In my previous post, I joyfully proclaimed about breaking through a barrier in training. When something like that happens, I naturally expect more progress to be forthcoming. But then I fail to take into account that it's me I was talking about, and when something good happens, something else really really sucky will come along to balance it out. The latter couldn't be truer.
Since that fateful run on the treadmill, my optimism has been rewarded with failure upon failure. I don't know whether that run itself took a lot more out of me than I thought, or that it was purely mental, since I didn't really feel worse from my efforts. The fact of the matter is that I couldn't even manage ONE run longer than 20 minutes, a bare minimum to me to be considered an aerobic effort. Paces I can maintain in my sleep for 45 minutes have me labouring already at 15 minutes, and I find myself abandoning runs even before I got done with my warm-up run, instead working on sprints and hill charges. Well, I guess at least my speed won't be declining, some consolation that is.
Oh before I sign off, I just remembered that the track meet mentioned last time around is this weekend, and to compound my training difficulties, I am still scrambling for the forms. Now if anyone doesn't believe in the adage "when it rains, it pours", kindly direct them to me. Of course, I will willingly take the rain though, or even a drizzle, or maybe just a few raindrops, heck anything but the friggin' humid and hot weather...
Monday, June 16, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Another level down, 100 more to go
It's really been a while since my last post, I can even see the cobwebs left by Google's spiders hanging all over the place. Ok enough of the cliched back-after-long-hiatus response. While I really haven't posted for a long time, I will have you guys know that I have been putting my time to busting my ass in training, and this break was pretty much required. Alright that wasn't entirely true, the truth is I got a bit sick of posting (again), and instead drowned myself in backbreaking training to cure myself of this funk (see the training was really needed!).
As far as training has been concerned, things have been going quite well, with small breakthroughs in training common. On the other hand, I haven't exactly been able to reach my desired mileage, being unable to break past the 65k mark I reached in my last cycle. I put this down mainly to motivation and determination. This is not to say I am weakening in my desire, but more of a mental barrier that I face every time I train, a testament of sorts to the degree of difficulty of the training. To put things into perspective, even if I manage to hit my old mileage, it will still be less than what is required to really move on to the next level. Ah well, I believe that when I do finally beat that mileage mark the floodgates will open. Besides, I am improving so mileage isn't a big concern yet.
Mileage aside, I am quite satisfied with my training. In fact on the treadmill, I have been besting my training records on a weekly basis, the latest being set this very evening. And since this particular mark and distance holds some significance to me, I am going to regale you guys with some personal history. For those of you with a narcoleptic history, it will be the proper time to get your coffee :).
*Turns back the clock by ermmmm, a few years*
The year was 2005, I had only become a member of the school team a few months before, and I was about to represent my school at the island level track championships. To top it off, I will be in 3 events, 4x400m, 1500m and the longest event on the programme the 5000m. My only previous experience of track was at the 1500m and 800m and that being on the school grass track. Still, I was confident. While I have only ever run middle distance before, I felt that my chances lay with the 5000m. As brash and noob as I was, I knew I wasn't even the best in the 1500m in my own school and in terms of personal best times, technically I really really suck. Of course, the fact that I had no previous experience at all with the 5000m never really occurred to me. On hindsight, I have no yardstick to give me an idea on my relative ability, but I just had the gut feeling that I was good.
I was set up for failure though, again on hindsight. My very first day of track racing I had to do a "double", run 2 events, even better yet, 1 right after the other. Yup, it sucked. Of course, I didn't know it then, instead I cast myself as the martyr since I had to run on the relay then run the 1500m. Still, things would have turned out ok if everything went to plan as my school's 4x400 was quite badass. Heck, it was probably my most concrete chance at a medal. As it turned out, after so many years of going to plan, fate decided to have a laugh just when I got to run on the relay. Rest assured I didn't screw up, but even then the dropped baton didn't seem significant as we still managed to make up time and qualify for the final. Or so we though, as we were adjudged to have committed a mistake when picking up the baton. To call this a freak accident would be an understatement.
I didn't have much time to dwell on it though, since I had about 30 minutes until my 1500. As it happened, I didn't stand a chance. My legs felt sore the first lap and I was literally bringing up the rear. There were some noob runners of course, but in typical noob fashion they sprinted the first few hundred metres. As for the favourites, needless to say they were already flying ahead. The whole field had about 20 runners so I looked really bad. The soreness subsided a bit and some of the noobs "pancit-ed" so I was able to move up in position. In the end, I did something like 5:19, while not good was still technically a personal best. Regardless, my hopes of progressing to the state championships went down in flames.
With the stage set, everything boiled down to my last event the 5000. With no prior benchmark, I set 20 minutes as my target. Hopefully that would enable me to win too. In the actual race though, my target proved to be 1 step too far and I finished in 20:26. As for the win, well, let's just say it was a few more steps further away. I did make the state championships though, but that race turned out to be total failure with me getting a stitch halfway and running way under par. All my subsequent 5000m races since then more or less turned out similarly, leaving the 20:26 still standing as my personal best.
So much for gut instinct
*Back to the present*
Of course, at my current level, the 20:26 would be easy meat, but since track races are not exactly a dime a dozen, I have had very few chances to update that mark, try something like perhaps 1 or 2 track races a year. With some luck, I hope to be able to run at the Penang Open soon. On second thought, change that to a whole shitload of luck, because as it stands, I have no idea when it will be held, even though I have been hearing about it from my juniors. I wouldn't put it past the notoriously high tech, accessible and efficient Penang association (the PAAA) to disseminate the news at the very last minute (like say 5 minutes before registration closes) to a very small audience (something like a 3 line notice at the bottom corner in the newspapers). Can't blame them really, what with them not having a website OR a blog, and being based in an area faaaaaaaar away from the city centre, totally reasonable in this day and age.
