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First PACM breakfast run

Last night, the wedding dinner started and ended really late. By the time we left, it was almost 11pm. To make matters worse, we faced a tire puncture somewhere at Dengkil on the Elite expressway. I was thankful that while changing the tire, the highway patrol suddenly appeared and completed the task for me.

By the time we reached home it was 12.30am and I only managed to get into bed by 1am feeling absolutely exhausted. Could not sleep well and woke up before both alarms rang at 3.40am and turned them off. Had a quick shower, ate some butter, jam and honey sandwiches that my wife had prepared the night before, had an overripe banana and washed it down with some 100plus.

I was at Lim’s house before 4.20am and he was ready as well. The drive to the Bukit Aman car park took us less than 40 minutes. We met Ms. Leong at the carpark. She had parked just a few cars away. I quickly started the normal routine of taping the nipples and a couple of toes. Applied some petroleum jelly on the inner thighs for the first time, hoping to spare myself from some painful post run days.

After registering and collecting my Powerbar, I spotted Jamie and said hello to him. He would be running the 30k route today. Lim and I were going to run 20k. After warming up and a short briefing from the president, we were allowed to start. In the first few minutes there wasn’t much space to run freely as the pack was still running together. Once we reached the turning into the Bank Negara road, I had moved up to the middle of the group and started holding a comfortable pace.

Running this route for the first time, I was unprepared for the undulating terrain we were going to cover. Even as we reached the first water station, I was already totally flabbergasted by the number of steep hills we had covered. At the water stations, Powerbar endurance drinks were made available. Drinking it for the first time, I decided that I preferred the taste of 100plus, but I suppose enjoying any sports drink is an acquired taste.

After running along the rolling steep terrain of Hartamas, I finally reached the halfway mark at the Petronas station. My watch showed approximately 66mins at that point. I was not feeling any real tiredness yet and was hoping to maintain the same pace for the return journey. As I approached the final water station (also the 1st water station), my right knee was starting to feel the effects of the downhill pounding. I was glad to be able to stop for a breather, and took in as much fluids as I could.

As I continued running, someone shouted out to me and that’s when I saw Lim coming down the opposite side of the road. He was running out from a junction which appeared to be part of the loop the 30k runners were supposed to take. This really surprised me for a second, but he signaled saying that he had decided to run the 30k instead. I was happy and concerned at the same time, since he was doing the Singapore marathon but had not been putting in enough weekly mileage to be running the 30k today.

I suddenly realized there wasn’t any runner within sight in front of me. This is where I panicked as I was not familiar with the roads there, even though we had taken the same route earlier in the morning. I told myself that I would not get lost so easily as the route seemed pretty straightforward, and with that I just continued at my even pace. After awhile, some runners started approaching from behind and overtook me, I hung on to them for a short distance before I saw other runners in front again.

When I started approaching Bank Negara, I realized that I still had plenty of energy left, and my legs while tired, were still capable of a little push. Along the way I had seen some runners already starting to walk and I was happy to have kept to the strategy of even pacing and maintaining effort (not maintaining pace) on the hills. With this I picked up the pace a little and pushed home. I slowed to a jog when approaching the carpark and stopped my watch for a timing of 2h15m11s.

I was unsure where the breakfast area was, and finally located it after some searching. Not many people were there yet as many were probably running the 30k today. This is when I suddenly realized that Lim had my car keys and I was not going to be able to change until he got back. I hoped he would not take the 4hours he said he would if he ran the 30k.

Not knowing anyone there, I lingered at the breakfast area drinking Milo and feasting on the watermelon and bananas. My stomach was not ready for any of the solids laid out on the table, thought I must admit it was a good spread. Many people seemed to be enjoying the porridge, but that is one food item I have yet to fall in love with.

Later I saw Jamie again at the car park. He had run his 30k in 3h2m and was taking a quick drink before heading towards Lake Gardens to try and achieve his target of a 35k run. After much patience and more food, I finally saw Lim approaching the stairs of the breakfast area. He had completed with a time of 3h40m and was still feeling good. I really admire his determination and wish him well for the Singapore marathon.

We had a quick shower and change of clothing before heading back to Klang. The sun was blazing hot by then and I was starting to feel the effects of the long run and lack of sleep. By the time I dropped off Lim and reached home, it was almost 11.30am. I washed my clothes, had my shower, took my car to the nearby tire shop to get the puncture fixed and finally ‘tapau’ some lunch for both my wife and me. I only managed to hit the sack after my son slept at 2pm.

