Run back by 7

5000m .. done, now a long long rest

2011-11-03T15:01:00.000+08:00

Not much posting in the past month, simply because for a running blog, the key ingredient should be running... and I did not have much to say about it.

I did a MRI on the left foot and the diagnosis was that the pain at the ball of the foot was not caused by sesamoiditis or worse a stresss fracture, but by a tendinitis of the "Flexor hallucis longus" . Digging on the web, I found that one of the possible root causes is poor flexibility of the calves, which put therefore more strain on the foot during landing and push-off phase of the gait.
Therapy: RICE, NSAIDS and stretching of the calf.
At the same time, my right back/glute tighness did not go away and I am trying to work on it with the usual array of treatments: deep tissue massage, acupuncture, stretching, etc... (with little success).
So most likely my running season is over before even starting. I must say that the disappointment is big, but I took it with a certain philosophy. Somehow my body is not really well suited to running and I must accept it. I do not feel even the urgency to go back again to training asap because it would be even more disappointing to fall into further injuries.
The satisfaction from running is mainly in the process of reaching the ideal shape through proper training and exert myself to my limits, so scraping through some kind of sub-par training to be able to run later 37 min on 10k is not my idea of running right now.
I might come back in time for a spring marathon or maybe for Berlin in 11 months time...
So I put my mind into my family, my work and helping our running club.

This said, I ended up anyway running the final of the HK 5000m track championship.
The weather was nice and I brought the kids along to cheer me and also to give them some kind of inspiration to take up some/any kind of athletic/sport (rather than sticking in front of a PC): my daughter loved watching the Pole Vault and it was so enjoyable to make the warm-up with her on the warm-up track, pretending to race each other on imaginary 50m finals. While my elder son got scared by the starting guns !

So I lined up at the start line totally relaxed that I had only to enjoy the day and keep on running for 12.5 laps...
Honestly, I felt much better than expected. I could not really extend the stride, but I was not really breathing hard. I felt like a 3000cc car shuffling at 30kmh because of flat tire...
The 12 laps went away quite quickly and I even found myself fighting at the last lap with another runner for the second-to-last place.. but I could not really run any faster.
At the end, I placed 5th in 17'10" which is somehow pathetic (for being a National Championship) and somehow a positive surprise because I could not believe that I would have run that "fast" after 2 months of no running...
Disclaimer: of the 8th finalists, 2 DNS and 1 DNF... so I arrived 5th
Full results available HERE (there were good performances by the local sprinters).
But the man of the day was my teammate Colin, who was able to complete an amazing double feat:

- in the morning, winning the 5000m
- afternoon, double it with also the victory in the 10000m
Really a big hit which will cost me 3 bottles of wine which I willingly put at stake if he would have been able to achieve the double !! But well deserved !

Am I a 5000m specialist ??...

2011-10-04T17:47:00.001+08:00

Today I got the "pleasant" surprise to learn that I qualified for the 5000m finals of the HK track championship

Somehow I did a 5000m track race in February, 5 days after the HK marathon and scored a time of 16'21"...
In May, I popped up for another round because the race was right in front of my workplace and managed a very pedestrian 17'00"...
Now, I have no idea on how they counted the scores (it seems an average of the best 2 performances) and why some runners who run 14'56" are not in..., but these 2 modest performances made me anyway good enough to be ranked 6th and reach the finals to be held on October 30th.
I am very aware of the modest accomplishment becuase I have a IAAF score of only 524 points, which would not have made the cut in any other discipline from 100m to 10000m....

Now, I am planning to not do any run in the next 2-3 weeks to eventually recover from all my niggling pains, but at this point I plan to go anyway to the finals... at worst I will be the 8th best 5000m runner in HK....
For a middle-age guy... it is anyway a satisfaction to compete at Open level and I can bring the kids to cheer me up !!

For a proof that I am not making this up... click HERE and scroll down to 5000m
Good to see that my teammates Colin and David will also be in the race (so we will be 3 out of 8 !!)

we delivered.... 1st place at the XC National Championship

2011-10-03T14:24:00.000+08:00

Lately I have been absent from this blog because my mood was terribly low... no point to afflict others with the stories of my injuries, etc, etc...

I also know that I still have to make a detailed report about my visit to StrideUK and explain why I am inured and how I am trying to solve it (especially because the case might be interesting also for many other readers).

So this week I will try to clean up all the overdue...

without dwelling into all the details, the tightness in the glutes obviously ended up also "killing" my back...

so I basically did not run for 10-15 days while I was doing my sessions of acupuncture, massage, etc.

Now... the fact was that I was entered as one of the 6 man team for our club into the Hong Kong Cross Country Championship, to be held on October 2nd. So I really felt the pressure to be there and contribute points to the team.

Moreover, the idea of our young club reaching the podium of the championship was giving me extra-motivation to give it a try.

After 15 days of no running, last Thursday I went for a jog and it was painful everywhere.... those 6km felt harder than a marathon and I was really thinking to quit running altogether because it did not really make sense to hurt my body further.

Friday so I ended up for another session of treatment at the local clinic and endured very deep tissue massage and a session of acupuncture with at least 10 needles placed in the back and in the leg...

Saturday I tried another easy jog and felt better, but running at 5'/km with the HR already at 150bpm did not really hint into a good state of fitness...

To patch up the different ailments, I took a good dose of pain-killers and muscle-relaxants to keep the glutes at bay for the race...

On Sunday morning, I really felt energized... we were there, with our "azzurro" jerseys, ready to take over to more established teams, but I felt confident because our club has a great depth and we had at least 4 runners capable of a Top10.

How many years without running a XC race...? at least 15... and at least 25 from my last team XC at school...

On top of everything, the weather in the past few days has been awful, with heavy rains and a thypoon: so the course was MUDDY... really muddy, with large patches of flooded grass... honestly I was salivating to the idea to make a real XC, albeit my poor conditions...

Anyway, we start hard as in any XC... but I want to be really conservative because on that course the last lap is going to be very long .

While in front my team mates were doing a terrific race, my personal challenge was to finish the 3 laps without blowing up too much and run as smarty as I could...

In the last lap the soil has totally loosened up and in some patches my feet went 20cm in the mud... in one section I peeped my Garmin and noticed that I was running at 4'/km while being at full effort to get out of the mud...

My honest performance was good enough to grab the 2nd place of the Master, well behind my teammate Curtis and few seconds ahead of the 3rd.

But the real deal was the awsome performance of David, Colin, Stefano...

They ended up 2nd, 5th and 6th overall with Curtis just few positions behind...

The race was won by the Kenyan Thomas Kiprotich while the Ethiopian Aboye was third.

So David really eventually pulled out a great race, after suffering for months for different ailments...

Our team won the Team Championship by a large margin versus TWAC and WAC , 2 of the most established clubs in HK.

Really a huge pride in winning it... we are a small club, just founded 14 months ago and we really emerged as a top local club in few months, thanks to the dedication of all the runners.

Team podium

Once the pain killers pills weathered off... I felt again awful, but the sweetness of the days really deserved it...

Masters' podium

This is not a torture in Guantanamo...

2011-09-21T15:48:00.001+08:00

Acupuncture with electric stimulation...
I guess that relying to my TENS machine from Compex might be more or less the same effect.

Blog post done live with needles in...

Acupuncture ....beyond belief

2011-09-11T21:26:00.000+08:00

Friday The back was aching so much at I eventually decided to pop into the "physical therapy" clinic in Dongguan.
Honestly speaking, my confidence in the medical care services in Chna is low.... Knowing how most things work in China is enough to make me doubtful whether the doctor in charge might have actually gained his degree properly or via some backdoor arrangement.
Also because any public institution cares about avoiding an unsuccessful handling of a foreigner, the response can drift in 2 opposite directions:
- being taken care in an utmost dedicated way and assign the best resources
OR
- at the opposite, the institution will find every possible way to get rid of you ASAP or to even not acknowledge the need of their activity, in order to navigate away from potential troubles and loss of face
These 2 approaches can happen either going to then hospital or to a police station to report a crime (my personal experience on this has been mixed...) or at a building bureau office to buy/sell a property....

Going back to my back... I was just aiming for a light massage when the therapist on duty had actually other ideas... Using the approach #1 Of deploying all the resources, she called 2 other doctors to check on my back, asking all the possible questions on how happened and firmly said that what I needed was acupuncture...
My reaction was kind of "wtf!!!" but I relented after making sure that needles were disposable single use, etc, etc...
I thought they would have places the needle somewhere in the back.....but soon I realised that I will have needles planted in my hands and head...
To make it short, to my absolute horror, I had a needle right in the Center of the forefront and others in the back of my hands...

I was even asked to walk around 15 minutes while "wearing" them...

Well, you would not believe it, but after that I was able to lift by myself from the bed without help (something which was unthinkable until 20 min earlier) and I could say there was a 50% improvement in back mobility....I even tried the bridge position without pain and effort...
I left the clinic almost in shock....

spell of bad luck continues

2011-09-09T15:32:00.000+08:00

I do not want to sound a whining kind of person, since overall I enjoy a very good life...
but runningwise, the past 2 months are going from bad to worse...

the spell of bad luck which begun on July 19th continues at full speed...

- last week: run decently while in Europe, the hamstring and glutes were starting to get better even if I still could not handle any fast pace... foot pain had his ups and downs..

- week-end: between the trip, jet-lag, etc.. I decided to skip running for 3 days to give some time to the body to completely heal (foot, hamstring, etc...)
I also feel refreshed by the fact that I have now fairly understood the root cause of each problems, thanks to the excellent running gait analysis done at strideUK (more about that in the next post...)

- Monday: for no apparent reason, my back become very stiff and painful ... I did not lift any weight or did anything strange, but I was completely blocked...

I tried the usual therapy, without much success...

The attempt at a releasing back massage on Wednesday was almost pathetic and funny at the same time: once the massage was over, I could not get up from the massage bed... the massage therapist was in tears fearing that she could have been sacked for screwing up the back of a foreigner; so she called other staff and they together handled me like I was a wooden pole to put me back in vertical position...

Thursday I got some benefit from doing some electro-stimulation of the back and at least I can walk properly...

so... another week of total screw-up and going from bad to worse...

Weekly totals: 0 Km run, 0h0' bike, 0'0' gym....

Due to a lot of time spared from being incapable to run/walk, etc I had the time to read 2 books on Kindle

1)
Charlie Spedding

From Last to First: How I Became a Marathon Champion

This is a real interesting book... Spedding takes the time to write about all his career from childhood race to his retirement. It is very interesting how he describes all the mental obstacles he overcome to become a Olympic medalist. He was for sure a talented runner, but not really achieved much until later in his career when he "changed gear" mentally. It is also very down to earth narration, very humble and without the hype and self-celebration typical of these kind of books
All his ups and downs are well narrated and makes it a compelling read...

2) Running For The Hansons: An Insider's Account of The Brooks-Sponsored Marathon Training Group Made Famous by Olympian Brian Sell

Sage Canaday is a runner in the Hanson-Brook team and gives this narration of his everyday life as pro runner who tries to make a breakthrough into "real" Elite running, while having to work to anyway cover the bills, etc
The book is written in the form of daily journal and while it will not win a Nobel Prize for literature, it is a good easy read...
It is somehow interesting to see how just below the real elite level, the life is quite harsh and the guy basically just live around "poverty line"..
We might read about the Alter-G and Aqua-treadmill of some runners, but this guy does not even have time/means to do some gym...
Interesting to read also how their training schedule is based on 2 days easy/1 day hard without sticking to a static weekly schedule...
Lastly, I like how he candidly tells about his personal opinion on several aspects and how it might be difficult for a person coming from West or East Coast in USA to go and live in an area like Michigan with much different set of community values...

My jogging path today

2011-08-31T00:10:00.000+08:00

This morning 12k along the "streets" of Venice... Amazing

Wk 34 & elastic bands

2011-08-22T16:56:00.000+08:00

Just another ordinary week trying a turn around of my injuries...

MON: easy run with M. around 14km. Incredibly enough, the left foot is not painful at all after racing in flats (w/o orthotics). I may start to believe that the rigidity of the combo "trainers + orthotics" might be a reason of the sesamoiditis...
(anyway not conclusive becuase I took 3 pills of Voltaren 25mg before the race... so it might have affected the pain)

TUE: also with M. Just following her program of 30' w/u, than 2x3km @ 10K pace effort.
There is a kind of language barrier between a Metric System-born and bred engineer and a person coming straight from US and Imperial System, so we might have messed up a bit with the paces (6'10"/mile... is slower than the actual 3'45"/k which we run at).
Anyway in short, she kicked my ass and I was struggling like hell just to avoid a larger gap in the 2nd rep.
I wondered how I gave her 3' in the 10k race 2 days earlier...
Right leg muscles quite tight. Total 18km

PM: The orthopedic gave me a big disappointment: he did not think a cortisone shot was suitable because I did one already in April in the same spot, so a second shot might weaken the tendon.
No running and a Voltaren course was the prescribed cure... :-((
Since he is also a Triathlete, I might tend to believe he is right on this (I loved to see that on his desk there was a copy of Friel's "Triathlon Training Bible").

WED: I will do rest from running, but from next week, so today easy run with M. 22km.

THU: rest. Ok, doc ??

FRI: cycling 90 minutes... the doc should be happy

SAT: 21km easy, but the pace come out better than expected.

SUN: stationary bike and X-training, weight, core stability, etc

total: 75Km in 4 runs, plus getting serious about core training

This week I eventually got all what I needed to start strength training with elastic bands.

They do not take space at home, they are cheap (50US$ is enough for 3 bands of different strength + accessories to make the workout easier) and versatile and you can workout the muscles using the same range or motion and working angle of running.

Plenty of videos online (I am not particularly a fan of Pose method, but this video shows a good exercise...)
Now I try to work on my glutes and hamstrings... let's see....

Week 33 - at least not crippled

2011-08-17T19:31:00.000+08:00

I should say that returning to Hong Kong has been a good cure for my hamstring: having my massage therapist on hand and being able to also do some bike rides really did help.
Now I am back to running, albeit much slower than my usual pace.

the right hamstring and buttock are really tight and I can not really extend the stride.
Especially the pain in the buttock is very tricky to treat because is really very deep inside and even rolling on a softball ball does not really go that deep (only the elbow of G. seems to do the job).

I thanks everybody for the comments and I try to elaborate a self-analysis:

- for some unknown reason, all my right leg is MUCH weaker and with much less range of mobility than the left one. Even when I walk, I noticed that sometime I do barely lift my right foot off the ground.
This is probably due to a relative weakness of the hip flexors, hip rotators, gluetus, etc (do not know caused by what, maybe the road accident I had in February 2010) .

- this unbalance generates a running pattern where I all the "pushing" is done by the left leg, while the left one is only trailing... when I hit the ground with the right leg, I am only stomping on the ground without any real push-off.

- because of the weakness of the gluteus, etc, the right hamstring is loaded beyond normal because it must work as a the sole propeller of the right leg (so I am not actually pushing forward my body at each right step, but kind of pulling back the road with my hamstring only...).

- the force unbalance is also the reason of the different ailments on the left foot/ankle. Probably the left foot is doing most of the propulsion and taking most of the load.

(thank you for the comments about running minimalist, etc...: I am personally already totally bought about running in lighter shoes, now I am also figuring out if to get rid of orthotics too)

So...
based on this, the course of action should be:
- single leg strengthening exercises for glutes, calves, hamstring, hip flexors, etc: squat, lunges, etc
- stretching and dynamic mobility for the right leg
- re-education of the motorial pattern of the right leg (concept on which I must still find suitable exercises)

Now the issue is to commit myself to at least 30 minutes daily of extra-boring exercises, but seems that I have no way out if I want to be healthy and train properly...

Let's go for the weekly summary:

MON: met with M.L. a new comer in HK. She is targeting the USA O.T. Standard of 2h45' for a Fall Marathon, so her level is really good. Good for me that she is also probably a "earlier bird" than myself, so taking an appointment for running at 5.45am seems normal...
run around 14k easy, I felt terribly tired at the end

TUE: off

WED: medium run with M. A good 22km for me @4'30" pace. The sky was cloudy, so it felt less horrible than usual. But after 18k the hamstring felt really tight and I had to slow down considerably.
Evening: PT treatment... extremely painful deep-tissue massage. G. is really the best therapist I met and she could continue for hours to dig deep where needed...

THU: rest becuase muscles really sore after massage

FRI: nice bike ride... 75 minutes with a very steep hill. I saw my HR climbing over 185bpm, which is extra-rare on the bike for me. Cycling is definetely very a good cross-training for my case

SAT: around 1hr run at easy pace. Hamstring felt better after massage and cycling

SUN : Chung Hing Cup 10K race. Was a bit insane to think about racing, but I did not want to drop my team mates in the team competition.
Popped down a couple of Voltaren pills to avoid pain and proceeded to a long warm-up of mobility exercises. Well.. warm-up is kind of misleading word because the weather was 30C/80%rH, so after 5min jog I was already extremely warm...
950 runners at the start for this summer classic.
To avoid digressing on every single KM split. I could say that I went way better than my expectations.
I was basically with the 2nd pack until 7k, where my buttock start to feel like a sting, so I had to drop off the pace. I was not feeling my normal stride, but strangely enough a pace of 3'35"/km felt not too bad...
After a tight sprint for the 10th place (lost..) I finish 11th overall (3rd Master) in 36'04".
That is 50" slower than my time on the same course on July, but due to what happened in the past 30 days, I am more than satisfied....
Thumbs up to Colin F for winning the race in convincing way and anyway we are able to win the team competition too... so it was a good Sunday on all aspects
(also thumbs up to M.L. because she won the women's race in her first HK event... not a bad way to acclimatize to Asian heat!)

After 2km with my team mate C.

Last km...

Colin smoothly sailing to victory

it is a long way....

2011-08-10T20:42:00.000+08:00

I have been away from blogging for long and has been a long way also for me since the last post, a long way also both mentally and physically.

to avoid typing three page of training summary, race reports and various consideration, I try to make a bullet-style summary

June to July 19th: I really enter into a good groove of training. Albeit a torrid summer, I keep a good weekly mileage of around 100km and my form is coming up. Polar Running Index getting close to 80 and CTL in SportTrack getting closer to 100 (these data for data maniac runners like myself)
July 10th: 10K race. I arrive 2nd overall in a time of 35'15". On that course and during the summer, my PB was 35'04" in 2008, so I really get the feeling that I am getting closer to the same peaks touched in 2008. Just a small concerns about my left foot which is getting painful again around the sesamoidis like in April
July 14th: board the plane for a nice family holiday in Poland. I am salivating to the idea of daily runs in the polish forests during a chilly morning...
July 19th: I go for a long run and it happens the unpredictable: after 15km of easy running, my right hamstring completely seizes and become like a piece of wood. No any alert, no any understandable causes (apart from weakness of the glutes, core, etc). Stranded in the middle of the polish countryside, I have also to walk (yes... walk home, I could not even jog) for 8-10km...
end July: I am down to jog 6km daily at 5'30" pace. My hamstring loosening up very slowly
now: back in HK I can go under the hands of my PT and feel much better, but it is like starting over again...

Current status:

- right hamstring and glutes: not get back yet full range of motion. I feel tired even after running 10k at much more modest pace than before the injury. Work with PT and foam roller/ball/stick, whatever. I hope that in 15 days I could be running again normally

- form is seriously down... my Polar Running Index dropped to around 70...

- left foot: painful like hell after every run despite the forced rest. Already booked an appointment with the ortho doctor (cortisone shot seems unavoidable...). This is just a short term fix, I am still wondering what could be a real solution (note: I wear orthotics...do not send me to a podiatrist, I have 4 pairs of orthotics from 4 different podiatrist). Maybe is a pelvis alignment problem or maybe the hamstring problems on the right side are putting too much strain on the left side...

- Berlin Marathon: well.. maybe another year. I doubt I can celebrate my 42nd birthday, running 42km...

- mental side: I really want to give running a final serious effort for a couple of years, but it seems a bit pointless. After 40, my body is simply losing the wheels...

Now I will seriously try to work on core, glutes strength, etc, but if it does not work, it is probably time to give myself to lawn bowl... anyway the morale is underwater...

Positive thought: give a read to Lauren Fleshman's blog and her amazing turnaround from injury to DL win (my cynical side reminds me that I am several years older and I do not have Nike to support the rehab..)

Question to the readers:

- does anybody know a serious place where they can perform a running assessment (using treadmill and foot lead measurement, etc) ?

I am going to South England soon for work, also Veneto region in Italy is ok or, closer to home, Hong Kong or Singapore...

(in HK, most places that I know are really poorly equipped)

High inventory

2011-07-06T20:18:00.001+08:00

SportTracks has an excellent function that keeps track of the usage of an unlimited number of equipments (even multiple equipments for the same workout).
In comparison, the SW Polar Trainer just can track 2 pair of shoes..
I use the function to keep track of the mileage of all my Running shoes spread among my 2 "homes" (Hong Kong and Dongguan).
Trainers, lightweight trainees, racing flats, etc.... All under tracking (currently I am rotating 6 pairs of shoes....).
To cut it short, both my main training shoes (the lightweight trainers Mizuno Elixir 5 and 6) reached 700km and I deem a good idea to replace them.
Considering my history of injuries, my heavy stride and the fact that with high humidity the shoes are always wet, 700km seems a good number to me. Better replace them a bit more often, but avoid to run on worn out shoes...

