My mother used to say that if got no problem, don’t go and see the doctor. If not, sure end up with problem. Sometime such old wives tales – it’s so laughable and yet ….. On Saturday went over to CGH for the Runners Seminar and met up with my doctor, Jason Chia and company. Now, just merely 4 days later, I think I have to go back and see him again – this time not for another seminar but for my knee. Old wives tale?
After almost 1 year and 9 months, the )&$*#* knee has flared up again. I knew I was in trouble when the knee sounded funny at the trail part during the AHM. It was making a sort of cracking rubbing sound every time I bent it. This went on until Monday night when I decided to go for a swim. Hey presto, after the swim no more sound. Good news? No because it was replaced by a swollen knee and a sharp acute pain whenever I straighten the leg as when getting up from a chair. This looks like 2006 all over again. I think something (the remaining meniscus perhaps?) have broken off and is now irritating the joint.
Again like the last time, I am able to run without any problem. I went for a short run with the I-Run people and it was okay. No pain, no nothing. So what the hell should I do now? Still without sufficient mileage and with the Borneo marathon coming up in just 5 weeks, how am I going to clock enough mileage for it? Should I just forget about it and leave M disappointed? Or just do it and bear the consequences later? And I still have the SCSM to come! Thank goodness I haven’t sign up for the Real Run.
Look like if really have to go for 1 more round of surgery, I might as well hang up the running shoes for good.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Singapore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon 2008
Should I try and aim for a sub 1:50 finish? Or just a PB? Or just go and enjoy the run? Based on current conditions and with the rest these 2 weeks, I felt the first 2 options were doable especially with all the inspirations from the Olympic:) But that was going to make the race very tough and not enjoyable in the process. Than a friend asked whether I can help pace him to a sub 2 finish. Ha – the perfect excuse to slack so I readily agreed.
Started a bit behind and of course as a result got stucked in the big crowd. Estimated we took slightly over 3 minutes to cross the start line. At the 1st Km mark, my watch showed 8 mins + and there was still a big crowd in front. The narrow 2 lanes along the ECP didn’t help. Told my friend at this rate, it will be tough to do below 2hrs but there was not much room to speed up. Also afraid if I start to go too fast to try to catch up for the lost time, he will not be able to cope later on. So we trudged along hoping to slowly make up for the lost time over the rest of the route. At the 5km mark, time was 28min+ which means if we don’t buckle up, there was no way to do sub 2 with another 16 km to go and to do a negative split in the process. Told my friend to aim to hit 10km by slowest 58km and thereafter to maintain about 5:30 pace.
With that, I proceed to move faster but unfortunately lost my friend somewhere along the way. Along the ECP while trying to squeeze past 2 army boys jogging(!) side by side, was so incensed when they put up their hand simultaneously to stop me from passing. I turned around after moving in front of them and gave them a ticking off. While I am not proud of my outburst, some people really simply have no race etiquette and it just makes me boil when I come across these people!
Reached the newly opened route after Fort Rd. When I first heard the Combat Engineers were repairing it, I was a bit apprehensive as I know the quality of their ‘repair’ being a former Heavy Plant Combat Engineer in my NS days. Yah, it really sucks! Fortunately the ground condition was better than I had expected even after the heavy rain the previous day. The condition I expected was more like the mud path that ran alongside the graveled path so luckily this time round the CE didn’t fail too badly.
Only thing was, the compacting wasn’t that good or the rain had loosened the soil so the path was uneven with part of it being pretty soft and thus absorbing the rebound so that it was quite difficult to run. It was here that my right knee started to give problem. No pain but it felt funny whenever I bent the leg like it was giving way. I was a bit worried. Had the injury finally caught up again? Nevertheless, stucked in the middle of nowhere, I had to continue and eventually reached the highlight of this race – the Marina Barrage! It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. View inward of the skyline was nice but the structure itself was nothing to crow about. They could have built a more impressive bridge to match the skylight what with the IR and the new Botanic Garden coming up around it.
