MK Climbathon Prelims Preparations

The air tickets are booked...our team of 10 Climbathoners and a few officials will make our way to Mt. Kinabalu for a trials and recce mission from July 20-23. I am looking forward to get a feel of the cold, thin air, and rough terrain. Wonder if I will be able to sleep halfway in a hut up the mountains?

Tuesday 27/6: Scheduled for a time trial of 12 laps around the 1.2km Labrador slopes. DO and I did a 4km slow jog from ClubHouse at 5.45pm to warm up and we arrived at Labrador park by 6.15pm. Colleen joined us for this evening to get a flavour of the flavour of MK training. Carmen and Wilna arrivedly promptly at 6.30pm to start us off. I put on my new Mizuno WR9 and fuel belt for this pretty 'mental' run . The loop starts upslope from the tunnels area, to the top where Olive cafe is, then down the carpark, along the length of the football field, and back to the start of the tunnels again for 1.2km. The first 5loops were pretty ok, with me averaging slightly less than 8min per loop. The weather was humid, and the lack of forefoot cushioning in the WR9 were making me work very hard. I felt tired and hungry by the 7th loop. I almost finished the water in my 2 fuel belt bottles, and had to top up at the toilets. DO and Timonthy had already ran ahead, and I was mostly running near to Yulan. I felt pretty tired, really weighed down by the new shoes. I met SAFRA cm, Ong, Jaime, Bug and fellow runners doing their weekly training run at the Labrador area, and we exchanged greetings. I was quite tired then, and was trying to focus on how many loops to go...sweat... By the 9th loop, I decided to power-walk up the steepest stretch of slope of about 50m to catch my breath, before chionging up again to the top...that helped me recover a bit, and gave my tired legs some reprieve. Completed the 12 loops in 1hr39min....felt really drained...took a bottle of Gatorade....and walked back to ClubHouse with DO....very hard workout, but satisfying :)
Warmup: Distance Ran: 4km___Time: 25min___Pace: 6:15min/km
Time Trial: Distance Ran: 14.4km___Time: 1hr39min___Pace: 6:45min/km


Thursday 28/6: No specific plans for this evening's MK training. Visited the NB Tech Centre earlier, and bought a pair of running thights...good value...will try it for the next run. Then ran 3km from MF ClubHouse to meet the MK team at Labrador Park. There weren't manhy that turned up, so DO and I decided to do our own training run of about 13km. We initially ran out from Labrador Park to Queenstown Stadium, hoping to catch the SAFRA MF Runners for their scheduled track intervals. This evening, we had cfred, a SgRunner who joined the SAFRA Runners for his maiden run, and we wanted to go there and show him some support. Ran about another 4km or so and when we neared Queenstown Stadium, there was a soccer match happening, and we had to be turned away from the gates :(.

DO and I then decided to do a tempo run into Canterbury Estates, and then back to ClubHouse. I started my time, and off we went. We ran at quite a hard pace, and covered the Canterbury Estates in about 34min. My new Adizero SN Yellow (yes, wearing for first time to break-in) behaved well, and really made a big difference to my pace. Though the weather was warm and humid, I ran through the course with relative ease, and felt that I worked hard enough. We finished the approximate 2.5km depot road stretch in equally good pace..hmm, maybe 5min/km and reached ClubHouse in time to meet up with the rest of the SAFRA MF Runners. cfred was there and we had a good chat. Wai Fung went into my BLOG, and found news of the 2nd WHR run...so she is joining in for this cause-worthy run in July.
Distance Ran: 15km___Time: 1hr20min___Pace: 5:20min/km


Friday 29/6: Did a slow recovery jog around my backyard with her...nothing too taxing, ahead of the MR25 25km Progressive Run this Sunday morning. Put on my Cumulus which is 880km in mileage already and due for retirement..hehe..just wanted to have a bit more forefoot cushion, reluctant to put on my WR9 or 754. The forefoot cushion of the Cumulus is good, and it will be good if that was entended all the way thru the mid-foot to the heel. The Adizero still is my favourite in this area. Covered the 10km with some short burts of runs in betwwen walk breaks of waiting for Beverly to catch up...she hasn;t run for 2 weeks, so was a bit short of stamina...she has slim down further :)).
Distance Ran: 10km_____Time: 1hr_____Pace: 6min/km