Mt. Kinabalu Climbathon Training

Found some time to join in the Mt. Kinabalu Training Wednesday evening. The training program had started for 2 weeks now. DO had joined 2 sessions of the training, and I wanted to try out the stairs climbing part of the program to guage my readiness for the Mar12 NTU VM. Divey came along for the run as well.

Reached the old SMU campus track early at about 6.20pm. Met DO, Divey, Kops, Yulan from SgRunners and then the rest of the trainees, along with the instructor Xavier and Carmen. Carmen gave a brief about the Climbathon Program, and away we went for our 10km run along 6th avenue. The route was all along heavy-traffic roads, and was rather noisy and boring. The pace was pretty slow at first to get everyone warmed up, and subsequently was increased for a relatively good workout. We did about an hour of running, assembled back at the SMU track, had a short break, and proceeded to the HDB flats along Farrer Road for our stairs-climbing workout. Divey did not join us for this part as she was having some ITB issues.

We ran for about 1.5km to the 23storey HDB flat, and was supposed to do 8 sets of 20floors each. Led by Xavier, we started to walk up a step at a time. We were told that we need to condition ourselves for this new type of training, and to take it easy at first. When I reached the first 20, I was still feeling good...not much panting, legs still ok. Took a lift down, and started off again. I selectively timed the climbs, and did timings from 3min - 3:30min for the 5 sets that I completed. I was rather tired by the 5th set, and decided to call it a day...have to see what will happen to my legs and body the next day, and also not overwork myself ahead of my long runs on Thursday and Sunday. As I am typing this on Thursday, I feel good...no aches. After the climb, we had a quick drink of H2O, before jogging back the 1.5km back to SMU Track.

The training ended at about 10pm, quite late. We had a quick wash up, and together with Xavier, Divey and DO, we went to nearby Adam Food Centre for carbo-reloading. Overall, it was a night of good and hard workout, though I hope that we can end earlier next time when all participants have settled into the Program, and there is a good routine going. I plan to go for more of these run/climb/run combo training if time permits and there are no clashes with any marathon training.

Did a 10km fast run Thursday evening at The Running Lab. I was down to try out the new Nike runners... put on a Skylon (which is pretty good looking, and its sole is modelled after the Nike Free for flexibility) and ran along the river front at Marina Promenade. It was a good run, with a large turnout of about 40 people. I finished the run in about 50min. Didn't really get used to the shoes as there were too flexible, and there was an exaggerated roll with each landing of the feet. It feels as light as my DS Trainer. My right calve and ankle were feeling sore after that run... I may not be too used to the trial shoes.