JPMorgan Corporate Chase 2006

Back in the office waiting for the IT dept to fix some bug and check the data.

Had a fairly good run just now. It has been raining the whole afternoon but luckily the rain let up a bit around 5pm. Ben escorted by 5 Vit gals came to the office. (He really the can - attracting the gals like bees to honey. We set off, 14 of us + 1 supporter to the Esplanade. This is it - for most of the aunties their very first race.

Learning from last year, Sebas, the Boss (DCEO) and myself went right to the front - well almost. The rain got a little heavier when the horn was blown. Started off pretty fast - even faster than Sebas. Reached the 2Km mark in 8 min 45s. By than Sebas had caught up. At the 1st ECP flyover on the return, started to feel my energy level ebbing and I knew than I couldn't keep up the pace anymore. Sebas had already disappeared. Slowed down and finally saw the 5km sign. Chiong a bit - wah this 600m like damn far. Crossed the finishing line in 26m 46s. Not too bad. Sebas came in 24:44. The 1st runner - 18:13! Wow!

Met KickJazz and LeCharlotte at the end point both of them did well. Keep it up ladies.

Long Weekend

No not a long weekend as in Fri, Sat and Sun off but a long and tiring Sat and Sun.

Saturday

6.30 am Woke up send Alvin to school for the school speech day and drop Mother off at WTC for her trip to one of the Indonesia island.

8.00 am In the office. When are we going to get the 5 days week the Boss promised 2 years ago?

2.30 pm Blood Donation at HSA at Outram. Doc said my pulse rate very low at 47ps. Huh that is real low! Average is about 55.

4.00 pm Lunch or is it tea? at home and a short nap

6.30 pm Mrs got to utilise a shopping voucher at Century Sq expiring soon. Whole family went down. Alvin booked himself a DVD or comp game for the voucher. Too bad, somebody stepped on the Mrs' sandal and it broke. Voucher kena used for the sandal replacement. Witness 2 ladies squabbling while having dinner. People nowadays!

9.00 pm Time for workout - 4 sets of back exercise, 2 legs and 3 abs while watching tv. Finished in time for FA Cup semi

Sunday

12.00 am FA Cup semi - Liverpool vs Chelsea. This shld have been the final! Pool 2 Chelsea 1. Wipe off that stupid smirk Morinho!

2.30 am Time for bed - my thoughts are with you guys running West to East and North to East. Keep it up!

6.0 am Time for run - Simei to EC via Upp East Coast and back via Siglap Park Connector - Bedok Town Park - Bedok Reservoir. Distance: 24km Time: 2:4414. Managed to stop at EC Mac to say hi to the sgrunners. Way to go man!

11 am Time for another nap

12 pm Send Alvin for tutition and pop over to the inlaw place

2.30 pm Picked up Alvin and headed for town. First stop - Raffles City where the Vitamin girls are having a sale at their shop. Ben and Sports are also there. Mrs got some free samples. Thank you ladies. She promised to buy something once her current multi-vits finished.

4.00 pm. Suntec City - Alvin went off for his Magic the Gathering Pre-release. Walked around at Carreflour.

6.30 pm Marina Square for dinner at Gengki Sushi

8.00 pm Home sweet home and Rush Hours 2 is on tv.

11.00 pm ZZZZZZZ

Long and Winding Road Home

Decided to run home from work today to make up for last night non-running.

Started from Hong Leong Building facing Shenton Way to Marina Promenade. It is windy and the sky looks ominously dark. Hope it won't rain. Surprisingly, there are few people running. Ran slowly trying to avoid straining the knee and the left shin which don't feel very good. Estimated going at 7min pace. Reached Nicoll Highway and decided against going up since the sky in the east look bad. Decided to check out the Kallang Park Connector. Continued until Kallang Riverside and ran along the river side until the end. No more road to run. Sigh, should have run into the park instead of the side of the river. Exit - shit - it is Crawford Road. No choice, ran along the road to Kallang Rd until the other side of the river and crossed the road to the other side.

