This year, I took part in three fun runs and may yet participate in one more before the year wraps up. My most recent dash was at the Brighton Beach Fun Run on October 17, in which I managed to reel in and out-kick the fastest pace-marking green dragon in the last 2/3 hundred meters. My official time for the 10k event was 40 minutes and 4 seconds.
In the Blackmore Half Marathon on Sept 19, I clocked 90 minutes and 3 seconds and, earlier on Aug 8, I completed the 14.1 k City2Surf in 62 minutes and 44 seconds. Not bad for a recreational runner who pounds the dirt only 3/4 times a week. Having said this, I would dearly love to improve my times by a couple of minutes next year.
Why run? More specifically, why run in fun runs? Personally, I find running in a vacuum mentally and physically tough and unsustainable in the long term. I need some sort of goal in order to motivate myself to lace up my running shoes and hit the road regularly.
In the lead-up to the Blackmore Half Marathon, I ran a half marathon every week for 5/6 weeks, one of them at work before a late morning team meeting in which I turned up feeling slightly dizzy and nauseous. Right after the Blackmore Half Marathon, I felt drained of all motivation and will power to run half marathons, which I have done only once since. This is where fun runs come in. They provide an excuse and catalyst to go out there and run week in and week out, helping to raise funds for charities at the same time.
I specially love the final week before a race day and the race day itself. Runners typically taper down in the final week or two before the big day, which basically means scaling back training and allowing the body to rest. On the day before the race, there is the delightful ritual of assembling the running gear, securing the bib and timing chip, arranging transport, and resting and drinking a lot of water.
On the race day itself, you see a lot of runners on the streets and public transport, some of them garbed in expensive lycra running rags and heart-rate monitors, and most of them bristling with bibs, timing chips and that quintessential trapping of all image-conscious modern runners - iPod. Even though most fun runs are just that - fun runs - you sense tension in the air as most runners would be aiming for some kind of 'PB' (personal best), which may be nothing more ambitious than finishing the race.
Walking along the streets with other fellow runners, sharing public transport in expectant silence or milling about in the crowd waiting for the starter gun to fire, one feels a keen sense of kinship with other runners, all of whom would have busted their lungs and legs for weeks and even months to be where they are. In the early morning air, with limbs taut with coiled energy, one feels this adrenaline-laced cocktail of anticipation, tension and excitement that alone makes all the solitary runs worth the while.
Showing posts with label Health amp; Fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health amp; Fitness. Show all posts
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
City2Surf 2010: Running for Fun & Charity
I am taking part in this year's City2Surf fun run to be held on Sunday, August 8. The run starts at Sydney's Hyde Park at the heart of the city and ends 14.1km later at Bondi Beach in the eastern suburbs. This will be my third participation in this event, which is regarded as the world's largest fun run. More than 75,000 people took part in it last year.
This year, I am raising funds for RSPCA, which is Australia's only truly national animal welfare organization. If you can, please help me raise funds for RSPCA via my HeroPage here. Your tax-deductible contributions will help RSPCA accept and take care of unwanted animals and investigate cases of animal cruelty.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Memoir of a Long Distance Runner
In his former life, Haruki Murakami used to be a jazz club owner in Tokyo who smoked 60 cigarettes a day. In his current avatar, he is
a passionate long distance runner who quit smoking when he started running. By his own confession, he runs 10k everyday, and a half marathon and a marathon every year. From New York City to Boston Marathon, he has done it all. Many times. And he once ran a soul-sapping 100k ultramarathon.
In 1982, he ran his first unofficial marathon, in the original marathon course in Greece in sweltering summer heat, from Athens to the eponymous village of Marathon. It was near this small village that a small army of Athenians defeated the invading Persian force of Darius in 490 BC (British author Tom Holland's 2005 book Persian Fire re-tells the story of this battle in a colorful style although his barely disguised contempt for orientals might put off some readers). On the busy straight highway that links Athens to Marathon, Murakami kept the count of roadkill: three dogs and eleven cats flattened against the bitumen.
Murakami also happens to be a world famous writer. Everyday, before hitting the road for his daily 10k run, he sits at his desk for four hours, applying the same intensity, focus and perseverance to writing that he cultivates during long solitary runs. In fact, Murakami claims that he learned everything about writing from long distance running. These two key preoccupations of his life, writing and running, furnish the subject matter of his slim memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running published by Vintage in 2008.
I bought Murakami's memoir to seek inspiration and concrete advice on training, strategy, race-day tactics, etc, in order to rekindle my own flagging running motivation. On these counts, the book was a bit disappointing. Sure, Murakami takes readers through his elaborate preparations for 2005 New York City Marathon and triathlons held in Japan and Hawaii, and how he fared in them. However, they come between extended meditations on aging and its corrosive effects on creativity and physical abilities. After a certain age, just as the wellspring of creativity starts to dry up, so does distance running increasingly become an exercise in diminishing returns.
