Itch

So less than 2 weeks and I gave up on my run break. Not that my shin splint or whatever it is is gone but the itch was there and you know when you have an itch, it is so terribly unbearable and you got to scratch and scratch until it goes away?

On Thurs, it just so happened that there was no newbies to accompany; everybody know the way and the constant companion was not around - not that it matter anyway since her friends were around - and so I was left free to run at my own pace. So of course instead of doing a jog like last week, went on to do a faster run (fast by my standard anyway).

Followed that up with a Saturday morning run with friends from the forum and since I was on a running spree, continued the next afternoon with a run from home to the Tampines MBT park. The second time that I am wearing the Adidas Exerta since I bought it. Must say it responded very well over the rocky grounds. So okay no regrets about buying it.

Total mileage for the week - 31 km and I thought the most I will be doing this week would be 8km.

Attitude

The attitude code for runners?


Got this of a blog post. Not too sure who is the author since he didn't give credit for it so this blogger will get the credit. Check out his blog. It's laugh out loud time.

Men in Tights

This post is not for ladies. But I sure this disclaimer is not going to stop you young sweet ladies from reading on.

Was doing some editing of the photos and Alicia started laughing and going yeek....

What did she saw? Men in tights! and her observations? Man and tights don't go well together. Especially is the family jewel is rather er big or get moved about in transition.

Here's a close up view
And so guys, if you are reading this, be careful. You never know who staring or rather which part of you they staring at. Especially if you are wearing blue!

How the Old Man got Blister in the Swimming Pool

My friends are laughing their head off over this silly old man who goes swimming and get blisters on the sole. How indeed does one get blister in an environment where there is more than ample liquid to lubricate the whole body and probably 10 elephants as well?

You see, after deciding to have a run break and reading somewhere that running in water is a good alternative, Uncle here decided to try it out. Only problem is - the pool at my place was only 1.2m deep throughout and me being all of 1.81m tall, was already looking like a giraffe standing in the water so I figured a flotation belt will make me look even more cartoon. And anyway, with my long legs, I think it's not gonna keep me afloat in a 1.2m pool.

So I did the next best thing. Just run in the water. Now the pool is app 40m in length so it actually made for quite a good workout or so I thought. I started with 10 laps running up and down the length of the pool. It actually was quite tough; the effort needed to lift the legs to move forward and to stay upright was incredible. Like most pool in condo, the pool was beautifully tiled in various colors. Only problem is, some of the tiles were the smooth type and some non-slip and as I ran, I had to grip hard (or at least do a semblance of griping hard) on the pool floor to prevent myself from making a fool out of meself. Hmm come to think of it I might be better off just running on ground?

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the blisters came after 1 had completed 20 laps but gung ho me decided to do another 10 more for good measures. And when I got out of the pool finally, not only was there 1 blister on the ball of the left foot, the blister on the right had burst and the darned thing was bleeding! I think I shan't post the pic here. It doesn't look too nice.

And so here is the story of the day the old man got blister in the swimming pool.

So what's next? maybe a pair of water booties?

What I been up to

So the first week of my self-imposed run break has passed. What has I been up to? Apart from eat, work and sleep.

Monday - Went to the gym did some weights
Tuesday - Swim a bit, ran a bit (in the pool) and did a bit of weights
Wednesday - Sat on the stationery bike in the gym for 30 mins and did some more weights
Thursday - Did a 7km jog (not run)
Friday - Slack one hundred percent. Actually not true. Walked a lot - from Suntec to Marina and back to Suntec + explore basement 2 carpark at Suntec. Does that count as exercise?
Saturday - As promised at the start, worked out on the stomach...er abs for 2 hours solid.. burb.
Sunday - Swim and run in the pool and kena 2 blisters on the sole of the foot. *^%$( that's why I don't like swimming!

Oh and by the way, those people who chanced upon this blog - I am not Guy Odgen so don't come here looking for him. Try Athlon Running. One look at my race timing posted on this page will tell that Tekko is not Guy. Hmmm wondered what gave them the impression?

