Last Run of the Year: very Long very SLow Distance

Honestly, I did not planned to runm so far....i thought 13km was enough and i head for my bed

It was a day many are awaiting for...even i also if not for my weak body....but i went down only at 1545hrs to support our ultramarathoner who intended to run 24hrs from 7am to next day 7am.....the cut-off for her is supposed to be 4.30pm before we start running off to bedok reservoir from MR...however, after she is back from her 6th and there are 2hrs 15min, she decided to go for the last one...requesting me to go with her so I agreed.....even though I am not with my trail shoes but my 600+km old adizero SN....

SHe fell twice in the trail and walked for most of the distance so is not difficult for me to follow....we reached the golf driving range and rain drops started to fall....sky a bit dark...it din got heavier......got into the broadwalk after the ranger station, the rain got heavier and heavier....looking at the sky, passing shower and true enough stopped after 5min...

The trail is surprisingly not muddy even though the day before was rainy heavily......at the golf course, i decided to feel weird on my left shoes....something flapping....i continued.....out on the road...TLR past us on her 9th!!! we managed to complete the last lap in about 2hrs...then i realised my sole of my left shoes:

anyway, this shoes just finished 700km of duty:

at 7pm, changed up and got ready.....suddenly, the rain fell....cfred followed us...we went up the bridge and decided to stopped for th heavy shower to pass.....after 10min, the rain got lighter and we went on...

Her legs was tired after the 7laps at MR...so we walked.....reached the first petrol station....she got craving for juice and got a packet of ribenia...we went on walking.....and started to run a bit here and there.....in inside the sennette estate...craving for kopi came...so we stopped at kopitiam for kopi break.....we went on and went into circuit road....ice-cream craving came...and brought a drumstick and munch away...it was walking all the way and the reached Bedok Reservoir support station at 10pm, covering 13km in 3hrs

At the support station..she got her dinner and philips gave her a bit of massage before i went on to follow her on the first run....walking 3.5km and ran last 800m

teelee came and took over lap 2 and 3 as I took my hong kong mee dinner

I took over from teelee and went on the 4th before sera took over for 2 laps at 2pm.......she was covering about close to an hour for every lap but as she went on, she went faster and faster.....i covered the 7th lap and she has ran much more compared to first few laps.....sera took over the 8th as I decided to went for my last one at 9th.....before handing over to sera again fro the last and 10th lap.....i was already a running zombie....and she successfully completed her 24hrs run covering 130+km....Well Done

Good bye 2007! Welcome 2008

2007 was a year of ups and downs for me....probably the busier year for me as well for my personally life and my national commitment....job was stagnent and bad news came at the last month of the year

In terms of running, it was a year of bottom deep pit....signed up 3 events and only managed to went for one

1) Mizuno Mount Faber Run - kena fever and got to sticked to my bed

2) Sheares Bridge Run and Army Half marathon - went and completed in 2hrs 30min...probably my slowest

3) Standchart Singapore marathon - signed us but due to the hectic national duties that ended the day before, i decided to give it up before anything happens

I got to skip ultramarathon again which is very very disappointing

Not much running but I got many new running shoes and gears....

training was up and down....my health was always in very bad state that I cannot run for most part of the year......started to feel my old engine running rusty after 3 decades on earth

anyway, putting aside all the downs of running....2008 is a year to look forward to....no resolution in particular, just to be fit and healthy again......

Last sin of the year!!!

I know I should not do it so early....but the offer is just too tempting and irresistable and so I did

Salomon XA Pro 3D:

together with the same old pair

X-country in the concrete jungle

Bored at work...not here nor there....i was thinking what to do after work.....run....running in the abnormal way....something i saw this indian old man did in my neighbourhood...i should try that

someone said....it might rain after work cos yesterday was too good a day.....looking at the sky...looks promising....last to left office...was playing warbook actually after office hour...slacker

sky looks great....but but but.....i stepped out of buangkok MRT...raindrops keep falling on my head (sounds familiar?)....drizzle came and the sky is not dark at all....some high clouds tat is all..took out my umbrella as everyone on the road dashing towards shelter....but once i reached my house...it was dry again...

Changed up and head out to the road.....Doing the abnormal way....instead of running on the concrete pavement, I went only to the grass patch between the pedestrian pavement and the road....something good abt buangkok field is that the drainage for the road longkang is not expose....so i can run continously for one loop without any problem except for busstop and MRT station, got to run on the hard pavement..in fact, the grss patch here is quite wide for running for most stretch

Running on grass is not easy, i purposely wore adizero CS without support...grass is soft but uneven...u nvr know what is under it....u cannot push off like normal...lifting up using the POSE is the good way....good for strengthening the ankles..u got to be focus on where u going to step and the potholes and obstacles ahead......i went for any easy pace for 3 rounds....average about 6min/km pace....

