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

It started out with a 42km Marathon 'Feeler' run where I did the entire PCN of the East including ECP. It was really tough but I completed it nevertheless, never once stopped to walk because I was tired. I just pushed on in my Puma H-Streets. It was quite a feat for me! Then I embarked on my 12-week Marathon Training Program. 2 key exercise per week for 12 weeks. Its beginning to heat up now as I am hitting the 25km workouts. The next few weeks this will progress to 30km, 33km up till 36km, as lead-up to the Sundown Marathon in May. Then there was the issue of getting ready for the inaugural 1st ever Kuantan Century ride, covering 160km on a bike under the baking hot 35+deg celsius sun. I made myself do a long solo 115km ride a week prior just to get my ass ready. I survived this ride and in pretty decent time as well (finishing around the top 30% of participants), considering I waited a few times for me mate and also had to deal with a rear tire puncture halfway throug...

After a day's rest (Monday) post Kuantan, I started again with my running. Wk4 Act1 completed on Tuesday, followed by a 12km barefoot run on Wednesday. Thursday was just a simple ECP-Coastal-ECP on my trusty Z3 (after re-gluing my rear tubular tires 2 days prior, I think I did a much better job this time around!). I've not done Wk4 Act2 yet (which is basically a fast 10km run) and decided to put in a special run instead : 21km on bare-feet. Mostly to pay homage to 5 months of minimalist+barefoot running (which Ryo inspired me to do and got me back into running with less pain!) and also partly because I'm so close to that 250km mark for the month! Friday morning 5am start. I hid my slippers at the same corner and started running. Headed towards lagoon first. Somehow, my body will just go for a slow pace, knowing that I am trying to complete a longer distance...what laziness! Started with a sub 6 pace but quickly went into 6:40ish after lagoon. My barefeet was not familiar ...

Total participants : 762 Total Finishers : 562 Total DNF (or outside 7hr time limit) : 200 Complete Results HERE (I'm not sure if this link will stay alive for long!) I'm placed at position 249 registering a finishing time of 5:30:51. First group came in at 4:25 (huge peloton). The course is indeed slightly tougher than Ipoh Century last year, judging by the timing of the front guys. I'm placed 53 amongst SIN entries (173 riders : 43 of which DNF).

Yes, it was nice to complete the 160km and all but the trip itself to Kuantan was wonderful. This is my FIRST TIME in Kuantan and Ben's friend CY (with his dad) were excellent hosts despite their schedule. What makes this also very special to me is that they are Singaporeans, residing/working in Kuantan! The irony : The Singaporeans working in Malaysia, hosting the Malaysians working in Singapore, in Malaysia! Ben basically drove the entire way up (this made me feel even worse for not waiting for him during the final portions of the ride...). Right just after Kota Tinggi, in the middle of nowhere, we went to Kiang Kee Bak Kut Teh. Great tasting stuff over here! Possible one of the best I've tried anywhere. Probably has a lot to do with MSG as well. Along the way, at Endau, we wanted to try the Nasi Lemak with Siew Yuk (roasted pork) but could not find it...that would have been great. At Kuantan, we visited some new land developments. Seems like the there has been some kind ...

I came into this ride with very low expectations but nevertheless set a target of under 5hrs completion, using last year's Ipoh Century as a benchmark. However, this was not to be! A dastardly puncture, brutal headwinds and just basically poor cycling form gave me a 5hr 28mins elapsed time. Average moving speed recorded was 32.3km/h which brings my total moving time to be about 4hrs 58mins for 160km (In Ipoh, it was 33.2km/h). Participation seems to be just below 1000 riders. 160 riders came up from Singapore and some from Thailand and East Malaysia as well. Here's a rough km-to-km account of my ride... 0km : Wow, the starting point is just like 500m away from where we were staying (Ben's friend). Had a nice breakfast before setting out at 6.50am. 0km-20km : A short 4-5km round the town for show and we are headed off to the outskirts. Basically for this stretch it was with police escort and speed controlled. This was a bad idea and the police should have let go a bi...

