still having internal battle whether to do the next 1/2marathon, probably standchart at year end 2011..

did 8km run this morning 9.1kmh, rain started at 7km and became a downpour at 7.5km totally drenched. last week did 10km 9.1kmh with son and 6.5km at a slow 8.4kmh with Su Lin around the estate with terrain.

still having internal battle whether to do the next 1/2marathon, probably standchart at year end 2011..

on one hand I tell myself at this age there is nothing to prove. The 29may2010 Sundown set a target and helped me to focus my training runs and I was doing 5x10km/week before Sundown. for 5dec2010 Standchart Singapore marathon I reduced to 3x10km/week - that being my REAL objective ie to do comfortably 3x10km/week w/o excessive assertions and injuring myself, NOT the 1/2 marathon per se.

since my objective of 3x10km/week is achieved and (1)I have no problem to continue that w/o any talisman 1/2marathon (2)I am unlikely to push myself risk my knees then running 21.1km is just running 10km at a slower pace to last 21.1km and past 15km breathing is not a problem and tiredness of legs kicked in and potential cramps, then 21.1km does not achieve anything that 10km doesn't achieve for me in pragmatic health terms..

I can say "been there done that" having completed 2 1/2marathons but actually there's not much to be said, my timing of 2hr33mins for Sundown was mediocre and 2hr50mins for Standchart a bit below expectation...

since there is nothing to prove to others or myself and i no longer need a 1/2marathon to make myself continue 3x10km/week runs the other purpose of doing another 1/2marathon is just to see if I can better the time..assuming my 2hr 50mins for Standchart is just due to cramp (which means inadequate preparations like strength training etc to avoid cramps), then target would be to do better than 2hr33mins in Sundown even with the terrain & route bottlenecks for Standchart (guess if I am to run another last 1/2marathon there is no point to do 20,000 runners Sundown might as well run the 60,000 runners event of the year Standchart marathon)...maybe I can do 2hr30mins or 2hrs25mins, and that is all I am interested to achieve and if i fail that will still be my last just that I have tried 1 more time...

stacked against that is the additional incidences for injury damaging the knees etc..problem is such injuries are silent and accumulative and there is no doubt the more "beyond the limits" attempts the more likely the injuries...that was why I don't "push" myself it is not worth the injury however through training it is possible to improve the stable running pace w/o sudden stretch beyond what the body is accustomed that can cause real damage...