Training report: BWM Anniversary, CNY Celebration and Training week 6 & 7

Training week 6 went well except the FB group BWM anniversary celebration on the 15 Feb. The long run was reduced into a 3km short run, with some catching up with fellow barefoot runners and sharing of experiences from the barefoot guru. Some training schedule in week 7 changed too to suit the travel plan and other family chore before and during the CNY. But nonetheless, I recorded some decent mileages for both training weeks, without further stress on my injury.

Week 6	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy 9.7km	4km
Tue	Speed 4x 1200m	Speed 4x 1200m	All repeats paced around 5min/km
Wed	Rest	Rest
Thu	Tempo 11.3km	11.3km	10km in tempo pace
Fri	Easy 9.7km	7km
Sat	Easy 16.1km	10km
Sun	Easy 12.9km	3km	BWM Anniversary
Total Done		45km

Overall week 6 was the low mileage period after the long run in week 5. I seem to have some problem to stick with the planned mileage especially during weekdays. I woke up 4am but usually dragged until 5am only out the gate, and need to return home to prepare the children for school by 6am. The one hour will only enough for 10km and below. I think some improvement needed here to reduce the waiting time from 4-5am  :P

Week 7	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy 9.7km	None
Tue	Speed Progressive	Speed Progressive	All repeats paced around 5min/km
Wed	Rest	10.5km
Thu	Tempo 11.3km	14km	12km in tempo pace
Fri	Easy 11.3km	8.6km
Sat	Easy 12.9km	None
Sun	Long 22.6km	25km	23km in 6min/km
Total Done		73km

The highlight of week 7 was the progressive speed work. You will redo all the distances you concurred in previous speed work at once, plus the longest speed work of 1600m. My CNY holiday started so I can add in extra warm up and cool down. Total mileage for the week was 73km, doing it in the CNY holiday increased the feel good factor. I ran in Polo Ground during the CNY break. This is a great running venue but you will not want to start too early (before 6am, or the first Morning Prayer) cause it will be occupied by Mak Rempit. Also it will be too busy after 7am with lots of people doing their morning walk. So most of the workouts started with few loops in Polo Ground, and then I will venture into the surrounding area.

I put on 3kg extra weight during the injury and the CNY break wasn’t help at all to bring it down. It will run with me during the Seoul International Marathon. But after I checked the weather forecast, I think these extra fats come in handy. The 15 March forecast stated a 5degC high and -2degC low. If this is accurate, it will be way cooler than what I experienced in Munich (10degC). I don’t have any suitable running attire for this temperature. I planned to use the similar approach in Munich Marathon (double top, compress short, cap, arm warmer sleeves & gloves). The challenge will be on the waiting for flag off; like normal I will try to lookout for a disposable poncho and I am thinking to standby my running jacket underneath the poncho. Anyway, I think I will be ok after the engine warmed up. If the body responded well with the cool temperature, I will probably score a PB in this race. For now, I can only hope for the best and continue to fine tune my running pace to the target racing pace.

14 days until my departure to Seoul.

Training report: Long Slow Distance and training week 5

Compared to usual training program to have the Long Slow Distance during the weekend, the Hanson Marathon Method used a Long run for the weekend. The long run improves the anaerobic threshold by running slightly slower than your target marathon pace. I haven’t done any LSD since I started with the Hanson Marathon Method. With the higher target set now (68km race), I think I need some of these extra-long distance training. I am glad that MURA organized this as one of the Titi race practice for those participated in Titi50, 100 or 200. Some adjustment needed to include the LSD, I moved the long run to Saturday, and planned only sightseeing pace for the LSD.

Overall, the training week went well. The speed work at 5min/km pace is very manageable, the body is getting back its movement for the 5:40min/km target pace. Some fine tuning still needed to make sure I didn’t drifted to faster pace (in the early stage of the race) or slower pace (towards the end stage of the race). The Saturday long run plus Sunday LSD gave the best opportunity to test out how the body responded at the end stage of the race. As the weekly mileage went above 80km, the body should give me some similar response that I will get at the final 5km of a full marathon. So, my plan for the LSD was simple. Goes by sightseeing pace, and try to push at the final stage to see how far I can go.

