Running more accurately with my RS200sd

Today, I survived a really dry series of induction courses at work. Thankfully, after that, I was able to go for a run at 7:15 pm. I took the same route around my workplace which I had run with Yeen Teck last week (Loewen Rd - Nassim Road - Botanical Gardens - Minden Road), and to my surprise, my footpod registered about 7.7 km (including a few extra wrong turns, because this was the first time I was running the route in the dark on my own). This was much more than what I had measured off my street directory (which goes to show how inaccurate measurements from maps are...). Just to be sure, I ran the route a second time, and I confirmed that the distance was 7.3 km. In total, I did a good 15 km.

My stats:

Lap 1 (Office Gym to Loewen Rd until Nassim Rd ~ 3.89 km)
Time taken: 22 min 24 sec
Maximum/Average Heart Rate: 173/150
Average Pace: 5 min 45 sec

Lap 2 (Nassim until Botanical Gardens ~ 1.59 km)
Time taken: 8 min 11 sec
Maximum/Average Heart Rate: 184/177
Average Pace: 5 min 08 sec

Lap 3 (Through Botanical Gardens - Minden - Office Gym ~ 2.28 km)
Time taken: 12 min 33 sec
Maximum/Average Heart Rate: 215/181
Average Pace: 5 min 30 sec

Lap 4 (Whole Route again ~ 7.24 km)
Time taken: 40 min 9 sec
Maximum/Average Heart Rate: 222/186
Average Pace: 5 min 32 sec

Total (15 km)
Time taken: 12 min 33 sec
Maximum/Average Heart Rate: 222/175
Maximum/Average Pace: 4 min 39 sec / 5 min 33 sec
Calories Expended: 1047 kcal

New Balance Real Run 2005

This morning, I went to Sentosa to meet up with the other Sgrunners to participate in the New Balance Real Run 2005. The Lonely Runner showed us the Sgrunners.com banner, and distributed the Sgrunners decal car stickers. Cyberkinetic also gave us our own temporary tattoos. Everything was just so cool! :) I met a few new faces there, including Philip, Menmoch, YankeeII and Kay.

Sgrunners after our New Balance Real Run!

Sgrunners posing outside Cinemania with our own Sgrunner.com banner! :)

(Pictures courtesy of Sgrunners.com)

And as for the run, it was great, despite the dreadful heat. I thought I handled the sandy sections rather well, because I managed to resist the urge to walk. :) In total, my Polar RS200sd measured a total distance of 10.11 km. ;) Hmmm, that's an error of only ~1% (assuming the route was indeed 10 km), so I must say my HRM is fairly accurate!

And good news, Carine came in 13th in the Women's Open, so "CONGRATULATIONS Carine!" :)

This year, I felt that the organisation was a dramatic improvement from last year's. The goodie bag distribution was more efficient, and the drink stalls were also positioned in a more strategic location. Kudos to the organisers for a job well done!

While I was there, I also met the runners from my former workplace: Wilson, Chee Keong, Chee Kong, Zac, Cally, Bernard, Yeow Hin, Chung Kiat, Ming Jern, Jeremy and Jialing. Apparently Chris Ang also ran (despite having told me on the previous night that he wasn't because of his bad knee), but I didn't see him.

Later on, I joined Balasing, Skyvers and his friend for lunch at Pastamania in HarbourFront. Their company was very enjoyable. We chatted about this amazing guy that ran 11 rounds of 10 km in 12 hours, as well as the upcoming Mizuno Wave Run and the Army Half Marathon. After our meal, we went off on our separate ways, but I suspect we'll all be in bed sometime this afternoon. ;) It had been a strenuous day :)

Anyway, my performance statistics for this race:

Lap 1 (First 5 km)
Time taken: 24 min 32 sec
Maximum/Average Heart Rate (bpm): 205/186
Average Pace: 4 min 52 sec / km

Lap 2 (Beach Sections - 2 km)
Time taken: 12 min 02 sec
Maximum/Average Heart Rate (bpm): 198/192
Average Pace: 6 min 15 sec / km

Lap 3 (Last 3 km)
Time taken: 18 min 06 sec
Maximum/Average Heart Rate (bpm): 194/187
Average Pace: 5 min 44 sec / km

Total:
Time: 54 min 40 sec
Distance: 10.1 km
Average Heart Rate (bpm): 189

Sentosa!

