New running gear!

It's just less than 2 weeks to the Melbourne marathon..

I am happy to say that I have been training quite consistently during the past month. What I need really need to do for the next 12 days is to make sure I don't get injured or fall sick. It will be an absolute bummer if I do.

During the past 6-7 weeks of intensive running (well intensive for me), I have had a couple of mishaps with my running gear. I have mentioned the problem I have with the iPhone armband being annoying. The next thing that bugged me was my running shoes.

I have a pair of Nike Free which is Nike's answer to barefoot running - it's supposed to give me the feeling that I am running barefoot. With less cushioning and more flexibility in the shoe, I should get a better feel of the ground and that should encourage better running posture. That is all good except I bought them at size 8.5 which fitted just right. That would still be good if I only ran for 20 minutes. But when I am running for an hour, my feet expands, the shoes become much tighter, I lose blood circulation and my toes start feeling numb. If I keep that up, my toes will be dead when I finish the marathon.  

The other problem I faced which is kinda embarrassing is nipple chafing. Running makes me sweat, the sweat makes my cotton shirt or singlet wet and heavier, and abrasion happens between the shirt and my nipple. There are guys who actually run till their nipples bleed (I am not kidding) and there are photos to prove it: traumatising photos. Thank God I haven't gone to that extreme but it still caused a bit of pain and discomfort.

So last weekend I decided I need to get some running gear to fix these problems.

Thank God my better half had some connections and she got me into the Nike employee store where everything was heavily discounted. If Nike had their design and R&D department in Melbourne, I will definitely want to work for them! Anyway I went away with a pair of shoes, a dri-fit compression shirt and a running waist pouch. My wife insisted I should get the pouch so that I can carry my phone, keys and a snickers bar when I run the marathon.

The next day I took all these for a test run and I am pleased to say that they worked a charm. To some extent there could be some psychological effect as with all athletes who try on new equipment, but whatever the case, it worked for me!

Nike Pegasus+27

This is for my nipple chafing problem

The pouch which actually fitted snugly and didn't move much when I was running

Born to run

I finished reading this book recently. It is an awesome read. It talks about the author's (Christopher McDougall) quest to find out all about the secrets of running; how the best runners in the world (the Tarahumaras) run insane distances wearing DIY sandals; how most modern running shoes are actually causing more injuries than we think; what motivated different people to push their boundaries to run not just incredibly long distances, but to run steep uneven and treacherous terrains at high altitudes. There are the ultra runners who run because of the adrenaline and the competition and there are the hippies who run because they enjoy it, it builds camaraderie and they can drink themselves silly at the after race parties.

In the book, Chris McDougall also wrote about his discovery (from three maverick scientists) that man was possibly designed to run long distances. One design of the human body that allows us to run long distances, is the fact that we have millions of sweat glands that provides the best cooling system. Although the cheetah is the fastest animal on land, it can only puff out heat from its mouth (which isn't very efficient) and once its temperature hits 105 degrees it would stop running; whereas for humans, we can keep running as long as we keep sweating. Based on that and a few other traits, men were able to hunt down an antelope simply by chasing after it. It's called persistence hunting.

A persistence hunt usually includes a group of four to five hunters. Once the group spots an antelope, they start chasing it. They recognise the tracks of that particular antelope so that if it joins a herd, they can still identify which antelope they were chasing down and chase it out of the group. When the antelope goes into an acacia grove, one of the hunters will break from the group and drive it back into the sun. The objective is to chase the antelope till it goes into hyperthermia and collapse. A typical persistence hunt could last for three to five hours. That's roughly how long it takes to run a marathon!

The same scientists also published an article titled "Endurance running and the evolution of Homo" which further emphasised the point that the human body is designed for long distance running. But there's also the part about evolution.. and that part doesn't really convince me.

(link to article here: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/krigbaum/proseminar/Bramble_Leib_2004_nature.pdf)

I haven't read much about evolution but I do know that one of the main case for evolution is natural selection 'through which traits that aid survival and reproduction become more common, while traits that hinder survival and reproduction become more rare' ( found on wikipedia). Another commonly known term is 'survival of the fittest' - where the strong will succeed and the weak will fail and be weeded out.

But according to the scriptures, God is committed to caring for the weak and defenseless, including the poor, the alien, the fatherless and the widow (Psalm 145:7-9). I believe that when God created the world, He made everything good but when sin entered the picture, men became self-centered and that probably brought about the concept of 'survival of the fittest'. God then sent Jesus to show us what really mattered and once again in James 1:27, it was written: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. 

Pain vs God

During my last run, which was yesterday morning, I was reminded of something very fundamental in running and in life.