Digging out in the cabinet in Dongguan, I realised that I have 12 pairs of new shoes waiting (3 pairs are in HK not pictured below):
Mizuno Wave Ascend - trail running shoes
Mizuno Wave Aero 8 and 9 x3 pairs - marathon shoes
Mizuno Wave Musha 2 - racing flats
Mizuno Wave Spacer RS3 - racing flats
Mizuno Wave Nirvana 7 - support trainers
Mizuno LD track spikes
Adidas Supernova 10 - support trainers
Asics GT2150 - trainers
Asics Lyteracer DS
Asics Lyteracer DS2

Total insanity !!!
The good point is that I did not have to pay for any of them, because all won at the races.... At least my wife can not complain that I squander the money on shoes....

The bad point is that I realised that I had never used any of those models before, so I really do not know where to start from .
Any recommendation or good/bad experience ??

Tropical Heat and influence on the training of the runner

2011-06-28T13:21:00.000+08:00

"I can understand a little of what you're going through there Roberto. The humidity and heat creaping up here in Osaka but thankfully not to the levels you have to put up with. Interested to hear what you do to keep running in those conditions, hydration etc etc"

I got this comment from Scott which in a sense touched an issue of common interest...
..how to train under a tropical-style heat ?

honestly speaking, most of the suggestions you can find in running magazines are pretty much obvious: run early in the morning, drink a lot, etc...

on the other extreme of the spectrum, there are all the dissertation about the role of the Central Governor in avoid overheating, etc, which are sometimes beyond my grasp...

now the question is how to do, when the minimum temperature in the day is at least 27-28C, high humidity and a long long summer ?

I personally found that running in heat poses 3 challenges:

1) Alteration of gait caused by running "slower"
Let's say that crawling around at 30"/km slower than the usual pace is anyway having an effect on the stride. The muscles get into their memory a shorter and less reactive stride.
I think that several months of that and then it can become difficult to regain the right muscolar-activation pattern

2) Heart Rate Drift caused by heat
Once the body can not lose enough heat fast, the HR begins to rise even if the runner keeps a steady pace and the duration of the run is within his normal training.
Personally I found that with temperature around 28-29C and 80%rH, I can keep around 25-30' at easy pace or 15' at faster pace before my HR begins to rise (and rise a lot).
It is not uncommon that even if I am just running "easy", after 90 minutes my HR is in MP or HMP territory.
Even worse, while doing "faster" workout, the HR can go easily over 90% HRmax even the pace is kind of "moderate"

3) Day-by-day recovery
It is quite common in tropical weather to lose 2.0-2.5L of water per hour.
Run 2 hours and even if you drink 2-3 bottles during the run, you will end up losing 3Kg of sweat.
That means that rehydratation involves drinking at least 4 liters of fluids before the next workout. This also goes together with the loss of minerals, etc
Honestly after a long run I feel really bloated by all the water which I know I MUST drink...

Anyway first a piece of good news:
Heat acclimation gives big cycling performance improvements in cool conditions, study finds
"A recent study by human physiology researchers at the University of Oregon found that huge physiological gains could be achieved in trained cyclists by doing 90-minute easy rides in high heat for 10 days.

Before the testing, the researchers expected to find improvements in the hot-weather performance of Cat. 1 and 2 cyclists after a heat-acclimation program. But what surprised them was that the physiological improvement translated to cool-weather performance as well."

This is something that I always suspected ... because whenever I leave HK in Summer and step out from the plane in a cooler country, my running takes another dimension, almost feeling effortless...

So there is a good reason to grind through the summer, but how to make it easier:

These are only my personal thoughts and experiences:

1) try to run in "doubles".
I know is very difficult to do for an amateur runner, but running in doubles during summer could be hugely beneficial:
- it is much easier to reintegrate 2 times 1-1.5 Liter of water, than 3 Liters...
- because it is unavoidable to slow down after 30'-45', the runner can base the training on 2times x30'-40', keep an higher pace and maintain a more correct stride.

- even for a long run, probably a split into 1h+1h at decent speed is much better than crawling around for 2hours.
I know runners who pride themselves to keep going also during heat waves, even if they have to slow down a lot. But honestly I do not see the benefit to run at 5'30"/km for a runner whose "cold weather" easy speed is 1 minute/km faster..
For keeping a good stride and also mantain certain neuromuscolar patters, I personally feel much better to run almost at my "normal" speed (let's say that 10"-15"/km slower is unavoidable), but stop when I can not keep the pace anymore...
I also do not feel anymore any issue with running 30' at good pace, stopping 5' for drinks and cool down and then start again..

2) fractional workouts
the concept is nothing different from point 1), but inside the single workout.
No point to make "tempo runs" where the speed is too far from the target one or where you suffer a dramatic drop of pace after 20'...
much better to run at the "real" target speed, but in intervals.
So better 6-7x2km, than a 10k tempo run. The rest gives the time to drink properly and cool down the body a bit, so that every active interval is performed at the real target speed.
I am also applying this to longer runs: even for long runs, I split into many short intervals (maybe 10-15x2km) with time for drink and cool-down, or longer interval with longer rests (20' followed by 2' drink/cool-down), all performed at my "cold weather" speed or whereabouts.

3) day-by-day recovery
this is an area where I am really still in search for a better way.
- what to drink, what to eat ?
- how to recover quicker ?

for example, drinking only water makes difficult to reintegrate also the minerals, etc... but if you switch to sports drinks or fruit juices, then there is the problem of the too large caloric intake (a glass of juice is over 100-150Kcal).

Also the drinking pattern: drink a lot immediately after the workout (not keeping into account anyway the limit of the effective absorption rate by the body), or drink a little but all over the day...

on top of that, I think that all the runners from S.E. Asia and similar climates suffer from the same situation where the fatigues increase day by day, and the heat is a kind of chronic illness which really affects the level of energy, even if in theory he/she drinks, eat and sleep enough.
There is a kind of cumulative effect on recovery of training in the heat, where it becomes impossible to fully restore from the day before.
I personally felt almost "on my knees" at the end of each summer, only waiting for the weather to get cooler and eventually recover.

What do you think?? Any practical experience to share?

Week 23 - over 100

2011-06-15T08:33:00.000+08:00

104Km for the week... with this weather is quite an achievement to be proud of

Monday: even if it was a public holiday, I headed out for a long run at 5.30am to avoid the heat. I would say that until 6.30 I was running, then once the sun was high in the sky, it become a sort of crawl... (in figures, first hour @4'20"pace, then dropped to 4'36"...). I was stopping every now and then to take a walk, but honestly it felt harder than running the last km in a marathon. Total: 25k
Afterwards I felt so tired that I went back to sleep for an hour... seriously considered to give up running, if training must be so painful

Tuesday: 11km... "recovery run"

Wednesday: an approaching tropical storm from the Philippines was pushing ~~warm~~ hot air from south to South China. I had the same feeling as when you use a hair dryer in a steamy bathroom...
w/u , then 2km mini-tempo run @ 3'25" pace (feeling much better than expected), 1km jog, then hill spring 8x15".. Total 13k

Thursday: awfully hot... it should have been a recovery run, but at the end my HR was at MP effort even if I was crawling... total 9k

Friday: I did not even try to run outside...11km on treadmill

Saturday: the tropical storm was now near HK and outside was too awful... so long run on treamill (a first time for me). Watching a TV channel in cantonese is not exactly the best way to fight the "boremill", but I felt really committed to go long...
I can not swear about the reliability of the pace, but I did 13km easy, then cranked up the pace to 4'00" feeling very good (also because the thermometer of the gym club showed 21C/55rH..). Total 25K

Sunday: rain, rain, rain.. !! the storm eventually brought heavy rain and it was like another planet.
It was raining so hard that I had to keep a hand in front of my eyes (yes... a bit bizarre to rain like that), but I felt effortless... 11km @ 4'05" pace, with average HR of only 147bpm... totally a different story !

summer survival

2011-06-08T09:32:00.000+08:00

A scene that repeats itself everyday, around 5am...
after crawling away from the bedroom, I check the weather. I am really in disbelief that it could be already 29C/83%Rh at 5am, but this is the tough reality. That is something like an heat index of 35C at 5am... and it can only be worse after sunrise...

So every time I try to run between 10 and 15Km, keeping a easy pace for 30' and than going always slower and slower... I try to control the HR below 75% but inevitably drifts higher and higher, so that at the end of the workout I find myself in a combination: jogging pace @ marathon effort...

With a sweat rate of 2kg water/hr... I am usually wasted after every medium-long run.

Trying to keep the things going, last week I totaled anyway 75km.

end of survival report

HK Runner Magazine

2011-05-31T09:38:00.000+08:00

I ended up in the Summer issue of local magazine "HK Runner" for a brief profile.

For once, something not only in Chinese, so suits also my overseas readers.

oppss... am I supposed to race today !?

2011-05-30T16:41:00.000+08:00

Friday 27th I got up very early and crawled to the PC to see some news before heading for the usual run...
Some running God made me click on www.hkaaa.com to check if I was successfully enrolled in the track meeting due on June 4-5...
to my sleepy eyes, it took a while to realize that I was not only enrolled, but also scheduled to race on that same day 27th due to a change of calendar...

Being after a couple of hard session, I was not really sharp for a 5000m track race, but nonetheless I had to run in order to mark a presence in the series and eventually be able to race the finals in November...

Fast forward 14 hours later, I am eventually able to leave the office at 19.15 and show up at the Stadium in suit and tie with a sport bag in tow...

Being 26C/80%rh the warm-up did not take long and I find myself on the start line, together with other 30 runner whose average age was half mine... (I do not know why, but these track meeting looks like taboo to over 23...).
Honestly I felt dreadful, and my race plan was to stick to 3'20" pace until I could keep it and maybe increase a bit on the finale...

Until 3k I was more or less there and incredibly I was also near the race leader (yes... this meeting was really low level...). Then I felt my total lack of specific training... I was not really hurting, but simply my pace was slipping from 1'20"/lap to 1'22" or more...
Better said... I was NOT able to hurt...my engine had a kind of rpm limiter...

For the last 3 laps I tagged a boy (whom I know is 15yo...) and then just unleashed a kick to outsprint him for the 4th place overall in 17'00"...

Regardless of the time and placement, I was quite satisfied that I did not have any tightness or soreness in hamstrings, calves, abductors, whatever...
last season usually after every track session I was tight everywhere... so is a sign that all the stretching and ancillary exercises are working...

MORALE: if you enroll in race, check the calendar

The race venue... appreciate the typical HK-downtown landscape... high-rises

Track workout breakthrough...

2011-05-24T14:01:00.000+08:00

No, I did not run 10x1000m in 2'50"...(well... let's say not yet..., maybe)

But I DID RUN in this track, which is actually the track of 清溪第一中学..

The usage by "commoners" of sports grounds in China is completely a mistery to me... those who should be for common use are usually locked all day long unless a major sports event, but it is more likely that you can sneak in into some school sports ground before their lessons.

Despite moving to this town already 3 years ago, I always had a taboo to try my luck into entering this track. But this morning I did not feel too much to make some intervals around a a factory, I felt the need to some rubber...

All said, brief chat with the security guys at the entrance and at 6.00am sharp I was starting a modest 3x1000m to get back into interval training...

times were 3'13"-3'12'-3'11", it was nice to feel the pain of the lactic acid in my arms...

Qingxi tonw school (from Panoramio)

Apart from this, I did not follow too much the rule of "10% mileage increase"
Week 18: 0Km
Week 19: 35Km
Week 20: 72Km
all complemented by strong doses of core exercises, stretching, etc
No mistery that by sunday evening I felt like being passed over by a track....

Note: there is a strong debate about the real estate craze in China. The pic above was taken in 2008 and by now there are at least other 3-4 mega-residential complexes (like the one which was in construction in the pic) in this small town where 90% of the population are factory workers at 200USD/mt salary...
All the apartments are snapped by eager buyers even before completion and then they lay empty or half empty for years, because the rental or purchase are beyond reach for the masses...
The brick is just a way to park the money of wealthy locals, in absence of other investment alternatives.
This said... will the bubble burst or not ?

from Xinxing to Berlin

2011-05-19T04:35:00.001+08:00

what the hell am I saying ??

after a 3 weeks stops to repair all my aches, I was getting a bit lazy about resuming training...
it was good to wake up late (6.30am) and avoid the heat outside.
So I took profit from a business trip to Xinxing (place in the middle of nowhere in Guangdong) to force myself to run and kick-off the campaign to run the Berlin Marathon...
I was already mentally ready to run on some city walkway, when I spotted a sign for "Yunfu City Greenway Bike Path"...
Incredibly enough, the path was actually a real bike path, on traffic free paths along the fields and river... so a real surprise... running 10K was extremely painful but I am getting back better and better by the day

View Larger Map

...

2011-05-18T18:33:00.000+08:00

I step into the lift of the Nishinetsu Hotel and found an african runner talking to a guy who had a heavy italian accent. By the time the lift arrived at the ground floor, we already introduced each other and got to know that the runner wearing jeans and a rapper jacket was Samuel Wanjiru, ready to debut the day after in a Marathon.

In the friendly atmosphere of the Fukuoka Marathon, I got the occasion to meet more times the man and have a long chat with his manager too...
4 years were long enough to make him touch the sky and then go into a dangerous downhill.
Anyway this is my personal farewell to this great athlete.

this is a nice one

2011-05-06T11:55:00.000+08:00

nice pic from polish website

One meter after the finish line I felt like my ankle was exploding and I could not stand anymore...

(Note: nice to have a pretty blonde taking care of you... but I did not notice at the time)

Thumbs Up / Down

2011-05-05T15:46:00.000+08:00

Now back in Hong Kong, I appreciated in full the "weather gap" between the 15C dry in Europe and the 27C/haze/90%rh here...

In the past 2 weeks I did not run at all, just eat, eat and eat...
It was the right time to let all my niggling injuries heal and get some down time from running to charge the batteries in view of the next season.
Said that, from the marathon I good some really good learnings, which I try to summarize here

THUMBS UP:

1) Cracovia Marathon: is itself a very nice race, well organized and very much runner friendly.
With 3000 at the start, it is still something where you can focus on the pleasure of the race without too many cumbersome logistic problems (like waiting for 3 hours in freezing cold like in NY..).
The course was not actually pancake flat, but there were some slight inclines which are undetectable on the course profile, but not on a couple of tired legs...
Plenty of water points, with also energy drinks and food, etc... Even a post-race massage was available.
For me it was even easier thanks to the kindness of the organizer who granted me a Elite bib.
The course is quite spectacular with nice vierws of the old town, even if the section between 18 and 26K around the suburb of Nowa Huta (dull socialist style industrial town) was rather disappointing (not many spectators and the marathon was taking only one lane of the large boulevards, so we shared our run with passing-by cars...)
Entry fee is a reasonable 30 Euro and for additional 12 Euro I could get a digital version of all the 59 pictures taken by the race photographs (!!). Considering also the modest cost for lodging and food and the range of low-cost flights from all over Europe, it is sure a good choice for a Spring marathon. Good race and good sightseeing for a long weekend.
I do not bother anybody with all the 59 shots, but here some of the most spectacular:

2) ASICS Tarther Blitz 2: I must really do an unconditional endorsement for these shoes...

Light but supportive (around 220 grams)
cushioned but let your feel the road
really wrap around the feet
good grip

I really felt totally sold-out on them... they are the "perfect shoes" for a marathon (at least for a pronator like myself).
The only draw-back is that at 950 HKD RRP (around 120 USD), they are not on the cheap side (at least for HK standard...). Since I won them at a race, I could not complain on this. But probably they are well worthy the extra money

3) Our club uniform: a real hit also in Poland... everybody was shouting "Bravo" and "Vai Italia" !!

4) My overall training plan: no doubts that it works.
Long hard workouts at or near race pace every 3-4 days + many easy runs...
I think I slacked a bit on the strides, hill sprints, etc and therefore lacked a bit of speed and neuromuscolar coordination.
for good inspiration, give a look at the training of Moses Mosop for the Boston Marathon. We are obviously an another planet in terms of speed and overall workload, but the structure of the training plan is clear.

THUMBS DOWN:

1) Traveling long-haul with small Kids: honestly I think it was it was a "2 minutes loss" factor.
- jet-lag: the kids were up and awake at 4am
- the baby with a cold, kicking me all night long (he was sleeping in our bed)
- walking and driving here and there for all the 3 days before the race...
So I took the start line probably really low on sleep and energies...
I got a lesson, an intercontinental trip is already a big stress, with the kids then became unsustainable. In short, next time...leave the kids at home

2) Injury Management: I was way too slow to react to the different injuries:
- hamstring: I waited too long to go for a series of deep-tissue massages
- foot: dragged around for 4 weeks with a painful foot, popping pills and putting ice... it would have been better to head straight to the doctor and do the cortisone shot which was a solver in 2 days!
- tendon inflammation: also too slow to react... (well the time was not much anyway, but). It come out of nowhere, but I should have headed straight to the doctor. The shot on saturday afternoon did not have enough time to make effect and was too late.
So I really did poorly on treating my injuries...
The big lesson is that is always better to skip running immediately for 2-3 days at every small pain and deploy all the most powerful "weapons", rather than trying to cure with only RICE and easy runs...

3) Running a race with a Garmin (or any GPS): I did the experiment and it was really a total failure:
I had set-up the screen to disply the average total pace and the average pace of the current lap.
I was taking splits at each Km marker in order to avoid the usual GPS errors.
But still... my watch was maybe giving me an average lap pace of 3'40" and then I was maybe splitting in 3'45" or 3'50"... So I did not really know what to trust and how to adjust the pace.
Overall I think that the approach of using a HR monitor and checking the split at every Km is more reliable and let the runner make a better distribution of the effort...

When does a Marathon start ?

2011-04-22T20:53:00.001+08:00

The usual say is that a Marathon starts at 20 Mile mark...
...But while sitting in the waiting room of the hospital of Rybnik, I
could not avoid thinking that a marathon could begin much ahead, with
overcoming all the difficulties which can happen in the training, etc.

So I had the time to think that:
- 5 weeks before, I was in terrific shape and was easily crunching
miles and hard workouts. My dream of running a marathon in 2:35' was
getting close...
- then I woke up one day with inflammation to the sesamoidis which
afflicted me for weeks until I eventually cured it with a cortisone
shot
- my hamstring went out of control, with the tragi-comic even of
getting cramps on a 10k race and even tripping on the finish line
because the leg could not bend anymore. Now I had done some physical
therapy session and deep tissue massage but basically I could not
perform any "faster" workout for weeks and I could not predict how it
could behave on 42km.
- my baby son got a cold and did not let us sleep in the past 4
nights, so I felt really tired

...And I was there, waiting for a doctor to perform a
Cortison+lydocain shot on my ankle which got inflamed 3 days before
(for no apparent reason)... It was a last resort measure.

So all together I thought that I already did have a long way to go
before even maybe able to take the start the day after.

Despite this, I said to myself that I would have anyway tried to run
on 2h35'-36' pace. I must give it anyway a try because of all the
effort done to be there.

So, the day after, I left the HR monitor in the closet , did the usual
pre-race preparation, enjoy the benefit of my "Elite" start bib, and
then go...

Maybe is too tedious to write all the race details (and I am also
typing from a smartphone..), so I just say that I hit half marathon in
1h18'30" and then kept 3'42"/k pace (my target) until 30k.
The ankle was like a stinging needle at every step but I could bear it.

Then..I felt tired, I felt I did not have those energy in the tank to
increase my internal effort and keep the target pace.
The ankle was by than bloody painful, with the medicine numbing effect
completely gone.
So, in short, I had to slow down.
I did not bonk, I did not hit any wall, but I was simply slowing down.
I was no more racing, but only running to the finish line
I was strangely still overtaking other runners who were bonking hard.
Eventually after 2h40'03" I reached the finish line in 23rd place, but
the finish time does not really mattered much.
I could not even walk properly anymore and I felt kind of somehow
disappointed but proud to do it anyway...a Marathon is always a
Marathon

In the next days, once I have a proper PC, I elaborate more, but for
now that's all...

landed and ready for take-off

2011-04-15T01:52:00.000+08:00

after surviving a intercontinental flight with 3 small kids, running the marathon on sunday will feel like a rest day... only 2h40' of effort "solo" (vs 20 hours of HKG-KRK with 3 kids) and there are even people handing you water every 20 minutes...
apart the jokes, we landed eventually in Poland

weather is promising, with forecast of 8 to 14C for Sunday.

I got up yesterday with pain in the left ankle, for no real reason (after a rest day !). Now I am in search of some analgesic spray or similar to numb the pain for the race.

Lastly, before leaving HK, I eventually subjected myself to the torture of deep-tissue massage to the hamstring to release the tight spots.

So, Sunday the verdict
If all these last-minute repairs work, it can be a good one... otherwise I might not even arrive to the first drink station.