Yesterday, I left the office at 11:45 pm. It's my second consecutive super-late working day in this week. I had instant noodles for dinner. What a pathetic lifestyle. But thankfully, nine hours later, I was on my way to Seah Im Food Centre to meet my friends for a round of beach activities. There at the food centre, I caught up with some good pals from my former workplace as well as a couple of personal friends. The feeling was great. We then drove into Sentosa in carloads, and arrived at Siloso Beach a little while later.

We started off with a game of frisbee. Joseph taught me how to throw with the "hammer" style, and I also tried to learn the extremely cool "floating" style from him, but with limited success. We also played beach volleyball, soccer, captain's ball and last of all, basketball. It was an excellent opportunity to stretch after a five days of sedentary office work, as well as to get a tan. ;)

Audrey flanked by two Chrises

I'll be back at Sentosa tomorrow morning for the New Balance Real Run. I'm looking forward to meeting my running kakis from my former workplace again, as well as my new-found friends in Sgrunners.

Another long day at the office...

I caught a midnight taxi home. I'm so thankful it's the weekend round the corner.

A friend in hospital

Today after work, I went to the National University Hospital (NUH) to visit F who had been hospitalised in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) since Monday. (F is a 13 year-old boy whom I had gotten to know through Club Rainbow.) When I reached the hospital, I realised that he had just been transferred out of ICU into an ordinary children's ward. F was sitting quietly in bed, his family by his side. He had an paper ID-tag wrapped around his right wrist, an intravenous drip inserted into his left hand, a device for measuring his pulse clamped onto one finger, and a long tube running from his nostrils to some machine by his bed. It had been a tiring day for F; he had spent most of the day undergoing medical tests, scans and check-ups. Although F was physically quite weak, he seemed rather alert. That was very encouraging.

I spoke with his mum briefly. Apparently, F had caught the flu bug over the weekend, but developed complications later on. She told me that the diagnosis didn't seem too good. F had been born with a certain medical condition, and after this bout of flu and associated complications, his medical condition would probably have been irreversibly worsened. "We know he won't live very long, and we have always been trying to pamper him as much as we can while we can," I was told. "Now, it just means we have to try harder."

I did my best to fight back the tears. It wasn't good to cry in front of F, nor in front of his family. Goodness knows how much they have had to go through already! When I left NUH, I became suddenly aware of how casually and liberally F's parents had used complex medical jargons (names of medical procedures, medications, human anatomy, etc) when talking with me. The reason for that was obvious, and the more I thought about it, the sadder I felt. I couldn't help it but cried at some point on my way home.

Running at MFA

This evening after work, I went for a 5.3 km run with Yeen Teck. We ran out onto Harding Road, then onto Loewen Road, Ridley Park, Tanglin Road and then Nassim Road. That brought us back to the Visitor Arrival Centre at the Botanic Gardens, which we cut through to emerge at Holland Road. From there, we did a quick dash up Minden Road and then back to our startpoint. It was a great run. :)

Later when I got back home, I logged onto my MSN and joined the 10:20 pm Sgrunners.com MSN meeting. Heh heh, that was also very good :)

MacRitchie - Lower Peirce - Upper Seletar - Nee Soon - MacRitchie

This morning, I got up really early (after just 4 hours of sleep) and in spite of the rumbling thunder, went to MacRitchie Reservoir to run with the SAFRA Running Club. When I got there, I ran into Balasing and BrokenRunner, who were at the reservoir for the SPCA Run. We also met Carine who was there for her "secret training" with the other MR25 runners. :)

Today's run was particularly special for me, because it was my first time running with my Polar RS200sd - watch, chest-strap and foot-pod. :) At 7:05 am, the slight drizzle had already ceased, and I began my run with Eng Hua, Gula and Anthony from the SAFRA Running Club, starting from the road between Carpark B and the toilets and going onto the 3.6 km Northern Trail in MacRitchie Reservoir. Then, after 25 minutes, we cleared that trail and took a right turn onto another trail which was shorter, had more gravel than sand and had a little, clear stream which sang all the way as we ran alongside it. 9 minutes later, we emerged at a carpark near to the Singapore Island Country Club. We then ran along Island Club Road until we hit Upper Thomson Road. We then followed Upper Thomson Road northwards until we arrived at the Lower Peirce Reservoir carpark, where we stopped for our first waterbreak. By this time, we had already run for 1 hour 10 minutes.

