A Colourful 2007

2007 was a year of many firsts in my little adventure world.

The year started off with a return in January from a successful climb in 3rd Peak of Mt Siguaniang in Sichuan, China. That was followed within 2 weeks by my first 30km race at the GE Pacesetter in KL, where I broke the 3h barrier. Continuing the momentum 2 months later, I clocked my PB at the HK Stanchart Marathon, which was also my first overseas marathon. April then saw my first attempt at leisure rock-climbing on natural limestone walls in Krabi. Shortly after, I ran my first 10km race at the Mizuno Wave Mt Faber run.

May was a very busy month, starring an Oakley Duathlon where my Titanium road bike made its debut at a race. A week later, our Safra running club held a successful Mt Faber Challenge. I ran 5 loops and got 5th position - my first ultra distance!

Running then took a backseat as I ramped up stairs and Bt Timah hill training in preparation of my Mustagh Ata climb in June/ July. Although I did not summit, I was thrilled at my first exposure to a high altitude of 7,000m.

I returned home to an intensive training schedule courtesy of our trainers at Safra club in preparation of the annual Army Half Marathon in August. I managed to clock my first sub-2h in Singapore for that distance. September was the month for the Ladies Triathlon - my very first olympic distance triathlon event - but it was unfortunately aborted due to heavy rain on race day. I then travelled to the USA for work in October and had a fabulous opportunity to participate in the Berkeley Golden Hills Trail Marathon - my first marathon distance on trail terrain. It was a priceless experience. Still on a high from the race, I went to Lumut in Perak, Malaysia with a number of Safra runners for a Powerman Duathlon. That was my first time travelling overseas with a bicycle, and using cleats and aerobars on a ride. December saw many of us running the annual Singapore Stanchart Marathon. For many of my friends, it was their inaugural marathon or their personal bests, kudos to the club's training plan. I ended the year on a high note with a completion of 70km at the MR25 Ultramarathon held at Macritchie Reservoir. It was definitely a wonderful closure to the year.

2007 would indeed be a hard year to beat.
Here's a toast to more great adventures ahead in 2008. :)

MR25 Ultra Marathon

It is amazing how wearing a race tag motivates/ inspires/ coerces one to put in extra effort. Today was the annual MR25 Ultra Marathon at Macritchie Reservoir. Participants were given 12h from 7am to 7pm to complete as many loops of 10km around the reservoir. The route started from the Northern Trail, out to the tarmac road before looping back into the trails. It then hit a stretch of wooden bridge and many steps (which were disruptive to the run), Jelutong Tower, wooden planks, golf course, Lornie Road and down the "Victory Lane" back to the main carpark. It was my first time at the trail marathon, having been overseas during previous year ends.

I went to the run without expectations nor preparations. I would play by ear and run based on how I felt. Participants who ran 5 loops (50km) would get a finisher tee and a certificate. At the minimum, I should do 3 loops to justify my waking up early in the morning for the event. The night before, I had prepared some chocolates, powerbars, powergels, extra Endurance drink, muscle rub, plasters and so forth and packed them neatly into a plastic box. I also chilled a cooler tub of ice water for the event. Both were labelled with my name.

I started off the run with Eddie, Alber, Melvin and Chin KK. The guys soon ran ahead, while I stuck to my easy relaxed pace. It felt great to do a no-time pressure run, I had not felt so relaxed for some time. I met Michael (Ong) in the trail and we ran together for some distance. The first lap was over in about 1:16h, but my shoes were giving me problems. I chose to wear my North Face Endurus GTX trail shoes today and had taped potential hotspots on both feet. Nonetheless, new abrasion areas surfaced and I stopped to add more tape. After getting a drink, I set off on the 2nd lap. Again, Eddie and Alber ran ahead and I happily kept my trot-along pace. At the end of the lap, I had to adjust my shoes again. There were abrasions at the back of my left ankle. Only after the 3rd lap did I manage to get my shoes fixed comfortably. It was almost 5h and I had only ran 30km. Gosh! I was clocking about 1.5h per loop. Incredibly slow. The extra time was spent refueling at the main carpark station. Somewhere along the trail, a monitor lizard laid in my path before lumbering off lazily, a monkey threatened to snatch my water bottle, and children almost knocked into me. I really needed the extra spice to an already challenging run...

