Telok Blangah Hill Run on 17 Oct`06 (Tue)

After Sunday's Esplanade-ECP Run, I was concerned abt the build up of body temperarure under hot and humid weather -- first time encountering such extreme response from my body. Searched on the net and found these 2 interesting articles that help me to be more conscious of my body and it's reaction/response :-
Running in The Heat
All Systems Go

tktan has been experiencing cessation of sweating during our runs -- which resulted in his body and CPU being heated up. Sounds like a mild heat stroke and he is wise to stop and cool down. As for myself, I would attribute the last Sunday's body heat up to a few factors :-
1) my Nike dri-fit top was unable to pull moisture away from my body and felt sticky & uncomfortable
2) my camelbak contributed to the heating up of the body and the WARM isotonic was not welcoming when all I could think of was ICE!
3) my new Inspire2 felt heavy, should have seasoned with more shorter runs before emarking on 30km+ run
4) kept to a tempo pace even though feeling hot, should have slow down.


Telok Blangah Hill is the last of the 4 hills that I had yet to try. So, I planned a route that covers 3 hills -- Kent Ridge Park, Telok Blangah Hill and Mt Faber. To prepare for the 2-hour run, suggested to tktan to try hyperdrate -- drink 2-4 cups of water 30 mins before the run (he drank a can of coke with salt to aid hydration). To have COLD isotonic drink on the run, he was gonna try putting ice into his camelbak -- cool! I would be running light with no camelbak and wearing my old trusted Inspire2 :) We proceed with the run despite the haze @ PSI 105 and prepare to stop if there was any discomfort. Hope the trees on the hills would filter out the haze. Took our usual route to Kent Ridge Park via Pasir Panjang and South Bouna Vista Road. It had been 3 weeks since I last run the killer slope -- felt the calves tightening along the way! Recovered our breath on the downslopes and cut thru Science Hub to Portsdown Flyover. Hmm, the haze seemed to diffuse. Turn right to Queensway, another right to Alexandra Rd and left to Depot Rd. Nice stretch along Depot Rd with the tree lined road and cool breezes -- not hint of soot smell. Next, we turned right to Henderson Rd and there, the entrance of Telok Blangah Hills. Recalled my previous experience during adventure race -- we walked up the entire slope! This time, I was determined to run up and focus on my forefoot landing and not looking up at the slope -- 2 uncles walking down cheered me on with "jia you". At the car park, caught up with tktan (as usual, he juz sped up) and saw a group of Safra MF runners doing their hill intervals. As we continued up the slope, waved to Bug and DR as they sped downhill. We completed the loop and on our way down, saw the whole group of Safra runners chiong up the hills again! Felt good that I was able to maintain a steady pace up the slope and calves not tighen at all.

We carried on down Henderson Rd and began the climb up our last hill, Mt Faber via Morse Rd. It was a long long stretch but I persisted with tktan leading way infront. Both of us felt good enough to go for another round the Mt Faber Loop(1.5km) -- I tried to match my stride with tktan's on the upslope but felt that I needed extra energy to push off the legs. Guess he has stronger thighs! After flying down the downslope from Mt Faber, we had to change to lower gear and run up Lower Delta Road to Tiong Bahru Plaza. Phew, finally the end, Tiong Bahru Food Centre, was near! tktan was having a stiff neck from his stiff left arm. Urged him on with "Juz another street" -- erhm, actually 2 more streets down the road. He was ready to stop at the bus-stop opposite Tiong Bahru Plaza but was surprised that I continued running and gave chase! The run end @ Lim Liak Street -- distance abt 19.1km @ 1hr 51min. Thanks to tktan for the mobile water station -- the COLD isotonic drink did wonders! Will try that for my next LSD :)

After cool down, we had a quick dinner at Tiong Bahru Food Centre -- lor mee for tktan and chwee kueh & rice roll for me. Hmm, food so-so -- the toppings for chwee kueh has dried prawns but the rice cake not as tender as the stall @ Clementi Food Centre. We took Bus 33 back to Kent Ridge and reached KRGH @ 10.20pm -- oops, locker service was closed! Well, will be back tomorrow for NUS Hill Run - return locker key and towel then :)



P.S. Glad that we proceed with the run -- indeed the air was much better in dense greenery! It was good run and I felt good not pushing hard & enjoyed the slopes :) Did steal glances of the nite scenery from top of Telok Blangah Hills and Mt Faber.

Route : Start @ KRGH -> Pasir Panjang Rd -> South Bouna Vista Rd -> Portsdown Flyover -> Queensway -> Alexandra Rd -> Depot Rd -> Henderson Rd -> Telok Blangah Hills -> Henderson Rd -> Telok Blangah Rd -> Morse Rd -> Mt Faber -> Lower Delta Rd -> Tiong Bahru Rd -> End @ Tiong Bahru Food Centre

Distance : 19.1km
Time : 1hr 51min (including traffic light stops)
Avg pace : 5:49min/km