Marathon Pacing Strategy

2011-04-11T15:55:00.000+08:00

taking lead from a comment from Rick to my previous post, I would to list some personal guidelines of mine:

- after many observations, I think that negative split is possible and definitely the best strategy for a marathon in the 2h20'-3h00' hrs range (for people targeting 4hrs of so, the situation might be different because it is a much longer time on your feet so also peripheral fatigue might be of stronger influence).
If you target to reach the 25k mark with something in the tank, then it is "only" 1 hours of effort left (more or less).
All the stories about glycogen exhaustion and so on really give solid base to run a first half in more moderate effort and then give it all...

- my personal preference is to run always with HRM so that I can start the marathon with the first 5k at 80% HRmax and then gradually build up to 85% after 15k to keep until when you must forget about the HR and just push harder to keep the pace.
Usually the recommended average HR for a marathon is around 85% HRmax. But if you start straight at 85%, then it become unsustainable after 25-30k and eventually you will lose speed and also the HR will drop (for exhaustion of glycogen reserves).
If starting at a more moderate pace/effort (85%) the HR can gradually rise and keep on rising for all the race even reaching 10K effort level (90-92% of the max).

Better than whatever I could say, I found this GREAT pace calculator for the marathon
http://feelrace.com/marathonperfekt.html

It is 99% the same principle as I would follow and gives you both the progression of pace and HR to follow... amazing online resource

- 5 ... let's hope I can last 42k...

2011-04-11T13:26:00.000+08:00

In the past 2 weeks, I was not really "training" but more managing injuries and trying to arrive to the start line of the marathon in an acceptable condition.
I am in excellent shape and I do not think that 2 weeks of light training make a big impact at the end of a long season. I am not like those guy coming out from cold winters in north hemisphere who start a 16 weeks training from scratch... I started to train for this marathon last July so I am definitely confident I can run 42k at 3'40" pace, BUT

- foot pain: after losing too much time on this, I eventually headed to the Orthopedic and he confirmed my self-diagnosis of "inflammation to the sesamoids". He was then pretty straightforward: either I had to swallow pain-killers, put ice, etc and still have the inflammation for weeks, either we went for the "heavy weapons" and do a cortisone shot and cure it in 2 days. Decision easily taken at this stage also because I was already mentally prepared that it was the necessary cure.
A cortisone shot on the ball of the foot is terribly painful and let my foot swollen for a couple of days (when I could barely walk... forget about running). Going out from the doctor's building, I had to take a tram for 2 stops (300m) to reach the car parking because I could not even walk...
but 2 days later the pain was gone and the inflammation too... now the foot is 100% Ok

- hamstring: this is a real mess. Whenever I push the pace and if I do not pay attention to run with a light stride, the hamstring seizes...
I am doing some physio and self-massage to release the muscle and I also changed my marathon shoes into a brand new pair of Asics Tharther Blitz + new orthotics

The shoes are a model available only in Asia and they are a kind of "supportive marathon shoes", not super light, decent support and cushier feeling.

Also I got a new pair of orthotics more flexible, with a softer built and a flexible insert.

I think it can be a good move because the Mizuno+my previous orthotics made for a quite "stiff" and "responsive" stride.

So I had the feeling that the Mizuno really needed me to run with a very light stride and avoid heel striding. While this set-up feels a bit more forgiving.

All together, obviously the shoes are not a solution, but just a patch. Once the marathon is done, I will need to work on my hip/hamstring flexibility + gluteus strength during all summer.

Now, basically I have no idea if the hamstring can hold for 42k. In the last HK Marathon, I had 2-3 bouts of cramps/tightness which disappeared by altering the stride.
I will try to run light and focus in the stride, but 42k is a long way............

Instruments of torture

2011-03-30T11:22:00.000+08:00

Sunday's race left painful wounds... first a bruised hand and left hip from the fall..., second... a very painful and tight hamstring, third... a fatal blow to my morale...

After taking 2 days off from running to regain motivation and nurse all the physical and mental wounds, this morning I run 17km... It is amazing how my aerobic condition is good: I was running at 4'00"/pace with HR in recovery zone.
Also amazing is how I could still finish the race in 34'15" while crawling on 1 leg for 3km...and I was not at all tired.

Anyway now the only remedy is to work on releasing the hamstring as much as I can before the marathon, avoid racing flats and avoid running "too fast". It seems there is a kind of barrier for which I can not run faster than 3'35"/km without problems.

I want to thank everybody for all the suggestion about different treatments (foam roller, trigger points, etc...).
My arsenal for self-inflicted torture is well equipped:

TOP: foam roller 6"... very good for general muscle release
BOTTOM: massage stick...it works well on some hard spots but I will rate him below the foam roller
RIGHT: tennis ball... very useful to take care of any small sign of Plantar fascitis and also to work on some trigger point release technique, but I found that tennis ball is slightly too small to work on some bigger muscles.
so.. here the final weapon:
LEFT: Softball Ball (Mizuno)... works amazingly well for hamstring and quadriceps. It is big enough that you can sit on the floor with the ball under the hamstring and let the pressure of the leg do the job.
It can really dig deep inside large muscles...

Italia R.C. Sweep - Stefano P. back to victory

2011-03-28T16:56:00.000+08:00

related to yesterday's race is that Stefano P comes back to victory after many months of physical troubles, etc.
He beats in a tight race our teammate Curtis, who comes home with a hughe PB of 32'55" (not bad for a Master...!!.).
My 7th place rounded the team score and we went home with a victory in the team competition

face down...

2011-03-28T16:46:00.001+08:00

A week which went from bad to worse...

Probably the way to portrait the week is that less than 1 second after this photo had been taken, I tripped into the chip mat of the finish line (red/blue plastic band) and ended the race face on the asphalt...

The bad started on Monday when I felt the left pain more painful than usual. So I backed off with the Km and run only 20K in total in 3 days.
The rest and a good dose of painkillers did the job and felt the foot coming along slowly.
Thursday was not too bad, with a kind of interval session on dirt road 5x3' at around 3'18"/km pace.
Friday I felt ok and run easy with a progression of 5k @MP effort at 3'40" pace which felt very confortable.
Saturday I run short of time because of the kids and did only 8km run easy.
Anyway, the forced rest boded well for a good performance on Sunday's 10K race, my last tune-up before the marathon.
During the race, I was more than happy to see my team mates S. and C. taking an early lead and I was happy to stay in the 2nd pack, ready to strike for a 3rd place and total sweep by our team
I did not warm-up properly, so I felt a bit tied up, but as the race progressed I felt more and more in control... until 7K... when my right hamstring cramped.
Running fast is really a nightmare for my right leg and yesterday I paid the price in full...
I tried to kept on running properly, but it was painful and I had to back-off a little and let the others go.
Strangely enough, nobody get close and anyway I was still running 3'30"/k with one leg only, so I crawled to the finish line in 34'15" for 7th place...
I could not lift my right leg anymore and it tripped into the D-tag chip mat... with me "flying" through the finish line. It was so silly and embarrassing...

Now I really do not know if I can even think to start a marathon... my right leg goes into spasm whenever I push the pace.
The root cause is probably down in the ankles and calves... in a sense, the body tries to protect the old injured achilles and avoid too much load on the achilles, limiting the dorsiflexion of the foot. but then all the load goes into the hamstring.
Now I really feel down. My body is organically more than ready for running a marathon in 2h35'-36', but my right leg can let me down in any moment....

I have 3 weeks for trying to put the things in the right direction, but it was really a big blow.

Total weekly: 70km...

Week 11 - my first "combo weekend"

2011-03-21T12:39:00.000+08:00

My original weekly plan was to place a double workout "a la Canova" on Wednesday, something like 20K+20K with a lot of Marathon pace...

Then, since I needed to nurse my left foot, I preferred to stick to easy runs on soft surface.
The foot kept improving, so I was left wondering how to set-up a good long run on the week-end, since I am now 4 weeks out from the marathon, so it was supposed to be one of the hardest workouts.

Luckily I got inspiration from Thomas and his "combo weekend" . It seemed to me a very tough workout, but if he could do it, why not me....

But I seriously complicated the matters by:
a) I forgot the right pair of orthotics in Dongguan... so I had to fit into my Asics Kayano size 265 a pair of orthotics which were done for a 270-275 shoe...
b) for a data obsessed runner, this was a serious mistake: I also forgot the Polar back in Dongguan, while I carried the Garmin back to HK, but without HR belt and charger cable...
So I was left with many Polar HR belts and footpot and a discharged Garmin...
The only way out was to run "old style", with just a stopwatch...

Therefore:

Tuesday to Friday: easy runs in the forest. Foot going better, running on soft is totally another story. Around 15-17km every day

Saturday: "tempo run" to get toasted for sunday's long run. W/u 5k, then I clocked 10k in 35'25". Not bad since I was wearing Kayano trainers and it was raining.
The only problem was that the orthotics were way too large for that model of shoes and they start rubbing my big toes and I ended up with a huge blister..
total 17km, felt not too tired.. and not ice baths or other recovery techniques, but spent the whole day on D-I-Y.

Sunday: felt very apprehensive before the start because it was my first experiment of this kind of training approach... my legs were tired but not aching. I switched into marathon shoes to avoid blister, but I could know foresee how the forefoot could react.
I did not have any reference for my HR, so I run 1h10' at sensation checking the splits on some milestone...
after those 15k-16km it was time to go into serious business and I was really scared of what could have happened...
well... 3'40"-3'40"-3'45" and I felt a bit already in pain...then, the incredible happened: after 5k of struggle, I started to feel better and better and my splits went down to 3'35". I was not even suffering too much, more or less like when you are around Km25 of a marathon, where there is not yet extreme sufference, but a lot of concentration is needed to keep the pace. I ended up with a couple of 3'35" even with 2 underpasses on the way and incredibly I saw also the "finish line" (well... yes, I used the markings of a race to check the split).
Total: 32km with 15k in 54'48" (which is an excellent 3'39"/k pace !!).
This workout gives a projection of a marathon time of 2h34'10"...maybe too good to be true, but now I am totally confident that I could do a good race in 4 weeks time.
Now the problem is how to fill these 4 weeks without screwing up ...

Total weekly: 108km

our club/il nostro club: ITALIA Running Club (Hong Kong)

2011-03-17T14:37:00.000+08:00

(versione italiana sotto..)

today is the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy.
Despite being a country in decline and despite some political parties play a game of putting one half of the country against the other half (on more mundane affairs, also our Marathoning is not even near what it was 10-20 years ago). After so many years abroad, I also personally find difficult to tackle the chronic inefficiencies and poor organization so common back int he country...

Anyway, despite all, our "soul" (culture, lifestyle, art, cuisine, etc) is very well alive and more and more spreading around the world.

So end of last year, together with a group of fellow countryman, we set-up a running club to carry around the "azzurro" (royal blue) of our national color.
The "Italia Running Club (Hong Kong)" was an instant hit and I am proud to see that also runners of other nationalities were happy to join us.
In these few months we achieved many victories and podium positions and the club is poised for further expansion in the next season.
You could see than in the past few races I wore our uniform which was generously sponsored by some italian (and not only italian) companies.
So, this is our small way as Italians overseas to keep the flag high and promote the italian culture.

Many thanks for this project to:
Unigasket: a italian company, manufacturer of industrial gaskets and rubber products
JAS Logistics: the largest freight-forwarder in Italy
Australian Nutrition and Sport: their sports nutrition products are really good !

Follow us on our website www.italiarunningclubhk.org or on Facebook (page: Italia Running Club)

oggi, in occasione dell'anniversario dell'Unificazione, sono orgogioso di annunciare una nostra iniziativa per unire la nostra passione per la corsa e l'onore di rappresentare l'Italia nel mondo.

Il nostro paese sara' pure in declino ed in mezzo ad un casino abissale, ma noi italiani all'estero siamo orgogliosi della nostra identita' e della nostra cultura.
Quindi, qualche mese orsono, insieme ad altri connazionali, abbiamo lanciato il "ITALIA Running Club - Hong Kong".
Abbiamo una bellissima divisa, con i colori nazionali e devo ringraziare le societa' che ci hanno supportato.
In poco tempo, il club ha avuto subito un grosso successo e anche molti non italiani si sono uniti a noi partecipando alle gare con i colori del nostro club.
Per la prossima stagione abbiamo la volonta' di allargarci ancora un po' e di promuovere l'italianita' nel paese che ci ospita.
In questi mesi ci sono stati gia' numerose vittorie e piazzamenti nelle gare locali e sono orgoglioso di vestire la scritta "Italia" sulla maglia.

Seguiteci sul nostro sito www.italiarunningclubhk.org oppure sulla pagina Facebook "Italia Running Club"

Week 9

2011-03-14T10:35:00.000+08:00

I topped 130km for the week... which is near my lifetime high (I found out that one week of 2008 I run 148km, but basically I then broke down and got achilles...).
I do not feel too tired, but bones/feet and joints are anyway complaining, so I need to take few days easier and shorter run to avoid a breakdown...

Mon: 14km easy @148bpm

Tue: 15km easy in Dongguan @145bpm. It was raining and rather cool

Wed: very big day in Dapingzhen Forest Park... 37km @4'08"/k pace with 600m of climb. I maybe overdid the workout a bit.
The main issue was that most of the course was on concrete roads, so I felt pretty beaten up in feet/knees/bones... etc

Thu: 10k very easy on treadmill. I got up with a pain on my left foot near the "thumb"... I used Kayano even for the treadmill

Fri: 12km easy. Foot was still sore. Also I felt still beaten up from the long run

Sat: 14km. I was planning for a "real" workout, but muscles were still sore and the foot was not better... So I just run easy

Sun: 26km with 16km @ MP target pace. I felt good but the foot was not ok. Anyway after 4km warm-up, I started the long tempo keeping a consistent 3'40" pace.
The main issue was that after 10k the hamstring begun to seize and also the foot was aching also because I was wearing lighweight trainers. I had to mentally pay a lot of attention to relax my stride and avoid "pulling" with the hamstring and keep the pace going.
Overall I clocked 16k in 59' @3'42" but I do not come out from this workout feeling very satisfied.
The hamstring lasted only 10k and at the end the foot was very painful.
Later I went to the park with my kids, we spent all day outside and at the end I was really in pain...

Looking ahead, now I need to find a solution to the problem in the foot and the hamstring.
For the foot: I will use only very cushioned trainers and try to run on soft surfaces (which in HK means only training in a sports ground...).
For the hamstring.... the problem is clear (tight calves, weak glutes, too much work for the hamstring...) but the solution might take months...

Useful gadget: pulse oximeter

2011-03-09T23:00:00.001+08:00

I have always wondered how the people could take their rest HR in the morning and then judge their form, recovery and so on..
If me...after switching on the light, get a stopwatch, make measurement, etc..my rate would have been over the roof (also I do not see my wife really appreciative of lights on at 5am..).
So once I saw on www.dcrainmaker.com (interesting blog) a finger pulse checker used at the purpose..yes, it was really a right idea.
Not difficult to find one in China, since I found one manufacturer with offices in the surroundings...
With a modest cost, I got the one displayed wrapped around my finger.
Very useful, I eventually found that my morning H.R. is 43bpm (!!).
No idea what the other data (O2 saturation ??)is used for (if any real use..).
It is a pity that there is not a model with interface to SportTracks3...(I ask too much..).

After the check, I went for a 37km long run before work !
Very hilly course in DaPingZhen park, at the end I was really tired in my bones more than in the muscles because unfortunately the road is all concrete.
Anyway is a superb course which I really recommend to any serious runner in Dongguan.
No cars, no noise, just road and hills.
The course is so hilly that my km splits fluctuated wildly between 3'20" and 6'00"/k with no km same as the previous one...
At my average pace of 4'08"/km I could have added another 20minutes and finish a marathon in around 2:53'...

Wk 9 - solid

2011-03-08T14:25:00.001+08:00

This post might be short... as I am posting by email.

A very solid week with 2 workouts

Tuesday: I hit again the HKSI for the workout with the "HK National
Team".
I felt very confortable to hit the split given by the coach.
The workout itself was not necesseraly according to my usual training
philosophy but sometimes is good to try something different.
I ended up running intervals at 3'10" pace, with a final 400m in 66"
(which should be probably my PB....).
My right leg was suffering the high speed and always running in turns,
so by the end of the workout my abductors were really tired (almost
cramping).
My right hamstring, abductors and groin muscles are all too tight and
quite limiting my stride.
Working on stretching and muscle release is basically the real #1 target
ahead of the next marathon

Saturday: a good 29Km workout with a HoKi. Long warm-up, then 3x4km at
Marathon Pace effort... I do not know, but I felt extremely good and
easy. I was keeping 3'40" average on all 3 intervals. I do not think
that it is entirely sustainable for 42km, but maybe not too far...

All in between, may easy runs.. Some of them maybe not as easy as needed
Total 109km in 7 runs

From now until the marathon, I will stick to 2 big-workouts weekly: long
tempo run and a long run with mixed pace.
Doing only 2 workouts, I can focus on long and hard workouts more
focused on marathon pace, while having a good 2 days easy runs in
between.

Week 8 - tired

2011-02-28T15:54:00.000+08:00

Already reported about the daring 5000m on the track, I wrapped up the rest of the week feeling really tired.
I do not regret doing the race because first of all there were those consideration about the opportunity do do a decent time in decent weather (now the temperature has already risen to 23C and humid...) and also it was a good way to kick-out the "post marathon gloom"...
After the marathon, is quite easy to totally relax and slack out for several weeks (well deserved anyway). But because I have another marathon coming in April, I better get my things going asap, albeit with the necessary recovery time
So:

Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri; no running... felt really like sleeping was the best option
Wed: track meeting 5000m
Sat: 14km very easy... I was feeling very tired and with aches here and there. My HR was at least 10bpm or more higher than what it should be for that speed.. and I even had to stop a couple of times because I felt tired.
Right hamstring very tired...
Sun: same 15km... slightly better, still HR too high, I tried to run slowly. I really needed a crane to get up from bed...

Recap: legs are not too bad, but the right hamstring really needs some work. I also feel tired.
The real great news is that my infant son has begun to sleep through the night (at least until 5am..) so that is really a boost for the recovery !

something a bit insane....5000m track race

2011-02-24T16:19:00.000+08:00

...errr... I did something a bit insane...
regardless of all what I read about the muscular damages after a marathon, damages which can take up to 3 weeks to repair...

it did go this way:
Monday and Tuesday I felt my legs really sore. I could go up and down the stairs, etc.. but not really in any idea of running (not even a light jog...).
I do not know what happened, but Wednesday morning I got up from bed and my legs were 90% ok, just a bit sore in some spot, etc...
Then I started to consider that I was already entered into the track meeting long ago, and it would have been a pity to lose it because the weather is still good (cool), while all the other meeting will be in much warmer weather...
it did also help that I have some business appointments in the late afternoon near the track meeting venue, so it was really "on the way home"...
So.. call it insanity, but I packed some running stuff in a bag and went to work...
By late afternoon, I felt very motivated to run and after work I headed to the Stadium...

I can not deny that some other runners did really big eyes when they saw me warming-up...
my legs were a bit sore and I had not idea if I would have been able to really push hard...

This said, I lined up with the other 20 starters and could not avoid to notice that I was MUCH older than anybody else, maybe double than the average age of the other runners...
the gun goes and I try to run around 3'15" for the first k...
The eventual winner and my teanmate Colin took off at higher speed, but I was in a small pack of 5 runners and we basically went along at 3'15" pace for the next 4k...

It is difficult to describe my feeling: in a sense, I felt like I was not suffering enough, especially compared with a monster effort of a marathon. The breath was quite comfortable, but I did not have the stride to go faster.
At 4000m I started to suffer, but it was a kind of subdued suffering....
At the last lap, we started to sprint and obviously I did not have huge legs...
I closed in 6th place, beating at the sprint a 17yo runner (!!) with a 16'23" clock which is anyway incredible considering the marathon.
(it is also a kind of PB for me.. because I never did a 5000m track race before... my 5K PB of 15'51" was on road)
It was quite funny that after the race, the most depressed was a guy who beat me at the spring by couple yards... he told me how he did prepare for 2 months specifically for this track meeting, doing intervals and intervals. And now he felt very depressed to just beat me by a little knowing that I did a marathon 3 days ago......

Well... now I will really take it easy for some time... but anyway it was great fun on the track !

TV

2011-02-23T11:39:00.000+08:00

just to close on the subject of the HK Marathon, I ended up on TV... with the cameramen who did really a good job of catching the moment when I slipped on the tarmac
(NOTE: the asphalt on that bridge is REALLY rough)

The direct link below starts actually from just few second ahead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM9hMRAznm4&feature=player_detailpage#t=685s

The frames are at 11'31" of the video (which is mainly on the duel for the win among the top athletes), so if you have more time and want to see the full video... see below

a bit more technical…

2011-02-22T13:53:00.000+08:00

passed the emotional moments...let's dig into the numbers...
(the very few readers of this blog know that I am data-maniac runner)
1) the tapering....
for the first time, I tried to take advantage of the "Training Load" function of the SportTracks3 SW.
Without bothering too much with my own personal data, you can see that the load went down a lot during the last week of January because of work commitment, so I tried to do a bit more in early February to recover, but obviously this involves the risk of getting too tired close to race day…

The greenish line (Training Stress Balance) was so still well below “0” very close to the marathon and I really had to take 3-4 days very easy to get a decent taper and reach race day with a TSB of +8.
I think that probably is better to avoid getting so close to a “A” race with tough workout and get more freshness to really have the best performance.
If someone is interested in knowing more about how to use the function, just pop me a message.

