nus hills run

MONTAG, 27. NOVEMBER 2006

rainy. 8.86 km

it was raining heavily as leggie called me up on the phone. should we or shouldn't we run? i told her that maybe nus area wouldn't be raining that heavily. so i went ahead to clementi mrt to meet tktan. gee... the traffic towards clementi was packed. tktan and i waited for sometimes before shortlegs and mun finally arrived in clementi after a slight delay. we drove to nus guild house and shuthelup, doraemon and ??? already waiting for us.

after a short announcement about the route that we were supposed to run, doraemon led the way. boy, it was wet and hilly. running on the road wasn't my thing unless the road was officially closed due to certain running event. anyway, as we reached haw par villa, doraemon told me that this was the first slope to climb up to. whew, that was not easy. luckily for us the guard there told us that the end (whatever end) was closed. so we had to return back down on this 'slippery' road.

then came the '99 bends' cos the road curves a lot. yeah, really a lot. the worse thing was that vigilante road was just around the corner, waiting for us. damn. going up that hill was murderous and i believed that mun would 'kill' doraemon for 'forcing' him up that way. anyway, i love that stretch though - finally hilly area to run cos my place back home is totally flat!


had a 'pee' stop at one of the building and our run was occasionally paused as we were waiting for mun and at the same time doraemon explaining the about area, like where sotong works, or reuters (did i hear correctly) has the nicest building in that area.

we finally finished our run after 8.86 km (according to my gf 305) and headed to clementi road to eat roti john chicken cheese. by the way, the cheese cake was heaven.

here are the photos for you :
nus hills run

nike runaholics - just follow imd

sonntag, 07:30 a.m., 10 km

shortlegs & mun picked me up at chinese garden mrt station. we were supposed to meet the sgrunners at the same point where we met yesterday. todays event was 10 km nike runaholics last run. do suggested to us yesterday that we should come and maybe we could get a t-shirt from the sponsor.

as we arrived there, it was almost 7:20 am. we did a quick change into our running gear and registered. for the first time i met ultraman. brokie, do and others were all getting ready to run. the organizers were briefing the participants about the route and et cetera. after depositing my stuffs, i went to the starting line. exactly about 15 seconds later the run began - damn, i had no time to do some warm-up!

i ran quite slowly at first, side by side with ultraman. he mentioned that there were quite a number of fast runners here taking part. and true, some of them sped off really quick. i decided to start slowly as all my muscles were still stiff. after about a kilometer or so, i managed to hang on to a group of runners in front of me and paced with them. one by one fell behind but two. later one imd joined me and i led him lead the way after the first turning point. damn, my legs were tired. lucky for me, imd's pace was bearable. so i followed closely behind him till the halfway mark where we received our drinks. imd took the drink and slowed down. hmm.... why he slowed down? i decided not to take the drink (as i usually do for short distances) and zoomed past imd and continued my pace. i never looked behind. the faster runners were already making their way back towards the finishing line but i still yet to reach the last turning point. after the final turn, i saw imd about 15 to 20 meters in front of me. we greeted each other and i decided to give a little more speed. the guy in front of me was not that far but i didn't think i could catch up with him. nevertheless a try worthwhile. i didn't even know where the finishing line was and didn't do any last meter sprinting. i only found out that about 5 meters before the so-called finishing line.

stopped my stopwatch and i was really damn happy to see the time i produced. wow. my new personal best, whether it was really officially measured, i don't know and didn't even care cos i was really, really happy. got my stuffs and took some photos from the sgrunners guys and chit chat with some other participants. it was really a nice atmosphere. till today, i still don't know who celestron was. sorry dear, please show yourself or at least tell me where we talked with each other. i couldn't remember all names at one shot!

after the run, there was buffet for the runners and a lucky draw. too bad i didn't win. those who had participated in at least 3 nike runaholics run were rewarded with a running nike singlet. but thanks to do's sweet talk to one of the organizer, me and shortlegs were also given the privileged to get that most sought-after running singlet.

