I ended up in the Summer issue of local magazine "HK Runner" for a brief profile.
For once, something not only in Chinese, so suits also my overseas readers.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
HK Runner Magazine
I ended up in the Summer issue of local magazine "HK Runner" for a brief profile.
Monday, May 30, 2011
oppss... am I supposed to race today !?
Friday 27th I got up very early and crawled to the PC to see some news before heading for the usual run...
Some running God made me click on www.hkaaa.com to check if I was successfully enrolled in the track meeting due on June 4-5...
to my sleepy eyes, it took a while to realize that I was not only enrolled, but also scheduled to race on that same day 27th due to a change of calendar...
Being after a couple of hard session, I was not really sharp for a 5000m track race, but nonetheless I had to run in order to mark a presence in the series and eventually be able to race the finals in November...
Fast forward 14 hours later, I am eventually able to leave the office at 19.15 and show up at the Stadium in suit and tie with a sport bag in tow...
Being 26C/80%rh the warm-up did not take long and I find myself on the start line, together with other 30 runner whose average age was half mine... (I do not know why, but these track meeting looks like taboo to over 23...).
Honestly I felt dreadful, and my race plan was to stick to 3'20" pace until I could keep it and maybe increase a bit on the finale...
Until 3k I was more or less there and incredibly I was also near the race leader (yes... this meeting was really low level...). Then I felt my total lack of specific training... I was not really hurting, but simply my pace was slipping from 1'20"/lap to 1'22" or more...
Better said... I was NOT able to hurt...my engine had a kind of rpm limiter...
For the last 3 laps I tagged a boy (whom I know is 15yo...) and then just unleashed a kick to outsprint him for the 4th place overall in 17'00"...
Regardless of the time and placement, I was quite satisfied that I did not have any tightness or soreness in hamstrings, calves, abductors, whatever...
last season usually after every track session I was tight everywhere... so is a sign that all the stretching and ancillary exercises are working...
MORALE: if you enroll in race, check the calendar
Some running God made me click on www.hkaaa.com to check if I was successfully enrolled in the track meeting due on June 4-5...
to my sleepy eyes, it took a while to realize that I was not only enrolled, but also scheduled to race on that same day 27th due to a change of calendar...
Being after a couple of hard session, I was not really sharp for a 5000m track race, but nonetheless I had to run in order to mark a presence in the series and eventually be able to race the finals in November...
Fast forward 14 hours later, I am eventually able to leave the office at 19.15 and show up at the Stadium in suit and tie with a sport bag in tow...
Being 26C/80%rh the warm-up did not take long and I find myself on the start line, together with other 30 runner whose average age was half mine... (I do not know why, but these track meeting looks like taboo to over 23...).
Honestly I felt dreadful, and my race plan was to stick to 3'20" pace until I could keep it and maybe increase a bit on the finale...
Until 3k I was more or less there and incredibly I was also near the race leader (yes... this meeting was really low level...). Then I felt my total lack of specific training... I was not really hurting, but simply my pace was slipping from 1'20"/lap to 1'22" or more...
Better said... I was NOT able to hurt...my engine had a kind of rpm limiter...
For the last 3 laps I tagged a boy (whom I know is 15yo...) and then just unleashed a kick to outsprint him for the 4th place overall in 17'00"...
Regardless of the time and placement, I was quite satisfied that I did not have any tightness or soreness in hamstrings, calves, abductors, whatever...
last season usually after every track session I was tight everywhere... so is a sign that all the stretching and ancillary exercises are working...
MORALE: if you enroll in race, check the calendar
 |
| The race venue... appreciate the typical HK-downtown landscape... high-rises |
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Track workout breakthrough...
No, I did not run 10x1000m in 2'50"...(well... let's say not yet..., maybe)
But I DID RUN in this track, which is actually the track of 清溪第一中学..
The usage by "commoners" of sports grounds in China is completely a mistery to me... those who should be for common use are usually locked all day long unless a major sports event, but it is more likely that you can sneak in into some school sports ground before their lessons.
