Sundown Ultra 2011, Preparation for the "Barely Made-It"

(picture from the cover page of June,2011 issue of Capital Asia)

My preparation for Sundown 100k started in November,2010.  The training log for my runs can be found at the following links:

2010 running log:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ais_Qk03pThcdG8wcC15MjR2TWFGSFdpV0F1aHJsQlE&hl=en_US

2011 running log:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ais_Qk03pThcdGlnZkM2VFhNQzBTUTRxZnIyUmEySFE&hl=en_US

The running logs might be too detail to digest... here are the summaries, and probably, some "mythbustings".

Facts (or Myths)

Longest run: 46.07km in 5hr 42mins 35s, on 6,Feb,2011.  This is probably the most "daring" run of my life.  I did the solo run in Klang during a short Chinese New Year visit to my in-law's house.  The route that I had never travelled (both on foot and by car) before, a totally "strange" route to me.

First-half of the route is at:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/27292424

and the second-half is at:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/27430768

I ran through Kesas Highway, Klang town, and a very long stretch of kampung road with a lot of canines.  I did not carry water bottles nor hydration belt.  I did not take energy gel nor other form of food.  All I had with me was cash of 30 bucks and ID.  I was totally relying on the accuracy of Google Maps that I consulted the day before.  According to the Google Map, there should be enough of petrol stations along the route for re-fueling... my finger crossed.

Finally, I completed the crazy run with 6 bottles of Gatorade and 1 "Picnic" chocolate bar.  (My wife and parents-in-law did not know what I had done after missing for 6 hours since 4am that day... that's the fun of it!).

So, I didn't do the gruelling 70k minimum LSD like some suggested.  However, I did plan to do the 70k during Energizer Night Run... but work schedule defeated me.  I believe I could have been better prepared, both mentally and physically, if I did that gruesome distance.

Back-to-Back LSD (>20k): 4 times.  I did not do many back-to-back LSDs during my preparation.  I had health scare in March.  I suspected my un-prepared body could not cope with the back-to-back LSD runs and regular week-day 4am rise-from-bed.  With continuous lack of sleep and heavy physical activity, my blood pressure shot up to 150 at rest with lower than "normal" heart-beat rate, what a confusing scenerio!

The lower heart-beat rate is good news to me... but NOT for the high blood pressure.

I started to have doubt about my decision to sign up for ultra, and regret my over-confidence.  My fear grew.  I stopped running weekend back-to-back LSD with a lot of uncertainties and confusions.

Longest weekly distance: 82.68km in week-4 of 2011, 21 weeks to race-day.  In fact, I completed the distance in 4 days.  I did a 23.16km, one day rest, then another 23.16k and 36.36k back-to-back.  I think that was when my body started to get confused... really confused... and screamed for help!

Shortest weekly distance: 0km in week-21 of 2011, 4 weeks to the race-day.  My "engine broke-down".

Shortest distance: 13.2km.  I ran the distance twice during the tapering week leading to the race-day.  For all other runs, I managed to do minimum of 15km for each run.  I believe this is important for the conditioning of body and time-saving.

Longest missing from running: 12 days, from 21/5 to 1/6.  Reason: engine broke-down.  Very scare!

Total distance covered since signing up: 1394.58km, from 20/11/2010 to 24/06/2011.  Less than 200km per month, or 50km per week.  Two thumbs down!

Night run: Once, during Energizer Night Run.  I think the ability to run at night is not something that we can "train" for it.  It is really what one does 24 or 48 hours leading to the race day that matters.  As I am relatively inexperience... I might be wrong.  I might be able to do better if I ran more often at night.

Injury: Once, in February,2011.  I twisted my left ankle, AGAIN!  This time was not due to canine... but my clumsiness.  That led to 6 days of missing run and bandaged ankle.  Two thumbs down and scare!

Besides, I did "feel" the early symptom of "plantar fasciitis".  Luckily, the symptom does disappear if I stopped running for a few days.  Anyway, am switching myself into cautious mode knowing that "plantar fasciitis" is extremely difficult to be cured permanently.

Re-fuel:  To maximize the benefit of training runs, I tried to do all the training runs with empty stomach, without energy gel/bar intake in the middle of run... with the exception of the 46k run of which I took 1 "Picnic" chocolate bar.  That includes the Energizer Night Run.  I think my body did adapt to longer distance run in "starvation".  I felt like "super-charged up" when I "re-fueled" on the race-day.

Nutrition and Diet
As am relatively new to long distance running... I did not experiment enough into this area.  I did not try too many supplements for the fear of going nowhere in the end, and I cannot afford the side-effect of making mistake.

I had regular consumption of multivitamin, calsium, glucosamine and chondroitin.  Comparing to my preparation for the first marathon, I think glucosamine and chondroitin helps my joints, espeicially the knee, tremendously.

I did not take iron supplement, no protein supplement, nothing else.

I experiemented on "Endurox R4", for the first time, during Energizer Night Run.  For the run, I skipped regular dinner.  Instead I had 2 cups of "Endurox R4" mixed with oat for dinner, about 1.5 hours before the run.  Despite of zero re-fuel, I did not hit the wall until about 35km.  I tried it again during one of my LSD.  Again, my body liked it.  So, the supplement was in my packing list (will share this in the coming post) for race-day.  However, personally, if it is not for the race-day, I think I would not take anything that is un-natural on normal training day.  Anyway, what is the use of training if we feed our body with all the "energy boaster" for training run.

I used to take two half-boiled eggs for breakfast after every run for protein... but stopped the practice after the "health-scare".

I avoided "mamak" food.  Don't "hantam" me if you are a supporter of the place.  Why I don't like "mamak" store: try ordering "kopi kurang manis" or "xxx kurang manis" or "kopi kosong" or "xyz kosong"... see what would you get.  I don't think we can get "xyz kosong" at "mamak."

For family reason, social reason and "free Wifi" when on-the-move, I did visit fast food outlet occasionally.

My favorite curry laksa, nasi lemak... yes but moderately (once or twice a week).

Plenty of fishes.

Conclusions
What "Runner's World" said was true: to prepare for an ultra (or for my version, a "barely-made-it" ultra) we do not need to run day and night, we do not need to turn "anti-social".  As can be seen from my log, to "barely-made-it", the training is not much different from marathon.

Next, I will share my actual "encounter" with the top 5 enemies of ultra running:
1.  nausea,
2.  drowsiness,
3.  bristle and scuffing,
4.  cramp,
5.  wall-hitting.