Talk Crap

So it just Thursday and I back from my usual run. It's not even a week and I supposed to have a run break for 2 weeks! So much for resolve:)

Anyway, did run pretty slow. Reckoned did 7.5km in 52mins which works out to be around 7mins pace. So in my lingo, that is a jog. And some wise man did say a jog is not a run so technically I didn't run tonight.

Heck what crap am I writing?

Run Break

Start of a self imposed run break for at least the next 2 week. Not that there is much choice. Felt a slight pain in the left shin and feeling along the shin bone, can feel a little bit of swelling. So no runs for the time being – hurray can sleep late for this coming weekend!

Don’t remember knocking into any thing to get the injury but don’t think it is shin splint either. Probably my reward for my unorthodox method of choosing running shoes.

No running still can cross-train so priority will be to train the stomach oops I mean the abs. Must make it work hard.

Er anybody want to train with me at Venue: House of Seafood, Crab Party, No Signboard, Eng Seng or any suggestions? Or how about 717 or Four Seasons? Good to see how much the stomach abs can expend with 1 big exertion<

Mizuno Mt Faber Race 2009

Third Mt Faber Race. After the last 2 where we walked and jogged our way together to the finish line, this time round decided to each run our own separate race.

Reached there quite early at about 7am. Wow they were serving HTO. Bravo this must be a first for a local race - serving isotonic drink even before the race begun. But from here on, it was all downhill even as we ran uphill.

At 7.15am M went to the mobile loo. I was contemplating going as well but backed off when I saw the queue. And then all off a sudden, the MC announced the race was going to began and before we knew it, it was on. And M was still not back yet! I reckoned they started at least 6 mins earlier! Geez what a screw up!

Just before the start of the race, was talking to Neyton who was doing his maiden MF race about the lack of road closure and to avoid getting caught at road junctions and then wham barely 1 km into the race at Henderson Road, was stopped by the auxiliary guard stationed at one of the road junctions while the traffic was allowed to pass through. What the **%#&#_! Fortunately for me, thereafter managed to avoid getting caught in the other junctions but M was not so lucky. Not only did she started late having to dash from her queue in the toilet line which was a fair distance from the start line, but she got caught in 3 stoppages.

Stopped at the first drink point to have a drink. Great they were serving HTO again. The road up Mt Faber was cordoned off for us so there was ample space to run until Mt Faber Loop where again we were forced to run on the narrow pavement. Going down was just as bad. Although this time there was no railing to stop us from going onto the road, there were many tour buses going up and forcing us back on to the pavement.

Anyway the target for this run was just to improve on last year timing and if possible do it below 1 hour. At the 5km mark, yeah finally there was a distance marker, the watch shows 27:41mins. This was somewhere up nearly at the top of MF and I knew I was; barring any really unforseen circumstances; going to make it below 1 hour since the rest of the route was downhill and generally flat. Managed to avoid the stoppage at the 2 entrance and exit to the AYE running at a steady pace before finally crossing the finish line at 55:16mins. Great - well within target.

At the finish line, they were still serving HTO. Having have enough of that, tried to ask for plain water but they didn't have that! This was really a first for a race!

That said, I think this will be the last MF for a long time to come. 3 times should be good enough for memory.

Crazyy or what

Jeanette Wang in one of her post asked whether she was çrazy'to take part in the Ultra Marathon. The response from her blog readers were predictally a resounding 'no' with a minority dissents including one from mio.

Her response to my comments was and I quote: i don’t think endurance athletes are crazy… i think they’re just tougher mentally…""

I think she missed the point of this crazy issue. To me, anybody who attempts something that challenge the human body beyond its normal threshold are abnormal. And by this, I don't just include the ultra marathon runners, but also mountaineers, swimmers, sailors even the guy who climb building for the fun of it. And what do I mean by abnormal? Simple lor - crazy because a person need to be a little bit crazy to risk life and limbs to do something that most time have no physical rewards and do it only because it is a challenge of one own's ability or because the mountain is there etc. My point is .. for a person to leave behind loves one to go for extended stretch to climb mountains, run the desert, swim the ocean, sail the high seas and risk injury and death...there has to be something that set him/her apart from normal human being. Some call it adverture lust but behind every irrational decision made, and I am certain the decision are irrational, there has to be that little bit of something extra.... something I call a streak of craziness or as my mother loves to say 'siao'!

