Where am I?

That's right, Killiney Kopitam...

Saturday 15 October... hahaha, no, I am not back in SG, but was walking along one of the most happening street in Melbourne, Lygon Street, Carlton when I noticed a sign that spells "KILLINEY KOPITIAM"... I thought to my self, you must be kidding me, KK here? in Melbourne Lygon Street? So exciting... Gotta check it out...

"Oi, Gary!!!" I heard my name as I reached the front door... OMG!!! It was non other than our friend, Andy Ong!!! We have known each other for years and I still remember the days where we tore the streets of Melbourne, delivering Nandos and pizzas to hungry customers in our "chariots"...

He and Julie (his wife) are part towkays for this joint... I am really happy for them... Ok, enough said, go check it out!!!

KILLINEY KOPITIAM
114 Lygon Street, Carlton

Has a very nice feel inside...

Well done Andy!!! Huat ah!!!

Note, the above is not a paid advertisement, or rather, the above advertisement has not been paid... "Andy, hint hint..."

Pics from my daily run...

Attended a full day course on Wednesday and brought my running gear along... had a feeling that it may end early... True enough, the course finished just before 5pm and I was able to catch an earlier train home before the sunset... Decided to do an easy run and take pictures along the route to share with you guys... Enjoy!!!

I got off the train and changed into my running gear... I was wearing jeans and a jumper and have to stuff them into my backpack... I weigh my backpack after the run and it came in at 3.5kg... No wonder my backpack looked like it was going to burst any minute...

Here's the route on maymyrun and my timing below:
Date: 21/09/2011
Distance: 5.16 km
Duration: 30:39

Alright, here we go... This is where it begins, Laverton train station...

Laverton train station

I always walked to Donald Street from the station as a mini warm up and will start to run once I crossed Donald Street...

Crossing Donald Street soon...

Arrived at this roundabout about 650m into the run... have to dodge and weave in between the cars to continue my journey...

Roundabout

Then came the bridge that I need to climb to cross over the freeway into Point Cook...

Start of bridge, about 250m to cross...

Pics from the top of the bridge... Sun setting soon... no time to wastse... Run Gary, Run!!!

Look to the left...

Look to the right...

 

gravel...

Once I crossed the bridge into Point Cook, (about 1.3km mark), my run along Point Cook Road becomes off-road... these are the few different terrains that I will be traveling on... imagine I have to negotiate these at night where there was little light...

grass...

soil / dirt...

At the 3.2km mark, I turned into Dunnings Road for the home stretch (2km to go)... The next 800m is my favourite along this route as I get to run on the grass following the treeline and away from the traffic... after that, it is pavement all the way to the end...

trees, trees, and trees...

Reached Point Cook Town Centre... 500m to go...

Point Cook Town Centre on the right... getting dark now...

My end point, corner of Dunnings Road and Boardwalk Boulevard... Took pic looking back at when I came from...

The end...5.13km

Recovery plan on track?

I tracked my runs and other workouts through http://www.mapmyrun.com/  I find it really easy to use and helpful to track all of my workouts... It also have an iphone app that uses GPS to track your route and it is very accurate and have heaps of statistics... Go check it out, it's free!!!

From my records, my total mileage since the beginning of this year is 548km. This consists of 2 marathons, 1 half marathon, and various training runs throughout the last 8 months... To my surprise, by following my recovery program, I had actually clocked 74km in August alone!!! And although some days my knees or calf will be a bit sore, I recover fairly quickly and was ready for another run in no time... The program works!!!!

Ok, I admit, I did not strictly follow the recovery program... the program says to start run easy for 20mins every 2nd day for 4 weeks, but I kinda started my recovery program from week 4...  "You should have stick to the program... What if you get injured again... blah blah blah..." Yes, I am guilty, but can I say, I have learned my lesson and I make sure that my knees are up for the runs... I had stopped and walked for the first few runs when I felt some discomfort... This strategy must have helped, as since then, besides the normal muscle aches, I have no issue with my knees... 

I put in a 5km run whenever I feel like it and I make sure it is no longer than 5km and no more than 30mins... Also, I make sure I have a rest day after 2 days consecutive runs... So I am still kinda "following" the program... Quite a few of the runs are between the train station and my house...  

Besides my normal runs, I have also been doing some circuit trainings about twice a week with my colleagues targeting on core strength... Hopefully I can maintain the Consistency of my workouts and be able to up the Volume and Intensity sometime next month...