2km - 12:10min@6:05min/km

2km - 12:21min@6:10min/km

2km - 11:42min@5:51min/km

Felt so good and easy....in fact, all the pain and aches are gone after the run....and muscles felt much better than before the run.....hopefully, i did not run over any dog poo or kill any snails in the process

Eschew the shoe By Sam McManis (The Sacramento Bee)

An article on Barefoot runners

Runners go toe-to-toe with the competition

After office adventure LSD run

I decided to do a after work run.....incorporating a recce run from my office to MR and after that MR towards home

Weather was threatening but in the end...good weather for run when i changed up and head for the road.....

Started at Mazda showroom along macpherson road.....running towards the city direction

Along macpherson road

turned into sennette estate in front of the RSH building

out of the estate, cross over to potong pasir and reached the canal

running along the canal

the underpass under CTE is only 1.8m high..lucky i am not that tall

reached braddell road and run along it...ran past SPH

Temple at the other side of braddell road

unfortunately, after reaching MacRitchie reservoir, dizzle came and i have to keep my camera...took a short toilet break and went out of the park....got onto marymount road and ran towards bishan park....and reached AMK MRT....continue running to hit AMK ave 10...turned left and running along it....reached Cheng San food centre and I decided to stop for the day...complete the whole run of 11.6km in a slow sightseeing pace of 1hr 24min

A plate of fried hokkien mee and Milo Dinosaur to satisfy my stomach needs after the run

Christmas present: Ending a one year search for the red shorts

2 years ago at MR25 ultramarathon, I was wearing my adidas red running top and bottom.....except for my shirt which gave me nipple abrasion at abt 70km, my running shorts proved to be perfect for my running....causing no tight abrasion at all.....so far this is the only shorts that give me abrasion free run especially during wet weather....

Unfortunately, the rubber lining of the innner wear for the red shorts got wore out and disintegrated and broke..this caused the inner wear to cause abrasion to my tight during my run....so i downgraded this to sleeping shorts....and begin to search for the same short to replace it....

It was on 23 dec evening....I happened to be in the north and went to northpoint shopping centre (a place which i went for less than 5 times in my life)...i decided to went into RSH for a look and suddenly, this red short caught my eye...looking at the size and price...my life brighten up!!! Grab it after trying it on and went home a happy man

The original Red adidas running shorts

The new response spilt running shorts

Going at 30% off original price

resuming intervals 8x400m

boss suddenly announced that 3pm can go off for christmas eve.....caught off guard and din plan for anythign after 3pm...decided to make use of the time to go down to the stadium to resume my weekly intervals after one week break

decided to do 400s and try to do 8 times......as body is not used to running at 5pm in the afternoon....whole body was very tired and heavy...but still managed to clock some reasonable timings

400m:1:37min

400m:1:36min

400m:1:33min

400m:1:34min

400m:1:31min

400m:1:33min

400m:1:33min

400m:1:28min

Marathon plan from Sunday Times

Remember in Oct, I posted the links to the pdf files for Sunday times 15 weeks articles for marathon

I remembered that at the bottom of the articles, there is a prescibed training plan for the week....so I very free and tabulated all the weekly mileage and put into a table below:

First time that caught my eyes are the LSD progression on sunday....I was shocked to see that without having LSD between 21km and 30km, it was a huge jumped to 30km on the 12th week....and the previous longest run is 21km on the 8th...i thought in week that there is a typo error and the 1 should be a 2 on the sunday column....without progressive training to condition the body, this will only increase the possibility of injury when distance is push to 30km and beyond on the actual marathon

If this is programme is general and for beginner, it was another disadvantage, the rest time between weekday runs is insufficient....instead of running 4 days continous, running on alternate days will be a better idea and change the run into some other X-training....

anyway, I am not someone qualified to comment on this.....but this training programme is definitely a no go for me.......

cool weather LSD

It was a cool morning and i actually managed to fight against the comfort of my bed and change into my running gear....

decided to just go 2km more than last week....as i need to settle something later, i decided to just run ard the neighbourhood

started at 6.40am.....i went towards fernvale before turning north to the deserted LRT line before turning into punggol estate....warmup was ok although running was not smooth.....got a bit of tired when i hit Punggol MRT.....it was a struggle as i exceeded an hour of run.....knee started to pain, ankle not feeling good...posture was out of form.....but i am glad, I finished the 14km in on piece...coming in 1hrs 22min

With all the pains coming in after 10km....I need to go back to my old ways....I need to go back to MR

Shoes used by ultramarathon elite, Scott Jurek

Ultramarathoner Scott Jurek shared his favourite shoes used for his training and his ultramarathon record breaking feats...u will be surprised that a racer is used for his badwater ultramarathon at death vallery

Scott Jurek's favourite shoes

another good weather for running....

