.... the jackal rides and run....

After this morning's ECP - Coastal - ECP stretch...I just pip-ed the 900km mark for the month. Total of 24 activities and over 36hrs of time expended. No wonder I was burnt out over the weekend! This morning's ride was pretty good. Legs felt better. I've been having dead legs (especially on the calves!) for the past few days...probably DOMS from excessive running and forefoot landing. Still a bit still but much better. I did the course today in pretty good time. Just a shy above 55mins for the full 30km course. Achieved 32km/h at u-turn point mostly against headwind. Coming back at coastal, more tailwind than head. Total average speed is 32.6km/h. Now, I wonder how in the hell did I managed to do this with 33.5km/h months ago !??!?! Will be tapering down pretty soon for TdB.

Its no secret. I've been a little bit mad on running and cycling especially this past month and I'm tired. This weekend, I suffered a slight burnout. Mentally (tired, not willing to get on the bike even after waking up early) and physically (right leg knee issues surfacing, DOMs on calves and lower leg muscles in general). So I just did a short ride on Saturday and basically for today (Sunday); I'm gonna bum. I will start again tomorrow. October 2011 has been a record setting month for me:- - ~900km covered (after my morning ride tomorrow!) - 818km on the bike (April was highest at 830km) - 82km in my running shoes (highest ever, that's almost 2 marathons....nuts!) - this brings total distance to date ~7000km for 2011. 2010 total was 6880km. I have 2 more months! Should be within my means to hit the 8k target for 2011. My riding/running TOTAL DISTANCE trend is shown below from a SPORTRACKS plot. The HIGH months were Feb, April and July. Now there are reaso

Morning RIDE I did not join the rare Masher ride scheduled for 6.30am (they planned to do the Eastern loop, a relatively flat course, avoiding Mandai altogether) as I needed to be back by 8am. Thus, I set out on my own at 5am to do the East West 80km loop.....basically to Tuas and back. the plan is to do a achieve a post 30km/h ave on my own without killing my legs. The route is relatively flatish so no problems. I was on a moderate pace when I caught up with a group of 8 riders at Nicoll. I opted not to overtake them but also not to draft them so I kept a distance of at least 5-6 bikes away. They were doing pretty much moderate speed about 30-32km/h. I waited for them to attack the pace at the Viaduct but it didn't happen and they remain at that same 32km/h pace.....so I overtook them and went at it to post 36km/h speeds at the viaduct. Surprisingly, no one gave chase. At the end of the viaduct, I took a quick peek behind me and they were out of sight. I slowed down to moderat

Here's the rig I've been riding. So far since early this year, I've changed from 7800 to 7900 to right not 7970 Di2. Everything else is pretty much the same. I swapped out the Fizik saddle in favour of the Charge Knife which I had on previously. Much more comfortable and conforming to my ass and at a fraction of the price!

......just killing off some lunch time that I have still left at the moment. So, I've done a lot cycling in previous weeks. In fact this month is going to be the 2nd highest in a month in terms of mileage covered on a bike. This is a big thing since most of the 'high mileage' months are due to events. This month, there is none. There is some worry that I'll probably burn out soon and my wife has even remarked that I was mad going on on the bike or hitting the road on my pumas nearly every single day. Hey, maybe I am but reallly, nothing matters if you are enjoying it! It cannot be harmful anyways right? Another thing is, the running. I covered so far a record distance on my feet this month and I'm loving every moment AND every step of it. Running on minimalist shoes has been an absolute joy (Thanks to Ryo) and reading the book "Born To Run" has been pure inspiration (and I'm still only halfway through the book!). Last week I ran my first 21km (

Saturday Started off early at 5.15am on Saturday as the usual hardcore early birds were the only ones available for rides. Ryo, kl and me did the usual Singapore round island covering 112km. Average speed for the ride was 31.2km/h....and we did not draft any groups during the entire ride. Everyone did their part in pulling with some short attacks thrown in as well. Notable section was the coastal straight where Ryo and me could not overtake and lead a solo rider. We were trying to lead the 3 man group (KL was dropped at this stage) but he just refused to allow us to lead. It was all in friendly mood but this guy is impressive! Sunday For Sunday, Ryo and me went for Mt. Faber. We did 6 loops and boy was I drained. As expected, he was quick to leave me behind on the climb. Seems so effortless for him! Best time up Kg.Bahru was 5mins 10secs...still at least a minute slower than my best time achieved early in the year. I attribute this to lack of climb training! Also perhaps th

Ok, this 3 day work week thing has really gotten me into exercise-crazy mode. Running and cycling, that's all I ever do these days in those non-work mornings. So pretty historic day! I completed 21km of pure ECP-ness. I've been thinking about doing this but reading that "Born To Run" book really helped me pull the trigger. The tagline that caught my attention : "You don't have to be fast. You just need to be fearless". That was it. Started out at 5.30am from my home and ran. Did not stop until 21km was reached (Siglap Kopitiam). So its confirmed that if one runs the entire ECP loop, its a half marathon, duh! Initial pace was about 7min/km. Somewhere along the line, I decided to try to get at least the average to not exceed that. A modest 6.59min/km was achieved in the end. My HR barely went over 155bpm. Cardio-wise there was plenty of room left for perhaps a 6.30min/km 21km run BUT I was worried about destroying my legs plus I have not run  on th

...is only 13km and I did it yesterday morning. Had to be back early to bring the kids out for a nice KFC breakfast (which they thoroughly enjoy!) so opted to run earlier by myself, at my own pace. The pace of course, is the usual disappointing pace. Has to be the shoes! hahaha Did quite ok IMO for the first 6km but slowed a lot going through upper east coast road due to the countless curbs. I've been bitten by the running bug now. I will focus more on it once TDB is over! My next target will be 21km in my minimalist Pumas! Target pace : 6.5mins/km....

