Changing of Guards

Arnaud had moved to Tokyo for work since August 08. Life has been stressful for him. We are lucky to have a great bunch of friends in our running club, Namban Rengo, who made the adjustments so much easier. We get to travel a fair bit outside of Tokyo Metropolitan City with the club members.

I joined Arnaud in Dec 08, helping him adjust to life in Toyko and getting...*drum-roll* Domesticated!

I have been trying to put warm food on the table without giving ourselves food poisoning (!), learning abit of the Japanese language (sugoi!), and watching lots and lots and lots of TV(0120-999-9377..hahah). And ya, trying to do some "real" training.

So I thought I should try my hand at this blogging thingy. For years I avoided reading blogs as they usually offer little insights - "Today, ran 20km. Light rain. Weekly mileage 40km, Monthly mileage 60km." Geez, thanks.

However, in my attempts to find out about the "real" Tokyo, I came across some really nice blogs about (what else would a Singaporean look for) food. Some friends have also started their own blogs which talk about their life outside sports (yes! there should be a life beyond that!).

So I thought I should indulge myself abit by talking about my little adventures in Japan. Honestly I had been to so many places but I still hold the fond memories, so most of the postings will be in retrospect. I don't care if nobody reads them, besides Arnaud under duress. Its a treasure-trove of my experiences here. ;)

leng

"Gourdon Hike" France 12.5k May 1st 2008

This wasnt planned at all! especially with Leng recovering from her Seoul Marathon and me from a long combination of rest and injury. We were visiting my parents in the south of France's "arriere pays" and discovered this local race completely by chance the day before. They still had room for 2, all we had to do is fake an official license to practice athletics or a medical certificate (mandatory to participate in any foot race in France). We opted for a letter certifying that we were members of the legendary MR25 Singapore and that shut them up!





The course is an A to B starting at a village at around 300m above sea level and finihing at Gourdon village at around 750m above sea level. Excellent organisation, abosutely breathtaking sceneries along the course and after the race. Neither Leng nor I were in the mood or in shape for a serious race so we just took it easy starting towards the back of the pack and jogged the few Kms together before settling each in a steady but confortable pace. I was actually in much better shape than i thought and Leng ended up finishing 2nd in her age group and 4th overall.





It is my second race in France and I was again surprised at the number of Triathletes and the number of good club runners in all age groupes. I joked to myself that i was first in the over 35h categorie (people working over 35h a week, a rarity in France).






The race was followed by a giant pasta party and a local farmers market... all so relaxing and quaint...

2008 sucks

First 2008 update! in a nutshell it sucks. I took a month break in January with a view to recover from last year's hard training and come back all refreshed. Well i came back sighly overweight and 3-4 weeks back into training I visited my favorite sport doctor to enquire about a mild recuring pain in the plantar fascia (on the right side this time! i did the left side last year)and...

BOOM! I have fibroma! That is a micro tears in the plantar fascia that heal very quickly but get worse over time. So since i dont have any major race coming up I decided to do the treatment now. The treatment is a mixure of stretching, anti inflamatory and... Shockwave therapy ! That sounds only sligtly better than chemiotheratpy but really it s not that bad... the only thing is i cant run at all and can only do non weight bearing cross training (biking swimming...).

3 weeks to go... i will cycle as much as possible and lift weight to avoid losing my fitness completely but cross training is a bit of a shore really! The muscles trained are not the same as the running muscles so it takes a lot of effort and pain to lift the heart rate only to a modest level... Will also do my best to improve my diet but thats easier said than done!

I hope to be back to reasonable level for Obuse or Melaka in July....

Chiang Mai Half marathon : 1:20:42 - 3rd

Quick notes on our trip end of year trip to ChiangMai Thailand.







The city of Chiang Mai itself has little to offer exept a few good Thai restaurants and night Bazars but the montains behind it are quite interesting. Altitude of the highest spot is around 2500m. Lots of Temples, local villages and splendid waterfalls.















The race: Leng finished second overall with a time of 3:41 in the full marathon which, effectively, turned out to be her first ultra since she, along with the first lady and a few other Singapore runners, did an extra loop somewhere on the course adding about 3-4k because of bad signage. Such a shame!





I finished 3rd in my age group with a time of 1:20:42 a huge PB... maybe a little too huge as the course is not AIM certified (only certified by the jog&joy running association of Thailand) and might have been short. Again, shame as i needed a 1:22:59 to obtain a garanteed entry at the 2008 NYC marathon and am confident i have achieved that time today but NYC may not recognise the time. Anyway, anyday you get a pb is a good day even an "unknown pb"!







I can always try to do it again in 2 weeks along the Arakawa river although i really feel the need for a break at this point ...

happy new year !

Angkor wat -

oh yeah... Angkor Wat... i almost forgot. Thats the only fast and certified race in south east asia that i have been pshyching myself up for since august . 4 month of hard training (a one point running up to 145k in a week). Unfortunately i came down with a bad cold turned into bronchiatis 3weeks before the race. I tried to train though it but in vain! A few days before the race i tried running but couldnt maintain a decent pace for more than 15min or so. By race day my condition had improved significantly owing to intensive rest and medication, i was still coughing but felt ok during the warm up and so decided to give it a go.