Sunny in the morning....meaning might be bad in the afternoon...lucky it did rain int he afternoon and stopped before work ends...managed to reached home and hit with perfect weather.....hook up my gear and went for my usual 6.3km loop with my adizero CS for the second time

finished in 34min comfortably

DIY popiah!!

When talking about popiah, every food review on TV, radio, newspaper, magazine or blog will not miss this 69 year old popiah skin store...

I decided to see what all these rave is about regarding this simple dish called POPIAH at KWAY GUAN HUAT today...I managed to jio 3 other hungry scanvenger to come along for this food adventure

Situated along Joo Chiat Road, this old traditional store is not difficult to find:

We saw the popiah skin making on the spot:

Just next door

Is where the small shop that actually sells Beef noodles and also the DIY popiah with newspaper and magazine cuttings

We rejected the menu for the beef noodles and took a look at the DIY popiah menu....it cost $8 for each pax...and took our orders for 4......we were told that they ran out of hard-boiled eggs and they will give us more veggie claypot and also the 2 kueh pie tee as replacement.....

After 5-10min wait, all the ingredients arrived and the started right away

There is actually not a lot of stuff for us unlike those we see outside which usually has a few more and what we got are

The fresh handmade popiah skin from next door

bean sprouts and green veggie

and the main ingredients and the most important part of a popiah in a claypot....there are one fresh shrimp for each pax

inlcuding kueh pie tee and the fried crumbs...and i must say, the crumbs are superb

Not in the photos are also sweet sauce, garlic paste and the very spicy and fragrant chili...so we just follow the steps that we saw outside when we buy made popiah and started to create our own

and we did quite a good job (at least it looks like popiah sold outside

We had about 3 popiahs for each pax and with the last bits of the claypot veggies

I tried to use what ever is left

and made a last small one...it was very damp because of the gravy

Fate of the last popiah.....

and we managed to clear everything

and everyone had a healthy and fulfilling lunch....I must say the turnip in the claypot is superb, it is very juicy as it absorbed the thick and tasty the gravy...although with simple ingredients and without the hardboiled eggs, our popiah is not worst than those that are selling outside..one good thing about DIY popiah is that we can control the amount of gravy we want and the amount of ingredient to be wrapped in..although $8 per pax on a high side but i would definitely recommend anyone who has never tried this before...

Punggol point adventure run

Plan to start run at 7am...woke up at 6.15am...floor is wet...saw pple walking with umbrella...that's it...i decided to go back and sleep for 30min more and check it out.....now saw pple walking without umbrella....and the brighter sky also seems to show no rain....so decided to go for it

started at 7.30am....ground was wet..but still ok..i decided to venture out to a new route which is a short cut to punggol marina by foot using my 2 yr old salomon XA pro 3D...the midsole threatened to fall apart soon

So many runners on the road....the perfect weather is rare to get.....i went straight along the LRT track instead of the usual right turn to Punggol MRT....end of the round is a U-turn...i went under the tracks and reached a LRT station....tehre is a gate and a small road

I followed the small road and came out very near to Punggol marina entrance....ran along the road along a fence till i same a opening and went into the wide sandy path....weather perfect....reached the seaside and ran along the coastline till reaching punggol point before turning right into the main punggol road

it was 2 upslopes before reaching track 17 that I turned into and run under the LRT tracks again.....just near the fence of a station....i saw 3 WILD BOARS!!! came out of the vegetation for their breakfast....i guess, they knew i was near and went back to their hiding......it was muddy along this track till punggol mrt...took a pee at the bus interchange before running back the same route along punggol

It was a perfect weather run.....completed 12km in 1hr 20min..this is the type of run i need now every weekend......at least my XA Pro 3D still intact after the run

New Salomon shoes on the rack!!

