Saturday, October 31, 2009

Run #9: Follow-up Run

Subang Jaya Municipal Stadium. Cloudy. Rising Sun. 6.30am. 4km in ?

I didn't want to record my time. No pressure.

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Some thoughts on metabolic efficiency:
  1. For energy to release, our bodies needs glucose + water + O2.
  2. Glucose can be stored in muscles, broken down from fat in the liver. The rate of glucose delivery to the muscles depends on biology. This we can improve through long term conditioning (correlates with training distance), if at all.
  3. Water we can maintain by ensuring fluid goes through the body in a timely manner. BUT our bodies can't store too much water -- this translates to regular fluid stops along the running route.
  4. O2 depends on both respiration and heart rate. Respiration depends on exhalation, which removes CO2 for more O2 capacity; and inhalation, which delivers the O2. Heart rate determines the speed at which the O2 can be delivered. Assuming heart rate is constant, O2 depends on lung capacity - how much CO2 is exhaled and replaced by O2; assuming O2 in lungs is constant with each breath, heart rate determines how much of O2 can be delivered to the muscles.
My target for this month would be to condition my heart and execute adjustments in breathing method.

Training has resumed.

Subang Jaya Municipal Stadium. 6-ish. 4km in 30mins?


Crap. Out of shape. Intended a 10km but terminated the attempt after 4km. Didn't think I would be healthy if I pushed for 10km after past 2 weeks of slacking.

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I will be participating in the 10km Men category for the Angkor Wat Half Marathon on 6 December 2009. I have 1 month to prepare and restore my form.


Monday, October 12, 2009

BIM 2009

The run was beautiful and the BIM slogan was apt - "The Beautiful Run". 

Despite not training for 3 weeks, I finished the run ranked #31 overall and #25 in the Men's 10km category, and clocked 00:53:27.

Ice-sponge was a first for me: I squeezed the freezing water onto my head and felt lighter afterwards.

The Kenyan runners ran in great form. I never did caught up with any of them. The times they clocked were world-class times and inspired me to train for a 40+ minutes 10km.



The run is over, the restless part of me wonders when and where my next run is going to happen... The Angkor Wat Half Marathon seems interesting and I have 2 months to prepare for it. 

But for now, I feel so very tired and so very in need of a good rest. Perhaps I shall return again next year for the 3rd BIM run.