Barefootin' and Longer Rides

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Long extended weekend with the Presidential election on Saturday and Hari Raya Aidilfitri on Tuesday. I've been doing quite a lot of 30km rides around my area but no longish rides like what I did early in the year (115km route). I was determined to put in at least one long distance ride this weekend, by hook or by crook. It's normally tough to get anyone out that early and back early as well (kopi, rest stops etc....) so I decided to this alone as I needed to be back by 9am (always a target for the weekends.....family time!).

On Saturday, made an appointment with Ryo for a short 5km run barefoot. My blisters from my last barefoot foray has 'just' about healed up and I'm ready to give it another go. Started at 5.30am. Pace was a bit slow and cautious. Took me about 34mins to complete the 5km....of course its quite a comfortable pace as we chit-chat most of the way whilst running. Good to catch up. He went on to complete his 21km (congrats!) target for the day and I rushed home to get changed up for a short ride with KL. Good ride but plagued in the end by some serious rain!

Sunday, I targeted for 115km Singapore Loop solo....used to do this countless times on a "back by 9am basis (start at 5am)". Trust me, its harder than it sounds! To achieve this normally an average of 30+km/h is required, to take care of all the stop's and go's. Legs were tired (from yesterday's run?) and for some reason, my HR refused to go into my usual high-revving mode that allows higher speed for me. Had to made a small detour early on into the ride as Nicoll was blocked off....I reckon this could have at least shaved 0.5km/h off my average! Felt really tired after about 80km and could not maintain higher than 30km/h on my own....finally decided to make it a shorter 100km. By doing so, I made it back home by 9am! Decent average speed (28.8km/h moving ave), not my proudest though.

Cadence coming down past few rides. Just to take note. Also, blister under the old blister on my right foot formed. Left is ok. Seems to heal faster as one day later, minimal irritation and pain.

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