Been a long time...

Yes, hopefully no one has their daily meals scheduled around my recent blog posts.

Needless to say I have been busier than a one-handed dishwasher at work with no time for any serious exercise.

Here is a recent picture taken of me which when viewed might scare small children...

Needless to say it think I need to get my arse (barge) into gear ASAP!

There is a master plan but homesickness on the running front is running high with Canberra, SMH and 10km races passing by with minimal notice :(

Bravery or stupidity?

A very good question...

The lack of recent posts here can only mean one thing, not much running but still I found myself at 8am yesterday morning at the top of Nellie's Glen to start Six Foot. Many people would question my sanity, including myself! A quick look back through the log book and in the last six months to the start of March I ran a sum total of 448km. That said, some semi decent activity in January left me with the feeling that I did have something left in the legs.

Anyway, not only was I starting but my initial game plan was to tear off at the start in the rush to the stairs, I have to say that my love of downhill bush running is too much to overcome! So off we went and at the top of the stairs I was in 2nd place right behind Rod the Hornet. I let 2 people right behind me slip past and then down we went. The plan was to then ease up dramatically once at the bottom of the stairs, but no one was even close behind me and I was only passed by one person between the bottom of the stairs and the start of the actual firetrail.

So once on flatter ground the focus was on slowing and conserving with a close eye on the HR. I was actually very surprised at how long it took for decent numbers of runners from my wave to start passing, which really only started happening at the Megalong Creek crossing. Each aid station I grabbed a couple of drinks etc and walked through, knowing it was going to be a long day. After crossing Megalong Road and waving to my dad for the camera I continued my approach and was now fairly comfortable. It was actually great because I had a very steady stream of people that I knew going past with just enough time for a quick chat. The descent to Cox's was also very comfortable, I tagged onto the back of one conga line and just hung about 50m behind them, with another conga line about 100m back. Despite running much slower than what I usually do through here I was only passed by about 3 runners and I let the second conga line go through with only about 500m to the river. Note I was overly conservative on ensuring anyone could pass, to the point that one cursed/joked that they were actually going to be happy to cruise behind me for a little while as I was running a very smooth pace.

Through the river and I picked up some sand which I ignored, posed for a photo for Will who had been just ahead running with Hamburgler for some time. My river split was 1:36, about 15 minutes slower than my "fast" splits and I was quite happy. Mini Mini beckoned and I immediately adopted my plan of walking at an even HR with the stream of runners continuing past, close to the top the front runners from wave 4 started to appear. My calves felt a little tight towards the end of the climb and I was looking forward to the descent. My quads on the other hand were less impressed! After the aid station at the last creek crossing I paused to remove the sand from my right shoe.

The climb up pluviometer was again a story of paced walking and making full use of each aid station along the way, once again the calves were complaining a little but I was pleased to make it to the top in around 3:30, just under 2 hours from the river. Now it was time to start running again! Too bad the legs did not agree, as Black Range continued it's reputation. For the first couple of km it was ok but then the calves started cramping and so I started modulating running and the walking to stretch out the calves. At the second aid station along here I asked for a salt tablet and downed it with the usual mix of sports drink, water and coke. Not to much effect though and I was glad to see deviation.

Just as I thought I could open up a little more with some downhill running, my quads had other ideas with a dual lock down, some more walking and then run/walk again. On one of the more technical steep downhill sections when I tried to prop to establish firmer footing, both locked up again and it took some time to free them up. Then the final indignity, as I worked my way up the longer and steeper hill along deviation my right hamstring went out in support of the quads and calves!

Anyway I made it to the road, had a quick chat with Frank from Striders and Roses as she cruised past. I knew I would make it to the finish, it would just be a mix of run/walk. The frustrating bit was that when I could run, it was at a reasonable pace and so I was leap frogging people who were shuffling full time. The final descent was murder on the quads and as I finally managed the turn at teh bottom of the stairs for the for my last burst of running both calves and quads completely locked up on the line, thankfully Tiger Angel lived up to her name and held me up as I was de-chipped!!

So here I am today sore as hell but also satisfied with the point that with what can only be called a complete lack of base or substantial training I managed to finish! In reality I knew that this was always going to be tough. But I wanted to run, as much for the chance to catch up with all my running/blogging mates and see Pluviometer again!

Thanks to those who read this that said hi over the weekend, it was great to see a lot of familiar faces. It was also great to see so many people fulfil their potential and effort in training with PB's left right and centre. For me, this was not a redemption run, it was not a soft run, it was a run that I simply wanted to do to experience Six Foot again. In doing so I came to realise how much I miss running in the aussie bush and also all of my CR and Strider friends, but I'll be back!!

