Guess I'm probably only able to record my runs on a weekly basis, takes too much time to blog daily. We just had another long weekend, straight after National Day. It was Hari Raya Puasa on Sunday, which meant a public holiday on Monday. Did a couple of short morning runs, but saved my legs for the long weekend.
Ran my BT-MR route on Saturday, the weather was rather forgiving. It started off very hot but cooled off towards the late morning. 2:45h, normal.
Met up with friends for a long run on Sunday. They started from MR and I met them along Rifle Range Road. I brought my hydration bag that day (I normally hold a water bottle), and spent some time adjusting the bag to minimise bouncing and abrasion. What a huge difference the bounce and no-bounce made!
We were clocking mileage for TNF100. Well, sort of. I love long runs, regardless of events. :) We ran through the field to Zhenghua, cut through the Park Connector and flats, under the overpass, and over to the Gangsa MTB trail. It was a slightly different route from the actual TNF race, but eventually merged back to the same path, at which point we u-turned and made our way back to MR. We parted company there and I made my way back home through Rifle Range Road (again). Took about 4:30h in total, the last 8+km was in between jogs and walks. I think it was 30+abit km. I was starting to get hungry, but the run felt so good. :)
Rested on Monday. Wanted to run, but thought better otherwise.
So I ran in the BT-MTB trail this morning (Tues) before work. A recovery run as legs refused to be agile. They felt heavy but when I checked, there were no ankle weights. Ahh. Anyway, while I was on my slow-plod, I saw something slithering away. I stopped to make sure it fully disappeared into the grass before I continued. It looked like a snake, with vertical stripes, but I could be mistaken. It could possibly be the tail of a skink... though it looked longer than that. Eeeeks, snakes never fail to send me shivers just by seeing them.
On my way out, I spied two blue-breasted birds chirping and fighting over some berries atop a bush. Then there was a grey-yellowish bird pecking at the berries, oblivious to its rowdy neighbours. I think I should go get an animal-bird-watching book, so that I can start naming them right and sound smart, instead of describing everything as a bird, tree, or snake!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
National Day Runs
Over the last national day short work-week, I managed to clock in my usual trail runs.
National day saw me waking up early and hitting the trail by 8ish (very early by my standards) and finishing the to-fro route within 3h. I had wanted to join my friends and meet them halfway for the run, but woke up late and missed timings, so I ran alone.
Then on Saturday, I was able adjust the route a little and add another 3.5 - 4km. I headed off Rifle Range Road and went towards Zhenghua, before rejoining along the Belukar MTB trail to get home (via the Wallace Centre and DF Quarry walls). The sun was blazing, the exposed field to Zhenghua was a downer, so difficult to run. Under the shade was a lot better. As I went to the water-cooler at Wallace Centre, I bumped into an old schoolmate, Wilson. Ah-ha! I did not know that one could book the exhibition space there for events. Idea, albeit very hot.
Sunday, my legs felt a bit tired. I was up early as I had a curfew to be home by 1030am. It was a dash, I put in effort to go faster than my usual comfortable pace. And lo behold! I actually made it sub-2:40h, saving about 5 - 7min. Pleased. :)
National day saw me waking up early and hitting the trail by 8ish (very early by my standards) and finishing the to-fro route within 3h. I had wanted to join my friends and meet them halfway for the run, but woke up late and missed timings, so I ran alone.
Then on Saturday, I was able adjust the route a little and add another 3.5 - 4km. I headed off Rifle Range Road and went towards Zhenghua, before rejoining along the Belukar MTB trail to get home (via the Wallace Centre and DF Quarry walls). The sun was blazing, the exposed field to Zhenghua was a downer, so difficult to run. Under the shade was a lot better. As I went to the water-cooler at Wallace Centre, I bumped into an old schoolmate, Wilson. Ah-ha! I did not know that one could book the exhibition space there for events. Idea, albeit very hot.
Sunday, my legs felt a bit tired. I was up early as I had a curfew to be home by 1030am. It was a dash, I put in effort to go faster than my usual comfortable pace. And lo behold! I actually made it sub-2:40h, saving about 5 - 7min. Pleased. :)
Monday, August 6, 2012
Olympics Season!
A whirlpool of runs in the past weeks, relishing life without classes.... for now. Shortish, longish, evenings, mornings and weekends, roads and trails. That sounds about all possible combinations of runs, doesn't it? I'm trying to run 2-3 times on weekdays, and twice on weekends. Did a couple of my usual BT-MR trails over the past weekends, decent to earn my next lunch. But not decent enough to burn off dinners. That weight gain is beginning to be an irritant...
