A Hot Run

Saturday afternoon, the ladies went for a run at East Coast Park. Originally scheduled to start at 4pm, I pushed it down to 4.30 as I thought it was too hot. M, Bambi and Michelle started first running from Car Park G to Safra Resort. They are supposed to do 20km and 15k respectively. Roo and Wei Jian came later. They met up with the 3 front runners and went for 15k. This will be the longest run ever for Michelle, Roo and WJ. Ben joined us later and decided to run the same route although he was almost 45 minutes behind the rest.

When I reached the 1st waterpoint after the chalet, the ladies were already there waiting for me. They were screaming for water. The way they drank, you could have thought they were in the desert. Between the 5 of them + Alicia who was blading, they finished 1 and a half bottle of 1.5ltr H20. Guess the sun was still too hot for them.

At the next water point which was 12km & 9km from start for the 2 groups, they took another breather and gamely went on. I could see that they were real tired. Their lack of exposure in running during the afternoon shows. Ben soon caught up with them at this point - still running steadily at - I think a slow 5min pace for him.

Michelle and WJ completed their run after 16km and 13 km. They hopped into the car and we went to the next water point to wait for the rest. Bambi and M came back after doing 19km and decided to stop. Roo also came in shortly after having run walk the last 2km. Her longest distance ever!

Well done ladies!

Pierce Run

Brought the ladies down to Pierce for this week run. Surprised to bump into 1 big group of sgrunners. They are doing the Muddy Grass Run. Saw quite a number of new faces. As I watched them goes off, how I wished I could join them especially since this run was for a route which . But I still got another 2 months or so to go before can resume running.

M, Bambi and Michelle are running this route for the 2nd time. Last round, they ran 11km. This time, they conquered approximately 14km in a time of 1h:44m making it approximately a pace of 7.28min. So far, the ladies are making steady progress for the half. M and Bambi has already done up to 18k, Michelle 14 and Roo 12. Keep it up ladies.

This Past Week

Continued my daily workouts but after last week mild scare re - a frozen shoulder, dare not use too heavy weights. Carried on the stationery bike three days in a row. At least now I can cycle without bringing the seat so far up that I can barely touch the pedals. Went swimming on Saturday. Managed to do total of 1.6km. Unfortunately, still cannot keep the stupid legs kicking and floating and without the leg buoy, can't even do a proper front crawl. Look like got no choice but to go for lessons.

The haze lighten up a bit on Saturday so the Missy managed to catch Bambi for a run. As usual, I played waterboy. This time, the 2 ladies managed to do 18km in 2 hrs 14 mins. They getting there very smoothly. At this rate and with 1 more month to go, they should be able to finish the half in the target time.

MBT shoes

It has been almost 2 weeks since I got my MBT shoes. Still trying to get use to walking around in them. So far so good but can't really balance myself on the train.

What is this MBT shoes? MBT stands for Masai Barefoot Technology.

"Designed by a Swiss engineer to simulate barefoot walking or running, MBT shoes were supposedly inspired by the Masai people of East Africa, who walk barefoot over miles of uneven terrain, yet allegedly experience few back and joint problems. Some even train barefoot for marathons. The multi-layered soles, in essence, turn a flat surface into an uneven one, giving muscles you don't normally use a workout and challenging you to walk more upright. You'll experience a rocking motion when you wear them. Some athletes, including those on the Austrian National Ski Team, use MBT during training."

More information from this website: http://www.backinaction.co.uk/mbt-info:

"MBT shoes can change the way most of us use our muscles as well as reduce shock forces to the entire skeletal system. Masai Barefoot Technology makes all surfaces like walking in sand. Unlike most conventional training shoes that only support and cushion your feet, the unique lever spring action of MBT's challenge the core strengthening muscles to be more active. This creates good posture and increases shock absorption for all the joints.

The MBT range of footwear is designed to allow you to walk on a soft, uneven surface in order to stimulate exceptional muscle use; so increasing tone, alignment throughout the body, benefiting circulation and giving you a feeling of overall good health and well being.

Training with MBT improves: Coordination, Core Stability, Power & Speed, Running Style, Endurance, Flexibility, Recovery and Injury Prevention. Performing on a high level needs to balance all of your abilities. MBT makes training more effective, challenging and gentle to your spine.

For treatment, rehabilitation and prevention of: Back, hip, leg and feet problems, Joint, muscle, ligament and tendon injuries, Therapy resistance. GPs, physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors and alexander technique teachers recommend the use of MBTs to successfully help prevent and treat injuries"

More on MBT shoes here: http://www.swissmasai.sg/

Have I benefitted from the use of the shoes? I'm not too sure. They are comfortable but due to the thickness of the shoes, I am now 2 inches taller. It certainly forces me to walk and stand straighter which is good for me as I hunched most of the time. However, the Physio at CGH and Jo at the OPRC doesn't think too highly of it. So the verdict is still out.