Unlike last week, today was a partial Masher ride. JM joined us as well and we started off at 5.30am. Did very well and hitting average speed of 32+km/h upon at Jalan Buroh. Pure work between the 4 of us (KL, Ryo, JM and me) drafting no one else. JM, as usual was in his track shoes...and he did well...even pulled the group a couple of times more notably at Jalan Boon Lay at 35km/h average. Couple of sprints between us to keep the fun up. Ryo managed to take a video of my butt....as analysis to see if I was wiggling in my pedalling motion (as claimed by Gary last week). Here are some sexy videos of my fat butt. At least the saddle could still be seen! Comments? I think I have a nice pedalling motion in fact!

During the late 90's till about the time I got hitched, I used to planned little travels on my own. I did a lot travelling for work (at its peak about 1+ week a month) supporting our customers all over the world. However, business travels are no fun.......I rarely take leave (except for home visits) and snowball them till the end of the year where I'll take a 2-3 week vacation, all by myself (well, except for the Thailand trip where Basil travelled with me for a week). I was quite interested in candid photo-taking back then and was in love with my Nikon FM2, my primary weapon choice. I even mastered the art of mid-roll change, often swapping out film mid roll just because I wanted to change to a higher ISO film or B&W (Ilford!). My trips were typically (at least by my definition) on a shoestring. I was in Indonesia for 5 weeks and it cost my parents (I had no job, it was right after graduation....I was one of those who did not secure a job before graduation!) about SGD1

A tough week at work as my company of 15 years is about to go...well....bust! Its morale defeating to everyone in the company. We have so many opportunities in the pipeline but just simply not enough cash flow. Tough week ahead too.... Well, that's another (boring) story. Saddle up and get on with life! OK, the good news, I was crazy enough to do 3 rides and a run over Tues-Friday. Tuesday : 30km TT-like ride with Ryo...of which I notice great improvement over my last similar ride with him last week. Managed to hit 33km/h average upon reaching end of straight coastal road. Took it easy from them on, riding through the park. Wednesday : 30km again, some route, this time, re-installed the Charge Knife saddle. Its more comfy compared to the Antares. Initially just wanted to do a 30km/h ave ride...but had a fast chase (aero bar road bike) at ECP. Thursday : 32km ECP-Siglap route....pretty intense. 31.5km/h ave speed, got to the kopitiam just a shade over 1hr. Previous b

I was in the mood for something different after a tiring Saturday ride so I agreed to meet with Ryo and his friends for a 10km run starting at 7am. Took a slow walk from my place to the designated underpass and only Ryo showed up! I was thinking to myself....he's gonna kill me.... Started with an ok pace, I was just doing my best to keep with him. I know he is not even pushing yet! I was ok up till the 5km point where he kicked up the pace a little bit.....by then I was happy to just stay behind him (drafting, not sure if it even works that way!). At times, he would 'drift' further in front and I had to try to catch up....he was kind enough to keep it at around 5.40min/km during the last 3-4km. I was panting and dying behind him but good thing he could not see the humiliating state I was in drafting him from behind! Managed to complete 10km 20secs beyond the hour....not bad! This basically shaved like 8 mins from my last solo 10km run with these thin soled shoes! Would

One year on, 'Team Masher' rides again! We looked so united donning our Twin Six Masher jerseys (except for BP!). The ride started from my place at 6am with Mark and Ben. We met up with the rest (KL, BP, Gary, Ryo) at Nicoll highway bus stop. The ride started with a medium pace, with everyone actually catching up a little bit. It has been such a long time since I saw some of these guys in their tight suits. Prefer them much better in this attire. Exhibition of freedom compared to constricting business attire. We kicked up the pace upon hitting West Coast highway (>36km/h, not on the viaduct). Along the way, we picked up the draft of a large group (Sin/Rev?) and they were nice enough to let us join their little pull at post 37km/h speeds! Apparently some of those guys are Cat 2's! They tried to coach us into doing rotation but we did not do that too well.....after a short while, they took over again and we were sucking their wheels once again. Nobody's complaining o

Kinda feel bad as this new toy has made me neglect running. I will start running again this week! Promise. I did a solo 115km on Saturday to test out the Di2 setup. Started at 5am and things looked very promising....hitting ride average of 31km/h at Jalan Buroh, on my own. As usual, going up Jalan Boon Lay slowed me down. Still managed a respectable 30.5km/h ride average after the hilly Mandai sections. Jousted a little with another group at Mandai. Basically I broke up the 8 man group by going into the gaps that were forming between their 'fast 3' and the rest. Went at it with their leading young rider on one of the slopes and took the lead, with the intention to lead them through. Apparently they did not like this and promptly started a sprint fest. No problem, I just tailed, went side by side to a Tri Bike and the guy promptly looked at my relaxed posture and said "don just suck on our wheels! take the lead!". I was thinking OK, so I took the lead and they start