My first two Interval Trainings

I had been reading about interval training on and off but have not really tried it out seriously.  Initially, I did try to run fast and slow intermittently and thought that was interval training.  However, after reading more regarding interval training in more details, I realized that my fast interval wasn't fast enough.  So, I decided to try real interval training more seriously.

By reading a few articles on interval training, I figured out that my fast interval pace should be around 5 min/km.  I plan to use this as my starting target.  With the help of my FR220, I set up for 5x interval run with 400m.

In the first trial, I thought I could manage the 5 min pace well and thus I just set the rest time of 1 min.  Unfortunately, this wasn't the case in my first trial.  Although I could complete 5x of interval, but the last 2x was slower than my plan.

Here's my splits:


Looking at the results, I concluded that my fast interval was too fast, and probably my slow interval was too short.

So, I adjusted the setting so that the slow interval is also following the distance of 400m and go for second trial after one week.

Unfortunately, the result is even worse.

Here's my splits:


Same issue as before, my fast interval is too fast.  I should learn to control my speed better.

I couldn't continue after three times due to heel pain.  After going though some self-diagnostic, I think I had a Plantar Faciitis.  I had it after the Penang Bridge Run and it become worse after the interval training.

I will reduce my mileage quite a lot going forward to prevent the injury before worse and come back to this interval training after I am free from injury.

My problem now is to control my pace to prevent further unnecessary stress to my body and leg!

My 1st Penang Round the Island Relay

I have been hearing and reading blog regarding this annual event and have not joined any.  As this is the relay of 12 runners, and I usually run alone, it is not easy for me to join this event.  However, starting mid of this year that I joined a group of runners, I was asked to join them to form a Mixed Team.  Just to try out what it is like, I agreed to join.

From what I read, all runners would be sent to their station at the beginning of the race.  So, I thought that would be the case for me.  However, I understand from one of the team mates that the rules have changed since last year that only the first 3 runners were sent to their respective stations at the beginning of the race.  With this arrangement, the runners at the last few stations would not be that tired waiting for their turns to run.

I was arranged to be at station#11, which would be hot by the time of running.  As this is the mixed team, last few stations would normally be run by male runners.

This year, the race started at 4am, one hour earlier than before.  Again, this is good for the runners at last few stations.  Our team captain made the arrangement for all the teammates to go from one station to another to cheer for other teammates.  This was very fun and excited.

To make it more exciting, as this running group formed 2 mixed team, we have a friendly match between the teams.

As planned, I reached the starting line at 3am.  I met a few friends there.  After getting our BIBs, we just hanged out at the place.  Right after the 1st runner took off, we sat in separate cars to go to station #2.  We were there at station#2 to see the pass over of baton to another runner.  After that, we went to another station.  This is the process until the last station.

As we were competing with another team, our team was losing probably around 15 mins until the sixth runner.  When the seventh runner from our team started the run, we just hope that we can close up the gap with another team.  To our surprise, our team runner overtook the other team at the last 100m before reaching station #8.  This really gave pressure to the runners after that!

Before the run, I have been told that runner #11 from the other team is a fast runner.  So, I just hoped that runner#10 either losing to another team or can give me 6 mins advantage so that I would not be the one causing our team to lose.  Finally, runner from our team reached station#11 first.  The pressure was on me now and I didn't know how much advantage we had over the other team.

I initially planned to run at 6 mins pace due to the heat.  Also, I set my watch to alert if my pace is faster than 5 mins/km.  However, under pressure, I started up the run at 4+mins pace.  I knew I couldn't continue for long in that pace but I wasn't really able to slow down much under pressure.  Eventually, after 2km, I was too tired and just slowed down to walk.  Calculating by heart telling me that I should have 1~2 mins time to walk.

After walking for around 1 min I think, I ran again.  And this time, with slower pace, 5+ min, which I think I could continue for awhile.  So, I continued with that pace for awhile and stop for another walking session before reaching station #12.

Finally, I completed the 6.5km with 5:14min/km pace.  This is not the fastest pace that I had but certainly is the fastest under the hot sun.  This is really exciting event and the most pressure run that I had so far!

2015 APBIM HM Race Report

Finally, after weeks and weeks of training, I have completed the race.  Well, I just managed to clock 2-hr (well, 2 hours and 9 seconds to be exact) for this HM.  Not as good as I'd like to be, but I have tried  my very best this time AND I think I have identified my weakness so that I can train well in next HM!

For this time, since I was expecting a narrow road at the beginning of the race, I squeezed myself a bit in front than before.  I was just more than 10 rows in front of the starting line.  This helps as I didn't feel like being blocked by anyone at the beginning of the race.  In fact, after analyzing the running split, I found that I actually saved more than 1 minute for the 1st km as compare to last year HM (my fastest HM before this one!).

