Is there such a thing as over exercise? - My Mad Weekend and A Short Story on Poop

This weekend I went a bit mad. How mad? Well, listen on...I started off Saturday morning rather dehydrated. I'd been out for dinner the night before and we had some wine - also I didn't think to drink loads of water before I slept. So my attempt to do a 2.5k run was pretty much shot down when I had a stitch barely 100m into the run. I pretty much walked the rest of the way. How could I have gone on last week about how great running was only to have it come back and bite me in the ass?

After my rather pathetic run, I headed off for Pilates. This weekend Karrie's off on a course so Theresa took her class. It was mad hard. It's usually mad hard as it is, but I guess I arrived late and didn't have any time to warm up so it was pretty darn rough.

So, still on Saturday activities...after Pilates I went on to Muay Thai and Robert was taking the class. It's almost like everything was meant to be tough that day. Muay Thai completely kicked my ass. Robert went through a whole bunch of speed drills...NOT.FUN. I could barely feel my arms after. When I tried to send a text to a friend on my phone after my hands were shaking. Yup, I did feel kind of pathetic.

Had myself a ramen and sent my bike to the bike shop to get it sorted. I realised how dense I was. I didn't know I had to pump my tyres regularly, so essentially I was cycling on them flat...which meant I had to get both inner tubings changed since I probably wrecked them. I informed them that my gears were sticking and they told me my chain wasn't lubricated...I was all 'er...we have to lubricate it?!?' Well, they lubricated it and cleaned it up for me...it was filthy! And I felt ashamed. Almost like you invited a friend to your house and forgot to clean it up when they arrived. Sigh.....

So that was Saturday. I was completely exhausted when I was done with the day. Although still had time to meet D for dinner and drinks. Next thing I know, it's 2am, I had a bike ride planned for the next day and I was very aware that I was going to regret playing till so late.

Sunday, sure enough, I regretted not sleeping earlier and not hydrating myself properly. I kept pushing our bike ride till later and by the time we actually met up it was almost 11am and it was bleeding hot. We cycled from the hawker centre to the start of Changi Beach and back wherein Gina managed to crash into a lamp post and screwed up her front tyre...which resulted in a grueling ride for her all the way back to the Windsurfing Club before a good samaritan there helped her do a temporary fix on it so she wouldn't die the last 2.5k back to the hawker centre. The great part about working so hard and sweating everything out has to be the guilt-free pigging out you can do after. And believe you me, Gina and I pigged out!

That was my big weekend. I went a bit mad and I did ache kind of crazily after, but well it's been a while since I've ached so much and masochistic as it sounds, I took a sick pleasure in aching that much. Plus I had the best sleep ever on Sunday night so I'm not complaining. What I will complain about though is this lovely welt-rings I have around my thighs I suspect because I'm allergic to the material they stick at the bottom of your bike shorts to prevent them from running up. Very very sexy welts. Sigh.

On a completely random note, today I crapped oil. I thought I had some medical problem and was dying before I thought to google 'sh*tting oil' - yes Google is my best friend and I google every damn thing. It actually makes me feel good when I feel something completely random and you find other souls out there who are going through the same thing. Anyway, long story short after piecing together different information from different sites, the cause for my oil crapping today was....wait for it....white tuna. You'd think they'd warn you this might happen when you order white tuna sashimi. NOT.FUN.AT.ALL.

What I did over the weekend:

Saturday:
2.5k run in 20:29 mins (Avg speed: 8:11 min/km)
50 mins pilates
1 hr Muay Thai

Sunday:
26k bike ride

Hello Muay Thai My Old Friend

It's been ages and ages and ages since I've gone for my last MT class. In fact I think the last time I went for MT was when Keith was in town. And Keith was in town in January I think. I also remember getting stomach flu that last time. This Friday that went by wasn't so bad. Well wasn't so bad in that I didn't get stomach flu. But it was still one of those 'This is what it's like to be tortured' sessions. Granted I'm sure I've had harder classes, but with my fitness level close to zero, my general unhealthy lifestyle (I think I actually had a fried chicken wing every day for that week...gross yes) and the fact that I was still aching from my swim training the night before, it still felt pretty rough. BUT despite the voices in my head screaming 'I want to die' almost all the session, it felt pretty good that I was still standing at the end of it all.

Well obviously the next day I ached all over, but I haven't had these aches in ages and it made me feel pretty good about myself. Especially since I went for a whole bunch of drinks after MT. My weekend was just spent lazing. Had myself a girly Saturday where I went for a 1 hour back massage, followed by a manicure and a facial (yeah, I don't usually go for facials...in fact I've only been for at most 2 in my entire life)...Life's been rough these past few days, but the pampering and my ability to do my sport again has helped a lot.

What I've done:
Friday: 1 hour of Muay Thai

Welcome Back Bruises

Guess what I did yesterday?

If you've guessed Muay Thai, you'd be correct. I look like some battered wife.

What I did yesterday:

1hr of ass-kicking, back-breaking Muay Thai

Hai Yah!

I ache. As I always do after Muay Thai. I ache so much. My knuckles ache, arms ache, my back aches, my shoulder aches...ache ache ache....whine whine whine. We had Rob in last night's lesson and he's really tough on the class. I'd say he was a real meanie, but out of class he's actually pretty nice. He was hard as nails last night though. Numerous 2 min speed boxing sets, endless amounts of push-ups and sit-ups. I think at one point my left arm actually went numb and I couldn't feel it at all. Although, in spite of all this, during the class itself, the boys were bigger whingers than the girls. So HAH! the girls rule.

Swimming training tonight and my arms really don't feel up to it!

What I did last night:
1 hr Muay Thai training

The Familiar Aches

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

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

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

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

Bruises and then some

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

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

I Ache...

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

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

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

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

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

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

What I did yesterday:
Muay Thai for 1 hour

Muay Thai Battlescars

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

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

Muay Thai and a 5k Run

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

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

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

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

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