Have a Great Day!

One of the surprises I got from Ironman Lanzarote was discovering that 6-time Ironman World Champion, Natascha Badmann was taking part. She placed a high and respectable second in the women’s category. She has a firm reputation for her enduring smile (while racing) and making a bad day better! She leaves an indelible mark for me of being a gracious competitor and being appreciative to volunteers and spectators.

This evening, our open-water swim group met for Happy Hours and exchanged war stories. Everyone who completed a recent race had to wear the race tee or suffer a mild penalty; I suppose it was the buying of drinks, fried chicken wings and pizza – high-calorie, tasty, punishment. Several had completed their first 6.5K open-water swim, first night marathon, and even Ng Lap Huan who completed a back-to-back 21K and marathon on the same evening, a week ago; he will making his personal assault on his first ultra-distance of 100K. Big shout out goes to Le Giang (a 3:55 marathoner) and Winston for being generous pacers at the Sundown Marathon last Saturday. Without pacers, less runners would have crossed the line, and others meet their personal best times. Thank you, Pacers!

When I arrived, the enthusiastic (and barely inebriated) team noticed that my participant t-shirt for Lanzarote had the names of all the 1,500 competitors on it. Predictably, a camera zoomed in for a close-up of my name. I had difficulty recalling where my name was in the confusing scatter of names. Not my fastest race, but certainly memorable for being the very first in my country to do it – not just once – but twice in four years. There is word that one of our triathlon buddies may break his personal achievement of ‘most Ironman finishers ever by a single athlete in Singapore’. As tempting as it is, I will reserve my energies for other mountains of my mind.

We will resume our open-water swim at Sentosa Lagoon next Saturday, as there are residual jellyfish and an abundance of sea-lice. We have avoided the bad case of the itchy for a few weeks. I will be off to Bangalore, India on Sunday and look forward to next Sunday’s 10K Mount Faber Run – my third attempt for a PB and, possibly, nearer a podium finish.

Off to a 21K tempo run in a few hours’ time, and watch a friend finish her 5K run. Hopefully, I make the cutoff time.

Video courtesy of TheTriathlonCoach.com

Running Effortlessly: Running Doesn’t Ruin Knees

In spite of significant cases of runners who get injured from running, there are just as many who do not damage their ankles, knees and hips. With all the controversy about minimalist running, unshod running and barefoot running, the jury is still out. 

Here is a photo of Pete Jacobs, at his running clinic for BPMSports. He is the consultant coach for this boutique coaching company (based in Singapore). The third fastest male marathoner, of all time, at the world championships at Kona-Hawaii Pete has more than one reason to be noticed seriously. This top-10 finisher at Kona in 2009 and 2010 was the fastest over-42.195K last year in Kona.

Here are some key points about running better:

1)    Proper technique is the key. However obvious this sounds, it is still popularly overlooked.

2)    Run low. Run light. Keep your feet near the ground.

3)    Before you begin running, do barefoot drills.

4)    Warm up is essential for activating your core muscles and major muscle groups (glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, ankles).

5)    Keep cadence high. Keep frequency (leg turnover) high.

6)    Land flat on your feet – and wholly. Your Achilles tendon springs your feet upwards and forwards.

7)    Relax your arms. The rhythm of your arms follows your legs.

8)    Stand up straight. ‘Run tall’ (be at your tallest instead of slouching or bending forwards).

9)    When you run tall, you land with straighter legs and therefore less recruitment of muscles that fatigue.

The occasional sore knees or ankles earned from a hard session, is understandable. Use ice, post-exercise stretching, and self-massage to ease the discomfort. As long as it is not excruciating pain from injury, rest assured that proper running form requires some time to learn. However, the returns on investment will be deeply appreciated as your scheduled efforts translate into more speed and efficiency when you step up.

On a nutritional note, a long-term multi-vitamin supplementation to the diet yielded no strong evidence of benefits. Natural foods seem to be the way to gain our nutrients. Also, based on the osteopathic/natural therapy approach glucosamine use seems to be complemented with Omega-3 fatty acids/oils. I also did a nutritional type (NT) test yesterday, and my results pointed to a Mixed Diet. It still means I have to watch what I eat, as there are foods I am aware I am intolerant to. Such is life, and the pursuit of athletic excellence!

