Playing Catch-Up
Hospital duties left me feeling bloated and cranky. I missed days of running, consumed every little thing in sight due to sheer boredom (from Boy Bawang to butong pakwan), and temporarily lost the ability to sweat within the four walls of that tiny air-conditioned room.
The only training I got this week was a measly 30 min run on the treadmill (which I abhor) last Tuesday. So, today I woke up with a mission: to get the most out of my training during the little time I had this morning—the time between dropping the two kids at school until my little girl got out.
There was no time for dilly-dallying; I was not willing to waste even a minute of travel time that could be used for running instead, so I parked my car at a convenient location, Festival Mall. For the first time, I explored new territory crossing the main road towards Palms Country Club.
Woooah, it was like discovering a new track behind my backyard. I know a lot of runners and bikers who frequent the area, but I never felt the need to run here as I was quite satisfied with my regular running route. Now, I know I can try this route once in a while to spice my training up a bit.
This area has wide, clear roads lined with trees to shade you from the sun. Traffic is low with some roads impassable to cars where one can actually run on the middle of the entire street. It isn’t as secure as running inside a village, but there are security guards all over the place. Most roads are flat so you can practice speedwork here or run easy, but if you’re craving for hill training, just run towards Palms Country Club for a long, challenging uphill climb that’ll leave you feeling exhausted.
I ran around this area for a satisfying 10k with a time of 57.40 at an average pace of 5:46 min/km. Then, this runner-on-a-mission dropped by SOS Village to register for the Hope in Motion 10k race this Sunday. I jumped in the car and proceeded to the village pool where I managed to squeeze in a quick 400m swim in 14 mins before showering and picking up the little girl.
Mission accomplished. Now for my next goal: a massage. That should be a whole lot easier to achieve.
