Mortimer's battle logs.

[Mortimer]

I ran to Mac Ritchie nature reserve to make the loop. I can't believe I can get to Mac Ritchie reservoir faster running on foot(48 min...and that was a 1 km detour for getting lost), then taking public transport >.< Granted I wasn't running leisurely because I was running late to meet my running group so it was a 6'40 pace, rather then a lazy 7 min ++. I think what really holds me back from going fast on trails is my footwear. For one I don't trust my shoes to maintain grip on downslopes, so I actually resorted to walking (better then slipping on a muddy slope imo). I chase up with the running group on more stable trails, or even running uphill >.< Yeah it's a gamble - to see if the person you're chasing has better hill skills then you do - but apparently I seem, despite my claims otherwise, fairly decent on hills. As in I can run up hills at a decent pace, and even accelerate uphill because its less slippery then downhill. Then because I don't trust the grip on my shoes, I do not throw caution to the winds and speed downhill like the rest of the running group. Sometimes I wonder if it's a mental barrier where I also don't trust my balance skills going downhill. But again maybe I really need to wait for my running slippers and see the grip before I can start attacking that mental barrier of not wanting to speed downhill.

[Mortimer]

Was kinda busy so disappeared for a couple of days.

 

Sunday:

15km at 5:46 pace. Flat road. But holy sh*t I didn't know I could pull THAT off.

 

Monday:

Went climbing but the new walls were all 6b and above, so I didn't get many wheres, except finishing a VB route that doesn't even bear mentioning since the moment I eyed the route I knew I'd automatically get up. I tried to do the blue squarish route again but after 2 fails, that wall got too busy with kids for me to make a third attempt.

 

Went for OCR Fit. It involved m-reps of 20 burpees + 400 m run between. I managed 200 burpees and 4km worth of running at the end of an hour? I was telling my husband 200 burpees wasn't as bad as some of the stuff they could come up with...esp since it was interspaced with running breaks. And you can kinda slack around while running...just jog instead.

 

Tuesday:

24km at 6:35 pace. *pats self happily on back*

[Mortimer]

Weds:

Went climbing and finished off the blue route again finally. Took 4 tries. Another climber gave advice to stick closer to the wall so I did that. 

 

Ran a bloody hilly course - 9km of it. Literally felt to me like the whole course was up, down, up, down, up, down, no flat at all. 

 

 

Assisted with resistance band:

 

5 pull ups - first unassisted 

 

5 chin ups - first unassisted

 

5 pull ups - first unassisted 

 

5 chin ups - first unassisted 

 

2 pull ups - first unassisted - first attempt failed as I was in a rush

 

2 chin ups - first unassisted - first attempt failed as I was in a rush. 

 

Today:

 

 

Half assed some sprint intervals as it was raining and I had to run windy paths under shelter with pillars to dodge. 

 

Deadlifts:

 

15kg +bar x8

17.5kg+bar x8

20kg +bar x8

22.5kg +bar x7

 

Overhead press:

 

25 kg x 7, 3 sets

 

Chest press:

 

30 kg x 7, 3 sets

 

Front Squat:

 

 

 

30 kg x 8, 3 sets - tried to get 35kg up but couldn't. 

 

 

 

Back squats:

 

 

 

25kg x8, 3 sets - superset

 

 

 

 

 

Farmers walk, 15 kg in each hand - 1 min 21 s

 

 

[Mortimer]

Friday:

Ran 11km

 

Went climbing on two new 6a routes but no luck sending. Maybe on Monday on the last day of my climbing gym membership I may be able to send red. I hope. 

 

Sat:

 

My husband sat on my thigh on Friday and I ouched so I got an exercise ban for the whole sat. Apparently I have been caught overdoing it again? But honestly I think today I'd still be up for a run, the only problem is I've been on short sleep lately...

[Mortimer]

Sunday:

Ran 10.46 k at sub 6 pace then finished the 4.57km at 6.08 pace. My running buddies stated that I was limping at the start... Eh that's not a good sign... 

