Happy week this ..

This week has worked out rather well for me .. i was quite eager, at the start of the week, to allay my fears that cutting back on mileage the previous week (as was my plan) would prove to be beneficial and not adversely affect my fitness. I am quite happy with the way things turned out ...

1. On Monday, i started out from my house, feeling a bit lethargic and toying with the idea of just running a slow 5kms. ABout 10 minutes into the run, i changed my mind cos i was feeling alright and decided to run a tempo run. The next 40 minutes of running was one of my better efforts, and also included the fastest km (4:38 pace) i have ever run (race or otherwise).

2. On Wednesday, i ran with Sorepalm to explore a part of the MR trails that i have very rarely run before. It was good to get my bearings right and he showed me several paths that i never knew existed. And it was quite a relaxed run as well. I will be back at these trails as part of my training for my 50km run with Cha Cha for the TNF100 in October.

3. This morning, i managed to wake up at 5.45am as had been my intention (i wanted to start running at 6.30am). This was probably the first time in a few months that i managed to get up early on a Saturday morning. As has become habit over the past few runs of 1.5 hours or longer, i started my run with just water, and did not want any calorie intake over the course of the run. Starting early and running the Old Upper Thomson Road, into the M&Ms and Aircon route was just a fantastic way to get your weekend going. Such lush greenery is hard to come by in Singapore and running through it all makes for a very enjoyable experience. Once again, i ran by feel not pushing the pace at all and cleared the M&M (called so because of the undulating terrain, quite a bit of ups and downs) and Aircon route, after which i took a couple of minutes off to top up my water bottle and then continued on with my run. Ran into the faster group (Sorepalm and co) coming down into the M&Ms and kept going. As i neared MR, i saw that my Garmin was only showing 18.6kms so i ran a further 700m up Lornie road and back to make for a total of 20kms run in 2:00 flat (6 min pace).

Weekly mileage: 66kms. Rounds up a pretty good effort. Next week should be similar and then i will back off, as part of taper to running the AHM on Sep 4th.

The week that was ..

Yesterday's run closed out a very interesting week for me. I was on 33kms for the week pre Friday's run and i thought that if were to run a recovery 5km then, and do the usual OUTR 16km run the next day morning, i would be fine with my general plan of hitting 50kms a week.

Friday night, i had to go to the airport to pick up the missus and after i hit the sack from then, never really managed to threaten the alarm clock and finally woke up at around 9am. So my sat morning plan went down the drain.

After entertaining friends who had come over for lunch, the evening was spent doing random stuff on the comp / ipad and before i knew it was time to hit the sack. And with that, yet another valiant plan was made to get up early on Sunday morning and make amends for the fiasco earlier on Sat. Once again, i woke up when the rooster would have finished crowing and then gone on holiday. :)

So that gave me basically an evening with an opportunity to get my mileage target. And thankfully, midday had witnessed some very strong showers so the early afternoon was pretty cool. Having had a sumptious lunch at Murugan Idly, and having spent time playing with my 1 yr old niece, and having finished my office work, at around 4pm i got the urge to go and run. The plan was to run atleast 12kms, and if i felt alright, do 16km with an outside shot at running 20kms. Since one of my goals to better marathoning is to shed some unwanted weight, i decided to just run on water. So with my 1L handheld bottle, i set off in some sunny but otherwise great conditions for a run.

I managed to run an extremely steady run at Bishan PCN. Since i dont have a pace target anyways, i just ran by feel and the lovely weather made this a lot easier than i would have expected it to be. My inner dialogue during the run was extremely active and i was forever thinking about that particular run, as well as about statistical odds in poker for various pre-flop hands (my newly re-ignited interest). Net-Net, i ran for 2 hours and change, without any stops, and without any external fuel. At the end of the run, i felt fatigued in a nice way, if that was possible. Also, it was a good confidence booster to be able to run the distance, no matter what time it took, in a "strong" way.