I ate some kit kat bars, remixed my Endurance drink and pushed through the 4th and 5th loops. Wee Hou (Principal) was running around my pace. He seemed to be going strong, and was all prepared with a water bag that he started using on the 4th lap. After the 5th lap, I stopped for some food. I was beginning to feel hungry. In the last 8h, I had only 3 kit kats, 2 Gu Gels and 2 bottles of Endurance drink. There were chicken pies at the refuel table, complete with longans, mini-tangerines and bananas. I was still feeling strong and my legs were ok. I did a quick mental calculation and figured that there was enough time to do 2 more loops if nothing went wrong. Not wanting to pin my hopes too high, I gamely mixed a new iced bottle of Nuun drink and set off on Loop 6. The cold Nuun lemon-lime flavour was a rehydrating (sodium) drink and tasted very refreshing. I met another runner in the trails who was also on his 6th set. We cheered each other on and agreed that we could try for the 7th lap later. As time was tight, I mentally rehearsed the food and drink I would need to grab before starting the last loop.

A number of familiar faces - Chin, Benny, Henry and some others - were at the finishing point when I came back from the 6th loop. I got Alber's help to top up my Nuun drink while I took a Powergel enroute to the washroom. I had about 1:50h for the last set, which should suffice if I maintained the 1:30h timing. Fingers-crossed, I ran off, feeling energized by the Powergel. I think the Gu Gels I took gave a nice base of carbos without energy swings, whereas Powergels provided the "high" and kick to turbo charge but energy would dip after the effects wore off.

The guy I met in the trail had already gone ahead. In the midst of the Northern Trail section, the sky rumbled and starting drizzling. I prayed that the rain would hold off until I completed the run. I felt the onset of cramps in the quads and deliberately slowed my steps and not dash downslopes. There were only a few participants in the trail by now, each silently willing his legs to take the next step forward. I forced myself to run through the Lornie Road stretch and spotted Wee Hou a distance ahead of me. Soon the end was in sight and all the runners made an extra effort for a strong finish. Within 5min of completing the run, the skies opened up and poured heavily. High from the run, I headed home for a much needed rest and decent food.

Now as I am washed and comfortably seated at home, I could feel all the sores and aches in my legs amplified. I felt perpetually hungry, but was happy that the run had burnt off all the xmas feastings. The MR route seemed simpler than the USA trail marathon I did - where the slopes were much steeper and terrain more varied - but I was slower today perhaps from the hot weather. On my 7th round, I motivated myself by comparing the run to a climb and visualizing that it was only a short distance to 'basecamp' aka end point. I had a cramp-free run, but as I looked ahead to the Sundown 84km next year, it would not be as comfortable. The trails offered a nice cushion and variation in strides, whereas the tarmac road was a repetitive motion on the same muscles.

7 laps. 70km. 11:48h. It was a personal record for me! I had never clocked such a distance, nor expected to do so today. It was definitely a wonderful closure to the running year 2007, already a year of many firsts. The run today was the icing on the cake. :)

Safra 10km Run

In view of the upcoming Chiangmai Marathon and Macritchie Ultra-marathon this weekend, we had a short 10km run at Safra today. Alvin, JunDe and Sumiko managed to join us for the run.

A fun bunch. We had a dinner gathering just last night on Boxing Day, together with Eddie. It was a jolly fun affair. We often erupted into cramp-inducing laughter in between mouthfuls of food.

Surprisingly I did a relatively good timing for the 10km today. Perhaps it was my new Pearl Izumi shoes or the Phiten necklace, but my legs did not feel as heavy despite the Xmas spinning.

Xmas 2.5 on 25

Grand xmas plan - To do a long long run, for instance, a meaningful 25km. Grand reality - A long long sleep under the comfort of silk blanket and aircon. For the entire morning, the angel and devil were prancing around my head. One pointing to the gloriously cool weather outside, perfect for a solitude run around Macritchie. Mental image of Runners' World cover page lone runner whisking through the trail, lost in the tranquility. The other pointing to the grey clouds tossed like candy floss in the sky. Mental image of lone runner getting chased by monkeys in the rain.

Laziness prevailed, unfortunately. I settled for the guaranteed session of a spin session at the gym. It was a holiday special 1.5h Interval Challenge class by Kee Leong. I had no idea what Interval Challenge was, except that 1.5h seemed a decent workout time. It was raining when I arrived, but the class was full nonetheless. As it turned out, Interval spins were not as fast and furious as RPM (= adrenalin pumping excitement), but focused a lot on hill climbs and building strength (= very very heavy resistance and low cadence). Since I seldom attend Interval spins, I had no way of predicting what was next. I suppose that implied a higher caloric burn? We had 20mins of pure climbs, each songtrack building upon the previous to up the resistance. By the last climb track, our legs were slowed to a crawl. If one should lose the pedalling momentum, one's legs would be 'stuck' in position and unable to 'step down'. That was how heavy the resistance was, so much so that one really had to suck in the abs tightly and crank out power to move the pedals.

The rain stopped by the end of the class. I decided to go for a short 10km run to Marina South Pier and back. Pity the gym was closing soon and there was only time for an 1h run. Deja vu. I had ran the same route 2 days ago. There were less millipedes though. The sun was out and I had no sunshades. Only my trusty water bottle and a packet of Hammergel. I was trying the Tropical flavour, which tasted slightly sour/ fruity, but was less sticky than Powergel.

