Training Log Archive: hkleaf

4-day trip to Taipei.

TNT @ Hammer Hill
4 laps warm up, climb up Jat's Incline, 12x400m intervals, 4 laps cool down.

9:09.79 - warm up
12:18.39 - cool down
17:18.08 - recovery

Climb up Jat's Incline, with a slight detour because one of the stairs were blocked. Distance and climb should still be relatively the same.

11:26

Descent back to the sports ground. Nice easy pace chatting with Iris.

Intervals with Lok Wah Track Club. 12x400m on 2:40 cycles (with ~150m jogging recovery).

Splits (w/ recovery):
80.65 (78.93)
78.15 (81.77)
78.74 (80.86)
76.91 (85.34)
75.52 (84.10)
75.23 (84.52)
73.80 (86.25)
72.58 (87.23)
72.30 (90.45)
69.36 (92.21)
68.30 (152.01) - an extra 60s rest before the last rep.
67.04 (94.41)

Legs were quite tired after the last one, but I was satisfied with the progression in pace throughout the session. Maintain at the 72-75s range is starting to become easier now.

Unplanned rest day. Had too much on the plate, plus early symptoms of a cold, so no running today.

27C, Partly cloudy - TNT @ Morse. I ran from home (with pack) to meet the gang in the park. Stretched. Then did 12 laps (sans pack) at a comfortable pace. Legs felt like they've finally recovered from the Raleigh Challenge!

24:25.76
5:15.81
4:53.95
5:04.25
4:49.37
5:01.96
4:49.27
4:53.71
4:42.19
4:48.09
4:46.88
4:45.48
4:39.89

58:30 for 12 laps, avg. 4:52.50/lap
Interesting that all the ccw laps were just a little faster than the cw laps.

Some push-ups.

Chung Yeung Festival.
Original plan of rerunning the Rotary Park course fell through. We waited for an hour at the bus stop, 3 buses came and went, and we still couldn't get on because it was full! So a rest day it is.

Birney Memorial Event - Aberdeen Country Park, Aberdeen, Hong Kong

Partnered with Marty Hawkes-Teeter, who came down from Shenzhen for the race. Made one huge mistake in the middle of the race that cost us a lot of time and energy. Upon further review, we also did not do a good job with route-planning. Wonder if I'll ever learn to run on these green maps?

Event: ICO Halloween Night O
 

28C, 63%, partly cloudy - Easy run over to Kai Tak and back.

21:37.61 - out
20:53.56 - back

Event: US Individual Champs 2009
 

Rest day... attending a memorial service.

core.

27C, 72%, cloudy - TNT @ Hammer Hill. 3 laps each for warm up and cool down, sandwiched between the climb up Jat's and 6x400m intervals with the track club.

8:46 - warm up
9:24 - cool down
8:28 - recoveries inbetween

Climb up Jat's Incline. Didn't push very hard as legs were feeling a bit tired from yesterday's effort. Still, everything seemed just a bit harder/longer tonight. Another night with hazy view of the city again.

10:26

Jog back down to the sports ground.

Joined the Lok Wah track club for portions of its intervals - 2x [12x400m] on 2:40 cycles! - I only did 6 trying to preserve my legs for Sunday's race.

Splits (w/ ~150m jogging recovery):
80.43 (79.65)
77.99 (82.42)
78.94 (81.27)
75.52 (84.66)
74.97 (86.56)
68.14 (92.86)

Legs still not back 100% but better than last week.

Before and after, including some form exercises.

27C, cloudy - Went with Iris to join Sophia's running club for their track workout at the Kowloon Bay sports ground. I did 16x400m with the lead group, all at a comfortable tempo pace. Times started in ~1:35 and gradually got faster to ~1:25 at the end. About 2:00 rest inbetween. Felt decent.

2 cool down laps after the intervals.

24C, overcast, windy - TNT @ Morse. Brief warm up with the group.

Since everyone's back from the All China Champs in Sichuan, we were chatty and had a delayed start. So I only had time for 10 laps, all ran at an honest effort.

Splits:
5:03.27
4:59.30
4:51.15
5:08.14 (slowed down to get the locker key from Chiu)
4:51.44
4:46.94
4:43.75
4:50.41
4:38.89
4:43.87

avg. 4:51.71

Scheduled rest day.

am - Y2Y Orienteering Championships (Final)"
pm - Mt. Davis Orienteering

Brief warm up before the race in the gravel lot.

Y2Y Orienteering Championships 2009 (Final) - Ho Sheung Heung, Sheung Shui, New Territories.

more details later.

