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

What a month! Completed about 698km in total which is the highest so far for this year (don't compare with last year where I did a full 900km coverage on a bike within a month!). Bike : 435km (not bad at all for dual activity) Run : 263km (10+km more than my monthly running distance record which was March). I was shocked as well to see 2 days back that for this month, I only had 5 days of non-activity....typically, I have 8-10 days. No wonder I'm getting slower and it seems like the long distance runs really kills momentum and tougher to recover from them. At this rate I will be happy to complete the marathon under 5hrs! Seriously! Today's run was quite bad. I woke with diarrhea and decide to go ahead....although the long distance plan had to be scrapped as nature called again at 6km. It also rained big time from the start. 15km covered only and speed was modest. I basically finished my 1l water bottle which is highly unusual for this distance. Must be dehydrate

2 days of solids 80km rides with the FRZs and so far so good. Speedwise, for my application, I guess they do not lose out to the HEDs (though I do believe that going 40+km/h and into headwind is probably the HED's biggest advantage but I'm not that 'pro' to take full adv of that!) but bling-wise the deep section carbon look melds better with the entire bike. So as with everything else, there are compromises and since the speed is ok, I've no complaints since I'm getting alloy braking as opposed to crummy carbon braking. Saturday : 80km West Loop with KL. Met KL at 5.45am at AML, as usual and I think we took it rather relaxed. I started to push after Mandai into Neo Tiew, averaging 33-34km/h and there was some headwind..pretty much spent after that but we managed to hit ave 30km/h prior to LCK. Picked up speed at Jalan Buroh and into West Coast highway but it started to rain very heavily as we got into the viaduct. A huge truck was in front of us doing like

The Fulcrum Racing Zeroes arrived yesterday morning. Looks to be of good build quality. Each wheel actually has a 'builders cert'. I installed the wheels, tyres, brake pads and got about packing up the HEDs properly (still remain my absolute favourite wheel!) last night. No problems with the Di2 - no adjustments required. On this morning's short 17km ride on wet roads, I guess they felt ok. Could just be my imagination, but its seemingly bumpier than the HEDs but it also could be because I filled up the 25C with 110PSI (!). Its not as light as the tubulars but by only a tad. The look of course, does not satisfy as much as a deep section wheel would. Anyway, looks ok, feels ok, rides quite good (but need more testing) based on today's short spin.

Got a pair of these for SGD3.30 at Japan Home, West Coast Plaza. Free size and seem to work pretty well. I've been wearing them this past week on and off after workout (to sleep and to office) and no sore calves. Its pretty amazing and at this price a no-brainer. Probably a bit shorter than the branded ones but those are at least 40-50 bucks a pop. When I have the chance I'll get their thigh and knee sleeves as well for similar money.

Chia Seeds - The Aztec Superfood. Really looks like sesame seeds but is tasteless. Supposedly helps to fill up the stomach (it grows 3x in size in water, forming a gello like, frog eggs thick mush) has high fibre, protein and omega 3 content. I just got this and am mixing it with my coffee, even in my sandwiches. They have no taste at all so you can mix it with anything liquid or wet. Not sure where to get this in Singapore but they come pretty reasonably priced online (actually I got this to max out my supplement order from overseas). Had this for lunch yesterday.....a fitting one after the 21km suffering stint in the morning. This was as Ssikek Korean Buffet Restaurant @ Novenaville. Very good selection and very reasonably priced. Fast service as well. I will definitely be going there soon. My wife's cheesecake for our niece's birthday. Pure Philadelphia cheese heaven. Perhaps having this prior to the 21km destroyed me.....worth thinking about.

21km Run Monday's run was good and rather 'fulfilling' as its a PB and by over a minute so leaves me with a very positive vibe. Now the mind was elated and pumped and it deceived me on the bodily condition. Well, this deception came with a price as I tried to achieve another PB on Tuesday with the 21km. I even employed the help of Ryo to come in at km11 to supplement my pain with inspiration and correct pace. It was not to be. Started out quite promisingly for the first 2km but really that was it. Pace began to falter, HR refused to get pumped up. What started out at a "go for under 2hrs" went gradually to "go for 2hr 2mins" and then to "go for 2hr 4mins" and by the time I reached the meeting point where Ryo was waiting eagerly....it was "Ryo, can't make it....just try for my PB". He pushed at 5:40 pace for a while but it was killing me already and as we passed my underpass area at 16km, I really wanted to give up (I think