2) The carbo-loading:
my terror is always to end up in a part-a-john after 10k because of having eaten too much, and at the same time I still need to eat those 400-500grams extra of carbs to build up reserves for the race
(my friend Stefano knows very well the consequences of this: we ended up with 6 stops in the … while still finishing in 2h34’… he carbo-loaded using cereals…)
So, like I did for Fukuoka, I mainly took some cereal bars, but mostly resorted to carbohydrates in powder. I found a product with acceptable taste and so it was enough to sip all day long. I highly recommend
So my gut was still light and I did not feel too bloated at the start…

3) Race Splits

Distance	Time	Split time	Split pace
5	00:19:28	19:28	03:54
10	00:38:42	19:14	03:51
15	00:57:43	19:01	03:48
20	01:16:37	18:54	03:47
25	01:34:56	18:19	03:40
30	01:53:53	18:57	03:47
35	02:12:16	18:23	03:41
40	02:31:33	19:17	03:51
42,2	02:39:55	08:22	03:49

Difficult to say something on this. The first 10k are uphill, so the pace was fair. From 20 to 35 it is mainly downhill and also we really started to pick up the pace.
The split from 35 to 40 is great, considering the climb out of the tunnel and all the other flyovers, etc…Than I was really done for the day and just keeping the pace.

4) The HR
All the race was done following the indication of the Polar… I did on purpose hold back until the 20Km at the lower end of the MP zone… then it was time to start the race..
Note the spike in bpm around 1h00’…it was right after the fall… It was really an adrenaline boost..!! I had to calm down.. relax back and let the HR goes down again

5) The REAL race…
apart from the performance of a middle-age guy… there was a real race going on ahead of me
Here the article on the local newspaper

and lastly, the newspaper also find the goodwill to make an article about “the race in the race” for the local runners, where I am also interviewed !!

6) The reward:
for me, the greatest satisfaction is to being able to run in Fukuoka again.. with 2h39' I am sure to make their entry requirements. Now you know where I will spend my first Sunday of December !

2h39’…and 1500USD

2011-02-21T22:44:00.000+08:00

So I eventually did my debut in our local marathon….
It is difficult to decide where to start from, if from an aseptic narration of the race or from the deep emotions that every marathon leaves in a runner….
So I start from the 32K mark….
Until that moment, I had run the whole race shoulder to shoulder with Wioleta Kryza (a Polish Pro woman … after the race a google search revealed that in 2002 she was suspended for doping…). In few words she told me that she was quitting there because she was out of the money prizes.
I was alone with 10k to go and I could only see maybe 400m ahead 2 local runners who were directly competing for me for the “local runner special classification”.
I hit the split button ….2h01’19” into the race. Even with the mind fogged by the effort, I realized that I could arrive below 2h40’ , but at the price to clock a 38’ last 10K, with all the hills and the tunnel still ahead…
so go for it (sub 2h40’ and 3rd place) or just cruise to the finish and be content with 2h41’ and a 5th place?
I went….
I felt my body refusing the idea of pushing even harder, but my mind was really focused and little by little the 2 got read and blue spots ahead got bigger and bigger.
Once I reach the western tunnel, the red spot become just few steps ahead …. while climbing out of the tunnel (from –40 to +20 on sea level) I felt my legs like stones, but also the blue spot was nearer and nearer and I left it behind at the top of the climb…
Now I had only 4k left, and my right leg was setting tighter and tighter… every downhill was a real pain… I was not more able to extend the stride and just cruise down… every flyover felt like a mountain. My right hamstring was just a piece of wood and I was somehow surprised myself on how the Km splits were anyway still 3’4x
I stayed focused to my stride, just pushing my pain away. A last climb, the last Km banner and I hear Bill P. shouting “good job, Roberto, push, you can stay under 2h40’ ”…
Last turn, I see the finish line with the clock ticking away 2h39’30”…40”…45”…but is done…I crossed the line in 2h39”52”, around 15-20th overall but most important 3rd local runner….
It was all much beyond my expectations and a huge payback for all the sacrifices and early wake-ups…
The gratification was also “material” when I realized that I won 1500USD for the 3rd place in the special classification for local runners… the first time I ever win a cent running.

I can give myself a 10/10 marks because I really executed a perfect marathon strategy… not to sounds overconfident, but It was right from the books…
The course of HK marathon can be divided into 3 main sections…
the first half is a lot of hills, going from sea level to the top of the StoneCutter Bridge at over 100m altitude.. it might sound ridiculous, but climbing 100m in 4k, with strong sea winds is really tough…
My idea was to start VERY easy and keep my HR in the low 160s until the mid race. After 4-5k in the long climb my pack disintegrated and I was left with the mentioned Wioleta…
We exchanged pacing duties until the 15k turn-around point, and then I realized that somehow I was 5th of the local runners and not really far from the 4th/5th place… it was still a long way to go , but I was feeling strong
That sentiment did not last long… at the U-turn, on TsingMa bridge, I felt my feet losing grip and soon after I was on the ground with blood coming out from the right leg and my hands…
nothing terrible, but it was a huge discharge of adrenalin !! I could not finish my marathon for a stupid tumble…
My HR rate soared to 175-180bpm and I had to control my breathing, resume running and wait for the next water stop to sponge my bleedings..
The race was not compromised, I got back gradually to my “pacemaker” and we reached the half marathon mark in 1h20’50”.
Perfect to plans and it was time now to take advantage of the gradual descent down till the 37k…
I was happy that my HR was still low and we started to clock several 3’30” and 3’40” Kms… until she dropped off…
My HR was by then already around 175 (87%HRmax), but it was like I expected…
then.. the last part.. the last 5k are really brutal: you are under the underwater tunnel…40m below sea level and you have to go out.. with a climb which seem endless….then is all a succession of overpasses, flyovers, ups/downs until your legs can not take it anymore…

I run many marathons, but Hong Kong is really the toughest of the “city marathon” in the worlds…

Exhibit : IAAF race report (which made it as quote of the day in letsrun.com..)

END PART 1...tomorrow something more

Forecasting potential race performance with Polar Running Index

2011-02-18T12:09:00.000+08:00

Polar is for me a very mysterious company... they "invented" the HR monitors, their units are packed of very useful functions... but then they do not make any effort to explain how to use in practice the functions made available...
The most mysterious of all is the Polar Running Index, about which I already wrote a couple of times (see HERE and HERE)

Now I try to use the Index as "forward looking tool" to forecast my incoming marathon time....

I own the Polar Rs800 since December 2006 and the trend of the P.R.I. is

Because I wanted to see better how to use Garmin and because the Polar food pod was broken for a while, I miss several data in the most recent period...

Anyway it seems that the past figures give a good idea of how my performance could be.
78-80 : around 2h42' (but that day in Boston the weather was tragic...)
80-82: below 2h40'
85: more around 2h35'

obviously these are my personal data and other people might have different curves.
Also the Index does not keep into consideration the specific training you could have for a specific distance (5000m o Marathon) but only a general indication of aerobic fitness
So I can bet on myself for Sunday that the time probably it can be something around/above 2h40', but then need to be factored by the hilly course and weather conditions (humid...).
I would be very happy to go below 2h42', qualify for Fukuoka and save somehow my legs for the spring marathon

Ok, now all is said and let's see what happens on Sunday

HK Marathon course in video

2011-02-17T14:59:00.000+08:00

This is a nice one...

A guy put a camera on a car and did all the course of the HK Marathon.
It is impressing from 4'45" onward to appreciate the gradient of the big Stonecutters bridge... is really steep and long.

If you want to jump directly to the beginning of the bridge, click below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxef8EgrxkM&feature=player_detailpage#t=287s

Other sections of the course are in part 2 and 3 of the video

A nice book about general training

2011-02-17T14:47:00.000+08:00

During the holidays, I had the time to read (by the way, my first Ebook..) a very interesting book about functional training.
It is all about strength and power training for different body segments, focusing on the kind of exercises which are really functional for the sport.

The reading is really a eye-opener about which are the useful exercises to do for general conditioning, especially if you usually hit the weight or machines in a gym.
So, for example, the book explains clearly why doing "leg curls" on the weight machine is a waste of time because the hamstring is not working in concentric effort in any sport, but always in eccentric way to stabilize the hip.

Many of the concept are more targeting "sprint running" sports (like Sprints in T&F and Team Sports), but obviously what is good for running fast is good also for running slower..
(by the way, my maximum sprint speed is lower of Bekele's speed on 5000m/10000m... so the concept of sprint is very relative...)
Anyway a very good reading and good to follow the book's indication if you are setting up a self-made functional conditioning strength program

Week 6

2011-02-15T18:28:00.000+08:00

Somehow a very solid week of training....

MON: 16km last run in Australia... it was really windy so on the way back after 8k it was no more "easy" effort

TUE: in Hong Kong. in the evening, I showed up at the track of the Sport Institute for a workout with the "national team".
The new national team coach did a very smart move to set-up bi-weekly training session for his team and to also allow "qualified guests" to join into the workout.
It makes a lot of sense because otherwise there would be only 3-4 people training at each session and also the foreigners in HK are really a big push and motivation for improvement to local runners...
So at the session, there were some of the best local runners and also few foreigners (including me...).
That said, the session was schedule for a 30' tempo run...
for me, 3 days after an half marathon, it was a bit hard, but I decided to stick to the HR monitor and let the effort guide the pace.
It was very pleasant because, rather than running alone, it was a good pack all along the effort and I clocked 3'30"/k pace very steady, closing in 8800m for 30'. HR was right on spot into the 170s as it should be for me for a tempo run.
Note: I would never been able to do 30' tempo run on a track alone... group power...

WED: no running
THU: easy 14.5k
FRI: same as yesterday..
SAT: 16k with 5-6 hill sprints

SUN: kind of last long run/marathon rehearsal. Maybe is not really a good training concept to do a Marathon Pace long run only one week before a real marathon, but I wanted to see how my target pace felt like and also to test all the "materials".
By the way, it was a perfect day for running fast, with 12C, slight wind and rain.
So I was really happy also to test running with leg warmers to use in case of real cold...
4k easy, the 3x a undulating circuit of 7k, 3k cool down
On the first lap I felt really good and I went a bit faster than I wanted... maybe around 3'55"/k average.
Then 2 laps at MP effort and I was glad to see that I clocked 3'45" /3'48" pace.
After 14km of MP I was still in my planned HR zone even after a hard week of training...
Let's see on race day, but running at 3'50" might be possible.
total: 27km @3'58" average pace (including w/u and c/d)

Total weekly: 100k sharp... not bad.
Now time to taper down for the Marathon

Wk5 - Australian Week report

2011-02-10T12:32:00.000+08:00

Being on holidays did magic for my running...
I totaled 123Km in a week which is probably very near my life-time record...
To keep faith to my habits, I was always running at 5.30 or 6.00am, but not having to drive for hours or work until late makes a huge difference on recovery...
So the 123km come out without too much effort...

Basically all the run were on the seaside cycling track in Busselton... after a week I was familiar with every crack of the road, but I can not complain about running in such a nice view...
I had with me only a pairs of Asics Kayano and honestly after 8 days I was totally fed-up to run in these kind of protective shoes. The stride lose lose elasticity and also my calves muscles got shorter...
My definite preference is for light trainers... I am not into barefoot running, but definitely the best choice is to use the lightest and least cushioned shoe you can tolerate

Mon: 15km easy to get used to the place
Tue: I really wanted to make a last long run before the HK marathon, so I went for 33km @ steady 4'10"... like an idiot I did not carry any water, so after the sun come out, I was really craving for fluids.. but somehow I managed to do the all run without anything.
Wed: recovery run 12km
Thu: even if I was by then knowing that I would have run an Half Marathon, I did not want to lose the chance to work on my weak point which is gait and stride length... so after 30' easy, I added 8x1' @ 3'20" pace to work on leg turnover, etc. Total: 16km
Fri: 12km easy
Sat: half marathon (note: praise to the organizer for setting up this nice race. But I must honestly say that races in HK are "more" in terms of service to the runner... (baggage storage, prizes, etc) . Total 25km including w/u
Sun: 10k relaxed... (well... it was incredibly windy, so It was fairly hard even to run slowly...)

now is time to taper down for the HK marathon...

Busselton Half Marathon report...

2011-02-09T18:49:00.000+08:00

Where is Busselton ??? a lovely seaside town in West Australia. The town is famous in the Triathlon world for being the location of the West Australia IronMan...so almost everybody in town goes around with some kind of Ironman memorabilia....
It also boast the longest wooden jetty of the southern hemisphere (1.9km...)

What the heck was I doing there ?? Well, during the CNY holidays, we went there for a family beach vacation and the usual round of country parks, etc.... (at least my kids would understand what a cow looks like...).

Basically it was totally unplanned and one day going around town we noticed a banner advertising a half marathon for the saturday.... so, why not ??

This said, I was a bit hesitant to make a Half only 2 weeks away from the Hong Kong Marathon... but I resolved to take the race at reasonable effort and do not leave everything ...also having only a pair of Asics Kayanos was a good mental brake to avoid going "too fast"...

Reaching the beautiful seafront starting point I was deeply impressed by how much the "Ironman" culture was pervasive in that region... it seemed that 2 out of 3 were multiple Ironman veterans, sporting souvenir shirts from any kind of Ironman race around the globe...
So... I was only a modest road runner who can barely swim...

The course is a 2 loops back and forth on the seashore, so it is basically 4 times of the same 5km stretch...
it was really windy, with serious headwind on half of the course (heheh... tailwind on the other half...).
To get good data for my assault to the marathon, I run in full "data crazy" asset: Garmin, HR strap and foot pod.
The target was to run around 3'40" which seemed a reasonable pace for such a windy day. Also I wanted to keep the HR as close as possible to 170bpm in first half race, to leave space for climbing up to 177-180 only on a later stage. In this way, it was a fairly reasonable effort, but not a real "half marathon" full out (where I should start at 175bpm and later see the HR drift to 180-180bpm or even more...).
5bpm can make a huge difference in terms of effort and I am surprised by how many people wear a HR monitor without really taking profit of the information...

Anyway, right after the start, it was quick to realize that there were 2 runners much faster than the others and they soon disappeared on the horizon. I was quite comfortable in the 2nd pack and it was good to see that my HR was just around 170bpm as I wished (85% of my max).

As you can see, I kept a very steady effort (and 3'40" pace) until 16km, where the last headwind section required me to work harder to keep the pace.
Progressively our pack was losing pieces and we were left in 2 with 5km to go to dispute the 3rd place.
I was a bit hesitant to push too early, so I really put down the hammer only at the 20km mark with a 3'20" Km split and dropped the other guy....

So, final result: 3rd overall, 1st Master in a 1h17'46" which was right on spot of my targeted pace.
Results are HERE

If you do not have it yet, it is a real must to install the "weather plugin" on SportTrack 3....
You can get an exact picture of the weather conditions during the workout... for example during the race:

The temperature was not bad, but a constant wind at 26kmh made for a tougher than expected race....

So, if you happen to be in West Australia the first week-end of february (next edition is scheduled for 4th february 2012), do not miss this nice race www.busseltonhalf.com.au

totally out of control

2011-01-26T10:40:00.000+08:00

my training is spiraling totally out of control together with the frantic pace of life in the past weeks....

I sometimes go to sleep at 2am or maybe sleep 4-5 hours at most, work a lot and also cater to different family commitments. Unfortunately running tries to fight for space in a disorderly manner.

Highlights of the past 10 days:

- 45 Km long run... I was not gone nut, but in the morning I woke up in Dongguan and went for a 35k long run in the fantastic setting of Tangxia Dapingzhen Park

I have never been there for a run and is really a great place: no cars, inside a forest, a very demanding course...
I wanted to run 2h30' and clocked 35k in the process
The park will for sure be one of my future training grounds!

In the evening, I was in HK and a visiting relative asked me if we could go out for a jog and show him where to run near our home... well...OK... so another 10k very easy..

- 23Km MP run.. starting at 21.30... I finished thew workout at 11pm and then collapsed in bed...

- all this mixed up with days of no running and easy runs...
total daily 45Km and I was not even too tired

Escaped from the Great China firewall

2011-01-20T14:20:00.000+08:00

I did not blog for a while because suddenly I found that my work PC's gateway was moved from a HK server to a server in China... So I was caught inside the "great China firewall" and no more blogs, no more foreign news, no more youtube and so on and no more of any website which use a dynamic IP....

Well, not that I spend my working time blogging or reading news on the net, but in a "factory life" the work desk is also the refuge for spending the time after work... usually there is no much to do outside and we do not have our family here, so it is not unusual to stay in office until very late (9 or 10pm) to enjoy the facilities: PC, air-con environment....
the fact that my PC was connected to a HK server gave me also the special privilege to escape all the limitations of internet in China...while if I surf from home I become a common china citizen for whom any search on google give a blank page...

All said, I begged my IT guy to find a solution to get my PC out of exile... and here it is... free again

So more about running in the next occasion

Cold, freddo, frio ! And shattered legs

2011-01-12T11:06:00.003+08:00

This is the temperature here this morning....
For a town located at the Tropic is really cold, compounded by a cold drizzle...
I know that compared to North Dakota o Sweden I am in a paradise, but the issue is that house DO NOT have any heating system and insulation. So 3C outside, 3C also in the bedroom or while you step out from the shower....

With this weather I felt better going out running than staying at home, at least there was some endogenous heat production.
The problem is that I come out from the Half Marathon really shattered: Monday I could not even walk downstairs and I opted for riding a stationary bike in the gym (honestly very shameful for a former hard core cyclist...).
Tuesday it was not much better and so I gave it a miss...
This morning, I ventured out in Dongguan before sunrise in total obscurity and it was slightly better but I was basically shuffling....

Being so shattered after an hilly race does not give me good signs for the HK marathon (which is very hilly). So from now on I will focus more on hilly courses and uphill/downhill training....

Half Marathon Championship - report

2011-01-11T15:07:00.001+08:00

The start...

After the injury of 1.1.11 I did not feel too confident about doing well at the HK Half Marathon Champs, but it ended up in a decent and satisfactory race for me.

For once, it was a perfect chilly morning in TaiMeiTuk, with temperature around 12-14C, dry and just a moderate wind from the North. I do not think it can be much better than that for running...
With 2400 runners at the start, the race is one of the highlights of the local calendar and it is also one of the very few which is run on closed roads.
I did a couple of jog on friday and saturday and the leg was now working OK, but my HR was totally out of control for such speed... even at slow jog I was over 150bpm... for sure 5 days of inactivity were not helpful.
Also the night-time feeds on weekend are really tiring... I really envy those who fall asleep in few minutes.
For me, after the usual 2-3am night feed of our baby, I can not fall asleep anymore until maybe 5-6am.. and right after that is time to get up for work or else...
So it is really a hard moment for me to train harder or more... but let's go on and see what I can improve (if any).

The course is basically the same as the HK Cycling Championship which I did in June (well, basically it is the only section of road in HK which can be closed to cars for few hours without affecting 3 Mln residents...).
If hills make a nice cycling race, they also mean a HARD running race, so I was planning to start easy for the first half of the race and keep energies for the flat section at the end...

I am #5543...

More or less, it did all went to plan: I really controlled my effort in the uphill section and I was 22nd OE and 2nd Master at half way, than I started to make up grounds and pick up those too daring.

After 14k we eventually come back to the flat and I was really tired, but it was evident that also everybody else was tired... (see exhibit below).

The good point was that I was now around 14-15th place and digging deeper I also caught the 1st Master with 4k to go.

The last 2k were on the famed dam, with strong wind from the side and everybody really hurting badly.

I had to push hard to the end because the 2nd Master was only few seconds behind and I was also taking advantage of being in a small pack of 4, so we were pushing each other hard.

1k to go, 500m to go, 300m to go and everybody start to sprint like rabbits and I am left behind from their younger legs (seriously, I lost 9 seconds from the 12th place in 300m !!! how could they sprint so fast)

The time: 1h16'45" valid for 16th OE and 1st Master (full results HERE)

in 2008 I run 1h15'20" on the same race, so I still margin of improvement versus my previous self (2 kids, many sleepless nights and several injuries before....).

Great race also for Stefano (3rd overall) and Colin (5th overall) to round up another good showing of our newly formed team

Stefano P. in good company

General consideration is that the competitive level in HK has risen dramatically since my stop in 2008...

in 3 years, there are many new young and fast runners and is not a granted to place even in the top 20...

In this race, the winning time has always been in the around of 1h12'-1h13'... this year 1h10'05" with a sprint finish... while 1h13' was only good for 6th place....

I close with a tribute to Thomas and KaHo who did put up a great duel up to the finish line

No need to explain who is Thomas the kenyan and who is KaHo the local.

