Three Things NOT to Do on a Run

Hitting the Trail

The Penang Bridge International Marathon 2011 has come and gone but the experience this year was really enjoyable despite me walking across the finish line with a time of approximately 1 hour and 31 minutes. My left knee really hurt in the final 2km stretch but I’m glad I pushed myself this time round. This is the first time ever that I walked across the finish line (which kinda sucks).

Anyways, here are my mistakes that caused me to underperform this year so listen up! These 3 things should be basic for most runners I think but I’m gonna outline them anyway.

1. Overconfidence. Don’t be overconfident. Every race is unique even though you’ve done the route before. Your body’s condition will always be different in every race.

2. Pushing yourself early. Pace yourself. If you’re a slow runner like me then it’s best that you start pushing yourself closer towards the 6 pr 7km mark in a 10km race. I started fast and maintained a faster than normal pace for at least 6km but I think my left knee couldn’t take it.

3. Not drinking any water. Take every water stop you can get OR have water on you. For this race I didn’t stop for any water at all which might have contributed to my knee getting busted a wee bit.

There you have it. 3 things not to do in a race. I paid for it by missing out in running for about a week.

On another note, I highly recommend PBIM to all runners cos’ running across the Penang Bridge and experiencing the sunrise is awesome. It’s stuff that money cannot buy.

SCKLM 2011 Pre-Race Nerves

SCKLM 2011

It’s 3 in the morning and I’ve slept very little. This feels very much like my first run last year at the Penang Bridge International Marathon. Heh… looks like even though I have more experience running on the open road I’ll probably always feel this way before a race.

So… what’s different this time round as I head into my 2nd run?

• I’m not as fearful. I was super freaked out when I first hit the 10km category in Penang. Am calmer now.
• I’m more confident of finishing the run but am not too sure if I’ll be able to beat my 1:17 time in Penang.
• I scrounged up a waist pouch to hold some money & my IC. It beats the sling pouch I use on my weekly runs.
• I just picked up a Timex Global Trainer GPS today which should help me measure my performance & pace. A darn expensive purchase but a worthwhile one as I intend to run long-term.

What’s remained the same?

• I still can’t sleep the night before the race. Heh heh!
• I still have to get to the race start point and even though I’m on home turf I can’t drive cos’ the road closures would make it puh-retty confusing to get there.
• I won’t take my phone with me. The less I have on me the easier it’d be to run. What this means is that I’ll be unreachable until I get back home later in the morning.

Anways, the race is in a couple of hours so I’m gonna try to get a bit of sleep. All the best to every runner out there. Run the best you can, be the best you can.

Every Time I Run

Taman Tasik Titiwangsa

Every time I run I thank God for (in no particular order):

1. The chirping of birds in the early hours of the morning at 7am
2. The trees and its overhanging branches that give shade
3. The blue sky & clouds that frames our golden sun
4. Every kilometre I run because it’s one kilometre more than I was able to run before
5. Every breath I take that makes me feel alive
6. And last but not least being able to talk to God every step along the way as I run

What do you enjoy most about running (if you do run)?

Eyes on the Road

If all you can see is just the road...

“Keep your eyes on the road boy” and so the mantra goes in my head in every step that I take.

One of the things that I’ve noticed about running is that I tend to run with my eyes on the road and more than half the time I’m mentally measuring my steps. I could be running past a beautiful sunset and I’d miss out on it which is very uncool.

... sometimes all you gotta do is just look up

Life turns out to be like that sometimes. Our eyes are so focused on the task at hand and all our problems that we fail to look up and realise that there’s that beautiful sunset that’s before us. It pays to time out to enjoy what we have already. Challenges will still get us down but there’s always something good to look forward to. All we need to do is look up and receive the  good things He has for each one of us daily.

Get your eyes off the track and look up. Maybe you’ll see something that was always there all along. In the meantime I’ve gotta learn how to enjoy my morning runs more by looking around me more.