Rant aside, because after today's training run it won't hit me as much even if I miss the track event. Even though I am confident to break the 20 minute barrier, there is always still a small piece of doubt at the back of my mind, since I don't have something concrete to back it up. Those days of doubt are over though, for I managed to do 19:34. Granted the time is nothing to shout about, and it was on a treadmill, but hey, I finally managed to break past my personal milestone, so I will take this as a morale booster. The fact that it was a second half of a 40:46 10k was a nice touch too ;). So yes guys, basically I subjected you to a long ass story to tell you about this, so sue me.
Anyway, next up is to break 40 minutes in the 10k. And like the 5k, I am confident I can do it, just a little nagging doubt at the back of my mind though...
As far as training has been concerned, things have been going quite well, with small breakthroughs in training common. On the other hand, I haven't exactly been able to reach my desired mileage, being unable to break past the 65k mark I reached in my last cycle. I put this down mainly to motivation and determination. This is not to say I am weakening in my desire, but more of a mental barrier that I face every time I train, a testament of sorts to the degree of difficulty of the training. To put things into perspective, even if I manage to hit my old mileage, it will still be less than what is required to really move on to the next level. Ah well, I believe that when I do finally beat that mileage mark the floodgates will open. Besides, I am improving so mileage isn't a big concern yet.
Mileage aside, I am quite satisfied with my training. In fact on the treadmill, I have been besting my training records on a weekly basis, the latest being set this very evening. And since this particular mark and distance holds some significance to me, I am going to regale you guys with some personal history. For those of you with a narcoleptic history, it will be the proper time to get your coffee :).
*Turns back the clock by ermmmm, a few years*
The year was 2005, I had only become a member of the school team a few months before, and I was about to represent my school at the island level track championships. To top it off, I will be in 3 events, 4x400m, 1500m and the longest event on the programme the 5000m. My only previous experience of track was at the 1500m and 800m and that being on the school grass track. Still, I was confident. While I have only ever run middle distance before, I felt that my chances lay with the 5000m. As brash and noob as I was, I knew I wasn't even the best in the 1500m in my own school and in terms of personal best times, technically I really really suck. Of course, the fact that I had no previous experience at all with the 5000m never really occurred to me. On hindsight, I have no yardstick to give me an idea on my relative ability, but I just had the gut feeling that I was good.
I was set up for failure though, again on hindsight. My very first day of track racing I had to do a "double", run 2 events, even better yet, 1 right after the other. Yup, it sucked. Of course, I didn't know it then, instead I cast myself as the martyr since I had to run on the relay then run the 1500m. Still, things would have turned out ok if everything went to plan as my school's 4x400 was quite badass. Heck, it was probably my most concrete chance at a medal. As it turned out, after so many years of going to plan, fate decided to have a laugh just when I got to run on the relay. Rest assured I didn't screw up, but even then the dropped baton didn't seem significant as we still managed to make up time and qualify for the final. Or so we though, as we were adjudged to have committed a mistake when picking up the baton. To call this a freak accident would be an understatement.
I didn't have much time to dwell on it though, since I had about 30 minutes until my 1500. As it happened, I didn't stand a chance. My legs felt sore the first lap and I was literally bringing up the rear. There were some noob runners of course, but in typical noob fashion they sprinted the first few hundred metres. As for the favourites, needless to say they were already flying ahead. The whole field had about 20 runners so I looked really bad. The soreness subsided a bit and some of the noobs "pancit-ed" so I was able to move up in position. In the end, I did something like 5:19, while not good was still technically a personal best. Regardless, my hopes of progressing to the state championships went down in flames.
With the stage set, everything boiled down to my last event the 5000. With no prior benchmark, I set 20 minutes as my target. Hopefully that would enable me to win too. In the actual race though, my target proved to be 1 step too far and I finished in 20:26. As for the win, well, let's just say it was a few more steps further away. I did make the state championships though, but that race turned out to be total failure with me getting a stitch halfway and running way under par. All my subsequent 5000m races since then more or less turned out similarly, leaving the 20:26 still standing as my personal best.
So much for gut instinct
*Back to the present*
Of course, at my current level, the 20:26 would be easy meat, but since track races are not exactly a dime a dozen, I have had very few chances to update that mark, try something like perhaps 1 or 2 track races a year. With some luck, I hope to be able to run at the Penang Open soon. On second thought, change that to a whole shitload of luck, because as it stands, I have no idea when it will be held, even though I have been hearing about it from my juniors. I wouldn't put it past the notoriously high tech, accessible and efficient Penang association (the PAAA) to disseminate the news at the very last minute (like say 5 minutes before registration closes) to a very small audience (something like a 3 line notice at the bottom corner in the newspapers). Can't blame them really, what with them not having a website OR a blog, and being based in an area faaaaaaaar away from the city centre, totally reasonable in this day and age.
Rant aside, because after today's training run it won't hit me as much even if I miss the track event. Even though I am confident to break the 20 minute barrier, there is always still a small piece of doubt at the back of my mind, since I don't have something concrete to back it up. Those days of doubt are over though, for I managed to do 19:34. Granted the time is nothing to shout about, and it was on a treadmill, but hey, I finally managed to break past my personal milestone, so I will take this as a morale booster. The fact that it was a second half of a 40:46 10k was a nice touch too ;). So yes guys, basically I subjected you to a long ass story to tell you about this, so sue me.
Anyway, next up is to break 40 minutes in the 10k. And like the 5k, I am confident I can do it, just a little nagging doubt at the back of my mind though...
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