Mind games... So can I continue to run or not?

You know how it is like... when you are injured or not being able to do the things that you use to be able to do, your mind starts to play games with you... Even a positive person like me somehow also got sucked in to the dark side in times like this...

For me, my mind games started in mid June... I had a 4 weeks break after Great Ocean Road in hope that my knees would recover in time to continue training for Gold Coast... I was devastated when I felt pain on my right knee only after 10 minutes of slow run... These questions started to popped up... "Am I running properly? Am I wearing the right shoes? Why is acupuncture and physiotherapy not working?" etc... The biggest question I had was: "Is there something wrong with my biomechanics?"

After speaking to my colleague, I decided to booked an appointment with Jason Agosta Podiatry. I was trying to get an appointment before Gold Coast to see if there is anything he can do or help before the race... guess what, the earliest appointment that I can get was 27 July... nonetheless, I still made an appointment as Jason came highly recommended by my colleagues...

The session cost me $85... but it was probably one of the best $85 I had spent as it answered the big question that has been bugging me for a while... I got the all cleared from Jason!!! there is nothing wrong with my biomechanics... phew and yeh!!! However, the huge mistake was in my training... Too hard too fast, or like the movie "2 fast 2 furious"... so yeh!!! I can continue running!!! yeh!!! Melbourne Marathon here I come!!! sigh.. not quite... I have been advised not to run the Melbourne marathon, but to concentrate on my recovery plan... 

The upshot is that I am not getting any younger and the harder I push my body, the longer it will take for me to recover... Here's the chart that was explained to me... The X axis represents training time, and Y axis represent recovery time... signs of injuries only starts to appear around the 3 months mark...

My training (after years of inactivity) was considered intense and hence, I was considered to be traveling along the red area... hence I am now requiring at least 3 months of rehab and recovery... What I should have done was lower my training intensity to the blue area so that my body have time to get stronger slower and recover faster... make sure you guys do not make the same mistake as me...

Below was provided to me as my recovery plan for the next 12 weeks... This can also be your training plan if you are starting out after a long break... do not worry about the distance, you will get stronger and faster as your training continues...

Week 1-2: walk/run for 20mins every 2nd day  
Week 3-4: run easy for 20mins every 2nd day
Week 4-5: run easy for 20mins 2days consecutive, 1 day of rest
Week 6-9: run easy for 30mins 2days consecutive, 1 day of rest
Week 9-12: run easy for 30mins sat, sun, tue, wed, thu

Jason also noted the key points to the above training, in order of importance:

Step 1: Consistency - Be consistent with your training so that your body can get conditioned faster and easier.

Step 2: Volume - Increase the volume consistently so that it does not harm your body.

Step 3: Intensity - You body will tell you when to add intensity into your training once the first 2 steps have been achieved.

I am already into week 1 of the training... hopefully by the end of 12 weeks, I can still squeeze some running time when my life's next big challenge arrives in October...

Gold Coast Marathon 2011 - Post Race

My Finishers medal

My thoughts on the Gold Coast Marathon...

The course: Pretty flat and pretty fast (not that it made any difference to me...) I highly recommend it to anyone... If situation permits, I will be back...

Weather: Perfect... cloudy with top of 22... the sun did break out when I was at the 30km mark, but then the clouds covered it again after about 15mins... phew...

Crowds: Very supportive and encouraging, not to say the least, interesting... There were people sitting outside their homes, clapping and cheering as runners went pass... there was a few "bands" playing music along the way... And of course, there were people who put on various costumes to dress for the ocassion... I knew the Japanese will be there in forces, but I never expected so many of them... I don't think I ever not hear "Ganbatte" throughout the race... I also had a lot of hi-fives with little kids along the way... nice...

Drink stations: Very impressed. The stations were located 2.5km apart, water and Endura sports drinks alternating between each one... And I must say, the volunteers (kids from 10 years of age all the way to grandmas and grandpas) worked like professionals... ever smiling and willingness to serve really make a difference for me, and I'm sure for all the other runners as well... Not only did they provide drinks for us, they also helped clear the cups and all off the streets... Well done all you volunteers!!!

For the record, Nicholas Manza from Kenya (surprise surprise...) won the race in a race record time of 2:10:01... The race organisers has a $25K bonus if the winner finish the race under 2:10.00. What a bummer!!! Check out the Official Results Magazine here!


Lessons learnt from this race:
- Make sure you practice your finishing pose and be sure to use it when you cross the Finish line... man, I looked like a penguin crossing the line...
- Smile and pose for all the cameras...
- Enjoy the race and tackle the race 1km at a time...
- Bring  camera if you can... lots of fun...
- Core body exercises is just as important as clocking your milage..
- Do the best with what you have got...

