8th Annual JP Morgan Corporate Challenge (5.6km run)

JP Morgan Corporate Challenge was my first running event when I start to run last year. I decide to keep it as one of my running tradition in memorizing it. The event is worth participating. It is a national event--over 10,000 runners join each year nation wide. It is a international event--12cities in America, Asia, Europe, Arica host the event each year with same distance (5.6km). It is wellorganized--road closure, mobile toilets, bag deposite, refreshments during and post run, all good.

This year is 8th annual event in S'pore, it was reported to have 13,233 registered, 10% increment from last year. And this year it is S'pore's turn to host the Championship, the best team from each city race here to claim the laureate. As before, we were crowed to Esplanade Bridge to start. The destination is F1 pit as before. The distance of the course is precisely 5.6km, according to many runner's GPS record.

To avoid being blocked by walkers, I manage to push through to crowd to the starting line. There I found the Championship runners with blue bibs lining in front of the crowd. They supposed to be starting 5min earlier than rest of us. The rest of us was divided into two waves, to avoid the congestion.

My last year timing was 32:46. Last december I'v recorded my 5km PB by 20:27, an equivalent pace of  4:05. So this time I plan to break my PB with a average pace of 4:00. The crowd got more excited than me and kicked off like an crashed damn after flag off. I tried to keep within 4:00 pace, not to over shooting. But I only manged to maintain within first 2km. After the first water point, my strides slowed down. And after the two splopes near Nicoll Highway, my pace degraded to 4:30. Some runners can maintain same strides on inclined slope but I have not been trained for. My breath became heavy after the slopes and two female runner overtook me. They finally ranked top 10 of the female runners. Only after 4miles milestone I felt revived and kicked to the finish line, my watch recorded 23:55.30. The website published the official timing soon after the race. I recorded 23:53 and ranked 103 among 6474 male finishers, and 111 among the total 11427 finishers. I ranked 1st in my company and claimed the $100 prize : )

My average pace in the race was 4:16. 1 week before race, I'd ever ran a test run according to Matt Fittsgerald, to determin my race pace. The test run is 5x1km with 2min intervals. The comparison between race split pace and interval pace are listed below:
-Split      -Race pace    -Interval pace
1km        4:01               4:05
2km        4:03               4:09
3km        4:09               4:37
4km        4:33               4:39
5km        4:42               4:57
I now found it rather accurate. It suggest I could not maintain 4:05 pace now, nor even 4:00. If I took note earlier, adjust my goal, maybe I could adopt a 4:10 or 4:12 pace and scored better. Any way, I got ~9min improvement to last year's score. And ran into 3% amateur runners. That is enough.

Post run stretches

I began to do post run stretches after I read Running Well by S. Murphy and S. Connors, for SD marathon training. They are very effective in removing muscle stress and injury prevention, especially after a hard workout. I'v accumulated injury free mailage up to 750+km since then. And had my right ankle sprain recovered after 3 monthes exercise.
These static streches could be performe right after a hard workout, or just after a easy run. Do make sure the muscles are warmed up or you will get hurt. Never do them before a run.  Each stretch needs to be held for 20~30sec, and perform 2~3 repetitions per side. The sequence is adjustable and some poses are ommitable according to one's current body condition. During the exercise, breathe freely to make them aerobic. Or just adopt the rythem as you do in Yoga. Any way, they all look similar.

1. Gluteus Maximus stretch

This pic illustrates right Gluteus stretching. Right leg behind left knee, pull left knee towards chest. Hold, feel the butt and hamstring heated instead of pain and strain, release. Do repetition and change side. This stretch is very useful to remove hip pain after a long run or a speed work.

2. Hip flexor stretch

This pic illustrates left Gluteus stretching. Left leg step out and knee forward. Right leg kneeling, pelvis neutral. Upper body inclines forward to force left side hip and quads to tretch. Hold, , release. Do repetition and change side. To make it harder, the angle between to two thigh might be expand from 90deg to 135deg.

3. Hamstring and lower back stretch

This is a Yoga pose and the illustration is left side. Bend down and hold left toe to make stretch deeper. Hold, release. Do repetition and change side. If the body is flexible enough, the knee could be touched by chin.



4. Abductor stretch

This is also a Yoga pose and stretches the inner abductor. Hold the toes an bend down. Hold, release. Do repetition and no side to change :) Toes could could be touched by head if the body is flexible enough. It also stretches the lower back as pose 3 does.

5. Kneeling Quads stretch

This pic illustrates right quads stretching. It is more effective than traditional one leg stand stretching because the knee ligaments are also involved. Be sure upper body straight and try to pull backward to make feel like a bow, pulling the foot. Hold, release. Do repetition and change side. Stronger quadriceps are very effective in knee injury prevention.

5. Calf stretch

These are common stretches done by every runner. The most critical part is lower calf stretch especially for barefeet runner who encounters more stress over the lower calf. If one's calf tight, must exercise bend knee stretch (lower pic) for lower calf. My right ankle sprain is due to lower calf/ ligament tight and deep pain came every time I passed 8km mark. I resloved the issue after 3 months exercise. Training has not beem impact.

6. Thomas stretch

The most effective and hard stretch for knee injury prevention. The pic illustrates left side stretch. Pull right knee backward to chest,while keep the left thigh flat, right leg vertical. Focus the pulling on knee and ITB. Hold, release. Do repetition and change side.

7. Lying Hamstring stretch

This pic illustrates right side stretching. Left leg flat, right leg vertical, pull right thigh toward chest. Hold, release. Do repetition and change side. It stretches  quads, and calf as well as hamstring.

8. Upper body stretch

This pic illustrates left side stretch. The upper body would be very stressful after a long run. This pose stretches shoulder,arm and lower back. Lay down, stretch out the arms vertical, right leg straight, bend and tilt right knee, pull the upper body to the right, keeping arm and shoulder stable. Hold, feel like electrical current pass through right should to the finger tips, release. Do repetition and change side.

The stretches improve the blood circulation in the muscles to remove lactate more efficiently after a hard workout. They also improve elascity of the ligaments for better injury prevention. As mentioned before, I now could perform 5 run in a row each week with a weekly milage of 70km, by simply adding 30min stretch after each key workout.

These pics were first published last week on my Sina Weibo. Thanks 丁卉ReAngel inspire me to post the pics, 禅那行者 for valuable inputs and Chinese translation, and 团小乌 for integarting the pics for better distributed in the web!

English and Chinese translations of some terms

Gluteus maximus, 臀大肌

Hip flexor，臀屈肌

Hamstring，腘绳肌