This afternoon, I went for a time trial organised by Macritchie Runners (MR25) club. Hui Koon blogged yesterday that he was going for this, and I thought that it was a splendid idea, so I pounced on the opportunity. I had always wanted to qualify as a member of this 30-year-old running club, which hosts the annual year-end, ultra-marathon (which I, missed last year). I decided to skip my 90K ride this morning, in favour of fresher legs and a more repaired body. If yesterday’s sub-22:00 5K run (after the laggon swim) at Sentosa with Sin Guan was anything to go by, I felt confident of holding a 4:30/K pace for the fairly rolling, trail route. The cutoff time for the time trial was, and still is, 25 minutes. Time-trials are held every two months, so do consider if you are an avid runner.
I almost missed the registration time, as no cabs were available in my vicinity. Eventually, I was fortunate to hail down a new weekend relief driver and we made our way there with no preamble.
The rabbits of the pack scurried away into the burrow of the popular 5K trail, while the rest of us hung on to manage some semblance of integrity. I kept an easy pace, with a studied eye on the gravel-strewn road ahead. Weekend runners kept to the side of the trail, obviously made aware of the charging calvary in race-bibs. I cautioned a young runner about his dangling shoelace, and he replied ‘never mind’; I overtook him a few hundred metres later as his shoelace continued to flip about – it was his lace against time, I presume. I saw a runner behind fall on a slippery portion, and I hope that he was alright.
I took about 11:45 at the U-turn point, so decided to stop mucking around and punch the pedal. Having overtaken a few runners on my return leg, I think I did a negative split. I was requested to flip my bib around, as I inched towards to finish line; in doing so, I may have added a few seconds, which did not matter much as I met the target. I signed up as a member of MR25, immediately, after my friend from Team Fatbird, Ashley handed the form to me. The results showed me in 33rd place out of a mixed field of 76 registrants. I came in at under-22:30 according to my watch, after making my way up the field of enthusiastic and apprehensive runners, including a dozen or more teenagers who knew not the words ‘slow down’.
I had a chat with several friends including expatriate Derek Lu, Andrew (Hui Koon’s running buddy, and 3:06 marathoner), and Ashley Ng. Interestingly, all of us were not members of this serious running group, and I believed all of us qualified. Congratulations, my fleet-footed friends! My next target: sub-19:30 for the same 5K course, to qualify for Elite Veteran status. I will need to include trail runs, interval and hill work to hit this new lactate threshold.
Time trials are useful as part of our training lead-up to our A-races. You can do time trials by yourself or with a team, over your three triathlon disciplines once every 7-10 days. You need to be very fit, to do it more often – weekly. Such tests are useful for assessing your training progress and race performance. Time trials at work can be applied as such: how much can you accomplish in an hour, or a day? Complete a meeting in an hour (thus MINUTES of the meeting) and not drag on unnecessarily. How soon can you complete a report within a self-imposed time? How fast can you clean your bike after a rainy ride?
1 comment:
Hey, Andrew asked you to train with him if you are keen. Only thing is that they all run at MacRitchie/NYP most of the time. Anyway, I think you will need to run the same route more often in order to push the time down.
As for me, I am happy with just qualifying for the club. It was just too painful for me.
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