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

10km PB Decided to go for a 10km 'go for it' run! After some weeks of not doing speed training (eg. trying to better my 10k), I went for it today. Took (reluctantly) the Kinvara's out as I feel its the right shoe for the occasion or I just being pussy and needed the pads below my feet. Let's just see if my speed has suffered after all these long distances. On the go, I just went at the fastest I could do 'comfortably' ...... stride was lengthened a bit, focus on a natural relaxed forefoot strike, which I do anyway. Strangely, the Kinvara did not feel as squishy as before...perhaps after 100km it has broken in (?). Managed to keep good pace till 5km. No niggles on the legs as well...they felt ok throughout. Breathing was consistent and HR was steadily moving up, as expected, over the distance. At 5km point, it was not even the best time but its still under 26m and I felt relatively better compared to other attempts....the 2nd 5km was only slightly worse and t...

Ah, what a good 3 days.... Certainly 2 highlights was 1) Run350 with my Wife 2) Both my kids can ride the 2-wheel bike! On Saturday, to give my legs from the Faber torture the previous day, I opted to go for the 'an hour or less of moving time challenge to Siglap kopitiam" something Ryo and me cooked up while riding at those ungodly early hours just to kill the boredom. This was to be the last time I will use the MotoACTV (until they clean up their act on the website and the TCX export). The best time for this was done in January with Ryo where as a team we averaged 33.1km/h to cover that 32km of start and stops (with some slopes). I set the virtual partner on MotoACTV for 32km distance and 1hr time. This time out I was solo and did not expect much from this ride except, just do it. Started out ok at the service road and just managed to pip the VP but lost out again at the park area leading to the coastal road...however at Coastal, I turned it on and went to 35km/h avera...

I just had to make myself go through this 10km speedwork....its part of the MTP. Basically, to do my best 10km speed at this point in time. Now, I got nothing against speedwork just that everytime I go out there to run my best speed, I get injured some way or another. So I thought ok, lets just wear the Kinvaras and my make-do sock compression for my calves and head out. I was so eager to get it over and done with that I did not even do my stretches/warm-up properly. Shot out at 5min/km speed....managed to hold on for 3km but soon deteriorates as I feel aches on my left leg, so I stopped to push down both socks...better. Could only do 5:14min/km pace for the first 5km.....matches my personal best for this distance. This was it, my pace kept dropping after that to a mere 5:40+ pace. I thought to myself that I will do a fast run for the last 2km after I u-turn from the lagoon. Legs just did not feel right. Right after I u-turned, all of a sudden, the winds started to pick up. I g...

Ryo cycled to my place and we ran at ECP doing the 10km loop. As he is definitely a much faster runner than me, I asked him to help me to try to achieve 5:15 pace (just want to get it under 53mins). He did just that at shot off at a bullet pace of 4:30.....I nearly fainted but thank goodness he noticed my state and slowed down to 5:10 pace.....by then I was dying already. Think the initial fast pace destroyed me. Upon reaching the 5km point (a PR), I could feel that I was getting tired fast so I knew at that point that it would be quite difficult to hit the under 53mins target but to achieve a PR over my best time was definitely possible. I gave it all I had for the last km or so and managed to do just that. Ryo hardly pulled a sweat! 10km in 53m 22s....improvement of 20s from previous PR achieved last week. Wow, every seconds equate to pain and suffering but I am loving every moment of it. Strange.

I had Ryo to pace me for Monday's 10km run and bettered my time by 8s. Coming out from being sick last week, I think this is a pretty good achievement. I probably would not have been able to do it without Ryo's pacing, so thanks to him! Time 54:05....just a shy over 54mins. Tuesday was more like a recovery run.....did about 6+km on barefoot with Ryo as well. Amazingly, we had pace of below 5min/km for the last 1.5km or so barefoot! That was nice. Thursday was back on the saddle day for me. Feels good to push on the bike after a while. Pushed hard against headwinds on the way up and on the way back was quite spent to push further. I was determine to keep the time below 55mins for the route so the last 1-2km, I pushed harder. Managed to comply within 55mins timing, just by a shade. The bike now feels pretty good, and looks good too, with the HEDs and GLUED tubular in place. Which reminds me that I need to put more miles into the bike!

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...