Back from Ipoh....Restarting the Engine

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What a great weekend with the 2 monkeys back in Ipoh (for Ching Ming). Had my healthy dose of fried noodles, roti goyang and whole bunch of performance defeating but soul enhancing food! The kids loved it there....from the visits to the ancestor burial sites (always an adventure in Malaysia as it entails some minor walking and visiting to outskirts of Ipoh.....to eating and helping out my parents at home. It was quite a challenge to bring them over and back in the bus but after Genting, these are peanut affairs.

Ok was trying to first restart my engine on Tuesday morning for a run. Didn't feel 100%....sporting a slight fever and sore throat (not surprising with only 4hrs of sleep in the bus and working the whole day after that) but the first half was actually pretty good but after the 2.5km point....wow....everything started to go downhill. The legs were the first to go but surprisingly breathing (cardio) was ok. Only managed to complete the 5km in 30 minutes flat....the worse time for this distance in 2011!

So the next day, I wanted to cycle. Felt much better after a better resting sleep. Target was to try to achieve sub 1hr from ECP to Siglap kopitiam, previously achieved with Ryo in Dec of 2010 with an average speed of 32.2km/h and 59:42 duration. Started well and average speed was good for the service road part. Prior to entering coastal straight my average speed was already 32km/h. The winds were not in my favour however, as I battled all the way till CV with quite poor average speed, struggling to maintain 32km/h. HR shot up like a rocket, even at that speed, HR was averaging around 170bpm (this is high, normally if I did not exercise for a week, my body seems to do this, and all the good food of course did not help!)..upon reaching Loyang Slope, I could only labour up at 27-28km/h. By then my average speed has dropped to 31.5km/h. I new to complete the route I had to reach at least 32km/h average speed (all in my mind man...).

Upper Changi downslope onwards, until Siglap, there was bit of tailwind (finally) and I managed to push my ave speed up to 32km/h upon reaching Siglap! Ave speed 32km/h, time 59:54 ..... just under an hour! I believe I can do better, if well rested.


Looking forward to the weekend as I've planned yet another sufferfest for myself ahead of JMFR 2011.

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