Hail Brooks! Queen of the trail....

Well, after dithering for about 2 weeks, i finally got myself trail shoes. I know nothing about trails shoes, so i looked for suggestions in the Runner's World website and got a few options.
Off i headed to the local shopping complex to look for my shoes. Know what...most of these outlets are quite women specific stuff unfriendly. I went to look at the Merrell shoes..and the shop had only 1 choice for women...in a UK3.5 or an 8...?????? They had no Salomon...had a couple of New Balances,Nike's and Adidas for men, of course.So, you either buy men's shoes in a small size , so that you can fit into them ( if they have what you want and the size that you want) or have a severely limited choice of women's shoes. So off i went to another shop...They had only 1 choice of women trail shoes and i had no choice but to take them.I didn't have the time to trawl the whole of the city for other options. So , i bought myself Brooks Cascadia 4.It's a gorgeous color, by the way..


So , i got up really early as there were time constraints. I was really looking forward to trying out the new shoes. And in my eagerness, i didn't really think...that it was DARK outside, that the trails would have NO lights in them, that i would sort of be running blindly and not see rocks, ruts, roots till it got light...that i might be stalked by Freddy Krueger and i wouldn't even know..
So, i drove to a forest reserve near where i live. I mean although it was dark, i had already started...so i just followed through. I went to the trail that i normally ran in broad daylight and just plundered through...i could barely see where i was going or what i was stepping on. I almost fell and landed on my head in the dark a few times...and probably sounded like a wild boar plundering though the forest...I'm sure i scared the other wildlife away.
But before long, it grew light...and it was beautiful. The trail was cool and a little breezy. There were sounds of birds chirping and insects saying good morning to one another ( if they could do that:). And running in the trails is so much more interesting. There's a whole lot more to look around you...the terrain is different with laterite and mud roads. There are rock, roots to avoid..and the trail that i run has a waterfall on one side at a certain point. The smell is different too..there's earth, water and wet leaves. The trail is under tree cover...so there are no GPS signals...so i run based on how i feel.I have no idea how far or how long i run...just whether i still can go on or feel like passing out...
The shoes were really nice.They had all this little projections that bit into the dirt. They were light, a little stiff and quite comfortable. Climbing uphill was not a problem too. The laces didn't loosen up as you ran and didn't come undone either. I like that...and they look good!!!
I'm going to like trail running....

Running just for fun...

Joy here...Since this is my "easy week," Thursday's run was scheduled as just a simple, 30 minute run to get the legs moving. I didn't wear my Garmin; I didn't watch my pace; I didn't even have a watch. I just ran under the blue skies with the rippling waves of the Canal beside me and the cars taking their work-a-day commuters home. I felt smooth, fast, and light, and whether I was all those things doesn't really matter. It just felt good, and it felt fun. Nomi is right...running can be just about the enjoyment of being alive, feeling your legs moving, air coming in and out of your lungs, and knowing that your body is doing what it was meant to do. So that's what my Thursday run was all about.

Here are my run stats:
I ran for ???? minutes for a total of ???? distance at an average of ???? pace.

Today I really feel that I don't know and don't care how my run was in terms of numbers, because today felt good and today that's all that matters.

Over and out,
Joy

Options, options, options.......

Nomi says...

So, getting up at 5am, getting the kid's and The Man's things ready for school and work respectively, then getting myself ready, driving to the park in total darkness, hoping that i get there safe and sound, and then run...everyday...is a fairytale...
See, running fits into the scheme of things...i don't prioritize running so that everything else has to fall into place around my desire to run...which would be nice...but not really feasible.
So, i was supposed to be running 11kms last week, 6 days a week and 12 kms this week, 6 days a week. Did that happen? Nooooooo....Why??? Well because The Man had his own plans, the moon wasn't in alignment with the stars and i was downright lazy most of the time...So, how can i attempt to be fairly consistent with my running?
Options, options and more options are needed...so that there's a choice on how to get things done.
See, the weather here is either hot and dry or hot and wet...After 8.30am or so, it's HOT, in areas with no tree cover...you sweat buckets, feel like yesterday's dessicated spinach and all you want to do is melt into a puddle at the road side. When Joy visited and ran in the park with me, her skin started sizzling like bacon frying in the pan, even in the 7.30 am sun.....(well, maybe i exaggerate a bit). So , an option is to run in a shaded area...like running trails in the park. Which is do-able since there are parks that fits the description. This way , there's no time constraint as such since there's tree cover and you can pretty much run comfortably even after 9am. Mosquitoes, leeches, the occasional wild boar, snakes, monitor lizards ( I've actually seen these in a park i went to) are just part of the wildlife you'd encounter, i suppose.
Another option is to join the gym...to use the treadmill. BOOOORRRRRIIIINNNNGGGGG!!! But the most rational of all options, i think? You can go anytime, run as much as you want, there's sort of 'daycare' facility that cages....errrr... i mean takes care of your child for about 2 hours. Only drawbacks are, that it's monotonous, you'll be breathing in about a hundred other people's carbon dioxide and other noxious fumes, get an epileptic fit looking at all those bobbing figures on the treadmill, cross trainer and other instruments of torture..and feel so claustrophobic, you'd want to leap out of the window....
Sigh....i think i'll stick to the road and the trails.....so much for options...

To (Mis)Quote Freud: Sometimes a Run is Just a Run

Joy here...Okay, after my epic bike ride on Sunday, Monday was scheduled as a rest day, so I figured I would recover with ease and all would be well. I'm happy to say that I didn't really have tonnes of muscle pains like I expected. I mean, I thought I would try to walk up a flight of stairs and end up looking about 100 years old with the slow poke shuffle. But instead I seemed to feel something more akin to the kinds of "growing pains" in my calves that I haven't felt since I was a teenager. When I was 14 years old, I grew 6 inches (roughly 15 cm) from the beginning of the school year until the end! I remember at the time feeling these deep aches and pains in my lower legs almost every night when I went to bed. And on Monday after that long ride my muscles felt fine, but I did have that kind of deep ache that I haven't felt in years. It had started to wane by Tuesday, and since this week is my "easy week" I figured I was all ready for a nice run. But as the day progressed, The Man kept on postponing the run..."okay, I'll be ready in half an hour"..."well, if we run now all the commuters will be on the path, we should wait until after 9am"..."okay, we should eat something and then digest and run"..."why don't we just have some lunch and then run after lunch"..."it's waaaaaaaay too hot to run in the heat of the day"..."why don't we just run after dinner?"...And as you can probably well imagine, yesterday's run just never materialized. So on top of Monday's rest day, I had an unplanned rest day on Tuesday as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining...I mean, heck, an extra rest day...who would complain about that????