Orienteering Event - Mt. Davis, Hong Kong.

Huge mistake out of the gate, losing 13+ minutes and missing out on the win as a result. Got 3rd place in the Open group category. More details later.

Event: MNOC - Camp Ripley - Fall O' Weekend
 

Midday, sunny, clear - Easy recovery run to loosen up the legs. Ran out to Kai Tak and back via the shore.

22:42.03 - out
21:25.10 - back

Attended a Wilderness First Aid seminar at OAHK that took up the whole evening, so rest day it is. Legs are a bit tired from last night's effort.

TNT @ Hammer Hill.
Very brief warm up (1 lap), climb up Jat's, then did 4x400m, and cool down (4 laps).

2:13.07 - warm up
1:27.95 - recoveries inbewteen intervals, ~200m each
1:19.41
1:20.41
1:20.67
10:17.78 - cool down

Climb up Jat's Incline. Normal effort keeping things on the easier side. Neither breathing nor legs were heavy until the very end at the top, when I tried to chase down all the girls who started earlier. Was pleasantly surprised to see the fast time. Maybe the legs are recovering quicker than expected. :)
It was both hazy and a bit foggy, so no spectacular views of the harbour tonight.

9:29

Jogged back down to the sports ground. Iris had a side stitch, so I walked with her for a while.

Joined the Lok Wah Track Club for a portion of their 12x400m intervals. Since I didn't want to overdo things with my legs, I only did 4, and ran them in a slower pace - my target pace for the upcoming 5k test.

Splits (w/ recovery jog of ~200m inbetween):
82.80 (87.95)
81.31 (79.41)
80.29 (80.41)
79.63 (80.67)

Could've run today, but went to sit in on the OAHK meeting re: team selection stuff instead. Legs feeling much better.

TNT @ Happy Valley. Everyone was still in Sichuan at the All China Champs, so it was really just Iris and me. My legs were sore and tired still from Saturday, so I jogged alongside Iris to keep her company. We did 6 laps around the ballfields together. Then feeling that my legs had loosen up enough, I gave it a go for 2 faster laps. The speed was mostly there, but the muscles weren't done aching just yet. It's gonna be an easy week of recovery.

Splits:
6:28
6:28
6:13
6:13
6:10
6:00 (37:40)
4:42
4:37 (9:19)

More rest. Legs are still sore all over.

my quads, calves, glutes, stabilizing muscles in the lower legs (basically my entire legs) are hurting today... ouch!
my shoulders are also sore for some reason.

Raleigh Challenge - the 30km day version

25-29C, sunny, clear, occasional breeze - Raleigh Challenge Day Course (30km) running on Hong Kong's Wilson Trail.
I teamed with Siu Tung for the men's category hoping to do well in the race. Our ideal finish time was set at 4hr, with anything under 4.5hr being a reasonable goal depending on the weather. The day started out nice, cool, and breezy in Tai Tam. The long steep descent right out of the gate reminded me of Boston, which brought back not so pleasant memories of painful quads later on in the race. I tried my best to take it easy down the hill while still keeping the leaders somewhat in sight.

Once we turned onto the trail winding along the Tai Tam Intermediate Reservoir, our pace was dictated by the two teams just ahead, which meant that I got a nice little breather. On the first significant climb up Violet Hill (~1000ft), we were able to pass them and move into 4th (in reality, only 1 of the 3 teams ahead are in our category, the others were doing the full 78km challenge, but we didn't know).

We made decent time at CP1. I filled up my water bottle, grabbed a banana, and pushed onward up Jardine's Lookout (~600ft) and Mt. Butler (~400ft). The effects of the hills were gradually felt in the legs, but we kept a solid pace on the entire descent (~1300ft) down to the Tai Koo MTR.

The organizers recommend taking the MTR at Quarry Bay, but during practice we felt Tai Koo was a better choice, so took the gamble. Of course we just missed the train as we got to the platform and had to wait an extra couple minutes. The interesting twist, once we got to Quarry Bay, was that we got up to the team that was ahead of us, but yet we're also caught by one of the teams behind us! So we'll never really know which way was best. We bought some pocari to replenish our fluids. I changed into a dry pair of socks. At the time, it felt nice to stop and rest for a little bit while the train took us across the harbour. In retrospect, however, our legs really tightened up a lot during this short 10min.

