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

21km Run Monday's run was good and rather 'fulfilling' as its a PB and by over a minute so leaves me with a very positive vibe. Now the mind was elated and pumped and it deceived me on the bodily condition. Well, this deception came with a price as I tried to achieve another PB on Tuesday with the 21km. I even employed the help of Ryo to come in at km11 to supplement my pain with inspiration and correct pace. It was not to be. Started out quite promisingly for the first 2km but really that was it. Pace began to falter, HR refused to get pumped up. What started out at a "go for under 2hrs" went gradually to "go for 2hr 2mins" and then to "go for 2hr 4mins" and by the time I reached the meeting point where Ryo was waiting eagerly....it was "Ryo, can't make it....just try for my PB". He pushed at 5:40 pace for a while but it was killing me already and as we passed my underpass area at 16km, I really wanted to give up (I think...

I used this for all 3 workouts over the weekend. The first 2 was for cycling and this morning for my 12km run. Cycling For cycling, I set the catch mode to 'extended' meaning it the GPS updates every 2s to save batteries. The 50km ride took about 2.5 hours to complete and I had still about 60%-70% battery left. Not bad I thought and it was paired with my speed/cadence and HRM units. Worked flawlessly. The smallish screen is not a problem too and its looks less intrusive compared to the humongous Edge 705. I could see the reading clearly, in fact better than the Edge 705 even without backlight on. At home, it was easy enough to sync via wi-fi to my Motoactv account. Almost as good as my forerunner wireless sync (because its syncs automatically whereas on the Motoactv, I had to sync manually). There are max of 6 metrics and I think that's sufficient. I have the tendency to max out all and on the Edge I had 8 metrics displaying, which can be dangerous when you are strug...

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!

This ride was a little bit of a worry; I was still a bit tired from the meds and MR run. To compound this, I only managed 4.5hrs of sleep! No, thanks to Paranormal Activity 3 which made me sleep waste past bedtime (so-so show by the way, wouldn't waste my time on it). Got up, did my rounds and met with JM below my block. Reaching Nicoll, I could already sort of know that this was not gonna be a fast ride at all. I just could not push. Energy levels were moderate and body felt lethargic. So I decided that I will just enjoy this ride. In fact, we didn't even take the viaduct towards Jalan Buroh. Did some sprints at LCK and Mandai (downslope) but thats about the 2 pushes I made the whole time. I was tired at Punggol and laboured all the way back home after JM   left at Downtown east. Good thing is, no pain or sores, just general tiredness and lots of calories burnt!

Had a short 40km ride with KL and Ben which started at 7am. It has been quite a while since we rode that route together. Pretty much a tame ride except for a quick 40km/h dash across the Coastal Straight. KL started with 40km/h lead, I took over and then Ben....soon after a group 2 guys stormed pass us and we followed. Those guys pulled at 40+km/h. Ben dropped off and later on KL and as I was behind him I tried to him up front to the 2 guys but he dropped off as well. I went in close and managed to stay with them. Towards the last bit, I pulled up front to lead but that was shortlived as they probably did not approve of it and overtook me, so I followed. That was the fun part of the entire ride actually! On Sunday, I rode alone and in my bid to avoid the traffic blockages, decided to do a new route, 50% of which is the 80km west loop and the rest is coming back via Old Chua Chu Kang road towards Bukit Batok and then upper bukit timah road and into the city. It was a tame solo ride fo...

Finally, managed to complete a 10km run one weekday morning under an hour (58min 52s) at ECP! Forgot to take my HR strap along so I'm not sure how intensive it was but I'm guessing average about 160bpm or slightly under. Felt ok and best of all, legs were ok...no pains thank god. I think this barefoot running thing is great! For the weekend I resumed cycling and went for a lone 80km West Loop early Saturday morning. The alloys feels good and seemingly more comfortable as well bu no less stiff. Hit 30.5km/h right after Manday and thereafter managed to pull it up to 31.0 km/h after LCK road. There was quite a fair bit of traffic so it was a tad slow at Jalan Bahar/Boon Lay where I lost speed. Did well at Jalan Buroh and led a fast group to 38+km/h after the 2nd flyover.....I was spent after the 3rd and 2 guys sprinted off at the final slope. I decided to let them go at the lights as I did not want to draft anyone for this ride. From thereafter headwinds started and only managed...

Its no secret. I've been a little bit mad on running and cycling especially this past month and I'm tired. This weekend, I suffered a slight burnout. Mentally (tired, not willing to get on the bike even after waking up early) and physically (right leg knee issues surfacing, DOMs on calves and lower leg muscles in general). So I just did a short ride on Saturday and basically for today (Sunday); I'm gonna bum. I will start again tomorrow. October 2011 has been a record setting month for me:- - ~900km covered (after my morning ride tomorrow!) - 818km on the bike (April was highest at 830km) - 82km in my running shoes (highest ever, that's almost 2 marathons....nuts!) - this brings total distance to date ~7000km for 2011. 2010 total was 6880km. I have 2 more months! Should be within my means to hit the 8k target for 2011. My riding/running TOTAL DISTANCE trend is shown below from a SPORTRACKS plot. The HIGH months were Feb, April and July. Now there are reaso...

