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

Ok, will be leaving for Ipoh Century Ride tonight. Me and Ben will be making a trip up Cameron Highlands tomorrow morning upon arrival on our bikes. It will be a non competitive ride of course. On the Ipoh Century Ride, I am just not in that kind of competitive spirit as last year to be honest so I'm just gonna shoot for a 5hr finish. I think doing so is already in itself quite a challenge! Monday : Went for a 10km run at ECP. Warm up 3km and then went on to sprint and recover exercises. Basically run fast for 18 light poles and recover for 8 light poles all the way up to the 10km point. Tuesday : Went for a 43km ride with Ryo. Revisiting the hills in the west, namely for this time; Pepy's road, Telok Blangah hill and Mt. Faber. In addition, a sprint finish at Nicoll Highway. Good workout. Wed & Thurs : Rest. Was on MC yesterday due to sore throat and cough. My whole family is down. I better take it conservatively this weekend....

Saturday : This was a good workout ride with Ryo. Started out 5.30am from my place and cycled leisurely to the meeting point at AML. As usual Ryo was already waiting. Mr. Punctual. I was prepared to suffer as I know between the 2 of us, on this of ride there will be a lot of 'challenges' along the way. Pace was decent up to Old Upper Thomson Road where we got stuck behind a big group at relatively slower pace. After that, I think all hell broke loose. Sprinted at the slope going towards Mandai road.....went quite fast (with headwind as well!) at Mandai Road. Ryo led at 35+km/h along Kranji leading up to Neo Tiew and I tried to keep the pace there when I took over. At LCK, yet again going up to 38-40km/h just the 2 of us. Jalan Buroh was pure excitement as I knew he would do his best to destroy me at the slopes. The icing on the cake was the West Coast Viaduct where I managed to lead up 80% or 4.5km at average speed of 40km/h. Not that many trucks to help but I could detect a ...

Monday : Rest day as usual Tuesday : Went out for a 1hr ride at nearby Parbury Ave. Its quite a steep short ascent (>12% at its steepest I think). I haven't done this since July 2010 (!) on my Colnago. Decent as I managed to complete 13 rounds in slightly over an hour. Last time I normally only get to do about 10 rounds within the hour, there's some improvement, probably due to weight and a lighter bike! Wednesday : 10km run...just felt soooo sluggish the first few kms. By 7km the ave pace had increased to 6:10min/km.....determined to complete within the hour, I forced myself to get my ass moving. Managed to complete in just under the hour. Thursday : Got up early to do a ride but it was raining. Instead I swapped my wheels back to the HEDs. Friday : ECP Coastal ECP again. Feeling a bit tired as worked till late and only got home after 10pm. Nevertheless, still decent effort of 32.6km/h average over the course. The HEDs do feel 'better' and they lo...

Short weekend as planned to head out for a short holiday with the family on Sunday. Did a long ride for Saturday. As usual, set the time 6.30am so that everyone could make it while I did an extra 30km prior by heading out earlier. Only Ryo turned up and rather disappointingly since the time was quite late and the traffic was getting horrendous, especially for a small group of 2! Decent ride with some fast pace in between. Ryo experienced 2 punctures which forced him out of the ride. The first was along Mandai and the other right after LCK, due to a slow leak in the 2nd tube. In the end, he had to stop and take the cab  back at Boon Lay rd as I headed back home alone. Just a short 10km run at ECP but with a slight twist. Ran at the grass and sandy areas instead of the normal path. Helped with my butt pain I think but by no means easy especially on beach sand. A good workout.

Monday was a rest day. No thanks to that highly disappointing England - Italy live football match that I watched live.By that its apparent which team I supported. A terrible performance but some piece of good defending though. Anyway, started back on the saddle on Monday for the usual 30km to sweat it out. Didn't go outright fast as felt kinda sluggish yet again. Top off the ride with 5-6 mins spent on planking below my block with rest time of course! After a week from running (longest period free of running in months I think!) I decided to go for a 10km barefoot run. The sore butt syndrome is still there but less. Got pretty decent speed out of the outing; just 10s than my PB barefoot 10km. Soles were, of course, battered. There's something about this soreness of sole when it hits the ground that I like! I went out again on the saddle on Thursday morning for the same 30km route. This time did it noticeably quicker and felt better too (maybe because I forgot to p...

Truth be told, I've been feeling rather under the weather ever since the Marathon. I think its the culmination of all those days of running with lack of sleep and a poor core since March. I will gawk at the idea of doing another run more than 10km, to be honest. I really did not know what drove me the past months to do so. It's time to focus on cycling with the Ipoh Century Ride 2012 just around the corner plus that customary Cameron Highlands climb with Ben that we did last year as well prior to the Century Ride. I've no doubt that I can complete it with no issue....I guess I'm wondering if I could better my time from last year. A decent average speed of 33+km/h over 160km. On Saturday, made arrangements with Ben, Ryo and KL for a 70km ride starting 6.30am from AML (only took on this late timing due to Ben but he couldn't make it last minute). I headed out earlier on my own at a bit past 5am and did the Coastal Loyang loop, completing 34km prior to the ride wit...