10km PB Decided to go for a 10km 'go for it' run! After some weeks of not doing speed training (eg. trying to better my 10k), I went for it today. Took (reluctantly) the Kinvara's out as I feel its the right shoe for the occasion or I just being pussy and needed the pads below my feet. Let's just see if my speed has suffered after all these long distances. On the go, I just went at the fastest I could do 'comfortably' ...... stride was lengthened a bit, focus on a natural relaxed forefoot strike, which I do anyway. Strangely, the Kinvara did not feel as squishy as before...perhaps after 100km it has broken in (?). Managed to keep good pace till 5km. No niggles on the legs as well...they felt ok throughout. Breathing was consistent and HR was steadily moving up, as expected, over the distance. At 5km point, it was not even the best time but its still under 26m and I felt relatively better compared to other attempts....the 2nd 5km was only slightly worse and t

Ah, what a good 3 days.... Certainly 2 highlights was 1) Run350 with my Wife 2) Both my kids can ride the 2-wheel bike! On Saturday, to give my legs from the Faber torture the previous day, I opted to go for the 'an hour or less of moving time challenge to Siglap kopitiam" something Ryo and me cooked up while riding at those ungodly early hours just to kill the boredom. This was to be the last time I will use the MotoACTV (until they clean up their act on the website and the TCX export). The best time for this was done in January with Ryo where as a team we averaged 33.1km/h to cover that 32km of start and stops (with some slopes). I set the virtual partner on MotoACTV for 32km distance and 1hr time. This time out I was solo and did not expect much from this ride except, just do it. Started out ok at the service road and just managed to pip the VP but lost out again at the park area leading to the coastal road...however at Coastal, I turned it on and went to 35km/h avera

Completed the highlight of this week today. Took the opportunity as I was clearing my leave anyway and went out for my 33km run on Friday. Started out mundane...the plan was to run around ECP to get the 33km done but approaching Fort Road, I was thinking if there was anyway I could do this more interestingly since I've been looping ECP all this while. Right before the u-turn at the end of ECP, I decided that I should run to Mt.Faber, following my usual cycling route. Pace was decent in the beginning but I was getting annoyed by the music skipping on the MotoACTV which started along Nicoll Hway. I gave up on the music and just kept the phones. Legs were feeling strained already and it was only about 10km going into Shenton Way. The streets of Shenton Way, as expected, were deserted. Running along the streets there, I could smell and feel the air conditioning, escaped from all the crevices of tall buildings. I also notice that the streets were strewn with coffee shops....the arom

I used this for all 3 workouts over the weekend. The first 2 was for cycling and this morning for my 12km run. Cycling For cycling, I set the catch mode to 'extended' meaning it the GPS updates every 2s to save batteries. The 50km ride took about 2.5 hours to complete and I had still about 60%-70% battery left. Not bad I thought and it was paired with my speed/cadence and HRM units. Worked flawlessly. The smallish screen is not a problem too and its looks less intrusive compared to the humongous Edge 705. I could see the reading clearly, in fact better than the Edge 705 even without backlight on. At home, it was easy enough to sync via wi-fi to my Motoactv account. Almost as good as my forerunner wireless sync (because its syncs automatically whereas on the Motoactv, I had to sync manually). There are max of 6 metrics and I think that's sufficient. I have the tendency to max out all and on the Edge I had 8 metrics displaying, which can be dangerous when you are strug

Nothing out of the ordinary this weekend. Decided to put my legs to some good rest and went for riding on both days. A good 50km ride out with KL and Ben on Saturday, solo 30km on Sunday and got back into my 12km MTP for this week today. All three workouts were using the Motoactv. Saturday : 50km West Hills I took the guys on this route. Ben wanted to do some hills and this is the best route I know off. Started off tame but on the Viaduct, I took the lead up and managed to push above 40km/h throughout. About 41km/h average speed over 7km which the fastest I've been on that road. Also of course thanks to some tail wind and passing trucks! Started up NUS via the admin entrance route quite a steep section going towards my ex-hall, passing through the sports centre (memories of my rugby and TOW days in school!), science faculty and NUH. It was pleasant coasting downhill South Buona Vista road....until of course the entrance to KR park via Vigilante drive. This short 300-400m clim

The MTP required me to completed a 21km this week "time trial". I'm done with pushing speed as I tend to get bad down times after those kind exercises! Initially wanted to put in a day's rest before doing this one but decided the night prior, what the hell! Just do it! Started off at about 5.20am and did the usual ECP routes available to me. Started off quite strongly with a good 5:35 pace but that soon deteriorated to a 6:00 pace. Things just went downhill from there and there was no 'second wind' although I did hope for one! From 10km onwards, it was getting even tougher as I struggled to even keep the 6:00 pace. Did a push for the final 3km and just managed to keep JUST below my last PB pace of 5:58 did last month. I used the H-Streets for this one (no cushy Kinvara for me!). I do think that I could have done better, but it is likely that the lack of good sleep and running the past 3 days has taken its toll on this effort. Still I cannot complain, its s

I received this in a parcel yesterday. This is meant to be a replacement for my Garmin 405 and Edge 705. Despite all its flaws from many internet reviews, this device is so-THE-future. It can be worn as a really cool watch software customizable faces, has GPS, WiFi, BT and ANT+ support as well. The device is running on android and is just way cool to use and look at. Really smooth responsive touch screen....just like a mini smart phone minus the cell support. Really a Garmin killer IF Motorola gets the entire ecosystem right. They need to do a lot more and learn from market leaders 'the good things'. I've not had the chance to test it out for workouts yet. Probably over the weekend for a bike ride or something. Here are some shots...

