From MacRitchie To Bukit Panjang

I have missed 2 sunday long runs for tha past 2 weeks. There was no way I was going to miss this morning's run again. Woke up early, did a quick wash up, took a piece of banana (hmmm....that should give me the necessary fuel to last at least 21km)., and off I went to MacRitchie. We had a reasonable gathering this morning, with Chairman, Derrick, Eng Hwa, Adam, Colleen, Goola, Andre. Notably absent were Wong and Teen, who overslept and did not catch eh's car.

We started promptly at 7am, and ran towards the zig-zag bridge. This is the first time I have started with the group along this way. The weather was cool, after a bout of heavy rain yesterday. I felt good as I have not ran this way for some time now, and I was telling Derrick that this was part of the MR25 time trial route. We ran at quite a comfortable pace, and rached the exercise area at about 21min. From there, we turned right along the golf course, and moved along the undulating terrain, followed the wooden planked bridge, and then reaching Jelutong Tower. Instead of taking Sime Track, we took the Rifle Range trail and very soon reached the route towards Bukit Timah. Hmmm....this route seemed to be much better than the usual Northern Route we would take...but we shall see. We moved along the pipeline trails, and soon reached the first guard house along the main road. We continued on and reached the 2nd guard house, before moving in on the trail.

Goola, sh, Derrick, Yuen and myself wanted to run all the way to chestnut area, whilst the main group decided to go to the Visitor Centre. We parted ways, and planned to meet back at MacRitchie toilets. After what seemed like a 2-3km distance, we reached Bukit Panjang area. This area is familiar to me, and Goola mentioned that this way was also en-route to track 15, which they have covered 2 weeks ago. We ran further ahead passed the Petir Rd block of HDB flats, and then visiting the Bukit Panjang food centre to get some 100plus. After a quick drink, we decided to speed up and get back to MR along the same route we came from, since we were going to meet the rest for breakfast. I was still feeling good at this point, and decided to push the pace a little. Derrick and Yuen moved up, and we increased the pace all the way back. I estimated we covered a total distance of 25km in about 2hr18min of actual running time. Once again, I felt very good for the whole run, and I attribute that to the lone banana I took 1hr before the run. What a big difference one banana does for me….hehe

During the brunch session, we had a good discussion of how we would be training for the upcoming Army 21km as well as the StanChart 42km. We were trying to plan for some overseas runs next year to interesting places like Hong Kong, Thailand and even Indonesia. I now look forward to the next long run, possibly to woodcutter's trail and even a trial run of the Army 21km route along Esplanade.

Distance Ran:25km XC___Time:2hr18min____Pace:5:26min/km
Average HR:149bpm___Max HR:193bpm___KCal:1681KCal