KLCC Park

With all the piled up work and rain this week, I had only time for two short runs so far. Besides my time at the gym on Tuesday, I managed another 6.8k at Taman Rakyat on Wednesday. Yesterday I decided to have a good workout at KLCC Park with the hope of meeting some of our Pacesetters gang there as well.

I reached the parking entrance after 6pm, following the directions Ronnie had given me. It was my first time parking here and I did not realize that I needed coins to slot into the machine. I held up the queue for a few minutes before a parking attendant came and accepted my note.

I had changed in my office, so I parked the car and looked around for the entrance to the park. I spotted a guard and approached him for directions. He pointed me to the entrance, and as I was walking towards it I had a pleasant surprise. A lady who was going to get into her car called out to me and asked if I was ‘Dinesh’. Turned out it was Rachel (pm21). She said I looked different from my picture and much slimmer in person. She may have been right, since the picture was taken 2 months ago when I was a good 5kg heavier.

Rachel said that the regulars were not running that day as they had planned a morning run the next day (today). This meant I would not get to meet everyone once again, but I hope to meet some of you at this Sunday’s practice run. I said my goodbyes and headed towards the park where I did some stretching and started running.

On my first lap as I was passing Exxon Mobil, I saw a familiar face. He was the guy who had run alongside me for a couple of minutes on my first run at KLCC Park. We never introduced ourselves to each other, but if I’m not mistaken I recognize him as ‘Draco’ from some pictures I saw on Ronnie’s blog. This time he was walking the opposite direction and I waved to him and said hi. I don’t think he recognized me.

The park was crowded with more tourists and visitors taking photos than runners. As much as possible I tried running behind the camerapersons but at times it was not possible. I was running at a slow and even pace, and managed to cover 8 laps or 10.4k in 62min. By the time I finished it was almost 7.30pm. I walked one lap the opposite direction as a warm down before heading to the car.

It was too dark for me to try finding the toilet to change in, so I just managed to change in the car. I hope the toilet is near the mosque entrance so I don’t have to keep changing in the car each time I run here. The drive home to Klang was slow as the traffic congestion from Tun Razak all the way to Sri Petaling was bad. I reached home at 8.40pm, quickly showered and took my family out for dinner.

Today I have a colleagues wedding dinner to attend in Seremban. I hope it does not finish too late, since I need to wake up as early as 3.45am tomorrow in order to pick up Lim (going for Singapore marathon) at 4.20am from his house. Peter, Albert and the others would not be coming for the breakfast run tomorrow. I hope another 20k just one week after my first 21k will not prove to be too much for my legs!

A tiring couple of days

Monday was really a long day, however I enjoyed spending the day out alone with my wife as this is a rare occasion. We had decided to visit Ikea but first I had some delayed banking tasks to complete. After leaving Nick with my mother in law, we moved from the post office to RHB to Maybank and finally UOB. I must seriously consider having all my accounts and loan facilities with a single bank.

By the time we reached Ikea it was 1pm. We weren't there to buy anything in paticular so we just spend the time walking and admiring the showhouses with its deco. Had a quick snack at the cafe before heading over to The Curve as I wanted to visit the Brooks outlet. By the end of the day I had picked up 2 pairs of running vests & 2 pairs of shorts from Brooks, and had also bought myself some new pants from the Orlando boutique, since I can't fit into any of my old ones any longer.

We decided to splurge a little for dinner and have some Japanase at a restaurant called 'Sushi Sakae'. I was really impressed with their ordering system, where each table has a big LCD screen from which you can browse their food menu, make selections and have your orders sent straight to the kitchen. This of course was besides the selection of Sushi which was already on the belt.The food was quite good, service was fast and price was not overly expensive. I will definitely come back again if I am in the area.

Yesterday I finally made a return to the gym after a lapse of almost 2 weeks. Btw, traffic is back to normal again in KL. As I left work and headed towards my gym which is located in Summit USJ, I was stuck in the normal slow moving traffic right from outside the US Embassy on Jln Tun Razak all the way to the Kuchai Lama turn-off on the Seremban-Sg Besi highway.

The gym was more crowded than usual. People must be trying to lose all those extra holiday pounds. I decided to do a quick workout on the treadmill before hitting the resistance training area. Managed a 1k warmup at 9km/h pace and another 4k tempo run at 11.5km/h pace. Final time for 5k was 27m32s. After the workout I realised that I am starting to dislike running on the treadmill more and more.

