Running Sucks

2010 is almost over. Time to reminiscence about what is over. Bopian. Old man already. Always must talk about the past. 1. Did 10 races. Not bad considering that I did only 6 in 2009. 2. Did 4 half marathon including 2 overseas in KL and Macau compared to zilch in 2009. 3. No full marathon. Don't think I miss doing this though. 4. Volunteered in 4 races. I enjoyed doing this so probably will do more in 2011. 5. Remained injury free the whole year. First time this has happened since 2005. Sure there were some scare but nothing major to take me off running for any extended period. 6. Attributed this to a successful conversion to mid foot running + reduced mileage. 7. Discover the joy and pain of barefoot running but will continue with shoes but maybe switch to minimalist shoes 8. Didn't have good timing for almost all the races. Probably because of the reduced mileage. Hopefully can do better next year especially for TNF. So what's the game plan for 2011? ...

Came home from work and it was raining again. With no more gym to go to, I was like hmmm need to kill time before dinner. Do what? The weights can wait till later so what other option? Then it strike me to do something I have never done in my entire short running life. Go climb stairs.  I did like may be 10 minutes of stairmaster in the gym like 2 3 years ago but have never actually tried running up real stair- case. The most was to walk up the 4 flights to the house. There was always this fear that I may hurt the knee. But boredom is a big motivation. So what the heck. The flat was only 13 stories high. So I ran up 13 floors and took the lift down and repeat. All of 4 times which means I ran a record 52 stories. Total time taken: 9 mins 40 sec. Is that good or bad? No idea but that's a PB. Ha ha. Was it tough. Yeah it was tougher than I expected. I was panting hard after the second set and by the end of the 3rd set, the right hand felt weak and tired - from holding on to the...

Continuing from where I last left of, I was talking about the SBO runners vs the JJ runners. The SBO runners are basically unhappy with the JJ runners who take up to 8 hours to complete the FM. Their main unhappiness I believes, stems from the misconceived thought that the JJ runners ‘block’ their path while they are running thus causing them, the SBO runners to have to expend more energy to weave through them and thus spoiling their race. Apart from this, I do not think there are any other valid reasons for the SBO runners to be unhappy with the JJ runners. However, this thinking of the SBO is not correct. Let me explain. The average SBO runners will take slightly over 4 hours to complete which means they will end around 9 am. The JJ runners take over 7 hours to complete. The route is one big loop and there is no overlap so how can the JJ runners be blocking their way since they are far far behind the SBO runners? But of course we all can see the mountain of walkers every year. Just...

The dust has finally settled. Silence is golden. Every year after the full marathon is over, inevitably there will be a heated debate in cyberspace be it Facebook or the sgrunners forum. The bashing can become so bad that sometime it seems like there is no common ground between the 2 differing views. And this is not the case just here in Singapore but oversea and nothing ignite the debate better than this quirky and yet provocative ad from Pearl Izumi. What am I rambling about? The eternal struggle between the runners and the plodders of course. The runners and here we are not talking about the elites but the (See Bey On) runners who typically complete a marathon in say less than 5 hours and those (Jalan Jalan) runners who complete a marathon in say 7 – 8 hours.

Probably the most fruitful outcome of this trip was that while at Timesquare, Hongkong, what did we spied? The New Balance MT 101! And at HK$500.00 only! Which is like S$100.00 or less since I changed S$1 to HK$5.83. How to resist? And so we bought ourselves one each. Tada! Isn't it beautiful. Nevermind got no orange. Look at the shiny green (men) and purple (women) shoes.This has been on my must buy list since I started trying out minimalist running but Singapore NB has still not brought it in. Last I hear it will only reach Singapore in April or May and certainly I expect it to cost more than $100. So this is indeed a great buy. But how does it ride? Took it for a short spin at MR today. First feel it was damn light and the sole was thin. Will I feel the rocks cutting through the sole? It was raining just before the run and the ground was wet. On hard concrete surface, the shoe could not hold well and it felt slippery. But on the trail, it performed wonderfully. I didn't...

