The training was to start at 6 am last Sunday. It’s impossible for me to reach there before 5.30 am. Dear and myself decided to give it a miss and do our own long run around Punggol. One loop around Compassvale to Punggol then to SengKang and back from Yio Chu Kang Rd. The distance is about 15.5 km.
We started at 8.30 am, a bit late but the sun was still resting. Did a short warm-up and proceed on. We have a slow run, around 7 min/km and i was alright to follow Dear’s pace. The Punggol area was quiet with nice scenic and some runners have started to notice the area there. The sun woke up at around 9.15 am, slowly we started to feel the heat. Passed by Punggol MRT and we hydrate ourselves with interval timing.
By the time we reached Seng Kang Sports Complex, the hot sun was already in full blast. Dear was seemed to struggle to hang on with the run. As the pace was easy for me, i seemed to have half tank of fuel with me. She did very well to test her endurance and soon we reached Yio Chu Kang Shell station. 13 km with a time of 1 hr 25 min. We grabbed some cold drink and proceeded on with our last 2 km. Dear reached BuangKok MRT with a time of 1 hr 42 min and i proceeded on with another battle with the hot sun.
Looped around the big grass patch in front of BK MRT, distance of 2.2 km. It was basically endurance with the sunlight hitting hard on my body. I raised my tempo to 4.50 min/km. My first loop clocked 10 min 17 sec, and then 9 min 52 sec. I stopped from there and finished the distance of 20 km. Not totally satisfied with my mileage for this month, clocking lower and lower. It seemed like i have 1 month of tampering … hahahaha …
16th Nov 2008. Distance: 20 km.
Ong's running log with Safra 