Longest Swim of my life

Just when other runners will be heading for their LSD on a beautiful sat morning, I decided to head down to the pool for th 3rd time of the week. at first thinking of doing 20 laps front crawl...but int he end, i headed for 30laps of Long Slow Distance Swim.....30 laps of 1.5km is something i never swim continuously for before ever since i was born.... i started out slow and steady...the first 10 laps was still ok but still, i hit the strain and my stroke went haywire after 10 laps....terrrible....if u seen my second 10 laps timing, it was >1 min slower than the first....but i pushed ona nd managed to maintain the same pace for my last 10 laps compared to my 2nd 10 laps.....and i completed the whole 30laps in 45:13min. I would probablycarry with this 3 swim a week routine for the next 3 weeks with 2 weekday swim of 20 laps and one "LSD" swim on sat morning. 10 laps for 14:15min 10laps for 15:30min 10laps for 15:27min Total = 45:13min cheers...............a limping runner, a struggling swimmer

Another 1km in water

Decided to pop by Geylang East Swimming pool after work for a swim and to checkout the crowd in the evening....as expected...this ulu, difficult to reach place has much less swimmers than other pools... so i tried 20 laps of breaststroke today......wow....i took a time of 26min 17sec..this was about 2 min off my freestyle.....hmmm....but breststroke is definitely more siong for long distance than freestyle because of all the popping up and down...more movement needed especially the legs.....did not time my 10laps split but i believe is definitely faster than the 2nd half.....felt very strain after about 12 rounds but managed to struggle thru and finish it. hopefully can swim in coming 2-3 days.....keep this going for a month before i start to do brisk walking.... cheers..........

Cannot run on land, so run in the water

Decided to do more swimming to maintain my fitness and also to train up my upper body strenght and endurance. went down to Clementi Swimming pool to join Sgrunners monday regular swim. There is a training pool which is only 0.8m deep and was very empty so i decided to do my first timed 20 laps freestyle in it. Seriously never timed my more than 2 laps swim ever since i was borned. And this is the first time i do 20 laps after about 4-5 years. and i never go swimming for more than 10 times per year. Swimming in swallow water is more difficult than normal deep pool due to the "increase resistance" of the water. i tried to maintain a constant pace....finished 10 laps in about 13:30min...and i finished the 20 laps in 28min exact....not bad for the first time...maybe next time i will do breast stroke 20 laps (should be faster since my breast stroke is better than freestyle). After the swim, i went over to the deep pool to do some rehab and fitness maintainence....threading water for 20min with "underwater running".........dunnoe how to explain...some new method i trying out........ cheers.......................an injury is a lesson learnt for improvement

New shoes on the Run....but leg breaks down

posted this on sgrunners forum few days back......NUMBER 1 FAILED: 10 wishes and hopes for 2006: 1. injury free 2. no bronchitis 3. finish half marathon below 2hrs 4. maintain my marathon time within 5hrs 5. run for at least 10hrs in MR25 ultramarathon 6. buy no more shoes till 2007. (just got one already) 7. to start swimming once a week 8. be with sgrunners 9. finish quarter marathon below 50min 10. achieve gold in IPPT ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ went for a slow long distance run with S.....planned to covered 21km at east coast end to end....also first time trying out my new Asics Nimbus VII....We went at a very slow pace...about 7min/km for first 14km....the weather was getting hot too and S felt Dehydrated at about 12km. Kept asking her to drink and we started to take walk breaks.....along the way, we met bugs who just finished is 32km from the west and sotong doing his "ninja" run.... my legs was feeling ok until the 14km mark when i started to feel the pain that has been tingling ever since my first run after Ultramarathon. As we walk more after 14km, i started to feel pain at the side of the right knee area....we decided to stop and walk back to MacD at the Ford road end....as we stopped our run, my right legs broke down.....i almosted collapsed to the floor but managed to steady myself.....this is bad...very bad.....i limped and walk and gradually, i was able to walk properly......we took 40min to walked back to MacD and went home after a quick breakfast... I reached my home downstairs and started to climb up my house at the 4th floor....dead...my right legs cannot goes up....i pulled my arms and limped and hopped and struggled and finally reached my house.......took a quick showers and decided to rub some muscle rub.....looked at my knees and found a swollen area at the outer side of my knee....looks like is a tendon....i decided to rub counterpain cool and reduce the inflamation....and i guess i hit the right spot finally....for the past week, there is this pain that comes and goes and i just cannot find the problem area... I went down to my chinese physician for a checkup and rub.....he twisted and pressed....finally found that I actually got 2 injuries....one is at the underside of the knee area which i think is the ligament and the other is the swollen area which is the tendon...dunnoe what these called exactly in english.....but he said it should be the initial ligament injury that caused problem on the tendon during running.....he pressed up and down and even caused my ITB and calves to pain.....serious matter....after massaging, he applied chinese medicine on the plaster and bandaged my knee area....gave my some oral medication also.......he said once i dun feel any pain at the affected side, it should be okie...... i guess, i will be ack in 2 weeks time for him to checkup....cause the problem now is i do not feel any pain at all durng walking and even during short runs to know whether i have fully recovered......not a good thing for the new year........ so many shoes in the house and yet, i can only admired them for the next few weeks.....should going for swim more often

