Training Week 15 Recap

Hi folks,

I've had a very easy week. I mean that in terms of running output. In terms of being sick and having to travel for business while being sick, then I guess I had it pretty tough. No doubt this has affected what I could manage for the week, but since it's taper week I suppose the highly reduced mileage isn't going to hurt me too much. Well, I hope!

Saturday

Type: Easy

Time and Distance: 70 mins, 12.5 km.

Detail: Steady pace throughout, with a faster sprint finish in the final 500m.

Total Weekly Distance: 12.5 km.

Comments: My only run this week. There's really not much to say about it, apart from being a sightseeing expedition around Reading, playing tour guide to my good mate and fellow runner Shaun all the way from New Zealand, and scouting the Reading Half Marathon course, which I'm very familiar with. Hopefully this will stand in good stead on race day.

Improvements: More taper. Will continue to do faster, shorter runs to keep the legs fresh and ready for race day.

Well I don't know what to make of this week. It was supposed to be a taper week, but I "tapered too much" if you see what I'm getting at. It doesn't help to be sick at any stage of training, so I'll have to take better care of myself. Nor does it help going away for a few days on business, but these things are part and parcel of work. C'est la vie!

In other news, yesterday I was pretty lucky to witness a piece of history. I went to the All England Open Badminton Championship finals in Birmingham to watch the very best players in the world playing for the All England title, which is like the Wimbledon of Badminton, or the unofficial Badminton world championships. Having indirect ties to Malaysia (my parents hail from Malaysia), I was rooting for top seed, Lee Chong Wei, to win the Men's Singles final. Lee didn't disappoint the thousands of screaming fans (including me) as he went on to win the final, becoming the first Malaysian to win a singles final since 2003! Here's a picture of Lee celebrating his achievement after hitting the winner (excuse the arms of those pesky Malaysian fans!).

Badminton in Malaysia is comparable to Rugby in New Zealand, or Football in England, and the amount of noisy Malaysian fans in Birmingham's National Indoor Arena cheering for their national hero made me feel like I was in Malaysia! To Malaysian badminton fans, Malaysian badminton players have the same standing as a Dan Carter in the All Blacks, or a David Beckham in the England Football team.

Badminton is one of my favourite sports having played regularly a long time ago. Unfortunately I was never really good at it, and it doesn't feature in my sporting schedule at all, which is currently dominated by long distance running (surprise surprise!). However, it's good to get away from running once in a while and just enjoy the other things that I used to do before I became a serious runner. Good times! Here's me standing in front of a montage of all the All England champions, pretending to be a champion myself! I'd need such a positive mindset and attitude if I want to break three hours this year.

Relaxing (but not really),

Aaron