The 4 Hills @ MF: Telok Blangah Hill revisited

The PSI levels on Tuesday rose from 60+ in the morning to 106 at around 5pm. I was contemplating whether to go down for SAFRA MF Hills interval training. The CBD run was called off around 5pm. Since there was no news of MF cancelling the run, I arranged to pick Jaime and Bug up from Ayer Rajah, before proceeding to MF ClubHouse. It was rather hazy, as usual in the western sector. Surprisingly, there was a large turnout today, despite the smoky skies.

We started off the run promptly at 7pm with a 3km jog along Henderson Road towards Telok Blangah Hill. As we ran, the air felt better, and the skies looked clearer. I ran a little faster as I felt pretty good, chatting with Bug along the way. When we arrived to the top of Telok Blangah Hill, the air felt so much fresher, and the haze seemed to have disappeared? It was confirmed later by Alan Chao that the PSI went down to 70 for that period...is that lucky or what?

The plan was to do 5min/km intervals around the top hill of Telok Blangah, starting from the Car Park, running up initially 2 slopes, and then rounding off with a longer downslope back to the CarPark, exactly 1km in distance. The rest time in between intervals was 3min. I did the first 2 laps feeling quite strong...as trainer Ong informed all of us that the best way is to work on the upslopes, and take it easier on the downslopes. Thats the correct way to train the strength and power. I took water in between very 2 laps, and that helped to freshen me up enough to complete the 7 laps in good form. It had been about a year since I last did this routine, just before I got my ITBS last year, and even then, I did about 5 laps only. My timings for the 7 laps as follows:
1st lap (1km) - 4min7sec
2nd lap (1km) - 4min6sec
3rd lap (1km) - 4min15sec
4th lap (1km) - 4min13sec
5th lap (1km) - 4min14sec
6th lap (1km) - 4min12sec
7th lap (1km) - 3min56sec

Maybe because of the unexpected drop in haze levels, I enjoyed this workout thoroughly. My legs felt good, and I maintained a steady pace throughout. Bumped into doraemon and tktan doing their ninja training, and they looked very fresh running up the hills too. Hoping the next 2 days will be clear in the evenings as well for adiRUN and Thursday's SAFRA LSD.

Total Distance Ran: 10km__Time: 48min__Pace: 4:48min/km