here are the photos for you :
nike runaholics

pre-scsm international friendship run

i made an arrangement with shortlegs that she would pick me up at chinese garden mrt station at around 6:30 am. i haven't met shortlegs before, just through the sgrunners.com forum. i didn't know what to expect as this would be my very first run in singapore since i arrived here. it was 6:40 am and shortlegs was nowhere to be seen. i was quite worried that she might have forgotten me and drove away without picking me up! i called her and she said she would be there soon cos there was a tiny problem regarding the van.


finally they (shortlegs & mun) arrived and we drove all the way to east coast park (carpark f5). once we were there, a group of runners were already waiting for us. the sgrunners. they organised this run for the sake of shortlegs (from australia) and me (germany). the turn out was quite amazing, 20+ runners attended this run! we introduced each other with our nicknames from the forum. gee... i couldn't remember all their names, or rather, i couldn't put their nicknames together with the real person. far too many anyway. the only ones that i could guess who they were, were sotong & brokenrunner (aka brokie). after a short briefing from dreamrunner & sotong, our main target for today was to run 20 km!

so we ran. i ran together with realrunner, do & dreamrunner. george, doraemon, fennel & renohtaram were already speeding away. here and there i would take some snapshots with the camera. it was hot. quite hot for me. i guess it was around 25 degrees. a difference of about 20 degrees. ouch. the humidity too. whew.

after about 5 km, we stopped for a while cos brokie were taking photos of us. a rehearsal for the finishing line for the standard chartered singapore marathon in a week time. so everyone would put up their hands as if they had just completed the gruelling 42.195 km run. fun to see this mock -up celebration.

we continued our run again. this time to the other end of the carpark. the weather was killing me. i was totally drenched. worse still, i forgot to taped my nipple and it hurt damn bad. it bled a little. by the way, i wore my new asics cumulus shoes and it was super. strange though, i felt a bit different wearing this shoes compared to my other cumulus shoes, even though they were exactly the same model, just the colour was different. it felt a lot better with this shoes. running towards the turning point was like hell, so hot and no shades. i decided to put a little more speed to getaway from the sun. after the turn, i quickly ran to one of the toilet to get a sip of water. thank goodness that singapore's water are clean, if not i'd be dead from thirst!

even though running 20 km wasn't a problem for me, this time it was really torturing me physically and mentally. the weather was part of the problem. i kept cursing as i ran passed a carpark, where the hell is the carpark f5. it seemed like forever. i was quite mad. kept running and running till i saw some
familiar stuffs. huh, the final destination was not that far. ran towards it but i was wrong. damn. i ran further and finally saw some runners sitting at the pavements. the sgrunners. whew, my torture had finally came to an end. george and doraemon had completed their runs already. minutes later, came the rest of the runners.

later on, after taking showers, we went to have our breakfast at marina square. it was just a happy atmosphere. finally i could eat some singapore food.

pre-scsm international friendship run

running everywhere

5.5° celsius. dry and sunny, then rainy and windy. 10:31 (34.574 km - 3:13:41)

the weather at 10:29


it all began with a nice sunny dry weather and a bit of hazy. my target for today is either to run 3 hrs or 34 km. drove to my favourite lake, the alster. before i began my run, i saw my running mates (dagmar, heiko and hartmuth) doing their morning runs. after doing a short stretching, i started my run and halfway through i decided to run to the stadtpark (my training ground). i did a really slow start cos i knew it would be really, really a long day for me. luckily for me, the route towards the stadtpark from alster was a familiar ground cos i had been constantly cycling from home to stadtpark (before my bike was stolen). i just did a big aussenrunde and training-warmup round at the stadtpark, eager to check the distance with my gf 305. the scenery at the stadtpark was really lovely with brown and golden leaves filling up the ground. most trees are still having their yellow/red or brown leaves hanging onto their branches. during my usual training (after 7 pm) in autumn/winter, i couldn't see these cos it was already dark. running in the morning around the stadtpark was boring cos very few people and joggers were there. i guessed these people only come to the stadtpark in the evening and in summer. it started to drizzle as i was about to complete my big aussenrunde.

by the time i finished my stadtpark rounds, i realised that i had already done 17.8 km. another 17+ km to go or 2.5 round of alsterrunde. the rain has picked up a bit and the intensity was getting higher. i was wet all over. i was very determined to run these 2 alster rounds to complete my goal. met another running mate, carsten, 3 times (what else when both of us running in opposite directions) around the alster and "high fived" during our brief meeting. he was quite fast or was it i was too slow after 23 km? hmmm...

