k r i s a n d r o

A Holland Village resident from Singapore called in to a radio station and asked uncultured heartlanders to stay clear of cultured Holland Village.

To aid a fellow Singaporean, I have helped her define the boundaries so that you uncultured, manner-less, loud-mouthed, Bugis Street cheap clothes wearing people from heartlands such as Ang Mo Kio, Yishun, Toa Payoh and Bukit Batok will understand her plight and keep to your zones.

Keep to your zones like you should people! Stop tainting Holland Village!

I had an interesting 15.5km long jog this morning.

There was this huge tree that had fallen from Bishan Park, right smack onto the pedestrian road on the park outskirts. Not sure when it fell but it was about 6am when I saw it and I hope nobody was hurt. It then started to rain pretty heavily about 4-5km into my run; the kind of rain that keeps pounding into my eyeballs, disrupting my vision and threatening to dislodge my contact lens. There was also this ghostly wail of a voice that made me jump out of my skin which turned out to be this stealthy cyclist with an umbrella trying to get me out of his way.

Dude, if you are reading this, please install a bicycle bell. I don’t get frightened easily but that was mighty scary. On another note, you have awesomely oiled gears. I had NO INKLING that you were behind me.

Despite dealing with the above, the jog was extremely comfortable. I risked not bringing any fluids along for such a long jog but I didn’t need any in the end. Not that I was drinking from the rain or the flooded drains like some savage but I didn’t sweat much due to the cold weather. Like an over-clocked CPU with good cooling, I guess my bodily engine also enjoyed the dropped temperatures and my timing and level of post-run-panting proved it.

I enjoyed the jog immensely and was reminded of how painful it was to jog/run long distances back in 2009 when I started it all. During runs, I would start to experience sharp jabs of pain from plantar fasciitis in my left sole, right knee aches and the biggest ailment any runner will face; the nagging mind telling me to stop.

“Stop. The pain is so sharp. Stop. Your legs are tired. Stop. Go home.”

So what changed?

3 things: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, training knowledge & Vibram Five Fingers.

The book gave me purpose and with purpose, comes joy. The knowledge allowed me to embrace safe & productive things like training in heart rate zones. The Vibram Five Fingers simply allowed me to run like how humans were made/designed to; pain free.

I may have started quite late on this journey and still have a lot to learn but I am pretty sure I have a long and enjoyable road ahead; preferably with bell equipped cyclists and upright trees.

My training has been smooth so far after making a full recovery from Pneumonia. Come tomorrow, I would have hit 146km for the past 37 days with about 420km to go before Sundown 2011 on 28th may, 2011.

Looking at my training data, I am very close to the peak of my fitness last year and the road ahead, beyond 240km, is pretty much uncharted waters for me as I have never ran this much before. Although I’ve been reading up on training, the journey of every training cycle is very much a learning process and an ongoing experiment on the limits of the human body. Single human body; my body to be exact.

History (for all of the past 2 years) has proven that I tend to hit a wall of bad health or injury before races but the same history also show that I push my boundaries of fitness each time I tried like the stubborn man I am. So with fingers crossed, I hope that I make it this time for a race and shatter the shameful personal best of 2 hrs 43mins for a 21km run in 2009.

On other news, my trusty pair of Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) KSO have accumulated 568km of mileage so far since I 1st wore them January last year.

Pic taken before I put another 5km in them

The rubber of the “toes” are worn off in quite a few spots where I land and push off during runs and I will have to retire them as soon as my socks show through. As minimalistic as I am, I don’t need holes in my socks. Despite the sadness of the inevitable parting with my very 1st pair of VFFs, the KSO has served me well and seeing that the recommended lifespan of regular shoes are between 500 – 800km, this pair of KSO has lived a pretty good life.

Stay strong my Vibram Five Fingers KSO! With any luck, you’ll live to see yourself break the 600km mark.