Week 1 Training

The haze took a breather this week and so I managed to do a full week of training. 

Started the training on Monday with an easy 8 km run round the Pasir Ris Park. No haze and the runners were out in full force. Air was pretty fresh next to the sea.

On Tuesday, as planned, we went to Safra Mt Faber. Singapore got no mountain but still got to try doing hills. Started from Safra and ran via Henderson Road to Morse Road and made our way up to the summit and then down to Kampong Bahru side. Along the way saw many speedy runners from Safra. Think they were on the way back. How in the world do they manage to start so early? We made a u-turn and ran back up to the top before going back down to Morse Rd and back to Safra. Total distance was slightly over 8 km. Not as tough as I had thought but then again its only about 100 metres high. The up part was about 1.1 km with a gradual rise of probably 30 degrees. Think probably good for another loop but its okay,  start slow and progress slowly.

Did a short interval on Thursday. The idea is to do all sort of training runs to cover all base. Haha. Maybe a bit unscientific but I think good for getting the lungs to work hard. May need that later.

Wrapped up the week with a run at Bukit Timah. The original plan was to do at least 20 km but got a bit lazy and ended up just slightly over 17 km. Did the usual route from Ngee Ann Poly to Diary Farm via the KTM track and the Dairy Farm Quarry. Went into the Wallace Trail but got stuck behind a group of uncle and aunties hikers and who refused to give way on the narrow trail. One of them was blasting Air Supply on his phone or MP3 player for everybody to hear! What an inconsiderate bunch of fellas! Made our way up to the  Bukit Timah summit via the Regas(?) Path. Again got stuck behind another group of mainly lady walkers and again these people did not observe proper trail etiquette and blocked us from moving forward. First time Molly went up this way and she found it very tiring like what I experience when I went up this place the first time. 

That it for week 1. Hopefully the haze will continue to stay away and we can go into week 2 smoothly.

Kancheong Time

K. So I am a wee bit kancheong now. It is just slightly under 3 months to the longest race I going to do so far. And I have barely  started training for it. The haze  of course didn't help. 

It all started last year when I decided to run a 50km race to celebrate my 50th birthday. But I left things a bit late and somehow the year slipped by and I didn't sign up for anything. So I did the next best thing. Sign up for one this year. Nevermind that I have not run a full marathon for the longest time. To make it worse,  this is a trail race not merely a road run and the cut off time for it is a whooping 15 hours which means it is probably going to be tough as hell.

To kick off the training, I went and did a 25km trail race in Thailand in January. That turns out to be relatively easy but after that, the momentum was not maintained and the weekly mileage continued to stay at 30 km, definitely not something that is adequate for the purpose. But last week decided to use the Muar Cross Country Run, which was a half marathon semi-trail race to relaunch the training. But the haze kicked in and I lost 1 more week. And with lots of races and photoshoot assignment coming up in the next few weeks, plus the haze, I really don't think I can prepare sufficiently for it.

And how do one train for a trail race of 50km when Singapore is all so built up and the only trail we have is MacRitchie and Bukit Timah which while we called the latter a hill is just a small little mound in comparison.. There  going to be a climb of at least 1.5km with total ascent of 3.5km. Where to find such altitude to train in here?

Anyway, the next few weekends, haze permitting, will see me traversing Bukit Timah and MacRitchie and at least once every week I will be at Mt Faber trying to make the best of whatever we  have, for what it is worth. Anybody care to join me?

Running in the Haze

Past week with the PSI shooting way past the safety limit,  runners in Singapore and some part of Malaysia have been left without their weekly fix. 

Of course a little bit of haze couldn't put off people like me though. Me and the sidekick, we did a run on Tuesday evening when the PSI was about 130 in the unhealthy zone. How does it feel like running in the haze? We started from our usual place at the foot of the block next to the park connector. We then ran the usual route to Pasir Ris Beach Park. By  the time I hit 3km, my throat felt so dry and irritated. So this was how it feel like to run in the haze. I had to stop  for a drink at the toilet something that I don't usually do for such short distance. By then the eyes was also watering and the air smell bad. 

On Thursday, the PSI crossed the 200 mark.Still we decided to go out for a run but at the gym. But to get to the gym, we have to walk 900 metres from our place. This time the air was really bad and I don't think I even want to try running in the open. We covered our mouths with our towels and went direct to the gym. I think we would look like a clown if we wear a mask and run.

So the conclusion is - if the haze is real bad as in the naked eyes can see it, then it is not good to run in it.  Go do some cross training - swimming is not recommended though. Better to use this period as a recovery period and rest the legs.

Muar Cross Country Run 2013

Have heard a fair bit about the famed food of Muar so when we had the chance, we decided to go up there. The fact that there was a trail race was a bonus. So a group of us led by the Incredibly Macho Dude and his petite little wife hopped onto the coach and off we went for a weekend of makathon! Sadly, the famed food turned out to be a big disappointment. Hopefully the race will make up for it. 

We were staying in Muar town, I think and to get to the race site where the race pack collection was held, we had to walk there. We took directions from the locals and I think, down there nobody walk or cycle and we were directed all over the places and ended up walking 2.5km in hazy and hot weather before we reached the Chung Hwa High School. There were only a few people there. The race pack collection was short and sharp. Unfortunately, the sidekick discovered that she had been wrongly placed under the Men’s category even though from whatever angle I see her, she still looks like a woman to me! Oh well. Since we were there for the run and she wasn’t podium material, we left it at that. Just run!

We woke up at 4.45am the next morning. By now, we have found a shorter route to the site, thanks to the wonder of modern technology – the GPS. So we were supposed to do a warm up run there but all of us ended up walking the 1.8km distance there through a dark neighborhood. The stillness and quiet of the morning was broken only by the occasional vehicles and the loud call to prayer from the nearby mosque.

We reached there Chung Hwa High School again. There were probably only about 1000+ participants from what we could see. There was a big group of Safra runners complete with Safra and Singapore flags as well. In fact, we met many more Singapore runners friends there including the omnipresent Mohan. I believe Singapore based runners accounted for more than 10% of the total runners and form the 2nd largest contingent after the Malaysians. 

The setup at the start line was rather basic. It was just a banner with the word Start and a safety tape as the start tape. And oh yes, there was a group of young ladies doing some sort of energetic warm up which in most events could attract a lot of attention but in the darkness, nobody could see them well and they were generally ignored with most of the people focusing on a video wall which was playing the race from last year.

We were “flagged off” at 6.30 am sharp. We ran along this seemingly never ending Jalan Junid. It was still pitch dark when we were flagged off and as we ran along the road; we passed by many nice beautiful houses. The scenery changes with the light and as it grew brighter, the houses changes to shophouses and with dawn breaking, into kampong houses and forest along the side.