Denouement

I combined a long run with a 5k.  Not the best quality long run because of that.  Ran 8.35k for a warm up, then stood around and stretched, did two strides then did the race.  Bowen Road is a road that is about one car plus 4 feet wide, it is quite narrow, and there are other joggers on the road as we did this race, so it was quite crowded and at the start people jumped out and there was real danger of tripping.  I elbowed and got elbowed but noone went down (that I saw).  A girl took off fast, and I stayed in touch with her.  I ran around a guy in my ward Gary (who happens to be Smooth's bro-in law) for the first k or so.  I wanted a sub 6:00 pace run (or 3:45).  The first 1k was 3:42 and felt painful, but it was hard to get into the superpainful 5k zone.  I think I hovered just shy of it.  I caught the girl who went out too fast by 1 or 1.5k then tried to reel in a boy ahead of me named Reiny.  He slowed but still finished 4 seconds ahead of me.  I didn't slow, ran 3:42-3:43 pace the whole way.  My watch said 18:31 but the official time was 18:33.  I was happy with that time, though I should have caught that boy!  There were other Italia runners in the race and Curtis marshalling the course, but it took some work getting any of them to do a cool down.  Finally ran a couple of k with Curtis then ran up and down the mountain to Repulse Bay.  Met my family.  Paul and Ben were there for a boy scout boating activity, so JJ, Mickie and I chilled at the beach.  I got a nice sunburn.  

Ran 10.5 miles in 80 min, then 6 x strides

Cross training in the afternoon and core. 

AM: 3:9 mile easy run

PM: Had a 5k track race, and I thought I forgot my watch (but it was actually in my bag, sorry Roberto, guess I didn't need to borrow you watch :/).  Warmed up nice and long, part with Roberto, who was running the 10k, and part by myself.  About 5.5k warm up with strides and a ton of stretching while I watched Roberto's 10k.  In the 5k I lead the whole way, but Alison was racing and right behind me for most of it.  With 5 laps to go Roberto tells me she is 20m back and to slow down and work with her.  I ignore that hoakie advice (I calculated what 20m back means and that is 4-5 seconds), and try to pick up the pace, I know I am just under 18:45 pace (I wanted at 18:20).  She would have needed to make a move right around then and didn't so she never caught up and I managed a decent last lap and got 18:30.  Not a great time, but a good workout.  

Cooled down about 3k with Alison 

AM: ran 4 miles.  Felt so tired so cut the morning run short.

PM: hit the TM and gradually increased pace to 8.5 or 8.6, 6.04 miles in 45 minutes 

Core workout also in the evening, and a run with the kiddies (who I am trying to train up for a 3k they are signed up for but this mileage is not in my totals) 

Met Alison for a workout.  We did a 20 min tempo inside a 62 min run. We did the warm up and cool down on the trail, but did the tempo on the track, and we switched the lead on the laps which was very helpful.  The goal for each lap was 92 sec, and I led the fist lap in a pathetic 96, but I guess that makes for a good transition into the tempo :)  We stuck on pace for the rest of it and the intensity made me want to quit, but not quiting is the first step, right?  Came into the 5k at 19:20, 20:04 for 13 laps.

Met Roberto early.  He had already done 6k.  We were chatting it up and at about 15k I tripped and fell pretty good, knocking my GPS watch off and scraping my back and shoulder.  Roberto had the good sense to not let me jump right back into running.  We rested a minute but I felt ok so we continued on.  23.8k total in 4:38 ave pace, pretty good pace for the weather.  Not too hot, 25-28C, 95% humidity though.  

I didn't realize how sore I was from the fall until the ride back, and saw I actually has some quartersized sores on my shoulder and back.  I need a massage!  Or some medicine. 

14.74k run, then 8 x 20 sec strides, core workout in the PM

AM:  Felt good on my morning run for a change-- 8.18k in 4:48 ave pace, not bad considering I went to Kowloon Tsai park, so it was a hilly run.  

PM:  Warmed up 4.74k in 5:00/k pace.  Plan for workout was 10 x 1k on the track, I thought it would be at 3:45 since Ali is training for the half marathon, but no, he wanted us to do 84 per lap for me, and 85 per lap for Ali (so 3:30, and 3:33), and taking off at 5:00 intervals, so just 90 sec rest, but a long rest after 5, so two sets of 5.  It felt very hot, but the weather website says only 29C, 80% humidity.  