I was really very free the whole afternoon that i dropped by Novena Sq for a walk....starting with running labs....nothing exciting...new balance...more colours are out for last season shoes...NIKE...nothing new yet...adidas warehouse...found a pair of chiba pro of my size but not interested.....then i decided to dropped by World of Sports and did not find any salomon there...so i decided to drop by WOS's OUTDOOR upstairs....and found these 2 exciting new shoes on the racks:

SALOMON XT WING

Found a youtube review of this:

SALOMON XA PRO 3D ULTRA

I am probably more interested with the XA pro 3D ultra with a newly designed midsole

Running marathon in CROCS!!!

found this on the web......

from POSETECH:

Ed Bugarin, a former Delta Force member and founder of the fitness program STREND, completed the race in 3:31:49 - wearing Crocs. "It's not about the shoes," said Bugarin, 57. "It's all about the running technique." Bugarin ran a 54-mile race last weekend. He also did a 30-mile training run on Saturday

LINK

Good weather intervals 5x600m

A rare morning when I woke up...sun shining brightly outside the window....i thought rain might come in the afternoon...but it did not...even until after work

The server is running damn slow...one click too >1min to respond..so i decided to slip out of office earlier....a minute before official time off..managed to catch an early bus and reached home at 6.50pm and got out of my home at 7pm sharp

Went a bit fast on the warm up run to the stadium...took 2min faster than usual....i broughta long 2 water bottles so that I can place one at he 200m mark.....as I decided to do 5x600m at about 2:30min for every run....4min set of run and rest ....so i took < 19min to complete my run....stretch and cool down and i am home by 8.30pm....

600m:2:34min

600m:2:31min

600m:2:31min

600m:2:27min

600m:2:25min

A good run overall with sustainable effort....4th run then started to warm up my engine and i decided to stop at 5 when my throat threshold was reached....

My adidas collections...........

Rubber burning test: Adizero CS trial run

At 5+pm...it was raining heavily in the west, it was pouring in the central..but my office area is cooling and no water from the sky......came out a bit late and got to wait 25min for the bus...and i know i will be home later and no time to run down to the track

Reached home at 7.30pm....the weather was perfect...no rain but the ground was wet....the after rain water came rushing down the pavement....So...i decided to try the adizero CS on my typical 6.3km route...

The first half of the run quite relax....some part of the route was flooded so i took it a chance to test the drainage and performance of the shoes when wet...i went into the water and damp my whole shoes.....after 5min....i felt dry again....it was good even with my cotton toes socks....

second half of the run was happening....slowed down at the hills before i pickup speed 2km away from the end point...

A crack sound and my right shoes crashed a snail!!! first time crashing the snail during run....400m away from the end point, my left shoes stepped right into a pile of mud!!!....

Finished the run in 34+min.....and my dirty shoes after the run:

Vertical sweat with heavy lactic acids......

Rain....comes everyday without fail

Reached home with a surprised stop to the rain.....but i decided against running to the wet flood road...so i sticked to my wet weather plan for today.....go vertical

did a 10min slow jog before i attempt to do a 2steps climb up 15 floors....first one was OK...lactic acid came at 12floor

took 3min to let my breathing calm down before the 2nd one.....leg warmed up and went a bit fast....lactic acid came at 10 floor

took another 3minn rest for the last one.......fresh legs for first 5 floors but lactic came at 8th!!! struggled to finished....at a slower time...enough for the day:

15 floors:1:34min

rest:3:11min

15 floors:1:31min

rest:3:15min

15 floors:1:39min

"New" Adizero CS: One that has finished a marathon

Thanks Dr to be P.....that I got this adizero CS which ran 65km.....which 42km was last yr marathon.....it has been in his kitchen for a year and hopefully, I can continue to make full use of it

This will be a very good comparison to my Chiba Pro which is sort of belongs to the same category of shoes but with very different torsion support.....

Back to the gravel/sand trails......

Took the opportunity to have a run back tomy favourite training ground: Bedok Reservoir.....did a slow 24:50min round to see the changes

I believe if I will to skip this run and come back one year later...i will not recognise the place

but i just cannot find any monkeys around

future hanging...........

Something has been bothering me thru out the week

It is defintiely not a good feeling when after a 2 weeks break from office that you heard a "bad" news

Our customer has given us notice to termination in 6 mths....which means if nothing happens in 6 mths time...i will be out of job

Meanwhile, the company is trying to source for another customer......only when in march then we will know whether we will be "closed" down or we are able to leave for other options outside

Is not a good feeling to know that out future is hanging and yet everyone is sticking together waiting for nothing to do in a few months time

about 2 years ago, we experienced the same....for 6mths, we are just waiting and doing nothing in office....lucky this current customer comes along.......and now, we are back to square one soon...........

good time for me to rethink......what should I do next.

