Author: Stamina Sports

Running an ultra trail race in Malaysia’s hot, humid conditions is no joke lah. It’s not just about being fit – you need smart preparation, mental grit, and some creative strategies. While standard training advice is good, sometimes you gotta think out of the box.

In this article, we’ll share 31 tips – some normal, some cham – to help you conquer a humid ultra in Malaysia. From getting used to the heat to staying hydrated, fueling up to cooling down, these tips will give you an edge when things get tough.

So if you’re ready to level up your humid ultra training, read on for 31 unorthodox tips to help you tahan the heat and humidity.

Training and Preparation

1. Simulate race conditions by training in a sauna or steam room.
2. Run in the hottest part of the day during your training runs.
3. Wear extra layers to mimic the effects of heat and humidity.
4. Carry a spray bottle and mist yourself during runs to stay cool.
5. Train during rainy days to get used to running in heavy rain and mud.
6. Practice running in wet shoes to prevent blisters and discomfort.
7. Do HIIT workouts to boost your endurance and heat tolerance.
8. Train on different terrains like beach, jungle, and hilly areas to prepare for various conditions.

Pacing and Effort

9. Run at a ‘lepak’ pace to manage your effort and save energy.
10. Run by feel, not pace – your body will tell you when to slow down.
11. Take walking breaks to lower your heart rate and core temp.
12. Adjust your goals and focus on finishing rather than time.
13. Embrace the suck and accept that it will be tough.

Hydration and Electrolytes

14. Monitor your urine colour – if it’s dark, drink more water.
15. Drink small amounts frequently rather than chugging at aid stations.
16. Carry electrolyte tablets and take them with water.
17. Freeze your water bottles for a built-in cooling system.
18. Drink coconut water for natural electrolytes and carbs.

Fueling and Digestion

20. Eat smaller amounts more often to avoid GI distress.
21. Experiment with liquid calories like gels and drinks.
22. Avoid high-fiber foods that can cause bloating.
23. Bring your own favorite snacks in case aid stations lack variety.
24. Munch on salted peanuts or keropok for a quick sodium and energy boost.

Cooling and Protection

25. Wear a wet bandana or buff around your neck.
26. Wear a hat with a brim to shade your face and neck.
27. Use cooling sleeves to protect your arms and keep them cool.
28. Pour water over your head, back, and chest at every opportunity.
29. Wear light, breathable fabrics that wick sweat.
30. Use a combination of sunscreen and UV-protective clothing to shield yourself from the intense Malaysian sun.
31. Wear polarized sunglasses to reduce glare and eye strain.

Extra Tips for Rainy Days

32. Wear a lightweight, waterproof jacket to stay dry without overheating.
33. Use anti-chafing cream to prevent skin irritation from wet clothes.
34. Carry spare socks in a waterproof bag to change if needed.
35. Watch your footing on slippery trails and wooden bridges.

Remember, every runner different one, so try different things during training to see what works best for you. With the right mix of normal advice and unorthodox tactics, you’ll be ready to tahan your next humid ultra trail race in Malaysia.

If you’re an advocate of injury-free running, you likely place a high value on warming up before your run and cooling down afterward. However, this alone is not enough. You might also engage in interval training to further improve your abilities, but there’s a chance you’re not executing interval training correctly.

Therefore, it’s worth ensuring a proper understanding of interval training and “recovery intervals.”

It’s well known that the benefits of interval training lie in the recovery intervals. Recovery intervals are defined as recovery periods following high-intensity training, allowing the body to prepare for the next about of high-intensity exercise. Recovery intervals can involve slow jogging, brisk walking, or resting, and their purpose is to help the body recover to maintain or improve performance in subsequent exercises.

When discussing recovery during interval training, three variables need to be optimized:

1. Recovery time
2. Mode of recovery
3. Activities during recovery

To answer these questions, consider the following factors:

• Who is training?
• What type of training is being performed?
• What is the training goal?

Today, we will discuss this important topic of interval training!

Interval Training Structure: Repeats and Recovery

In “interval training,” the “interval” refers to the recovery periods between fast runs, and “repeats” refers to the specific durations of fast runs separated by specific paces.

“Repeats” represent the fast-running parts, while “recovery intervals” represent any distance and time between them.