Year Start .... badly

2011-01-07T13:41:00.000+08:00

There is a saying like "if you do something on January 1st, you will do it all your long"....

So I must really fight my negative thought about getting up from bed on 1/1/11 and being injured !!

I felt a kind of swollen area in the lower section of the "anterior tibialis". I went to a jog but it was worse, so I bailed out and started with RICE...
When I dorsiflexed my right feet, I felt a sharp pain in the shin and even walking was hard...
In short, I did not run until this morning (5 days...), did some cycling, swalled some Voltaren and iced daily...
The pain was less and less every day and today I was able to run 11km, even if my HR was much higher than it should have been...

Now, Sunday is HK Half Marathon Champs, so I am not going to miss it anyway, but a big question mark on my performance. A pity.... because I closed 2010 in excellent shape.
Let's see on Sunday

NOTE: if you want to pick-up your next race and want a good competition, read this ranking of worlds races

Year End --- time runs faster than me...

2010-12-31T23:59:00.000+08:00

Rather than an arid list of runs... here some random year end thoughts....

A) now almost every week I go running at SongShan Lake, which is in the souther outskirts of Dongguan.
It take me a 25' drive to go there, so not like running straight from home, but is the perfect place for long runs and in general running.
The whole loop is a kind of 8-shaped around the lake 22K+8K....they set up a great cycling track, far from any traffic and with the pleasant view of the lake.
Yesterday I had planned a hard long run, which is by nature a scaring combination of words...
So i felt hesitant at the beginning but the weather was so perfect that I could not miss the opportunity to do a similar workouts in the few occasions before the Standard Chartered Marathon...
The drawback of running there is that you must carry water because there are no water fountains or shops open on weekdays. So i had a water bottle with a gel taped on it...

The plan was a 5k warm-up, than doing at least 23k "tempo run", then 2k cool down to reach 30k.
For the tempo section, I was targeting a bit slower then my target marathon pace, so running at 4'00" would have been enough...
It might have been the perfect cool winter weather, or the setting, but I felt rather good and I was running faster than planned with the HR reasonably low...
In honesty, running fast makes the long run much less boring than slogging around at easy pace and I reached 5k, then 10k and 15k in a blip. From 15k the course is slightly hilly and some headwind was picking up, so I had to focus in keeping the pace...
I reached my 23K in 1h28' (3'52" pace !!) and still feeling very well, but I did not want to overdo it... so it was time for cool down...
Overall a great workout... 30k in less than 2 hours (including W/U and C/D)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/61228251

Note: I am totally disappointed by using a Garmin with GPS only (no foot pod). The instant speed displayed is totally unreliable and quite disconcerting because you see your pace fluctuating from 4'30" to 3'40" without reason... New Year, back to Polar and food pod (or Garmin + foodpod)

2) time for year end balance:
compared to 2008, I can not dwell into elaborate charts because in the past couple of months I recorded my workouts only on SportTracks which does not have any way to export data to excel
Anyway some statistics for the year:

- Km run: 2393
- Workouts: 233
(Note: there were also 2700Km done on a bicycle in 83 workout)
83+233 = 316 workouts in a year...which is a good 6 workout/week in average (I think some double workout can affect the data)

SportTracks 3 gives anyway the opportunity to find other interesting statistics...

Did you usually train more on week ends ?? NOT ME....

The data says that I train more on mid week when I am stationed in Dongguan and make bachelor life....
or, to put in other words, I dedicate the week-ends to the family rather than running (I will print out this chart for my wife....)

Do you have a usual "rest" day ?
I have... and it seems monday

Both distance and pulse rate are at their lowest on Monday, so it was definitely my easy day...

After my long stop for injury I had to build up the volume gradually and it seems that I was able to progress the volume (apart from the drop caused by my son's birth)

Program for the new year:
After 11 years in South China/Hong Kong, it was time to make my debut at the local marathon, so in February I will take part in the Standard Chartered Marathon

April: dream of another marathon...

August: I already enrolled in Berlin, even if it will be a nightmare to train during the summer

December: dream of taking part in Fukuoka Marathon one more time...
Now, the issue is that the qualification standard is not sub 2h42' (!!), which is not a joke...
- Achieving it in Hong Kong: very tough, the course is hilly and the weather unpredictble (usually on the negative side)
- Berlin: another huge question mark because of the difficulty to train properly in summer tropical weather. And also the entry deadline for Fukuoka is 30/9, while Berlin is on 25/9, so I would have to run fast and than run even faster to a DHL store to post my entry (entry is only by mail....)
For that, I would really wish to run something in Spring, a flat course in Japan or Europe... ideally 5-6 weeks after SCM so that I can recover properly without losing endurance. There are some "candidate marathons", but is not really easy to leave Hong Kong for a long week-end and leave the troops behind... let's (I stop blogging and make the entry for Rotterdam... in the worst case I will lose the entry fee...)

Happy New Year to everybody and many PB to come !!

globe-trotting : part 2

2010-12-21T15:27:00.000+08:00

I forgot to mention in the previous post that right before leaving to Europe I did a detour at a Decathlon sport store in China (yes... there are also here..) and raided the running section of all the cold winter stuff I could find: winter gloves, cap, rain jacket, etc... (actually the choice was quite limited but the essential was there...but I could not expect more in a city where the minimum temperature rarely drops below 10C....).
So I was not totally unprepared to the cold wave which I met in Europe...

It was also funny to notice that basically 90% of the runners whom I met while running in the Park in Monza were all wearing decathlon stuff.... so I passed totally unnoticed, since everybody else was wearing my same outift (next time I will show up with a tracksuit from LiNing brand with China written on the back...).

Anyway the week went quite well, considering that I was in a whirlwind of meetings and moving around Europe.

Mon: DNR

TUE: very nice run along the River Sile in Treviso (near Venice). It was TERRIBLY cold (-4.3C). I run 30' easy then I started to push the pace just to keep warm... total 13K

WED: Havant (Hampshire, UK). Not very familiar with the place, so I just run along the main road (also because it was with streetlights) for 30' and then return. The temperature was much better (around +1C).

THU: also in Havant. I went further down the road and on the way back some strides and 1' hard effort. Temperature was quite enjoyable (5C)

SAT: near Piacenza (Italy). This was probably one of the "coldest" runs in my life.

I really wanted to make a long run all around the hills and flatland of the town, but when I woke up all the streets, trees, cars, whatever was covered by frost (locally called "galaverna").

At 9am, it was -6C !

By the way, there is a very nice plug-in of SportTracks (Weather plugin) which read the data from GPS track and match with weather data from the nearest weather station. So you can get exact weather profile during the workout.

(yes.... all the 2 hours at around -6C... not bad for a guy from Tropic)

At the beginning I was really struggling to warm-up. But the climb from 100m to 300m altitude in the first 5k did the trick and I was able to sweat a bit...

Honestly once you are dressed properly it is much better to run at -6C than at +30C so I did not felt any problem to keep a decent pace around 4'10"-15".

In good weather, I would have enjoyed a landscape like this:

but basically it was all in white

Unfortunately even this time, my right hamstring started to seize once I passed 25k and I was really struggling. I really need to understand what is going on because the hamstring get tight once I hit a certain distance and is not painful at all after the run. There is some biomechanics wrong and I need to sort it out (also working with stretching and strengthening)

TOTAL WEEKLY: 75Km which is really not bad considering the schedule... now I am back to China and there are 20C+... so another week, another temperature....

Globe-trotting - part 1

2010-12-14T05:29:00.001+08:00

Crazy week and I incredibly managed to run 90km+ while hopping up and down from air planes..
I write these few notes from a Hotel room near Venice (Venice in Italy...not Venice CA..), but this is just the final step of a busy week

MON: we had a terrible night with the kids, I was totally done and missed the morning run.
To make up, I run in the evening on the treadmill in Dongguan. So 7k easy

TUE: now the weather in South China is perfect. In the morning 17C and dry, I started from home in Dongguan and come back 1:13' later with 17km of easy run

....Then rush to the airport and fly to Shanghai

Evening: my hotel was "middle of nowhere" by the sea and so I put the shoes on for an easy 9km run.
Needless to say that Shanghai is MUCH cooler than Guangdong...
With 3C, the 9k felt very easy even if it was the 2nd run of the day

WED: I stepped out of the hotel and felt really cold..only 2C and chilly breeze from the sea. I went easy for 8K until I felt like ready to freeze.. So I upped the pace and pushed back @ 3'45" pace. Total 13K...felt very easy.

....As usual the flight out of Shanghai was late (4 hours !!), so I arrived back Dongguan at midnight.

THU: still exhausted from the trip and little sleep, I went for an easy run again on treadmill (where ? In Dongguan). Totale 6k

FRI: Hong Kong. Great workout ! Weather was perfect and I had a decent night sleep.
So 25' w/u than 3x10' at AT with 5' easy in between.
This is a great kind of workout and should be performed weekly or even more often!
Total 18K at 4'00" average pace !

SAT: not an easy night with the kids, plus bus with the family, plus packing the suitcase---> no running

Night flight from HK to Milan.

SUN: Monza, Italy.
This city boasts a huge park which is a running paradise.
I was just out of the plane, but I did not want to miss the opportunity to run where.
The place was full of runners of any age, gender, speed.
The only thing in common was that it seemed that everybody was wearing running apparel from Decathlon (their Kalenji running stuff brand).
I felt really weird that I was also wearing the same jackets and tights as anybody else even if my stuff was actually purchased in China...call it globalization.
I forgot to say that it was REALLY cold...around 0C. I felt really freezing even with my winter stuff.
Somehow I run 28K in 2h00'... But at the end I just craved a hot shower !

So weekly stats:

- run: 90K+
- miles flown: 14000km
- thermal shock: from 25C of monday to -1C of Sunday

And more to come...

Running Resurrection !

2010-12-06T14:25:00.000+08:00

After weeks and weeks of hardship, eventually come the day when the stars aligned in the right way also for me....
Yesterday at the "Mizuno 10K race", I scored a 6th place overall (1st Master), and got back to a good timing and good racing: 34'05" !!
That is like 45" faster then 3 weeks ago, when I was really struggling at the Asics 10K... (in earnest, yesterday the weather was slightly better and less humid)

I could have titled the post "how to improve your 10K by 45" in 3 weeks" and get a huge traffic boost, but in reality the "How to" is very simple...

A) I was somehow able to sleep decently in the 4-5 days leading to the race. The baby still needs 3 night feeding, but we are getting more used to... (well... also being away in China for 3 straight sleepful nights did help...)
B) I really made it a point for the past 3 weeks to run anyway, even if I was dreadfully tired or at impossible times.... so once after a night feeding I simply laced up the shoes and went running at 4.30am.
So, it was not really following any training concepts, but I managed to run respectively
94 , 86 and 96km in the 3 weeks since my last post.
C) somehow I was able to run good long runs... I managed to run even a 31km at 4'06" pace, which made me feel really in good shape.

About Sunday's race:
It was a sunny and clear day with temperature around 22C and 63% Rh, the race is very popular with 1400 at the start and a really large bunch of good runners. I did not have any expectation about time or placement, but at least I hoped to do a better showing than in the past 2 races...

my 5k splits were 17'11" and 16'54" and I really judged my pace very well without being carried away at the start but clocking Km after Km near 3'24" pace... I picked up many runners how went out too hard and gained progressively from 15th to 10th to 7th place...
in the last Km I saw that the leading Master runner was somehow struggling and pushed a bit harder to get him with 300m to go and just sprint to the finish.

After 2K

At the 5K turn-around point

to complete the good day, we also scored the victory in the team competition.

A kind of pity that Stefano P. got 2nd place also today (3 times 2nd in a row !!), but he is getting into race shape so I foresee he can break the ice very soon...

Note: I know that I need an explanation on the uniform "Italia", etc... but maybe in a future post

Our team looks terrific !!

Rollercoaster week and race report

2010-11-18T14:37:00.002+08:00

Last week was ~~really~~ too full of upsets... and end up with a much better then expected result...

Mon: I felt legs really sore from the race, so I did not feel like running
Tue (late evening): a good 15k at good pace, legs felt better
Wed: could not run
Thu: I woke up very early in Dongguan and went for a long run in the forest. It was a "chilly" morning and the air was very crispy, so it felt very easy. I went left, right, north and south for 1h30', and I was ready to run back home.... .....I was less than 3 meters from the end of the forest trail, when I stepped poorly on a root and felt the ankle twisting... ... in a flash I saw myself in crutches for the next 2 month, but by a split second later I was already aware that it was a twisted ankle, but not a serious one...
Now the issue was that I was alone in a forest in China, 6km away from home, with a mild twisted ankle...
.... as a matter of fact, the only solution that I found was to run back home as fast as I could (3'45" pace...) before the ankle get cold and become swollen.
Once home, I started aggressive icing, because I really did not want to skip Sunday's race
All counted... I run 26km (in 1h56', including many trail section) and I was feeling really good.

Fri: not run, icing all day, I could not walk well
Sat: same as above

Sun: icing plus a couple of pills of Voltaren did the miracle and with Saturday's evening self assessment I gave myself the green light to race.

Mid november... is the day of the "10K HK championship": a massive event with 6000 runners at the start.
I like this race because everybody in town is there, there is a huge atmosphere and the course is quite fast (even if not flat)...
In my last attempt (2007.. time flies), I scored a 8th place overall with 34'00" time, but I am nowhere near to that levels...
I would have been happy to close below 35' and win the Master category.
I was also the debut of our gorgeous uniform (more on separate post), so I felt compelled to to well !

The start was as expected a crazy fast affair, especially if there are 6000 runners starting on top of a flyover....
I clocked the 1st Km in 3'05", which was barely the minimum to stay in the bunch...

just to give an idea of the crowd

So I settled into my own pace (around 3'25"-3'30") and especially took notice if anybody was wearing the bib for Masters....Compared to last week, It was a completely different story. I did not feel sharp, but at least with a good amount of energies and quite in control of my stride.
KMs passed by relatively quick and by 7K I was wondering if I still have forces to increase the speed a bit and catch the large group slightly ahead or just keep going and content myself with the win of the Master category...
Maybe the body still had something left, but my mind was refusing to suffer more to gain some unuseful positions... especially in the last 500m, when everybody else was charging for the uphill sprint to go back to the top of the flyover, I was really shutting down my "fatigue receptors" and cruising to the end...

So I closed 1st Master, 19th overall in 34'53"...
The ankle was not 100% but I did not felt it too much...

For our "Team Italia" : congratulation to my buddy Stefano for arriving 2nd Overall and to Colin for an outstanding 7th overall.

Even today, 1000HK$+Asics shoes as price, so I did not end up empty handed...

Here some nice pics of the day

in action

Stefano on his way to 2nd place

Another "Team Italia" strong showing...

Kenyans wins everywhere... even in HK...

more modestly....I get the prize for 1st old guy

ITA: "Team Italia" vince...

2010-11-11T18:38:00.002+08:00

Magari la nostra atletica e' in un momento di sofferenza, ma in Oriente cerchiamo di tenere alta la bandiera....

Domenica, alla "New Balance 15K race", abbiamo presentato un "Team ITALIA" che ha sbaragliato la concorrenza di "LWRC" "Team NewBalance", etc, etc...

Il nostro team: Stefano (maglia ASICS), Roberto (maglia Blu), Curtis (maglia NewBalance) , con supporto del nostro grandissimo Marcello (canotta Nike rossa).

Tra l'altro, ottimo risultato individuale di Stefano che si piazza secondo assoluto dietro ad un Kenyano (eh si... vincono dappertutto da Est a Ovest...)

Wk 44 - running asleep @ 15Km race

2010-11-11T18:30:00.001+08:00

I am really struggling... the sleep deprivation and all the additional workload of the newborn is really taking a toll... but let's go in order

Monday: I reached the track at 21.40 (!)... after all the kids were in bed (I have 2 night owls).
a 2000m in 7'30" as "warm-up", then I did 5x1000m in 3'20" with 200m in 2' as recovery. The right leg was a total mess... It was always getting tight after 800m...even if I was really paying attention to avoid overstride, etc
I stopped at 5 basically because the track was closing at 22.30 and they kicked me out...

Tuesday: 8k recovery
Wednesday:15k off-road
Thursday: (night): 14k easy (after dinner I felt really heavy...)
Friday (night): 8k easy
Saturday: 10k easy
Sunday: 15k race + w/u - c/d
TOTAL: 87km

Now let's go with the race report...

Since it was my first ever 15k... it was a sure PB but I was targeting to do a decent race...
In reality, after a week of poor sleep I was totally sleepy and numb at the start line.
I felt completely devoid of energies during the warm-up and not even a good dose of caffeine did anything... basically I was ready for a nap even when we were counting down to the start...

Nice pic of the start line.... the sea at the back... the mountain in front!

The race has a crazy uphill start and I took it easy staying glued to the people who know are at my level. We hit the 1st Km in 4'55"... and then eventually hit the flat section.
I was trying to keep a 3'40" pace but I felt totally non reactive. So slowly but constantly I got dropped and run all by myself.
I could say that I was not even pushing hard, but simply I did not have it... I wanted to quit, but then I thought to our team classification, so just hang up there...
Luckily, albeit slow, nobody caught me and I basically kept my position from 5k to the finish.
At the end, a modest 12th place overall and 2nd Master...

Team classification award ceremony

There will come better days...

the positive note is that our team "Team Italia" (2 italians + an american) destroyed the competition in the team classification...

NOTE: I have a big surprise ready on this matter... once finalized, I will write everything...

Week 43

2010-11-04T16:22:00.000+08:00

Sunday night, when I was stepping into the emergency room of the hospital with a abdominal colic, I was really wondering which spells of bad luck I was having in the past weeks... for one way or another, I am only in survival mode and no real progress on my training.

- 80km in 6 runs

Monday: I was able to sneak into a sport ground during lunchtime and do a very quick 3x1000m with w/u and c/d.
Tuesday: easy 13.4k
Wednesday: the temperature dropped from 30C to 15C in 24 hours because of a strong norther monsoon... it was gorgeous running weather even if very wind.
I planned a Tempo run of 10k and went on the outer ring in Dongguan because it is the only road with bitumen and not concrete...
I felt quite easy organically, but my right leg started to seize after 9k and I had to stop. 9k at 3'38" average, with quite many windy stretches. HR was around 87%max which was pretty good.
I really have to solve the issue on the leg or otherwise it is no point to train...
Thursday: quite tired and sore after yesterday's tempo run. I jogged around for 14k but running on concrete is very beating for the legs...
Friday: I headed for the forest and run around for 16k. It was a wonderful cool and dry morning and I could have run around forever.
Saturday: busy in the morning and in total pain the afternoon... DNR
Sunday: Buscopan can do miracles... and while I was a wreck in the morning, I was able to drag myself for a run in the late evening... it was cool, so 12k come out quite easy and I did the final 3k hard in 10'30".

a) I need to sort out the right leg... I got a good link from Rick on a website with good trigger point release technique... video and good explanations....
I really need a lot of exercises and stretching, etc, etc....(if time allows)

b) sleep deprivation from baby feeding is really taking a toll... I am a kind of zombie and just crave to sleep more... in some days I almost felt asleep while running...

c) sunday I have the very big seasonal race...15k.
- being my first road 15k, it is going to be a sure PB...
- i think that organically I am quite good and can run around 3'38" pace if the weather keeps cool, but I can not predict if the right leg will not cramp/seize... so there is a big question mark... race report at the next post

Chinese paperwork

2010-10-27T19:40:00.001+08:00

It is 19.37 (7.37pm).
I am still in office and I still have to sign on that mountain of papers...
...I suppose no evening workout tonight........

Week 42 - still unsatisfactory

2010-10-27T19:25:00.000+08:00

73km in 5 workouts

Mon-Tue: I felt the vastus lateralis painful, so I opted for bike riding. God.... it was really hard after 3 months of no cycling.. the pedals felt like stones
I think that the pain was caused by the orthotics, which are tilting the foot "too much", so the tights must really do a lot of work...

Sat: I joined K. for a long run. 25k of death march....
As soon as stepped out of the flat and looked at the Polar, I know it was not going to be my day. The HR was already 90bpm even before making the 1st step.
Because of the night feeds to the baby, I felt terribly tired, sleepy, lethargic.
The run itself was a sufferance: we were not going fast (around 4'20"/k), but my HR was regularly already at "marathon effort" ... so I do not know whether to classify it as "easy long run" based on the pace, or as 20k marathon effort workout....
Once back home, I felt like a dead weight, but my kids helped to keep me moving until the evening when I fainted in bed

Other days (Wed-Thu-Fri-Sun); basically I jogged around without any real training concept. The care of the newborn +1 toddler + 1 small child is extremely tiring and I really felt without too much energy

So end of October is arriving and I can summarize my workouts in the past months:
- 1 long run in the past 2 months
- a couple of progression run
- maybe 1 interval training session
- 0 (zero) tempo run
- 0 (zero) hill sprints/intervals
- 0 (zero) speed workouts

That leave me a bit skeptical about my chances in the coming major races....anyway

Finally, I made my entry for the Berlin Marathon 2011. I will turn 42 on 23/9, so nothing better than celebrate 42yo with 42km on 25/9/2010.
the prospect of going for long runs in Summer is really scaring, but I really wanted to do Berlin sooner or later

it is coming.....

