Pool Etiquette

I usually go swimming in the pool at my apartment not because it's particularly great for swimming, but because at 9 at night, it beats travelling out just to get a swim in for the day. Because I'm not entirely sure how long my pool is though, what I refer to as a lap usually means going to and fro, which I convince myself is equivalent to approximately 50m.

The thing I hate about my pool are the kids. Every time I go for a swim my life is on the line. The youngsters think it's funny jumping off a high ledge into the pool and it's just a matter of time before they land on someone and break their neck. I like to hug the wall when I swim because I feel since I'm doing laps, the kids can have the rest of the pool to mess around with. However, since I've started wall hugging, I just feel that swimming is so much more precarious. When I went swimming last night I almost had a kid jump on my head, and believe you me, I wanted to wring that kid's neck right there and then. I also wanted to wring that kid's parents' necks. Firstly, isn't it way past that youngster's bedtime and secondly, you'd think they'd be a little more responsible instead of finding their kid funny. The thing is even if they didn't kill the unwitting swimmer below the ledge, the pool isn't all that deep and just one day some kid is going to crack his head and all these kids/parents would learn the hard way that sometimes a little bit of discipline is good, probably too late.

Other than jumping on my head, the thing I can't stand is when these kids take up the whole entire pool. I'm not asking for much, just the area across the length of one wall. But that apparently is still too much. I spent the bulk of my swim last night very frustrated and very pissed off, because I had to stop every now and then when the kids and their parents played ball the entire width of the pool.

The thing is, I hate being the prick that doesn't understand that children will be children. But it's gotten so annoying swimming in my pool lately that I'm wondering how I can get about all of this. I suppose I could pack up and swim at the club instead of at home, but somehow that feels a little like I'm being chased out of my pool by a bunch of unruly kids and their irresponsible parents.

What I did last night:
Swam 10 very frustrating laps full of starts and stops

Resolutions for 2009

Because it's THAT time of the year again. Actually I stopped making resolutions when I was 18. I kind of realised then that I couldn't disappoint myself if I didn't put any expectations on myself. Just shows how completely 'ambitious' I am.

Anyway, because I've decided that I'm too easily satisfied with my life and I think I need some new challenges, here goes:

1. Finish a 10k race under 1 hour (the original purpose of this blog!)

2. Finish a half marathon

3. Run at least 20k a week

4. Master how to use the harness in windsurfing

5. Take part in a Bi-athlon

6. Be Triathlon ready - i.e. be able to ride a tri/road bike confidently

7. Have some money to show at the end of 2009 (I am terrible at money management)

8. Eat healthier - more fruits, vegetables and fish!

9.Do more for the less fortunate

10. Finish reading all 101 books in this list

Meanwhile, I had plans to go running tonight but I'm going to have to put that off again because I'm still aching! In fact I'm aching more than yesterday! Might go for a swim instead if my weary, aching self is up for it.

Recap for the Past Few Days

I've eaten way too much this festive season. Since my last post on Christmas eve, I'm proud to say I actually managed a 4k run back to my kitchen to roast a chunk of beef. The beef turned out pretty darn good, but the gravy, not so much. Ah well, at least I got half of it right.

Christmas day was spent eating the whole day. Well eating and fitting in a nap in between because I had a massive food coma. After two consecutive meals of festive fare, my dad who's a closet Chinaman, had enough of 'ang moh' food so my sis and I built up on our brownie points and brought the folks to Si Bon for a swanky (and in hindsight, ridiculously expensive) Japanese dinner. The service was fantastic, the food was up to standard, and thank goodness no one ordered alcohol...yes, I am cheap like that.

Anyway, as I've mentioned before, I've eaten way too much this festive season. And I didn't do much by way of exercise. I managed to squeeze in a pathetic 2.5k run on Friday. It was one horrific run. I was running late meeting a friend, so I figured I'd run faster. Only the lights worked against me. So every 200m I came abruptly to a stop. I tried to lie to myself that I was doing some strange sort of tempo, interval training thing, but frankly, I was completely exhausted just running the 2.5k. I blame the Christmas gluttony. Of course, instead of sitting home and feeling remorseful, I went out and drowned my sorrows in a lot of alcohol instead.

Needless to say, Saturday was a complete bummer of a day. Yet despite a crazy headache for the whole day, I managed to have two dinners. Well, actually I ate about half of all the leftover turkey stuffing from Christmas eve and then went over to my friend's house to have another Christmas dinner.

Did I say I've eaten way too much this festive season?

After all the eating, sleeping and doing not much else, yesterday I decided I needed to get off my lazy (probably significantly bigger) ass and do something by way of training for the biathlon in February that G and I are almost definitely taking part in. It was too sunny to run yesterday, so I decided to hit the gym where I stayed and do some core training and then head for a swim.

I've wanted to try this Crossfit workout that I've seen on one of my favourite blogs, but was too chicken shit to try the whole twenty one. I figured 10 was good enough for me seeing as I hadn't been doing much core training for the past couple of months. So in essence here's my wuss version of the Steve's "Twenty One" or what I shall un-creatively call "Ten":

9 sit-ups + 1 push-ups
8 sit-ups + 2 push-ups
7 sit-ups + 3 push-ups
6 sit-ups + 4 push-ups
5 sit-ups + 5 push-ups
4 sit-ups + 6 push-ups
3 sit-ups + 7 push-ups
2 sit-ups + 8 push-ups
1 sit-ups + 9 push-ups

No clue how long I took to do it because I was completely exhausted (even after modifying the whole darn workout) and forgot to check my watch.

Following that I did one set of lunges, two sets of split jumps, a whole bunch of crunches, worked on the plank twice (which essentially was all I could manage) and did some arm work with weights. I rounded all this up with 15 laps in the pool which took me approximately 40 minutes.

Cocky, arrogant me. My training log yesterday writes 'Lower back aches a little and thighs are quite fatigued. Everything else fine'. Guess who woke up this morning aching from neck down? And I mean aching to such point where it hurts lowering my ass into a seat, coughing, laughing, reaching for something...in fact, I can't think of anything that doesn't hurt doing at this point.

I'm taking a much needed break today. I couldn't sleep the whole of last night despite lying in bed since 10.30pm at night, which could be because I overworked my body, overate at dinner or overworked my brain by reading when I got sick of tossing and turning. Whichever the case, I'm meeting good, ole Keithie for dinner in what I hope is a sensible night-out.

What I've done other than ramble for 10 paragraphs:
Last Wednesday - Ran 4k in 28 minutes

Last Friday - Ran 2.5k in 15 minutes

Yesterday
- 45 minutes core/weights training (essentially circuit training)
- 15 laps in pool in approx. 40 minutes

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

And a Happy New Year's Eve to one and all! Being brilliantly efficient I've more or less finished all my work by 1pm, but here I am waiting to go home, where a chunk of raw beef is waiting for me to magically transform it into roast beef for tonight's dinner. Essentially, if I screw up, we get no beef. No pressure on me at all.

So anyway, I had big plans today to go for a run, prepare my beef, save the world, but instead I'm here in the office watching time pass me by and stalking waaaaay too many people (who really aren't worth stalking) on Facebook. Hopefully if all goes well, I'll be off at 4pm (my fingers well crossed) wherein I'll try to squeeze my favourite 4k run into journey home. It's a grey, rainy day here, which translates to a nice, cool run...something I haven't had in a while.

Last random point, I went for Carols by Candlelight at church last night and I love it to bits. Singing carols in a place that could potentially go up in flames has that nice christmas-y feel with a dash of that adrenalin rush that one needs in life. God bless everyone and have a great Christmas eve!

My Weekend Run

It's always been hard for me to run on the weekends because I always feel this need to do things I can't do on the weekdays. In that sense, running has taken a back seat to windsurfing or rockclimbing come Saturday and Sunday. However, with the onslaught of the North East monsoon in Singapore, I've been too chicken shit to go windsurfing. So over the past few weeks, there've been stories of people bruising ribs, getting hit by masts and I've just decided to be a complete coward and just give the whole monsoon period a miss. I'd like to think I'm being smart, knowing my limitations and all that, but bottom line is, I'm just a wuss.

However, because I have given my beloved board and sail a well-deserved break for the next couple of weeks, I now have time to fit a run into my weekend activities again. The thing is (and you'll see why this is just an excuse to buy more gear) unlike running home and all on the weekdays, I don't have to carry a backpack on the weekend with my work clothes and all...well, in theory I could do that, but it just seems a bit lame. Anyway, since I don't have a backpack, I also can't chuck my bottle of water anywhere. Yes, I know there are people who carry it in their hand, but I've tried that and I really don't find it very comfortable. After debating all this in my head (because I over analyse everything and because I'm also very very paranoid about not being completely hydrated despite me not running looooong distances), I decided to go out and buy me a hydration pack. And you know me, if I buy something new, I have to make an effort to perform up to standard.

So, I'm proud to announce that I'm back! Woo hoo, did me a whole 8k of runnin' in the sweltering heat! Of course, needless to say, all things leg related were screaming in pain throughout the run and I needed to rush into a toilet halfway through because in my focus on being well hydrated I forgot that water gone in had to come out somehow. BUT....I did a long-ish run for the first time in ages and it felt soooo good when I was done!

What I did yesterday
Ran 8k in 54:16 mins

Batam and Then a Longer Run

My exercise over the weekend was courtesy of Habitat for Humanity. A couple of us from the Manchester Alumni headed to Batam to help build houses. Boy oh boy was that the best workout I've gotten in a while. G and I were digging soil to lay on the floor of the quarter built house and level it. It was back-breaking work. We dug and we dug and we dug...and two days later we were still aching all over. I highly recommend working with Habitat, you get to help people and get a fantastic workout! Seriously though, it was an amazing eye-opener for the bunch of us spoilt little brats from Singapore and I think the we returned home with a greater awareness of the world around us. Essentially it was good to get out of our comfort zone and step into a life that wasn't so easy and where material goods weren't as readily available.

