.... 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 ...

I thought I had enough of riding and wanted to retire for a while after the tough TdB weekend. Well, guess what, I was out on my saddle again on Wednesday morning. Did the usual 30km on the Z3 on Wednesday, with my DA handbuilts....decent ave of 32+km/h achieved and wasn't pushing much too. A strange phenomenon these past 2-3 weeks was that my HR seems to have gone down. Its getting tougher to hit the 180's these days. I did 2 short 5km runs as well on Tuesday and Friday morning. As agreed with JM, we went out for a 100km ride on Saturday morning, sporting our new Lezyne Super Drive light. The buggers are bright and cost about half of what CRC is offering online at Gee Hin Chan. The guys there were kind enough to inform me that the stocks have arrived.....apparently this is a new line of products from Lezyne. Impressive lights, and equally impressive build quality as well....I just hope they last! They are rechargeable via USB. 450 lumens of brightness! JM, as usual, was...

......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 (...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...