Chia Seeds Energy Food - Fact or Myth?

The interest in Chia seed has continued unabated since the publication of Born to Run. Unlike other super food which has been processed into pills, drinks and what nots, at the current moment, Chia Seed is still sold in its seed form. 

So is it really that great a super food? Does it really provide the much needed energy to fuel a run?  Unfortunately, the truth is after 1 and a half year, I seriously still don't know.

After a period of almost 1 and half year of consuming it, I still haven't come to a conclusion whether it is of any benefits to runners. The thing is, unlike the Tarahumara who eats it daily, I am a teeny weeny bit inconsistent in my consumption. The Tarahumara make it into a sort of gel which means they put loads of the Chia seeds into their mixture and when the whole thing coagulates, it becomes sort of jelly/gel like. Therefore, it is likely that the mixture provides a more filling meal than what I usually do.

Typically, I add Chia Seeds to my drinks, (when I remember). But I don't add a lot. Just a sprinkling. enough to cover the surface of the cup. And this is not for my runs. Just a typical after dinner drink. For runs, if I am carrying a water bottle, I will make my own mixture comprising gatorade mix or whatever energy mix available; orange juice, honey if available and water topped with Chia Seeds. But most time I don't carry a bottle while running which means the mixture becomes an after run recovery drink which kinda defeats the purpose and runs contrary to how the Tarahumara uses it.

The past year has also coincide with a year of less intense running, shorter distance, less races and more slacking. So performance and speed has deteriorated. Of course, that could also be the result of ageing. So there has been nothing positive that I can pinpoint as the direct result of consuming Chia Seeds.

So the thing is, is Chia seeds really that good? Does it really provide energy for running? Is it a myth generated by Born to Run, unintentionally? And how do people in this region consume it?

Anybody care to share their own experience? 

Zoom on Track Relay

Ben Swee, the brain behind the longest ultra in Singapore and the banana relay has done it again! This time he came up with another fun and innovative run - the Zoom on Track Relay. Essentially, this is a relay event but with super flexible rules. There are 2 distances available - 10km or 21km to be ran by each team on the stadium 400 metres track. Each team can have 2 to up to 5 members and are free to choose how they want to run. So there were 2 members team who each ran half the distance and teams which rotate runners every lap etc

True to its no frills billing, there was no drinks, no bib, no timing chip and no baton although some did brought their own baton like this guy here.

 

Or these 2 who simply change over with a pat on the hand

 

The teams really got into the spirit of the event with a fair number of them wearing synchronised attires  like these groups:

 

 

There were trophy given out to the top team in each category even though this was billed as a non-competitive event. 

Despite the no frills and "non-competitive" aspect of the event, judging from the look of every body at the end of the event, all of them looks like they really enjoyed themselves. It just prove that runners are not always after goodie bag, finisher tees and medals but a good and fun experience.

More photos of the events can be found here and in Running Shots Facebook

Running Shots

A friend, Marcus Lim took his interest in running and photography, put them together and came up with Running Shots. After going it alone for a while, and with the ever increasing number of races,  he roped in a few other fellas including me to join in the effort.

The objective of Running Shots is simply to take photographs of runners at races and then upload them online for the benefits of the runners. Consequently, the emphasis is not quality but quantity although we will try our best to take good pictures. But as long as the face is visible and identifiable and the picture does not look like it was taken by someone riding on a roller coaster, we will upload the photos to the group page on Facebook and website for free. Yes absolutely free to download the photo, print them and share them with friends on Facebook, Twitter and other social media but....

As per  common law every where, the rights to the photographs belong to the photographers of Running Shots and not the person whose picture has been taken. Therefore, while we may be proud and happy that you like our photo, you may not have them published in any other media like magazine, newspaper or commercial website. However, we will in most cases give our consent to the publication if we are asked provided credit for the photo is attributed to Running Shots and/or the photographer. Of course, passing off the photographs as your own and using them to join photography contests is a "no no" and we will not hesitate to ask the contest organiser to remove the photos if we come across such cases.

Event organiser who would like Running Shots to cover the events may write to Running Shots at runningshots@live.com.

Meanwhile, runners if you see a photographer along the race route, smile, wave and who knows, your photo may appear on Running Shots!

Trail Running at Pulau Ubin

Good friend, ultra marathoner and trail lover, Kelly Lim has started a facebook group dedicated to trail running. The objective of the group according to the burb on the page is "An online trail running community to bring together trail runners based in Singapore, provide a platform to exchange info on training and local/overseas races and running routes, and to inspire more to step out to embrace nature".

To kick off the group, she organised a trail run at the last running frontier of Singapore, Pulau Ubin. The last time I went there to run was in 2011 for the North Face Series and I thought why not? So I too went along for the fun.

Apparently great minds think alike and about 50 persons turned up for this inaugural run. Weather was great and everybody was in a good mood except for maybe a rather "wet" photographer, Marcus Lim from Running Shots who went into the sea at the island to retrieve a dropped handphone of one of the participant.

Photo from trailrunning.sg

The distance to be covered was only 10km. But there was a long long break to walk the broadwalk at Chek Jawa and photo taking and that took up nearly an hour. Some of us decided 10km wasn't really enough for a good workout after coming all the way and went an extended distance of another 5km. For once, most of the runners managed to stay together during the run so it was rather enjoyable running at a leisurely sight seeing pace. I think everybody had a great time.

For those who are interested in joining future trail runs, do check out their facebook page for the latest update.