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

Monday was a rest day. No thanks to that highly disappointing England - Italy live football match that I watched live.By that its apparent which team I supported. A terrible performance but some piece of good defending though. Anyway, started back on the saddle on Monday for the usual 30km to sweat it out. Didn't go outright fast as felt kinda sluggish yet again. Top off the ride with 5-6 mins spent on planking below my block with rest time of course! After a week from running (longest period free of running in months I think!) I decided to go for a 10km barefoot run. The sore butt syndrome is still there but less. Got pretty decent speed out of the outing; just 10s than my PB barefoot 10km. Soles were, of course, battered. There's something about this soreness of sole when it hits the ground that I like! I went out again on the saddle on Thursday morning for the same 30km route. This time did it noticeably quicker and felt better too (maybe because I forgot to p

Truth be told, I've been feeling rather under the weather ever since the Marathon. I think its the culmination of all those days of running with lack of sleep and a poor core since March. I will gawk at the idea of doing another run more than 10km, to be honest. I really did not know what drove me the past months to do so. It's time to focus on cycling with the Ipoh Century Ride 2012 just around the corner plus that customary Cameron Highlands climb with Ben that we did last year as well prior to the Century Ride. I've no doubt that I can complete it with no issue....I guess I'm wondering if I could better my time from last year. A decent average speed of 33+km/h over 160km. On Saturday, made arrangements with Ben, Ryo and KL for a 70km ride starting 6.30am from AML (only took on this late timing due to Ben but he couldn't make it last minute). I headed out earlier on my own at a bit past 5am and did the Coastal Loyang loop, completing 34km prior to the ride wit

Felt quite lazy after the holidays to be quite honest and did not really rest very well at all! 3 minor workouts this week. Still have some butt soreness (could be piriformis acting up) on the left side so running wasn't too pleasant. On riding, the saddle feels good now that the saddle sores have 'healed' and its place some 'armor plating' has formed but from the 30km ride, I felt that the saddle was a tad too high and have since reduced it by a mere 5mm. Monday 10km Run Lethargic but at least managed to do it below the hour. High HR. Body weight was up 2kg due to holiday loading.After run was 79+kg.Didn't feel great due to the butt soreness.Hope it is not some major pelvic problem creeping up. Tuesday ECP-Coastal-ECP 30km Standard Saddle felt great. Decent speed actually but had massive winds heading back which is accounted by the high HR. I felt like I could not maximize my legs probably due to the saddle height. After the ride, I lowered by 5m

I inadvertently left my spanking new H-Street purchased from Al-Ikhsan at Mahkota Parade, outside an optical shop and thought it was gone. I only realized after leaving the shop but running back there they were already closed. I called them up the next morning but they claim to not find anything INSIDE the shop. Hours later they called back and said that from the CCTV, they saw me going out of the shop with the bag coming back to with the kids without the bag. I thanked them for the information and just gave up on it. Guess what, the lady (Esther) and the owner (Mr.Lee) of Tai Fah Optical at Mahkota Parade didn't stop there. Hours later they called again to inform us that they have found my shoes! Well, their CCTV also revealed that a cleaner picked up the bag. Esther went on to locate the cleaner and managed to get the bag back. Apparently, he was already trying to sell it back to Al-Ikhsan! I was really really touched and impressed by this level of 'service'. It was g

Totally disgusted with the cost of flying 5 people on budget air to anywhere for a short holiday, I opted a drive-to holiday this year to Melaka. I always liked this town and it does bring back to me at least, fond memories of Ipoh when I was younger or course. Ipoh town is more or less dead these days but in Melaka, its still bustling. The old colonial buildings are still very much in business albeit nowadays they are slightly more geared towards tourist dollars (local and abroad). Still, no charm is lost in this transition and I simply love coming here and just walking about the old town. A good chance to also test out my Sony NEX 5N..which did not disappoint though I need to really read up to learn-in the host of features that I've not touched! Here's a brief run-down on my trip with the family The Hotel : Casa Del Rio  I booked the 'family fun package' and even though it was a 'package' it did not come cheap. roughly about 300SGD per night. Upon a