The Masher group was assembled ready to do this route on Saturday crazy hour morning but this was not be. It rained the whole Saturday, literally. For me it was mostly a sleepy Saturday. So I just made myself wake up at 4.30am the following morning and hit the road by 5.05am from my place. Target is to complete the 112km Singapore Loop...my personal 'back by 9am' route. This is the first long ride with the Fulcrum Zero and just installed Specialized Romin saddle. 2 firsts on a single ride. For the saddle, I was a bit too ambitious to bring this out for such a long ride....as I discovered in the shower after the ride. Anyway, started out decent. The saddle felt very firm and I had the niggling feeling that it was not well setup. Felt that I should have perhaps not lowered the saddle that much and should have move the fore aft a bit to the rear. The tilt also could do some adjusting. I was determined to complete the ride anyway and did not make these changes while on the road...

Yes! Finally outdid my March 2011 PR of 33.5km/h that was done on aero wheels! 33.8km/h ....... 0.3km/h improvement on the average speed for this personal training route. Average HR shot high but I felt ok and could maintain for quite some time even at 175bpm. I had a bit of tail wind helping me towards the u-turn (33.6km/h average achieved at halfway point) but going back the same route means it would be the same find that I need to fight against. Managed to keep and improve a bit towards the end. Lost a fair bit average speed due to the u-turn and drinking my water...ave dropped to 33.3km/h. Luckily legs and cardio were good enough to gain me back some speed. All this on my conventional alloy FRZ wheelset! Passed a couple of guys at service road and they promptly chased up and passed me. I was not interested in playing with them so I just maintained at my 34km/h average at that point. Sure enough, they lost steam after about 500m and I just passed them with no resistance offered....

A truly rare occasion. Gary, BP, Ben, Sam, Francis were all in this ride as well. Nice weapons display too and managed to see Gary's Pink SpeedVagen in action and later on Mark dropped by to unveil his SV. IMO, 2 of the most beautiful and unique road bikes to ever grace Singapore roads in recent history (!). We met up at SAFRA had our few quick hellos and off we went. Ben took the lead initially on a 30km/h 1km warm up at coastal. I took over after than and pushed the pace bit by bit until 40km/h and led till mid-coastal. The intention was to set the 'tone' for the ride to come and get everyone to dump reserves early :) Like a good movie, you need to have a good in-your-face music and cool opening right from the start. I backed off midway, truthfully I wasn't used to night riding and experienced unusually high HR. Even leading at 40km/h I was pushing towards 180bpm....maybe its the excitement of actually riding in a group larger than 2! Everyone took their turn to...

Nothing out of the ordinary this weekend. Decided to put my legs to some good rest and went for riding on both days. A good 50km ride out with KL and Ben on Saturday, solo 30km on Sunday and got back into my 12km MTP for this week today. All three workouts were using the Motoactv. Saturday : 50km West Hills I took the guys on this route. Ben wanted to do some hills and this is the best route I know off. Started off tame but on the Viaduct, I took the lead up and managed to push above 40km/h throughout. About 41km/h average speed over 7km which the fastest I've been on that road. Also of course thanks to some tail wind and passing trucks! Started up NUS via the admin entrance route quite a steep section going towards my ex-hall, passing through the sports centre (memories of my rugby and TOW days in school!), science faculty and NUH. It was pleasant coasting downhill South Buona Vista road....until of course the entrance to KR park via Vigilante drive. This short 300-400m clim...

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 ...

I came into this ride with very low expectations but nevertheless set a target of under 5hrs completion, using last year's Ipoh Century as a benchmark. However, this was not to be! A dastardly puncture, brutal headwinds and just basically poor cycling form gave me a 5hr 28mins elapsed time. Average moving speed recorded was 32.3km/h which brings my total moving time to be about 4hrs 58mins for 160km (In Ipoh, it was 33.2km/h). Participation seems to be just below 1000 riders. 160 riders came up from Singapore and some from Thailand and East Malaysia as well. Here's a rough km-to-km account of my ride... 0km : Wow, the starting point is just like 500m away from where we were staying (Ben's friend). Had a nice breakfast before setting out at 6.50am. 0km-20km : A short 4-5km round the town for show and we are headed off to the outskirts. Basically for this stretch it was with police escort and speed controlled. This was a bad idea and the police should have let go a bi...

