Official Result in Army Half Marathon

Got the official result for the Army Half Marathon. The timing from the Champion Chip is 2:43:55. Finish at position 956 out of a total of 1135 (84%tile) among the Men's Veteran according to the champion chip time (not the gun time). Slight improvement compare to the 88%tile during Singapore Marathon 06 (among the M4044 division). Glad to know that yeohling got the 9th place in women veteran.

I have rested for another day for my ankle to recover. Today is definitely better. But I still a little bit hestitate to start training again. Maybe wait for one more day.

A photo of the sgrunners after the AHM.

Back to practice after AHM

After the AHM and a day of rest, the muscle is still a little bit sore though it is not as bad as last year SCSM half marathon (I was not able to walk downstairs a few hours after the run).
After skipping a day without practice, I return back to practice. I start with some moderate, walking, then brisk walking. Then, start running. However, when I start to run, my left ankle start to have some pain. I have to slow down. Back to home, when I rub on my ankle, a small portion of it gives me pain. The joint is perfectly stable. Can brisk walk without any pain but only start to run that I have pain. I think one of the ligament is stretched or have some tearing. Will need to take some more rest, maybe rub some Chinese ointment on it.

I also encounter my first bug with the Garmin Forerunner. After I turned on the watch, it started to look for the satellite. Things seems to be ok. However, after it has located the satellite and go to the main screen. I found that all buttons has no effect. I cannot even turn it off. After back at home, the watch displayed lost satellite, and then, all the key are working again. I turned it off and on again and seems everything is normal now. Will go to the Garmin forum to see if there are similar issue from others.

Finish AHM with new Personal Best

This year's AHM starts at 5:30am. I hardly sleeped the night before and woke up at 3:20am. After some bread for breakfast, packing and installing the champion chip, I head out at 4am. I arrived and parked my car at the Raffles City. Since I was early, I took some picture first and return the camera pack to the car before heading to the starting line. Man, it is really crowded.
At 5:30am sharp, the run started. I run the first 1km and then switch to my strategy of brisk walking. Obviously, I was one of the slowest at the beginning. I am able to maintain a pretty good pace of 7.5km/h with pushed to 8km/h for a stretch of about 1km. I had to tell myself many time to calm down, keep my pace slow at the beginning. I know it will take up to 45 minutes for my Shin muscle to get into condition.

Around 45 minutes into the run, I still keeping my 7.5km/h even on the uphill climb portion. Then, on the downhill portion of ECP, I practically let the gravity to do the work. My speed pick up to about 14km/h during the 400m stretch. The downhill run + stretch of push has gained me 5 minutes over my scheduled pace of 7.5km/h.

In the next 2 hours, I was able to maintain my 7.5km/h. At the end, when the FINISH sign was in sight, I started to think about how long can I sprint. I guess I can do a 100m. Therefore, I start sprinting about 100m from the Finish sign. However, it turned out that the Finish sign was for the non-competitive one and the Finish sign for the Half Marathon was after another two turns and another 100m away. I end up sprinting for 200m. The GPS said that I had a max speed of 23.8km/h during my sprint.

At the end, the time is 2:44, 13 minutes better than my SCSM 2006 timing of 2:57. Even better than my most optimistic target of 2:45. By the way, my timing at 10k mark is 1:16:13, almost as good as my best 10k timing of 1:15.

Back at home, I examine my feet. They are still in good condition, no blistering at all. The toe sock really work well, though the pair of sock was completely wet. Now, it is time to go to sleep.

Army Half Marathon

I suppose to be sleeping and prepare for the AHM. However, it is difficult to get sleep even after taking two Melatonin. It is already 12:30am. Need to get up at 3am. Hope to get another 2 hours of sleep.

Tempo Run

I did my trial on the Injinji toe sock today. Feels ok. Initial feel strange but once get moving, it feels normal. Maybe it is still new, would prefer to have a little bit more friction between the sock and the shoe in sole. Today, I did a tempo run around Alexandra, Commonwealth and Queensway. I posted my record time of 10km/h pace for the 3.4 km loop. Feel pretty good. I think my previous interval training may start to pay off. I did push my heart rate pretty hard.

Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s)	0:20:40	5:59 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s)	0:20:39	5:59 pace
Distance (km)	3.45
Moving Speed (kph)	10.0 avg.	24.8 max.
Elevation Gain (m)	+52 / -56
Avg. Heart Rate	158 bpm	Zone 4.5

However, in the summary data, it shows I peaked at 24.8km/h. If I did, that will be my MAX speed. I think the GPS receiver is not receiving the proper satellite data during that few data points. I also have part of time having problem in getting my heart rate to the watch. Not sure what is the reason but this is the first time that I have problem with the heart rate monitor function with the Forerunner 305.