I found myself running at slightly less than 6 mins pace for the 1st km, which was good.  I have then decided to slightly increase my pace to hopefully at 5:40min pace to meet my sub-2 goal.  However, I didn't want to increase too much of my pace until I was too tired.  I was just running by feel without constantly checking my pace.  At every km, which my watch alert me, I checked my pace and my pace was around 5:50min, which I thought was good enough for the 1st half of the race.

After the 1st water station, around 7km, I decided to increase my pace to be less than 5:40min to make up for the slower pace earlier on.  I then ran with the pace of 5:30min.  I felt a tired with that pace but I knew that I would stop for water at around 10km and thus I just pushed myself a little bit.

At 10km, I stopped for water and I checked out my watch that my elapsed time was 57mins, 1 min slower than what I planned.  So, I cut down the walking time and started to run again just after ~30 steps of walking.  I just ran at controlled pace (comfortably hard, maybe) after the drink.  I didn't check my pace because I knew that I couldn't go faster than this pace and shouldn't go slower than this pace either.  I just want to hold on to this pace as much as I could to go for my best HM time.

I wasn't been able to hold this pace for long.  I knew that if I were to meet the sub-2 goal, I would have to reach the 3rd U-turn before 1:30hr.  Again, I pushed myself hard for not slow down until I reached the 3rd U-turn.  Finally, when I reached the 3rd U-turn, and I checked my watch, it was 1:32hr, 2 mins slower than what I'd like to be.

I was a bit disappointed.  However, I knew that I had really tried my best.  I knew my problem was not trained long distant enough at target pace.  I then realized that I had to train at target pace of 5:30mins instead of 5:40mins due to slightly longer distance in actual route than the calculated HM distance.  Also, I have to at least run a few times at target pace for more than 15km during training.

Instead of giving up altogether, I was thinking that if I didn't try harder this time, it would be much harder next year due to my age.  So, I pushed myself hard again!  Until I had to stop for another time at around 17km!  With the help of negative slope at 18km, I managed to picked up the pace a little bit.  During that time, I just wished to improve from my last year timing instead of hitting the sub-2 goal!

After 18km, I was just running as hard as I could without thinking too much.  I knew I wasn't been able to hit sub-2.  Finally, at the last km, I was running the same pace as a lady runner.  As woman HM started 15 mins later than man, I knew that she was running at faster than sub-2 pace to be able to catch up with me.  The pacing worked as it turned out that I was running slightly faster than earlier!

Finally, I saw the finish line.  To my surprise, the clock was showing 2:00:0x.  I didn't expect to finish at 2 hours.  So, I tried to speed up and it turned out that I was running at less than 5 mins pace for the last 500 m!

Overall, I am quite happy with the outcome, although I'd like it to be sub-2!  My fueling strategy is right as I don't feel hungry and thirsty during the run, and didn't go to toilet too!

As I mentioned, I'd need to train harder at HM pace for longer distance.  I just happened to talk to a 7th placing HM lady and she was logging 90km per week to be able to complete HM in 1:41hours!  So, I have a long way to go.

Here's my results (top 2.4%):-

Fuel:-
1.  1 pack of instant noodle 2 hours before the race.
2.  ~500ml of water 2 hours before the race.
3.  Another ~100ml of water 1 hour before the race.

FR610 vs FR220

My experience in FR610 and FR220.

I have been using FR610 for 7 months and decided to trade in for FR220 for RM300.  My experience for FR610 is not very pleasant.

The most annoying thing about my FR610 was the battery charging.  I have to try many times before the watch can be charged.  I have tried all the suggestions that I can find in the internet but I still could solve my problem.  Either I was unlucky or it was the "returned" watch that I purchased.

Even if the contact is good, I will get reverse charging every now and then.  Previously, when this occurred, I just turned off the watch and turned it on again to have it charge normally.  However, this wasn't the case for the last 2 rounds.  I just had to let it "charged" to 0% before it can be charged normally.

Lastly, I was a bit disappointed with the battery life.  I can only use it for ~ 4 hours in running before I have to charge again.

I blamed all of those to the cheap price for the watch, ie. USD179.99, which I sometime think is the returned watch.

When a friend of mine is willing to trade-in my FR610 for FR220, I have decided to take the offer although I just use it for just half a year.

After using FR220 for just 2 weeks, I am very happy with the performance.  The battery can last for more than 5 hours after charge.  Also, a single charging from flat battery is just around 3 hours.