After our waterbreak, we proceeded for the next leg of our run along Old Upper Thomson Road. Along the way, we met Ben Tan, one of Singapore's finest sailors, as well as some MR25 runners and a horde of expatriate cyclists. We emerged back on Upper Thomson Road (near Yio Chu Kang Road), and continued northwards, all the way until Mandai Road. Then we went along Mandai Road, and then into Upper Seletar Reservoir Park. Time for a second waterbreak. We were already into 1 hour and 30 minutes of our run, and we had covered 14.3 km. The view of Upper Seletar Reservoir was great. I was still feeling rather good at this juncture.

After about 10 minutes of rest, we then ran out of the park along Track 7, crossed Mandai Road, then went up Bath Road, and sneaked into the former Nee Soon Camp. There were some extremely muddy sections along our route in Nee Soon Camp, and I got my right shoe (together with my precious footpod attached!) wet with icky, brown muck. In any case, by the time we cleared Nee Soon, I was feeling extremely breathless.

Eventually, we ended up in Singapore Island Country Club. Great view, nice golf-course, but I was feeling rather unwell. We took a third waterbreak there. It was already 2 hours and 11 minutes into our run, and we had gone 19.2 km. To my surprise, despite a rather long rest there, my heart rate was still at an elevated 140 counts per minute. The other SAFRA Club runners began to express their concern for me over this. They decided that we'll take the remaining run slowly, and advised me to go check with a sports doctor as soon as I can.

And with that, we embarked on our final leg back to MacRitchie Reservoir, cutting across the Singapore Island Country Club (while cautiously avoiding flying golf balls) and returning via the 3.6 km Northern Trail. I was in no state to run, and could barely manage a slow jog-walk. In any case, I made it back to Carpark B in 2 hours 57 minutes. I had covered 24.3 km. I was very out of breath, but it felt good to have completed the whole journey.
Overall, for the run, my stats were as follows:

1. Maximum Heart Rate - 181 cpm
2. Average Heart Rate - 158 cpm
3. Maximum Pace - 04:56 min per km
4. Average Pace - 07:17 min per km
5. Distance Covered - 24.30 km
6. Calories Burnt - 1881 kcal

My RS200sd

Today I went to the gym for a short 15-minute run, covering 3.3 km. After that, I took the MRT to Toa Payoh where I collected my Real Run Race Pack. My bib number is MO2292. While I was there, I attended the Polar Launch of its new running computers. Alex and Penguin turned up for the launch as well. The entire presentation was rather corny but a good marketing effort nonetheless. Later on, I purchased a Polar Running Computer, the RS200sd. It comes with a watch, a transmitter belt and a foot pod.

My first set of running accessories!

Exciting events coming up!

I've taken a quick look at my calendar. Wow, the next few Sundays are packed with exciting activities. On 28 Aug, there's the New Balance Real Run. The following Sunday, 4 Sep, there's the 2nd Mizuno Wave Run. Following that, on 11 Sep, is the Army Half Marathon. A week later, 18 Sep, is the Terry Fox Run - which I haven't registered yet! :)

Still in the office...

Here's a quick post before I get back to my work. It's past 10 pm...and I'm still in the office!! :( There goes my plan for a trip to the gym and an early night's sleep!

Every cloud has a silver lining

These few days, I have not been feeling well. I am extremely thankful for my colleagues who have been very helpful to me during my induction period so far, offering to guide me through some of the work procedures which were new to me, and providing me with advice on how to best and efficiently do my work. My colleagues are an excellent bunch of folks, motivated, friendly, cooperative, professional and dedicated. Keep it up!