One thing though - why can't they design it nicer?

Dr Richard Steadman and Microfracture

The New Paper on Sunday carries an article on Dr Richard Steadman. This is the surgeon whom my doc, Dr Chang Haw Chong learnt his skills from (as he is constantly reminding me of:)) and the techniques he applied on me is the same microfracture techiques that was used on Micheal Owens, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Alan Shearer, Ronaldo, Henrik Larsson, Craig Bellamy, Patrik Berger, Jimmy Bullard, Lothar Matthaus, Richard Wright, Johnny Heitinga, Joleon Lescott and Martin Laursen. Looks like I have more in common with these stars than I thought. Now if only I can share a little bit of their wealth:)

The full text of the article SAVIOUR OF THEIR KNEESpublished in The New Paper on Sunday 8 October 2006

Botanic Garden

The haze has disappeared. Went down to BG to meet the sgrunners. Had arranged for Jo from the Osteopathic Pain Relief Centre to come down to do individual gait analysis for the runners.

There were all in about 15 runners including Ripley formerly known as Kelly who was not running and Axe whom I meeting for the first time. The turnout was smaller than expected - probably due to concern over the haze. Nevertheless, the session which started at about 9.30 am took over an hour as Jo and William did very detailed analysis for the runners.

The 2 fellas did examination of their foot, walking and running techniques and even a little crunching here and there. At the end of the session, they recommended correcting runing postures etc. I do realised each person has their own individual running styles and it may not be possible to adjust or make changes to the running styles without affecting the speed but still I sincerely hope everybody will have learnt something about their running and benefited from it.

One hazy morning

Today the ladies are running at East Coast Park. It was a hazy morning. When we reached there, not surprisingly, East Coast Park was nearly deserted. We found out later the haze index climbed up to 130 psi at about 10 am. Luckily, we had finished by then.

Molly, Bambi and surpisingly Karen came. Ruth came with WJ but in the end she didn't run as she was asthmatic and everybody thought it was not a good idea to run in such condition. So she became my watergirl.

The run started at carpark F2 and targeted to u-turn at the fence at Fort Road. After the runners took off, we drove over to carpark B1 and set up our water point. While waiting for the runners to arrive, I proceeded with my now routine set of exercises to strengten the legs and increase it range of motion.

Almost all 4 of them reached the waterpoint together in a time of about 40 minutes - and all complaining of dry eyes. WJ turned back here while the 3 ladies continued up to the end.

Ruth and me also went back to Carpark F1. WJ came back first followed by Karen, Molly and Bambi. Although I told them the distance was only 14 km actually after calculating - it should be close to 15km and the average time taken by them was 1:43. Their longest run to date. Looks like they are well on target to finishing the half under 2:30.

Had a nice breakfast of Nancy's Katong laksa followed by kaya bun and heavenly coffee at Chin Mee Chin. Hah nothing beats having a nice meal after a long hard strenous workout right?

This Week

This has been a good week. It didn't start off well but that's normal for Monday right?

Monday - Finally, the annual reports are out and delivered. Got a mild scare in the afternoon when 1 goodnu finally picked out an error - after like what 6 rounds of checks by no less than 6 different people including the external auditors and lawyer. Luckily not printer fault otherwise the asshole sure chew me up like mad. Ha ha in the end got to paste sticker again - just like last year. Who ask him to approve the stupid text without checking thoroughly? Anyway, it made my day to see the asshole at fault for once!

Tuesday - Got a real good news. The company has on top of paying for the hospitalisation agreed to reimburse 80% of the oestopathic treatment. That means I can get back close to $600/-. Enough to buy a HRM with spare change for a new shoe:)

Wednesay - Was at CGH for physio and the Synviss injection. Bumped into Dr Chang at the waiting area. First thing he said when he saw me - "you can throw away your clutch lah!". Yeah! now I'm walking freely. For the physio session, have also switched back to Darek as Megan has been transferred. Darek is more thorough and experience but a real - what we call 'physio-terrorist'. I am more optimistic that under his care, I will recover even faster!

Thursday - At the HOD meeting today, unexpectedly Chairman raised an issue not on the agenda and which had been decided and agreed on with one of the indie directors last week. The end result, was Chairman overruled the indie director's instruction which means my dept end up not having to do the newly assigned tasks. Hurray!

Friday - At this time, nothing good yet but with so much positive feeling this week - maybe can strike the big Toto prize tonight:) Hmm if only can bother to go and queue up!