I realise I need to reflect on how running and exercise and goals associated with this, fit in with work and most importantly family. It will always be tough but I will constantly work on trying to establish the right ratios and perspective.

ps my time was just under 6:30, technically a PW but that is not the way I will remember this run in hindsight!

Less than 4 weeks!

Yes Six Foot is around the corner and I am still scrambling to get somewhat in shape!

A mixed week last week, started off well on Tuesday with a tempo run on a new course I had been planning on trying. Just over a km from our house is a large open park area with a network of paved roads over a slightly undulating terrain. Using the run to/from as warmup/down I ran at tempo for 5 laps which turned out to be just over 8km. Was quite happy with my form as I started faster than the previous tempo runs and the good thing about this course is no traffic lights or road crossings once you have started. Ended up with avg pace of 4.44 min/km.

Then some slackness and sleep catch up saw me not run again until Friday, so I opted for a loop of Macritchie to clear the cobwebs and again pushed pretty hard. Also pleasing to knock out the just over 20km in avg pace of 5:35 min/km pushing the fresh legs all the way home.

Back on the bike on Saturday for another ANZA ride and felt a little dusty after the hard run on Friday, especially on some of the hills, but finished off with just under 75km at avg speed of 31.1km/hr.

Sunday morning and I headed out planning on a longer run, quite oppressive conditions and I was soking in sweat by 5km. The legs were also starting to feel the pinch after Friday and Saturday and I opted to shortcut the route to about 21km, still at avg pace of 5:45.

Plainly I need to better organise my hard sessions, if I am going to ride on Saturday then Thursday should be my last hard run with a recovery session on Friday, that way I have 2 hard days over the weekend and then recover on Monday.

Yes Jen, as per above Six Foot is very much being thought about, just have to see how travel goes between now and then. Also after yet another chafing problem I reverted to bodyglide and this seems to have solved the problem!

Oh, almost forgot, my Sunday swims are now up to 1000m!

3 Sundays, 3 countries and January!

Sunday 1 - So after the success and semi-gloating of my ride (previous post) I came crashing down the following day. I organised to meet up with a mate to have some company, but he is a much better runner. Anyway we agreed that I would show him my 25km loop. A little faster out and by about 10km I was feeling the pinch a bit and spent a little extra time at each water stop to try and refresh. By the time we got to about 7km to go I was toast, in fact started to get dizzy. After a break and some sugar from Andy in the form of jelly beans I came good for a while but with about 2km to go I told him to go ahead as I was completely shot and then walked it home. In retrospect I can see all the reasons why, the legs were tired after the cycle, I was probably dehydrated from Saturday, despite the large water intake, I was up late assembling more Ikea furniture and then as a result bolted out the door without any food to then run a bit faster than I have been. It took me about 2 hours of drinking and eating to start to feel human again. A very good leason to learn!

The following Tuesday I headed out for a redemption style tempo run with the goal of bettering the previous session, mission accomplished with a new avg pace of 4:56 for the 13km, a struggle in the last 1.5km though with not much left in the tank! Then it was off to Country 1, Thailand with our CEO for some meetings which diced any option to run (although it is really an excuse as I could have if I planned a bit better!)

Sunday 2 - the Australia Day celebrations at the kids school on Saturday eliminated riding with the bunch and so on Sunday I headed out much better prepared, with a couple of slices of toast in the stomach and a small packet of lollies to keep the sugar levels up. I also decided to approach the route in reverse, close to halfway I was feeling pretty good and so added a bit of exploring to try and slightly increase the distance, following someof the MR25 runners on a short out and back loop. I think the reverse option was a good idea with running later in the morning then still under some shade as I looped through the jungle trails. I was feeling so good that I really pushed on the way home and was very satisfied with the "new" distance of 27.3km covered at an average pace of 5:53, certainly way better than last week!

That night I was on the red eye to Country 2 - Korea and with temperatures ranging from -5 to 2 degrees outside and again some ordinary scheduling, no running! Wednesday night onto Country 3 - The Philippines and here I managed to sneak in a tempo run on the treadmill, 10km at 5 min/k pace.

So that ended January with 211km running, 146km cycling and 1km swimming (yes on Sundays after my long run I take Stella to swim squad and we have struck a "deal" where I now also swim in a spare lane!) The running distance, while not immense is of course actually more than I ran in the previous 4 months combined, with a blatent disregard for the 10% rule.