The LSD started at 5:45am, the cold breeze, clear sky with sufficient moonlight bring back the great memory of the Titi50 2014. I actually ran up the Bukit Hantu (slow pace around 8-9min/km over the climb), but again ran with the similar speed descending. The route is very familiar and I got Fong ran with me most of the time. Chitchatted and exchanged some running info, we reached the u-turn point at the CP2. Waited a while for the rest, took a group photo and we heading back to the restaurant. Most of the time we maintained a comfortable 6.5-7min/km pace, and we decided to walk up to Bukit Hantu this time. At the peak, we slowly restart the engine to run. But my descending pace was really slow and I had to ask Fong to go ahead. Finally, the route is almost flat and I decided I needed some training on descending. I ramped up the engine and up my pace. The final 5km was done in 5:40-5:50min/km pace. I think I overcome by paradigm of slow descending, but more similar training needed. And the body responded very well on the push, which gave me lots of confident to chase my speed on the coming race. 

Day	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy 9.7km	4km
Tue	Speed 5x 1000m	Speed 5x 1000m	All repeats paced around 5min/km
Wed	Rest	Rest
Thu	Tempo 9.7km	9km	Only 8km in tempo pace
Fri	Easy 11.3km	9km
Sat	Easy 9.7km	17km	Long ran pace @ 6.1min/km
Sun	Long 16.1km	29km	LSD @ Hulu Langat 29km
Total Done		85km

The right ankle seems to be ok now. Only minor swollen after some hard training and its survived the 29km LSD without getting worst. I shifted my treatment from weekend to Tuesday after work. It suits my rest time in my training plan. I felt great and optimistic on archiving my sub-4 target in coming Seoul International Marathon. The only huddle now was the food for Chinese New Year J

Next week, CNY week, but training must go on. Some running will be done in Ipoh. 33 days until the big day and I am excited.

Back in action and my refinement of training plan

The injury treatment caused some down time in my training program. I was only trained like less than 40% planned mileages in for the past 2 months. With some help of the acupuncture, I am back in action. There are still some mild issue on the right ankle with PF, I am going to continue the acupuncture treatment for another few more week and hopefully it will be cured.

Now, with only slightly more and a month left until the SIM, it will be unrealistic to still aim for a 330 FM. I need to adjust my training plan with a slower target time. Also, the Challenge 68 in slightly further down the route, I will need to put up some mileages specified for this race with 1900m elevation climb and 1.62x of the FM distances. As I am now very comfortable to the 400 FM training plan, my adjustment are concentrated to get myself ready to the complete the 68km with the 5:40min/km pace, and complete it with less than 7 hours. This will also enable me to complete SIM around 4 hours. The key challenge now will be how to stay injury free (and stay on the recovery curve from what I am currently suffered).

I started in midway of the new training plan, after a week of slow restart, I will straight jump into the week 5 of typical Hansons Marathon Method program (with 5x 1000km speed intervals). I completed that speed intervals this morning, and I still had the great feeling about the training pace in this plan. After all, I spent about 8 months working in this training regime last year before SCKLM 2014. I think as long as I stay injury free, and the cold weather in Seoul will help me to score another PB (being closer to 400 or even below it). Other key adjustment was increase the length of all Strength Intervals and tempo runs which scheduled after the SIM, plus some back to back 20-25km for most of the long run towards the 68km race.

Finally, I got my running sunglasses. I run with spec and don’t use contact lens, hence it was never consider as one of the essential running gear. But I am going to do more UltraMarathon and it will be great help to reduce the mental stress incurred with running under the hot sun. Anyway, as I usually run early morning, and most of the Malaysia race started early to avoid the heat, I need something slightly special. Wife got me a Rudy Project Impact X2 as Christmas gift. It came with a pair of photochromic lenses that change with UV light. I tested it out for my morning run on yesterday (5am), today (7am), plus some driving around. The lenses are clear enough for the morning run, and dark enough for driving under the hot sun. It will be under full test this Sunday as I plan to join the 30km LSD organized by MURA at Titi50 route. May be I will write out a review after that (put too many promise on gears review, but never materialized).

That’s for now, happy running.