Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Distance Increases...

By Frank

Since Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2010, I have not run any distances 30KM and above. MR25 Cross Country Ultra Marathon 2010 was an exception cause I was all out for fun then. This morning, as my road to century's regime deepens, it had to be done.

I'm into my second week of my back to back long runs. Distance starts to increase especially on the second day's run. This morning, I did my very first 30KM of the year. I saved my legs yesterday by just running 15KM as I know it will be tough this morning. And tough it certainly was. In fact, I was worried as I was having my breakfast earlier.

Pacesetters Athletic Club Malaysia was supporting LSD runs by stationing 2 water stations along the Bukit Aman - Sri Hartamas route. Therefore, it's a chance not to be miss as running with support and lots of other runners will make thing easier. And the scene this morning was like if there was a race being organised!

Probably yesterday's entry on being a "sweeper" came at a wrong time. As I needed this 30KM badly, I didn't manage to "sweep" my friend. However, I did mention this to my friend as I felt that it will be safe as there were so many other runners around. No hard feelings but I will inform if I plan to go faster.

For a brief moment, I felt I had my Macau Marathon 2009's legs back. I had the strength and speed and was running flawlessly. Then came the first water station. I grab the cup without realising it's ice cold orange squash. It was too cold that my tummy cramp up instantly. That really was a bummer as I slowly lost sight on Jamie and Michael. I stood with water for the rest of the distance.

Arriving back at the car park, there was another 5KM to be covered. I told Jamie that I'm tempted to call it a day but knew that it must be done. It's going to be a warm down run around the bird park but Jamie hammered it. I tried to give chase but he was too fast. I told myself to let him be as I just concentrate on my run. At the end, I'm just purely satisfied that I had it in the bag. Soreness, twitching and sleepy but it didn't stop me from hanging out with other fellow runners as there was a potluck going on.

Caught up with friends, refueled and found out that I was running late. Rush back home, cleaned up, further refueled and headed straight to office. I do not want to think too much now on what the following week beckons. For now, I just want to enjoy myself for having successfully run 30KM. A pat on my back for myself, that's if I can reach it. Hehehe...

5 comments:

Jamie said...

Am just glad we did it. Have to start sometime. No pressure as it's the base phase only where consistency of workouts in a week is important. Week 4 next for me!

YS said...

Hi Frank, Jamie, just had a little training idea... wanna do 30k before Energizer Night Run? That will be 72k (30k+42k). This could be the 'at-least-once' 70%-of-100k long run, as preparation for Sundown Century?

Why before (and not after)? As I expect we need more support for the second half... so preferably doing the 30k before the actual race.

Good thing about Energizer Night: it is a loopy thingy, easier to plan for re-fuel and hydration. We can do 4 outer-loops before the race starts, that will be ~30k.

We can even have our own support stations (our cars) parked at specific location of the loop before the race.

How's that sound?

Frank Chong said...

Thanks YS for your suggestion. However, we already have our plans. Besides, I believe Jamie will detour from my training plans after TUC.

Jamie said...

YS,
Frank is right. My focus will be on speed endurance after TUC as I’m gearing for a key marathon after that. My intention is to bring all the aerobic and strength gained from TUC into a specific marathon training. So Energizer for me will be a fun run. Whatever you do, have fun, run in a group and stay safe.

YS said...

Hi Frank, Jamie... thanks...:)