Despite moving to this town already 3 years ago, I always had a taboo to try my luck into entering this track. But this morning I did not feel too much to make some intervals around a a factory, I felt the need to some rubber...
All said, brief chat with the security guys at the entrance and at 6.00am sharp I was starting a modest 3x1000m to get back into interval training...
times were 3'13"-3'12'-3'11", it was nice to feel the pain of the lactic acid in my arms...
 |
| Qingxi tonw school (from Panoramio) |
Week 18: 0Km
Week 19: 35Km
Week 20: 72Km
all complemented by strong doses of core exercises, stretching, etc
No mistery that by sunday evening I felt like being passed over by a track....
Note: there is a strong debate about the real estate craze in China. The pic above was taken in 2008 and by now there are at least other 3-4 mega-residential complexes (like the one which was in construction in the pic) in this small town where 90% of the population are factory workers at 200USD/mt salary...
All the apartments are snapped by eager buyers even before completion and then they lay empty or half empty for years, because the rental or purchase are beyond reach for the masses...
The brick is just a way to park the money of wealthy locals, in absence of other investment alternatives.
This said... will the bubble burst or not ?
Thursday, May 19, 2011
from Xinxing to Berlin
what the hell am I saying ??
after a 3 weeks stops to repair all my aches, I was getting a bit lazy about resuming training...
it was good to wake up late (6.30am) and avoid the heat outside.
So I took profit from a business trip to Xinxing (place in the middle of nowhere in Guangdong) to force myself to run and kick-off the campaign to run the Berlin Marathon...
I was already mentally ready to run on some city walkway, when I spotted a sign for "Yunfu City Greenway Bike Path"...
Incredibly enough, the path was actually a real bike path, on traffic free paths along the fields and river... so a real surprise... running 10K was extremely painful but I am getting back better and better by the day
View Larger Map
after a 3 weeks stops to repair all my aches, I was getting a bit lazy about resuming training...
it was good to wake up late (6.30am) and avoid the heat outside.
So I took profit from a business trip to Xinxing (place in the middle of nowhere in Guangdong) to force myself to run and kick-off the campaign to run the Berlin Marathon...
I was already mentally ready to run on some city walkway, when I spotted a sign for "Yunfu City Greenway Bike Path"...
Incredibly enough, the path was actually a real bike path, on traffic free paths along the fields and river... so a real surprise... running 10K was extremely painful but I am getting back better and better by the day
View Larger Map
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
...
I step into the lift of the Nishinetsu Hotel and found an african runner talking to a guy who had a heavy italian accent. By the time the lift arrived at the ground floor, we already introduced each other and got to know that the runner wearing jeans and a rapper jacket was Samuel Wanjiru, ready to debut the day after in a Marathon.
In the friendly atmosphere of the Fukuoka Marathon, I got the occasion to meet more times the man and have a long chat with his manager too...
4 years were long enough to make him touch the sky and then go into a dangerous downhill.
Anyway this is my personal farewell to this great athlete.
In the friendly atmosphere of the Fukuoka Marathon, I got the occasion to meet more times the man and have a long chat with his manager too...
4 years were long enough to make him touch the sky and then go into a dangerous downhill.
Anyway this is my personal farewell to this great athlete.
Friday, May 6, 2011
this is a nice one
nice pic from polish website
One meter after the finish line I felt like my ankle was exploding and I could not stand anymore...
(Note: nice to have a pretty blonde taking care of you... but I did not notice at the time)
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Thumbs Up / Down
Now back in Hong Kong, I appreciated in full the "weather gap" between the 15C dry in Europe and the 27C/haze/90%rh here...
In the past 2 weeks I did not run at all, just eat, eat and eat...
It was the right time to let all my niggling injuries heal and get some down time from running to charge the batteries in view of the next season.
Said that, from the marathon I good some really good learnings, which I try to summarize here
THUMBS UP:
1) Cracovia Marathon: is itself a very nice race, well organized and very much runner friendly.
