It’s indeed a good run tonight!  11.6km in 93mins!  Woohoo!!

I finally broke the 10km mark!  I’ve been such a slacker and haven’t been pushing myself hard enough to do that considering the run is on 29th May… I signed up for half marathon for Adidas Sundown.

Having done that, it’s actually not that tough, if I maintain my usual snail speed.  What’s really challenging about tonight’s route is the ups-and-downs.  I’m used to running flat grounds, hardly do anything with slopes and steps.  But it’s all good, I need to train harder.

Thank you ShalomW for inviting me to join your running kakis!  I’ll tag along again next week!

I miss running in the evenings… Remind me of those days in Shaw Tower when we run in a group of 4 to 6 – LewB, Ssiew, @jo_the_dough, @gerrybin, @dymphomaniac, GaoR and the occasional guest trainees Amos and Hangman…

The running track that is…

Joined the iRun group at Raffles Promenade for the first time today, and am impressed at how well-organised the group is!  I didn’t know this was a HPB initiative until I came home to google.  I always thought this was conducted by Team FatBird.  Not wrong still, I think the volunteer marshalls are from the Team.

The marshalls at various turning points keeps our time in check, motivating us along the way… And I’m very fortunate to have met a nice lady whom I can pace with for me to keep us with.  I’m really thankful for her, otherwise I would have fell back to my usual run-walk pattern.  I actually completed the 5km route in 35mins!  Way faster than my usual pace…

The icing on the cake was dinner at Santouka in good company!  Hehehe…

This is an overwhelming weekend I must say… And as I’m writing this, various parts of my body are sore and aching.  Ouch!  

Saturday afternoons are now for Dragon Boat, and yesterday was my 2nd training with the team.  I’m in this with Nessie and Big Bird, Debster was the one that started it all.  It’s great fun doing team sport with friends, and the bunch in Austcham are pretty cool people.  And the best part of the deal is, at the end of each training, we get to chill out with some Golden Ale from Brewerkz…  I’m sure by now you’d have guessed why we joined the team… Hehehehe… 

Yesterday’s training was at least 3 times more taxing then the first.  Paddle, paddle, paddle almost non-stop, and we, the newbie boat, had to race against the 3 regulars boats.  Newbies get basic training by a coach – the technique and strokes for about 5 weeks before getting moved to the regular boat with the other season paddlers.

Nessie and I put forward our first step of commitment to the sport, we signed up for the team membership.  $50 per year, and each week, we only pay $10 instead of $15.  Plus we get a Austcham cap and jersey.  So you’ll be hearing more of Dragon Boat… 

After training yesterday, I came home for a shower and rushed to see my mum at her 1st opera performance.  She has always been interested in Cantonese Opera, and in the recent years started to take lessons.  Last night was her 1st performance, so we had to be there for her.  My sister and I, with no less than 15 relatives and friends were there to support her.  According to the others, my mum’s performance was the best of the 6 songs.  :)

The Austcham people are a bunch of crazy peeps, that’s what we like about them actually.  The team is not just about trainings, but also having fun, social gatherings.  Last night was Annual Steak Challenge.  14 men, 1kg of meat each.  I missed the whole fun, only to join them when some were already mabok… The 2 hours and 2 Guinness Draughts were good time spent.  Got to know the other paddlers better, still trying to remember their names… Heh!

Now, the toughie, this morning’s Saucony Passion Run 2009.  My first race of the year, with NO TRAINING, 15km.  I’m glad I finished the whole distance, I contemplated dropping out halfway actually.  Think I finished the race in about 2hrs 10mins.  Gotta wait for the official timing, cuz the phone died on me half way at 9.35km.

This is Passion Run’s 3rd year, I’m rather impressed with the whole event, very well-organised.  Especially the very orderly race pack collection at Novena Square, to the Race Tag that has our details nicely printed on the back, and the first time we’re seeing race chip straps instead of the conventional race chips.  I think we’re going to see more of these race chip tags, makes sense to have these disposable ones, and these days RFID tags are getting cheaper. 

Alrighty, that’s all the updates for now, gotta go grab an early night to prep for the week ahead!

This is my first race after 2 years, and my first at 10km.  Finishing was the aim, and I should say, not too shabby!

I clocked 80mins on my SportsTracker! My personal best so far! Woohoo!

- This blog was updated through my M1 mobile phone.

We’ve kept going, we did our 4th run yesterday.

Not too happy with the pace, finished 8.97km in 78mins. I’m aiming to finish 10km in 75mins leh…

That means, more work to be done!

Going for a Muay Thai trial class tomorrow! Excited, yet nervous, cuz don’t know what to expect of such contact sports, if there’s sparring involved.  Never tried before…

Yeah! I DID IT! Completed my first 10km run on Tuesday! 10.5km actually… And not too shabby timing at 1hr 36mins.

Woohoo!! I’m lovin’ it!

Our route –> Shaw Tower, Padang, Empress Place, Clarke Quay, Fort Canning, Padang, Memorial Park, Esplanade, Singapore Flyer, Nicoll Highway and back to Shaw Tower.

Oh oh oh! I have to say the Nokia SportsTracker is better than Nike+.

1. More accurate cuz it uses GPS to track distance
2. Mapping back to web is easier, cuz route is tracked in the application

Pooooot!!!

This weekend, a few of us decided to be ambitious and did the 10km trail at MacRitchie Reservoir.

I was totally bashed by the the rocky tracks and the uphill stretch.  It’s my first taking on a more than 9km run, finishing it 1hr 47mins wasn’t too bad, especially when it’s cross-country route.

Just gotta keep training to build up more stamina, and hopefully can do bigger strides later.

Click over to SportsTracker, I’ve also tagged some photos I took along the way… There’s so much I can do with the Nokia N82, I can’t help but keep going on about it…

Wooohooo!! Yes, 8.4km. A few of us from the office decided to train together, towards our goal to challenge ourselves to half-marathon in Dec.

Last night we did a loop from office to Kallang Waterfront, and all of 8.4km! Actually, I didn’t do all of 8.4km, I walked from 6.4km onwards, accompanying 2 other girls to walk back. I would have loved to run all the way, but being the “Da-jie” that I am… I care for the younger people.

I don’t have a Nike+, but I’m using the N82. With SportsTracker app, I could easily track my distance and route. I’m pretty impressed with it! It actually mapped the route onto Google Map after I upload it to the site lo! NICE… See see, the route map.