Hi Runners,
I'm new to this forum so will post a little about my running background here.
I stay at Jurong West and run mainly around that area. For the last year or so I have had problems with knee injury. At one stage I stopped running completely for three months, which usually did the trick to recover from previous inuries, but after that I still had knee pain. I was fearful I would not be able to run again. After seeing a physio, I was recommended to do some stretching exercises. I also reduced my weekly mileage from about 20-25km to 15km (3 x 5km per week). That seemed to help, although from time to time I still felt a little knee pain. Last year I ran in the SCM 10km after training about 18km per week, with continued stretching and no knee pain. The longest run I ran in training was 8km, which I did every fortnight or so. I ran about 45 mins in the 10km and was really pleased with that result.
Continuing on from the SCM 10km, I began to dream that maybe I could complete the full marathon. It is something I have always wanted to do but always been intimidated by the high mileage that one is supposed to do when training for a good marathon time. After doing a couple of "test runs" beginning this year of about 23km and 28km. For the former, part of it was walking as I was not used to the distance. For the latter, I managed to finish without walking, at about 7mins/km. After this I decided that at least I could finish the full marathon and registered for the Sundown Marathon.
The thing I like about the Sundown run is that it is at night when the weather is cool. I also do most of my running in the evening. I really cannot take heat (or hills), especially as I am not accustomed to either. I started training for Sundown in January this year. I'm now doing about about 24km per week and increasing by about 2km very week. This excludes the long runs that I will try to do about once a month. My last long run was about 24 km, pace was a bit better than previously.
My target now is now to finish the marathon in 4.5 - 5 hours. However, I will not exceed weekly mileage of about 35km per week as i don't want to hurt my knee again. Instead I will rely on the long runs to get me through, as this technique worked Ok when training for the 10km run. I hope to do a final long run of 35 - 40km about a month before the actual event. I'm just praying that my knee will not give trouble again and I can finish my first marathon.
I hope to join you all for the second familiarisation run tomorrow, hope to get there at Bedok reservoir by 7am (depends if the bus 28 waiting time is not too long from Bedok MRT).
OK, I think I have said more than enough about my running background, this post is probably very boring to read.
BFG note: I didn't find the post boring in the least!
All the best in your first marathon and finish strong at the Sundown, triple!
imaRunner is a series about ordinary people and their not-so-ordinary running achievements.
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