The speed of GPS signal acquisition is very fast, a lot faster than the FR610.

However, the 2 features of FR610 that I would miss are the Virtual Racer and Virtual Partner.  Although I have not been able to use these features, but I think this is an interesting features to help pacing strategy in a race

Other than that, I have all the features that I want in FR220.

I hope to be able to use the watch for 2 years!

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (2 wk to go)

Finally, this training session has come to final 2 weeks.

Because of this journal, I am able to keep to my training schedule most of the time, except some unavoidable situation.

After completing the last 30km per week the past week, the coming week is taper week.

I just plan to run 20km easy run this week before my HM in the coming week.

The most important gain from this session of training is my fueling strategy.  I should be able to move from here.

Right after this HM, I will have to increase my weekly mileage to 30km per week.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (3 wk to go)

Again, due to haze situation, I just logged 10km instead of 20km the week before as I planned earlier.  My favoutie Tanjung 10km Run was canceled due to haze condition and only left with Rock to Rock Run on Sunday.  That was my 10km mileage last week.  Although I ran 2 minutes faster, but I pushed myself too hard that I had to slow down the last 3km.  At the end of the run, I met a 67 year old runner who ran a very impressive 61 mins.

Luckily, I can still log 30km the week before last and make the 30km weekly mileage consecutively.

As haze condition improved, I managed to log 30km this week as plan.

However, as 3 weeks ago, the long run this week was not as fast as I'd like to be.  I guess I have to train my body to adopt to this stress for a long time before I can continue to increase the mileage.

As before, I had Yogult before the run and stop to walk after 10km for drink.  I didn't feel hungry throughout the whole long run.

I will try 20km next week as plan and that would be the last training before the taper week after that.

Until now, I still feel that I had a better preparation for HM last year!  

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (6 wk to go)

The race is getting closer and closer.  Unfortunately, more and more surprises arose when the time is closer.

Haze situation was terrible the week before.  I just had to cut down my running during that week.  I was just logging 10km instead of 20km as what I initially planned.  Luckily, the situation was getting better the past few days and I managed to stick to my plan.  However, next week could be another tough week to keep to my training plan due to work related commitment.  I'll see.

Although I managed to log 30km this week as planned, but I felt very tired for my long run of 15km.

At the beginning of the long run, I was just running at the pace of 7+mins/km.  I was thinking that I was running at the pace of 6:30 mins/km but my watch showed me that I was close to 1 min/km slower than I thought.  I didn't put in effort to increase the pace and just let it be.

As usual, my pace slowly increased after 2km.  However, it was just 6:30mins/km and I felt that I was running at 6 mins/km!  Also, my heart rate was not as high as what I felt too.  So, I guess, it is the tiredness that causing this.  Only at around 12km that the running feeling was back.  And, the pace was just 6 mins/km instead of 5:30 mins/km that I'd like it to be.

I wasn't sure what caused me to feel that way and I just blamed it to tiredness.  As I only logged 10km the week before and it is hard to explain the reason of tiredness also.  If it wasn't the mileage, these are a few more reasons that might cause the tiredness for the weekend long run:-
(1)  1 hour of exercise through stationary bike on Monday.  Due to haze on Monday, I used stationary bicycle for exercise instead of running.
(2)  I had a 10km run on Tuesday.  As I didn't had any run on Monday and wasn't sure if haze would come back the next day, I ran for 10 km after work instead of typical 5 km (or occasionally 7.5 km) on Tuesday.
(3)  I had "tempo run" of 5 km on Thursday including warm up and cool down.  In fact, the actual run at "tempo" speed was just 2.5~3 km.  Normally, I will not have "tempo" or "interval" training 2 days after a 10 km run followed by another more than 10 km or long run.
(4)  I started the long run at around 5 am (due to other commitment) instead of typically close to 7 am.  I slept earlier thou!

Would it be those reasons causing my tiredness of long run on Saturday morning?  I am not sure.  Fortunately, I didn't feel any pain or discomfort after the long run.  That is good!

Fuel:-
1.  2 glasses of water before the 15 km long run.
2.  1 cup of Yogult (153 kcal) before the run.
3.  Drink around 1 glass of water mixed with 100+ at 10 km.

I think this fueling strategy is good for me for 10+ km run.

As the race is just 6 weeks away, I just have to carefully increases my mileage to avoid injury.  In terms of total mileage, I think I would logged more than last year.  However, in terms of speed during training, I still not able to match last year's training speed.  Also, I reached 15 km long run last year 1 month earlier than this year!  We'll see how it goes during the race this year!

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (8 wk to go)

This weekly (sort of) update can really make me feel the time pressure.  At least, it makes me alert that the race is approaching and I'd better try hard to stick to my training plan.