But it meant that I was a little worried about how today's run would go. We were just planning an easy run with strides, and whether I was ready or not, by 6:30am we were out the door in order to beat the heat, the commuters, and our own laziness that settles in as the day progresses. The sun was already high overhead and the sky a bright blue with these picturesque white, fluffy clouds. The day promises to be a hot one, but when we were out for our run, it wasn't too bad. We started off our run, and it took me about 20mins. to get into a good rhythm and feel like my legs and knees and ankles were warming up. Then we did 8 strides as part of our run (that's 8 almost-sprints for 100meters or roughly 15 seconds). In total, it wasn't the worst run I've ever had, but it wasn't the best one either. Maybe if I didn't take that extra rest day I would have felt better, but then again maybe worse. I guess there's no point really in wondering about that. Sometimes a run is just a run - nothing more and nothing less.

So here are today's run stats:
Total time of 1:03:04 for a distance of 10.89km for an average pace of 5:48min/km.

Over and out,
Joy

Morning Has Broken.....

Nomi says...

Soooooo......after a week of hibernation, i was graciously allocated some time to go for a run....
I had to haul my lazy self out of bed, grope for my motivation from under the pillow and drag it kicking and screaming with me...then i visualized Joy, thousands of miles away, 12 hours behind time shaking her head at me, going "Bad Nomi, bad girl" ( just joking Joy:) And visualized Lulu too, running like an energizer bunny on her treadmill...
It was dark at the park.The skies were overcast and it was silently still. There weren't many people around with the looming threat of rain.Then it started to drizzle lightly. The weather was cool, it was blissfully peaceful and so serene. It was a beautiful, beautiful day....perfect for running. I practically had the park to myself, silence surrounded me....the trees were shaking their green, green leaves in the slight wind and the lake was dotted with falling drops of rain. There weren't screaming kids, noisy cars, barking dogs or arguing neighbors. Just me, and the sound of my shoes striking the asphalt. I am grateful for days like this. An hour of serenity , and hour of being able to do exactly what you want is a luxury....
During my runs, i see quite a number of people strolling, walking, skating or running. Some are recreational runners, some training for a race, some walk to socialize, some walk with aids, and a few are unquestionably very ill...
So, i am thankful that i am healthy enough to run at a reasonable pace, thankful that i have family, loved ones and friends who support what i do. On that beautiful morning i just ran without counting pace or calories or time...just ran for the joy of running and the joy of being alive....

P/S : The picture above is of one of the oldest recreational parks in the country where i live and where i used to run. And where i was chased by a pig tailed macaque during one of these runs...

A Bike Ride with a View!

Joy here...So in a moment of insanity last night at around 5pm, I decided that to make up for my missed tempo run on Thursday I would join my husband and his friends for his usual Sunday morning gruelling bike ride through a national park near our home. Now, I wasn't planning on riding with them the whole way or anything like that, as the park undulates a lot, and there are two really killer climbs. I just figured that I'd ride to the park with them, ride up the first climb (about 700 meters long at a pretty steep incline), turn around and go home. With that plan in mind, I emailed the wives of the cycling buddies to see if they were game. One of them already had plans, but the other one said "Sure, I'll come, and I'll pull my daughter in the chariot." Okay, so there was no backing down for me now. Her daughter is 3 years old, and pulling a 3 year old behind a road bike is no easy feat. I figured that if she was game, then I better be game, especially since I came up with the brilliant idea. At 6:50am this morning, I headed out on the bike trail with The Man to meet up with the others. When we met up with them, the friend trailing her daughter said, "Okay, Joy, we're not just riding that one climb, but we're doing a whole loop of the park, and if I can do it with this chariot, you can do it!" To put this all in perspective, I tried riding a loop of this park once in 2007. I nearly died and swore I would never do it again. My lungs hurt, my back hurt, my legs hurt, my neck hurt, and I really did think that I was going to spontaneously combust. I have avoided the park ever since. But if she was going to do it pulling her daughter, I didn't really have a leg to stand on to be the one to wimp out.

All in all, the ride was about 5 hours door-to-door, and about 3 hours in the park...and she pulled that chariot all the way up those steep climbs, and I wasn't a whole heck of a lot faster than she was. In the end, the view from way up at the top of those killer climbs was worth it. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and I think that the real view is worth a thousand pictures, so maybe, just maybe, I'll have to do that bike ride again someday....

....Just not tomorrow!

More Wine & a Recovery Smoothie...