the last round was really a torture as the rain poured heavily and it felt really, really icy. my legs were very tired but i just dragged it for the few kilometers. it was all in the head - either i do it and run or stop and walked in this bad weather. run baby, the "finishing line" is almost there.

after almost 3:15 hrs, i finally completed my lsd - the longest ever running alone in my entire life. it won't be the last though. hamburg marathon lässt grüßen.

the weather at 14:01


the stretching/warm-down after the run was necessary. i felt good after that and my legs felt bit relax. due to tunnel closure, a massive traffic jam hindered me from getting home earlier after this long day.

alsteration (week 46) : 57.670 km
alstering : 37.0 km
non-alstering : 20.670 km

total running (november) : 108.292 km
davon
alstering : 59.2 km
54.67% gehört zu alsteration

spring feelings

13° celsius, cloudy but dry. 18:12 (20.30 km - 1:49:58)

the weather forecast for today and tomorrow is good. it was supposed to be warm during these few days. a friend of mine in dresden told me that he went running in shorts in the forest. so, i decided to do my run today, to improve my mileage.

running almost the same route (i know it is boring), i ran towards the alster. as i reached there, lots of joggers were running the clockwise direction, maybe they didn't want to run up the bridge but going down. i managed to overtake only a few during my rounds, but that was not my goal today. today's motto was just to run more than 20 km. i was dead tired after yesterday's training and the multiple stops at the traffic lights made the run more difficult but i finally dragged my feet to complete this run and reached my goal.

alsteration (week 46) : 23.096 km
alstering : 14.8 km
non-alstering : 8.296 km

total running (november) : 73.718 km
davon
alstering : 37.0 km
50.19% gehört zu alsteration

indoor training

13° celsius, indoor condition. 19:30

today's training was a bit tough, doing the usual lauf-abc + coordination programs that made my right calf hurt, or rather, tight and hard. i love sprinting and we did a few fun relay (200m) as well as so-called time trial - chasing your partner from the other side (100 m away) or vice versa. a warm-down exercise was integrated after the training.

but the best part is still after the training. went to café memorandum and i had a nonalcoholic alsterwasser with puten macaroni. yummy.

alsteration (week 46) : 2.796 km
alstering : 0.0 km
non-alstering : 2.796 km

total running (november) : 53.418 km
davon
alstering : 22.2 km
41.56% gehört zu alsteration

29. quickborner 25 km straßenlauf

what a day. drove to quickborn and the car broke down at the traffic right after the autobahnausfahrt (expressway exit) quickborn. 2 km away from the start point. it was 5.5° celsius, stormy rain, strong wind and a bit of sunshine dominated the run i guess. i was soooo angry and disappointed at the same time cos i couldn't run and had to fork out extra cash for the damn car!

running (in) shorts

7° celsius. clear sky & slightly windy. 17:56 (20.19 km - 1:54:46 hrs)

i just want to get my mileage correct for this week, cos last week was a total desaster - no nennenswerter run. so after getting ready (+ my gf found its satellites), i ran "blindly" towards alster. my choice of the route today was to go thru berliner tor and came back thru bürgerweide. i don't need to care much about the distance anymore cos gf is doing all the calculating :-).

as i reached the alster, i realised that there were many joggers at this time of the hour cos it was cold and dark but dry. one thing i noticed was that, there were a few runners who were running in shorts at this kind of temperature. even though they had longsleeves running top, i still couldn't imagine myself running in shorts during this cold months. brrr.... i did 2 alsterrounds slowly but steadily. almost to the end of first round there was somebody who overtook me and running "wildly" forward. i kept my pace steady and after sometime i did manage to catch up with him and overtook him back while running up the bridge - my favourite point to shake off all the other runners. actually, it was not me that was running fast (i had quite a constant pace) but the guy's pace was deteriorating.

wanted to do just 18 km today but ends up with extra 2 km. what the heck, i don't think i can run fast for this coming sunday's 25 km run!

just becos i did extra kilometers today, i've decided to give myself a treat - philadelphiatorte & quiche ohne alles.