There are 3 new records for the week that just past.

Firstly, this is the 1st time I tried off road running.  Joining the group training and I jogged on trail road (mostly sand) for around 10km.  I ended the training with around 2km of normal road.  This marks as my slowest run for the last 3 years, ie. with the pace of 7:40 mins/km.  Could it be the slow jog or the trail road, I experienced muscle soreness after the run.  Luckily, the soreness just lasted for  a day for me to be able to run with targeted HM pace 2 days after that.

Secondly, I followed (and modified) Jeff's training plan found in RunKeeper to run 5km at HM pace after the 5km easy run and ended with 2.5km of easy run again.

Thirdly, this is the first week I logged a weekly mileage of 30km (29.9km to be exact) during this 20wk of training plan.

Fuel:-
1.  2 glasses of water before the 12.5km run.
2.  1 cup of Yogult (75 kcal) before the run.
3.  1 cup of Yogult (153kcal) after the run.
Overall, I felt satisfactory with the above fueling strategy.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (9 wk to go)

The week before was one of the highest mileage so far, 28.7 km to be exact.  I didn't push myself further as I wanted to maintain around 30 km to let me body adopt to this mileage.

This week (the week that just passed) was supposed to be recovery week, sort of, with lower mileage.  However, I joined a training group which organized a group training at hilly route of Lintang Bukit Jambul.  I wanted to just run 5~6 km initially.  But due to training group and most of the people still running, I ended up running close to 10 km.  Since my pace was slow, I didn't feel that tired even after hiking up the Bukit Jambul Hill after the 10 km run.

I concluded the week with another 10 km race.  As expected, the race was not well organized and very crowded after the merging of 5 km runners together with 10 km running at the final 2+ km.  Anyway, I logged another good 10 km timing of 49:26" (5:14"/km pace) due to flat route!

I kind of able to know how to fuel myself this time as I had ~500ml of water before the run and 1 cup of Yogult.  I was OK throughout the race.

I think I am in a very good condition now, ie. feel no pain even running at this pace.  If I can keep to this performance and with my training plan until the APBIM, I think I can run my best HM this year.

Fuel:
1.  1 cup of Yogult with 75 kcal each 2 hours before the race.
2.  2 glasses of water 2 hours before the race with 500 ml of water mixed with 100+ carried with me until the race started.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (11 wk to go)

The HM race is getting closer with just 11 weeks to go.

I was taking this recovering week pretty OK by just sticking to my plan.  However, I went up to Air Itam Dam for my weekend long run, which is tougher than normal long run that I did recently.

I did a 4 loop run at the Dam with the pace of 6:12 mins/km.  When I checked back my record, this is actually my fastest pace at this distance.  And, the last time I ran at this distance was close to 3 years back in Dec 2012!  This results give me confidence that my training plan is on the right track!

All I need to do now is to stick to my training plan and avoid any injury.  However, due to my last week's decision to run 10km in the morning and still joined 8km race, which I was not able to run at slower pace, I kind of develop a muscular type of shin splint.  I felt the pain when I run fast (not in easy run pace).  So, for the next few weeks, I will have to keep an eye on this by keeping my pace slow to avoid worsening of the issue.

Keeping my fingers cross, hopefully I can stick to my training plan and run my best HM at the end of the year.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (12 wk to go)

Looking back into last week training, my running mileage is higher than what I planned.  I hope things will turn out to be good.

Due to serious haze during my training day, I had to skip one day of training.  In order to make up the mileage, I miscalculated and ended up logging a higher mileage, ie. 29.5km instead of 25km.

In order to challenge myself, I purposely did a so-called "back-to-back" run in the morning and then participated in the 8km race at night.  As I heard that army training will be to run 10km in the morning and than 10km in the afternoon.  So, I just wanted to try it out!

As I was planning to run at slow pace during the night race, I just couldn't held myself but to push little by little to finish the race with the pace of 5:42"/km despite the little hilly route.  During the race I had to remind myself to slow down a few times as I felt that I was running too fast and I didn't want to hurt myself.  I did walk up the toughest hill thou.

I was doing OK at the race and finished with a strong kick.

The consequences... I wasn't really able to run the next morning!  Other than that, everything seems to be normal.

As plan, next week will be a recovery week which I plan to just log some 20~22km.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (13 wk to go)

It is getting close to APBIM 2015.  Just 90 days to go.

After taking last week as recovery week, which I logged only 16km, I managed to log 25km this week.  This meets my original goal of 24km.  This weekly mileage also is a 10% increased from my previous training week, the week before last week.  I will pay attention to see if my leg can handle this increase or not.