Joy here...Okay, so on Tuesday night (as per my last post) we had friends over and drank too much wine. So after Wednesday's run, we ended up not running on Thursday (no tempo workout for me) and instead had more wine. Do you think this makes sense? Well, it made perfect sense at the time. I mean, who wouldn't swap out a workout for a night out with champagne? Out we went to the local wine bar for a few drinks before coming home to put our feet up and pour ourselves one last nightcap. The plan was, "okay, we'll skip our tempo run on Thursday, but we'll make up for it on Friday." Ha! That never happened. I didn't run on either Thursday or Friday, so whether I liked it or not, I had to get myself out the door to run today (Saturday). But, of course, today was the penultimate stage in the Tour de France, and with Alberto Contador leading Andy Schleck by only 8 seconds, I had to watch the live stage to see how this battle royale would play out. It was a real nail-biter; at the first time check, Andy was up by 2 seconds! Anyway, what all this has to do with me and my wine soggy week of no running is that I waited until after today's live coverage of the Tour de France before running. So it was about 11:30am by the time we got out the door, and it was already hot and muggy. Since I missed the planned tempo run on Thursday, I couldn't afford to miss another run, so today's run was scheduled as my long run (hoping that I can make up for the missed tempo with a bike ride tomorrow). Last week I had that great 15km run, and so today I figured I'd be up for 16kms, and I was expecting it to be a fantastic run. I mean, heck, I just took two days off, right? Well, alas, it was a TOUGH run. At about the 9th km I had a killer stitch in my side. I mean, I thought that someone was reaching in and pulling out my internal organs. As I ran, trying my best to soldier through it, I was literally pinching the skin on my side figuring that the external pain of pinching myself was less painful than the internal stitch! As I was running, I was huffing and whimpering, and really, really, really wishing that I could pull the plug. But since I had been such a loser on Thursday and Friday by not running, I really didn't want to let myself throw in the towel. So I was having an internal battle with myself, with every bone, muscle, and organ in my body screaming for me to stop, and only the smallest corner of my brain trying to will my feet forward. I kept that up, and I am happy to say that I lasted the full 16kms of the planned run. It wasn't a great run, and it wasn't a fast run, but at least I completed it. That alone feels like a momentous victory. No one will be calling me up on the podium on the Champs Elysees tomorrow to give me a trophy, and no one will be pleased with my speedy time, but I'm proud that I was able to force myself to just keep going. Now I'm home, safe and sound, and happily showered and recovered, and decided that I deserve a chocolate and banana recovery smoothie. Instead of champagne or wine tonight, I'm treating myself to lactose-free chocolate milk, soy, one banana, ice, and whey protein all blended together. At least if I don't feel like waking up and running tomorrow, I can't blame it on something I drank!

Here are today's running stats:

Total time of 1:34:18 for a distance of exactly 16km at an average pace of 5:54min/km.

Over and out,

Joy

Running After the Wine and before the Rain...

Joy here...Okay, so last night we had friends from out of town come to visit us. One of these friends is celebrating her 60th birthday. Granted it was last week, but we all figured that for turning 60 she gets a "birthmonth" rather than just one, single day to celebrate. Now what this all means for me and my training is that I had far more wine and champagne last night than I had originally intended. The Man and I had all these plans to have perrier and juice and silly resolutions like that crumbled when our guests actually arrived and we got in the party mood. So we were up late eating, drinking, visiting, and then eating chocolate cake! Don't get me wrong, the indulgences were awesome, but we certainly didn't wake up bright and early for any run this morning. Nope. We just slept in, and then after The Man got back from work, we went for a pre-dinner run (after finishing off the leftover chocolate cake - I mean, we had to get it out of the house, right???). Since yesterday (Tuesday) was hill repeats and tomorrow (Thursday) will be a tempo run, today was scheduled as an easy run. So we got our chocolate and wine filled jiggly butts out the door even though the weather network was warning that there are severe thunderstorms, hail, and possibly even tornadoes in the works for tonight. We, however, did our run through the trails past where we do our hill workout, and then walked home and didn't run into any rain at all.

Here are today's run details: Total distance of 12km in 1:13:37 for an average pace of 6:08min/km. So that was our easy run before the rain, with bellies full of chocolate and booze.

Now we're going to settle in for a relaxing night and let the thunder roll, the lightening flash, and the rain fall...

I'm hiiiiiibernatiiiinggggg!!!!!!

Nomi says,

So, i started this week with a gusto...i promised my self that i would start training for the half marathon using Joy's formula...i would faithfully wake up early in the morning and run round and round the park like a hamster...i would run though rain and shine and thunderstorms ( no snow where i live) , i would update the blog everyday.....and proudly proclaim all my achievements...
Well, that held good for Monday. I decided that i have to start running longer distances..so, i thought that i would increase the kilometers by one a week...so come race month i would be prepared for a half marathon...and have a bod like Gisele Bundchen...
So i ran on Monday...it was a slow , easy , enjoyable run ..i took about 1 hour and 10mins to run 11kms, with walk breaks up hills in between, strolls to smell the flowers and to gaze at the sky....sigh...and there's where it ended... The Man has a big DH bike race coming during the weekend, and he has riders coming in from all over the various continents....so he will be occupied running around fine tuning the details of the race...so i hold the fort at home..sending the kid to and from from school, doing the small necessities...i don't have time to run in the mornings, the kid is not cooperative to drag along in the evenings..and in between it's as hot as hell to run....
Often, you might have a good plan to progress in your training, but often it involves the cooperation of other people as well.
Well.....there's always next week:) This week will be a rest week, for new muscles fibers to form, for neo-vascularization of my bulging lower limb muscles...for me to just sleeeeeepppppp.......well, i could always just bike at home...or go to the gym.....possibilities, possibilities.....i think I'll just hibernate...

I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...

Joy here...Watty Piper's classic child's story "The Little Engine That Could" tells the tale of the little engine who tries hard and makes it up the hill, even though he thinks he can't do it. Well, after taking a rest day yesterday (Monday), today's workout is scheduled as a dreaded hill workout. I can tell you that even on the 20 minute easy run towards the local hill, I was already preparing myself with that little engine's mantra - "I think I can, I think I can..." - especially seeing as how last week's hill workout nearly killed me. I mean, until today I've only done two hill workouts, one with 5 repeats and one with 6 repeats. My husband (or The Man as Nomi has named hers, and mine would be very excited to see he warrants a definite article and capitalization, but I digress...) is already up to 8 repeats, and so I knew that I would have to up my game in order to catch up with him. So for the entire run this morning on the way to the hill, I was having a serious psychological battle with myself. We finally reached the hill (after doing our strides on the grassy stretch before the hill, and after last night's rain, that grassy patch was pretty wet, and I was sure that I would wipe out, landing on my @$$ before even getting to the hill), and we started our first hill repeat. When I do these hill repeats, I try to count to 30 with my breathing and run hard up that hill each time as a way of trying to make sure that I keep my hill repeats pretty consistent with respect to speed. That way I know that if I reach the top at count 40, I'm about 10 seconds off, and so I try to keep all my repeats at around 28-30 slow seconds. I chase up behind The Man, breathing and running in time to my own counting, and then reward myself with a chug of water once I reach the top (while The Man has already started to turn around and ready himself for the slow return to the bottom of the hill). Okay, so this morning, we start running up the hill - him first, me following - and repeat this over and over again. And the strangest thing starts happening...while I'm counting in my head and repeating that little engine's mantra as I follow The Man, I realize that with each successive repeat, the distance between him and me is less and less. I also realize that when we reach the top of the hill, he's breathing heavy and looks pretty dead, and I just carry on the conversation that we paused at the bottom of the hill. Then, after hill repeat #7 (one more than last week!!!), I'm feeling pretty strong, so I join The Man on hill repeat #8 and am right on his heels until the last bit of the hill where it kicks up steeply and he pulls ahead of me. We finish that repeat, give each other a high five, and then carry on with our run home. And as we're running home, it dawns on me that I feel pretty good, strong, easy, and I'm ready to start our strides long before he is!

