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

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...

I got these upon insistence from my wife after coming back with blisters every time I went barefoot. It was the best decision ever for running. So far I've had this for a little over 3 months and covered about 240km. Its not the best wearing shoe for sure but what can I expect? its so light and thin (I could literally squeeze the water out of the shoe like a towel!) plus almost no padding. It has to be the next best thing compared to barefoot as far as shoes are concerned. Below is a shot of the sole indicating the wear. When running in these shoes, I'm definitely not heel striking anymore BUT I do still land on the heel AFTER striking with the fore/mid foot. I've not done much detailed study into all the various ways of running barefoot but what I firmly believe is that once the shoes are off (or with a minimal shoe like the H-Streets), and you've persevered through the weirdness, aches and pains of doing so.....your body WILL ADAPT. It will adapt a method that will ...

Ok, this 3 day work week thing has really gotten me into exercise-crazy mode. Running and cycling, that's all I ever do these days in those non-work mornings. So pretty historic day! I completed 21km of pure ECP-ness. I've been thinking about doing this but reading that "Born To Run" book really helped me pull the trigger. The tagline that caught my attention : "You don't have to be fast. You just need to be fearless". That was it. Started out at 5.30am from my home and ran. Did not stop until 21km was reached (Siglap Kopitiam). So its confirmed that if one runs the entire ECP loop, its a half marathon, duh! Initial pace was about 7min/km. Somewhere along the line, I decided to try to get at least the average to not exceed that. A modest 6.59min/km was achieved in the end. My HR barely went over 155bpm. Cardio-wise there was plenty of room left for perhaps a 6.30min/km 21km run BUT I was worried about destroying my legs plus I have not run  on th...

Did a quick 5km run on Friday morning last week barefoot. Big mistake. Blister on right foot broke 3km on and had to run with a broken bloody blister for 2km....while it hurt not too bad while running, post running it was bad! Even then, timing was ok. So what happened later on that day was that I went out with my wife to Parkway and she got me to buy are 'barefoot shoe'. That's all the rage these days but I never subscribed to the term 'barefoot shoe'! You either run with out without shoes, that's it! So I got myself a pair of Puma H-Streets and what I would aptly term as minimalist running shoes. They are plenty light, very flexible and light padding for the soles. Can't wait to try them out (right foot still in the healing process). when the jackal can't run, he rides. Had a 100km ride with KL on Saturday, good speed averaging 30.5km/h for the route with only one short gel-stop. I must say KL looks strong these days and such a waste that he is n...