Wednesday's Training

Nothing much to post – yes, you guys do deserve a break from my constant whining! – here’s a wrap-up of this morning’s session:

Supersets of:

a) Smith machine squats

b) BB standing overhead shoulder press

c) Cybex plate weight leg squat (Michael had me doing jumping squats before the first set coz we were sharing the machine with another guy)

d) DB lateral raise

Supersets of:

e) BB walking lunges

f) DB frontal raise

g) Split lunges (quads were on fire here, so please excuse the terrible form although I did muscle up for the last set. Hey, I can’t afford to pay good money for the gym to get away with it! LOL!)

Supersets of (probably the easiest of the lot):

h) Abs on wheels

i) Technogym cable criss-cross overhead rear delt

j) Ab crunches on fit ball

Amkan!

Whatever that means – that’s Ronnie’s lingo for missed opportunity. The results of the SCKLM came out last night and I came in 4th…and the podium stops at 3. I am not as gutted as I thought I would be, it is a passing feeling. Oh yeah, I definitely did spot Ms 3rd place and the timing difference between us was about 17 - 20 seconds. Now tell me with these past couple of weeks’ results, why couldn’t I have placed at the Energizer Night Run???!!! I am more cheesed off with that than SCKLM – I feel so cheated and it was all down to poor organization and management; at the SCKLM, it was all fair play.

I had a talk with Kenny last night and he thinks that I could break that 50-min stranglehold and all I needed to do was run each km, 10 seconds faster or 5 to start off with. Me? Not so. I am not naturally athletic – look at how long it took me to break the 53-55 min threshold! I doubt we will need to tweak much of my diet or cross training for this; we’ll need to formulate a new game plan if we want to break that barrier. So guys, what are your ideas? Any training plans recommendation?

Workout this morning:

a) Sun salutations Hatha 101 version

b) 60 min Cybex Arc Trainer elliptical cross trainer at an easy to moderate pace

The SCKLM 2011 Weekend

KL was engrossed with the SCKLM over the weekend with over 22,000 runners taking to the streets yesterday morning. Make that occupied the city center up to lunch or so. Since the roads were to be closed on early Sunday morning, I bunked over at SW’s place; we cabbed down to Dataran Merdeka on Sunday morning – Chinatown to be exact and walked the rest of the way and took the train back to KLCC after the run (SW had parked at Mandarin the previous night).

Ok, ok, getting to the bits: I came in at 52:40 for the 10.6km while SW and HTN clocked 2:06:xx and 2:07:xx for the half-mary. Their personal best; so excited for them! I ran back to Jalan Sultan Ismail after my run to wait for them to come by and paced them for the last 2-3km. Will update this when the results are out.

We also celebrated at Ben’s later in the evening. It was also an early birthday get-together for HTN’s birthday.

It was back to regular programming this morning with a back-and-chest combo.

Supersets of:

a) Freemotion cable dual handle free standing upper back row

b) Technogym cable shoulder level back row with iron bar

Supersets of:

c) Freemotion cable free standing chest fly

d) Nautilus Nitro incline chest press

Supersets of:

e) LF free standing pull-ups

f) DB bend over back row

Supersets of:

g) Nautilus Nitro chest pec fly

h) Cybex Eagle chest press

Supersets of:

i) BB bicep curl

j) LF cable tricep pressdown with rope

Single sets of:

k) Reverse ab crunches

Cari Runners Rawang Hill Challenge 2011 – 10km

Date: 19 June 2011

Venue: Rawang, Selangor, Malaysia

Distance: 10km (Garmin: 9.58km)

Chip Timing: None

Garmin Timing: 48:53 minutes or 5:06 min/km (stopped after the finish point)

Result: 3rd placing (Women)

Website: http://carirunners.blogspot.com/2011/04/rawang-hill-challenge-2011.html

Right, they did not term this as a “hill challenge” if there wasn’t any hill or rather hillS to be exact. The hill climb started at km2 but this was not the mother of all hills; that one starts at km3 and continues for 2km. Fooled into thinking this was over…the next one came about at km7-8 since this was an out-and-back course. Since I had not planned on racing, the f*** swears were kept in check.