This being the Olympics season, I managed to catch a couple of race replays over Youtube. Watching those well-trained, well-toned athletes in action was simply inspiring. If I were into the sport, it was inspiring to watch them execute those well-rehearsed techniques with such grace. If the sport was Greek to me, it was inspiring just oogling at those washboard abs and lean physiques (yes, superficial, I admit. :)).
I watched Mo Farah win UK's first 10,000m Gold, with a clear lead ahead of the runner-up. The last 2min of his race was pure brilliance, long gazelle-strides, graceful, steady. With an equally compelling story behind the scenes. And caught Michael Phelps in action to win his 18th Gold medal from the 4x100m medley. Watched the men hammer through the 100m heats with such thunderquad-power, and the women pole-vault themselves with agility. Saw Maria utterly thrashed by Serena (was she even playing tennis?). I missed our Singapore's table-tennis bronze medal match, but read the excitement over Facebook. Olympics is in the air! (At least within my community of sporty friends.) Would love to catch the showdown for the men's 100m final, but it will be at 4am and I do not have a TV. I think the Jamaicans will sweep the podium - Bolt, Blake, and Powell. Gay may successfully gatecrash the party, we will know in a couple of hours.
Back to keeping tabs on the Youtube channel.
This being the Olympics season, I managed to catch a couple of race replays over Youtube. Watching those well-trained, well-toned athletes in action was simply inspiring. If I were into the sport, it was inspiring to watch them execute those well-rehearsed techniques with such grace. If the sport was Greek to me, it was inspiring just oogling at those washboard abs and lean physiques (yes, superficial, I admit. :)).
I watched Mo Farah win UK's first 10,000m Gold, with a clear lead ahead of the runner-up. The last 2min of his race was pure brilliance, long gazelle-strides, graceful, steady. With an equally compelling story behind the scenes. And caught Michael Phelps in action to win his 18th Gold medal from the 4x100m medley. Watched the men hammer through the 100m heats with such thunderquad-power, and the women pole-vault themselves with agility. Saw Maria utterly thrashed by Serena (was she even playing tennis?). I missed our Singapore's table-tennis bronze medal match, but read the excitement over Facebook. Olympics is in the air! (At least within my community of sporty friends.) Would love to catch the showdown for the men's 100m final, but it will be at 4am and I do not have a TV. I think the Jamaicans will sweep the podium - Bolt, Blake, and Powell. Gay may successfully gatecrash the party, we will know in a couple of hours.
Back to keeping tabs on the Youtube channel.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Evening 10ks
Term break for now, free of evening classes until mid-August. Time to recharge and focus attention on getting my backlog of work cleared up.
Joined in the club's run last night, 11km with Alber, relaxed. MF 10km + 1 loop. Ran another 10km tonight on my own around the club - 2 loops around Telok Blangah. Lost in thoughts about stuff that I needed to finish tonight for tomorrow's work. Will be away this weekend in Krabi and trying to get some work out of the way so that I would not be the bottleneck.
I think I much prefer morning runs - IF I can wake up early enough for a decently comfortable run, aka 1-ish hour. Legs often feel so much fresher and lighter in the mornings, and my mind is always cleared up after that.
Joined in the club's run last night, 11km with Alber, relaxed. MF 10km + 1 loop. Ran another 10km tonight on my own around the club - 2 loops around Telok Blangah. Lost in thoughts about stuff that I needed to finish tonight for tomorrow's work. Will be away this weekend in Krabi and trying to get some work out of the way so that I would not be the bottleneck.
I think I much prefer morning runs - IF I can wake up early enough for a decently comfortable run, aka 1-ish hour. Legs often feel so much fresher and lighter in the mornings, and my mind is always cleared up after that.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Annual PD Triathlon 2012
Time for our annual drive up to Port Dickson for the triathlon race (OD of 1.5k/ 40k/ 10k) over the weekend. My last race was exactly 1 year ago at PD, just before school started. Since then, I swam once (at Safra pool) and never touched my bicycle saddle. Ha! Only tuned my bike 3 days before the race and off we went. I think I should be able to complete the race, swimming and cycling were kind of 'mechanical' memory - slow but would not forget. It was my first chillax weekend after a crazy week, I was just beginning to switch mental modes.
We stayed at the Regency Apartments 1.8km away from the official hotel, Admiral Pavilion, which was fully booked. It turned out good because they did not have our rooms and upgraded us (4 pax) to a 4-bedroom apartment, each with attached bathroom! Obviously, my group was not as concerned with the race than the food. We had 'tze-cha' (aka stir-fry) seafood meals throughout the stay - 3 sumptuous meals, one for each of the race discipline. Way too much food.
