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.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
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.
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.
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