Weekend Recap

I was supposed to do a race on Sunday, and I slept early the night before and woke up feeling great, only to have the race completely rained out. So that's 3 races in a row that I haven't done now. Although, yesterday's race wasn't really my fault. In the end, G and I ran back to our respective homes in the miserable rain and whilst it wasn't a 12k race, I'm pretty happy that I did something in the end.

Saturday was a complete wash because James (my dinner buddy) and I had our monthly dine-out on Friday and succeeded in finishing a bottle of wine. Each. R didn't do much better himself since he was off on a nice little wine event (that dragged on the whole day) and was pretty much as plastered, if not more plastered than I was. Nonetheless, we both managed to drag ourselves out to lead the Alumni Running Club in a 5k walk. He was retching the entire way while I don't think my head stopped spinning at any one time in the walk!

What I did since I last posted:
Wednesday: Ran 10k
Thursday: 1 hr swim training
Friday: Proceeded to make Saturday a complete waste of a day
Saturday: 5k walk in the Botanical Gardens
Sunday: Ran 7k

The Familiar Aches

of Muay Thai! I thought it was going to be a wuss class on Monday. I mean, I'm tough right? Not so. My wings, my forearms and my upper arms are in such agony...and mind you this is a good 2 days after my session. Little secret? I'm kind of liking it. I've missed the burn and the feeling that I've whipped my pretty little ass into shape. Makes me feel hard core. I'm sure I've mentioned that millions of times. The thing with MT (which I wasn't so big on at first) is that I'm doing things that, left in a gym by myself, I probably wouldn't do. I don't think I'd do as many sit-ups or push-ups. Nor would I work my arms till burning point. I'd usually just stop the moment my arms ache just a wee bit and then come to a grinding stop, pat myself on the back and feel happy that I've 'worked-out'. Yes, I don't actually push myself at all.

Yesterday's pilates wasn't so pretty. I don't think it was the hardest class I've been for, but everything was just screaming in pain and I was struggling to do any of the arm work. I think I need to give those arms a break for a couple of days....well, till Thursday since I plan to make swim training at the club!

Meanwhile, I'm putting in a 10k run tonight. If I don't get lazy and stop half way like I did last week.

What I've done:
Monday: 1hr of Muay Thai
Tuesday: 1 hr of Pilates

Very Lazy

I had a 5k charity run on Sunday and I didn't go for that. Somehow I've managed to fall into this rut of laziness...or I've just gotten used to not turning up for races. Sigh....

That aside, last Thursday I went for my first swim training at the British Club and it was tough. Good tough. The coach (whose name I really don't recall!) looked at my swim stroke and I'm proud to say that my right arm stroke (what on earth do you call it?) was very very good. But he also said that my left arm stroke was really really crap. I could be a brilliant swimmer, but for my left arm! Damn left arm! The last bit about the 'brilliant swimmer' was my own swim analysis, don't think the coach said anything close to me being brilliant.

I did a crappy 2.4k fartlek run on Friday and drank too much wine after, which meant my Saturday was more or less a lost cause. My grand plan to do muay thai in the afternoon, became an afternoon of hitting the beers. Gah.

And to round up my already lazy weekend, I didn't turn up for my 5k run. Terrible terrible. I did go to the gym for some core training though, so that made me feel a little better. All the calories that might have burnt were put back at dinner. On a whim, I decided to make Beer Butt Chicken (I basically took a bunch of recipes and came up with something) and a very sinful apple crumble. Guess this week'll be spent working off all those added calories!

What I've done:
Wednesday: Ran 7.23k in 58:40 mins
Thursday:45 minute swim training
Friday: Ran 2.4k in 16:49 mins

It's Been A While

Since my last post and so much has happened! Over the past two weeks, I've gone to the Emerald Isle for a beautiful wedding, did a 10k run in Manchester (relived my University days on foot!) and chickened out of a half marathon.

First and foremost, congratulations to the loveliest Irish bride and groom. I had so much fun staying with the bride and being a part of her big day (it's always more the bride's day than the groom's one). If you're ever reading this Cat (which is very unlikely) thanks for asking me to be one of your bridesmaids! I had sooooo much fun, drank waaaaay too much and brought back amazing memories. Despite all the celebrations though, and because I was jet-lagging, I managed to fit in a 2.5k run (yes yes, pathetic, but I was hungover!) and a 4k run (slightly less hungover) on the Cat's brother's treadmill. I also managed to set off the alarm on the day of the wedding (whilst on said treadmill) and woke the entire family up. But that's a story for another day.