The following week shall be my easy week, where i will back off on mileage, to probably around 35kms - 40kms before continuing on for the remainder of the month.

Happy running folks.

Plan-less and loving it !! :)

The past 2 weeks wasnt really an outcome of a long-drawn intellectualization process. As described in the last couple of posts, i have just taken to running more (in terms of volume), mostly easy, sometimes hard.

While i seem to have violated the 10% increase rule with regards to weekly mileage, i am beginning to gain confidence that i am not headed for any serious trouble as my effort level is usually easy. But more importantly, increasing the frequency of my running to 6 times a week has had a very profound effect on my thinking - i no longer stop to decide whether i am going to run today or not. That decision has already been made and the only remaining thing is what route to run on and for how long. For the psyche of a runner, this subtle distinction is yet a strong motivator with the passage of time - for me, it has made me look forward to getting time on my feet out.

Yesterday evening, was my first run up Mt.Faber in ages, with the CBD group who i was meeting after ages too. It was a good solid run and i was pleased to be able to run all the way up to the top at a 6:15-6:20 pace if i am not mistaken. Looped a couple of times on the top and walked back the hill and resumed running from the Kampong Bahru traffic light. Mostly ran in step with Chacha who i am teaming with for the TNF100km duo in 10 weeks time.

The plan is to run another couple of weeks just focusing on mileage and easy running and then beyond that, start to incorporate 1 or 2 race specific training runs as part of the build-up towards PBIM on Nov 20th.

Clarity of thought ..

I havent had such absolute clarity of thought as i did when i read the runningahead forums on Yuki Kawauchi's once-a-day run type training. The discussion was on whether doubles is better than singles, and if so, is it only under certain conditions.

In any case, Nobby emphatically stated that doubles are better than singles, and that aerobic conditioning (something which i believed to be a necessary foundation) was of utmost importance in becoming a good long distance runner. And with this bent of mind, i have tried to set myself a modest weekly mileage target of 50kms for atleast 8 weeks before i think of tweaking the numbers.

Last week was the first week of half-decent running since GCAM and i managed to hit 57kms. I am hoping that this week is similar too. The one thing that i am not doing is to worry about how fast i run .. am just letting my body dictate the pace and hopefully there is little of slacking and more of actual improvement that the body witnesses. :)

The legs start moving again ..

I headed out under a fair bit of sun to resume running from a 2 week layoff. Managed a very decent 10km run, with speed constantly increasing and finishing with a 5min km. Overall pace was 5:52 for the run.

The bigger "gain" for me is that the momentum has to be built up and i am feeling good about the fact that today was not too hard despite the significant break.

Up and away .. in the days to come. Hopefully. :)

Lay-off and the inevitable return ..

Today, marks 2 weeks since the GCAM. In this period, i have managed one run of 5kms. The past 10 days have been spent battling a throat infection, and when that was on its ebb, a cold and associated chest congestion made sure i didnt tie my shoelaces in a hurry and now, the past couple of days has been a mix of chest pain (i believe its hyperacidity induced heartburn) and headaches.

So its not really going great guns but i seem to be weathering this ok. Can not wait to hit the road again and gain some training momentum.

Speaking of which, having signed up for the FM at the Penang Bridge Internatinal Marathon (PBIM) on the 20th of November, i now have a target race to look forward to.

Gold Coast Airport Marathon Race Review

The short of it: 4:26:45. PB by 12 seconds.

The long of it:

The GC marathon and the weeks that lead up to it has been a learning experience for me, in more ways than one. I screwed up big time even before i got to the start line, and i am hoping that I dont let this repeat ever again. 90% of the result was determined in the preceding 3 months, and 10% in the preceding 24 hours. I can only imagine what i would have run, had i trained well. Yet, all is not lost, there is still a silver lining on the grey cloud.

To avoid turning this educative post (as in future reference for myself) into a rambling rant, let me summarize the major areas where i lost out on putting up a real fight for the sub 4.