The last race of the year for me. One last chance for me to get the elusive sub 2 which has been eluding me the whole year. Okay I said I wasn't going to be obsessed over it but somehow it is what pushes me to continue to run. Guess without a goal, running will be just be like a headless chicken running round and round in circle. Race Pack Collection at the Olympic Stadium So to make doubly sure that I can get the sub 2, we packed ourselves off to cool Macau while our poor friends endure the heat in hot humid Singapore. Since we were there to holiday as well and in line with our resolve not to run the full marathon, we had signed up only for the comfortable half marathon which means we could spend the days prior and after the race to shop, shop, shop. The weather in Macau was a breezy 17 - 20 degrees with low humidity. It is our first time in Macau and our first time running in temperature that did not exceed 23 degrees. The Grand Lisboa Casino The start ...

For most people, it is just another 3 more days to the biggest race of the year. For most, it will be the last race of the year, the culmination of hours and hours of toiling in the rain and sun just for this one big race. Whatever it is, the excitement is mounting. And that should be the case cos otherwise the whole race will just be another boring old run. I can imagine the butterflies fluttering around in the stomach. There will be a lot of doubt – Can I do it? Can I complete in XXX time. There will be a lot of fear – What if I cannot wake up in time? What if I cannot sleep and therefore cannot run properly? What if I get cramps? Then there are the really important issues – What should I wear? Which pair of shoes? How many packet of gels? I have either been an active participant or a passive participant – I was a supporter in 2006, ran in 2007 & 2008 and took photographs in 2009 but this year I will be giving the SCMS a complete miss. I will be in the sin city of Asia enjoyin...

While I was walking around the Race Expo last week, was at the SIS booth and learnt something new which I will share here. Apparently there can be such a thing as too much gel. This chap, unfortunately I didn’t get his name claimed that he only takes ¾ of the packet of gel and chucked the rest. His reasons was that our body can only convert a certain amount of the carbohydrates in the gel to energy and any excess will be absorb into the stomach which will cause gastrointestinal distress or GI distress for short. What is GI distress? Stomach feeling bloated even though you haven’t really drink a lot of water? Nausea, feeling of vomiting even though you are not pregnant and haven’t eaten anything oily or heavy before your race? Maybe feeling of getting the runs and I am not talking about the running you do with your legs? These are all symptoms of GI distress. So according to this guy, if you take too much gel, the rest of the gel goes to the stomach, then you drink isotonic drink at ...

Actually what an oxy moron - barefoot how come got shoes? But I am still in the stage of enjoying short runs san shoes but still need some sort of foot protection. My Tyr booties is almost worn out after and I need another replacement. Unfortunately, they are no longer on offer so I am left with not much options. Most of my friends who like me still need some sort of shoes have got the Vibram Five Fingers . But I think they are very very ugly and over priced too. So despite this being the most obvious choice, it will not be my choice of footwear for any time to come. This next pair is something I been eyeing for some time. This is the T erra Plana Evo Vivo barefoot shoes for barefoot running. It is available in Singapore at Mandarin Gallery and Ion. Can't remember the shop name but at $229, it is a bit too pricey. Unfortunately this one got no lobang for discount. How about if the distributor whoever you are? Sponsor me a pair and I do a very very nice review? :) Most likely I...

Down to 1 and a half week. So exciting! Got sleepless night or not? Okay you are running running running and tired as hell. When is this race going to end? “Why”, you asked yourself, “did I sign up for this torture”; “how am I going to finish this?” When you are physically drained, when all the gels and salt and isotonic drinks doesn’t work and all you want to do is to lie down and sleep, how do you keep yourself focused and continue to run? This is what you need to do - Distract Yourself. Yes contrary to all the other experts’ advices out there to focus on the race, I am telling you – distract yourself. Guess that’s why I am not an expert J Distract yourself. Look at the other participants. Look at the hot bod in front of you or the sexy bum. Read the captions on the bibs. Get inspirations from them. Look at everybody just don’t look at yourself.   Look at the old fogey in front. If he can do it, so can you. Distract yourself. Look at the scenery/surroundings. Hopefully the li...

After waiting for the past 1 year, I finally went and got my Garmin GPS watch. I had wanted one for quite some time but baulked at the cost of it. However, now that the USD had come down to a low, the watch has become so much affordable.  As I don't do tri, I went for the basic Forerunner 110. Across the big blue sea, the watch is selling in the US for around USD250 with the heart rate monitor (including shipping to sg) but over here it was retailing for S$340.00. However, I opted for the non heart rate version and it cost $300.00 at Sim Lim. Found out it was selling at the Sports Expo for $299.00. Oh well. Out of the box, the set comes with a clip to attach to the watch for charging and uploading. There is also a power adaptor which provides for convenient charging direct from the power point. The watch itself is pretty bulky. Its face covers almost my whole wrist. The display is simple - just the distance , the total time start, elapsed, end and the pace.  Using it was si...

