What comes to your mind when I mentioned Bedok Reservoir?
Peaceful?
Greenery?
Water?
Or something else?
Well, a few unfortunate incidents took place here recently and I believed many people start to view this place differently.
I always do my runs here and I will still run here. Not only is it near my home but it is also a place with memories.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
A Japanese elderly woman once shared with people on her secret of longevity, “We must be grateful and remember to say THANK YOU to people who helped us.”
I would like to say thanks too!
Thank you very much to Felicia and Tang Ling from Tiger Balm and Ronda from Fulford PR. I bet there are a lot more people involved in sending me to New York City, thank you to you too!
Without you guys, I won’t even be dreaming of running in NYC and now I am actually leaving very very soon.
THANKS!
I wonder what is inside…
It is from USA and it is…
The Team for Kids singlet!
Photo: ING New York City Marathon
I really like to blog. I like to share with others what I have in mind and I also like to listen to others.
Ok, you may know that I am going to run the NYC Marathon - many thanks to Tiger Balm ACTIVE – and I will be leaving for the Big Apple very very soon. And now, I am super duper excited that the organiser has chosen my blog as one of the few blogs to cover the marathon.
Isn’t that cool?
I can’t wait to run the NYC marathon!
If it’s not fun, why do it? ^^V
I saw this video some time back and it is definitely something inspiring to push me forward.
As I prepare for the NYC Marathon, I am looking at the stories of people who run marathons.
Do you need a reason to run a marathon?
Supermodel Christy Turlington will be running the NYC Marathon too. Hope I get to see her along the route. ^^V
Source: XinMSN
Great, you've signed up for a big race but do you have any idea how to complete it in a way that won’t leave
you suffering for days afterwards? Below are a few key points you can use to put in place the structure you
need to reach your goal.
1. Determine Your Current Fitness Level
Most physicians check a few key metrics when you go for your annual check-up. Blood pressure, heart rate and
temperature among others depending on your age and medical history. Similarly, there are a couple of key
things you should measure if you want to know your current physical fitness:
a. Lactate Threshold – Whenever you exercise at light intensities, your body produces and clears lactate acid.
As the intensity increases there comes a point when you are no longer able to clear it and it overflows into
your bloodstream where it will quickly fatigue your muscles. The goal of training is to improve your ability
to clear lactate acid at higher and higher intensities over time. The lactate threshold test is a 30 minute test
consisting of 5 x 5 minute stages each at increasing intensity. During the 1 minute rest between each stage, a
small finger prick blood sample is taken and analysed. From this your lactate threshold and training intensity
heart rate zones can be established.
b. Fuel Efficiency – Fat provides twice as much energy per gram as carbohydrate and you can store 50,000
calories of fat in the body while only 2,500 calories of carbohydrate. By improving your body’s ability to use fat
as energy, you will not only be able to manage your weight effortlessly, you will be able to maintain a higher
pace for longer time. The fuel efficiency test is a 20 minute test that looks at how your body uses energy and
from this your ideal heart rate range for burning fat can be established.
2. Plan Early
Your success lies in coming up with (and executing) an effective training plan. A marathon training plan should
be from 16 – 20 weeks in duration, depending on your experience level and should have a minimum of 4 runs
per week for beginners through to 6 runs per week for more experienced runners. Will you fail if you don’t
apply these numbers? No, not necessarily, but your chances of becoming injured, ill or not racing at your best
go up dramatically. Ask for the help of a coach or more experienced runner if you are not confident to put a
plan together yourself.
3. Train the Right Intensity at the Right Time
This may surprise you, but a marathon is not a “fast” event. Even for the elite running under 2 hr 10 mins, this
is not a fast pace compared to what they can run for 5km or 10km. You need to reflect this in your training and
only show your body the pace at which you hope to complete the event. Any faster, and your body will not
understand what you want it to do. Your body is a machine so it is up to you to programme it correctly.
4. Get Comfy Gear
A marathon is a long distance and the training is tough. Be sure that you invest in the right gear so that you are
as comfortable as possible during training and the event. Here are a few things you will need:
a. Shoes – Make sure that you invest in a good quality pair of running shoes that suit your foot type. If you are
unsure on your foot type there is plenty of information online and you can ask the sales assistant at your local
shop (although take their advice carefully)
.
b. Socks – Having a good pair of socks will help reduce the chances of blisters and abrasions.
c. Shorts & Singlet - Choose something with minimal seams so that you avoid abrasions and for guys, the dreaded bloodied nipples.
d. Heart Rate Monitor - A heart rate monitor may be the best investment you ever make but only if you know
how to use it. Generic formulas to calculate heart rate are not effective so make sure you invest in a round of
testing (see point 1 above) to establish your ideal training intensity zones.
5. Warming up and cooling down
Whenever you are taking part in any sport warming up before and cooling down after are two vitally important
parts exercise to ensure against sustaining any injury. When competing in such an intense activity like the
marathon this is of greater significance as your body is enduring a continued strain for a prolonged period of
time, so adequate preparation and cool down is vital to make sure you do not sustain any injury.
a. Warm up – This is done to prepare your body for the activity you are about to undertake. The warm up
should focus on the muscles that are about to be used in the physical activity. Tiger Balm ACTIVE Muscle
Rub is best used to help warm up the muscles as it helps the muscle prepare for intense activity by slowly
warming it up along with the stretching.
b. Cool Down – This is done to ease the body from intense exercise to a state of resting or near resting. It helps to remove cramps and stiffness that may set in after exercise. Tiger Balm ACTIVE Gel is scientifically designed to help combat fatigued muscles and aids recovery by providing relief for muscle aches.