The 12 week MTP has been quite challenging the past 3 weeks, especially in anticipation of the Kuantan ride this weekend as well. I've not been putting much saddle time since Bike Rally and only managed 3 rides since then, 2 of which are 30km Coastal rides and 1 long solo 115km ride last weekend. I guess I'll survive the Kuantan Century...just not hopeful for a good timing like what I got from Ipoh Century last year (under 5hrs). Anyway, any ride taking place outside of Singapore is fun. Cycling over here on this tiny island has grown laborious and painfully boring over the past years....not to mention more dangerous as well with the increased traffic these days and more people thinking they have the right to run you over just because they pay road tax for their cars. Just finished my last cycling prep for Kuantan this morning. Basically a 30km ride....started off lazy but in the end pushed a bit on the 2nd half. Decent speed and the bike is in good condition. I just remedied...

Saturday : 112km Ride I was tad under-confident for this one. 112km Singapore Clockwise non-stop is no easy loop though I've done more than 14 times (most of it solo) and the last time I did this was with Ryo, one of our last rides prior to TDB2011. I had not been riding much since Bike Rally last month....just put in 30km on my SS since then. The cycling legs have degraded a bit! But I'm much lighter than before though. Started out at 9am and was quietly trying my best to do a "back by nine ride" which was a last year favourite whenever I did this route. Started off quite well....hitting 29km/h average speed upon entering the West Coast viaduct. Reached my top 31km/h average speed after Jalan Buroh. This promptly became increasingly difficult to keep at Boon Lay but managed to get back to form at LCK straight which is really a slight downslope. Legs still good at 50km after Kranji but quickly deteriorated from then on. Did respectably at Mandai (did not lose spee...

Actually, this was quite irrelevant to me since I already did 42km on my own prior to this training. The goal of this training is then of course to see if I could do it at a considerably faster pace than my 'feeler' run earlier this month. I target the marathon pace of 6:00min/km, which will give me roughly, a 4hr 15min Marathon. This is going to be tough and truthfully, I'm not gonna make it! Still, aiming high is good. I wanted a training programme that is more flexible and not something which is regimented day by day. This 12 week program was from Runner's World (I think) and I converted it to metric to suit my metric-trained-mind. The programme basically covers 12 weeks (just nice till Sundown) and defines 2 key workouts for each and every week. It also defines how much these workouts should account for, in terms of mileage percentage, for your weekly mileage target. So the extra runs apart from these 2 workouts can be simple, easy runs, I decide! So far, I...

I was meaning to do my key run #1 (3.5km x 2 at Tempo with 1km Recovery in between) on Wednesday morning. Woke up early, got 'dressed' and as I was heading out, the drizzle got heavier (and heavier....basically rained the whole day). Damn. God's will I guess. Anyway, that was Wednesday's story. Thank goodness the next day was ok. Clouds and a bit of faint drizzle. I did key run #2 (25km at easy long run pace with last 30mins increasing to marathon pace). Started out with a pace of 6:30min/km. Well, for an easy pace, it was defined as the speed where I could just be able to comfortably sing "happy birthday to you" and guess what, I did that check a couple of times along the way, except that the pace was ~6:40min/km. The route is the 'extended ECP 21km route' with the extended parts being coming back into ECP via the Coastal road link and one extra round of the lagoon. This gave a flat 25km distance. I was thinking that it would be easy to run at this ...

Its been a while since the family got out (over 2 years??) so its probably high time to plan one, albeit as short one, for the school holidays. Managing 3 little ones ain't easy on the road so opted for a trip to JB to lessen the 'drama'. I booked a nice one bedroom suite at Pulai Springs Resort located just north of JB, which is a little over 30mins away from the 2nd link. I didn't have my GPS with me so its all based on memory but still got a bit lost!! I never knew there were so many 'highways' around JB area! Here's to thinking that all towns are the same as Ipoh, except KL. Stopped at Sutera Mall for Lunch and some tid-bits shopping at Carrefour and head our way to PSR. Nice surroundings I must say and seems to sport a well maintained golf course too. Apparently, they have 3 courses there. First things first, upon the insistence of the kids, we head for the pool. Nice little pool with a slide as well which the kids love. Weather was cold as it just ra...