Oh! Wish me luck cos’ I’m running my very first 21km run at next weekend’s Energizer Night Run. I’m not feeling very confident as my pace as been pretty slow and the furthest I’ve run so far in these 2 months has been 7km. If I finish this run it’d be the furthest I’ve ever run in my entire life… I hope my legs hold out. 😉

Till next time. Vaya con dios amigos.

Life on the Run

Run!

I’ve been running for over a year now and an epiphany of sorts hit me on one of my runs a couple of weekends ago. Here are some lessons that I’ve gleaned that day as I ran.

1. Life is for the long-haul. It’s about going distance and it’s not so much about speed. You can sprint on ahead early but a measured pace gives you the ability to run long distance. Pacing ourselves in life is important too lest we burn out. Take time out but don’t totally get out of the game. Life’s not about kicking back fully when you need rest. If we hang back too much we’ll end up missing out on all that God has in store for us.
2. Life like running is very much a one-man journey. You have no one else to measure up to but yourself. Sure, it’s encouraging to have other people alongside you on a run but your pace is your own. We can do our best measure up to other people’s expectations but I’m finding more and more that what God thinks of us matters more and God sees us at our best always (even when we don’t believe it ourselves).
3. Life is about consistency. Running long distance requires discipline and to be able to get that finisher medal one has got to be able to stay to keep up the pace. I struggle with consistency in life. There are days when I’m shining bright like the morning sun but yet I still have days when I don’t feel at all like the “light” that God means me to be. God is helping me a lot in this area and by His grace I’ll be able to be as consistent as I am now in running daily.

That’s all from me tonight.

Vaya con dios amigos.

Running the Race: 5 Essentials to Completing Your Run

My Race Bib & Chip

While running the Penang Bridge International Marathon I discovered a few things that were pretty cool to me.  Here are some things that I learnt about running in a race that might help those of you who are interested to take it up.

1. Before the race, collecting of your race bib (that cloth or paper thing with your registration ID) and also a tracking chip is essential. Also, make sure you secure the tracking chip to your shoes or the organisers won’t be able to measure your performance for you.
2. If you’re new at running, then perhaps it’s a good idea to run in a race local to you rather than going out station. I was extra nervous the night before my run and couldn’t sleep much. Sleep is important before a race.
3. Run at your own pace. Don’t worry about other people overtaking you. The only person you have to please is yourself.
4. Don’t bring electronics with you. My boss’ BlackBerry died cos’ it rained  heavily half-way across the Penang Bridge.
5. Power bars & power gel at the same time don’t mix. My colleague Deane threw up twice cos’ she OD-ed on “power” stuff.

And that as they say is that.

The Penang Bridge International Marathon Experience

Team Uber FTW!

I must say this now. I would not have run in PBIM if it were not for my boss Jamie! But boy am I sure glad I did cos’ after 11 months of running I actually completed the 10km category with a finisher medal and clocked a conservative time of 1:17:25.

I thiiiink I could’ve done better but as this was my 1st time running in a race long-distance I must say that I’m really thankful that I finished it. I was super-nervous the night before and so were most of the members of my running crew. As it stands, the Penang Bridge International Marathon 2010 is an experience that I’ll always remember; which hopefully will lead to more races in future. In fact, there’s already talk about participating in the Malakoff run that’s happening in early December. I hope there’s still space left.

Race Jerseys, Medals & Our Shoes

Anyways, finishing the race yesterday morning has a special significance to me and it’s my hope that as this year closes I’ll see more of God’s blessing in my life. In the meantime, I’m just gonna keep on running, running & running.

Till next time.

Breaking the Limit: A Simple HOW-TO

Break Free

One of the hardest things about running is breaking barriers. In the short time that I’ve been running there are two things that I constantly strive to break:

• Distance
• Speed/time

Distance is the easier of the two to break cos’ once your body is conditioned to the speed you’re running at then it’s a simple matter of just running an extra minute or so as you up your game.