Being back in Manchester was nice and nostalgic. I had intended to do a 10k route recommended by the Manchester Frontrunners on Runnersworld, but decided instead to do a run around the city centre. Things have changed quite a bit in Manchester, but a lot of the old stuff is still there, which is nice. My old hall of residence and the god-awful Law building were still standing. Best of all, Whitworth Art Museum (which I sadly didn't have the time to go to) looked as peaceful as it did 6 years ago!

Finally, yes, I chickened out of my half mary. I was jet-lagging and completely unprepared. There was just no way ever I'd wake up at 5 in the morning to run 21k. So I chose not to turn up instead. Big cheers for the mad G though who had hit only 5k in her training, but still had the gumption to turn up and complete the whole darn thing. Great work! I have rockstar running buddies!

Anyway (I know I said 'finally' just a paragraph ago, but did you really believe that?) I've been relatively good since I've been back. I did a 5-10 minute skipping session on Saturday (my calves were killing me days after!), did a 6.2k run (distance from work to my girl friend's place where I was having dinner) and had a hard pilates session yesterday! So it's not as if I've been just lying around doing nothing!

What I've done
Monday: Ran 6.2k in 48:56 mins
Yesterday: 1 hour of pilates

Bruises and then some

I have a wonderful set of bruises all over thanks largely to Muay Thai (MT) which I've started going back to after taking a one month break. MT brings out a huge conflict in me. Half of me doesn't actually know why I'm taking it since I really don't enjoy hurting myself or doing tons and tons of push-ups; and the other half of me, masochist that I am, rather enjoys the ache after every class. There's some little voice at the back of every non-elite wannabe sports person that cheers every time you wake up with that ache...kind of makes you feel almost...well...elite. But yes I'm back at MT and I'm bruised and aching and enjoying a little sick appreciation of that fact.

What I've done:
Last Tuesday: Pilates for 1 hour
Last Friday: Ran 10k in waaay too long a time
Saturday: Muay Thai for 1 hour (had the hardcore instructor and did more sit-ups than I've ever done)
Yesterday: Muay Thai for 1 hour (real wuss class after the backbreaking Saturday class)

Bad Drivers

I've always been relatively mild when it comes to bitching about how bad Singaporean drivers are. But last night I met one of those I'd put up in my list of irresponsible drivers. Yesterday I did my 'longer' run home. I figured I'd been taking it easy long enough since I've fallen ill and I should put those legs through more. So I started off from the train station and ran back...and almost got hit by a car.

It's bad enough that there are selfish cyclists on the pedestrian pathways half the time, who have no qualms about knocking every person on foot down. But yesterday as I was just about to run across a zebra crossing, this ass of driver decided to plough through the crossing regardless of human on it or not. I had to jam to a stop (okay, I exaggerate, I wasn't running all THAT fast) and suffer the humiliation of him banging on his horn. Hello?!?!? He was completely in the wrong by speeding through the zebra crossing and not slowing down to see if anyone would be using it. BAH! If he had knocked me down, he'd be behind bars now. Needless to say, I spent a good 20 seconds shaking my fist at him and yelling a whole string of not-so-nice words his way. Not that he heard any of it, since he was speeding off anyway.

This whole thing really rattled me last night though. I don't get these drivers who don't give two hoots about how they could potentially be killing someone with their idiotic driving. Since I've started drinking, I've been hard on drink drivers because I hate how selfish and irresponsible it is. I've once driven past a club before and the cars coming out of there were driving stupidly. I don't feel sorry for people who get fined/have their licence suspended/jailed for drunk driving. It's one of the most stupid chances to take and quite frankly if they wanted to kill themselves, they can go right ahead, but to put other random peoples' lives at risk, that really pisses me off.

So to all the irresponsible drivers out there, I hope you just knock it off. It's not cool to drive drunk and it's not cool to drive in a way you endanger other road-users especially runners who are also making it home (and would like to get home alive) just like you are.

Yes, I know I've ranted for 4 paragraphs, but I'm so mad at all these selfish jerks!