Exercise has taken a back seat since Sunday, because of the late nights spent in the office and my general feeling of stomach discomfort. But hopefully, I can return to the gym some time this week, and join the SAFRA MF Running Club for another session over the weekend.

Thirsty...

Hmmm...just for the record, today, I consumed 2 glasses of fresh milk, 2 x 500 ml bottled tap water, 1 x 125 ml Red Bull, 1 x 500 ml orange-flavoured 100 Plus, 2 bowls of tau-suan, 1 bowl of seaweed soup, 1 x 500 ml carrot juice, 1 bottle of Yakult, 1 entire dragonfruit and 2 glasses of tap water. I'm still very thirsty...

Source of inspiration

Wow, I just found out that BrokenRunner and Carine joined the MR25 runners for their 20-km run this morning. BrokenRunner said she ran much slower than the rest. But from her timing (1 hr 58 min), that's an excellent performance -- not bad for someone who's never competed in a half-marathon! Now I'm really inspired to improve on my own timing! :)

My Sunday!

Today, I met up with DreamRunner and the other members from the SAFRA (Mt Faber) Running Club for their Sunday morning run. At around 7:15 am, we embarked on our journey. I must have been half-asleep, because somehow or another, we got to Queensway from Telok Blangah Way (about 2.6 km) and now, I can't remember which route we took to get there :P

Anyway, at some point along Queensway, past the new Police Station, we turned left into an unused road, crossed a railway track, and then went onto Whitchurch Road. From there, we proceeded onto Portsdown Road, past the Tanglin Trust School and Portsdown Prison until we hit North Buona Vista Road (~ 2.6 km).

Next, we headed down North Buona Vista Road until we reached the Buona Vista MRT station, where we stopped for a quick break, then crossed Commonwealth Avenue West (~ 1.3 km). Then, we ran along the Ulu Pandan Park Connector next to Sungei Ulu Pandan until we reached Clementi Road (~ 2 km). By this point, I reckoned we had already covered about 8.5 km.

We ran southwards, down Clementi Road until we reached Carpark 2 of West Coast Park where we stopped for a brief water break (~ 3.2 km). Within the park itself, we ran a circuit on the joggers' path (~ 1.8 km). Then we crossed the West Coast Highway, then onto Pasir Panjang Road. The group then split into two, with the first group going for a longer 35 km route (via Kent Ridge) and the second group heading back straight for SAFRA. I opted to join the latter. :P

Eventually, with the second group, I reached Haw Par Villa (~ 1.5 km). Up to this point, we had probably covered about 15 km. By this time, I was already feeling very tired and very hungry. I told the other runners in the group to go ahead, because I was in no condition to keep up with their pace. :P

From Haw Par Villa, I crossed back onto West Coast Highway, and jogged-walked all the way by myself down Pasir Panjang Road (~ 2.8 km), stopping along the way at TWO petrol stations to buy drinks and a chocolate bar to replenish lost fluids and energy. Then, it was another 1 km along Telok Blangah Road, another 600 m up Henderson Road, and I was back at SAFRA Clubhouse.

The other runners were already there, talking about taking showers and having brunch :) Within minutes of my arrival, the 35-km-ers also returned, hot, sweaty and cheerful. :)

It had taken me around 2.5 hours to run about only 19.4 km. Gosh, I'm really slow, and my stamina really needs a lot of working on, if I am to meet my target of a sub-2-hour half-marathon! :(

Since I was at SAFRA, I also conveniently renewed my Club membership and registered for the Army Half Marathon. ;)

My Saturday!

I reached MacRitchie Reservoir at 6:30 am today. Darkness still reigned but there were already quite a number of walkers, joggers and runners there. While waiting for Nanyan to show up, I did some warming-up along the road between Carpark B and the toilets. She drove in shortly, and not long after her, Teck Kim and his Taiwanese friend also arrived.

