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

Did my last ride of the year this morning with KL and Ben. Just a friendly 65km of Eastern Loop followed by a sell deserved milo-ping at Siglap kopitiam. It was good also to see Mark and Stefan there (with the PC group). 2011 career-wise was an up and down for me. Very numbing experience from the start till end and it continues! Well, I have plans for 2012, just you wait and see. Let's get on with the interesting stuff : Cycling AND Running. This of course is the year where I completed quite a lot of cycling events....starting off with the NTU Bike Rally, JMFR2011, Cameron's + Ipoh Century and finally TdB2011. I did a lot of solo rides kicking off at 5am and doing many of these in excess of 110km per ride. Its also the year where I managed to keep an average speed of 30km/h+ for distances above 100km....solo! It was tough but it was all worth it, just for the experience and the torture :) Completing the century ride under 5hrs was also quite a feat for me. TdB 2011 was pure...

Glad this is over. No one ever wants to cycle on Christmas weekend. They are either too sick or too drunk :) I did a normal paced 11km on Christmas morning and pretty much ate the rest of the day and had some wine too at night. I was looking to cycle on Monday morning but just couldn't wake up....end up waking up at 7am. Seeing how nice the weather was (cloudy & windy) and terrible I felt from oversleeping, I went for a 10km run. I was surprised that my legs actually felt good and did my fastest 10km! Made it in 55m 38s, a 15s improvement over last Tuesday's best time run. Although right now, my knees are feeling a bit iffy....evident from this morning's 30km cycling especially my left knee. A sure sign that I need to take it easy for a while. Maybe do a couple more rides instead of run in the coming days. A sub 55m run is looking more and more possible with each passing run! Did a so-called 'recovery' ride this morning at 5.30am....usual 30km loop. S...

This month has been dismal in cycling. I only covered a mere 250km up this this point of the month. Normally I would have racked up about 500km by now. No, I've not been lazy......I've been running. 110km covered on my minimalist shoes this month....about 35km of trail too. I guess after months of cycling quite intensively (by my standards even!) preparing for various events, I need some refreshing so that I may return to cycling more charged up than ever. I needed a diversion. Running has been more than just a diversion. Its not a real competitor to cycling for sure. Why? because time for physical activities are scarce these days, for a married man with many kids. :) That and the fact that running is just about the most convenient, economical and effective physical activity one can do. Just about anyone can get good at it, given the proper dedication. For me, its been quite an adventure, especially working on the trail paths and then finally getting on the road to run them. ...

Presenting....the duotone legs! I've been living with this tone since cycling again in 2008. Gotten worse this year thanks to some day events which I attended. Anyway, the point of this nice little leg pic is to show 'Le Sock' which I used for this first ever, epic, sub 56min 10km run! To be honest, I'm really please with this achievement and to get to this point only after achieving under an hour about 3 weeks ago, is to me, quite a feat. The sock does work (I think!) and as the morning was quite cold, I wore the compression top that my wife bought for me as well, with a singlet over it (to conceal my 'beautiful' contours). The impression I have from the compression sock is that the calves are kept 'quiet'....meaning they are not jiggling around and put in place when the feet lands on the ground. This, somewhat aid in lessening the shock on the calves, I feel, contributing to overall improved performance. Also its been 2 days since the brutal Trail...

My legs were sore...not for the run but from the fall! My left knee is pretty bruised up and although the wound has well dried up and hardened, therein lies the problem....every time the knee is over flexed, the sensation of hard skin over the wound is not nice.  Other than that no noticeable further damage from the fall and best of all very minimal muscle soreness. So I highly suspect now that compression works (read my last post on the make-shift sock!). I wore it during the run and a good part of the day after the run plus to sleep as well. That kind of battering on Saturday would have taken its toll on my calves but hey, feels good so far. Still I think its too early to conclude. It could be that I just got stronger anyway! I'll keep using the same sock (or other old socks) a couple more times before I conclude. No need to buy! Just do a Macgyver on this one. Its amazing how companies can squeeze out SGD40-80 from a consumer for something like this. That's easily couple ...

I was pretty much psyched up for this run for the past couple of days. Kinda worried cause I was fighting a slight flu, cough and fever as well. Fortunately, today I felt much better, not 100% for sure but good enough to go. The target was to complete 20km (16km+ pure trail); I made up the route but using partial of what we did last week and adding Woodcutter's Trail, a much lesser known trail. This time, I wanted to make a route which allows us to do a true loop, meaning starting and ending at the same point without going through the same route again. The usual suspects included JvM, JM and me.....we set to meet at 6am, Venus Drive. At 5am, I received a message from JM that he is still not well and hence not able to join this epic run. Met JvM at Venus drive and we set off with our lights. As before, the night run was exhilarating. Good thing he still remembered the route as I was a bit blur at the time. Funny thing was here we were running with our lights in pitch darkness an...