When designing training schedules, recreational runners are recommended to structure recovery in two ways:

• As a set distance (e.g., 16 x 200m with 200m slow jogging recovery)

Choosing the correct recovery length is a broad topic that covers all possible situations and outlines the fundamental science behind what happens during recovery so you can make more informed decisions in your training.

Generally speaking, interval training can be divided into two categories:

1. Repeats performed at intensities above your lactate threshold or critical speed
2. Repeats performed at intensities close to or slightly below your lactate threshold or critical speed

Recovery Time for Repeats Above Lactate Threshold or Critical Speed

When running speed exceeds the lactate threshold (MLSS) or critical speed (CS), your body is in a state of metabolic instability (e.g., oxygen uptake gradually increases to VO2 max, heart rate gradually rises to max heart rate, and blood lactate steadily rises).

In these exercises, the role of recovery intervals is to allow these metrics to return to a baseline so you can repeat the exercise without reaching exhaustion.

The critical speed model is a useful conceptual tool; it suggests that running above critical speed consumes limited “anaerobic” energy reserves. Once these reserves are depleted, you will be too fatigued to continue. For example, running continuously at a 5K pace for 5 kilometers will deplete your anaerobic energy reserves from 100% to 0%.

Now, if you divide the same amount of running into 5 x 1000m with N seconds of recovery, the difficulty of the exercise depends entirely on the duration and intensity of N.

The length of recovery intervals follows an exponential decay process with a half-life. Recovery happens quickly in the first 10 seconds and then slows down.

For example, the intramuscular phosphocreatine (PCr) levels, an excellent indicator of anaerobic energy dependence, show that recovery occurs quickly in the early stages and then slows down.

When conducting high-intensity 300-meter repeats at 1500m pace, a recovery time of three times the repeat length is necessary. However, this recovery speed varies with an individual’s ability.

Recovery Time for Repeats at or Below MLSS

When engaging in high-intensity aerobic exercise (e.g., CS-, half-marathon pace, or marathon pace runs), during recovery intervals, you can choose between two goals:

1. Clear residual metabolic by-products to prevent rapid lactate accumulation
2. Stress the body to improve its ability to convert lactate into an energy source, a process known as lactate oxidation

These are very different goals and therefore require different strategies for recovery interval lengths.

1. Maintaining Control in High-Intensity Aerobic Training

For classic Daniels’ cruise intervals (e.g., 10 x 3 minutes at T pace), it’s possible to briefly exceed lactate intensity during the repeats. Short rest intervals can help clear metabolic by-products and bring the metabolic state back below MLSS.

In this case, due to the short half-life of the exponential decay function of recovery intervals, 1 minute of recovery time is sufficient for runners in good condition. Stronger runners might reduce this time to 45 or even 30 seconds without much trouble. Even for relatively long T pace repeats (e.g., 3 x 10 minutes at T pace), only 2-3 minutes of recovery is typically needed.

2. Increasing Muscle Lactate Oxidation

For half-marathon and marathon runners, advanced techniques involve using fast recovery intervals to put the body in a physiological state where lactate produced can be used as an aerobic energy source.

This requires two conditions:

1. Increased lactate production in fast muscle fibers
2. High carbohydrate oxidation rate capacity in slow muscle fibers

This can be achieved by alternating between fast but fully aerobic pace repeats (e.g., marathon or half-marathon pace) and “recovery” intervals that are still quite fast—only 10-15% slower than the repeats.

This fast recovery is necessary to create a favorable metabolic condition for lactate transport and oxidation during high-intensity activity. Therefore, recovery intervals should not be too slow to burn significant amounts of lactate during the intervals.

This is why top marathon and half-marathon runners use “alternating pace training,” such as 10 x 1k (105% MP) / 1k (90% MP).

Completing a kilometer at a fast recovery pace allows them to spend more time in a state of high lactate transport and oxidation, thus gaining greater training stimulus for these abilities.

What to Do During Recovery?

Four options: standing, walking, jogging, or fast running, with speeds ranging from very easy running pace to quite fast recovery intensity.

