picking up the distance

Woke up early Saturday morning, did not even bother to wake up my wife. After a successful 10k last Saturday, and a non-event throughout the week, I need to do another 10k with my battered left knee. I need to know the pain and run through it if I were to go for the Great Eastern in January. Period.

Arrived at the park at 7.15 a.m., and saw abg. Nasir unloading and getting ready. I came to know him after running together every Saturday, and he is one tough cookie. At the age of 60+, he manages a 5-6k every weekend, but quit all competitive running long time ago.

I grabbed my iPod, put on my knee guard, gulped that last few drops of Endurox, and headed on. Abg. Nasir caught on my walk, and sped off. Takpa, takpa... after 5 minutes and the Sloan rub start to kick, I started to run steadily at 10km/hour pace. A lot of runners that day, thanks to a beautiful weather, and cooling breeze (or is it the school holiday?), and it is always nice to see few familiar faces who runs with me on working days.

Quite beaten and bored of this course, but never weary of its good environment nonetheless, I ran and caught up with abg. Nasir who stopped to stretch after his first lap. He joined me and we ran together for 2 laps. That helped me getting through the same loop over and over again. He retired after that, and I caught glimpse of him every time I arrived at the 0.80km turn. 

The knee started to hint problems on my 6th lap. Limping away, I kept running at a slower speed, and trying very hard to register the pain, and telling my brain that this pain is negligible. I must have looked funny running that way, but what the hell. Thankfully, the pain subsided after the 7th lap, and I was picking up speed again. The 8th lap turned to 9th, and 9th lap turned to 10th lap. The big clock showed time at 8.45 a.m., and I promised my wife to be home by 9 to babysit, so she could go to her BodyStep class at Maxis. After quick calculation, I pushed for another lap since I still could run. Fatigue has started to set it, and my arms started to feel a little stiff. My dead iPod did not help, as some Black Eyed Peas will really help!

I stopped after the 11th lap, covering 14.4km in 1:29:00... boleh, lah. I really need to rush home, or my wife will be upset, and I will miss getting some tonight... hahahaha. Feeling accomplished, I drove home without warming down, sent my wife, brought my daughter for a good tosai-and-teh-ais-banging at the mamak's. But thanks to the sheer stupidity of not warming down, the pain on my left knee came knocking even harder.

Will rest now. Next week will be more intensive with few HIIT's coming, and a longer run on Saturday. Can't wait...