BEFORE


AFTER


*I was starting to have a weird tanline on my legs from my $10 pants before taking the 'AFTER' shot (I went out to get $10 pants the day before the trip just so there'd be no heartache if I tore them or anything) so I wound up rolling the pants up to create makeshift shorts, or what I shall now call "shpants" - which sounds like 'shit pants' and being immature, that completely amuses me*

After the day trip to Batam on Saturday, I did a longer run on Monday. Longer than what? Longer than the 4k rut I've been stuck at for the past goodness-knows-how-many-weeks. So I ran my 6.5k on Monday and it was well...quite quite exhausting. But seeing how lazy I've been lately, that was hardly surprising. Nonetheless, I made the 6.5k target, so hopefully this is a sign of less lazy days to come. Fingers well crossed.

What I did on Monday:
6.5k in 49:54 mins

Hong Kong Trip

I got back from Hong Kong on Tuesday and since I've been back I've finally hauled my lazy ass out of the taxi on to the roads once again. Before I ramble on about the first run I've done in weeks, first Hong Kong.

There's nothing much to say about Hong Kong since I've pretty much made my friends there tired of meeting up with me because it stops being special when the 'guest from out of town' appears about 3 times a year forcing drinks down peoples' throats. Nonetheless because of their selflessness (and I suspect they secretly hope if they turn up this time, they never would have to again!) I met up with a bunch of them for drinks (what else?) and a good ole catch-up session. T'was great. I love all my friends in HK and they take the edge off the mandatory relative visiting.

The one thing I did this time round in Hong Kong that I've never done before though was go trekking with Jimbo, Steph and my sister. The view from the top of Dragon's Back was fantastic and it was the first real exercise I had done since my last run. After the 8.5k hike, many M&Ms and a bag of crisps later, all of us were ready to just collapse...but of course, one must have the mandatory celebratory drink! And all four of us tumbled dusty and all into some sports bar where we proceeded to order a whole bunch of food and of course a bunch of drink! It always feels great knocking back a couple after a good 3 hours of exercise. I'm hoping the next time I get down to Hong Kong, I get to squeeze some trekking in again. Note to self to wear proper trekking shoes next time, because I slipped on my old pair of trainers and my feet were sore the next day! I'll put the piccies we took up just as soon as I manage to figure out how to transfer them from the camera.

Now to the run. Yesterday, I finally had enough of my sloth. I packed all my running stuff and took a bus down to the track and ran home from there. I ran really slowly, and I still felt quite tired at the end, but I did enjoy my first run in weeks. Muggy and hot conditions aside, the music was good, the legs felt good and in all it just felt like I found my old friend again.

What I did last night:
Ran 4k in 29 minutes (I did say it was a slooooow run!)

Death

Death always trips me up. I'm not great at dealing with it. And more than anything else I become teary eyed over small little things for the next couple of days. Which is fine if I was really close to anyone involved in the death. But when all it is is that I've studied together with the girl who passed on more than a decade ago and that's probably the closest link I can muster up, somehow I feel like a complete fraud. What right do I have to feel so sad for her husband or her family? All I can do is sympathize and offer nothing by way of empathy. And then on top of all this, I realise how lacking my life is. At least she loved and she was loved. I just feel as if I take everything for granted and get very caught up in meaningless nonsense. I don't even know what this entry is for because now I feel like I'm just typing out random thoughts that happen to float into my head and there seems to be no obvious reason or train of thought I'm having at all.

Okay, I Feel REAALLLY Bad

I do, I do. I've been so utterly lazy the past two weeks and I am wrecked with guilt. But apparently not enough for me to do any real exercise. Sigh.

What I did over the weekend:
Saturday: Windsurfed for 2 hours (had a backache for 2 days as a result)
Sunday: Rockclimbed for 1 hour

Found out on Friday that one of my old school/classmates was a victim of the Indian tragedies. My prayers go out to her husband and family at this point in time. Terrorists suck.

Sick

Bah, I'm on the brink of a flu and I've been fighting it for almost a week now. What with multi-vitamins, lots of water, tons of rest...in fact I haven't run since last week...although that probably is more due to laziness than illness. Despite my efforts I'm having a persistent cough that wouldn't go away. Hopefully if I keep up the rest, water and vitamin intake, I'll be feeling 100% by next week and I'll have no excuse to not run!

I miss waking up bright eyed and bushy tailed!

Back to Being Lazy

Wow....I haven't run since last week's pathetic 4k run. So that's like 5 days (except for the 1.5 hours of windsurfing on Saturday...which to me is more fun than exercise) of laziness. Don't I feel guilty now...

Cuts, Scrapes, Bruises and One Wrecked Sail

My poor sail is with the Windsurfing Doctor this week because I managed to make two huge holes in two separate panels. So RM is going to get it all fixed up for me and hopefully I'm good to go next weekend.

I tried using the harness on Saturday and it was well, weird. I get the whole, 'your arms will be less tired, you're using your body weight' argument, but firstly, I kind of like my arms being tired and secondly, being hooked onto the sail just means if I let go of my sail because of whatever reason, the darn thing pulls me along with it and I wind up landing on my sail, looking completely stupid and putting rips and tears into it.

But being me, I don't like knowing that I suck at anything (which is probably why at some point of time, I'll probably be heading back to complete my dive course). So I'm sure I'll be back next Saturday, harness and all, putting new holes in my sail and more. L's going to look at my rig next week and I might be on my way to buying a new sail! I hope to God it's a lot lighter than my current sail!

What I did over the weekend:
Saturday: Windsurfed for 1.5 hours

All About Fish

Long time ago, I mentioned that I had too much body fat and was trying to eat a bit more healthily. I can't remember if that's actually what I wrote, but in my head I knew I had to start eating more healthy.

Since that entry, I've made only a half-hearted effort at eating healthy. The moment I started running 7k and upwards, I convinced myself I could eat anything. So I've been eating all kinds of junk - McDonalds for breakfast, curry for lunch, fries in the afternoon and the list goes on...

This week, I decided to make some effort to eat a bit healthier and have more fish. Fish to me is the miracle food group. Every other runner goes on about having more carbs, but I'm more about the fish. There are so many health benefits in fish and it tastes oh so yummy when it's cooked just right.

So, my fish intake this week has been as follows:

Monday: Asian Grilled Salmon with buttered bismati rice and stir fry vegetables
The recipe for the salmon is here and this time around I went easy on the sugar, so the fish turned out just nice. Tasty and healthy.

Tuesday: Grilled Sanma with Curry Udon
Sanma is one of my favourite fishes. I know it's strange, but it tastes soooo Japanese. And it's so easy to make, just season with salt and pepper and chuck it on the grill. The curry udon was a bit on the dodgy side though. Coupled with the fact that my sister completely overcooked the udon and added too much water to the curry, the whole thing just tasted like it was choke full of MSG.

Didn't do fish on Wednesday

Thursday: Grilled Italian Sea Bass fillet with Herb Butter
I didn't cook this. One of my close guy friends and I went on one of our dinner dates at this lovely Italian restaurant on Bukit Timah called Casa Roma and they served a really mean fish dish. My dinner date had a lovely squid ink pasta with prawns in white wine sauce. It was a kick ass dinner!

SO that's my fish roundup for the week!

I Suck at Running

I do. 10 seconds into the run, I was exhausted. Yes, TEN.WHOLE.SECONDS. It was pathetic. I bumped into a friend midway through the run, so I had to look lively for a good 5 minutes after (you know, one always has to give the impression that one's at the peak of their fitness....it's an ego thing and I'll be the first to admit to that).

I think because I haven't been running enough lately, my legs have forgotten how to run. And I'm back to starting off too fast. And not drinking enough water through the course of the day.

So today my legs don't feel good. After spin class on Wednesday and last night's run, I think I should just give my tired feet a wee break. And I know I didn't run all that far yesterday, but well....WHATEVER....I think I've been pretty darn good this week with the swimming, cycling and running...ooh, I can probably take part in a triathlon after this...but like a really really short one

What I did last night:
Ran: 4k in 29:10

Back Spinning

Whoa, crotch burn!!!!

I went back to spin classes last night and I have to say I enjoyed this class a bit more than the Monday classes. The lady was more attentive and didn't let anyone slack off. On top of that when she was leading the class on her bike and somehow no matter how much I felt like dying it was nice knowing that she was as drenched in sweat as I was. The guy on the Monday class just seems to shout a lot and the only reason he was sweaty was probably only because he was so into his shouting.

I think I might start going for these Wednesday classes from now on, which means I've got to play around with my schedule.

What I did last night:
Spin classes for 1 hour

The Non-Run

I did swim though!

By the time I got home yesterday, I was just too lazy and hot to do any running. I think this is why I prefer incorporating my run into my journey home. I don't feel I'm wasting more time running after I've taken an hour to get home. Did I say 'wasting time'? Sacrilege! But yes, when it's half seven and I haven't had dinner, the thought of a one hour run isn't all that welcome.

All the same, I did swim 15 laps in the pool and didn't pick up a neck ache for a change, so I did do some sort of exercise!

What I did last evening:
Swam 15 laps in 1/2 hour (I think, I kind of only half checked the time)

I Must Run Today

I must run today I must run today I must run today I must run today I must run today I must run today I must run today I must run today I must run today I must run today I must run today I must run today I must run today

My chant for the moment because I'm getting really sleepy.

A Weekend of Wind...NOT

This weekend I decided to get back windsurfing. I've actually managed to morph into the kind of windsurfer (if I can even qualify for such a term) I used to hate. I go all the way to the club nowadays to sit around drinking and barely touching my precious board and sail.

I made a change this weekend. I went down to the club on Saturday and went out for about a half hour or so...and realised because I have been so out of touch with windsurfing, I couldn't remember half of what used to come somewhat naturally to me. The sail felt heavy, my toes hurt from gripping the board and when I woke up on Sunday, everything thing waist up that could ache, ached.

But being super motivated meant I dragged my ass down to the club on Sunday and went out and died. I spent five minutes shooting out and the rest of the time struggling to get back to the bay I set off from. The current was too strong, the wind too light and wee old me was not a happy bunny.

