Feeling Down

For the month of Feb, I managed to log at least 30 km per week for 3 weeks (44 km in one of the weeks) and with ~23 km in the last week.  Again, I managed to repeat that in March with at least 30 km/week for 3 weeks (with 42 km max) and 25 km in the 4th week.  Unfortunately, April is really a pull back.  For the last 2 weeks, I really didn't feel like running and even suspecting myself of having heart problem.  I took a real rest for the next 3 weeks with only one run per week with ~10 km run.  Only after resting for 3 weeks, I started to check out the so-called heart problem to understand that the pain in my chest is not really related to heart.  After checking, it is likely that I had a strain in chest muscles.

Finally, I started to feel like running again... and looking forward for my first Full Marathon in the coming weekend.

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Extraction from Dr. Thomas Graboys articles.

Understanding Chest Pain
Characteristics	Cardiac Chest Pain	Other Chest Pain
Time of day when pain often occurs	Morning	End of the day
How it usually feels	Pressure, heaviness, constriction, burning, or squeezing. Feels “deep” rather than superficial. Often very hard to describe. Diffuse. May be in the chest. May also radiate to throat, jaw, or even arms and back. Can’t really be “pointed to”/	Feels like real pain, often sharp. Usually more local. May actually be at one point. Usually easy to point to location of pain.
What brings it on?	Pain is usually preceded by exertion, especially upper arm movements like carrying a briefcase, shoveling snow, or carrying bundles. Exertion during exposure to temperature extremes is common provocation. Sometimes follows a heavy meal, especially with exertion. May wake you from sleep.	Usually occurs “out of the blue”. “Heart burn” may come after eating, especially fried foods.
Duration of pain	Usually lasts as long as exertion, but rapidly declines when you stop or reduce exertion.	May come and go very quickly, fleeting, just a few seconds. Or it may last several hours
What relieves it	Stopping exertion. With angina (“aching” from the heart), lying down makes it worse. Sitting and “leaning into” the discomfort helps. SEEK MEDICAL ADVICE – TREATMENT IS MANDATORY!	Exertion or exercise may actually stop this pain. Also: Breathing exercises. Simple analgesics: aspirin, ibuprofen (e.g. Advil), or acetaminophen (e.g. Tylenol). Application of local heat (wet or dry). Antacids (e.g. Tums, Rolaids). Simple reassurance that pain is not from the heart can be very effective.

Hitting 40km per week mileage

With the help of running group as well as a few holidays, I finally accumulated 40km/week of mileage for the 1st time.  However, the increase in mileage is not gradual which prone to injury.  Joining this running group, the pace is around 7~8min/km (comparing to ~6+min/km that I usually did) because of a few ultra runners in the group.

I have been controlling myself for not following the mileage of other runners.

The day before the last 8km run, the muscle of both of my legs a giving me strange feeling on and off.  So, I will just off for the next 5 or 6 days and hope for the best.

My longest (in time) run

Since a few weeks ago, I trained together with a few "ultra' runners.  To them, running 10km or even 17km is too short.  So, this week, I have decided to run 21km or 22km together with them.

To them, running at 7mins pace is a little to fast.  So, we started with around 8min or 8:30min pace.  Running at this pace was a bit of a challenge to me.  For one, my cadence is low and I'd expect knee discomfort after running for awhile, probably around 10km.  Strangely, no knee discomfort this time.  However, at around 12km, after running for 1h 44mins with two short walking break (for maybe 1 min each), the bottom of my right foot became very painful.  So, I took a walking break.  I tried to run again after the walking break with slight adjustment in landing position (to be closer to big toe), the pain seems to be bearable after the break and the adjustment.  Thus, I continued with journey back to the starting point with around 8 min pace.

After 16km, I felt that I still have energy left with my heart rate was just around 145bpm, I picked up my pace a little bit.  However, I didn't go fast but with only around 7min/km.  I wanted to run stride after 19km.  As my watch signaled me at 19km mark, I ran stride.  But I was too tired and could only do 6:10min/km pace.  It was after 2h 35mins of jogging!  The longest run I had so far.  Before this, the longest run I had was during the NTCRC 3-state HM where I ran for 2h 22min (for 22km).

After 5x of my usual stride, I slowly jog back to the starting point.  While jogging back, I was still debating if I should run a bit further to make this the longest (in distance) run.  But I gave up the idea and stopped after reaching HM distance.  Too tired, that's it.

2 h 45mins run.  The longest so far.  Now that I experienced how it feels for FM and I really respect those who finished FM regardless of time!

To me, definitely more training is needed to handle the time and distance!

Get back my feel of running

Finally, after a few months of set-back, I started to get back the feel of running starting mid of May, after the NTCRC 3-state HM.

