Run - 13km Labrador park- southern ridge park

News of the new southern ridge park with the 2 bridges linking them , makes it a must to go down and check it out !

So on sunday the day after the launch went down with my friend for a jog dump our bags at bukit merah . A short warm up and off we go ! first stop is labrador park , yes this is my first time to labrador park . And it is really interesting with all the mockup arti canon and machine gun bunkers. not to mention light house and the fame dragon tooth gate that use to be found there.
Next we head down to alexandra road for the start of the route up telok blangah hill.

Metal grilled bridged path brings us up to the hill but rather slippery if after rain. So we were cautious on the ascend, crowds of walkers and photographers swamp the path. Was nice to be close to nature and at times i stop my ipod to listen to the nature sound.
The wave bridge connecting telok blangah hill and mount faber hill is the most inspiring one not just the length or height but the design. The interior of the bridge is equally beautiful.. seamless smooth curves and not a single sharp edge insight. Seems like its worth a place in MoMa musuem of design.

Forgot to mention about the view, Simply stunning! you can see the CBD from here.
From mount faber we make the journey down along the way we saw some cyclist from the national team? Cause their shirt has singapore printed over them. After the run we headed down to safra club for some 20 laps at the pool thats where we saw DO , ultra and Anthony doing their warmdown after a run to marina.

SCSM 2007

This year SCSM i have only one thing on my mine is that to complete it in 4.hr if possible but the grand plan doesn't always go as expected. A few factor attribute to my results.. lack of stretching before the run and possibly starting off too fast. Heres a breakdown on the event

Day before SCSM
Met up with alvo meteor and cfred for carbo loading at hip cafe at cineleisure. I consumed a surf and turf dish but i guess its not enough complex carbo in it. Oh well.. got to bed like at 10pm thankfully i managed to sleep without having to toss and turn on bed for hours.

SCSM day
Got up at 4am , had bread , banana and some isotonic drink before heading out to meet jamesoh for a ride down to esplanade. While waiting for the ride, SV passed me his bib cause he is not feeling well and ask me to return it.

510am - Jamesoh parked his car at marina square and i dashed out to the adidas tent to put my bags there (adirun members have its privileges ). With only 5 mins left i made a dash to the startpoint. Not much of a warmup the starting horn fired up, And off we go..

At the race
My pace was pretty consistent thru out the first 20km , At marina south i bump into the pacer team cfred and babu.. they ask me to go faster so i went a little faster (man that was a big mistake) . There are funny pple with great sense of humor. like this old man who is dressed up as a Japanese fisherman and some pple you admire whose tag wrote that he is 71 yr old and still going strong.

At esplanade the crowd was cheering at us and that was encouraging , one in the audience was meteor .. i signal her alvo was slightly behind me. Around fort rd i managed to see the pack of 6 kenya running down and we gave cheers and claps. They were like goin 2-3.o pace. crazy man.
This year i saw about 4-5 bands playing along the side of the road which was good but some of the song doesn't sound that cheery thou. As usual the champagne drinking elites were sitting on foldable chair and table upgraded from picnic mat last year ..watching the runner pass by . Damn them.

After the U-turn point about 32 km mark the cramps started to set in. First on my calf then my thigh i have to stop every few metre to stretch and this goes on till the end . Quite a struggle which was definitely worst then my last year run. At the esplanade , a tap on my back and when i turned around its michelle she was still going very strong damn i am getting weak. tried to pace with her but my cramps kicked in. Arghh and i had to do a quick walk until the padang . Thats where i tried to run in to the finish line but still i cant.. some way to end the marathon in pain and agony . At least it was memorable. Time was 4hr 31mins.

Post SCSM
As i was catching my breath i bump into fahmy and also michelle whom already collected the medal and tshirt. Fahmy on the other hand was well not so happy with his run due to the cramps also. After a collecting my bag at the tent met up with the sgrunners for a phototaking session then its off to suntec for bath and also some cooling down at the pool . Before having a chop chop lunch with alvo and meteor.

Conclusion
Congrats to everyone who have complete the grueling run and to those who are doing it the first time and not to mention those who best their previous year record. As for me i am comtemplating on stopping marathon distance running. I guess any distance more then 30km is too hard on my legs due to the cramp.

Tapering week..

Tapering week has always been difficult for me . Sacrificing the joy of running for the final dash which is the end of this week.

after the months of training and it will all end in that 4hr of run this sunday. Oh well.. This week after back from bangkok , head out straight for a short 4km run around the yishun pond on monday and not to mention adirun tonight at suntec. The newly renovated shop is open at last . I was joined by fahmy , cfred , alvo and michiko.