 

 

Monday:

 

15 box jumps

3 x 10 inverted rows

Waiters carry with a 3kg mortar - 1 min each hand.

4x 8 divebomber push ups

Shuttle run - 20 s run, 10s rest, 6 sets

5 min plank. 2 breaks

Bar hang - 60 s, no breaks.

 

Wall walk - one way. Tried to monkey bars while skipping bars, got to, but on turning around, fell off. Gah. 

 

Last climb session before gym membership wears off:

Managed to get up red(why do they call it a 6a?!).  Or maybe I don't do the side-pull thing well. Tried to get up green on the wall beside but failed. 

 

 

[Mortimer]

My new running slippers have arrived! 

 

I went to test them out - in total running 17km ish with them. I would have done more except I found out my run tracker stopped halfway - so the trail run of 10.5+km was unrecorded. And I need to do a half marathon sometime this week for Standard Chartered Bank challenge

So I need to conserve mileage - I will try tomorrow to run 24km, at an easy pace.  I can pull off what people would call crazy distances without much prep work, but I know that back to back long runs will sap my energy so I do need to be careful. 

 

Running slippers review:

 

I had to change running gait to run with the slippers. More of a lower body profile and thigh pushing. When I first started wearing them I was straining too much on my ankle to keep them on - what I needed was just the forward pushing motion so they'd stay on. I didn't need to worry that much. The downslope is better on grip , but pointy rocks are bloody sharp and twisty in slippers! I need to avoid pointy rocks when trail running when previously I used to step on them willy-nilly. I think they're better for when the trail is wet. I probably wouldn't be running more then two loops around the reservoir with these - I think you get less energy economy as compared to shoes. It's a bit like driving a medium tank instead of a car.

[Mortimer]

Thursday:

Sprint intervals in the carpark because it was raining cats and dogs. 400m x8. 

5:30 min of bucket brigade pacing around bathroom with a bucket full of soapy water. 

 

Friday:

Assisted with resistance band:

 

 

 

5 pull ups - first unassisted 

 

 

 

5 chin ups - first unassisted

 

 

 

5 pull ups - first unassisted 

 

 

 

5 chin ups - first unassisted 

 

 

2 pull ups - first unassisted failed 

 

2 chin ups - first unassisted failed. 

 

 I will chalk it down to insufficient rest as I was trying to finish up before my gym session was over. 

 

 

Deadlifts:

 

40kg x 12, 3 sets 

 

 

 

Overhead press:

 

25 kg x 7, 3 sets, last set had to take a break at 6.

 

Chest press:

 

30 kg x 7, 3 sets

 

Front Squat:

 

30 kg x 8, 3 sets - had to take a break at 2nd set fourth rep. Literally bailed out of it leaving me going wtf?! 

 

 

Back squats:

 

25kg x8, 3 sets - superset

 

 

Farmers walk, 14 kg dumbbell in each hand - 1 min 30s. Weight plates are waaay easier to manage. 

 

Not the best of weight days, and when I went to measure myself on the gym body scanner, apparently percentage body fat went up even though I lost a bit of weight... 

 

But it's so hard to book the gym these days and I agree I've been running way more then I've been weight training. 

 

Did 1h of hiits with local group. 

[Mortimer]

Ran about 13km on Saturday and 5.76km on Sunday (I ran to my station to help out the half marathon). 

[Mortimer]

Remind me not to go to active sg gym and enabling Village. I think the gym was built with elderly in mind, so there wasn't a single barbell, and the heaviest weighted dumbell was only 15kg.

 

I was there late, only had half an hour for my booked slot, so I didnt have time to check YouTube and just made things up on the fly. 

 

Single arm shoulder press:

12.5kg, 5 reps, 3 sets. 

 

I couldn't get both arms up at same time. My right arm is stronger then my left. 

 

Deadlifts with 15kg dumbell in each hand. 15 reps, 3 sets

 

Goblet squat with 15 kg dumbell. 8x3 superset. 

