April | Rebel Walker
After the failure of HK4in4 Challenge in 2021, I planned to take easy days in the early months. But Rebel Walker launched the Virtual race in February with an attractive price, so I decided to run the 50K and 100K to get the ITRA score for the future races.
It was a 6 to 8 weeks build-up to the 100K, while the 50K served as a long run practice. In the building base phrase, I added cycling sessions as the endurance build-up. I also changed the daily base and easy runs from only road running to trail running with few hundred meters of climbing every run. This greatly enhanced my ability to run and walk the uphill in the virtual run. I did not do long sessions like 4 to 5 hours trail running, instead there were 15k 300m+ daily base running leading to ~100K 3000m+ weekly mileage.
The only long session was the 50K run on 18 Apr, it was a self-support run and I chose to start at midnight because I could avoid from the traffic and epidemic that time. The run was controlled and mostly easy pace until the last 10k at the East Dam where I ran faster to catch the sub-7 hours finish (6:51:55).
The 100K on 30 Apr was targeted at a 16-hour finish, again, it was a self-support run and started in the afternoon so I spent the whole night alone on the course. It was a humid and hot day which I drank so much water without the intake of electrolyte, since I did not prepare. That was a huge mistake which I pay in the later sections. Until first half of the run (Sha Tin Pass), it was on target of 7 hours 30 minutes. I felt fresh and confident to run a 15 hour-ish time. However, I found my leg started cramping at the downhill to Pak Tam Au of Maclehose 3. I took the last gel and hoped to relieve the situation, but it just kept getting worse. I could only walk slowly up to Sai Wan and could not run or even jog the downhill. When I reached the East Dam, it was almost 15 hours, so I pay all out to hope for a sub-16 hours finish, it ended up with 16:04:46.
I was happy with the 50K performance and of course not satisfy with the 100K performance, bringing electrolyte/energy drinks was the biggest lesson I learnt from the run. On the other hand, I was proud of myself that I could make it self-support and run through the night with a relatively good results when compared to the other runners' results.
October | Rebelman & Raleigh Challenge
Rebelman and Raleigh Challenge were not expected originally because I wanted to focus on 2022 HK 4in4 Challenge. But after the joining of road running club Trailblazer, I would like to test the improvement and figure out the new training style. So I decided to run these 2 races, Rebelman (15K) as the speed testing and Raleigh Challenge (42K) as the mid-term test to the 4in4 Challange.
Having solid 80k per week in June and July made it easier to transit to trail running. It was a 8 to 10 weeks build up, which I maintained 90kpw with 2000m+ in the early weeks to recall the mountain leg. At the same time, I changed the daily base running from concrete trail run(last build up for Rebel Walker) to real trail run. I found that it was much effective in building the mountain legs. Apart from the sessions of Trailblazer, I also added some tempo uphill and power (several times of 30 seconds to 1 minute sprint) sessions in my weekly training. This was learnt from Jon Albon from following his Strava, and then adjusted myself based on my understanding to his training. However, when I wanted to hit the peak (2 weeks before Rebelman, 4 weeks before Raleigh), I suffered from knee pain, so I took almost 1 week off and did swimming and bike to maintain my fitness.
Rebelman started at a super fast pace, I was shocked by the high heart rate (160up) at the beginning of the race, I tried to stick with the lead pack, while maintained a controlled high heart rate (below 170), but the heart rate just kept at above 170. I had to slow down on the way down to Hok Tau. When I reached Hok Tau, I tried to make one more push up to Cloudy Hill, but the gap created was not significant, few runners and I were struggled for a better place. At the end, I passed 1 runner and got passed by another runner in that group. Due to the social distancing measure, the prize ceremony was not held directly, so I did not know my ranking at that time. The biggest lesson I learnt was that I should start very controlled by monitoring the heart rate.
Moving to the Raleigh Challenge, my leges were not in good condition before the race, I felt so tight. I started at a very controlled heart rate of ~150 from the last lesson I expected a 5 hours run, so I need to save my legs for the last run and climb. It was smooth until Sha Tin Pass down to the catch water, my leg were so heavy and at the edge of cramping. luckily I could still kept jogging so I was not caught. But still, my legs cramped in Kam Shan, and I just pay all of my effort to save the place. At the end I was 5th, lost to the 4 legends in HK trail running community.
October to December
Originally, Rebelman and Raleigh Challenge were served as the indicators for finetuning the training to the HK 4in4 Challenge. Unfortunately, I suffered from quadriceps pain after racing Raleigh. It was found the Vastus lateralis were overloaded. Physiotherapist said the Vastus medialis was not activated, led to the overuse of Vastus lateralis, but luckily it did not turn to ITBS. I took several physio rehabs, and learnt some workout to activate the glute and Vastus medialis. I decided to give up this year challenge to play safe and avoid getting hurt again.
2023 Plan and Wish
I will be running the half-marathon in the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon in 3 weeks (12 Feb 2023). It is a 8 to 10 weeks preparation towards the half marathon. I trained it safely as I was still in the activation of glute and VM muscle. I felt better and better after adding 2 to 3 30 minutes workout per week to strengthen the muscle. My target is to run a ~4:00/km pace in the half marathon.
After the half marathon, I will focus on running a faster 5K/10K time until summer. Then I am going to finish the unfinished - HK 4in4 Challenge 2023. Good luck to me!
(I should write more blogs like this to record the training and make race report, so that I can take reference for my future race preparations. This wrap up is actually very rough, because I could not remember so many details of the whole year.)