It will be michiko last run with us cause she will be moving to phuket. The run was a short and easy 6.5km . At the end we took a last photo before parting our way.

Adirun - marina esplanade - kallang stadium - tanjong rhu 9.8km

Tappering time !


Distance : 9.84km
Timing : 55min 32 sec
Pace : 5.38min/km
shoe 218.00km

Run - Sembawang - yishun 13km

After the rain, the air is always so fresh . Miss out opportunity to run during the weekend . Besides a 30lap swim at YCK with staz on friday. The feel for this run was very comfortable no pain or tiredness , just like an energizer bunny.

Tapering has already began and 13km was good enough for me ... for now.

Distance : 12.81km
Timing : 68min 30 sec
Pace : 5.20min/km
shoe 228.20km

Adirun - clarke quay- fort canning 8.5km

After a 2 weeks break . I went back to adirun , already before hand i know that most of them due to work , study commitment arent able to go down. Still decided to have a short run. Surprise to see that the adidas shop is closed for renovation (will be opened on 19th) but thankfully fahmy was around we dump our back at the recreation locker on the 4th floor before goin for our run.

The route this week was to fort canning- clark quay - kimseng and back to the tan kim seng fountain. about 8.52km in total.

Distance : 8.52km
Timing : 44min 17 sec
Pace : 5.11min/km
shoe 215.39km

LSD run - yio chu kang - seletar airport 17km

Fantastic weather for a LSD today. Unfortunately can't say the same for my stamina today. I will have to go on a strict no alcohol diet from now till marathon D day.

Took afew stoppage almost at every bus stop along the train track arghh!! But things got better as i hit the seletar airport. I can see quite a few runners there some gave me the thumbs up as i ran pass them. Overall its still a very pleasant run ..

Distance : 17.06km
Timing : 1hr 36min
Pace : 5.38min/km

LSD run - Eastcoast 28km

LSD has always been said to be long and agonizing run . And the same can be said to this one especially when you are doing this alone.

Came down to east coast at 4pm to do my lsd planned a 30km route from BFD from end to end till the perimeter road next to changi runway. Along the route I bump into familiar faces like tekko ( running back home !) and other friends. East coast on a sunday afternoon is bustling with activities not like on a morning. I can see groups having bbq .. Windsurfer and the drawing the most crowd is the new sport kiteboarding.

At perimeter road, I tried the new park connector but unfortunately there's no toilet there to top up my bottle NP board do think about that.

Ok enough of talking time to get a good rest ..


Distance : 28km
Timing : 2hr 30min
Pace : 5.35min/km
shoe 189.81km

Run - Sembawang -yishun 8.98km

Getting breathless must be due to the long gap from the last run. Kinda stop a few time to take photos.

The park connector

The pier at the end of the park Connector

Running - kinda like this photo

Uphill climb

A runner running into a dumping ground.. will explore that next time

Road/path and train track

Distance : 8.94km
Timing : 46mins 41sec
Pace : 5.11min/km
shoe 161.81km

RL run - kallang river 9.46km

Been quite a long while since i been to RL run. The first thing that came into my mind is the size of the group of about 30 . We got the usual eddie, IMD, tekko, molly, michelle, benny, cyber, trencen and alot of new faces.

Interestingly the group seems to be running very fast . Hard time keeping up with the rest of the chiong team. End up with a super dupper fast timing! Not sure if its PB thou.

Distance : 9.42km
Timing : 48mins 06sec
Pace : 5.06min/km
shoe 152.97km

LSD run - yishun sembawang - 20km

Another weekend another long boring LSD run. Perhaps i am just going through the motion, morning person i am not so really going running at god forsaken timing with the gang is really tough.

Anyway i recycled this route from last year preparation for stan chart. Tried out my belkin sport command for the first time. As my ipod plus is under servicing (receiver was not working). So that gave me the opportunity to test this out. Well for one its not as responsive as i want it to be. I need at least 2 click to forward , reverse or play before it reacts. Maybe it could be the range problem.


Distance : 20km
Timing : 1hr 49mins 32sec
Pace : 5.45min/km
shoe 143.55km

Run - Sembawang -yishun 10.8km

Someone once said 'he whom himself control others is great but he who mastering himself reign supremacy'.. So far I am able to control my limits but still far from my reaching my capabilities..

Recently my 10km pace has been peaking one after another. Let's hope it keeps up or sustain till the marathon.

As for todays run, did a 9km route just after the rain had ended in the evening. Lotsa changes at sembawang park where the ex bus depot and coffeeshop that once stood , has now been demolished and flatten. A reminder that nothing last forever. For the rest of the run I tried to keep a steady pace as fast as I could.

at the end of the run.. yes! another pace record..