What I've done:
Last Wednesday (haven't updated in a while!): 4.5k
Saturday: Swam 1.2k
Yesterday: Ran 7k (and almost died) in 55 minutes

I'm Back!

So my return back to sport has been slow and gentle so far and other than my shins aching, I'm actually feeling pretty good despite being laid up for 2 weeks!

Over the weekend, I did a short swim. My neck was still hurting from my inflamed lymph nodes and the 2 weeks of non-activity had turned any muscle I had to mush. Other than my arms feeling the strain, I thought the 600m I did at the pool went pretty well.

On Sunday, R and I went for a long long walk. We started off at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and hiked it down to MacRitchie Reservoir. All in it took us a good 3 hours to do a 10k trek. Because it was insanely warm (although we did get rained on for a good 1/2 hour before it got really hot again) and we didn't bring any munchies, I was pretty miserable at the end of the walk. In spite of that, I thought the walk did me good. My legs got a good work out in preparation for training this week.

Yesterday I stepped things up a bit more. I went for pilates classes and followed that off with a run to R's house (4k). Although there were moments where I was worried I'd be too tired to go further, I made it all the way through!

I'm back!

What I've been doing
Saturday: 600m swim
Sunday: 10k trek

Yesterday:
Pilates for 45 minutes
Ran 4k in 31:53mins

Still Resting

No pilates, no nothing yesterday. My folks are freaked out that I have hurt something badly, didn't help I was whinging the whole of last week, and demanded another week of bed rest and just sitting on my flabby ass twiddling my chubby little fingers. In the meantime, I've managed to hurt my neck from heaven-knows-what (sure as hell ain't anything exercise-related) and I've got a little man attacking the back of my head with a tiny ice pick because I couldn't sleep last night. I'm grouchy and my frustrations need an outlet for release!!!!

Sick

I've been sick the last week. Goodness knows from what. All I know is I had a crazy backache, I couldn't raise my legs and my eyes were throbbing. I was on a nice cocktail of anti-virals and painkillers and I slept away the week that I was supposed to be building on distance. So here I am this week, no clue what hit me last week (despite having seen a troop of doctors and specialists) and still not hitting 10k on my runs. Nonetheless, I'm still going to thank God for small mercies - at least I'm feeling a lot better now and tonight I'm off for pilates!

Hong Kong

Off to Hong Kong for the weekend to celebrate me mom's birf-day. Aiming to squeeze two runs and a swim in during the 3 days there. Yes, I am exceedingly ambitious!

Slow and Steady Does It

After all the failed runs in the past week, I decided to give running a shot again. I've been a running wreck lately and running was just starting to really suck big time. I've never been the kind of runner who experiences a great running high in the middle of my run. On the contrary, I just feel miserable all the way to the end. So what gets me going is really the sense of achievement at the end of the run. With all the incomplete runs, the more-walk-than-run incidents in the past couple of weeks, I was just getting really fed-up with myself and the world, because it really didn't feel like I had achieved anything running related.

Yesterday though...Yesterday the light shone brightly at the end of the tunnel. I started easy - did a little warm-up and a couple of stretches and embarked on a slow run back from the train station. I didn't dash through any lights worrying that they'd change; if they did I'd just hang back and wait. It was essentially a very nice slow plod home and if I can think of any analogy, last night's run was almost similar to someone sticking their toe into a hot bath to check if the temperature's just right. And it turns out, the temperature was just right.

I made it home, slowly and steadily. Of course I was exhausted after the run, but it was a different exhaustion from the previous few runs. I finished the whole distance, and I could have gone further (albeit at a very slow, almost pathetic pace) if I wanted to, and I didn't feel like dying. Most of all, my confidence was back once more and, truth be told, I've missed that good old cocky friend immensely.

What I did last night:
Ran 7k in 57 minutes

I Ache...

Muay Thai and Pilates have taken their toll. Today, my ankles and every muscle in my body that could ache are aching. I feel so hard core! Aiming for a 6.5k run tonight. Judging from my complete lack of running lately, I think it's going to be a bit of a struggle.

What I've done
Monday: 1 hr of Muay Thai
Tuesday: 50 minutes of Pilates

I had some big plan to wake up at 6am on both of those days to run/swim, but that evidently didn't quite work out!

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!