Breaking that Three (3) Digits Barrier - 100km

As i'm writing this, i'm just 9-10 weeks away from my 1st ever 100km distance event. And to tell you the truth, there's not so much excitement going on within myself and to my buddies other than we just continue doing our stuffs, scrapping the weekly mileage here and there including some random solo mode back-to-back LSD during the weekend.

The thing is probably, we already have all the 'supposed' training going on for quite some time without us realizing it i.e. the weekly mileage >50km week in and week out, although the challenge now is to pick-up the pace/intensity to ensure we are truly ready (physically and especially mentally) when we stand at the starting line-up later in May.

Can we? 😣😣

Nonetheless, I've committed myself to complete one of the training plan that i found on the net after scouring thru the lists for which one that are really 'easier' to do (yup, can you imagine...for 100k) for the next 10 weeks. And so i found this plan below (the original one was for 16 weeks period and it was tailor-made to those who've been consistently running at about 30 - 50km on a weekly basis).

100km SOLO Mode Training Plan

As you can see, the plan basically covers a whole sorts of training elements day by day i.e. fartlek, hills repeat, intervals, tempo and obviously, the long runs during the weekend. And what so interesting about its weekend long runs is that it does not specify any distances and only focuses on the hours (time) we spend pounding the dirt/road. It's a unique approach and it kinda suits me (in a way) since i usually get a bit overwhelmed when i see those 'big' back to back numbers that you need to complete week in and week out until the actual race day. It's a mental thingy..yup (patik hanyalah insan yang lemah tapi gatal nak buat ultra dan itu adalah sangat tidak jive)

Anyhow, the followings are some of the details designated to each of the training sets within the plan:

• Tempo 1/2/3: Different timeline to complete the combination of easy run + tempo run (Tempo 1 - 30mins easy + 30mins tempo, Tempo 2 - 60mins easy + 60mins tempo, and so on).
• Hills repeat: Run up a reasonable 400m steep hill/incline and jog down (hard) to build up that quad power. The total time should be around 2-3mins per set.
• Fartlek: Starts with a 15min warm-up and followed by a 4min ON/OFF, 2x 3mins ON/OFF combo, 2x 2mins ON/OFF and 4x 1min ON/OFF combo. The session ends with another 15mins warm-down.
• Intervals: 4 - 8 number of intervals with running at moderate - hard intensity for 2 - 5mins. Recovery should be sufficient, enough to complete all sets at without significant fatigue.    

Apart from the plan, the daily diet (though not that military-kind of regime) need to be considered as well since it involves running mostly 5 days in a week. But like my previous 2 ultras, the only things that i really focus on are the amount of carbs that i take pre-runs and proteins post runs. The idea is basically to sufficiently sustain the body's ability to be ready before any runs and expedite the recovery. But whatever it is (this is for me ONLY K 😁), food is the least concern for me since i'd get to eat whatever that i want especially during the race itself. I mean, who'd really care right? It's the biggest perk for us as an ultra-marathoner!!

Anyhow, with all plans already in place, my biggest hope is for me to start and finish the race (insyaAllah) injury free and with an aplomb.(hopefully...hahah).

The rest, i'll just leave it to Him, the Almighty.

RUNNING SUMMARY (26/2 - 8/3/2018)

26/2 : Rest Day

27/2 : The starts of the training plan.! 1hrs Tempo Run in Dewan Suarah Bintulu (30min easy + 30mins tempo 9.02km 01:00:09)

28/2: Rest Day due to travelling to KL (Couldn't do the Hill repeat)

1/3: 90mins KLCC park running (afterwork) (12.68km - 01:30:02)

2/3: Rest Day

3/3: Saturday AM Time-based LSD (32km - 04:01:09)

4 - 6/3: A self-imposed rest + 'coffee-fasting' due to extreme-exhaustion/dehydration (as the doc said) 😭. Probably due the many traveling within that week..

7/3: Hope to recover and continue the progress..

Ciao