But Running will NOT STOP...........

Interval restart!!!

Weather is wet for past few days...including today....rain stop before i got out of office and is still heavily dark as I got out of my house to jog to the stadium..the backup plan is to climb stairs

reached stadium at 7.20pm...did stretching and started at 7.30pm...decided to do 6x400m to restart my interval routine

first round did not push all out.....and recovery was fast...by 1min, I was breathing normal again.....second round maintaining and got a sec faster.....until the 4th round...started to few a bit of strain still panting at 1min rest.....the 5th was a struggle....by every round faster by 1 sec

took 10sec more rest before i started the last one and finished strongly

1:34min

1:33min

1:32min

1:31min

1:30min

1:26min

Probably the most satisfying interval workout since school days.......

Luckily, my speed-endurance is still there after 2 weeks of no running and lack of sleep....now is to slowly build up my stamina from scratch....

Pearl Izumi Streak!!!

Still remember I was looking at this wallpaper from Paerl Izumi and this shoes caught my eye....trying to find it on the web but failed

http://run-to-live.blogspot.com/2007/10/pearl-izumi-we-are-not-joggers.html

Finally, at the Sports and Fitness Expo 2007, I got this Pearl Izumi latest running shoes brochure and found it!!!

Streak is the name and light weight racing flats is what it is:

back to the short and sweet

It have been 2+ weeks from my last run.....i am determined to start one today.....left office on the dot and actually reached home very early.....i managed to start my run at 7pm sharp

Originally, wanted to go stadium do intervals......but i decided to do some conditioning run before doing so....so there i went to do the usual 6.3km loop

Speed control was bad and went out too fast for first half.....but i managed to pulled thru and finished in 36min

IPPT 2007

I failed to make myself healthy and fit enough to retake my IPPT for last work year.....so i missed a chance to get another $$ back from the government

IPPT this time is on the 2nd day after we got into our green......very rush....This year is the first yr I got "upgraded" to cat Y1 so requirements has dropped....

and I managed to get $200 from the tax i paid

did a 11min 35sec 2.4km....not bad for someone who just recovered from illness

Back to the civilian world

After 2 weeks of serving the nation, I am back finally......

it is a big day for most runners in singapore but i just slept my way away till late morning...too shack out from last 2 weeks lack of sleep with physical and mental stress

Week 1: tues to wed only slept 2 hrs and was away till thursday midnite...that is 2hrs of sleep in 72hrs with 2hrs walk from 20++ kg load in the middle of the nite

Week 2: monday nite only slept 3hrs and no sleep till thursday morning 6am ....concussed for 3hrs on thursday morning until nobody can wake me up........came back on friday and officially back to normal world on sat evening

The worst of the life in green has gone and .....recovery is still in progress.........

SCSM 07 race pack collection

Went down on sat and got these back home....subscribed to asiarunner's mag.....but sunday, i went back to return the championship chip and number tag

Back to the green and mud.........

3:55pm....thunderstorm at Punggol, Sengkang and Hougang

I wll be back to the green and mud to serve the nation for 2 weeks...will be back on the day before marathon

hope this is the last one before marathon.....and no rain for next 2 weeks....

Unexpected LSD

It was a nice sat morning....decided to join a fren who is preparing for her first marathon for her LSD today....She has planned to start at 8am which is about the time she will reach ECP onj the actual day....

Just when we reached ECP, the sun is out....wearing shades so we din feel so bad this morning.....started at the futsal (former tennis centre), we ran towards sailing centre.....very crowded ECP this morning with OCS having their run and also run-O-movie charity run going on.....the marathon pacers are also training as usual.....met a few familiar faces and my fren was quite surprise that I seems to know everyone along the way.....

took a U-turn at sailing centre and reached back to our start point at about 75min.....i actually decided to stop here covering 10km....but I decided to carry on......after she had her powergel, she surged ahead.....

I only lasted until the last toilet towards ford road end and stopped....decided to rest and wait for her return and join her back.....

my hamstring still aching and sore from thursday's workout....i took it slowly after her returned.....with the powe if ipod music, she went faster and faster.......and i ended up finishing 16km in 2hrs 05min..

a good run for me considered I did not do more than 10km for past 3months....and just recovered from my 2 weeks illness...but definitely got to prepare for more aching days ahead

How to carry energy gel during marathon.....

Wonder how to carry ur gel during ur marathon and u dun want to carry a pouch along?