Sunday 3 - no riding again yesterday as we headed off for the girls first game of netball up here and then trudged around Orchard Rd to find a new suit. It was more of a challenge just to find a salesperson who wanted to serve us but eventually we found both service and a great suit, much to everyone's relief! Again this morning I followed the same prep and headed out, a little faster than last week initially and also with a planned option to increase last week's route a little further. Feeling good at the decision point and I did the extension and pushed all the way home. Very pleased to finally get back to a STaR type distance with a new route distance of 29.4km and done in an average pace of 5:47 (not a lot of climb to be called hilly though!). The conditions have to make this a solid run, one of my challenges now is chafing, I am sweating the sportshield away completely and then walking like a cowboy for the rest of the day! Also as another sign of the climate, I again lost 3.5kg in running just under 3 hours!! I then also pushed a little harder at the pool and timed an interval style approach to 500m, with 100m warm up and down to take me to 700m (no times yet though!)

So this coming week needs to be a good week, we get Thursday and Friday off due to Chinese New Year and Netball is also off on Saturday so I get another road ride in as well! I am truly hoping that while I am not knocking heavy distances each week that the training in the conditions will have some impact when I actually run somewhere a little cooler and less humid (although not sub zero like Seoul!)

The week that was...

Another week of holidays but I managed to mix in some good training as well!

Sunday - I stretched out my long run to now include the loop around the Peirce reservoirs which has a few more hills as well. Was happy at my ability to hold the pace as I headed home through Bishan Park where I have faded before and ended up with 25km in 2:30

Monday - Rest :)

Tuesday - My newly annoited Tempo run day with an out an back course through Bishan Park to Thompson Rd at the bottom of Lower Peirce Reservoir. Felt a little lighter in the legs today and the stats show that it was a good effort, just over 13km at an average of 5:05, that is starting to almost look respectable!

Wednesday - Rest!

Thursday - Went long with a my 20km loop around Macritchie, once again the legs felt a little lighter and the end result was that I sliced 6 minutes off the time I did less than 2 weeks ago! Very pleasing to have my longer runs now all sneaking back under the 6 min/km figure.

Friday - No rest but a recovery run and today I had a companion, my eldest daughter got up and rode her new mountain bike next to me. I paid careful attention to the HRM with the goal of staying under 150 bpm. Ended up with just over 9km, average 6:04 pace and average HR of 145bpm.

Saturday - Back on the bike for the Kranji loop revisited. A little drizzle and extra traffic saw the pace a little lighter until about the 20km mark, which has a sprint up a long hill. Last ride I was already pretty shelled but this time I felt better and really hammered up the hill, taking 4th out of a bunch of about 20. We then regrouped and unlike last time where I really faded, this time I somehow kept on getting shuffled to the front, another big effort up Buona Vista Hill before cruising into Orchard Rd for the post ride discussions over a cup of coffee :) (it is handy when you know where the finish is!!) A little longer as a result with 75km at an average of 29.6kph.

That ends a pretty good week with just over 9 hours of exercise time, and I have already shed the Bintan weight gain, now for a few more kg! As Ewen points help weight loss is assisted when you live in a sauna, 2 times this week I have started my run, already sweating.

Back to work on Monday so things will get a little tougher, as there is also some travel looming but hopefully the last 2 weeks will have me enough in the groove.

The rest days will slowly get replaced by either a recovery run, or another cycle or both to end up with a workout each day, but not yet....

Indo Runner

Thanks for the Striders comparisons folks, at least with Striders you get a map and know where you should finsh and have faster runners comng through to keep the navigation on track :)

So on Sunday I ventured back to Macritchie for a lap, saw the MR25 team out there for their 10km run/race but I am in need of longer stuff at this point...

Then on Sunday afternoon my parents arrived from Sydney and Monday was lost in last minute catching up, tidying up work loose ends and final packing for our short holiday!!!!

Yes Tuesday morning we hopped on the ferry for a short (45 min) ride to Bintan, an Indonesian island not far from Singapore, with a number of resorts, including a Club Med. The island has a number of highly rated golf courses including Ria Bintan, a stones through from Club Med and rated as the best course in Asia (or is that SE Asia?).

Anyway they did have a running map, although it was quite rudimentary and I headed off in the afternoon for a look see. The map included some sections of the golf course and, well, there were a few climbs to mix things up.

So over the 5 days we were there I ran three times, each on a different route, and came back absolutely stuffed. I also swam quite a bit with the kids, played 18 holes (quite pleasing form considering) and sailed a few times on the Hobie catamarans at the resort with a little bit of sea kayaking as well ( a nice pic might end up getting posted....). At the same time I made good advantage of the great buffets and bar services as well, ending up in adding a little extra weight in the short stay :(

Back Saturday afternoon and then out again this morning for an increased Macritchie and Peirce loop which was a little easier due to the cloud cover and starting a little earlier.

