Pheidippides is said to have been the person who ran from Marathon to Athens in under 36 hours. In September of 490 B.C., he brought news that the Persians had been defeated. Athens was saved and so was civilization. "Joy to you, we've won" he said, and there and then he died, breathing his last breath with the words "Joy to you".
This summer has been a very special summer. I had been on the trails a lot less compared with the past two years. I have been put on a different but much harder training programme called "LIFE".
Module 1 - Endurance
It was supposed to be an ordinary Sunday family dinner. Just about the time when we were all seated around the dinner table, Mom had an epileptic seizure and for the next 2 months, everyone in our family including myself were in and out of the hospital everyday taking care of her.With a combination of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, she could not tell us about her condition or any discomfort, nor could she walk or stand. It was a tough challenge learning to feed, do rehab exercises with her, and most importantly, to read and understand her signals. Glad we all met the challenge, physically and mentally.The major takeaway from this training is - never stop moving for as long as I can because muscles and strength go away really fast when you don't use your body.
Module 2 - Weight training
My pack at Gobi or Jordan was about 8kg ish. It was heavy for a staged race but the emotional baggage of taking care of mom, disappointment with work and relationship added together felt like I was carrying 20kg all the time. During several training sessions when I was carrying nothing on the trails, I actually felt so heavy that I just gave up. At least for a short while. Lucky friends all helped to kick my butt and kept me moving.
Module 3 - Visualization
At the hospital, there was another patient, an old lady who was in the same ward. After a while, I got to know her children who came to visit and took care of her every day. Both her son and myself would be dressed in running shirts and trail shoes during weekends, and it took me no time to figure out that we probably come from the same planet speaking the same language - i.e. trail running. There were days when we would be doing all the patient caring chores on one hand, and on the other, day dreaming and talking about being races and experience on the trails. I guessed that helped to keep our motivation going.
Module 4 - Natural weight loss programme
Stress can totally upset mind body balance. Some people would gain weight when under stress, mine was the other way round. I loss a lot of weight, 5 kilos in less than 3 months. Tried other weight loss programmes that didn't work? Try this one. Very high success rate.
Joy to me
Despite the frustration, I am still enjoying every training session whenever I can make time. I have been training and coaching with several young students at the Zheng Sheng Christian College (a rehab school for juvenile delinquents) and will be doing a 57k race with them on the Maclehose. Since this year, I have been their fresh source of moral support, so will have to work my butt off and hike with them to the finish line. F or DNF to me doesn't matter personally, but running has changed their lives and finishing means a lifetime sense of achievement.
If I can do 57k on Maclehose, the natural extension of course would be the Oxfam Trailwalker. Topping up the distance, and putting in a great mental and emotional challenge called team work. I am sure it's going to be biggest nightmare struggling, fighting and arguing with my best friends on the trail for 20+ hours and I so look forward to it.
Past two years I haven't had much desire for speed. But recently I have finally found sufficient reasons and I now want a little speed too. I want to be just a bit faster so that I can make that cut-off coming down the Tenshi mountains at STY and I want to be just a bit faster so that I don't have to be out there for more than 24 hours in the Long March in any of RTP's desert events. I also want to be faster so that I can attempt the CCC and Lavaredo.
I have trained much less this summer, but I felt I have built up a lot of grit and endurance, and have become more mature as a person. I don't know how this is going to shape my attitude as a runner, will see what happens after the running season starts in two weeks' time.
"Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body."
Seneca, Roman dramatist, philosopher, & politician (5 BC - 65 AD)
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