Since it was a small field (~ 200 runners of which only 30 women), there was little jostling at the start. I even found myself about 2-3 rows back. The game plan was to take it as a Sunday event and go out easy; after all, Sundown and Phuket were just 2 weekends ago. Yuki, Lai and his wife and I lined up and were chatting away and before we knew it, the race had officially started. Stanley was about another row back – he was also not racing it. While it was a small local race, the men’s field was quite competitive and featured faster runners like Jason Wong, Goh Chun Aun etc.

I left Yuki, Lai and Ping Ping after the start and trucked along the back lanes (literally!) of residential houses and shops before hitting the roads leading to the industrial area. Ok, there was a bit of an upslope at km2 which didn’t seem too bad but I didn’t know that this was a precursor to the one that laid ahead at the next km. Stanley overtook me here but I did manage to overtake 2 other men (yup, chicked them out! LOL!). The water station and the turn off (to yet another hill climb) came up shortly. Le sigh. How is that to start the run? It was also here the 1st runner up overtook me – not that it bothered me since I wasn’t racing; the winner had plodded ahead of the field at the start. Trucked along until km5 before the downhill came. Le joy!

Km5-6 were descents before the climb started (all over again!!!) – this was an out-and-back course; so it was back up the same darn hills! Km7 was the checkpoint where they handed us our second ribbon (the first was at the start); butter fingers me dropped mine and lost a few seconds here. Fabio was at the intersection of km8, the TOP of the middle of the intersection and cheered me on. It helped a little but I still needed to dig in to climb the remaining upslope.

After this, it was the home stretch which was basically downhills and flats and a wonderful end to a nice cool Sunday morning.

My hammies were more thrashed than the quads – probably due to racing the descents (all of them in the 4:40-4:50 min/km range). I tried to get an appointment with Margaret later that evening but her diary was filled. Serves me right for leaving things to the last minute. Oh well, there is still next week or Diane in 2 weeks.

Pros:

a) Well-organized event by Cari Runners; I think the team redeemed themselves after the disastrous Couple Run.

b) It was a local race and had that all the homey feel-good-neighbourhood to it. I love such runs – small, localized, entire community coming out to support.

c) Bib pick up on race day. Told ya, it was a small event, easily manageable. In fact, I was probably among the last to register! I did transfer the money to Victor before the closing and did not realize he was missing my registration form – I only managed to do this 4 days before the run! Definitely not encouraged.

d) 2 hydration points with water along the route and 100Plus was served at the finishing. On top of that, the swag (handed out at the finish) included a can of 100Plus.

e) Breakfast of nasi lemak.

f) Pretty cool and cute finisher’s medal.

g) Generous prizes – top ten winners in each category received a trophy and cash. RM400 for 1st placing, RM200 for 2nd placing, RM100 for 3rd placing and RM50 for 4th to 10th placings. It was definitely worth the trip – in terms of organization, scenery (a.k.a. fresh and cleaner air according to Stanley) and prize.

h) Small field.

i) Early start at 7 am and the weather held up fine – cool, low temps and the fresher air (compared to the KL smog).

Cons:

a) No road closure but since the route was in almost sleepy Rawang and winding through the industrial area of Rawang on a weekend, traffic was light. There were marshals and Rela folks manning the intersections.

b) Not much of a swag – finisher’s medal, a can of 100Plus, muscle rub and a few vouchers from the local businesses. Given the low registration fee (RM35) and the tech tee, the content of the swag is understandable. In any event, I hardly use any of the stuff usually included in these bags.

Photo log:

Five Things Friday

1. Has anyone heard of vinegar-inspired cake? Well it was a first for me when Aunty Mabel told me that she had mistook the red cake at Crowne Plaza as raspberry with desiccated coconut when it was vinegar-something-something. Well naturally, I changed the order immediately to Midnight Blue – apparently, it is a chocolate cake but designed differently from the double chocolate fudge we usually order. It will be a Pandora box surprise for everyone on Sunday evening.