My butt cheek hasn't really healed yet but went ahead with this ride. I am exploring to see if this route is a viable one for an early morning weekday outing starting out at 5am. I adjusted the saddle more to the aft position and increased the post height by just a tad. I might have made it a bit too high and will need to reduce it as I feel tightness behind my legs, a symptom only felt of the saddle is a little bit on the high side. I felt I could not lay down the power as much too. Started cautiously due to my butt scenario but it was ok till the Viaduct. From that point on, it hurt but only on the right cheek. I could feel the soreness and the rawness with every rotation of my right leg....it gets worse when the road hits slight bump. This saddle is hard. It doesn't really flex at all. Really looks a bit like that ass wedge/hatchet KL and Mark have on their bike. Still, I'm going to keep the faith as I do feel that its actually quite a good saddle. The cutout works. No

Since developing a strange strain at the left gluteus maximus area last Thursday, I've been a bit wary (could have contributed to my right saddle sore perhaps??). Took it easy this morning with a low-pace barefoot run from my place to Fort Road and back. This run comes with a twist; some core muscle training incorporated. Basically, the idea is to do 5 reps of the following, every 1km-1.5km covered running. I would stop at a convenient sheltered rest area and do this. - Push-ups x 10 (I'll call this a 1/2 pushup cos' I can't pushup properly due to lack of upper body strength) - Planking + L/R Side Planking, 30secs each position - Crunches x 20 I did this today and boy it was not easy! The last 2 reps were a real chore and I was basically dripping into a pool of sweat while doing them. I'm hoping to feel some aches tomorrow due to this, if not, then I have failed! This is quite a nice workout that takes only about an hour. It'd be nice to be able to thi

Ok, it is through pure gatal-ness that I got this. There was absolutely no reason why I should change that magnificent Charge Knife saddle which I've used for 1.5 years and gotten used to. Well here it is, installed and taken out for a 115km ride. Since the ride, I have modified it a bit after the butt pain I got from it. Basically, nose tilt up slightly, post up by 0.5cm and saddle pushed back 0.8cm thereabout. It's a very handsome saddle, though I got it in the WRONG colour. I thought I ordered the black version but apparently I was wrong. Well the white saddle don't look all that bad actually. At least there's some contrast now.....and I really dig the red underbody of the saddle. Matches by bartape! Finally that beautiful Fizik saddle clamp can be appreciated!

The Masher group was assembled ready to do this route on Saturday crazy hour morning but this was not be. It rained the whole Saturday, literally. For me it was mostly a sleepy Saturday. So I just made myself wake up at 4.30am the following morning and hit the road by 5.05am from my place. Target is to complete the 112km Singapore Loop...my personal 'back by 9am' route. This is the first long ride with the Fulcrum Zero and just installed Specialized Romin saddle. 2 firsts on a single ride. For the saddle, I was a bit too ambitious to bring this out for such a long ride....as I discovered in the shower after the ride. Anyway, started out decent. The saddle felt very firm and I had the niggling feeling that it was not well setup. Felt that I should have perhaps not lowered the saddle that much and should have move the fore aft a bit to the rear. The tilt also could do some adjusting. I was determined to complete the ride anyway and did not make these changes while on the road

Yes! Finally outdid my March 2011 PR of 33.5km/h that was done on aero wheels! 33.8km/h ....... 0.3km/h improvement on the average speed for this personal training route. Average HR shot high but I felt ok and could maintain for quite some time even at 175bpm. I had a bit of tail wind helping me towards the u-turn (33.6km/h average achieved at halfway point) but going back the same route means it would be the same find that I need to fight against. Managed to keep and improve a bit towards the end. Lost a fair bit average speed due to the u-turn and drinking my water...ave dropped to 33.3km/h. Luckily legs and cardio were good enough to gain me back some speed. All this on my conventional alloy FRZ wheelset! Passed a couple of guys at service road and they promptly chased up and passed me. I was not interested in playing with them so I just maintained at my 34km/h average at that point. Sure enough, they lost steam after about 500m and I just passed them with no resistance offered.

Friday was supposedly a rest day for me but since the parents are in town and they wanted to do a ECP slow walk, I thought I just joined them for a while.....while I do a short 5km. I've always wanted to better my 5km speed/time but haven't the chance to do so during the past many weeks due to 'marathon commitments'. I can't say if I'm fully recovered or anything but its sure worth a shot and let's face it : Its 'only' 5km! Started strongly and maintained below 5:00 min/km pace.....I guess I was a bit overzealous and the first 2km was about 4:40min/km. This took me out pretty good and the next 3km pace was to suffer. Fortunately on the average, pace was 4:58min/km and hence got me a time of 24m50s thereabout. This is a PR, beating my last best by about 50s. I had quite a fair bit of aches after this on my butt and legs in general! Saturday was planned as a long ride day. Basically after a month plus of non long distance riding plus the accumu