Legs are feeling better these past 2 runs.  Tuesday was a 12km non-stop run with Ryo. It was 'chat pace' I guess and my legs still feel a bit stiff but no pain or anything which is good. Managed to pick up speed a bit towards the end of the run before retiring for a drink at big splash. There's a 24hr snack shop there but drinks are quite pricey. Ran back a full 3km after that. Legs felt ok...much better than last week Wednesday (today)...I was torn whether to ride or run. The lazy side of me opted for running for the pure sake of it being more convenient! Started off slowly and as I got a bit more warmed up I was able to sustain 5:30+pace quite comfortably (in fact I may be able to sustain for 21km given all the 'right conditions' which would mean a sub-2hr half marathon). Increased pace for below 5min/km for the last km. It was a satisfying workout. Today also marked the >700km covered for my Puma H-Streets. This is plenty of life for suc

Last week was not a good week. I injured my knees (suspected quad tendon strain on the right and the usual I think, Pes Anserinus on the left!). That came right after my 10km run in massive winds and heavy rain which hit unexpectedly. I am not sure what attributed the that but prior to the run I was also coping with sore calves which seemed rather prolonged since the 21km barefoot run the previous week. Since Monday, I've cut back on speed and concentrate on just covering the distance, painfully. Thanks to some googling, I managed to pull through with some self-treatments. Coming into the weekend, I still had to complete a 30km run as part of the MTP. The regime required me to run this 30km in a 'prolonged progression manner', with progression towards Marathon Pace for the last 30mins. I wanted to give my legs some rest before I do this so Friday was a riding day. Friday : 35km-ish ECP-Coastal-Siglap with Ben and KL. Started off tamely at the ECP service road but things

I was kinda upset that my knee was hurting quite bad on Tuesday (rest day) and facing the prospect of some down time. Determined not to lose mileage, I did the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) regime on my right knee the entire day (and in the office!). It did not improve as much as I would have hoped by the end of the day.....but then I remembered this pack of Korean Plasters that I bought for my wife and my parents that had huge success rate on their back/shoulder pain (I personally do not use it) that they kept asking me to buy them whenever I traveled to Korea (which I did, early last year, in a wasted attempt to forge ties with a major customer, oh how I wish I could rant about that one!). Right before getting to bed, I placed one on my knee/quad area and went to sleep. I was hopeful that I could at least do something the next morning. I woke up at 5am and wow, the pain has subsided quite a fair bit so I went out for a 12km slow run (6:50min/km) and survived. I was ca

I just had to make myself go through this 10km speedwork....its part of the MTP. Basically, to do my best 10km speed at this point in time. Now, I got nothing against speedwork just that everytime I go out there to run my best speed, I get injured some way or another. So I thought ok, lets just wear the Kinvaras and my make-do sock compression for my calves and head out. I was so eager to get it over and done with that I did not even do my stretches/warm-up properly. Shot out at 5min/km speed....managed to hold on for 3km but soon deteriorates as I feel aches on my left leg, so I stopped to push down both socks...better. Could only do 5:14min/km pace for the first 5km.....matches my personal best for this distance. This was it, my pace kept dropping after that to a mere 5:40+ pace. I thought to myself that I will do a fast run for the last 2km after I u-turn from the lagoon. Legs just did not feel right. Right after I u-turned, all of a sudden, the winds started to pick up. I g

Basically, ate too much and exercised too little! The lethargy from my 21km barefoot run was greatly underestimated. Running the distance was ok, but dealing with the aftermath DOMs is quite terrible.... On Saturday, I intended to take the kids out for a walk in the park to catch the sunrise as well but it rained cats and dogs. Anyway, managed to get them up for a KFC AM treat, which they always love (same here too!). In the afternoon, I did a short 5km run. It was my old 5km route around my non-park area. Did a decent 26 mins which is not bad but was just not used to running in the afternoon and after lunch! Dinner....killer meal at Rama Thai. Maybe 1000-1300 calories that dinner alone. That's a 12-13km run for me. On Sunday, woke up intending to do a 80km ride....I did wake up but the whole body was tired, lethargic and the mind was lazy. Decided to take the kids out for a walk at 6.30am. Got the boys out of bed as we walked towards the seafood centre (a good 2km or so one

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