Company's Retreat at Orchid CC

Saturday was the start of the company's Breakaway Weekend at Orchid Country Club. Originally supposed to be held at Kukup, Mgt chickened out and changed it to OCC cos they said there got dengue. As if Yishun got no dengue! Anyway, we enjoyed the time there though. The activities lined up was great fun - suppose to help promote teamwork and all that jazz. The food was not good but plentiful. The highlight was the bowling game. We had 3 games each - 1st game for team high score, second one - handicap where the winner is the team with the most 1 pin standing and 'bohgay'. The last one was one eye jack where we have to wear an eye patch to bowl. Not easy but sure great fun!

Sebas got his MR 25 Elite Run the next morning. He supposed to go back but the bowling ended late so he decided to give the MR 25 run a miss. Sayang! He got a 50/50 chance of getting his sponsorship. I suppose he got so many free Nike stuff that he can pass up the chance 2 years in a row.

Sunday morning, woke up early to go for a short run. Decided to follow the advice of the good people at sgrunners and run to the dam. First time I ran there although been there once during my reservist many years ago. Sebas came with me. That guy - everytime he ran, he must let go. Down there no toilet so he kena do his business in the bush! Later on the way back saw a dead snake on the ground. Hope the snake didn't die from being bombed by him! The run itself was nice - nice scenery and little traffic. Wasted not enough time otherwise will love to run into Seletar West Camp. Took 1hour 02 mins - my guess about 11km but could be shorter since we stopped to look at this guys who came up with baskets and baskets of crabs.

On the way back met some runners including Dreamrunner. He was yelling something like Sanji so I guess Sanji must be with him. Said hi to a pretty girl running behind the guys. Found out today she is Cheeryrunner.

After breakfast, we have water sports - weird games like jenga in the water, scrabble etc hot sun but fun. Lunch and then adjourned to the function room for a wild game where we shouted ourselves hoarse. Teabreak debrief and the retreat finally ended at 5pm.

Surprise - the Mrs finally pluck up enough courage to drive on her own and pick me up. What a great way to end the weekend!

Pierce Reservoir

This Sunday, got company's retreat no time to do long run. No choice - took leave yesterday to do my lsd run for this week. Originally decided to run from MacRitchie to Lower Pierce and back giving a distance of app. 25K but the heavy rain the night before put paid to that. Decided not to dirty my shoes so decided just run 2 loops Pierce will do. Also read on the sgrunners forum the guys talking about prata at Jalan Kayu and realised have not eaten prata for some time - why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone?

Pierce Res is probably my favourite place to run. Other than the kamizakee drivers, it is really peaceful with nice scenery along the way and mostly sheltered. The running is all on hard asphalt ground making it easy to run on unlike MacRitchie. The killer are the slopes and there are 3 steep slopes not counting the extremely steep slope inside the SICC ground going to MacRitchie. The route from Lower Pierce to Upp Pierce ending at the dam is only 8k but with the side extension to the PUB Pump house and the side road to Upp Thomson Rd, the distance can be increased to 14k.

Started late at 8 am after dropping the kids off at school. Weather was fine initally - took the first 14 k in 1.37 hours about the usual time. Stopped at the car for a drink and decided to walk via the broadwalk. Then decided to be gunho and do some variations. Did some fartleks and backward walking on the way up to Upp Pierce. Felt good and did a final sprint on the dam. Coming back, the sun has risen and it's hot. Took the first 2 slopes slowly and up the last slope, couldn't summon enough leg strength to run up and decided to walk part of it. Getting hotter and hotter. Even the monkeys have disappeared! Finished the slope and contemplating whether to skip the route to Upp Thomson Rd but in the end decided - what the heck and continued. By the return leg, energy level running low and had to stop to walk for about 100m. The walk refeshed me and managed to pick up speed for the last stretch from the prata shop junction to Lower Pierce carpark. Total time taken: 3.20.17 hrs.

Finally then got to enjoy my prata but seems like standards have dropped. Didn't taste as good anymore!