With the end in sight and having finally managed to catch up on my lost time, I ran slowly back even taking time for a final drink at the last drink station before finishing in a gun time of 1:59:27 just within the 2 hours time limit I set. With luck, the chip time should be around 1:56+.
Too bad my friend couldn’t maintain the pace and didn’t manage to finish under 2. May be next year can gather a bigger group of people who want to do sub 2 to run together and this time we will take our revenge and block everybody way. Ha ha ha!
26 Aug 2008:
Official results are out.
Time: Chip Time 1:57:22 Gun Time 1:59:48
M didn't too great. She got jammed at the back and did a slow run
Time: Chip Time 2:14:12 Gun Time 2:23:19
Started a bit behind and of course as a result got stucked in the big crowd. Estimated we took slightly over 3 minutes to cross the start line. At the 1st Km mark, my watch showed 8 mins + and there was still a big crowd in front. The narrow 2 lanes along the ECP didn’t help. Told my friend at this rate, it will be tough to do below 2hrs but there was not much room to speed up. Also afraid if I start to go too fast to try to catch up for the lost time, he will not be able to cope later on. So we trudged along hoping to slowly make up for the lost time over the rest of the route. At the 5km mark, time was 28min+ which means if we don’t buckle up, there was no way to do sub 2 with another 16 km to go and to do a negative split in the process. Told my friend to aim to hit 10km by slowest 58km and thereafter to maintain about 5:30 pace.
With that, I proceed to move faster but unfortunately lost my friend somewhere along the way. Along the ECP while trying to squeeze past 2 army boys jogging(!) side by side, was so incensed when they put up their hand simultaneously to stop me from passing. I turned around after moving in front of them and gave them a ticking off. While I am not proud of my outburst, some people really simply have no race etiquette and it just makes me boil when I come across these people!
Reached the newly opened route after Fort Rd. When I first heard the Combat Engineers were repairing it, I was a bit apprehensive as I know the quality of their ‘repair’ being a former Heavy Plant Combat Engineer in my NS days. Yah, it really sucks! Fortunately the ground condition was better than I had expected even after the heavy rain the previous day. The condition I expected was more like the mud path that ran alongside the graveled path so luckily this time round the CE didn’t fail too badly.
Only thing was, the compacting wasn’t that good or the rain had loosened the soil so the path was uneven with part of it being pretty soft and thus absorbing the rebound so that it was quite difficult to run. It was here that my right knee started to give problem. No pain but it felt funny whenever I bent the leg like it was giving way. I was a bit worried. Had the injury finally caught up again? Nevertheless, stucked in the middle of nowhere, I had to continue and eventually reached the highlight of this race – the Marina Barrage! It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. View inward of the skyline was nice but the structure itself was nothing to crow about. They could have built a more impressive bridge to match the skylight what with the IR and the new Botanic Garden coming up around it.
With the end in sight and having finally managed to catch up on my lost time, I ran slowly back even taking time for a final drink at the last drink station before finishing in a gun time of 1:59:27 just within the 2 hours time limit I set. With luck, the chip time should be around 1:56+.
Too bad my friend couldn’t maintain the pace and didn’t manage to finish under 2. May be next year can gather a bigger group of people who want to do sub 2 to run together and this time we will take our revenge and block everybody way. Ha ha ha!
26 Aug 2008:
Official results are out.
Time: Chip Time 1:57:22 Gun Time 1:59:48
M didn't too great. She got jammed at the back and did a slow run
Time: Chip Time 2:14:12 Gun Time 2:23:19
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Runners Forum @ CGH
Attended a Runners Forum conducted by Changi General Hospital. Goodnu me. Thought the thing starts at 2.30pm. 10 mins past 2 still happily eating lunch at home. 5 mins before 2.30pm took out the piece of admission ticket and realised start time was 2pm. What a bozo! Missed Dr Jason Chia's talk as a result!
