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

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.

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...

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...

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 ...

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...