Sunday 10 October 2010

Touch Rugby Champions!

Ros and I played in the winning team entered as the Saigon Swans (my AFL team) in the 2010 Saigon Touch Rugby (Mixed )Tournament. Participating teams included NZ, GBR, Ireland and the French who surprisingly lay tackles in touch rugby! Anyway - that didn't phase us as we wiped the floor with all comers and took the silverware home to the Swannies (Yet to exist) club rooms! A proud day indeed.


 

Monday 20 September 2010

Crossing the Saigon Bridges gives you an ideal 9km loop from Thao Dien



Thao Dien 5km Loop

For runners, this is the best course in town to gauge where you're at with you average speed. The course is almost eactly 5 clicks as long as you stay on Nguyen Van Huong and connect through to Thao Dien road via Xuan Thuy. (past the new Fannys and Quynhs) Easy!  For a basic program on the 5km course see my running programs "Super 6 - running 5kms in 30 minutes",  "the Flat 5 - running 5kms in 25 minutes" and the "4 1/2 star! - running 10kms in 45 minutes". [developed for the Vietnam swans 2010 campaign].

Saturday 18 September 2010

Saigon Bridges Fun Run



I am re-posting this track (first posted Sep 2010) as a starting point for the training up to the Hoi An Triathlon. This is definitely my favourite and most commonly taken running course in Saigon. It uses the previously discussed 5km Thao Dien Loop then shoots out into the city - over the Saigon bridge - returning back over the river via the Thu Thiem bridge the home via Tran Noa. [An option is of course not to do the Thao Dien loop first rather head straight out for the Saigon Bridge]. Its a 9km circuit or 14 with the loop. The bridges are a great way to get some sort of hill work in in the pancake flat city....or should it be banh xeo thang pho?. Anyway, I will do this run once a week - Probably Wednesdays when no crossfit.

Thao Dien Run. 5km or 5 mile option

This expansion of the previously metioned 5km loop includes an additional leg out on the Hanoi Hwy (against the traffic) then back into the Thao Dien area past ISHCMC - the Deck , Snap cafe and return to Thao Dien Road. The toal then becomes about 8.5kms or about 5 miles.On any given day there are many runners, cyclists and even a triathlon bike has been seen going around Thao Dien lately!