"Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts."
Steve Prefontaine
When you train for an Ultra, you treat Marathon event as your LSD. Its brilliant plan as it took away all the unnecessary pressure, that was exactly what i felt at the starting line of Energizer Night Race in Sepang last April.
By this time, my body was getting stronger to the rigorous weekly mileage. It was week 10 of my 100km training plan when i ran ENR. The routine running mileage was like these; a few 10k during weekdays, HM mileage on Wednesday night at Bukit Subang with Otoromen Zaki and friends and Marathon distance LSD on Saturday nite at PoJ. Sunday and Friday are the rest days for recovering.
It freaking me out when thinking at the time that i need to cover weekly mileage around 90-100km starting from week 12-17 *cringe*.
ENR was a good race for me, i got new PB 4:38. Unfortunately it was under distance, damn! There goes my hard work, the new PB was not really count.
On week 12, the Chap Ayam Runners organised night LSD to support the Ultra runners, many came that night; including Farid Elias, Hailmi and others. I managed to better my record at TUC, completed 55km LSD that night.
It was slow but consistent training regime for me, the SAS Tioman Eco challenge; a 30km trail events was also incorporated into my training schedule. I need to test my endurance level. Although i DNFed that race, but i am happy report that i survived the seven hours cut off time, plus i felt i had the energy to go on if the organiser didn’t stop me at 21km. By this time my confidence grew tremendously and i just needed a couple more of 40-50 km LSD on my peak’s week to ready for the D-Day.
The training plan was executed brilliantly before LIFE interfered.
My next LSD-Marathon was the Sundown Marathon, a month before the Ultra. I was sick before the race and have not run 12 day prior to SD42. I was thinking of DNS the race if i still did not recover from my flu. Fortunately, a day before the race, i recovered but not 100 per cent. I entered the race just planning to do a very slow LSD, it was one of the painful experience running a Marathon ever. The weather was horrible, the humidity was all time high that night.
I scored a PW for SD42 (5:45) and almost DNF half way due to complications and my lack of trainings. That’s what you get i you missed the fundamental trainings run. If this is what it feels like running the 100km, i’m going for a hell of ride next month!
It’s 4 weeks before the SDU100, the weekend after the SD42 was supposed to be my peak with last week of 100km mileage before tapering. I was determined not to fallen into the same mistakes as i did with the SD42 – lack of trainings.
I needed to do one last 50km LSD on Saturday night before tapering, but the thing was i already registered for NB15 run on Sunday morning. I decided to customised the LSD and NB15 into one long run, i was planning to run about 40km on Saturday night before continued with NB15 run the next morning. Yim and KA decided to join the planned LSD.
That was the plan, my plan for the peak LSD run. The final long run before tapering and counting days to the dreaded D-Day. This run was important in insuring i covered the basic mileage to tackle the 100km run, without it i’m sure i’ll pay dearly on race day.
Now sometimes life isn’t fair, but we make do what we can from it. Training for an Ultra or Marathon plus taking care of two small kids as a single father is NOT an easy task. You need to sacrifice something in order to gain something else!
On some bad days, all i ever wanted was to sit down and cry my heart out! But that is a luxury that i could not afford. My kids need me to be strong, that was the big challenge for me.
Running is a therapy for me, it clears my mind. It gave me confidence, strength and peace. There is no future and the past when i run, you just created your own perfect space. It’s just you, the road and the wind on your face.
I DNS some registered races because i could not find babysitters for my kids, i felt so void sometimes. When i do find babysitters, i needed to fetch them right after night LSD or race (in many cases i turned to my parents). After running 42km at ENR, many fortunate runners just go home and rest, but i need to fetch the kids in the middle nights – rest came later.
On the eve of the planned night LSD, i packed all my gears and sent the kids to a friend house, but the kids was having their own agenda – throwing tantrums and gave me a hard time. I decided to go back home, where we had early dinner and i tucked the kids to bed. I guess that the end of a dream, my dream…
The next day when i saw all the happy faces of the NB15 runners on the social network page, i felt very sad. I just needed my space – alone! That’s when i shut down everything, including this blog. I just needed to be away from the happy people.
The dream was dead!
I thought no one would noticed me, no one would care.
But when my mobile rained with text messages a few days after that, confirmed that i was wrong. Sorry guys i needed my space, my apologise to Yim and KA for my absent that fateful night at PoJ LSD. I thought of calling you guys, but against it as i did not know what to say or excuse to give.
Thank you dear friends, you know who you are. I’m touched with your kindness.
A friend later offered to accompany me doing the 50km LSD next Saturday night, that was a kind gesture because he was not even taking part for the SDU. He urged me not to give up as i was so close to the D-Day.
So there we were, myself, Kash and Zaki at Putrajaya on Saturday night. There was a carnival going on in front of PoJ, the place was brightly lit up. We found out that AF was preparing for its final practice before the concert on Sunday.
Again, i was challenged. This time i was under the weather and was having stomach ache that evening, i decided it’s not worth risking my health by running. I just let them run while watching the AF practice – i was in luck, SEARCH as guest artiste, played few of my favourite songs that night.
Monday morning i felt much better, i decided to the last LSD at Kelana Jaya park. I was having my own Marathon that morning, completed 40km by 2pm and a few shades darker – good training for that last 10km to the finish line in the hot sun.
After that it’s tapering week, no more crazy mileage! no more LSD! It’s useless if you can’t recover by the D-Day. Week 19, i ran about 10km everyday from Monday to Friday, i didn’t realised that these little 10km run would be significant came race day.
On the final week of the training plan, i decided to seek a friend help in planning my pace and timing for the Ultra. He’s good of this sort of thing. I told him that i wanted to complete the Ultramarathon within 16 hours, 7 hours for the first 50km and 9 hours on the final 50km.
The plan was something like this:-
| 10 km | 1:24 hrs |
| 20 km | 2:48 hrs |
| 30 km | 4:12 hrs |
| 40 km | 5:36 hrs |
| 50 km | 7:00 hrs |
| 60 km | 8:48 hrs |
| 70 km | 10:36 hrs |
| 80 km | 12:24 hrs |
| 90 km | 14:12 hrs |
| 100 km | 16:00 hrs |
Trainings done, now it’s time to separate the Boys from the Men come race day.
TBC