Denouement

Very hard workout today.  Initially I was told that the workout would be 12 x 800m on the 4 min, between 5k and 10k pace.  We met at the track and went out for a 5k warm up.  At the workout it was Alison, three or so of her pacers, Roberto, and I.  It was 28C (82F)/85% humidity at the start and 29C (84F)/80% humidity by the end.  Oppressively hot & humid, with an 18-21 km/h wind.  I was really nervous for this workout after Ali told me that Coach had told her yesterday that the pace would be 2:40.  Crazy!  So when he said 2:50 when briefing us I felt much better.  He also said we would go on the 4 min for 4, then 4:30 for the next four, then on the 5 min for the next four, due to the humidity and heat.  So our rest increased slightly over time.  After only two reps I already felt yucky and like this would not be such a great workout.  My splits for the first reps were:  2:50, 2:50, 2:49, 2:50, 2:54.  I felt so gross and done after #5, so Coach allowed me to sit out everyone else’s number 6.  I took a gu (I had also been sipping a sports drink between most reps because of the profuse sweating).  I jumped in again and my #6 felt much better 2:49.  On #7 I felt fine starting, the rest seemed ok, but after 150m I felt a side cramp come on which only got worse through this rep and I hobbled in at 3:03.  It was bad.  Roberto hung back with me and advised me to stop, but I think he thought I had a leg cramp.  I took the next one off, and got more rest, and the cramp went mostly away.  There were now only 3 more reps for everyone and if I could do them then I would have 10.  I did them and survived them ok: 2:49, 2:49, 2:43 (Coach told us to do a 2:45 on the last one). 

So while this was less than a stellar workout, I am happy that I stuck in there and did what I could for the day and the conditions.  Alison kicked butt on the workout, and this is her last hard one before a marathon in 12 days.   

13.05k in 4:53 ave pace.  First 2k was tough because my cramp under my right lower rib from yesterday came back.  Thankfully it went away.

I met Ali at HKSI at night.  We warmed up 10k then did 5 x 3:30 on/ 1:30 off fartlek, and fast parts were at MP.  Temps were 30 at the start and rose to 31 by the end.  Thankfully as we entered the hard part it started to sprinkle, then rain, by #4 and 5 it was raining hard.  Paces were 3:50, 3:50, 3:49, 3:54, 3:52.  Then a nice cool down.  

13.08 in 4:50 ave pace.  Behind in my posting!

Ran with Roberto 21.33k @ 4:39 ave pace. 

14.12k at 4:44/k pace. Core workout.

So today I met with Alison.  She had a marathon on Sunday so was tapering and just doing 2k, lap rest, then 1k.  I thought Coach Paul would be at the track, but he wasn't so I didn't know exactly what to do, but I just did Alison's workout twice.  I did 7:15, 3:29, 7:17, 3:28.  It was pretty hot and miserable.  I went off pacing she told me (88 on 2k, 84 on 1k). 

On the TM, 8.08 in 60 minutes--without a bathroom break!

I still don't have a workout schedule, so I decided to brave the heat and do 2 min on/1 min off x 12.  It was not hard pace wise, just the sun was so brutal.  I ran on the Ma On Shan side to get as much shade as I could.  The hard stuff was probably about a 1/3 shaded?  Anyway, I did ok for the first four (paces were 3:25, 3:38, 3:38, 3:35) and got water after #4, but on the fifth I had to go up this hill (past the cool drinking fountain) and I just quit in the middle of that interval. I jogged to the top of the hill and started #6 at the top of it to try to help me regroup. 3:41 pace for this one, not stellar but back in the game,  after a minute’s rest, did #6 in 3:44 pace, then took 1.5 min rest after fast bits from here on, then #7 in 3:46 pace, #8 in 3:46, took one off, then decided to try again: #9 in 3:45, then #10 in 3:52 (seemed like a better effort than that).  So I scraped together 10.5 intervals.  Seriously, this was so hard.  And it is rather demoralizing.  I don’t know how I will get through five months of this with my fitness intact L  This is worse than Utah winters.  You can bundle up in the winter, use two hand warmers per hand (I did this often), but you can’t take off enough clothes to overcome the humidity. 20k total, near delirious by the finish.

