KL International Marathon 2008 Race Report

My training for this race started way back in November '07. My training goal was to keep my training as consistent as possible with 5 to 6 days of running a week plus a little more focus on building core strength. That was it - very simple. And at the end of the 4 months, I found out that I'd just put in my best ever training. I said "best", not "perfect". There's the usual fight with illness and work but I'd say that this one had to be the best to-date considering the work-family juggling routine. My tracking had been accurate (no more guessing game of the mileage and pace!) thanks to the Garmin and in the asics Kayano 12 and 2120, I was blessed by being injury free, not even a case of ITB hit me.

To read the rest of the report (plus photos and videos), please hit this link!

Last Post Before The Race

In our personal journeys this Sunday, may we have:

• Equanimity 
  
• Patience
  
• Focus
  
• Tenacity 
  
• Affirmation
  

May all our fears, self doubts and inner demons be exorcised and regardless of the time we take to cross the line, may we come away enriched, stronger and inspired. Best of luck to everyone!

I'll Definitely Look Ridiculous In A Hazmat Suit

"Sit as little as possible. Give no credence to any thought that was not born outdoors, while one moved about freely - in which the muscles are not celebrating a feast too." Nietzsche

It all started with Carbokid 2's throat infection a couple of weeks back. He was also coughing and sporting a runny nose. It then spread to my Mom, who had a bit of sore throat - she's very resilient. Then C1 got a bit of a cough but thankfully nothing serious. That was when I got paranoid and started sanitizing all the door knobs, toilet fittings and anything else short of a person with antibacterial spray. I went so far as changing my sleeping T-Shirt everyday! Crazy right?



Luckily I've already been whacking close to 2,000mg of Vit C a day (spread out, of course) a month ago. Plus calcium, ACE, Fish Oil. Then my wife got it 2 days ago spewing millions of infectious microbes into the air. That suddenly raised the alert level to Severity 1 - Maximum Alert. I don't know whether it's psychosomatic or what but I feel a little lethargic. Hopefully that's all due to the very reduced running I've been doing during the tapering. My nose does get a little clogged in the early morning but mornings have been quite cold (we have the air-cond on throughout the night) and there've been an odd cough or two. I hope it doesn't get any worse than this or I'll be running like a mad yak (is there such a thing as a mad yak?) around the house! Do I need to walk around in a Hazmat suit?

Please, can Sunday come sooner?

Hazmat suits - NOT a fashion statement

 

Of Today's Youngsters And Sleep Conditioning

Now that my youngest brother is down in KL and spends his weekends at my place, I get the opportunity to observe close-up the typical behaviour of a mid-20s male. The result of my observation?

• Sleeps too late - past midnight
• And as a result, wakes up too late - past 10am. Hits noon if not prompted to get his butt off the bed
• Spends too much time online. Much info can be obtained on the Internet (case in question, his search for rooms for rent) but he gets too easily sidetracked with online chat and other frivolous distractions
• Takes too much things for granted. Not much self initiative and independence on display. Despite my advice, my Mom still irons his clothes for him.

Maybe I'm just generalizing the youths of today or me being old-fashioned. I just can't buy that kind of lifestyle. Too much time is wasted sleeping, rendering the person unproductive the next day. If sleeping late is due to the nature of work or an occasional "decadence", then I've no arguments but not because of online escapades. Sleep when it matters, get up early and get the day going. Be a productive person.

Many of us who start our weekend long runs at 5am get home by 9:30am having covered 30K, and upon reaching home vacuum and mop the home and showered, ready for the day - be it taking the kids out, etc... By 11am, the sleepy head is just stirring. All that talk about strengthening his body via exercise following his back surgery last year is plain crap. Excuses upon excuses of not going out there for his walks, eating more than he should, not showing enough independence and gall, and generally displaying too much lazing around.

 

I'm sorry to blog about this but when I take my rant offline to my brother and Mom, they don't see my point. So you readers now have to bear with me. My Mom overdotes on this fella. I say put him through the fire. Youth today have gone too sappy (as a result of too much spoon-feeding) and when they're not, they use their energies on unproductive activities. When I came down 15 years ago, I was a typical wide-eyed boy from a small town. To familiarize myself with the city, I'd get out of the rented room (the first few months were spent at my relatives') every weekend by 8:30am, take the mini bus no.14 and later 35 down to Central Market and started walking the roads right up to where The Mall is. Once I covered that direction and taking note of the buses that ply that route, I'd set off in another - towards the commercial areas around the Sultan Ismail-Bukit Bintang district. That was how I learned the streets. I was lucky in that I was only mugged twice but that was in my late 20s after getting off work late. Of course I became quite streetwise and alert following the incidences! Situational awareness is definitely helpful in today's world.

 

That part of my story pales in comparison with the experiences and hardships of other youths of my age at that time. I'm not saying that everyone should have to go through what other more hardened youths did, but if a person wants to be productive, it has to start right - by inculcating certain habits and getting the priorities right. I'm very sure that the "good animal" that Dr George Sheehan mentioned does not refer to a sleeping one. Read a good take on that philosophy here.