My long run for this week was 12km.  This is also my 1st run more than 10km after the mid Jun HM.  As I didn't run at a fast pace, I can still handle this quite well except that I felt hungry after 10km.

Before the weekend long run, I just had around 500ml of plain water and nothing else.

Since I will take on 8km race end of the week, in order not to put myself into injury, I will not have long run but to have 5km the day before the 8km race.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (15 wk to go)

Since I participated in the race on Sunday, I had a bit of reserved in my weekday training, not doing as high mileage as I could.  This is because I was hoping that the Sunday 10km race could make up the mileage.  As most of the races that I joined before, the actual race distance for this one is slightly shorter than the intended.

Hence, my total mileage this week was around 1 km shorter than what I put in the training plan.  But with the faster speed during the race, ie. higher intensity, the actual training effort is higher than last week.

As for the 10 km race, BM Run, this is the fastest 10 km time that I had.  I completed the 10 km run (9.9 km recorded by my Garmin) in 51:33 mins, which is 5:14 min/km.  Before this, the fastest 10 km run was with pace of 5:18 mins/km, which I recorded in Nov 2014 during the Tanjung 10 km Run.  With this results, I turned out to be in 20th placing in my category, Veteran!  This is possible due to no cash prize given to the top winners and thus not able to attract a lot of fast runners to join this race!  Good for me but unfortunately, the prizes are only given from 1st to 15th placing!

Fuel:
1.  2 bottles of Yogurt that has 105kcal each.
2.  1 little of water but feel like need to go to toilet after around 6km!  So, need to reduce.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (16 wk to go)

Counting down to APBIM and it is only 16 weeks to go.  I still do not have very high confidence that I can follow the training plan that I put up with.  However, I will definitely try to follow as much as I can without causing any injury.

Having a training plan is definitely good.  It is because of the training plan, with my target mileage of 22km last week that I will adjust my training time to ensure that I can meet it.

I even ran 2 nights after work back to back in order to make up for my busy schedule on Saturday.

Nothing extra-ordinary last week but to be still able to stick to my training plan so far after 5 weeks.

Way to go!

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (17 wk to go)

After getting the habit to write this journal weekly, I just realized that the year end APBIM is around the corner, mere 17 weeks to go.  When I started my training plan, I was thinking to myself that I had prepared a few weeks ahead of time, ie. 20 weeks instead of typically 16 weeks.  However, after next week, it would be just 16 weeks to go.

For this week, I again stressed myself to run 3 days continuously.  But the pace is slower and slower.  I don't really worry about this because my main point is to be able run.  The reason for running slower and slower is because I experienced acute pain on my tight muscle after 2 days of easy run on Tuesday and Wednesday.  However, since I felt that it was not that serious, I continued to run on Thursday and rest for Friday and Saturday before the 5.5km fun run on Sunday.

The pain became more serious, I even felt pain while sitting on a chair in Saturday morning.  Anyway, I took multi-vitamin in the morning to see if it helped.  Luckily, in the afternoon of Saturday, the pain disappeared.  I was just hoping that I could join the run the next day.  With this minor incident, I was just targeting to finish the 5.5km with 6 mins pace.  I told myself that I need to be able to control myself because I recently will stress myself too much during the race.

Since this is just a 5.5km fun run with no prize, I didn't notice any serious runners around.  So, I was in quite in front before the run started.  Unfortunately, my GPS watch wasn't able to detect a strong GPS signal and thus I have to run by feel.

I was running slow (I guess), paying attention on my leg to see if I felt any sign of muscle pain.
Luckily, after around 1~2km of slow run, it turned out to be OK and thus I just increased my pace.  It was the uphill stretch when I increased the pace and managed to overtook a few runners.  When I was running back after the U-turn, at the downhill stretch, I just increased my speed, while paying attention on my leg.  It turned out that I didn't feel any discomfort downhill with that speed.  However, after a few minutes, I experienced pain at side of my abdomen, like previous race.  So, I decided to slow down a bit until the pain went away.

Around 1km to go, as I didn't feel the pain anymore, I slowly increased my pace.  Lastly, I finished the run with 28m42s.  This translates to 5:14"/km of pace, which is one of the fastest for around 5km route.  I am very happy with this results even with an uphill stretch.

Fuel: To try out different method of fueling before the race, I decided to try taking Yogurt before the fun run.  So, 1 hour before the run, while driving to the destination, I took ~100gm of Yogurt (127kcal according to the label).  At the same time, I drank 500ml of water mixed with isotonic drink.  Luckily, my stomach was taking this OK.  I just lined up to pass urine around 15 mins before the run started.