 This was what happened: Before setting off from home, I planned my route using the www.MapMyRun.com website. I started off at a slower pace to warm up, which can be between 6-12mins depending on the weather conditions (during winter it could take up to 20mins) and usually during my warm up periods I would feel my entire body 'telling me' not to run. For example, my arms will feel stiff and can't seem to swing in a natural way; my nose and my throat suddenly feels choked and I go into fits of coughs; my legs start to ache and my calves feel a bit tight. Anyway, all these would go away once I am warmed up and I will run fine. But this time, for some reason I felt some pain in my left heel even after 20mins and this was not normal. I tried to ignore it and hoped that it would go away but it was still there after 10mins. I got a bit worried thinking if I might have pushed myself too hard the past few days and gotten an injury. That would be the last thing I need - an injury. I prayed in my mind: God please make this pain go away. Within about 5-10mins, I realised that the pain was gone and I finished the rest of the run in a breeze! I would love to say that it was a miracle but there is a logical explanation to this. It was after the pain had went away, that I realised the pain in my heel was caused by me looking down during the first 35mins of my run instead of looking ahead where I was running. When I say I was looking down, it's more like I was looking 1m ahead of me; and because of the frequent pangs, I would take glances at my feet and try to rationalise how the pain came about. Obviously the looking and rationalising was not working well.

 Looking down gives poor form when running. My upper body would tend to be slouching when I look down, this causes my lungs to become compressed and I take in less oxygen; because I was not looking straight ahead, my feet position on the ground may have deviated from the straight line and possibly causing poor landing and therefore the pain; my shoulders become tensed and raised up which becomes less efficient, etc. There's probably more but these are a few I can think of.

 So looking ahead when running takes away all that. My body would be upright, shoulders relaxed and feet aligned. Looking straight ahead works for many other sports as well, including cycling and kayaking.

 Then I was reminded that in life, when we are faced with a problem or a 'pain', we can keep focusing on the 'pain' but thinking about it would never make it go away. In fact it could make matters worse. What we really need to do is to focus on Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith; He has come and showed us what it means to live; and as we focus on Him and His promises, the 'pain' will just fade away.

 Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So in the end, the final score - God: 1, Pain: 0.

Do I think I can run (or finish) the marathon?

My answer to that question is: Yes and No.

I don't think that I can run the entire 26.2 miles (or 42.16481 km) because after reading all the training tips on running the marathon and how to prepare for a marathon, I have come to the realisation that 6-7 weeks of training would not be sufficient to condition one's body to complete a marathon. The recommended regime for someone planning to run the marathon is to increase his/her weekly mileage by 10 percent over a period of 16 to 18 weeks. So if I have ran a total of 20kms last week, I should do 22kms this week and 24.2kms next week. However, what I have done over the past 2-3 weeks was I ran 20kms on the first week, 26kms on the following week and 37kms just last week. Many experts are saying that ramming up the mileage too much over a short period will set one up for stress fractures and many other potential injuries!

On the other hand, I still believe I can complete the marathon based on the following reasons:
1. I consider myself quite an active person; I do some form of exercise every week - either going for a run, weights training or kayaking. They may not be very intensive but they still get my heart rate up to 120-130 bpm. This gives me a fairly 'ok' base conditioning.
2. I have been through training as a competitive athlete at an earlier part of my life, although only at a national level but it has taught me the mechanics of training hard, recovery methods and eating right. So I have a fairly good concept of training.
3. Lastly I believe I have the mental determination to go through the marathon including the next 5 and a half weeks of running.

Saying that, I still must add that if I were to attempt another marathon next year, I would definitely start training 16-18 weeks before the event instead of 6-8 weeks! Yes, I have to admit that my decision to run the marathon this year is somewhat last minute and impulsive. which is why I would be reminding myself quite often the above 3 reasons for a bit of reassurance that I can do it and of course pray for God's grace upon my knees.

Fortunately there is one thing in life that we would not be penalised for being late or for making a last minute decision - that is coming to know Christ and acknowledging Him as our personal saviour.

Jesus spoke about the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-6. To summarise, a landowner hired workers to work in his vineyard for a day; the workers started at different times of the day - some early in the morning, some mid-morning, some mid-day, some in the afternoon and some started close to the end of the day; but all these workers were paid the same wage!

In essence, God is the landowner and He extends His grace to everyone who is willing to come to repentance while living on this earth. In fact He invites us to receive His grace just like the landowner who approached the people standing around the market place without work, invites them to work for him and promises to pay whatever is right.

It probably wouldn't sound logical but that is God's grace for you and all I can say is this: don't think, believe.