Now I know that it's starting to sound like I'm really competitive with him or something, which I'm not, but I only started running a few years ago when he and I started dating, and so I've used him as my running gauge since the beginning of my journey into learning how to be a runner. For me, then, being able to run with him and even not die in comparison is a real triumph.

All this means that Sunday's run was good, and now Tuesday's run was good...dare I even hope that Wednesday's run will be good?

Something new......

Nomi says...

Well, my friend Lulu is really into the running bug...she's so enthusiastic about things, it's really infectious. So, she says...." You know what ? Shall we do an off road run?????? And she proceeds to question her sanity....
So the both of us have now signed up for a 14km off road run in October...we don't really know what we're in for...we don't know exactly how to train for it, but we do know that we need new shoes ( ah...the joys of shopping), we need lots of bug repellent, lots of enthusiasm and it promises to be a mud fest.
So, once we get our new shoes we'll start running trails...well, easy ones to start with. So, i figure we'll run on road and off road on alternate days.. Our on road runs are on pretty flat terrain.Mainly to build up endurance. The off roads ones will be in trails with rocks, roots and mud...to build up strength, use muscles we probably don't know we have and we need to run hills too.
Now, this run does have and obstacle course at the end. Before taking up running seriously ( sort of) i used to box, to build up the strength in upper body and core muscles. Now, do i dare Lulu to join me? What say you Lulu? We need to be stronger for this venture of ours, you know....
Now if only Joy could do this with us:)
So , i suppose, now I've got to research on how to do this. Read more books,trawl the internet....get Joy to send me links....:)

Sunday a day of rest? I don't think so...

(graphic courtesy of http://www.wohill.com/tags/cartoon)

Joy here...Judeo-Christian tradition holds that after spending six days creating the world, including all the plants, animals, and Adam & Eve, God decided he needed a day off. Ever since then various Christian sects, societies, and nations with Christian roots have used Sunday as a kind of day off or rest day. Well, today is Sunday. But since I was busy yesterday watching a local bike race when I was supposed to be doing my "long run" of this week, running up and down a giant hill to get a good vantage of the racers struggling up the climb, and then waiting to watch them at the finish line, I had to take my "long run" today. No rest for me. To begin with, my calves were a little bit sore since I wore my Vibram Five Fingers all day yesterday, thus giving my muscles a bit of a workout with all that walking around. But the weather isn't quite so steamy hot today, and so with a clear blue sky, a light breeze, and the sun high overhead, I put some ice in with my waterbottle, put on my Garmin, and headed out the door for my run.

I started running at about 5:45min/km for the first 10km or so. I felt good and the rhythm seemed pretty natural. My mind was wandering, and I was thinking about all sorts of things and so it felt rather meditative for those first 10kms. I then had one of my chocolate flavoured GUs and decided to pick up the pace for the final 5kms. So I tried to stay running at about 5:20min/km. I have never run that fast before. Even my race pace for the 10km race in Singapore was around 5:35min/km, but everything seemed to work, and it didn't feel like I was running all that hard, so I figured I might as well try to hold that 5:20min/km pace for 5kms. I mean, what did I have to lose? If I couldn't hold the pace, then I told myself I'd slow down. But in the end, I was able to hold that pace for the whole final 5kms. My final stats for today's run are:

15.27km in 1:25:12 for an average pace of 5:35km/min.

I'm pretty pleased with that, because that was my race pace for 10km and today's run proves to me that I can hold that for 15kms. Now I just have to up the distance another 6km in order to be prepared for the 1/2 marathon. Then I can worry about improving my speed as well.

I'm not sure why everything seemed to click today. Maybe it's because I took two days off running; maybe it's because my last run was Thursday's tempo workout and maybe it's had the desired effect; maybe it's because my wiggly-toe Vibram Five Fingers really are making my feet and lower legs stronger; maybe it was due to the chia seeds that I put in my breakfast smoothie; or maybe I should just be more philosophical and realize that just as I can have a bad day, I can always have a good day too. So maybe today was just a good day...

...which means that maybe next time will be a bad day.

All gearing to go, but nothing else is........

Nomi says...

So, i have to buck up and start training seriously if i want to finish the half marathon before the cows come home. I like the 'take it easy &run for fun' plan that Joy suggested in one of her mails to me, that is to run at a reasonable pace, and to increase the distance by 1km per week.
So, i was feeling blah on a Saturday morning, so decided to run in the evening instead.. There's a another park where i run , which allows bicycles on it. So while i run, the kid and the Man bike....so we got all our gear and set off to the park. IT WAS HOT, although it was past 5pm by the time we got there!!!!!!! I was sweating buckets and the first few kms were like running in the Sahara or something...but then it cooled down, the weather got nicer, i got my second wind, there was a relatively cool breeze in the air...and at about 6kms into the run, the kid starts ." I'mtired, iwanttogohome, iwanttogotothebathroom, iambored, myfeethurts, i'veaheadache " Aaaaaaakakkkkkkk!!!!!!! Don't run with your kids in the vicinity if you have a choice!!!!! So, we had to pack everything back and just drive home.
Never mind, i thought. I'll run tomorrow. So, i checked the internet to look for road closures near the park on Sunday, since i knew there was going to be a race somewhere there...and there were none. So, Sunday morning, bright and early , all gearing to go, i went to the park....and the roads were closed!!!!! Now, I'm no homing pigeon and basically only know how to get to about 15 places in the city...and couldn't find my way home....so i drove on and on and on and round and round and round for about 45minutes with my verbal GPS ( The Man) on the phone and managed to get home....in one piece....sigh....but did i give up....oh no,....the day was still young, so I'll run in the evening, i thought....
And , in the afternoon, it started to rain, and rain , and rain......well, into the night.....there goes my run....so i sat on my bike instead...which is better than nothing...
Sometimes, you're all geared up to go, but nothing else is...so just bite your lip, cause there's always the next day....

