Same Distance but

Revisited 2 old run routes recently. 

Tampines Mountain Bike Park

Last week, ran through the Tampines Eco Green and the Tampines Mountain Bike Park. There was about 1.5km of paved road, 8km of nice flat trail and another 500 metres of winding undulating forested trails. The whole run took me about 1 hour 10 minutes to finish the total 10km.

 A week earlier, ran the Bukit Timah Reserve starting from the side of the carpark to Beluakar Trail then pipeline trail and durian trail before coming back to the Bukit Timah Visitor Centre and up to the Hindhede Quarry. Also 10km but it took me 1 hour 36 minutes. 

Pipeline Link

What a vast difference! Both 10km and yet it might as well been 10km and 15km. I have been pondering over this. 

1. The former is mainly flat and on top of that, there is 1.5km of road

2. The latter is a highly technical trail for the first 3km but thereafter the rest is mainly flat with only about 200 metres of road

3. Elevation for the former is only 22 metres (the overhead bridge don't count) whereas it goes up to 70 metres in the latter.

4. I started the Tampines run at 8.15 am and the Bukit Timah run at 9 am. Both time weather was equally hot but there was more shade at Bukit Timah than Tampines.

Elevation Profile for Bukt Timah Reserve

Elevation Profile for Tampines Eco Green/Mountain Bike Park. The 2 peaks are overhead bridge

So by all account, both should more or less even out yes? Of course, not. I realised that running all the up and down of Bukit Timah is really not that easy. Thee  run/stop actions took a lot out of me. It was akin to doing an interval or a circuit training. I drank almost every drop of my 1.5ltr of water compared to zero for the Tampines Run.

Maybe I should just stick to running on the road?

The Ultimate Race for Cancer 2012

A friend in Malaysia is raising fund for Cancer Research. Frank Chong, a former cancer patient will be taking part in the Comrades Marathon in South Africa. Frank will be only one of 2 Malaysian participating in the 90km gruelling Comrades Marathon. All 100% of the funds raised from donation and sale of t-shirt will be channelled towards the Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation.

If readers are interested in helping a good cause, why not consider putting in a small donation or buying one of the nice t-shirt.

The t-shirt are available from

1) Running Lab Malaysia - G29, Ground Floor, Tropicana City Mall

(contact person: Frank @ +6012 395 9598)

2) CARIF - 2nd Floor, Outpatient Centre, Sime Darby Medical Centre

(contact person: Katrina @ +603 5639 1966)

3) Those in Singapore can get the tee from Kelly Lim.  For more information click here

Donations can be made via cash or cheque payable to Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation) can be deposited at CARIF or Running Lab, Tropicana City Mall. (Too bad there is no option for donation from Singapore - maybe Frank you can work with Running Lab Singapore for this?)

Donations and payments for TURCR is now made available via Maybank2U and PayPal services. For more information click here
More details here:

The Ultimate Race for Cancer 2012
Frank's blog
TURCR Facebook
Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation
Comrades Marathon

Kinvara 2

New gear. Still yet to try out.

Date of Purchase: 26 February 2012

Cost: $117.00

Purchased from: Running Warehouse

Worn in races

1 September 2013 Army Half Marathon
7 October 2012 NE Tampines Run


Retired: 13 December 2013

Total Mileage: 664 km

2.4km Run

Last week a colleague asked me how to train for the 2.4km IPPT run. I nearly choked on the pen I was nibbling at while staring at the pc. Everybody in the office know that I run a lot. But this guy like most of the others all assume that just because I run, I can do the 2.4km. What they don't realise is that while yes, I run, I do mainly long runs, what in runners speak, we called Long Slow Distance run with the emphasis on the word 'Slow'. So I didn't really have a ready reply for him. 

The last time I ran a actual 2.4km in a test or race was years ago. I have totally no recollections of what sort of timing I got though. I only remember that I managed to clear almost all the IPPT during full time NS and during my reservist phase, I usually pass on the 1st attempt with the $200.00 monetary award. But the actual timing? I really don't know. A further quick check on my runningahead log shows my last 2.4km run was in May 2011 when I clocked 11.27mins. My best was in February 2006 when I clocked 10.35.

So now with an injury behind me and much lower mileage, what sort of time will I be able to do? My curiosity piqued, I decided to go to the track to find out for myself. So after a nice 2km warm up run to the Meridien JC, I went for it. 

I started off at what I thought what a reasonably fast pace at perceived effort of 85 - 90%. But that soon fizzled out and I went slower as each round goes by. A quick glance at my watch at the end of the 3rd round shows I was running under 6 mins for the 3 rounds so I reckoned I will probably finished about 12 minutes. By the 5th round, my legs were protesting and I started on my cough and going to puke routine. There I thought of giving up. What the heck, it wasn't worth all that torture just to satisfy my curiosity.  But with barely 700 metres to go, it was kinda waste to give up so I pushed myself on and finally finished the 2.4km.

Okay I made it. A check on Mindef website shows if I am 29 years and younger in Cat X and Y,  I will have got 3 points. If I was between 30 to 34 years old (Cat Y1), I will have got 4 points and if I was Cat Z and above, it will be 5 points or A grade. Hmmm not too bad for someone bordering on the half a century mark.

Back to the question how to train for the IPPT? Other than run more, run faster - I really have no answer but to refer my colleague to these few websites:

http://www.angelfire.com/mac2/hls2004/ippt_preparation.htm
http://www.mindef.gov.sg/life/ippt7.htm