Questions Answered

First off, a big WOW and congratulations are due to my friends who completed the Melbourne Marathon - Chris and Gina. I knew they were both going to do a Full and a Half respectively, but it only occurred to me the day before the actual race that they might actually be doing the same race albeit different distances. Doh! All the same, Chris ran sub-4 (better than Paul Ryan!) and Gina ran sub-3 which is pretty awesome considering the only time I did a halfie, I took ages and ages. So well done, you awesome running people!

Other than that, the weekend was pretty much a blow-out. Hardly did anything because I was so dang tired. I managed to make it down for pilates on Saturday and then did a quick walk up the Nature Reserve with Rich on Sunday. Did a short run on Friday which turned out fine minus the return of my all-too-familiar stitch...Didn't go too far because well...erm....I was just plain lazy. Because I knew I wasn't going to go too far, I tried to run a bit harder...which maybe explains the stitch. So that didn't last very long either.

Whilst mid-run, I thought about my podiatrist and I realised that I'm kind of glad I went to see him. Rich says I walk like a cowboy sometimes and I never really understood what he meant, but it's the whole flicking outwards that my foot makes when it leaves the ground. I know it's to compensate for something, but I forget now. Then there's been that annoying pain on my little toe that never really quite went away and the foot aches that cause a whole bunch of hobbling around. In all, it's nice to know that there's a reason for all of this. Makes me feel that I'm not actually that much of a freak and that maybe I can run (not that I'd choose it as my first sport of choice) a little more pain-free once I get all that fixed up.

I've finally got myself a new pair of runners. I decided to go cheap and headed to Queensway (sports gear mecca!) over the weekend and got me a sweet new pair of Asics Gel-Nimbus 13s for $70 less than the usual specialist running store I go to! I did miss having someone there who said 'yes, you should wear this shoe and in this size' though because I'm terrible at making a decision. Even something as simple as 'do I want this in a size 6 or a size 6.5?' I spent a good half hour deciding that. This despite the fact that I brought my old shoes along and it clearly showed 6.5. I ended up buying a size 6 and then going home rummaging through all my old shoes (all size 6.5 as expected) and heading back the next day to change it. Maybe that's what the $70 gives me - extra time and peace of mind. Plus Queensway is like a zoo in the weekends, way too many people! Meanwhile I just hope I got the right pair of shoes.

What I've done:
Friday - Ran 20 minutes
Saturday - 45 mins Pilates
Sunday - Walked Bkt Timah Nature Reserve

To Run or Not to Run

Last week I did a 40 minute run and for 3 days my legs ached and my left foot started acting up in protest at the work I put it through. It got so bad I actually had to hobble out of bed the past few mornings because it just hurt so much. 40 minutes - that's it. Not like I ran 40km. In fact I doubt I even did 7k. It is all very demoralising. So a part of me is seriously considering the fact that I may never do a marathon because my poor feet just can't take all that pounding. I may actually just have to admit that running may not be quite my thang!

I'm not going to give it up just yet though, drama-queen rant aside. I'm going to try a run again tomorrow and see how that goes. Then I've made an appointment to see a podiatrist on Thursday because the internet is spitting out way too much possible feet problems I might have and much as I love this chinese dood I go to to 'fix' my foot, I'm starting to feel that he seems to be treating the symptom rather than solving the actual underlying problem. Damn left foot!

The annoying part about all this is that my run on Friday was actually pretty awesome. I ran stitch-less and nothing ached too much. I saw some pretty odd people (one woman was carrying a sort of handbag while running...why???) and I ran a bit further than I usually do! So it really is a real bummer that it all fell apart over the weekend.

On a random aside, I went to the Nature Reserve on the weekend to do a quick walk and as I was coming down from the top, I saw a family and their maid. And then I realised the maid was carrying all the snacks and water for them. It didn't look like all that was very heavy, but it was ridiculous! What took the cake was the fact that the father was wearing a '42k finisher' T-shirt. Woohoo, he can finish a marathon but can't carry a few bottles of water? Seriously? I was not impressed with that.

Also, if you ever decide to go to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, go early. The early morning crowd up there are a lot nicer than the folks who rock up at 9am. No one said 'hello' and when I greeted people sometimes I barely got a reply. They just didn't seem happy which is a real shame.

What I did:

Friday: 40 min run
Saturday: 45 min pilates
Sunday: 40 min walk up and down Bukit Timah Hill

I've Been Lazy

And I haven't updated much. Then I went off and got my phone broken, so I don't actually remember what I've done in the past couple of weeks. Anyhoooo here is the stuff I've done or what I remember of them:

5th Sept: Biked 27k

Whilst on holiday at Ko Lanta - more on that when I find the motivation to upload photos:
10th Sept: Swam and Core Work
11th Sept: Swam and Core Work

Last Thursday: 1hr Swim Training
Saturday: 1hr Pilates

Yesterday (my glory day!):

23k Bike ride in the morning

240m swim followed by 2.5K run - Don't know how long I took with the swim, but run took me 17:17 mins...which is half decent considering I've been lazy.

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

Still No Running

I need to change that little thing I wrote at the top of this blog about running and how I enjoy it since I haven't actually done any running at all (races aside - even then 'running' is used fast and loose) in the last few months. This weekend was no different.