Needless to say, the aches from the weekend are more painful today. Yet in a sick way, I rather like having them. Makes me feel like I'm doing something at least.

What I did this weekend:
Saturday: 1/2 hour of windsurfing
Sunday: 1/2 hour of windsurfing

And yes, I do recognise how pathetic it is that I'm sore all over from a mere 1 hour of windsurfing this entire weekend.

Last note:
I watched Tropic Thunder on Sunday night and it kicks ass! One of the funniest films this year!

Trippin' on Guilt

I'm supposed to run tonight. I probably won't be going to do that because I went out last night for my monthly alumni drinks and as usual I ended up staying till the bar shut and they kicked us out. I'm tired, I probably still have a blood alchohol level that's waaaaay too high and mainly I'm just too darn lazy.

I'm going to go home tonight and try and get some much needed sleep as well as catch up on the latest episode of Heroes. I actually know what's going to happen in that episode because I had no self control and went to read up on it on heroeswiki. I'm a nerd like that.

What I did yesterday:
Drink....aaargh, I feel sooooo guilty!

Bad Run

Yesterday's run was really crap. I've no idea why my legs were aching, but they've been aching since my trip to Dayang. I suspect a lot of it has to do with the squatting toilets, but I digress.

The moment I started on the run I knew it was going to be a lousy one. Everything hurt, I was hot, I felt tired and I just wasn't in a mood to run. But because I was all changed in my running clothes, it seemed a bit lame to hop into a cab and ride home. I had to at least make some effort to sweat a little.

I sweated buckets and I managed to pick up my least favourite side-stitch, the one that aches around the ribcage area. My run ended then, and I grabbed a cab home. All in, it was a disappointing and crummy run. But this isn't my first lousy run, and I'm sure I'll have many more like these to come. So I'll just write it off as a bad day.

Meanwhile, I really really need to fit some sleep in my schedule. I haven't had enough sleep since last Wednesday and I'm building up a giant sleep debt.

What I did yesterday:
Ran 4k in 28 minutes

Open Waters - Pulau Dayang

(warning, this is a real long one)


What a complete failure! I am officially a dive drop-out. I went for the first shallow dive and decided to give up altogether, so the dive trip became a beach holiday for me. Let's start from the beginning:

After travelling for 4 hours on a bus and another 3.5 hours on a boat, our whole dive group got to Dayang at 4am in the morning. Barely 4 hours of sleep later, we were woken up and the bunch of us drowsily trooped off to wash up and have our breakfast.

In the first dive we were supposed to run through the drills
1. ditch and don the mask,
2. ditch and don the BC,
3. ditch and don the weight belt
4. ditch and don the regulator

The first dive was the most shallow dive (well, from what I heard, since I only went for just the one) and round about when I reached the bottom, I had a massive headache and my breakfast was more or less ready to come flying out of my stomach. In my defence, I managed to tolerate this general queasiness for quite a while, but when I was going through the 'BC ditch and don' drill, I stuck my hand through the wrong hole and then things started getting bad. Subconsciously I kept finning, which meant I was slowly shooting upwards. Just before I hit the surface I realised I was too high, so I stopped finning and sunk down. When I tried yanking my hand out of the wrong hole again, I subconsciously started finning again...essentially I was shooting up and down for all of 6m. Needless to say, if I was feeling sick before, after that bouncing up and down in the water, my breakfast was ready to be unleashed. I signalled to the instructor that I had to go up and up I went.

I know everyone's going to go on about how it's so beautiful under water and that there are so many different kinds of fish, but frankly the sea is just a big seafood menu to me, when I see any sea creature, I think of how best to cook them, and I end up getting mighty hungry at the end of any trip to the aquarium. Fish just don't interest me all that much.

So I spent a lot of the time this weekend alone chilling by the beach. Thank goodness the beach was lovely. Powdery sand, clear blue waters...Saturday was a beautiful day, so I spent it swimming, sitting in the sun and just being lazy. At night, I watched more football than I ever watched because there really isn't much else to do. Not that I'm complaining. I'm all caught up on football now so I can go back to neglecting it for another month.

In all, despite not diving (which was why I went to this wee little island in the first place) I rather enjoyed this weekend. I made wonderful new friends and I had a lovely time sitting around really, really relaxing and not having a care in my mind. I wish the living conditions had been a bit more 'tourist friendly' though. I didn't feel clean my entire time in Dayang, and sleeping with a sleeping bag on the bed, is not my perfect way to be resting. All that aside though, I'd give this holiday a 7 out of 10, simply because I haven't had a beach holiday in such a long time.

Just a Little Bit Further (My Longest Run So Far)

Yesterday I did my longest run and about 20 times along the way, it almost turned into a short run. But by some strange rare determination that descended on me, I made it all the way to 1k from my place and walked the 1k in.

I was an idiot really. At half 4 in the afternoon I got hungry and went down and bought me a bowl of noodles. Real bright of me. Because I was just burping noodles the entire way home (I know this is in the 'too much information' territory) and it was not fun.

It's been really humid lately as well. With the monsoon season coming upon us, it's been raining on and off...which is fine, however, in between the rainy parts of the day, the air is still and muggy, which makes running just that bit more uncomfortable.

After all the running, I went out to meet K for drinks. One always has to gain back the calories they lose running, so I did my share of 'gaining'.

What I did last night:
Ran 10.48k in 1hr 19 minutes

A Slow and Steady Run

After a whole week of booze, rich food and utter sloth, the guilt finally hit me last night. I brought my backpack and running gear into work yesterday morning, but it was mostly just a meaningless gesture to make me feel like I was making an effort when I expected to be out boozing after work. However when work drinks got cancelled last night, I ran out of excuses to slack off further so finally(!) after one whole week of laziness the roads of Singapore found me once more.

Despite having had curry for lunch again (like I said, I didn't actually think I'd be doing any running), the run was actually alright. It was insanely humid last evening, so that was a bit uncomfortable but otherwise, yesterday's sloooow run was just another one of those uneventful runs. I had a side stitch midway through but that disappeared on its own after a couple of minutes. All in all, I have nothing really much of value to report on the run.

Next up, I'm planning to do a long (by my standards) one on Wednesday since I'll be off on my open waters dive this weekend with the lovely Ms T.

What I did last night:
Ran 4.5k in 32:26 mins

One Giant Wasted Weekend

I achieved absolutely nothing this weekend at all. For that matter, I don't believe I achieved anything the whole week that went by. In fact it's not a matter of believing or not, I officially declare that my entire last week was spent eating a whole lot of junk, drinking a whole bunch of alcohol and doing not a whole deal. Nonetheless, I've had my week of rest and relaxation and now it's time to get my lazy ass off the couch and back on the streets again. G is trying to convince me to do a Biathlon in February and I probably need to get what little training I can get in before that.

What I did the entire weekend:

Sat around at the windsurfing club drinking a lot of JD Cokes and doing absolutely no windsurfing

Ouch!

I went for my last session with my personal trainer yesterday and in a nutshell, OUCH! I wasn't actually in that much pain the whole of yesterday but this morning I woke up and realised my triceps were in soooo much pain! My obliques also have a small appearance in this symphony of pain I'm experiencing. I guess I won't be doing any pull-ups today.

On a totally separate note though, remember the period in life where I was all moody and cranky? Well, all's been sorted-ish now and I have been getting a full 7 sweet hours of sleep every night since Sunday. People eat when they're stressed up, I just wake up at 3am every night.

What I did yesterday:
1 hour of personal training

Post Race

I have done nothing. And would you believe I feel so guilty for that. I should be enjoying my week of absolute nothing, but all I'm feeling is strange and uncomfortable, as if I should be doing something, but I'm not.

Since Sunday I've been feeling a certain sense of loss. Which is odd, because before the race I couldn't wait for it to be over and now that it's over, I actually miss having something to look toward or just having a reason to run. I know there are people out there who love to run just because, I'm not one of those people. I need to have a reason to run otherwise it's just waaaaay too much pain, misery and effort. Of course I could stop running altogether, but I guess there's a sick side of me that kind of enjoys the suffering I feel I'm putting myself through.

G and I have decided to take part in a bunch of runs next year. I want to be able to do a 10k run comfortably (maybe even get to the stage where I don't have to stop for water!) and do a few 5k runs and work on my speed there. She also wants to do a mini Aquathlon in February next year. Well, we'll see how all that goes...

In the meantime, I've got my last session with my trainer this afternoon, I'm planning an nice short run on Friday morning and I've got big plans to get back to spin classes and pilates.

Great Eastern Women 10k 2008 Race Report

Good news first. I made it through all 10k without walking! Woo hoo! Bad news, I didn't do the run under an hour.

I woke up bright and early yesterday morning and had a banana and some dried cranberries. I made sure I drank a whole bunch of water the whole Saturday and I drank a whole lot more after I woke up. Yes, I realise I do have an unhealthy obsession with being constantly hydrated.

My running mate who I'd never actually run with before, G, picked me up in a cab and we headed on our merry way. I have never seen so many women in one place. Nor have I seen so many people wake up at some godforsaken hour in the morning just to run.

After dropping our knickknacks at the baggage counter, we went off trying to figure out how to get the running chip on our shoe. Needless to say we probably tied it completely wrongly, but what's most important was that it stayed on the whole run, and that it did.

Because G and I hadn't run together before and G hadn't run 10k before this, we compared our individual pace when warming up and agreed that I'd tuck myself behind her for the first 5k and then we'd switch for the next 5k. Brilliant idea since I always tend to start off stupidly fast and end up getting tired and miserable about 4k through.

Apart from there being tons and tons of people (we chose to start somewhere in the middle), I thought we did pretty good for the first half of the run. G was keeping at a good comfortable steady pace and that worked out really well. I grabbed a powerade at the 5k drinks station (after fighting off a few women who were shoving others to get their drinks) and decided to pick up the pace a little.

By now I had more or less lost G amongst the masses of women, because unlike me, she isn't crazily paranoid about being dehydrated and she didn't actually stop once throughout the run to get any drinks. So I was flying solo. I tried to pick up the pace a bit now and wasn't completely winded, so kept at that for a while. At about 7.5k, I grabbed some water and decided to push the pace a little bit more because I figured I could. Not good, I started getting a little floored at this stage, so held back again.