Moved on to the trebistretch bike followed by stomach crunches, free weights for the arms and love handles and finally the resistance machines for my legs, back and shoulders. Hit the showers at 9pm and was home by 9.45pm. I had picked up some bananas and milk on the way home. Mixed some protein powder in the milk, squashed in 3 bananas and gulped it down as my dinner... yummie!

An unexpected milestone

Today I have to acknowledge that the human body is indeed amazing. It's no wonder, men and women around the world are constantly setting new records in different challenging feats all the time. To find out more about how I fared in my first (unexpected) 21k run, please read on.

Before I indulge you with the details, I must attribute all my recent progress with my running to my wife’s patience, understanding and sacrifices. Today when I came home and told her about my latest achievement, the happy and proud look on her face meant more to me than what I had achieved.

Now the details…

I arrived at the Klang stadium at exactly 6.30am and saw that Albert was already there. He was speaking to someone who was still sitting in the car. Turned out, it was Ms. Leong from Shah Alam whom I had met once at the Putrajaya race. She was joining us for our long run as part of her prep for the Singapore marathon.

Peter arrived soon after, followed by Kam. The plan was to do a 15k using the Shah Alam route. After a quick warm up of running a couple of loops round the parking area, and some stretching, I was ready to start.

We started at a slow, even pace, and I was hoping to keep it that way for the entire distance. I was running in front with Kam, while Peter and Albert ran with Ms. Leong.

After running across the bridge to the town, I suddenly realized I had not started my stopwatch. Since we were already almost 10minutes into the run, there was no point in starting it then. This would prove to be a psychological benefit for me later in the run.

Once we passed the Hokkien Association and started running past Taman Rashna, Peter caught up and started running alongside me. Kam picked up his pace and moved on ahead.

When we had reached the Puspakom junction (6.5k), Peter asked if I wanted to try a new distance of 18k, instead of the originally planned 15k. I readily agreed since I was feeling good and strong at that point.

We continued running until we reached out first water station, the BP petrol kiosk at the 8.5k mark. If we were to run 18k, the roundabout up ahead would be our halfway turning point.

After drinking as much as I could get from the pipe (something I’ve yet to get used to), we continued running. At this juncture, Peter suggested that we extend the distance once again, this time to cover 21k. I surprised myself by once again readily agreeing instead of laughing off his suggestion. Was my bravery going to get the better of me this time?

Anyway it was too late to change my mind, so instead of making a u-turn up front, we made a left turn heading towards UITM. I had thought we had left the hills behind us by then, but to my dismay, this extended route had another couple of steep hills to tackle. I estimated that by the end of the run, we would have conquered at least 4 to 5k of steep hilly terrain.

We passed Ms. Leong and Albert after making the halfway u-turn at the UITM roundabout. They had seen us taking the extended route and had followed suit.

After covering another 10k, and having stopped at 2 more water stations, we were once again crossing the infamous Klang river. By then my legs were a little stiff, but I felt no pain and my breathing was regular.

As we turned onto the final stretch heading towards the stadium, I even surprised myself by being able to manage a half sprint for the final 100m. Wohoo! I had run and finished my first half marathon! I turned to Peter who gave me the final time… 2h 12m 28s.

Today I have been reassured that all my extra effort is starting to reap its rewards. Total mileage clocked for this week… 54k. I am now looking forward to the coming week’s practice run. This should give me some exposure to KL’s route and the feared double hill. I still plan to take it slow and easy for this 20k, and to enjoy by taking my own sweet time at each water station… something we don’t get to enjoy in races or even training runs.

Post run body check:

1. Muscles are generally fine and not sore. However from past experiences, soreness starts to be felt the day after.

2. Slight pain on the right kneecap (only when putting heavy pressure on it). Not noticeable with normal movement. This should be fine in a couple of days, with some ice treatment

3. The skin on the inner thighs is raw (red) and painful. The modest, non-conventional New Balance running shorts I wear must cause this. I wonder whether they are really meant for running in the first place. I still cannot bring myself to parade in the sexy, revealing, lightweight shorts I see most runners wear… but looks like I may not have a choice!

Playing with speed work

Having run an easy and comfortable 10.1k yesterday evening with a timing of 60m50s, and being generally satisfied with the progress of my week’s mileage, I decided to try some speed work today.

Once again, referring to ‘The Competitive Runner’s Handbook’ by Bob Glover, he says that a tempo run is meant to be run at a pace which is 10 to 30 seconds per mile slower than 10k race pace. It is meant to improve lactate threshold and is run just below one’s lactate threshold (LT).