I'm baaaaaack...

Joy here...First and foremost: WELCOME LULU! When I was in Malaysia in May I got to run with both Nomi and Lulu, and Lulu is really an inspiration. She's a crazy nut who doesn't eat or drink before running, but just runs and runs and runs! I'm really happy that Nomi has her to run with when I'm not around. I think that they're a killer duo, and I'm jealous that they'll be doing some off-road jungle running sometime soon.

Now on to my own run update: After spending all day in bed yesterday like some kind of lazy lout, I was out this morning for the first round of tempo running. So I ran for 20 minutes easy to warm up (with two strides along the way) and then did four sets of 5 minute tempo runs. For me a tempo run was a bit faster than my 10km race pace, and I held it for 5mins. Then I would run slowly for about a minute and then do another 5min stint at "tempo." After doing the four sets of tempo, I then ran another 20 minutes or so to cool down with three final strides. And then I walked home.

So all in all, I ran for 1:04:09 for 11.42km at an average pace of 5:37min/km.

Busted knees and blah days....

Nomi says...

So, going through Joy's list of suggestions...

1) Use the blog ...i'm sort of doing that, albeit inconsistently...

2) 3 weeks on and 1 week off runs...which is in the process...

3) Run with someone...i've roped Lulu into doing that with me...

4) Cross train on a bike on no-run days....i've got a bike, which is a good start...

5) Refer to reading material which might help with motivation...i've bought a book and read a few pages already..

6) Go to Canada...which is the best suggestion of the lot:)

So, i've changed shoes and done some of the above..so i decided to then change my running route a bit to add a bit of pep in it. Joy and i used to run in a part with a relatively flat surface. One loop was about 2.3kms. So me and her and sometimes Lulu would do loop after loop after loop like little hamsters. There's a hilly stretch in the park,not Mount Everest steep , but a nice slow climb which goes on for a few hundred meters and i decided to add that in my loop and with that , it would be a 3km loop. So i started doing that last week. My average time with this new loop is now about 58 mins. Which is still less than an hour, so it's ok.
I ran most of last week, but didn't run on this Monday...I'm sure i have a valid reason for not doing so, but i can't remember that right now. I ran on Tuesday and the yesterday.
This little hill that i run is followed by a slight downhill...so, after puffing and panting and feeling like Joy might in a lamaze class, i get to catch my breath by running downhill, which is fun....real fun..and i get to compensate for the time spent.

So while running uphill a few days ago, i felt a twinge in my left knee...i thought it'll go away. Well it didn't go away and got worse as i ran more. So after the 10k run, i was limping a little. But with rest and and painkillers, the knee felt much, much better. I took one day break and ran again today....well, i wish i didn't.
So days are just blah days....after only 10 minutes, i wanted to keel over the kerb and lie on the road...i felt sick, out of breath and just plain tired...did i do that? Oh no...silly me thought, " maybe if i run a bit more it'll go away " . Well, it certainly didn't go away. I felt worse and after only 5 kms, i had to throw in the towel. I sat panting, dripped buckets and buckets of sweat and felt like i had a hang-over. I felt like i was going to dissolve into a pool of sweat on the road....The only good thing was, my knee didn't hurt at all....
So , i guess sometimes, your body just doesn't want to run, and you can't force it. If you don't feel good.....just go for a good long walk, and run the next day.

Over and out,
Nomi.








Getting Support from this blog.......

A Run Update and A Whinge...

Joy here...Okay, so in my last post I was all rah! rah! rah! to motivate Nomi and get her out of the doldrums, and now I have a confession to make: all that cheeriness falls into the category of "do as I say not as I do." After writing that I was on the running high of finishing a solid 15km run on Saturday, and things have rapidly gone downhill for me since then. On Sunday I was supposed to do an easy 10km run, but instead I decided to stay home and watch some Tour de France. Do I have a good excuse for that? No. Of course not. It was pure laziness. At the time I told myself that I would make it up on Monday and just swap out my rest days - Sunday for Monday. Ha! Then Monday came along and all I could muster was about a 20min. run around the block and a walk with my husband. Hardly anything to write home about. So I told myself that I'd fix it all by Tuesday and be back on track. Did that happen? Of course not. Tuesday was supposed to be hill repeats, and so my husband and I got out to do the hills and I swear I was dying. I was doing some kinda crazy lamaze breathing as if I were in labour pains for the whole 20mins it takes to jog out to the hill. Then I was supposed to do 7 hill repeats (up fast and down slow 7 times). I lasted about 6 pathetic little hill repeats, trying every motivational mantra in the book in my head. None of it worked, and I really thought that I might be dying. On the run back, I didn't even last the whole way to our usual spot. All in all, that workout was just under 50mins. Ugh. So then this morning (Wednesday), we got up bright and early, and I was convinced that I could "mind over matter" things and get my workouts back on track. We were just to be doing a 10km run with strides. We were out by 6am so we were beating the heat, and there should have been no problems. But I was the problem. Yep. Me. I had a cramp in my side from before we even started running. I was tired and nauseous for the whole run, and after less than 30mins we had to turn around and walk back. I was in bad shape. I felt like I was going to puke or poop or both all over the side of the road. Really. So I came home, cancelled my planned bike ride (which would have had hills and made up for my f@#ked up other workouts this week), and went to bed. I was in bed from about 8am until 5pm today. I don't know what's up. I don't know if I'm fighting off some kind of flu bug or if I'm just damn lazy. No matter what the cause, I can sadly report that my running has suffered this week. I'll try to get back up on that proverbial horse tomorrow, but I'm not overly optimistic at this point....

