True or false? Discuss! It was certainly the former for me this past weekend. I may need the entire workweek to get over it! LOL!
LSD Run – 13 August 2011
Distance: 2 laps * 9.66km = 19.32km (Garmin: 19.28km)
Timing: 1:47:01 for 5:33 min/km pace (fingers were frozen hence the slight delay in stopping the Garmin which BTW is now incapacitated – strap came off)
Aron and I met up at 6 am for a LSD at an easy pace since we were both scheduled to run the Pacemakers Anniversary Run 2011 (PAR) the following day. Yeah I can’t believe I can say 1:46 as “easy” now compared to even 3 months ago. I guess the lower temps from the overnight rain helped; plus the chats distracted whatever discomforts and the monotonous route (especially that long stretch along Langgak Tunku. Something magical happened too – no cramps! PTL! I’m not too sure if it was the 2XU tights I wore or downing the entire 325 ml of 100Plus at the pit stop – both seem unlikely since they’ve never worked. Oh well, sometimes miracles do happen.
We recorded a small negative split (55 min: 51 min) since the back of the out-and-back route was a lot of downhills. There were very few runners over the weekend because of the fasting month as well as the following day’s event. In addition, we did start 30 min earlier; we met a lot them on our way back – IM Suffian, Loke (was surprised to see him solo since we thought Adam was joining him), Choi who was pacing with Malcalm and Fiona and her partner.
Then it was off to Richard’s for a spot of vinyasa yoga. Remind me again why I put myself through an intermediate class after an LSD!!! Golly, I could hardly get up on Sunday morning – lats, back and hammies were traumatized! And I had to figure out how in the world I’m supposed to sprint 3.5km!
Pacemakers Anniversary Run 2011
Date: 14 August 2011
Venue: Metropolitan Park, Kepong, Malaysia
Distance: 4 laps * 3.51km = 14.04km (Garminless)
Timex Timing: 16:52 for 4:48 min/km
Team Result: 10th placing (results here)
Website: www.pm1.blogspot.com
This is annual event for the Pacemakers in addition to their New Year Run and as always, they did not disappoint. Ok, my first time attending one of their events but I couldn’t really find any major faults with the organization. And I’m not biased even though I’m part of the running group. I’ve found that events organized by running groups or runners tend to be better, well organized and thought through – I guess it’s the experience that comes with your own expectations. Right, back to the run.
This was a 4-man relay around the park with at least one female runner and the first runner will have to be a lady. Ahah…first road block…lack of lady runners; I hadn’t intended on doing this event mainly for the back-to-backs events in the last 3 months and the stress that came along with teamwork/expectations (there were a lot of extremely competitive teams out there!) but Ronnie emailed me asking me to fill in on one of the teams and gave me the option of joining the less competitive team. Hence my name on der Keenrunner’s team.
We started at 7:30 sharp and Amelia (our aspirant national runner) took off like a bullet! I was about 3 rows back and was contend to truck along although the sight of a pack of girls up front (including Bee Hoon and Sylvia Moey) was a bit stressful and I wondered if I was too slow. The first 2.5 km were rolling hills, make that steep inclines on the first 2km and Aron had warned me not to start off too quickly else I’ll petered out. I started gaining on the pack at the first incline and then caught up with Sylvia on the second or third (she was walking and I guessed she faded a little). It was a bit lonely after this but I soon saw another girl in front – I’m not the competitive and tend to like to follow along but with another km to go, I found myself gaining and soon passing her. Odd…because I thought I slowed down; she must have slowed down more than me. Unfortunately (and a big and heartbreaking unfortunately here), she came back from behind to overtake me with 10 meters to the finish. Ah well, I wasn’t disappointed since this was a “fun run” for me. This was probably the longest 16 minutes of my life and throughout the run, I couldn’t find my rhythm, my heartbeat probably went through the roof and all I wanted was the race to be over. It probably didn’t help that I woke up to a traumatized body.
Baton handed over to CK and I was done. Literally.
Pros:
a) Well-organized event that started on time.
b) Easy registration – online through The Marathon Shop and convenience of race bib pick up on race day.
c) Kudos to the volunteers and marshals – at the start, manning the intersections, food and hydration station at the finishing point. Not forgetting the imitable Kelvin Ng as the deejay cum boom box.
d) Great medal design.
e) Chip-timed – you can’t imagine how valuable this is to me after this year’s races (recall the Energizer NightMare Race).
Cons:
a) Not too sure if distance markers would have helped since it was a short distance and everyone had to sprint; it’s either a hit or miss to my mind.
b) The pathways wasn’t closed but since the event took place in the morning, there were little obstruction although I did find the pathway a tad narrow even if there was closure. I was lucky to breakaway from the pack and was able to have my own space.
SW’s pre-birthday dinner
So I was literally floored by the trauma of the previous day and the morning’s run that I zoned out and napped for 2 hours. And it wasn’t enough! Because I went to bed before 10 last night!!! At least I woke up with a less painful and sore body (less people…not pain-free yet!). Refueling was on the cards yesterday evening as we celebrated SW’s pre-birthday at Shook! Yeah, my sis has been having pre-birthdays since the Red Velvet 2 weekends ago! Here’s something to whet your appetite and yes, they’re as good as they look (sorry lighting was bad).
We started with some breadsticks; SW with a lychee something something and HTN with an apple mojito.
Back to mundane Monday
Don’t you just hate coming down to earth after an event-filled weekend? Yup, back to reality this morning and as usual, Michael put me through the paces of a back-and-chest session and finishing with 3 sets of reverse abs crunches.
Supersets of:
a) DB pullover
b) LF lat pulldown
c) Bench chest press
Supersets of:
d) Smith machine incline chest press
e) BB bend over row
Supersets of:
f) LF cable chest fly (lying down)
g) LF cable low row
Supersets of:
h) Free standing pull-ups (can we “urgh”???!!!)
i) Free standing dips
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