Now this did not really help me, because I do not really know what my 10k race pace should be. I am generally cowardly when it comes to discomfort and pain, thus I could safely say that my 10k race pace is way below what I am capable of. Bob Glover describes one’s 10k race pace as his or her goal race pace.

Considering that a tempo run is meant to be at a pace slower than one’s 10k race pace, this would make my tempo pace perhaps a 6min kilometer, since I was only hoping to achieve a sub 60min timing in my next 10k race. But that can’t be right, since running at that pace now seems to be a reasonably easy effort.

With all these confusing thoughts, I decided to try running as quickly as I could and judge my effort based on my breathing pattern. My first loop (1.13k) was a warm up with a timing of 6m44s. My target was to complete 5 loops that day, including the warm up.

In the next four loops, I started running at a controlled fast pace, while concentrating on my breathing pattern to ensure I was not running beyond my LT. I generally dislike timing myself on each lap as I find it distracting, so I just ran until I completed the four loops before registering a final timing of 29m04s for the 5.6k distance.

Throughout the run, my breathing was heavy but controlled. Bob says at a tempo pace, we should be able to talk but not in full sentences. At the same time we should not be gasping for air. I felt that describes my breathing form to the dot today.

If I take an average of the time I ran today and apply it to a distance of 5k, my time would have been 25m57s. And this pace was meant to be slower than my 10k race pace? Does this mean that in a 10k race, I should be running my heart out and endure all the pain and discomfort that comes with it? Perhaps I need to relearn the meanings and difference of the words ‘racing’ and ‘training’.

Tomorrow shall be a rest day before another long run of 15k on Sunday. This Sunday we plan to take a different route which leads to Shah Alam. I have finally decided to go for the PACM practice run on 13th Nov (20k). I was initially undecided as it is just one week before the KRI race, and my longest run ever has only been 15k, but I feel it would be a good practice run and plan to take it slow and easy.

The beginnings of a cold

In the past few months, I’ve been faced with constant pressure build up in the ears, which leads to severe discomfort and headaches. I tried without success to identify the cause of it. I reached a point where I even thought it might be caused by the extensive running I was doing. Visits to the doctor were of no help either as the problem persisted.

It was only last Sunday that I realized what the possible cause could be… the Pharmaton multi-vitamin tablets that I have been consuming over the last 5 months. Having remembered that members of my mother’s family became seriously ill after consuming this brand of vitamins, I decided to put my theory to the test.

Miraculously, the day I stopped consuming the capsules I felt much better. It has been 4 days now and I’ve not had a single incident of ear pressure build up and I feel much better throughout the day. I’m glad to have found the root of my problem, but I still have more than half a bottle of this ‘very expensive’ vitamins sitting on my dresser.

The only setback is, I realize that without multi-vitamins I am now more susceptible to falling ill. This has become evident as in just few days I have caught the flu bug from my son, something that I was able to avoid while on the multi vitamins. I am trying desperately to recover quickly by taking in as much vitamin-c as possible and getting plenty of rest (minus the running of course).

I now need to decide on an alternate brand of multi-vitamins to take. Perhaps the pharmacist would be able to show me what options are available. I would also appreciate any advice from fellow runners based on your experiences. The throat is starting to feel really dry, must remember to drink more water today. I think I will do some preventive treatment for the throat with salt water gargling.

Lazy Day

As my company declared today a holiday at the very last moment, I had nothing planned. My wife was working and my son was sent to my mother in law’s home as usual, since his daily meals were cooked and prepared there.

I spend the day watching some old movies on VCD, had KFC for lunch, tried to renew my mother’s car road tax at the post office in Tesco but the computer was offline. Had a nap in the afternoon, washed the bathroom and tidied the house a little before heading out for my regular Wednesday night run at Taman Rakyat with our area group.

Today most of our members were not coming, it was just Albert and myself. Peter was busy doing some repairs to his new house, Lim was still on holiday in China with his family, Ajeep was probably back in Perak for Hari Raya and Mani’s wife had just delivered their third child (a boy) a couple of days back.

I arrived at the park just before 8.30pm and saw that Albert had just arrived as well. Waited for him to change into his shoes and off we went. The running track at Taman Rakyat has two main loops. The first is the longer route with a distance of 1.6k and the other has a distance of about 1k.

We normally run the 1k route on Wednesdays since it has better lighting. I enjoy running here once a week because it gives me the opportunity to do some hill training. At least 350m of the 1k distance is made up of a very sharp slope.