3 more weeks to go before the SCMS. At this point in time, to make sure that you can get to the start line in one piece Don't sit next to anybody who looks even remotely like he/she has the cold, flu or even cough. Change place if you on the train or bus. Wear a mask if it is a colleague. Report him/her to the communicable disease centre and get him/her quarantine! Better still, take sick leave yourself and stay at home for the next few weeks until the race. That way, you be sure you won't catch any nasty bugs from anybody. Don't do all other sports especially soccer and badminton. Many runners have had to abort their race even before the start after injuring their ligament or spraining an ankle while playing soccer or badminton. Maybe shouldn't even cycle. You won't want to be hit by a car or fall or something like that. If you must cycle, do it in the gym and make sure don't fall off. Swimming is okay but just don't drown okay? Don't run ~ if t...

4 weeks more to go to the big day for all Singapore marathoner wannabes and I am back with another series of posts for marathoner wannabes. But you gonna take these with a pinch of salt. Hmmm actually you should. Take the salt that is. It will come in useful when you run the final 10km of the marathon. For the other pro marathoners, the seasoned marathoners, the atas marathoners, you can read, you can dissect, you can criticize, you can add your comments, your advices, in fact you can do anything you want including go away but if you really  吃 饱 没 事做 , by all means, carry on reading. This 1st post shall be about drink - what to drink during the run up to the marathon other than your usual coffee, tea, milk, isotonic drink and sky juice. Vitamin C . You trained and trained and 1 week before the big day, you catch the damned bug from some idiot standing in front of you in the train and who sneezed big time into your face! And there goes your race. So what to do? Load up on vitami...

Last Saturday I did my longest run since December 2008. Distance of 28km. It started off well and I was able to catch up with the front runners in my group even though I started about 5 minutes later than them. However, on the return leg, by the 22km along Changi Coastal Road, the energy level begun to drop and the pace became slower and slower.   I could see M about 50m in front of me but I couldn’t summon the energy to catch up with her. At the 25km outside NSRCC when she stopped for a drink at the choked water cooler, I ran past her but within 2 minutes she overtook me again and that was the way the run continued till the end with her finishing a good 5 minutes in front of me. Fortunately for me, the run had come to an end. I knew if I had continued, I will hit the wall and come to a complete stop. I surmised what had happened was I had ran out of fuel or in cheem technical terms, depleted the load of glycogen stored in my body. How did that happened? Let me see, firstly no ca...

Take a look at the 3 shoes above. On the left is the Adidas Exerta . In the middle is the Nike Lunarglide and finally on the right is the Saucony Fastwitch . Look at the condition of the soles. Looking at the state of the sole, it would look like the latter has been used helluva a lot as the sole is almost bald. See the patch of grey right in the middle. Yet, surprisingly, the mileage for each pair of shoes are 375km; 383km and 374km respectively. Can you believe it! The shoe with the lowest mileage got the most wear and that is made worse by the fact that the  Adidas Exerta is a trail shoes and used exclusively for trail runs and in that type of rough terrain should suffer more damages but did not. The LunarGlide is my current favourite pair of shoes and reserved for races and longer runs and the Fastwitch is used for shorter runs and shorter races.So it proves one thing. Not all shoes are created equally so relying on the time tested 6 months or 500km to 600 km is not goo...

So I been agonizing over my lack of form this year. I thought I got it figured out that the reasons I been running slower are: Age – Soon gonna be half a century old. Cannot expect to be able to maintain the same type of performance. Mileage or rather lack of mileage. Since 2008, has been running shorter distances and average mileage per week is about 30km. Certainly not sufficient to even maintain previous speed. Speed – again the lack of speed training. Speed training or interval training or tempo run is something I don’t really like. Without that, how to possibly improve?   And now to add on to my excuses, a new discovery . This year, I consciously put on another 4 kg +/- 1 buffet dinner. Reasons being that I didn’t want to look too gaunt and somebody claimed a little bit of weight can put more power into my run. But now I found out that actually for every 1 pound of weight lost, I can (or should) get up to 2 second faster per mil...

