Saturday, January 31, 2009

My first 2 hours run

Since I'm in JB this weekend, I decided to give it a go at running past the longest distance I've ever run, which was 1hr20min.

Before going to sleep last night, I made the intention to run at least 2hours today. Or, if I feel stonger I might attempt to do a 21km run.

First challenge was to wake up much earlier than I normally do during working days. To run 2 hours before the sun goes high would need me to start running at 7am, which means I need to open wide my eyes no later than 6.15am for the preparation and travelling.

Second challenge was, to take shower in that early morning. I did not install hot shower so I have to bare with whatever temperature of water coming out through the tap. Menggigil jugak la.

Third challenge was to fuel up my tummy with moderate amount of food because when I did my long run last time, I had to cut it short because of feeling extremely hungry due to so little food intake prior to the run. But, mistake was made this morning when I ate two fried buns which have sausage inside of them. They were a bit oily, not good at all. Mulut dan tekak dah rasa berminyak-minyak. Erkk... lesson learnt the hard way this time.

Ok, at the end, I shoot off with my run at 7.15am. Since this is going to be my longest run so far, my strategy was just to achieve 2 hours of running, doesn't matter how slow I run. Speed and distance were not in my brain today.

And so I did.

I ran one loop after another (I ran my normal 3.1km/loop route).

During the first and second loops, left side calf was feeling sengal. I don't know the exact translation of it, but it was neither fatigue nor pain. The thoughts of bungkus-and-balik-rumah-makan-roti-canai-lagi-bagus started to surface.

Finishing my third loop, the time showed 1hr something. Aduhai, another hour to go.

By the fifth loop, I started to feel the legs getting heavier. At this moment, dah rasa macam orang biol je asyik dok lari pusing-pusing taman ni.

Half way doing the sixth loop, my Timex watch was alraedy showing that I'm almost there to reach the 2 hours duration. So, I had to cut short a bit on the route, not doing the normal 3.1km.

On the dot of 2:00:00, I stopped running and walked towards my car. The feeling was, "Aduhai, penat nak mampus kalau lari 2 jam non-stop nih"

But, did I regret doing it? NOT AT ALL.

Though I ran very slowly and not even reaching 18km of distance, at least now I know I could run 2 hours non-stop. Hopefully this will help to boost up my mental power if I ever decided to run a half marathon distance (12km), or even the full marathon (42km).

And I secretly hope that this will be a new stepping stone for me for running longer in the future.

3 comments:

kookykash said...

Good start Nik to train running 2hrs duration. If you are hungry mid way running, you can still eat you know. Sapa cakap time running tak boleh makan. I normally have Milo bar if I do weekend long run but in a race I take power gel cos can run and eat at the same time.

p.s to avoid the cold morning shower, you can shower the night before. hehehe

EnAikAY said...

Kash,
Thanks for the tips. But, maybe i need to down 2 or 3 of those Milo bars. i have large tank... hihi

bola2api said...

next time just take 2 half-boiled eggs. enough energy for 2-hr run.