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I have been stepping up my training for Lanzarote; however, more on intensity than mileage. Over-distance seems to cause grief on my knees and ankles, so I do them only when scheduled. My body is going through a delineation process, where my weight goes up and down 2kg, with my body fat still meandering about the single digit zone. Last night’s rain after the 6K (@4:20 pace) was put to a temporary stop when it poured buckets, and I perceived that the immediate lightning risk was high. 10 minutes later, I dashed off when the lightning frequency was less, and spat out another 15K. I believe I held a 4:45-4:50 minute/km pace – so I was happy about that, despite my wet Newton Gravity shoes and one resultant blister. So, I am on-track for a PB (target of 3:15) at the Gold Coast Marathon in July. I have been following Fox's prescription of three, specific, sessions weekly whilst preparing for my 11^th Ironman. The pool running intervals are helping heaps as I have replaced my barefoot runs with a 2-in-1 approach (barefoot + intervals). My target is to hold 42.195K at 4:35-4:40 minute/km, to qualify for Boston again with a better timing and thus, better opportunity for the 2012 slot.

I am excited about my run clinic on 23 April. Lots to share, I assure you – if you want to learn from a 40-something, amateur athlete, who started endurance running only six years ago, and qualified for Boston. We are standing on the shoulders of giants!


Photo-credit: Richard Leong

Macca’s Last 7 Miles At Kona & My Next Race

I was watching a post by Biestmilch of his interview with Australian Ironman champion, Chris ‘Macca’ McCormack on his final seven miles with German Andreas Raelert in Kona last year. This is Macca at his passionate and introspective best!

Next weekend, I run in a 12K race – the equivalent of Macca’s last seven miles in the marathon. Macca expressed his maturity and expertise as a strategist when he raced. He stated that ‘training was the easy part. The hardest part was the racing.’ Love him or loathe him, he does play the ‘head game’ very well. He is akin to bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was vying for the Mr Olympia competition. He used to resort to psychological tactics like stealing competitors’ posing trunks, and pretending to eat before the competition. This upset contenders like Sergio Oliva (1970’s) and Mike Mentzer (on his 1980 comeback trail in Australia) who thought that he was superbly prepared; in fact, Arnold was not in peak condition but won because he upset the equilibrium and psyche of his adversaries.

Last night, I watched the docu-film, Fire on the Track – The Steve Prefontaine Story and observed film footage of the famed American national record holder (for all run events over -2 miles) and once-National Public Relations Manager for Nike, Inc. Steve was courageous in the way he attacked the track, always leading, and never relenting. This 58-minute film is supplemented with 3.5 hours of interviews with his coaches, team-mates and competitors; an interview with Bill Bowerman on his shoe designs; and a featurette of the Steve Prefontaine’s Trail (which was restored and used by runners in Oregon).

Another ‘Pre’ film that meets the exacting standards of a biopic of the legendary track runner is Without Limits. It was written with Pre’s training teammate, Kenny Moore (twice Olympic marathoner) and produced by Tom Cruise (who initially wanted to play Pre’s role).

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This week, I have been creative with my training sessions – doing stationary-bike/treadmill bricks. Having returned from the UAE on Tuesday, I completed a tempo/time trial run; several pool interval runs, and a moderate ride. As I was fatigued from a busy week teaching workshops, I missed my early ride this morning, as I slept another two hours. My lack of discipline proved to be useful as I rode for three hours, taking on a few slopes in the process, and then constructed it into a brick-session with a 45-minute pool run (with pyramid running intervals, i.e. 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 minutes of higher intensity, higher cadence running with one minute jogging between bursts).

I bumped into Ironman finishers Tee and Luke. Luke and I shared a 30K loop, and chatted about our similar approaches to training. For the Masters age-grouper, it seems like less is more. We both run three times a week, stopping when our form diminishes. We ride about 3-4 hours per session, however with intensity – rarely do we crank out junk miles (distance for the sake of chalking up mileage). Seven more weeks to Ironman Lanzarote, and this week will be a brutally honest week with tough sessions punctuating my pre-travel week. I intend to incorporate intense, Spartan circuit training sessions, too. Stay tuned!

Hazy Visions of Coffee and Climbing in the Canaries

¡Buenas dias! 

This coffee mug has accompanied me for the last three years - over a plethora of business proposals I had to write in the wee hours of the morning; and the creation of this blog. This black-and-white vessel was first, innocently, christened by my tri-buddy S K Lim with a full douse of beer, at a gathering of like-minded, covert, endurance athletes. It was 2007, and Don Ng and I took on the colossal challenge of completing Ironman Lanzarote – known for its grueling, one-loop, 180K ride around the Canary Islands. Don and I completed in humbling sub-15 hours, 10 minutes apart of each other – I pushed the bike twice near the apex of the ride (2,500 metres) as my personal strategy to save my legs. Lesson learnt: Use road-bikes with compact cranks and be adequately nourished. Carbon tri-bikes just did not cut it.

On 21 May 2011, I will attempt my second shot at this beautiful Spanish island and, hopefully, slash some serious time off. The usual suspects from IMWA will join me – Charles Teng, John Cooke and Nigel Chua. Don will head off for his second attempt at Norseman, a cruel Ironman triathlon fate with enough heart-stopping and heart-accelerating moments. Live to tell! Nada es imposible!