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Archive for September, 2011

Sep 26

Running Free Book Review

Running FreeSince I thought The Perfect Distance was a bit drier, I thought I’d read more about Sebastian Coe and found this book that is a sort of cross between autobiography and biography. David Miller is credited as an author as well as Sebastian Coe who told his personal stories between David Miller’s observations on Coe’s performance until the winter of 1980 – 81. Having read The Perfect Distance, I knew all of his achievements but this book goes into deeper with the first-person commentary from Coe.

I thoroughly enjoyed stories told by the duo, especially about the days leading up to the Moscow Olympics. By then, Coe was already well-known figure in the world of athletics and in the Great Britain. The level of pressure Coe experienced and the unfortunate result in 800m of being unable to cope with such pressure of great magnitude is painful to read through, though his success one week later in 1,500m is impressive and very inspiring.

This book was published in 1981, so there is no analysis on his training or diet comparing with today’s advanced training or diet. Surprisingly, Coe does not go into his training details in this book. I would have been interested in knowing what sort of exercises he went through, but I guess that was reserved for the book Winning Running that was to be released by his father Peter Coe in 1996.

As well as he was a world-class athlete, he is very articulate and his opinions are well founded. No wonder he later became a politician after his retirement from competitive running. I am looking for the second book Coming Back that was authored by the same duo in 1985 and that is about his career as a competitive racer between 1981 and 1984.

Sep 20

The Perfect Distance Book Review

The Perfect DistanceEver since I saw Men’s 1,500m Final at World Championships in Daegu this past August, I became a fan of the distance. These guys are running below 60 seconds each lap but the kick they show in the last 400m is just amazing. So, after the championships, I was reading some articles and stumbled upon this book, The Perfect Distance, that is being made into a film.

I’ve heard of Sebastian Coe growing up, but I could not tell if he was a 800m or 10,000m runner. If I was more into track and field then, I would have become his fan. The fact he ran 3 world records in 41 days, among other achievement of his, is magnificent and heroic, but he also was a very hard working and intelligent runner. Anyhow, this book is not just about Seb Coe, but his rivalry with Steve Ovett and the decade of British dominance of middle distance.

The book treats both legends equally and gives fair, objective, and comprehensive comparison between the two, though I found the story telling a bit dry, especially when he described their races. I would have enjoyed more dramatic description of each race or at least some of the big races. In search for the excitement, I resorted to You Tube and looked up the races mentioned in the book. It was a good way to visualize the races via videos but would have liked to have done so through his words. The fact the author tried to be fair and objective about both runners also might have something to do with story-telling dry. It also dealt with too many topics, though relevant, that lost focus from the rivalry. Facts about their families and the tradition of Mile races may have been cut short without impacting the focus of the story.

Having said that, this book gave me a good overview of the rivalry and caused me to look for more stories about these outstanding and inspirational athletes.

Sep 16

Boston Marathon 2012 Registration

Boston marathon entry confirmation email Boston Marathon registration started this past Monday, Sept 12. Unlike last year, the registration is still open as of Friday, Sept 16, but the new registration process is keeping some hopeful runners on their toes.

As many people know, Boston Athletic Association (BAA) introduced a big change to 2012 registration process, because the 2011 registration had closed in whopping eight hours. In order to assure qualifiers with fast times to register successfully, BAA let those with qualifying times faster than 20 minutes (BQ-20) register on Monday. A couple of nail-biting days later, it opened the registration to those with qualifying times faster than 10 minutes (BQ-10) on Wednesday. This morning, it opened the registration to BQ-5, and it appears that the registration is still open with approximately 15,000 qualifiers submitting their applications. Though the 2012 field size has not been announced yet, BAA could close the registration at any time if it reaches the number deemed appropriate, even before the next Monday when the registration will be open to all other qualifiers.

I was BQ-10 and I nervously waited for Wednesday 7 am to arrive. I promptly submitted my application at 7 am and found my submission number was 2008031, which most people think there were 8030 application had been submitted before me. I thought it was rather low. And today, I received a confirmation email from BAA, which said my entry has been accepted. Phew! Because the acceptance is based on the qualifying times and not first come first serve, those BQ-10 applicants had to wait until Friday, so that BAA can sort applications by their time and pick the fast ones. Because the size of BQ-20 and BQ-10 was not very big, it really did not matter, but I think it would be interesting to see how the rest will pan out.

While I was waiting for my confirmation, I looked at some forums and Facebook, and they are filled with proud postings about receiving entry confirmation and nervous posting about waiting for their confirmation or their turn to register. Though number of those postings are not huge, this definitely shows how popular Boston Marathon is. No other marathons cause this degree of chaos.

Now that I am in, I need to make sure I will be healthy and be able to compete. It would be great to achieve BQ-20 in the marathon, but BAA is raising the bar by five minutes. So, I would have to run in 3:05.00 to get BQ-20! That’s a huge challenge, I must say. But it would be a great achievement and a step closer to my ultimate target of sub 3:00 marathon if I could get there. Definitely, it is a motivation to go out there and run hard!

Sep 7

IAAF World Championships Daegu 2011

International Association of Athletics FederationsI did not watch the track and field world championships on TV, mostly because these guys are so good and potentially discouraging to watch. And I usually do not watch track and field events on TV whether it is World Championships, the Olympics or such. But since I started to compete on track and would like to continue, I thought I’d give it a watch on You Tube and see what I think. Boy, was I wrong about it being discouraging. The 800m, 1,500m and 5,000m races were very exciting and entertaining to watch. Not that I learned anything from these super elite runners, but these races were as exciting and entertaining to watch as 100m and also inspiring.

