New Year Day Run: 3-2-1 Hills

This New Year morning was greeted with rain. When I woke up, the grounds were wet, and it seemed that it had rained the night before. Grabbed a quick coffee and a snicker bar, and headed to SAFRA MF Clubhouse. The place was rather messy from the previous night's celebrations. There were only a small group today...Wong, Freddy, Lai Chee, Derrick, Jaime, Ong, Andre, Tay, Goola, Eng Hwa and myself. Ong had his gout attack and was not running, but will walk in the rain to the various water points to provide support...what a great trainer, what a great guy...

We started off without any rain. First stop was Kent Ridge Hill, which we ran from SAFRA Clubhouse along Depot Road, Alexandra Rd, Queenstown, Portsdown Road to reach. We did 3 rounds aound the Kent Ridge Hill. Freddy who was with a knee injury after SCM was running cautiously behind me. Tay turned back in the first round. As I was still in recovery mode from last Sunday's Ultra-marathon, I was going on an easy pace of about 6min/km. I also went on the downslopes easier, and more slowly. Finished Kent Ridge and gathered at the top after a toilet break. Had done approx. 11km by then, in 1hr.

Ran down the slopes along the Bukit Chundu side, hot Pasir Panjang Road, and ran towards Labrador Park. At the entrance to Labrador, Ong and Jaime was there dishing out 100plus and gatorade. Wow, very good support. By that time, a drizzle had started, but we continued into Labrador Park, up the slope at the carpark. Took 1 lap and returned via the reverse slopes. With this, I would have covered 2 slopes at Labrador Park.

From Labrador Park, we proceeded all the way to Mt Faber upslopes at thw Kampong Bahru side. Ong & Jaime was there again with the water support. Took another 100plus here, and proceeded up the steep slope to the top of Mt. Faber. Till now I am not quite sure whether this side is steeper or the side from Morse Rd is steeper. But whatever, both sides are equally steep to me, and will rank as one of the better hill slopes for training in Singapore. Reached the top feeling quite breathless, but felt good. Freddy wanted to use the toilet, and we continued our way. I ran another loop up to the top of Mt. Faber again, before doing the final long descent (taking care to run slowly so as not to jar my knees too much) to Morse Rd. Turned right towards Telok Blangah Way and finished the final 2km of slight slope to end the whole 25km run in 2hr35min. A very good workout for me to burn off calories piled on during the festivities, but more importantly, start off the new year with a nice long run.

Distance Ran:25km ___Time:2hr35min____Pace:6:10min/km
Average HR:N/A___Max HR:N/A____KCal: 1,500 est.

Before The Changi Creepy Run (Alvo, Dream, Cokiee, Meteor)

Makan after the Creepy Run (Fd, Cokiee, Dream, Kops, Divey, Bee, DO)

A recap of the week:
Wed - swam 10laps as recovery swim
Thu - ran 12km around home with Beverly, clocking 1hr12min, 6min/km pace
Fri - ran 8km at Changi Village area with SgRunners for the 'creepy' run