A Tough Second...

By Frank

The second month of the year is usually tough in training due to the shorter month and also Chinese New Year celebration. But this year, it was made even tougher due to an unexpected accident involving everyone in the family.

I carried the training momentum from January into the second month of training and continued to build upon it. It started well and everything went as plan as I began interval and time trial training. Then came Chinese New Year on the second week of the month. What was supposed to be a rest day soon became disastrous when mum was attacked by a stray dog while bringing Bailey, my family dog out for a walk. Mum suffered multiple bites which needed 21 stitches on both her palm and one cut on her left eyebrow, while Bailey suffered 2 puncture wounds himself. I am not going into details of what happened for this is something personal for me, but all I can say is that it drained everything out of me from physical to mental strength. But all in all, I am glad both of them are safe and all right.

Training almost got derailed from the above. But I guess it must have been a hurdle or task set out against me, to test me out. I knew I wanted to complete both Comrades Marathon and West Highland Way Race in about 3 months time badly and so I dug dig, stay calmed and find time to fit in my training regime. Slowly and surely, all the pieces came back and by the the third week when both mum and Bailey had recovered, everything was on track again despite feeling a little tired.

However, a quick recovery with more eat and sleep followed by some active recovery did the trick and by the start of the fourth week, I was feeling energised again. And by then, I was feeling ready to tackle my third event of the year, the Gunung Nuang Ultra which went pretty well as planned.

All in all, after a difficult February and against all odds, I've still managed to hit my training target by covering a total of 352KM. Though the running distance is covered, what I lack this month was strength training as I lifted less weights. I hope it will be better in March as fitness, motivation and confidence is high now. However, with the high volume of training required the next month, I will need to seek the assistance of my friends to help me journey through it. It's not call Hell March for nothing!