TLog: nice night run

It has been a long while since I ran at night. The last time would be the Sundown marathon end May. A little tired this evening, after the morning stationary bike session spinning over 75 minutes and yesterday's swim. And I was thinking of skipping this run. But I am glad I didn't.

It was a nice evening to be out. Cool breeze, not many people at Bedok Reservoir. Supposed to be an easy aerobic run at 145. But all the way to BR and not run up the slope? How to be ready for NF100 come Oct 24? So I thought of PK and Ald (who love running hills!) and picked up the pace for this slope.

Surprisingly, it didn't feel as hard. HR went up to 170+, but that's not as bad as I thought. Perhaps all that climbing on the bike is helping.

Towards the end, I took three strides, again picking it up on the up slopes. Felt strong, not winded. Distance: 10 km.

Quite happy with this evening's run, especially after I struggled with the swims after the lay off. I was really panting and tired in the first two short swim sessions.

Yesterday's 2.3 km swim was an improvement.
pull buoy: 0.55, 0.56, 0.56, 0.57, 0.58, 0.58 (ave: 0.567)
4x100: 1.58, 2.05, 2.07, 2.07 (ave: 2.043)
4x200: 4.32, 4.33, 4.39, 4.44 (ave: 4.37)

I was pleasantly surprised, as I didn't go out hard. Just to get into the swing of things, and practice technique. Must be doing it right.

I was not very enthusiastic about the upcoming OSIM tri. Read the e-brief and found out that the bike route will be over 6 laps, with many sharp corners. With the relatively narrow paths, it'd be very crowded. Not to my liking. I was also unsure if I could be ready in just little under three weeks. I was planning to use it as a training session - brick training? Also contemplating to withdraw (DNS!).

With the past two days, things are looking up a little. Maybe I'll be ready after all.

MBH & Chrissie Wellington

"Come run with me," said MBH last evening after we got back from work. It was my day off. Last weekend, MBH remarked that I had not been working out as hard as before. I was just getting back into the swing of things, I had tried to explain.

MBH's next statement: "Don't be lazy! It's a nice evening to run."

How could I not? So dutifully I changed up, put on my ASCIS and we went out for a nice easy 4 km run/jog. :)

Sometimes, we get a kick in the butt from the least expected source. So be it. And I'm thankful for that.

One of the things we talked about was MBH's goal of doing a half marathon some time. Her logic is that serious runners go beyond 10 km. 5 km is "play-play" distance.

Just the other day, my friend JN mentioned that he went for a short 5 km run. It's a sure tell-tale sign - that the person has gone from recreational running to something more serious.

A tipping point.

Speaking of tipping point, coach told me today about Chrissie Wellington (GBR) setting a new world record for women Ironman. 8:31:59 at the Quelle Roth Challenge, Germany. Truly amazing feat. For a long time, women IM triathletes found it hard to break the 9 hour barrier. Chrissie won the 2007 and 2008 World Ironman Championship (on a Cervelo P2!), with winning times of 9:08 and 9:06. She went under 9 hours only twice previously - 8:51 at 2008 European Championship and 8:57 at Ironman Australia 2009, so the new record is a HUGE leap ahead! Congratulations.

Read more at Chrissie's website.

Races for 2H 2009

Registered for the Yellow Ribbon Prison Run, Sept 6, 2009, 10 km. MBH signed up for 5 km. She also signed up for the Great Eastern women 10k run. Several friends also signed up for the upcoming runs.

Here's my to-do list:

Aug 2: OSIM Tri (OD)
Aug 16: Singapore Bay Run (21k)
Sep 6: Yellow Ribbon Prison Run (10k)
Sep 13: Tri Factor Tri (OD)
Oct 24: North Face 100 (50k)
late Nov: Adelaide Tri (OD)

MBH's to-do list:
Jul 19: Shape run (5k)
Aug 16: Singapore Bay Run (6k)
Sep 6: Yellow Ribbon Prison Run (5k)
Nov 1: Great Easter women (10k)

TLog: getting into the swing of things after lay-off

The past two weeks had not been good training-wise. The only bright spark was last Friday, MBH's birthday - where we spent the entire day together. Went for an easy morning jog (4 km), collected race pack at Marina Square for the upcoming Shape Run, grocery shopping and watched couple of DVDs together.

Other than that, the focus was to get back into shape after two weeks of down time:

Thu: 20 k bike ride along east coast with the new P2
Sat: 32 k bike ride to Changi village, 1.2 k swim in the afternoon
Sun: 32 k bike ride with JN and SY, again to Changi village

North Face 100 Singapore 2009: registered

Signed up with PK for the Singapore installment of North Face 100, scheduled for Oct 24. Each runner are to cover 50 km within 9 hours time limit. This is a trail run with route made known only one week before the actual race.

Our team name: fanaticsRus
Some other names: painmongers, thereasonwerun, weluvP.A.I.N.

And now to train for this race ...

Thomson - Mandai- Bt Timah bike route

Finally, biking the Mandai route!

Met up with JN at 5 am near Raffles Town Club. Headed into Adam Road and two km into the ride, encountered the Lornie Road slope! Survived that and it was better along Thomson and Upper Thomson. Didn't turn into Mandai Road into Executive Golf Club, but had to contend with a slope leading up to Mandai Avenue. It was quite a strain, but not unmanageable.

The Mandai stretch was a delight to ride. About 10 - 11 km of rolling terrain, three lanes wide, little traffic and just the rush of wind against the bike and me! Was glad to keep cadence high about 90. Took a short break at the Shell station at the end of Mandai Road. A number of riders were there waiting for others, I'd expect.

The Woodlands road was patchy and not very nice to ride on, and we took it easy on the remaining 12 km or so.

Averaged just 23 kph, with max ave speed per km of 32.8. Total distance: 36.6 km. Ave HR 147. Nice workout. :)


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TLog: ticks, H1N1 and Tour de France

Missed five days of training due to travel, fever, body ache, sores and swollen feet. Fever started on the last day in Stockholm, and with the prevalence of the H1N1 flu virus, I was pondering the prospects of an extended stay in Scandinavia or Bangkok (transit stop). But got back to SIN I did, only to get a high fever (>38 deg) on Monday night. At the same time, I noticed a couple of sores on my legs, which developed puss. More sores erupted on Tue and Wed, and my feet started ballooning and turning purple.

So is it H1N1 or is it some insect (wood tick?) bite? No way to tell, but my guess is the latter... recall the run in the park/wood? It was no fun reading up about all the diseases that wood tick bites could cause.

The long and short of it all is that I recovered on Thu and the sores healed or were healing. Promptly went out for a 38 km bike ride on Fri. Did a 1.3 km swim today, and looking forward to another ride tomorrow morning.

Today is also the start of 2009 Tour de France. And I borrowed two books from NLB to update myself on why so many people around the world are so fascinated with this. My humble perspective is from the NUS slopes, a gentle slope in comparison to the climb up Mt Ventoux (Stage 20). This is an intimidating 21.1-km ascent at 7.6 percent, with strong winds over the last part of the climb. Mt Ventoux is back in TDF after an absence of several years.

Ok. I think I am getting it.