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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Stair Climbing

After a pause of stair climbing for 2 weeks, I am back on it again. This time, I don't have enough time to do 40 x 4. Therefore, I go for a higher intensity training with 40 x 3. I took 6-7 floors of 2-step-a-time and then 3-4 floors of 1-step-a-time.


It was only 8 minutes for the 1st set, faster than the typical 8.5 minutes. The peak heartrate is about the same as usual. The legs get more tired. It is a good 50 minutes workout.

MacLehose Trail training

I returned to Hong Kong to join the trailwalker team for a training. It was originally planned as a LOOONG training starting from stage 2 and ended after stage 4. It was intended for a very long hike of 14 hours.


We have a team of 6, gathered at Sai Kung at 9am. Took a cab a the start of stage 2. Warm up and start hiking at around 10am.

The weather was hot, humid and without any wind. Very quick, during the uphill section to a 300m hill, my heartrate goes through the roof, hitting 170+. I have to slow down and take many break in the shade.

I sweat a lot and drink more than I was planned. After the first half of stage 2, we took a break at a store. One of the team member is not going well with the hot weather and is losing pace. He decided to pull off. Top up with water/isotonic drink and started again at around 12:30pm. In the mid-day and hot weather, I was consuming about 1 liter fluid per hour. With the slow pace, it took 5 hours to finish stage 2 (including various breaks). And we have some tough decision to make at the start of stage 3. There is no convenient exit point. You have to commit to go for the whole stage 3 which I estimated to take 5 hours. It was 3:30pm and we suppose to meet other team member at 7pm at end of stage 3. It is no way that we can finish in time.

And the end, we stop at end of stage 2, defeated by the hot weather.
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Lets Take a walk 30km training

This year, I am not intended to join the Lets take a walk. But I still join the training. This training starts from the Tampines sports hall and ended in Ang Mo Kio MRT station.


We stop at the Central for lunch. The walking pace is generally leisure. Ranging from 10 to 15 minutes/km. I was wearing the Kayano Walker but feel that the size is a bit too small for this long distance.