Sunday LSD @ Yishun

I went for the scheduled 30km Sunday LSD at Yishun Stadium this morning. My last run was a short Thurdsday recovery run with Beverly, and I was waiting for this run to condition myself. The Standard Chartered Marathon is just a month away. There was about 15 of us gathered at the Yishun stadium, all SAFRA MF members. I was joined by sanji from SgRunners, who wanted to do a lsd to build up his mileage base for his virgin marathon in Dec too.

I was more or less fully equipped, with HRM, cap n fuel belt. I didn't bring any powergels, since I have already tried them out for the last 2 long sunday runs. We started off promptly at 7am and ran at a 6min/km pace along Yishun Road towards the Seletar Reservoir dam area. The sun was already shining brightly as we crossed the dam area, and I was glad I had my Reebok cap on. Sanji ran with me for a bit in the beginning, and after about 5km, I moved up to join Kumaran and Ah Leng in front. The pace was still comfortable, as we pushed along Seletar Reservoir Road and onto Seletar Camp. When we reached the beginning of Jalan Kayu, I moved ahead with Kumaran and we waited at the mobil petrol station along Jalan Kayu. The rest came about 10min later, and we proceeded onwards to make a big loop around Buangkok MRT station...not really sure what the distance was for this portion, but the sun was real HOT. Many of the runners were drenched and was feeling the heat. I felt good with the cap, and I was taking intermittent sips of water to get hydrated. We made a couple of stops along the way, mostly at the coffee shop.

On the return, I ran ahead with Kumaran and Teck Hou. It was hot, and I didn't really chat much for today's run. I was trying to focus on my form, as well as waiting for impending pain to my knees, which did not come. I also played around with forefoot and heel strikes, to try to use different set of muscles. The results seemed to be favourable. Soon, we reached back to the mobil petrol station again, and toop a final break there. I got a bottle of 100plus to replenish some salts n carbo, took half of it, and shared it with Teck Hou n Wong. Kumaran and Melvin had run ahead. Ong indicated that we had run 17km already, and I checked my watch which showed about 1hr30min of running time...yup, the distance and time tally more or less. I said lets push on, only 13km to go. We moved on as a group, and ran into Seletar Base Camp. In the camp, Ong & Teck Hou pushed ahead, with me following closely behind. As we exited the camp, we ran towards the dam area, and I still felt strong at that juncture. A body check indicated that all was fine, no pain to the knees yet. Very soon, we hit the 5km mark along the reservoir...Ong said 5km more, i showed him the thumbs-up and moved on. Teck Hou was just in front of me. I was thinking that the distance was quite short...anyway, with the remaining 5km, I increased pace and pushed all the way back to Yishun Stadium. Along the way, Teck Hou turned back to run home; I ran past Melvin and CH who were already walking. I looked back, and there weren't anybody too. I guess they were all drained by the intense heat. I felt that it was great conditioning, as we might face such weather at the SCSM. The cap really kept me cool all the way, and I was tilting it forwards and backwards, depending on sun direction.

I finally reached back in about 2.5hrs, and saw Chairman and Kumaran, with Jaime. I told them the distance was probably 26km, and Kumaran felt he should have run another loop around Buangkok MRT..he really wanted to run more than 30km to get his mileage up...never mind, we should be having a 35km pretty soon. The rest came in slowly, some were injured, CH vomitted and was feeling very ill. Sanji came back later, looking alright, but still suffering strains from his injury...he also mentioned some slopes made his heart rate shoot up quite high. I had a good chat with the guys, took a bit more 100plus and a banana, before bidding farewell to the group. I will see them on Tuesday morning for the Deepavali long run of 20km+ at Mt. Faber, followed by carbo-reloading at Kumaran's house. Overall, I enjoyed the run today, especially the conditioning in the hot sun...just hoped it was longer at 30km. My legs felt ok, though my left knee feel a little achy.

Distance Ran:25km ___Time:2hr24min____Pace:5:46min/km
Average HR:156bpm___Max HR:168bpm____KCal: 1,909