With 3000 at the start, it is still something where you can focus on the pleasure of the race without too many cumbersome logistic problems (like waiting for 3 hours in freezing cold like in NY..).
The course was not actually pancake flat, but there were some slight inclines which are undetectable on the course profile, but not on a couple of tired legs...
Plenty of water points, with also energy drinks and food, etc... Even a post-race massage was available.
For me it was even easier thanks to the kindness of the organizer who granted me a Elite bib.
The course is quite spectacular with nice vierws of the old town, even if the section between 18 and 26K around the suburb of Nowa Huta (dull socialist style industrial town) was rather disappointing (not many spectators and the marathon was taking only one lane of the large boulevards, so we shared our run with passing-by cars...)
Entry fee is a reasonable 30 Euro and for additional 12 Euro I could get a digital version of all the 59 pictures taken by the race photographs (!!). Considering also the modest cost for lodging and food and the range of low-cost flights from all over Europe, it is sure a good choice for a Spring marathon. Good race and good sightseeing for a long weekend.
I do not bother anybody with all the 59 shots, but here some of the most spectacular:
2) ASICS Tarther Blitz 2: I must really do an unconditional endorsement for these shoes...
I really felt totally sold-out on them... they are the "perfect shoes" for a marathon (at least for a pronator like myself).
The only draw-back is that at 950 HKD RRP (around 120 USD), they are not on the cheap side (at least for HK standard...). Since I won them at a race, I could not complain on this. But probably they are well worthy the extra money
3) Our club uniform: a real hit also in Poland... everybody was shouting "Bravo" and "Vai Italia" !!
4) My overall training plan: no doubts that it works.
Long hard workouts at or near race pace every 3-4 days + many easy runs...
I think I slacked a bit on the strides, hill sprints, etc and therefore lacked a bit of speed and neuromuscolar coordination.
for good inspiration, give a look at the training of Moses Mosop for the Boston Marathon. We are obviously an another planet in terms of speed and overall workload, but the structure of the training plan is clear.
THUMBS DOWN:
1) Traveling long-haul with small Kids: honestly I think it was it was a "2 minutes loss" factor.
- jet-lag: the kids were up and awake at 4am
- the baby with a cold, kicking me all night long (he was sleeping in our bed)
- walking and driving here and there for all the 3 days before the race...
So I took the start line probably really low on sleep and energies...
I got a lesson, an intercontinental trip is already a big stress, with the kids then became unsustainable. In short, next time...leave the kids at home
2) Injury Management: I was way too slow to react to the different injuries:
- hamstring: I waited too long to go for a series of deep-tissue massages
- foot: dragged around for 4 weeks with a painful foot, popping pills and putting ice... it would have been better to head straight to the doctor and do the cortisone shot which was a solver in 2 days!
- tendon inflammation: also too slow to react... (well the time was not much anyway, but). It come out of nowhere, but I should have headed straight to the doctor. The shot on saturday afternoon did not have enough time to make effect and was too late.
So I really did poorly on treating my injuries...
The big lesson is that is always better to skip running immediately for 2-3 days at every small pain and deploy all the most powerful "weapons", rather than trying to cure with only RICE and easy runs...
3) Running a race with a Garmin (or any GPS): I did the experiment and it was really a total failure:
I had set-up the screen to disply the average total pace and the average pace of the current lap.
I was taking splits at each Km marker in order to avoid the usual GPS errors.
But still... my watch was maybe giving me an average lap pace of 3'40" and then I was maybe splitting in 3'45" or 3'50"... So I did not really know what to trust and how to adjust the pace.
Overall I think that the approach of using a HR monitor and checking the split at every Km is more reliable and let the runner make a better distribution of the effort...
In the past 2 weeks I did not run at all, just eat, eat and eat...
It was the right time to let all my niggling injuries heal and get some down time from running to charge the batteries in view of the next season.
