k r i s a n d r o

After a long rest, I finally started on my training again for the Adidas Sundown (half marathon event) in May and for my 1st full marathon at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2010.

For me, running is really quite enjoyable and all I need is to start in order to get the momentum going and I did it on 19th Jan. I have since ran 7 times and I am slowly building up my mileage like any proper training schedule.

I absolutely love to measure and record various numbers I can get out of everything and running is no exception. It serves as a great way to check my progress, adjust my schedule accordingly and of course to stroke the ego of mine whenever I see myself improving.

As you can see, comparing the 1st, 4th and the 7th run which I just completed hours ago, I have not only increased the distance I ran, I also ran faster and still managed to reduce the effort that my heart had to make for each run.

I do know that because I just started, it’s easy to have vast improvements but it’s still pretty interesting to have all the data recorded like that and compare it down the road.

Can’t wait to hit 10km and beyond in 3 weeks or so.

Boy am I such a running geek.

Without sounding like a drama queen who has been denied to eat her favourite McDonald’s Seaweed Shaker Fries…

I am so dead. I am so DEAD. I AM SO DEAD. I AM SOOOOOO DEADDDD!!!!!!!!!

Ok. Fine. That really sounded like a drama queen who has been denied to eat her favourite Shaker Fries.

My running routine was interrupted by a bout of flu some time back and I had to steer clear of my jogging shoes while I recovered from the nasty bugs for 3 whole weeks.

Not only did I miss at least 90km of training but after trying to run again after the 3 week long break, I realized my mind, body and heart were so much weaker and I could not go back to the same intensity I was training prior to the flu. I should be hitting 22km for my long run this weak but instead, I have only managed to run a furthest distance of 12km so far.

With the Army Half Marathon only 11 days away, I am in serious deep shit.

I have thoughts about forgoing the 21km race next Sunday and concentrate on the year end’s Standard Chartered Marathon instead but I find it such a pity to not run when I have paid up and actually asked friends to join me for the run.

So I am probably going to generously adjust my pace so that I run as fast as a Shaker Fries deprived drama queen to make sure I am slow enough to finish the run.

I am so dead.

I had a great week of marathon training last week, hitting 30.13km of total mileage and meeting all my training goals except for a very disappointing Tempo run yesterday. I could blame it on the weather, the lack of breakfast, or the absence of babes on the jogging track that day but it’s probably all due to my bad planning and unrealistic pace for the run.

Setbacks like that are very good for my analysis and besides, the rest for the 26km ran that week was better than what I have expected.

It’s now week 7 of my marathon training with 25 weeks remaining to the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 and although my margins for improvement are starting to get smaller, it is still quite apparent that I am getting faster and longer. Faster in terms of pace and longer in terms of distance of course. You peeps don’t get dirty now.

Besides the improvement of my resting heart rate from 66bpm (beats per minute) to the current 60bpm, I can see from the logs of my Long runs that even though my pace and distance has increased, the effort perceived by my heart rate has actually lessened!

It’s quite exciting and interesting to see my body improving and adapting to my exercise regime and that makes me look forward to the next run as I can predict and plan my pace much more easily than just running by pure feel and intuition. So I highly suggest that everyone who is training to collect as much statistics as you can about your runs. At the very least, invest in a watch that has a lap function. And I believe the same applies to training for any sport as well with reference to collection of statistics.

Grab your shoes and a watch and head out to run peeps! Feel alive!

Yeah I know I haven’t been up to my usual self with regards to blogging and boring most of my usual readers with enthusiasm for my marathon training. Weird that I am seeing lesser funny, blog-worthy stuffs around. Either the weird situations have left me or I have been too busy sweating it out and being too high on adrenaline to notice the rest of the world slipping on banana peels and falling on their faces.

On the positive end of things, my knees are starting to get used to the idea of running 30km a week and I can feel my fitness levels rising steadily. It’s still a long way to beating the fitness level I had when I was 20-22 years of age but I believe that I can overcome that very soon if I keep at what I am doing. It’s still pretty amazing to think that I am now scoffing at how short a 10km run is when just a few months ago, I was having cold sweat just thinking about a 2.4km run for IPPT.

On the negative end of things, I am on the way to a career change and as bad it is to do so during such a economically bad period, it’s quite exciting to think of what the future might hold with this move.

Life changing moves with my health and career. 2009 might prove to be the biggest and potentially best year yet!

[Image by Michael Mistretta]