Project 10k - How it began

The publishing of the following write-up was delayed for 5 months... the draft was kept in the 'draft box' for too long... lazy... lazy.

I have too much to share during the journey of Project 10k, which I kept procastinating as new discovery kept popping up. So, decided to publish it anyway even though it was half-baked... will leave the details for the later posts.

The Meaning
What does 10K mean? What is your first thought when you see the phrase '10K' in the title of this entry? RM10K income per month? 10Kg of weight loss in 10 weeks? My Project 10K is to be able run 10KM without stopping in 2009.How far is 10KM?

It is the distance one takes 10 minutes to complete if you are driving at 60km/hr.


F1 car takes 3 minutes to complete at 200km/h... faster than the time we took to pee.

It is the distance from my home to Bandar Sunway, roughly.

It is the distance that a typical young ladies and old ah-mah might travel when they shop from morning till night in the air-condition mall.

The Reason

I have never ran more than 3km before, no idea if it is possible.  What came to my mind when I put 10km running (which I naively mistaken as long distance run) on my wish list of 2009? It all started off because of the "negative" influence of a friend.

This fellow is not a runner, he had never been a runner, and he is not a coach nor fan of the sport. It all began after he has taken up Tai Chi as sport last year, and invited me to join him.  I politely declined to join him because of the forseable boredom and my lack of patient. Instead, I have taken up running as my choice of exercise last June all due to the typical kiasu attidude of a typical kiasu KL-ian.

At that time, my few good reasons of running are:

1. This is the simplest sport, you don't need much brain to run, just look at the world most famous runner (in movie), Mr. Forest Gump. To run, just put one foot ahead of the other, and repeat step-1 for as long as you could.

2. You don't need special facility/stadium/court to run,

3. You don't need any tools or equipment to run (which I found out later to be un-true),

4. You don't need any partner or team, save the hassle of making appointment and cancelling appointment, save on h/p bill... and I will not be blamed for FFK if couldn't make it to any appointment.

5. There is no pressure of winning or losing, you run on your own,

6. No time limitation: you can run anytime.

7. You can enjoy the outdoor scenery while running,

8. You can save much more money than other sport (again, I was wrong), just look at where do the world best runners come from. At present, the 5Km, 10Km, Half marathon, Full marathon record holders are all from Africa.

Okay, back to my un-finished story of why I wanted to run 10km non-stop. This guy, who is younger than me by 2 years, give me a sceptical look before spitting out this:

"old man, old oredi, should do the exercise for old man mah, lets join me for Tai Chi".

That really turned my "kiasu" nerve on... okay... I will prove to you that it is not too late for a 37-year old to run 10KM non-stop!

Project-10k quietly started on 21st,December,2008.

The Couch
As a novice, I need a couch.

In this information age, my couches are websites with training tips for newbies. Among others are:
http://www.marathonrookie.com/
http://www.marathontraining.com/
http://www.runnersmalaysia.com/
http://www.halhigdon.com/

Besides, there are also bloggers cum runners on the Internet. My focuses are blogs by recreational runners in Malaysia, among are:
lifeisxtragreat.blogspot.com
http://www.runnerzcircle.blogspot.com/
http://www.jamiepang.com/
pm1.blogspot.com
doriscbwong.blogspot.com

The Shock
After a little surfing on the Internet, I found out the following striking equation...

10KM = SHORT DISTANCE RUN!!!

What?!!! Short distance?!!!  Okay... okay... cool down...

My 'si fus' define a long run as:
1. an 1.5 hours non-stop run, or
2. a running distance of more than 15km!

Damn... 10km is not even catagorized as a long distance run?!! It would be really shameful if I couldn't even run 10km! Failure is definitely not an option for Project 10k!

The Race
My 'couch' said that a beginner should sign up a race to keep the flame burning... so, the first race in my life was the 10km run of Standard Chartered KL Marathon, 28th June 2009.I have also signed up a very useful Internet website, the http://www.mapmyrun.com/, for exercise log-keeping, includes running.

The Record Book
My 'couch' said that a runner-in-training should keep a training log. My first ever training log is done in Excel... which I am still updating now.

In April, I also discovered a very useful website for log-keeping, the http://www.mapmyrun.com/ site.
The superb mapmyrun site allows us to map out route that we plan to run, and calculate the distance and 'elevation' (means how many hills and valleys along the route) of the run.

It even estimates the calories that you burnt for the run.

The Gear
My 'couch' said that we should get the right 'gear' in order for me to stay injury-free during the training. The 'gear' means shoes.  Some runners called their shoes 'rubber', like the way F1 drivers refer to their tyres.

With no experience at all, I checked with my 'couch' on the type of 'rubbers' to get.  I came across the review of Adidas's Supernova Glide on 'kenny-tan.blogspot.com'.  So, my first pair of "serious" 'gear' turned out to be the Adidas's Supernova Glide.

Frankly, I don't know much about running shoes, except that it is very light and spongy.

The sole is very colourful too. It is liks a piece of 'net' covered rubber as a large part of the shoes is just fibre-netting, with a lot of breathing holes.

The Stress Meter
My 'couch' said that the percentage of your heart-rate as a fraction of your theoretical maximum (before your heart explodes into pieces and you 'say bye-bye') is a measure of your effort in training... so, my first heat-rate monitor... the Polar FT40.

I set myself a target to train at least 3 days per week with a minimum 30minutes run per session... rain or shine, busy or free.

With all the researches, investment, and training, did I make it?