I started the weekend having real grandiose plans - Saturday I'd wake up early for swim training and then pilates after and Sunday I'd go cycling in the morning and climbing in the afternoon. Surprise surprise I only accomplished 50% of that.

Saturday

Swim training kind of fell off the radar when I got to bed mad late on Friday after a night of the wines with my sister at the Club. I managed to drag myself out of bed for a much missed Pilates session with Karrie and felt better for it. Although, as always, Karrie decided on giving us a real killer session and my left tricep (yes, only the left one) is aching. The rest of the day was spent at my alumni's AGM where a rather tragic number of people turned up.

Headed to church after. I'm not a regular attendee of the Saturday service, but I had big plans to do a lot of things on Sunday, so I thought I'd leave my Sunday morning open to accomplishing that. My good ole buddy dropped me off at home and ogled my bike after, so it ended up being a pretty neat day.

Sunday

In spite of all my 'get up early to bike' plans, I did not get up early and I did not bike in the morning. Instead I lounged around reading my book. Then I went for an early lunch - still had plans of going biking - and cancelled my climb class. After lunch I went for a couple of cocktails with my sister. In the middle of the day. By this time, I had pretty much counted the day as lost. BUT I still made it out biking! I dragged my sister along with me and went for a 2 hr ride at East Coast, sweated out the alcohol (frankly my cocktails tasted pretty much like fruit punches) and worked off the cocktail calories.


So overall it wasn't that bad a weekend. Granted I didn't actually do everything I planned to do, but I did finish my book ('Evidence' by Jonathan Kellerman - did I ever mention I was a big psychological thriller/murder mystery fan?!?) and I did get some exercise in. And the AGM wasn't overly dramatic, so life was all good!

What I did:
Last Wednesday: 1 hr Personal Training
Saturday: 1 hr Pilates
Sunday: 2 hr Bike ride (approx 26k covered...t'was a slow ride admittedly)

Swim Training et al

I went back swim training last Thursday after about a month or so of 'rest' (read laziness) and it was hard work. After ending the year in a crawl last year somehow I've managed to lose the ability to do any kind of rough work. My arms don't work quite as well and they tire really easily. What used to be somewhat okay work ( I won't say easy because sport has never really been 'easy' for me) has become gruelling and rather discouraging. It's as if I were now back at square one, not that I moved very far from it at any point.

In any case with all these other stuff I've been doing, I haven't really been as disciplined as I'd like to be with respect to running. In fact I haven't been disciplined at all. I haven't run since...well I can't remember when and I really need to get at least a short run in tonight.

What I've done:
Thursday: 1hr Swim training
Saturday: 1 hr Pilates
Sunday: Rope Skills test (result of which is two big bruises on my shin, blisters on my hands and a very nice burn on my chest from where I leaned into my abseil device)

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

I'm Back!

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

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

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

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

I'm back!

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

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

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!

And the Legs Still Ache

Last night I went for pilates and I think my instructor, Kerrie, is starting to get tougher on us. She really worked our asses off yesterday and today, my legs, arms, abs and back are waging a mini protest. It makes the 1.5 bottles of beer I had for dinner feel completely justified.

Anyhow, after the class, one little wise-ass decided to put on her running gear and run over to Holland Village from Liat Towers (in case you were unable to put two and two together, that's where my class is). Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? I made it all of one kilometre. And this after I had to stop at the 200m mark and stretch because my legs ached so much. What's the moral of the story? Well, to put it simply, I think my legs need rest after a race. And not a measly 1 day rest, but a bunch of solid impact-free days.

So because I do learn from my lesson, I'm resting the legs today and going for a swim tomorrow. Maybe (and this is only if just walking alone doesn't hurt) I might do a bit of running over the weekend, but I'm still going to take it nice and easy this week.

What I did last night:
50 mins of pilates

Race Results!

The race results are finally out for the Tri-Factor swim! And I'm pretty darn proud of myself (I'm easily proud of myself, so my pride isn't really a reflection on my performance in the race). I finished off 15th out of 35 women with a time of 28:30 mins! And I thought it'd be at least a half hour! So good start to the day!

I had my first pilates class in ages on Tuesday and I forgot how much I enjoyed it. The zen music, the core workout, not sweating like a pig, feeling real worked out after....what's not to love about it. All that didn't help the aches I'd picked up from the 10k run, however. Well all the aches coupled with my monthly dinner meet-up with James (read: dinner plus lots of wine, booze etc) made me a very miserable person at work yesterday morning, so I took a half day off and headed to some Chinese reflexologist that R had recommended and got myself a full body massage. Sure beats a sports massage in the pleasure department. That aside, I did nothing very much the rest of the day.

Race Photos (I've been slow at this, so I'm just going to dump all the race photos over the previous few months):

TRIBOB SPRINT SERIES







TRI-FACTOR SWIM





For some reason the photos are back to front and I really can't be bothered to upload them all over again. Yes I know there's probably a faster, more efficient way to do it, but I'm well aware that I'm destined to do everything the hard way.

What I did on Tuesday:
1hr of pilates

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