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

Finally succumbed yesterday afternoon and went back to see a doctor. Doctor gave me the rest of the day off plus some antibiotics as he observed 'really red throat'. Spent the rest of the afternoon just sleeping and hydrating. I was torn as to whether to take the antibiotics klerimed or try to self-recover.....with the ABs, I could potentially recover much faster and get back to my riding and running but on the other hand, self-recovery for a simple ailment will be a good thing in the long run. Well, I've not rested 2 days in a row for the longest time and I think its high time I get it! I guess the lack of sleep just piled up and the beer + trail run really pushed the body off its limits (not too mention more beer during that magnificent Liverpool win over Manure . On the lack of sleep, theoretically, sleeping at 10.30am and waking at 4.30am gives me 6hrs of sleep. This 'could' be enough and sustainable. However, what I failed to realize is that I do not get a ...

Wow, I didn't think the 20km Trail Run + Beers and more beers during the Liv vs Manure match on Saturday could cause so much damage! I was basically down on Sunday. Although I managed to run ok on Monday despite abdominal aches, I fell sick and tired by afternoon time. My plan to get back on the saddle this morning went to tatters. Pulled myself up to work today despite feeling the potential onset of fever and sore throat! Feeling better not though.....hope it continues! I really want to do some exercising tomorrow morning!

Made prior arrangement with Ryo for 5km run barefoot. Feeling bad that I did not do anything on a Sunday (!!!) due to my foray into drinking the previous night, I just had to do a solo 5km on the my spanking new Merrell Trail Glove. As such I ran the first 5km myself with the shoe and the next 5km with Ryo with the shoes in hand. Decent pace for the first 5km with the Trail Glove. The shoes are very comfortable and the fit is nice. I appreciate the large toebox which allows very natural toe-splaying as the forefoot hits the ground and finally 'roll-off'. The padding is much less than the H-Streets so hence it takes a bit of getting used to, actually its more 'barefoot minimal' than the H-Streets. I feel that the sole has a bit of arch support compared to the flattish H-street....this is good as I feel that the TG promotes mid-forefoot striking in the shoe itself while I have to focus a bit on natural running with the H-Streets. I can't say for sure which is better...

The usual suspects met up at Casuarina car park this time around. JM, JvM and me at 6am in the morning. JvM's wise idea to do the loop anti-clockwise. It was something I did not expect! After 2km of Old Upper Thomson road, we found the entrance to Woodcutters and bashed in. Thereafter we found out that going this route has much more uphills than downhills. To add to the drama, it was pitch dark in a tough wet, muddy trail so there was a lot of up slopes and stop and go drama due to the terrain. I was destroyed within the first 6-7km. They had to wait for me quite a fair bit. I was on my h-streets and they were ok but as the terrain got a rockier, I could feel the strain of my soles hitting on every hard uneven surface. We managed to complete slower than the last time. Going this route counter clockwise, for some reason, is definitely harder. Had (too much) beer after that at Casuarina drive and I really do not think its a good idea! On Sunday morning, decided to wake up late ...

CNY has come and gone! Lots of great food and high calorie intake over the short period. Fortunately, I was committed to exercise during this period! I only had one rest day, which was Monday. I needed the energy to move the family here and there for visiting so I refrained from any further energy sapping activity in the morning. Woke up early instead and took the kids to KFC AM....always a treat and the waffles are to die for. Monday : REST for BIKE and RUN Woke up early took the kids to KFC AM for breakfast, went out visiting until evening dinner time. Thats at least 1500 calories I think! Tuesday : 80km Ride to Tuas and Back, SOLO Nice ride solo ride. There was little traffic being the 2nd day of CNY. Surprisingly some activity still at Tuas area but right at end : completely empty wide road. It was very pleasant indeed so I took a 4km round around Tuas industrial area. Speedwise, I went for it from Keppel onwards and managed to hit 30km/h ave prior to descending the viadu...

A satisfying weekend of workouts albeit announcement from a dear friend that he won't be cycling with me for a while! Saturday Met up with KL and JM for an extended Eastern Loop. A good 78km or so. Started off pretty slow we pumped up the pace eventually. We managed to hit 30+km/h average speed around Pasir Ris prior to dropping JM off. KL was not at his usual pace that day after having missed a weekend of cycling. This ride also marks the return of my HED Stinger 6. All trued and mounted with Evo CX 25C tubulars. This time, I got it glued at TEF. Boy, that tubular loving feeling that I missed is back. I chose 25C in the hope that this will be more puncture resistant than its smaller counterpart. No tape this time, GLUE is the best. The Evos are some of the best tires I ever rode on.....sure the tape and conti gatorskins were bulletproof and convenient but I was missing that great ride when I first got the wheels : glued with evos 23C. The roll was excellent. Weight increase ...

Rested monday after the mammoth 30km run on Sunday. Thought I could do ok on Tuesday but I suffered and just managed to do under the hour for the usual 10km. Obviously, though the mind was willing, the body was not. I believe, much reparation work was still needed to be done within the body! What did not help was the fact that I had a late night out for Ben's birthday, with Ryo and KL as well at TGIF. We ate and drank A LOT. For the record, after a long hiatus from drinking, I'm proud to announce that I survived 3 bottles of Sam Adams and 3 pints of Summer Ale (nice!) or was it more. No way I could run the or ride the day after though and was so sleepy throughout the day. I arranged a run with Ryo at 5.30am today and he was game. I did a warm up 1.5km as I had time before heading to the usual underpass meeting place. Ryo put up quite a fast pace for me as I struggled a bit for the first 3-4km. We wanted to see if there was a through road to Marina Barrage but to no avail. A...

