3 weeks to MK Climbathon

The next overseas event for me will be the Mt. Kinabalu Climbathon on 30 Sep. I have been doing a bit of stairs climbing, and will soon do hill running at MF for final preparations. Haven't been fretting about it, just hope to go there and do my best and enjoy the cool 'hard to perspire' climate, meeting new friends, and watching in awe the elite Sky Runners.

Did a easy 6min+ paced run with Beverly, who has started to prepare for her 21km this SCSM06. I needed to run slower as well, as I was still feeling the tiredness from Sunday's 30km Progressive Run at MR. I don my DS Trainers, and the the undersoles of the shoes were really worn, and the parts on the outsole had no more rubber. Checking my log told me it had served me well for almost 800km...I really need to retire it NOW. Hope to get my new pair of DS Trainer XI by next week. I ran along with Bev for almost the whole journey, and kept her pace in check, telling her not to run like she was running a 10km. Finished the 10km in 1hr4min...hmm, quite ok for a 21km pace. I rested while Bev went on for another 35min, covering probably another 4.5km up some slopey terrain to boot. That should give her a sufficient start to 'train for comfortable completion' of 21km.

Went for stairs climbing at TP 40-storey blocks on Tuesday evening. Met DO, Timothy, Sim, Rodney, Roland and Kops. It seemed like this was the last stairs-climbing session for the MK team, as we would be starting hill runs at Mt. Faber from Thursday onwards. We found it a little strange that stairs climbing was taken off the menu, but well, it was definitely welcomed by me :). I did 300 floors in slightly over an hour, and was struggling not to look at the numbers on each floor as I chugged along, taking 2 steps at a time.... stairs climbing is really boring for me :(.
There has to be a better way to train for runs or climbs up mountains...just have to see what comes up when we start K2 training end of the year.

Went for the inaugural Adidas Run (adiRUN) at Suntec Adidas on Wednesday evening. Did about 12km with lots of traffic stops. It was a good start to what might turn out to be an interesting series of run for the year!

It was MF on thursday evening. Brokie, Vincent, leh-lio, DO, Bug and I started off on our easy run to try out MF hills for some. The SAFRA MF group and the Climbathon team had earlier set off from SAFRA MF ClubHouse for their respective training runs. On the way out, we bumped into Hamidah who asked for a short interview session in prepration for the Climbathon sending-off dinner with MP. We will also invite a number of our like-minded running friends to attend the dinner with us. We chatted as we ran, enjoying the nice pace, even on the upslope to MF from Morse Road. We did an additional 2 smaller Mt. Faber Loops (about 1.6km each) atthe request of the first-timers as they were enjoying the challenge and the workout of the MF hills. We completed the approximately 11km run in about a 5:30min-6:00min/km pace...quite good considering the number of slopes in that area. Had a quick interview session with Hamidah and the Climbathon team, took our well-deserved can of 100-plus, and went to our usual place for carbo-reloading. Vincent, Brokie and Cokiee were pleasantly surprised atthe reasonable prices and the varieties of the hawker centre we went to. Nice run, nice food, nice evening.

This Saturday will have me doing another short run, the 10km Public Service Run at Temasek Polytechnic, running 2 laps of Bedok reservoir. I am taking this as just a training run, and will be out there to enjoy myself...later in the evening will join the SAFRA MF group for the much anticipated Poolside BBQ. Sunday will be another not-too-long run of 15km at Yishun/Seletar area...the SAFRA TP Location Run. Its been some time since I went to Yishun Dam for a run...this will be a good time to revisit the nice scenic route.