.... 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...

Last week was not a good week. I injured my knees (suspected quad tendon strain on the right and the usual I think, Pes Anserinus on the left!). That came right after my 10km run in massive winds and heavy rain which hit unexpectedly. I am not sure what attributed the that but prior to the run I was also coping with sore calves which seemed rather prolonged since the 21km barefoot run the previous week. Since Monday, I've cut back on speed and concentrate on just covering the distance, painfully. Thanks to some googling, I managed to pull through with some self-treatments. Coming into the weekend, I still had to complete a 30km run as part of the MTP. The regime required me to run this 30km in a 'prolonged progression manner', with progression towards Marathon Pace for the last 30mins. I wanted to give my legs some rest before I do this so Friday was a riding day. Friday : 35km-ish ECP-Coastal-Siglap with Ben and KL. Started off tamely at the ECP service road but things ...

Saturday : 112km Ride I was tad under-confident for this one. 112km Singapore Clockwise non-stop is no easy loop though I've done more than 14 times (most of it solo) and the last time I did this was with Ryo, one of our last rides prior to TDB2011. I had not been riding much since Bike Rally last month....just put in 30km on my SS since then. The cycling legs have degraded a bit! But I'm much lighter than before though. Started out at 9am and was quietly trying my best to do a "back by nine ride" which was a last year favourite whenever I did this route. Started off quite well....hitting 29km/h average speed upon entering the West Coast viaduct. Reached my top 31km/h average speed after Jalan Buroh. This promptly became increasingly difficult to keep at Boon Lay but managed to get back to form at LCK straight which is really a slight downslope. Legs still good at 50km after Kranji but quickly deteriorated from then on. Did respectably at Mandai (did not lose spee...

I was meaning to do my key run #1 (3.5km x 2 at Tempo with 1km Recovery in between) on Wednesday morning. Woke up early, got 'dressed' and as I was heading out, the drizzle got heavier (and heavier....basically rained the whole day). Damn. God's will I guess. Anyway, that was Wednesday's story. Thank goodness the next day was ok. Clouds and a bit of faint drizzle. I did key run #2 (25km at easy long run pace with last 30mins increasing to marathon pace). Started out with a pace of 6:30min/km. Well, for an easy pace, it was defined as the speed where I could just be able to comfortably sing "happy birthday to you" and guess what, I did that check a couple of times along the way, except that the pace was ~6:40min/km. The route is the 'extended ECP 21km route' with the extended parts being coming back into ECP via the Coastal road link and one extra round of the lagoon. This gave a flat 25km distance. I was thinking that it would be easy to run at this ...

The Soles Looks like my arsenal is increasing rapidly, especially for running! The strangest thing about running is that I sort of went extreme by going Barefoot directly, moved into minimalist shoes like the Puma, and now I'm back to padded shoes! I think for me, a heavy guy, I will need some padding especially for those long runs, hence the Kinvara 2. It still promotes midfoot strike with its low profile sole/padding design. For maintaining running form and technique or just for kicks, barefoot and/or the Pumas are the way to go, no question. It looks like I got it all figured out :) So my short 6 month journey in to serious running taught me a couple of things - barefooting is good for form and technique sharpening (midfoot strike, balance, feel) - minimalist shoes like the Pumas gives some measure of protection and is almost as good as barefooting (and they look good too!) - shoes are absolutely needed for trail running, plus a stiffer and less padded sole is ideal to a...

I had to start training with some padded shoes. On my last 42km run....the final 5-6km was torturous on the soles that I ran on grass wherever possible. The amount of sole-landing took its toll after such a long distance. I had a voucher from my Merrell purchase (20SGD discount) and I have been looking at the Sauconys for quite a while so why not? They look great IMO but I chose a more simple, non-loud colour. Virgin run : 21km .... Personal Best time of 2hr 6mins. First time I did 20km under 2hrs. Feels good without socks too!!

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...