It is not about mental toughness. That can only comes in after starting the event and propel one to finish what the crazy mind starts.

Who Said These?

Guess who made all the below wonderful logical statements:

.....they took a picture of me and I had a big belly like that (puts his hands in front of his belly), a beer belly. I felt no, no, this will not do. So I started playing more golf, hit hundreds of balls on the practice tee. But this didn't go down. There was only one way it could go down: consume less, burn up more.

....'What are you trying to do?' I said, 'I feel an effort to breathe in more oxygen.' She said: 'Don't play golf. Run. Aerobics.' So she gave me a book , quite a famous book and, then, very current in America on how you score aerobic points swimming, running, whatever it is, cycling. I looked at it sceptically. I wasn't very keen on running. I was keen on golf. So I said, 'Let's try'. So in-between golf shots while playing on my own, sometimes nine holes at the Istana, I would try and walk fast between shots. Then I began to run between shots. And I felt better. After a while, I said: 'Okay, after my golf, I run.' And after a few years, I said, 'Golf takes so long. The running takes 15 minutes. Let's cut out the golf and let's run.'

- But I think the most important single lesson I learn in life was that if you isolate yourself, you're done for. The human being is a social animal - he needs stimuli, he needs to meet people, to catch up with the world.

- In other words, you must have an interest in life. If you believe that at 55, you're retiring, you're going to read books, play golf and drink wine, then I think you're done for. So statistically they will show you that all the people who retire and lead sedentary lives, the pensioners die off very quickly.

- The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge.

A very well said/written reminder on living by one of the world greatest statesman, our very own MM Lee. Read the full passage here

Sundown Marathon 2009

While runners ran the whole night, kaypoh me and a few others also decided to join the night owls and stayed up for the 2nd Sundown Marathon. Like last year, I did not do this event prefering to kaypoh around. This time round, we parked ourselves at the 33km mark along Tampines Ave 9 Park Connector going to Pasir Ris.

The first ultra-runner appeared around 9.30pm and after a short gap, the main body of the ultra runners followed. Spotted a few familiar faces - friends for whom we had gathered there actually to cheer for them. The ultra runners tapered off after 12midnight and we went off for a drink at a nearby coffeeshop. When we came back, 4 members of Team Fatbird including the famous Brokie had joined us. While the whole gang was standing there cheering, clapping, giving drinks and heatrub to the by now coming non-stop marathon runners, I was busy trying to take photographs of the runners.

Talking of photographs, taking action photos in the day was difficult enough. But in the dark! It is even worse. The camera couldn't find enough light on the subject to focus, the flash was too weak, too strong, the reaction was too slow... in the end even though I switched to full auto mode, I missed many friends'.

Here are some photos for what's its worth. More will be uploaded as and when I can manage to snatch the com from the little girl.




Anyway, back to the running, as I watched the Ultra runners doing their 2nd loop, looking at their face and body posture, by now most of them were walking, I really admire their determination in completing this crazy event. Many were limping, some look like they can drop anytime and there was one guy who can't even talk, lift up his arm and poor Brokie had to feed him his water! What drives these people to do this type of event?

On the other hand, looking at the marathon runners, there were many who were taking like 6 to 7 hours to just reach our location. I am not slamming everybody who finish in time longer than 7 hours. In fact I have friends who despite training hard for some reasons or another still cannot complete in within average time of say 5-6 hours. What I don't like are people who don't give due respect to the FM but just treat it like a fun thing - like going for a stroll. I personally had met a guy about a month ago who couldn't even ran 1.5km and when he told me he was doing the FM at SD, I was completely flabbergasted. What crazy mind do this people have? Do they really think it is so wonderful to walk the full 42Km? For this people, I have no respect and I feel that they do not deserve to wear the finisher tee.

Speaking of finisher tee, I heard this year's one came in my .......... Heck I should have just do it!

More photos here