I really enjoyed my brother’s company over these 2 days… It has been a long time since we spent so much time together… funny how we don’t do this when we are closer to each other back in SG… human nature… he being here made a difference on how I approached the race… I ran my first marathon alone, and was very focused and felt a but stressed… with GC, I felt very relaxed and no pressure at all… yeh, I wanna finish the race under 5hours, but hey, being able to finish a marathon is a feat of its own… not to say the least I have now completed 2 in 7 weeks… Comparing GC to GOR, I enjoyed GC more, simply because I have a good company and the course did not do too much damage to my legs, but I will never forget the moment when I crossed the finish line at GOR…

So what's next? definitely rehab and recovery... really want to fix up the knee and be able to run pain free... booked an appointment with a podiatrist and hopefully there's nothing wrong with my feet...

My next goal.. hmmm... Melbourne marathon in October??? hehehe...

Gold Coast Marathon 2011 - Race Day

Sun 3 July 2011:
Woke up at 5.15am so that we have ample time to do all our pre-race routine... I had almost 8 hours of sleep, which is more than my normal sleeping hours as I usually have 6 or 7 hours max... Felt refreshed and all set to tackle the race ahead...

As part of our warm up, we walked from Surfers Paradise to the Start line, Southport, which is about 2.5km... The cool morning makes me feel nice and refresh but Collin was feeling a little bit cold... But he felt much better after 15minutes as our bodies have been woken up by the cool air...

Tourist, tourist...

Alamak... only can see "ST"

We reached the Start line with 30minutes to spare... started to wander around and decided to play "tourist"... hehehe... here are some of the pics from the Start line...




We then make our way to the back of the 4hours 30mins pack... and surprise surprise... we found Singaporeans among the starters...


These are the guys and gal from team "Run to eat"... There was also a big contingent of  runners from "Team FatBird"... I am actually amazed by how running has evolved and gain such popularity back in Singapore...

The chit chats continues... And before we know it, it was 7.20am and the race has started... we slowly inch forward and had started started running as we began to cross the start line... There were about 5000 runners and the atmosphere is fantastic...

Collins hopes to achieve his PB in this race... with the preparation and the almost perfect weather that GC has to offer, I am pretty sure that he will be able to do it... He seems to be really relax and enjoying the race... As for me, I am just aiming for completion...

We were snapping pictures along the way and was doing 6:30 pace for the first 5km... as I do not want to hold Collin back, I asked him to go chase that PB while I slowly enjoy the race...

Following are some pictures I took along the way... I also managed to capture the lead pack (ok, camera skills need more work...) on their way back after the first u-turn... it is really amazing how these people run... they look like they were floating on the air... Not long after the lead pack has passed, I saw a familar face ran past... "aaa... I know this guy leh..." He is non other than our Singapore very own elite, Mok Ying Ren... His bib displays "MOK" clearly in large font and his race number in a smaller font underneath it... Check out his result and pics and videos here... MOK Ying Ren Result

Here are some of the pictures that I captured along the way...

Running crowds...

Sumo supporter

The crowd was very supportive and encouraging... especially the Japanese...

Gold Coast seems to be a place Japs likes to visit... they were a large number of Jap runners and they even have Japanese commentary...

I kept hearing "Ganbatte! Ganbatte!" all along the race... Almost feeling like I am running in Japan...

My Brother!!!

Japanese supporters

Oh yes, did I mentioned that I was running a marathon while snapping away on my camera?  I took about 30, but Collin oh my goodness, took around 100!!! and he ran faster than me!!!

After GOR, I kinda regret not having a camera to capture my journey... hence this time, I have it with me and was trying to capture as much memories as possible...

Got time for a photo shoot?

Are you kidding me?

Collin even bought a waterproof camera just for this race...

Time seems to fly past when you are having fun... That is true... I was enjoying the sights and sounds along the race and I couldn't remember how painful it was for my knee... until I reached the 31km mark...

Made it past the first U-turn at 15.5km

Oh, by the way, I have to do the run "4mins and walk 1min" strategy after 10km... my right knee is just not coming to the party... shortly after 15km, I can no longer run properly and I was now power walking, with occasion short bursts of running... sigh... have not even reached the halfway point yet... press on... dig deep... mind over body... Come On!!!

270m to go!!!

CHEONGSTERs... Proud finishers!

Struggled along the next 2 hours... before I knew it, I have passed the 5hours mark at about the 39km mark... 3km more... let's finish strong I thought... tried to lift those legs to run but not, it is still not happening... continued with power walking...