However, due to slightly busy work schedule, I only managed to train long run during weekend and very difficult to squeeze time for run during weekday.

During the FIT Malaysia Run in end of May, I really enjoyed the run and felt strong after completing the 8.3km run.  Although not achieving my best timing, I felt very comfortable after the run.

For my 2nd HM this year in Garmin HM on Jun 4, I felt very comfortable after the run.  Again, I only managed to beat the 2 hour 15 mins target this time.  I was running with the pace of 6:30min/km after warming up at beginning 2 km.  It was until 11km, after my toilet visit, that I started to pick up the pace in trying to hit 6:00min/km.  However, a few km after that was with inconsistent pace.  Eventually, I sped up around 17km in trying to catch the 2hr15 mins pacer.  Finally, I managed to catch the pacer within the last 1 km and achieving 2hr 13mins finish time.

Anyway, I felt that my running feel is back and hopefully can continue until end of the year and improve my self until end of the year!

My Worst HM

I knew I wouldn't be running a good HM this time due to lack of training but I still hope that I could be in par with my 1st HM that I ran a few years back.  Unfortunately, this NTCTC 3-state HM turned out to be my worst HM since I first running.

Not only I clocked the slowest pace, but I felt terrible for the last 6 km.  I only managed to drag myself at close to 7 min/km pace after 16km.  After showing my results to a friend of mine, he mentioned that I ran too fast in the middle of the run, which could be true.  I was running at less than 6 min/km pace after 6km for 7km.  During that period of time my fastest lap was 5:38min/km.  Since I could run with around 5:40 min/km for my previous HM in Nov last year, I thought I could hold on to 5:40min/km pace until end of the race.

It turned out that I couldn't!  And it is due to lack of training.  Due to my busy work schedule and injury, my March training mileage was only 13km for the whole month.  Yes, 13km for the whole month!  Then, I put in some effort to look my training mileage prior to all the HM that I ran before.

Following is the summary:-

	Avg training mileage (km)
HM Pace	16W	8W	4W
1) 6:13/km	18.0	17.7	17.3
2) 6:06/km	17.5	17.5	13.2
3) 5:51/km	25.2	24.5	22.3
4) 5:58/km	16.2	17.6	17.1
5) 5:41/km	24.1	24.2	23.0
6) 6:16/km	14.8	11.8	10.6

Note: 16W, 8W, 4W are the number of weeks before the actual HM race.

From the summary, it shows that I need to train with average weekly mileage of 25 km for around 16 weeks prior to the HM to be able to achieve less than 6 min/km pace during the race.  As for the 6th HM that I ran for 6:16min/km, my average training mileage was only half (or less than half as approaching the race) comparing to my 5th (best so far) HM.  So, there's no short cut in training to get good results.

Looking forward, I can only run back my best HM results if I start with more than 25 km / week training now for 16 weeks.  So, the timing would be after Oct!

I hope I can keep to the training volume that I'd like to be.

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.

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...

 

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!

Sub-2 in HM??!! Maybe...

1:57:18 was the time I read from my Garmin watch when I reached the HM finish line of 2014 APBIM.  This is an amazing time to me.  My target for this year APBIM HM was 2:06.  However, when I checked the distant from the watch, it only showed 20.06km!  More than 1km short from standard HM distant of 21.095km.  Yes, that's more likely the case from how I feel during the run.

My friend's Garmin also showed 20.06km on his watch.  Other HM runners also commented on this distant of slightly more than 20km only.

However, I stopped several times during this run.  I woke up 12:30am and started my hydration plan of drinking 1.5L of water before the run.  My last drink was at 1:40am and I went to toilet at 2:30am.  After 5~6km of run, I felt like I need to go to toilet again.  I hold on to it until I reached the toilet with no queue, which was around 11km.

Another 2 stops was at the beginning due to large group of runners.  The stop-walk-run situation continued for around 0.5km.  At around 15km, a runner (full marathon I guess) felt in front of me due to muscle clamp.  I stopped and stood by him for a couple of seconds until another runner stop to help him.

So, here's how I can do the math.  If I continue my last km with the pace of 5:51km, I would have finished the 21.095km in 2:03::21.  Minus out all the 3 stoppages which total up to 2:54 mins and I should be less than 30 seconds to achieve the sub-2 in HM.  If I improve the walk-run pace from 8min/km to at least 6min/km, I can take, maybe, a minute from there and really meet the sub-2 in my HM time!

After all, I shouldn't just do the math as above because I might have too tired and run with slower pace without all the stoppages!

Anyway, quite a good run and I shall wait to see how the organizer respond to the shorter HM distant!

Goal Achieved (70km/month)

Despite the fact that I had to stop my training due to flu, I still managed to meet my target of 70km per month of mileage in Feb.