I hardly remember the last 1k. My shoulders were aching, I had a stitch, I was thirsty, I was tired...all I wanted was for everything to end. I vaguely recall making a mad dash for the finish in the last 500m, more because I wanted everything to be over than actually thinking I'd make better time. G came in about 4 minutes after me, despite having walked from the 8k mark to the 9k mark. Just goes to show how slowly I was running then.

So there, my first 10k race, which I didn't complete under an hour, but yet strangely there's a sense of accomplishment that I haven't felt in a while. I conquered the 10k without dying, and that left a sweet sweet taste in my mouth.

Race Time: 1:09:47
(956th out of 3900 people...which is within the top 25 percentile...anything to make myself feel better!)

2 More Days

and I'm freaking out...well sort of. Somehow a part of me has acknowledged I'm probably not going to make the run in less than an hour. I've been drinking too much and just lazing around waaaay to much to be able to feel like I'm at a 100 per cent fitness level....more like 50 per cent if I'm truly honest with myself.

I'm off to do my last run this evening. Going to go just the 2km today because despite lazing (although I prefer to refer to these past few weeks as 'tapering') all this while, I don't think I should kill myself today and try a run on Sunday with achy leggies! Soooooo, 2k today, a swim tomorrow, maybe the driving range tomorrow evening, and conquer the world on Sunday!

Foray into the World of Morning Runners

I woke up at 5am today. I planned to wake up at 6am, but I spent the whole night tossing and turning, fretting about getting enough water into my system that I managed to wake up a whole hour earlier than planned. So I spent an hour lying in bed over-analysing life. Essentially, after the hour of over-analysis, I managed to get very angry. The story of my life, I make up dumb scenarios in my head that gets me all riled up...over nothing, really.

Anyway, at about half 6, I got out my shoes and headed out for what was supposed to be a 5k run. Because I started too quickly or was just dehydrated (this was my fear all night!), I ended up getting my good ole side-stitch and dragging myself back home after just 4k. Now my legs are aching for some reason and I'm not sure why...actually, I lie, I know why they're aching, I've been lazy for too long and my legs have gotten used to the good life.

Nonetheless, it was interesting to run that early in the morning. For one, morning runners are a lot friendlier than night runners. Maybe because it's dark and no one really thinks the other person can see them, but I've been past runners at night and given them a grin or a wave only to have them run by me oblivious. There's something about the fresh dew and morning sunlight that must make people look happier, even if they're dripping in sweat.

Would I go running again in the morning? Maybe, even though I still feel like throwing up and dying when my body is shocked awake with the early morning exercise. Meanwhile, I've got a feeling I'm going to be really sleepy for the rest of the day.

What I did this morning:
Ran 4k in 26:55 mins

Incidentally I didn't swim yesterday. I got home and proceeded to get very lazy.

Champagne

My entries seem to revolve around alcohol lately and this is no different. Went for a work do last night and ended up getting quite shit-faced on champagne. I hate champagne, it tastes like soda but packs a huge punch. I prefer drinking my normal drinks and choosing to make myself shit-faced rather than being shocked by the fact that I suddenly am very very drunk. No running today then, I figure I'll go for something more headache-friendly like a nice slow swim. And then a nice early night tonight for a change.

The Last Minute Hong Kong - Macau Trip

So I more or less knew I had to go to Hong Kong for an awards dinner a couple of weeks ago. Procrastination again won the day and I only had my tickets sorted out the day before. Nonetheless, after a mad rush on Thursday, I made it to Hong Kong in one piece and stayed a night in the lovely Four Seasons. Very very fancy. Being only a night in HK, I ended up gathering a whole bunch of my poor suffering friends who resided in HK and forcing them to stay out till late with me on a school night. You guys know I love you!

Friday was off to Macau with the family. To cut the long story short, there was a lot of alcohol involved this weekend (surprise surprise) and I only managed to squeeze in one tiny run. I'm not even going to be pretend I'm ashamed that I was lazy (and drunk a lot), because I had a lot of fun. Especially on Saturday night where I met up with this wonderful couple (who happened to be in Macau the same time I was). It was a laugh catching up with them again and drinking wine like the world was running out of grapes.

Great, somewhat hazy, weekend aside, I do need to get my act together and really do some serious training this week. I have collected my race pack though, so I'm all set for the run this Sunday!

What I did over the weekend:
Ran 3.2k in 21:43mins

Pool Session

Had my diving pool session yesterday. It felt completely unnatural and was essentially one of those 'why am I doing this? No human being should strap on flippers on their feet and breathe under water' moments. Not that I've had a lot of those moments. I've still got my doubts about whether I'd enjoy diving, but we'll see what happens. It's off to the gym for my personal training now and an hour of torture. Not that I haven't had enough last night!

Finally a Decent Run

Despite having slept just a wee bit the night before, despite eating Indian Curry for lunch and despite feeling crummy...I did good on my run yesterday! Woo hoo! I'm back! It wasn't that I was running particularly fast or anything, but it was one of those days where everything just clicked. The lights worked in my favour all the way so I didn't have to stop too many times, and my legs just did what they had to do. And the strange part is, during and after that run, all the irritation, angst and misery just melted away - like Slimer in Ghostbusters (if anyone even remembers it!)! Hopefully the mad, insane, irritating me has gone away for a while!

What I did yesterday:
Ran 6.7k in 46 minutes

The Round Up to a Bad Week

I've become whiny lately. I'm tired of hearing myself talk nowadays and I feel sorry for all my friends who have to listen to me go on and on and on about the same things.

I did a short run on Friday, I had planned to do the same distance as Tuesday, but I couldn't go the distance. Ever since the Run for Hope, I realise I get tired after 10 steps and the rest of the run is just painful and miserable...and so the whining goes on...So anyway, Friday's run wasn't a whole bunch of fun, I think I got about 3.7k and I walked the rest of the way home. Had my dinner and went out for drinks till 4am with a bunch of mad Irish people.

Saturday afternoon needless to say was spent in a daze watching 'Twister' on the telly and feeling sorry for myself. Did I learn my lesson? Not so much. I headed off for windsurfing mid-afternoon and followed that off with a lot of Jacks and Cokes. Then I went off for a girlie night at my girl friend's apartment and finished off the night happily helping myself to a ton of wine. Was I the guest from hell? Let's see...
1. Arrive at the party 4 hours after it started? Check
2. Stumble into house half drunk? Check
3. Come in empty handed, bearing no gifts for the host? Check
4. Ask to borrow the shower because it's 11.30pm and I'm still in my windsurfing clothes? Check
5. Whine to anyone who'd listen and bore the bunch of them at the same time? Check
6. Proceed to get even more drunk? Check
7. Stick around and refuse to leave even though everyone has left? Check
8. Eventually left because the host calls a cab and kicks me out? Check

Here's a warning to all of you out there to not invite me over to your houses because even I wouldn't invite myself to my house party.

So what happens Sunday then? Let's just say 'vomit' was a large part of the day. Or well, the thought of it at least. I must say I was rather proud of the fact that I managed to drag myself all the way to the windsurfing despite feeling like complete crap. I was supposed to go for my diving pool session in the morning, but between feeling sick and tired, I missed it. Which means I've to go for it on Tuesday evening and hope and pray I learn everything in a matter of 4 hours. Otherwise, I'm going to have to postpone my open waters.

All in all, I really need to get out of this rut I've gotten myself into. I hate that I haven't made church 2 weeks in a row because I'm getting up at stupid times of the day; I hate that I'm just no longer that much fun to hang out with because I'm just mad and unhappy a lot; I hate that I'm so stressed up that no matter what time I go to bed, I'll wake up at 3am pissed off; I hate that my weekends feel shorter now and I'm not eating properly because I'm just spending most of the day hungover; and most of all, I hate that I've gone on about wanting to run during the weekends, but I don't bother to do any of that at all...

Ah well, hopefully the next couple of days will bring a solution and an end to my wrecked head!

What I've done over the past couple of days:
Friday: Ran 3.7k in 25:17 minutes
Saturday: Windsurfed for a half hour
Sunday: Windsurfed for about an hour and 15 minutes

Here's something that's so classic - because my weekend was spent in some alcoholic stupor, I happily forgot to collect my race bib and chip for the run I've been pretending to train for. Goes to show how I've managed to throw all priorities out the window lately.

Sports Massage = Sheer Torture

After the run on Sunday, I took a day off work on Monday and thought I'd head to the sports clinic and get me a sports massage. I had previously bought a package of 6 physiotherapy sessions which I could change to a sports massages so I thought I'd collect on those massages.

It was beyond painful. I can't even begin to describe the pain because it was pain on a very unfamiliar plane. The masseuse kneaded and kneaded at my knots and I spent a good part of the 45 minutes pinching my hand to distract from the pain (didn't work very well), biting into a towel, grimacing and just seeing stars. And I now know that I would make a poor spy. If someone hurt me like the masseuse hurt me, I would have divulged all confidential national secrets. So it's pretty good no one actually does trust me with information like that.

I read that I was supposed to drink lots of water after the session. But I probably ruined all effects of the massage by going for a whole bunch of drinkies. I realise my self-control when it comes to drinks nowadays is more or less zero.

So Tuesday wasn't so happy a day for me because it felt like someone had take a big wooden stick and hit my legs numerous times - I'm pretty sure I'm not that far off in using that analogy. Nonetheless, because I'm so dedicated and devoted to my cause of running 10k under an hour, I decided to do a 5k run home. Wasn't my favourite run. In fact I think I might have done better resting the legs for one more day before hitting the roads. But I was in a bad mood and I needed the run, so run I did - maybe not as fast as I'd run before, and maybe not as graceful (well, in my head I run gracefully), but I felt a lot better for it at the end. There are moments where one just needs a run to get through a bad day.

Totally random note - I'm taking my first drum class tonight and I'm really excited about it. Sometimes, I think the silver lining on the storm cloud of a 'bad mood day' is the spur-of-the-moment things that one chooses to do and would never have bothered to do any other ordinary day.