Remember, this is a small race with a small field of a few hundred people only so my target time of 1:22 (NYC qualification) put me in 4th place for the first 10k or so. At the front the legendary Tony Seakins from MR25pulled away from the group at around 6k to win the race for the first time (1:18) at 55 after finishing 3rd the preceding 2 years. Very impressive!
I was coughing every 10 minutes but didnt feel too bad and was trying to convince myself that I could finish if not on target at least with a PB. Unfortunately after going trough 10k in 39:10 i began to weaken very very rapidly and hit the wall just after passing 15k in 1:00:53. By 16k i had to walk-a-jog along the road encouraging team mates passing by while quickly reassuring them that i was ok, just completely flat. When i saw Patrick then David Stevenson then Rob Hogan passing me I attempted to hang on but to no avail. I saw Leng being caught by mini Mika, in the last mile (Mika won the race in a sub 1:35, securing her qualification for Tokyo International Ladies next year, Leng finished second in 1:35:xxx). Amusingly, when JJ passed me she said something like "congratulations you made it" thinking that i had finished, jogged in the opposite direction for a kilometer and was just jogging back towards the finishing line!! when in fact i was dragging myself in agony through the course for the first time to cross the line in 1:40. The silver lining in this is 1) it was a great trip with the group as usual, this year we were joined by only one Nambaner (rob) but a bunch of cyclist and triathletes made the trip for the 100k bike race or 50k rally on saturday 2)the race course is really stunning (had lots of time to admire it this year!) 3) I look at a half full glass and pretend that 10k at race pace coming off the bronchiatis is not so bad... unfortunately since then i have taken more rest and while the cold and coughing are gone i appear to have lost quite a bit of fitness judging by the last 2 steady run... I am slightly disappointed of course but really enjoy training consistantlyhard for this race. Let's see how it goes once i have recovered completely


Next up, Chiang Mai on Dec 30 and a half along the arakawa river in Tokyo on Jan 13th.

Showa kinen Tokyo Masters half

Leng, David and I ran a half in Showa Kinen park in Tokyo this week end. Showa Kinen koen is a gorgeous memorial park dedicated the the Showa era localed a 35 minute train ride away from Shinjuku.

The weather was sunny and slighly windy with the temperature around 26 degre (high for the season). Not really ideal for running but it made for a very pleasant day... Besides, it had been raining heavily and friday and Saturday with really strong typhoon like winds and that would have been a nightmare!!

The course was 4 laps around the park with some extra bits at the start and finish. The course reminded me of the Graveyard in which we train in Singapore. It has 4 not really steep but steady hills with nearly constant ups and downs. So although very pleasant the conditions were pretty tough.

Leng finished 3rd overall and 1st in her age group in 1:36:02 (1:35:56 at my watch). Not bad at all given her minimalist training.

David had a hard time with stiches, even walking off the course at one point before changing his mind and finishing in 1:34

I did 1:25:59, good enough for 3rd in my AG and 19th overall. My legs muscle felt horribly tight and sore in the 1st few Ks (insufficient warm up?). It got a little bit better after 5k and I settled into a somewhat consistant pace albeit well below my target of 1:23. As the course and weather began to take their toll on everyone I passed 4 people in the last 5k including 1 in the final lap around a dirt soccer field. I almost never race for position but given that I was unlikely to do a good time it was pretty cool. I felt the benefit of my better conditionning, my heart rate stayed within a moderately inconfortable zone all the way. The fruatration was that I was unable to run any faster... Maybe in Angkor or Chiang Mai with an adequate amount of tempo runs and hills...

Also memorable was the post race party at my service appartment complete with pizza, beer and chocolate and also beer!

Phase 2...

Right...I think thats enough conditioning for the time being... It's time to start the "proper" training. The conditioning is supposed to last about10-12 week but there has to be enough time for the rest of the training, so hopefully 8 weeks of base, 8 weeks of more specific and intense training followed by 2 weeks taper should be ok.

These are the main ingredients. It is based on an attempt to reconcile Guy's recommendations (the guy hired to coach the National Team of Singapore)and typical scheduled runs in Singapore. Specific training is fine but running with others is also important. I also would like to incorporate 1 or 2 5k time trials on track if possible.

The key elements are:

* The mileage is reduced from 130k to around 80k a week (or lower)
* Progress will come from very easy recovery (rec not wreak) between the hard workouts (super hard in some cases Guy prescribed up to 15x800, 6xmile 3x3k or equivalent in minutes all with short recovery!).
* Frequent pace run (problematic in Singapore because of terrain and weather)

Only a guideline but proceed with care as always!


AM PM
Mon 0 7 rec
Tues 0 15 interval ~5k pace > 800m, 1k, 5x5min
Wed 0 7 rec
Thurs 0 8 easy strides
Fri 0 15 Tempo ~HM pace > up to 10k (?)
Sat 0 8 easy
Sun 0 30 long v easy pace
(90)
Mon 0 7 easy
Tues 0 15 interval 15 (5) 10 (5) 10min --HM pace
wed 0 7 rec
Thurs 0 12 Hills
Fri 0 10 rec
Sat 0 10 easy strides
Sun 0 18-20 interval eg: 6 x 6min ~HM

PS: That was supposed to be a table ..damit!