Adirun - Esplanade - kimseng bridge

The day has been rather gloomy with slight drizzle, was contemplating about going down to adirun. But turns out by 5pm the rain had stopped. So I decided to pop by for the run..which I badly need.

Met the rest as usual.. Cfred fahmy, michiko and martin. We had a short debate on which road to run. Finally agreed on doing a riverside run except running on a reverse way.

it started out slow but by the end we ended up sprinting just before clark quay. Great needed that extra punch in speed. Everyone did very well and managed to keep up pace , i am sure most have no problem with the upcoming marathon.

Distance : 8.09km
Timing : 1hr 42mins 37sec
Pace : 5.15min/km
shoe 123.55km

LSD run - yio chu kang - seletar airport 18.93km

Today did a LSD run with the sgrunners on the northern route which is at yishun. The run was organised by james , was to be a 20km route covering lower seletar reservoir , yio chu kang road, jln kayu and back to yishun via the seletar airport.

As usual I woke up earlier at 6am and ran down to stadium to meet them up. First time meeting them includes. Jodan , kk, sealboon , hopflng. The weather was windy and cloudy, perfect for a LSD. Was leading the run and sealboon me and kk manage to keep pace with me at abt 6min/pace. James was behind as sweeper.

we had our water breaks at jln kayu before moving off again. At about some way along the seletar dam jodan decided to walk instead.

We ended our run at abt 930am before heading down to khatib foodcenter for breakfast.

Distance : 18.93km
Timing : 1hr 45mins 42sec
Pace : 5.34min/km
shoe 115.55km

adirun - Kallang 8.95km

Distance : 8.95km
Timing : 49mins 55sec
Pace : 5.35min/km

LSD run - eastcoast 16.9km

"What demoralising run again? I think i will give it a miss" thats what i replied to alvo. It was almost 1 year ago when we did that run. Well frankly speaking i don't think i could last the whole way without water stop. I tend to perspire alot so i rather not take the risk.
Instead i did a run with michelle at east coast instead at least i don't have to worry about water stops. Started my run about 9.20am at the hawker center, before doing a U-turn around the old big splash. Thats when i rendevous with her at the hawker center. By then i was dehydrated and tired ( think its the 24 laps at the pool i did before that day). So it was a stop and go for me, thou i try to struggle to keep up and chat along the way. Oh well , i should rest a day before i do a LSD.

When i reached back to the hawker center, she carried on to mcd while for me i decided to change and washed up for lunch. But i guess the message was not carried to her, plus she did not carry her handphone. I had to have my lunch in the end on my own after receiving her that she has returned home after not finding me at the hawker center.

Well i attribute all this bad luck..


because i picked locker 13 to put my stuff in.....

Distance : 16.9km
Timing : screwed
Pace : 5.27min/km
shoe 87.67km

Run - sembawang road - 9.6km

I think being a regular runner is like a person witnessing the progress of your surrounding areas. I mean you can see construction of buildings and amenity being built up or even as a neighborhood watch guy . Anyway yesterday decided to do a short LSD around sembawang again but with some slight changes. Went thru the sembawang road instead or the usual route . The ipod went a little cranky when ever i pause my run, the volume just crank up. But at the end of the run everything is back to normal.


Distance : 9.64km
Timing : 50mins 38sec
Pace : 5.15min/km
Shoe mileage : 70.77km

A very out of shape run for me today. Not sure what's the reason for the decline in stamina but during today speedwork with fahmy, alvo and cfred . I feel legs was liken that of weights being strap to my ankle. Tiring to lift up. My breathing was double the amount and so is my heart pounding super hard.

Maybe its my low biorhythm week. Hopefully it will be better next week.

In other news i just got my new ipod nano 3g.
Better interface and wider screen ...love it..! most of all great to run with.

Distance : 7.56km
Timing : 39mins 20sec
Pace : 5.12min/km
Shoe mileage : 61.17km

LSD run - Eastcoast park 21km

Distance : 21.83km
Timing : 2hr 11mins 45sec
Pace : 6.02min/km
Shoe mileage : 53.61km

Run - Sembawang -yishun 10.8km

Missing the adirun on weds , as i had a small gathering with reno before he leaves for taiwan. So had a short run yesterday. Its also the first run on the beach with my supernova. Couple of things i notice is the path (shortcut) from simpang kiri park to the sembawang road has been completed . Also the park along sembawang road / canberra road is almost complete. It has a artificial stream in it too.

Oh my cert from the Passion run has arrived. Boy does it look neat!

Distance : 10.11km
Timing : 53mins 01sec
Pace : 5.14min/km
Shoe mileage : 31.78km