1 - 3:30, Ali just one sec behind

2 - 3:30, already feeling hard

3 - 3:33, feeling like I need to go potty

4 - 3:31, went to the bathroom after this one so our rest was 2:08

5 - 3:35, rest about 5 minutes

6 - 3:29, the long rest helped

7 - 3:31, feeling the pain just 200m in, but held on

8 -  3:33, feeling the pain 100m in, coach says just to keep the effort up, Ali gets ahead of me in the middle but I outkick her

9 - 3:35, second to last one! The fatigue seems more aerobic rather than legs, like I need to lose some weight (I do)

10 - 3:36, coach challenges us to hit our target paces, but I am not feeling the love.  Ali actually passed me at 200m strongly and beats me, something she rarely has the nerve to do, I am proud of her.  I am proud of me for finishing the workout.  It is a good step forward in my workouts.  I can't wait until the weather gets more cooperative!

Long cool down about 6.5k 

10.11k easy (5:01 pace), I made the mistake of running in the sunshine.  It is punishing.  Then 6 x 20 sec on/ 1 min rest strides.  

Started tracking my calories today.

Did 40 min on elliptical in the afternoon and core workout and stretching at night.  Getting serious again period and or question mark 

Nasty workout planned for today.  Fartlek  in minutes with half rests 11, 9.7.5.3.1.3.5.7.9.11, so 71 minutes hard, lots of minutes easy.  This is basically a workout for Ali, who is targeting the World 1/2 Marathon Championships in 3 weeks.  She felt rather trashed today from Tuesday's workout still (only 34 hours since we did it).  I thought we should be targeting 3:50 pace, but she didn't seem chipper and the whole point of the workout is to progressively suffer, which I knew we would given the sun rising, so I went the pace she was going for the first couple.  Warmed up just over 3k then did 11 minutes in 3:57 pace, then 9 minutes in 3:59 pace.  By the end of the 9 min she was about 3-5 seconds back and it was clear that she was not going to be able to hang on well.  Did 3:57 pace on the 7 min, still hoping to pull her along, then 3:56 for the 5 min, then 3:50 for the 3 min, then 3:38 pace for the 1 min, then I gave myself a full minute of rest (instead of 30 seconds, then did 3:52 pace for 3 min, then gave myself 2:30 rest (giving myself half time of the longer rep ahead of me).  It was getting hot and I was unsure of my ability to finish the workout.  This is especially because Ali had dropped off, and the whole point was to help her, so mentally I was weak (what am I doing this workout for? this bad psychology bites me later on--read on). 3:54 pace for the 5 min, then 3:59 pace for the 7 min -- starting to suffer here.  I started into the 9 minute and was on pace after 3 minutes, but when I looked at my watch and saw that 3 minutes had passed and there were 6 to go, I just pretty much lost it.  My legs unwound, and I asked myself why push on, and I didn't have the toughness to say TO BE TOUGH DMN IT!  So that was 3:16 minutes at 3:52 pace (see I was doing fine).Anyway, I was very tired by then and had a long rest to the next water fountain (almost 11 minutes).  Meanwhile I thought about the meaning of life, whether it did or did not revolve around distance running, and calculated that I had done 54 minutes of hard running.  So I decided to get a drink then do one last 6 minute push to get to 60 minutes.  I did the 6 min push in 3:59 ave pace.  Then slow 2k jog to the MTR.  26.5k total.  Very long workout for midweek for me.  Total of 15.4k hard in 60:30, 3:55.8/k ave.  

PM: 5 miles on the tm easy (ave 7:56/mi), inverse sit ups, two pull ups.  I haven't done pull ups in months!  It strained some muscles I have been neglecting :D 

Ran easy around the Kowloon Tsai park.  Was going super slow till I got caught by Zachary, a local runner here, and we ran together and chatted and that helped me get into a decent pace.  Overall pace was 4:58.

Core workout in the PM. 

Slept in until 7:30am, then got myself and the family up and prepared to go to the beach for a church social.  Ben and Paul were able to wakeboard with the scouts, and Ben earned his watersports merit badge by going out and back into the boat's wake three times.  Awesome.  After beaching for 2.5 hours I went to Lily Lew's to chill for a couple of hours until my afternoon race.  I ran the course to check out the monster hill, and this hill was no joke.  It is the steepest hill I have ever raced on, and it is about a 1k long.  So the race is flatish for about a k, then steep uphill for about a k, then loop for a k, then steep downhill, then flat.  So my watch band has been screwy and broke in my backpack, so I couldn't wear it for the race, which was a good thing, because who wants a watch's feedback "You're going super slow up this hill!  Might as well walk it!".  