Last week saw 46km in total of running which I am sure breaks many 10% rules but that will be the theme of the next few months.

ps The Indo monkeys are certainly not as friendly/tame as the Singaporean versions!

Tour de Singapore

Today saw the start of the second component of my training regime. Last night I prepped the bike and gear,making sure everything still worked. Up earlyish and over to the group meeting place. Wow, there were bikes and people everywhere, easily over 100 people! The meeting point is at a hawker market where people can also get a last minute coffee fix. A little after seven the convenors announced the various groupings, there was the longer Changi group, the fast long Changi group, the fast Kranji, the tempo Kranji and slower Kranji, I opted for the "tempo Kranji" and slipped into second wheel of a pack of around 30.

Pretty good immediate pace and after 5km the two leaders split off and I and a guy from the US called Tim took our turn. I was pretty happy with the way I was handling the pace at that point. As we wound our way around the north western side of the island we hit some rolling hills, the guys at the front just hammered the big gears over them and here my muscles started to complain about the workload. We turned off on a smaller road and this is obviously a every man for himself section as the pace went white hot, of course along with some more rolling hills.

I was glad as we re-entered suburbia and the pace eased a bit until we got on a major road which had a rise seemingly every km as it rose to a bridge to go over smaller roads. Eventually this was too much and I let them slip away. Keeping the tailenders in sight I was shocked to turn a corner and find a dirty bloody big hill, after all the hammering! Also at this point I was getting low on water. Eventually got over the hill but no-one was in sight, a rider came past me and I followed him hoping he'd lead me to the finish point but after a while I pulled up next to him to check and he was not with the group.

At this point I was pretty sure that I had gone past the finish point so I opted just to keep going home, I stopped at a servo to top up the water and blood sugar and then pushed it home.

All up 70km in distance in 2:20 which is an average of about 30kph! Not bad for the first time on a bike in quite a while!

Earlier in the week on Wednesday I started the running side with a hard tempo style 14km run, followed by a bad case of DOMS, on Friday I shook the starch out of the legs with a 9km recovery style run.

So that is week 1, a little abbreviated but a start has been made!



Here is a SportsTracks image of the route today, which also shows the complete island

New Year

Firstly a Happy New Year to any/all readers, I hope 2008 exceeds your expectations!!

OK so now that is out of the road time to review 2007 and preview 2008.

I would have to say that 2007 was a very big and busy year, but alas not so on the running front. With a family holiday to the US in January followed by new work responsibilities which culminated in my family relocating to Singapore. Thankfully I did get some running in but a pretty poor total year, just over 1000km but way below the last couple of years. Probably the highlight of the year was doing the 24 hour Rogaine with Mr G in early May. I did actually get started on some running in October/November but then lost motivation. (again)

Anyway on to 2008....

Time to set some goals and work towards them, so first up what more to get some focus than a 10 week campaign to get me to the start of Six Foot in some sort of shape? It is feasible but will be tough, just the sort of challenge needed to ensure focus.

So some other events/goals on the radar and some notes....
- March Six Foot (quite likely, there is another Aussie expat also interested)
- May - there is a chance I will need to go to the US in May for work and so I have identified a couple of ultras that I might try my hand at if things firm up
- May Sundown Night Marathon (a new marathon in Singapore held at night, the ultra is already full!)
- July Gold Coast (will need to check the DTI on that one)
- July Osim Tri (shock horror!)
- August Australian Rogaine Championships (handy to a mates place, just need a partner/s)
- September Singapore Half Ironman or Glasshouse (choices, choices...)
- November GNW (unfinished business)

So you will see some sort of theme, it is official I am also planning on getting back on the bike. This is a "kill 2 birds with one stone approach", some good non impact aerobic cross training which will also help for 6ft (quads) but also to deal with building endurance in the tropical climate, the way I sweat cycling will certainly keep me cooler. There are some good packs it seems up here so I am dusting off the knicks in preparation.

So I have also (sadly) updated my tables over there ------------->

The goal of sub 40 at 40 is now off the radar, not enough shorter races up here and so I am heading towards longer endurance approach for a while, which should also help with the couple of extra kg's I have put on (currently 82.1kg). The hope/plan is that if I can build endurance up here then longer runs in cooler climes will seem a walk in the park!