2. Glutes and shoulders were sore yesterday, the former continuing today – all courtesy of Wednesday’s workout. I am not complaining per say; oh wait, does this sounds sado-masochistic? It is sore in a good way of course. Unfortunately, Michael had to cancel yesterday’s session but we should resume regular programming come Monday.

3. Tomorrow have been designated a recovery day, which means taking it easy or even resting my feet, hydrating and refueling. Actually, the last two started yesterday and will go on until Sunday night. What? What’s wrong with including Sunday? You have a problem with that?! Sunday is post-run recovery! Any excuse to have decadent meals, ok! And, we are going to have a decadent meal to celebrate SW and HTN’s first halfie (in a long time) as well as HTN’s birthday!

4. Buteyko has not been going too well this week. I think it has been a lack of focus and a wandering mind. The past weekend’s interpersonal problems have been bugging me – it has been replaying in mind over and over and over and over and over again, whether it’s in the gym, car, office, while running etc. Notwithstanding this, I have kept up with 4 rounds of MPs except for yesterday – this is in anticipation of missing Sunday’s practice.

5. Has anyone been to Angkor Wat? I am tossing the coin between Singapore, Siem Reap and Macau for a year-end getaway…if only there was a 3-sided coin.

adiNation Training Run – 22 June 2011 & Taman Desa Run – 23 June 2011

adiNation Training Run – 22 June 2011

Attendees:

a) “Boss” Ronnie

b) Lai

c) Aron

d) KK

e) Azam

f) Datuk Yazid

g) Bee Hoon

h) Adam

i) Suresh

j) Wern Tian

Distance: 4 laps * 2.3km = 9.2km (Garmin: 8.38km coz it picked up the GPS signal late)

Timing: 47:53 for 5:12 min/km pace if using 9.18km (estimate)

Boss and I started at 6:25pm since the rest had taken off earlier. I warned him that I was going to take it easy since it’s post Rawang and DH and was even contemplating walking – of course, I was chided for that last statement! He said I had nothing to worry about since he is tapering for SCKLM and will be going slow (example: 50 minutes for the usual 4 laps the previous day). Yeah right…this is Boss we’re talking about! True to form, he did keep to a slow pace (for him!) for the first 3 laps and only pull ahead in the last. Aron joined us in the second lap and it was here that we ran past KK, Azam, Datuk and Adam who were also in taper mode although their pace was more akin to strolling. We never saw them again until the finish. I do not know which is tougher – having Boss in front of you or breathing down your neck because either options make me nervous and I really did not want to go to “Holland”. You know something…yesterday’s pace felt comfortable, not uncontrollably difficult a.k.a. not panting like a dog but not super easy; and it was in the teens! A few months back, this number would have been impossible or running looking like death. Guess I have come a long way since then. I attribute this to the long runs with kei Ming, aron and Kenny and the weekday hill runs with Kenny. Shout out to these guys!

Taman Desa Run – 23 June 2011

Distance: 5.96km

Timing: 32:22 for 5:26 min/km pace

Looks like everyone is in taper mode since Kenny suggested we do the usual second loop of 6km only. Oh well, since I had already raked in 9+ km the previous evening, this was no issue. Plus, today will also be another double for me since I’ll be meeting Michael for a functional training session later. We may switch this to a back-and-chest combo since my glutes are sore from yesterday’s workout.

I digress…right back to this morning. Since yesterday’s pace was just comfortably difficult and not the usual all-out hard, the recovery was quicker and I had no problems running this morning. This was also another first – 3 consecutive days of running; never attempted it before since my energy levels would have been depleted after the second run and there was no question of a third day. We started with a just over 6 min/km pace before hitting the 5-teens pace along Old Klang Road. After that it was the hill climb at Taman Desa – just checked – very decent pace: 5:40 min/km and 5:21 min/km (because this one included the descent at the apartments). On to the home stretch and we were done. Like I told SW and HTN, most of the pacers were wrapping up yesterday or today and they should do the same.

Change Part II

Michael threw around the workouts slightly this morning – single sets but it was still the legs-and-shoulders combo.

