S'pore Bay Run& Army Half Marathon, My 1st barefoot half marathon

Since last July, I have been train for minimumlist shoes/ barefoot for over a year. I decided transfer to pure barefoot after this May's Sundown Marathon. I'v been tired of high intensity workouts such as intervals, and found that I lacking of base build. I'v failed to reach 90% base run during previous training. I thought it a good idea to make my pace slower by barefoot running, and improve feet strength at the same time. Till August I'v been fully transfer to barefoot running, and the pace was slow enough. But the bad side is my weekly milage could hardly achieve 40km+, due to the much higher stress accumulated on my feet and calves.

I decide to run the 1st half marathon before the race. I'v dare not set a goal for new PR, because I'd just failed a time trial 1 month ago (I did 2:12 for HM). I just wish to complete the race in 2hrs. As my children grew up, I took them to more activitied during weekends. The day before race I brought them to the Kite Festivel @ Marina bay. I'v also checked the road conition there...I felt asleep very quickly @ 11pm that night after a hard day's play with my children. And woke up @ 3am the race day. I ate two slices of bread, and drunk ~400ml water. Took 2 bottles (12oz each) of energy drink as race supply, I caught a cab in front of my flat. I reached Fullerton Hotel @4:10 and checked in my bagage @4:30 after unload my stomach completely. I felt I could fight for a run. Then made way to starting point @ Esplandae bridge.

Unlike last year (flagged off 15min earlier), this year flagged off right on time (5:15am). Weather was cool, I made a very slow start up (~7:00/km @ 1st km) as a warm up. I never did prior run warm up and stretches. Then I geared up to my target pace (5:40/km) progressively (till 3km mark). I maintained this staedy pace perfectly and kept running in the middle of 2hrs pace until 15km. Most of road condition was acceptable until we passed Marina Barage. I have to slow down and watch for every step in the dark to avoid stepping into something sharp. Soon we reached Kalang park connector, the road wass good again and the scene was beatiful. We saw Mraina Bay skyline again! Another challenge was Nicol Highway, the road condition is unpleasant and wore out my sole soon. I even felt there going to be blisters on left sole and decided to finish the race before it was too late. I speeded up a little bit and left the 2hrs paces behind me after 15km mark.

I was surprised to find that not much sweat and heat accumualtion this year! The weather was perfect for a race. Even though we loop round filly Fort Canning Park, I did not slow down my pace. The last mile mark passed quickly, I'm sure there should be short of distance after 18km becaue the race report said I'd run a insanely high speed of 4:00/km pace. I'v measure the last part from 20km mark, found it was 400m shrot for the last 1.1km. Most people said their GPS clock 400m~800m shorter and I thoguht it made sense. I finished 1:52:03 as a new PB which should have been 1:56~1:58. I did not made full effort for the run so that I sprunt with 2:20/km pace at Padang. I'v passed 79 runners and only 7 passed me @ last 3km, I ranked top 10% among the runners, 1% drop from last year. It seemed most people made their PR too.

Aside from the short of distance. It was a overall a well arranged event. A whole new route, with beautifull scenary. Good road closure, even at the heart of the city (though most motorist had complained). Very sufficient hydration station alogn the route (though I never use them). Very ensusiated cheerleaders. Efficient bagage check-in and toilets. Last and most important, no more boring ECP run, no more leg broken Benjamin Shears Bri.dge.

I'v achieve my goal, 1st barefoot half marathon. No blisters, steady pace, 2nd half faster, finish line sprint, PR. I'v got all I want. How could I complain? Just start my next dream, 1st barefoot marathon this Dec.

Explorative running: from Pasir Ris to Upper Peirce Reservoir

Heard from the forum that famous http://runningsucks.blogspot.com/2007/04/pierce-reservoir.html. It is not far away from my planned running route from Pasir Ris to Yishun. So I cut from scenic Yio Chu Kang Rd to it this Saturday.