The four of us then proceeded on a slow jog around the reservoir. Contrary to my expectations, we only did the smaller 5-km circuit, and that, at only a fast-jog pace. I had originally intended to run further and faster, in preparation for my next attempt at qualifying for MR25, but I enjoyed this morning's slow jog around the scenic reservoir anyway. It was therapeutic, breathing in the fresh air, hearing the soft crunching of sand and snapping of twigs beneath my shoes, catching a glimpse of the mutual grooming rituals of the primates resident there and observing a 40-cm long monitor lizard lazily consume its breakfast by feeding off tiny fish trapped among littoral weeds. :)

I was home by 9 am. After a quick shower and a light breakfast, I picked up Jeffrey Archer's "A Prison Diary - Volume 1: HELL" and continued reading where I had left off yesterday evening. I was done with the novel by lunch-time. "HELL" is a short book in which the renowned British author and politician recounts his experiences during his first three weeks in prison (19 Jul - 9 Aug 2001) after being found guilty of perjury and sentenced to four years in jail. It was an extremely thought-provoking read!

After lunch, I was out of the house again. I popped by Jurong Point to sign up for the 2nd 10-km Mizuno Wave Run (after much procrastination!), faxed a letter at Singapore Post, and bought the Hands United CD and a Marc Anthony "Amar Sin Mentiras" CD from Sembawang Music.

With all that done, I went to Sharon's place at 2.30 pm for a Y-Runners briefing session. There, I was given a "Collector's Certificate of Authority" to authenticate that I am collecting funds on behalf of The Salvation Army (TSA) through my participation in the Singapore Marathon. Now, I will have to start finding family, friends and colleagues and ask if they would like to donate to TSA. :)

After leaving Sharon's home, I met up with Chris Ang for another gym session at Fitness First (Paragon). We blasted our legs with free squats and machine-assisted hack squats, and then did some exercises for the abs and obliques. I left the gym at around 7 pm, went to the Orchard Library to borrow Lord Archer's second volume to his Prison Diary series, "PURGATORY" and then went home.

All in all, today was a very eventful and relaxing day. If only everyday were like this! :)

So many runs to choose from!

This is really exciting. There's just so many runs awaiting me, and I need to pick and choose :)

On this coming Saturday morning, there's:
(a) a 10-km run around MacRitchie Reservoir, organised by my former DSTA colleagues
(b) an 8-km run around the Orchard road area, organised by Y-Runners
(c) a 20-km run starting from Kallang, organised by Kops21

Then, on Sunday morning, there's:
(a) a 10-km run at Sentosa, organised by the New Balance Real Run folks
(b) a 25-km run around the western part of Singapore, organised by the sgrunners

I think I'll go for (a) on Saturday, and (b) on Sunday. Man, life is so thrilling!

TLR's Shutterfly Page

I just saw this link to LTR's photos of the 21-km fun run at East Coast. Everyone looked as if they had so much fun! :) I must join them the next time around!

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY, SINGAPORE!

The very warmest wishes to our nation on its 40th birthday! There was a time when people said that Singapore won't make it, but we did. We most certainly have made it, and tonight's NDP was a brilliant showcase of how much we have accomplished in the past four decades as One People, One nation, One Singapore! I'm very proud to be a citizen of this great country! =)

My fellow Singaporeans, no matter what the future has in store for us, let us work in unison to forge an even better tomorrow! =)

"Let's reach out for the skies, with wings we'll soar up high.Our dreams we'll all achieve, let's soar and reach for the skies."

Working out at Fitness First

This afternoon, I went to the Fitness First gym (George Street branch) at the invitation of a good buddy of mine. We did squats, incline bench presses, lats pulldowns and crunches -- a simple, overall body workout. After that, one of the Personal Trainers there offered us the use of a Tanita Body Composition Analyzer (TBF-300). It was my first time on such a machine, and to my surprise, I found myself much lighter than I had originally thought. It reported that I was 51.5 kg, had a BMI of 19.1 and a body-fat percentage of 16%.