I wanted to keep in touch with Reiny, who beat me by four seconds in the last 5k.  The race started out fast, and I was about 10 sec behind Reiny's pack of boys at the start of the hill.  He tucked into the back of this pack of about 7, then there were two kids and an adult between me and that pack.  I told myself to watch the back of the people ahead of me the whole time I go up the hill, and catch the pack by the top.  So I got one kid by half way, then got another kid and the adult, then picked off about half of the pack as it broke up.  Reiny was on fire though and raced the hill just right.  Started the hill at the back of the pack and beat them all.  I passed another adult on the flat k, then was in no man's land (an adult about 15 seconds ahead, not feeling pressure from behind) for the rest of the race.  The first half of the downhill k I booked it, my legs were going so fast and I thought, "This must be what Alta Peruvian is like."  I was trying to make progress on the dude ahead but he was using the hill too.  I tried to keep the momentum as the hill decreased and transition to the flat well, but I am sure I would have done better if there were people around me.  As I passed where I thought I was 300m from the end, I saw that it was 19:07ish on my stopwatch, so I pushed it in to get under 20.  My watch said 19:41, and the official results are not up yet.  I will update this race report when the official results are up to show how I faired compared to others who also did this 5k and the 5k before. 

4k warm up and 6k cool down 

So I went 68 seconds slower than the race last week, and the average for other top runners who were men twas about 45 seconds slower, so I didn't fare so well in that comparison. 

Ran 85 minutes at a pretty good pace, 4:32/k ave for 18.79k.  So that is 11.68 miles at about 7:19 pace.  Then 6 strides.  

Four mile easy run in the afternoon

Core workout at night. 

I met Ali and Roberto at 5:45am.  We did just over 3k warm up then 4 x 4/3/2/1 fartlek with half rests.  We were supposed to go HM pace (3:50), but ended up a tad faster than that.  Paces for the fartlek are as follows (are you so proud?  this is my first inserted table):

 The 4 minutes after the first one were a bit daunting just because there is only 30 seconds rest after the 1 min bit, so we didn't take the 1 min bits too fast.

PM: ran 4 miles on the TM at 8:00/mile pace.  This easy pace enabled me to read an academic article, ok just a piece of one.  It is a good way to absorb an article, because you can't read too fast, and this isn't light reading, then I stare into space and think about what it means.  Came home and wrote up some notes :D  I have to prepare a research proposal for some of the programs' applications.

Later at night, I ran 2k with JJ.  I am not counting in my mileage but am noting it since it's nice crosstraining (about 7:30 ave pace/k). I was proud of him because he is improving.  He did one 8 min + segment then two 3.5 min segments.  The last 3.5 min segment was uphill and I tricked him by being very interested in his retelling of a book he had read, he got so wrapped up in telling the story he didn't realize that he had run so long uphill (his max time before going up this hill was 2 minutes).  I am so sneaky!  

Ran to Kowloon Tsai Park.  Right in the middle of a 7 mile run did 6 x 100m on the track, doing some drills and stretching there as well.

AM:  8.02k easy, 4:59 ave pace, felt rickety

Massage.  My left leg is jacked up.  Adductor, pre-PF as well.  This is what happens when you do serious mileage :/ 

You know, I added all music owned by Paul and I onto my mp3 player.  The only problem is we own more than 8gb of music.  So I uploaded all of A-M.  Then started deleting lame or inappropriate songs.  Like all the primary songs (sorry), the piano-foresty type music, a lot of Godsmack and Neil Diamond every time he comes up.  However, there is a cheesy song I have actually quite enjoyed the couple of times it has come up.  It is "I'm Ready to Take a Chance Again"  by Barry Manilow.  I have to say, not only does it remind me of Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase in Foul Play, but it also describes my feelings toward running again!  And so this song runs through my head a bit right now. . . Confessional over!

PM:  Met Ali at HKSI.  6.2k warm up.  Then 16 x 400m, 200m rest between.  Coach had 85 sec as the slowest we could do on the splits on his split sheet but I didn't know that until after the workout.  I told Ali I thought 85 was too slow for us, that 83-84 would be more appropriate.  She said 85 was what she would go for and I could go faster if I like.  Ok.  So, we start off a bit fast, and she sits a second behind me for the first couple, but after that we get comfortable with a pattern of me pushing the first 200m, leading by about 1 sec, then she pushes the second half and we finish even.  Until the last 4 and I decide that 80 is a mental barrier that should go down.  Below are the splits now that I know how to put a table in my blog watch out world!

	Lap	Rest
1	80	1:39
2	84	1:27
3	81	1:36
4	82	1:32
5	84	1:23
6	82	1:26
7	82	1:35
8	82	1:27
9	81	1:28
10	81	1:29
11	81	1:27
12	82	1:28
13	79	1:30
14	78	1:36
15	77	1:48
16	75

 Cool down: 6.2k 

Easy run, 4:58 ave/k

5 easy on the tm.  My right foot was bugging me a bit but stretched and it felt better.