The haze is back and the streets are noticeably emptier with less runners. Er what happened? Scare of a little smog? Like a friend loves to quote.. ''what don't kill you makes you stronger". So for those who still want to run in the haze here is the ultimate survival guide to running in the haze. 1. Don't want to breathe in the air? Wear a mask. But not any mask. Studies have been made that show that the ordinary masks you get from the local pharmacy is not good enough to block out the little bits of pollutants. Get this instead. 2. Can't stand the smoke in your eyes? Wear a goggle. Not any pair of goggle but one that cover the 2 eyes and the side of the eyes. Swim goggles will do just find but for a better and more comfortable fit, try the bigger half face type. 3. Got asthma or some respiratory problems? Hello, why are you thinking of running in the first place? But if you die die (touch wood) must run, don't breathe. No air intake = no problem...

Went out and got this beauty for $69.90 a real steal nevermind that it is 1 season too old. Have been contemplating one of those minimalist shoes but there doesn't seem to be a lot in the market and wasn't too sure whether such shoes can see me through the lsd. The Brooks Launch is supposed to be one of the minimalist shoes in Brooks range and was the best debuted shoes in Runner's Worlds  Winter 2010 guide. This is a light weight trainer that is supposed to provide 'just enough cushioning' whatever that is. More of its specs here . Anyway, reviews  here and here of the Brooks Launch doesn't seem so bad so can try try. Of course, the key selling point is its color. And how did it respond on the road? I took it out for a 15km run on Saturday. First impression it was extremely light. The cushioning was good and it absorb a lot of the impact from the ball of the foot. Usually if I was running with the Saucony Fastwtich or Zoots Ultra, I would have ...

Who says runners shouldn't drink alcohol? Obviously, the people behind these marathons have never heard of such prohibitions or they firmly believe, wine glass  in hand that drinking and running are pared for the course. 1. The Mother of all Wine Marathon: The Marathon du Medoc 2. Can't wait to drink up? How about the Healdsburg Wine Country Half Marathon ? In fact there are so many wine and run half marathons in the US that it's almost enough to make a marathoner gives up running!

The soreness and the aches have disappeared but in its place is this feeling of disappointment. I thought through the race the past few days- what went right (nothing) and what went wrong (everything).  No doubt it's just 10 minutes off my target time and considering the conditions I was in, that was not a bad achievement. But heck, in the first place I should never have allowed myself to be in this condition. When was the last time I had cramp while running? Way back in 2008 at the Borneo Marathon ! And with so many runs all over MR, Bukit Timah and Zheng Hua, I had no excuse. It was a poor run, a very poorly executed race. When I do a race, I like to give my best. It is not about timing. Never mind if the timing is lousy as compared to others but I am satisfied if I can do what I call a perfect race.  It is about completing a race in one piece without cramps, without hitting the wall and being able to walk normally immediately after the race. No crab walk,...

A friend I talked to was in awe when she heard I was doing the TNF 100. Aiyah, I told her, only 25km lah! No big deal. Today, after completing the TNF 50km duo , I would like to change that to "Freaking 25km. Can die!". Yes while a friend of mine is happily traversing 250km in the Sahara Desert without a complain, here I am just  doing 25km and whining like a baby! I had trained adequately or so I thought. I done so many runs in MR that the total number of runs this year exceeds the total number of runs there over the past 5 years. I ran the Rifle Range Road, Zhenghua and even went up Bukit Timah Hill. I also went to Lor Asrama even though I knew that we the 25kmers were not running there. I thought I did enough but unfortunately, it fell short, very short. It all started well enough though. 4 pairs of us started together. My partner was of course M. In fact, I did I was the last one to cross the start line and remained so until the ranger station. I ran at a very comf...

A common problem that the more ‘pro’ runners face is what to do with used running shoes. Typically, for this group of runners, they usually wear their shoes up to 600km or 8 – 12 months after which going by the manufacturer’s recommendation the shoes has to be  replaced as the cushioning would have break down etc etc. However, most times the shoes still look relatively new and certainly in very wearable condition. Throwing them is a big waste especially considering that there are so many people in other countries who don’t have shoes. But now or at least for the time being, there is not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 lobangs to trade in or give away your used running shoes. Running Lab is offering a $50.00 voucher for each running shoe traded in. The shoes must be clean and in reasonably good conditions. The trade in period starts from 1 November and runs till 30 November but the offer is valid until 31 January 2011. Other terms and conditions apply, of course. Royal...

