The Evils of Strength Sucking Modern Shoes

I like this title ever since I got my ITB and switch to Nike Frees and VFF...

Here is a good article on it and barefoot running and VFF:

Barefoot Training, Vibram Five Fingers and the Evils of Strength Sucking Modern Shoes

The new Vibram Bikila in Boston Marathon

CEO Tony Post and Corrado Giambalvo at the Boston Marathon from Vibram5fingers on Vimeo.

F1 Eq Nature Run 2010

This a old skool kind of race....no timing system...just plain stopwatch...other than the MR25 events...this is probably the only proper running event in MR.

And this is my 2nd running event in MR...first one was the MR25 12hrs ultramarathon 5 years ago.

This is also my 2nd running event this year and with my VFF Sprint.

I ran MR almost every sat and did a trial run on this route last Sat so no surprises...in fact, I hope for rain last nite so that the condition will be more challenging and it did.......

The race suppose to start at 8:05am...unlike last 2XU Run in Sentosa which was delayed by 15min...this start was brought forward by 5min...at 8am sharp.


The trail can accommodate not more than 3 runners running side by side so I decided to squeeze myself to the front right from the start......being conservative....until we hit the first big slope....a row of at least 10 runners began walking up or slowed down to a jog....I attack and overtook these slow pack...when I hit the top of the slope...more jogging/walking runners as they tried to recover from the challenging upslopes....I took the chance to push forward even further.....kept myself out of a pack of slower runners, I ran with controlled pace.....

It was towards the end of northern route out of the gold clubhouse that my stomach muscle strain came back (got it since tuesday's tempo run)......I was biting my teeth and slowed to a jog.....the pain got worst as I reached the ranger station....the rocky path was a torture for me....i slowed down almost to walking pace after ranger station and it was until I hit the drain where everyone was walking that I managed to feel better afetr a short rest while climbing up the mud wall..

Saw ultra runner Bernard with his VFF KSO carrying a camelbak in front of me....and saw this speedy jorn with his VFF Classic 2 steps ahead...my muscle strain recovered and the crowd slowed down a lot in front so I pushed ahead and overtook many runners walking up the killer slope along this stretch.....reached the rifle range road U-turn point and grab the wrist band and took a mouthful of ice-water and carry on.....then I realized that since the first upslope...I was able to push fast upslope..and recovered very soon along the down slope and before I hit the next upslope, my feet are fresh again to push for the next upslope.

Out of the rifle range trail and back to the normal route in MR was not good for me...it was a stretch of 3-4km of flat which I will struggle.....I jsut tried to put one feet forward follow by the other as I just tried to maintain constant pace for the flat....only 1 ang mo overtook me for this stretch...it was until the next killer hill that I got energized again....however, in order not to agitate my muscle strain again, I kept to conservative speed....

It was about 2km fromt eh finishing line that Bernard with his VFF KSO caught up and paced me for the rest of teh trail...I hit the flat road and there I struggled (as usual becos my big gear not working well)....and push on to finish in my personal best time in MR for 14km in 73min

My last run was 87 min which means 14min improvement since the last and if the route is 14km...average speed will be 5:17min/km which is my best for MR Trail as well.
Consider I slowed down for about 1km to almost walking because of my stomach muscle strain, I was very surprised by my timing when I finished.

But the best part of this event is the collection of the CamelBag (Hydration Bag) after the run.....for $38, you get a nice quick dry tee and a quality hydration bag...probably the more value for $$ race in Singapore. I paid $12 more for the bladder..

Nice Red bag which fit my colour theme, the blue wrist band is given at the rifle range road U-turn:

The mouth piece for the bladder is surprisingly the one that only exist for expensive branded bladder with the on/off switch:

The hydration bag even got a raincoat cover hidden in a small pocket in front:

It is also expandable by unzipping the side and it was a small holder for handphone at the waist strap:

It has a small pocket for keys and wallet and the main compartment for the bladder:

The back cushioning is placed at strategic location and to provide airflow when carry it:

Now I have 3 hydration bags...which...I havent event started using the new yellow one I got from Guangzhou. 3 different colours....3 different choices...I can use the one that fit my colour theme for the particular run...

That's a total of 360km completed in my VFF Sprint after this run....

The Most High Tech Cushioning for your running................

Is it the Nike Air? Asics Gel? Brooks Hydroflow? New Balance,Adidas,Saucony,K-Swiss?

I will say None of these.....

My answer is YOUR OWN MUSCLES!!!

Your own Muscles got damaged and regenerated to become stronger and overtime, it is able to take more and more load....

The cushioning in running shoes got squashed and ability to take load decrease with time...10 years ago and 10 years after, the people who are selling these "HIGH TECH" cushioning said the same thing: You got to change a new one after you hit 400km.....

But your muscles? it got stronger after 400km.......


So start using your muscles to take your load for your running.............

F1 Eq Nature Run Race Pack Collection

The F1 Equipment Nature Run Race Pack Collection was held over the weekend at the Orchard Central Shopping Centre Level 4. It was just a small setup for a small scale event

The race pack contains a nice bright RED event T-shirt,useless papers, event information, tiger balm plaster, a camo lanyard, a can of pokka sports water and supposed to ahve a pack of Go Gel which I past it tot he ultra marathon runner for her TNF 100 at Philipines:

The back of the event Tee actually printed "Tok Kong Runner" which I find it overkilling....without the words will make the Tee looks branded...