1. Standing Recovery
   Most coaches do not recommend complete standing still. Being completely still for more than thirty seconds is inadvisable. Walking takes advantage of the “muscle pump action” to maintain blood flow, which standing lacks.
2. Walking Recovery
   Walking recovery is used when you want to recover quickly without gaining any additional benefits. For example, 6 x 300m at 100% 1500m pace with 4 minutes of walking recovery.
3. Jogging Recovery
   For healthy runners, jogging won’t significantly hinder recovery.

Example: 4x1600m at T pace with 1 minute and 30 seconds of jogging recovery. At T pace, lactate accumulation doesn’t exceed the threshold, making the recovery half-life short enough that 1 minute and 30 seconds of jogging is sufficient.

4. Running Recovery: Easy, Moderate, Fast
   To understand the impact of intensity during recovery intervals, refer to the illustration showing black and white circles representing different recovery intensities.

Notice that resting recovery is faster than continuing exercise. Black circles represent true rest (sitting on a bike), showing that:

1. Recovery is slower
2. Recovery values drop below the baseline

The speed of recovery isn’t depicted, but it’s faster initially and slows down later, with lower overall anaerobic capacity regeneration at higher recovery intensities.

Using Easy, Moderate, and Fast Running Recovery

Incorporate low-load Fartlek-style accelerations in normal easy runs to help your legs feel stronger for the next day’s training.

Example:

• 60 minutes easy run: The entire session lasts 60 minutes, mostly at an easy pace.
• 30 minutes acceleration run: Within the 60 minutes, spend 30 minutes alternating accelerations.
• 30 seconds fast run: Accelerations are 30-second fast runs at around 5K pace.
• Every 2 minutes and 30 seconds: Each fast run is followed by 2 minutes and 30 seconds of easy pace recovery.

This method integrates short bursts of high intensity within a long easy run, enhancing training efficiency while avoiding overtraining. It’s suitable for runners who want to maintain aerobic base while adding some anaerobic endurance.

Example:

• 8km easy run + 3 sets (2.4km at 101-103% marathon pace, 800m easy to moderate recovery)

Running 7.2km directly at 103% marathon pace might be challenging, but running 2.4km intervals below T pace (around 106% MP) shouldn’t significantly tax your anaerobic reserves. Easy to moderate recovery prevents 2.4km repeats from being too fast.

For half/full marathon runners, this can serve as a foundation for more structured training with quick recovery intervals.

Fast Recovery Intervals

Fast recovery intervals are beneficial for elite runners to break through training plateaus. Proper pacing skills are crucial to execute such training correctly. Overtraining by running repeats too fast or recovering too quickly can be counterproductive.

Previously discussed principles of fast recovery intervals create a metabolic state in muscles favorable for lactate oxidation. Running intervals at or slightly below MLSS for long distances (e.g., 1km at T pace or 2-3km at marathon pace) elevates blood and muscle lactate levels.

High-intensity recovery during intervals helps the body transport and oxidize lactate for energy.

Example:

• 8 sets (1km at 105% MP, 1km at 90% MP)

Such training can evolve in three directions:

• Higher training volume (e.g., 10 x 1k / 1k)
• Greater stretch (e.g., 5 x 2k / 1k)
• Faster recovery pace (e.g., 8 sets of 1km at 105% MP, 1km at 95% MP)

Summary

Most of the time, using time-based recovery is optimal. Distance-based recovery is useful for team training or when you want more flexibility to adjust recovery by feel.

After repeats faster than MLSS, the goal during recovery intervals is to regenerate some of the anaerobic energy consumed.

For repeats at or below MLSS, the two goals are either to prevent repeats from being too fast or to mobilize the body’s lactate transport and oxidation mechanisms.

In the first case, short slow jogs are best. In the latter, you should run faster for longer (about 3-4 minutes) at 5-15% slower than MLSS.

Recovery is an exponential decay process with a half-life, so it starts very quickly and then slows down. Short recovery for moderate-intensity repeats and longer recovery for very fast sprints or extended moderate repeats are needed.

Recovery speed depends on your aerobic capacity. For sub-2:50 marathoners, fast recovery intervals below MLSS mobilize lactate oxidation as fuel, a particularly useful skill. This is why top marathoners use recovery intervals only 5-15% slower than their repeats in MP and HMP training, a secret to elite marathon training.

Are you an ultra marathoner seeking to conquer new challenges and surpass your personal bests? Look no further than Katsuo Stamina, the revolutionary sports supplement designed to elevate your endurance, enhance performance, and accelerate recovery. Crafted in the esteemed labs of Japan, this cutting-edge product is poised to redefine your ultra marathon experience.