Day before a low key team race. 4:49/k pace

I had a really cool group race today.  It didn't start until 4pm which was a bit weird, but here in HK the standard work week is 5.5 days, so people get Sat afternoon and Sunday off. It was far from home, and we were going to pick up a taxi from a metro station, but there were no taxis coming to our taxi stand forever, so we went to the streets and grabbed one.  I arrived probably 20 minutes before the race started.

Thankfully it was not too hot, perhaps 27F, quite humid (sprinkly at times). 

This group race is that you have six team members, and the first one goes at the gun, the 2nd one goes a minute later, the 3rd one goes a minute later, the 4th one goes 30 seconds, later, the 5th one goes 30 seconds later, and the 6th one goes 30 seconds later.  Two runners need to be 40 years old +, and the men run 8k while the women run 7k.  The last runner to finish their race is the team time.  So there are intense calculations that go into where to place what athlete.  I was in the last position.  No pressure!  The course was super hilly, not my forte.  My job was to try to catch our second place runner, who was our only other woman, and to help her run strong to the end and try to not let our men catch us.  Thankfully the course is mostly uphill out then mostly downhill back.  My teammate Curtis advised me to not burn myself out going uphill, so I took that advice and ran the first half hard but not at 10k pace.  There were so many runners ahead (the whole field except my wave, the fastest wave), so it was fun to pick people off, but I had a lot of weaving I had to do. I lapped at the turnaround (3.55k at 14:38, 4:07/k pace).  At the turn around I could see there were still three ladies ahead of me, including my teammate.  She's about a 40 min 10ker, so no slacker.  She was in second at the turn around, but was in first by the time I caught her.  I helped push her, but it really wasn't a race effort at that point. So the whole race was pretty much a tempo, which is about as good as it gets in this humid, hot weather.  Second half split was 13:15 (3:48/k pace).  The men never caught us, and only one person who was not in our Team Italia beat our last man in, so it was a good showing for our team.  A nice low pressure race (except being in the last wave was some pressure).  A 7k race PR! (ok I have never raced a 7k before).

About 13k, watch died in the middle.  Did a hilly run from my house up to the hills around Diamond Hill and back.  Slow and hilly.

My training schedule is still a work in process--I am sure it will be a masterpiece.  So I chose to do 20 x 1 min on/off, and it turns out maybe I should have forced myself into something harder.  It was 29C, 80% ish humidity, but it felt way nicer than last Thursday, because it was partly overcast, and it sprinkled on reps 13-15 and during part of the cool down.  It was merciful.  If every hard day was like today I think I could survive summer just fine.  I averaged 3:28 for the fast parts, 5.73k of fast stuff.  I didn't need extra rest time between and I didn't fade either, so all in all it was successful.  I did feel a bit delirious toward the end, perhaps I should have bought a sports drink.  

Spent way too much time on my feet today in sandals doing errands, but I am proud of all I accomplished :D

Ran 16.1k at 4:39ave pace.  I picked it up significantly when it changed from light sprinkle to hard rain.  It was so nice, though I was quite water logged.  I realized at the end of the run that one hand had turned prunish from excess moisture.  Weird.

Core workout in pm. 

AM: 5.81k at 5:11/k pace

PM:  6k warm up, then was going for 4 x 2000m @ 10k pace.  Normal heat/humidity.  First 2k was 7:20, one lap rest (3:15), 2nd 2k was 7:18 (5:11 rest, not sure why longer), one the third rep I started to slow on the second lap, and when I came in at 3:04 at the 800m I stopped, that would not have been worth continuing.  So I decide to try to do 3 more 1k reps.  The heat was getting to me.  (3:47 rest).

1k - 3:41, I was doing just fine then that nasty right side cramp came with a vengeance in the last lap, that last lap was me crying through it. So I took a long rest (6:19) to try to get rid of it. 