800m – Aug 31, 2011

David Rudisha of Kenya holds the World Record of 1:41.01 (Aug 29, 2010) and he must have been the favorite of this race. Not to compare or anything, but my PR is 2:15.82, so you know how fast these guys are. What I liked about Rudisha is that he is a total front runner and he leads the race from the very beginning till the very end. And nobody can catch him. His first 200m was 23.81 and the first 400m was 51.33. He ran the second 400m in 49.68. Unbelievable.

800m results

Position Competitor Country Time
1 David Rudisha KEN 1:43.91
2 Abubaker Kaki SUD 1:44.41
3 Yurly Borzakovskiy RUS 1:44.49

1,500m – Sept 3, 2011

I did not think 1,500m was this fun and exciting to watch. Of course, when I ran 1,500m, I’m huffing and puffing and it is not very pretty sight to watch! The pace they run is so fast that you cannot keep your eyes off of the race. Hitcham El Guerrouj of Morocco holds the world record of 3:26.00 (July 14, 1998), and my PR is 4:48.3… Anyway, they look so relaxed and it does not look like they are running just over 60 seconds per lap. Kiprop held back for the first 800m or so but took off running the last 700m in 1:33.58 and last 400m in 51.45. Matthew Centrowitz ran a great race and won a bronze medal for USA. He is 21 years old.

1,500m results

Position Competitor Country Time
1 Asbel Kiprop KEN 3:35.69
2 Silas Kiplagat KEN 3:35.92
3 Matthew Centrowitz USA 3:36.08

5,000m – Sept 4, 2011

Crazy race. These guys run 64 to 70 seconds per lap for 12.5 laps and the last 400m sprint is just amazing. Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia holds the current world record of 12:37.35 (May 31, 2004), and my PR is 18:32… Hard to think we are the same human beings. Ethiopians led the race most of the way and both Farah and Lagat followed the leaders till 4,200m or so. The crazy and amazing thing is how fast they ran in the last 400m. When the bell rang, almost everybody sprinted and it was a tight race. Farah pretty much had the race for the last 400m but Lagat was in the fourth position until less than 100m. He is such a kicker. I noted the lap, so refer to the table below. No medal for the Keyans, though Lagat was born and competed in Kenya until he naturalized to USA.

5,000m results

Position Competitor Country Time
1 Mohamed Farah GBR 13:23.36
2 Bernard Lagat USA 13:23.64
3 Imane Mergo ETH 13:23.78

5,000m splits

Distance Time Split
400m 1:03.95 1:03.95
800m 2:16.61 1:12.66
1,200m 3:25.3 1:08.69
1,600m 4:31.68 1:06.38
2,000m 5:35.61 1:03.93
2,400m 6:41.36 1:05.75
2,800m 7:43.38 1:02.02
3,200m 8:45.19 1:01.81
3,600m 9:49.67 1:04.48
4,000m 10:55.50 1:05.83
4,400m 12:00.17 1:04.67
4,800m 12:57.30 0:57.13
5,000m 13:23.36 0:26.06

Sep 6

Frustrating times

Ankle injury 2011 Not much to write about these days, because 1) I injured my right ankle, 2) The discomfort in upper left groin is not going away, 3) I have been trying to get books I want to read but I have not managed to get hold of them, 4) Boston Marathon registration starts on Monday but I have to wait for two days before I can register.

About a week ago, a bike came crashing down on my right ankle and the cassette with sharp teeth ate my ankle! A couple of small but deep cuts bled quite a bit. Only first-aid treatment and I did not go to a hospital. Stitches might have aided the healing, but I did not feel like dealing with emergency stuff. Hydrogen Peroxide and Isopropyl Alcohol cleaned the woulds, and I’ve been applying Neosporin daily. It looks like the wounds are healing nicely. I hope to start running some time this week. This injury came out of nowhere when the peak training needed for the Half Marathon. I was doing well until then – I weighed 155 lbs and was keeping up with the scheduled training. After a week of not running plus lots of eating and drinking over the Labor Day weekend, I am not quite in a shape to run the race yet! I don’t know what I can do between now and the race day, and I am not sure if I can get NYQ…

Another physical challenge is the discomfort in my upper left groin. A week of rest has not reduced the discomfort (and not expected). Again, this is not causing any significant pain and not preventing me from running, but something that is back of my head and not going away…

It would have been great if good reading took my mind off of these injury and discomfort, but it has been slow for these books to arrive. I have Harlan’s race by Patricia Nell Warren, Run by Dean Karnazes, and Long Run by Matt Long in the library’s queue. I also ordered The Marathoners by Hal Higdon via Amazon and the Perfect Distance by Pat Butcher at Books Inc. They are all not here yet!

Boston MarathonTo fuel the frustration, Boston Marathon registration starts next Monday but I have to wait for two days before I can register. Those who have BQ times 20 minutes faster can register starting Monday. My BQ was one minute and 49 seconds short of that, so I have to wait… I don’t think it is going to fill that fast just with people with BQ times 20 minutes faster, but there is no guarantee that I could register on Wednesday, Sept 14. I will be watching how the registration goes, biting my finger nails.

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