Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Back To The Trails...

By Frank

It's been 2 months since my last ultra. I did mentioned that I would certainly like a rest period before embarking on another one. But little did I expect, time flies and I'm facing my next ultra adventure soon in the next 1 month plus, The North Face 100 Singapore on 15 October 2011.

Organised by my colleagues over at Singapore, I will be representing Running Lab Malaysia to run the event. A little saddened by my last year's team mate Jamie's decision not to participate due to work reasons. Then I ask Yip about it and he agreed only to pull out due to the fact that the event clashes with another which he was more interested in. So I guess that was it. No TNF for me this year. But after a little pondering, I guess the company needs someone to represent it. I continued my hunt for a team mate and then Jeff came along. After getting his permission from his "home minister", he agreed and thus the formation of Team Running Lab Malaysia running the 100KM Duo distance (50KM each).



The route will only be revealed a week before the race and even myself has no idea on it. I do hope there will be a modification to it over last year's route to make things more interesting. I have no idea on which shoes to put on. Last year's experience with the Salomon was a terrible one. This time round, I do hope for something minimal though, but also did not omit out the choice of normal road running shoe as there's at least 50% tarmac at last year's edition.

My build up to it hasn't been a good one for I lack the time to train. Starting last week, I've tried to put in at least 5KM of running every night after arriving back at home from work. Yeap, that's starting my run around 10.30pm or so, with a hydration backpack strap on my back to simulate race day conditions. As for Jeff, based on his Facebook status, he has put in great effort and has been clocking on the distance. He will do really fine on race day should he stay injury free. Just that I wonder if he will wait for me at the finish line without crossing it like how I did last year. Hmm... Jeff *hint hint*

This morning despite waking up at 3am to prepare for my LSD, I decided to pass on it as my left knee didn't feel right. Perhaps too much squatting back at work while serving customers. But let's see about tomorrow. I really need to run, but with conditions like this, can someone tell me what to do? Aih....

3 comments:

Jamie said...

Jeff is super hardcore so your finishing time will be better this year! On the kneeling thingy, perhaps you can get a knee cup like the one rollerbladers and special forces wear? Provides heck of a lot of comfort.

Anonymous said...

Hey Frank, figure out which part of your knee is hurting first. Maybe a good idea to check with the chiropractor.

Geraldine

Frank Chong said...

Jamie: But I'm weaker this time so maybe final timing will be affected by me. Hahaha...

G: I'm old already. LOLz...