This is not to say that the book was not a pleasure to read. It is just that it dwells less on the mundane details of distance running and more on its metaphysics. If you are after a distance running training manual, you have to look somewhere else.
a passionate long distance runner who quit smoking when he started running. By his own confession, he runs 10k everyday, and a half marathon and a marathon every year. From New York City to Boston Marathon, he has done it all. Many times. And he once ran a soul-sapping 100k ultramarathon.In 1982, he ran his first unofficial marathon, in the original marathon course in Greece in sweltering summer heat, from Athens to the eponymous village of Marathon. It was near this small village that a small army of Athenians defeated the invading Persian force of Darius in 490 BC (British author Tom Holland's 2005 book Persian Fire re-tells the story of this battle in a colorful style although his barely disguised contempt for orientals might put off some readers). On the busy straight highway that links Athens to Marathon, Murakami kept the count of roadkill: three dogs and eleven cats flattened against the bitumen.
Murakami also happens to be a world famous writer. Everyday, before hitting the road for his daily 10k run, he sits at his desk for four hours, applying the same intensity, focus and perseverance to writing that he cultivates during long solitary runs. In fact, Murakami claims that he learned everything about writing from long distance running. These two key preoccupations of his life, writing and running, furnish the subject matter of his slim memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running published by Vintage in 2008.
I bought Murakami's memoir to seek inspiration and concrete advice on training, strategy, race-day tactics, etc, in order to rekindle my own flagging running motivation. On these counts, the book was a bit disappointing. Sure, Murakami takes readers through his elaborate preparations for 2005 New York City Marathon and triathlons held in Japan and Hawaii, and how he fared in them. However, they come between extended meditations on aging and its corrosive effects on creativity and physical abilities. After a certain age, just as the wellspring of creativity starts to dry up, so does distance running increasingly become an exercise in diminishing returns.
This is not to say that the book was not a pleasure to read. It is just that it dwells less on the mundane details of distance running and more on its metaphysics. If you are after a distance running training manual, you have to look somewhere else.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
The Joy of Running
My tongue-in-cheek remark to a friend after reading Christopher McDougall's Born To Run was this: "Marathons are for wimps". Now, I have yet to run a marathon and I have no illusions about the dedication, hard work, toughness and tenacity required to complete a marathon but after reading about 'ultra freaks' running up and down the 10,000+ feet high Colorado mountains for 100 miles, or plodding 135 miles across the floor of the Death Valley in California in 135 degrees heat, one can be forgiven for thinking that marathons are a stroll in the park.
Born To Run opens with an all too familiar story. A beefy former war correspondent who is built like someone that nature intended 'to take a bullet for the President' rather than pound down the pavement, Mcdougall is doing the rounds of sports shrinks to treat his dodgy feet. In the winter of 2003, he is in Mexico chasing a missing pop star for The New York Times Magazine when he stumbles across a picture of a Jesus like figure running down a rockslide. Welcome to the secret world of Tarahumara Indians, the greatest ultra runners the world has never heard about.
Living like invisible ghosts in the shadowy recesses of the Copper Canyons of Mexico, the peaceful Tarahumara tribes have for centuries outrun their Indian and European tormentors alike just to survive. What is the secret behind their superhuman prowess that enables them to run for hundreds of miles without rest? This is the question that persuades Mcdougall to abandon his celebrity hunt and start another type of hunt, the hunt for a mythical gringo named Caballo Blanco, the 'white horse' who lives with the Tarahumara and runs like one.
Before the book finishes, there is a gripping duel over 100 miles of punishing Colorado trails between a Community College teacher named Ann Tracy and top Tarahumara runners who have been coaxed to participate in the Leadville 100 ultramarathon with promises of corn bags for their villages. I felt the description of this race alone gave all the bang for my bucks.
The book climaxes with a 50 mile foot race in the treacherous Tarahumara territory between the cream of the Tarahumara tribe and the superstars of the North American - which is to say, the world's - ultramarathon scene.
And the secret to the Tarahumara success? In a sentence or three, it is this: All humans are hardwired to run. As kids, all of us run with joyful abandon. As we grow up, we lose this sense of playfulness and sheer joy in running. The Tarahumara keep this playful spirit alive into adulthood, and they have over the millenia woven the art of running into rituals that govern their daily lives. Also, they do not buy expensive, gel-filled Nike running shoes that seem to do more harm than good.
Born To Run opens with an all too familiar story. A beefy former war correspondent who is built like someone that nature intended 'to take a bullet for the President' rather than pound down the pavement, Mcdougall is doing the rounds of sports shrinks to treat his dodgy feet. In the winter of 2003, he is in Mexico chasing a missing pop star for The New York Times Magazine when he stumbles across a picture of a Jesus like figure running down a rockslide. Welcome to the secret world of Tarahumara Indians, the greatest ultra runners the world has never heard about.