Key Benefits for Ultra Marathoners:

1. Enhanced Endurance for Unmatched Performance:
   As an ultra marathoner, endurance is your greatest asset. Katsuo Stamina works tirelessly to amplify your endurance levels, enabling you to push past limitations and achieve new milestones. By converting lactic acid into energy and preventing muscle fatigue, this powerhouse supplement ensures that you remain resilient throughout your grueling races.
2. Protection Against Muscle Fatigue and Damage:
   The relentless miles of an ultra marathon can take a toll on your muscles. Katsuo Stamina acts as a shield, safeguarding your muscles from damage and reducing the risk of fatigue. With its innovative formula, this Japanese-made product minimizes the buildup of lactic acid, allowing you to maintain peak performance from start to finish.
3. Rapid Recovery for Continued Success:
   Recovery is paramount in the world of ultramarathoning. With Katsuo Stamina, you’ll experience a faster recovery process, thanks to its ability to alleviate muscle fatigue and pain. By reducing CK levels in the blood, this supplement accelerates your body’s repair mechanisms, ensuring that you bounce back stronger after each race.
4. Certified Quality for Peace of Mind:
   Katsuo Stamina stands as a testament to quality and integrity. As Asia’s first sports supplement to receive dual-certification from Informed-sport and Informed-choice, it guarantees a doping-free and safe experience for athletes. With Katsuo Stamina, you can pursue your passion with confidence, knowing that you’re fueling your body with the best.
5. Relief from Leg Cramps for Uninterrupted Performance:
   Say goodbye to debilitating leg cramps that threaten to derail your performance. Katsuo Stamina offers effective relief from leg cramps caused by muscle fatigue, allowing you to maintain your stride and stay focused on the road ahead. With this unparalleled support, you can conquer even the most challenging terrains with ease.

Conclusion:
In the world of ultra marathons, every advantage counts. With Katsuo Stamina by your side, you’ll unlock new levels of performance, resilience, and recovery. Elevate your ultra marathon experience and surpass your limits with the power of Katsuo Stamina. It’s time to redefine what’s possible on the trail.

Being in market for a while and a revolutionary product developed in the Japanese labs with scientific research, Katsuo Stamina has helped many athletes at their quest of improving their performance with various sporting activities.

Katsuo Stamina was developed with these in mind?
• To speed up the breakdown of lactic acid
• To improve endurance
• To prevent muscle damage
• To shorten muscle recovery time

How do one use with the correct dosing of Katsuo Stamina during an activity?

Primarily once we begin our workout, Lactic Acid is formed and over time it will sore our muscles (a natural body reaction) to communicate to our brain that we need to slow down. That’s basically is our body’s own defence mechanism.
Katsuo Stamina helps by flushing out the lactic acid present and also to convert the remaining into energy thereby allowing us to feel lighter with our muscles and continue at the pace/speed where we are going at.

The picture illustration show’s the recommended dosage of using Katsuo Stamina. It is important to note that as with all activities, the recommended to “How to use Katsuo Stamina” begins with a single dosage (in this case 3 tablets, 30 minutes before the start of the activity.
Some consumers often question the need to consume this single dose before the activity and wonder why. When we begin our activity, even before our body could feel the effects of the onset of Lactid Acid, well into 20 minutes, our body will start to have accumulation of Lactid Acid. Although Katsuo Stamina tablets are manufactured for easy absorption, it is therefore advisable to consume them 30 minutes before the start of the activity to cover for the entire duration of the activity .

Following the illustrated chart, the next dosage is to be followed accordingly.

Road Running
• Half Marathon – A single dose (3 tablets) before start
• Full Marathon – 2 doses (6 tablets) before start AND/OR A single dose (3 tablets) before start with midway the 2nd dose (3 tablets)
• Ultra Marathon – 2 doses (6 tablets) before start with 1 dose (3 tablets) every other 20km into the activity.

Trail Running
• Trail Run (less than 15km) – A single dose (3 tablets) before start
• Trail Run (15km to 30km) – 2 doses (6 tablets) before start AND/OR A single dose (3 tablets) before start with midway the 2nd dose (3 tablets)
• Trail Run (above 30km) – 2 doses (6 tablets) before start with 1 dose (3 tablets) every other 15km into the activity.

