SMH half marathon | 2013

1h48m51s PB

Competitors and spectators alike are greeted by a cool & clear autumn day for the start of the SMH half marathon in Sydney.

Perfect running conditions in my book: no rain and temperatures between 10 – 15 degrees Celsius.

The starters are segregated into groups with the elite and “seeded” runners up the front followed by the “preferred” and relay runners.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a previous race time fast enough to get me into the “preferred” start. It would be handy as there will be less of a crowd to contend with.

So I’m in the yellow group, the last to head off.

Yet the crowd of runners thins out before too long and it’s easy enough to establish a steady pace.

Although I commence well, as we head downhill to the beautiful foreshore of Sydney Harbour, my plans go awry around the hills and small streets of Pyrmont.

The main road narrows forcing many runners to negotiate kerbs and street signs to maintain their pace, myself included.

By the 10km mark I have slowed a little but I’m still averaging a 5min pace, just. My target time is 1 hour 45 minutes so this is spot-on.

However, all these climbs slow me down considerably. I know what I have to work on with my future training.

Oddly enough, I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying the experience. I think the combination of the stunning location together with the crowd of eager competitors striving to do their best provides the perfect environment.

Plenty of people line the course shouting words of encouragement. It’s especially nice to spy my wife amongst the onlookers cheering me on.

What’s more, I’m injury free, a blessing all runners crave.

I pick up the pace along the stretch of road past Barangaroo and find myself in-the-zone.

I love running. It creates such a sense of freedom.

For a short time I forgot that it involves effort. Yes, my muscles are tightening up. But any pain is blissfully ignored as merely temporal and temporary.

Perhaps those “magic” endorphins are kicking-in masking my discomfort?

Either way it’s exciting to think I’m into the home stretch now with two-thirds down and one-third to go.

Around the 18km mark, along the downhill stretch of Art Gallery Rd, I’ve had enough.

This last part is hard and I’m thinking: “keep going, don’t stop, run don’t walk!”

During the second half of the race my heart rate stubbornly pumps well above my lactate threshold forcing me to slow down whether I like it or not.

And just when the finish line is in sight, a short but steep hill is placed to separate the men from the boys.

Who’s idea was it to put it there of all places?

The uphill sprint to the finish line can’t come soon enough. It’s over. Yay!

As always, “thank you” to the people that make such a well-organised event possible: the organisers, the volunteers, the sponsors, the supporters, and my fellow pavement pounders.

You’re all awesome!

Kim | marathon runner

thresholds

Now there’s a lot of talk about thresholds and this can be very confusing. It basically refers to whether your body is burning fuel aerobically or anaerobically. That is, with or without oxygen. The latter is when when we chew through our glycogen.

One side-effect of using glycogen is that the body creates lactic acid and (thus lactate) as a waste by-product. Without enough oxygen this cannot be removed from the bloodstream fast enough so it builds up in our muscles.

Yet whilst we talk of a threshold as if we go from burning one source of fuel to another, it is in fact a transition.

That is, the percentage of each fuel changes. It’s suggested that this is quite dramatic at a certain HR percentage yet others contend that it’s a lot more gradual.

Nevertheless, whether it’s aerobic or anaerobic it’s not all or nothing. It’s always a mix or a combination of the two.

Kim | marathon runner

cadence

歩調

There are many ways we can all improve our running form.

In much the same way that coaches teach swimmers about their stroke & kick and cyclists about their pedalling & balance, better posture and leg-action will inevitably make us more efficient runners thereby reducing our energy needs. This in turn helps us to be less prone to injury.

The area I have been working on in particular over the last few weeks is my cadence.

In the past I never really gave it much credence. I figured my cadence of 160 foot-strikes per minute was close enough to the recommended 170 – 180pm and that it didn’t matter a great deal.

Yet one of the first books I read on the subject of running, Chi Marathon, considered it vitally important.

And then, when I read about it again in another book more recently, I decided to pay the subject more attention.

I still don’t entirely understand why it’s so beneficial. The theory is that the greater number of foot-strikes per minute forces us to shorten our stride.

I suppose the end-result is that we land less on our heel and more on our mid-sole.

And we spend less time in contact with the actual ground each time our foot strikes.

Ignoring any of these factors can often lead to many lower-leg injuries, especially plantar fasciitis, medial tibia stress syndrome (shin-splints), patellofemoral pain syndrome (runners knee) and metatarsal stress syndrome.

Although some people debate the need to run at a strict cadence, I must admit that it seems to be working for me. For example, the pain I had in my right foot has diminished significantly.

And I’m confident that as long as I get adequate rest between workouts and keep improving other aspects of my form then I have many years of injury-free running left in this old body of mine.

