Me, my Ipod and Lactic Acid

When running, the only thing you’ll ever need is a pair of fresh legs, and an IPOD! I tell you why …

Yesterday I was training at NUS track in the afternoon, but due to the rain, the training kinda went into ‘overtime’. As it ended late and I had a 4.30pm class, so practically I had to rush off from there. Usually going back I would take a bus from NUS to Clementi MRT.

Take the train, drop off at Boon Lay interchange and hop on to 179/199 to NTU … but this ‘genius’ thought, hey why not try the available direct 198 bus from NUS to Boon Lay interchange instead.

I thought the bus is a direct route that would go straight to the interchange, but noooooo … it had to wind around the Jurong area before reaching the final stop.

Plus the bus driver was driving so slowwwwww and so there I was, in the bus, my face looking constipated, sitting down with lactic acid still ‘present’ in my body as I’ve yet to cool down properly to ‘flush’ the lactic earlier. I was rushing and had skipped the cooling down part. Plus I didn’t finished my body workout.

Definition: Lactic Acid – During intense exercise, such as sprinting type activities, when the rate of demand for energy is high, lactate is produced faster than the ability of the tissues to remove it and lactate concentration begins to rise. It is what makes your muscles burn.

Its buildup is what makes your muscles tire and give out. Lactic acid will be gone from your muscles within an hour of exercise. You get sore one to three days later. The time frame is not consistent

Most athletes will know that lactic acid feeling is damn horrible. You body speaks of ‘I wanna die’ and your head feel as though it wanna pop. Hahaha … and I’ve to endure it for the whole stretch of the bus ride. At least if I were to take the usual route, I could walk the lactic off.

Haiz, I reached for my lesson half an hour late. I’m such a moron … lesson learnt.

And oh yah, back to the topic at hand.

So after my lesson, I can feel a wee bit of lactic still. Though scientifically proven, the lactic is gone after an hour after the onset of last high intense workout, I still feel the need to flush the lactic out.

I grabbed my IPOD, put on my trainers and off I go for LSD (Long slow distance running). I ran from my hall to the SRC stadium, hmmm I still felt fresh. Onwards I continued again.

Then I reached the end of NTU, hmmm still going strong, I ran again.

I passed by the City Harvest Church, should I turn back? Nahhhhh, I continued

I then reached the new Jurong stadium. Should I return ‘kebelakang pusing’? … I didn’t, onwards tonto!

I finally reached Boon Lay interchange, hmmm in my thought, “Hey this is bloody far” … Still I pressed on

I was whizzing by Jalan Bahar by now, that’s when I finally decided to run back home.

I felt like Forest Gump seh. “Run Sha, Runnnnnn”. Hahaha. Well the whole LSD took around 50 plus minutes. I bet all my lactic are totally flushed by then eh! Hehe. I did the normal routine of cooling down and finally finished my earlier body workout that I didn’t completed.

After washing up, I did a search online about lactic acid. There’s actually alot of myth surrounding it. It’s not actually a body waste product from workouts but a fuel. And the notion without oxygen, that lactic acid will builds up is actually ‘wrong’.

You need to actually train your mitochondria to properly offset the lactic onset. What they recommend to build up your mitochondria is short interval training, overdistance or LSD. And hey I just did that earlier!! Yeaaaaaa

Well I’ve been doing plenty of cardio and overdistance lately. So I do hope my lactic threshold will be up a notch by now as in next 2 weeks, I’ll start specific track workout. That means high intense training which equates to plenty of lactic acid moments. Yikes!

Like my advisor said, “We may be fit, but we’re not fast yet”. I’m glad I didn’t run the 1st AllComers or I’ll get ‘owned’ probably.

My recent timetrials indicate that I’m still lacking in alot of areas. I’m not as ‘fluid’ in running as previously before my injury. Coming back from an injury is a pain in the ass as you’ve to start all over again.

And oh yah about the IPOD, I think it’s a great companionship for your runs! Do get them if you’re a runner. I took my IPOD yesterday out for a spin, put it on skipless play and set the songs on random shuffle. I found myself shouting the words out at times.

Shuffle is the best part of owning an IPOD. My favorite thing is hearing a song I haven’t listened to in months or the strange way certain songs flow even though they’re by different artists.

Beyonce’s “Check on it” was on shuffle when I hit the halfway mark, Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” reminds me not to run too close to the bus lane, while Skid Row’s awesome “In a darkened room” really gave me a second wind to run my later half of the run.

So there you go! Get an IPOD … thanks Paul