42.195公里的馬拉松是一場挑戰人類極限的運動，能否順利完賽，不僅取決於平時科學的系統性訓練，還考驗著賽日當天的狀態，而有效的補給在狀態發揮上則充當了非常重要的角色，
補給不全面或不及時，輕則影響比賽表現，重則危及生命安全。

因此馬拉松途中會設置不同的補給點向跑者提供各式各樣的補給品，如果按照補給目的來分，大致可分為以下幾類：

一、補充糖原
糖原是身體能量的重要來源，跑馬過程會大量消耗肌肉中糖原含量，使體能下降。適量且及時補充糖原有助於維持人體血糖水準平衡，縮短體能恢復的時間。CP點用於補充糖類的食物很多，除了常見的米飯、麵條、饅頭等富含碳水化合物的食物，還有能量膠和能量棒這樣的快速補充糖類的運動營養補給品。

二、補充水
成年人體內約70%的成分是由水組成，水分以汗液的形式排出，對人體散熱、體溫調節產生影響。運動過程中缺水容易出現口乾舌燥、氣短的感覺，及時補水確實是非常有必要的。

三、補充電解質
汗液排出除了帶走水分，還會帶走大量含鈉、鉀、鎂、鈣等元素的電解質，這些微量元素的失衡會造成跑者疲勞，頭痛、噁心以及抽筋，像鹽丸、各種功能性飲料含有鉀鈉鈣鎂等微量元素，正好滿足跑者的需要。此外一些水果（例如香蕉），富含鈉、鉀、鎂等多種礦物質也是補給品中的座上客。

除了糖類、水和電解質，有種物質很容易被人忽視，那就是蛋白質。蛋白質作為肌肉組織的重要成分，經歷馬拉松這樣的高強度運動後，人體的肌肉會有不同程度的損傷，更需要攝入蛋白質修復損傷的肌肉細胞和生成新的肌肉細胞，預防傷痛，增強力量。

但是從食物中獲取的蛋白質會面臨消化難、吸收慢的尷尬境地，這時補充肌鰹強蛋白質賽中補給包（簡稱“賽中包”）就能幫到你解決這些難題。

賽中包的乳清蛋白含量高，乳清蛋白屬於動物蛋白的一種。對比植物蛋白，乳清蛋白
是一類非常優質的蛋白，含有人體所需的所有必須氨基酸，就像母乳一樣，非常好吸收，是蛋白類的“精品”。

肌鰹強賽中包添加支鏈氨基酸（BCAA），對防止肌肉損傷、防止肌肉流失，增加肌肉力量有很好的效果。因為氨基酸屬於小分子蛋白質，和通過腸道消化再吸收的方式不同，小分子蛋白能夠直接被小腸壁吸收，吸收更快更徹底，對受損肌肉細胞修復和對抗身體疲勞效果更明顯。

除了支鏈氨基酸（BCAA），賽中包還特別添加膠原蛋白，膠原蛋白被人體吸收之後到達軟骨組織，修復關節軟骨和肌腱，就像“潤滑劑”一樣，改善激烈運動帶來的關節脹痛和僵硬感。

對於有乳糖不耐受症的跑者人群，他們對補給品的選擇有一定顧慮，肌鰹強賽中包也貼心地考慮到這一點。乳糖不耐受症是由於人體乳糖酶分泌少，導致不能完全消化乳糖引起的非感染性腹瀉。肌鰹強賽中包不含乳糖成分，跑者可放心食用~

下次去跑馬，除了補給糖、水和電解質，記得帶上肌鰹強賽中包，輕鬆補充蛋白質，為肌肉運動再加點力量！

過去的肌肉疲勞理論認為，乳酸是造成肌肉疲勞、限制運動表現的直接原因。但是隨著更多研究問世，這些關於乳酸的理論假說被推翻，人們似乎開始走向另外一種極端：乳酸和肌肉疲勞毫無關係，事實真的是這樣嗎？
 