Living like invisible ghosts in the shadowy recesses of the Copper Canyons of Mexico, the peaceful Tarahumara tribes have for centuries outrun their Indian and European tormentors alike just to survive. What is the secret behind their superhuman prowess that enables them to run for hundreds of miles without rest? This is the question that persuades Mcdougall to abandon his celebrity hunt and start another type of hunt, the hunt for a mythical gringo named Caballo Blanco, the 'white horse' who lives with the Tarahumara and runs like one.
Before the book finishes, there is a gripping duel over 100 miles of punishing Colorado trails between a Community College teacher named Ann Tracy and top Tarahumara runners who have been coaxed to participate in the Leadville 100 ultramarathon with promises of corn bags for their villages. I felt the description of this race alone gave all the bang for my bucks.
The book climaxes with a 50 mile foot race in the treacherous Tarahumara territory between the cream of the Tarahumara tribe and the superstars of the North American - which is to say, the world's - ultramarathon scene.
And the secret to the Tarahumara success? In a sentence or three, it is this: All humans are hardwired to run. As kids, all of us run with joyful abandon. As we grow up, we lose this sense of playfulness and sheer joy in running. The Tarahumara keep this playful spirit alive into adulthood, and they have over the millenia woven the art of running into rituals that govern their daily lives. Also, they do not buy expensive, gel-filled Nike running shoes that seem to do more harm than good.
Monday, August 17, 2009
My City2Surf 2009 Performance
My preparations to run this year's City2Surf under 60 minutes were derailed by a combination of flue, nasty weather and good old inertia (the complete list of excuses actually runs longer than the world's biggest fun run!) Anyway, I clocked 69 minutes 9 seconds, improving last year's result by 39 seconds.
The unexpected 'improvement' - after a month of inactivity, my preparation consisted of four comfortable jogs over the week leading to the event - illustrates what I suspect is the exponential nature of the efforts required to improve one's speed. After a certain point, disproportionate inputs seem to require to exact minuscule gains in speed. Conversely, comfortable pace is not necessarily a prelude to a catastrophic loss (or, is that gain?) in time.
In a sense, running, even the fun ones, is all about timing. One has to know when to hold back and when to give all. As my preparation was far from ideal, I checked my impulse to go all out in the first kilometers even as other adrenaline-fueled runners zoomed past me. It was not until after around 10 km that I upped my tempo. When I crossed the finish line, I still had enough left in the tank to run another 5 km. Perhaps, I held myself back a bit too long but this did not prevent me from feeling very satisfied with my performance, especially considering the comfortable pace that improved on last year's result, which was achieved through far more lung-busting efforts.
The unexpected 'improvement' - after a month of inactivity, my preparation consisted of four comfortable jogs over the week leading to the event - illustrates what I suspect is the exponential nature of the efforts required to improve one's speed. After a certain point, disproportionate inputs seem to require to exact minuscule gains in speed. Conversely, comfortable pace is not necessarily a prelude to a catastrophic loss (or, is that gain?) in time.
In a sense, running, even the fun ones, is all about timing. One has to know when to hold back and when to give all. As my preparation was far from ideal, I checked my impulse to go all out in the first kilometers even as other adrenaline-fueled runners zoomed past me. It was not until after around 10 km that I upped my tempo. When I crossed the finish line, I still had enough left in the tank to run another 5 km. Perhaps, I held myself back a bit too long but this did not prevent me from feeling very satisfied with my performance, especially considering the comfortable pace that improved on last year's result, which was achieved through far more lung-busting efforts.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
City2Surf 2009
I will be participating for the second time in Sydney's premier fun run, the City2Surf, that starts at Hyde Park in the heart of the CBD and ends in Bondi Beach. The 14.1 km run will take place on August 9.
My tentative goal for this year is to shave off 9 minutes from last year's time, which was 68' 14'' (The winner, Martin Dent, did it in 41' 12''). It is a big ask. My weekly regime for achieving this goal is as follows:
My tentative goal for this year is to shave off 9 minutes from last year's time, which was 68' 14'' (The winner, Martin Dent, did it in 41' 12''). It is a big ask. My weekly regime for achieving this goal is as follows:
- At least two easy runs to enhance my cardiovascular fitness and correct my body posture, transforming my body into a lean, efficient oxygen engine
- Trim down to my ideal running weight (which is around 56 kg)
- One fairly difficult hill run to strengthen my leg muscles, i.e. do the round trip circuit from Macquarie Park to Epping train station
- One interval training to improve my pace
- One resistance training session to boost my upper and lower body strength
- Enjoy each training session as much as possible, always keeping in mind Polar's motto: "Listen to your body".
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