So.....no more excuses....

Nomi says....

Thank you, thank you Joy for your support and encouragement:) Now, you only have to get down here to make sure that i do it...
Well, i think that for a 10k run, you sort of basically can just put on your shoes and just run.. But that wouldn't work for a half marathon...there's got to be a strategy of some sort, so..to improve my running and get my self motivated, i got new shoes. I've used Reebok, Saucony, Adidas, New Balance, and Nike's and i prefer Nikes the best. I tried on the Lunar Glide, Lunar elite, Nike Vomero and Triax 13. The Lunar Elite didn't have enough cushioning , the Vomero's too much cushioning..so it was between the Triax 13 and Lunar Glides...the Lunar Glides were in a nicer color...so i got them:)
And i am basically clueless about training for a half marathon, so i got my self a book..it's the Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running. Well..i have read a few pages...which is sort of good, since i actually removed the wrapping and have opened the book. So far I've just learned that one shouldn't skimp on shoes and running bras. So, i guess I'll just have to rely on Joy's running plan. I like the one with 3 weeks of serious running and 1 week of easy runs. That sounds like fun...
I have also joined a running group, but so far haven't exactly done more that receive confirmation that i am now in that group:) Which is a good start...at least i know that i have comrade in arms somewhere in this city.
Well.....getting another running partner...that is in the works. I've got someone who runs with me once a week. She's started from running zero to 10kms in 4 months, a real trooper and has buckets and buckets of enthusiasm...helloooo Lulu!!!!! Lulu has also signed us up for an off road, 14km trail run which promises to be a mud fest sometime later this year...yay.....
So with all the motivational mechanisms in place, i should be gearing to go.....well, maybe tomorrow...

Cheerleading and Run Update

I feel so bad after reading Nomi's post. It's so tough to be motivated and stay motivated with running, especially when you don't have someone to run with. So before I log in my own details from today's run, I'm going to take a moment to be Joy-the-Cheerleader to help Nomi get her groove back! :)

First things first, I think that what Nomi's grappling with is a typical experience of plateauing. I mean, on our first run together in Malaysia at the beginning of May 2010 we ran 9.67km in 1 hour and 6 minutes with an average pace of 6:52min/km. And by the end of the month we did that same loop in 54 minutes flat for an average pace of 5:55min/km (and that's after running our 10km race and both finishing under 60 minutes in race conditions). So to be clear, we were able to cut down our running time by 12 minutes and improve our pace by around 1 min/km without really doing any serious training. We just got out and ran. It was fun; it was brainless; it was relaxing; it was routine; and we were able to see the results. I think that we both just figured that we would continue improving along on that same pace and in another month would chop off another 12 minutes with a similar strategy - namely, run and have fun! Unfortunately for both of us, that's just not the case. I haven't done another 10km run at my race pace of around 5:30min/km and I certainly haven't shaved 12 minutes off my time. Neither has Nomi. So now I think it's fair to say that we've plateaued and to make matters worse, Nomi has to deal with the frustrations of a sore knee, feeling like she's not making progress, and running alone. So no wonder she's not feeling motivated!!! So here's where I come in....here are some strategies:
1.) Use this blog the same way that we used our runs together. What I mean by this, is try to use the blog to be accountable. Obviously it's not the same as knowing that I'm waiting for you to pick me up at 6am, but if you tell yourself that you know I'll check to see how your run was, maybe it'll help. In 2008-2009 I was a postdoctoral fellow, which means that I was accountable to no one. Another one of my friends was also a postdoctoral fellow that year, so we got into the habit of emailing each other "monthly reports" not really because we were checking up on each other, but just because somehow it felt more "real" to have to send our progress reports to someone.
2.) Instead of just running and hoping for it to get better, let yourself get into a 3 weeks "on" and 1 week "off" routine. That way you'll give yourself time to recover and get stronger, while also working in a kind of rhythm to the workouts so it's not just like running nonstop with no end in sight. So that way you can try to force yourself to run 3 or 4 times per week at a harder pace (let's say trying to average around 5:45min/km) and then take one week where you only run at around 6:10min/km for all your runs. Then when you're not feeling motivated, on the hard week, you can tell yourself, "oh, it's only 2 more runs until my easy week," or "hey, I just had an easy week, I can do this!" That way too, you can just see your runs as happening within 3 week "chunks" of time, so that if you run at 5:45min/km for 3 weeks, then after your easy week, you can always see if you want to up the pace for your next 3 weeks.
3.) Run with someone else. If you join up with a running group, even one that only meets on the weekends (you know who I mean), then that should help motivate you to get out the door during the week, because you won't want to fall behind the rest of the group! So then if you can recruit someone once or twice during the week to run with you, and you've got a group on the weekends at least you'll have other people there to get you through.
4.) Cross train with the bike. If you end up sleeping through or missing a run, then substitute it with a ride on the bike. A 2hr bike ride is about equivalent to a 1hr run. Heck, maybe the thought of having to make up a 1hr run with 2hrs on the bike will be enough to choose the lesser evil of the 1hr run!!! ;)
5.) The August 2010 edition of "Runner's World" magazine has some advice: In response to the question "I feel stuck in my comfort zone. How will I ever get faster?" the magazine offers this answer "Once a week, warm up, the run intervals. Pick up the pace for one minute (don't sprint), then walk for two minutes. Start with three or four of these accelerations. Add one or two intervals each week until you can do eight to ten of them."

6.) You'll just have to get yourself over to Canada to run with me!!! :) I've been doing some nice runs around here and I've thought many times just how much you'd enjoy running here. One of these days I'll take the camera with me when I run so that I can show you the loops.

Anyway, those are just some suggestions. Grappling with motivation is never easy. My 1/2 marathon is 17 October. Nomi's is 21 November. So I will keep my training information on this blog and then she can do the same workouts I do and since she's got a one month grace period, she'll be able to see if it works for me or not and thus tweak the program for herself.

