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.........