I went to Mercury 180, a sports shop which is also one of the sponsor and saw the map below pasted on its pillar....Forgot to take a photo of it.

 

The title of the map is "F1 EQ Nature Run 15km Route" but below the title is "( Actual Distance 14km )"......?????????

Can't they just call it a 14km Event?

2XU Compression Run 12km@Sentosa....crossing the 300km

The first "proper" running event of this year for me and also the first event that I run with my Vibram FiveFingers. After this run, my mileage with VFF Sprint has crossed another milestone of 300km.
 
Satisfied with the result for this run as my timing for thsi 12km is the same as my 10km timing 2 years ago for Nike Human Race.

I kept my first 3.5km of the route conservative because it is totally flat..I started at the front end of the crowd and was overtook by at least 25% of the runners and pushed to the mid-pack.....I only pick up when I hit the first slope and start overtaking runners who have difficulty runing the upslopes. It was the same with the rest of the 4-5 upslopes and when I reached back to the flat beach side, I was already at the front quarter of the crowds.....able to sprint strongly for the last 400m and the result shows that I was came in 200th out of 1020.

This event however the management for this rest is a bit below par consider the organisers are not first timer:
1) Delayed start, the race is supposed to start at 7.45am but the MC delayed until 8am because a big stream of runners just arrived at the race site at 7.40am. Apparently, the shuttle bus cannot cope with the crowd and caused delay in transportation. Next time put 8.30am lah....No need to go toilet wait until want to go toilet

2) The race route was changed at the last minute. If you look at the map above, The yellow solid lined route is the original route posted on the website with the runners running clockwise. However, the arrows are added at the last minute causing confusion to the runners. As a result of this change, there are points of crossing over the other runners' path at junction at the beach. There was a small confusion afetr the first U-turn at the beach as well

3) No plain water at the end point. Only 100plus and concentrated 100plus that can cause diabetes

4) Stage at the hot beach. Most people kept themselves away from the unsheltered beach after running the hot sun for an hour....it was real hot after 11am whent he lucky draw starts....I din stay


........one more thing, D-tag on ankle straps works!!

Even the running shoes companies want a slice of the pie

Barefoot Jason published an interesting article on the insight of running shoes' companies plan to try and get a slice of a pie for the rise for minimalist running market. The impact of "Born To Run" is far beyond our imagination. The surge in Vibram Fivefingers sale has caused alarmed in the traditional running shoes industry and they are not keeping themselves at one side of the fence.

Like what Jason mentioned, I also doubt that they will produce anything close to vibram...it will more of a "reduced" running shoes...

The original article can be found at
http://barefootjason.blogspot.com/2010/04/news-from-minimalist-shoe-front.html

My Most Serious Injury with Vibram Fivefingers

NO cushioning and NO support with just a thin layer of Rubber...

A common question is "Didi you encounter any serious injuries running with VFF?"

My answer is shown in th picture above...just a black toenail...got it during my first evening/nite Run at MR...clumsy and not focus, I hit my pinky toes against a tree trunk...

This is the MOST Serious Injury I running with VFF

2XU Compression 12km Run Race Pack Collection

The Race pack collection is a breeze...I reached and all the 10 counters are empty so I grab and go

Easily the MOST EXPENSIVE Race Pack in Singapore Race...The 2XU Compression Socks is retailed for $70 which is the race fee for both 2XU Compression Run and Newton 30km Run. The Newton Race belt also cost > $10.

Good Friday Torture...Bukit Timah nature reserve adventure

Just as Tekko mentioned

While saintly people go to church and the more saner people slept in on a nice public holiday, 6 of us slightly cuckooed people decided to brave the rain and made our way to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve for our virgin run there. Fortunately, the rain did not came and so begin the longest ever 12km of my life.

Since the details are covered by Tekko, I should covered the unmentioned...(OK...I know that is laziness in blogging...) The original plan is to the followings:

The plan is to the blue loop first as warm-up..then the red to dairy farm park and the orange back to the summit...


But in the end, we only did about 50% of the planned route....

part 1, we did the planned route for warm-up




 Then after the warmup...we decided to cut short because we took 1hr to complete only 5km...so we went


and we took 1hrs 30min to cover just 7km..... So the detail of the run are covered at Tekko's Blog

My Quads are aching today and have problem walking up and down the stairs...........

We should go again to conquer the rest of the 50% of the planned route....and we did not get to the summit also.......8-(

Garmin Forerunner 110

Garmin recently just announced its new forerunner series watch called the 110. This is a basic GPS watch (heartrate monitor version included) with 1000laps memory and 8hrs of battery life and using the latest SiRFstarIV system (310XT 405 are using the older SiRFstarIII)....finally, Garmin decided to come out with a simple GPS watch for the non-tech savvy like me. It has omitted all the training tools and functions like the interval training and virtual partner that are included in the previous more expensive models in 405 and 310.
The RRP for heart rate monitor version is USD$249.99
The RRP for without heartrate monitor version is  USD$199.99

more details at Garmin forerunner 110 page


more reports from engadget,
more reports from crunchgear

I like!!!