Dawn

It came to me. My revelation

I was wondering why after Ramadhan, I felt exhausted. I no longer felt the rush to run. Running felt more like an OCD-ed chore. I felt lousy doing it but at the same time, it felt awful not doing it.

So I figured, I'd run faster. I increased my normal pace of 5.5-6 mph on the treadmill to 6.5-7 mph. Sure it got me on my targeted mileage faster, but I was sweating like a pig and breathless at the end of each run. I also tried to go faster on my long runs. I wanted to have a 10 K sub 1 hour record. I was obsessed with other people's achievement that I wanted to make them mine too. She's 5 years older than me but she's pacing at 7 mph. He's a dinosaur and he's doing 8 mph.

But I couldn't do it and I was stumped. And my left knee hurt.

Then, as if God didn't want me to be discouraged just yet, I stumbled upon this book which told me straight in the face what I was doing wrong. I wasn't training right. I was going too fast for my heart which hasn't yet developed for that stage.

So now I'm rebooting myself to heart rate monitored runs. This heart rate monitor thingamagig monitors my heart and tells me whether I'm going too slow or too fast. I understand that initially, it's gonna be a pain in the ass as I have to run slower than my usual pace. But eventually, as my heart builds up its endurance, I'll be able to go faster but not as tired as I was before at that pace. Macamana nak cakap ek? It'll be like, I'll still feel the muscle fatigue, but minus the exhaustion. Minus the injuries.

Last Saturday, I tried my first heart monitored run of 14k. As expected, into the 6th km, the monitor buzzed every 10 minutes we ran indicating we were running faster than we ought to be. So we had to bite our egos and walked for about 20 seconds to decrease our heart rate. Then, we ran again, and it buzzed again, and we walked, then ran, buzzed, walked, ran right up to the 14th Km.

Sure it took longer,but it felt way better. I can talk more with my partner and not be as grouchy in my faster runs before. And I can be rest assured that if I follow this heart monitor plan, I'll eventually go faster to my heart's content. Literally. I'll just have to be a little bit patient these few months.

For now, I'm settled if I can't go any faster. I'll just train at my pace. I have to remind myself that I'm not a natural born athlete. I can't afford to go out on daily outdoor runs on my time constraint. I don't sprinkle protein dust on my food. I can't do that sub 1 hour 10 K (for now).

I'm just a working mom, with a loving hub and two little kids trying to make ends meet. I'm trying to juggle work, household chores and hobby like your next Bozo the clown. I'm just a person who polished off that half a pizza pie without the slightest pang of guilt.

And with that in mind, I'm ready for my next run. And this time, I'm happy ready.


Footnote : I'm not a whiz when it comes to explaining all this technical mumbo jumbo, so if you're interested, try Googling about this heart rate monitor training plan. It could do you good too.

Accumulated week run : 23 K