Nikon New D3 & D300 Announced

Great News for Nikon fans. Great camera of D3 & D300.

spec of D3:
12Mp, FX (full frame), 5.1MP in DX crop mode, 14 bits, EXPEED engine, 12 channel readout
9fps, 11 fps in crop mode
new 5:4 format at 10MP (this may maximize the use of DX lens!!)
up to ISO 25600!!! (In Hi2 mode)
51 focus point
300,000 cycle shutter
920k pixel 3 inch LCD (VGA resolution)
Live view mode
Dual CF card slot

spec of D300:
12MP DX
6fps with internal battery and 8fps with power pack
up to ISO6400 (with boost)
51 focus point
150,000 cycle shutter
920 pixel 3 inch LCD (VGA resolution)
Live view mode
Sensor cleaning (by shaking the anti-aliasing filter)

Also come with 5 new lens:
AFS 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
AFS 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
AFS 400mm f/2.8G ED VR
AFS 500mm f/4G ED VR
AFS 600mm f/4G ED VR

An exciting day!! Looking forward to see them in Singapore

New Nikon Camera D300 & D3

There has been lots of rumours about the new Nikon digital camera. Today suppose to be the day for the annoucement at noon Singapore time. Here is an site with a picture of it.

Nikon D300 & D3

Injinji toe sock

Today is a rest day for me. Went over to Running Lab. Try to get a toe separator since I have blistering between my last two toe on the right foot. Unfortunately, Running Lab does not carry any. They suggest I can try Guardian. Went to Guardian, no toe separator as well and they suggested me to go to the shoe store next door which has a rack of Scholl products. Went to the shoe store, but the rack of Scholl product does not have any toe separator. They suggested me to try Watsons. In Watsons, I did find a toe separator but it is the type for woman to apply toe polish and keep the toe separated in order to dry properly!!
At the end, I went back to Running Lab and bought a pair of Injinji toe sock. Try it at home, and it seems fine. I will have it washed and try to use it tomorrow for a test. Will update whether it is good or not. Here is the link for Injinji Toe Sock.

10k Equivalent Time

I am currently using a spreadsheet to track my training. Normally, you train in different distance and very difficult to compare the pace. In this spreadsheet, it has a formula that calculate the 10k equivalent time. It bases on a factor that you need to slow down your pace for a longer distance and therefore, discount the pace of your short distance training. And for a long distance training, it adds a multiplier to it. It is very good to use it to compare the speed at a 10k equivalent. Below is a website that has the equivalent time calculator.

Equivalent Time Calculator

Run Inside Queenstown Stadium

I did some interval run in the Queenstown Stadium. I set the Garmin Forerunner 305 to do Auto-Lap by using same location for start/stop a lab. It works very very well. It automatically calculate each lap even though sometimes I use lane 1 and sometimes lane 2. The uploading of data to PC is very quick. The map that comes with the software is pretty bad. My East Coast Park route appear to be out on the sea. I download an update map from Malsingmaps.com and it is much much better. Or, if you use the motion-based website, it uses the Google map and it is pretty good as well.

Sunday, I have collected my Army Half Marathon pack. The T-shirt is not nice. My Bib is in deep purple colour and kind of difficult to see the number which is black. I decided not to do any taper for the half marathon run since I think I should be fit enough to do a half marathon every weekend anyway. AHM should be just like a training. I do think about whether I should get some powergel. Not sure the water stations in AHM has sports drinks or not. I typically need about 1 liter of sport drinks throughout my half marathon practice.

Garmin Forerunner 305

When I was getting serious about running about 2 months ago, I have started thinking about buying a running watch with heart rate monitor. After research, I zoomed into Polar S625x or RS200sd, Garmin Forerunner 305 or Suunto T4 Marathon. The Suunto is more expensive while the Polar require calibration of the footpod. After careful consideration, I decided and ordered a Garmin Forerunner 305 from eBay. The watch arrived a few days ago and today is the first day that I use it for a run.

The Garmin Forerunner 305 consist of the watch and heart rate monitor. It has a built in Li-ion battery charged via the cradle which also acts as connection to PC.



