¹minute late for the finisher's medal. They only give this to top 350 finishers in Category A.

Must try again next year when I'm able to train harder.

The running route is quite hilly throughout northern and southern part of Shah Alam. Total race distance is 22.7km which is odd for a half marathon race.

I started the race pretty strong and able to keep up with the top runners until about 3km. Reached the first water station (my guess that is the 5km point since there are no distance markers) at about 2¹mins. After that I just can't keep up anymore when the route hit a few hills. My legs were completely lack of strength to push hard so most of the time I ended up with mere jogging pace.

After 10km I have to start my run-walk routine again to ease the running muscles. It worked perfectly and I'm able to overtake quite a lot of runners later on nearer to the finishing line.

The last hill before the Shah Alam Stadium is where I suffered the most. Only if I had push harder, I should be able to finish 1-2 minutes earlier. Frank Chong from Runnerz Circle overtook me in front of the stadium entrance...and he is probably the last of the top 350.

CP did well by finishing his first sub 2 half marathon with the time of 1h 58m.

My Time: 2h 19m

(I forget to stop the watch. So the actual timing is between 2:18 - 2:19). I heard the gun went off about 1-2 mins after I crossed the finishing line.

Next up will be the training for Penang Bridge Marathon. Here it goes again....:)

2km with daddy

My younger 6 years old son woke up early yesterday morning and followed me out for morning run.

He walked 2km with me around the neighbourhood.

Still full of energy after that..

Adidas King Of The Road 2009

This will be my next run in 2 weeks' time. I have signed up for the half marathon category.

Meantime I'm still doing slow recovery type runs to take a break from last month's KL Marathon.

This event has a very stringent qualifying time. For the half marathon category, the runners have to finish within 2 hours 20 minutes. This is an average pace of slightly more than 6 mins per km throughout the whole 21.7km distance. Quite worrying for me since I have not been training at this sort of pace for a long time.

Anyway whatever it is, this will be a run to keep my training going until the Penang Bridge Marathon in Nov and hopefully can meet some celebrities like this one during the run:)

Happy birthday to Will

Yesterday was Will's 40th birthday.

Mohana made this kuih (40 of them) to celebrate with him this morning.

Happy belated birthday, keep running and stay healthy..

My target time table

I made this target time table for the marathon run last Sunday.

It's based on 8.5 min per km pace with target finish time of 6 hours.

This table is displayed as wallpaper on the phone I carried along and used to update my facebook status every 5km. I get a lot of comments and encouragement from friends who happened to read my status.

Seeing that you're ahead of the target time at every 5km segment is a great motivation for the run. I think I'll do the same again for my next marathon run but the target time will need to improve. I think I'll be happy to go sub-5 in my 2nd attempt and sub-4 one day before the end of my running career..

Less than 1% of population

After we finished the run last Sunday, CP told me we are now officially part of this exclusive club of people who has run a marathon.

I did some googling later on and found out in North America the % of population who has done a marathon is only 0.1%. I believe this number could be much lower in Malaysia, judging from people we always bumped into during races, I estimate the number of active marathoner in Malaysia is less than 2k. That mean it is less than 0.008% of 26 millions Malaysian population. I'm very proud to be part of this.

What is the main reason the % is so low?

Actually now that I have done mine, I can tell everyone that running a marathon is not as hard as it seen. I believe most people who is willing to commit serious time into training can make it to the finish line.

Our body can adapt very fast to the training - an official beginner's training program from Runner's World website is only 16 weeks. Anyone who is willing to commit their time to it will have very high chance of making it to the finishing line. The hardest part is to make that commitment and stick to it throughout the training period.

So who is joining us (me and CP) in Penang this Nov?

More on KL Marathon result

Who's who
Of the 1492 who finished, 14% were female and 86% were male.

Opposite Sex

For the record, you were ahead of about 28% of female finishers.

Result in Entire Field - 1146th place

346 finishers behind. About 77% of finishers ahead.

Result in Gender (Male) - 998th place

288 finishers behind. About 78% of finishers ahead.

Result in Division (M3539) - 154th place

38 finishers behind. About 80% of finishers ahead.

From Halfway to Finish

You passed 143 runners

And 10 passed you

Average speed is 8 min 5 sec per km

What I'm really proud of is on 10 runners managed to pass me after halfway mark and I passed 143 runners:)

Official result

Quite surprise to see they managed to release official results so quickly after the terrible event.

My official gun time is 5h 42m and chip time is 5h 41m.

Position 1047 out of expected 2000 full marathon runners even though not sure how many actually participated in the day.

For friends who by 4D, please remember to invest in this number: 1047 :)

After running a marathon

What do you normally do after running a marathon?

This is my first time so I hope some readers out there who have more experience can share theirs..

This is my own experience after running my first marathon yesterday.

1. Have to do a lot of stretching immediately after crossing the finish line.

2. Queue up to get my finisher's medal and t-shirt.

3. Queue up again to get a bottle of mineral water.

4. Return to the finishing line to wait for a friend who is yet to finish.

5. Rush home to shower, eat lunch and drive out to fetch my son from his tuition class.

6. Bring the 2 boys to their music classes after that. Do some walking around the shopping centre while waiting for them.

7. Return home at around 5.30pm then bring the elder out for cycling at around 6pm.

8. Bring the 3 fa kuat long's up to the room after dinner and write my race report while letting 3 of them ransacked the room.

9. Sleep early together with the younger boy after a tired day.

10. Woke up 5am the next morning (can't turn off this biological clock) and go for a morning walk.