1st Run with sgrunners

Went to East Coast for the LSD. Plan is to meet up with some sgrunners and run with the SAFRA runners. Ha! finally got to meet up with some of the runners from SGRunners, namely, Dreamrunner, DO, Brokenrunner, Ultraman, Ironman Dreamer and Gentle(?).

Supposed to be a 31 km run. Still a slight drizzle after last night heavy rain. Weather was cool. The run started at about 7.10 am. Cleared the East Coast Park in 23.17 mins app. 6.30 pace. From there, proceeded via Fort Rd, Kallang to Marina Promenade and Esplanade. Ultraman, DO and Dream Runner overtook me somewhere along the Kallang stretch after MacDonald. Then Ironman Dreamer came along and then Broken Runner also overtook me. Never mind, continued the same pace. The 21km runners turned back at the Esplanade. Said hi to Broken Runner on her way back. Stopped for a toilet break. Went up to Marina South and saw just slightly before the u-turn, Ironman Dreamer followed closely by the DO, DR and Ultraman. Man these guys are fast!

On the way back, stopped at Clifford Pier to get a drink. At the sight of the people eating, realised I was damn hungry. Damn tempted to just sit down and eat. Got the drink and scuttered out of there before temptation set in!

Earlier, had bumped into this Safra runner who keep running backward every few hundred metres. Asked him the purpose. He explained that rather than stop to rest, running backward will help stretch the rest of the leg muscle and when you turned around, will feel refreshed. Decided to try these on the suspension bridge since the distance was just nice. Alamak, the bladdy leg nearly cramped toward the end of the bridge! Saw DO, Dreamrunner and Ultraman behind me. I thought they were in front? Turned out they detour to watch Bollywood filming. They must be thinking I bladdy showoff running backward.

Continued down Tanjong Rhu and the 3 of them overtook me once again. At the East Coast Park, DO and Dreamrunner disappeared leaving Ultraman. He has stomach cramp from running last night with Dr William Tan and now running another lsd! Buah tahan. He's good. He shuffled, glided and almost walk but try as I could, couln't summon enough energy to overtake him. In the end, ran the inner footpath which is slightly shorter and managed to overtake him.

Finished in 3.01 mins according to my watch. At a consistent 6.30 pace, I think the distance is only about 29 k. Can't be more than that.

Stayed to chat with the rest for a while before rushing back to pick up the family.

Good run. Good company. Must run again.

Running Home

Finally I did what I had wanted to do for a long time. Ran home from office yesterday. Supposed to run with Novaflux and Sebas but Novaflux got class so in the end it was just down to Sebas and me.

Started at Republic Plaza at 6.16 pm. Down to UOB Centre along Singapore River underpass to Esplanade - saw all those people doing the Bull Run. Thought the runners supposed to be in half office attire - how come majority in t-shirts and singlets? Anyway continued along Marina Promenade and bump into BC on his run going back to his office. Poor him - still going back to work. Cut out to Nicholl Highway Merdeka Bridge and down to Stadium Walk. Went behind the Indoor Stadium and cross the suspension bridge to Tanjong Rhu and down to Fort Rd and finally reached East Coast Park. Time: 47.01 mins. Running at aggraration speed of 6.10 pace I suppose that makes it about 7.5 km.

From East Coast to Bayshore underpass, took another 41.33 min stopping to buy a drink at the vending machine. Distance app. 6.5 km.

From the underpass to Bayshore, then Upp East Coast Rd to Bedok Corner, down behind Eastwood. This is the part of the route I don't like. Have to run along the road and the traffic is damm bladdy heavy. For this 3 km stretch, took 19.29.

Reach the part connector - a short 1.1km + down Upp Changi Rd East and Simei Ave and home sweet home. Not bad stil maintaining the pace. Time taken: 17.37m. App 2.5.

Total distance covered: 19.5 +/- 0.5 km. Total time taken: 2.05.42

This Sunday - Sebas will be doing his practice at MacRitchie. He got an elite runner qualification coming up next Sunday. Have to complete 10K at MacRitchie under 44 mins. His previous best time was 39.02. Now with age catching up, he's not so confident. But if he qualifies - it's another year of sponsorship from Nike. Wish I can qualify too!