So buckle the setbelts as I careen off on a "new plan" and lets see what happens. For interest sake I have also added a picture of Macritchie Reservoir, which I will see a lot of over the next few months :)

Good running (and now riding!) to all fellow bloggers and readers for 2008, hope to see you during one of my visits back to Oz, of course always timed to coincide with a race of some sort.

Progress?

A quick 2 day trip to Bangkok saw me back at the run around the lake which I last did way back here. A slightly better result this time around, given recent training, with 4 laps at 5 min/km pace but I was pretty taxed towards the end....

Sunday and yet another exploration run, this time I ran from home to the fabled Macritchie Resovoir. The run to there was a decent 5km warm up and so I refueled and headed of one what was a publicised 11km lap around the water. I have to say I really enjoyed most of this run, running on trails, with the shade giving some relief from the sun and the added attraction of very close at times proximity to monkeys. These guys are amazing, just like the ducks at LCNP, they will move out of your way if you run at them but otherwise are oblivious to your presence!

Another attraction of this run, other than the trails and monkeys was that there were some hills! As a rough guide my last 3 weeks runs had pretty much 0m climb where as today it was around 160m. The legs held up well and really only faded in the last 5km as I ran back home.

Thanks to all who commented, yes a camelbak has been contemplated but I'd truly like to avoid running on training runs with a backpack. Today was a lot better with very convenenient water refill points available. I am/have been running with the Nathan hand held bottle (no I am not totally crazy!).

So today start weight was 82.4 and end was 80.4 so 2kg net loss. The distance keeps extending with just over 20km today in just under 2 hours with an avg HR of 164bpm, another good sign that I am acclimatising. (ie it was lower than the last couple of weeks)

This week has been tougher for me on the relocate front, homesickness hitting, especially after reading the CR threads about the Striders 10km race at Lane Cove. It was interesting today, as I arrived at the car park for the reserve it was obvious there was a lot of organised running going on with 2 clear identifiable groups, but I just kept on going by myself. This next week will be tough to try and do much but even if I can just keep the Sunday runs going with increased distance I am positioning myself better for whatever I opt to try....

Lazy Sunday...

So another Sunday and another attempt at climatisation. The Saturday night/Sunday morning was very uncomfortable and for a little while I thought about not running but headed out anyway! (starting a bit earlier to try and avoid the heat)

This time I decided to explore down the Kallang River (canal) rather than up. The goal was also to run a "bit" longer than the last 2 weeks. As usual exploring sees a little bit of navigational challenge in identifying the best route and I encountered a few sets of stairs, but in general fairly good pretty flat running along a bike path. I kept going all the way to the ECP (East Coast Parkway) overpass into the Marina Bay area of Singapore. This is where next year's F1 Grand Prix will be held under lights.

I am noticing a disturbing trend in the extreme lack of available water refill points and will certainly have to plan my routes very carefully going forward. Coming back I adjusted the route slightly to eliminate a few of the sets of stairs and this worked well.

So the stats
Start weight 82.4kg, finish weight 80.2kg, loss of 2.2kg!!!
Distance 17.8km
Time 1:46
Avg Pace 5:57
Avg HR 166 (interesting as this is down quite a bit over the previous 2 runs)

Tough going but I think it is getting a little easier????

Another attempt

Well the DOMS well and truly kicked in after last week, that coupled with being in Manila on work and not being very excited about treadmill running at the moment, plus a bit of CBA (couldn't be arsed) syndrome saw no running. I was also intrigued to have DOMS on the back and shoulders as well and it took until today for the penny to drop (more later).

So I headed out about the same time as last week to run pretty much the same course. Felt quite a bit more chipper on the way out and while I did still fade coming home I did not have to have as many breaks on the way back. Only marginally faster overall but dropped off quite a bit of the stop time which is very encouraging.

Our new house has a basement access from the car parking and so I have set up a little recovery area to avoid trailing massive quantities of sweat through the house (not a good way to impress the wife!). Also on the basement level is our guest/play room and a complete bathroom so I am able to have a cold shower to try and lower the body temperature. From there I dry off and then head up to the pool which is making a massive difference. Today I opted to swim quite a few laps and this is when I realised I also swam some laps last Sunday and thus the DOMS of the upper, non running related muscles.

Then, since we still have no car I walked the 2 odd km each way to and from the kids school which has a pool where there is a swim squad that the girls are going in, just to stretch the legs out a little more :) I even tossed in a bike ride, just down to the shop for some bread as well, which felt good!

I've joined up on the local Singaporean version of cool running as well and have immediately found out about a very interesting race to think about for next year. As part of my intro I mentioned Six Foot Track and one of the members suggested that I check out this race :)

Really hoping to do a few more runs this week....

