The Dream Runner: Sunday LSD From MacRitchie To Mandai Zoo

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Sunday LSD From MacRitchie To Mandai Zoo

3 weeks more to KLIM05. Today will be my second last LSD in preparation for my marathon. Picked up hui ling and DO to MacRitchie, reaching at about 6.45am. Soon we were joined by Eng Hwa, Adam, Yuen and Teck Hou. We did some light warm up alongside the large group of MR25 runners under the guidance of Uncle Lim. They too were doing their regular Sunday LSD. Our small group started off at about 7am, and ran along Thomson Road to Lower Pierce Reservoir, before taking our first water stop at the toilets. I was sticking to my pre-planned 6min/km pace.

The weather was cool and nice, with the sun slowly rearing its head. We ran along Upper Thomson Road (skipping OUTR) towards Seletar Reservoir (SR). At the entrance to SR, we took a 100plus break and did some light stretches. A check with my HRM indicated that we had ran for about an hour, approx. 10km. Adam and Yuen proceeded to run into SR, while the remaining 5 of us ran further up towards Mandai Zoo. This is the first time I am running up ahead, skirting round SR. The morning view of the Reservoir was nice, as we ran along the hard concrete pavement leading to the Zoo. That was the one thing I didn’t quite like, and that was the concrete pavement we had to run along. We turned into the 2km road leading to Mandai Zoo, and had a 10min break at the Zoo entrance. That was the halfway mark…a body sense told me I was feeling good; the pace was not too fast.

We ran back out from the Zoo, back to the main Mandai Road…and we could see large groups of cyclists zooming past. On the way back, Teck Hou bade farewell and ran back to his Yishun home. The 4 of us remaining, took our final water stop at the earlier Seletar Entrance. From there we ran into SR, and this time we took the OUTR to get more time on tarmac, instead of more concrete pavement on Upper Thomson Road. DO and I were running as a group in front, with hui ling and eng hwa closely behind. We took a quick stop at Lower Pierce before proceeding back along Thomson Road. The sun was getting hot as it was about 10pm then. We had been on the road for about 2hr40min. The legs were getting slightly sore from the pounding on concrete pavement earlier. We reached back to MR in about 3hr10min, covering a total distance of 30km-31km. A very good and satisfied run, and very good average heart rate of 141bpm, mostly within the correct zone for that distance. Both hui ling and eng hwa were happy with their runs too. Adam had returned an hour earlier, and had his drink already. A nice Sunday LSD for me, and glad to have covered 30km today. I will have my final LSD of 36km next Sunday, before tapering for KLIM06.