Won't be joining him this 2 Sundays though. Let him do his fast run. Me - has decided to join some of the people from sgrunners and do a 30k.

Intervals

Went with Sebas to Queenstown stadium. Original schedule calls for 8 x 800 intervals but as the pain in the shin is just easing off, took his advice and cut it to 8 x 400.

Warmed up by running from Sebas' place in Commonwealth to the stadium. Started the first lap smoothly but as usual trailing Sebas by more than 50m. Finished the first lap in 1.34min. Went faster for the 2nd and hit 1.27. 3rd lap 1.29. Thereafter, couldn't maintain anymore. 4th round was a slow 1.36. Improved slightly to 1.34 fr the 5th and then 1.35, 1.33, 1.33 for the last 3.

Not bad timing. First time I managed to hit below 1.30 for 2 consecutive lap. Maybe the weather helped.

For Sebas, his average time was 1.22m.

Cross Training

Couldn't run this morning. The shin still giving problem. With just 7 weeks to the marathon, a bit worried but what to do. The Mrs said she run with me in the afternoon. Told her want to run, run in the morning - you never knows whats going to happen later. True enough - it started running cats and dogs for the rest of the day.

Ended up in the gym in the afternoon. Decided not to chance it and use the cycle. Cycled for an hour. Cycling is very different from running. You can't get the kick and the dog tiredness of running unless you cycled damn hell far. As a cross training - I suppose it's useful although read somewhere that runners should not cycle too often becose it uses different set of muscles. Wonder how those triathlon guys do it?

Weighed myself and discovered has lost another 1 kg. Now down to 72.5 kg. That's bad! BMI is still at a healthy 22.1 but my idea weight is 75. Since going down from 83 last year, have been quite successful at maintaining at 74 until this 2 months.

Have been neglecting gym work. Probably need to work out more at the gym to build up some more bulk. Again some runners believe doing weighs is no good for runners as the heavier weigh slow them down. But I suppose too skinny also no good.

Fishy Business

Yesterday, Luolly died. The day before, Snakey died. So sad.

Snakey is Alicia's pet leopard bichir. She chanced upon it at the fish farm a few months ago and immediately fell in love with it. Initially, we put it with Luolly but kena bullied so we put it with the smaller cichlids. 2 days later, it jumped! Molly woke up one morning and found it moving around near the fish tanks. It survived the fall and seem none the worse for it.

About 2 weeks later on a raining Sunday morning, it jumped again! This time, Mom found it outside her bedroom about 8 ft away from the tanks. She thought it was a snake grabbed hold of a plastic bag, scooped it in and flung it out of the window! When I woke up for my run, she told me about it. Straight away, my thought was - it has to be Snakey. True enough, couldn't find Snakey in the tank. By then, Alicia had woke up. She started crying.

Mom went downstair to look for it. Whoa and behold, she returned with Snakey still inside the bag motionless but still alive! Somehow, it managed to survive the 6 floors drop! Put it back in the tank and it swam and went to hide in its usual corner under the rock. It must have suffered internal injuries cos it never swim around anymore. And then yesterday, it just died. It must have suffered during these past few months.

Yesterday morning, woke up to find Luolly lying on its side barely breathing. Luolly has been with us since it was a tiny fry given away by the fish shop during the days when Luohan fish was the craze. It has grew from a tiny 3 cm to a whopping 8 inches. Luolly was not beautiful. It has no colour, no obvious marking and only a tiny little hump. Don't even know its pedigree. But the kids couldn't let me dispose of it so it has stayed with us for the past 3 years! Really surpised to see it in this condition. No choice but to put it out of its misery! Coincidentally took a photo of it the day before using the new phone. Maybe it is 'pantang'?

The other cichlids have also been dying recently. Snakey could have got something from there but Luolly was in another tank - hmm maybe fish flu?

Time to change the tank set up and maybe keep some other type of fish?

Running Partner

Ran with Novaflux met from sgrunners last evening. Yesterday supposed to run at ECP but last minute his Mrs changed mind so we ran from Simei to Bedok Res instead.

