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.

1st Event in 2017

Gelugor Power Run 2 is the 1st running event in 2017.  Despite accumulating 30km this week, I think I did good in the run clocking 5:40"/km with 3 minor uphill.  I am attributing this to more regular training recently.  Although not long, but I had a more consistent run of 3~4 km every 2 or 3 days.

Except for the beginning 1st km and uphill at 9th km where I ran more than 6 mins pace, my pace was around 5+ min/km throughout the run with only 5:00/km in the last km.

If I can keep to this training schedule and stamina, I will try for another sub-2 HM again end of the year.

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!