1. Utter lack of overall mileage: Only 103 kms in April and 129 kms in June. I upped May to 221kms but that was probably not too smart a thing. I just didnt run enough. In fact, in the 5 weeks preceding the marathon, my mileage was 20km, 25km, 55kms, 10kms and 20kms.

Action for the future: Get into the consistency of 50km weeks because i know my body can take it.

2. Lack of a proper long distance run in the 5-6 weeks preceding the marathon: After the Sundown half which was on 28th May, i didnt do a single run upwards of 24kms. I tried thrice to run a LSD of 30+kms, and i came up short, running only 5km, 2km and 12kms in the 3 attempts. My so-called LSD was only 24kms and that was the only run longer than 13kms since the SD HM.

Action for the future: Run atleast a 32km LSD or a 3 hr run at the bare minimum 3 weeks from the marathon.

And in this shape, i found myself at GC wondering what was to become of the marathon on July 3rd. For the last few weeks, i had tried to think through how best to salvage the race given the status of training and i was none too close to finding an answer after arriving at Surfers Paradise. Should i try running 65min 10k's for the first 30km and then take a call on how to carry on or should i try running at my pipedream 4hr pace of 5.41 and see how long i can hold on ?? And then if that were not enough, the day before the marathon, roughly about 1pm, my tummy threw in the towel and i had an upset stomach. Dont really know whether it was the Chow Mein i had had at the KL airport or the mushrooms i had for breakfast, but in either case my tummy was holding nothing in and the case of the runs really did have me running for medicine in the night before the marathon. I found a probiotic and took it twice the same night, hoping that come next morning, i would have miraculously recovered.

To top it all off, on the morning of the marathon, at about 5am, i had a Vanilla protein bar for the first time in my life and that didnt sit too well either and by the time i reached the venue (i came much earlier than i needed to, as the wife was running the HM which started 1hr before the FM), i was feeling mildly pukish. I dont know how and i dont know why, but as it did turn out, i didnt puke and after the first 7-8kms in the marathon, i ran without any gastric discomfort whatsoever.

After having bade farewell with best wishes to Sumi, i made my way to the race pen and just for kicks lined up with 4hr pace group. The two 4hr pacers, Keith Hong and Megan Inge were awesome and such fantastic runners that surely, they helped several people achieve their marathon dreams that day. I was perturbed when Keith announced that as pacers, they would go for 4hr gun time and not the chip time so actually they would be running at a 3:58 pace !! The weather was just super and that made me forget a bit about my inner turmoil and just look forward to enjoying the race and the scenery. The gun went off and the 4hr bus crossed the start line with a 2 min deficit. And the most demoralizing thing happened to me soon after, when within 300m from the start line, i had already lost the 4hr pace group. So i ditched plans of running to a specific pace and just started to run comfortably without hitting any pace targets. And doing that, i found myself back with the 4hr black ballons at the 3rd km only to lose them from sight at the water station at the 5km mark where i walked through and took my time taking small sips. I would start again and pick up the pace and would reel in the pacers over the next 2-3 kms and this pattern was to repeat itself over the next 20kms. It was just unbelievable but i was holding a 5:35ish pace in what i call a "comfortably hard" run. A few days before i left Singapore, i tried to go on a 16km run with Patrick (Sorepalm) and couldnt even hold a decent 6 min pace.(That day i only ran 12.5kms and that too with about 10 stops and frequent walking in between). So i was quite pleasantly surprised that i was running significantly faster and longer. It was just awesome running through the GC neighborhoods, where the residents came out to cheer us on from their gates, verandahs, porches and what not. Some were late night party-goers trying to fuel us with their beer-induced love for marathoning, and others were in their bathrobes having just got out of bed wondering why would people want to run 42kms on a Sunday morning. It was quite some fun passing these myriad households and i am sure it was as entertaining for them as it was for us.

