2 weeks to Climbathon

The Team NTUC Mt. Kinabalu Climbathon sending off ceremony was nice...lots of good food...*burp* With just 2 weeks to go before the actual climb on Sep30, I will be taking it easy as a form of tapering to give my knees a rest from stairs climbing. I will still be doing relatively high-intensity interval and hill runs, to continue to strengthen those quads (so essential especially for the ascent).


Monday 18/09: Did a 10km run around my estate to maintain my cardio base. Since I was running alone (very rare these days), I decided to do a steady-paced tempo run. Put on my Gel Forester Tri, and away I went. I could feel the cushion in the shoes...hmm, nice...must have rested the shoes enough for the cushion to spring back..:). Reached Lorong Ah Soo in 4:28...not bad, on track and still not pushing....was blocked quite a bit by the PLMGS gals finishing school, so had to stop the watch for a bit...continued along and got onto the Coffee-Shop/Billboard Junction in 10:46..wow, good ...normally I am there in 11:00+. Continued along smoothly and feeling good...reached the Mosque in 16:30...and reached Kovan Bus Terminal in 19:56...ahead of the usual 20min+. Since I was ahead in terms of timing, I decided to maintain the pace....suprisingly, I was still feeling quite comfy, heart rate not too high. Reached the Paya Lebar Methodist Junction in 27:30. Paused at the traffic junction, and stopped the time too...hehe. From there, headed straight for Braddel Rd in 33:10, and went all the way to Upper Paya Lebar Rd in 41:56. Wow...timing not bad...continued to run the final 800m along the main road, and into Tai Keng Gardens, turned out and touched my home gate in 46:16min...hmm, is that a new PB for this course or what? Gotta check that from my 2-year Running Log, but what the heck, it was a nice enjoyable run...woohoo
Distance: 10km__Time: 46min16sec__Pace: 4:37min/km


Tuesday 19/09: Did intervals at Queenstown Stadium with the SAFRA MF folks. A smaller group of runners, about 20+...was good to see Dr. Adrian and wai fung's friend join us for the run...also met up with a few new members. Did the 4km warm-up jog to Queenstown Stadium in nice weather, chatting with Thomas mostly. Tom is another new member who has improved by leaps and bounds after joining SAFRA's intensive marathon training program, devised by Trainer Ong. We went back to having the beginners form one group to start off first (served as rabbits..hehe) and the rest who could run 800m in 3.5min forming the rear group. The front group was given a headstart of 30sec for 1.6km, and 20sec for 800m laps. The following were my split times:
4km warm-up jog to QST - 26min
Lap 1 (1.6km) - 6m28s
Lap 2 (800m) - 3min
Lap 3 (800m) - 3min
Lap 4 (800m) - 3m10s
Lap 5 (800m) - rest
Lap 6 (800m) - 2m56s
4km Cool-down run back to ClubHouse

I felt good during the laps, took a rest at the 5th lap, and made a hard run to record my first sub-3min 800m lap...looking at the timings, it seemed like I ran much faster for the 800m laps today, probably because I was pacing myself and running from behind, and having fun trying to catch the rabbits :).


Wednesday 20/09: Did the 3rd AdiRUN, starting out from Adidas Outlet @ Cathay. The group comprised about 20, mainly the regular bunch SgRunners...Charlotte, SuperGal & SpyFish being the SgRunners new to this run.


There was joao_li, finally got to know who he is...and babumouse rejoined us after a week of absence. There were 3 other new runners this evening, one being a real kenyan to boot. The group is really getting diversified :). We did 2 loops of Fort Canning at a very fast pace. Bev and I were lagging most of the way, but we managed to keep the pace. IMD and DO were covering the rear, thanks to them. Along the Boat Quay area, we met up with the later group of Superboy and Angelica (Adidas regional manager). We took a few nice group photos, before proceeding on to run to The Esplanade. Along the way, met Ronnie who was at the tail end of his ninja run. We ended the run back at Cathay, had a nice round of 100plus and bananas, filled up the forms for the NIE run and called it a satisfying night. Bev had one of her hardest workout yet :)


Thursday 21/09: Giving the legs a rest this evening, and going down to Pasir Ris area for the K2 Base Camp Challenge (Concordia Trek) interview. Yup, with MK finishing at the end of Sep, the K2 Challenge will be up next on Team NTUC's Adventure Calendar. A couple of us have signed up for this next year, and the interview will be conducted to guage our commitment and fitness levels for this expedition.