All is quiet on a new year's day

Happy new year, everyone! We just returned to Tokyo from a 2-week holiday in tropical Singapore, which is 1 degree above the equator. As I usually travel to Sing. for business, this was my longest stay, and I took advantage of our luxurious surroundings to get in several swim and run sessions. Here's the summary of my training in Singapore:

Dec. 17:  20:05 swim, Sentosa, 1.1k
Dec. 18: 23:13 run, track with Arnaud, 5k
Dec. 20: 41:01 run down coast of Sentosa, 7k
Dec. 23: 46:16 swim, 2k
Dec. 24: 1:12:43 run Sentosa with Richard, 13k
Dec. 26: 55:03 run Sentosa with Stuart, 11k
Dec. 28: 48:46 swim, 2.2k
Dec. 29: 1:07:55 run Sentosa with Leng, Meg, Richard, 14k
Dec. 30: 44:26 swim, 2.1k

Total in Singapore: 5 runs, 4 swims, 9 workouts in 13 days.

Thanks to my new friend Richard, I was able to do the Sentosa island perimeter run 3 times. We ran twice in the morning and once at night, but it was still fairly hot for all 3 runs. I felt stronger towards the end of the 2 weeks, which I attribute mainly to the swimming. My sister-in-law Lilia and her husband Max have a huge 50 meter lap pool in their condo, which I fully utilized. By the last 2 swims, my times were getting faster and I felt more comfortable in the pool.

 
We managed to see quite a bit in Sentosa and the city, thanks to Lilia and Ma^{x, pictured below}. We visited a planetarium, aquarium, bird sanctuary, beaches, etc.

It was great to see fellow nanbanners Leng Leng, Arnaud, and Stuart. I only ran once off of Sentosa, on the track next to the botanical gardens in the city with Arnaud. I missed the Macritchie reservoir course which I do love.

This is me with Leng, Arnaud, David Stevensen at the Wine company after the track workout. Those guys are really keen on the paleolithic diet, or caveman's meal. The diet is based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various hominid species habitually consumed during the paleolithic era (from 2 million years ago that ended about 10,000 years ago when humans began mass production of food crops). The "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, vegetables, fruit, fungi, roots, nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, potatoes, refined salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.

It is similar to Bob's high-fat diet I suppose. Well, David had a good running year and Arnaud was in good form so maybe there is something to it...


This is Leng, Meg, and Ty pictured below after a 14k run around Sentosa. Leng and Meg are not doing the paleo diet, needless to say...
 

Feeling re-energized from Singapore, I did a quick 14k in Yoyogi Park this morning to start off the new year. 4 x 2.5k splits were 12:50, 12:46, 12:32, 12:10, which is a good pace versus the 14 minute laps I've been doing on Sunday mornings, albeit shorter distance.

My racing radar screen for 2013 goes like this:

February 24: Tokyo marathon
May: Nijima olympic distance tri?
June: Oshima olympic distance tri?
July 14: Ironman triathlon in Roth Germany
August: Ironman Japan in Hokkaido?
August: Aizu olympic distance tri?
September 8: half ironman world championships, Las Vegas

My goals are to PB in the full and half-ironman distances, and qualify for Boston marathon (I need a 3:25 marathon, which is a lofty goal at Tokyo marathon).

All the best in 2013. 今年もよろしく。