What I've done so far:
Ran: 4.7k in 37 minutes

Run For Hope

I ran for the fight against cancer yesterday and sadly cancer won. But only by a little bit. I didn't run the whole 10k route set out by the organisers (although my watch says I did 10.2k). I did complete it, but I more or less strolled along the last 500m.

It was a terrible, terrible run. In summary:
1. I started off too fast, tried to slow down but never really could
2. was really thirsty throughout the entire run despite stopping at every single water station
3. had a stitch about 3k into the run
4. Felt like throwing up my entire breakfast almost all the way through (point to self, cereal with milk an hour before running doesn't sit so well in my stomach)
5. I effectively ended my run when I thought the finish line was 500m before where it actually was and sprinted all the way only to find I had 500 m more to go

It's kind of upsetting overall I suppose because not only could I not make the 10k set out by the organisers, but I have a particularly soft spot for this run. So not making the 10k feels almost as if I've failed my sister and the darn cancer has won yet again. I suppose I have next year to give it another shot.

Meanwhile, I guess, I've to start learning to run in the mornings, pacing myself properly and gearing up for my run on the 26th. Well, also get the whole feeling of nausea that I picked up at the run out of my system. For some reason, the thought of food now makes me want to throw up and as a foodie, that really, really is depressing.

Run For Hope 2008
Ran 10.21k in 1hr 9 mins (I stopped the watch when I gave up and walked to the end point)

Fake Runs

I've been boozing way too much, sleeping way too little, and doing almost no running at all. So far, four days have gone by since the alcoholic weekend and I've only managed two very short runs. More to lie to myself that I'm keeping up with my training than actually train. And my guilt over my laziness didn't last too long because on Tuesday I was merrily drinking till 3 in the morning.

What I've achieved in the last 4 days:
Tuesday: Ran 1.84k in 11:07 minutes (was a 'tempo' run in my head...I actually have no idea what a tempo run is but it sounds cool enough)

Wednesday: Ran 2.45k in 17:01 minutes (I dressed this up as a 'hill run' when in reality I just ran up and down and gently sloped road)

Today: 1 hr session with my trainer where I climbed the rock wall in the gym for the last time before the new management pulls it down.

A last note:
I really have to get my ass kicked for being such a lazy ass, and I would welcome said ass-kicking from anyone at this point.

Formula One Weekend

or a weekend of overdoing the booze. Well technically I only overdid the booze on Friday and suffered for it the whole (I'm not exaggerating here) Saturday. This coupled with all the aches and pains from personal training on Friday was not one teeny tiny bit fun. I swore off alcohol on Saturday. I may have a problem, because right on Sunday I had 2 more bourbon cokes. My excuse is it was the first Formula One night race and I was watching it live!...Okay, I confess, I didn't drink any of those bourbon cokes whilst watching the grand prix, they came after. And yes, they were very tasty.

What I did since the last time I made an entry -
Friday: Had a 1 hour session with my trainer doing squats, chin-ups, crunches
Saturday: Died the entire day
Sunday: A lovely hour and a half of windsurfing

Splish Splash

After my failed run on Tuesday and the achy legs the whole of yesterday, I decided to go for a swim instead. Just to prove that to myself (also because the whole world was out running last night to taunt me, I'm sure) I pulled my runners out of my bag and tried a wee 5 minute jog on the street home. I was still wearing my dress, I was carrying a bag slung over my shoulders and I probably looked like a complete idiot...but it was dark and I convinced myself that no one saw me. The 5 minute jog reaffirmed that my knee still hurt, so it was off for a swim after instead. It was a nice change, although I forgot how tiring swimming was. I always seem to live with the mistaken impression that swimming is a relaxing non-exhausting sport. I'm always proven wrong. So anyhow, I did 4 laps of a mix doing the crawl and breast stroke. 5 more laps doing just the crawl, 5 laps doing just breast stroke and the last 4 laps a mix of the two again. It sounds like nothing, but I can assure one and all that I was very, very tired after all of that. And my neck hurts. I must be swimming wrong.

What I did yesterday:
Swam 18 laps

What I plan to do today:
Rest...my legs are still rather sore for some reason

Failed 10k

There's nothing much to say really. I wanted to run 10k last night, I didn't.

Well, the longer part of the story is that my legs gave up on me quite early on in the run and I was thirsty and miserable. I made it to 7.6k and I just couldn't go any further. I can only think of a couple of reasons why this happened

1) I didn't sleep properly the night before - I've been waking up in the middle of the night lately thirsty and cold
2) I didn't drink enough water the whole day
3) I've been happily slacking off the last two weeks, boozing too much and exercising too little, and my body has gotten too used to slacking off
4) All the late nights and drinks has finally hit me and I need to start being a good girl again
5)I had a large box of fries from Macs about an hour and a half before the run

Whichever the reason, I'm disappointed and upset. But tomorrow'll be another day and another run.

What I did last night:
Ran 7.6k in 54:20 mins

Sheer Laziness

I have no idea why I can't seem to do any proper exercise over the weekend. It's almost as if my body instantly goes into shut down mode and to even consider moving is too much of an effort.

After drinks on Thursday (as well as Wednesday)* last week I finally decided to get my ass down running on Friday. And run I did, but it was not fun. Because I was completely dehydrated, I developed a stitch in about 20 seconds which needless to say, lasted me all the way home. (I've actually managed to find a site that answered my side stitch questions, and I think the reason I used to get them all the time was because I ran without having drunk enough water!) Nonetheless, a bad 4.5k run, is still a 4.5k run, so to me, it beat sitting around at home staring at the tv.

The weekend, as mentioned before, was one whole lazy string of days. I thought about doing a run on Saturday, but that was all that materialised. A mere thought. In the end I sat by the pool and read a book, then deciding that I was being too darn lazy, I headed off to the driving range in the evening and hit about 135 balls. I need to start taking proper lessons really soon. In my head I used to rock at golf...now I don't even rock in my own head!

Sunday was actually quite a happy day for me. I went windsurfing again and I think (hope I don't jinx this but saying it out loud) I've rediscovered my mojo. Well, that or the wind was just the right number of knots, the water wasn't too choppy, the current wasn't too strong...etc etc. Whatever the reason behind yesterday's session, I had a lot of fun and I think I might start going back a bit more consistantly to the club after taking a rather long hiatus from it. I'm slowly realising how to bear into the wind after a tack, building the hope that one fine day I will finally be able to complete a whole tack without 1) falling into the water, 2) being hit by my sail, 3) dancing around the board trying to regain my balance or 4) all of the above.

What I did on Friday:
Ran with my constant companion, the side stitch, for 4.5k in 32:35 mins

What I did over the weekend:
Hit 135 balls at the range on Saturday
Windsurfed for an hour and a half on Sunday

*Just a side point, I've come to realise how evil drinking is:
1) I'm completely dehydrated from all the alcohol;
2) I'm also hungover, which means I don't do any exercise whatsoever; and
3) I have my greasy food cravings, which means I'll end up eating unhealthy oily rubbish

Not as Far and Not as Fast

I did my long run home from work yesterday. I had plans to run all the way home or die trying, whichever came first. Well, needless to say, 'die trying' occurred about a good 3k before I reached home, so I grabbed a taxi for to go the rest of the way.

The entire run was pretty uneventful on the whole. I stopped a gazillion times because I just happened to hit the lights wrongly each time I got to a traffic junction. I could jog on the spot, but I always feel a bit ridiculous doing that. And don't ask me why, I haven't a clue why I feel so darn self-conscious about jogging on the spot. Anyway, the run was going along quite fine until I got 7k or so. After that everything was uncharted territory and sulk all the rest of the next 2.6k my legs did.

All in all, yesterday I made it almost to 10k but not quite and I missed the 1hr goal completely. But, I did run further than I ever have in my life. It's hard to imagine that it was only a year ago that I dug around my room, found a pair of cross-trainers and thought 'hmm, let's try running, it can't be too hard', ran 1k on the side road from my house, died on reaching the main road, had my shoes fall apart from lack of use on my crawl home; and decide in the end to still give this dang thing a valid shot (well, after buying new shoes of course - it always is about the gear!)

What I did yesterday:
Ran 9.63k in 1hr 10 mins

So Tired

It's been a rough weekend full of alcohol and way too much drama. I'm suffering for all of it now. I'm completely ragged and run down and I just need nice, long, peaceful sleep. I did manage to fit in a run yesterday afternoon after I went to the driving range though. In all, I'm glad the weird weekend's over now and I can go back to swearing off the bourbon and cokes.

What I did over the weekend:
Ran 3.2k in 19:23mins
Hit 100 balls badly at the driving range
Deprived myself of sleep

A Not-so-easy Easy Run

As I mentioned yesterday, I was irritable over nothing, so I decided to get a run in. I begged my colleague to drop me off at the track near my place (on his way home) and I ran home from there. I made it all the way home without any music and realised that I had run longer than I planned to. I was going to do an easy 3k so I could fit in a short run today before my monthly alumni drinks, but it ended up being closer to a 5k run instead. I couldn't get much sleep last night on account of my knee hurting throughout the night. I couldn't extend my leg, nor could I bend it - all in all it was a jolly miserable night's sleep. So well, it's leg-resting today. I might walk to the bar instead of grabbing the bus though, that should count as some form of exercise!

What I did last night:
Ran 4.72k in 34:29 mins

Dive Class

I went for dive class last night and I have since learned that there numerous ways I can be severely injured or die from diving. Way to sell the sport! I'm not sure I'm going to be a huge fan of the sport (somehow it doesn't seem like a sport to me, more like a hobby...I'm sure diving enthusiasts would be up in arms now), but I said the same thing when I first took windsurfing and here I am a year later with my own personal (albeit secondhand) board and sail.

