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

What a great weekend with the 2 monkeys back in Ipoh (for Ching Ming). Had my healthy dose of fried noodles, roti goyang and whole bunch of performance defeating but soul enhancing food! The kids loved it there....from the visits to the ancestor burial sites (always an adventure in Malaysia as it entails some minor walking and visiting to outskirts of Ipoh.....to eating and helping out my parents at home. It was quite a challenge to bring them over and back in the bus but after Genting, these are peanut affairs. Ok was trying to first restart my engine on Tuesday morning for a run. Didn't feel 100%....sporting a slight fever and sore throat (not surprising with only 4hrs of sleep in the bus and working the whole day after that) but the first half was actually pretty good but after the 2.5km point....wow....everything started to go downhill. The legs were the first to go but surprisingly breathing (cardio) was ok. Only managed to complete the 5km in 30 minutes flat....the worse time...

Usual ride but what a ride it was. I will be away this weekend (no riding then!) so thought I have some bike time this morning. Set off at around 5.05am with the intention of doing the dreaded ECP - Coastal - ECP. Why 'dreaded' you might ask? Well, its a relatively simple and straightforward route, only 30km or so BUT I've this thing going on with this route and it has become officially my personal speed challenge route. Every time I take this route, I'm reminding myself my personal best and should I or should I not try to break it. Well this time around, I started quite strong, and surprisingly after about 100m or so, without warm-up (its bad!) I was doing 32-33km/h 'comfortably'. When I was done with the slow park area, prior to entering Coastal road, my ave was about 32.5km/h...so I thought, hey, I can do this....I can surpass 33km/h easily. And I did. By the time I reached halfway, ave was about 33.6km/h but on-route back I was getting a bit spent but still ...

Last week was a hectic week. I was in Korea on business for most part of it. Took the red-eye from Singapore to Seoul and then a 1/2 red-eye back. Arrive in SG 2am+ and had to go a full day of work the next day. Thankfully felt really energetic (maybe from all the kimchi and 'heaty' stuff I've been ingesting in Korea) and survived the day with no issues. Whilst in Korea, I managed to run every morning : standard 5km...with completion target of below 30 minutes. Over the weekend did 2 rides. On Saturday it was 80km West Loop with KL and Mark. Mark seemed to tire out quite fast. Not quite the Mark I knew but he hasn't done long distances in quite a while actually. On Sunday it was 80km East - West on SS. My target was to achieve 30km/h average from home to home, I think its quite achievable (maybe try it out solo next time). KL looked tired after Jalan Buroh so I modulated my speed and effort to match. Had a very decent average HR for this ride ~140bpm which is low! My Av...

So 2010 has been quite a year for me in terms of exercising. On the cycling front, I toiled on a fixed gear and later on a SS. Did a lot of Faber climbing earlier in the year and speedwork towards the later part of the year. Got myself a 'fast' bike which actually made me push harder for some reason. Also, I started running again, this time more regularly. I started to run and cycle even on weekdays from mid of 2010 onwards. For this I only have Ryo to thank as he accompanied me (or rather encouraged!) for many of the crazy hours morning weekday rides and run (I've since given up on running with him as it would leave me with a heart attack). My current regime : weekends : cycle, weekdays : run.....if I can, squeeze in a 30km base or TT-like ride right in between the runs (but this is pushing it for me!) I quit smoking as well in the beginning of June...see the weight spike in June 2010....yup that gave me a jolt and right before TOP! I conquered the 3 peaks at 90kg on loade...

Did back to back East - West rides over the weekend. Basically from my home to Raffles Marina/Tuas 2nd Link and back. On Saturday, I set off alone at 5.15am...and was back home by 8am. Pretty speedy ride and the course is not so undulating and much less traffic lights. Managed a 31.5km/h average for entire ride which is my fastest solo 80km to day. Of course, the course is much more straightforward. Tuas was quite busy even at 6.30am...many trucks running along the roads but thankfully not at high speeds and were quite generous (luckily) in giving amply space between me and them as they passed. Ave HR for the ride was 150bpm. On Sunday, KL and I went for the same route. Got re-routed into the F1 pit due to the stupid OCBC thingie and we got stuck in there. I was quite fed-up with those guys manning the barricades and stuff....clearly they could let me out of the place and let us be on our way but they were being difficult. I had to throw a bit of a tantrum before they let us pass throu...