For more information on the topic of cadence I suggest you read this article.

Kim | marathon runner

1st blogthday

One year ago today this little baby was born. Happy Blogthday!

image credit: graphics factory

At the time, my purpose was to “share my experiences over the next 100 days as I embark upon a journey to lose a significant amount of weight“.

Well, if you followed along, you would know that I achieved my goal, although it took more time than the envisaged 100 days. But that’s OK.

Early on I recognised that “losing weight is 3 parts food, 2 parts mental and 1 part physical.”

So, with this in mind, I’m going to pick my favourite 3, 2 & 1 posts from each:

food

1. First and foremost is the need to cut added sugar from your diet. Specifically fructose. There’s no two ways about it: it’s poison!

2. Secondly, increase consumption of something as basic as water. It’s usually free. And it’s surprisingly healthy!

3. Finally, start the day with a nutritious breakfast cereal using my recipe for Bircher Muesli. A perfect balance of protein, fat & carbohydrate, through a combination of oats, nuts, seeds, fruit & dairy, thereby providing long-lasting energy and, very importantly, dietary fibre.

This last “favourite” cheats a little as it covers several posts. I hope you don’t mind too much.

mental

1. Its crucial that you break your bad old habits and replace them with good new ones.

2. And remember that it takes time and thus loads of patience.

physical

1. I’ve long been of the opinion that exercise, whilst helpful, is not a crucial part of the process. Yes, it can be beneficial to do something. And the easiest option is, in my humble opinion, to simply get out there and do some good-ol’-fashion walking.

There you have it.

In a nutshell, the basics of how to lose weight. It’s weel worth the effort.

Good luck!

Now time to party. Let’s celebrate!

Kim | marathon runner

friends

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (ESV)

友だち

During a conversation with another blogger tonight, something she said got me thinking about the importance of running with a friend.

Despite the fact that jogging is often a solitary pursuit, especially when training for a marathon, there are certainly benefits that come from slogging-it-out with a mate:

1. It adds variety to your routine.

2. You can support, motivate, encourage, and challenge one another.

3. Having someone to chat to – or not, depending on your mood – provides a helpful distraction thereby reducing the tedium of a long-run.

I’ve been fortunate to meet and run with a couple of guys during this last month whilst living in Ōsaka. Both are very talented marathoners in their own right and serve as an inspiration to me.

The first, Tanaka-san, is 66yo and regularly wins marathons in his age category. We run at a similar pace and his eigo (英語: English) is good enough for us to chat whilst we do laps around Ōsaka-jō (大阪城: Ōsaka Castle).

The second, Scott Brown, at 48yo is about my age. He’s a tribute to the virtues of patience, perseverance and tenacity. Completing a marathon in 2h45m he stills aims to get even faster. When most guys at his age are thinking about hanging up their “racing flats” as injuries take their toll, he’s doing the mileage and speed work necessary to improve his times.

Yet, although both are very accomplished, they’re humble enough to pound-the-pavement with a novice like me.

That’s the beauty of this sport. It really brings out the best in people.

I look forward to meeting and running with many more friends in the years to come.

Kim | marathon runner

garmin forerunner 610

A while ago I spoke about the importance of using a heart rate monitor to gauge how hard you’re exerting yourself during a workout.

Well, the technology has advanced so much in the past few years that it’s now possible to get a heart rate monitor and GPS tracker all-in-one.

This is particularly useful as I find that all my iPhone apps are wildly inaccurate when measuring pace and distance.

So for Christmas last year I made sure Santa knew I wanted the Garmin Forerunner 610.

In fact, I even helped him a little by purchasing it online through 99Bikes. (Thanks guys for the speedy delivery).

I’ll let you check out the Garmin website for yourself to see what this little baby can do.

Suffice to say that this tiny device makes running all the more enjoyable.

Kim | marathon runner

variety

“Variety’s the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour.”
William Cowper: The Task (1785) – ‘The Timepiece’ (Book II, lines 606-7)

種々

Perhaps one of the strongest motivations for running different distances, at different paces and over different routes when I train is simply the desire for variety.

Without it we become bored, complacent, indifferent.

But it also educates our muscles in such a way that doing the same old thing day-in and day-out cannot.

So different distances may simply mean doing 6km one day and 8km on another. Rather than 7km on each day.

Different paces may mean running at “half-marathon race pace” one day and then a slow, “recovery pace” the next.

And different routes may involve finding a flat, easy circuit to do a fast 7km on one day and then running up and down hilly trails on another.

The challenge then becomes how to integrate all of this into a program that will maximise long-term results.

Kim | marathon runner