Think you know how to tie your shoelaces? Well, I do have a tip that you may want to consider. I mean, one of the worse things that runners (or rather I) hate would be to have the shoelaces coming loose during a run.
So, how do I do it?
It is very simple. All you need to do is to double twist the free ends together before tying the knot.
Believe it or not, it WORKS!!!!
Try it yourself!
I kind of like this signage – simple and straightforward.
“Dear friends,
I have gone running. Please do not call, just leave a text will do.
Regards,
Steven”
I hope I can find the real thing somewhere, somehow.
*Just realised that this is part of Nike Women’s marketing, well I think it suits guys too!
It has been raining in the morning for the past few days. I had wanted to go to Bedok Reservoir to run but was really really tired. Only managed to do 30 minutes of cardio before I called it a day.
When I have class at 8.30am, I will have to walk up at 6am to get ready and leave my house by 6.30am.
That was what happened today. Maybe I should consider staying in the hostel instead.
25 more days to the New York City Marathon. I wonder how cold will it be when I am there.
Hmmm…
Well… I didn’t get to run the Nike Run this morning because I was too slow in registering for it.There were only 3000 slots for each category and BOOMZ they were all taken up.
Nonetheless, I still managed to clock 20km today. It was at a comfortable pace of 10km/hr plus minus and I enjoyed it!
Not much time left till the New York City Marathon but I am sure I will be able to prepare myself well for it.
Now back to my assignments… ^^V
I was at Racers’ Toolbox this afternoon for two tests – Lactate test and Fat Burning Test. And here’s a short clip of what I got to do for the Lactate test.
For the Fat Burning test, I had to put on a mask to run.
And here are the results…
Fot the Lactate test, I had to run on the treadmill for 5 sets of 5 minutes with 1 minute of break in between. The speed that I ran are 10km/hr, 11km/hr, 12km/hr, 13km/hr and 14km/hr.
Lactic acid is produced in our body all the time but it will be more significant when we exercise. When this happens, our ability to perform (in this case, running) will be affected.
Hence, from the graph above, the effects from Lactic acid affects me from 13km/hr. A good speed for me to maintain running the 26.2miles would be 11km/hr – 12km/hr.
Fat is always the best choice of energy source when we run a marathon. This is simply because we have a lot of fats as compared to the other sources such as carbohydrates and proteins. For the Fat burning test, I ran on the treadmill from 6km/hr to 14km/hr progressively over 20 minutes.
We were looking at the speed of 11km/hr to 12km/hr that we identified earlier on from the Lactate test. From the graph above, fat was the ultimate source of energy at this range of speed and this is good.
Doing the tests at Racers’ Toolbox was interesting. I didn’t know about my conditions until I took the tests. Now I know better what kinds of trainings I should focus on.
More photos and videos to come, soon!
Source: Channelnewsasia
Seriously speaking, I am really not used to seeing me on CNA. Kind of strange but well, it is pretty COOL!!!!
I am getting all excited about the marathon which is in another 4 weeks time.
I am going to Racers’ Toolbox on Tuesday for a lactate and fuel efficiency test. Not very sure how are they going to do it but I think it will be interesting. It has been a long while since I last did a VO2 Max test.
Signed up for the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2011 already?
If not, you still have one more day to do so before it closes tomorrow!
If you already did, there is an option for you to collect your RACE PACK on 1st Dec (Thursday) before everybody else. That is, if you register your interest to collect on this date, together with 19,999 other runners, you might also stand a chance to win a iPad 2.
Registration to collect your RACE PACK (on 1st Dec) starts on 6th October 2011. First come first served, if you are slow, you can come back again from 2nd to 3rd Dec!
The Straits Times (28 Sept 2011) Page B11!
Once again, thank you very much to Team Tiger Balm ACTIVE for selecting me to represent them for the marathon in NYC. I am all excited to do the run.
Run your own race!
If you don’t do it, there won’t be much impact and life goes on.
If you do it, there will be a lot of impact and life might get more exciting!
We only live once, “Life is short, Live Hard”!
As much as I fear the cold, I want to challenge myself and go for the Everest Base Camp trip. Everything is confirmed now and I should be somewhere up on Mount Everest in end December.
I am still convincing myself that everything will be alright… the coldness will not be that cold… brrr….
Anyway, Team Tiger Balm ACTIVE will only announce the winner to represent them for the New York City Marathon 2011 next week. I hope I still stand a chance to represent them as I really want to run this marathon.
The ‘LIKE’s for each video are not the final scores and there will be other judging criteria, hence, I hope I can score more points in the other areas. Crossing my fingers now…
The assignments season has come and everybody is busy with assignments and more assignments. Once we get passed this season, Spring will be here and it will be time to P A R T A Y !!!!
If you are not aware, I am in the running for the one spot to represent Team Tiger Balm ACTIVE to go to New York City for the NYC 2011 Marathon in November.
One of the criteria is to gather as many ‘LIKES’ on the Team Tiger Balm ACTIVE’s Facebook page. There are seven finalists in total and all of us have reasons to go.
Please have a look at my video and ‘LIKE’ my video. It is currently the tenth post on Team Tiger Balm ACTIVE’s Facebook page. Please give me your ‘LIKE’! Thank you!
This is a really cool video! Maybe if I have done something like this for the contest, I will be selected for the NYC Marathon 2011.
Well, I also believe in my run. You should too!
Mr Active is born with the ability to relieve muscle pain. When Mr Active is around, you bet you will recover in no time to play, to run or to fly!
Mr Active goes around taking the MRT, helping out those who are tired from all the standing.
Mr Active also visits the Raffles Place. His ability works like magic on the sore necks as well!
Mr Active hopes to go to New York City to help out those in need in NYC!
Will he ever reach NYC?
To be continued…
