wk 38 - survival week

I do not have much to write...

because of the work/family stuff, I could barely train. I reached 55km for the whole week in 6 sessions.
The hamstring is still tight and the PT told me to avoid any "Fast" workout until gets better.

Obviously I did not follow his recommendation and entered a 5K race with many ups/down...

It was Race #3 of the AVOHK 5K series and the course is really tough... in 5K there are enough climbs, trail sections and downhill that it really feels like a longer race....

Basically I reached the start line almost exhausted from the week and I did not expect anything good. I just wanted to score points in the series and keep the lead in the M40 category.

So it did go maybe even better expected.
I was in the lead duo until we hit the final paved section after the trail but by then I was  done and also I can not really run downhill because the hamstring immediately gave me "warning".
When the eventual winner started pushing the pace, I know I was doomed to lose and let him go without any resistance. From 4k onwards I just cruised down to the finish line avoid too much damage in the downhill section.
So I ended up 2nd Overall (1st Master) in 18'09" (I lost 35" in 1.2k....). Full results HERE
At the end the comparison with previous seasons is not bad:

2007: 18'16" (with was a promising season debut and 3 months later I was going to score my Marathon PB of 2h38')
2008: 17'46" (yes... I was really in good shape..)
2009: no
2010: 18'09"

So the logical inference would be that I am in sub 2h40' marathon shape... but in reality I never run more than 20k.. so it would still need a lot of specific endurance training to reach that level.
Anyway I do not see myself taking the start line of a marathon this year since from next week we will have another member in the family, so for a while I will focus elsewhere from running...
...it will be also a good reason to get rest and nurse my hamstring...

Nice photo album from Ps Brown... the start (in steep uphill_

... here I am cruising to finish line

Thanks to PS Brown for the nice album

Wk 37 - tightness...

Not much to say apart that the tightness in my hamstring is definitely affecting my training... I just go ahead in maintenance mode and it is probably time to take care of this nagging injury in a more serious way...

MON: usually monday MOS loop (16k). I went easy until halfway and then I tried to push a bit more but the hamstring was tight so I went on easy to the end...

TUE: in Dongguan... 10k easy

WED: bloody hot and humid... I run around 14k which felt like 30k...

THU: Dongguan forest... also terribly hot... today all dogs were after me... I got chased several times even in spots where it was "dog less" before... total around 16k ... felt exhausted

FRI: HK very easy recovery run 11k... forced myself to run slowly

I also managed to book a visit with the PT, who confirmed that there is a point of tightness in the hamstring.
After a very painfull deep-tissue massage, it was also time for agopuncture...

NO COMMENT.....


SAT: despite the warning of the PT that I should have taken easy for a couple of days, I went for an already planned hard workout... supposed 5x2000m at HMP...
I hit the target of 7'10"-7'15" for the first 3, then the hamstring tightned up and I bagged the workout...
total 21k

SUN: 12km easy with progression... hamstring felt really better but I did not pushed too much

TOTAL : 83Km

Now i will try to take it easy until the hamstring is healed and hope to make another session of PT if the work schedule allows...
there are a bunch of short races in the next days and so it makes sense to be fresh...but more on that on the next post...

to close, I found a nice album from Peter on the last race.
nice sequence of shots on our sprint for the 3rd to 5th place...

here I am still in 4th with 100m to go...

sprint to death... and got overtook with 30m to go...

Wk 36 - another good race and a tight sprint

I am start to feel more and more "stronger" by the day. Maybe is because the combo temperature+humidity is getting slightly better or maybe because of the cumulated training until now...

MON: usual "MaOnShan" loop.. it is becoming my monday's habit. It is a good 16km loop and there is a gorgeous chilled water fountain at mid-way... the last 7km are also well marked every 500m, so it makes the perfect setting for running easy for the first 8k, take a good drink and then crank up the speed in the way back...
around 4'20" for the first half, then I upped the pace to 4'00" flat for a good medium effort...
hamstring still slightly tight, so I started a combo of pills (mio-relaxant + ibuprufen)

TUE: felt well recovered from yesterday, so I went for a interval training session.
I left orthotics+trainers at home to give a try on what would have happened in racing flats ....
so 5x1000m with 1'30" standing recovery, along the river in Shatin
I felt much easier than expected and after setting a 3'25" for the 1st, I run by sensation without checking the splits...
3'25"
3'17"
3'17"
3'16"
3'20"
the recovery was very good with HR dropping back to "rest" state...
Excellent workout. Very likely I can target a 16'40" at Saturday's 5K race

WED: insanely hot and humid... I crawled around the streets of Dongguan. for 13k...
THU: weather much better after a thunderstorm. I got up late so I just went around the block in Dongguan for  another 13k.
some 6-7strides at the end... my personal observation is that my strides are around 2'45" pace and I almost feel like the legs are out of control... while a top runner can do 10k at that pace.....

