In days leading towards PJ Half earlier on, I noticed my shin pains started to reappear. Quite mild, but it never went off. I thought it would at least stay the same and won't get worse. I managed to finish PJ half without a noticeable pain during, but was limping with every training run after. The pain seemed to get worse as well. Went for a sports massage. Hoping that it would get better. True enough, most of my muscles were tight especially on the calf. Only then I realised it might be the calf that I need to work on. The massage was on Friday. I couldn't pull a decent longrun the Saturday after. Supposed to be another 30 but I could only manage a sloppy 20km. Had another 20km after, to compensate the 30km (which might have been another reason why it got worse). Had a recovery run after. Had to skip a planned midweek run, and hoped that a day rest would make the shin better. went for a 14 ish moderate run as planned. Started limping as usual. Decided to switch to treadmill runs, now that the pain is real and did not go off. But it got to its worst with the treadmill. And that was the point where I decided, that's it. I need to change the plans for the remaining weeks. This was the important window how the shin got to its worst again.
I didn't get to my worst situation as last time, where I couldn't run for 1km. It got so painful then. This time, while the pain still remain, I could limp a bit and still finish a run at least. But during the last 20km done, I could feel that my legs were not as stable and my tendons couldn't stabilise myself well. I knew it was on the verge of breaking. The book I read helped me to make the tough decision. So with 3 weeks remaining, I decided to call everything off. Changed the remaining strategy.
Despite stopping I still hoped that it would become better after a couple of days of. It didn't. Rest and run for up to #shincheck #3, and I had to make another tough call of stop running altogether and focused purely on cross train. I got a new epiphany at that time on cross training. I figured I need to strive to reach a zone 3 cross train, and I would be able to lessen the rate at which my fitness dwindle, if not maintained the same level. With some sharing from cycling friends, I got a rough idea of the following as my cross train strategy:
- Zone 2 - Zone 3 HR
- Duration on 1 hour
- 90 rpm.
So I did this almost every day towards the race (except during the 1-Monday public holiday, 2-the Gasing hike with Laila, 3-Office's team building day, 4-shakeout run for KLSCM, 5-the day of the kids dash). All this in hope that I could at least run without stopping midway or break my leg altogether.
Come race week, we decided to book the hotel this time. Our first time ever. We were confident of doing it this time, because the kids are bigger now. Qaid could look after the rest and Naela can manage herself as well.
We booked a very good hotel, location wise. Pacific Express Central. Just 200m away from starting line. Had quick dinner around a mamak restaurant near CM. Went back to hotel, forced the kids to sleep on alhamdulillah, they could. Got to bed only about 10pm. woke up 1145 pm due to throbbing pain on my shin. Took Actifast, and went to sleep. Wondered heavily how would the race hold for me. But I'll just try and see what the body could offer.
Wokeup at 2:45, showered, taped myself a bit more than usual. Naela was up. Which was quite good. I could bring her to pee. And she was big enough to be understanding. I am so blessed. As long a her brothers around, she's all set. Took some leftover nestum by the kids, had some coffee, brought some buns down and ate it at the starting line.
We started way behind. I could only pushed Amin to move closer to 6:30 starting pen. It took us about 10 mins just to cross the starting line. Planning on pacing him for sometime maybe up to 10km. but just about less than 2 km, he already signaled for me to move ahead. Put my HR on display on my watch but totally ignored it. Went almost 100% by feeling. Just some slight glance to the watch that didn't mean anything. With 3 weeks out of proper training, I had no clue whatsoever on what I was even capable of. Effort based race is purely what you should be doing even. Especially for a marathon. You can never cheat yourself on doing something that you haven't been training for. With the major GPS error, I noticed earlier on that the distance was off by 2km. The run towards MRR along Jalan Ampang was ok, incline wise, just some slight uphill near Bukit Bintang which I could power through. Was anxiously waiting for the Duke climb that took forever. Luckily it wasn't as steep as how it looks in the elevation profile. And the first half was done with that.
Duke took almost the rest of the 20-30km, which was my favourite part of the route as well. Gentle but high enough elevation, wide and safe road. Bumped and overtook many on this stretch, which was a great mental boost. I had very minimal confidence before that, but it slowly crept up on that stretch. Hanim, Maulina, then Bovin around 27km or so. I put Hanim as my benchmark, not to go past her cause I know she has superb endurance, being an ultra runner. Then as I reached Bovin, I thought we could run to the finish as well, but that didn't last as long as well. Had to really focus on breathing before reaching the 30km, in order to leave some in the tank. Was quite happy with how I did the 30km.
However, I couldn't power through the remaining 12km still. I don't think I had gone too fast earlier on. My muscle just couldn't muscle through. While I had some stamina left in me, my leg muscles couldn't hold the oxygen as long, and I had to take a lot of walk breaks for it to recover. Cruising supposed to work if my muscle were apt for it. Been counting breaths and steps almost the remaining 10km. Bukit Tunku didn't feel as scary as I thought it should. Probably since I removed any thoughts of running on the uphills. And frankly, last year's route near PWTC seemed more daunting. But the whole of Jalan Damansara was another level of mental torture. Alternate run and walk of multiples of 10 breaths was what I could make of at that time. There were so many runners, in order to make way to the water station already require you to waste some few hundred meters additional distance in total. Surprisingly, for FM runners, not many was actually walking. They were mostly slow jogs possibly. I was one the very few that constantly had walk breaks. Shame was all I could think of at that time. Luckily I could pull myself together again at the final 500m and ran better than I had.
There was no target set. Although, I silently had a small glint of hope that it would get somewhere in the range of 4:1x, but who am I kidding. Other than that, I didn't have any alternate plan, as long as it doesn't get beyond 5 hours I would be very much relieved. Finishing in that timing was quite a big achievement. And it further reaffirmed with the amount of pain that I had after. I was so painful all over. Neck, oblique, calf are the most affected areas and it disturbed my sleep. I had to down panadol for up to 3 nights after. Might be as painful as I had my first, if it's not worse. My shin pain were next to none, compared to these pain. Once they subsided, which on the Thursday after, only then that the shin pain was more noticeable. The heart rate was another story. Average and max was higher in KLSCM than my best race for now in Twincity.
KLSCM 2019 Twincity 2019
And for that, I felt relieved that I had given all I could. There was no slacking on my part, there was no way I could have done better. That was really, all I had to offer.
On the training though, there's a lot to reflect. Meanwhile, here's a snapshot of what had happened.
Total distance ran: 1036 km
Total training ran: 912 km
Total ride: 278 km
Total hike: 10km
Date: 29 Sept 2019
Venue: Dataran Merdeka
Distance: 42.2 km
Position: 79
Official Time:4:41:53
Personal Time: 4:41:47
Pace: 6:41
No comments:
Post a Comment