Home Sweet Home

Ah....at last !! Finally we've moved to our apartment. Some of the furnitures & appliances have arrived (bed, tv, microwave), but no sofas & dining tables until early December. The property boom in Singapore has driven up furniture demand, resulting in 1-2 months backlog.

Managed to do more outdoor running this time including the famous MacRitchie Reservoir, which has undulanting trail and bitumen roads - great for long runs on weekends. My apartment is a stone throw away from Singapore River and the Promenade passes through Clarke Quay, Boat Quay, the Fullerton Hotel, and the Esplanade Theatre (approx distance 2.5k one way). For those who don't live in Singapore, these areas are night-life heartbeats of the island - there are a glut of cafes, bars, restaurants including Hooters and the famous Brewerkz microbrewery. I also found a public track in Queenstown (about 15 minutes by bus) to do my speed workouts.

Wife is going back to Australia for 2 weeks hence my running volume should increase during this period (but don't tell her, okay?)

Sunday, 4/11: Aerobic Medium Long Run
First ever run at the much-fabled Singapore's running mecca - Macritchie Reservoir. The first 4k was on trail and the rest on rolling, bitumen road. Nice !! Ran up to the 10k drink stop of MR25's 35k race (held on the same day) and then back. All up, 18k in 1:35 (5:16 pace). Met up with DO from SG Runners and Dave (O runner) from Cool Running Oz.

Tuesday, 6/11: Easy Run
A late night run (10pm) on Mandarin Hotel's treadmill, starting at 10 km/h, increasing the pace by 0.1 km/h every minute. All up, 8k in 40:08 (5:01 min/km av).

Thursday, 8/11: Tempo Run
Another run on the hotel's treadmill. 1.6k w/u, 5k LT tempo run in 20:00 (4:00 min/km), 1.4k c/c. All up, 8k in 36:03 (4:30 av). The effort felt easy in the first 10-15 minutes, so perhaps the treadmill speed was a bit suspect.

Saturday, 10/11: Track Intervals
8am: A morning jog from home to Esplanade and back. Approx 5.5k in 30:00 (5:27)

3pm: VO2Max Intervals at Queenstown track (hard surface)

1.8k warm up with 2 strides
5 x 800m with 400m jog. Splits: 2:54, 3:01, 3:01, 3:03, 2:58 (av. 3:44 min/km, HR 176-186 bpm)
5 x 200m with 200m walk/jog. Splits: 38, 43, 43, 43, 43 (av. 3:30 min/km)
1.5k cool down

First interval sesssion in a month (also first one in the tropics) and struggled big time. The 1st 800m was too quick to my liking and the rest suffered. Was ok with around 2:10 recovery (one lap) for the first 3, but then had to take equal period rests. HR reached 195bpm (my MaxHR, I think) by the 5th, hence I decided to call it quit after that. Average HR was 182bpm vs 173 bpm in Perth (10bpm lower).

Sunday, 11/11: Aerobic Medium Long Run
Ran from home to Botanic Gardens (3.6k), around 60 minutes within the garden, then ran back. 20.2k in 1:45:12 (5:12 min/km). Legs felt a bit heavy from yesterday's track workout, also a slight niggle on the archilles.

I've registered to do an 8k run next Saturday. Not expecting fast times given my sporadic training and weather acclimatization. But it would be a great test to evaluate my fitness level and hot weather tolerance ability.