30 October 2007

Hot, hot, hot !


Hot, hot, hot ! How can I train in this kind f**king weather !

Finally we landed in Singapore, yes....30c and 90% humidity - all year around. The coolest temperature is 25c but that's at night time. In light of this, the way forward is probably to either start running really early, use treadmills a lot or (most likely) a combination of both.

We stayed at the Mandarin on Orchard Rd - which is about 20 minutes walk from our apartment in Robertson Quay. However, since the current tenant will vacate the apartment on 31/10, we'll be staying in the hotel and (by the suitcases) for 12 days. We spent the first few days shopping for furnitures and electronics. Fortunately (sigh), most things are much cheaper here than in Australia, for instance, a 42 inch plasma TV by LG costs less than A$1500. However, coffees prices are pretty steep here - a cup of latte costs around A$4-6.

Running has been pretty minimal - averaging 40k in the last 3 weeks due to relocation. Probably will stay in the this range until we have fully settled here and explored the local options.

Saturday, 27/10: Recovery Run
Hate to say this but I did my first run back in Singapore on treadmill. I'd say Mandarin hotel has the worst gym among the 5* hotels on Orchard Rd. The treadmills are old and the gym was smelly (yuk !). Started at 6:00 min/km, progressing gradually to finish at 4:45 min/km at 1% grade. All up, 10k in 52:48 (5:16 min/km)

Sunday, 28/10: Easy Run
My first outdoor run in Singapore and I must admit the conditions wasn't that horrible. A, cool overcast morning certainly helped. Ran 2.5k to Singapore Botanic Gardens, then 7k within the garden itself plus another 2.5k back to hotel via Orchard Rd. The garden has a lot of nicely, surfaced bitumen paths, so it would be a great place to do tempo runs. Can picture myself doing long run here on weekends. The issue is that I couldn't find any drinking water tap there. All up, 12k in 1:01:30 (5:08 min/km)

Tuesday 30/10: Medium Pace Tempo
Have been running at easy paces for the last 1.5 weeks or so hence decided to do something a bit brisk today. All up, 8k in 36:40 (4:35 min/km) including 24 minutes @ 4:15 pace.

Wednesday 31/10: Easy Run
Didn't get a 'pass' from my wife to run outside in the rain, hence another run on the dreadmill. 12k in 1:01:33 (5:08 min/km) - with the last 3k at 4:40 pace.

Friday 2/11: Recovery Run
An easy recovery run at 2% grade before work in 30:20 (5:37 min/km).

Overall, too much treadmill running to my liking....hopefully I'll be able to do more outdoor running soon...

2 comments:

trailblazer777 said...

Some great running there mate. The 12k runs pretty solid, and thats a pretty good pace over 8k!

My cousins used to goto Singapore every year to buy cheaper electronics stuff.
30 degree days with 90% humidity and 25 degree nights sounds pretty oppressive!

Hope you get off the dreadmill and start cranking things up distancewise once you get settled.
All the best with it.

Dave said...

Hi Sling Runner,

It was great to have you yell out today and introduce yourself. Sorry, I if was a little zoned, as you could probably tell I am still adapting to the conditions.

Anyway, I made it home and overall the day was a positive experience :)