This is the first 10k Paul has done in Hong Kong.  We had the boys come to watch.  The race was quite a festive atmosphere.  A soda drinking party area, cotton candy, kettle corn, a marching band, a rock band.  Unfortunately it was hot and humid.  28-29C and 85% humidity.

I did a 5k warm up, did a couple of strides and some stretching.  Ali Chow was going to  race, but she wasn't feeling well and she decided to not race.  I didn't see Yiu Kit Ching until 10 minutes before the race, but the only HKer who could beat me was indeed running the race.  Curtis didn't want to race so decided he would pace me.  I wanted 38:00, which was probably pretty agressive for the weather in retrospect.  That is 3:48/k pace.  Here are my splits: 

k	Pace/split	Comments
1	3:41	A small up then downhill, went out a bit fast, in the lead
2	3:44	Slowed down a bit to try to be controlled
3	3:47	Still feeling decent, still in the lead
4	3:49	Curtis decided to bail at the beginning of this k, Kit Ching passed me right before the 4k mark, and she looks strong and I am feeling cooked already
5	3:59	I dropped my gu in the beginning of this k, and am falling back from Yiu Kit Ching, please 10k angel help me!
6	4:00	The rest of this race is basically me trying to keep a decent pace, trying half heartedly to keep Yiu Kit Ching in striking distance unsuccessfully
7	4:01	I tell myself if I can do a 3:50 for this k I might be able to reel YKC in, but I couldn't keep it up!  When we are in the sun it is so sapping
8
9	8:05 for the last 2k	the 9th k is net up
10	1:50 for the first 500m, then 1:46 for the last 500m (3:37 total)	the 10th k is net down but has a down then up, then on the track

 Yiu Kit Ching beat me by 30 seconds.   The conditions were tougher than I expected.  I have let Yiu Kit Ching go out in front of me and then fail to reel her in, and I have now gone out too fast and had her reel me in.  I guess it works both ways (for her--ha!).  I did win $2000hkd in sports store gift certificates, and it was a good workout.  I look forward to winter!

AM: 90 min medium long run, 4:41/k ave pace.  Surprised I was able to go that fast.

PM: it started to rain at 12:30 in the middle of the day, and I was supposed to do a second run so I changed my clothes and ran in the rain. 8.18k at 4:47/k ave

Also a run with the kids in the evening during a downpour!  It was our FHE activity, and we played some basketball.  They are becoming stronger runners.

Also core workout.  Wow, that's enough for one day!  Also I quit sugar until Halloween effective today. 

AM: ran 4 miles on the TM

PT for my back midday

PM: workout with Ali at HKSI.  She has some pain in her leg and was not sure she could do a workout, so we did 800m at a reasonable pace.  Goal was 6-8 800s at 86/lap pace, and launching off every 5 minutes. 4.73k warm up.

1	2:51 (87, 84)	2:09 rest
2	2:51	2:09
3	2:50	2:20
4	2:50	2:13
5	2:50	2:25
6	2:47	2:16
7	2:46	2:17
8	2:41

 9.25 k long cool down  

Ran 11k easy, then did 8 x 20 sec strides with 1 min jog rest between.

Core workout in the PM 

Met Ali in the morning.  She is a bit injured, so we changed our workout from 20 min easy - 20 min tempo - 20 min easy run to a 2 x 20 min tempo on the track (7 min rest between) because she and her therapist thinks the leg feels better when running faster?  So I did my 20 min warm up still, then met Ali at the track.  She thought 92-95/lap was the target, I thought 92 should be the target, so I led but couldn't quite do the 92 minutes--I was still waking up!  I took my splits mostly on the 800m:  3:09, 3:06, 3:05, 6:09 for 4 laps, 3:02, 1:29 for the 13th lap. 20:02 for 13 laps. Then my rest was 7:18 (she must have been about 18 seconds behind) then I decided just to stick with Ali since I was only supposed to do a 20 min tempo and it would be more helpful to her.  So I told her that she was going to lead.  She said she was going fo 95/96 per lap and that is exactly what she did.  800m splits were: 3:11, 3:10, 3:10, 3:11, 3:10, 3:11, then a 1:38 last lap, not sure why the last lap was slower. 20:32 for 13 laps this time.  This felt like marathon pace at first, but got a little harder the last mile, so I am sure it is a bit faster than my current marathon pace.

PM: 5 mile easy run on the TM, a bit faster than 8 min/mile pace 

Ran to Kowloon Tsai slowly.  After 6.7k did 6 x 100m strides on the track and some exercises and stretches, then ran home.

Almost 26k in 4:40 ave pace.  My coach said to go long, and not hard, to slog it even, but I met Curtis at Sunny Bay, and there is only so much I can slog it when running with a faster guy.