Exclusivity!

Alright. Its cheap thrill. But I am now a member of one of Singapore's oldest running club, MR25. To become a member of the club, one have to run 5km time trial through the trail of Macritchie under 25min. I did it in 23:09 just now. That is a 4:37 pace thereabouts.


Its funny how I had the jitters before the time trial. I was telling Enrico and Andrew, that this was even more stressful than the ironman race. The ironman races have a cut off of 17 hours and frankly, that is quite a long time. But to do a 5km in 25min, that would require serious heart thumping pace. And I was getting into very unfamiliar territory. This was some serious pain.


I suspected that I would be able to clear the 25min but it would take a lot out of me to get there. 1st 2.5km I took 11:35 and the 2nd was 11:34. So that was a pretty consistent pace for the whole run. Not much of a negative split to talk about. I thought I slowed down a great deal on the 2nd lap but I had new found strength for the last 300m, when I saw the forest open up to the reservoir again. A great motivator indeed!


I knew I had some reserves because I wasnt sure of how much I had to run. So I squeezed out the remnants for a harder 100m run to the end point. Managed to overtake a bloke by 3s coz he was on my radar at the end. Andrew who was pacing me for the return leg, pointing at the bloke telling me to overtake him. And so I did.


So thats another target achieved. For what? Well, just for the fun of it and just a gauge of how far I have come with all the training sessions Coach put me through as well as what Andrew had been getting me to do with his track sessions.


Really, something plucked off Martin Yan's "Yan Can Cook", if I can do it, I bet my life, so can anybody else.

Chased By Monkey!

Yes, damn close encounter this time round. And I was riding! Cant imagine if I were running?


The island is just full of these macaques. 1st time a smallish one tried to scratch me 2 years back while I was cycling and avoiding crashing into it. And today was a much bigger alpha-male. It actually chased me for about 50m before giving up. I shouted very loudly - and when I am loud, it must really be loud - in my attempt to scare it off when it started to chase. But it didnt slow him down. Was riding about 24kph up a slope into the zoo and I didnt try to ride off faster than that coz over the crest the primate stopped.


I have written to AVA about it before and apparently they claim that they try to cull and catch these primates which can get aggressive to human. Thanks to the idiots who feed them. And the population is just flourishing.


Its the 3rd day of the lunar new year. In the blink of an eye, the long holiday is almost over. Sadly. It was good break for me, spending time with my relatives and my family. And the laziness of the festive season got into me quite a fair bit.


Thursday was suppose to be a 12km run with an hour of trainer. Only managed 8km run and NO trainer. Friday was not too bad. Managed my swim. 400m warm up, 4x200m (3:20 for all sets), 8x100m (under 1:38 for all sets) and 12x50m (under 48s for all sets). Today I did 5 complete loops of the Mandai route including the zoo section. In fact, the swim workout was the best of the 3 days coz at least there was more effort put in. Almost didnt make the ride today as the temptation to sleep in was so high. But the iron-mind got the better of me and sent me ploughing the loops. Had planned to do at least 6-7 times but settled for 5 instead. Total distance of 120km only. Things should get better next week.


Tomorrow I should be going for MR25 5km time trial. Suppose to do it in 25min. Lets see how things go.

Lunar New Year Holiday!

Lunar new year is special to Chinese. It probably is synonymous of Thanksgiving whereby family come together. A joyous occasion for the renewal and rekindling of relationships and ties. And not to forget, a time of feasting! I particularly like the family gatherings. The laughter, the sharing of stories, flopping on the sofa and just let the mind go blank in front of the goggle box, the continuous eating of the unending streams of food.

But I had a young colleague who commented, "I hate the visiting." Just what had happened to this festive season. Somehow the meaning had been lost somewhere. I would liken this loss to the meaning of red packets where relatives and friends expect a huge amount of money in the red packet, when it was meant to be a blessing only in the past. And that visiting had become a way to collect more red packets so that we can "break even" with the amount that had gone out. I agree that it can be tiring but the rewards are intangible. How often do we get to work and can say that we can let our hair down and just be ourselves? Without having to take precautions of our actions and words that could be taken against us? Think for many of us, this is a lifestyle.

Maybe the busy worklife had turned the whole festive mood topsy turvy. I admit, I had been so busy that many observances have been overlooked. Spring cleaning for one. I dont have a domestic helper. And of late my part time domestic aid had to stop temporarily because of family matters. The culture seemed to have been lost and sadly so.

Nonetheless, it still will be a nice gathering of people we love and perhaps, all else can be overlooked. Perhaps, one day, it will evolve into something that is simpler, so that all can enjoy the season.

***

The rain throughout the whole weekend was amazing. And Monday evening there was a window for the swim to happen, some drills, and 200+300+300+200. Seemed all too familiar. Didnt Coach just gave me something similar last week? Just that I had greater mileage? Yeah, caught my breadth pretty quick. Nice!

Tuesday track was a new mileage:10x400m in 2.5min sets. This meant continuous running on every 2.5min - the longer I take to run the 400m, the shorter break I have. I did decent 1st 7 sets, mostly 88-89s with the first at conservative 90s. I basically followed the 60 year old Uncle Lim but push for a strong 100m finish to cross the line 1s earlier than him. But only managed that for 7 times. Thereafter I crossed the line together with him, one in 92, one in 93 and the final one in 90, thereabouts. But according to Andrew, this was alright because the body was used to the mileage up till the 7th set only and anything thereafter was extra stress. He is the running guru after all and I suppose it made sense. Or maybe it was just consoling words. He did his 400m in 62s thereabouts. Darn! He is sure going to outrun me in AVIVA this year despite going into this race for the 1st time.

Today was day off from work. Rode with Andrew 5 loops at Mandai, including the short section heading into the zoo. Each loop turned out to be 19km. I only managed to keep up with him for 1st loop, thereafter I just left him to ride on his own. His hill climbing was just way beyond me. His average on the undulating terrain was over 31kph while mine was the high 28s. I had to shorten my last loop so that I could return for the run at the same time. We did a 5km run together. I took 26.5min, while he took just 21min, with a negative split. We were having a conversation for about just over 1km when we started before he tore through the tarmac.

It was a whole new riding experience for me. When I go on the 200km bike in the past, I get to rest on the flats. But with Mandai, it was continous climbing. The only rest I got were the downhills before I hit the next slope. And it had been a long time since my thighs actually ached from a ride. I hope this change will help to get me stronger on the bike. I had wanted to use fixed gear for the whole ride. I had better shelf that idea for the time being.

I think I will have to think of unscrupulous ways to disable Andrew at AVIVA... puncture tyres, kick him while he was biking... oops. Bad karma indeed...