Back to trail running with PTR. This time around ; JM, JvM, Ryo and Kuan joined. Met at the usual place (Casuarina Drive carpark) and started off at around 6am. This time I had my Salomon with me, I think this helps a lot in getting my mind off stuff on my hands and concentrate better on the trail. It does get a bit warm though! We did the usual ~20km route covering part of Macritchie, Rifle Range road and Woodcutter's Trail. Starting out, the pace was quite fast for me on trail and I fell back after couple of kms into MR and RR but eventually they slowed down and I caught up. I decided to control the group pace a little going into WCT....I got a bit tired and gave the lead to JM who took it faster! The trail was muddy and wet but still not too bad. At Old Upper Thomson road, we all went barefoot until Casuarina. I felt relieved to get those muddy we shoes off! This is the first run I did on this route where I finished feeling still relatively alive! Covered 105km for the past ...

The Soles Looks like my arsenal is increasing rapidly, especially for running! The strangest thing about running is that I sort of went extreme by going Barefoot directly, moved into minimalist shoes like the Puma, and now I'm back to padded shoes! I think for me, a heavy guy, I will need some padding especially for those long runs, hence the Kinvara 2. It still promotes midfoot strike with its low profile sole/padding design. For maintaining running form and technique or just for kicks, barefoot and/or the Pumas are the way to go, no question. It looks like I got it all figured out :) So my short 6 month journey in to serious running taught me a couple of things - barefooting is good for form and technique sharpening (midfoot strike, balance, feel) - minimalist shoes like the Pumas gives some measure of protection and is almost as good as barefooting (and they look good too!) - shoes are absolutely needed for trail running, plus a stiffer and less padded sole is ideal to a...

I had to start training with some padded shoes. On my last 42km run....the final 5-6km was torturous on the soles that I ran on grass wherever possible. The amount of sole-landing took its toll after such a long distance. I had a voucher from my Merrell purchase (20SGD discount) and I have been looking at the Sauconys for quite a while so why not? They look great IMO but I chose a more simple, non-loud colour. Virgin run : 21km .... Personal Best time of 2hr 6mins. First time I did 20km under 2hrs. Feels good without socks too!!

Post 42km Run.....had a well deserved rest on Sunday and brought the kids for breakfast treat. I wore my Zoot compression shorts for recovery and looks like it worked. I was ok to start running again on Monday. Monday Starts my 12 week Marathon Regime. First one is to do 2.5km tempo pace x 3 with ~1km recovery jog in between. Legs were still off but managed to complete with tempo pace at 5:15min/pm. Not too bad. Tuesday I look forward to my barefoot runs. Met up with Ryo at my block and we went for a 'chat pace' barefoot run. Only for the last 2km or so did we pick up the pace. He went off pretty quick and it was quite a struggle to catch up! We covered quite a fair bit....10.5km. Had a quick drink after that and off to work. Wednesday My very much delayed bike ride. I've not gotten on the bike since the Bike Rally 2 weeks ago. I prepped my SS over the weekend and decided that I should put some distance on it this week. Did about 31km/h average for the E...

I just had to know. How does 42km feel like? So I set out at 5am, on my "Marathon Feeler Route" (I have 3, by the way), with the intention of finishing at 10am, with a pace of 7:00min/km. 'Modest' I thought. Oh how wrong I was! The route basically covers the Park Connectors. It was pretty interesting on paper but in reality, one can get confused, like I did as at times the PC do not really 'connect' that well. I entered the Siglap PC near my place. This brought me through Teluk Kurau, Kembangan over the PIE and into Bedok North. Made a wrong turn over here but luckily I stopped to check my GPS and u-turned back towards the correct route. At Bedok Reservoir......the usual dump-attack came....so had to stop at a coffee shop to do my business. I was running on the pathway here until Tampines ave 1 junction where I connected in the Tampines PC. This brought me towards Tampines Mall, Sun Plaza park etc and finally into Pasir Ris PC at Downtown East. At this poi...