A Wife's Tale
My second race for the year, the Gunung Nuang 12 hour Trail Challenge is exactly a week away and I'm not sure if I'm ready for it at this point. I've hardly done any trail runs for quite a long while and any runner worth their salt would know that trail running and road running are two entirely different ballgames altogether.
I'm not even familiar with the route since I've never run Nuang before. Everything I have on Nuang are from the experiences and tales I've heard from those who've tackled the route. And judging from their experiences, I foresee a pretty tough outing next week. The 530m elevation is not going to make things helpful either. It'll be like TITI all over again.
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But all that aside, I'm strangely excited and looking forward to the challenge. Call me crazy but I'm glad for the amount of experience I can glean from events like these. Let's face it, when it comes to this unusually longer distance runs, I'm practically like a baby just learning how to crawl. I'll take whatever I can gain from events like these to mentally and physically prepare me for when I really am ready for even more crazier and tougher distances.
Thankfully I'll have the familiar company of fellow GCAM crazies Jamie, Choon Yuen and Richi along. But of course at least only until the start when they decide to take off after that. That said, I'm still excited at the prospects of challenging Nuang.
On a different note altogether, I'm pretty happy to see the wife has been progressing well in her 'comeback' training. The past couple of months has seen her saddled with some injuries which demotivated her completely. She was so down to the point of giving up running. Her stamina was shot, her endurance went south and her will to run was practically non-existent. I'm glad she found enough strength to pick herself up and start up all over again.
The fact that we both signed up for a main mid year race (21k for her and 42k for me) did lend a huge hand in putting the drive back into her. She said that no way in hell was she going to be picked up by the sweeper bus ... LOL! She worked up a training plan all on her own and has been religiously following it for the past two months. A nice and easy plan that saw her progressively increasing the intensity of her training.
To keep her motivated, I've been doing my best to get home in the evenings and accompany her for her training runs. It's the least I could do for putting up with my constant weekends away from home out on some run somewhere. She's warned me that she's going to make me compensate her big time for leaving her at home all on her own while I run in some godforsaken place the entire night ... hahaha!
I'm really happy with her progress. She's gone from panting like a fish out of water at the start of her training to being able to chat with me while running these days with much better breathing and more consistent running. Her pace has also increased slowly but steadily.
She's so much more motivated now seeing her own improvements on a daily basis, of course there are one or two bad runs but we all get those from time to time but it doesn't bother her as much as it used to. In fact, it drives her to do better the next day. The Skechers GOrun 3 shoe courtesy of Skechers Malaysia seems to also be fast becoming her favourite running shoe. She's been running with it and has no complains of blisters (she's very prone to blistering) and finds the shoe really breathable though she finds the cushioning a tad on the soft side compared to her previous all time favourite the Skechers GObionic Ride.
In fact, I like the training plan she cooked up. It does benefit me in a little way as well. On days when I manage to run with her will see me doing two runs in a day, one in the morning and one in the evening with her. The run with her tend to work nicely as a recovery run of sorts for me and I find that I'm running better in my morning runs the next day. So it's a win-win situation for the two of us.
The boys are also slowly getting hooked on running with both boys now following her for her runs in the evening. At least I'll be more at ease when I can't make it back in time to run knowing that she has two bodyguards with her out on her runs. The younger fellow shows quite a bit of potential and has been asking to look for a 5K race for him in the coming months.
That said, after the Nuang challenge my marathon training proper goes into full swing again. A lot of sacrifices are going to have to be made again to keep everything in balance - family, work and life. But I'm determined in my quests and we all know there are no shortcuts in anything. It boils down to how much you want something and how much you're willing to put into it to get the results you want. No whining, just get out there and do what you have to do!
I've limited myself to just a few races this year. The ones I've already signed up for are costing an arm and two legs already. Even my budget for gear has been exceeded and it's only February! It's going to be hard to resist buying anything or even signing up for races, especially when I have evil, poisonous running friends who try to brainwash one into signing up for races any chance they get ... hahaha!
I'm not even familiar with the route since I've never run Nuang before. Everything I have on Nuang are from the experiences and tales I've heard from those who've tackled the route. And judging from their experiences, I foresee a pretty tough outing next week. The 530m elevation is not going to make things helpful either. It'll be like TITI all over again.
But all that aside, I'm strangely excited and looking forward to the challenge. Call me crazy but I'm glad for the amount of experience I can glean from events like these. Let's face it, when it comes to this unusually longer distance runs, I'm practically like a baby just learning how to crawl. I'll take whatever I can gain from events like these to mentally and physically prepare me for when I really am ready for even more crazier and tougher distances.
Thankfully I'll have the familiar company of fellow GCAM crazies Jamie, Choon Yuen and Richi along. But of course at least only until the start when they decide to take off after that. That said, I'm still excited at the prospects of challenging Nuang.
On a different note altogether, I'm pretty happy to see the wife has been progressing well in her 'comeback' training. The past couple of months has seen her saddled with some injuries which demotivated her completely. She was so down to the point of giving up running. Her stamina was shot, her endurance went south and her will to run was practically non-existent. I'm glad she found enough strength to pick herself up and start up all over again.
The fact that we both signed up for a main mid year race (21k for her and 42k for me) did lend a huge hand in putting the drive back into her. She said that no way in hell was she going to be picked up by the sweeper bus ... LOL! She worked up a training plan all on her own and has been religiously following it for the past two months. A nice and easy plan that saw her progressively increasing the intensity of her training.
To keep her motivated, I've been doing my best to get home in the evenings and accompany her for her training runs. It's the least I could do for putting up with my constant weekends away from home out on some run somewhere. She's warned me that she's going to make me compensate her big time for leaving her at home all on her own while I run in some godforsaken place the entire night ... hahaha!
I'm really happy with her progress. She's gone from panting like a fish out of water at the start of her training to being able to chat with me while running these days with much better breathing and more consistent running. Her pace has also increased slowly but steadily.
She's so much more motivated now seeing her own improvements on a daily basis, of course there are one or two bad runs but we all get those from time to time but it doesn't bother her as much as it used to. In fact, it drives her to do better the next day. The Skechers GOrun 3 shoe courtesy of Skechers Malaysia seems to also be fast becoming her favourite running shoe. She's been running with it and has no complains of blisters (she's very prone to blistering) and finds the shoe really breathable though she finds the cushioning a tad on the soft side compared to her previous all time favourite the Skechers GObionic Ride.
 |
| Judging by the outsole wear, she's nicely mid-footing ... |
The boys are also slowly getting hooked on running with both boys now following her for her runs in the evening. At least I'll be more at ease when I can't make it back in time to run knowing that she has two bodyguards with her out on her runs. The younger fellow shows quite a bit of potential and has been asking to look for a 5K race for him in the coming months.
That said, after the Nuang challenge my marathon training proper goes into full swing again. A lot of sacrifices are going to have to be made again to keep everything in balance - family, work and life. But I'm determined in my quests and we all know there are no shortcuts in anything. It boils down to how much you want something and how much you're willing to put into it to get the results you want. No whining, just get out there and do what you have to do!
I've limited myself to just a few races this year. The ones I've already signed up for are costing an arm and two legs already. Even my budget for gear has been exceeded and it's only February! It's going to be hard to resist buying anything or even signing up for races, especially when I have evil, poisonous running friends who try to brainwash one into signing up for races any chance they get ... hahaha!
you have evil friends! whoever they are ahem!
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