Saturday 24 November 2012

Back into it!


I can’t really remember much about my previous entry all I know is that plenty has happened since. Being very busy is probably one of the major things, minors things include a pretty full on Korean style tourist visit to China, being struck down with a bout of Gastroenteritis and yeah a half marathon!

Here in the Southern part of Korea winter has started to hit and the temperatures have really reduced. Bright, clear and sunny days are great but the wind can be icy at times. We really noticed this around 3 weeks ago. Not totally sure if this is entirely normal for this time of year as we’ve heard various reports and point of views. However, rain is rare making trails hard and fast.

No idea why I started talking about the weather, it’s such a load of nonsense and shouldn’t affect people the way it does. But obviously I am someone who feels he needs to share this information. Throughout my time of injury I did struggle to write about my on-goings without running, now I’m running and I’m talking about the weather?!

Running. Ok.

Everything tastes better, looks better and feels better with it! Sleeping is mad. Yesterday I feel asleep in the bank. The lovely security guard woke me up and I informed her that I was waiting for the teller to help me with a transfer. Here in Korea the banks, well my bank, are fricking brilliant. They close at 4pm. Not great. But, you get in there at 3.59pm, they’ll get you sorted, even if you’re there until 5pm, then give you some toothpaste and say sorry for keeping you waiting! Yeah, so falling asleep in random places is really maximising resting time for training. When waiting grab 5!

Sunday the 11th of November dawned with big ol’ fat rain! Large drops that quadruple in size once they slap into the concrete jungle of Busan. Busan was the location for my first race since the Christchurch Marathon, June. The week before I was sick and only managed a subtle 7km. However, weeks before, I’d managed to build a good routine, and was confident going into the race. Almost magically as we made our way to the start of the race the skies cleared and the rain ceased. I was very excited and very unsure how things would unfold. My plan was to keep on or around 3.30 min/km over 4 5km sections. I had completed some track sessions which gave me the confidence that this was achievable.

Korean races, well my experience is very limited so I shouldn’t generalise but I will, seem to be very well organised. Everything was sent to us well in advance, loads of things going on before and after the race and good support at aid stations.

From a personal point of view the race unfolded really well. The start was slightly chaotic as the usual heads raced off and went balls to the wall for the first km, classic moves! Once we settled into it was easy to pick who was up for it. I nestled in behind a group of 5 guys which diminished to 3 by the 3km mark, and then 2 by the 5km mark. Looking forward I could see first and second running well. The paced dipped for a km so I decided to push on at my desired speed, urging the guy to keep it on. Well, I used weird circular hand actions which could universally mean ‘let’s go, keep it on, we can catch them if we work together’, or ‘I’m using a whip’, or ‘my wrist is very tight and feels a little bit uncomfortable’. I’m assuming he had run his race as we dropped away leaving me to chase down 1st and 2nd. I continued to gain on them and felt stronger as the raced progressed. At a 12km turn around section I clocked them about 20 seconds on me. The runner in first then decided to burst and put around a 10 metre gap on second. I tried hard to push on each km and did move my way into second place. However, I didn’t have the speed to catch the first placed runner and finished in 2nd place with a time of 1.13.32.

Pretty stoked really!

What next? Well, racing done for the year but 2013 seems to be building with some great possibilities.

I’ll aim to be more frequent for the end of 2012.
Kepler next weekend, good luck to everyone who's running, racing or walking!

Enjoy the roads, trails or whatever surface you run or roll on!   












Tuesday 16 October 2012

Momentum

Being currently based in Korea I thought I’d share a little bit of food related information for you. As a runner, this is always very close to my heart, the more you train, the more you get to chow down!

The particular dish I’m going to mention here is the first I tried in Korea and is still my favourite. It’s called Bibimbap. This dish is based with rice, and served steaming in a hot bowl. Layered on top are stacks of local vegetables (mushroom, carrot, spring onion (lots of others too), seaweeds, an egg and a very small portion of meat. Although most Korean dishes have meat they only eat a very small amount (unless it’s a BBQ).