The route is linked up with Pasir Ris Park Connector, Serangoon Park Connector, Buankok Park connector and YioChu Kang Road. At then end run through Old Upper Thompson Road to Uppaer Peirce Reservoir Park. The route is running through iconic Lorong Halus Wet Land, along Serangoon River to Pungol Park, then through Buankok Green to scenic Yio Chu Kang Road (YCK Rd), full of tree shed and few traffic lights, especially @ Yio Chu Kang Road (7km long with only 4 stops). It is very promising for leisure running. The only problem is the hilly terrain (Yio Chu Kang Road and Reservoir Park) and very few refreshment points. I found 2 water fountains, one is @ Pugol park (6.5km mark in this route), another is @ Upper Peirce Reservoir car park (19km mark). The other supply points are one convenient store @ beginning of YCK Rd (10km mark), and food center @ Lower Peirce Reservoir car park (16km, the end of YCK Rd). I think it sufficient  for veteran runners.

For endurance training purpose, I started the exploration 2pm this Saturday afternoon, with 900ml plain water supply. I took as little water in the first half to avoid gastric pain. I worked but I found a little bit dehydration (sightly ear pain) in the sun before I reach the tree-shading YCK Rd. It was all better when I directed to the terrain of Peirce Reservoir. More shades and it was just like running in a  big air con room. But soon I was shocking to see the two dreadful consecutive slopes after park gate. It was a nightmare when I had to turn back. No wonder few runner being spotted along the route. The monkeys were also annoying as McRichie ones. I was attacked by a mini one who was also attacking a cycling boy before me. When I finally reached the famous "Air Con road", it was not so impressive as I imagine, but I do felt a fresh breeze when I stepped in. It was quiet and to my surprise, the roa condition is good enough for barefoot run.

Lorang Halus Wet Land

Serangoon bridge (over Serangoon River @ Lorong Halus, linking Pasir Ris with Pungol)

Pungol Promenade (Along Serangoon River, ~1km long board walk)

Serangoon River (Reservoir)

Serangoon Park Connector

Pungol Park

Upper Peirce Reservoir Park gate (opens 6:00am~7:30pm daily)

Monkeys @ Upper Peirce Reservoir Park (beware monkey attack, do not feeding and teasing)

Two big slopes after Upper Peirce Reservoir Park gate (very demoralizing)

The damn dividing Upper and Lower Peirce Reservoir

Upper Peirce Reservoir

Lower Peirce Reservoir

Famous "Air Con road"

Sleep can wait, flu can wait, tranportation can wait...run through the pain of sundown marathon 2011

It was not easy to prepare a marathon, nor easy to run, especially for a family man with 2 young children.

I began to prepare this Sundown marathon since defeated at last SCMS , I was eager to break sub4 which I longed for, an I made a 23 week plan trying to secure it. I trained hard by completing ~1100km run without injury, peaking in 82.5km per week. I broke my half marathon (1:53) and 30km (2:49) PB in the training, ready to run a 5:40/km pace. I carefully tapered and just a week before the race...

Just before every thing was done, my 2-year-old daughter got a high fever, I took her to A&E and finally accompanied her in-hospitalization, because my wife needed to take care of another infant girl. One week absent to running was good for legs but I had bad sleep, ended up with flu. Thanks heaven my worry to my daughter soon gone, we got discharged and the doctor denied previous diagnose of pneumonia. We got back home but to my surprise my little daughter got flu too! The little thing coughed so badly and we had never got the experience of handling a 3 months infant's flu. We separated two girls and fed them medicines everyday, hoping they getting away from the torture of sickness. Just when I think I should withdraw from the race, my little daughter surprisingly stopped coughing and smile came back to her face. I decide to go to the race despite my flu, it can wait, nor the race.

I enrolled Sundown marathon because: 1, the venue is near my home; 2, It is a night race, no exposure to the sun heat; 3, flat course. These made the idea race for me to break 4 hours. I ignored the criticizing of bad organization and transportation last year, think they should listen to the public feedback. I never thought it would happen 2nd times. The race is at 10pm. I set off before 8pm and caught up a shuttle bus at Expo 8:50pm. It was thought to arrive the venue by 9:35pm, according to the handbook. It is a play-safe way to use organizer's transportation and I had good experience in AHM and SCMS. I did not notice the fare was only $1 and it turned out to be de-privileged in the end. When it drove to 2nd fire station of Changi Coast Road, just 6km to the starting line, it stopped. The congestion moved very slowly and some of the runner began to get off the bus, walking and jogging to catch up the flag off in ~40min. I didn't think it necessary and want save energy for the real race. But to my shock, I finally watched the leading group running by our bus lively. The whole passengers in the bus became audience rather than participant! The nightmare came true, 2nd year consecutively. I understood it was partial road closure and only 2 lanes upstream traffic was allowed. But I can't believe my eye that the cab in the lane beside moved faster than us. It was clear that $1 not sufficient to reserve the fast lane for this shuttle bus. I had planned to follow 4:00 pacer, only to see them off in the bus. When I reach the starting line, it ha already been 10:40+. The transportation could wait, I could not wait to start...