After seeing the Pearl Izumi Race Belt at the marathon expo last year, I modified my race belt using the same concept to do it

I wonder why other sport companies cannot come out with something similar to PI?

light exercise

Ran down to hougang stadium last nite to just have a sweat out....do some statics exercise until legs almost cramp....... met this 48 yr old indian going around trying to destress from marathon by wearing last year finisher tee and walking around talking to pple abt running marathon....... wish him good luck

Run: Discovering the power of hamstring!

After getting out of the underground MRT station, which used to be called the white elephant, saw the weather perfect for an evening run.....walk fast fast home, changed up and head out of the door..

I have not been doing runs longer than 1km continuously for months......and i decided a half an hour continuous run will be good for tonite......i have been down for 2 weeks of no activity so i dunnoe how my body going to take the 30min

at first, I decided to do a out and back route which is 2.9km one way....this route is flat and should be sufficient for my target today...so i carry on headnig towards jalan kayu

After about 5min of run, my calves started to feel sore and tight...jialat, must be havent recover from monday's intervals....if i carry on like that, cramps will definitely set in....as i wanted to start slow, so the tendency is to use my lower leg muscles especially the calves to propel my body forward

then i decided to try to use the POSE/Chi method which emphasize on hamstring pull...hamstring is a big muscle which is normally under-ultilised by long distance runners.....

becos my calves are sore, i was able to isolate the control of my hamstring....just ignore the sore and just pull my feet from the ground.....i felt much better....

at the designated U-turn point, i decided not to U-turn back but carry on running along YCK road and turned towards buangkok green and back...this route has great slopes along the way

my body and legs has warmed up....the hamstring pull is effective....my legs are not feeling tired and running was smoother than before.....the calves soreness also went away after a while.....

these few days....my nose always give me problem, i always has phelgm in my throat not able to clear.....during this run...everything was cleared easily....breathing is good again....

I managed to finished the run in 37min without stopping in one piece.....The feeling of a good run is back again!!

More importantly, I finally able to feel the true Power of my hamstring!!!

The day after marathon

desperate intervals...........

The effect of illness and no exercise can be felt drastically over the last weekend...not say my nose has recovered....but is a viscious cycle that i have to break so i decided to do it tonite......reached home a bit late.....too 17min to get to the stadium...

30min left before it closes shop.....decided to do a short and sweet 5x400m...3min per run+rest

It was tough as my legs shivers before even i start.....by 3rd round, my whole body was tired except for my pairs of legs.....my core is very weak....my body felt like collapsing.....but i push on....and let my legs flow....with extremely bad posture....i managed to complete 5 of them

400m - 1:42min

400m - 1:38min

400m - 1:37min

400m - 1:35min

400m - 1:34min

but it was a great start to my running again.....

Salomon in TOWN!

Went to Toa Payoh WOS, din see any......

So I went down to Sport Town at Wisma....

and I saw XA comp 3($189) and XA Pro 3D XCR($239)

having 10% with member having additional 10%

too bad they did not have XA Pro 3D without gore-tex....which my colleague got hers at S$106 from Hong Kong

Salomon is back???

From what someone saw at World of Sports: http://www.sac.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1894 and the brand logo found at their website: http://www.worldofsports.com.sg/index.cfm?GPID=3 ...........I going to check it out tonite!!

New York City marathon Highlights

1) Women marathon world record holder, Paula Radcliffe won her second NYC marathon after giving birth to a baby daughter. Martin Lel, 29, of Kenya, the 2003 champion here also won his second NYC marathon title....More

2) Lance Armstrong after finishing his virgin marathon last year at New York City with a time of 2:59:36, completed his second in 2:46:43 NYC Marathon with his sub-2:50 target....More

3) Mrs Cruise, Katie Holmes wore an FDNY baseball cap, black pants and a purple tank top and finished the NYC Marathon in 5 hours, 29 minutes, and 58 seconds....More

4) Not forgetting my 2 amazing friends who also did well for their marathon stinct at the same time: Congrats to Lokun and Divey

Ryan Shay Dies During 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon

New York, November 3, 2007—Five-time USA champion and former NCAA champion Ryan Shay, 28, of Flagstaff, AZ, collapsed about 30 minutes into the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon this morning after running the first 5½ miles of the race. He was immediately given CPR and transported by ambulance to Lenox Hill Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:46 a.m.

Full Story

Another sad news for the athletes' World!!