......just killing off some lunch time that I have still left at the moment. So, I've done a lot cycling in previous weeks. In fact this month is going to be the 2nd highest in a month in terms of mileage covered on a bike. This is a big thing since most of the 'high mileage' months are due to events. This month, there is none. There is some worry that I'll probably burn out soon and my wife has even remarked that I was mad going on on the bike or hitting the road on my pumas nearly every single day. Hey, maybe I am but reallly, nothing matters if you are enjoying it! It cannot be harmful anyways right? Another thing is, the running. I covered so far a record distance on my feet this month and I'm loving every moment AND every step of it. Running on minimalist shoes has been an absolute joy (Thanks to Ryo) and reading the book "Born To Run" has been pure inspiration (and I'm still only halfway through the book!). Last week I ran my first 21km (...

Saturday Started off early at 5.15am on Saturday as the usual hardcore early birds were the only ones available for rides. Ryo, kl and me did the usual Singapore round island covering 112km. Average speed for the ride was 31.2km/h....and we did not draft any groups during the entire ride. Everyone did their part in pulling with some short attacks thrown in as well. Notable section was the coastal straight where Ryo and me could not overtake and lead a solo rider. We were trying to lead the 3 man group (KL was dropped at this stage) but he just refused to allow us to lead. It was all in friendly mood but this guy is impressive! Sunday For Sunday, Ryo and me went for Mt. Faber. We did 6 loops and boy was I drained. As expected, he was quick to leave me behind on the climb. Seems so effortless for him! Best time up Kg.Bahru was 5mins 10secs...still at least a minute slower than my best time achieved early in the year. I attribute this to lack of climb training! Also perhaps th...

A tough week at work as my company of 15 years is about to go...well....bust! Its morale defeating to everyone in the company. We have so many opportunities in the pipeline but just simply not enough cash flow. Tough week ahead too.... Well, that's another (boring) story. Saddle up and get on with life! OK, the good news, I was crazy enough to do 3 rides and a run over Tues-Friday. Tuesday : 30km TT-like ride with Ryo...of which I notice great improvement over my last similar ride with him last week. Managed to hit 33km/h average upon reaching end of straight coastal road. Took it easy from them on, riding through the park. Wednesday : 30km again, some route, this time, re-installed the Charge Knife saddle. Its more comfy compared to the Antares. Initially just wanted to do a 30km/h ave ride...but had a fast chase (aero bar road bike) at ECP. Thursday : 32km ECP-Siglap route....pretty intense. 31.5km/h ave speed, got to the kopitiam just a shade over 1hr. Previous b...

One year on, 'Team Masher' rides again! We looked so united donning our Twin Six Masher jerseys (except for BP!). The ride started from my place at 6am with Mark and Ben. We met up with the rest (KL, BP, Gary, Ryo) at Nicoll highway bus stop. The ride started with a medium pace, with everyone actually catching up a little bit. It has been such a long time since I saw some of these guys in their tight suits. Prefer them much better in this attire. Exhibition of freedom compared to constricting business attire. We kicked up the pace upon hitting West Coast highway (>36km/h, not on the viaduct). Along the way, we picked up the draft of a large group (Sin/Rev?) and they were nice enough to let us join their little pull at post 37km/h speeds! Apparently some of those guys are Cat 2's! They tried to coach us into doing rotation but we did not do that too well.....after a short while, they took over again and we were sucking their wheels once again. Nobody's complaining o...

Got a sweet deal on a full (well semi-full, came with 7800 brakes iso 7900) lightly used Di2 set and got it installed yesterday at TEF (good guys over there!). Since the Z3 is not Di2 specific, wires and the cable guides look slightly out of place but not hideous. Had a bit of a problem in installing the battery though...due to the compact geometry and the extremely low water bottle location, the battery could not be mounted at the usual place without sacrificing the bottle cages.  This, I cannot accept and promptly suggested that they place the batt on the chainstay. Well I did one up as I got home, I put it BELOW the chainstay just like in most of the pro bikes! Some comments on shifting later. The 7970 shifters are much sleeker compared to 7900 and has snake-skin-like texture on the rubber grips. DIY Chainstay battery mount. The NDS chainstay now looks kinda busy with the speed/cadence and Di2 batt.. The FD makes a really nice whirring noise when it shi...