Said that, from the marathon I good some really good learnings, which I try to summarize here
THUMBS UP:
1) Cracovia Marathon: is itself a very nice race, well organized and very much runner friendly.
With 3000 at the start, it is still something where you can focus on the pleasure of the race without too many cumbersome logistic problems (like waiting for 3 hours in freezing cold like in NY..).
The course was not actually pancake flat, but there were some slight inclines which are undetectable on the course profile, but not on a couple of tired legs...
Plenty of water points, with also energy drinks and food, etc... Even a post-race massage was available.
For me it was even easier thanks to the kindness of the organizer who granted me a Elite bib.
The course is quite spectacular with nice vierws of the old town, even if the section between 18 and 26K around the suburb of Nowa Huta (dull socialist style industrial town) was rather disappointing (not many spectators and the marathon was taking only one lane of the large boulevards, so we shared our run with passing-by cars...)
Entry fee is a reasonable 30 Euro and for additional 12 Euro I could get a digital version of all the 59 pictures taken by the race photographs (!!). Considering also the modest cost for lodging and food and the range of low-cost flights from all over Europe, it is sure a good choice for a Spring marathon. Good race and good sightseeing for a long weekend.
I do not bother anybody with all the 59 shots, but here some of the most spectacular:
2) ASICS Tarther Blitz 2: I must really do an unconditional endorsement for these shoes...
- Light but supportive (around 220 grams)
- cushioned but let your feel the road
- really wrap around the feet
- good grip
I really felt totally sold-out on them... they are the "perfect shoes" for a marathon (at least for a pronator like myself).
The only draw-back is that at 950 HKD RRP (around 120 USD), they are not on the cheap side (at least for HK standard...). Since I won them at a race, I could not complain on this. But probably they are well worthy the extra money
3) Our club uniform: a real hit also in Poland... everybody was shouting "Bravo" and "Vai Italia" !!
4) My overall training plan: no doubts that it works.
Long hard workouts at or near race pace every 3-4 days + many easy runs...
I think I slacked a bit on the strides, hill sprints, etc and therefore lacked a bit of speed and neuromuscolar coordination.
for good inspiration, give a look at the training of Moses Mosop for the Boston Marathon. We are obviously an another planet in terms of speed and overall workload, but the structure of the training plan is clear.
THUMBS DOWN:
1) Traveling long-haul with small Kids: honestly I think it was it was a "2 minutes loss" factor.
- jet-lag: the kids were up and awake at 4am
- the baby with a cold, kicking me all night long (he was sleeping in our bed)
- walking and driving here and there for all the 3 days before the race...
So I took the start line probably really low on sleep and energies...
I got a lesson, an intercontinental trip is already a big stress, with the kids then became unsustainable. In short, next time...leave the kids at home
2) Injury Management: I was way too slow to react to the different injuries:
- hamstring: I waited too long to go for a series of deep-tissue massages
- foot: dragged around for 4 weeks with a painful foot, popping pills and putting ice... it would have been better to head straight to the doctor and do the cortisone shot which was a solver in 2 days!
- tendon inflammation: also too slow to react... (well the time was not much anyway, but). It come out of nowhere, but I should have headed straight to the doctor. The shot on saturday afternoon did not have enough time to make effect and was too late.
So I really did poorly on treating my injuries...
The big lesson is that is always better to skip running immediately for 2-3 days at every small pain and deploy all the most powerful "weapons", rather than trying to cure with only RICE and easy runs...
3) Running a race with a Garmin (or any GPS): I did the experiment and it was really a total failure:
I had set-up the screen to disply the average total pace and the average pace of the current lap.
I was taking splits at each Km marker in order to avoid the usual GPS errors.
But still... my watch was maybe giving me an average lap pace of 3'40" and then I was maybe splitting in 3'45" or 3'50"... So I did not really know what to trust and how to adjust the pace.
Overall I think that the approach of using a HR monitor and checking the split at every Km is more reliable and let the runner make a better distribution of the effort...
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