 

I didn't know what to do for backsquats replacement (all they had was a Smith machine), so I Skipped it. 

 

Chest press on a not so flat bench. 10kg in each hand x 8, 3 sets. I didn't dare to try 12. 5kg since the bench wasn't flat and I didn't want any lifting incidents from dealing with unfamiliar dumbells. 

 

Farmers walk with 15 kg weight plates - these were built with grooves and super easy to grip, so I marched 3:36 min while carrying a 15 kg weight in each hand. 

 

5 pull ups - first unassisted 

 

 

 

5 chin ups - first unassisted

 

 

 

5 pull ups - first unassisted 

 

 

 

5 chin ups - first unassisted 

 

 

2 pull ups - first unassisted 

 

2 chin ups - first unassisted 

 

Joined local fitness group class doing pyramid of 10 jumping lunges(which increased by 10 each set until 100), followed by 10 dive bomber burpees. 

 

Tuesday:

 

Rest day, chilling out and conserving energy in preparation for my daily loops starting this Sat. 

[Mortimer]

Weds:

15 box jumps

3 x 10 inverted rows

Waiters carry with a 3kg mortar - 1 min each hand.

4x 8 divebomber push ups

Shuttle run - 20 s run, 10s rest, 6 sets

5 min plank. 2 breaks

Bar hang - 60 s, no breaks.

 

On course whole day so no time to exercise other then stated above. 

 

Thursday: 

Biked 8 km, walked 6km with hubbie, then joined run group for Christmas "Fun Run". More like Christmas sprint intervals from traffic light to traffic light and various photo points =P

 

Friday:

I'm aching quite badly. Not sure if it was due to biking or sprint intervals. Probably the latter... I'm pretty sure I wasn't meant to go at 5min pace... 

 

Kicked my sorry arse out of the house to do a virtual 10k. Time taken was 1:04:09. Sub 6/min requires someone faster to kick my arse all the way. And a better choice of route. Wtf 130m of elevation? 

 

15 box jumps

3 x 10 inverted rows

Waiters carry with a 3kg mortar - 1 min each hand.

4x 8 divebomber push ups

Skipped shuttle run. Not after morning entertainment. 

5 min plank. 2 breaks

Bar hang - 60 s, no breaks.

 

Made these:

 

The green ones have paleo potential once I take flour and sugar out of the filling. The green ones are cabbage wraps. But they need a longer time to cook. 

[Mortimer]

I was worried that after yesterday's aches I wouldn't be able to run, but apparently I managed to get some rest and recover overnight. Found myself pretty OK today. 

 

My ultra for 20 days has begun..after my aunt informed me of rain at 4 am(she lives close to mac Ritchie reservoir), I dressed for wet weather:

Cycled about 5km (to conserve energy - I intend to run the loop everyday). 

 

Then ran slightly more then a half marathon on trail. 

 

Some of the running group were doing ultra in mac ritchie - and some of them asked me if I wanted to go for 3 loops. I told them, no, thank you, if I run too much today, then I'll screw myself over for the rest of the week lol. My breathing was getting harder towards the end of the second loop, though I might have been able to push out a 3rd loop, I'm not sure what the consequences would be after lol.

[Mortimer]

Half marathon on trails. Clocking loops. I think I've figured out how to get downslope. Just trust in my slippers grip, and run normally. The barrier was mental all along... 2nd loop was actually faster then first loop as first loop was done with poor lighting (too early in the morning(6.36am lol) and no flashlight). 

[Mortimer]

There's something I'd actually like to ask: Nerd fitness generally eschews isotonic drinks and energy gels. 

 

But I've talked to quite a few runners - energy gels are part of marathon(and ultra) running it seems - I asked someone who did 5 loops if he took any gel and he said he couldn't imagine not using any energy gel. Are there non processed alternatives to energy gels and isotonic drinks so I can stay true to the principles of the rebellion? 

 

I did do a slow full self supported marathon on nothing but water - but an ultra may be a different beast altogether. 