2010-10-22T12:32:00.000+08:00

this is in store for the week-end...Severe Typhoon Megi. Probably running might be slightly affected....
(let's hope not too much devastation. It will hit shores in the East Guangdong, which is already a poor area...)

WK 41 Summary

2010-10-21T16:12:00.000+08:00

Apart from surviving to 3 small kids (my real running idol is this guy (Thomas) in Ireland.. he manages to train for Ultra with 4 kids...his wife is super-cool..), here the war bullettin:

A) I went down with a bad cold which lasts for 10 days, so I had to miss a run here and there and really struggled a lot to sleep in a proper way. Some days I went running but I felt incredibly weak so it was really a crawl...

B) I mentioned already that I was struggling with a tight hamstring in the past weeks and got a good comment that it might be caused by the posture, etc.

I was also noticing that in the most recent weeks I was really struggling to run properly and my feet were stomping into each other, plus lack of push from the right leg...

... so I booked the PhysioT and she confirmed my suspicion: my pelvis was twisted and the muscles of the right gluteus were so tight that the leg could not swing properly.

So all together the stride on the right side was shorter and the twisted pelvis caused the right leg swing to "cross" over the trajectory of the left leg...

She gave me some exercises, stretching and also worked out with manipulation and deep tissue massage to move back the system in the right place.

I am really very sensible to this kind of problem and my right leg is incredibly weaker than the left one.

So now I put myself to work more diligently on this problem because otherwise it does not make sense to run more.

C) as if not enough, during last saturday's run, my left "vastus lateralis" got into a kind of spasm and was strained.

So this week I gave up on a couple of days switching to cycling... and worked also to release this strained spot.

My suspicion is that the strain was caused by the excessive load on the vastus caused by the tild of the foot using these new orthotics. In a sense they are really "too much" corrective..

They align the lower leg, but then there is too much lateral load on the tights...now I will try to use my old orthotics for a while and see what happened (the old ones are much less tilted)

despite all... somehow I managed to run 70km in 8 runs, in 6 days... Total herratic training but I hope for better days.
Did I make some workout ?? mmm... in some days I cranked up the pace, but nothing really structured

Now my focus is to pick up a nice marathon for next spring...

let's go in order - part 4

2010-10-15T16:41:00.000+08:00

this is the last post to catch up on the latest events.
On October 1st, my wife gave birth to our son.
Mom and baby are well. Now with 3 kids we have a even busier life... and I should try to catch up with sleep and training..

let's go in order - part 3 - Dongguan Qx Games

2010-10-13T16:03:00.000+08:00

On September 29th, I took part in the distance running race of "2nd Qingxi Games".

This is basically a series of sports events organized by the local government, opened to people with local resident permit...

After the Beijing Olympics, now every town/city feels the need to host some kind of sports games.... so while Guangzhou is getting ready for the Asian Games in November and Shenzhen for the University Games next year... a small town like Qingxi must make herself happy with "Qingxi Games"...

The so called "around the city" long distance run was actually a 3.2km race around the town center...

being the one and only foreigner and kind of serious runner, I felt a bit of pressure...basically there were 500 people all staring to a gwailo trying to warm-up...losing out would have been a terrible loss of image...

For these kind of events in China, you really do not know what to expect from the other participants: there might be only "once a week" runners, but it might come out some young stud who was in a Sports School until the month before....

....Anyway for sure I knew that the start would have been crazy... crazy fast.. so I wore a Garmin to not let be carried away...

... all things put together, I really thought that an honest effort at 3'30" pace would have been good enough to win the race and avoid "loss of face" for my running reputation...

The start was fast indeed...very fast..it was like hundreds of hungry panthers let free... After 150m I gave a look at the watch and I realized I was running at 2'50"/km (!!!!!) while being overtaken by everybody!

totally insane... without losing my calm I set down to a more "modest" 3'05"-3'10" pace and start to pick-up those who went out too fast...

... the problem arose when after 1k, I got the autosplit at 3'08": I was running fast like never before in any race and I was still far from the lead !! was going to be a defeat in front of the local TV ??

I reached the leaders around mid way and picked up the pace.... i was running sub 3'/k ! (give a look at the Garmin file if you do not believe it !)

Also the 2nd K passed by with a 3'08" split and I eventually got a margin...

In the last stretch I saw that I had a good margin and started to relax cruising to the finish line without appearing too spent on TV... my passage at 3k in 9'31" is easily a huge PB for me !!

So... all well what ends well, but this was a suffered one...

I spare you from the TV interview in Mandarin and a translation of the newspaper article, but for a bit of fun, give a look at the first minute of the video below (taken from local TV footage)... with the crazy start

Qingxi Games - distance run race

let's go in order (part 2)

2010-10-07T12:44:00.000+08:00

I want to briefly comment on a comment left from Rick "you are going well on low mileage - high intensity training"...
in the past 3 months in average I run around 70k/week with very little speedwork/interval . I mainly run a good aerobic pace with some progression run and strides.

Now this raise 2 interesting (in my opinion) topics of discussion for a runner:

1) which are the effects of training in very hot weather.
I never found any serious article on the matter. The only research done indicated that training in hot weather increase the mass of blood because of the additional water needed, therefore it worked like a blood self-transfusion (hehe...without Clenbuterol...).
What I saw in these years is that 70k in tropical conditions could be much more demanding than 100-120k in ideal conditions: the HR during the workouts is always more elevated and therefore the "exertion" calculated with HR x duration reaches much higher values than a comparable workouts in ideal climate.
It is not uncommon to suffer from huge thermal HR drift during the workout, so after 40' the HR might climb to marathon effort even if you are just jogging.
So the issue is if this state of higher HR even at slow pace is really a more demanding workout or just the need of the body to dissipate the heat, without benefits at cellular level (eg: mytocondrial activity, etc).
Obviously I do not have a scientific answer, but from experience I would say that there is a factor of x1.5 o more on the mileage done in tropical weather versus temperate climate...
So even a meager 70k/wk would represent the same training effect of 100k+ in cool weather...

I do not know if any reader from HK or Singapore has view on the subject...
(by the way in the past 2 days in HK the weather was extraordinary cool/dry for the season and I was running 15-20"/k faster at any given HR than usual...)

2) the usual topic of "the best way to train".
I sometimes receive questions from friends on how they should train to improve and if there is any special workout, etc...
Well... also this training cycle of mine convinces me even more in the resolution that a runner can be 90% ready for racing at any given distance with a very basic training:
- consistant runs of 45'-50' every single day of the week
- some strides here and there
- some progression 2-3 times a week

Basically speaking, running 10k/day at aerobic pace for 7 days for 3 months in a row is already good enough to achieve 90% of your potential in any given race distance...the key is consistency and overall volume.
the remaining 10% involves giving a specialized cut to the main workouts to peak for the chosen race and distance...

let's go in order....

2010-10-06T17:28:00.000+08:00

the last 7 days have been extraordinary amazing... there would be much to write about...
..... so I can start from the silliest part

In August a friend asked me to take part in a photo-shoot needed for the commercial launch of the Neil Pryde bikes lines.
Not many know that Neil Pryde is actually a HK based company. Recently they added a carbon bikes line to their mainstay surfing/windsurfing stuff (which does not need any presentation).

Well... so I ended up doing the "model" for them with a bunch of other guys and quite pleasantly they picked up a nice downhill shoot for their website homepage. So click on the LINK and let the flash animation plays... I am the guy in the downhill shot

NOTE: doing the "action model" is incredibly tiring... half a day under the baking sun, doing hundreds of passages in front of the photographer to get eventually a single "perfect shot"

wk 38 - survival week

2010-09-28T16:15:00.000+08:00

I do not have much to write...

because of the work/family stuff, I could barely train. I reached 55km for the whole week in 6 sessions.
The hamstring is still tight and the PT told me to avoid any "Fast" workout until gets better.

Obviously I did not follow his recommendation and entered a 5K race with many ups/down...

It was Race #3 of the AVOHK 5K series and the course is really tough... in 5K there are enough climbs, trail sections and downhill that it really feels like a longer race....

Basically I reached the start line almost exhausted from the week and I did not expect anything good. I just wanted to score points in the series and keep the lead in the M40 category.

So it did go maybe even better expected.
I was in the lead duo until we hit the final paved section after the trail but by then I was done and also I can not really run downhill because the hamstring immediately gave me "warning".
When the eventual winner started pushing the pace, I know I was doomed to lose and let him go without any resistance. From 4k onwards I just cruised down to the finish line avoid too much damage in the downhill section.
So I ended up 2nd Overall (1st Master) in 18'09" (I lost 35" in 1.2k....). Full results HERE
At the end the comparison with previous seasons is not bad:

2007: 18'16" (with was a promising season debut and 3 months later I was going to score my Marathon PB of 2h38')
2008: 17'46" (yes... I was really in good shape..)
2009: no
2010: 18'09"

So the logical inference would be that I am in sub 2h40' marathon shape... but in reality I never run more than 20k.. so it would still need a lot of specific endurance training to reach that level.
Anyway I do not see myself taking the start line of a marathon this year since from next week we will have another member in the family, so for a while I will focus elsewhere from running...
...it will be also a good reason to get rest and nurse my hamstring...

Nice photo album from Ps Brown... the start (in steep uphill_

... here I am cruising to finish line

Thanks to PS Brown for the nice album

Wk 37 - tightness...

2010-09-20T13:58:00.000+08:00

Not much to say apart that the tightness in my hamstring is definitely affecting my training... I just go ahead in maintenance mode and it is probably time to take care of this nagging injury in a more serious way...

MON: usually monday MOS loop (16k). I went easy until halfway and then I tried to push a bit more but the hamstring was tight so I went on easy to the end...

TUE: in Dongguan... 10k easy

WED: bloody hot and humid... I run around 14k which felt like 30k...

THU: Dongguan forest... also terribly hot... today all dogs were after me... I got chased several times even in spots where it was "dog less" before... total around 16k ... felt exhausted

FRI: HK very easy recovery run 11k... forced myself to run slowly

I also managed to book a visit with the PT, who confirmed that there is a point of tightness in the hamstring.
After a very painfull deep-tissue massage, it was also time for agopuncture...

NO COMMENT.....

SAT: despite the warning of the PT that I should have taken easy for a couple of days, I went for an already planned hard workout... supposed 5x2000m at HMP...
I hit the target of 7'10"-7'15" for the first 3, then the hamstring tightned up and I bagged the workout...
total 21k

SUN: 12km easy with progression... hamstring felt really better but I did not pushed too much

TOTAL : 83Km

Now i will try to take it easy until the hamstring is healed and hope to make another session of PT if the work schedule allows...
there are a bunch of short races in the next days and so it makes sense to be fresh...but more on that on the next post...

to close, I found a nice album from Peter on the last race.
nice sequence of shots on our sprint for the 3rd to 5th place...

here I am still in 4th with 100m to go...

sprint to death... and got overtook with 30m to go...

Wk 36 - another good race and a tight sprint

2010-09-14T13:30:00.000+08:00

I am start to feel more and more "stronger" by the day. Maybe is because the combo temperature+humidity is getting slightly better or maybe because of the cumulated training until now...

MON: usual "MaOnShan" loop.. it is becoming my monday's habit. It is a good 16km loop and there is a gorgeous chilled water fountain at mid-way... the last 7km are also well marked every 500m, so it makes the perfect setting for running easy for the first 8k, take a good drink and then crank up the speed in the way back...
around 4'20" for the first half, then I upped the pace to 4'00" flat for a good medium effort...
hamstring still slightly tight, so I started a combo of pills (mio-relaxant + ibuprufen)

TUE: felt well recovered from yesterday, so I went for a interval training session.
I left orthotics+trainers at home to give a try on what would have happened in racing flats ....
so 5x1000m with 1'30" standing recovery, along the river in Shatin
I felt much easier than expected and after setting a 3'25" for the 1st, I run by sensation without checking the splits...
3'25"
3'17"
3'17"
3'16"
3'20"
the recovery was very good with HR dropping back to "rest" state...
Excellent workout. Very likely I can target a 16'40" at Saturday's 5K race

WED: insanely hot and humid... I crawled around the streets of Dongguan. for 13k...
THU: weather much better after a thunderstorm. I got up late so I just went around the block in Dongguan for another 13k.
some 6-7strides at the end... my personal observation is that my strides are around 2'45" pace and I almost feel like the legs are out of control... while a top runner can do 10k at that pace.....

FRI: tought night with the kids... got up late so I clocked only 7k easy

SAT: RACE DAY
2nd leg of the Avohk 5k series... I felt very motivated because this course has always been very "friendly"
2006: 5th place, but I was not yet the same runner I am now...
2007: 1st place... I will never forget the kick I did in the last 400m and the awkward sensation of winning a race for the 1st time...
2008: 2nd place... run a fantastic race with a monster 5k PB of 15'51". I was really at my peak back then...
2009: not run :-((

for this time, I did not have any winning ambitions, but I really wanted to run well and see if my progression is going on....

luckily, it was still drizzling after a major thunderstorm so the temperature was more reasonable (27C...99%Rh), but that made the course quite slippery.

We started fast and a new face (for me) disappeared immediately from sight at an astonishing speed. The guy went on to win in 14'22" which is an amazing time for that course....
I come to know later that he is former Australian national with PB of 3'45" on 1500m....
Anyway I touched first hand what a real runner is...

back to us (normal humans...) ... we run in a pack of 4. The road was quite slippery and on a couple of case I felt my feet was ready to slip away....
running that fast on that slippery and twisting road, avoiding at the very last moment a collision with the occasional dog-walkers, joggers and so on I felt like I was trying to ride a bike at full speed into a Mongkok street on Sunday afternoon......

The first 2k were blazing fast, then we settled into a more "comfortable" pace until the last km where one of us did charge away with a good progression while we were left in 3 fighting for a sprint finish...

Honestly speaking I did feel still something left in the tank, but simply my legs could not go faster than that... obviously I am not used to faster paces and I was simply hanging there already in my 5th gear...

We were really fighting stride for stride and with 200m to go I did kick, but then I got overtook again at 100m to go and I was done...
5th Overall, 1st Master ... great fight until the last meter with my neighbour and sometimes-running partner E.
time: 16'35"... which is satisfactory and in line with my expectations...
(OMG... how could I have run 15'51" here in 2008... that is a 10"/k faster)

Nice pic of the final sprint...

SUN: after a hard night with the kids waking up one after another, I simply slept...

TOTAL: 70k in 6 workouts..(a bit on the low side but the quality was good)

Wk 35 Summary - unremarkable

2010-09-07T18:00:00.000+08:00

93 Km in 8 workouts. I was able to sneak out for a second evening easy workout on a evening and all added up it come a decent mileage, considering that I am not running any longer than 16-17km at most every time.

Since the hamstring was still tied up, I did not want to risk with any fast workout, so I just run around at easy/moderate pace for the whole week with some progression.

I start to be suspicious of my orthotics... they really affect the stride somehow and especially once they get full of sweat they feel awkard (like stomping in a puddle at every step...).

Next Saturday I have the 2nd leg of the 5K series. I hope to feel decently ok since the race is on my "lucky course" (2 voctories, 1 time 2nd...)

to close... the summer issue of the HK Runner Magazine carried a good race report on the race I did last May and it was pleasant to be portrayed again in action
(Note: I have the leg like those of a Rugby player... I definitely need to thin up... with cycling I added 2kg of muscles in the legs...)

Week 34/2010 Summary and (nice) 5K race report

2010-09-01T14:24:00.000+08:00

I do not know exactly why, but last week marked a turning point in my training.

Maybe because of the weather or maybe I started to "absorb" the workload, but for the first time I felt I was RUNNING and not crawling.
If I would have to re-conduct everything into figures, I would rely on the "Training Load" plug-in of SportTrack : when I raced on 15/8, the TTSB (Training Stress Balance) was on the severe overtraining territory, becuase I was ramping up the load quite quickly. A couple of days rest, some easy runs plus the smoothing of the training load had brought back the TSS into the right zone... therefore with a decent level of freshness.

MONDAY: 13.5Km all easy effort, but end up at 4'20" average pace
TUESDAY: 14.5Km start easy with 5km progression run at medium effort... felt excellent, another 4'20" average pace with very low bpm
WEDNESDAY: 15.5Km very easy in the wild in Dongguan...struggled because of the heat
THURSDAY: I was in Shanghai (Fengxian District) for work and managed a 11km easy run under a baking sun. It was a crappy road along the sea with no shadow at all and warm breeze... I was just hoping to getting done

FRIDAY: the return from Shanghai was a classical "airport horror story"

- 15.45 (on thursday): boarding for 16.15 take-off, flight CZ to Shenzhen
- 16.15: announcement that take off will be delayed because a passenger is missing so they must download his checked baggage
- 16.30: thunder and lighting on the horizon
- 16.45: announcement that take off will be delayed because of the thunderstorm (it did not help that on the day before there was an air crash in Heilongjiang because of bad weather... so obviously now they are taking a no-risks approach)
- 20.00: after 4 hours sitting on the plane, we are disembarked and told to wait until further notice. Rain is pouring down in droves.... the airport is a mess because all flight were suspended, so it was a fight just to find an empty seat to camp
- 00.00: boarding again. Rain stopped. We should be #2 at take off, so should be over soon...
- 01.00: we are not moving.... passengers are getting very angry and insulting openly the crew and ground staff.... seems they were is a mismatch between the passengers on board and the boarding list. The crew is totally INCAPABLE to manage such a simple issue...they do recount but with all the passangers going around the plane (!!). they do not sit down to match the boarding lists with the seats, etc... real crap
- 02.30: after the discovery that they did not recount an infant (who was in the passenger list), the arcane is solved and we take off...
- 04.30: land in Shenzhen... total delay 10 hours...
- 05.30: arrive home... I did not sleep a minute and the sun is already rising...
take shower and get ready for work...

So you can expect that I did not feel too much like going for a run with 30C outside...

SATURDAY: 5K race in TaiTam...

Actually some of you might remember that 2 years ago I won this race...but the situation was totally different.. I was really well trained then while now I would have already been happy to take the Master victory and score points in the "Adidas 5K series".

Well, it did went much better then expected...the course is a tough beast with 1.2k flat, 1k on a very hard climb, small loop at the top and then come back...
Praise to the organizer for including also a Junior category, to give some deserved space to the next generation of runners....

(Thanks to Victor Lee for these nice pics !!)

After the flat start (I am #126) we tackle the climb in a large group and little by little we lose pieces until I realize that we are only 2 at the front .
I was labouring VERY HARD, but I could not expect differently since the climb is really steep (many runners slowed down to a walk).
While tackling the downhill I felt already a bit doomed because the hamstring was still tight so I could not risk to dive into the downhill at full speed... I tried to work on the cadence, but I was losing ground and by the bottom I was already 50m behind.
Well... I hoped to be able to make up some ground, but I simply "bombed",...I was totally done and closed the last Km in damage control, scoring 2nd OA and 1st Master.

this is the face of someone hurting badly...

Nice Album from Victor Lee

The disappointment of losing out, was mitigated by 2 facts:

1) In 2008 I won in 18'05" and the 2nd come into 18'25". This time the winning time was also 18'05" and I closed in 18'25" as well... (nice coincidence...).
So I am closer to my 2008 levels much more than I expected.

2) I chatted with the winner, who was a total unknown. I found out that he is a new comer to HK and we both run the Fukuoka Marathon 2007, but his time was 2h25' (!!!!). He was still not fully trained yet, but all the same I felt like losing to someone of real good caliber

Race results are HERE

As last race here, I wore the Polar HR right to see what is my maximum HR right now and calibrate the training...

quite interesting is the comparison with 2 years ago in terms of HR levels during the race.

Average HR: 188 (2008) vs 185 (2010)
% of time HR over 190: 50% (2008) vs 25% (2010).

So in such a short race the training allows the body to push more and sustain a higher level of fatigues without the shut down effect of the central governor. Even if my 2008 training was mainly geared to marathon, I was still more conditioned to work near my maximum.

SUNDAY: rest , which was a mistake because the legs would have needed a slow jog to toss out the soreness due to the downhill... by the end of the day I felt the quadriceps like stones...

So a good week and definitely a step in the right direction. I need now to get more focused on my training and dedicate more time to increase the lactate threshold.

Week 33/2010 Summary

2010-08-23T10:20:00.000+08:00

I must thank everybody for the kind words on my Sunday's race.
It was cool to be back to a real race after almost 2 years...

But in reality, looking at the race with a more detached analysis, I really sucked...

End of May, I run that 5KRace and ended up in 16'59" only based on a good cycling training and some easy runs. That time equates to a 35'20" on 10k using the McMillan calculator.
(I would say the weather was slightly better in May, but only a couple of degrees lower)
So running 36'50" is really slow in comparison .... especially after 6 weeks of training based on only running
I can not say that I "underperformed" the race because also all the training leading to last Sunday was pointing to a 36'xx" performance...
The issue was that I was sucking in training and the race went along the same lines.

I still need to figure out the reason because it is pointless to train in the wrong direction. I might be that I had problems to absorb the workload (running 80km weekly after months of no running...), but suggestions are welcome...