Overall for the week, I logged slightly more than 20km, which is what I targeted in my plan.  Furthermore, I managed to stress myself with 3 days run continuously.  I will do that again the following week to get myself comfortable with 3 days run with total mileage of around 15km.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (18 wk to go)

This is not a smooth week to meet the target mileage.  Eventually, I only able to log 18km instead of 21.5km in my plan.  Anyway, I will take this as a pull in of recovery week from next week.

I just read an article that suggested to group the training for every 3 weeks, ie. train hard for first two weeks and schedule the third week as recovery.  For some reasons, this seems to fit into my idea more.  Thus, I will revise my training plan to group into every 3 weeks, instead of every 4 weeks now.

Streak:  However, the main reason for me not able to meet this week's target mileage is because of this Streak!  I use a logging website which has "streak" in the overall training summary page.  The number in the column shows the longest accumulative mileage for 4 conservative days.  From the analysis, the last number shown was achieved in year 2013.  So, I just felt that the same number has been there for to long that I have to somehow break it!

So, after the Chung Ling Run on Saturday, which is not common for race day to fall on Saturday, I was in the mood to run again on Sunday morning.  Since Monday was holidays I ran again trying to break the "streak" record!  I felt a bit of pain at my lower leg after Monday run.  But because of the wish to break the record, I ran again on Tuesday.  At the end, I managed to have a new Streak record!  But my lower leg hurt a bit even when I walk.  In order to avoid me having the same crazy idea again in future, I decided to remove this number from the training summary page!

With the minor leg discomfort, I decided to delay my Thursday scheduled running day to Friday follow by another easy run on Saturday.  I just reduced the training mileage for both runs, monitoring the condition of my leg, and run slowly.  All my trainings this week were slower than 7"/km.  My training pace for the whole week is 7:14"/km while my normal weekly training pace was around 1 minute faster.  Anyway, I know now that if I slow down a lot, I can still log some mileage without stressing my leg too much.  I will try to increase my pace next week to be around 6"/km.

Fuel: From this week training, I know that 250ml of water before 5km run is not enough.  I increase the water intake to 500ml before the 5km run and it seems better, still not good enough.  I will increase the intake to 750ml before the run next week.


Conclusion: 

1. Run real slow if needed.
2. Need more than 500ml for early morning 5km run.
3. Group training into 3 weeks per group.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (19 wk to go)

less than 20 weeks to go for the year end HM again...

I joined the 10km Penang Chinese cross Country Run 2015 (Chung Ling Cross Country Run 2015) on Saturday.  As like before, this was not a very well organized run but with tons of lucky draw.  My finishing time was 5 mins longer than last year and I taught I was slow.  When I checked back my last year record, the distant was 1 km shorter last year.  So, I should be happy with this finishing time.  In fact, this is the 2nd fastest ~10km run that I had, not to mention the small uphill that the route has.

As I was inspired by my running sifu who won a medal (17th placing) in the run with 8mins faster than my finishing time, I dragged myself for a recovery run on Sunday morning.

The recovery run is really a recovery run with my average heart rate of only 138 bpm with average pace of 7:05 min/km.  I remember the last round I was running at this pace was either after injury or easy run at my high mileage week.  Anyway, I really felt very tired (not able to walk fast at all) the whole day.

With the additional recovery run, I was logging 22.7km for the whole week.  Hopefully, my body can still handle this with no injury moving forward.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (20 wk to go)

This is the second week of my structure training which I plan to log 20km this week with 4 day run.  However, I ended up just running 3 days due to my forgetfulness of bringing running shoes.

I made up the mileage on the next day with higher mileage.

Again, the whole week was run with my zero drop shoes.  So far so good!

My initial long run target was 8km but I ended up running up to 10km, which is good.  I just had on cup of water before the run.  However, at the end of run, I felt like I had a bit of de-hydration symptom due to my urine colour.  So, I will also monitor my intake of water so that I will not need to stop by toilet during the year end HM race, like I always been doing.

I will be joining another 10 km race next week.  Also due to my potential heavy work schedule, I might log lower mileage as I intended.  We'll see...

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (21 wk to go)

After having my worst HM 2 weeks ago, I just happened to have a chance to have a quick look at a fellow runner's racing report.  In the report, he summarized the 10 weeks training that he had before each race and conclude the effectiveness of the training.  As he put in his words, if you keep on doing the same thing, your performance will actually degrade over time due to age!

So, I decided to so something similar, by recording my training before the HM race and make conclusion to see what to improve next!

