Weak Mind, Weak body and Weak Legs

"2013 is significantly tougher than the 2011 and 2012 course in my opinion..which explains the jump in accumulated altitude gain as compared to the 2012 course.."  These words from the Race Director sends chill down my spine and that of my running kaki.

When I signed up for this, I knew it wasn't going to be a walk in the park, unlike a friend who thought so and  promptly went to sign up for the 100km in its inaugural edition in 2011 and nearly paid a heavy penalty for it. Learning from his experience, I have decided to be a bit kiasu and sign up only for the 50km. But that is still 50km too long I think.

Anyway with the haze gone I hope for good, training resume, abit a little on the slack side.

Since Sunday was a rest day, thought I could do an easy run on Monday after work. The sidekick said she didn't feel ok so I also decided to skip the run. Instead, I did a short series of training with the weights and the gym ball. Haven’t really been doing my strength training regularly since moving to Pasir Ris. Somehow the soft lighting at home does not inspire me to lift weights. More like for sleeping. Anyway, concentrated on the legs and core and did some stretches of the legs.

On Tuesday, it was back to Mount Faber and this time a good friend came along. We had wanted to do 3 loops up and down but she was a slave driver and we ended up doing 3½ loops. Worse thing she insisted on going all the way down to the foot of the hill and back up again and did not allow us to stop about 400 metres from the bottom. Shall not ask her along the next time. Hahahha. But seriously this was the hardest session for the week. See I said it was slack!

Wednesday got slacked again. Took out the Foam Roller and did more stretches of the legs and went through the motion of doing some crunches.

Thursday night, the sidekick got an early start to her run and I was left alone to do my own. Poor me

Decided a short hard (hard by my standard anyway) run was in order. Actually that just the excuse to get out, do it and get it over with in double quick time. Started ambitiously. Try to break the PB for this particular 5.6km route. Started well but lost steam rapidly. After 1 km, decided this wasn't working out. Too strenuous for my old body. Got a brainwave. Will do a "fartlek". See, I also know how to use big technical terms. Run like hell up to a distance target, do a recovery run and then start all over again. Plan went well until somewhere towards the end. The park was pretty dim. I kicked into an uneven part of the ground and went flying or rather scrambling. With hands and legs flailing all over, I desperately tried to catch back my balance as I was going down but it was all in vain and I ended up eating dirt. I must have looked a comical sight to the other park users. Maybe they thought I was practising the long jump?

My poor arm

That put paid to any training on Friday. Saturday was super busy day with me involved in 2 races as a volunteer in the morning and as a photographer in the evening which means no running. Sunday morning there was another race to shoot and I was stoned by afternoon. A short nap didn’t help much as I dragged myself up and out. Decided that I die die must do my long run. Together with the sidekick who had wisely did her own run in the morning, we went to the Tampines Eco Park and then crossed over to the Tampines Mountain Bike Trail. This is my favourite run route in the East. 

The Tampines Mountain Bike Trail

The Tampines Mountain Bike Trail

Too bad, the Tampines Mountain Bike Trail is slated for redevelopment and soon there will be no more trails to run in the East. Completed 12km before the sidekick went home to cook dinner and I dragged myself to complete another 8 km in a super slow time.

So I didn’t managed to hit 40km for this week. With 10 more weeks to go, it seems likely I won’t have enough time to bring myself to a sufficient level to complete the 50 km comfortably. Time to start thinking of Plan B maybe?