 

P. S Yep, I'm fond of drinking a cup of isotonic drink after a 10k - 15k tempo run. 

[Mortimer]

I'm getting faster... I think its more of a how to run downslope thing and not so much of a I'm running faster thing. 

 

10k biking +11.4k run 

 

Will join local group for probably moar burpees later =P

[Mortimer]

Tuesday. 10k biking, 11.4k reservoir loop. I think I can pull off one loop/day without any ill effects. Slower today as yesterday it rained and the ground was full of muddy puddles. Also was kinda hot today since I ran at 1.30pm

[Mortimer]

Weds:

 

15 box jumpsx3 sets 

 

First pull up unassisted, 5 more with resistance band 

First chin up unassisted, 5 more with resistance band

 

First pull up unassisted, 4 more with resistance band 

First chin up unassisted, 4 more with resistance band

 

First pull up unassisted, 1 more with resistance band 

First chin up unassisted, 1 more with resistance band

 

I don't think I'll be able to find time to get to a gym while I'm making the loops everyday so nerd fitness star wars work out it is. 

 

Waiters carry with a 3kg mortar - 1 min each hand.

 

4x 8 divebomber push ups

 

Skipped shuttle run. Not when I'm running 11k/day.

 

5 min plank. 4 breaks - I dunno I keep getting pain at abdominal area when I did it after dinner. Is there something about running affecting your planking abilities? 

 

Bar hang - 60 s, no breaks.

 

Rained before I started and was drizzling partway of the run.  Trail was all mucky =(

 

Pace surprisingly was same as yesterday. I think what that old uncle said about trails was right - it's less damaging to your body. I've run 70k+ so far and I don't think I'm flat yet. 

 

 

Also biked there and back total distance 10km.

[Mortimer]

Bit slower today but I was doing double loop + busy promoting hk-sg ultra to the point of stopping to show other runners the website. Also was in not so much of a hurry so couldn't be arsed to run fast at noon. 

 

 

 

Did 30 min of yoga for recovery.

 

Biked there and back so it was total 10k on bike. 

 

My right leg is very tight and my bum hurts lol(might be from all that cycling). 

[Mortimer]

Fri:

 

15 box jumpsx3 sets 

 

10 inverted rows x3 sets 

 

Waiters carry with a 3kg mortar - 1 min each hand.

 

4x 8 divebomber push ups

 

Skipped shuttle run. Not when I'm running 11k/day.

 

5 min plank. 3 breaks - 

 

 

[Mortimer]

Sat:

 

My right front ankle  hurts when I put my weight (including walking) on it. I initially thought it was because I kept using my right foot to kick off and push on the ground(I had a cut on my left big toe) when I am cycling through crowded areas, but I'm now I'm not so sure. I've iced the area and not exercised on Sunday.

 

I feel sorry for myself seeing my running group having fun taking pics around the reservoir but I really need to know if it's a pain I can run through or it's something more serious, considering a night of rest didn't fix it. 

 

I experimented with body weight squats, I think they're fine, but I'm not sure if my ankle can take push ups or planks. I don't feel like thinking about jumping onto the pull up bar for pull ups. 

 

I will prolly go to see a doctor tomorrow about this(doctors are closed now) . Since I can still walk and it isn't painful when I'm standing/not putting weight on it, I doubt it warrants a visit to the ER or something... 

[Mortimer]

OK I did 30 min of runners yoga on Sunday. Sitting around doing nothing isn't me. 

 

Monday:

 

75 bodyweight squats

 

First pull up unassisted, 5 more with resistance band 

 

First chin up unassisted, 5 more with resistance band

 

First pull up unassisted, 4 more with resistance band 

 

First chin up unassisted, 4 more with resistance band

 

 Failed first attempt. 

 

First pull up unassisted, 1 more with resistance band 

 

First chin up unassisted, 1 more with resistance band

 

Waiters carry with a 4kg weights - 1 min each hand.

