Rain rain go away...

If you're living in Singapore or Malaysia, chances are that the weather has pretty much wrecked havoc to your training plans. Daily showers of accurate timing, usually starting at approximately 2pm and continuing to late evening or even late night, means that for the most of us who get our daily fix of mileage by running in the evenings, are left frustrated or feeling "cinya amkan".

What can one do? There are a few suggestions:-

1) Run in the rain. Only to be done if the rain is not excessively heavy (obviously a very subjective matter here) and there is an absence of thunder and lightning (very objective). Pros- very cooling. Can run longer and faster with the drop in temperature. Cons- Thunder and lightning obviously kills. Soggy t-shirts and shoes. Sloshing can contribute to blisters.

2) Run on an indoor track. Con- This is practically non-existent in Singapore and Malaysia. Tracks are mostly outdoors. Think Hayward Field, Beijing Olympics Stadium (The Bird's Nest).

3) Run on the treadmill. How many of us actually own a treadmill? Next to none. If anything, the treadmills are usually found in the gym. So, to use a treadmill, we have to be members of a gym. If you're a "pure" runner (in the sense that your only form of workout is running and nothing else), then it is obviously a waste of money to be a member of a gym, and to use the treadmill in the gym only when it rains. But, if you're living in a condo that has a gym (and by extension, treadmill), then good for you.

4) Cross train. Find other ways of getting in your workout. But this usually involves going to a gym too (See 3) above. Alternatively, find an indoor pool and swim! For instance Kompleks 3K in Subang Jaya has an indoor pool. Also, invest in a cardio machine that is cheaper than a treadmill at the same price, but better quality. A spinning bike for instance. A RM2k spinning bike is definitely going to be a reasonable quality machine compared to a treadmill of the same price.

5) Get a trainer for the road bike you already have (like me). The trainer is placed on the back wheel and mimics road conditions. You sort of lock this thingy at your rear wheel and just start riding. With a remote, I can change the terrain by making it more hilly, or simulate riding on a flat road. I've been using this for the last week, for 2 hours each time, in front of my tv. Watched "Without Limits" for the umpteenth time, riding faster in the scenes where there were races, also watching Eurosport on StarHub, watching the cycling races, notably the Tour of Lombardy, trying to mimic the hard riding when the riders were on the flats, and standing up when they were hitting the mountains.

Anyway, nothing beats running outside, so here's to hoping the weather clears up soon (doubtful though, its the monsoon season, right?).

On a side note, I bought the Nike Lunar Racers. As Bill Bowerman said in the movie "Without Limits", "...light as a feather". A review of it can be found in Jamie's site (18th October 2008). I've only run in it once (due to the weather) and it was amazing.

Real Run 2008

This has to be one of the worst runs I've experienced. I was initially reluctant to write a race report but after mulling over it for more than a week (and with some urging by Mrs. Hopper to express my feelings, tee hee), I convinced myself that this would be cathartic.

Having said that what I've done leading up to race day did not help. I have been training pretty hard all this time and signed up for the New Balance Real Run on a whim when I happened to be at Velocity, when the organisers of the race had set up booths for the bib collections. The legs were sore and lactic acid-filled after another high mileage week. I was feeling very tired and deflated. Additionally, the night before the race, I met up with some friends to indulge in a full scale session of binge-ing at a restaurant called Penang Place. Because of the dearth of good quality hawker/local food here, we are forced to go all the way to this restaurant, located at the International Business Park in Jurong, opened by a Malaysian some years back, purportedly selling authentic Penang dishes including Hay Mee, Assam Laksa, Char Kuey Teow, Lobak, Bo Bo Cha Cha, to name a few. All this was served buffet-style, we just ate and ate. And ate. By the end of dinner I was extremely full to the point of not being able to walk properly.

Reached home around 10pm with a bloated stomach. Had some Eno and had trouble sleeping when I went to bed at 11pm, due to the discomfort of the full stomach. I had hoped that this full-scale binge-ing will not come back to haunt me. But it did, as I found out in a rather spectacular way on race day.

Beep! Beep! B-b-b-beep! I was woken up by the alarm on my mobile phone, which I had set for 5am. Was it 5am already? Gosh, it felt like I'd just finally fell asleep moments ago. Groggily, I got out of bed, and as my feet touched the floor, "Yeeeeow!" I felt like what appeared to be bruises on my heels. I gingerly headed to the kitchen and made myself a strong cup of coffee. Pinned the bib onto the vest I was wearing for the race, and after putting on my running gear (I had decided to wear my old Pegasus), walked out the door. I flagged a taxi down within minutes. With traffic being the way it is at 5plus am (i.e. completely clear), the journey was a breeze, and I arrived at the Changi Exhibition Centre within 15 minutes. Placed my bag at the baggage deposit area, and began my stretches. The legs were dead and achy from the mileage.