After the workout, I caught up with Dom and Cedric at the new North Face shop. Quite a decently laid out store, except that I already had too much gear and had nothing else to buy. Cedric's girlfriend from Kaz had just arrived in Singapore yesterday. It was nice to see Cedric in a happy mood, a great xmas and new year present for him. :) Dom had a book on Extreme Running and we pored over pages of extreme races held in various continents - desert, polar, altitude, heat, cold... you name it, they have it. I was extremely fascinated by the Polar marathons in the Antartic and North Pole. Participants ran in snow shoes! These are devices that look like skateboards but with metal 'teeth' underneath so as to have traction on snow. I used them on my Mustagh climb, and clambered about clumsily. Running with them would require a totally different running gait, style and leg power.

My xmas workout felt like a mini duathlon. A meaningful 2.5h pushing the quads and hamstrings, on the 25th day of the month. A compromise between the angel and devil. Merry xmas!

Silent Eve

Today was a half-day work day and everyone was in a non-productive party mood. It was a rare sunny day after weeks of unpredictable washouts. I went to Safra for a quick swim, seeking a respite from the heat. That was the first time I was back in the pool after a long long break. My slow sloshing in the pool was legendary.

My parents had another xmas party to attend in the evening. I think their social calendar is much more exciting than mine. Mum's away meant a sad setting of dining on leftover turkey and ham in a quiet house. All around my street, neighbours were having gatherings and parties.

This is the first time in many years that I am spending xmas and new year in Singapore, without snow and altitude. And it is not starting out well. How I long for a climb. :(

Turkey, Cheese, Ham

Food is said to be a great motivator for working out. I cannot agree more with that statement.

I dragged myself out of bed for our Sunday 21km run this morning. There were very few festive runners - Michael, Ricci, Wong, Peter, Julie, TH, Jason, Siew Lee, Wayne, Lai Chee, Alber, Thomas and myself - and about half the group took a shorter route. It was a slow but not-so-easy run for me. I was trying to wean myself off my reliance on the Endurance drink that was a staple for previous trainings. Alber and I took a wrong extension and went a longer way. At the boring Marina South Pier stretch, I saw Michael and Thomas, who quipped that they were on a recovery walk. Ha, felt so much like joining them on the walk. The return run was a hopscotch mix of jog, walk and... hop. There were so many millipedes crawling on the pavement, I had to do a little tip-toe dance and hop to side step them! I hate creepy crawlies, yucks! Alber, on the other hand, was full of energy, having rested a whole week. He kept running ahead and jogging back to wait for me. I was getting giddy seeing him run in circles.

The only thing that kept me going was the thought of the party my mum was having in the evening, complete with all the requisite xmas feastings. My usual practice was to count my running rhythm. So I started mumbling "Tur-key-Cheese-Ham" to myself. Brilliant! A 4-count beat! And if I wanted to go faster, I would hum "Tur-key, Tur-key" in a 2-beat pace. If I ran a little bit more, I could have an extra ham or cheese. That was the extent of my mathematical grasp. No complicated simultaneous equations. Just a straightforward linear tradeoff between running steps and food bites.

But the run was worth it, and made dinner even more gorgeous. My mum found a wholesale supplier of poultry, cheese, sausages and the likes, and bought an array of food for the party. Looking at the size of the ham leg, I wondered what size the animal was before it met my dining table. Turkey, cheese, ham. Protein recovery? :)

Rib Cage & Necklace

I think I pulled some abs muscles or something near the ribs from Pump class on Thursday. The ribs hurt when I rotated or moved in certain directions. That included trying to toss in bed. :( I sought out Frankie for a massage, and we narrowed the strain to the left ribs area. That was interesting because the pain/ pull was felt on the right side. But when he applied pressure to the left side, it triggered the pain. I guess I should look up the anatomy and find the culprit ligament or muscle tissue.

RPM class by Rodney in the afternoon was surprisingly tough. He had a different style from the other instructors, usually very high cadence even at high resistance. There was hard breathing throughout the class. It was my 5th RPM for the week. In 6 days. I think that was the highest record. Interestingly, there was an article in the papers today about the delusion of high-calorie burnt from spin classes and the calorie numbers displayed on treadmills, stair-masters and stationary bikes. It suggested that most people (and machines) overestimated the amount of calories burnt in our workouts, and then mistakenly consumed the equivalent amount.

I bought a Phiten Rukawa X30 necklace (http://www.healthshop.com.sg/). It apparently utilized aqua-titanium to improve blood circulation and relax the body. Many of my athlete friends had been using the necklaces and bracelets and they had favourable testimonials. I could try wearing one to sleep each night and monitor if I recover better from trainings. :)