Weekend Activities : 20km Trail Run and the 80km 'Recovery' Ride
Saturday's 20km Trail Run
All geared up on Saturday morning...picked Ryo up and drove to Venus drive. Prior to that I was still deciding whether to try out the new shoes I bought last week which looked suitable for trail running, boy should have stuck to my puma's! So, we were the first there, in the pitch dark carpark. The guys arrived right before 6am and we started promptly. JM took the lead and was going pretty fast.....I was struggling and panting to keep up and at that point I KNEW the shoes were a big mistake. The sole being rigid plus the fact that it did not have a single piece of padding whatsoever, made it felt like walking with a wood plank stuck to the bottom of my foot. It hurt and I just prayed that'll survive the run!
Kuan took over the lead and he continued the fast pace! For me it was just a struggle to keep up....my heart was beating fast, feet were hurting from the hard shoes. Before long we reached Rifle Range road.....the guys ran off at medium pace and I got dropped....fortunately, they slowed down to a brisk walk and I caught up. At the trail turn off at Rifle Range, I got dropped again....these guys were killing me. Ryo seemed pretty much at home with the run and so was Kuan, both of whom are on their virgin Trail Run experience. Thankfully, we managed to do a breather walk at Chestnut before continuing and from that point as we entered the trail I took over the lead. Having recovered, I made medium speed and felt much better controlling the group rather than panting behind it.
Woodcutters trail was not as bad as the last time as the ground was not mud-ified as before. Manage to run well most of the time. Got a bit lost as we stumbled into a wrong turn and went into the chopper LZ! Got our bearings right and continued the run. Made pretty decent pace with JM and JvM leading. Kuan was clearly out of breath from this point but the pushed on. I was tired as well as we reached Old Upper Thomson road, I stopped to tighten my shoes....I could feel blisters already on both feet. 3+ more km to go on road and it was bad in these shoes....hard, hard, hard. The guys dropped me again at this point and I caught up when they slowed down. As per JM's suggestion we stopped for a beer (yes...at 8.00am in the morning) at Casuarina drive, downed it and continued our run....fortunately I felt much better after the beer! Ran well until the end at Venus Drive.
Total time 2hrs 34mins (2hrs 22mins of moving time)...I think its a very decent accomplishment for me! Its gonna get better with the next run...no more hard sole running for me!
Sunday's 80km Ride
Legs were not sore from previous day's run (but it did start after this ride!)....initially planned for 100km but since we were to leave at 6am (more palatable to Ben), I did not want us to reach home too late. Tried a new route (same road by the way, that's the way it is in Singapore.....you mix and match all those familiar roads and called them 'new routes')...basically going from Nicoll - West Coast - Jln Buroh - Pioneer Rd - NTU - Jalan Boon Lay - then back via Jalan Buroh. On the way back, we did the Kent Ridge super slope and Pepy's Drive after that. Both were tough and basically Ryo left us both on these climbs.
At end of Nicoll, met up with PC group and BP. We parted ways after a while as we stopped at the mamak stall at Joo Chiat road for our customary recovery Milo. Nice medium paced ride with some decent sprints in between. Got to see Ben 'come to life' as soon as a group tri's passed us (he made a lady his target!). He managed to pull 45km/h+ along Keppel road chasing some of them down.
As I type this now, the legs are sore and the blisters on my foot will slow my running for sure! Basically rested today and will start again tomorrow. I weighed myself after these 2 activities and breakfast at home...81.8km thereabout. I'm now typically floating between 82-83kg at the moment.
All geared up on Saturday morning...picked Ryo up and drove to Venus drive. Prior to that I was still deciding whether to try out the new shoes I bought last week which looked suitable for trail running, boy should have stuck to my puma's! So, we were the first there, in the pitch dark carpark. The guys arrived right before 6am and we started promptly. JM took the lead and was going pretty fast.....I was struggling and panting to keep up and at that point I KNEW the shoes were a big mistake. The sole being rigid plus the fact that it did not have a single piece of padding whatsoever, made it felt like walking with a wood plank stuck to the bottom of my foot. It hurt and I just prayed that'll survive the run!
Kuan took over the lead and he continued the fast pace! For me it was just a struggle to keep up....my heart was beating fast, feet were hurting from the hard shoes. Before long we reached Rifle Range road.....the guys ran off at medium pace and I got dropped....fortunately, they slowed down to a brisk walk and I caught up. At the trail turn off at Rifle Range, I got dropped again....these guys were killing me. Ryo seemed pretty much at home with the run and so was Kuan, both of whom are on their virgin Trail Run experience. Thankfully, we managed to do a breather walk at Chestnut before continuing and from that point as we entered the trail I took over the lead. Having recovered, I made medium speed and felt much better controlling the group rather than panting behind it.
Woodcutters trail was not as bad as the last time as the ground was not mud-ified as before. Manage to run well most of the time. Got a bit lost as we stumbled into a wrong turn and went into the chopper LZ! Got our bearings right and continued the run. Made pretty decent pace with JM and JvM leading. Kuan was clearly out of breath from this point but the pushed on. I was tired as well as we reached Old Upper Thomson road, I stopped to tighten my shoes....I could feel blisters already on both feet. 3+ more km to go on road and it was bad in these shoes....hard, hard, hard. The guys dropped me again at this point and I caught up when they slowed down. As per JM's suggestion we stopped for a beer (yes...at 8.00am in the morning) at Casuarina drive, downed it and continued our run....fortunately I felt much better after the beer! Ran well until the end at Venus Drive.
Total time 2hrs 34mins (2hrs 22mins of moving time)...I think its a very decent accomplishment for me! Its gonna get better with the next run...no more hard sole running for me!
Sunday's 80km Ride
Legs were not sore from previous day's run (but it did start after this ride!)....initially planned for 100km but since we were to leave at 6am (more palatable to Ben), I did not want us to reach home too late. Tried a new route (same road by the way, that's the way it is in Singapore.....you mix and match all those familiar roads and called them 'new routes')...basically going from Nicoll - West Coast - Jln Buroh - Pioneer Rd - NTU - Jalan Boon Lay - then back via Jalan Buroh. On the way back, we did the Kent Ridge super slope and Pepy's Drive after that. Both were tough and basically Ryo left us both on these climbs.
At end of Nicoll, met up with PC group and BP. We parted ways after a while as we stopped at the mamak stall at Joo Chiat road for our customary recovery Milo. Nice medium paced ride with some decent sprints in between. Got to see Ben 'come to life' as soon as a group tri's passed us (he made a lady his target!). He managed to pull 45km/h+ along Keppel road chasing some of them down.
As I type this now, the legs are sore and the blisters on my foot will slow my running for sure! Basically rested today and will start again tomorrow. I weighed myself after these 2 activities and breakfast at home...81.8km thereabout. I'm now typically floating between 82-83kg at the moment.
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