Saturday : did 80km with Ryo, KL and Sam (whom we met at Mandai). This is the same route as I did solo last week, a 81km route. Got a puncture on my rear wheel at Bukit Timah Road on our way back...did a quick repair and off we went. Nice friendly ride with some sprints in between but nothing too taxing! Sunday : TRAIL RUN! My first ever. Over the week I was discussing this with JM and we decided to do a 'short' one. The cool thing about this was that we want to start early, in the dark! JVM came along as well. I drove down to Mandai Zoo, our meeting point, and we started off there at 6am. Ran into Trail 15. The starting pace into the rail was quite challenging for me as JVM led the pack. I'm weakest runner in the pack of 3 and was struggling for the first 2-3km into the trail. It was complete darkness, if not for our Lezyne Super Drives. Very cool and exciting! As expected, we got lost a bit especially when the trail forked and made a couple of u-turns. But rest assu...

I got these upon insistence from my wife after coming back with blisters every time I went barefoot. It was the best decision ever for running. So far I've had this for a little over 3 months and covered about 240km. Its not the best wearing shoe for sure but what can I expect? its so light and thin (I could literally squeeze the water out of the shoe like a towel!) plus almost no padding. It has to be the next best thing compared to barefoot as far as shoes are concerned. Below is a shot of the sole indicating the wear. When running in these shoes, I'm definitely not heel striking anymore BUT I do still land on the heel AFTER striking with the fore/mid foot. I've not done much detailed study into all the various ways of running barefoot but what I firmly believe is that once the shoes are off (or with a minimal shoe like the H-Streets), and you've persevered through the weirdness, aches and pains of doing so.....your body WILL ADAPT. It will adapt a method that will ...

It has happened the past 2 weeks. I went into TdB weighing 86kg+, fully carbo-loaded can reached Singapore with 84kg left....admittedly a lot of water loss from the event itself. After the weekend, I was back to 86kg again the usual bummer weight. I cycled much less from then on and started to run more frequently with increasing intensity and goals. That first goal was to do consistently, 10km in under an hour. So far I already managed to do this 3 times over the past 2 weeks so running 10km under an hour should be a given thing now, not a fluke! The last run yesterday, I did the usual ECP route but ran into the construction area near Marina Barrage (a failed attempt to get to the bridge, I'll try again tomorrow). I ran a total of 11+km yesterday giving me the best 10km time of 56mins 45s with a pace of 5.40min/km. That's quite an achievement for me! The good thing was legs were STILL THERE and felt as if I could go on at that pace for another 3-4km or so. However, this readi...

SONY NEX-5N I bought this to replace my aging and bulky D70 last week. It was a major tussle between the Nikon V1 and this. Being a Nikon user for may years now, I really like what they offer but problem is they ARE a camera company and still somewhat traditional (like Canon!) so the feature-sets and size could be a bit too much for my liking. Not to mention the price as well! I tested the V1 briefly at a shop last week and like the size (though i think its still a bit heavy) and build quality but I still can't get over that teeny sensor they put in that thing. Autofocus is very very fast and accurate plus its comes built in with an EVF BUT there is no flash. After much thought, I kept going back to the Sony NEX-5N and it reminded me a lot on how I liked the old DSC-F717 so much. Though retired, I daresay the 717 is STILL my favourite digital camera to-date. It has a very unconventional design (swivel lens), a usable EVF, pop-up flash, video and 5 megapixels...way back in ...

Had a short 40km ride with KL and Ben which started at 7am. It has been quite a while since we rode that route together. Pretty much a tame ride except for a quick 40km/h dash across the Coastal Straight. KL started with 40km/h lead, I took over and then Ben....soon after a group 2 guys stormed pass us and we followed. Those guys pulled at 40+km/h. Ben dropped off and later on KL and as I was behind him I tried to him up front to the 2 guys but he dropped off as well. I went in close and managed to stay with them. Towards the last bit, I pulled up front to lead but that was shortlived as they probably did not approve of it and overtook me, so I followed. That was the fun part of the entire ride actually! On Sunday, I rode alone and in my bid to avoid the traffic blockages, decided to do a new route, 50% of which is the 80km west loop and the rest is coming back via Old Chua Chu Kang road towards Bukit Batok and then upper bukit timah road and into the city. It was a tame solo ride fo...

