Run for your life !

Run for your Life ! by Dr Ben Tan.

Run for your life is a book by Dr Ben Tan from Singapore. It is a complete marathon guide. I purchased the book from Times Bookstore in Penang. I was having a knee injury at that moment and I was looking for the cause of injury. So far I have ran 3 full marathons all based on resources from the internet. When I was browsing through the book the contents that capture my attention and purchased the book is the local content of the book that write about Singaporeans and Malaysians. So it is easier for me to connect with the book.

The other main attraction is how Dr Ben Tan transformed himself from a Laser sailor to  a marathoner. He started his sporting career as a sailor at the age of 11 and went on to become an Olympian, Asian Games Gold medalist and four time consecutive Southeast Asian Gold medalist. He also graduated with an MBBS and obtained a master in sports medicine.

Out of curiousity on how marathoners keep going to run many hours as compared to sailing, he decided to enter his first marathon in November 2002 and without training ! He was 35 years old then. That turned out to be a huge mistake but he managed to finish the race based on his mental strength in 5 hours 35 minutes. The challenge was then to transform his body into a lean running machine and reduced his weight from 78kg to 64kg turning his body from Incredible Hulk to Spiderman. His marathon times fell from 5:35 to 3:57, 3:45, 3:30 and 3:21 in 3 years and he eventually managed to run a sub 3 marathon in the 2008 Singapore Marathon.

The book covers the various aspects of the marathon from how a runner's body works and adapt, measuring your performance, training plan, ideal running form, nutrition, weight management, race strategy, how to stay injury-freee and running gear. I have not read the book from cover to cover but read individual sections of the book that is relevant to me. I feel the book would be a good resource for a person new into marathon or like me who has run a few marathons and needed a more comprehensive information on marathon running.

Under "The Training Plan", he mentioned "This book is targeted mainly at runners who have been running or jogging regularly for at least a year; and now wish to train more seriously and systematically for a marathon or half marathon. So if you are totally new to running, start running regularly first." He also mentioned the difficulty between a half and full marathon is not double, but quadruple !

In the book, "No time" is the most common excuse in training. But he noticed that in the course of his work, it is the busiest executives that take up the most time consuming sports. His conclusion is firstly, these individuals are high achievers, and noncompetitive recreational activities does not appeal to these competitive people.  Secondly, marathon training represent a form of  "escape" from their busy and stressful work. They see it as an investment in their competitiveness and health. Lastly, they need an anchor in their lives and the training schedules serves as an anchor and achieve a sense of stability and regularity in their lives and end up being more productive. In addition, people assumed that marathon training is time-consuming and tiring and reduces productivity but the training schedule forces the runner to have regular sleeping routines and improves sleep quality. The improve sleep quality enables them to wake up refreshed and ready to work. Exercises also increases alertness and reduces stress which improves work productivity.

However, I noticed that under "Weekly Mileage", he has given a guide on weekly mileage which should be approximate twice the race distance that you are training for. So for a half marathon a weekly mileage of 40 km is preferable and 80 km for a full marathon. He further elaborates that it is unlikely if you are training for your first marathon or if your training age is less than 2 years that you will be able to tolerate 80 km per week, so build up to 60 km per week. It looks like my previous marathon training, I am been always training under mileage. I have only reached 60 km once in my training so far. And only for one week ! So I have to try to increase the mileage to at least 60 km a week.

This book is a comprehensive guide on marathon training and is ideal to newbies and those who have run a few marathons and looking into more comprehensive information on marathon training. Especially suited to Singaporeans and Malaysians as there are write-up of Singapore and Malaysian marathoners.