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

The plan was to do 36km at my usual time of 5.30am on Saturday but on Friday night, I had problems getting to sleep. After rolling about the bed for about 1.5hrs and feeling pretty frustrated not being able to sleep (I could end up not sleeping till 2am and hence there goes my plan), I popped out of bed and got ready for the run. I was pretty sure it was going to rain but went anyway and hoped for the best. Started at 12.20am with just modest pace. In the beginning, I felt quite good actually and the legs went smooth. It was my first experience running at ECP at this time and I was pleasantly surprised with so many people still at ECP going about there relaxation activities. Macs was full and the lagoon still looked pack at 1am in the morning. The coastline was basically filled with people having their BBQ and tents set up. Looks like some carnival at ECP past midnight! Pass SAFRA, I turned into the Park Connector road next to Outward Bound....now that's like the creepiest p...

Basically, ate too much and exercised too little! The lethargy from my 21km barefoot run was greatly underestimated. Running the distance was ok, but dealing with the aftermath DOMs is quite terrible.... On Saturday, I intended to take the kids out for a walk in the park to catch the sunrise as well but it rained cats and dogs. Anyway, managed to get them up for a KFC AM treat, which they always love (same here too!). In the afternoon, I did a short 5km run. It was my old 5km route around my non-park area. Did a decent 26 mins which is not bad but was just not used to running in the afternoon and after lunch! Dinner....killer meal at Rama Thai. Maybe 1000-1300 calories that dinner alone. That's a 12-13km run for me. On Sunday, woke up intending to do a 80km ride....I did wake up but the whole body was tired, lethargic and the mind was lazy. Decided to take the kids out for a walk at 6.30am. Got the boys out of bed as we walked towards the seafood centre (a good 2km or so one ...

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 ...

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...

Wow, the 188km distance covered during Bike Rally day was really draining. I was still quite tired on Monday and body started to exhibit for muscle sores albeit not serious at all. Took Monday off the exercise map. Tuesday I was not sure if I could wake up for a run so decided not to commit to Ryo's running invitation. I set the alarm anyways to schedule a run for the usual 5.30am. Morning came and I woke up to the alarm, quite reluctant to get up but forced myself up anyway. Still had second thoughts though but hey what the hell. Decided to go barefoot and guess what.....did 12km on my barefeet and in decent time too (under 6:00 min/km pace). I saw Ryo at the 4km point coming from the other direction....he promptly turned back to join me and took off this spanking new NB MT10's (nice and light BTW). He ran with me at my snail pace for another 3-4km and turned off to head back home at Big Splash area. I continued on and made the u-turn back to Macs starting point. I mus...

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.

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

After this morning's ECP - Coastal - ECP stretch...I just pip-ed the 900km mark for the month. Total of 24 activities and over 36hrs of time expended. No wonder I was burnt out over the weekend! This morning's ride was pretty good. Legs felt better. I've been having dead legs (especially on the calves!) for the past few days...probably DOMS from excessive running and forefoot landing. Still a bit still but much better. I did the course today in pretty good time. Just a shy above 55mins for the full 30km course. Achieved 32km/h at u-turn point mostly against headwind. Coming back at coastal, more tailwind than head. Total average speed is 32.6km/h. Now, I wonder how in the hell did I managed to do this with 33.5km/h months ago !??!?! Will be tapering down pretty soon for TdB.

Morning RIDE I did not join the rare Masher ride scheduled for 6.30am (they planned to do the Eastern loop, a relatively flat course, avoiding Mandai altogether) as I needed to be back by 8am. Thus, I set out on my own at 5am to do the East West 80km loop.....basically to Tuas and back. the plan is to do a achieve a post 30km/h ave on my own without killing my legs. The route is relatively flatish so no problems. I was on a moderate pace when I caught up with a group of 8 riders at Nicoll. I opted not to overtake them but also not to draft them so I kept a distance of at least 5-6 bikes away. They were doing pretty much moderate speed about 30-32km/h. I waited for them to attack the pace at the Viaduct but it didn't happen and they remain at that same 32km/h pace.....so I overtook them and went at it to post 36km/h speeds at the viaduct. Surprisingly, no one gave chase. At the end of the viaduct, I took a quick peek behind me and they were out of sight. I slowed down to moderat...

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 ...