A Journey to My First Marathon Part 14

As the long run gets further my confidence of completing my First Marathon grows stronger. When the  long run hit 30 km, you finally realised that you can really finished the race. It is a grueling 4 hours run on Sunday at 5am and the hot sun on Sunday makes it a even harder run. My objective is to finish the 30 km last Sunday without bothering about the pace and time. It turned me into a roast duck after that due to the blistering sun. As a result of the hot weather, my last two km I have to run to a 7 eleven store bought a bottle of 100 plus and finished off the last 2 km.  With total training distance exceeding 1,000 km, I can say "A Journey of a Thousand Kilometers begins with a single step".

Brooks Pure Connect with extremely bright colours

However, it has been raining in the earlier weeks during my runs. Fortunately, I have bought a new pair of running shoes as Brooks was having a promotion for running shoes. I can alternate the shoes if it gets wet in the rain. Decided to get a pair of Brooks Pure Connect with a rebate of RM150. My second pair of Brooks. The Brooks Pure series are more of minimalist shoes. Currently, I am more accustomed to shoes with less cushioning like my Vibrams Seeya and Merrell Trail Glove. My Brooks Pure Connect is a bit too much cushioning to me and it is already considered the most stripped down in the series. I have only been using my Vibrams Seeya at the gym on treadmill.  Have not tested it on the road yet. Of the three pair of shoes I have, I still prefer my Merrrell Trail Glove. The Merrell is also multi-purpose and you can wear them for shopping. The Brooks Pure Connect just doesn't feel comfortable for walking but I have no problem running in them.

I will have two more very long runs, ie 33km and 30km, to complete the training before tapering.  I decided to change my training program in the last two days. Initially, I wanted to do a 33km run before my overseas trip and taper after that. But looking at the training, it would be better to squeeze in another 30 km and then taper. This is to allow my body to adjust to these longer runs.  But I am thinking of doing the last 30 km on a treadmill than on a road. This is to train my body to run at a consistent pace for 30 km which will be useful on a race day. My furthest run on a treadmill is 21 km. Anyway, I will love to do shorter runs during my overseas trip just like in Bali. It makes the trip more memorable.

I will also have to concentrate on the hill runs and interval training. And I found that it is easier to do interval training on the treadmill so that I can locked in the speed that I want to hit. I tend to make it easier if I do it on the road and I have to keep looking at my GPS watch to look at the distance covered.

Is there a post race depression? It already crosses my mind a few times. Like a woman after giving birth to a child she may hit a depression phase. Although they say giving birth is harder than running a marathon. I wouldn't know as I can't give birth to a child. Can we say running a marathon is like giving birth to a child without the epidural ? What will I be doing after a marathon? Another race. Or just running for fun. Possibly, it may be good to look at shorter races after that. So I will not be too slack in the running. At the same time, allowing the body to recover after months of training for the marathon.

Last week, our people in the office just entered my name for 84 Penang Hill hike for the inter-firms games in early December. At least I would have something coming up in December. But looking for shorter races would be good. The only problem is that there are usually not many races in early part of the year except those the overseas marathons which I am not ready for that.  The sport.my web page has not listed the races in 2013 yet. Just hope that Andrew will organise an event after Chinese New Year. Since so many of us have been pestering him to organise an event so that we can burned all the Chinese New Year's goodies. A half marathon will suffice.

The Marathon Journey continues........