So after getting (perhaps) a PB in my last half marathon, I took a break of 2 months from running. Restarted again yesterday with base training. Basically this will consists of long boring runs just to build the base stamina.
Starting with a short distance of 2 miles and slowly increasing my mileage. A good chance to reset and hopefully build from this.
Have always wanted to try my hand at growing plants. The last few attempts were not successful, I ended up killing all of them. Recently I went to Gardens by the Bay and bought a small indoor plant. So far, it has been growing well. Encouraged by this, I was thinking of getting another pot.
Then I came across this piece of news where IKEA is introducing a new series aim to grow leafy greens and herbs in our home. From the video, it looks easy enough, and the kit seems to provide every thing that is needed.
I will definitely get my hands on this once it is available here in Singapore.
After running for a while now, I came to realise that I needed motivation regularly to keep running, be it a new running route, a new running gadget, a new pair of running shoes or even a change in the training schedule. Recently, it came from a very unlikely source – the tailor.
The last time I went to the tailor was back in 2011. Surprisingly, they still have the record of my measurements then. The tailor, who did the measurements then, even added three Chinese characters on the record that said I have spare tire. Brutal, but honest.
I mentioned to the tailor that they will need to re-measure since I have lost some weight, so he did. However, he simply refused to believe the measurements as he said it deviated too much from those on my record. He measured again and again, while referring to my old records again and again. Finally, he was convinced after I told him I have been running.
I know I lost weight, as a matter of fact, I lost 12kg since I started running regularly at the end of 2012 even though I have a lot more to go before my ideal weight, but I did not realise I lost that much till I compared my current measurements with the one back in 2011. It definitely did wonders to my ego, but most importantly, it provided me with another motivation to keep running.
The next time if I have any doubts as to why I am subjecting myself to the pain, the misery, the cramps from running, I just need to think of my tailor.
I was reading this book about running. I hardly have any time nowadays to read, so when I do get the time, I want to make sure it has something to do with what I am currently interested in.
The author mentioned that there will never be a perfect time to run. There will always be something that prevents from having a perfect run, be it the weather, a muscle ache etc, but what runners do is to just take everything in their stride, and run. It is this ‘can do’ approach to running which runners should also apply it to their life.
It’s true. After running for more than a year and half, there is always something that gets in the way of a perfect run. If it is not hot, then perhaps there is rain. If there is no rain, then perhaps I have not recover sufficiently from the run yesterday, or if I did, then perhaps the calf muscles are still aching. If I was to find an excuse not to run, I will have the whole book as thick as the dictionary to choose from.
It is the same with life. There will never be a good or perfect time to do anything. If I am forever waiting for the perfect moment to do something, I will most probably end up doing nothing. I will just have to know what is lacking, what is bad, find workarounds and just go ahead and do it.
Learning life lessons from running. Another benefits of running.
I started running again after 2 weeks. I was down with flu, which took more than a week to recover. And I gave myself a few extra days to recover fully. Just in case.
During this down time, I went about reading up on a training plan. I never had one, I thought all I have to do was to run, and run, and as long as I am running further, running faster and running more, then everything will just work out.
However I have been noticing I am not improving. My run times have stagnant, and I could not increase my mileage. Perhaps I need a structured training plan.
I did read up previously on a training plan, but as with all other information from the Internet, everyone has their own training plan, their own thinking of what a training plan should be like. It was really confusing so I gave up.
During this down time, I went reading all the training plans on the Internet and in books again, picking up the similarities. I concluded a training plan should consist of the following:
1) At least 1 tempo run per week
2) 1 hill/track/interval run per week
3) 1 long run per week
4) Fill up the rest of the week (depending on how many days I am running per week) with base/easy runs
So a typical week should look something like this (assuming 6 days of running):
Monday – Tempo Run
Tuesday – Base/Easy Run
Wednesday –Hill/Track/Interval Run
Thursday – Base/Easy Run
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Long Run
Sunday – Cross Training/Trail Run
For the rest day, it is either I rest completely, or I should do something call ‘Active Rest’, where I basically should be doing core strengthening exercises. On the subject of core strengthening exercises, I should be doing this least 2 to 3 days a week. For Sunday, I should be doing some kind of cross training, like cycling, swimming, yoga or running trails, any exercise that does not involve the same group of muscles as road running.
As for total mileage per week, there are quite a lot of conflicting information on this one, but it seems almost everyone agrees it is beneficial to run more, though for people like me with time constraint, I should be training wisely, and try to gain as much as possible from each run. Also, a rough guide is the total mileage should be at least twice of the distance that I plan to race, so since I will be doing 21km this year, I should have a weekly total mileage of at least 42km. A running week will therefore look something like this:
Monday – Tempo Run 7km
Tuesday – Base/Easy Run 7km
Wednesday – Hill/Track/Interval Run 8km
Thursday – Base/Easy Run 7km
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Long Run 15km
Sunday – Cross Training/Trail Run
To prevent injuries, the total weekly mileage should increase gradually, with the fourth week total mileage reduced to the same as the first week, to prevent injuries by giving the body some rest. I am still trying to find out what the mileage should be for the fifth week though. So the total weekly mileage should look something like this :
Week 1 : 30km
Week 2 : 35km
Week 3 : 40km
Week 4 : 30km
Week 5 : 37km
Week 6 : 42km
Week 7 : 30km
I am still trying to verify if my assumption on the total weekly mileage for week 5 onwards is correct.
