30km

I have to use the same photo again because posting from Shozu requires one.

This week marks 4 weeks countdown to SCKLM.

Every runners participating in full marathon category is doing their last LSD this week. Some did 37km, 35km, 32km, 31km, 30km and so on.

By right I should be joining this group of people this week but unfortunately the condition of my knee has not improve at all.

I woke up at 5am this morning and went out trying to do a long run. My target was at least to do a 25km run. I was sceptical whether longer distance is possible after low mileage this week. Turn out, the knee has not improve at all.

I haven't had pain after a few days of resting but after a short 4km run this morning, the severe pain started again. I had to limp my way till 10km before finally decided to call it a day. I was worried that the limping run will affect the other knee and my back if I continue further.

I tried another run in the afternoon and the pain started on queue after about 5km. I abandoned the run after 1km of limping.

Bad news is I have only 2 more weeks to recover. Otherwise I may have to pull out from my maiden marathon run.

Total weekly mileage: 30km (a lot of rest days to let the knee fully recover)

If problem persist, I'll have to do more cross trainings next week.

KL towerthon

After almost 3 months, I finally received the official result and finisher's certificate for KL towerthon.

This event was held on 1st of March. I was the lone participant for this event since the rest of the gang can't make it.

The run to the top started with a 1km uphill run. This is then followed by 2158 steps of stair climbing to the observation deck. The good thing is the participants can enjoy the view from KL tower for a while before coming down with the lift.

I managed a modest time of 26:22 minutes. Placed 323 among the men open category.

Outliers

Just finished reading this book on Monday night. It's a very interesting book. The story telling pattern is similar to his 2 previous books - Tipping Point and Blink.

Lessons learnt:

1. If you want to be one of the richest man in the world today, you should be born in 1955.

2. 10,000 hours is the amount of time you need to spend on anything you do to become one of the best.

3. Success = Opportunity + 10,000 hours.
Opportunity play a much bigger role than what we would like to believe.

4. Culture is a very important element in everything we do. Plane crashes has a lot to do with it.

5. Asian are good at Math not because they have better IQ or hardworking.

6. Most of the best footballers in UK is born in Jan, Feb and Mar.

Knee "injury"

I managed to accumulate a total mileage of 43km last week despite various problems.

First of all the pain in my left knee resurfaced when I was attempting a 26k run on Sunday. The mild pain started at around 12k but I continue to run for another 4km before it became really unbearable. The pain is at the level where even a slow walk caused tremendous difficulty. I had to force myself to continue the walk until the pain slowly went away.

Prior to that my plan was to do a 30k run together with CP on Saturday. Somehow I developed mild flu on Friday and the body wasn't feel right at night. I sms CP to inform him I will have to skip the run and only do a minor run around my housing area. I did manage to log in a 12k run on my own.

Overall this is the 5th week since I last did anything more than 21k. I'm fighting with both knee and toes problems and against time to get fit for the full marathon. I'm still very positive about able to get ready on time.

All these challenges is getting me stronger and stronger. It also help me to understand this is not an easy task and suffering is part of the journey I must conquered before I run across that finish line on 28 of June..

"Failure is not an option"

50k week and New Balance 15k

Photo courtesy of CP.

This could be my last race before the KL Marathon. I'm still thinking about possibility of participating in Klang Pacers' Half Marathon. It's on 7 June.

Overall I'm very happy with the race today. Also happy to see Will managed to make it despite some issues at home.

My main aim today is to complete my 50km target for this week. It has been a very tough week with the injury on my left knee. Running has been very painful but as a stubborn person I continue to log in the mileage.

Good thing is the pain has not come back from yesterday's 10k run and today's 15k. I hope it has gone away for good.

3 of us (will, cp and myself) met up around 5:35am at Bukit Aman carpark. Initially I was thinking about doing an extra 3km lap around Bird Park before the NB 15k run. Somehow I don't feel like doing it at that point so we just continue our walk to Tapak A Lake Garden where the race will start.

The race started at 7am sharp. I started the run with a slow 7 mins pace going up the 1st hill. The pace started to pick up when we reached Jalan Parlimen. It's a slight downhill slope and everyone started to step up their speed. Reached 4km mark just after 24 mins. Then it is a long challenging climb at Langgak Tunku. I reached 6km mark at 36mins. After that I couldn't locate any other distance marker until the finishing line. Not a very good planning in this area.

3rd hill at Laman Tunku is not what I always remember so it was quite a surprise hill to me when I reached there. The climb was tough and at this point some of the top women runners started to overtook me. They've started the race 15mins later than men.

After that we ran across Mahameru and reached the 2nd water station in front of Jabatan Pertanian. I drank a few cups of water there to rehydrate.

Not long after that we reached the 4th and final hill. I have to walk for about 200 meters before picking up my strength and run all the way to the finishing line. I picked up my pace considerably after reaching Lake Garden and overtook quite a number of runners.

CP and Lam has both finished ahead of me. Met uncle Yong (a hardcore runner from Bukit Jalil), and had a chat with him for a while. He volunteered as road Marshall in this event.