Running Gear I Updates AGAIN!!: A pair of Free Nike Shoes

Brand: NIKE Model: Pegasus 2005 Date of Birth: 20 Jan 2006 This is the second time...that after i got a new shoes, another pair will appeared few days later. The last time was because of Salomon sales that i got my XA Pro 3D at a very good price. This time round, this second pair is FREE!! I must really thanks the person in-charge from MR25 to make a replacement shoes for me. As told in the MR25 post report, I got this pair of NIKE Free but both were of the same side, furthermore, one is free 5.0 and one is free 4.5. As i already asked the person in-charge after the prize presentation whether the shoes can be changed as the size does not fit me, he said is not possible. That is why when i discovered the same side pairs that i did not bother to call them up again.However, someone who got the other pair of the other sides of NIKE Free 5.0 and 4.5 called him up about it that he managed to trace to me and make a replacement. Actually, the 2 pairs of NIKE shoes are of US size 8 which actually fit well for the other runner, that's why he went to bring this up and also he is a member of MR25 and knows the person in-charge. Now back to this shoes....to my surprise, the new pair is Air Pegases 2005! One of the most reliable series of shoes from NIKE which they started this model years back. I got a size US11 this time, a bit too small for marathon but good enough for distance up to 10km. This shoes is a bit narrow cos the width is actually normal D but fits well and comfy. hopefully after few runs, it will expand a bit for my feet. With this sudden appearance of my 6th running shoes on the shelf...i guess, i got to rotate and run more for the new year.

Running Gear I updated : A new year, A pair of new running shoes

Brand: ASICS Model: NIMBUS VII Date of Purchase: 14 Jan 2006 The supination on my right legs is killing my long running life. After my last marathon, my right legs started to feel the strain for a week.....I was wearing Mizuno Wave Rider VIII..looks like the cushioning for this shoes is not enough for my supination. I was eyeing the new cumulus VII...but unfortunately, the cushioning did not feel good enough (feeling abt or a bit better than my WR8)..in the end, after i tried this nimbus, i took a long time to consider and decided to take the risk of buying this to save my legs first....this shoes is defintiely much much heavier than my cumulus VI and Wave Rider 8...but the support and cushioning is superb!!! something not very comfortable for me is the higher and thicker cushioning at the heel. I am not a heel lander so this is not a good thing for me. (it will weigh down my foot)..... also after advise from the sales manager, i decided to take this pair...to my surprised also, my size really increased after all the pounding on my legs....----> SIZE 12!!!!

The SUN is out!!!

Finally...after days and days or rain and cloduy sky, the sun is out bright and smiling this morning.......woke up at 7am....and put on my gear and dash out of my house.....it was still gloom with the sun still behind the building....the sky started to turn bright as the nice cooling relaxed breeze blowing across the land....more and more runners were out this morning from family, kids, the usual old men and regular gals and guys... FIVE Big reasons for a good run this morning: 1. The Sun is out but not hot 2. The wind is blowing but not strong 3. The ground is damp but no water 4. The air is fresh 5. I stepped out of my house!!!! Did a very fast run this morning...did not intend to....usually preferred a relaxed run to start the day....but...went out too fast...and i clocked 22:28min for the first lap....wow...usually keep above 23:30min....i can feel the strain but my legs just cannot slow down...due to the 5 BIG reasons....so i decided to do some tempo and see whether i can last till the end....keeping my pace constant, i managed to hit the "finishing line" at 42:52min...and this is a RECORD for me!!! fastest ever run for 2 rounds Bedok Reservoir....my 2nd and last lap of 20:23min is also the fastest 1 rd ever did for the 4.3km.... went to checkout my previous fastest run here....wow!! dated 29 june 2005 at 44:26min!!! route:Bedok Reservoir 2 laps Distance: 8.6km Time taken:42:52min Average pace: 5:10min/km Shoes: Mizuno Wave Rider VIII lap time: 4.3km for 22:28min@5:13min/km 4.3km for 20:23min@4:44min/km Cheers..............for the sun, for the runners

intervals!!!!! yucks!!