I would like to extend my very deepest condolences to Alicia Shay and to Ryan Shay’s family.

book in my bag: Running

Miss the interval last nite......my throat acts up again after a ill-discipline friday nite..... 1 x fried chicken wing is more than enough to down me for a week......so i dropped by sengkang library again in hope to grab something to kill my free time (from no running) and found this book called "Running"

Interestingly, this book is written by a record holding middle distance runner called Dr Thomas Wessinghage from Germany

you can read about his here: http://www.doctorshobbies.com/DocPresentations/WessinghageThomas.htm

If you know German, his homepage is here: http://www.thomas-wessinghage.de/

What made me wanted to read further although the words are very small compared to other running books is the first chapter on Running technique, what he wrote is very logical and 100% agreed with him......

RETRO RUNNING

THE INTERNATIONAL HISTORY OF RETRO RUNNING IS SO RICH IN HUMAN EXPERIENCES AND SPORTS EXPLOITS THAT IT DESERVES TO BE WRITTEN. THE CHINESE HAVE BEEN PRACTICING BACKWARD WALKING - BACKWARD RUNNING FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. THEY ARE THE PIONEERS OF THIS EXTRAORDINARY WAY.

Interesting website on backward running at http://www.backward-running-backward.com/

Time To Rethink Your Marathon Training Program?

I am not training for marathon......

but what is stated is this new training model seems to be what i doing now...except i din do the long run...which i still trying to figure out how to do it

read with cautious...this is not for everyone

Running Times: Time To Rethink Your Marathon Training Program?

Back to RL run......long intervals

it has been at least 2 months since I last joined the thursday RL run....the last time was filled with ladies preparing for shape and GE women's run...

I decided to join back the run to say Hi to some of my friends there...I was late than usual..reached only at 7pm due to a long bus wait at my new office

Today seems to have more guys and the ladies who came 2 months back aer all gone except for some regulars

lucky today is esplanade kallang river route...Since I have not been clocking long runs up to 10km.....i predict i will not be able to finish the run if i do it the usual way, so i decided to do long intervals....8min run and 2 min walk recovering

Started out too fast for first 2 sets.....3rd sets started to feel the strain....but managed to reached the U-turn point 5km away at exactly 28min (end of 3rd run)....the return leg was a bit slower but more comfortable....

still managed to finish 6 sets for 10.3km in exactly an hour....

following the trend....Facebooked!

I am facebooked! Have u? first thing is to be kena bitten by vampire friends....werewolves, zombies also came...got a lousy cannot win race vehicle.....no $$ to throw food at pple...This world is getting much smaller with better technology.......

Burning the red rubber track

Weather this evening is perfect!

So I went to burn the rubber track again

decided to 400m again...last week only managed to do 5 set and my throat gave way.....i guess to do it slower.....so i decided to hit more sets tonite...but going slower than last week

1st went 1:40min

2nd went a bit faster at 1:37min

3rd maintained at 1:36min

4th started to feel the strain but maintained at 1:37min

5rd lost a bit of control on the speed and a bit faster 1:35min

6th lap still feeling ok for my throat and maintained at 1:34min

7th lap legs feeling better and went for 1:33min

I decided that 8th is enough for the nite and went for 1:27min

a good workout tonite.....getting addictive to intervals liao

look like i need another pair of racer soon f i will to do intervals every week

Hot hot insane run!

Have to give up my sat morning run due to some appointment....thought i will not have time to do a short one....today happened to have a short window of "nothing to do" so i thought is good to try do maybe a 10km...

But it was insane....cos i started run in the 2pm sun......i gave up after 6.8km for 38min.....not a bad run consider the speed i went under this condition.....walked about 3km home....no joke...

Marketing Themes for running.......

It is very interesting to see that in recent years, Sport companies are putting more emphasis on the sport called Running

On very obvious trend is that companies created special slogan for their running marketing campaigns and here are some of them:

Brooks "Run World Run" at www.runworldrun.com

Reebok "Go Run Easy" at www.goruneasy.com

Pearl Izumi "We Are Not Joggers" at www.wearenotjoggers.com

revival of interval again!!

As title suggested, I just did another interval at the stadium yesterday nite

The original plan is to meet up with TL for a run at the stadium..later found out that C also want to come along..unfortunately, TL last minute got project meeting so he din make it....

It started to pour after lunch....NEA website indicated thunderstorm in whole singapore.....hoping that rain wil stop in time....at 5.30pm..it was still drizzling....i got out of office at 6pm and was happy to find that it stopped!!! Rushed home and changed to meet up with C as we find out way to the stadium......

It was already close to 8pm (closed at 8.30pm) and C plan to do 6x800m......i decided just to tag along for abt 4 laps or before i hit my throat threshold

Each set is done in 5min which include run cum rest time....first round went well at 3:32min...second round came a bit slower as C thought went too fast....3rd one was good as we went back to 3:32min....did 4th at 3:29min and I got to stop....C went on to finish 2 more sets....