Holy mackerel - where is the Park connector? There doesn't seem to be any path from here. The stupid National Park map shows there is a park connector linking the park to the Kallang Park Connector which leads to Siglap Park Connector! Bo piah, now stuck - double shit - it is starting to rain - got to run along Sims Ave now. Never imagined I will run here twice in a month! The damn road is full of traffic. There are plenty of China ladies around and many DOM. The exhaust fumes from the vehicles is terrible. Then the sweet stench of durian came drifting to my nose. Ah... at least if it rains, can stop for dinner and durian while waiting for the Mrs to come and pick me up. Continued to plod along. Can't really run fast with so many obstacles. Passed Rochor Beancurd - how long has it been? Ho Kee pau and finally Sims Ave East and Kembangan MRT. Stopped for a toilet break.

3 MRT stops to home. May be just 20 minutes more? In the end decided against running in the traffic again and turned into Siglap Park connector. It is a short route. Hit PIE - arrgg!!! why must they build such high and long overhead bridge? Now in a park - never been here before. The board said only 1.3km long to Bedok North. Reached Bedok North Rd soon enough - another overhead bridge and it's Bedok Town Park but where is the directional signboard? The place look damn dark and the floor is all wet. Must have rain heavily earlier. Asked some boys sitting at the void deck how to get to Bedok Reservoir. They looked at me like I siow. Finally 1 boy said go by the main road - I may get lost in the park.

Triple shit - Looks like it back to hitting the road and fighting traffic again. Luckily the air is cool and traffic is quite light. Finally, Bedok Park Connector. Now to go straight or turn into it? Got enough of the traffic. The connector wins. Back to the connector and up another gigantic bridge across the PIE and down to Upp Changi Rd and home sweet home.

Total time taken: 2hr:17m:52s including 1 toilet break, 2 water break and numerous traffic stop. Distance: app 18km. Surprisingly, this winding traffic laden route is much shorter than if I had run via ECP and Upp East Coast Rd. But I don't think I try again unless very sure the Kallang Park connector can connect to Siglap Park connector.

Boi Boi Ger Ger Run

Good Friday 14 April 2006 Time: 7.00 am MacRitchie Reservoir Sgrunners 1st ever Boi Boi Ger Ger trail run. Wah, mahchiam sound likes SDU organised event so what the _ _ _ _ am I and my Mrs, both confirmed not qualify doing there with the young little kids?

Anyway, there was a big turnout - one of the biggest sgrunners group turnout with many new faces and certainly 90% eligible for match making (including those attached but no ROM cert). Than again got ROM cert also can qualify... just need to use the big 'D' word, right?

The ladies started off towards the Little Sister Home side (ha - they got the rotten deal - more upslopes there) and the guys towards the zigzag bridge. I was in the toilet when the big Boss flagged off the run. By the time I came out, can only smell the fumes of the cars in the car park. Playing catching up so early really no joke - finally caught up with the last man at the 1st fitness corner. Lots of new faces - all running very strongly. At the landslide, a few of us took the detour. When we reached the ranger station, the ger gers were there and so were the rest of the boi boi. Where did they materialise from? They played cheat and bashed through the landslide! In the tradition of all sgrun, stopped for the obligatory group photo. Then the chekopeh boiboi decided to follow the gerger. What happened to boiboi run one direction ger ger another? Must be all of the gerger in heat!

Decided since I am married and unavailable, to run my own separate way. A new guy, roengten came along with me. We decided to run the original route but when we came to Venus Rd, since he has never run on killer hill, decided to bring him on an introductory run - so off we went to Pierce Res before returning to MacRitchie via Thomson Rd.

Back at MacRitchie, most of the sgrunners are already back. DO, Dream, Kops came later - had cross path with them earlier along the SICC ground just after Upp Pierce and finally Bee with Suanxjing who is still fighting to recover from a ankle injury (she shouldn't have do trail today - hopefully she didn't aggravate the injury). More group photos before calling it a day - some straight home and some for makan at Adam Rd.