The 12 week MTP has been quite challenging the past 3 weeks, especially in anticipation of the Kuantan ride this weekend as well. I've not been putting much saddle time since Bike Rally and only managed 3 rides since then, 2 of which are 30km Coastal rides and 1 long solo 115km ride last weekend. I guess I'll survive the Kuantan Century...just not hopeful for a good timing like what I got from Ipoh Century last year (under 5hrs). Anyway, any ride taking place outside of Singapore is fun. Cycling over here on this tiny island has grown laborious and painfully boring over the past years....not to mention more dangerous as well with the increased traffic these days and more people thinking they have the right to run you over just because they pay road tax for their cars. Just finished my last cycling prep for Kuantan this morning. Basically a 30km ride....started off lazy but in the end pushed a bit on the 2nd half. Decent speed and the bike is in good condition. I just remedied...

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...

170km covered for the event, giving a total of 188km for the day, taking into account to and fro rides to the F1 Pit. This ride was tough. Despite all the stops every 18-20km or so, its still tough! It was hot as hell too! Starting out, I was not feeling as great as I did last year due to the fact that I have massively scaled down on my cycling (only twice a week now). The initial pace was not very fast but it soon pick up speed after the West Coast Part rest stop. Reached the next few rest stops in the front pack. JM was doing well tailing right behind me. Scary moment at Tuas. I was together with a group right behind the safety car. Some guy had this event singlet tied to this seatpost. I noticed this early on and I thought it was a bit dangerous as it could just come off its poorly tied know and get stuck in the wheel or something. And then it happened! His rear wheel locked and being right behind him I hit him from the side....I was going "oh dear I'm gonna fall" bu...

Back from China. En route back via Chep Lap Kok (HK) Airport, I had to get my siu yuk (roast pork) fix. for the record, I'm not claiming this for my travel claim. This is one serious piece of meat.....crispy skin, fat fat belly meat and yellow radish dip. Heaven. I managed to RUN on a treadmill on Wednesday morning in the hotel at Shenzhen. Its the longest time I've been on one....for 10km!! At the 3km point, I was begging to get off the damn thing. Just something very unsettling with 'running on the spot'. Well at least it made me feel better about eating the above later that day! Thursday morning....back on the bike and man I shot out from go. Pushed and pushed and felt great throughout. Must have been the fat meat I consumed. Managed to do the usual 30km ECP - COASTAL - ECP at an average speed of 33.4km/h.....just 0.1km/h off my best...damn. Fast. A pleasant thing once I got home was the CRC order waiting for me....the Garmin 'Premium' Soft Strap ...

Its 11.50pm and I'm in FuZhou, China. Just checked in, freaking tired. Did not get any sleep during the flight (quite a good flight with Xiamen Airlines though). So here I am in the hotel, just think I'll post something and finish updating my business cards (!!). Interesting stuff at work but that's another story. Anyway, great weekend otherwise. I just had to do one long ride to acclimatize my butt to the long 160km Bike Rally next Sunday. To be real honest I don't think I can fare as well as last year (where I actually came into the finish with the front pack!) as since taking up a lot of running, been neglecting my top of the line electronic shifting carbon bike! Saturday : 100km Singapore Loop Clockwise Managed to rope KL into this ride (he's in the Bike Rally as well) and met him at Nicoll at 5.45am. I did not intend to push, just to last the distance with a decent speed was the target. However, upon going up the Viaduct, KL was leading at 35km/h. There ...

Monday : A rest day....was hit with sore-throat right after the trail-run beer session. I've instructed Ryo to remind me next time out. I'm such a sucker to peer pressure. Not blaming beer directly but the past few times that I got sick.....it was beer after heavy exercising, everytime!! Tuesday : Got up and ran barefoot 10km......did the first 5km alone was suprised I could hold a decent 5:50ish pace for the first 5km. Ran slightly slower with Ryo as my feet were feeling a bit raw by then but it felt great and we managed to complete the next 5km slightly under the 6:00 pace. It was nice to run an chat a bit as well just to catch up and talk about stuff. Wednesday : I owe my bike a ride so I headed out for a 'base' 30km. Basically try to keep HR at 130bpm average for the entire ride. Boring ride as usual but I did not feel the greatest either as I have a dry cough after the sore throat subsided. Thursday : Headed out for a run......I felt ok and thin...

Saturday's 20km Trail Run All geared up on Saturday morning...picked Ryo up and drove to Venus drive. Prior to that I was still deciding whether to try out the new shoes I bought last week which looked suitable for trail running, boy should have stuck to my puma's! So, we were the first there, in the pitch dark carpark. The guys arrived right before 6am and we started promptly. JM took the lead and was going pretty fast.....I was struggling and panting to keep up and at that point I KNEW the shoes were a big mistake. The sole being rigid plus the fact that it did not have a single piece of padding whatsoever, made it felt like walking with a wood plank stuck to the bottom of my foot. It hurt and I just prayed that'll survive the run! Kuan took over the lead and he continued the fast pace! For me it was just a struggle to keep up....my heart was beating fast, feet were hurting from the hard shoes. Before long we reached Rifle Range road.....the guys ran off at medium pac...

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.