alsteration (week 45) : 42.070 km
alstering : 22.2 km
non-alstering : 19.870 km

total running (november) : 50.622 km
davon
alstering : 22.2 km
43.85% gehört zu alsteration

running in the dark

DONNESTAG, NOVEMBER 09, 2006

8° celsius, drizzle and windy. 17:35 (6.26 km - 33:40 mins)


mini hailstones

the weather today was a mix of all - rain, sunshine, wind & hail. i only started my running in the dark, without sunshine. started the run after getting the signals from my garmin. nowadays, my run has been influenced by garmin forerunner 305. it's fun to see from time to time how far i've been running. i'm addicted to add more mileage everytime i run. then see the route i had ran. just a schnickschnack.

anyway, after 5 mins of running, my mp3 got on strike cos the battery was empty. thought that i had extra battery in the pocket but i realised that i had different running jacket today. errghhh... now i had to concentrate only on running! my luck wasn't that good either 10 mins later. it began to drizzle and the wind started to blow heavily. running against the wind had never been my favourite but adding the rain to it was worse. so i decided to run slightly above 5 km and call it a day. playing badminton in such weather was much better. and i did so after the run - for 2 hours :-).

alsteration (week 45) : 21.880 km
alstering : 7.4 km
non-alstering : 14.480 km

total running (november) : 30.432 km
davon
alstering : 7.4 km
24.32% gehört zu alsteration

leichtathletik sporthalle

today is the first time that we are using the newly opened athletics indoor hall.

after passing through the police-controlled junction, i saw the new athletics hall, brightly lit up. it was such a hectic to find a parking lot outside the indoor stadium, cos there was a concert in the other sporthall. it took me almost 10 mins to find a parking space and ended up parking halfway on the sideroad. hopefully it would not be towed away!


not everything is fully complete though (eg. the light switch at the changing room is not done yet). before i went up, i was warned to take out my street shoes. hmm... as i entered the new athletics hall, i began to realise that it is such a nice place. due to parking space searching, i was late for the briefing today. my running mates started to warm up, running around the 200+ m outer lane. today's training wasn't emphasized much on running, sondern mehr an koordination und lauf a-b-c. a little gymnastics was integrated in today's training. it is almost 20% running, 40% coordination programme & 40% gymnastics. at the end, i ended up taking photos :-).

othering - a complete round

12° celsius, slight ~ strong wind. 17:56 (71 mins)

last week was a desaster for me cos i didn't pick up lots of mileage for my run. was a bit sad though and angry with the weather. it is really depressing when darkness starts at 5 pm. i've been looking at the trees through the window to see if the wind is blowing strongly. nahh... not that bad. so went outside and laid my garmin forerunner on a brick, so that it could locate the satellites before i began my run. didn't want to wait long and get angry later.

soon after the watch got its gps system in ready, i started running. there was no particular route that i'm taking. just run towards alster. stopped at certain traffic lights to cross the road and thanks garmin, it stopped automatically without me touching any buttons :-). automatically starts again when i began to run - yeah...

did one big round of alster and the thought of doing second round was quickly put aside as i saw the time. too late to do another alster round. so i ran slowly back home and purposely not taking the same route. it was okay, but have to save some energy for sunday's 25 km run.

alsteration (week 45) : 13.120 km
alstering : 7.4 km
non-alstering : 5.720 km

total running (november) : 21.672 km
davon
alstering : 7.4 km
34.15% gehört zu alsteration

othering - running around the block

8° celsius, cloudy, slight wind and drizzle. 17:06 (49 mins)

4 days of rest was long enough. so i decided to run just around the block cos the day was getting dark. the damn garmin forerunner was still searching for the satellites. i lost my patience and ran without the distance measurement. after 5 minutes of running, i stopped so that gf (garmin forerunner, not girlfriend) could locate the satellites. almost 5 minutes long! then i just ran around the hammer park twice before running around the along the road on the way back home. it started to drizzle and i had to speed up to reach home faster. at the end, it was just a good short run to "rest" myself away from the stress.

alsteration (week 44) : 8.552 km
alstering : 0.0 km
non-alstering : 8.552 km

total running (november) : 8.552 km
davon
alstering : 0.0 km
0.0% gehört zu alsteration