Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A Snake and A Cramp

I've been a little bit better and a little bit less lazy last week. I did a 4k run the day after my first spin class in ages last week and did that in fairly alright considering the state my legs were in! Lately I've taken to running close to the office after work and just showering at my gym (Have to make full use of my 60 buck gym fees every month!). It's been a nice change and running up and down the bridge on Nicoll Highway provides that nice change in er...altitude(?!). The leg back is along the sea so it's all very pretty - insofar as you can call the waters around Singapore being pretty. All the same, I saw my first snake whilst running last week! And it scared me every bit as much as I scared it. But it was black and long and I may never take that short cut again.

Other than that run and the Nike run on Saturday, the only thing I've been doing more of these days is swimming. I did a sad 1/2 hour session last week before the Comedy show at the Club last week and then dragged myself out of bed on Saturday for the morning training.

Yesterday I went for spin again and my legs don't ache as much as they did last week! Woohoo! I also went for swim training in the evening and boy was it tough! Essentially my instructor has decided that Bernie, this nice Irish lady at training, and I match each other pace-wise. So when it came to the intervals he paired us both up. Which sucks. Because I couldn't slack off at all! It's not even as if I felt I had to beat her. I just felt that even if I lost to her I couldn't lose by too much. I think there was a point where I was thinking 'damn you Bernie, let up already! I can't slow down until you slow down!' Well, she didn't slow down. I didn't slow down. And we both wound up knackered at the end of training. We were also the last ones in the pool. I also had my first ever cramp in my foot! And right after I cooled down with a slow 50m swim. Which goes to show that my body is allergic to too much exercise!

What I did:
Last Wednesday - 4k run
Last Thursday - 30 mins swim training

Saturday
- 1 hr swim training
- Nike run

Yesterday
- 45 mins spin
- 1 hr swim training

Nike Goddess 5k Race Report

Well considering how the last race that I convinced the girls to run got rained out, we were all raring to go for the Nike run. Either C,G,or I are jinxed, and once again before the rain started there was a massive storm. Thunder, lightning...the works. Now what was actually nice about this race was that they gave us text updates on whether the race would start on time or not. Which was a pretty nice touch.

In the end the rain stopped before the race start, but somehow it still started late. Which made a bunch of people mad (judging from the angry comments on facebook). We had good company, had a nice little chit chat whilst waiting so it was all good.

The thing is this race touted itself as a BFF run so I guess I didn't really take it very seriously. To me it was just going to be a leisurely 5k that I was going to run with G and catch up on life and all that, especially since she's been so crazily busy lately! That probably wasn't so good for anyone else who was running for time. Because the race was in Sentosa (which I really liked because at least for once the race route was somewhere other than East Coast or the F1 pit stands!) there were areas where the road narrowed a little and obvious bottlenecks formed. G and I just walked those times. C and her running buddy had by this time shot ahead of us and we didn't see them till the end.

I've nothing to complain about the run itself. I liked how it was a different route for a change, I liked that it was nice and overcast and drizzly (not really something the race organisers can take credit for), I liked that it was in the afternoon and I didn't have to drag myself out at stupid o'clock and I liked the text updates.

Now post-run was a different story. It had started to rain then so having a bottleneck going from the end of the race to bag collection was expected to some extent. They could have widened the walkway, but I still wasn't that fussed over it. The main thing was waiting to collect my bags. Have a system for crying out loud! It is a total no-no having to wait longer for my bag than it is to actually run the race! It is an even bigger no-no when the wait is 2, if not 3, times longer than my run time! I didn't have time to have any beers after and I was late meeting my friend for dinner. Pffffft. And we weren't even the worst. The queues were so long, people actually ended up standing in the sea (bag collection was on the beach). I'm just glad it wasn't us!

Time taken: 45:27 mins (wow, G and I had a 45 minute conversation!)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Back to Spin

Yesterday was my first time back to spin in forever. I knew it was going to be tough. But I didn't know it was going to be THAT tough! I think I spent half the class looking at the clock hoping that by staring at it long enough I would magically move time faster with my sheer will. The other half of the class I spent debating with myself whether I should just hobble out of the class in shame.