Anyway you mix it all together and eat. Simple and tasty every time. There are also a variety of options you can mix into your bowl and some places even let you select what you want, with restrictions. Great to smash down after a run, yes a run, which I’ve been doing a little bit more of lately!

This week has been awesome! Two great trail runs, finding more of the local area and beginning to get some bearings in the hills. The flats seem to be treating me well also with two double days, and waking to early morning sessions with a spring in my step. Now with this in mind I’ve started to look seriously at the possibility of some racing in the middle of November. More to follow soon.

Few Stats and food pictures to wet the appetite

Avg Distance:
12.12 km
Avg Time:
1:00:59 h:m:s
Count:
7 Activities
Distance:
84.83 km
Time:
7:06:51 h:m:s
Elevation Gain:
2,365 m
Avg HR:
139 bpm
Calories:
4,471 C
Max HR:
172 bpm
Avg Elevation Gain:
338 m
Max Time:
1:39:38 h:m:s

Bibimbap can be served hot or cold

Mix it up and chomp it down

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Another Week

Well another week ticks over very quickly, and I am happy to report some more mileage.
Some very important milestones ticked off again this week.
 
First trail run has to be the most significant one to brag about.  It was great to get into the trails above Okpo (photos below) as they have been teasing me since arrival in August. Without getting a chance to run up there I struggled to grasp how much of a network there is. So many small little trails linked into each other with what seems to be a good four wheel drive track threading its way through some of the lower valleys, although for how long I haven't been able to work out just yet.

 Now I’ve also managed to get hold of a Garmin USB (well, a generous birthday gift!) I will be able to study some of the upcoming runs I have planned. The aim from this will be to map the trail area out. It’s already mapped, I’m not an explorer of any kind, but there’s no map you can get to guide. Not that this is a worry, quite the opposite really. While up on the trails there are some maps but they have little detail and are in Korean, which I cannot read….yet (wonder how long this will last for?)
 
So here are some images from my Sunday run, with the trail-head a nice 3 minute run away from home.
 
Here be some S T A T S too!
 
Avg Distance:
10.16 km
Avg Time:
51:58 h:m:s
Count:
5 Activities
Distance:
50.81 km
Time:
4:19:49 h:m:s
Elevation Gain:
941 m
Avg HR:
140 bpm
Calories:
3,133 C
Max HR:
170 bpm
Avg Elevation Gain:
188 m
Max Time:
1:06:13 h:m:s

Run!











Could be plenty of places, Korea though





Friday 5 October 2012

September 2012

There comes a time and place for something to click. Sometimes it can be learning a language, a point where you just get it. No, I have not reached that stage with Korean, nor am I close. I’m talking about running again. Throughout September I ran every second day, with a couple of back to back days thrown in for good measure. I finished all of these sessions and despite a little hiccup while playing Ultimate Frisbee, I think I may be looking down that path towards, let’s say, ‘click Ville’!

So it’s with excited pleasure that I announce some September stats:

Total: 111km   Time: 11 hr 34min

Clocked!

It’s funny what the difference an amount of time can make. At the beginning of September I was hoping/praying that I could post something like this.  Now that I have, it builds an idea for something similar at the end of October.

Will have to wait and see, but smaller goals to achieve within the month before then!

I’ve added some running shots from Osaka, Japan. The hills surrounding the city would be a haven for runners, although I didn’t get the chance to head there I’m sure I will another time. I’m still on a diet of flat stuff. For now anyway!

Run hard
Outskirts of Osaka (runnin route down to the river)

Hankyu train....awesome!


Love the bike culture

River running route

River running route

River running route

River running route


Sapporo round...gota love the Japan brews....cheers Nods

Ok so some tourist shots here but it's hard with only one running route...this would be weekly feature

Osaka Castle

View over Osaka (concrete jungle) from Umeda Skybuilding

View from Osaka Castle

View of Kyoto

Cemetary over Kyoto (my attempt to be arty)

Sushi

Kyoto backstreets

Temple Kyoto

Kyoto
 

Tuesday 25 September 2012

One hour


On Sunday I ran for one hour. This would be the first time since about the middle of June. It was off the back of a tricky couple of days that saw my anxiety levels climb through the flipping roof!