I'v never late for a race. I knew I would rely on no pacer and run alone this time. My confident of breaking 4:00 sank. I pushed through the slow runners, try to avoid zig-zag routes to save energy. The route was narrow and queue was long. It was until 30km hadn't I been blocked by slow runners. I'v tried to keep the 5:40 pace and well maintained after 31.5km check point. One mistake I'v made was that I drink too much because of the heat. I always felt thirsty and stopped by every water point to drink. After 28km mark I'v felt so full and stomach ache. But I just could not stop drinking. I tried to hold back Vomiting, but when I reached 34km mark I could hardly breathe. I had never anticipate this scenario and at same time My left calf cramped! The only thing I could do is to stop and walk. The last 1/4 journey became jog-walk-jog intervals on Changi Coast Road, just like the bus I took 3hours before. I never encounter calf cramp this season. Maybe I should beware of calcium intake next time. Too hot weather and too much sweat to drain my calcium. Another thing I need to learn is planning the fluid intake during the race. Trying to take as less as possible to avoid stomach overloading.

I took 4:27:33 to finish the race, standing at the mid-way between my target and my last marathon. The bad thing is, I am 30min away to my target; the good thing is, I have improved my marathon score by 30min (my last score is 4:57:38).

Took a look at the race. The course is flat and the distance is accurate (my Garmin clocked 42.26km). The milestones are well placed, and the wafter station are well arranged (matched with that described in the handbook). The volunteers are nice and even one boy at the 31.5km check point hi-5 to every runner passing by. I think most runners would thank this boy because we were about to exhausted at the moment. We all need the encouragement b beside water. And I also like to thank the volunteer to hand out the medals & Tees, girls at the baggage deposit, as they said "good work and well done" to the finishers. People were stretching, showering, watching EUFA championship broadcast, taking photos...The atmosphere was great. I felt relieved. The score is not important. The important thing is experienced another kind of pain and walked through it. This the meaning of marathon. We are normal people other than speed racers. We run marathon to realize how much pain are out there and how could we walk through when it comes. Pleasure is never a marathoner's goal. I began to think about the meaning of the marathon when I met Plastick after 10km milestone. He is one of my running friend knew from the SRrunners forum. He used to run as fast as me but I knew he lacked training this season. I though he should give up the race and only found him running barefoot in the parade. I knew he just trained barefoot running fore half a year. I could not believe he could finish but he did, complete the race only 40 min slower than his peak marathon score (shod). I knew the pain of unshod after 30km is double or triple than shod people. Nobody knew how he suffered and overcame. He just walked through the pain and grown up from the pain. He got the essence of the run.

Should it be a bad organized race or not? I don't care. At least everybody devote them in, the runners, volunteers, organizers. Kudos!
Should I come next year? It just depend on my race calendar.

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

Plan adjusted: +2 base run + 1 x-training

I could not proceed with previous plan because it was based on "FIRST"(http://www.furman.edu/first/fmtp.htm)concept which substitute base runs with x-training. 3 key workout only could not improve my performance further, especially after I checked with a few veterans. Most of them recorded weekly milage no less than 80km. 3 key workout could hardly achieve weekly milage over 60km. 2 more base run are needed to compensate.
I have been sluggish in shoulder, back, quads, hamstrings during long run. To avoid to muscle balance, I feel compulsory to introduce x-training into the plan.
So beside previous 3 key runs, 2 base run will be run on Wednesday and Friday, x-training will be on Sunday, Monday take rest. Total 5 run + 1 x-training a week, looks more reasonable for marathon training.
I also adjust my target for the coming SD marathon: complete with a even pace of ~6:00 throughout the course, timing ~4:15.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/lv?key=0AkMRT5IA53NjdDVPWVMyVms0dUwzODJlekRsUVgzV3c&authkey=CPDQ6OwE&hl=en