I remembered I read somewhere in the Internet saying that running will make you smarter. That article seems to be written by some sort of authoritative expert in the subject and it has lot of supportive arguments to support that notion though I can't quite remember what those are.
Anyway, I would be more than happy to buy that as I do run quite a bit during the recent few years (but I am not so sure whether I run entirely to get smarter.) However, the empirical result of my experiment of one doesn't quite seem to fit...
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After 5 laps of warmup and some light stretching, KW and I lined up in the common start line of the track. It was dead silence between us. We both knew what laid ahead, a grueling 20 laps tempo run, targeting 2:00/lap each.
As my sixth sense (I do have some of those, in case you don't know) told me I might run into trouble counting 1 to 20, the plan was simple, just count 1 to 5 for four times instead.
The first 2K was a breeze. Every time I crossed the common start line, I pressed that BIG RED button and the Polar clocked faster time than 2:00, every time without failure.
BEEP...ONE ..Good, 1:58 ...
BEEP...TWO ..Not bad, 1:59...
BEEP...THREE ..Well done, 1:58...
BEEP...FOUR ..Yes! 1:59...
BEEP...FIVE .Yeah, right on target, deadly accurate, 2:00...
Somehow, after the first five laps, things got a little harder. The Polar seemed to refuse to show anything faster than 2:00.
BEEP...ONE ..Hmm... 2:01 ...
BEEP...TWO ..Oops, need to pick up a bit now... 2:01...
BEEP...THREE .. just push a little faster, you dump aXX...2:01...
BEEP...FOUR ..WHAT? I thought I told you to go faster?...2:03...
BEEP...FIVE ..Damn! still've got 10 more laps to go... 2:02...
The effort of the second half of the time trial was definitely tripled that of the first half while the lap times were getting much slower.
BEEP...ONE ....2:01 ...
BEEP...TWO ......2:03...
BEEP...THREE ......2:03...
BEEP...FOUR ......... 2:05...
BEEP...FIVE ............ 2:05...
After six ks running at the tempo pace, things were getting blurry. At this stage, I was really struggling. My breathing was heavy, I was clearly panting. And the target of averaging 2:00/lap was a long long goner. All I cared at this stage was counting how many more laps to go.
Endure, endure and make it to that starting line and I've got 1 more down.
Now, only five more laps to go, I can handle that.
Just hang on, forget about that darn thing of 2:00, just hold on and finish the damn run.
BEEP...ONE ..OK, four more to go....2:05 ...
BEEP...TWO ..OK, 2 down, three to go, hang in there....2:04 ...
All the while, KW stayed silently somewhat 1 meter behind me (Hey, KW, that's called drafting and that is cheating, just in case you are reading this.) At this point, he must had figured out that I wasn't anywhere near to be able to clock 40:00 for 20 laps, so he started to pull away from me.
As he smoked me, my competitive instinct was awaken and I started to push really hard too. The consequence of that reckless response was quick to show, my right calf started to pull immediately and that must be due to the lactate accumulation.
Now that was the beginning of a different ball game. It wasn't so much about achieving 2:00 per lap or chasing KW anymore, it was just a matter of survival and finishing of the run.
Having not option at hands, I slowed down and fortunately, the cramp settled down.
Just three more to go, hang in there....
At this point, the lung and the legs really started to hurt like hell. All I wanted was just to finish the 20 laps and pack the run. All my mind was thinking at that moment was just making it to the finish line again one more time and I would stop there (it amazed me that I could keep cheating myself to repeat that again and again, though I am not sure that I am too smart to cheat myself or I am too dumb to be cheated.)
I couldn't care less for the lap time so I didn't even bother to look at the watch anymore.
BEEP, two more to go ...
BEEP, YEAAHH..ONE MORE, let's just pump up a bit ...
As I started to lap on the final, KW was already some 100 meters ahead of me and the gap was gaining fast. Though I tried very hard pushing my legs, they didn't quite seemed to response. As I turned into the last straight and started to sprint, I saw KW just crossed to finishing line. Somehow, he did something really strange. He didn't stop there as usual and continued to run. That puzzled me a lot and I thought may be he was trying to cool down a little.
As I crossed the finishing line finally (what a relief pressing that BIG RED button, BEEEEP! So soothing!) I saw that KW was not way cooling down. He was clearly pushing harder and faster.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.. Don't be such a jerk. You don't have to run an extra lap to show off how good shape you are...
As he finally came to the finish line again and stopped running after that(puffing and panting like hell that his lungs almost dropped out, I am sure!), I asked whether he had run 21 laps. He seemed to be a little puzzled and not too sure himself, as he replied "...Ughh....may be...I think I did!"
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When I sat down in front of my desktop computer and looked at the log of the Polar Pro Trainer, I noticed a time of 38:40 for the time trial.
WHAT? How could it be!
I started counting the lap.
"1..2..3..4..5......19".
19! There was no 20!!!
The plain fact of knowing that not only I failed miserably at the task of doing an average of 2:00/lap, but also failed mysteriously at the simple act of counting 1 to 5 four times really hurts. What relieved me a little was the fact that KW also shared the same problem (even though he had gotten the counting right, obviously he wasn't too sure himself too.)
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Now, to that wise guy somewhere in the web who claims running make you smarter, I have got a question for you.
"Of all those more than 13,000 kms that I have run in the last five years, how come I still couldn't count straight from 1 to 5, correctly, huh?!"
Crank on.
Kinta Adventure Tour
1 week ago
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