Marina Bay - 3rd Month of Rest with Knee Injury

Run report: 3 months after injury

Location: marina bay

1km - no pain, feeling great

1.3km - small ache

1.5km - can feel the ache more consciously

1.9km - time to call it a day :(

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Tanjong Pagar Run - Short Run to Test Recovery of Knee

Staycation at Amara Hotel

Ever since my knee injury, I have been testing the recovery level of my knee with short distance runs to gauge how much it has recovered. I tried 1 km before the pain came back a 3 months back, worsen the injury due to me pushing myself during a run in Europe and since 2 weeks ago, I can advance 1.5km before the pain starts kicking in. Today, I am going to test my knee again.

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Stanchart Half-Marathon: Short Interruption to my Running Career

The last few weeks, have been quite a depressing affair for my running career. First, I injured my knee during one of my routine Sat run during the end of Sept. I thought resting for a 2 weeks before my Europe trip will give it time for my knee to recover. I tried a short run just before my Europe trip but my knee starting throbbing after 1km. Than I forced a run at Amsterdam doing about 2km. Knee hurts but not that bad. During the next run at Dusseldorf Germany, I forced an even further run of 5km. My knee gave way at 3km. I hobbled my way from Hamburg to Berlin to Paris for the rest of the trip, cursing at every European staircase that confronted me.

After I got back from my Europe trip at the end of Oct, I thought that a good one month rest should be enough for my knee to recovery for the Stanchart Half Marathon. A week before the race, I strapped on my shoes and tried to run. My knee started to throb after hitting the 1km mark. I started to feel pain after 1.5km. I have little choice but to abandon the Standchart Half Marathon.

This is depressing. I wonder when my knee will heal...

A few days after the Stanchart Half Marathon, I came upon this piece of news whereby an unknown Singaporean runner who won the local title for Stanchart, was disqualified. He ran for 6km, felt a pain in the knee, probably went somewhere to drink some coffee before walking back to the finish point and "accidently" clinched the first place. He also revealed that he cheated not only once, but thrice, just because he wanted the finisher T-shirt and the medal.

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Berlin, Germany - Guest Appearance by Big Boned Guy (BBG)

The early morning view from our apartment

Everyday, I cursed my stupid decision to push my injured so hard during my run in Dusseldorf. The pain doesn't seem to go away and I spent my days hobbling along with the old people in Germany, thinking whether to buy a German made walking stick to go along with the appearances.

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Dusseldorf, Germany - Across the River Rhine and Back Again

The River Promenade at Dusseldorf

After being rained on for the last 4 days at Amsterdam, we were hoping that the weather at Dusseldorf will be better, but no! The rain clouds seem to be following us a everywhere. Before I carry on with my rant with on the weather, most Singaporeans will be scratching their heads and wondering where and what is this place called Dusseldorf. Personally, I was one of those ignorant Singaporeans who haven't heard of this place before I set foot on it

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Canals of Amsterdam, Netherlands - Of Canals & Gay Kinos

The canals of Amsterdam

It has been raining non-stop since Day 1 when we arrived at Europe 4 days ago. Sometimes it pours, sometimes it drizzles and sometimes, it is a mix of everything. Throw in a below 10 degrees temperature and cold bitter winds, it made walking along the beautiful streets and canals of Amsterdam a dreary affair. 

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Amsterdam - Raining non stop....

Woke up at 6am every morning, wanting to run around the canals of Amsterdam. It just rains and rains and rains....

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Tiong Bahru, Vivocity - Historical Run on Singapore Government Housing

Along Cantonment Road just outside Outram Park MRT station

How many times have we planned our runs at Labrador Park, I have lost count. Thanks to the overwhelming votes by the unfit runners living in the west, my Saturday mornings have been "Journey to the West" recently. After much discussion over the net, we decided to try out our first "One Way Run" from Vivocity to Tiong Bahru Market (Where we will have our breakfast). However, for the drivers, it is a logistic nightmare as we have to decide whether to park at the finishing point or the starting point.

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Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC), Malaysia - A Pain in the Neck!

Early Morning at KLCC Park.

I was invited to for a conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I managed to get a nice apartment near to the KLCC area. After checking with my Malaysian friends and the internet, it seems like the most breath taking run at the city center is around the KLCC Park. So as usual, I strapped on my running attire and set off from my apartment at Parkview Residence.

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R.I.P Philips Sports Earphone

I remembered when I first started my running hobby, I was using Apple's generic ear piece that came along with my iPhone 4. However, after a few runs, I realize that my pure white colored Apple ear piece is getting black and grimy and given how anal Apple Care is with water getting into any of their Apple products, I decided to get a sporty water resistant ear piece to prevent shortening the life span of my Apple ear piece.

There are of course many different types of sports ear piece out that in the market. There are blue tooth ones, over the ear hook, inner ear hook, around the neck band etc etc and the variety of brands are simply astounding. After doing some research, I decided to go for a mid end sports ear piece by Philips and since the back band ear piece is the most expensive of all the categories, that should be the best right? So one fine day in 2012, I fought my way through an IT fair and managed to get my Philips Sports Earphone at a good price of $38.

RIP....

After a few months of usage, I realized its shortfalls...

First, the supporting band is... bouncy when you trot down the running track. The balancing of the earpiece is a bit off with the band heavier than the support and you have the band slapping against your neck as your head wobbles up and down.

Secondly, the band is a nuisance when it comes to packing it for an overseas trip. Although it is pretty light, the rigid band makes the overall space consumption pretty big and space is a precious commodity when it comes to traveling.

Lastly, the design flaw that killed my earpiece. an upturned wire connector that defies gravity. As we run, the wires for our earpiece tend to bounce around and over time, creates a load on the connection between the ear piece and the wire. Philips earpiece made it worse by making the wire dangle from a sharp ^. Needless to say, one year after heavy usage, the connection wire started to break free from the headband and the earpiece spluttered and died.

Sennheiser OCX 685i SPORTS

After learning what works and what doesn't work in a sports ear piece, I decided to upgrade to a Sennheiser Over the ear sports ear piece. Sennheiser is considered one of the top brand for sports earpiece and I got a pretty good deal from a good friend. So far, the earpiece has been a joy. Other than the problem of bouncing wires affecting the quality of sound, I have no complains about it. It also works flawlessly with my Nike iPhone App allowing it to pause and resume the recording at will.

Looks like the saying "You pay for what you get" seems to ring true in the world of sports ear pieces!

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