After I met up with CP and Lam we walk around searching for Will. I managed to locate him with Maxis Friend Finder. Will came in around 9:00am, exactly 2 hours after the race start. It must have been a grueling run for him. He told us he had cramp at the 2nd water station. Every run is a personal challenge for everyone regardless of timing.

Congratulations to all for running a good race.


My timing: 1:34:59
Average pace: 6:08 mins per km.

Not my knees

The outer part of my left knee has been having severe pain since last saturday's 20k run.

In my 10k recovery run the next morning, I almost cannot walk straight immediately after the run. But the pain disappear fairly quickly after that.

I tried a 10k run again the next day but the pain came back and I had to stop at 9k. Again the pain went away in the afternoon.

So I tried to do another 10k in the next morning but the pain again came back and this time much earlier at 6k point. I abandoned the run after that.

After that I decided to only do light cross training (cycling) to avoid getting into serious injury and have a rest day today.

The knee is much better now after two days of rest. I hope to do a 10k tomorrow before heading out to work..

Happy Mother's Day

Message to all the moms out there.. from a 6 years old boy:)

Break-in Period

Read this from one of the Runner's World article. A pair of new shoes have to go through a 6 weeks break-in period before they are marathon ready.

Since it is about 6 weeks left before KLIM, I decided to bring out the birthday present from my good friends to do a recovery run this morning.

Not sure whether it is due to the pain incurred from the 20k run yesterday or the new shoes still too tight, my toes started to suffer from about 7km onwards. One of the toes even has blister after the run.

Not wanting to risk injury less than 2 months from the big occassion, I have to cut short the planned 16km run to 10km.

Will have to try the shoes out again a few more times to see whether the condition will improve. Otherwise I will have to run with one of the old pairs.. hiya...

Fishing

This is our new hobby - fishing.

There is an old mining lake near our housing area. A lot of residents fish there on the weekends. My son has been asking for a fishing rod since one of the uncles there let him hold it 2 weeks ago.

Yesterday we finally bought the rod for him and went to the lake to try it out. Not a bad result for the first outing, we managed to catch 21. However all of them were too small so we decided to release them back to the lake.

Hopefully one day we'll go deep sea fishing together.

6k short of 50k this week

This week's mileage is slightly better than last week. Managed to achieve 44k, and that leave room for improvement next week:)

As usual, my weekend long run is on Saturday. This time we decided to do it in Taman Bukit Jalil again.

Unfortunately again like last week, I suffer just to complete the 20k run. This time it was my toes which give problem. This is something new to me. There were some pains at the toes in the past but not as bad as this time.

One of the reason I think could be because of the shoes. I was wearing a different pair of shoes this week. The Saucony Triumph 5.

Thing that puzzles me however is that I have been wearing this shoes for a while for various long runs, including GE20k, Bidor Half Marathon and my first 30k run. It could also be the terrain and the way I land.

Have to find out the root cause quickly. It will not be an easy task to run with painful toes for 42k.

Low mileage

So far my weekly mileage has been stagnant at between 30 to 40km per week. This week's mileage is only 34.2km. That's inclusive of the 20km long run yesterday and it's full 8km short of a full marathon distance over a week. That's a Red Flag if you are running a project!!

From all the marathon training resources I have read so far, one has to reach the peak mileage of at least 60km per week in order to survive the last 10km of a marathon. Image above is an example of a marathon rookie program downloaded from Runner's World website.

It's time to be more serious about my training program starting tomorrow. Target mileage next week is 50km. It's do or die situation now since it's only 6 weeks to tapering period.

Not sure which runner said this - we must respect the distance..

Relaxing

The boys are enjoying themselves at the Ogawa massage chair. It's massage chair road show time again for Mother's day.

It'll be good to have one after the long run:)

20k but suffer like hell

Today is my weekly weekend long run routine. Only 2 persons (CP and me) managed to make it this time.

We decided to go to Taman Bukit Jalil since it's nearer for both of us.

I woke up at 5am and arrived at the car park just before 5.30am. CP is already there waiting. Only ¹other car in the car park.

We started the run at slow 7+ pace. The plan is to go around the park's 4km route 7 times or 3 hours which ever come earlier.

The first loop was relatively easy. It took us slightly more than 29mins to complete it. However half way through on the 2nd loop, my stomach started to ache and I have to rush to the toilet. I told CP to proceed with the run.

After the toilet break, my body started to react abnormally. I started to sweat a lot more than usual. I completed the next 2 loops at around 28mins per loop pace then the 4th loop at 29mins pace. I realised I have finished the water I brought with me at this point. So I have to make a detour to buy drink from the stall outside.

After that I returned to the run and saw CP already half way on his 5th lap. I continue to sweat at the abnormal rate and on top of that seems to be losing the strength to run. So I decided to call it a day and walk for the rest of the 5th lap. It took almost 40mins to complete that last lap.

I return to my car to bring out another bottle of drink and return to the track to wait for CP. He came in about 15mins later after completed his 6th lap.

Another low mileage week this week. Apart from Bidor and another 9k run I did yesterday. This is only my 3rd run this week. Look like time is running out quickly and I have to increase my weekly mileage soon. Otherwise it will be a tough tough KL marathon..