Singapore

October is upon us, which means, a slew of upcoming birthdays. Growing up October was a fun month, there were so many birthdays. It also means quite a few public holidays for us in Hong Kong. Feels a bit strange not being back in Sydney this year round, but managed to extend the long weekend and spend it in Singapore for the F1. This time of the year is always a lot of fun in Singapore, the energy of the city is second to none. This year, there's a bit of a quorum, the confluence of a crypto event with the F1 means that a lot of people are in town. Good catch ups and another year of not actually watching the F1 live. 

Sydney Marathon

I still get goosebumps thinking about the race. What an amazing experience and day! So grateful and appreciative of the family coming out for the support, as well as the support from all those random spectators. With any race, I had a series of targets. 1) Finish the race. 2) Do it  under 4 hours 3). Do it under 3h30mins. I ended up landing somewhere between 2 and 3.

What surprised me was that I didn't blow up and the amazing atmosphere of the crowds and the support. My carb load was on point, supplemented by some delicious rice crispies (thanks kids!). If I could change one thing it would be to fly in a day earlier, my sleep is so sensitive to any disturbance that I couldn't for the life of me string together a decent night's sleep. The day before I was trying to conserve energy, and the plan was to pop by the expo, grab my bib and even a running belt and then retire to my parents sofa. 

I woke up at 5 am on Sunday and headed down to consume the standard bagel and Maurten's drink mix, and one LMNT electrolytes packet, and I was off to Sydenham to catch the metro over to Crow's Nest/Victoria Cross station. The metro is packed, runners everywhere. The excitement builds. Of course I'm running late, the lines to the toilets are long and I make it to my chute only to miss all the pacers. In any case the conditions are perfect, the temperature at the start line is somewhere between 8-10 degrees. 

I started off a bit slower than expected, there were a few niggles and it took me a few ks to get into rhythm. By then I was a fair bit off my pace so decided that I would just enjoy the race. At the 25 km mark I was feeling good, pace was on point and was starting to settle into the race, high-fiving the spectators, and just soaking in the absolutely amazing atmosphere. At the 35 km mark I was expecting the dreaded bonk, but it never came. 10 gels, 2 crampfixes. Cruised over the line in 3hours and 38 minutes. All that painful training through the Hong Kong summer paid off. Super happy! 

Highlights include running over the Sydney Harbour Bridge just after sunset, running through King's Cross, seeing the girlfriend multiple times along the route. Seeing support from Ket and Heng out near Anzac parade, and then see the family at the finish line! The definition of a runner's high. I'm hooked! When's the next one?

The long run

Finally clicked over the 30 km mark. Prior to signing up for this event the furthest I'd ever run was 21 km. It's all relative where 20 km feels like a non-event. Roughly 2 hours (for me), but with this week's run of 34 kms, it took me just under 4 hours. That's a long time to be out running. Aside from actually running that long, the other challenge is finding long enough routes.

Have found some decent routes in excess of 30 kms in Sydney, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The challenge with Singapore and Hong Kong is that during this time of the year, it gets hot, quick. So even starting at 6 am, but the time you've wrapped up it's almost 10 am and it's warm. 

Final block

The final block. Maxing out at 34 kms, although I cheekily jammed in a 35km. Annoyingly, headphones died 1 hour in, so was just running out with no entertainment.

Probably a bit too much travel, but managed to bang out 34 km in Singapore at McRitchie.

Found a nice sports ground in Siu Sai Wan.

It's a real test. There is an element of boredom that kicks in and excitement, but mostly boredom. The nice thing is that most of these runs are are gentle 'conversational' pace. The challenging thing is that it's the middle of summer in Hong Kong and chaffing and wet shoes are almost mandatory. The other challenging thing is finding a route that is long enough. So far I know from North Point to Shau Kei Wan, is approximately 3.8 kms to the Museum of the War of Resistance, just under 8 kms return. North Point promenade, through to Sun Yat Sen is around 8 kms, or 16 kms return. Continuing through to Kennedy Town, the end of the Praya is around 12 kms. There's a nice loop up Mount Davis down through Caine along through to Bowen down to Victoria Park which is around 30 km. or 34 km, around the South Side, to South Bay back to Ocean Park. There's times I wish there were other people I could run with.

 

The pain cave

It's funny, when I signed the lease to this apartment, the main draw cards were the modern facilities. Namely the pool and sauna. As it would turn out, the facility that I've utilised the most and probably the most fortunate to have access to is the gym. Specifically the treadmills, which throughout the Hong Kong summer has been nothing short of a saviour when it comes to getting mileage in through typhoons, and blistering summer days. Conditions aside, it's also been invaluable for dialling into those speed sessions. Think intervals, tempos, all in a controlled environment. No dodging cars, waiting for lights, or dealing with uneven surfaces.

This is a sneak peak into my pre-work sessions. Down into the gym before sunrise. There's always one other regular I see at that hour. A lady who's on the stair master. I have a favourite treadmill, 1st from the right. It's a Life Fitness. There's four things I always bring down. 1) Music, my earphones. 2). Water bottle, in the right cup holder 3). Portable fan,  on the left handle 4) Hand towel, in the left cup holder. It's a familiar sight. Sometimes I'll have a gel. After the session the area is always splattered in perspiration. Gross. My easy pace is somewhere between speed 9.0 (or 6:40 min/km), or 9.5 (6:20 min/km), always with an incline of 1.0%.

I think I've watched all of the running videos. I like the ones through cities and in national parks. Sometimes I wonder what it be like to actually run these routes in real life instead of virtually. Maybe that could be my next goal?

Hong Kong Q2 Dump

Not a whole lot to report here. In between the travel between Singapore and Sydney it's really just been sparse amounts of socialising and a huge amount of running. Four times a week, Saturday easy run, Sunday long run with intervals and threshold between. Some highlights include, MTG, Farewells, Dragon Boat Festival Zhongzi, Coldplay, long runs with visitors to Hong Kong, Hikes, Blood donation, Jimmy O Yang, and Udatsu Sushi, Lei Yue Mun fish markets with cousin.

Running journal

I'm at the gym, do my quick stretch, hamstring sweeps, external rotation hip pulls, pogo jumps, hip circles. Small towel, water bottle, set the treadmill to speed 9, or 6:40 min/km and we're off. I trot along under fluorescent lights, sound-less Bloomberg TV on the screen. My heart rate is at 120 beats per minute. My cadence is 165 steps per minute. It should sound like a metronome. I'm hoping to keep both these metrics stable for the next 30 minutes. That is the goal of this session. The Easy Run. Zone 2, aerobic, or "with oxygen". I have mitocondria production and running efficiency at the forefront of my mind. That's why I'm doing this.

"Running is so boring" or "Running on a treadmill is even worse" - I used to think this way. It's all about reframing. Why are you running? Is it for "exercise"? For me, I've take to treadmill running as I can control the environment. rain, hail (we don't really get hail in Hong Kong) or Shine (we get plenty of shine). It's a fixed environment - 6:40 km/min. It's base building.

I'm also under the idea - do uncomfortable things, building resilience, find a way to meditate on those uncomfortable things. Then the magic happens, they become less boring, they become easier, they become enjoyable.