Oh on the weight side of things 82.7kg this morning and 80.7kg when I got back, got to love running in a sauna!

Hot running

So just under 2 months since my last run, the ill fated "10km" race in Singapore and here I am going back out.

The plan was an exploration run to seek out a few areas that I had heard off and try and identify some good options for the future.

About a km from home is a canal (ex river) that looked pretty flat and on checking the maps seemd to link up to quite a nice park area called Bishun Park. So down to the "river" and was interested to see that not only was it pretty flat but also had 100m distance markings painted on the path which seemed to be pretty accurate!

A couple of km later and I hit Bishun Park which was welcome as it had some good shade under trees. Lots of people out and about through here but no real traffic problems. Right at the end of the park the river ended at the bottom of a dam for one of the islands water resevoirs, I ran up a little further to check it out as this is where the "jungle" starts and I have heard there are some very good trails through here (not today though).

Coming back I started to fade through the heat and added a few stops to cool down, which were also handy to get an idea of where water was as there seems to be a dearth of taps/bubblers available, lucky I had a hand held to keep me going.

Finally back home feeling quite average and sweating heavily, after a cold shower and then a swim in the pool I started to feel human again! I did a pre and post run weigh in, the pre run was a little scary, 83kg, yikes talk about a lardy! The post run saw me at 81.4kg, so a drop of 1.6kg.

As expected it will take a while to climatise, but at least I've started with 14.6km in 1:24:47 or avg pace of 5:47, the avg HR tells it all though with 176! The legs have pulled up reasonably ok, although I expect DOMS on Tuesday... I think the cardio training is going to be just as hard as actual muscle with the added heat complication.

Heres a satellite view of the run for anyone interested.

Oh and in my tourist roaming of Singapore I think I have uncovered an excellent hill/mountain already to go to work on but am expecting more good discoveries when I hit the trails proper! Never know if I might need these if I am to try and target 6 ft next year.....

Can you hear me Major Tom?

Please stand by for a recommencement of our regular service.

The broadcasting unit has been transported to the hot, steamy, lush tropical climes of Singapore and finally all is in place to resume the boring inane dribble that solved many an insomnia problem.

Yep, the move is done and finally the whole family have been (successfully?) transplanted to Singapore, the boxes are mostly unpacked and the local Ikea and Harvey Norman are reporting unseasonal record sales figures.

Very sad to look back through the training log, essentially no running in 2 months as the whole relocate thing consumed any spare moments from the usual hectic timetable. That coupled with the efforts to drink down the balance of the liquor cabinet that could not be shipped see me very grateful that we have not yet located where the scales were packed.....

Anyway I have more than the usual sense of foreboding about getting going again. Just tonight as I stuffed around in the lounge room reassembling the computer I worked up enough sweat to take Warragamba back up to around 75% capacity!!! Hell knows what is going to happen when I actually lace up some shoes in anger...

Stand by for tales of woe as I attempt to climatise by running my arse (and gut) off. As they say "what doesn't kill you..." well lets not go there yet.

Apologies to all who have faithfully blogged despite the lack of inciteful and humourous (not!) comments from myself. No apologies to the sad cases who actually regularly checked in to see if I have actually been doing anything, get a life folks!!!

Big news!!!!

Sorry for those that have been holding off from eating between my posts, I suppose you get to lose some weight!

Where do I start, from the last post seems good I suppose.

The cold/flu/virus lasted longer than expected, I did run a Winter Orienteering race at Westleigh which only served to remind me of my lack of fitness.

From there it was another sojourn back up to SE Asia for work. I did sneak a run in at Singapore with a friend of a friend expat. We headed out on a Sunday morning and after about 4km at about 4:30 pace I finally decided to ask him about his marathon PB which was 2:49 and here I was trying to match him stride for stride in the tropics with no base.....

A discrete turnaround after I urged him to not fuss over me and keep going and catch me on the way back. I suffered like a dog all the way back. Those who know me well know my predisposition for sweating and dislike of heat. Well the heartrate was telling the story and I eventually opted for a 500m walking cool down back to the start, after a few breaks to try and stay under control.

The following weekend I was back in Singapore again and had entered in advance a local "10km" race. It is sufficient to say that I have been very spoiled by the Striders races. This race was chaos at the start, had a bottle neck for the first 2km, no marshals on the course at all, the actual course was different from the published map and at the end there was no official finish line! I won't even go into the details of then trying to retrieve my clothes bag and then the "goodie" bag. The whole thing was a shambles and then my run was not much better...