Finally had a ride with Ben ad KL ....started out pleasant enough until we saw the dark clouds over Loyang area. Decided to just do the straight road and u-turn back. We went pretty speedy on that stretch about 40+km/h but before even reaching the mid point, the rain started. We made a u-turn at the mid point lights. We headed towards Siglap at a leisurely pace. At the kopitiam, KL discovered he has a front flat. No problem. Swapped the tube and still flat! The spare tube had a leak at the valve joint to the rubber. Then it started to really pour! One of the worst I've seen whilst on a cycle outing....luckily we were well sheltered. The rain did not seem to subside even after an hour. At last we could not wait any longer...we left KL and rode the COLD back home. Now to think of it, lucky I did not go for me long distance ride this morning! Apparently this short couple of hours caused floods all over the island nation. Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9

.....at 10pm I had my last cigarette! Since then, I've saved some money.....spent even more on bikes. Rode harder, longer. Did things faster, more enthusiastically. Felt more confident, knowing I did not smell like a burnt butt. Did not have to hide at some corner of a coffee shop to book my corner. All the good things I can think of. Thanks to my dad exactly a year ago when he seemed to have stopped nagging at me on this point as I sent him to the bus station. Incidentally, I kept my own quit smoking chronicle. This I will close today! This is just about one of the hardest thing I ever did! Genting was a tough 2 hours. This was worse as the suffering stretches for a much longer time (especially in the first few days and weeks!!!) Respect to those who've have or about to stub this bad habit. Feel free to PM me for tips and expectations!!! http://thejackalquitssmoking.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-1-hope-hope-hope.html

I'm blogging this from my nook.....had a good 80km solo ride on Saturday and an easy paced ride with Ben to upper/lower Pierce reservoir on Sunday. Some pics from the reservoir ride.... Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9

Shot this video after my weekday early morning ride. Fibre Flare is really very visible! Highly recommended if you cycle a lot at night or early mornings!

Haven't ran since JMFR so decided to go back to the usual 2 x 5km routine for weekdays and 2 bike rides over the weekend. The 2 running activities were not good at all. Pace was 6min/km but I did a new route which is 5.5km iso 5km. These are more as filler activities for cycling. Weekday cycling is too much for me most of the time....waking damn early and take a while to get setup. So on election day Saturday, I went yet again on a round island solo ride (112km). I changed my saddle tilt a bit (flat) and consciously try not to put too much weight on my hands, esp the right one as I'm developing some sort of Tennis Elbow due to cycling. Kicked off around 5.05am and was trying to complete by 9am. Unfortunately, I came in 2-mins after 9am...exhausted. Normally, I will have 1/2 to 1/4 bottle of liquids left but this time around completely finished. It was ok up till around Mandai (30.7km/h average) until the sun came up. It became hot really fast and it was a real struggle maintain...

Previous record was achieved in Feb (31.1km/h) and that was with some help drafting a fast group at Jalan Buroh. Today, I hit 31.6km/h over the same distance. No help this time, in fact, helped a small group vs. headwinds at Nicoll Highway. Initial plan was to get back by 8am (set off at 5.10am) which is normally not an issue but I wanted to hit ave of 30km/h as early as possible. Managed to hit that goal at Neo Tiew (~35km) despite numerous lights from the start, there was a lot of stop and go and the lights but I persevered. HR was higher than normal due to this. Stopped to say hi to Mark at Mandai Shell. He was waiting with group for the rest to bunch up. It was tough up till Neo Tiew and LCK but it got a lot easier after that. After Jalan Buroh, ave was about 31.2km/h and post west coast viaduct, it was 31.8km/h. It started to drizzle a but at the viaduct but fortunately, skies were clearer down east. Tough to maintain the ave speed achieved as a lot of stoppages at Shenton Way. Go...

Managed to squeeze some time in the afternoon to do this....couple of steps involved. 1. Find the Leak To find the leak, first inflate the tires up and slowly rotate it into a small bucket of water. In my case I it was a pinhole puncture at the tire itself. I marked it up and wipe the tire dry. 2. Opening up the Sucker Now I'm not sure why it seems so easy in those videos and forums but I found this a bitch to do! The toughest part by far is the removal of the mounting strip (which cover the stitches). It must have taken me like 15mins just to open up just enough for me to slit the stitches. From where I marked, I must have opened 1.5 inch in length. Remove the threads around the intended area. 3. Disemboweling the Tubular Ok, now pull out the tube from the hole just made. I was inspecting the latex tube for a hole but could not find any...so I pumped it up a little and placed the tube in the tub of water to locate the leak. It was a really tiny pin hole! I marked it. 4. Patch it ...

On Saturday, I repeated the same ride from last weekend and hope that this time it won't rain. Well the heavens heard me. It didn't. However, it did not make me any faster....fatigue perhaps or the bad headwinds from Pasir Ris onwards? Anyway, it was tough enough for me just to try to attain >30km/h doing this route solo. At Changi coastal/CV, I cooperated with 2 rather strong malay rider (in Zipp uniform), they were kind enough to allow me to. They were training or some sort I think...going 37-38km/h into direct headwind. Together, we did well in maintaining the speed above 38km/h. I was spent upon reaching home. Luckily this time I did not have a post-cyclocross situation with my bike. Ah yes guess what? Front tire puncture at ECP! It did not give way but gradually when I felt the front wheel was making some weird noises (later to find out its the rim hitting the road when the tire bottomed out, though it was not completely out of air). I managed to get home safely, no iss...