1k - 3:42, The cramp came with 500m to go (earlier than last rep) but not so forcefully and I tried to work through it, breathing, relaxing, perhaps this will be my track workout norm in the heat and I need to deal with it (5:23 rest)

1k - 3:35, The cramp came with 600m to go but I tried to stay relaxed and ignore it and post at least one good 1k and that was it.

So this was rather a pathetic track workout overall, but I didn't give up and it is worth the battle, right?  

Rained hard!  It was raining so hard I had a hard time staying outside and I bagged the run early.  

4:31/k pace

Took the GMAT this day, so just ran a quick 4.8k

Ran later in the day. 12k?

4:41/k pace

Hello!  Yes I have still been running, it's just been a struggle to blog.  I will catch up!

Ran 6.08k in the morning nice and easy.

In the evening did about 27.5k (17.1 mile) run, last 5k fast (3:52/k pace).  No sun and ok temperature with some wind made it feel not bad when running easy, though when I started running hard the heat did get to me a bit.  It was 27C at the beginning dropping to 26C by the end, 80% humidity at the beginning, 85% at the end.  This is my longest run since my race, and my knees and one hip could feel it.  It felt like extra weight to be honest, a lot like when I was training for my first marathon (started at 150# but was down to 133# by the end of the training cycle).  Paul and I have started fat camp again.  When he is motivated to eat right it really helps me.  We are both tracking our eating on the new Super Tracker developed by the US government, which is much slicker than their prior rendition, mypyramidtracker.  I like it alot, it shows what you have eaten graphically multiple ways as you in put your eating on the same screen.  I want to lose some post-Italy weight so I can race well for the two races I plan on doing in Utah in July/Aug.

Accidentally went out the door without my watch so I was free to go as slow as I wanted.  Due to my longer run last night I had a hard time sleeping, so I was so tired this morning, tired from getting only 5 hours of sleep, and body tired from the evening workout.  So it was a good day to be watchless, though I think it made the first k seem to drag.  I started my run with Paul, and looped back a couple of times for him to make sure he didn't get lost.  Ended up with about 13.8k.  Will do core workout today--after a hairy nap.

A very dehydrated 129.8, but glad to be under 130 under any condition.  Perhaps next week I will be legitimately sub 130. 

No running.  Hiked just over 16k on Lantau Island, from Mui Wo up and back to Mui Wo with some friends.  It was great weather--rained part of the time. We jumped in a pond below a waterfall and a tiny fish nipped at my feet.  

13.07k at 5:26/k pace.  it's been too long, I don't know why it is slow, it has been too long.

12.25k at 4:50/k

AM:  Easy 30 min on the TM, then stretching (3.85 miles)

PM: HKAAA 10,000m at 27F and 85% humidity, the name of this race should be Death March, or Battle of Mediocrity.  My January time was 37:36, which was my first track 10k in 14 years, so I was hopeful I could best that, but this heat and humidity just zaps me so quickly, and has been zapping me for a month which is not good for my fitness either.  

Anyway, I hoped to go out at 89 and stay there. Alison Chow, HK's top marathoner (just did a 2:48) was here so I hoped she'd give me some pressure.  I did 89 for the first lap, then sat at 90 for the next few, then it went south from there.  I tracked my 2k splits:

2k: 7:32  Around the backside they were setting out a water station in lane 8 and they were not going to hand out the water, so I called to them to move it closer.  I didn't know if they would understand english, but they moved it to lane 4 after about 10 laps.  I would have died without the water.

4k: 7:41

6k: 7:52, got my first water in the 11th lap I think, and the water went straight up my nose which gave me the feeling of swimming at a public pool, which was not far off, at 85% humidity

8k: 7:58, with about 11 laps to go I see a girl ahead of me in red, and it was Alison, I was in position to lap her, though she was still half a lap away.  This motivated me, though you wouldn't know it from the splits

10k: 7:43 with 3.8 laps to go, I pass Ali, and thus have LAPPED HK's top marathoner.  So though my time was attrocious, I won the battle of mediocrity.  And at about 38:49, this is better than my Hung Ching 10k I did in late August when I first moved here.  I need to learn how to run better in the humidity.  I guess getting out there is a big key to improving.  

4:41/k pace