Malakoff Penang Run 2013

Malakoff Penang Run 2012 was the first ever race that I joined around one year ago since I picked up running.  I joined 7km fun run  last year.  I trained hard for that and I was almost out of breath to complete the run.

Time changes.  I participated in 17 km run this time with high confident that I can complete the run.  The only worry I had before the run was my knee.  I haven't had running this distance since Penang Run at the end of January.  During that run, I was forced to walk for a few minutes.

Lucky this time.  I didn't experienced any pain throughout the whole run.  My pace of 6:12/km is about the same pace as I did during Penang Bridge Half Marathon 2012 (6:11/km).  After this run, I am able to walk up and down stairs as normal.  Not like Penang Bridge Half Marathon, I was suffering to go up or down the stairs for a few days.  I think I did pretty good this time.

As for my training pace last week, ie. 6:26/km, this was the pace that I ran around Oct 2012.  I guess this is where I am now.

After all, this is the long run that I had after injury  AND most importantly, I didn't experience pain during throughout the run!

I run again

I run again... as normal as I can... without knee guard... for 5k... and no knee discomfort!

After reading a few blogs on injury these are what I picked up:-

1.  If you experience pain, stop for 3 days.  Then, run half of the distance.  If no pain, stop for another day and run with slightly increase (10% I guess) the distance.  If you experience pain, stop for another 3 days.  Try again.  If pain remains, see doctor.

2.  If the pain is better against time, it should be ok.

3.  Also, the most importantly is the post from Running Injury Free called The Basics of Jogging.  The main and most important idea I captured from this post is "Listen to Your Body".

4.  From another post in Running Injury Free, I came to know that you could get injured weeks or months before you feel it.

When I think back, I am actually following The Basics of Jogging when I started to run.  It is after I wanted to push to time, distance, that I eventually ended up have to stop running for awhile, which I cannot enjoy the feel of running for awhile.

Probably from other posts in Old Man Running, or some other links from the web-site, I was encouraged by the author's experience that he started to run at the age of 38 and hit his personal best (less than 4 hours for Marathon) in his late 40's.  That's my goal now!

I guess I have to spend more time in the above web-site.

My 5k run

This is my 1st 5k after the Penang Run 2013 two weeks ago.  I tried to run last week but I was force to stop, again, due to my knee problem.  During that try run, I just managed to run continuously for close to 2km without knee problem.  I decided to give myself more rest.  I was kind of worry about my knee but I read it somewhere (on running material) that as long as the pain goes away as time passes, it should be ok.  That is the case for me.

So, finally, I managed to run 5k this time.  Around 2km after I started, I felt a bit of knee discomfort again.  It was very mild and I just continued to run.  Luckily, the discomfort didn't get worse.  However, I was running with a very slow pace, ie 7min/km.  This is the pace that I run about 8 months ago.  I will start up slow again.

Hope everything is getting better moving forward.

Penang Run 2013

Due to my knee injury, I wasn't sure that I would go for the run until the evening before the race.  Eventually, due to the urge to run, I had decided to go.

During the warm up run, my left knee wasn't as normal as before.  Anyway, my target was just to finish the run within the qualifying time of 2.5 hours.

I was at the very last of the queue at the starting point.  I started up the run very very slowly and carefully.  At the 1st uphill, I was feeling okay and started to pass other runners very comfortably.  I was very careful during the downhill.  I was almost "limping" during downhill as I know I still have a long way to go.  Unfortunately, the pain started again right after the downhill.  It was ~ 4km.  It was the distant that I ran before I experienced the severe pain.

I then decided to walk.  During that time, I noticed a lot of runners that I overtook earlier passed me by.  I was a bit upset and almost wanted to quit.  I told myself that I would try until the very last minute.  So, I continued walking for 1~2 minutes before I decided to run slowly and softly again.

When I started to run again, hey, I didn't feel any discomfort this time.  That's good.  I continued with a very slow pace for awhile.  Unconsciously, my pace became faster and faster.  I only noticed that I was running at normal pace at around 8km.  I was very surprise.  So, I continued with the same pace until I reached another uphill.

I decided to slow down although I didn't feel any discomfort of my knee.  I was running at that slow pace again until the next and final uphill.  When almost reaching the peak of the final uphill, I started to walk again so that I will not hurt my knee.

At that time, I knew that I would finished my race before the qualifying time and thus I did quite a lot of walking especially during the downhill.

Finally, I finished the race with 1 h 59 minute (525/973 overall; 141/212 on my category) which is pretty good despite of my knee problem.  More importantly, I just felt normal tiredness of the knees after this run.

I guess I can start running again but at lower millage to start up with.