I am now at my office desk on a lovely Sunday morning trying to kick start the brain out of hibernation mode. It’s tough especially when I only hit the sack 5 hours ago after a night of an unhealthy and probably lethal mix of pizza, wings, beer, Baileys, Whisky and Vodka. So as I stared at the laptop aimlessly, I found myself thinking about anything and everything, but work.
Inescapably, my mind drifted to running as it is a rather significant part of my life, more so after joining Mileage. I was comparing between pre-Mileage days, early Mileage days, the present and it triggered a plethora of feelings. Feeling tickled was definitely one of them.
Before joining Mileage, I was what Coach will probably classify as a race junkie. Not that I joined many races but I’d sign up simply for fun most times, out of boredom sometimes. I did not have proper trainings (if you even classify 1 hr spinning in the gym twice a week to prepare for Aviva 70.3 training) and I insisted on going for a race with 2 running buddies- the nose and the temperature. I was insane enough to do 2 marathons 1 week after the other, with the reasoning “oh, I’ll just take it easy”. In 2007 and 2008, I was doing 3 marathons a year, interspersed with triathlons and whatever-lons.
Now, 1 marathon in July 2009 was enough to make me say no to another marathon for the next 1 year. An invitation for a weekend long ride? I don’t think so; I’ll need my legs to tackle the slopes at Macritchie and survive the hard intervals. Take part in North Face 100km? Well, I doubt I would have a satisfactory answer to Coach’s perennial question- “What’s your purpose for taking part??”
At this point, in between writing this entry and trying to look busy by refreshing my office inbox, I came across numerous emails from fellow Mileage runners discussing about a training just passed. Then in between doing actual work and entertaining myself with Facebook, I came across a few threads that were exclaiming/proclaiming/complaining on the toughness of a particular training session. This Mileage’s phenomena of pre and post training discussions certainly got me thinking about my mentality towards trainings and how it has evolved over the past 1 year. Earlier on, come Wednesday or when the interval training menu is out (whichever earlier), I would be feeling pretty stressed- I’d drown myself with water in a last minute bid to hydrate proper and I even once searched Youtube on Kara Goucher’s racing clips just to motivate myself. (Actually, I still search for her clips now because I find her very pretty). I would be particularly stressed if I did not have a good training the week before or when my condition on that day was not good. However, gradually I learnt that there was really no point fretting and feeling demoralised over a training unaccomplished. More importantly, I’ll have to find out the reason why I failed to perform and try to tackle it (oh my, do I sound like Coach or what). Now my mantra is- Run wholeheartedly, Push yourself, and Give it your best. If I still don’t get a good training done, well, there’s always next week.
It has been a fruitful running year indeed for 2009. The recently concluded Angkor Wat Half Marathon was a very pleasant achievement. When I filled up the Participant Information Form back in Aug 2008, under the running goals section, I blindly put 21km-1hr 45mins. I had no idea then that a 1:45 21km translates to a 5mins/km pace, 12km/hour. Why a pleasant achievement? Because when I first started running, I never went beyond 12km/hour on the treadmill and I could only run at this pace for 4km, max 5km. Any duration longer than 25mins was considered long run for me. Any pace above 12km/hour was quite unfathomable.
Achievements and a stronger mentality (or so I hope!) towards trainings/races aside, there are many other blessings that I’ve experienced in 09 with Mileage. One of them is keeping those calories in check as so aptly put across by Jan who renamed Mileage as Kien Mau Slimming Centre. And of course, the friendships that are blossoming with every sweat dripped together, every meal feasted together, and every other gathering relished together.
Train hard everyone! Let’s embrace 2010 and look forward to another brilliant running year together.