The talk was very useful. A lot of useful tips but could be longer though. 2 hours definitely not enough. Found out contrary to what some websites said - forefoot is not the same as mid foot and of course me has been running on forefoot and not mid foot as I have thought! Time to readjust again:( Many other useful tips + food and all for $4.00. Possibly the cheapest and 'bestest' talk in town!
Also met many of the sgrunners there and of course the nice people from Changi Sports Medicine Centre, the people behind this talk. Quite surprised that a number of them remembered me - after more than a year and a half. Dr Chia remembered me by sight, David of course I bumped into quite often on the way to/from work and Darek, the physio who remembered me by name and even where I stayed! Considering that they see so many patients a day and after such a long lapse, really touched that they can remember me. Just show how much attention and care they pay to their patients!
The talk was very useful. A lot of useful tips but could be longer though. 2 hours definitely not enough. Found out contrary to what some websites said - forefoot is not the same as mid foot and of course me has been running on forefoot and not mid foot as I have thought! Time to readjust again:( Many other useful tips + food and all for $4.00. Possibly the cheapest and 'bestest' talk in town!
Also met many of the sgrunners there and of course the nice people from Changi Sports Medicine Centre, the people behind this talk. Quite surprised that a number of them remembered me - after more than a year and a half. Dr Chia remembered me by sight, David of course I bumped into quite often on the way to/from work and Darek, the physio who remembered me by name and even where I stayed! Considering that they see so many patients a day and after such a long lapse, really touched that they can remember me. Just show how much attention and care they pay to their patients!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Nike Magic Ride
Was lucky enough to be invited to Nike Singapore to test run the new Nike Lunar an event which Nike called the Magic Ride Run. Among the invited people today were Roonz and Wendy also from sgrunners, Sumiko, others from the tri fam and a celebrity, Jessica Tan. After a short intro by Sacha, each of us were given a pair of socks, a pair of Lunar Trainer and a towel. Some lucky fellas who came without any running attire were also given t-shirt and shorts. A lucky lady got to test drive (wrong) run in the Racer simply because they didn't have the trainer in her size.
According to the Nike website, the Trainer and the Racer are both extremely lightweight cushioning shoes featuring the new Nike technology known as 'Lunarlite foam'. Apparently the people at Nike got their inspiration from the moon where everything was supposed to be lighter than air. The lunarlite foam is also supposed to spread the pressure evenly across the foot thus reducing the impact on the bones and joints. In addition, carbon rubber has been placed in strategic locations to increase the life span and durability of the shoes. The main differences between the 2 is that the Racer has flywire filament, the type of high tension wire that is used for suspension bridges whereas the trainer has the normal mesh. This made the Racer even more lighter without losing any of the cushioning.
So how did this mumbo jumbo performed on the road? We did a short 4km run round the Changi Business Park. Most of the runners were in common agreement that is has very good cushioning although there were some feedback that the side of the shoes could cause abrasions. According to Sacha, the design of the sole using the 'Free' technology will give a smoother run for heel strike runners.
So in my usual rough way, I test drive the shoe by running mid sole, heel strike and even bouncing up and down. Maybe it is the short run, or the slow pace of the run, but I couldn't really appreciate any remarkable technology leap that the Nike Lunar has over other shoes although it was certainly comfortable enough to run in even without my orthotics insole. One thing though is that the Nike Lunar as compared to the other stylo milo Nike shoes looks like a very poor cousin - just white with a rather luminous lime yellow sole - good for visibility but not terribly exciting. A quick check on the net though revealed that there are Red and Black version available in the US so hopefully when it is launch here in October, they will bring in the different colors. The other thing is that the design of the shoe especially around the nid foot caused the shoes to look very wide especially on my size 12 foot Apparently this is for stability control. Does it really work?
I shall reserve further review until another run.
Date of Purchase: 18 August 2008
Cost: FOC (trial shoe)
Purchased from: Complimentary from NIKE Sg
Worn in Races:
14 Sep 2008 KPE Swing 2008
28 Mar 2009 Head Over Heels Couple Run 2009
Retired: 15 May 2009
Total Mileage: 388.05km
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