The next HM that I will joining is APBIM in Nov.  So, I have drafted out the training plan, which I still put priority in increasing mileage slowly.  With my plan now, I am not able to run as much mileage as last year.  So, my target for this year is to match last year targeted finishing time, ie. 2:03!

After starting up again last week, I just plan to have 15km this week.  In terms of mileage, I am logging 17km.  However, I felt a bit of pain at the ball of my right foot after the 1st run of the week.  I sometimes had this problem on and off after I tried to change to forefoot landing.  I always felt that this is due to the normal running shoes that I have because I don't have this problem with zero drop running shoes.  I remember I had the same problem while I was doing the high mileage training and I had to cut down my training for a bit to prevent the situation got worse.  So, this time, I will try to use zero drop shoes for all my run!

Overall for this week, although I just had 5km run during weekend, but I was very tired after the run.  Anyway, no issue at all to beat my target for this week and without injury.

A good start to me.

4th HM (lack of training)

As expected, this is really a struggling HM run for me.

For all the three HM that I ran before, I have at least one run more than 2 hours or more than 16km during training.  But for this time, the longest run I had since early of the year was 14km (around 1hr 23 mins).  So, I really struggle at the end of the run.

The first 10km in the run had no surprises.  I ran with the pace of 5:30~5:40min/km after 4km.  I was thinking that if I could keep to this pace until the end of the race, I could really target for sub-2.  I knew I was a bit optimistic because I felt that my breathing was harder than I'd like to be.  With that kind of breathing, I knew I couldn't keep too long.

So, at km 10 (or 11), after I stopped for drink, I felt too tired to start running again.  I forced myself to start running after walking for more than 1 min.  For all the previous 3 HMs, I just walked for 1 min and felt so energetic to start running again.  Slowly, I increased the pace to 5:20min/km, targeting to finish sub-2.  However, the 5:20min/km pace didn't last long.  Only for 2~3km with that pace.  I was then pacing with a fellow runner with around 5:40~5:50min/km.  I had hard time keeping up with that pace but I tried hard.  I had pain at my side that I just had to slow down a bit.

Just before the last incline of the bridge, that runner increased his pace.  I just couldn't keep up and just stick to my own pace, which I looked at my watch, was slightly slower than 5:50min/km.

The last part of the run was a real struggle for me.  At the peak of incline, my pace was dropped down to 7:00min/km.  At decline, I was hoping I could increased my pace to 5:20min/km but I failed.  My legs were so heavy that I could only run with around 6min/km pace at sloping down.

Lastly, I managed to struggle through the last 500m flat surface with 5:30min/km pace to complete the HM with 2:06 finishing time.  I was so exhausted at finish line.  For all the previous HM, I felt exited and felt like I can still jog slowly for a few km.  Not for this time.

My conclusion is, either the age has catch up with me or it is the lack of training that causing all these struggling.  I believe lack of training is the key for this struggling, couple with the fact that I didn't had a good sleep a few nights before the run!

Here's my results...

So, I will to come up with good training plan for the next HM in Nov...

 

Slow Down in Running

For some reasons, maybe due to high and unpredictable workload, my running has not been consistent!  Except for the 1st week of March, I only logged 0~10km per week for the remaining 4 weeks of March.  Since I started running, this was the lowest mileage logged (except in Apr 2013 that I had minor operation)!  I really have to force myself to start running again.  If it is not because of health, I would have stopped already!

I tried to run at my favourite route, Air Itam Dam, yesterday and I really felt like wanted to stop after half a round.  I eventually stopped close to 2 rounds of running.  I really can't imaging that I could run for 5 rounds back then in 2012.  The scenery on the route is still that fascinating but I just can't run that long.

For this coming HM in June, I guess it would be a real struggle for me...  We'll see...

Training Plan for 2015

I started to get serious about training again 2 months after the Penang Bridge Marathon last Nov.  After the run, I was just running 10~15km a week and skipping run whenever I don't feel like running.

Anyway, I started to be more serious in training again.  By more serious, I meant planning out my running schedule, trying to plan my run to avoid crash with other commitment, look into running mileage per week, look at running intensity, etc.

Following is my guideline to plan out my training plan for 1st half of the year:-

1.  For each run, the min running time is 30 mins.  This is translating to around 5km for my speed.
2.  Add in Tempo Run to my training.  From various articles that I read, my Tempo Run pace should be around 5:20~5:30min/km or heart rate of more than 170bpm.  For a start, I will alternating between Tempo Run and Long Run each week and hope eventually, I can run Tempo Run during weekday and Long Run at weekend.  For the whole last year, I was focusing in increasing my running mileage and mostly run at easy pace.  My target was to improve my monthly mileage to 70~80km consistently at the end of next year.  For now, I hope to keep at least 60km for my monthly mileage while adding Tempo Run training in.
3.  Run Strides at the end of my run every now and then.  My definition of strides is following this article from Strength Running.  I will just start with once per week and eventually increase to run strides at the end of everey easy run.
4. Lastly, my recovery week will be once every 3 weeks.

