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.