Single sets of:

a) Technogym leg press (yup, it was back to 160lbs and I ‘attempted” to be a badass sista by warming up at 100lbs instead of the 80lbs Michael initially set up)

b) Cybex prone leg curl

c) DB walking lunges (this was the only superset, with item (d))

d) Technogym leg extension

e) Freemotion cable overhead shoulder press

f) Technogym cable rear delt

g) DB lateral raise

h) Precor camber bicep curl

i) Leg raises

Tentatively, we are meeting up tomorrow evening for another session since he will be away on Friday; tentative because I have a meeting in town and given the ever “superb” traffic conditions in the city center blah blah blah. That’s change nummer zwei today.

Let us talk about change nummer drei. I read this article by Peter this morning where talked about changing the mindset. How many times have we failed because we refuse to believe? Believe in ourselves, trust ourselves, partner, family and friends, have faith in our training. I tend to falter towards the tail end of my races and giving myself too much slack (it is ok to back off, I’m hurting etc) and you know what…it’s the mind that gives up first before the legs or the lungs. Thinking I can never hit a sub-50 or a sub-45 for a 10k; just look at Sundown. This is something I need to work on.

It is the same with interpersonal relationships. I need to visualize developing and maintaining healthy relationships with the people in my life. Each has their character and personality and if I keep believing that because of such and such a personality will never do this or that, nothing will change and the both of us will be miserable. I need to believe that he or she will do this, will accede to this, will listen etc. I need to change if I want change in my life.

Does any of this make sense or am I crapping here?

Double Hill Run – 21 June 2011

Distance: 10.57km to traffic lights; 10.86km to Bukit Aman

Timing: 58:09 min for 5:30 min/km pace; 59:31 min for 5:29 min/km pace

I had a potential double booking this morning! Now if only that would apply to hot dates and I would be set! Aron buzzed me on FB last night and as we had agreed to meet at 6:25 this morning 2 minutes before Kenny’s text message, I had to move my “date” with Kenny to Thursday morning.

This week is taper week for the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon, at least for those covering the longer distances. So no more long runs and in any case, doubt I can do 19km this morning without going to Holland! Since it is a workday, traffic was a bit heavy on Jalan Parlimen, behind Bank Negara and Bukit Tunku but once we got to the first hill climb, it eased off a bit – traffic! Not the climb!

And I now know why I felt winded this morning – we started off way too fast! 5:11 min/km! When the plan had called for a 6 min/km pace. Oh golly! The pace dropped off at the second and third km as we ascended the back of Bank Negara. The fourth and fifth were flattish and we held pace at 5:20+ min/km – good stuff. Then the first hill came into the picture and Mr 4-hour-pacer powered ahead but this time, at least I was not too far back (probably 5 steps?). Km7 and 8 were downhills with part of the latter on the straight stretch of Jalan Tun Razak. Km8 has always been my favourite. After this, it was the climb for the second hill – oh why do I torture myself like this???!!!

We finished off our run at the traffic lights leading to Bukit Aman; too many cars zooming past to cross the road. It was definitely a good run – just look at the average pace (hey, my standard ok! Not Boss’ standard). I may ask Aron if we should set up a weekly date since Kenny will be away from next month. The other potential partner I may hound is TPC but TPC’s paces are too fast for me. Or anyone out there who would like to take on a slow-mo running buddy in the mornings?

Change

Change is inevitable as we move through life; however how it affects each of us is a choice. Shilpa words: if you want change, you have to change and only then, things around you will change. Only when you have accepted a situation, then you will be able to move on. This is also change – accepting things and people as they are. The more you resist, the more unhappy you will be. No one can make you happy except you.

Why the philosophical mood today? I had a tough weekend, personal life wise and I am trying to see what I can do or improve. Or simply put, I need an outlet to vent. There is an underlying current of a change in my life or hitting a crossroad – nothing I can pinpoint at the moment but there have been signs: the lost of the mojo bag in March and meeting up with Oceanus in the past couple of months. How do or would you react or deal with such a situation? It is nothing concrete, no particular issue, just a deep-seated intuition.

The parents were down for the weekend and we had a family dinner at Pantai Seafood Restaurant on Saturday night. Here are the dishes. As always, awesomeness.