Speaking of my own program, today (Saturday) was my long run. Thank goodness it rained yesterday and broke the heat a bit. It was a manageable temperature at 7am this morning when I headed out the door for 15kms. I ran out for 7.5km and then stopped for a pee break and to eat a chocolate flavoured GU for energy before turning around and heading back in the direction of home. I ran the first 7.5km at around 6min/km and ran the second 7.5km at around 5:40min/km. The theory is that if I try to run the second half of the long run a little bit longer than the first half, then I can get my body used to running quicker with kms in my legs. That way (in theory) I'll be able to speed up at the end of the 1/2 marathon and my body will be used to that. So my stats for today are:

15.01km in 1:27 for an average pace of 5:48min/km.

And now I'm going to settle down, share a beer with my husband, and watch the 3rd place game of the World Cup finals!

Over and out,

Joy

Running alone....

Well, a few days after the run in Singapore, Joy upped and left back for Canada....i had signed up for a 10k run in the city at the end of the following month and so had to still train for it. Well, after training with Joy, running alone sucks. The main lacking factor was motivation. I mean, getting up at 5am , getting some chores done, then driving 1/2 hour to the park to run is a bit of a drag. When Joy was around, i knew that she would be waiting for me , so there were no excuses to back out...
Soooo.....least to say, i was not as consistent with my training...often , i would run just for an hour, without my GPS watch , without knowing pace, or total kms completed....it was just pure running, for the fun of it. Now Joy has a natural running pace of about 5.3 min/km and mine is about 6min/km. So with her, i would run faster to keep up , but alone i was pretty much like a tortoise.
Then lazy me also, was to lazy to warm up properly , or do stretches after runs...so i injured my left knee, which further hampered the running. But, with rest, ice packs, pain killers and slow runs , it did get better.
So in the following month after Joy left, my running was pretty inconsistent. I would run maybe 3 or 4 tines a week and often not know how far or fast i ran...
So, in conclusion...Joy needs to spend more time in Malaysia :) Or, i could go to Canada....

Over and out,
Nomi

Recovery Day

Joy here...So the plan is for Monday to be a rest day, Tuesday to be a tempo run (a run that includes five minute stints at "a comfortable hard" pace i.e. faster than a nice, easy run), Wednesday to be an easy run with strides (around 10km), Thursday to be hill repeats, Friday to be a rest/recovery day, Saturday to be a long run (up to 15km tomorrow), and Sunday to be an easy run (let's say 10km easy). As the weeks progress, I'll update that plan, but that's the working plan for now, which means that today (Friday) was just an easy recovery run. So I pulled my hot and sweaty self who didn't sleep much (despite taking an ice pack into the bed and training two separate fans on us as we slept) outside for an easy 20-ish minute jog. It was only 3km.

In other news, yesterday I bought a pair of Vibram Fivefingers. These are shoes that aren't really shoes at all. In fact, they're like foot gloves that allow for running to feel as close to a barefoot sensation as is possible without actually being barefoot (which I wouldn't advise in an urban setting). I don't intend to run in them straight off the bat, because I think that I would need to build up foot strength before tackling barefoot running. However, I do intend to use them just for walking around throughout the summer, and then I'll gauge whether or not my feet feel any stronger afterwards. At this point it's a bit of an experiment.

Over and out,

Joy

Hill Repeats...and a Hot Bike Ride!

Okay, it's Joy here; I just heard from Nomi who is down with the flu. She says she hasn't run in 3 days, and I hope she'll be back at it soon so that this blog isn't just full of me. But in the meantime, it's me, me, and more me. So here I go with today's training details:

The alarm went off at 5am so that I could run and possibly beat the insane heat of the day. But, of course, that wasn't possible. After my breakfast smoothie and cup of coffee, I was out the door for the run by around 6am, and the sun had been up for about 1/2 an hour by that point, and it was already damn hot. So I soldiered on with ice in my water bottle and hoped for the best as my fingers were crossed that my sweat wouldn't melt off my sunscreen.

Today I ran a 20min. easy warm up with two strides (strides being the 100m. faster run) to loosen up my legs. Then I did 6 hill repeats. So what this means is: I found a hill close to where I live (well, actually a 20min. run away) and then I ran up it as fast as I could. When I got to the top, I slowed down a bit and then ran back down the hill as slowly as possible so that I could catch my breath. It took me about 1min. to run up the hill. Then when I got to the bottom, I turned around and did it all over again. I did that a total of 6 times before doing the easy 20mins. home with another 2 strides worked in. The theory behind the hill work is that it builds muscular strength (and eventually speed as well). I don't know about all that, but it was hard, and in the heat I certainly felt like I was having a good workout.

After getting home from that workout, which took a total of 53mins. door-to-door, I ate some cereal, had some more coffee, stretched, and then showered. Then at 9am I went for a 2 hour easy bike ride. Well, easy that is until the turnaround point 1 hour into the ride when I FELL OVER FROM STANDING STILL. I average about one fall for every bike ride, and I swear I'm trying to get better and better, but it's still a problem for me. The glitch is that I have pedals that I clip into, and while I remember to clip one foot out whenever I approach an intersection or stopping point, I sometimes don't lean over to the side of my clipped out foot, and so if something distracts me (like today when my right foot was clipped out, but I looked to my watch on my left hand), then I might tip over. While I've been lucky enough to escape these little mishaps with nothing more than a few bruises and scrapes, it is rather embarrassing. Luckily for me, my riding partner today was really kind and didn't laugh at me. In fact, she even offered me a tissue so that I could dab my bleeding leg wound where I jabbed my leg with my own bike crank.

As I resolve to become a better runner while training for this 1/2 marathon, my other resolution is to learn how to ride my bike without falling off!

Over and out,

Joy

SCKLM

OK, so the race day arrived( this was sometime at the end of June)....

