Road to KL-Marathon 2010, 56 days to go (a laborious Labour's Day)

Date: 1st May 2010, Saturday. A very laborious Labour's Day.

Weather: Hot and humid.

Route: 4x(Taman Desa 7.72km route) + 1x(Taman Desa 2.31km route).

I ran 4x of Taman Desa 7.72km route:

And 1x of Taman Desa 2.31km route:

Start time: 5:15am.
Timing: 4hrs 2mins 4s.

Fuel:
Pre-run: 1 Power bar, 500ml plain water.
During run: 1 liter of Gatorade, 325ml 100Plus, 500ml plain water, (no solid fuel... nothing)
Post-run: 600ml Excel, plenty of plain water.
(sorry kidney...)

Post run...

Pit-stops:
Km-7.7:  15s for swapping of empty bottle with filled bottle;
Km-15.4:  15s for swapping of empty bottle with filled bottle;
Km-23.1:  2-minute for swapping of empty bottle with filled bottle, plain water intake.
Km-30.8:  4-minute walk... and more walks for the next 2.3km.

First 33km LSD without energy gel, Good or Bad?
This was my first time running 33km, predictably, in more than 4 hours.
Out of curiousity, I was doing the LSD without energy gel during the run. This was the longest LSD that I've ever ran and I was putting my body under unknown stress -- WWII Japanese-torture style.  I was not sure what would happened in the next 4hours... my predicted finishing time... an uncharted territory, that make me feel extra excited and nervous.

0-23km was manageable, no huffing or puffing.  No hunger.  Legs were feeling ok.  Confidence rose.
Km-23 onward... started to breathe harder and pace slowed down.  A sign of fatigue.  The body was begging for fuel, but no... no... power gel please!

Km-27, started to feel thirsty... and had only 100ml Gatorade left... finished all of it in one go.  There would be another 3km before reaching the next pit-stop.  In the morning sun and dry weather/body, I let my mind run the body, was trying not to walk although the devil-side of me kept saying that it is okay to walk a little as I didn't take gel.  No... the angel-side said I could keep going even without gel.

Km-29.9... at the little 100m hill leading to my car, I felt that the cramp-devil was waving to me at the left calf.  I held on for a while until reaching my car... the 100m really felt like 10km.  Re-filled my bottle with plain water only... realizing that I had consumed all the isotonic drinks.  That was 1-litre of Gatorade and 325ml 100plus, in less than 4 hours. Sorry, sorry, Mr. kidney... you have been working as hard as Mr. legs, Mr. heart and Mr. lungs.  After re-filling... 3km to go!

Km-30-33... cramp-devil was in sight.  To avoid having to crawl back, I decided to walk a little, coupled with some runs when feeling ok.  The cramp-devils, not one, but TWO, were waiting to strike on the left calf (when going up-hill) and left thigh (when going down-hill).  Each time they knocked on the door, I slowed down or walk.  That continued for the final 2.3km.

Finally, my car was insight again... and the mind managed to bust the cramp-devils despite the fact that they tried to haunt me several times.

Without much drama, if you excluded the Side-stitch Ghost and Cramp-devil, my first 33km LSD ended with much satisfaction.  Was so tired that I just managed to walk to 7-eleven about 200m away to grab my post-run re-fuel of Excel and Spritzer.  After getting the drinks, was just able to sat at the kaki-lima outside 7-eleven motionless... waiting for the pain on the ass legs to subside.

While resting... suddenly, the morning scene became so beautiful, and the air was so fresh... and everyone walked pass looked so attractive... was that what they said, the biological drugs was in action?!

So, is it better to do LSD without gel so that one can perform better with gels?  Does that balance the "stress and adapt" equation in "train and perform"?  To find out the answer, I need to do another similar run, this time, with gels.  Anyway, despite of the tiredness, I didn't feel that hungry.

Creditability of "to gel or not to gel" experiment
There were two factors that might violate the creditability of the experiment...
1.  I did not carry adequate water for the final 10km run, perhaps, leading up to the imminent cramp during the final 3km run.
2.  I fell sick on Tuesday.  I had been on antibiotic for 3 days prior to the LSD.  In addition to the antibiotic influence, my week-day run was just a miserable 4.9km run on Thursday... how low can it go?!

The lesson learnt
1.  My lack of weekday run is still haunting me, both psychologically and physically!  I need to pile-up my weekday mileage to match the LSD.  Time fly... 7 weeks to go!  Where is the 60+km weekly mileage?!
2.  Take more drinks than I think I need!
3.  Regardless of how good I felt for the first 20++km or so, anything can happen even for the very last 2 kms.
4.  "To gel or not to gel, that's the question".  To find out.

Side-stitch Ghost
Came and go away regularly.  Hate that!

What's on the plate:
(22/3 - 28/3) 13 weeks to go: 21k (Energizer Night Run 2010 done. Timing: 2hr 23min 15.63s);
(29/3 - 4/4) 12 weeks to go: 25k (26.46km done. Timing: 3hrs 12mins 6s);
(5/4 - 11/4) 11 weeks to go: 21k (23.16km done. Timing: 2hrs 46mins 4s);
(12/4 - 18/4) 10 weeks to go: 29k (30.88km done. Timing: 3hrs 34mins 53s);
(19/4 - 25/4) 9 weeks to go: 21k (23.66km done.  Timing: 2hrs 42mins 44s);
(26/4 - 2/5) 8 weeks to go: 32k (33.19km done.  Timing: 4hrs 2mins 4s);
(3/5 - 9/5) 7 weeks to go: 21k;
(10/5 - 16/5) 6 weeks to go: 35k;
(17/5 - 23/5) 5 weeks to go: 21k;
(24/5 - 30/5) 4 weeks to go: 37k;
(31/5 - 6/6) 3 weeks to go: 19k;
(7/6 - 13/6) 2 weeks to go: 23k;
(14/6 - 20/6) 1 week to go: 16k;
(21/6 - 27/6) Race day!!!