Weekly Summary:

MON: 6km on tradmill
TUE: no running, unplanned
WED: I ended up at the Sport Ground in the early evening and went for 800m intervals at 10k pace, with 400m recovery jog.
I was clocking around 2'50"-2'55" with moderate to hard effort and that was exactly what I was looking for,,,
unfortunately in my 6th interval I slightly pulled my hamstring in a kind of sprint...
THU: jogged 10k harmstring was tight
FRI: rest (my daughter's first day of school ... took time to get her ready)
SAT: I planned a longer tempo run, but ended up miserably...
I was shooting for 9km @3'50" pace but started maybe a bit too fast and after 4k I felt the hamstring tight plus i was already cooked, so i aborted the workout...
no point to push when the body is not there...
I am a little concerned about the hamstring because is not easy to treat
SUN: best run in ages... I just wanted to go steady and easy with some kind of progression in the pace and for the first time in months I was able to keep 4'20"/k with very low bpm until I started to push a bit harder @4'05" which still felt reasonably easy. Total 16km

TOTAL: only 60km for the week, with 1 poor workout and 1 decent steady run...

NOTE: I throw my old light weight trainers in the garbage and switched to a pair of Mizuno Elixir 4 (which I won at a race 2 years ago...., no I think the current model is Elixir 5).
These shoes are simply great, they feel the right amount of cushioning but very responsive.
....as I mentioned time ago, I stopped using heavy trainers like Asics Kayano because together with orthotics was like running in boots and I think was a major reason of heel striking.
With lightweight trainers or even better racing flats, the stride is more natural and more "mid foot landing".
I do not buy into the barefoot running fashion because the foot was yes done to run barefoot, but on unpaved roads... probably the Lord did not plan the foot to run on concrete all the time...
so some cushioning and protection is needed, but as less as possible... when I run in flats or lightweight trainers, I feel the stride much more efficient and mid-foot landing

Chung Hing Cup Race Report

2010-08-16T15:01:00.001+08:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure to be back to real racing in occasion of the 10th Chung Hing Cup Race.

A mid-August race in HK means only a sure thing: extremely hot and humid.... yesterday was no exception with a light rain before the start which stops right in time for a strong sum to create a "steamer" effect on the ground....

in 2008 I had a strong showing in this race finishing 4th overall in a very good 34'57"... but that was 2 years, 2 kids, a tendinitis and many miles ago...

For this time, I was already happy to be at the start and to use the race as gauge of my training progress.

For the occasion, I wore the uniform of a Charity club based in Italy "Andrea e i Corsari della Maratona" from Piacenza: it was set-up in memory of Andrea, a young child dead of the age of 15 for a rare disease. They collect funds for the cure of tumors in children and youth, so it was really a good cause and they deserve all the support.

The race was perfectly organized as usual by Mr Li of HKMP and 1100 brave souls took the start line.

In absence of our own local Kenyan, a sudanese-canadian in visit ripped us (local runners) and won the race in a modest 35'04" (well... it was like running in a steam cooker...).

my race.... well... I was more or less aware that my training has just started and I could not expect to be nowhere near the level of 2 years ago.

I would have been already happy to score something like 36'xx" and have a decent placement in the Master cat.

Since running is a very predictable equation between training, talent and final result... I ended up in 36'50", 3rd Master and 10th Overall.

So no particular regrets and no particular over-achievement....

Full results are HERE

A photo of the start

I had to shove to find my pace because I did not start with the elite runners but quite soon I found the right position and got into the right gear.

The first 5K were a decent 18', but the way back to the finish line was long... very long and not only for me....

I can not avoid noticing that my legs are quite bulky, probably still the effect of the cycling training.

For the Master category, we end up very close for 2nd and 3rd place but I was really out of ammunition for the long sprint...

The price presentation was "lavish" with hundreds of prizes offered by the title sponsor (which is a sport goods shop which is almost impossible to find...but a real hard core runners place...)

Lastly... we (with my neighbour E. and another runner) won the team race which was for a 150USD voucher...

Dongguan running route - the forest

2010-08-12T13:47:00.000+08:00

I mentioned about this route before, but today I grabbed the Garmin on purpose to share the actual route with whom might be interested.

As the "world's factory city" Dongguan is not particularly famous for her green areas... but in reality there are some, just that nobody comes here if not for business...

So this morning, 5.40am, temperature 27C, slightly overcast I ventured for a long run all the way from Dongguan to Shenzhen Longgang through this forest road. I have not done this route since my injury, so I was also curious to see what had happened... (China changes every day...)

well... until now the run was in totally unspoilt area, green fields, lakes, small hills... no human presence apart from farmers...
So I had to swallow a tear when after 5k I saw construction equipments and the banner of "Guangdong Highway Contruction Co"..... it goes without say that in 1 year probably there will be an highway passing in the area...

Start point is at the QiYeShi Reservoir, in the eastern side of Qingxi Town (which is where I actually work/live...)
The course is partially dirt and partially concrete road and enjoys a good shadow in early morning because of the hills.
Not any tough climb, but many small hills makes for a good workout... the full return way to Longgang is 21km, but can be increased further doing a detour in a branch road in direction of Fenggang.
No 7-Eleven, Starbucks or Mama/Papa shop along the course so must carry his own water (I run with a Nathan Quickdraw handheld bottle in one hand and another normal water bottle in another....).

so enjoy the course until possible...it is still unspoilt and quiet ...

for details oriented readers, a link to the Garmin data

Week 31/2010 Summary

2010-08-10T12:17:00.000+08:00

MONDAY: ~~crawling~~ jogging 11km. The heat was oppressing...

TUESDAY: hit the track... I was planning to do 10x800m but in the warm-up I felt my hamstring getting tight (a lunge badly executed...), so I after 5 intervals in around 2'45" I thought it was better to jog home

WEDNESDAY: in Dongguan, run 11km on trail.. very easy pace even if the ups/downs make for some work anyway
THURSDAY: unplanned rest, due to poor planning...
FRIDAY: it was right after an heavy storm, so the air was much better and slightly cooler (26C). Better workout in ages... 25' w/u + 10 x 1'on/1'off at strong pace, jong 6' then 10x30"on/30"off.
Total distance 18k... a real big workout and felt quite strong
SATURDAY: easy 11k
SUNDAY: 21k with some hills. It was super-hot and I lost 3-4kg of sweat during the run... a real torture...I was glad that I could still keep a decent pace even after 1hr...

Total 80km. Not a perfect week, but at least I kept a decent mileage.

in a Magazine

2010-08-09T11:38:00.000+08:00

the local sports magazine Sport Soho features a profile article on myself....

a) I would have never expected to end up profiled in any sport magazine....
b) I would have never expected to end up in any kind of press in Chinese...

so being profiled in a Chinese Sport Magazine is really a double "Wow"...

(NOTE: the magazine itself is really interesting, full of interesting local contents (local athletes profiles, local hiking or running routes description, local sport medicine advices...) really well done.
Sometime many "regional" sport magazine are either only a reprint of articles from major magazines or a sterile collection of race results... while this Sport Soho has real content ...)

NOTE 2: I am having the article translated.... later post it here...

behind schedule... (and Polar SW Exertion agrees)

2010-08-05T20:35:00.000+08:00

Last night I was browsing my 2008 training log and I could avoid noticing the huge difference in volume/intensity compared to my recent days.

I really need to crank up my training...

In early August 2008 I was already cranking 100km a week with really big workouts and long runs. Now I am still just jogging around and with only shorter workout....

A good comparison is given using the "Exertion" function in the Polar PT5 SW.

It is probably one of the most useful function of the Polar SW.

at first, it is very important to set-up the function correctly.
There are pre-set parameters, but I think it is worthy to change them.
Personally I followed the "Intensity factor" listed by Jack Daniels in his book at page 39.
I divided my HR training range in bands associated with standard training effort
(Recovery / Easy / Marathon Effort / LT / Vo2 ) and give them a intensity score according to the mentioned page (well, Daniels' table gives point by 1 bpm division, so I took a mid level for each effort band).

In the Polar PPT5 menu, you search for OPTION/ PERSON PROPERTIES / SPORT ZONES / EDIT and set-up the parameters.
Then it becomes a breeze to monitor the training load and also the breakdown of the training into different effort level...
It is much more effective as the pure check of mileage because you have a clear measure of the internal load on the body.

In June 2008, I was doing a consistent 400 points per week and reaching 600 points in August.
Now in 2010 I just barely touched 400 points for a single week...
So huge work ahead...I really need to build up momentum and motivation...

It does not help that the temperature/humidity outside is simply awful... 28C with 85/90% Rh in the early morning and then 34C-35C with 70%Rh on daytime...

From Run back by 7

Week 30/2010 Summary

2010-08-03T14:22:00.001+08:00

81 km for the week. (week before was 60k).
I still do not capacitate myself on how I could reach 80km in a week, but since I went jogging around 45-50 minutes daily the total makes sense....

a) I feel very crappy... it might be the heat, but I feel like crawling rather than running...
early morning is already 29C and baking sun... after 20 minutes I feel already exhausted. Sunday I had to stop and squeeze the socks (advertised as quick-dry) because they are swollen with sweat...

During the longish run on Sunday, I was dreaming to be still on holiday in the Bieszczady mountains at the border between Poland and Ukraine where we spend wonderful holidays a couple of years ago: in the early morning the temperature was around 10C at the most and running never felt easier (especially because of the great forests trails there...)

b) 80k seems a decent level for now. No need to increase mileage further until the temperature cools down a bit. Now the target is reaching a decent weekly pattern:
- Tue: AT Intervals
- Thur: sprints/strides
- Fri: 20' of hard effort (hill or flat)
- Sun: reach gradually 1h45 long run
all other days, jogging/crawling...

If I can keep this cycle for a month, I should be back to decent form...

30-7-2010

2010-07-30T15:01:00.000+08:00

3 workouts this week in Dongguan.
Weather was very rainy but always when I was NOT running... so hot and humid as usual...

28/7: could not go out at morning... so I managed to do 9 km around my residential area in the evening...

29/7: 13km around the industrial area (well.. all the town is industrial area...) felt VERY awful.. maybe because of the humidity but after 30 minutes I was crawling. It is also true that all the road are paved in concrete which is really hard on legs... I felt the calves like stones afterwards...

30/7: for the first time ever I run in the 清溪森林公园 (forest park). I have been here already several times by bike but never running. I headed for a smaller road hoping to make some hill intervals.
As soon as I start the hill road .. a sign warns against snakes, bugs, spiders, etc...
10 meters later I see that a huge web basically is in my way with a huge spider right in the middle... I really did it in my pants because the idea of getting stung in the middle of nowhere was not in my agenda...

It looked like the one here... (next time I will bring a camera)..
... I was freaked out for the rest of the run and managed 11k but aborted any idea to running fast... I just kept my eyes straight ahead to look for webs/spider and friends on the path...

NOTE: slacking a lot on core strengthening and stretching... I really need motivation.

27-7-2010 AT Intervals

2010-07-27T18:21:00.000+08:00

the good thing about the school holiday is that I do not need to fetch my daughter to the school bus stop at 7.20am... so more slack for getting up a bit later.

- Shatin track: 6x1000m, with 2' recovery jog (back from finish line to 1000m start). Time around 3'32" average. Felt hard but manageable.
I am very satisfied of this first AT workout... (well, cruise intervals using Daniels' definitions)

- Lost 2.3kg of sweat ....during the workout.

Week 27 to 29 - 2010 Summary

2010-07-27T18:16:00.000+08:00

Archived the first half of 2010, I am trying to focus on running only for a while.

Target: nothing in mind at the moment. Once I will get close to my former self on shorter distances (if possible), I will decide when and where to tackle a marathon again

Constraints: currently my right Achilles tendon is still slightly painful after some heavier workout. I can feel that is still a bit thickened.
I try to monitor the situation and keep going with my stretching, strengthening, etc.

Training Plan: since it is bloody hot and since I have the muscles a bit tight from all the cycling, I do not want to rump up the distance too much, but mainly focus on AT workout and mainly on "faster" workouts targeting the neuromuscular capability (strides, hill sprints, etc).
Nothing too hard, but is important that I can extend the stride and gain again a good muscular efficiency at race speed...

Training of the last 3 weeks:

- Wk 27: 31 km
- Wk 28: 43 km
- Wk 29: 61km

yes, I do not follow the 10% mileage increase rule...but

On week 28, we spent a nice beach holiday in Samui, Thailand and every morning I went for a good 7-8km run which was mainly a way to get back into the groove of training daily.

Honestly, I think that the Thai heat is easier to bear than the corresponding HK summer (at the same time of the day). I do not know if it because of the pollution, or because the lack of air circulation for the too many high-rises, but running in HK in summer is really a torture... after 20' I begin to crawl, while in Thailand I could complete decent workouts and it was almost pleasant (almost...)...

ITA: e' ora di cambiare scarpe

2010-07-09T16:42:00.002+08:00

un "doveroso" post di "auto-riflessione"...
(guys, this time I write in Italian because it is more a kind of personal reflection... to translate, use this)

dopo una stagione sportiva dedicata forzatamente al ciclismo, e' arrivato il momento di decidere il programma per i prossimi mesi.

Per farla breve, penso che il ciclismo sia uno sport meraviglioso e che regala piaceri ad ogni uscita, ma e' anche incredibilmente impegativo come tempo necessario per allenamenti e attivita' accessorie, quindi incompatibile con il mio lavoro e il tempo da dedicare alla famiglia.
Il mio livello "agonistico" richiederebbe o di accontentarsi delle garette "attorno al campanile" che sono disponibili a Hong Kong, oppure di allenarsi ancora di piu' e lanciarsi in vere gare anche in Cina ed in giro per l'Asia.
Il mio team sta lanciando un programma di questo tipo (partecipazione a gare Elite in giro per l'Asia orientale), ma devo lasciare da parte la passione e ragionare serenamente e razionalmente.

Detto questo, e' arrivato il momento di appendere le SIDI al chiodo e

di indossare nuovamente le Mizuno...

In pratica, basta ciclismo (se non qualche sgambata rilassante) e di nuovo al 100% podista.
Non voglio fissare un programma impegnativo (Maratona..) perche' il tendine destro ha ancora un punto che e' un po' dolente, quindi devo fare molto per gradi.
Se il tendine mi abbandona ancora, ovviamente sara' il caso di mettersi il cuore in pace con la corsa... ma se regge, voglio fare ancora un po' di stagioni cercando di essere competitivo e esplorando i miei limiti.

Infine, (a dimostrazione che il tempo passa velocemente) la bella notizia e' che a fine Settembre diventero' ancora papa'....
Dopo 2 bellissimi bimbi, mia moglie ed io abbiamo pensato che era un peccato fermarci li'... quindi ecco anche il terzo (di sicuro anche l'ultimo...)
In pratica, dalla mia ultima gara "vera" (7/12/2008) alla prossima saranno passati 2 anni e 2 bimbi....

Cycling Orthotics #2

2010-07-07T12:38:00.000+08:00

As for this older post, I added orthotics to my shoes.
Honestly it took me a while to get the benefit from it, because the addition of orthotics changed completely the set-up of the bike/saddle/cleats/whatever... so putting the insoles in the shoes it is only the first step.

As I think can be useful for fellow "poorly shaped" cyclists, I try to summarize what I did (from the beginning):

- I have a severe degree of bow legs. Actually, the problem is even trickier because the kneed themselves are not too bad, but is the tibias which are terribly curved inward.
Obviously, the curve is not symmetrical in both legs...

- after a lot of hesitation, I gave up my fight with the hostility to idea of wearing orthotics and got suitable stuff from a qualified podiatrist.
The podiatrist worked out a shape for the insole so that the feet get tilted "outwards" to align the feet to the ankles and to the lower leg. The inversion of the foot is now compensated by the inside thickness of the orthotics..
(see the old post for close-up pics of the carbon fiber insoles).

- Now it is worthy to mention on HOW I was set-up BEFORE the orthotics:
the whole set-up was done with the purpose of trying to get the feet flat on the pedal. As for the natural shape of my legs, the shoe would land on the pedal only touching the outside. To go flat, I had to "compress" the system and push the feet as much as possible outward on the pedal as to give them enough "tilting" space...
bottom line, I was:
- very low on the saddle
- feet pointing outwards, while the ankles were almost touching the crankset
- cleats in the most inside position of the show (means feet moved outwards as much as possible).
- knees were always touching the top tube under effort
- the pressure on the pedals had a huge side components because of the shape of the legs. A lot of force was lost and also it happened often that my pedal axles got bent or the bearings got loose because of the non straight force application
- knees totally NOT aligned with feet on the pedal: feet were more outside then the knees and the knees were describing a oval during the pedal stroke.

Once I wore orthotics without changing the overall set-up, I felt "strange" and not really feeling major improvement.

So I went for a real bike fit from a professional and with some iterations, here the outcomes:

- the saddle height was increased 15mm (i know, it is huge... I did it in 3 steps)
- saddle brought back of 10mm
- complete change on the position of the cleats, which are now fixed in a way where my feet are no more pointing outwards, but straight and also very close to the crankset.
- on top of that all, I also added 2 wedges (from www.bikefit.com) to give additional tilt to the feet and therefore even more alignment with the lower leg. These wedges are awesome idea and could really solve a lot of problems for people with leg/knee issues.
- to make the set-up easier, I also switched to Look red-cleat with more floating

All together, now the push from the legs goes to the pedal in a straight way and the whole system tight/tibia/ankle/foot works without too many dispersion of force (before, most of the muscle effort was spent in keeping the legs/knees/ankles in a straight line.. now it comes naturally because the orthotics and the wedges aligned the system).
Working with a "straighter" leg, also gave the opportunity to increase the saddle height to a better working angle for the knee, thus increasing also the power of the stroke.
I can not give a % of improvement, but my climbing times on some measured courses considerably improved after the changes...

Here you can admire the set-up (the wedges are those yellow)

Now I will need to work on further refinement:
a) the right leg is spot on 100%..
b) the left foot is still not striking 100% straight and I am considering whether either adding an additional wedge or further increasing the saddle height and change the cleat position
c) I will switch pedals to Speedplay (which are simply better...), also because my Look Keo are already showing signs of fatigue (bearing got loose because of the transversal component in my pedal stroke...).
Speedplay allow more cleat adjustment and the whole show/pedal interface is better.

Probably the best way to tune-up the set-up is to place the bike on the trainer in front of a mirror, stick reflective sticker on the knees, film the pedaling and go for different slight adjustement until you can reach a good alignement between knee and pedal or at least avoid many parassite movement of the knee (seen from frontal view).

For the HW, you can use any videocamera or digital camera with video function.
For the SW, I would recomment to download this program which is open source and do the job in excellent way.
I personally did not complete yet this stage, so I will keep posted once I have videos to show and the final results.

HK National Champs Road Race - a report

2010-07-01T11:18:00.001+08:00

Epic race....

A massive low pressure front hit HK in the weekend and Saturday the Time Trial was cancelled because of the rain.
So Sunday morning I woke up at 4am and it was glad to see that it was not raining; roads were wet, but it seems a decent morning for the race.
The course was in remote area of HK, with twisting downhills under the trees... in short, slippery when wet.

At the planned start time of 6am (yes... a bit early, but cycling races in HK are all dependant on the road closure permit from the Police... which is very hard to obtain... ), we were told to wait a bit more and that was just enough for a massive tropical thunderstorm to begin: rain start pouring down right in droves.
So we go for 7 laps of carnage...

from that moment on, my memory of the race is like one of those race TV broadcast from the motorbike where the camera lens is fogged by the rain and it hard to understand exactly what is going on...

here some flashes...

- after 1km, right when we are taking the downhill, a dog tries to cross the road... first round of slamming brakes, I was right at the front so I pass by and dive into the downhill..... at the bottom, I can see that my downhiller skills are still reasonably OK... I went down quite conservatively, but it was enough to stay well in front... while going down, I think to my kids and my wife at home and how much unpleasant would be to end up in hospital...

- at the first turnaround point, I am quite surprised to see that the group is already broken down in pieces from the downhill...

- first climb: pace is really strong. Obviously the Elite1 riders push the pace to thin down the group to something which is more easy to control and less dangerous. I struggle a bit but stay in the first group

- a lot of rain... we are racing right where the yellow zone of the Rainfall map above... 40mm of rain in 1 hour!!. Visibility is minimal, my contact lenses begins to float in the eyes because of too much rain. It is so strong that my arms are painful because of the rain hitting...
The descents are covered of rain and the road starts to be flooded in several points... I am really scared to go down at some turn.

- I do not remember too much, but after few more climbs and few more downhills, I turn back and I see that we are down to only 15 riders in the front group...wow...

- on a climb, there is a sudden attack and I am too slow to react. I was already tired, but reacting that slow was a nonsense... so the front group broke into 2 and I am now in the 2nd group with other 4 riders

- more rain and more floodings... in some points the water was reaching 20-30cm and we are forced to go into the opposite lane to avoid going too deep. I start to wonder why they simply do not stop the race...

- after 4 laps (60km), I am really tired... I never trained more than 50/60km and I start to feel the distance.
In our small group we agree to keep going together to the finish line. We are out from the fight for the win, but still in honorable position. The leading group is in front of us of maybe 1-2 minutes.