FRI: tought night with the kids... got up late so I clocked only 7k easy

SAT: RACE DAY
2nd leg of the Avohk 5k series... I felt very motivated because this course has always been very "friendly"
2006: 5th place, but I was not yet the same runner I am now...
2007: 1st place... I will never forget the kick I did in the last 400m and the awkward sensation of winning a race for the 1st time...
2008: 2nd place... run a fantastic race with a monster 5k PB of 15'51". I was really at my peak back then...
2009: not run :-((

for this time, I did not have any winning ambitions, but I really wanted to run well and see if my progression is going on....

luckily, it was still drizzling after a major thunderstorm so the temperature was more reasonable (27C...99%Rh), but that made the course quite slippery.

We started fast and a new face (for me) disappeared immediately from sight at an astonishing speed. The guy went on to win in 14'22" which is an amazing time for that course....
I come to know later that he is  former Australian national with PB of 3'45" on 1500m....
Anyway I touched first hand what a real runner is...

back to us (normal humans...) ... we run in a pack of 4. The road was quite slippery and on a couple of case I felt my feet was ready to slip away....
running that fast on that slippery and twisting road, avoiding at the very last moment a collision with the occasional dog-walkers, joggers and so on I felt like I was trying to ride a bike at full speed into a Mongkok street on Sunday afternoon......

The first 2k were blazing fast, then we settled into a more "comfortable" pace until the last km where one of us  did charge away with a good progression while we were left in 3 fighting for a sprint finish...

Honestly speaking I did feel still something left in the tank, but simply my legs could not go faster than that... obviously I am not used to faster paces and I was simply hanging there already in my 5th gear...

We were really fighting stride for stride and with 200m to go I did kick, but then I got overtook again at 100m to go and I was done...
5th Overall, 1st Master ... great fight until the last meter with my neighbour and sometimes-running partner E.
time: 16'35"... which is satisfactory and in line with my expectations...
(OMG... how could I have run 15'51" here in 2008... that is a 10"/k faster)

Nice pic of the final sprint...

SUN: after a hard night with the kids waking up one after another, I simply slept...

TOTAL: 70k in 6 workouts..(a bit on the low side but the quality was good)

Wk 35 Summary - unremarkable

93 Km in 8 workouts. I was able to sneak out for a second evening easy workout on a evening and all added up it come a decent mileage, considering that I am not running any longer than 16-17km at most every time.

Since the hamstring was still tied up, I did not want to risk with any fast workout, so I just run around at easy/moderate pace for the whole week with some progression.

I start to be suspicious of my orthotics... they really affect the stride somehow and especially once they get full of sweat they feel awkard (like stomping in a puddle at every step...).

Next Saturday I have the 2nd leg of the 5K series. I hope to feel decently ok since the race is on my "lucky course" (2 voctories, 1 time 2nd...)

to close... the summer issue of the HK Runner Magazine carried a good race report on the race I did last May and it was pleasant to be portrayed again in action
(Note: I have the leg like those of a Rugby player... I definitely need to thin up... with cycling I added 2kg of muscles in the legs...)

Week 34/2010 Summary and (nice) 5K race report

I do not know exactly why, but last week marked a turning point in my training.

Maybe because  of the weather or maybe I started to "absorb" the workload, but for the first time I felt I was RUNNING and not crawling.
If I would have to re-conduct everything into figures, I would rely on the "Training Load" plug-in of SportTrack : when I raced on 15/8, the TTSB (Training Stress Balance) was on the severe overtraining territory, becuase I was ramping up the load quite quickly. A couple of days rest, some easy runs plus the smoothing of the training load had brought back the TSS into the right zone... therefore with a decent level of freshness.