Started the run pretty late. Almost 10 pm when we set off via the park connector. Bedok Res late evening is very quiet and cool with a slight breeze. Only a few couples on the benches and saw one fogged up shaking car in the car park. What is the people inside thinking? The carpark is so bright!

Running with a partner is good. U don't feel the distance. Novaflux just recovering from some leg pain but I can feel the beginning of a shin splint developing on my right leg. So we ran slowly - probably about 7.30/km pace. This is a good comfortable pace and I probably will run at this pace for the SC Marathon. (Oops just check the Runnersworld website. Based on this time I will finish 5.15 almost same as last year time) No good. To achieve 4.30 must run at 6.30/km pace.

Novaflux is a former fencer. He has the built and can run well even though according to him he just started running 3 weeks ago. 3 weeks and already doing 15k - not bad. Another 3 weeks and he will be faster than me. Running with Sebas and BC is damm shiong. Always have to do catching up and they are always so far ahead. At least now have somebody who can run around my pace.

Return via Bedok Res Rd and Tampines Ave which is a slightly longer route. From outside Novaflux's place, sprint all the way back. That's where must have aggravated the shin. Today the pain is quite bad.

Sigh! Now got to stop running for the next few days.

Lunch Treat

Had lunch on the Company at Triple 3 Mandarin today. Food there is good as usual.

Give way to temptation and took more than usual and loads and loads of chocolate. Must have gain at least 2 kg.

Need to run the excess away. Maybe tonight although just did some speedwork yesterday.

Today Run at East Coast

Woke up at 5.50 this morning for the LSD run at East Coast. Schedule is to do a 20.8k. Got a sms from BC - he not coming. Pick up Sebas. Original plan was to start from the Sailing Club side run towards Fort Rd join up with the SGRunners. However, since coming down from Queenstown, logical to park at Fort Rd side and start from there.

Start the run at 6.50 towards Fort Rd - up the bridge to the construction site and then u-turn to the 0 Km mark. Passed the SGRunners doing their warm up outside MacDonald. Too far away to say hi.

The first 5 km pretty slow 24.5m. Sebas stopped for a toilet break and I continued. He said he took 23 mins to catch up with me. Ran together until the toilet at the end had a drink and then off he zoom. At 15km lose sight of him. Started running faster to chase after him.

Passed by the SGRunner again. This time slightly off the UDMC chalet. Too tired to say hi.

Reached the carpark. Finished at last. Sebas is already there. Time: 1.52.38. His tme: 1.48. Not too bad. Just a few minutes off his time.

Next week: 28 k - where to run? Maybe Pierce haven't been there for some time.

sgrunners.com

Found a huge community of running enthusiast or rather one of them found me and invited me to join their group at sgrunners.com. So honoured.

Haven't met any of them personally yet but seen them at the various runs recently. Seem like they ranges from school kids to seniors like me. Most of them though appear to be in their late teens and early twenties.

It's good to find a support group where can share tips, help each on running matters. Some of these guys are very on. From there first time heard of such a thing as a metronome and race ready shorts. Didn't even know such things exist!

Hopefully, the group can grow to be as well known as MR 25 and the Hash runners. But then again if too big must register as a society?

To everybody in sgrunners - Keep running!

Dengue Alert

Just saw from the notice board downstair that there are 2 dengue case in the estate. As far as I can remember, this place has always got mosquitoes and last year even had to complain to the NEA. Guess what - after the complain they came and inspect my house! As if I could breed mosquitoes and then turn myself in!

Heard on the radio about the latest dengue death. A colleague also got it but luckily only spent 2 nights in hospital. More info on dengue: http://www.dengue.gov.sg/

Seem like this dengue thing is not going to end any time soon. Read somewhere on the internet about taking papaya juice or some pegaga juice can help to restore the blood count. Hopefully, it's true.

The Mrs making noise about my running in the evening at Bedok Res. Afraid I might get bitten. Told her it's all fate. If God meant for us to go, we go. Can get bitten anywhere - at home or any other place!