I stuck with the 4 hr pace group until the 25th km (going through in 2:20) when i suddenly felt acute pain on the front of my right foot, on the arch between the shins and the feet themselves. I dont know if it was the timing chip biting into the skin or if i had tied my shoelaces too tight, but eitherways every step i took would send a stinger. (I would later find out that there would be some swelling and abrasion in that area as well but i still dont know why). Around the 27th km, my right glute started to participate in the misery and the pain then was just making it impossible to try anything that resembled running and i resigned to the fate of having to walk most of the way back and worst case, possibly come in at 5 hours or so. Still, thanks to my fast first 25kms, i hobbled through 30kms in 2:56 and from thereon i really couldnt much. My mental fatigue was catalyzed by my physical discomfort and i was just pushing on, hobbling mostly, and shuffling a bit whenever the pain would subside. At about the 34-35km mark, the 4:15 pacers went by. And about 38-39kms, the 4:30 pacers went by and that was when i felt really annoyed with myself for not having more fight in me. So i picked up the pace, thinking i would catch up with the 4:30 group and try to hang in as much as possible. I managed to just about do it, while frequently breaking into walks. At just over 40, i became greedy and thought may be if i can push myself a bit more, i could perhaps still try and get a PB. That small thought was amplified with the hordes of people cheering in the last 1.5kms and somehow the pain was forgotten, the finish line visualized and the legs churned into action. Its crazy but the last 1km of the marathon, i ran at a 4:45 min/km pace and just managed to dip under my Tokyo timing from earlier this year.

I dont want to take refuge in the fact that I PB'ed (although only by 12 seconds) despite sub standard training. Neither do i want to take comfort from finishing strong, even if only the last 2kms. The fact of the matter is this was a golden opportunity lost, to take advantage of excellent race conditions and post some very serious times that would have no doubt, served as a great motivator for future races. Nevertheless, there were still somethings that i didnt have control over so in the end, a sub 4:30 timing is just about what i can tolerate as a "race performance".

I would strongly recommend GCAM to anyone who wants to have a fun experience, and set a PB in doing so! Hopefully, i will get to write a more positive race report for 2012.

Getting the jitters ...

GCAM is now 2 weeks away. And i havent managed to get a half decent long run in since running the Sundown Half Marathon more than 2 weeks ago. There have been 2 abortive attempts that lasted 5km and 11.5kms respectively, and to put it rather mildly, they have dented my hopes of running a solid effort at GC. Therefore i have now switched focus from hard training to hard praying. For a miracle. :)

I am wondering whether i should race in my NB RT769s or the Boston Ekiden. Think i will go with the NBs as need more time in Boston to make the shoe expand a bit and fit neatly for my feet.

Salvage operations will get underway this weekend, at OUTR i suspect. Followed by intense dialogues with the almighty.

Progress report will come through later.

Sundown Half Marathon Race Review

On Saturday, the Sundown Half Marathon was to prove to be an experience that i am likely to cherish for quite some time to come. My fundamental objective for the race was to run below 2hrs and my stretch target was to run 1:53 (for 2 reasons - 1:53 converts to a Mcmillan sub 4 marathon, and also i wanted to go below 2hr by as much as my current PR was above it 2:06:xx). As it turned out, i ran a 1:55:59. And i am pleased as punch by it !!

I had carboloaded reasonably well having had pasta for dinner on Friday and again as lunch on Saturday. Knowing the traffic snarl that was likely in getting to the race site, i left home at around 4.30pm and after an inordinate amount of time crawling through the Aviation Park Road, i parked my car at 5.30pm. Saw the 10km kick off and then found some of my HM friends who had also reached the venue by then. (The three friends who i met ran 1:30, 1:33 and 1:45 respectively !!!)

My first lesson of the day came from here - i should remember to carry something to munch if i felt the need just before a race. At the start line i was actually quite hungry as i hadnt had anything to eat for more than 3 hours. Other than that, I was feeling quite positive and was excited at the prospect of actually "racing" i.e. putting a solid effort out on the road. My plan was to run the first 2-3kms at at 5:45 pace (advice from Roonz) and then pick it up to about 5:20 and hold it there for as long as i could. About 20 minutes from the start of the race, there was a call for sub 2 runners to move to the front and i sheepishly made my way up there, not knowing if i was deserving of rubbing shoulders with other runners who could stake a legit claim to be there.