I have been planning this for the past couple of days. The early plan was to complete 34km which is a loop covering ECP - Coastal - Changi - Loyang - Bedok Reservoir and back via the park connector. The thought of going up Loyang on foot at the 24km point was pretty much unbearable since I felt that I have not fully recovered from the previous day ride yet! Even so, the show must go on; I had to feel a true long distance run. So finally on Sunday morning, I decided to go for my usual ECP - Coastal - ECP 30km bike route -- on foot. Started with a slow pace.....my initial target was to complete the 30km NOT WALKING at any point but later changed my mind and set a target pace of 7min/km (which I failed, of course). Upon reaching the East Coast Sailing club I was already doing 7+min/km pace......and my bowels were moving. There was a toilet there but I decided that I was ok to go and could control it. It was a mistake as it came in on and off for the next 8km! Fortunately for me, at the ...

I was planning a fast 100km+ ride for Saturday but me mate Ryo needed to be back early so we went through the relatively flattish 80km East West route (Tuas and back). Even though it was shorted than the initially 100km plan, I found it to be a thoroughly satisfying ride as 1) we attacked every slope we encountered 2) we attacked the flats, more so if there was headwind! 3) I had thigh burn from every attack. Although the ride average for was only 30.3km/h, its not reflective of the intensity of the ride. A quick look using Sportracks shows that we started very slow and only picked up speed after Nicoll...we slowed as well due to traffic at Tuas and also Raffles Marina, just spinning and sightseeing there. Average speed from Nicoll - Tuas - Nicoll (about 70+km) was about 32km/h. The ride back from Tuas - Nicoll was 33km/h ave. Average speed at Viaduct was impressive, probably about 42.5km/h for the full length. I managed to pull up to 45-47km/h at some stage. Pretty good for 2 guys...

I was struggling with the idea of whether to catch up on some sleep and not exercise on Friday morning as the past 3 days of early rises have had some effect on my afternoons (sleeeeepy)!. Been toying with the idea of going barefoot again and in order not to be traumatized by blood blisters, I decided that I should go barefoot 'slow pace', with more focus on form running rather than speed.....basically get my virgin soles used to prickly, hard cement ground. I walked to ECP in slippers and only had my GPS/HR watch with me. I ran while holding on to my slippers. It must have looked strange to some people! The pace I settled upon which I found to be ok for my feet was about 6.30min/km. Cardio, no problem....hovering just below 140bpm. As I started, the foot feel was good but somewhere after 5km, I can start feeling the 'rawness' of the sole hitting the ground and picking up coarse sand. The tactic was to run on grass for a while to clear up whatever was prickling the fe...

Trying to put back more cycling into my exercise regime. Its tough since we have only so many days and so many hours in that day to fill. Anyway, its a good time to increase cycling for now as my legs are STILL recovering from the previous trail run. I'm experiencing the same discomfort on my right leg (knee area) that got me to stop running months back. Did a 10km run which felt ok on Wednesday but I think I should rest a bit more. The trail run probably did more 'damage' that I had hoped. Should have stuck to my old running shoes instead! Cycled with Ryo on Tuesday and Thursday, same route (ECP-Coastal-Loyang-Siglap). The first time round we did it with ave of 30km/h but we were needlessly attacking each other a bit along the way thus the not too optimal time. I remarked that we did this route much faster on Nov 2010 (32.2km/h) which prompted Ryo to raise the challenge for Thursday to ensure that we beat this time by cooperating. Well, cooperate we did. Started out at t...

Courtesy of JM from his handheld POV camera. Short Excerpts from the run... Macritchie Start Rifle Range Road Zheng Hua Park Woodcutter's Trail Old Upper Thomson Road Casuarina Beer Reward Back to Start

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 pac...

Finally, Ryo is back from his holidays. We had a short 30km ride on Wednesday with quite a fast session at the coastal flat and on Thursday, a 10km run. For the run, let's just say that I was extremely glad that I managed to keep up with him (probably because he is not back to full fitness yet!). Pretty good time considering that we even had a nice chat while running! Looking forward to tomorrow's 19km Trail Run where he's also joining. It will be the usual trail gang comprising of JM, JvM and me....plus Ryo and Kuan. On the flats, I am undoubtedly the slowest running in the group but hey! the only way to improve is to run with people better than you!

Had a nauseous new year weekend. I did not feel great from Thursday onward....a bit of a stomach discomfort coupled with headaches and nausea (flatulence problem too! and no, that did not help in general propulsion on any of the sporting activities I undertook)....did not push it for runs on Friday and Monday as well as the ride on Saturday. Of course, having lots of "great" food over the festive weekend as a treat for the family did not help the stomach situation, as exhibited yesterday on the 10km run. I literally stopped at 4km point with splitting headaches. Careful not to tempt a probable onset of stroke or heart attack, I walked a bit and it got better......decided to go into "limp home" mode just to get my ass back home but of course no cheating, so I went the full 10km as intended from the beginning. I basically spent the whole of Monday resting (sleeping, eating) and this morning....it started with a bit of worry that I'll get those headaches again ...