I Need Sleep!

This despite spending almost my entire weekend catching up on sleep. I need to start sorting out my body clock because I'm all over the place. And I'm tired all the time. So I don't do any exercise/sport. And I feel even more tired. It's a vicious cycle.

What I did:
Last Thursday: ran 4k
Saturday: 'ran' 4.99k in 51 minutes (don't ask, I'll talk about the 'run' when I feel less depressed)

sssss...Like A Snake....Anaconda!

Yesterday's muay thai session felt less hard core than the last session I had. Which means nothing much, because R and I were still dripping in sweat when we were done. We dragged our smelly bodies off to River Valley for R to get his Murtabak fix. I decided to go a tad bit healthier and had chicken congee with some really oily veggies.

Muay thai classes are pretty fun. I didn't really enjoy them the first two times because it just felt like a really really hard work-out. And all the sit-ups and push-ups...not fun at all. But I find that after the classes I ache in the right places and I'm sure the darn high kicks must be good for the running, right? There's also a lot of focus on breathing, kind of like pilates, yoga, climbing...I always thought I was breathing properly...I mean, the way I see it is if I don't breathe I'd die, so breathing should come naturally. But apparently there's a technique to all this breathing and I keep getting 'Breathe breathe! Like this, like this! ssssssss! Like a snake! Anaconda!'. So just blowing out with puffed cheeks is wrong. For the longest time I had no clue what the instructor was on about. Also because he had the strongest accent and his vocabulary consisted of maybe 10 words - jab, punch, tiptoe....But I'm getting the hang of it slowly and I would describe how it helps but I really don't know how to. I guess I'll just leave it as 'sssss....like a snake...Anaconda!'

What I did yesterday:
Muay Thai for 1 hour

A Very Tiring Weekend

And I don't even think I did that much. I woke up Saturday morning very dehydrated from beers till 3am the night before (obviously I didn't make swimming lessons that morning). After chugging down lots and lots of water, I made it to the gym at my place and did a 40 minute core training session. Went out with the family for a way-too-filling lunch and had a rock-climbing session after. I was supposed to have a 2 hour lesson, but I made it only an hour before I just completely ran out of energy. There was just nothing left in me to use anymore. So I cut the class short and headed home to rest...which equalled to me falling asleep for a good hour and a half. I had to meet my friend after dinner for drinks again, so the sleep was a welcome relief.

Sunday morning, and I woke up very dehydrated (hang on...there seems to be a pattern here). Went to church at stupid-o'clock in the morning and had way too much for Fathers' Day Lunch again. I felt a bit better though because after napping for an hour and a half I dragged myself out of bed and ran to R's place. 5k of sheer torture via Sixth Avenue (despite what anyone says, I maintain that the slope is pretty darn steep there) and I reached Holland Village exceedingly thirsty. R made a curry for dinner and we shared a bottle of wine, so I'm guessing everything I worked off on the run got put back on again.

Muay Thai later. I'm just tired thinking about it!

A few random points:

1. My Foot

My heel's been hurting when I run ever since the Mt Faber run and I've got half a mind to see a podiatrist if it doesn't get better. Every now and then, it feels as if someone keeps tugging at my plantar fascia with an awful lot of strength and it really isn't fun.

2. My Weight

I've put on an insane amount of weight since I've started drinking beer instead of my usual bourbon cokes. I'm guessing this whole switch to beers probably wasn't my brightest idea ever. So now I'm sticking to the wines with the occasional bourbon cokes when I want to treat myself. And lots and lots of water in between.

Also I aim to start eating healthy...again. These resolutions tend to be very short-lived, but one's got to have some faith. I have big plans to eat muesli and whole grain icky stuff.

3. New Shoes

Genius here forgot to bring her climb shoes on Saturday and had to buy them at the school itself (obviously sold at a premium). I think I hate them. They hurt my feet so much and I finished my class with blisters on my fourth toes (don't ask me why only these two toes) on both feet. Boo hoo.

What I did over the weekend:

Saturday
Core training for 40 minutes
Rock climbing for 1 hour

Sunday
Ran 5k in 39 minutes

Taking It Easy

I was exhausted yesterday. Two nights ago I met up with a bunch of my college mates for my birthday dinner (I think I have birthday dinners planned till the end of the month!) and as usual, I of little self-control, played till late into the night. So I wasn't a happy trooper yesterday...or at least not a very bright-eyed and busy-tailed one.

Nonetheless, I was due for some exercise and if I didn't enjoy it, it was my own damn fault for not sleeping earlier...so I hit the pool and did a solid 15 laps before dinner. After dinner, I crashed in bed, but had to head out after a very brief nap to meet my friend Jeff who's just back from the UK for a short while. (As a side note, why do all my friends come visiting at the same time? I either get a visitor drought or a million overseas guests all visiting at once!) And what happens, after the first glass of wine, I feel a need to have a few more (not that I'm an alcoholic or anything, but the conversation was going really well) and next thing I know, it's half past twelve and I'm still out. Today I'm awful sleepy and the filling lunch I had isn't quite helping. More drinks tonight (sigh!!!!) with Jon who I really really like! I just wish I were more awake to enjoy it!