I shall not go into detail what are the various types of runs listed here. Googling the various types of runs will bring lots information on them. There are also a lot of other types of runs which I have not put into this plan, for e.g. Fartlek run, as I want to keep my initial training plan simple. I want to see the results of this training plan I am putting together before I decide on whether to tweak it further.
That is the beauty of running, I tweak a bit here and there, and I can feel the results eventually. Always cause and effect.
“A marathoner is a marathoner regardless of time. Virtually everyone who tries the marathon has put in training over months, and it is that exercise and that commitment, physical and mental, that gives meaning to the medal, not just the day’s effort, be it fast or slow. It’s all in conquering the challenge.”
So I got a bit tired of the same running route and decided to try another one.
Not too bad, not too bad at all.
Came across this Nike poster:
And that is why I am still running.
Since end of last year, I decided that I want to be healthy. After years of neglect, I decided to do something about it. After a few months of running, I decided to put it down in words my journey on running so far.
When I first started running, I know motivation was the main component. As such, I kept a record of all my runs faithfully using the Nike+. I used the Nike+ SportBand initially as all my runs were on the treadmill in the gym. Nike+ uses graphs a lot, which works for me as I need visual motivation. The downside of Nike+ is that I could never login from my home PC due to some problems that many people in the world encountered. I used the Nike+ app for iPhone/iPad instead.
The other tool for motivation was getting a weighing machine, to keep track of my weight.
Initially it was tough. I could only manage 2km on the treadmill before I gave up. After faithfully going to the gym for 3 months, I could manage 5km on the treadmill.
The problem was, my weight was not going down.
So I thought it was due to running on the treadmill. I mean treadmill is indoors, with air-conditioning, no humidity, no heat. Besides I have always wanted to take part in a race, and no race are held indoors. So after 3 months, I decided to run outdoors.
I chose a quiet stretch of East Coast to run after work, firstly, it was not crowded, and secondly, the parking was free. I will go home after work, change, drive down and run.
It was very different from running indoors. The heat, the humidity, the hard ground. It was like running starting from level zero again. However, I actually enjoyed it more than running indoors. The sea, the sky, it was just wonderful to be able to enjoy the view when I was running. Gradually, I increased the distance from 2km+ to hitting 5-6km each run. And I was doing 3 to 4 runs per week. I also realised that if I run early in the morning on weekends, I actually struggle. I am definitely not a morning person.
However, the problem with my weight not going down still persists. This was something that bother me quite a fair bit. I decided to read on it.
The likely problem I decided after reading up on it, was my diet. I had figured that since I was running so often, I needed the energy to keep me going, and as such, I ate more than usual. I was also not watching what I eat, fast food, soda, sweets, anything goes. I decided to do something about my diet.
Initially, I went quite extreme on what I ate. I removed a lot of carbo from my diet, no rice, no noodles, no bread. It was mostly fish and vegetables. It was terrible. I was hungry all the time, and on top of that, I have no energy throughout the day. When I went for my run, I almost died every single run. I was definitely doing something wrongly.
So it was back to the drawing board. I read up on it and suspected my body went into ‘starving-mode‘ . The body literally shut down in order to conserve energy, which explains why I was tired throughout the day. Effectively, I was going from one extreme where I ate everything, to the other extreme, which caused my body to shut down. So I have to tweak the food I ate. The beauty of all this was that whatever I ate, it had an almost direct effect on my body state, and I could see the results. After tweaking a fair bit, my current diet includes having museli/granola with cottage cheese/yoghurt and fresh fruits for breakfast, rice with meat and vegetables or soup for lunch, and mainly fish for dinner. I have dried fruits and nuts for snacks throughout the day, and lots of plain water to hydrate myself.
With this diet, and my running, I am finally seeing some results. My running times have improved, and my weight has finally started to go down. I am no longer tired throughout the day. I sleep better at night, my mind thinks better and I am more focused. Of course, nothing is set in stone, and I will continue to tweak what I eat accordingly. Eating the same food daily is not good either.
That is the whole beauty of it. There are a lot of schools of thought, opinion on healthy food out there. What I understand now is that there is no one diet that is for everyone. One must read up extensively, filter out the harmful ones (for e.g. diet pills), and decide which one to try. After deciding what to eat, one must also see if it is working for him. If it is not working, why not, and what can be done to improve. It is pretty fascinating actually.
While it was going pretty well, I was hit with yet another obstacle, an injury. This caused me to change my opinion that running was fuss-free. I always thought running was as simple as putting on a pair of running shoes, putting 1 leg in front of my other leg, and just run. The injury led me to realise that running is not that simple. I will document on the injury in another post some other day.