The race was due to start at 730am, so I made my way to the starting line around 15 minutes before. I continued to hop in place to keep the blood flowing and heart rate up. About 2 minutes before the start, I experienced a mild stomach ache, which developed into a full blown, need-to-rush-to-the-loo-to-take-a-dump stomach ache by the time the horn sounded, (signalling the start of the race). Hoping it would go away, I ran.

Urgh. By the 3rd km, I felt the urge to go again. And what is this pain in both the arches? Maybe the terrain made my stomach bounce more than usual, and aggravated my urge to dump (the 1st 4km of the race was on hardened mud). Goose bumps crept up the back of my neck and my upper arms. I put my head down and tried to increase the pace, but my stomach made it difficult to go faster than 5min per k pace.

After the 4th k, we finally reached the road. The firmness of the terrain was welcome- the urge to dump went away. Still, it was just difficult to push beyond the 5min per k pace, as if something was holding me back (which probably was the stomach). So I just continued at that pace, thinking that a 50min finish for a 10k would've been satisfactory. That was until I hit the beach portion of the race route, located at the Park Connector, around the 7th k.

Within moments of hitting the beach, the stomach gurgled and murmured a good 5 seconds. It sort of made a "MMMMMMMMMM......" sound, starting out as a high pitch and ending with a low pitch. The ache became very pronounced and the goose bumps came in waves. After the beach portion, relief was in sight! I saw a public toilet. I looked at my watch and true enough, I was running at the approximately 40 minutes around the 8k mark. I decided to abandon all hopes of a 50 min 10k and headed for the toilet. "This should be fast," I thought. After all, all public toilets in Singapore are clean, right? Wrong.

I think it suffices to say that this is the filthiest public toilet I've had the (dis)pleasure of using. The seat had bits of feces on it. The floor was filled with urine. The walls were dirty. Need I say more? It was one of the most traumatic toilet experience in recent memory. To top it off, it wasn't a quick toilet session; it was excruciating 12 minutes. When I finished, although I didn't stain myself in any way (at least I don't think I did), I found some soap at the basin and put it all over my legs and arms for good measure, and splashed water over the areas. I got out of the toilet and started running again. By then, all my rhythm to run a 5 min pace was gone, but I decided to go for it anyway. I still managed to maintain that pace (albeit painfully) to the finishing line (a mere 2 kilometers away) for a personal worst.

Lessons learnt-
1) Never indulge in an all out-feasting buffet session the night before a race. Eat healthy carbs prior to the race (not copious amounts of Char Kueh Teow, cooked in plenty of oil with cockles, but a nice simple plate of bolognaise with olive oil). Do not eat anything which will potentially upset your stomach.

2) Try and clear the bowels before you leave the house, if possible.

3) You can't be training hard and racing hard at the same time. My mileage has been in excess of 90++ km in the preceding 2 months leading up to the race. I felt like the legs took a severe beating. The arches hurt like hell from the start. Tapering is extremely important.

4) With an overly full stomach, I didn't sleep well and that also affected my performance on race day. Get enough rest especially the day before race day. Put your feet up. Take naps. Get as much sleep as you can.

5) When the race is located in a faraway location like the Changi Exhibition Centre (it is truly in a very remote location), it is better to have your own transport, or have a friend who owns a car and running the same race. Paying for taxi will be extremely expensive- close to $50. It is nowhere close to an MRT station, and the nearest bus stand is far far away. I will not be racing this event next year if I don't have a car/friend who's running the same race and drives car to get to and fro the race venue.

I actually feel better now after typing out this report!

Rambling

I know its a belated read, but it is a read nonetheless. I am currently reading the sequel to Lance Armstrong's book "Its Not About The Bike", titled "Every Second Counts". There are 2 particular paragraphs that struck me (thus far). To quote Sir Lance:

"Suffering, I was beginning to think, was essential to a good life, and as inextricable from such a life as bliss. It's a great enhancer. It might last a minute, or a month, but eventually it subsides, and when it does, something else takes its place, and maybe that thing is a greater space. For happiness. Each time I encountered suffering, I believed that I grew, and further defined my capacities- not just my physical ones, but my interior ones as well, for contentment, friendship, or any other human experience.

The real reward for pain is this: self-knowledge. If I quit, however, it would have lasted forever, that surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, would hav stayed with me for the duration. When you feel like quitting, you had to ask yourself which would you rather live with."

Training

Kenny Moore, former Olympian, marathoner, who trained under the great Bill Bowerman, and whose running mates included Steve Prefontaine and Frank Shorter, had this to say about Bowerman's philosophy of training, in not so many words- "Bowerman... [was] exhorting Oregon runners to finish workouts exhilarated, not exhausted…His credo was that it was better to underdo than overdo." And he quoted Bowerman as saying this to every freshman at University of Oregon- "Stress, recover, improve, that’s all training is. You’d think any damn fool could do it."

Nuff said.

King Haile at Berlin

Check the 2008 Berlin Marathon photo slideshow here.