As testimony of my (and fellow travel companions) lack of race experiences in the past year, (a) I forgot my race belt, and (b) my Timex watch strap broke - it was such a trusty but worn-out well-thrashed watch. Awww.....
For (a), I almost bought a new belt, when Wee Haur and Sok Hwa suggested that I use the string from the race pack paper bags instead. Great idea, saved money. For (b), I looked for duct tape to mend it but no one brought it (we would typically bring along many tools for a race,... if it was an important event...). Luckily Melvin had a Garmin, so he lent me his Timex. It was a Men's watch so it was not very fitting, but good enough, it was not sliding along my forearm.
Morning of the race, another boo-boo. My goggles were a tad loose, which I only realised the implications after the race began. Water seeped in, so I either had to close my eyes when I surfaced to breath for front crawl (cos a sideway head tilt would send water into eyes). Breast stroke was fine, so I used a combination of both. And treaded water twice to clear goggles.
The weather was cooling until the run, so the bike was at least enjoyable. I could still clip into my cleats and not fall off. I think 40km was about the max I could get away with without training. I would certainly need some butt time if I wanted to do a half-IM distance of 90km.
The run was the best part of the race. My legs did not cramp after the ride, courtesy of the great weather. So I was able to ease into the run and then pick up speed. We ran through sand and bits of trail-like dirt track. About 2.5km to the finish, Alber came out to look for me and paced me back. So I actually ran (like panting run). The distance, according to Melvin's Garmin, was only 8.9km though.
Time recorded by Trusty Timex:
We stayed at the Regency Apartments 1.8km away from the official hotel, Admiral Pavilion, which was fully booked. It turned out good because they did not have our rooms and upgraded us (4 pax) to a 4-bedroom apartment, each with attached bathroom! Obviously, my group was not as concerned with the race than the food. We had 'tze-cha' (aka stir-fry) seafood meals throughout the stay - 3 sumptuous meals, one for each of the race discipline. Way too much food.
As testimony of my (and fellow travel companions) lack of race experiences in the past year, (a) I forgot my race belt, and (b) my Timex watch strap broke - it was such a trusty but worn-out well-thrashed watch. Awww.....
For (a), I almost bought a new belt, when Wee Haur and Sok Hwa suggested that I use the string from the race pack paper bags instead. Great idea, saved money. For (b), I looked for duct tape to mend it but no one brought it (we would typically bring along many tools for a race,... if it was an important event...). Luckily Melvin had a Garmin, so he lent me his Timex. It was a Men's watch so it was not very fitting, but good enough, it was not sliding along my forearm.
Morning of the race, another boo-boo. My goggles were a tad loose, which I only realised the implications after the race began. Water seeped in, so I either had to close my eyes when I surfaced to breath for front crawl (cos a sideway head tilt would send water into eyes). Breast stroke was fine, so I used a combination of both. And treaded water twice to clear goggles.
The weather was cooling until the run, so the bike was at least enjoyable. I could still clip into my cleats and not fall off. I think 40km was about the max I could get away with without training. I would certainly need some butt time if I wanted to do a half-IM distance of 90km.
The run was the best part of the race. My legs did not cramp after the ride, courtesy of the great weather. So I was able to ease into the run and then pick up speed. We ran through sand and bits of trail-like dirt track. About 2.5km to the finish, Alber came out to look for me and paced me back. So I actually ran (like panting run). The distance, according to Melvin's Garmin, was only 8.9km though.
Time recorded by Trusty Timex:
Swim - 43m24s
T1 - 5m58s
Bike - 1h30m
T2 - 3m04s (best lap time according to Timex =P)
Run - 51m32s
Total - 3h14m47s
All in, a fun post-exam race. Definitely survived the race, and almost could not survive the feasts!
Friday, July 6, 2012
A Mega Crazy Capstone-cum-Running Week
I could not even begin to count how crazy this week had been.
We had a Major Capstone Exam. An 8h long paper with a Pass/ Fail grade - my Prof said that it was impossible to fail, and I would take his word for it. But I would still have to put in the minimal readings and preps. So I was on study leave for a a couple of days to coop myself up at home and mug. I must say that my place is really nice and quiet to be focused and productive. In between the mugging, I squeezed in times for runs and clocked a fair bit of mileage this week.
Let's see,
Mon - ran in the morning 1.5h before dashing to school for a study group, then back home, worked a bit, and out for a class dinner. After the long runs over the weekend, I was surprised that my legs could still push and go fast, so I covered more ground this morning within my usual duration.
Tues - again, dashed a quick 50min, cut 2min before heading to work. Then home to study.
Wed - clocked a 2h through the evening trails in the nice, cool post-rain weather. Back to the books.