I think 2 factors that made this possible, ie. carefully drafting out my plan to include all holidays and possible races; and leaving some breathing space for sudden event.  Although in the beginning, it looks like I should be able to achieve this target earlier, but because of flu, the plan is not as easy as it seems.

Anyway, feel real great for having able to achieve what I initially targeted.  With this, this is the 7th consecutive month that I  hit more than 60km per month in terms of running mileage.  Something that I really feel proud of..

My next goal is getting myself to 17km LSD weekly.  My plan is to be able to reach there early July or end of July.  After that, I will have plan to increase my speed.

Hitting 20km per week

Coming to the end of the 1st month in 2014, I am following well with my training plan.  By this time, I should be logging 20km per week and I did.  20km/week is a special number to me.  I guess it was the target that I had since I started running seriously.

Since I started to run ~2+ years ago, out of 80 weeks that I recorded my mileage, only 16 weeks were with weekly mileage of more than 20km excluding the weeks with race.  Nothing magic, but this is a good start for the year.

As I read somewhere that optimum running mileage per week is between 10miles to 20 miles, my long term target is to run 30km/week while keeping 20km/week as minimum.  While achieving 30km/week, I am targeting to run 17km in the long run.  The 17km is chosen because I think it takes me 2 hours to run 17km.  Again, I read somewhere that running more than 2 hours continuously has no significant benefits in improving endurance.  Thus, 17km is my target now.

From my planning of 3 runs a week, achieving 17km will also bring me to 30km per week and then 80km per month.  Thus, all the goals aligned!  Amazing.

As I can achieve those target (probably end of June this year), I will consider myself to have the base of running and will work on improving my speed.  Once I can improve my speed, I will slowly increase my mileage to keep to 30mins run during weekday and 2 hours of long run during weekend.

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!

Concluding 2012... Starting 2013

Looking back at 2012, this is the year that I seriously engage in running.  To keep me going, I started to participate in running events, logging my run online, reading running blog and started my own blog, looking for running friends, etc.  Quite a good year for me.

My first running event was Malakoff 7km fun run in March 2012.  I was struggling to finish the 7km at that point of time with ~40 minutes to complete 7km.  I wasn't that particular about the running time at that event as my main goal was to be able to complete the run.  Looking back now, I was doing quite good (or I haven't been improving that much).  Besides, I joined a hiking competition and ECO night run before my actual target of half marathon in APBIM at the end of the year.  Total of 4 runs including 1 half marathon.

To be able to track my training more systematically, I started to log my running training using runningahead beginning of Jun 2012. The main reason for choosing runningahead is the capability to associate running shoes used during each run.  With this, I hope to be able to choose a longer lasting running shoes to save a few bucks moving forward.  Following is the monthly summary from runningahead.

From the table, a faster pace in Oct was due to shorter distant of each run that I engaged in.  By analyzing the pace on the same course, I can see that my pace has improved from 10% to 25% since early June to end of December.

To track my time more accurately, I bought Garmin Forerunner 210 in November.  So, the time recorded after APBIM 2012 is more accurate and definitely more consistent.

From the running shoes usage tracking, my running shoes can last me around 300km run.  Not a good number due to my "heavy heel strike".  I have bought 3 pairs of running shoes for the whole 2012.  I will work on this more this year.

Starting a new year, I had a short run in the morning.  I recorded a pace of 5'22" for 5km of track run.  This is one of the best record that I have so far.  This is definitely a good start of the year!  Moving on for the year, my target is to participate in 2 half marathon and a few more shorter run (3 or 4) between the half marathon.

Training, Training, Training...

Just 2 weeks to go for the Penang Bridge Marathon for my 1st ever half marathon event!  Getting very excited with a little bit uneasy due not able to train as much as I wanted to.  It could be due to rain or too tired or falling sick that I skip or cut down my training schedule.  However, whenever possible, I stick well to my training plan.

During my recent training at the Dam, I met up with a regular Penang Bridge half marathon runner.  From her point of view, I should be able to do 2h15mins for my half marathon.  Well, my target is just 2h30mins and getting 2h15mins is a bonus to me.  I met a few runners before (during training) and they all commented that I can run faster.  One even said that my pace should be <50mins for 10k.  However, from record, the best I can achieve for 10k is 61mins.  Anyway, those words are very encouraging that "pushed" me to participate in more runs...

However, after bench mark with another runner who participated in the same run before, I should be doing between 2h15mins to 2h30mins.  On previous run, I am ~15% slower than him and he is doing 1h53mins to 2h04mins for half marathon.  Considering Penang Bridge run is my 1st run and in the middle of the night, getting 2h15mins and 2h30mins is a reasonable target...

We'll see... just 14 days to go!