Speed, my friends is a different beast altogether as the moment you up your speed by 1kph the amount of time you can actually run drops dramatically. Taking my own experience as an example; about a month ago, I could comfortably run 4km in 30mins at a speed of 8kph. I just upped my pace to 9kph and now I’m only able to run 2.3km in 15:24 because of the following:

• I get out of breath sooner
• My legs ache after awhile
• I don’t wanna risk my ankle getting busted again (walking around with a limp for 1 week ain’t cool)

A combination of those 3 factors I assume would be the main reason why pacing is the hardest thing to break. Anyways, here are some things that have worked for me in breaking the barriers of distance & speed in my 10 months of running.

• When you up your pace, dial down the amount of time you spend running. You’ll get out of breath in jiffy. Trust me. So think big but start small.
• Up the amount of time you run incrementally. I started running at 9kph and covered 1.5km my first time out and that was 2 or 3 weeks ago.
• Be patient. Patience & diligence is key. Don’t get discouraged. Just keep at it and keep pushing yourself. You’ll get there eventually.

My overall goal is to be able to run at a speed of 10kph for 30mins which would give me a decent distance of 5km once I can hit it. Here’s looking to the future. Oh! And wish me luck as I head out for the Terry Fox Run on November 7th. It’s gonna be my first run ever. Thanks!

Till next time.

Hitting the Road, Running the Distance

Hitting the Road

After 7 months of doing my best to keep a regular exercise routine I’ve finally started running for real and… boy, it’s a big change from running on a treadmill. I wouldn’t have embarked on it on my own but was forced to because the treadmills are always FULL! I’m glad though cos’ this would prepare me to take part in a proper run one of these days.

Nevertheless, it’s an experience in itself and since I don’t have any “canggih” equipment to measure distance or pace anymore I’ve been running the old-fashioned way by counting laps. There’s a small “park” in my condo that surrounds the pool so what I’ve been doing is running laps on the pathway that circles the pool. I started off with being able to do 5 laps and now I’m up to 7 laps at a constant run. I’ll slowly up that.

Here’s what my routine is like right now every time I run:

• A burst of running that I’ll up as time goes by (am up to 7 laps now)
• 1 lap at a brisk walk
• 2 laps at a run
• And so on…

I alternate the laps of brisk walking and runs and this morning did 20 laps all in all (7, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1). I don’t know if what I’m doing is effective but I figure since my goal is to be able to do more laps in one sitting then by upping the laps over time I should be able to build up my overall stamina. That part isn’t rocket science.

Anyways, the good news is that I now weigh 76kg which is great news for me. That’s a 5kilo drop from my original weight of 81kg. I hope to be able to lose another 2kilos in the next month or so and am targeting to reach a better weight of 72kg in the next 2 to 3 months through exercise and also through more discipline in my diet.

Wish me luck and I hope this post encourages some of you who have been procastinating about exercise to start something small today!

P.S. I was told that I was doing my push-ups wrong so I changed the way I’m doing it today and only managed 30 push-ups this morning. Does anyone have any tips on this (or maybe I should Google up push-ups)?

3 Reasons Why I Run

I Run

It just hit me that I’ve been running for over half a year and I’m glad that I started on this. Results have been OK so far I guess. As for weight loss, I actually haven’t been weighing myself of late which I’ll probably have to do today when I get back.

But anyways, I’m digressing; here are 5 reasons why I love running:

1. Number One
   It makes me feel good. Is it the endorphins? Is it the kick? I suppose it’s a combination of these things but what I makes me feel good is that I’m actually doing something about my fitness and in time I do believe it’d effect permanent weight loss.
2. Number Two
   I get to have some think time on top of my regular time with God.
3. Number Three
   I feel alive when I run. There’s just something about feeling my lungs burn as I inhale and exhale that makes me feel alive.