MONDAY: 13.5Km all easy effort, but end up at 4'20" average pace
TUESDAY: 14.5Km start easy with 5km progression run at medium effort... felt excellent, another 4'20" average pace with very low bpm
WEDNESDAY: 15.5Km very easy in the wild in Dongguan...struggled because of the heat
THURSDAY: I was in Shanghai (Fengxian District) for work and managed a 11km easy run under a baking sun.   It was a crappy road along the sea with no shadow at all and warm breeze... I was just hoping to getting done

FRIDAY: the return from Shanghai was a classical "airport horror story"

- 15.45 (on thursday): boarding for 16.15 take-off, flight CZ to Shenzhen
- 16.15: announcement that take off will be delayed because a passenger is missing so they must download his checked baggage
- 16.30: thunder and lighting on the horizon
- 16.45: announcement that take off will be delayed because of the thunderstorm (it did not help that on the day before there was an air crash in Heilongjiang because of bad weather... so obviously now they are taking a no-risks approach)
- 20.00: after 4 hours sitting on the plane, we are disembarked and told to wait until further notice. Rain is pouring down in droves.... the airport is a mess because all flight were suspended, so it was a fight just to find an empty seat to camp
- 00.00: boarding again. Rain stopped. We should be #2 at take off, so should be over soon...
- 01.00: we are not moving.... passengers are getting very angry and insulting openly the crew and ground staff.... seems they were is a mismatch between the passengers on board and the boarding list. The crew is totally INCAPABLE to manage such a simple issue...they do recount but with all the passangers going around the plane (!!). they do not sit down to match the boarding lists with the seats, etc... real crap
- 02.30: after the discovery that they did not recount an infant (who was in the passenger list), the arcane is solved and we take off...
- 04.30: land in Shenzhen... total delay 10 hours...
- 05.30: arrive home... I did not sleep a minute and the sun is already rising...
take shower and get ready for work...

So you can expect that I did not feel too much like going for a run with 30C outside...

SATURDAY: 5K race in TaiTam...

Actually some of you might remember that 2 years ago I won this race...but the situation was totally different.. I was really well trained then while now I would have already been happy to take the Master victory and score points in the "Adidas 5K series".

Well, it did went much better then expected...the course is a tough beast with 1.2k flat, 1k on a very hard climb, small loop at the top and then come back...
Praise to the organizer for including also a Junior category, to give some deserved space to the next generation of runners....

(Thanks to Victor Lee for these nice pics !!)

After the flat start (I am #126) we tackle the climb in a large group and little by little we lose pieces until I realize that we are only 2 at the front .
I was labouring VERY HARD, but I could not expect differently since the climb is really steep (many runners slowed down to a walk).
While tackling the downhill I felt already a bit doomed because the hamstring was still tight so I could not risk to dive into the downhill at full speed... I tried to work on the cadence, but I was losing ground and by the bottom I was already 50m behind.
Well... I hoped to be able to make up some ground, but I simply "bombed",...I was totally done and closed the last Km in damage control, scoring 2nd OA and 1st Master.

this is the face of someone hurting badly...

Nice Album from Victor Lee

The disappointment of losing out, was mitigated by 2 facts:

1) In 2008 I won in 18'05" and the 2nd come into 18'25". This time the winning time was also 18'05" and I closed in 18'25" as well... (nice coincidence...).
So I am closer to my 2008 levels much more than I expected.

2) I chatted with the winner, who was a total unknown. I found out that he is a new comer to HK and we both run the Fukuoka Marathon 2007, but his time was 2h25' (!!!!). He was still not fully trained yet, but all the same I felt like losing to someone of real good caliber

Race results are HERE

As last race here, I wore the Polar HR right to see what is my maximum HR right now and calibrate the training...

quite interesting is the comparison with 2 years ago in terms of HR levels during the race.

Average HR: 188 (2008) vs 185 (2010)
% of time HR over 190: 50% (2008) vs 25% (2010).

So in such a short race the training allows the body to push more and sustain a higher level of fatigues without the shut down effect of the central governor. Even if my 2008 training was mainly geared to marathon, I was still more conditioned to work near my maximum.

SUNDAY: rest , which was a mistake because the legs would have needed a slow jog to toss out the soreness due to the downhill... by the end of the day I felt the quadriceps like stones...

So a good week and definitely a step in the right direction. I need now to get more focused on my training and dedicate more time to increase the lactate threshold.