The race started right on time at 8pm, and because of the speedy gonzales' around me, i ran a 5:34 for the 1st km, and in fact managed an average pace of 5:30ish for the next few kms. On one hand i was ruing going out too fast and on the other, since i had already warmed up by then, i figured i would keep the pace there and keep going. The first 11km went relatively smoothly, coming in exactly at 1 hour. My scheduled gel break was for the 13km water point and it was from there on that my walk breaks at the water points became progressively longer. I knew i was slipping off my pace target, yet when i wasnt walking, i was running pretty well. ECP can get pretty desolate and i found myself running alone for most of the race, either being overtaken or passing others by but not many running at the same pace as i was. I was steadily going out of gas, but since it had been my plan to push it all the way, i tried to run as fast as i could despite my side stitch at the 17th and 19th km as well as a bit of abdominal ache. Probably if i had to pick the worst point in the race for me, it had to be the 21st km, where with less than 700m to go i was reduced to a walk for a brief 100 metres or so due to the stitch. Sprinted the remaining distance and was super ecstatic to see the clock read 1:56:02 (later found out that my time was 1:55:59, position 186 overall, 153 amongst men).

It was a splendid race for me - i set a target which i thought was a tough but realistic one, and managed to hit it (for most part atleast). I also know that if i can keep my training consistent and not get injured, i will be able to run faster and longer. Which is the whole point of my running anyway. :)

So thats 4 races this year, 4 different distances and a PR in all of them. Will i ever be able to do this again?

Passion Run 25km Race Review

I am just leaving a placeholder here for the moment - will update this soon enough.

Pondering in perpetuity ..

My April running calendar looked like i had hung up my shoes for good. I ran 55kms in the last week alone compared to the 45kms i had run in the 3 weeks prior to that. Obviously this does not bode well for my sub-4hr marathon ambitions at Gold Coast. Since i am trying to make the best of what remaining training time i have, i have stopped looking at my excel training plan for about a month now and decided to just run a mix of tempos, LSDs and general aerobic runs while maintaining a weekly mileage of 50kms atleast. I am kinda hoping/praying that this will atleast get me to a 4:15 finish if not a sub-4 finish at Gold Coast.

I have absolutely loved the last couple of weeks where i have run with my newly acquired garmin 310xt. Its a fantastic watch to have for geeky runners. :) I also did my first run with Team Fatbird as part of Operation Kookaburra, a training program for the GCM. It was a night run of 25kms. I did ok the first 17 and then stopped short of falling flat on my face several times in the remaining 8 kms.

I am at an interesting stage of training - i am wondering whether i should cut my losses and not aim for a sub-4 and just go there and have an enjoyable race outing or if i should go for broke and just go hell for leather. I dont think i will know the answer until i get to the start line. The other thought thats daunting me is that i need to run a 1:53 HM if i want to do a 4hr full .. and i am running a HM in just about 4 weeks time. Find it hard to believe at this point in time that a 5:21pace for 21kms is going to be realistic .. but then again, i didnt expect to run a 4:26 at Tokyo so i will still play my cards.

Note to self - Update this blog more frequently.

The Tokyo Marathon experience

Actually i started writing the below very shortly after the Tokyo marathon, and then subsequently never got around to completing it .. i hope to though.

It’s only been 3 days since I ran the Tokyo marathon. Yet the euphoria of the experience is yet to diminish although the severe cold cough that i contracted during/after the race is trying to do just that. Nevertheless i wanted to write this race report while the experience was still fresh in my mind and i can recall most of my fluctuating emotions as i journeyed through the 42.2kms (and a bit more).

