The Infinite World

Did a very short run of 3.39km in 17min8sec on 27 Jun 2014, Friday night.

How fast is fast in distance running ? I do not know as i am a slow runner. To me, completing a 400m in 90 seconds or less is fast! First of all, to sustain a high running speed, the body has got to be very efficient, no extra  body weight but needs to be powered by a strong pair of legs. Just like a fighter jet, light body weight but powerful jet engine to propel it through the air. The only different is that the aircraft can be made to be strong and tough, but human body has to be feed with the right food and train to be strong. Some people are just born with that extra talent to run, so it does make a different. Runner will also need to know their body well and how it respond at each state of the run, like rationing the energy to last the whole race, after all we are not superhero with unlimited power source. 

I hope to break 50 min for the 10 km before 31 Dec 2014 and also to achieve a pb of at least below 4hr40min for the Dec 2014 Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon. Today, I did 26min19sec for 5 km enroute to my 6km run at the stadium. I hope I can break my pb of 23min15sec as well within the year. If I participate in the Newton Run this year, I hope to achieve a 3hr15min for the 32km.

Completed 15 laps at the stadium, 6km in 31min10sec. I think I am improving, but fitness level still have not reach the level of 12km per hour for 10km. Need to continue to build up my core muscle group, so as to be able to sustain a higher speed. The weather today is very humid as well, I can feel my body temperature going up as I try to maintain a 11.5plus per km speed.

Completed 20 laps this morning at the stadium 8km, in 43min28sec. Initially, I was ambitious and was planning to break my pb of 51min35sec for the 10km. I completed the 1st lap in 2min6sec, feeling good, not a sweat. 2nd lap 2min9sec, 3nd lap 2min10, I tried to speed up a little for the 4lap, 2min7, I was still positive that I can run a good time. 5th lap, 2min7, 6th lap, 2min7, 7th lap slip abit 2min9.5, 8th lap 2min10, the sun is up now and getting hot. 9th lap 2min12, 10th lap 2min9.8, 11th lap 2min11sec, I see the record attempt fading away. 12th lap 2min12.2, 13th lap 2min10.2, 14th lap 2min12.4. 15th lap 2min15.2, 16th 2min15.7, 17th lap 2min16.8, 18th lap 2min19.6, I just relax and run, as I knew I am not fit enough and the heat is just too much. 19th lap 2min17.7, decided at this point to just run 1 more lap, finished off the lap in 1min46.5. My fitness level is just bad, need to push myself more to overcome the mental barrier. Sometimes, we just need our brain to tell the bod

With the Soccer World Cup ongoing, it's so obvious that the press favour one sport over others in Singapore. You see so much reported in the ST about soccer, page after page. Everyone know where we are in soccer, although so much has been spent on it. Sad to say, this has been the situation in the country for such a long time. I guess it's to cater to the general public interest, but running has been popular for the last couple of years, yet you rarely see much reported. 

Managed to cover 5.07km in 29min7sec according to my Garmin watch. Felt like I was running fast but in fact was quite slow. Need to get fit again, improve my core muscle group, so that I can run faster. My immediate goal would be to run a good time for the 10km, must try to get close to 50min and achieve a pb. Have to keep pushing my body, just so lazy nowadays!

Incredible run Rui Yong, hope to see you keep taking down the records. At last we see some lights for  Singapore distance runners from you and Mok !

Did a short run at the stadium nearby at about 7.20pm. Covered 4km, 10 laps in 19min39.859sec. Not  quite fast but already felt exhausted. Although my body is not fit in any sense, keep wanting to try to go faster. One thing I dislike about running at night at the stadium is that I kind of lose control during the run. Cannot seem to keep a proper pace and also not patience enough to keep the pace I plan to run. Initially plan to do a 10 km and was planning to have a crack at my pb of 51min35sec. Too bad, not today, have to try another day. 2min per 400m is not a extremely fast pace but if you are not fit enough, it's difficult to maintain. 

Singapore is a very small country in terms of land area, approximately 722 square kilometres, with a population of about 5.3 mllion people. Most of its citizens live in high rise public apartments blocks built by the government agency named Housing Development Board. The land in Singapore is expensive and the apartments are expensive. Food and transport charges are reasonable, the system is efficient and getting around the island is easy. It's a young country and it takes time to develop the human resources, education need to be improved to train its population. Training people to think is a difficult task, human nature tend not to be rational when distracted. Too many distraction in our so called high tech world, people get so attracted to these things which waste a great deal of our limited time in this world.

I tried my best to keep pushing my body to go beyond its limit, which I find interesting and challenging. I did minimum training, so my body suffered quite badly during the later part of the run. But what I found surprising was that when I put in a short burst for a short stretch of say 200-300m, I actually find it easier then to slow jog. I kept doing so from about 27km onwards until the end of the run. I would say I put in at least 75 percent effort for this run, next time I must try to at least put in 90 percent effort. Overcoming the most difficult part of the race when you body is giving up, is also the most satisfying. I need to push my body more to cut down the time wasted walking, could cut my timing further.

Finished Sundown Marathon on 1 Jun 2014 Sunday just before 5am, in a clock time of 5hr24min53sec. (official time:5hr16min53sec) I started in the 2nd wave which had a delay of at least 5min after the first wave. My Garmin stopped recording at 41.68km at 5hr8min plus to a flat battery, fried the battery due to charging directly via the wall socket. I had to pull my best effort to achieve this timing, due to my minimum training. It was really a torturing journey when your body has already given up and you have to rely on your mind to tell body to go on. But it was a great experience, especially running in the rain, indeed I run better during the 5km stretch. I could feel my core muscle feeling really sore, have to really build up my core. I tried out a new method for myself during this race, I run fast after each walk break, as I really cannot bring myself to slow jog when the body is really sore. It seems to work for me, as my timing was ok despite minimum training.