我們先來看看什麼是乳酸？

介紹乳酸之前，我們需要先了解ATP和人體供能方式這些概念。

ATP（又名三磷酸腺苷），是人體活動的能量來源。我們人體的供能方式有三種：磷酸原供能、糖酵解供能和有氧供能，雖然三種供能方式不同，產能有效程度不同，但最終目的是一樣的，就是生產ATP來為人體提供能量。

而乳酸就是從糖酵解供能方式來的，是糖原（人體供能原料）燃燒不充分的代謝物。乳酸對應的英文名稱有兩個：Lactic acid或者Lactate。中文翻譯雖然一樣，實際卻是兩種不同的物質，Lactic acid是一種弱酸，能夠被人體迅速分離成氫離子。Lactic acid被分解後，剩餘的部分會和鈉離子（Na+）或鉀離子（K+）結合，形成乳酸鹽（Lactate）。

肌肉中和血液中不會存在太多的Lactic acid和Lactate，這得歸功於乳酸脫氫酶（Lactate dehydrogenase）這種物質，使得乳酸的含量始終保持一個相對平衡的狀態。
 
 

乳酸是怎麼產生的？

上面講到，乳酸主要來自於糖酵解供能方式，那具體是怎麼產生的？

一般情況下，人體運動強度不大，身體通過消耗氧氣使糖原得到充分燃燒，產生大量能量，這時身體的供能方式為有氧供能。如果運動強度在短時間內迅速增大，有氧供能的效率不能滿足身體需要，身體就會轉入糖酵解供能方式，糖原燃燒不充分，只能生成少量能量 + 大量乳酸。（過程如下圖所示）

實際上，人體無時無刻都會產生乳酸，像日常走路、洗碗、搭公交等行為都會產生乳酸，之所以乳酸數量保持相對穩定，秘密就在於人體本身就有足夠的乳酸脫氫酶將其分解掉。

隨著運動強度增大，乳酸生成速度越來越快，乳酸脫氫酶數量和分解速度不足以應付，乳酸會越積越多。想要快速分解乳酸，意味著需要更多的乳酸脫氫酶，或者額外的物質來誘導身體產生更多乳酸脫氫酶。

此外，日常我們進行大量運動，如跑馬拉松，出汗較多後服用鹽丸來補充身體流失的微量元素，這也與乳酸鹽有一定的關係。乳酸鹽（Lactate）的形成會消耗大量的鈉離子（Na+）或鉀離子（K+），這時身體需要攝入鹽丸等補給品來補充相應的微量元素。
 
 

乳酸和身體疲勞有什麼關係？

在了解乳酸和疲勞的關係之前，還需要了解乳酸閾值（Lactate threshold）這個概念。人體血液裏乳酸濃度隨著運動強度的增大逐漸上升，前期處於較為平穩增長的趨勢，當到達了某個點，血乳酸濃度由原來的平穩增長變為急速增長，這個轉捩點就是乳酸閾值，單位為mmol/L（毫摩爾/每升），代表身體由有氧供能為主轉入無氧供能為主。

每個人乳酸閾值都不同，總體來說專業運動員的乳酸閾值會比普通人的要高。這意味著什麼呢？意味著運動員和普通人進行同等強度的運動，運動員不會累得那麼快，能堅持更久，耐力更強，乳酸閾值的高低代表著人體清除乳酸的效率能力。運動員主要是通過進行有效的運動訓練產生大量乳酸，提升乳酸脫氫酶清除乳酸能力。所以乳酸閾值相對高，代表清除乳酸的能力越好，人在運動後不會輕易感到疲勞。

 

乳酸是不是一無是處？

當然不是。乳酸雖然是無氧代謝的產物、会影响运动表现，但是如果有足夠過的乳酸脫氫酶將其進行分解，它就可以變成丙酮酸，消耗氧氣得到充分利用，重新變成供人體使用的能量。因此乳酸利用得好，依舊是運動者的好朋友。

这里要注意了，服用肌鲣强后不仅减少了你体内的乳酸堆积，还能促进乳酸转化成能量，为你持续供能，提升你的耐力。

肌鲣强处理乳酸的作用机理是其所含鲣鱼蛋白肽可以刺激人体合成更多乳酸脱氢酶。研究证明，人体内的乳酸脱氢酶（Lactate dehydrogenase, LDH）能催化血液中的乳酸转化成丙酮酸（一种能量物质），乳酸堆积减少，身体疲劳感自然下降。