The planning above will only give me around 2.5 hours of running per week while the doctor suggested me to exercise at least 5 hours a week.  In order to make it 5 hours a week, I will have to run for 5 days a week so that I still can mange my long run.

I will see how it goes at the end of the 1st half of this year to decide my 2nd half training plan

My new Heart Rate Training Zone

After having the heart rate monitoring device for 2 years, I finally found my max heart rate.  This is because I only wear the heart rate monitoring device during actual race recently.  From recent race monitoring, my max heart rate can go as high as 196 bpm instead of 188 that I initially determined before.  Also, from various testing, my resting heart rate is now 65 bpm instead of close to 80 bpm when I initially started running.

With this discovery, the following training zones are now revised.

Easy Run (recovery zone)
Pace: One to two minutes slower than marathon pace
% Max heart rate: 65 to 78% [127~153 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 3 to 4/easy
Talk Test: Complete conversation
Training Run (aerobic zone)
Pace: Marathon pace or slightly slower
% Max heart rate: 80 to 89% [157~175 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 5 to 6/moderate
Talk Test: Full sentences
Tempo Run (threshold zone)
Pace: 20 to 30 seconds slower than 5-K pace
% Max heart rate: 88 to 92% [171~180 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 7 to 8/hard
Talk Test: A few words at a time
Intervals (VO2 max zone)
Pace: Mile to 5-K pace or faster
% Max heart rate: 95 to 100% [186~196 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 9/very hard
Talk Test: Can't...talk...must...run...

I have changed the max heart rate percentage to follow Jack Daniels' definition.  Also, I didn't use resting heart rate for the above calculation this time.

Just by looking at the number, I think haven't been training in Tempo Run zone all the time (although I though that I was training in that zone) not to mention about the Interval zone.  As for my easy run, I am running kind of too hard to make the heart rate falls into the Training Zone.  In conclusion, if following the heart rate training zone, I have been training mostly in Training Zone almost all the time so far!

Concluding 2014 (4th year of running)

Looking back the whole 2014, it seems to be a very fulfilling year!  For one, I wasn't being forced to stop running for weeks due to injury.  I experienced some pain at the bottom of my foot, which I just rest for a few days to maybe a week and I was back in running again.  This is a good sign.
With this, I managed to log more than 80km per month for 9 months consecutively until the APBIM.  Although I didn't train for speed this year, with the increase of mileage, I was able to improve my race time to be less than 6min/km for all the races (shorter than HM) that I joined through the year.  Even with HM in APBIM, I was running at the pace of 5:51min/km and "officially" enter the sub-2 category for HM (although I still think that the race course is 1km shorter)!

Achievement for 2014:-

1. Joined 9 races throughout the year.  Too many, I think.  I will have to cut it down.
2. Completed all the races with less than 6 min/km pace with best pace for 10km at 5:18min/km.
3. Started to join out of town race: the NTCRC Run and Taiping Run.
4. Surprisingly achieving sub-2 in my APBIM HM race.
5. Managed to log more than 80km per month for 9 months throughout the year.
6. Achieving more than 17km for long run starting July.  One in July, One in August and 3 in Sep before going back to One in Oct due to races.  I think at this point, I can only handle more than 17km long run every 2 weeks (instead of every week).
7. Managed to find my "max" heart rate due to the fact that I started to wear heart beat monitoring during race.  My max heart rate recorded was 196 bpm (instead of 188 bpm that I tested it out myself).  The new max heart rate was recorded during the Taiping Run almost at the top of uphill run.  So, I have to re-define my heart rate training zone again!
8. Bought myself a footpod and be able to monitor my recent running cadence of 174 to 180 per min.

Overall, the high mileage training was accomplished with well-plan training plan "almost" throughout a the whole year.  Thus, I will continue to work on the training plan in the coming year.


My plan for 2015:-

1. Work on the speed.  Focus on quality of training without increasing my time spend on running.
2. Targeting to have 2 hour long run every other week (and hopefully make it to every week).
3. Increase my weekday mileage to at least 5km per run or at least 30 mins.
4. Join less races.  Only focus on HM locally, or charity race, or out-of-town good race.  Something like 5~6 races should be good enough.

However, for some reasons, the motivation of running is lower recently.  I do not know the reason, which might be due to stress at work!  I hope I can overcome this in a few months time once I come out with training plan again!