Later on, I was "analysed" by another hand-held device, manufactured by OSIM, and it said my BFP was 13.5%. Hmmm...I don't know which is more accurate, but it seems that I'm more or less within the healthy range. :) However, I'm hoping to hit 10-12%. With my current preparations for the end-of-year marathon, my body-fat percentage is likely to decrease, and that would be very convenient indeed. ;)

Photos from the MR25 Run

Heh heh, I'm sneaking in a picture from Balasing's blog. :) The following photos were taken during out Sgrunners gathering last Sunday for the MR25 run. And it's so typical of Balasing to block his own face with that of Charlie Brown! :)

MR25 Run

Today, I joined The Lonely Runner, Balasing, Brokenrunner, Skyver and some other runners at MacRitchie Reservoir for the MR25 trial run. It was a hot day, and I was feeling a little run-down, having been stretched rather thinly at work earlier in the week and yesterday at the zoo. Nonetheless, I had a good run. Along the way, I kept feeling like giving up and walking, but I remembered the Nike advert about dumping your old self, and forging ahead with the new (the Nike "Reincarnate Now" series of adverts). So I kept on going, every step of the way. And I guess that's an achievement in itself.

In the end, I missed the qualifying time for MR25 membership (25 minutes) by coming in a slow 26 min 06 sec. *sigh* I will do better the next time. But my heartiest congratulations go out to Balasing, Brokenrunner and Skyver, who made it under 25 minutes! An excellent job for a first-time run! :) And also, congratulations to the running extraordinaire, The Lonely Runner, who broke his own personal record to come under 23 (or was it 22?) minutes. The fastest guy finished the 5-km cross-country route in an incredible 17:04. Woah, that man's fast! ;O

At the Zoo!

I was at the Singapore Zoological Gardens today, with five other befrienders and four children from Camp Sunshine. We arrived at the main entrance at around 1 pm, bought our tickets, and then went inside the zoo. The children were noticeably excited about the whole trip :) We managed to see quite a number of different animals, including pumas, leopards, giraffes, jaguars, kangaroos, ostriches, peacocks, tapirs, rhinos, white tigers, polar bears, snakes, baboons, iguanas, horses, hamsters, rabbits, dogs, crocodiles, lions, orang utans, sunbears, tortoises...the list goes on and on! It was fun!

At one point, a zoo-keeper was walking towards us with a massive and beautiful white python carefully draped across her shoulders. Noticing that we were all staring at her and her passenger, she stopped in front of us, and asked if we would like to touch the snake. Initially, our two wheelchair-bound children were cringing in their seats, but after everyone else had stroked the python, they also nervously stretched out their hands to brush against its smooth skin. :) I bet it's an experience they will not easily forget! :) We also sat in for two animal shows, one at "Elephants of Asia" and the other at "Children's World".

Pushing a wheelchair-bound kid up and down the undulating, winding roads of the zoo was no easy task. By about 4.30 pm, I was in desperate need of a break. Thankfully, at another befriender's thoughtful suggestion, we stopped by KFC and recharged ourselves with fried chicken and ice-cold carbonated soft-drinks. It was heavenly!

We left the zoo just before closing time. I probably wasn't able to hide my fatigue very well, because the other befrienders kept coming to ask me if I was feeling okay. :) Yes, I was very tired, but as long as the kids enjoyed it, the effort was worth it, every second of it.

My new Brooks!

Just a quick update...a couple of weeks ago, with my SAF credits for the year, I bought myself a new pair of Brooks running shoes.

My Brooks

I will leave this pair of shoes in my new office, and use it when I join my colleagues for runs around the Botanical Gardens. :)

National Day Observance

This morning, we had our National Day Observance Ceremony at the office. After singing a number of classic hits such as "Stand Up for Singapore!", my colleagues and I adjourned to the cafeteria for some refreshments. It was a good time to catch up with some of my other friends whom I knew were working in the same building, but whom I had not gotten the chance to meet since I started work four days ago.

I am extremely happy that my colleagues are nice folks. They are supportive, helpful, humourous, sincere and friendly. It's really a blessing to be working where I am. I just hope I can quickly settle down, and start making proactive and positive contributions to the group soon.

And yes, on a totally different note, the Mizuno Wave run should be opening for registration soon...I can't wait for it. :)

My new job!

I started my new job on Monday, and it has been a very good experience so far. For the first two days, I attended an induction course, and then was introduced to my colleagues and superiors. The nature of my work is extremely challenging, but the learning curve is quite steep. I've got a gut feeling that I will enjoy every minute of it at my new workplace. :)