Going into the race, i was feeling nervously excited about what was to ensue. This was my first marathon where i was coming to the start line in a half decent physical shape. Yet i had slacked for 2 full months (Nov/Dec 2008) before putting in 2 very decent months of training in Jan and Feb this year. Therefore I saw this race as a fairly decent baseline of my performance at this point in time. My target was to clock between 4:30 and 4:40, both of which I saw as re....

Redemption

This morning i wasnt sure i wanted to get up and go run. After i brushed my teeth, i thought may be i should just climb back into bed and do this LSD on Sunday evening like the way i had done last week. Thank god i didnt. Today, was easily one of my best days at running, be it training or racing. I ran 24kms at an average 5:52 pace which by itself is not very special but for a couple of things unique to this run.

As usual, my running friends and i started together but within 2-3 kms i couldnt see any of them nearby, as they are all very fast compared to my speed. And to boot, I hadnt particularly got a good nutrition fix yesterday so the first 3-4kms were so laboured that i wanted to turn back after running only 4.5kms. But i decided to push it just a little more until it became uncomfortable enough for me to stop running and turn back.

Around the 6-7km mark, i suddenly found a rhythm that made it very easy to maintain a 5:45ish pace. It just happened, i didnt consciously do something to feel that way. So i kept the run up and thought i would go it until i reach the toilets at upper seletar reservoir which is where everyone stops for a water break. Once i reached the toilet, i figured since the gate (the u-turn point) is only 1.2 kms away, i would run till there, come back and then take a water break. And then it suddenly occurred to me that since i was running a good rhythm, i should try to keep it up and see just how long i can go without stopping. So on my way back from the gate, i skipped the toilet and just tried to keep a steady pace going.

And as it so happened, i ran the first 21.1 kms of my run today non-stop - no water break, no walking. And i ran it in 2:01.xx which is my new PR for a road HM. Learning to drink on the run is a good benefit in having done that. So this was my longest run ever to have been done non-stop. I took a couple of minutes off at this point to catch my breath and then restarted the run, reaching MR in about 2:23ish for the 24.2km distance.

From how the run shaped up, to how it finally played out, i am really pleased with this. 2011 has been off to a better start than 2010 and i only hope that this continues for the rest of the year. I think i have a legitimate hope now for running a 4:40-4:45ish at Tokyo - whether or not that happens is a different proposition altogether.

LSD Nightmare

I was originally planning to run with my MR friends on 29th Jan, Sat morning for my longest LSD of 32km before tapering down to Tokyo. As it so happened, i just couldn't wake up and get myself to go - felt strangely tired from the tempo effort on Thursday evening. I therefore resolved that i would run my LSD the next day evening (couldn't do Sunday morning either due to a late night movie on Sat) and what better place to run it than at ECP .. plan was to hammer a 32km run...

Drove over to ECP, and parked at B2, and started my run at around 5:45pm. From B2 to Changi Ferry Terminal (CFT) washrooms is about 16.7kms. I was feeling quite ok and thought it would be an interesting few hours - i had never run this long in training before and the one time i did run 27km, it was with friends whereas this was going to be a solo effort.

The first few kms passed a little too quickly as i was averaging mid 5:50's for the first 5-6kms and i knew that this wasnt a pace i could hold. Mcmillan suggests a LSD pace 60-90 seconds slower than your marathon pace (in miles) so i should have ideally been running at a 6:45 /km pace. For some reason, my form suffers if i slow down too much or may be its the other way around - but whatever it was, i was knocking off the kms after that at a steady 6 to 6:15 pace. I also wanted to train drinking on the run so ran nonstop from the B2 carpark all the way to CFT in 1:41 which was a pace of 6:07 min/km. Took a break (later i found out that it was a 10 min break - much longer than i originally intended), had a powerbar gel and then started my way back remembering to slow down and maintain a 6:30 pace. My next mental goal was to reach the water fountain (at around the 25km mark) non-stop and then take a gel-break there. Managed to get there in about 2:35 and had my second power gel. For some reason that didnt go down too well with me and soon after, the wheels came off in no time whatsoever. I dont know what hit me but from there till 30km was the longest 5km stretch i have done in my life - having to sit down twice or thrice in that stretch and hobbling around for my left ankle was in pain, possibly due to a near-fall stumble on the bridge after kicking a lose tile.