Other news, I bought a pair of 2XU compression tights yesterday. I'm a sucker for new gimmicky stuff and I haven't thrown a bunch of money at some completely over-priced sporting gear in a while. My hands were feeling itchy. I'll try it soon as it's done in the wash and let you all know if it's every bit as fantastic in aiding recovery as it claims to be!

Also, after mulling over taking swim technique classes, I finally decided to get my act together and call up the British Club and check if they did swim classes there. I've been completely under-utilising my membership, especially since the club is a 10 minute run from my house, and I thought I should get down to training there. So I'm starting my first class with the Masters section of the swim school there on Saturday morning. Let's hope I don't make too big a fool of myself.

What I did yesterday:
Swam 15 laps (900m) in 25 mins

And the Legs Still Ache

Last night I went for pilates and I think my instructor, Kerrie, is starting to get tougher on us. She really worked our asses off yesterday and today, my legs, arms, abs and back are waging a mini protest. It makes the 1.5 bottles of beer I had for dinner feel completely justified.

Anyhow, after the class, one little wise-ass decided to put on her running gear and run over to Holland Village from Liat Towers (in case you were unable to put two and two together, that's where my class is). Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? I made it all of one kilometre. And this after I had to stop at the 200m mark and stretch because my legs ached so much. What's the moral of the story? Well, to put it simply, I think my legs need rest after a race. And not a measly 1 day rest, but a bunch of solid impact-free days.

So because I do learn from my lesson, I'm resting the legs today and going for a swim tomorrow. Maybe (and this is only if just walking alone doesn't hurt) I might do a bit of running over the weekend, but I'm still going to take it nice and easy this week.

What I did last night:
50 mins of pilates

Mizuno Mt Faber Run Race Report

Of all the races I've done (which is some pitiful number), I think this was one of the most disorganised ones. At risk of being banned forever by disgruntled race organisers, let me just list the reasons for my conclusion:

Firstly, the race started 5 minutes before flag-off time. As far as I know, my watch has always been pretty accurate and I haven't before started any race late. So I doubt this is my fault at all!

Secondly, the route chosen to Mt Faber basically alongside some main road and the pavement was narrow, so people ended up running on the road itself. It was literally Man vs Car for the distance up to the hill. Coupled with numerous traffic lights throughout the course of the run, this race felt more like a practice run than an actual race. Could they have cordoned off the road? Closed a couple of roads? I'm not sure. I don't know if it costs money to do that or if it's just too much effort for the organisers, but it was a very weird run full of starts and stops. I can't imagine how anyone who runs this run competitively wouldn't be a bit annoyed at all the traffic light stops etc.

Thirdly, the race marshalls seemed to have no clue where the water stops were! On this point I concede that I may be a bit too hard on the organisers, since it was my own fault that I was so desperately thirsty (I had a couple of wines and beers the previous night) that I needed a water stop every 2 steps (there were 3 water stops) and all I had was a vague 'it's somewhere up ahead' answer.

Finally, they ran out of water at the end! This I think was probably the most unforgivable travesty! This isn't the first Mt Faber run, so I don't understand why they under-catered in the whole hydration area anyway! G and I had to grab our bags and then dash off to the nearby hawker to get some much needed hydration.

Would I do the run again in spite of all this? Quite likely although I might make sure to bring my own water next time. It was challenging and that made up for the poor organisation. The uphill run was sheer torture and G and I got lazy and strolled down. But the moment we got back on ground, I was flying (by my standards at least). I've always held back until the last 50m (or such point where the finish line is visible) but yesterday, for some reason I started dashing off with 2.5k to go....needless to say I regretted that almost instantly. I couldn't stop because it was...well, just too embarrassing and humiliating to start with a burst and then just fizzle out after 10 steps, so I just stuck it out. And I made it the whole 2.5k without dying!

I'm pretty happy with my time, not because I ran particularly fast but because I hadn't been doing much by way of training, I strolled down the entire downhill bit of Mt Faber, and I wasn't running all that quickly up Mt Faber either...all that in mind, the time I took was actually half decent. Yes I am actually making excuses for having a lousy time, but I'm still rather pleased with my lousy time!

R and I met up for a good ole Sunday roast at Fosters after his hockey game and spent the rest of the day just chilling out. All in, it was a pretty good Sunday, despite the sore legs today!

Race time: 10k in 1hr 22 mins

New Cammie

I got me a new camera....well, actually R got me a kick-ass camera for my birthday, which is waterproof, shockproof, freeze proof, crush proof...Everything a clumsy person like me needs. So here's to a whole bunch of underwater shots in the pool and at windsurfing, and a whole bunch of rockclimbing shots!

I took a half day yesterday to lunch with R and go present hunting after. *I've got my eye on a bike, so I'm contemplating getting it at some point in time.* Massage after and a big BBQ with the folks at night. How was yesterday? Really really fun...

I'm probably going to have to do a run soon to work off those extra calories.

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my birthday and I'm going to have a day of pigging out! Now if only the aches from Muay Thai would just go away!

