My performance had been dropping down recently, in terms of mileage, pace and speed. No hunger for a run anymore, looking to skip the run but felt guilty after that. My left leg injury made the whole situation worse. My last best run came right after the Bay Run. Clocking sub-54 mins for the Portsdown Rd 13 km. It was the all time best ever. From there on, everything went downhill. I have the lowest mileage last week since April, clocking under 50 km. I was unable to clock under 4.25 min/km for both my 28 km progressive long run at Sentosa, managing 4.36 min/km pace and 4.42 min/km pace. It was the worst pace since June. In my recent tempo run, my pace dropped off 10 – 12 sec and feeling very difficult to maintain the tempo.
In my running life, i faced a lot of ups and downs. This burnout is nothing compared to the multiple gout attacks. First of all, i need to recover from my left leg problem and regain confidence. I used the traditional way of recovering from a fall, applying ‘zam-bak’. The medicine worked wonders, no wonder the old folks had been using it for years. I applied it for few days and hard-rubbed the affected area. Now I am almost free of pain. I found it really amazing after trying out several medicines.
Yesterday Trevor planned the toughest TB hill loops, combining the stairs and the hill run. I did a 3 km warm-up on the treadmil and then another 1 km up to the TB carpark. 4 new recruits joined us for the run. 8 loops was my target, very conservative from the start. As the loops went by, i got faster and faster. Wen Long, as usual, helped me on the pace. Both of us pushed hard. He followed closely behind me, allowing me to lead. I knew i needed a good time to regain some confidence. It was the first time for weeks i ran without any disturbances from my left knee. I clocked 38 mins for all the hard 8 loops.
Coming back to my training plan, i will slowly resume back my mileage. The next focus will be my diet. I will closely watch my gout conditions and at the same time, i am going to boost up my blood flow. Getting your body in great health is the important training in every runner’s training program.
Ong's running log with Safra 
Take care Ong. Agree, getting good health is an important build up. Can I ask how do we enhance blood flow with diet?
Brian, it’s simply watching what we eat. We can discuss further during our training session.
jiayou jiayou jiayou! u hv worked hard for long stretch of time hence a little tired but i’m sure you’re not too far from ur goal! just e last steps 😀
n i think alot of ppl realized u r getting faster & faster! ur hard work is showing 😀
Zhilei, thanks for your encouragement. 🙂
You are right. Working hard for so long, it tends to have some setbacks. I need to overcome these barriers to cross over to another level. I had been seeing you working hard on your core strength. Great to see you back!