At 30km i decided that to pursue 32km would be madness as i had been reduced to a walk-run strategy and was in enough pain to keep any thoughts about running at bay. To boot, from where i stopped running was another 3kms to my car which took me 40 mins almost to cover....

So i think any thoughts of a 4:40 finish at Tokyo is at best, a pipe dream. I think if i manage sub-5, that in itself would be a significant achievement.

Satisfying ....

I have surprised myself with an unbelievable / unexpected January 2011. As I had mentioned in my previous post, I was expecting to labor through January just trying to get a whiff of my earlier days of running when i was decidedly more fit than i was at the start of Jan this year, what with 3 weeks of vacationing and binge eating behind me. :)

So 155kms in Jan wasnt bad at all, especially considering the fact that about 105kms of that came in just 2 weeks alone. The month could have ended better though - i was in Jakarta on work, staying at the Shangri-La and i decided to run a quick 8-10km on the hotel treadmill before leaving for dinner. When i had come back to my room earlier, my lunch had sat terribly with me and so i knew i was taking a risk trying to run in that condition. So after 1 km at 6:00 pace, i was feeling far too much discomfort that could take it no more and had to get off the TM. But then again, with an average of only 40kms the previous 3 months, i will take Jan 2011 anytime! :)

I ran a 10km today in a shade over 53 minutes - gives me confidence that disciplined training can do a world of wonder to a talent-less wannabe-athlete like me. I hope to get faster this year, a whole lot faster. 3 more weekends to Tokyo !!

Ramping it up ....

In Nov-2010, i ran a grand total of 38kms.
In Dec-2010, i ran/walk once, a grand total of 42kms (Dec 5th, no runs rest of the month).

Soon after that, i was on a 3 week vacation of constant binge eating and gawking at nature's nest. Significantly, my shape became smoother (aka well rounded). :)

So when i ran my first run in Jan-11, a couple of weeks back, i had accurately likened the experience to that of a pregnant pachyderm scorching the tracks. Nevertheless, my weekly mileage for the past 3 weeks has been, 13.5kms, 34kms and now 55kms !! I have completely violated all laws of gradual mileage increase and all that but still dont have (luckily enough) any ill effects to show for it. Of course, when i was running consistently a few months ago, i was hitting the 40km weekly mark often and that i guess, helped the ramp back faster than i would have targeted.

The last couple of saturdays, i have been doing a long run (16kms and 21kms) with some of my running friends (all insanely more accomplished runners than i am) from McRitchie reservoir (but not trail though). While i would not like to admit it, its an irrefutable fact that running with friends, and more so, with better runners does a lot of good to your own running. So a big thanks to you guys - you know who you are !! :)

Today is 24th. If i can make this a 45km week, i should be able to touch the 150km mark for this month. Now, wouldnt that be nice !!!! Especially with Tokyo looming large ....

2011 - Where do i wanna be ...

Happy New Year folks.

The last few months have been dismal for my running and superb for everything else. Therefore there is no better time than now to set some firm goals for this year although i have flippantly mentioned wanting to do this and that ...

Some very basic objectives:-

0. Enjoy running. Feel the passion every day.
1. Run atleast 4 times a week, attempt a monthly mileage of 180kms every month
2. Have a systematic running plan preferably from one race to the next if that helps.
3. GoalSeek: Push for a 4:30 at the Tokyo Marathon on Feb 27th
4. GoalSeek: Push for a 4:15 at the Gold Coast Marathon on July 3rd.
5. 10k PR < 47m, HM PR < 1:50, FM PR < 4:00

Hopefully through proper training, i can get to a stage where i no longer worry about the statistics .. :)