Speaking of change, I am thinking of speaking to Michael about tweaking our workout, maybe for a week or two. So instead of split body workouts and a functional training every week, maybe a total body workout and a functional training or a drop set workout and a functional training or omit the functional training altogether. It will do me good to get away from the current mindset and schedule since I have been on the existing plan for the past year (or is it 18 months?). What do you say?

Michael and I always start the week with a back-and-chest combo; not sure if he was being “nice” or “considerate” since he knows I usually run over the weekends despite me telling him that the legs are fine. Well most Mondays they are ok, except for today. The quads and hammies were pretty much thrashed from yesterday’s hill run and I could not manage to get a session with Margaret yesterday evening. You reckon a session this evening will still help? On the assumption work and everything-else-in-my-life does not get in the way. Or perhaps settle for yoga – I know Richard’s class will do wonders (they always do!). Oh yeah, speaking of yoga, I’ve been trying to piece together Saturday’s class to see which asana have been giving me this absolutely nice-in-the-way soreness on my obliques and lower back waist. Yes, they are still bugging me today.

Right, enough of rambling and let us get into today’s session:

Supersets of:

a) LF assisted pull-ups

b) LF assisted dips

c) Technogym cable dual handle free standing upper back row

d) Freemotion cable chest fly

Supersets of:

e) Cybex back/rear delt

f) Nautilus Nitro incline chest press

Supersets of:

g) LF low row

h) Nautilus chest press

Single sets of:

i) Technogym cable pull-over with iron bar

j) Technogym cable bicep curl with iron bar

Single sets of:

k) Leg raises

P/S: will upload the photos when I get home tonight; do check back then or tomorrow.

Laguna Phuket International Marathon 2011 – 10.5km

Date: 12 June 2011

Venue: Laguna Phuket, Thailand

Distance: 10.5km (Garmin: 10.3km)

Chip Timing: 52:53 minutes

Garmin Timing: 52:58 minutes or 5:09 min/km (fingers froze at the finish point)

Result: 5th placing (Women); 3rd placing (Age Group); 86th placing (Overall) (results here)

Website: http://www.phuketmarathon.com/

This is the toughest race to date – was practically hotel-bound on Sunday and spent most of Monday off my feet except for a sojourn to the pool in the morning and upper body weight training in the evening. This was also one race which felt like it went on forever – the km did not feel like it was trudging away as it normally does.

Spending the day doing this

And lounging by the pool in this

Over here

The first 5-6 km were great – paces were around the 5 min/km mark even though the turns around the route made the run tiring. For most of the way, I tried to eyeball the shortest possible route and cut across the roads/turns; I am usually a motorist’s nightmare in that sense. Hey, like Kenny says, “it’s a race, you do whatever is necessary to finish or cross the tape at the end in the shortest possible time”. I probably started out a bit too fast instead of building in the speed like in our trainings. I managed to tag onto and pass a girl in a Thai Airways vest but she eventually overtook me in the second half and came in second in our age group. Our time differential was about 7 seconds. Le sigh.

The field was small – about 400-odd and I could not find anyone to pace off with. I am still a long away from getting this pace thing right or close to right. How do you guys do it?

The route up to here took us through some paddy fields and the Laguna lake (think it was a former mining pool). Sorry, I am a bit of a wozzle when it comes to sceneries along the route since like Tay Poh Chye, I zone out most of the time (ok, like 99.99%. LOL!). There were some rolling hills/road elevations here and there but nothing gargantum like Bukit Tunku or the Taman Desa or Kerinchi or Abdullah Hukum stretches. The FM had the best-est route, scenery wise – Sirinath National Park, the coastal road, paddy fields, residential areas, pass a market; all categories pass through the Canal Village and Elephant Trail – the home stretch.

Things started unraveling when we hit the unpaved trail/back portion of the Laguna property (FYI: the 10.5km route is basically run around the Laguna enclave). Running through the stony, muddy and potholed portion was energy draining even if it was “only” a km or two – same story during the Real Run last year. The last km was on the Elephant Trail a.k.a. more of the same nightmare. KK even commented about his reflexology session heading towards the finishing chute despite the mat (see downside point (c) below).