Every time we were made to stand up and pedal, I died a little. Plus, each time the instructor made us do that it seemed like forever before we actually got back on the saddle. It was miserable and sweaty. Oh so sweaty. I also cheated a little (confession time!) by having tons and tons of ‘water breaks’ and ‘brow wiping’ just so I could seat my sorry little ass back down, if even for 2 seconds.

My personal instructor had warned me that the afternoon spin classes weren’t very good and that they’d be boring. Pah! If only I had time to be bored! My brain was on overdrive (screaming not-so-nice words, incidentally) the entire while.

The class was, however, dismally small. There were only 3 crazy people bobbing up and down their stationary bikes and my only bone to pick with the instructor was I never really knew what he was saying. But (and big BUT here) at least the guy was on his bike the whole while suffering every bit as much as we were. And because misery craves company, it made me feel a little bit better that at least he was feeling the burn. Ages ago I went for the evening class where the instructor talked a lot and walked around the class singing to his own songs. Maybe some people find those classes more fun, but it just always pisses me off when I’m suffering and the source of my pain isn’t suffering along with me!

Today I’m slated for a run but my thighs ache so much. I guess I’ll still run (or at least stumble around) because I feel a wee bit bad that I skipped out on swim training yesterday. Which brings me to the conclusion that I’d rather do 1 hr of swim training over a 45 minute spin class any day!

What I did:
45 min spin

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Better but Barely

I've been swimming more than I've been on my bike. I think it's the curse of the Bintan Triathlon - I just can't seem to bring myself to get on my bike!

What I've done:

Last Tuesday - 1hr Swim Training
Last Thursday - Ran 4k
Last Friday - Does spending a whole day on my feet at Universal Studios count?
Last Saturday - 1hr Swim Training

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Where Goes My Mojo?

So I did a big fat zero by way of training last week. I did a lot of “I’ll do such and such tomorrow” but actual physical exertion? Zip, zilch, nada. And nothing helped to make me feel bad enough to lift a finger. I went to youtube and watched people running, swimming or biking; read countless sporty blogs and still I couldn’t find my mojo.

In all, I feel a little bad. And I couldn’t even enjoy my short little break because I just spent everyday feeling just that little twinge of guilt that wasn’t big enough to make me move but wasn’t quite small enough that I was going to bed feeling quite at peace with myself (or more the way my so-called ‘training’ was going). More than that twinge of guilt thought, is the growing fear that with the Bintan sprint triathlon looming closer and closer, I’m wasting precious time lazing instead of putting in bike hours. And mainly, I just really don't want to push my bike up at the beginning of the bike leg like I did last year.

I moved a bit on the weekend, just to make myself feel somewhat better. I was supposed to do a 5k fun run on Saturday, but it got rained out and after sitting around waiting for the rain to stop, I decided about a half hour before the postponed flag-off to go off for breakfast (and convinced my friend to come along as well). Which meant my forced exercise that weekend was blown. I went for a pathetic excuse of a swim instead. 2 x 300m in all. It wasn’t anything to cry about. Pfffft.

On Sunday, Rich and I cycled from his place (via park connectors and sidewalks) to Robertson Quay and got lunch before cycling back. It came up to 10k. And mostly I held him back because I was the biggest wuss and was terrified of narrow pathways. This is what happens when you don’t ride regularly – every damn thing makes you freaked out that you’d fall off your bike. I think I need a good fall to get over this. Nonetheless, we made it through without a scrap (but with a lot of ‘oh crap!’ and ‘woah!’ shouts along the way) and I quite enjoyed it. We did learn from this slow, not-so-long ride though that firstly we probably should have started earlier than noon; and secondly we should probably have sloshed on some sunblock! I have the weirdest tan lines on my back and Rich is just…well…red in various places. All fun and games.

What I did:
Last Monday to Friday – Absolutely nothing
Saturday – 2 x 300m swim
Sunday – 2 x 5k bike (and lunch in between – green curry, yum yum!)
Yesterday – 1 hr personal training (aching so much now!)