Friday, December 01, 2006

My runs in Australia

I shall be getting on the plane back to Malaysia tomorrow night. It's been a good holiday and some good running. My mileage logged over the past one week here...

Sat, Nov 25 - 10km (Riverstone, Sydney)
Sun, Nov 26 - 10km (Riverstone, Sydney)
Tue, Nov 28 - 6km (Clayton, Melbourne)
Wed, Nov 29 - 15km (Clayton, Melbourne)
Friday, Dec 1 - 18km (Clayton, Melbourne)

I planned a 21k today and was all for it, but tripped and fell right after the 18k mark and cut myself in a few places. Nothing too serious but I decided to call it a day. I'm generally happy with my last two runs. Clocked 15km on Wed in 1h 20mins, and 18km today in 1h 40mins. There was hardly any fatigue and I'm as fresh as before I started running as I type this. How I wish we had such weather in Malaysia!


Should be fine in a couple of days

6 comments:

krunner said...

Is your sister interested in becoming a runner? You could bring her aroud to see us at KLCC park as a matter of professional interest.

Unknown said...

Krunner I think she has potential. The other day she joined me in one of my runs and completed 4k in about 22.5mins. But no chance of her coming to KLCC hehe since she shall be working in Melbourne from January at one of the hospitals there.

Keipo said...

DK:

Wah hope u hand ok oh !

U so enjoy at Australia,keep fit too..salute !!

Anonymous said...

Dinesh, no doubt you're addicted! Running eventhough you're on vacation! Anyway, just curious, how much weekly mileage should you have if you're training for a, let's say, 20k race? And how can people run 21k? My longest non-stop so far is 9k. I'm trying to increase it but can't imagine myself running the entire 20k. Thanks for any tips.

Unknown said...

Hi again Haza...

Firstly if you can run non stop for 9km you are already doing very well, so congrats to you!

To be able to run a half marathon (21k) event, it would be best if you draw up a 12 week training program.

For a beginner, you would probably clock a maximum of 35km to 40km per week towards the end of the program. However the first few weeks would be a build up towards that.

For example..

Week 1: Mon-5k, Wed-5k, Fri-5k, Sun-8k

Week 2: Mon-5k, Wed-5k, Fri-5k, Sun-9k

Week 3: Mon-5k, Wed-5k, Fri-5k, Sun-10k

Week 4: Mon-5k, Wed-5k, Fri-5k, Sun-10k

Week 5: Mon-5k, Wed-6k, Fri-5k, Sun-12k

Week 6: Mon-5k, Wed-7k, Fri-5k, Sun-12k

Week 7: Mon-5k, Wed-8k, Fri-5k, Sun-13k

Week 8: Mon-5k, Wed-8k, Fri-5k, Sun-15k

Week 9: Mon-5k, Wed-8k, Fri-5k, Sun-15k

Week 10: Mon-5k, Wed-8k, Fri-5k, Sun-18k

Week 11: Mon-5k, Wed-8k, Fri-5k, Sun-10k

Week 12: Mon-5k, Wed-5k, Sun: Race 21k

The above is just a sample. You need to adapt a training program suited to your schedule. However the basis of it is to have one long run and one medium run in a week.

As you see I've set the long run for Sundays and the medium run somewhere in the middle of the week. This will give you enough time to recover from your long run.

You can also see that the mileage increase is very gradual. There are some weeks where we don't increase the mileage especially if there has been a bigger increase in the long run distance the previous week.

With the first month, if you put your heart to it and disipline yourself to run according to the schedule, you will find that your aerobic fitness level increasing and that you can run for a longer period before feeling tired.

Once you have achieved this, you will be surprised how you can then move into the second month of training with increased mileage, especially being able to run distances more than 10k continuously.

Lastly you see that in the training program I did not include any run longer than 18k. This is because for your first half marathon, you don't really need to run the actual distance in training. Keep the actual distance as a suspense for the race day!

You might not be able to run the full 21k without walking with this training programming, especially if it was going to be your first half marathon. But rest assured that you will definetly enjoy the race and not suffer if you are able to follow the simple sample program I have drafted.

You would also want to consider joining a small group of runners for your long runs in the weekend. This would help a lot and give you the inspiration you need.

Btw, which part of Klang do you stay? If you need some friends to run with, come meet us at Taman Rakyat on Wednesday nights at 8.30pm (if its convenient and not too late for you) and Sunday for long runs starting from Klang Stadium. We would be glad to pace you and guide you.

Cheers,

Dinesh

Anonymous said...

Thanks a bunch for the training prog and the invite. Wednesday nights aren't quite possible, but I know you guys run there every week. But I'll try and get over the inferiority complex enough to go to the stadium to finally meet the pacesetters...he he he...at this stage I can endure 9 to 10km (I ran 10km this morning) but I'm too slow to catch up with seasoned runners like you people.

Anyway we can only get better with proper training (and of course, most importantly, no injury). I'll definitely incorporate your prog with my existing one, it's better than mine actually, I only have one rest day, should not run on consecutive days to avoid injury right? GEPS30k hilly, huh? Now I know most races must have a hills. Guess it's how the organizers entertain themselves...he he!