Thurs - Capstone! Survived! Desperately need a mental break. So another 1.5h in the evening, this time on the road to avoid the mega-downpour in the day.
Fri - Mad rush at work, then off to Valedictory Dinner and my last chance to see my foreign classmates, who were graduating and returning home this weekend. And to pack for my PD Race trip tomorrow.
Literally madness. Average of 2am bedtime each day.
Did not know howI survived, but I did. Whew!
We had a Major Capstone Exam. An 8h long paper with a Pass/ Fail grade - my Prof said that it was impossible to fail, and I would take his word for it. But I would still have to put in the minimal readings and preps. So I was on study leave for a a couple of days to coop myself up at home and mug. I must say that my place is really nice and quiet to be focused and productive. In between the mugging, I squeezed in times for runs and clocked a fair bit of mileage this week.
Let's see,
Mon - ran in the morning 1.5h before dashing to school for a study group, then back home, worked a bit, and out for a class dinner. After the long runs over the weekend, I was surprised that my legs could still push and go fast, so I covered more ground this morning within my usual duration.
Tues - again, dashed a quick 50min, cut 2min before heading to work. Then home to study.
Wed - clocked a 2h through the evening trails in the nice, cool post-rain weather. Back to the books.
Thurs - Capstone! Survived! Desperately need a mental break. So another 1.5h in the evening, this time on the road to avoid the mega-downpour in the day.
Fri - Mad rush at work, then off to Valedictory Dinner and my last chance to see my foreign classmates, who were graduating and returning home this weekend. And to pack for my PD Race trip tomorrow.
Literally madness. Average of 2am bedtime each day.
Did not know howI survived, but I did. Whew!
Sunday, July 1, 2012
The Ipoh (not) Weekend
Sigh... the guys are away in Ipoh for a half-marathon-cum-weekend-trip, and I'm stuck at home supposedly preparing for my Capstone exam on Thursday. It's a 9h paper (!) and the school has catered two tea breaks and a bento lunch for each of us. Such love... And to prepare for that, each of us has an one-inch binder of a case study on a Thai industrial estate that faced an environmental disaster. Something like that. Obviously the readings were so dry that I have not gone past 20% of it.
Meanwhile, to make up for my 2nd 'lost trip' because of exams (argh!), I just had to clock my long, long runs. I seldom have the chance to get a 30km in over the weekend, simply because it takes up an incredible amount of time.
So on Saturday, despite waking up terribly late, I headed off at 11am (ahem... sheepish) and aimed to do a 2-loop in MR and back. The weather turned out nice and cool actually. It was slightly hot on my way to MR, and then it turned cloudy. On my first loop, I heard thunder but missed the rain. Bumped into WH at the visitor lobby, he had finished his run. The skies had cleared, so I thought it was ok to go for my second loop. Halfway through, and the rain started again. I was between wet from sweat and wet from rain. The run was vastly different from my previous attempt - the difference in having breakfast or not. I was equipped this time with some chocolatey snacks, but did not have to activate them. I actually managed to run throughout. On the contrary, the snacks attracted a snarly monkey which tried to snatch them from me. Run done, ~ 33km. Happy. Back home, back to readings.
Did another long run this morning, managed to wake up earlier and get home by noon. It drizzled, which cooled the weather for a bit. and then the sun came out strong again. I was more drenched today than yesterday - a toxic mix of sweat and raindrops. ~ 23km. Ok, back to the boringly dry readings...
Meanwhile, to make up for my 2nd 'lost trip' because of exams (argh!), I just had to clock my long, long runs. I seldom have the chance to get a 30km in over the weekend, simply because it takes up an incredible amount of time.
So on Saturday, despite waking up terribly late, I headed off at 11am (ahem... sheepish) and aimed to do a 2-loop in MR and back. The weather turned out nice and cool actually. It was slightly hot on my way to MR, and then it turned cloudy. On my first loop, I heard thunder but missed the rain. Bumped into WH at the visitor lobby, he had finished his run. The skies had cleared, so I thought it was ok to go for my second loop. Halfway through, and the rain started again. I was between wet from sweat and wet from rain. The run was vastly different from my previous attempt - the difference in having breakfast or not. I was equipped this time with some chocolatey snacks, but did not have to activate them. I actually managed to run throughout. On the contrary, the snacks attracted a snarly monkey which tried to snatch them from me. Run done, ~ 33km. Happy. Back home, back to readings.
Did another long run this morning, managed to wake up earlier and get home by noon. It drizzled, which cooled the weather for a bit. and then the sun came out strong again. I was more drenched today than yesterday - a toxic mix of sweat and raindrops. ~ 23km. Ok, back to the boringly dry readings...
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