It is quite surprising that having been running for so many years, I have never ran with music before; music in my head yes but not in my ears. I am not used to having something stuck in my ears or a dangling wire about me whenever I moved so I have never gotta around to using a MP3 when out for a run. However, I do know that some studies have shown that running to music actually helps in the running so when I got the chance to test drive the Sony Walkman W252 , I grabbed it. So on Saturday took it out for my maiden 'run with music' and to live up to the spirit that the people from Hill and Knowlton said - to 'stress test' the W252, the run was a long 20km. The night before, I had dragged a mixture of English and Chinese songs from the Princess' pc. Adjusted the volume to what I thought was a comfortable level although M said I was talking very loudly which means the volume was still a bit too loud. But to me it was probably just alright as I could still hear th...

Someone up there must like me. Just after I talked about having free products testin g, got an email from Sony Singapore to 'stress test' their latest product. Talk about coincidence! From the maker of the original Walkman, Sony has now come up with the Walkman 252 , a MP3 player designed specially with the runners in mind. Which makes me wonder, why not call it the Runman 252? Er I guess Walkman 252 sounds better than Runman 252 right? After a short 1 hour of charging, the Walkman 252 is ready to go for a run but unfortunately I am not so let's look at the features first: Out of Box  The most unique feature of the Walkman 252 is that it is 'wireless' but not wireless as in bluetooth or wifi. One of the big bugbear of runners who run to music is the annoying earphone wire and the need to carry the MP3 separately using an armband. The Walkman 252 cleverly overcomes all this by incorporating the MP3 into the earphone so volia - no wire. It is sleek and looks dam...

On a hot sunny morning, 5 of us decided to tackle Bukit Timah Hill . The last time we came this way, we started from MacRitchie Reservoir and ran out of steam at the foot of the hill. So this time round, we played cheat a bit and started from Ngee Ann Poly which is like 1.5km away from the foot of Bukit Timah. Still, it took a lot of effort and a fair bit of walking to reach the summit . And then to return to the foot. That short distance from the Poly to the top and down to the foot took us almost 45mins. [shake head]. Like that how to complete TNF in one piece? Anyway, from there we went on to Rifle Range Road and then climb over the crash barrier somewhere in the middle and down to the Pipeline reserve. The last time I came here, we only reach the last year support table location but I have always wanted to go the full distance and see how far the pipes lead to (yeah I know it's Johore) but up to which point before it become 'unrunnable'. Unfortunately, the hot we...

Unfortunately no I am not doing the NYC or New York City Marathon much as I would love to unless somebody want to sponsor me? From time to time, I get requests from people, mainly strangers to promote some sites or review some products. These have include websites like painting, testing of some computer software, etc. Most time I ignore them unless it is something self serving (my interest of course) or a request from a friend. Sad to said though, is how come I never get a request to test something cool like Garmin watch or new shoes? That one I will gladly write more? So how about it, Nike, Asics, Adidas, 2XU? There are times when I get requests to write about a cause and generate some publicity for it and most of these I am very happy to oblige and do my little bit to help. But of course I do find it strange that some of these requests come from overseas. I don't really think my little blog is that well followed but like I said anything for a good cause. The NYC marathon i...

2nd year running I'm doing this event as a run marshal instead of as a participant. This time round, got upgraded to the 4.5km. The run started  a bit late and as usual it was hot in Sengkang. But still the participants don't seem to be affected too much by the heat. Just about 1 km after the start, saw a guy went down clutching his chest. OMG, a real life crisis. Wiped out my phone to call the chief marshall but fortunately for the chap, there was a medic nearby and when he came I chased after the pack of kids. Those darn kids can run damn fast. Had an enjoyable time though. I ran, walked, ran again, walked. It was interesting to see especially the young kids most of them still in primary school completing the 4.5km in fine form while the adults were struggling. Some of the highlights: The run and bike marshals pre-run  Participants waiting for the start of the 4.5km race Runners on the verge of completing the race The Run and Bike marshal's...