All in, a challenging route thrown in with starting too fast equal to a positive split in the second half. All things considered, I was not too gutted about my final time. I checked the results a bit later on and found out that my age group was probably the most competitive – in fact, the overall winner came from this group and everyone’s time was better than the ones in the age group before ours. Hey, not bragging here.

After coming through the finishing chute, I was a little unsteady and the medics helped me into the tent where they iced me down. However, my hips immediately lock up - I am not too sure if it was from stopping abruptly (yeah, I never learn to walk it off at the end) or the iced blankets they had on my lower limbs. I spent about 15-20 minutes in the tent as the medics worked to ice me down and waited for my heart rate and blood pressure to come down – I was practically radiating heat during this entire time. In fact, the locked hips never gave up and I was more or less immobilized in the hotel on Sunday; it eased up a little after a short and easy swim on Monday morning. Thank goodness or else, they will have to wheel me into the plane!

I do not think I was overheating per say since the sky was overcast when we started and remain so for most of the journey; plus it rained overnight. I think it was more overextending myself. Then again, I always look like death at the finish line of ALL races. Now you know why I never buy race photos! Or put them up here!

Pros:

a) Superb organization from online registration, bib pick up, race and post race, all elaborated below.

b) Hydration-cum-sponge stations every 2 to 2.5km apart and at the start/finish point. You can even take home a pack of 3 cans of 100Plus, all nicely packed (100Plus was one of the major sponsors). This particular point was especially important given the humidity and temps at Phuket i.e. skyrocketing though this year’s weather was mild compared to 2009 when I first ran there.

c) Well equipped medical personnel – I am making a point of highlighting this because of point (b) above. Those guys were my lifesavers – iced me down even to the point of giving me a hand towel to clean myself after that.

d) Post-race grub – porridge, fried noodles, fried rice, bananas, mandarin oranges.

e) Volunteers, spectators and entertainers along the route – all so supportive e.g. volunteers picking after runners and cheering them on, villagers coming out to cheer/hand out drinks, drummers hitting up beats as runners came by.

f) Post-race massages and these ladies came from the Angsana spa at the Laguna chain of hotels.

g) Announcing your name as you come into the finishing chute – it makes every runner feel all fuzzy and special.

h) Top 5 finishers for each age group for each category – talk about awesomeness and generosity!

i) Within the Laguna properties enclave, especially helpful if you are staying within the enclosure; you will probably just need to wake up 30 minutes before your race. The hotels also provide breakfast boxes, early breakfast buffet and shuttles to the race site (also the expo site).

j) Accurate distance markers at every km; they were about 20-30 meters off my Garmin. The Garmin could be wonky since there were a lot of turns (downside point!).

k) Loved the standardized logo “Run Paradise!” on the swag and finisher’s medal – it makes the entire race/journey seem so much fun.

Cons:

a) Fees – foreigners pay about 3-4 times the local rate. Mine cost like THB195 and this was during the early bird period.

b) Pre- and post-race parties. I cannot help comparing it to my first time there in 2009 – the buffet selections at the parties were similar to those in hotel cafes (ok, since they did come from the hotel itself but still…). This year, there was only the pre-race/pasta party and I could practically count with my fingers the offers they had; no post-race party too. Boo!

Pre-race pasta party

c) The rocky finishing section despite the mat they laid out – so difficult to speed up here; it is just too difficult to ignore the “FOC” reflexology session. Too many turns around the route – probably another reason why my hips were not too happy.

d) Omni-sex race vest; even with the “S” I got, the arm holes are way too huge for me. I wish they had gender specific vests from a running apparel brand. Recall Nike in 2009?

e) Nothing much of a race expo or a swag. Timex, 2XU, Laguna Holiday Club etc had booths. Swag was just your bib, timing chip, race vest and a locally made muscle rub.

f) Tough route plus not-so-awesome weather does not make this a race for a PB – in the words of the race director: just go out and run and have fun.

g) No category specific finisher’s medal – I doubt years from now if anyone can recall if the gold is for the FM or the silver is for the 10.5km.