I Wanna Ride My Bicycle

The Queen song, I have to say, doesn't apply to me. I don't want to ride my bike because it is such a darn hassle to cycle. I have to lug my bike all the way to the East Coast Park (and assembling the bike rack and hoisting the bike on it is exercise on its own) because there isn't a single other place in the whole of Singapore I can go cycling at without running the danger of being hit by a car. I know, I know there are people cycling on the streets every day and they don't get hit, but there are an awful lot of awful drivers out on the streets. I've seen them and I don't want to get mowed down by them.

Over the weekend, I finally dusted the cobwebs off my bike and pumped up the tires and headed to East Coast. My schedule said I had to do 40k. Pfffffft, I was lucky I even made it 20k! It seems when you don't bike very often your legs forget how to pedal. Obviously the next day my crotch and thighs and left calf (no idea why this was so) were aching. That's all I did this last weekend. As you can tell, I'm still firmly in the 'keeping to only 10% of my schedule' camp.

What I did:
Saturday: Cycled 40k

The Best Laid Plans

Are oft thwarted by my laziness. Remember my training schedule I put up? It was a little ambitious, but I thought I'd at least keep to 70% of it. So far I'm swinging for 10%...if even.

I lazed on Monday and skipped swim training on Tuesday (with the excuse that I would wake up early to swim on Wednesday instead...guess what happened with that!) and finally decided I had to at least do something run-wise since I had promised Rach that we would do a fun run together for her virgin 5k mass run. So after my colleague dropped me off on Wednesday after work, I ran the rest of the way home. A grand total of 4.5k! Not quite 5k, but close enough.

Just as I started the run, there was sheet lightning and a part of me was tempted to just go 'Screw this! It's not worth killing myself over a run!' but I overcame my sorry excuses (yay me!) and started off...a little bit faster than usual since sheet lightning does freak me out a little. It started drizzling a little mid-run which was all good, because it is just so much more pleasant running in rain!

All in, this wasn't my best run, but it wasn't my worst either. My MP3 player, which showed an empty battery gauge at the start of the run and actually lasted the whole run, made the run just a little sweeter - you know, the whole 'Will I make it before this dies? Will I not?' question. And when you find it lasts all the way through you thank God for small mercies! Plus that debate in your head takes away from all the ankle aches, thigh aches, shin aches, calf aches...you get the drift.

My legs were a bit tired the next day. Not sore. Technically I could have woken up super early and gone for a swim yesterday morning. Technically.

What I've done:

Last Saturday - Ran 2.5k (and I ached the whole next day!)

Last Sunday - Swam 1.8k (2 x 300m with paddles, 2 x 600m without paddles)

With paddles
1st 300m - 7:35 mins
Rest - 21s
2nd 300m - 6:58 mins
Rest - 26s

Without paddles
1st 600m - 15:48 mins
Rest - 20s
2nd 600m - 14:24 mins

Wednesday - Ran 4.5k in 30:14 mins

Sports Injuries

I really wish I had more 'glamorous' sports injuries like 'oh I ran so fast I broke my leg in the process'...or at least something not as lame as me tripping over my toe and spraining in as I got into the pool. Which of course is what I did last night at swim training. I got out of the pool to get my paddles and then pretty much stumbled back into the pool. So now my fourth toe is aching and the bit that scraped against the wall of the pool just keeps oozing clear liquid. Lovely.

Yesterday's training was short as well. I had to catch stand-up comedy with Rich after training, so had to leave pretty much after a half hour session. So it's not like I sacrificed my toe for something big. I think I managed three 150m sets (swim/kick/drill) and 4 x 200m pull sets. Meh. Didn't really feel like I did much.

What I did:
Yesterday - 1/2 hour of swim training
Today - 1hr personal training

Morning People

I'm not a morning person. Not to say I get up cranky and need that first cup of coffee to get me in a favourable mood, but I just find it torture dragging myself out of bed in the morning. As you know, from numerous entries, I struggle constantly with morning work-outs. I make these well-intentioned plans to wake up stupidly early and go for a swim or a run, and fail more often than not.

Yesterday evening I was supposed to do a swim and somehow managed to convince (lie to!) myself that I would wake up super early the next morning and swim then instead. This morning my alarm clock rang at 6am and I only managed by sheer willpower to crawl out of my bed at 7.15am (silently cursing myself whilst trying to reason out in my head why it would be better to stay in bed). I washed up with my eyes barely open and trudged down to the pool.

Firstly it was a little cold outside, as it usually feels when you've just woken up. Secondly the pool having not been warmed up by the sun all day was just freezing. If it weren't for the fact that there were 2 guys doing laps in the pool and making me feel a bit like a wimp for wussing out, I would have just stumbled back home to sleep. But instead I shivered a little and started on my laps grumbling.

Now because I had woken up a good 1 hour and 15 minutes after I was supposed to I didn't have time to do all the wonderful things I had planned to do the night before. So I ended up doing half the program and in my dazed state, thought I had hit the timer on my watch, but didn't. Essentially I swam 2 x 300m and have no idea how long each set took.

And now I'm sleepy.

What I did today:
Swam - 2 x 300m

Singapore has No Hills

But it didn't feel like that yesterday. Partly because I was lazy to haul my bike halfway across the island for a 20k ride and partly because I wanted to check out something different. "Different" kicked my sorry little ass.

Rifle Range Road is a 5-minute drive from where I stay and is basically a long (I thought flat-ish...so wrong!) road that is about 2.5k from Mayfair Park to the end of the road. I parked the gas guzzler at the end of the road and still didn't have any inkling of the pain and burn that was to come. In fact, I had walked that road twice to get from the Nature Reserve to Macritchie and yet I still had it in my head that it was all going to be a nice, pleasant ride.

Long story short, it was torture. I haven't been on my bike properly in ages and my legs actually felt like it had rusted over. I had to go to my absolute lowest gear to get up some of the slopes and my lungs felt like they'd burst at the top of each climb. Obviously I also felt a bit like a loser especially with all these runners, long boarders and hikers around me silently judging (or so I thought) my slow, slow plodding up the dang slopes. Needless to say, I rode out and back and popped my bike back on my car and drove home. I was past the point of caring if anyone noticed I had only gone down to do a 15 min bike ride and a grand total of 5k.

So although I was supposed to put in 20k of cycling in this weekend, I only managed 5k. I think I was also supposed to squeeze in a run. It would seem I’m not doing so well following my schedule!

What I did:
Sat: 4 x 300m swim
Sun: 5k bike ride (woohoo!)

So the Training Starts...

And already I've skipped what I was supposed to do on Wednesday and Thursday. It is a trial getting back training. Everything aches so much. After my personal training on Monday and my swim training on Tuesday, I was pretty much all out. So since it was still the start of the training schedule, I figured I could use a break. Tomorrow I shall start again!

What I've done:
Monday - 45 mins personal training
Tuesday - Swim training (Total distance: 2.1k)