Momentum

Ok, it’s a tad longer than 34KM, ‘robbing’ us of 6KM, or possibly, just to make us feel good. You can see the actual map at the OCBC Cycle Singapore website together with a streetview of the route, except for the internal areas of the East Coast area.

I’ve signed up for the 40KM challenge with my brother this year, it’s well within the range I can go without stopping for anything except for the occasional fuel ups, with either a Soy Joy type snack bar or a Hammer Gel type gunk.

I have the hand crafted BikeRouteToaster version of the route that you can download here or get from the BikeRouteToaster Course I created if you’d like to download for your Garmin GPS.

According to the official map, the actual route is subject to changes, which could mean that they might give us that 6KM after all, who knows

Download (GPX):

OCBC40KMChallenge

This month has been very productive. I’ve lost about 1.5kg, and have done quite a bit of workouts. I’m starting to cross train a bit, adding jogging to my mix of exercises. I’ve never felt better.

There’s no MTB session at the last two weeks of this month as Ramadan is here, and we can’t go do the trails at night, although I’d love to try

September will not be easy to lose some weight I believe, as Aidil Fitri is coming, and that will usually lots of greasy food for like a week or two. Still, I’m not backing down, and I’m planning to complete week 2, 3 and 4 of the Couch to 5K program. To counter this, I’m going to add some core workouts on my recovery days, instead of watching the TV So, wish me luck for September. I’m going to need it.

Activities:

• Hiking – Bukit Timah Hike with colleagues
• Casual Walking – Kent Ridge to Hort Park walk with family
• Mountain Biking – MTB @ Bukit Timah
• Speed Walking – Old Upper Thomson Walk
• Road Cycling – Training Route – Admiralty Rd West
• Road Cycling – Training ride – 40 km under 2 hours
• Mountain Biking – Bukit Timah Trail IV
• Hiking – Treetop walk
• Mountain Biking – More Bukit Timah trails – V
• Hiking – MacRitchie Hike
• Hiking – MacRitchie Hiking Loop
• Road Cycling – Training Ride – Mandai Loop
• Street Running – Training Run – C25K W1D1
• Speed Walking – Walk before break fast
• Street Running – Training Run – C25K W1D2
• Trail Running – Training Run – C25K W1D3
• Street Running – Training Run – C25K W1, final day
• Casual Walking – Park to park
• Road Cycling – Night riding, reservoir loop
• Street Running – Training Run – C25K W2D1
• Casual Walking – Foot pod calibration

Couch to 5k – C25K Running Program.

I’m incorporating C25K running program into my workouts. This is to add more strength and endurance into my biking, which I love more than running. I do have to work out a lot more than walking or hiking into my standard workout routines.

The C25K is a 9 week program that eases you to run either 5k, or 30 minutes non-stop. I’m not sure if I can actually run for that length or the amount of time, so I’ll just jog instead.

I’ve completed the first week, and so far, it’s been easy going. I believe week two is going to be the same as well, as I can definitely put out more than the required amount. I know some people start at week three or four, but I’d rather start slow and try to put this in my standard routine. I love the fact that the whole thing is just 30 minutes.

My first day C25K was almost a disaster, as I ran too fast for one minute, and walked for the 90 seconds of recovery time. See: C25K W1D1 I ended up with DOMS and doing normal things like going down the stairs, or even walking, can be rather painful on my thighs. With a bit of yoga (Heavy Legs on the Wall pose) I managed to ease a lot of the pain.

Time for some professional help. I head over to Podrunner Intervals to help me with my quest. The music, well, not really my liking, but I’m more into the tempo, and the fact they have it down the C25K program makes it a wonderful companion. The next three C25K runs are a lot easier on my legs, and I’m loving it. Also, the fact that my 140bpm (70spm or steps per minute) are more like jogging, do help the cause, as I have no concept of pacing a jog. When I try to jog myself, I will go 80spm, and be extremely tired after that.

I do hope to continue with this program for the full 9 weeks, and possibly, follow Podrunner’s 8K and 10K programs, which are all 10 weeks each. Which means, if I follow these programs, I’ll probably take about 6 months or so, but hey, I have time

I will report as the weeks go by.