Some more stuffing around in SE Asia and then finally back home, just in time to join up with the family to drive up to Guyra for one of my mate's 40th birthday party. His family live on a property about 15km N of Guyra and so on the Saturday we did all the country things with the kids, chasing the cows and horses around etc etc.

Dave has got into mountain bike riding and adventure races and so had organised a mttb ride with a few of his mates and at the last minute asked me along. Despite having no gear he borrowed a bike for me and so I was sort of set. Until I saw his and his mates bikes which were all multi thousand dollar full suspension bikes. The bike I had was probably worth all of $400 and had NO suspension at all!

Anyway it was all great fun, I had no chance at keeping up with them on the technical downhill sections but had great delight in smoking all of them on the uphills, even on the bike I had :) The best bit was a technical creek crossing which was reasonably deep and about 20m wide. Dave went first and made it about halfway before falling over in the water. I adopted the "go hard or go home motto" and headed through, with the (undeclared) advantage of having actually riden in a few mountain bike races, including a national title I tracked through quite nicely with steady balance and rode out the other end. After the other 3 also fell off halfway all of a sudden they looked on me with some new respect, despite my steed :)

Great stuff, I really enjoyed being back on the bike and the body, other than the crotch and hands pulled up with no problems!

Anyway, back to the title for this post. I do actually have some very big news that I have been sitting on.

With my recent promotion and additional responsibilities at work it had become obvious that something would have to give. So it has been agreed that I, and my family thankfully will be moving to Singapore! The good news is that during my last visit I managed to organise for the better half to come up and visit Singapore for the first time and look at accommodation and schooling options. Thankfully it was all good and we seem to have found good lodgings and also a great Aussie based school!!!

Also on the good news side is that the running scene in Singapore seems alive with a seemingly decent but unexplored Striders equivalent in MacRitchie Runners and also a semi Coolrunning parallel in SG Runners.

Suffice to say that it is with very mixed emotions that I write this post. I have established some great friends through Striders and Cool Running, the opportunity I have been given is great but I will deeply miss the great running society that has developed in Sydney and Australia. All I can do is look forward with excitement but for anyone who happens to be passing through Singapore I will be mortally aggrieved if you do not stop over and catch up.

The blog will continue, with a few changes, I think the sub 40 at 40 might be out of reach in running in the tropics but I do have a few goals/challenges in mind. However I can be certain that both the running and posts with be sporadic in the next 6-8 weeks as I stretch to move the family and our belongings as well as trying to keep on top of my new work responsibilities!!!

Not much more to say with out starting to sound too cliched after a glass too many of red as I work towards tidying up the cellar.

Speedhump

After the wet of Sunday I hopped on a plane on Monday to do another SE Asia jaunt.

On Tuesday I visited the shopping centre below our Singapore office, it is a theme shopping centre, focussed on sporting goods. So there are a number of great shops in there, including a running specialty shop. I made one purchase, knowing in advance that running up here would be hot and humid, they had quite a good range of the Nathan products in stock so I meight be back...

On Tuesday night I noticed my throat was a little scratchy, probably due to the sub zero air conditioning temp that Singapore Airlines had for the flight to Bangkok.

Wednesday morning in Bangkok I got up and despite the niggly throat headed out for a run. The hotel had provided a jogging map inside the room and I was pleased to see there was a running circuit just around the corner which is just under 2km and around a man made lake complex. I decided to head out on a tempo run, of some concern was the fact that in my warm up run to get there I was already sweating profusely. Anyway after 2 laps I was struggling to hold the pace, I held up to get to 5km, averaging 4:30 pace but my HR was hovering around 190bpm as I finished. After a break I then did a recovery run back to the hotel. It took me ages to cool down, even after a cold shower I was still sweating an hour later, not a good sign!!

Anyway the rest of the day went downhill, the throat got worse, I kept on going on my schedule and by Thursday night I felt like absolute crap. At one point I was unsure if I would even get on the plane home, but with a few drugs I did so, thankfully. Saturday I was even worse, and to think I had contemplated running PMC, it was enough of a drain to shuffle from the bedroom to the loungeroom! I did think of those hardy souls out in the rain.

Today was not much better, with a big case of night sweats, so I tripped off to the doctor as my wife was now convinced that I had bird flu or SARS! A very quick examination (bulk bill) and the doctor disgnosed a bad case of the flu/cold with bronchitis so I am on antibiotics to try and clear the respritory system.

Anyway that ends a pretty crap week, with me feeling like crap. Here's hoping the drugs kick in!!!