Muay Thai Battlescars

Well, actually there aren't any scars, but boy does everything ache so bad. If I thought the introductory class was tough, yesterday's class was 10 times harder. On top of that we were using actual gloves this time...which although was kind of cool at first, started to weigh your arms down after. I find it amazing that it never feels like I'm doing that much work at muay thai, but my body feels like someone kicked me all over the next day. I also picked up the mother of all bruises on the top of my foot. Yes I was kicking with the wrong part of my leg blah blah. By the time I was corrected, the damage was done and my foot is all swollen, black and blue now...stuff of champions (or people who just can't aim to save their lives). I've actually made this a full paragraph of post muay thai whining, which isn't all too surprising, it's probably more surprising that I did whine through an entire essay of a post.

Next up, pilates tonight! I can't walk properly, everything hurts, but I feel I need the pilates. Woo hoo.

Muay Thai and a 5k Run

This weekend was interesting. I've wanted to take up Capoeira or Krav Maga for a while, so what do I do? I go and sign up for Muay Thai classes instead. I know, the way my brain works is pretty darn amazing.

R (I managed to convince him to join me) and I had our first introductory trial class on Saturday and it was a combination of giggles, sweat and breathlessness. The instructor who took us was Thai and had the strongest Thai accent. Which effectively meant, I didn't get half of what he said and R got even less. For some reason, I found that funny. That obviously didn't bode so well with the instructor who probably thought I wasn't taking anything seriously (which he was half right). Long story short, the whole session smelt like a boot camp. We ended with push-ups and sit-ups and by then I had run out of energy to laugh over anything. R and I were exhausted after the class...ane we read that as a really good work-out. So...next thing we know, we've signed up for 31 classes and have committed ourselves to 1 session a week. I suspect that R's motivation was mostly driven by the prata shop below the school and the fact that he could have a weekly prata guilt-free after a hard work-out.

Sunday was a bag of fun. I woke up and realised I couldn't extend my left arm without it aching. My thighs, calves and feet were also hurting, although I wasn't sure if that was because I was traipsing around on Saturday night in high heels or because of muay thai. Now all this would be a good enough excuse for me to just laze around all Sunday, but thanks to the stupid 10k Mt Faber run in less than a week and my complete lack of running training in the past few weeks, I had to haul my lazy ass out the house. It sounds like I came to this decision on my own, but in reality I was more than happy convincing myself I'd wake up really early on Monday and run then (yeah, right). R had to guilt-trip me into running over to his and it was NOT a fun run at all. First off, Sixth Avenue (which I had to run through) was just almost uphill all the way. I was more or less ready to throw in the towel at the end of the Sixth Avenue stretch, but didn't want to suffer the humiliation of hailing a cab to a place less than 5 minutes away. So I sucked it up and stuck it out and made it to R's. Throughout the entire run, there was not once that my stitch wasn't there to stick it in me. Bah. I wasn't a happy camper.

So here I am today, nothing much has changed. I'm still aching waist down, my arm is still unable to extend fully and I have a muay thai session some number of hours away. Happy days.

What I did over the weekend:
Saturday: 50 minutes of muay thai
Sunday: Ran 5k in 40 mins

Slow Step Into Things

Since my last post, I've been for my pilates class (was really hard this week! which could be because of 1. the instructor was being tough on us, 2. I was still a little sick, or 3. I've just become very very unfit) and managed an extremely slow run (or plod) on the treadmill. I would love to say that I intentionally ran slowly because I'm still getting better and not feeling a hundred percent so I didn't want to overdo the exercise. Well, that's kind of true, but my calf muscles ache a little today and frankly, I found going any faster than I did yesterday just really tiring. So what does this all mean? Simply that I'm slow now. I was slow before, but I'm even slower now! Good thing that came out of it though, after the run (if I can even call it that), last night was the first night in ages that I've managed to get a well-rested sleep.

What I did:
3k in 31 mins (I'm still a wee bit sick!)

Fat Post

My flu, my work trip to Shanghai (where every meal came in the form of 1000 courses...okay, I exaggerate), my foray into the world of beer guzzling (yes, I moved away from the bourbon cokes assuming I'd have more self-control with the beers, but...), and just general laziness has made me into a blob. I've spent my whole life trying not to get a beer belly and now I feel I'm just slowly building up a nice little layer of blubber to get me through the days when famine hits Singapore (if ever!). Soooo, tonight I'm going back to pilates. I'm not quite a hundred percent yet, so pilates will be a nice easy step back into exercise once more. I've got the Mount Faber 10k race coming up in less than two weeks as well, and I know if I don't do anything these next 10 days, I'm going to be in a lot of trouble come 14th June. Fingers crossed my flu magically disappears tomorrow! Pray hard everyone!

Bummed

I didn't do the 10k Sundown Run. Caught the flu (I blame my sick colleague) and proceeded to be very sick for the whole week. In fact I'm still sick now. Bah! I'm so bummed! Was really looking forward to doing the run. Oh well, next year, I guess. Needless to say I drank the Saturday away.