5hour and 17minutes later... I can feel the Finish line nearing... Once again tried to finish strong by running across the Finish line, but my right knee had other ideas... Nevertheless, crossed the Finish line at 5hours and 18minutes... My new PB!!! http://tiktok.biz/goldcoastmarathon/2011/m1140/

Collin crossed the line an hour earlier... http://tiktok.biz/goldcoastmarathon/2011/m1147/ I gave him an hour of warm down while waiting for me...

My take on the marathon next...

Gold Coast Marathon 2011 - Pre-Race Day

Sat 2 July 2011:
Lena dropped me off at the airport and I took the 7am Jetstar flight to Brisbane... Initially, we intend to take a week off so that we can join my brother (Collin) and his family for a week of holiday at the Gold Coast ("GC")... But as you all know, things has changed a little bit (for the better of course) and we decided that I will travel alone and hence booked myself to fly in Saturday morning and fly out Sunday evening after the race... Luckily I did not book Tiger as some of you may be aware, they were grounded due to some safety issues... phew...

When people asked me: "So whatz up for the weekend?". I told them: "Well, you know... nothing special... just gonna fly to Gold Coast on Saturday morning to meet my brother from Singapore, then do a marathon together on Sunday morning... then fly back to Melbourne Sunday evening..." It is quite funny to see the reactions that people have after they hear this...

My flight arrives in Brisbane domestic airport around 9.30am and I took the shuttle to the international airport... Their flight landed at 10am, perfect timing...

10.15am... streams of people started coming out... no sight of them...
10:30am... still no sight... maybe they needed more time as they are traveling with 2 kids...
10:45am... hmmm... don't tell me they got delayed by the customs... hmmm... think positive...
11:00am... Finally, here they are... Arrival

  I was so happy to see them, especially my 2 nieces...

After the meet and greet, we went to pick up the rental car... Took a while to sort out the rental car, but managed to fit everything in... Gold Coast here we come!!!

About one and a half hour later, we reached Surfers Paradise... Checked in to the hotel and headed off to Surfers Paradise Boulevard for a late lunch...Managed to find Coles (supermarket) and stock up on some food and drinks...

We then drove to the GC Convention and Exhibition Centre and collect our race kits... One very interesting about the GC marathon is that we can customise our race bib...

Watch out for the "CHEONGSTER"s!!! How cool is that?

Collin and I initially wanted to do a recce run from the hotel to the start point, which is about 5km return... But, we all had a long day... Collin has not slept well on the plane and I can see that he was tired... Hence we decided to not do the recce run and have an early dinner instead...

After dinner, Collin and I exchanged tips on running, injury prevention, muscle relaxation, etc... I showed him how to use a foam roller (which by the way, he has got one now and is hooked on it...) and he showed me how to use a trigger ball... By 9pm, everyone was on the bed either asleep, or trying to get so sleep... I was tossing and turning around for a while before I fall asleep... maybe its pre-race nerves, or maybe I am still overwhelmed by the fact that me and my brother are doing a marathon together...

Weather forecast for race day is low of 15 and top of 22, with occassional showers... Hopefully all will be good for race day...

Gold Coast Marathon 2011 - Preparation

My road to the Gold Coast Marathon...

Preparation:
Usually, one should have at least 12 weeks of training to get in shape for a marathon. As for me, I have less than 7 weeks to recover/prepare after my Great Ocean Road Marathon ("GOR") in May. As you may recall, both of my knees went through a lot of suffering from the GOR. My plan was to not do any running for 2 weeks and then get back into it from week 3... sigh... plan only...

During the 2 weeks after GOR, I was stretching and massaging my legs every night (well, almost every night...) to relieve the tightness of the muscles that hold the knees, mainly my Iliotibial Band ("ITB")... I rented an exercise bike for a month as that I can jump on it as much as I can to work those legs... I also sought professional help and went for acupuncture and physiotherapy... Who says running is cheap!!! I had easily spent a few hundred bucks trying to get back in shape...

5 weeks have come and gone... my left knee has more or less recovered... However, my right knee is still no good... every time I feel 90% alright and went for a run, my right knee gave up usually after 15mins and I was back to 50%... it was quite demoralising... then I came across this quote that was given to me by my colleague (thanks Jaz!!!)... Dr George Sheenan: "The answers to the big questions in running is the same as the answers to the big questions in life: Do the best with what you have got."... time to reassess my plan...

After speaking to my brother, we concluded that the best strategy now is to concentrate doing core exercise to strengthen my form, swimming and cycling so that I can still have cardio workouts... hopefully these will still keep me in relative good shape while I wait for my knee to recover...

So that was it... my training plan requires me to do at least 30km per week... Guess what, I have only done 30km over this period of time... and I am supposed to do Gold Coast Marathon??? hmmm...