 

4x 8  push ups (I tried divebomber but they're hurting my ankle so nope!) 

 

Skipped shuttle run. Not on a painful ankle. 

 

5 min plank. 3 breaks 

 

Bar hang - 60 s, no breaks. Also showed a kid who was doing pull ups how to bar hang properly(he said he could only do 10 to 20s - What? If he can do pull ups he's capable of more then that) Anyway I told him that if he gripped with his fingers he wouldn't be able to do it for long but rather he needed to activate his shoulders like he is trying to do a pull up. And yes he got a much longer bar hang after that. 

 

30 min runners yoga. 

 

Doctor said it was a muscle strain and I got a running ban for 2 days. I guess it could be worse... And orders to spend these two days stretching and to stretch before and after my run and cycle shenanigans. Geez. I think I have a lot to learn about continuously running on trails for days. I guess a butt load of determination and some practice on the road doesn't quite prepare you for running trails everyday =(

[Mortimer]

I messed around with Simple and Sinister on Tuesday! Since I was just practicing the forms, I used a 2 kg weight. 

 

10x 10 arm swings on each hand 

5 Turkish get ups on each side.

 

I didn't time myself as I was more interested in getting things right.

 

Also because the video I watched didn't show hip raise, I didn't do it for turkish get ups. I'll do it next time. 

 

30 min runners yoga. 

 

Weds:

 

75 bodyweight squats

 

 

 

First pull up unassisted, 5 more with resistance band 

 

 

 

First chin up unassisted, 5 more with resistance band

 

 

 

First pull up unassisted, 4 more with resistance band 

 

 

 

First chin up unassisted, 4 more with resistance band

 

 

 

First pull up unassisted, 1 more with resistance band 

 

 

 

First chin up unassisted, 1 more with resistance band

 

 

 

Waiters carry with a 4kg weights - 1 min each hand.

 

 

 

4x 8 push ups 

 

 

 

Skipped shuttle run. Not when I'm trying to test running tomorrow. 

 

 

 

5 min plank. 3 breaks 

[Mortimer]

Thursday:

Tried a 4 min run, 1 min walk combo. I guess it's fine for conserving cardio stamina but still doesn't quite cut it for my ankle issue. I did walk another 11 km or so after though. 

 

30 min runners yoga

 

Friday:

 

Went with run group, they were going kinda fast(in my current crappy condition). They did stop for photobreaks, but my ankle really really doesn't like me now. 

 

I think I may not be able to complete 200km. I will definitely take the next 2 days off running. 

[aramis]

Have you seen a doc about your ankle? I feel you on not-exercising, but taking some rest for regeneration is better than pushing your body too much and injuring yourself badly. Stay on the safe side  

[Mortimer]

I did see a doc earlier, was told it was a muscle strain, took couple of days off running, as I was told to do, which helped me feel better, then I went back to running again, because I wanted to clock my 200km for team Singapore, but it seems that nope - I'm not ready yet. I may be off running this year - another trail runner said he's not running till next year after ankle issues from doing 55km straight on trails. 

 

I'm sure I'll be fine given enough time, but after this I want to troubleshoot what is the problem - people  who are less diligent runners then me in training are clocking more distance (over this period) without running into issues.

 

I need to see if its a footwear issue, the way I run, or my ankles need strengthening(more heel and toe raises?).  I know I am a road runner recently turned trail runner and mostly I deal with flats, but I do run into some elevation on roads as well. 

[Mortimer]

I'm also not happy with how stuff turned out, since Christmas is a massive eating season and my excuse for being a pig is pretty much gone. But I suppose things like this happen and no use beating myself up over it but rather how to make sure it doesn't happen again. 

 

BTW just for fun nuggets, some crazy insane nut fks are burning like 3k calories/day as they're doing 5 loops of 10.5km everyday. Man, I wish I had the training to do that - one of them even commented he's lost 3 kg despite him trying to eat everything in sight.  Don't even want to think of the reigning champion who's been doing 5-8 loops/day.