Improperly prepared me , went for it anyhow with another running buddy. The event was a bit chaotic. All major roads were closed at 5am. So, I had to get to wherever I wanted to go by car, at 4.30am, which meant getting up at 3.30am to prepare, which meant that I didn't sleep the night before..
Well, the atmosphere during race day was actually festive..there was loud music blaring, christmassy lights everywhere, runners hopping, prancing, wiggling and you could almost smell the adrenaline in the air....it rained earlier , so the weather was really nice and cool...
Before i knew it people started filling up the start line i was waaaaaaaay at the back. Never mind i thought, i'd stay right behind and hopefully the traffic would clear and I'd be able to run. Boy was i wrong.....it was like trying to run through a human wall... there were mums pushing prams, people chatting on handphones, runners walking leisurely...i guess no one heard about slow runners on the left, fast on the right and giving way.....so the first 5 kms of running was pretty much spent weaving in and out of bodies, running on pavements, intervals of walking because of human traffic jams...
But it was still fun - being at the back, there was this whole column of bobbing human heads in front, the weather was wonderful and i enjoyed my self very much.
The distance was supposed to be 10kms but my GPS watch said no, it was 10.6kms...and i managed to finish it in 58m23s. And i came 30th out of 3000+ runners in the same category....and then the sponsors decided to use the gun time instead of the actual running time, so i dropped more than 30 spots...oh well.....whatever.....till the next race.
Nomi signing out.

Rest Day

Joy here...So I was supposed to get up at 5am in order to do an easy run before the sweltering heat began to melt me like the Wicked Witch of the West. Unfortunately, it was hot and steamy all last night, and without any air conditioning in our home, I slept very little. So when the alarm went off at 5am, I promptly rolled over and turned it off. I didn't haul my sweaty self out of bed until about 7am, and by then the sun was high over head and the heat was sweltering. I decided to sit tight, watch some of the Tour de France and the World Cup semi-final (yay Spain!). After all that sport watching, I convinced myself to go for an easy 30 minute run in the hot afternoon sun. Today is supposed to be my rest day, so I tried my best to take it easy, but how is anything easy when you're melting? Tomorrow is hill work AND I'm going for a bike ride. Let's see if I don't melt before then. Ugh.

Hot early morning run...

Joy here...okay, so I got up bright and early this morning (around 4:30am-ish). Since I'm so far north here in Canada, the sun was up shortly after 5:00am, and by 6:00am I was out the door for a run, in a vain attempt to beat the heat. While I should be used to the heat and humidity after spending the month of May in tropical Malaysia, when the weather gets this hot and humid here in Canada, I'm always surprised. It's like my body can deal with it in Malaysia, but here, my body seems to scream "what's going on? It's CANADA for goodness sake!" The temperature this morning was 23 C, but with the humidity, the weather network tells me that it "feels like" 35 C. So I started off the run at an easy pace of around 6:00min/km for the first 5km. It took about 30 minutes to reach the 5km mark. At that point, I was incorporating strides into my run. I didn't know what strides were until my husband explained it all to me, and strides are where you pick up the pace for about 100m and run at about 70-80% of your max speed in order to kick your body into a new gear. Apparently (according to my husband, again), serious runners all incorporate strides into their workouts, and even though I've never actually really read many running books, it seems like a good idea to me. So after 5kms, I did 6 strides in total. Basically I ran faster for a slow count of 20 seconds, and then recovered for another little while before doing it all over again.

So today's total stats are:

8.79km at 5:48min/km with 6 100m strides

Our first post...

...okay, Nomi and I (Joy) have started this blog so that we can keep track of our training progress as we both train for our very first 1/2 marathons. The hitch is that Nomi is in Malaysia, and I am in Canada! You try having your training partner on the other half of the world! :)

While our blog is really just for us to keep track of our training, if other people find it helpful with their own training or even just with thinking about getting back into running (or starting up for the first time) that's great! While Nomi was a runner in college and even kept up her running until she was 6 months pregnant, after having her daughter her running suffered. Being a busy mom and full-time physician left her with little time to keep up her running, and when she finally quit her job to spend more time with her daughter she realized that her body had not returned to its normal self. While I don't have any kids, I only took up running in 2007, and then just as I was getting the hang of it, I moved to a new city in 2009, starting a long-distance marriage. It sucked a lot, and as you can well imagine, I turned to chocolate. So when Nomi and I were able to visit each other in Malaysia for Christmas 2009, both of us feeling fat and uninspired, and a friend mentioned a nighttime 10km women's only race in Singapore at the end of May, I looked to Nomi and said, "I'll do it if you do it." She was game! So I headed back to Canada and signed up for the race in Singapore for May 29, 2010. I emailed Nomi, and she did the same. We did our best to run from January to May being in different countries, and when I arrived in Malaysia in early May for our holiday and to acclimatize, we were finally able to run together. Luckily, we ran at around the same pace and both enjoyed running together rather than separately via email.

May 29th came, so we packed up husbands and her daughter and headed to Singapore for the race weekend. We both just wanted to run 10km in less than 60 minutes and have fun doing it. In the end, my time was just over 54 mins. and Nomi's was just over 56 mins. Even though it was damn hot and damn humid, we enjoyed the run, and Nomi signed up for some other 10km races throughout the summer while I hopped back on a plane and back to Canada. I've signed up for a 1/2 marathon in October, and she's signed up for a 1/2 marathon in November. So we'll sign into this blog to chart our progress.

So far, here are my training stats:

First run on returning to Canada: June 5, 2010 - 12.94 km at 6:28min/km

June 7, 2010 - 8.85km at 5:56min/km

June 12, 2010 - 13.07km at 5:56min/km

June 13, 2010 - 8.8km at 6:04min/km

June 16, 2010 - 5km at 6:04min/km

June 17, 2010 - 9.1km at 6:02min/km

June 21, 2010 - 13.07km at 5:54min/km

June 22, 2010 - 8.85km at 6:06min/km

June 23, 2010 - 5km at 6:22min/km

June 24, 2010 - 9km at 5:53min/km

June 26, 2010 - 14.01km at 5:46min/km

June 29, 2010 - 8.93km at 5:47min/km

June 30, 2010 - 5km at 5:53 min/km

July 3, 2010 - 13.6km at 5:56min/km

July 4, 2010 - 6.5km at 5:46min/km

I've done a few easy bike rides in there as well, and I plan to systematize the training moving forward, but for now I've just been trying to put some kilometres in my legs to build up my endurance. Today is a rest day, but I'll log back on tomorrow with an update of tomorrow's workout. In the meantime, Nomi (who is 12 hours ahead of me) may just log in with details of her own!

Over and out,

Joy