Splish Splash

Thursday - scheduled day off with a 6am flight to Melbourne, complicated by the absolute crap Jetstar service on the way home, my booked 5:30pm to arrive in Sydney at 6:50 eventually saw me actually land at 10:55, just inside the curfew.

Friday - Absolutely knackered after yesterday's effort (non running unfortunately) and also had it bucketing down outside.

Saturday - The downpour continued and while I was planning on West Met when it was time to get ready it was serious Noah style weather and I wimped out.

Sunday - Despite looming rain (again) it was off to the Willoughby Winder. For a twist we ran it in reverse which caused no end of confusion as those at the front of the pack tried to read maps in the dark in reverse order :). The rain was somewhat light or steady until we ran around the back of Northbridge when it bucketed down. We had a decent group together but at around 20km had to improvise a little to avoid the bush trails which would have been seriously waterlogged. Just snuck in under 30km

Was very pleased to hold the pace on the push home, the last few Sundays are already showing!

Spotted Spud

No I am not talking about something festering away at the bottom of the vegetable drawer!

A "long" day today and I opted for my C2S route, on the way down to the weir near the boathouse I saw Spud and a mate and then as I made my way up towards the rangers hut, there they were again, just near Scribbly's. Then as an extra spotting I saw Strider Greg D out near the 7km marker.

The legs were a little dusty after yesterday but the goal was not to run at tempo pace, more a fast long run pace.

Mission accomplished as I got home running the just over 14km in 1:10 for 4:54 avg pace.

Just noticed on 26miles' blog that there is only 16 weeks until Sydney, might be a good focus point???

Make haste!

A bit of a break between 1km rep sessions again but back down to LCNP to check the benchmark after not a lot of running in the last month.

Reps were
3:54
3:54
3:58
3:45!
3:56 (a liitle lactic after the previous rep)
3:51

So gives me an average of around 3:53 with 1:31 standing recovery. Not bad given I ran only 120km in all of May!

Saw fellow CR Barney and Rock Doctor out as well as I rolled through the reps.

Step by step

After the Bobbin Head run I went out on Tuesday for a steady paced run to the weir and back, the legs certainly had a bit of recovery to go from the first longer run for a while. The rest of the week flew, more work stuff and also general slackness!

Saturday I opted not to run 10km at Lane Cove, opting instead for the XC relays at Miranda. I got appointed the lead runner gig which is a little daunting lining up with all of the guns! I focussed on keeping a little in reserve for the second lap, given the climb involved but was surprised to see my relative place in the field against some benchmark runners. The garmin had somehow had no charge so I was running sans technology and thus no idea as to how fast I was or wasn't going! Crossed the line and tagged Ron and promptly forgot to check the time on the clock but from talking to the guys around me it was roughly 15:5X for the 4km which I was actually pretty chuffed with given the number of turns and climbs that broke up any steady pace!

Sunday was a toss up between the 10 Bridges STaR or the NOSH and the better DTI ranking on the STaR won the day. I enjoyed this run as I started with the 6am group who were very well behaved today, apparently the President was running with them! After the last shortcut things heated up a little and I stayed with the leaders for a while before opting to ease up a little. Saw Silver Fox out on some fast bay running and had a quick chat. On the way home I caught up with Todd, apparently a lurjing CR and blog reader who was struggling a little. I ran home with Todd and EJ, happy just to knock out another 30km on the legs.

ps - Just found out that my official time for Saturday was 15:49 :)

Back to basics

Thanks for the comments on the last post! I do seem to have this natural ability to maybe bite off a little more than I can chew in one sitting :) That combined with my other habit of "all or nothing" does make life interesting. I like the saying that Plu has, ie "the mind writing cheques that the body cannot cash". That is a pretty good summary of my running, sometimes I do have enough training in the bank but even if I don't I'll still have a crack :)

Anyway, immediate running goal #1 was to get some endurance in the legs and so I lobbed up for the 6am Bobbin Head Revisited STaR on Sunday. Felt pretty good rolling along with the group but as we neared North Turramurra I had quite an urgent need and so dashed ahead of the group at a water stop, just as the 6:10 group steamed through (way ahead of pace....) in search of a toilet. After making good use of a tree in the bush at the entrance to the Bobbin Head National Park it seemed I had been passed by not only the bulk of the 6am group but also the backmarkers of the 6:10 group. So from here it was sort of solo running as I went past Bandana, just about caught up to the 6:10 rear group at the top of Bobbin Head and then swapped around with another Strider and Bandana who caught up to us at a water stop while I was downing a gu.

Anyway mission accomplished with about 31km down in around 2:55, somewhat slower than my last excurion through here but an enjoyable run on a great day!