I'm going for a short run tonight. I'd go for pilates but I'm really in an angsty mood and need to get some meaningless pounding done. I have these moments full of random pent-up frustration over nothing (which in turn makes me more frustrated) and the only thing that would ease it is mindless repetition. It'd be better if I brought music out with me, but being the scatterbrain, I happily (sorry, angrily...because I'm in THAT mood) left it at home. So I shall be out running tonight, angry and music-less.

My Longer Run

After close to 2 weeks of 3k (or thereabouts) runs, I finally decided to try the crazy route that I suffered through the last time. At 6.30pm, I headed out the office armed with my backpack, my bottle of water, and my annoying (but now deemed slightly more trusty) old ipod.

I wouldn't say the 7k I ran yesterday was a complete breeze, but I didn't get any stitches till about 4k and even then they kind of disappeared for the most part*, I didn't stop to walk once and not once did my legs bail on me! Everything just fell very nicely and neatly in place and much as I hate to admit it, I think the music played a big part - 80s cheese is the way to go!!! And I probably wouldn't admit that out loud ever again.

Of course a 1/2 hour after I got home and plopped myself on the couch, my legs got all creaky and achy on me. The legs are actually feeling pretty alright today so maybe they're actually getting used to running outdoors!

What I did last night:
Ran 7.02k in 52:27 mins

*The lack of a stitch could be due to a number of reasons: 1) I ate a half pack of Craisins before the run instead of a huge meal; 2) I actually drank enough water before going for the run; 3) I went for pilates last Wednesday (the magic solution?...I really doubt this); or 4) God looked down and took pity on me finally!

Post-Rant

I realise I was ranting so much about my ipod Nano that I forgot to go on about my weekend training, or lack thereof. Saturday was spent in a state of hangover. Had my usual wine headache that lasted the whole day. I did try to squeeze in a run in the morning, but after barely running 1k, I really really felt like throwing up. So I had to walk all the way back home.

I went windsurfing Sunday and this time for real. After sitting around on my lazy ass the past few weekends, I decided to get serious about windsurfing and not head down to the club to muck around. This Sunday was pretty good side shore wind, so I had quite a bit of fun out. Of course having been lazy the past 3 weekends, in about 10 minutes, my arms were ready to fall off. But after short rests here and there, I managed to probably surf for about a bit more than an hour overall. And I know that I exercised for real this time because today my arms ache so much I can barely extend them and there is that familiar pain in my lower back.

I have a neck ache as well for a completely unrelated and very dumb reason involving trying to jump on someone, missing and getting whiplash from landing on the floor...No one should be surprised. It's me, I do stupid things and I suffer for the consequences ALL THE TIME!

What I did this weekend:
Ran and nearly puked for 1.4k in 9:59 minutes
Windsurfed after way too long for about 1hr over

Junk

I hate my ipod. Early this year I thought I'd really want a cool arm strap to wear whilst running, and because of that I needed an MP3 player so I'd have a reason to wear the strap. This probably sounds bizarre to everyone, but my brain works strangely, I genuinely did think the arm band was cooler than the MP3 player.

So I got the ipod Nano and got itunes installed on my computer. It was so much of a hassle that I uploaded 2 CDs and gave up. This essentially meant that I was running to the same songs all the time. I finally got really sick of those songs last month and had to beg my sister to help me put more songs on my Nano, which she very generously did. Now because the Nano is such a stupid device, it essentially erased everything I put in and replaced it with her songs. Which didn't affect me too much, until last night. I figured I wanted to run to some jazzy tunes for the long runs, because dance tracks just annoyed the hell out of me when I was dying of exhaustion.

Of course being the piece of junk it is, everything my sis had put in for me got erased and replaced by one sad Jazz CD's worth of songs. Which meant I spent the rest of the night having to convert CD after CD just so I'd have enough songs to run to tonight. Aaaaaargggghhh! For all the marketing and hype about the Nano, it has to be the biggest piece of crap ever invented. It complicates everything, restricts everything and is the world's least user-friendly MP3 player. I'm now thinking of getting either a Sony or a Creative to replace this after I throw it against the wall repeatedly in frustration.

Interval Training

I've mentioned before that I'm following this running schedule that I took off the Polar website. Yesterday 'Interval' was slotted in, which meant I had to go on a hunt online as to what 'interval training' actually was.

From Wikipedia, 'Interval training is broadly defined as repetitions of high-speed/intensity work followed by periods of rest or low activity.' So that's more or less what I did. Because I had to meet my childhood friend for dinner, I had a small window of time to do a very short run. But then they always say quality is better than quantity right?

I headed to the gym and got on the treadmill and did spurts of 400m dashes followed by slow runs for 200m. I'm not actually sure if I did it properly but here's the thing, this need to run fast and then slow and then fast again actually made this treadmill session go by rather quickly and, dare I say it, enjoyably. Then again, I didn't do this for very long because I was running late, so it could just be that I hadn't gotten to the point where I'd be bored.

What I did yesterday (vague recollection):
Intervals (5 x 400m) - overall finished 3.61k in 25 minutes

Pilates Finally!

Yesterday night I went to a pilates class at a studio near my house. I'm more used to machine-based classes, so last night's mat pilates class took me a while to get used to. Ever since my realisation that yoga wasn't really quite my cup of tea, I've been trying to get back into pilates and I was looking especially for machine-based classes. Unfortunately, most of the machine-based pilates schools in Singapore seem to cater to expat wives and tai-tais (ladies of leisure) who have the afternoons free, which means I don't have many options available. Nonetheless, I've set my sights on a couple of places and hopefully in no time I can go back to having pilates as a consistent fixture in my timetable!

What I did last night:
Pilates for 45 minutes

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

I've just finished Harumi Marakumi's book 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' and I rather enjoyed the book. I've always wanted to get down to reading one of Marakumi's books but there's a whole pile-up of books at my bedside table that I have yet to read. The reason I have so many books left to read is because of the simple fact that I cannot go to a bookstore and buy just one book. I have to get at least a half dozen each time I'm there. I completely over-estimate how much I can read at each given moment and well, long story short, I wind up with a book pile-up.

Lately, I've also started trying to read as many books as I can. I was a total nerd when I was a kid. I think I was the only kid in the world whose parents worried that I read too much. And I'm not exaggerating, I swear I used to get punished all the time because I wouldn't do my homework or go to bed at night because my nose was in a book. Even now if a book is particularly gripping, it would take sheer and complete exhaustion for me to even consider leaving a story on hold for a couple of hours. I have been guilty of going to work groggy because I absolutely HAD to finish a book at 5am in the morning.

Over the past couple of years though, my reading has slowed down a lot and I've taken to reading trashy magazines, running magazines and basically anything shorter in length. This I found a bit tragic, because my imagination was disappearing and replaced purely with the latest Hollywood gossip. So middle of the year I decided I needed a plan to get myself back on track with the reading. I found a list of books online ('101 books to read before you die'...I decided that '1001 books to read before you die' was being overly ambitious) and decided to try to read most, if not all, of it by the end of the year. As of last week, I don't think I was even halfway through, although I have read 8 books since I started.

So, with my book pile-up coupled with my self-imposed need to finish reading the books on my reading list, I had no time to actually get down to reading one of Marakumi's books. I happened to read a review about 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' in a magazine and it seemed interesting enough, but I forgot about it after a while. But I saw the book again when I was wandering around the Bangkok airport and it caught my eye. I figured since I finished one of the books on my list on the way there, I had nothing left to read on the plane ride back and I could do with a break from being a slave to my list.

Personally I rather enjoyed the book. I found it funny, entertaining and at moments motivating. I loved how I could almost hear Marakumi speaking through the words and how it was such an easy read. It probably won't win a Booker prize, nor will people sit around discussing the complex literary themes in the book, but to begin with, it should be read as a sort of a biography and also sometimes I just think it's great to read a book not because it's some critically acclaimed masterpiece but just because one simply enjoys reading it or because the book speaks to one in a way no other deep, intellectual book has (well, probably because I think I'm really not all that deep and intellectual to begin with).

I ramble though...this entry was just meant to say that 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' by Harumi Marakumi is a book I particularly enjoy and would recommend to non pseudo-intellects. Somehow I managed to make it into an essay!

Belated Weekend Recap

Over the weekend I took this lovely Irish gal to the little island of Ubin a 10 minute boat ride away from sunny Singapore (well, not so sunny the past week). Ubin has to be one of my favourite islands and not because it's even anything as close to pretty as any of the Thai islands, but simply because it's so close to Singapore yet so very different. It's basically Singapore as it was before all the clearing of kampongs (that's Malay for 'village') to make way for fancy new buildings.

Aoife and I happily cycled halfway across the island to check out the wetland reserve and climbed up a watch tower for Aoife to take photos of the lush green-ess that surrounded us with the sea in the distance before her camera gave up on her. We cycled uphill and downhill...and for the most part we pushed the bike uphill and cycled downhill, but I know for a fact I definitely did more up-slope (it feels ridiculous using 'hill' in any Singapore context) cycling than the previous few times I've been to Ubin. Soooo, my conclusion is, spin classes do help!

Being with she of the Irish heritage, we put all our exercise to waste by indulging in 2 bottles of sparkling red wine (it is as strange a drink as it sounds) which we generously shared with another Irish lass. Stupid idea though, being completely dehydrated as it was from all the cycling and sweating, the sparkling red wine just got to our heads and we ended up even more dehydrated and way too happy.

On Sunday I woke up early and did an hour of stretching. Headed to church and then ended up at the windsurfing club waiting for wind. I managed to take the board out for a too-short spin, but most of the time was spend finishing up the bottle of JD I brought down out of the goodness of my heart. And no I did not finish it all on my own.

All in all, my weekend was spent in an alcoholic blur and I'm kind of glad that it's all over and I'm going to be good again...

So last night I went off to the specialist running store (a shout out to Feder Sports at Pennisula Plaza...these guys rock!) and finally got down to getting a pair of running shoes that suit my feet. **By now people should realise that my missions to do something big begin with the purchase of new gear** I did a short run after work, and this morning I did another short run with my new babies and I love them! Like deep, true love. My last shoes were always a little on the loose side and they slipped around a lot when I ran, now my Asics Landreth 4 (woo hoo!) are so light, so cushiony and fit so well! Of course by running twice in less than 12 hours (I know it isn't that big a deal to loads of runners out there), my feet are now a bit sore, but nothing that my magical new shoes won't heal. But I'll be a bit more sensible and take tomorrow off to go for a swim instead.

