My achy-breaky quads

My quads and calves were aching badly since Saturday's climb up to MK. I need to put some recovery runs in for the week, and hopefully will be all set to start proper training runs for AHM next week.

Monday 24/07: I walked around with a 'limp' the whole day, this in spite of a 'heavenly' massage the previous night. This has got to be taking the longest time for recovery for me. Managed to go a very slow 10km jog with Bev, and throughout the whole run, she was ahead of me...and she finished in 1hour flat. Well, a good improvement for her, and a nice recovery jog for me.
Distance Ran: 10km___Time Taken: 1hr___Pace: 6min/km


Tuesday 25/07: As my quads and calves were still sore, I joined the CBD Runners for a slow recovery run, instead of doing more rigorous stairs climbing at TP. I hardly have time to join the many SgRunners runs, so it was a good time for me to meet up familiar faces as well as new ones. I ran a bit with Divey, and then Bee (who was going away to UK for 3 weeks), roentgen, Shut, MightyJoe, among many other SgRunners. There were about 30+ of us running from Tanjong Pagar MRT into Marina South Pier, then adding on an extra loop around the steamboat area for a 9.5km distance. I did not time my run as it was supposed to be relaxing and easy for me. There were short spurts of about 2-3km where I increased speed, sort of doing fartleks. Ended the run with roentgen, Tin Tin, xsuanjing and DO at about 8.15pm.
Distance Ran: 9.5km___Time Taken: 1hr___Pace: 6:18min/km


Thursday 27/07: Finally found time to go down to SAFRA MF to join them for the weekly training. Haven't met the guys since their Pattaya trip, and it was great for me to do a 12km recovery run. My quads felt pretty ok, and I was not about to risk doing stairs climb and straining them at this important stage. As we ran along Depot Road, I chatted with Colleen about her Si Gu Niang trek in China...hmm, seemed like she had a good trip there, barring the bout of AMS she suffered. Good to touch base with Derrick who did a good 3:30hr Pattaya Marathon, as we ran along the railway and across the flyover to Kent Ridge Park. Also great to meet icy_Karen again, who signed up for 21km in AHM and SCSM. I told her to come for more training runs, and she should do well. I did 3 of the Kent Ridge slopes....felt good, and quite easy....maybe those laborious 10loop series around Labrador Park and the long steep climbs up Mt. Kinabalu did help to strengthen the legs for slope runs...hee.

We took a break at on top of the Park as usual to wait for the rest to join in. It had been some time since we ran this route...hmm, nice.... the scenic views of this Park in the day, as we recalled the Laksa Run :). From there, we descended the steep slopes, and I did quite ok...seems like the quads have recovered to do well for even the downslopes. Then along Pasir Panjang Road, Derrick took the lead, and I followed about 50m from behind...all the way up sloping Henderson Road and back to ClubHouse. It was a enjoyable run for me.... I really missed running after 2 weeks of very low mileage. I hope I have enough time to train sufficiently for the upcoming Army Half Marathon (AHM).
Distance Ran: 12km___Time taken: 1hr___Pace: 5min/km


Friday 28/07: Planning to do a training run with Beverly. She is signing up for her first 21km at SCSM06, and I hope to help up increase her mileage progressively. The furthest she has done is 13km, and that was under moonlight....she is really afraid of the sun :). It did not rain in the end, and we were able to have a good 10km time trial run for Beverly. She tried on the Ultimax Ironman socks for the first time, and with her Mizuno WR9, smashed her 10km time to go under 1hr...wow, first time she did the course in under 1hr. She is now ready to move on to 21km training next. I was the rabbit running ahead, and added on 500m as usual to the course. My legs felt good, and with the DS Trainer, they felt light. I did the 10.5km run in 58min with a few stops at traffic lights to wait for Beverly. I managed to get some bursts of running in between, satisfying my endorphine requirements...hehe
Distance Ran: 10.5km___Time Taken: 58min___Pace: 5:30min/km