Interval by the Sea

The sea smell permeates the air. The wind caress the skin. Lovers stroll hand in hand or sit by the sea whispering sweet nothing in each other ears. Tourist gwaked at the man made monstority that we called a national symbol. The perfect setting for an evening out.

And I out - for another &&)^^% run. It's the usual Tuesday evening run for the colleagues here. The ladies started early and we the batangs were supposed to catch up. By the time we reach the Esplanade, the ladies were already turning back. These ladies or shld I say aunties have improved a lot liao.

Me ran until the 1.8 km marker and decided to do intervals instead of the usual run. 1st set 400m 1:30min - huh.. too fast idea time is 1:40min. Slow down a bit on the next run. Still 1:31min. Am I getting better or the distance marker is not accurate? 3rd run 1:33min. Er how to do 1:40? Ponchek than can.. indeed by now gasping for water. Didn't bring water.. water water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

GM came back on his return leg. Asked how the interval. He like want to challenge. So told him okay and zoom off. Ha! 1:37min - turn round he still less than half the distance away. Ha ha, he may be GM but come to running I can be his MD.No respect for me want to challenge me some more!

Now very tired. Recovery run is now 3:14min. 2 more to go. Next one 1:36 min. I think the hard ground make it easier to bounce off and run faster. Lucky got wear 2 pairs of sock to absorb the impact. Finally, last run - chiong and its 1:34min. Total for the 6 laps: 9:21min. Now if I can only do this continuously without recovery than first target will be reached but dream only. Continuosly at this pace sure cannot tahan - can die first.

Everybody else from the company has gone off. It's only 6.50pm. Do a cool down run back to office. Wonder whether I will bump into the sgrunners on their CBD run. Still early - no sign of them though. If not, can join them for 1 more round. Alamak have to hurry back before the aunties finish off all the fruits.

It's a refreshing change doing interval here instead of at the Stadium. The ground is harder but the sea breeze and straight routes seem to make it less tiring. Maybe should do more often here

Restart

Have decided to buck up. Sat down yesterday to think through the running plan. No point running around for the sake of running. This is what I will do:

In a 4 weeks month and 3 sessions a week - total of 12 runs

2 LSD of at least 20km
1 Hill of at least 10km
1 Trail of at least 10km
4 speed - 2 tempo and 2 intervals
4 easy (on RL Thu Night Run)

If got holiday or off day - do 1 extra LSD of at least 30k

Immediate objective - to achieve targets for 5 and 10 km. So far have not been able to meet any of the targets set for myself.

Will run in the Milk Run after the JPMorgan Chase, than the Real Run, AHM, 2nd Link and the SC Marathon.

Having decided that, went for a celebration run to Bedok Res. Have not run there for more than a month. Started off via Simei Ave to Tampines Ave 1 and Bedok Res Rd. Ran 1 round in Bedok Res, skipping the upper level. Completed the round in 23:13min and returned by the Park Connector. This Sunday Pierce Res, next week MacRitchie and then followed by Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. Wondered should I chio any sgrunners for this? Put everything into my calendar so that I will stick to it.

Plateau?

Reached office this morning feeling very lethagic and slightly depressed.

Didn't feel very good this few days not physically but mentally. Last night for the first time ever, I walked out of the gym after doing only 2 sets of weights. Just didn't feel like finishing the whole routine.

Don't really feel like running today either - but this one got no choice - supposed to bring the people from the office to Marina Promenade. Wondering what all this running is leading to? Sometime feel like a headless chicken running aimlessely around! Don't even feel like joining the sgrunners on their weekend run.

Old age or just hit a plateau?

On the brighter side, after the rain, the run was very pleasant. After showing the people from the office the route, decided to abandon them and ran by myself. Have not been pushing myself hard in recent runs. Managed probably about 9 km in 50m 32s. Pretty good since I have to walk with the slower ladies for the 1st 1 km or so.

Maybe should go for a nice long run this weekend to lift myself up!