What I did over the weekend:
Cycled (and bike pushed) for 2 hours
Streeettttcccchhhhed for 1 hour
Windsurfed for all of 10 whole minutes

What I did yesterday and today:
Last night: Ran 3.5k in 24 minutes
This morning: Ran 3.7k in 27 minutes

Yoga Schmoga

I went for my first yoga class today and I was bored. No offence to all the people out there who are big fans of yoga, but I can't say I am or ever will be. I'm not the kind of person who can sit still meditating and trying to link my body with my brain with my soul with my blah blah blah....I know it's supposed to be relaxing and all that, but I didn't find it a relaxing at all. I was just plain, old bored. Don't get me wrong, some of the yoga moves were insanely difficult, but I think I'm more a pilates person than a yoga person and it could be that I'm not spiritual enough or stretchy enough, but pilates seems more or less similar to yoga to me, without all the meditation and zen-like looks on everyones' faces. All in all, I guess I'm just not sold on yoga. Back to pilates for me then!

What I did yesterday:
Ran: 3.2k in 23 minutes - legs gave up and had an annoying stitch that wouldn't go away...AGAIN

What I did today:
1 hour of yoga....yaaaawwwwnnnn

How to Sprain Your Finger

1. Have a couple of drinks
2. Talk about spin classes
3. Wave your hands animatedly whilst talking about it
4. Rub hands together to describe friction between seat and crotch
5. Get overly excited and yank last finger too far back because it got caught in other hand

Ta dah! You've got a sprained finger.

And yes, I achieved all that last night.

What I did yesterday other than spraining my finger:
1 hour training with my trainer (purely arms and core work because my legs were shot to hell)

Oh the Pain

I had a big plan yesterday to run from work back to about a 5 minute cab ride to my house...and I did it! The whole 6.5k of sheer torture and pain. There were a lot of stops to stretch, drink water, crawl, walk and a lot of moments where I 'ran' so slowly I might as well have stood still.

I don't think I can even begin to describe the agony that I (as a poor runner in the first place) experienced from 2k onwards. I had tried the same route last year once and I got up to 2.5k before I gave up and took a taxi home. Yesterday I got to 2.5k and pressed on. From the start my shins were giving me a bit of grief, maybe because they weren't used to running on the pavement, but that pain went away and was replaced by just general pain all over. I had my famous stitches for the last 4.5k and had to stop every now and then hoping that that'd get them to disappear. I tried breathing properly, I tried running without bouncing...basically I tried everything possible, but they were there to be my constant companion all through the end.

Now imagine me running like I'm about to reel over (and really, I use the word 'running' here very, very loosely) and then suddenly realising that the route I chose has got all these uphill slopes. Real fun huh? I wouldn't go as far as to say they were hilly routes, but they were sloped upwards and I was entirely miserable.

You'd think that after all that running I did I'd be able to have a wonderful night's sleep, but despite going to sleep at half 10, I woke up at about 1am freezing cold. So I turned off the a/c and an hour later I was feeling warm, so I turned the a/c back on. This went on the entire night which effectively meant I didn't actually end up getting much sleep, much less feeling well-rested!*

Today, my legs are throwing a tantrum. In fairness, they're being rather nice in spite of it, because they're not too sore, but they are awfully stiff. Hopefully if I stretch them out a bit tonight they'll be good to go tomorrow. I'm planning a short run on the track with my sis then. Be nice to treat my feet to a nice, cushy surface for a change.

What I did last night
Ran (Walked/Crawled/Stood Still): 6.5k in 54:02 minutes

*Apparently a lot of people experience the whole waking up in cold sweat (I was just cold, no sweat) after doing their first long run....whilst it makes me feel as if I've made the leagues of better runners, it seems rather pathetic that my 6.5k run actually constitutes a 'long run' to my body.

The Anti-Social Spinner (Spinee?)

I'm not great with group classes. I realise that unless I'm in the mood, I don't really enjoy being all sociable, happy and perky when I'm in the middle of sweating my lungs out. And whilst the music and the instructor do force me to push myself more than I would, frankly, there I times where I wish he'd just shut up. I suspect the instructor knows that because whilst he goes around psyching people up, he avoids me...this is in part due to the fact that I will him not to come near me with my evil eyes (one of the few superhuman powers I have). Of course the fact that the instructor is annoying is pushing me to move my ass...so it becomes a whole catch 22 situation.

I think I'm the sweatiest person that exists. Before anyone even starts perspiring, I'm merrily sweating up a storm in my own little corner and really, it's highly embarrassing. Plus it makes me feel mighty unfit compared to the rest of them as well!

So these are the reasons why I don't really love spin classes all that much. If it weren't for the fact that I do feel like I am getting fantastic exercise out of all this, I probably would have just thrown in the towel ages ago.

What I did last evening:
Spin session with annoying instructor for 1 hr

Bangkok Gluttony

So Thursday night to Sunday afternoon was spent eating A LOT...and I am not exaggerating. W e had all sorts of varieties of Thai food - green curry, sharks fin, suckling pig, abalone and so on and so forth. I love Thai food and I'm also very happy that I'm no longer in Bangkok, because I was just completely over-eating at every meal.

Food aside, I managed to get my run and swim in. That meant I had to wake up before the entire family (wasn't too hard since everyone slept in on most days) since the moment the whole gang got up, it was off to eat, shop, get a massage and save the world! So although I was half asleep when I got to the gym, I managed to finish a 7k run! Woo Hoo! I'm just 3k away from the target 10k! I quite enjoyed the morning run as well, it feels nice to get the run over with and then have the rest of the day to do my own thing, rather than fit my run in the middle of the day and have to plan everything around it as I do usually. So I guess the plan now is to try to wake up at 6 in the morning and try to get my run in before I head off for work. I guess that means I have to start sleeping earlier than I do now.

I managed to get a swim in the day after my run in the world's stupidest shaped pool. The pool was octagonal in shape and just completely inconducive for swimming. I ended up swimming 50 laps from one corner to the opposite corner, and managed to get a neck ache from constantly trying to lift my head up awkwardly to check I didn't end up in the wrong corner...which I still did, many times. If I ever meet the designer of the octagonal swimming pool, I am so going to whip his ass.

I'm not a big on massages, but after all the running and swimming and the past week's rock climbing session, my shoulders and upper back have been a mess and the Thai massage was so welcomed. My shoulders feel a lot looser now and it's kind of weird not having the permanent ache there. Of course I undid all the benefits of the massage by going off rockclimbing for about an hour the moment I got back home. But, the loose shoulders were nice, if only for a couple of hours. Speaking of rockclimbing, I think I need to get back to it, because well, I just miss it. It's a real bother having to find someone to belay me and all that though, which is why I have only been making very half-hearted attempts to get back into the sport.

Back to the grind again today, so I'm off for spin classes tonight. Hopefully I'll do a lot better than I did last week!

Over weekend
Ran: 7km in 46:37 min
Swam: 1 hour / 50 laps in stupidly shaped pool

Off to Bangkok

I did feel a lot better after my session with my personal trainer. Also because deep down inside I'm a complete exhibitionist. I climbed the rock wall as a warm-up yesterday and the world stopped to watch. It made me feel special. Yes, I do get instant gratification from random people 'oohing' and 'aahing'. I wasn't even doing all that fantastically climb-wise, but I'm guessing no one else knew better so it made me feel rather well-loved for those couple of minutes.

I'm off to Bangkok this evening for the weekend and it's going to be a weekend of pigging out, massages, shopping, wandering, a swim and a run....You did hear right! I'm going to try to fit in a swim and a run in the 3 days I'm there because I am dedicated like that. It's a bit of a pain lugging my trainers around for a 3 day trip, but I'm a lean, mean machine now and I've got to keep the parts well oiled....how did that come off sounding dodgy? Anyway, the plan is to do a run and a swim, but as to that actually panning out at the end of the day...well, it's anyone's call.

T'was One of THOSE Days

I managed my 6k yesterday, but it was a hardly an easy enough run. About 1k into the run, I got bored, then 2k in I got even more bored, at 3k I was more or less ready to throw in the towel and call it a day. The rest of the 3k is a blur because all I heard was the screaming in my head every hundred metres to give up. I battled through all my defeatist thoughts to make the 6k in the end.

I tried to go a bit faster this time around, think I actually got to about 5.7min/km but I didn't last too long at that speed. All in, it was a disappointing run, I was inconsistent, I was bored and I really wasn't "feelin' it". Nonetheless, my only consolation is that I finished my run in 38:31 mins, which is a better time than the last run, although I did do my last run sick.

Meanwhile I'm back to icing the foot. Getting tired of having a cold foot. Wow, this entire entry has just been a huge whining session. Maybe I'll feel less 'blah' after the session with my trainer today.

Spin Spin Spin

My second spin class turned out slightly better than my first. I was able to keep up for the most part and my quads aren't aching as crazily the day after as they were last week. The crotch hurts again though, so I'm really considering getting padded shorts simply because I can't imagine it being all that good for any human being's anatomy to have a bike seat rubbing it sore for an hour!

Thanks to my plantar fasciitis issue (I'd explain what this is, but I'm guessing you'd prefer to google it and find out the real definition than listen to my made-up definition), I've dug out these insoles (which I should have been using in the very first place) which my orthopedic passed me last year, but which I've happily left in the corner of my room. I guess I'm going to try my runs with them. I also have big plans to buy this pair of North Face flip flops (since I absolutely must wear flip flops all the time) which is supposed to be good in the whole arch-support department. Why can't I have normal feet?!?! Oh how much pain and money I'd save if I had normal feet! Anyone want to swap feet with me?

Back to my run again today, and I'm going to go back to 6k since my last 6k run was exactly a week ago and following that I've managed to get ill, hurt my foot and only managed a 4k by way of running. So back to the grind again...bear with me here, I know 6k isn't a huge deal, but in all my years of non-running, these low mileage runs make for small achievements and easy satisfaction.