With Siu Tung and I both getting tired, we slowed our pace and let the 2 teams go ahead to begin the Kowloon portion of the race. The hills were more plentiful on this section, with Devil's Peak, Chiu Keng Wan Shan, and Black Hill all in succession (~360m). The nice cool breeze we had earlier in the day was nowhere to be found. It's nearing noon time by then, so the hot sun beating down didn't help matters. We managed to pass one team up the way up Black Hill and stayed there for the rest of the course. After that, the section from Ma Yau Tong thru Tai Ngau Wu to Tseng Leng Shue (CP3) was a relative breather with it's minor undulations.

The last leg of the course was the toughest, not only because we were both tired, but also because there was the biggest climb of the day. From Tseng Lan Shue, the trail first took us up (~80m) and down a cool, nicely shaded part of an old forest, to the small village of Tai Lam Wu. Then, the climax - a climb up the steep slope (steps) of One Rise More 東洋山 (~420m), to be followed by a short climb up Tate's Cairn (~110m). Siu Tung's quads cramped up at the top of the first climb, so we slowed to a fast walk. Then my quads also cramped up just before the top of Tate's Cairn! Stopping and stretching didn't seem to help any, but we continued on because one team wasn't very far behind. Once we managed to the top, we knew the finish was just some 2-3km away, 250m downhill at Shatin Pass. So we started jogging again. Luckily, both our legs loosened up enough to let us finish looking strong. They stretched the banner for us to come across the line, so that was cool! (my first such experience, in fact.)

We grabbed our bags, rested a little, stretched, and then had to leave quickly (me to make some afternoon exams, and Siu Tung to his own clinic). So we never did find out our official placing. We're guessing we got 2nd place, with the 1st place team of firemen breaking the previous course record with a 3:43! There was also a mixed team of foreign couples (the team that caught and overtook us on the MTR) who finished in 3:5X, and I'm guessing a North Face team that was running the whole 78km challenge.

My quads and lower legs were beat, but overall it was a very fun experience, and wasn't quite as bad as I had expected pain wise :) There's another 30km trail race (this time solo) for a different charity in December that I may be running in, but we'll see how the recovery goes first.

Food and beverage intake during the race:
~4.5L of fluids, including (3) 500ml bottle of electrolyte drinks, 1.5 bananas, and 3 packs of GU.

I did sweat a ton, but I think the cramping was mostly due to muscle exhaustion and not lack of fluid/salt? Any ideas?

Splits:
49:25 - Start-->CP1
54:00 - CP1-->Tai Koo MTR
8:23 - MTR ride from Tai Koo to Yau Tong ***
24:03 - Yau Tong MTR -->CP2
39:15 - CP2-->CP3
1:12:45 - CP3-->Finish

*** the actual time of our MTR travel was longer, as I forgot to press the split button on my watch. It may be somewhere in the 10-12min range?

Scheduled rest day. Spent it studying instead. Not sure what to feel about the race tomorrow, but I'll certainly do my best.

26C, mostly clear - TNT @ Hammer Hill. Some of the guys are over in Sichuan competing in the All China Championships, and I am getting ready for Saturday's race, so only the girls ran up Jat's Incline. My workout consisted of warm up (8 laps), 2mi at faster pace, and cool down (4 laps).

17:05 - warm up
8:50 - cool down

8 laps at a steady pace, averaging ~1:40/lap for a 6:40/mi pace. Felt decent.

Afternoon recovery run with Chiu, from Lai King to Lai Chi Kok Park in Mei Foo and back.
27:02
1:28
2:07
21:46

TNT @ Morse. 10 laps steady. Tendons around the R-ankle were a bit sore during and after, but no swelling detected.

Splits:
5:30
5:13
5:00
5:00
4:57 (25:40)
4:59
4:56
4:56
4:50
5:00 (24:41)

Scheduled rest day.

Warm up jog from the BBQ area at Rotary Park up Tai Mo Shan to the start. Distance and climb to be added later.

Pretty terrible performance in this opening race to the season. I'll add in the details later tonight.

Mid-Autumn Festival.
Taking a rest day today to be with family, admire the nice full moon, and just eat a lot!

30C, 66%, sunny, breezy - Afternoon jog from home. Did an out-and-back to Kai Tak. Will add in the route and distance later.

22:02.70 - out
20:44.77 - back

HKOC Pre-season Ranking Event - Braemer Hill, Hong Kong.
MA Course:

An exercise in picking terrible route choices for me, which wasn't the intention! Not sure what it is about Braemer Hill that gives me trouble. Will write more later.

As others haven't finished yet, I headed back out for a run around the trails to add some mileage, and had a chance to get a better understanding of the terrain/map.

After cleaning up and getting some food, we climbed up a rocky knoll to watch the National Day fireworks. The view was quite spectacular, and the company was excellent!