Today the park was completely empty and I felt good running. The cool air and quiet surroundings allowed to me relax and run with ease. We were running at a comfortable pace and were able to enjoy some conversation as well. We completed 7 loops before calling it a day. Final timing was 44m12s.

Guilt run

Today afternoon turned out to be an enjoyable time of feasting and fellowshipping with a group of good friends from our church. We arrived at one of our member’s home (who happens to be Nicholas’ god parents) at 12.30pm and the smell of the food was already making my stomach rumble.

With all the chicken rendang, noddles, tomato rice and pork chops I ate, it was a wonder I still managed to find room in my stomach for some generous helping of ice cream with fruits. Nicholas had a ball of a time as well, raiding the fridge for sweets whenever he felt like it, probably knowing that these kind of opportunities don’t come by too often.

Now for those who don’t know, the main reason I started exercising in the first place was to lose the many kilos I had put on over the last two years. I started by signing on a gym membership in June, and from there the use of the treadmill got me really hooked on running. I was then linked to the Pacesetter’s club via the internet and signed on as a member in September.

When I had first started my exercise regime in June, my weight was about 86kg and I was hoping to bring it down to just below 80kg by the end of the year. My body fat level was touching the region of 30%, and one would not easily believe that by looking at me, as I am just 1cm short of being a six footer.

Today, just five months down the road, I now weigh 72kg with a body fat index of 18%. I have nothing but running to thank for this amazing change. Perhaps with all the adverts showing ‘BEFORE’ and ‘AFTER’ photos, promoting their slimming programs, I should use the same method to promote running as a healthier and cheaper option (definitely not easier though).

Anyway, having had such a hearty lunch and then reaching home at 4pm I joined my son for a long afternoon nap. I finally woke up at 6.30pm feeling really guilty with the amount I had eaten and with the ‘lack’ of mileage this morning in my run. Not to mention that I had another two houses to visit later at night for more Deepavali feasting.

I then decided to strap on my New Balance 680 (basic stability running shoes) and cover another 5.6k. This time I started slower and picked up the pace gradually over each loop. I was feeling good after the fourth loop and decided to push on the last one. Final time was 31m12s, which was better than my morning run, but this time I was still left with a lot more energy. Perhaps, this pacing method might be good for my 10k race. I shall try it again later.

10k reduced to a 5k

Feeling really good after completing a 15k long run on Sunday, with a total week’s mileage of 47k, I decided that I would try hard to put in some decent mileage this week as well.

The plan to go to the gym last evening was discarded after some last minute work cropped up at the office, causing me to stay back much later than anticipated.

In my ‘running planner’ I had scheduled to do a 10k on Deepavali morning and decided to stick to the plan. Set my alarm for 6.20am, but as fatigue took over the will to wake up, I turned off the alarm somewhere in the wee hours of the morning.

I finally did wake up at 7am, forced myself out of bed and into my running gear. The weather was really cool, as it had rained quite heavily during the night.

This morning I was running the normal loop around my housing area. With each loop being 1.13k, I would need to run 9 loops to complete a 10k. In view of the upcoming KRI 10k run that I am taking part in, the plan was to practice some race strategy and suitable pacing.

I’m currently reading a book called “The Competitive Runner’s Handbook” by Bob Glover. In the chapter that covers ‘Race Strategy’ he discusses the importance of pacing and finding the most suitable pacing option for oneself. Of course he stresses that this would change, depending on the racing distance as well as the difficulty of the racecourse.

Being new to the sport, and having run three 10k races in September, all with timings between 61 to 63min, my ultimate goal at KRI would be to run a sub 60min 10k. With this in mind, I decided to try the strategy of “strong start and then even pacing”.

I started the run well and completed the first loop in 6m30s, which translates to a 5m45s pace. What I should have done was to stick to that pace and try to maintain it until the last couple of loops before increasing it slightly. However feeling strong and comfortable, I pushed myself a little too fast and found that my next two loops were run with a 5m20s pace.

This depleted my energy quickly and I was already breathing very heavily by then. I tried slowing down the pace quite bit in an attempt to regain proper breathing form. However by the end of the 5th loop (5.6k) my breathing was still heavier than normal and I was tiring. I decided to call it a day and review my strategy for my next practice run. The final timing for 5.6k was 31m30s.

The plan for the rest of the week is to put in two 10k runs, one gym workout and a 15k long run on Sunday. Perhaps some speedwork on the treadmill might help? I shall have to see how the body feels tomorrow then.