Another Lazy Sunday

Once again, Sunday was spent lounging around having my cup of caramel latte and watching the Olympics. I've managed to hurt my foot again* and I'm not sure if it's from windsurfing or my short run outdoors on Saturday, but I'm actually getting tired of having the same problem time and time again. I'm probably going to start wearing trainers at the windsurfing club from now on because I suspect a lot of my foot problems can be attributed to the fact that I'm running around the club with my sail and board in my bare feet.

That aside, I managed to make my 4k run outdoors on Saturday rather smoothly, minus the fact that I met with a bunch of monkeys up one road, so I had to backtrack and take another route (I'm terrified of monkeys). And windsurfing went pretty well that afternoon as well. I think I might have to buy a harness line soon, so I can start using my harness. I've got a huge backache from windsurfing (I seem to be picking up a whole bunch of aches and pains from windsurfing) and I think I either need to buy a new smaller sail or I need to start using my body weight (hence the need to learn to use the harness) to rein in the wind. For now, my toes hurt from gripping the board for my dear life, my heel hurts from what potentially might be another case of plantar fasciitis, my lower back is aching from all the uphauling at windsurfing, and I'm off for my second spin class tonight. Woo hoo, I can hardly wait.

*I have a high arches and I seem to make it a subconscious effort to screw up my feet constantly

The Magical Cure for a Wine Hangover

Exercise. Plain old sweating the hangover away. And boy did I sweat. Had a session with my personal trainer today and messing around with all the weights, lunges, ab work and squats worked up a real sweat. So despite feeling completely physically exhausted now, I also feel less like the mess I was this morning. Maybe I'll actually feel up to going to the driving range or the pool tonight. In the meantime, I have a weekend of windsurfing, and lots of running to look forward to! I just hope my nagging cough goes away!

The Myth of Short Drinks

Going for short drinks doesn't exist. There never is just the one drink. I have a headache, am completely dehydrated and am very tired. No prizes for guessing why. Does anyone realise that after a boozy night, one always feels this need to eat a lot greasy, unhealthy food? Or is that just me?

Drinkies

I'm off for my monthly alumni get-together and which I have to go for since I'm the one organising it. I'm not at my best, but I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday. For now I'm being a good little girl and having a banana and a yoghurt before heading out for drinkies. Knowing me, once I hit the wines, I'll get full and I'll wake up tomorrow having a massive headache and feeling ever so hungry!

Day of Rest

I was a dribbling, sneezy mess yesterday. Was running a temperature in the morning and had to pop an aspirin to take away the pain. Needless to say, I didn't go for my personal training session, neither did I go for the swim I was aiming for. I literally crawled home, had dinner, watched the Olympics and crawled into bed. And then I woke up at 5.30 in the morning. AGAIN! It's really frustrating trying to get to bed early so I'll get a long night's sleep and then waking up at stupid o'clock in the morning.

Anyway, the dark clouds seem to have cleared, my nose is less runny and the fever's gone. Hopefully I'll be all good to go tomorrow! I might try to sneak in a little run tonight though.

My First 6K!

I don't care if no one thinks running 6k is a big deal, I do! I'm so so proud of myself, and I totally rock! As well as being completely shameless, but I don't care, I think I'm allowed to be at least a little shameless today!

The 6k wasn't the smoothest run actually. My legs were aching from the spin class on Monday and I wasn't feeling in tip-top condition with my half stuffed, half runny nose that was rubbed raw from all the tissue abrasion. So I lathered my legs with heating rub and rubbed Vaporub on my nose and decided to do the whole 6k, but at a comfortable pace.

I started at an 7.5min/km pace, and held that for about 4k before I got insanely bored and just wanted to finish the darn 6k as soon as I possibly could, so I basically ran the remaining 2k at 6.7min/km pace (yes, I'm bored, but I'm not going to be crazy and push myself to insane limits when I couldn't breathe properly!) and I still felt pretty good at the end of the run. My leg muscles had effectively warmed up by then and they felt rather strong. I probably could have gone another 1k, but I made my 6 and I was satisfied! When it comes to pushing myself the extra mile, no such motivation exists in my being.

So anyway, post longest run in my life, I am now officially sick. I woke up at 5am this morning (I can do this when I'm sick, but when I make plans to wake up super early to run I never manage to wake up) freezing and had to turn off the a/c. Now I'm still freezing, wheezing and stuffed up. So, no training with the personal trainer today, just a day of pure, unadulterated rest unless I get fidgety and decide to go for an easy swim after dinner tonight. We'll see...

Treadmill Laziness

Would you believe I've spent the whole day wondering whether I'm too sick to go for my 6k run tonight? I am a complete wuss! I know I can do it, but I'm just feeling to lazy and scared to run more than 5.4k! Aaaaargh, God grant me strength! (In my defence, my nose has really been a cross between being stuffed and runny, so it's not as if I'm a 100% illness-free!)

Post Spin Session

I survived my first spin class yesterday! I've also realised that I'm so unfit! I think that's the reason I'm not the biggest fan of group classes because it makes me very aware that I'm not as strong as I think I am. There were loads of middle aged folk who were cycling waaaaay faster than me, standing up, sitting down, standing up, sitting down....these guys strolled easily out of the class leaving me to stumble out (my legs stopped working as soon as I stepped off the bike) feeling a tad like a loser. Now, 16 hours later, my quads are aching, and my tail bone and crotch really hurt (yes I know I'm getting into 'too much information' territory). Yet, being the masochist I am, I'm contemplating going again next week!

It's my 6k run today and I forgot to bring my music. Looks like a long tedious run on the treadmill again. I've had a stuffy nose all night and I'm worried I'm coming down with something, hopefully all the multivitamins, healthy food and exercise I'm taking/doing will curb the cold before it hits full speed!

On an end note: My only consolation about the whole spin class debacle is that (in my head) I'm probably stronger than the rest of them arm strength-wise with all the windsurfing and rockclimbing I've done in the past year.

The Failed Long Run

I was supposed to do my long run on Sunday. I didn't do it because I was too lazy. And well, I was being a bit of a wuss as well - the thought of running 8k just scared me silly. So my Sunday was just spent sitting around all day watching the Olympics. Didn't go windsurfing, didn't do my 8k run, didn't go down to join the guys for ultimate frisbee....essentially I was a big lazy ass...and yes, now that I've listed all the things I didn't do on Sunday, I actually am feeling ashamed of myself.

Nonetheless, I did wake up early enough on Saturday morning and went for a 3k run and discovered that I'm incapable of running outdoors anymore. I get tired within 2 seconds, a stitch forms after 2 minutes, my legs ache, it's hot...essentially it's incessant whining in my head the entire while. I'm thinking of taking music out the next time. I try not to run with music because I'm always worried about being ploughed down by a car (I'm a control freak, I don't trust Singaporean drivers to be aware of my presence), but I need something to take my mind off my own whining.

Went down windsurfing on Saturday afternoon and I finally know what I've been doing wrong the past few weeks. To cut the long story short, over the past couple of weeks I managed to pick up the bad habit of perching too much on the side of the board such that I was basically sailing lopsided. I've been pretty demoralised lately over windsurfing because I just felt I hit a wall windsurfing-wise. I wasn't getting any better and it just seemed I was getting worse! But Saturday Mr Miyagi (wax on, wax off!) came down to the club and all was well once more. He told me what I was doing wrong, he told me how to get better and when the wind picked up just before the storm, I grabbed my board and sail and I flew! Well, there were other people out at sea who'd beg to differ, but to me at least, that was the fastest I'd ever gone and it was absolutely thrilling!

I've got a spin class tonight, I made sure I paid the extra 2 bucks to confirm my reservation, so now I'm good to go and die a miserable death! This week my running mileage goes up an extra kilometre, so tomorrow I shall push for 6km (which might have felt more achievable had I done the darn 8k run over the weekend, and not chosen to laze). Wish me luck for tonight! I'll probably need loads.

Post 5k Hangover

The 5k run was good, did it in 32 minutes and 10 seconds, so the time's going the right way. I was naughty after though, didn't drink enough water, ate just two bananas, drank waaaay toooo much wine for my own good, and didn't get enough sleep... So now I'm here at 11am the next day dehydrated, hungry and worse for the wear. It's my own fault, I know...

The Philosophical Runner

I was talking to an old friend yesterday and he asked me what I'd do after I achieved (he's very optimistic) my goal of running 10k under an hour. He asked whether I'd do a half-marathon after or even a marathon. Frankly I doubt I'd do either. I can't see myself running past an hour (hence the whole running 10k in less than an hour goal!) because I can imagine getting very very bored. I do have the attention span of a 5 year old kid.

Nonetheless, after I finished talking to him, I sat down and had a little bit of a panic attack. What do I do after the run in October? Run it again? Run it faster? Do another run? Run a longer distance? Stop running altogether and get back to watching a lot of tv (in fairness, I did lose a lot of weight doing nothing)?

I kid you not, I actually freaked out because I couldn't see what other running activity I was going to do beyond the 10k run. Of course, in the process of completely overanalysing everything, I started thinking about my attitude in life...yes, sometimes shallow thoughts do end up being a whole study about the depths of my soul (or just a discovery session in the kind of person I am)...

I realise I've never really lived life for the moment. I always need to have a picture of what I want to have and then I try to twist my life to that ideal. But in doing so, I tend to focus on all the bad things that happen in the here and now and completely take any good things for granted. I fret over how the bad things now would completely ruin the future dream, never taking into consideration that dreams could change. I go into relationships thinking about whether the guy would make a good husband or father (I know, I'm scary like that) and then any little thing that doesn't fit into my self-created dream devastates me. Enjoy the moment? How can I when I'm busy worrying about what'll happen in 10 years!

Today I run 5k again. I'll try to enjoy it for what it is and not how it's part of something big. It's a small step in the right direction I suppose, and maybe someday the personality I train as I'm running will be the personality I have as a person. This has become a much bigger project than I envisioned!