Kampong Ayer, finally!

I did it! I ran in Kampong Ayer and even got lost! I ended up at a dead end where the walkway that led to the mainland had collapsed. Had to ask help from a little child (so embarrassed!) Anyway, it was a lovely place to run actually. Because the pathways were all wood they felt good under my tired ankles. Bouncy and comfortable. I wish I could run on them forever and never come back to tar and concrete! I was also really surprised to find cats in the water village. LOADS of them! I think I counted more than ten today. They were very tame too. One snoozer didn’t even stir as I ran past it, and another came to say hello and rub against my legs as I snapped photos like a tourist. Here are a few photos I took:

As I ran home, I was greeted by the sweetest sunset. I’m one happy runner today! Hope you are too. xxx

Morning run fail

So I thought it’d be a good idea to get into the habit of running first thing in the morning because I won’t have evenings to myself any longer starting next week. (I’m doing a training course for work!)

I figured all the details out for this amazing morning run – Planned my route, filled my bottle, laid out clothes, shoes and watch… even did a playlist just in case I wanted some music. Because I down so much liquid in general throughout the day, I also thought it’d be a good idea to make sure I drank a colossal amount of water before I went to bed. And yes, the alarm was set to make certain I didn’t oversleep. Come morning, I was all groggy. I didn’t have enough sleep. All my planning rendered my sleep restless. I was all excited and nervous about this morning run, and it’s as if I’ve never done morning runs in my life! I have – but I just haven’t in a while, and never in Brunei. I suppose it was also the route I planned out. I wanted to try running into the water village, Kampong Ayer, the infamous jewel of Brunei, dubbed ‘Venice of the East’. Whilst I’m aware it isn’t much of a “jewel” and more a sort of rubbish dump, I was still excited at the prospect of running on wooden walkways connecting houses on stilts on the Brunei river. I’d take photos! It’s be so sneaky! I might even wake people by plodding around on the bridges. I wondered how much noise I’d make. Anyway, you might have guessed from the title of this post that I never made it there. I was so dopey on lack of proper sleep, but proceeded to get dressed and do my stretches on the mat. That trusty, soft, and oh-so-comfortable mat. Next thing, I woke up with a start at eleven. I had fallen asleep doing the reclining hero! I’M SUCH A FAIL! In other news, my thighs and abs are all nicely stretched now.

Anyway, today turned out to be such a busy day that I could only fit in a relatively small run in the evening. Kampong Ayer run is now rescheduled to tomorrow! I should calm down a bit and sleep properly tonight!

When nature calls at inappropriate times

Do you ever get those days when you get out the door feeling super, start off running in one direction still feeling super, and then some miles later, mid-run, seriously need the loo? Man, I absolutely hate these moments! What makes them even better is that they tend to happen only when you’re a safe distance from any public WC’s. I suppose long distance trail runners have these moments often and deal with them without any whining. (What about number two’s, though?!)

Before recently, I’ve only had to deal with these unfortunately timed nature calls on hikes where I’m prepared (and there are many trees in the vicinity to hide behind). Awkward. Anyway, I felt so relieved I was in the middle of a Bandar run the last time this happened. Walked into the shopping mall, but got stopped quickly. Not because I looked like a hobo, but what’s this? I had to PAY to get in to use the loos? I never bring money on runs! Anyway, I ended up begging some staff at a restaurant to let me use their loos.

 

Hope you’re running great, xxx

P.S. “Bandar runs” are what I shall start calling runs specifically around the Bandar Seri Begawan town centre. Probably not that worthwhile to designate a name since they actually make up 75% of my weekly runs..

That obstinate runner

Feeling so happy about this! Obviously still need to work on keeping it consistently slow for these longer runs, but because I felt really good, I truly felt perhaps this time it would be great to just let myself go (for the last time, as usual). I do  run what feels to me like an unfluctuating leisurely pace, but it more often clocks faster than I should be going at. I don’t know when I’m going to learn. I hope I don’t end up injuring myself being pigheaded on these LSDs. At least I’m getting better at being slower. I’m doing 6:01 – 7:27 min/km when I should be doing the snaily 7:09 – 8:02 min/km on these longer runs. Next time, I shall run slower. No excuses. Can’t wait for the next long run! Would 16k be too big a goal for this week? I also hope it stops raining on me! x

Harassment of women in Brunei

I must and I’m not sorry Brunei. I’ve been trying to ignore this for a while, but today has just been too much. I’m not sure what it is with this country, but I’m starting to feel really exasperated with the way I have been treated whilst doing absolutely anything alone in public, which, needless to point out, includes the running.

A Coffee Run, literally. And LSD.

So I realised that my long slow distance runs aren’t appropriately slow enough, and hence, does not count as a slow run. Was reading around RW plus other running blogs and websites when I came to the conclusion.

Thus, I decided to attempt another lengthy dawdler of an adventure today. My friends wanted to grab a coffee after work so I thought I’d join them at the café, except that I’d run instead of driving over. I never thought taking it easy could be so difficult! According to the two pace calculators I used (1 and 2), I failed. As soon as I stopped thinking about my running pace I started speeding up again, which got me thinking – was my recent 5k time not one of my better efforts? Or is my long run too short? Perhaps the recent 5k race time I had input into the calculator didn’t particularly reflect my “current level of fitness?” (Oh, how ostentatious that sounds!)

My most recent 5k time was 28:40, which rendered the long run training pace to be 7:09 – 8:02 min/km. My magical 5k PB of 25:57 (that happened over 6 months ago) calculated the long run training pace to be 6:32 – 7:21 min/km. Much closer to what I was running. This gives me hope… Hope that I can smash that PB. That, or most possibly, I’m just running my LSD all wrong.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Long run in Bandar Seri Begawan, 7 Jan ’13, and water bottle blues

It was so hot today, oh ma lawddd. I thought I might give up from feeling mad thirsty by the second kilometre too, which led me to contemplate… Should I start bringing water on longer exploits?

Bukit Marakuching Hike, 5 Jan ’13

I absolutely loved this hike and thoroughly recommend it to anyone who loves a nice long walk. If you’re coming to Brunei, this is one trail that you should not miss if you’re going to do any at all!