3 Runs this weekend.......no weekday morning bike rides for a long long time. Managed to run 2 x 10kms under an hour. Best time was achieved on Wednesday, covering 10km in 58min 11s. This is a slightly new route; basically, there is an extension of ECP AFTER Fort Road turn-off which is I suppose, not officially opened yet. It runs for about 800-900m and is blocked again. I think its before long that this will open up and give direct access to the new park opposite the wheel. On Friday, I tried again, wanted to go below 28mins....started off pretty decent pace despite the rain and wet paths but nature came calling suddenly at the 3km mark. From them on it was a decision on whether I could continue ignoring the call....but it was apparent the big one was coming so had to double-back to the toilet I just passed. Did my deed and had a horrible time picking back the pace again. Still decent running time about 29mins 30s or so.....just made it under the hour. I will continue doing 2 x 10km...

Finally, managed to complete a 10km run one weekday morning under an hour (58min 52s) at ECP! Forgot to take my HR strap along so I'm not sure how intensive it was but I'm guessing average about 160bpm or slightly under. Felt ok and best of all, legs were ok...no pains thank god. I think this barefoot running thing is great! For the weekend I resumed cycling and went for a lone 80km West Loop early Saturday morning. The alloys feels good and seemingly more comfortable as well bu no less stiff. Hit 30.5km/h right after Manday and thereafter managed to pull it up to 31.0 km/h after LCK road. There was quite a fair bit of traffic so it was a tad slow at Jalan Bahar/Boon Lay where I lost speed. Did well at Jalan Buroh and led a fast group to 38+km/h after the 2nd flyover.....I was spent after the 3rd and 2 guys sprinted off at the final slope. I decided to let them go at the lights as I did not want to draft anyone for this ride. From thereafter headwinds started and only managed...

ah yet again, thanks to my discussion with Ryo, I saved myself some money by not buying an espresso machine or the nespresso capsule thingie. Back to basics....that's his motto these days (barefoot ideas!). So on Friday, popped by ISETAN and got my self the entire kit! - Rulio - French Press - Haro - Ceramic Bean Grinder - Starbucks Caffe Verona Beans Its a slight hassle (not as much as one would imagine!) and the coffee tastes stupendous...the aroma is great too. I think it will be a great help to help start the day. The kids are my official coffee been grinders. The wife likes the aroma too.

I thought I had enough of riding and wanted to retire for a while after the tough TdB weekend. Well, guess what, I was out on my saddle again on Wednesday morning. Did the usual 30km on the Z3 on Wednesday, with my DA handbuilts....decent ave of 32+km/h achieved and wasn't pushing much too. A strange phenomenon these past 2-3 weeks was that my HR seems to have gone down. Its getting tougher to hit the 180's these days. I did 2 short 5km runs as well on Tuesday and Friday morning. As agreed with JM, we went out for a 100km ride on Saturday morning, sporting our new Lezyne Super Drive light. The buggers are bright and cost about half of what CRC is offering online at Gee Hin Chan. The guys there were kind enough to inform me that the stocks have arrived.....apparently this is a new line of products from Lezyne. Impressive lights, and equally impressive build quality as well....I just hope they last! They are rechargeable via USB. 450 lumens of brightness! JM, as usual, was...

Finally, this is OVER. Anticipation of this event was quite bothersome (well, most events to me are anyway!) and I am so glad that I managed to complete this. Quite frankly, prior to the race, I was pretty confident on qualifying for Cat 3's 'Premier Top 80' since by last year's data, even a 6hr completion of Day 1 could have qualified. Oh, I WAS SO WRONG! What I did not anticipate though, was that this year, the participants ballooned more than two-fold. Veterans were also back for blood (training at site!) plus due to Cat 1 and 2 being filled up quite early, some super riders had to settle for Cat 3. So we really had a mixed group in Cat 3. Needless to say, I was happy to complete all 3 stages safely, still in one piece. The rolling hills at Bintan are B.R.U.T.A.L.....1411m ascent over 154km is no joke. To complete the route leisurely is already quite a mammoth task. To complete it in a race situation, it takes a lot of guts. So real kudos to RYO and BEN (aka STEFAN  ...

I did basically some sort of exercise everyday. On weekdays alternated between 5km runs and 30+ km east coast rides. Did quite ok for the 5km runs....28mins for 5km and getting better; with the exception of an afternoon run (about 2pm) on Sunday where I was totally OFF. The body wasn't quite in exercising mode. On Friday, intended to do a 100+km ride with Ryo. Started off rather well albeit a bit slowly as we were chatting and got caught at LCK in the rain. Stopped for a while at a bust stop as the rain got heavier and heavier....I think we must have waited about 30mins. Seeing the rain did not let up, we continued but at a cautious pace. At some point, we decided to cut the ride short and opted to return via Jalan Kayu. It was a working day so traffic was murder. Cars and buses were out to kill anything not on fours. Stick to Coastal rides for weekdays! On Saturday, managed to get JM out for an introductory ride around West Hills. He cycled all of 15km from his place to mine...

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...