Did a one lap cooldown walk and the bell rang!!! stadium close shop liao

legs still feel OK today even though 2 consecutive nites also do intervals..a good start to my revival of my fitness........and the feeling of the old track training interval is back.....

What is Running!

Pearl Izumi: "We Are Not Joggers"

Saw this wallpaper at Pearl Izumi "We Are Not Joggers" Theme site:

The shoes in the wallpaper is quite chio....wonder what model is this....cannot seems to find it in their website.....

If anyone know, please let me know

Finding back my running form

Ever since I am back from green, my bad health came back again....my nose run badly every morning and my sensitive throat always have excessive phelgm...this really stopped me from exercising again

went to see chinese sinseh....and she said is best to try to exercise again so that my body can build up the self-resistance and it will help in my condition...so she said...start short exercise within my throat threshold and build up my body slowly again

After raining for past few days in the evening...i thought this evening with clearer sky looks promising for me to go for exercise....managed to get out of my office on time

got out of buangkok MRT and saw....dark storm clouds brewing at sengkang/punggol but clear sky at hougang side...so i fast walk home and change up my attire...managed to got out of my house at 7pm and jog towards hougang stadium

reached stadium at about 7.20pm...took 17min to run 2.5km with several traffic light stops...met a friend and started chatting for a while

feel like doing intervals so i decided do about 5 of them....at about 1:40min per lap within my throat threahold...first round did 1:33min...damn, is too fast....so try to slowed down on second round....1:34min.....still feeling ok...1:32min...1:32min and finally, last round did 1:31min and felt my throat threshold reaching.....so i decided to finish there....we a bit of phelgm to spit (at least not vomit)

did a bit of statics exercise before i went to kopitiam nearby for dinner

tonite's intervals looks promising...look like my running is still there although i slack so much for past 5 weeks....

SCSM tips from TheSundayTimes

From Aug 19 onwards, at the sports section of Sunday Times, our very own local ironlady, JW will came out with articles to provide tips and training program for those preparing for this year marathon on 2 dec.....

I decided to find the online archive and found it at

http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/sp/marathon/index.html

for those who ahve never run a marathon before and dunnoe what to prepare...this archive did provide some valuable tips

Out of the Green

After 5 weeks of greens.....I am back finally...i must said that I did not clock much mileage...eat and sleep more than usual....more like a relaxing long holiday from me.......is still an unknown if I will be there at the line on 2 dec.....but real running will starts soon

first LSD after AHM : SK to ECP

Ever since AHM, I have not done a run more than 10km.....for past 4 weeks, havent done a run more than 30min......i missed the LSD feeling....

Found out that the pig family are doing their LSD at ECP, starting at 5am!! i decided to just run down to meet them after their run for makan

I managed to wake up at 5am,my past 4 weeks early wakeup has helped my to get out of my bed easily this morning...... hooked up my adizero SN and got my water pack with my dry clothings on before I headed out of the dark road.....is always nice to run so early in the morning as the air is cool and less fumes from vehicles on the road

it was a difficult run after an hour due to lack of conditionng...by the time i reached ECP, i cannot "feel" my legs.....so i stopped at F2 after an hour 45min....total distance is about 15km.....waited for the guys to return....met some familiar faces along the way.....the guys returned after i waited for 2 hrs and finally, we head for famous hoe nam prawn mee at macpherson

evening sweat out.......

i was walking with "pain" due to sore quads muscles and also sore shoulder muscles for past 4 days....... first time kena sore till so long...morning still sore so din run.....anyway, went down to collect my new IC

took an afternoon nap before i change up my running gears....decided just to do a simple usual 10km loop around sengkang punggol...took exactly an hour....at least the sore are not so bad now

Dropped by Sengkang library and was surprised to find the Runners' World issue for Oct 07!!!

interesting issue with albert salazar talking abt his escape from death from his heart attack and also a review of trail shoes

taking a break..............

I am taking a break from the usual normal civilian life.......for a month...blogging may too as i will be back only during weekends.............life goes on

Japan Home shop front.....to buy cheap toes socks

Received some queries on exactly what and where is this japan home to buy cheap toes socks that I mentioned few posts before

Happened to droped by bugis village branch with my camera so I just snapped this

Hope everynoe got an idea of how this shop looked like

so far i know other than bugis village, the other shops are Novena Square 2 and Hougang festival market

I believe u can find this shop in other parts of singapore......just look around for it