Start Again

Haven't been training for two weeks starting end of September due to other commitment.  So, I have to start training for Penang Bridge Marathon again.  It is just 7 weeks away from the race from the week I started again.  The shortest training plan for half marathon that I can find is 8 week.  So, I just have to modify it to make it a 7 week plan.

The 1st and 2nd week of training were going smoothly.  Managed to log 20km and 24km respectively for first two weeks with 4 days training per week.  However, the raining session starts on my 3rd week of training.  So, I am not able to log as much as I 'd like to for the 3rd week.  Hopefully, with more holidays on the 4th week, I am able to still stick to my plan and train myself up without injury!

Another Week of Record Setting Training

This was the second time I ran the countryside route again.  The cooling atmosphere was still there except that it was a lot hazy.  I felt more tired at the end of the run as compare to the first time I used this route.  It could be due to another long run yesterday.  I checked back the record and found that I just had 55mins of ~7km the day before I took this route on the 1st time.  But yesterday, I trained for ~2hours (including hiking up and down) at Air Itam Dam for 4.5 rounds.

This time, the run was a bit exciting that I frighten a herb of buffalo that were about to cross the street.  All the buffalo stumbled back when seeing an stranger running 50 feet in front of them except one (the leader I guess).  The buffalo stood there steadily watching me running pass.  What an exciting and a bit of scary experience.

Except for the weekday tempo training, I was on track for the training for this week.  In terms of distance, I recorded the longest running distance of 27.4km for the whole week.  I even had a steady improve in pace recently with now pacing at the average pace of 6:33min/km, which I was targeting to get 7mins/km.  I hope I can maintain this for a few more weeks.

By checking blogs of other runners, the pace of ~5:30min@10km will give 2:40hr at Penang Bridge Half Marathon.  So, with my speed, targeting to complete the race in less than 3 hours should be achievable.  We'll see...

Overall, this is a very satisfying week...

Normal but exciting run

Not having any abnormal running activities this week, but I had two very satisfying run this weekend.

On Saturday, I can resume my "hike+run" at Air Hitam Dam as what I like. Running 4 rounds without much problem. I guess I ran slightly faster this time. Maybe, the tempo run training during the weekday helps. 

Again, on Sunday, I ran for 11km at the back of the airport without much problem even with empty stomach. I tried to speed up at the end of 2km but I guess I can only make it for 1km.

As for the weekday tempo run, I didn't do it quite as long as I wanted too. Probably it is due to tiredness and I only run for 4km with faster speed for less than 2km. My target is to have at least 2km of speed work for the tempo run.

As I monitor the wear off of my shoes closely after each run, it seems to me that the outer heel of my left side of the shoes had worn half way. That's the bad way that I ran.  I need to improve it (but I don't know how yet).  I don't think the shoes will last for my Penang Bridge run and I will definitely need another pair of shoes soon.  I will be trying out shoes from other brand to see if the shoes can last longer.  Here are the potential choices from runnersworld shoes finder tool.

I will see how it goes and what will I get...

Running clinic

Joined the running clinics at Botanical Garden. Not much to pick up from there except to know the the marathon runner that breaks their personal records are running slow at the beginning of the race. The trainer advice to run slow (at comfortable speed) at the beginning until 21km and only pick up if the runner feel strong. This is kind of align with what I read before the split the run into 3 sections, ie. beginning, mid, and end. The author suggests to run slow at the beginning; run strong in the middle of the run; and push yourself to the limit to finish the run. Another known fact is load enough sugar in the body 2~3 hours before the run. As for the run, it is not as fun because of the crowd. I actually have to stop several time during the run as the route is blocked by the crowd. I guess have to be there very early to avoid the crowd in future, if I want to run there. Overall, not a bad session as I recognize a few faces (from reading their blog but do not know their name) but causing the target long run to be just ~5km.

Long Run Training

Felt very tired yesterday and having a thought of not going for a run this morning. However, in order not to have a bad summary in the recording, I kicked myself up early in the morning and carry on with my usual long run. Due to traffic, I had to skip the hiking and go straight into running. So, I increase my running distant as well as time ~10% to cover the hiking time. I think I can still go further but I keep to the recommended limit of not to increase more than 10% each week and I stop where I supposed to. I am great that I pushed myself up this morning as I really feel great after the run. Keeping the running record really help to push me further.

Tempo Run??

First time try the tempo run. I am not sure if I am doing it correctly but I ran for 5 minutes with slow pace (my normal long run pace for around 0.5km) and speed up at higher pace for ~10 minutes (1.5km). I then continue with easy run for another 2km. However, I felt very tired and a bit of muscle discomfort after the run. My initial target is to run have 5 minutes easy run follow by 15 minutes of fast run and then another 5 minutes of easy run. Seems to be too tired for me to run for 15 minutes at faster pace. Hope I can improve it my timing/distant in tempo run next week.