The watch is rather large and the battery only last for 10 hours. Therefore, you cannot use it as your daily watch. The Heart Rate Monitor belt is ok. Fits me and after a long 2 hour+ workout, it is still fine. Heart Rate seems to be of good accuracy and no issue at all. The watch use GPS signal to determine the distance and pace. Distance is very accurate. I went from East Coast Park carpark B1 all the way to area H and back. The distance shown is 19.8km which I believe is accurate. I can monitor my pace and it has auto-lap function which you can set a pre-defined distance as lap so that I can compare my pace and HR km by km.

The watch has a total of 7 bottons and is waterproof. Seems to be rugged.



The display can be programmed to display 2 to 4 pieces of information and has a total of 3 screen selectable. Info can be uploaded to PC. The connection is easy and upload is fast.
However, the Garmin Training Center software that comes with it seems to be very basic. You can also use it with the web-based Motionbased software also by Garmin. I will need to use it more to find out its functionality.

Running in Taiwan

Last week, I traveled to Taiwan on a business trip. After dinner, went back to hotel. It was 9:20pm. Think of going to the gym, changed clothes, running shoes and went to the gym. However, the gym closed at 9:30pm. Therefore, went out to find a place to run.
In Taiwan, it is not good to run on the pedestrian walkway. First, there are a lot of scooters parked on the pedestrian walkway. Secondly, the pedestrian walkway in front of the shop are uneven. Some are a step higher than the others. Therefore, I had to either run on the road but the scooter traffic make it difficult. After running through about a few block, I found a park. There are trails inside the park. The longer loop is about 400m while the shorter loop is about 250m. Did a few rounds and had spent about 35 minutes. When I was exercising, there are also two guys practicing fast walking in the park but no other people running. I think more and more people are picking up fast walking nowadays. If you go to East Coast Park during the weekend, there are quite a bit of folks taking fast walking.

Botanic Garden Run

In order to make up the shortage in mileage for this week, I decided to join the sgrunners Bontanic Garden Run this morning. Meet up in Evans Road and the route go through the city including Orchard Road, Tanglin Road, Holland Road, loop around Botanic Garden and ending with Evans Road. I can barely keep up in the first 3km and really fall behind after 7km. I have to take a short cut. The original route was 18km and I did a shortcut and it becomes 13.2km Other than my 10km, never practice that hard in the first 5km. End up average pace is about 7.2km overall. Body holds up ok even I just back-to-back long run. Here is the link to the sgrunners monthly Botanic Garden run in the forum.

Saturday Long Run

Want to wake up 6am this morning. However, when the alarm rings, I snooze it. At the end, only wake up at 7am. Arrive at East Coast Park at 8am. Carpark B1 is already full. Have to park at C1. Then, it is the long brisk walking to Area H and return. I try to run in three different places, each time 400m. Able to clock around 2 minutes for the 400m dash. On the way to Area H, everything feels good. However, on the way back, push too hard on the 400m dash. Have to slow down in the last couple of kilometers. At the end, I cover around 16km during the 2:58:00. A bit slow at the end. Need to find the right pace. The New Balance 755 does not fit very well. The right heel is having problem from 9km onward, sliding around.

Afternoon, decided to get another pair of shoe. Not sure whether should get Asics or Mizuno. Went to Queensway Shopping Center. Asics Culumus is at around $130. Mizuno wave rider at around $150. The shop on 3/F have an older model of Mizuno Precision 6 on sales, $108. At the end, got one home. Fitting of the shoe is very different from New Balance. Will try it out tomorrow to see if it fits better.

Dusty Sensor

When I check carefully on the picture I took. I found that there are two specks of dust on my sensor. I use the Mirror Lock Up feature on my D70s and really cannot see the dust. Anyway, I use a cotton bud to swipe it several time, and take a few pictures of a white background. Seems that the dust is gone. For the pictures, I will need to use the healing tool in the Photoshop to clean it up. The tool is extremely effective in removing the two specks of dust.

Later tonight, I need to pickup my wife, therefore, no time to have practice run. I think I will have my usual Saturday morning run in the ECP tomorrow. Maybe also join the sgrunners' botantic garden run on Sunday.

Everything has a beginning

I have been thinking about publishing a blog for some time but procastination take over. Finally, on the Singapore National Day, I started my blog. The blog will focus on recording two key activities - photographing and running.

Today, I went over to the Vivocity. Carpark is full, have to wait for 10 minutes to get in. Took some picture of kid playing on the 2/F with the fountain.





After that, went to the gym and have some cross-training. I haven't been to the gym for quite some time, need to pick it up as I need the cross-training to get myself fit to prepare for the Marathon in Dec.

Saw people started a blog and did not really maintain it. I will try to have update at least once a week. That's for today.