3 Powerful Lessons All Runners Can Take from UTMB 2023

Photo: UTMB

The article "3 Powerful Lessons All Runners Can Take from UTMB 2023" discusses three valuable lessons for runners from the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race:

1. Sometimes you need to try a few times to get it right

2. Tears are always justified

3. Accepting help is important

These lessons from UTMB 2023 can inspire and benefit all runners participating in any distance races.

Craze Ultra 2019 Training Log

caa 6 Oct 19

Another week before Craze Ultra 2019. 

Just want to share my training log, and at the same time, recording it for my future references.

In brief, I had been busy with work in 2019 and had to spent lesser time on training.

My training approach is rather similar to previous year - i.e. to clock sufficient mileage, and taper a month before the event.

While my fitness is not at best condition, I will depend on my previous ultra-run experiences to calibrate my pace/effort for the actual day. 

	Training Log for Craze Ultra 2019 (101km)
Phase	Week	Week Starting	Week Ending	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
MAINTAIN!	1	20 May 19	26 May 19		3.9	5	5	3.7	8.4	10	36
	2	27 May 19	2 Jun 19	3.7	3.2				12.3		19.2
	3	3 Jun 19	9 Jun 19	3.2	10.2		10		10	9	42.4
	4	10 Jun 19	16 Jun 19	10			3	10		10	33
	5	17 Jun 19	23 Jun 19	10	9		10			10	39
	6	24 Jun 19	30 Jun 19		10	6.9				10	26.9
	7	1 Jul 19	7 Jul 19		10	10		10		10.2	40.2
	8	8 Jul 19	14 Jul 19		4		10		10		24
	9	15 Jul 19	21 Jul 19		6.6		8				14.6
	10	22 Jul 19	28 Jul 19		10		10	4		21	45
PEAK!	11	29 Jul 19	4 Aug 19		14	3	10		25.6	12	64.6
	12	5 Aug 19	11 Aug 19	6.2		10	2.9	20		30	69.1
	13	12 Aug 19	18 Aug 19	21.1			10		21.2	21.4	73.7
	14	19 Aug 19	25 Aug 19		9.9	3			15	24	51.9
	15	26 Aug 19	1 Sep 19			10	10				20
	16	2 Sep 19	8 Sep 19			10			31	24	65
	17	9 Sep 19	15 Sep 19		10		10		21	14	55
TAPER!	18	16 Sep 19	22 Sep 19		10			10		21	41
	19	23 Sep 19	29 Sep 19		10		10			21	41
	20	30 Sep 19	6 Oct 19		10		8			10	28
	21	7 Oct 19	13 Oct 19			3			Race Day		0
											832.6
	Legends
		Intervals
		Back-to-Back

Craze Ultra 2018 - Queries on Carry-Along Items, Special Need Bag and Checkpoint(s) to Deposit Stuffs

I have received queries on (1) the items that I will be carrying along, (2) the items I will be packed into the special need bag, and (3) where am I depositing my special need bag. So let me share my plan. 

(1) Items that I will be carrying along

1. Energy Gel [replenishment]
2. Phone (loaded with the google map 101km route) [for distress call and for navigations]
3. Nail clippers [to remove waters from blister]
4. Plasters [to patch up blister]
5. Blinker Light [for safety to run at night]
6. $$$ and ID cards [to buy food and for identification purposes]

(2) Items that will be packed into the Special Need Bag (To deposit in CP4)

1. Energy Gels [replenishment]
2. Electrolytes [replenishment]
3. Socks [freshen up]
4. Singlets [freshen up]
5. Power bank + Cable [recharge phone]

(3) Rationales why I dropped off my special needs bag at CP4 is because

• will visit this checkpoint twice;
• best locations for replenishments (i.e. 44km and 74km).

Note: While CP1 seems to be the most ideal CP as we will visit it for three times (i.e. 14, 31 and 88km), I opined that it is either too early or too late for any form of replenishments.

I hope I have answered your questions and enjoy packing!!! I will see you at the start line soon!

Preparing for Craze Ultra 2018

Reference : Craze Ultra 2018

BACKGROUND

The Craze Ultra 2018 will be happening on 3 Nov 18. I will be attempting the 101km event once again.

PREPAREDNESS STATUS

For this year's event, I did not have much time to train as I was quite busy with other commitments hovering work and life. I ended up running much lesser but I made it up with hiking at Bukit Timah Hills regularly.

Though I have lost a fair bit of weight and pass my health checks this year, I don't think I have sufficiently conditioned this time round... But I still hope that I could complete this race for the third time.

Training Log for the Last Few Months

Oct 18  - 120 km+

Sep 18 - 207 km

Aug 18 - 96 km

Jul 18 - 78 km

Jun 18 - 130 km

SET TARGETS

My primary Target set is to complete this race.
Secondary Target is to complete it within 21 hours. this would mean that my pacing for the entire race (inclusive of rest intervals) must be < 12min/km (or 5km/hr).

PREDICTING COMPLETION TIME PREDICTIONS

Anyway, I did some Data Analytics based on my previous run data and attempted to predict my race time for 2019. Let us wait and see if my prediction is accurate. :)

COLLECTED DATA FOR 2016 AND 2017				2018 PREDICATION BASED ON DATA ANALYTICS (DA)
Cum Distance (KM)	Cum Time (2016)	Cum Time (2017)	Average for 2016 and 2017	Cum Distance (2018)	Cum Time (2018)	Pace (2018)
0	0h 0m	0h 0m	0h 0m	0	0h 0m	8m 19s
12	1h 33m	1h 34m	1h 33m
13.5	1h 52m	1h 45m	1h 48m	13.7	1h 54m	9m 2s
21.5	2h 58m	2h 59m	2h 59m	22.3	3h 21m	9m 24s
30	4h 41m	4h 20m	4h 31m	30.9	4h 50m	9m 43s
37	5h 56m	5h 39m	5h 48m	44.5	7h 13m	10m 33s
50.5	8h 34m	7h 48m	8h 11m	52.7	9h 16m	10m 32s
62	11h 30m	10h 18m	10h 54m	59.2	10h 24m	10m 51s
71	13h 5m	11h 51m	12h 28m	65.7	11h 53m	11m 23s
79.5	15h 12m	13h 34m	14h 23m	73.9	14h 1m	11m 53s
89	18h 17m	15h 29m	16h 53m	87.5	17h 19m	13m 3s
101	21h 16m	18h 43m	19h 59m	101.2	22h 0m

TO BE CONTINUED

For now till to 3 Nov 18, do stay safe and see you at the start line.  :)