Longest hike in preparing for HK Trailwalker

Since I had cut short my training last week, I decided to go for 50km today. Like last week, I try to follow the North Face 100 route.


I followed the route all the way to the Gangsa mountain bike track. Then, there is a gate closed. I cannot go through to the Mandai road and have to make the U-turn. When I was on the Keluar mountain bike track, I suppose to follow it back to Bukit Timah visitor's center. However, I lost the way when it meets the Kampong trail. Also at the same time, I feel that I had a hot spot at the ball of foot at the right foot. I did not want to have a blister over there as it takes over a month to recover. I decided to take a detour to go back to MacRitchie directly. I slowed down when the hot spot is not feeling good. Air it a few times but taking off the shoe and gently massage it. I was able to go back to my car without having the blister formed. When I reached my car, it was 37km. I thought that if I can nuture it for 7-8 km, I may be able to continue to make a loop around MacRitchie and boost the distance to 50km. That's what I did.


Total distance covered is exactly 50km (I have some detour around the MacRitchie carpark to make it up to 50km). Timing is 9 hrs 19 minutes. While the timing should have missed the cut-off time for NF100 duo, it includes a few breaks. Overall, I was happy with the pace. Feeling a bit tired. However, from the elevation, the route is not that challenging (cos I did not go into the hill 265 area which I was told very tough).


Overall, good training before the HK trailwalker which is just 3 weeks away. This should be my longest training and from now on, will be on tapering.

Hiking on North Face 100 route

Last Saturday is the North Face 100 event. Therefore, I move my training to Sunday instead. But I would like to go in using the North Face route.


The North Face signs were intact when I did my hike. I was able to follow it all the way to the Gangsa track. However, I did not see any sign after 1.5 km and I was not sure whether I was on the right path (indeed, I was on the right path), plus, there was a thunderstorm brewing. Therefore, I u-turned back to Bukit Timah. While I was still on the Belkur mountain bike track, it started to rain, heavily. Luckily, I bought my raincoat with me. I was not afraid of the rain but rather the thunder. I had to cross an empty field about 20-30m wide with thunders brewing nearby. It was not fun at all. I followed the catchman path and arrived at the catchman hut to take a break. When the rain ease off a bit, I started again.

The North Face route is interesting. Even though I have been hiking in MacRitchie/Bukit Timah many times, the North Face route took me through some path that I have never been to.

The overall timing is good 6 hr 44 mins for around 36km (SportTracks tends to record a distance that is too long). About 5.5km/h. On the slope at Bukit Timah, my heart rate did go up a lot.


But from a difficulty perspective, the route is not very difficult (maybe I did not cover the hill 265 section).
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MacRitchie / Bukit Timah / Zhenghua Park

Another long hike on 17-Oct. Total distance is 46km. From MacRitchie to Bukit Timah, Singapore Quarry, Zhenghua Park and a part of Bukit Panjang park connector.

This is the longest hike that I had, taken a total of 8 hrs 14 minutes. I was able to keep my average heart rate checked while having an average 5.5 km/h, pretty good speed for the terrain and distance.


But I was only in the summit twice, not a lot of vertical climb.


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MacRitchie / Bukit Timah Hike

Not much time left till Hong Kong Trailwalker. This weekend is a 35km hike. From MacRitchie to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and then to end of ZhengHua Park. This is my first time in ZhengHua Park. Pretty nice park lining along BKE.


I loaded up 3 liters of water from the start. But after the U-turn at ZhengHua Park, at Valley Fall Path, I run out of water. Luckily, it is only about 1/2 km from the Ranger station at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. I topped up 2 liters and go on. At the finish, I only have about 250ml left.


Pace is around 5km+, nice pace for Trailwalker. Try to keep the heart rate below 160 but still have some stair climb goes up to 171.

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25km hike

Finally, I am getting back on LOOONG training. This time is a 25km. From MacRitchie to Bukit Timah, loop the summit twice. Though I made a wrong turn in the North View Path and did not go all the way to the bottom via the Dairy Farm Loop. So, I only capture the Summit 1.5 times.



Speed wise, it is still slow. Not sure why I lost my speed.




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Stair Climbing Training (40 x 5)

This is the longest Stair Climbing that I have. A total of 40 storeys x 5. I carried a 500ml water with me. Total time spent is 1 hr 12 minutes including the time to go and back. I was able to keep the heartrate in the reasonable range. Timing wise, the last climb was a bit slow but the others are all standard.


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10km hike

I was a bit lazy in updating my training. Two weekend ago, I did a 10km hike in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Walk into the Dairy Farm Path. The area near the Quarry is beautiful.


It is a relatively slow training session. Feeling that I was not in form.


I climb over the Summit twice and also try out the new Hydration bag. The bag works fine. Can hold 3 liter liquid with multiple small pockets to put small things. I bought it in Hong Kong fo HK$599 (around S$110). It is a good deal.




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