Today rain was as per past days.....long and heavy....so decided to make a trip to toa payoh sport area...so that if it rain, i can go gym for some workout, if it is clear, i will head for the stadium track... it was still raining when i left office but to my surprised, it stopped completely when i reached the stadium.....so intervals was on it has been at least 5 yrs ever since i stepped onto a track to do itnervals or even to run....memories of hard runs, intervals, fartleks started to appear in my brain.... the track was wet so did a run on lane 3....targeted 6 rounds of 400m...1:45min per lap with 1:30min rest....i guess today did quite well with the timing as i was able to keep around 1:40min and not feeling very strain or over-stress.... lap 1: time - 1:32min pace - 3:50min/Km rest: 1:35min lap 2: time - 1:37min pace - 4:02min/Km rest:1:31min lap 3: time - 1:38min pace - 4:05min/Km rest:1:53min lap 4: time - 1:39min pace - 4:07min/Km rest:1:36min lap 5: time - 1:42min pace - 4:15min/Km rest:1:41min lap 6: time - 1:39min pace - 4:07min/Km cheers......

Rain! Rain! rain......but still run

Rain has been long and unpredictable for the past days.....weather forecast said this will go on for few more days.....which is very difficult for us, runners to plan our schedules...... last sat morning....raining days...intensity changes from heavy to medium to drizzle....but still J, S and me still went on to meet at MR at 8am...we decided to venture to new grounds.....we took about 1hrs and 30min from MR to Bukit Timah visitor centre....we followed the official marked route by the National Parks....trek and jog along the way, went thru mud, road, dirt tracks, jungle trails....and finally ended the 12km route.....we took a small rest and decided to take a cab back to MR to get our stuff....cos we are too tired to run back the 12km...plus the drizzle, it will be quite draining on us. last nite, i took a ninja appearance at clementi pool to meet up with the sgrunners who were having a long slow swim.....i worked an hour late and ended up an hour later than the rest....only managed to finished 12 laps..... This very morning...woke up at 7am which i plan to do a long slow run....but the rain got heavy and pouring.....i went back to sleep...woke up at 9am and found that the rain finally stop...so i took a gamble and rush out of my door....went door to the reservoir park and took a long slow comfortable run round the reservoir 3 rounds....pickup a bit of speed on the last as the sky darken....took a quick warm down and the rain came back again....and it never stop even until the night at the moment while i am typing this........ Hope the rain will reduce in the coming days so that the runners can be out for run again....... cheers.............

WALK!!!!

I admit, I have been reluctant to wake up in the morning for several good morning for my runs for the past 15 months of my "serious" running life.....i decided to be discipline to wake up at 6.15am every morning An idea suddenly struck me when i was resting during my badminton session on tuesday nite with my colleagues.....i was walking around the court to recover when i suddenly thought "Y not i do brisk walk in the morning for my rest day?"...maybe i can improve my walk speed which will helps in my next marathon or ultramarathon.... so i decided to tried it this morning...i did a faster than normal walk round the reservoir to see how fast i can complete the 4.3km....my normal run round the reservoir takes about 22-24min.....there i am....walking while people are running (normally i run and see people walking).......and I finished in 41min 59sec...don't know if this is good or not....at least is a first gauge of my walking speed....maybe if i do it consistently, i can finish within 40min....so with improved running and walking speed, i should be able to finish my marathon faster and more comfortably...... Cheers.......

Races to take part in 2006

Today...the 5th day of 2006 a few of my friends have started their training plans....and will be taking part in KL marathons in effectively 2 months time. I will not be going due to my busy personal and work schedule but i probably be joining their training as part of my base conditioning. This year ultimate goal is to stay injury free and bronchitis free.... However, there should still be some plans on the events to take part this year. No difference from last year, here are the ones i will take part if they still exist today: 1. 10km MILK Run 2. 10km New Balance Real Run 3. 10km Mizuno Wave Run 4. 21km Sheares Bridge Run & Army Half Marathon 5. 42.195km Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon (3 Dec 06) 6. 12hrs MR25 Ultramarathon (31 Dec 06) Unlike others who will be targeting PB for every race, every month, every year, I will not have any target for any of these races as the most important objective is to continue enjoying the runs/events..... Run for Feeling Best, Not personal Best Walk for more running, not run for more injuries Cheers...................

A New Year Ahead......

This is the very first post in the new year of 2006. First, Let me wish all my friends, running mates and reader of this blog, a very Happy New Year!!! The year of 2005 was full of surprises and fulfilment for my running life and i hope the coming one will be also another fruitful one. I was hit by a relapse of bronchitis during aug and sept which i had improved my running times significantly...this has really dampened my confidence and i managed to build my confidence again after some last minute training and able to complete my virgin marathon at a comfortable and reasonable time. Surprisingly, i had also completed my first ultramarathon and came in 8th position overall on Christmas day. For 2006, the only thing i really hope for is to keep my health at bay and hope i will be free from any illness that may affect my training plan and progress. I will be planning my running for the first 6 months soon...but at for the next 2 weeks, i will still be recovering from my damaging ultramarathon a week ago. Cheers...............running is for life