 

Still on sleeping matters, I plan to sleep earlier these few days leading to the race. I figured that I'd need to wake up at 2am on race morning to wash up, fuel, gear up and so on. To get the body clock right, I'm planning to sleep early from tonight onwards. Whether or not I'll be able to sleep right off, I'll still get on the bed before 9:30pm. Then I'll set the alarm for 4:45am for easy runs on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. No running planned for Friday and Saturday. I've been doing a bit of core strengthening the last few days and should be able to continue for another few days.

I'm A Sea Monkey

A peek into the weather forecast shows that it's going to be wet in the days leading to the race. Lows of 23C with 60% chance of rain. Indeed the weather has been gloomy in the evenings the past 3 weeks. At this juncture I won't take any risks running the rain but if there's going to be a downpour on race day, I'll say "BRING IT ON!" Just like sea monkeys, I come alive when I come into contact with rainwater during a race - Heh heh! Bad analogy.

Though there are obvious challenges when running in the rain - from chafing to soggy socks and shoes to impaired vision - I personally find that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Look at it this way - you can manage chafing by lubing, and vision impediment by wearing a cap. All those variables you can control, but not the weather and soggy shoes. So instead of fearing it, why not embrace it? It's not like you can turn the tap off or something like that. That's my take. Then consider this: you sweat less in the rain, obviously! Sweating is a cooling mechanism of the body and when the air and body are kept cooled by the rain, your body's core temperature doesn't jump off the charts. If you're not overly bothered or distracted by the soggy shoes, you may actually find that it takes less effort to run compared to when it's warm.

I predict with almost certainty that it will be a wet 29th especially in the early evenings. How cool race morning is depends on how long the rain persists the night before. Chances are it will be a dry but cool race morning. The past 4 Sundays saw varied weather conditions after 8am - from cool and cloudy to very sunny and warm. That means those aiming for a finishing time of 3:30 or longer may expect a bit of a challenge in the form of the sun, more so with a tough 35K - 41K section.

Today's workout was the Yasso 800s. (read about it here | here). Since this was the first time I was doing this - have previously done a couple of 1K repeats - I decided to go with 6 reps targeting 4:00 per 800m with 1:15 recovery in between. The 1:15 recovery in hindsight is too little as the prescribed recovery time is the same as the target set time. So I had much much lesser rest than recommended! The workout started after a short 800m warmup and the pre-programmed 205 took over.

Rep 1 - 5:11 (6:30 pace) = too slow

Rec 1 - 1:15

Rep 2 - 3:46 (4:44 pace) = "What the...?"

Rec 2 - 1:15

Rep 3 - 3:48 (4:45 pace) = hmmm pretty consistent

Rec 3 - 1:15

Rep 4 - 3:42 (4:38 pace) = Thinking, "Can I last the workout???"

Rec 4 - 1:15

Rep 5 - 3:39 (4:35 pace) = Thinking, "Am I running too fast?"

Rec 5 - 1:15

Rep 6 - 3:42 (4:38 pace) = Still relatively consistent

Rec 6 - 2K warmdown

Total distance = approx 8K including warmup, recovery walk/jog and warmdown.

Tapering Begins! Phew!

2 more weeks to the race and finally tapering can begin!



It's not unusual for marathoners to commit mistakes in this phase. For starters, mistake of trying to cram too much in the final weeks be it carbs, mileage, speedwork. Just like preparing for exams, preparing for a marathon needs to be approached on a consistent manner. A last-minute-burning-the-midnight-oil approach won't work and in fact can screw things up bad. Most will be well aware of injury and illness risks what with the wet weather these past weeks. The body needs to recover from all the tearing up and rebuilding of the body as a result of all the months of training. On the flip side, don't rest too much! Check out the link below for some suggested workouts.



Whacking too much carbs will only result in fluid retention - you know the feeling of bloatedness. Nancy Clark, R.D., a sports nutritionist in Boston, recommends taking in 55 to 65 percent of your calories from carbohydrates, 10 to 15 percent from protein, and 20 to 30 percent from fat. Ensure the proteins are low in fat, such as chicken, fish, lean meats, beans, and legumes. Some advocate a carb depletion phase in the final week up to 3 days of race day. This school of thought seeks to bring down the level of glycogen stored in the muscles with hard running like tempos and mile repeats. Then start loading up again from Thursday right up to Sunday race day. The boost in glycogen is apparently obvious enough to see some spectacular results. Personally I wouldn't risk this preferring a more consistent approach of loading.



Of course, there's the confidence level that needs some attention. One may feel imaginary twinges in the muscles, creaky joints - everything tend to be amplified during this period of relative quietness. Don't let that get into your psyche. You may still feel a little tiredness at the beginning of your taper but by end of the week, lethargy will have disappeared to be replaced by a feeling of raring to go - like a restrained greyhound at the start of a race. OK, bad analogy. Do a greyhound and you'll likely hit the wall hard. Think instead smooth and powerful.



There may also be some doubts on whether one can hold a goal pace. My personal experience is not to think or dwell on it. There can never be an absolute confidence for folks our level, so why waste precious resources worrying about it? Just go into the race and run according to feel - I had no expectations (in fact I had a little dread) at the start of GE but somehow managed to crank out a better than expected race. Go with the flow, monitor the body and not be limited by the pace factor.



Finalizing your race day strategies and gear would also take your mind off needless mental anguish. What to wear, what to eat etc... If it was too early to think about that last week, doing it this week would be timely.



For more tips on tapering, visit this fellow pia kaki's website.