- 5th lap... I am officially cooked up... the good proposition of staying together broke down on a climb and I am left alone... I am really tired and also is really stressful to plunge every time into the downhills, because the roads are more and more covered by water and I really do want to avoid falling down, but at the same time I can not lose too much time...in the last few Kms start wondering why I got the silly idea of resume cycling races... like I had not enough until I was 25...

- while completing the 5th lap, I was told that the race was stopped because of road conditions... God bless them...eventually...I just want to get changed and go home and forget about cycling for a while...

result: 11th overall

COMMENT: now with relaxed mind, I can say that I did a great race, for sure at 100% of my capability.
Looking at the results, ahead of me mainly Elite 1 riders (most of them are Pros with the National Team) , plus John T and Darren B (whose names do not need comments for local readers..).
All other Master and Elite 2 are behind.
So the 4 weeks of real training did really paid a dividend.
I am not yet competitive for the front of a Elite race, but getting near....

DATA SHEET: Garmin file for all you want to know...
For the whole race, I averaged 172bpm...which is an effort level higher than a marathon.. peak at 192bpm is which my real max for cycling... so for sure I did not spare the effort.
Average speed of 33kmh, which gives an idea of the difficulty of the course and the rain.

Total rain for the day: 150mm+ in the area (the race venue was right where the map is in brown...)

Nice race report from team mate HERE (the report is exhilarating when it comes to the story of the junior rider who "drowned" into a flood)

Dramatic videos from action camera mounted on a rider
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

As soon as I can find pics online I post something to give a better idea... (it was not really a day to take out a Nikon from her folder, but there were some photographers...)

it's not gonna be a joke...

2010-06-24T09:55:00.000+08:00

eventually they (HKCA) decided to spit out the details about Sunday's race: it is going to be 120km , 8 laps of the hilly Bride's Pool circuit.

<p><a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/hong-kong/-new-territories/250127228972498340">Bride's Pool TTT Course (4 laps)</a><br/><a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/hong-kong/-new-territories">Find more Bike Rides in New Territories, Hong Kong</a></p>

it is going to be a carnage...

there is not a single meter of flat,
the distance is 400% more than the usual distance of local race...
the field is a strange mix of full time Pros racing full time for the National Team and amateur and master riders of all ages...

It is obvious that it is already set from the start to protect the current roster of the National squad: they compete in international races of 150/200km and a local amateur used to race 40/50km at most is not going to have any chance to make into the top 5 and gain a place in the Team...

me..., I will probably only last 3-4 laps and then crawl to the finish or DNF... 120km is double the distance of my any recent ride...

final act

2010-06-22T15:39:00.000+08:00

a brief update,

Sunday will see the final act of the cycling season and maybe also my "final act" as cyclist... it will all depends as how I will perform in a real race.

Sunday 27th: Hong Kong National Championship, Elite race..
Like in all the other countries, Sunday will be Nationals also here. It is the one and only real mass start road race in Hong Kong, on a "real" course...

Odd facts about this race:
- foreigners are allowed to race, but obviously can not win the national jersey and they will not even officially entered in the classification..
- everybody with a license can enter and there is only one "Open" race: Elite and non Elite, Master or whatever... So it makes like going into a race where Contador or Ivan Basso are mixed up with beginners in their 50s...
- it is already tuesday afternoon and there is no announcement on the race start time, race distance or whatever... so it seems the race might be in Bride's Pool road... I guess very early in the morning and maybe the race distance will be around 60-90km (??)
- also the small number of Pros from the HK National Team (who obviously do not take part in the silly local races, but only race internationally) will join the race, so the level will be much higher than the usual stuff

about myself:

I was able to manage a real good string of training sessions... for 3 weeks I really took the things almost seriously and my condition remarkably improved. As a clear evidence, I managed to cut down my climbing time on TaiMoShan to 20'47" (a PB by 2 minutes) which is very near to times recorded by friends of excellent cycling level
the work and family commitments put a lot of stress and in the past days I am really fatigued by the sleep deprivation and so on... seems that all my good shape is gone away, but I hope that resting well in the next few days will bring back some shine... today I had to quit the workout because I was dead
my bike seems to be even more fatigued than I am. In the last days I got all the kind of problems (chain, cassette, BB, pedals). I am trying to sorting out as much as I can, but something seems hard to repair: pedal are very noisy and cluncking. Since I do not apply strength to the pedal perpendicularly to the axle, it is usual that the bearing get damaged/worn out quickly and the pedal axles gets loose... now this happened to my Keo pedals too and I am figuring out how to replace the bearing or tighten them at least to outlast sunday's race
based on sunday's outcome, I will decide what to do for the next season. Due to the level of the race, I do not expect to finish in the first group, but based on how far I will be dropped, I can see if I am competitive for the racing programs which our team is planning.

Garmin 405 vs Polar Rs800 comparison - Round #1

2010-05-31T11:56:00.003+08:00

Even being a long time Polar buyer, it is plainly evident that Polar is recently being "outpaced" by Garmin in terms of development for speed/distance monitor...

especially daunting for Polar is the fact that Garmin is both leader in GPS technology and have also acquired the company "Dynastream Innovations" which is the developer of the foot-pod technology used in both Polar and Garmin...

So now Polar relies on Garmin's technology for their stuff... which is not exactly the best strategic positioning..

I found that the real beauty is when you can integrate the data coming from GPS with the accuracy, speed of response and reliability of the foot-pod system.

To make the story short, I will start a series of posts about the comparison between Garmin 405 and Polar Rs800 in terms of "output" for the runner: what to do with all the data coming from the monitors and which of the 2 systems is more "useable" for a serious runner...

I had never ever considered switching to Garmin until I received a 405 as a gift and later discovered the SW Sporttracks, which has an amazing array of plug-ins which are extremely useful....(Garmin has his own SW "Training Center" which is a total crap, while the online log Garmin Connect is nice but mainly for online sharing and not data analysis)

Now the competition is on...

ROUND #1: THE FOOTPOD

I was by chance in a sport shop and I saw the NEW Garmin FoodPod 010-11092-00 on display and I could not sincerely resist because it was beautifully small and I immediately salivated to the idea to have footpod technology couple with GPS data (more of that later...)

Price was 650 HKD which was sensibly cheaper than the RRP in USA (99USD)... so if someone is interested, let me a comment and I will refer the shop.

Yes, the Gamin footpod is MUCH smaller !! The Polar pod is unchanged since 2006 while evidently the folks at Dynastream have worked a lot on a new generation...

WEIGHT:

- Gamin: 7 grams (including battery)

- Polar: 24 grams...

I can also appreciate that Garmin accessories (HR belt, footpod, bike speed reader) all use the same battery model CR2032 (which is very easy to buy), while Polar has 3 different batteries for HR belt, watch and footpod...(did the engineers talk each other during development ??... since the difference between a CR2025 and CR2032 is really negligible...)

Lower weight and smaller profile makes it very easy for the Garmin pod to be tied to the shoes and the plastic clip has a good shape which makes it easy to hold the pod firm to the shoes...

OUT OF THE BOX COMPARISON: Garmin is the sure winner...

CALIBRATION:

My Polar pod was already calibrated, so I went for a calibration of the Garmin's one, which is extremely simple: once the pod is recognized by the wrist unit, I selected the calibration function and you are given the choice to calibrate by a fixed distance (eg: 400m, 1k, etc) or using the GPS.

I went for the GPS system calibration and went for the run... after a while (I suppose it was 1 mile) I got the message that the pod was calibrated with calibration parameter 1008 (factory setting is 1000).

Since it is known that the GPS usually adds up 1% to the real distance.. I then simply manually changed the calibration parameter back to 1000 ...(haha)...

I have not checked yet if the new footpod is so affected by the same pattern of the old Polar, where the calibration was also "speed dependant" (the calibration factor is no more accurate for speeds different from the one used for calibration)

ON-THE-FIELD COMPARISON

I took chance of a run in the forest in Dongguan for a tricky head to head comparison...I looked extremely weird wearing 2 watches and 2 foot-pod at the same time, but so it makes for an effective comparison...

1) the GARMIN GPS did not pick up the signal correctly because of the tree coverage... so the speed reading using GPS was totally out and I did later switch to FootPod speed

(in the Garmin it is possible to choose if the speed/distance reading uses the FootPod or the GPS)

--> Conclusion: another evidence that the GPS alone for training can really suck...

2) it was awfully humid so after 5k I was drenched in sweat and the Garmin 405 crashed...(it is well reported that the bezel gets crazy when wet...). I had to reboot the watch while running...

--> Conclusion: if you buy a Garmin, stay away from the 405 and go for the 310XT which addressed all the problem with the bezel of 405

Result: No contest.... the Polar did his job in proper way... the Garmin crashed

On the next session, I will check more on the "speed drift" phenomenon for both footpod (which is quite troubling if you use the Garmin or Polar for interval training on unmarked road)

M.P. Memorial Race report

2010-05-24T10:43:00.003+08:00

If you have only 1 minute to read, you shall know that I arrived 1st at the finish line, kicking hard with 1km to go.

It felt extremely hard, but probably others were suffering more...

Once the results were graded using the WADA tables, I was given the 3rd "compensated" time (well... I am still too young...).

NOW THE LONG VERSION

Felt a bit odd to wait for the afternoon race, but the morning went by quickly with some D-I-Y duty.

Since the weather was really dull in our area, once I told my wife that on HK Island there have been no rain, she expressed her interest in coming at least to take some air outside (otherwise she is totally against any physical activity and sport in general...).

So we embarked the full team on the car, included my daughter's bike, stroller for the boy, etc...

It was actually true that on HK Island side the weather was actually better, not raining, but simply awfully hot: 29C with 85%Rh... the air was so thick that I could barely breath while running the warm-up...

Most of all, I felt super good to see again after such a long time most of my "running friends" and get back into the spirit of competition. Many asked me about my tendons and wished me all the best for the race... the runners are always so supportive among each others.

I noticed that the field did not really have any "tier 1" runner, but many solid runners who recently completed marathons in the 2h40' area. So it was a solid field to test my level.

Once the gun went off, I found myself in the leading group and breathing quite hard, but the pace was still "confortably" hard.

After a while, I was left only with C.B. who last month completed a marathon in 2h41' and a former varsity runner with 1500m PB of 3'45".... So I just tailed him and I hoped to hang on as long as possible.

Honestly I did not give myself a change and I was feeling more and more miserable; I was already cooked up at the turn-around point at 2.5k

The course is an out and back in a small pedestrian road, which is not actually closed to the traffic for the race, so you must take into account the need to go around dog-walkers, joggers, whatever.... also this time I felt lucky to have avoided a collision but I got very very near to a crash with another runner coming in the opposite direction...

Then... all of a sudden I realized that we were actually slowing down (well, better, he was slowing down and I was following...), so I tought it was maybe the moment to try a kick and see if he could respond.

With 1200m to go, I increased the pace (and my suffering). I realized that he was not reacting so I kept on going harder.

I felt awful and in total pain, the legs were heavy and for the last 400m I really had to focus on keeping the pace because I just wanted to stop.

Somehow I managed to reach the line first even if I was totally blank...

It is an understatement to say that I am very pleased with my race...

Once the final results were out, I was awarded the 3rd prize because this race is a bit special, using the WADA conversion tables to recalculate the finishing time based on the age.

All together, a really good feeling to "cut the ribbon" and being able to hang out there very hard with runners coming out from a full season of races/training.

Lastly, usual praise for the organization from AVOHK. Not because it is my club, but they are really good in setting up races: everything simple and smooth and very runner friendly.

Photos to follow once I find something

Eventually....

2010-05-21T22:20:00.002+08:00

Yes, eventually, after 18 months I will enter into a running race and tomorrow will be my "debut" of this new running life as Master Runner..…

Time flies incredibly fast.
My last race, I was still 39 and with the 2nd kid on the way … now I am already turning 41 and he is already 18m, ravaging the house as a sweet active toddler...

It is a 5k race in HK organized by my club in memorial of a prematurely deceased club member who gave a big contribution to the local community.

The fun of the race is that the classification is done using the WADA age conversion tables, so everybody has a shot for the overall victory regardless of the age ! It will be fun and my coefficient is around 0.92…

If "Uncle Yip" (former WADA world champion) shows up with his 88 years old he can kick butts since he can still run 30'-35' for a 5k...

On that course I have very good memories because I won a race OA in 2007(report) and 2nd in 2008 with my PB of 15'51". Tomorrow I just go there relaxed without any objectives, I will push hard and see what comes out. It is already a great satisfaction to be back racing and "feel the thrill".

The past 7 days has been quite a decent streak of solid training, nothing special but good consistency

SAT 15th: Hong Kong. 11km run. I felt a bit tired from Friday's longish run but I tackled a hill near home

SUN 16th (HK): bike ride... I will write a specific post on the matter, but anyway It was my first ride after an unsuccessful "cleat fitting" session... I felt awful on the bike, the feet felt awkward... I had the plan to do hill intervals, but I gave up and went for an easy spin. 30km in total

MON 17th: (HK): GREAT run session. the sky was cloudy, so the temperature "only" 25C. W/U 20' easy run + dynamic stretching + drills then 5x1000m intervals along the rowing course in Shatin with 2'15" standing recovery.

I did not have any specific pace in mind, so I just went by feel to push the pace in a confortable way.
3'23" (felt like jogging) / 3'20" / 3'18" / 3'16" / 3'11" (I passed by the 500m in 1'38" and than pick up the speed for the last 400m). Then it was already late and I headed home (to fetch my daughter to the schoolbus... our ritual)

Really amazing, I could not believe to be already in the 3'1x" range and I could have go on for more intervals if not because of the time..

TUE 18th: (HK) 15km easy recovery run. Some slight tightness in the legs

WED 19th (Dongguan): bike ride 1h with cross bike... pushed hard on the small hills... the feeling of going off-road with a XC bike is unique... you can really push fast also off-road and the bike is very responsive. It is really different from the MTB.

The drawback is that the bike is also very responsive downhill, so you must really take it easy...

THU 20th (Hong Kong): I overslept, so only 8km RUN but I pushed the pace around 4'00" and felt very comfortable. It was right after a huge thunderstorm, so the air was clean and slightly cooler

FRI 21st (Dongguan): very hot, 27C/90%Rh already at 6am. I went into the forest for an easy run. I wanted to make a comparison between Garmin and Polar, so I had 2 watches and 2 foot pods (only 1 HR band though...). Report on the experiment in a later post

Got chased by a dog which got close enough to almost bite my shoe even if I was sprinting ... the good thing is that I did not need to add strides at the end of the run because the "neural activation" was already enough. I ended up with 11km @ 4'30" pace and 1.5L of lost weight in sweat. Felt a bit tired, more than I expected.

pensavo che il cronometro fosse rotto....

2010-05-18T13:47:00.003+08:00

(Sorry english readers... but sometimes I need to make the italian friends happy...)

Sono un po' incredulo dalla mia "performance" nella prima sessione di ripetute dell'anno (anzi, degli anni 2009-2010...).

Temperatura 25C, 90% di umidita', cielo coperto. Non era troppo male perche' il sole era coperto dalle nuvole.
Rettilineo di 1km lungo il campo di gara di canottaggio. Distanza assolutamente precisa perche' omologata per gare internazionali (non correvo sulle acque, ma sulla pista ciclabile a fianco)
Riscaldamento 20" corsa facile + streching dinamico e allunghi
Il programma prevedeva di fare un po' di ripetute da 1000m a sforzo 10k, con recupero 2'. Non avevo nessuna idea della velocita' da tenere visto che era la mia prima sessione del biennio... obiettivo erano almeno 5 ripetute, ma anche 7 se il tempo era sufficiente...

1. rip: 3'23" ... mi sembrava di fare jogging, ma non volevo bruciarmi

2. rip: 3'20" molto rilassato

3. rip: 3'18"

4. rip: 3'16"

5. rip: 3'11" passato ai 500m in 1'38" ho allungato in scioltezza gli ultimi 400m... ero incredulo

Non posso dire di essere stato nemmeno troppo stanco alla fine e avrei fatto altre 2 ripetute se non avessi dovuto correre a casa per portare mia figlia allo scuolabus (rituale mattutino...)

Ovviamente un allenamento non e' molto indicativo, ma sono molto piu' avanti del previsto.

Sabato, prima gara dopo 18 mesi di stop: 5km su percorso piatto...

climb over....

2010-05-14T11:13:00.004+08:00

several times I posted about the great climb I found out in the surrounding of my workplace....

earlier last year the road was still dirt and later it was paved it to make it part of a Forest park...

well.. now the park was officially opened and the road (and all the other inner roads) has been closed to bicycles...

Yesterday I got up early to reach the climb before the sun was too hot, but I got stopped by 2 guard who told me that the road is not only for pedestrians... I try to persuade them into let me in (it was 5.45am !!!) but at no avail...

So now I lost my favourite training ground in Dongguan... and there is not substitution because it was the only mountain road in the surroundings... grrrrrr

So if you fancy a nice hike or run on a steep climb..here more details about the Park (in Chinese), which is unique in Dongguan...

On the pic above, you can see the climb road cutting the mountain...

Small consolation is that I will hold the eternal record for the climb, unless further development of the situation:

- on dirt surface, with MTB: 49'

- on paved surface, with XC bike: 38'30"

Other Training:

- Mon: I felt still dead and I was busy with the work... so I gave up the idea of training

- Tue: slacked.. overslept in the morning and slacked in the evening

- WED:

am: 55km road bike ride in QX Dongguan with interval training: amazing that I managed to do 2 hours of road cycling going around the town ...

pm: to recover from the missed day and placate my guilty feelings, an easy run of 40' near home.

- THU: as mentioned... I got duped... I felt really down after realizing that no more hill training in Dongguan, anyway I rode for about 1h15' with the XC bike...

- FRI (Hong Kong): easy run 14km. It was super humid....

Week 18-2010 Summary

2010-05-10T12:03:00.004+08:00

I tried to increase the workload but it was probably too much too soon, so in the weekend I felt like crap....

MONDAY (Hong Kong): Run 11k with some 200m strides at the local track. I was still recovering from the weekend bike ride...

TUESDAY

am (HK): very unfortunate bike ride. My ride buddy crashed against some barriers and hit the ground... we aborted the workout and I escorted him home. 30km at slow pace. Hope he can recover soon from his scratches and contusions.

evening (Dongguan): I wanted to recover for the lost workout and did the first running workout in years... I shooted for 7x3' @ 3'30"-3'35" with 2' recovery , but after 5 I was tired enough to end.

I was ok, but the legs are really not springy as before...I really suffer on the fast paces.

Anyway 12k in total

WEDNESDAY (Dongguan)

am: easy bike ride 40k

pm: easy jog on the treadmill (40')

THURSDAY (Dongguan)

am: good bike ride. I tackled the long climb in the forest park with the CX bike...

unfortunately the Garmin run out of battery right before the top, but I was for sure on a PB for the climb (around 38').

The climb is 7km with several points at over 15-18% (followed by easier sections): with the 36x26 is quite hard.

total 1h30'

FRIDAY (Hong Kong)

Run 11km under heavy thunderstorm. It was so strong that I had to keep an end in front of the eyes while running... but at least it was not too hot

SATURDAY (Hong Kong)

Run 10k: Felt AWFUL. After a long warm-up, I went for the track to make some faster intervals .

I wanted to do some lunges as dynamic stretch, but after the 2nd one I strained my muscles. I AM AN OLD MAN...

Aborted the idea of the sprint workout and just jogged home in pain

SUNDAY

Bike 30k: I felt even worse... the abductors in the legs are strained and painful. I tackled a tough hill near home and the HR was not even climbing over 150bpm.

So It was sign of severe fatigue. I gave up the idea of more climbing and just went for a spin.

WEEKLY TOTAL:

- Bike: 4h40' (1 decent workout)

- Run: 3h40' (1 decent workout)

- 2 strained muscles

- gained weight....

1) I need to find a way to solve/improve my insomnia: I was able to sleep no longer than 4-5 hours for the past nights and definitely I could not recover at all

2) I am now sitting on the desk with my muscles pulling like hell and almost can not walk. My flexibility is really poor if a lunge can lead to this...

3) summer is here... 28C at 7am on Saturday, know there will be 6 months of hell ahead...

4) I eat too much and too many cakes/ice-creams, etc... the scale tipped 75kg which is totally unreasonable

"sole distributor" !!!!!?????????

2010-05-05T12:34:00.004+08:00

I have mentioned "ad nauseam" that I have bow legs in severe grade and therefore all my sportive life has been a struggle with poor biomechanics.

lastly, I feel very poor on the bike because of the misalignement between the leg and the pedal axis.

to make a long story short, I was considering to try the "Speedplay" pedals because they have a complete float and they come in different lenght of the spindle...

well... anyway, the "hole in the wall" shop pictured above should be the sole distributor of Speedplay pedal for Hong Kong.

I find it difficult to believe that they could have the full range of speedplay pedals, but I will go and give a look anyway...

Morale of the story: there is a desperate need for a serious and modern bike shop in Hong Kong... most of the places are like that...