Graph of weight loss

So this month I lost about 1 kg. Not really exciting news, but at least I’m getting somewhere. If I keep this up, I would definitely get down to my ideal weight in 30 months

I did eat a lot this month, and I don’t regret eating. At least I would try to control the intake, or try to exercise it off by walking for about 30 minutes or more, depending on where I am.

I’ve done a lot of biking this month as well, both on and off road. I do seem to enjoy more of the off road stuff. It’s like DIY roller coaster. Some painful uphill climbs, and then the payoff of great downhill runs.

I will definitely try to lose a lot more weight if it is at all possible. I aim for at least a steady 2kg a month. It will be a challenge, as Ramadan is coming in mid-August and historically, I’ve gained weight during the fasting month, and it’s not easy to put in exercise as part of the regime. We’ll see what happens.

List of activities for this month:

• Bukit Timah Trail
• Cycle around Ubin
• Training Route – Mandai Road
• Walk after heavy dinner
• Kent Ridge MTB Park to Hort Park
• Pulau Ubin – Ketam Mountain Bike Park
• Walk around Lower Peirce Reservoir Park
• 10 mile ride around Admiralty
• Tampines PCN with a touch of Tampines Bike Park
• Tampines Mountain Bike Park
• Morning Hike @ Bukit Timah
• Sembawang Park, the easy way
• Posting a check
• The hills of Mandai Road
• Bukit Timah Hike III
• Bukit Timah Cycling Trail
• A night walk in Yishun
• Around the 3 Reserviors II
• A walk along Tampines Park Connector

Cycling Stats

Had some free time today, decided to head over to the MTB trail over at Tampines to see what the fuss is all about. When we got there, lots of cyclist are there having bits of fun. Some on BMXes, most on MTBs, and a bunch of P.E school uniformed kids are there as well with rented bikes I’m not sure where from. Looks like we could have some fun after all.

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Another Bukit Timah Hike with my colleagues.  Detailed path taken: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/8529515

This time round, we managed to find out that there’s a closed path that is not shown in the maps we’ve seen everywhere in the nature reserve.

Going through the Tiup Tiup Path, I see no reason why this area is not accessible to public. In fact, we do see quite a few people going through this trail as a natural part of their hike.

On the unmaintained Tiup Tiup Hut, we saw what the map once was, and hiking here, is at your own risk, I assume.

I guess we are not doing anything wrong here.
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After eating supper I decided to walk around Khatib/Yishun just to burn off some fats. The chicken rice is too rich, IMO.

A cyclist was annoyed at me as I was “hogging” the whole pedestrian walkway. I need to have a special rant on that.

Did this ride alone, travelled almost the same path as the previous one. This time round, I’m a lot faster, and less tired.

I have to plug the Cadence Revolution Podcast. Today’s post, #123, help me get past the second hour of the ride, taking me home safely, and with more energy. The second last song (cooldown song), however, contains some weird malay/indonesian lyrics that I found myself singing to

Around the 3 Reservoirs

I hate massages, I don’t think it will provide any benefits at all. This would be my third foot massage in my life. First one was probably 10 years ago, second one about 2 or 3 years back, and today, is the third. So I guess you can tell, I’m not thrilled at the prospect of getting my leg tickled, and tortured at the same time. Also, the fact that I will have difficulty walking the week after the foot massage makes it all the more undesirable.

Well, this time round it’s different though. I actually enjoyed the massage. Not only that, I don’t feel the after effects at all. No pain after that. I will have to update in a few days time to see if I still have the pain I felt the last time I went.

Will I do it again, I don’t know. Depends on how hard Nit drags me

Oh, what a great number, unfortunately, I’m too short to be 100kg. That’s what the weighing scale tells me this morning . What does 100kg mean to me?

• Over 20kg overweight
• 34.2 BMI
• I need to work out
• I need to eat less
• Tummy needs a trim
• Find a way to increase metabolic rate
• Set up a blog that documents this fact

So, there you go, that’s the aim of this blog. Starting from today, I’m serious about losing weight.