So some pain returned on Thursday morning, and I almost felt that I had triggered off another set-back. Panic really did set in as my mind raced to track back anything that I had done out of the ordinary? Stairs at school was an obvious cause of blame but various other things ran through my mind. I struggled to handle the fact that I could be forced to stop running for another month. The thought of purchasing a new bike or getting back into the swimming pool not as appealing as slipping into a pair of shoes for a 30 minute dash. Not by a country mile.

A day passed and improvement was insignificant and with the thought of a run in the morning panic again set in. What do I do? Rest, or risk the run?

I ran.

It was pain free…..stoked.

Ice, stretch, ice, stretch and no run on Saturday.

Saturday evening it was feeling good. Sunday, boom one hour, run was fantastic. Pain free again and best recovery. On reflection I think I slept awkwardly on the injury which probably caused the sudden pain on Thursday morning.

With September nearly concluded it is time for me to begin planning October and perhaps beyond. Last night I dusted off my old training booklet. Back to the last page used, dated June 15th. I got my ruler and ruled up October on the following pages. For me this is very exciting and a moment that I had been thinking about for a while. Now the first few weeks won’t be dramatically different from this month (running every second day). I still feel the need to keep it slow and steady. I haven’t looked at any races for the rest of 2012 but I’ve started to think very seriously about 2013.

An idea for this race has been sitting in my mind for a while, along with plenty of other ones:

Ultra Trail Mt Fuji (Japan): http://www.ultratrailmtfuji.com/en/

So hoping to get out and about more so will provide some images of the good times!

Run and eat well  

Thursday 13 September 2012

Routine

When running I love the routine. I enjoy knowing that today I’ll run after work or tomorrow I’ll get up early and run before work.
Since my injury this has been replaced with the routine of stretches, strengthening and yoga. However, over the past two weeks I’ve been able to start, albeit very delicately, getting back into a running routine. Now, I’ve said this all before and started to get too excited. However, this time has to be different.

Why?

Well, for starters I have rested for a full month. Prior to this I only had a week off and never gave the injury an opportunity to fully rest and begin the healing process. During the course of the month I didn’t strengthen the specific area but iced and cared for it. I feel the work I was doing previously did strain the area and cause adverse affects. Live and learn I guess.  But let’s just wait and see how it goes.

So as of the month of September I can sing, shout, scream and shriek that I have completed 7 runs so far, that’s every second day. During the week I have a cozy little 20 minute loop and the weekends I have extended it ever so slightly. All runs have been pain free and slow! I’ll take it though.

So the plan for the rest of the month is to run every other day. If things progress the way they are then I’ll, very gradually, increase the mileage and frequency of running through October. Fingers crossed that this will be the case. And after that I may even look at some races around Korea and Asia!

It has been really difficult getting through this but I hope that the worst is past, for now. Those of you who could be in similar situation or have been, I’m feeling the pain. Feeling the miles that are missed and opportunities gone. However rest, enjoy the time that you don’t have to be getting up at 5 in the morning, but not too much! When that alarm goes off for my first scheduled 4 or 5 am run I’ll be bounding out of that bloody bed!

Enjoy some of Geoje Island’s trail goodness. As the year progresses and my injury improves I’ll be putting up some ore of this jazz!

Run hard

Enjoy some of the local Geoje Island sights!
Main port/harbour area

As above looking towatds the DSME (Daewoo) ship building yard.....massive area!


Local hill looking out onto DSME


Looking inland back towards downtown Okpo



Trails above Okpo, vast network that will be explored

Mt Goksingbo (only 450m+) but solid up and downs to get things warmed up. 2 minutes from our apartment

Looking down onto Okpo, main harbour/ship building on the right of the picture


Koreans love the outdoors. Outdoor gym at the top of the hill...always time for a set.....good times

Looking away from Okpo, further inland (coast is to the left)

Looking out and over Okpo, which is to the right along with the coast

Okpo from our roof top


Roof top, nice apartments!

Rice tea, sunshine and roof top always wins