6.95k

How annoying when you finish a run and realise you're just 50m from making the run a nice round number!

I ran to R's place last night before we went out for a nice dinner. Because I had to fit my nice dinner clothes and a nice dinner bag in my backpack, I was running heavier than usual, with my dinner bag poking into my back the entire while. Needless to say it wasn't too comfortable. However, after a while, your back just adapts to the shape of the damn bag and it gets easier to bear.

On another note, I think I'm not actually pushing myself when I do my runs. I remember reading somewhere that if you're able to run the last 400m super fast too comfortably, you've been running way too slow the previous distance. I managed to dig (I want to say 'deep within me', but that really wasn't the case) into my energy reserves and do a dash at the last lap to R's place. I guess I spent so long being paranoid about running out of energy, that I spend half my time over-conserving it. I think I'm going to have to find a nice comfortable balance at some point. Or get over my fear of being breathless.

What I did yesterday:
Ran 6.95k in 53 mins

Spoke Too Soon

Legs felt like lead last night. It felt like I was dragging two huge bags of flour on each leg. My shins hurt, my calves ached....so much for the good run the day before. However, I decided to finish off the run taking the hillier road back to my house. At first it was torture, but after a while you brain stops working and all you're focusing on is getting it the hell over with. Which I did. Hurrah. 6.5k tonight...and I'm not optimistic about it.

What I did last night:
4.6k in 36:18min

Finally! A Comfortable Run

I don't think I've said anything good about running the past few weeks, months etc. But last night, in spite of the fact that my back and neck felt like someone had pummeled them (I had a sports massage in the afternoon, with the vain hope that my muscles would miraculously stop aching after that) I had a sweet sweet run. I wasn't going too fast because I knew I wasn't ready for that, but I realised I didn't do too shabbily as well...namely, no stitch, no feeling like dying, no random aches and pains...

What I did:
Ran 4k in 29:10 mins

Tri Factor Series - Swim Race Report

I'll make a confession straight out and say that I didn't do as much training for this as I should have. Neither did I abstain from anything or rest well. In fact, right till the eve of the race I was happily knocking the beers back. Why? Well, simply because I was so darn cocky that I didn't die at my 'trial run'.

Well, despite all that I don't think I did that badly in my swim. There was a storm early that morning, so it was grey and dull in the morning. The sea had also taken on a life of its own, which made swimming in it that much more 'fun'. I don't think I have much to say about the race except for the fact that it had less people than the Sprint Series aquathlon. Still got kicked a couple of times though but because the group got a lot more spread out after a while, there were times I found myself swimming without anyone beside me...very very nice.

1k in the sea didn't seem like too much of a big deal, but I'm aching crazily today and just drained of energy. I'd like to think that, for a change, I did push myself a little harder than usual, but I'm also sure it could be due to the fact that I've been lazy.

No times yet because I forgot to set my watch and the results of the race aren't out!

Back to Inertia

So the problem with doing a dress rehearsal and doing it semi-decently is that you wind up being too cocky and doing absolutely nothing by way of preparation after. Since my swim and climb on Saturday I have only managed one miserable little run on the treadmill on Tuesday. Every day I've made plans to wake up at stupid o'clock in the morning and every day I've not met those plans. And I know at the back of my head it's because there's a little voice there saying 'you don't have to do anything, you've already practiced and you were fine'...oh the laziness!

Dress Rehearsal

I've been pretty good last week. Other than Tuesday where I went a bit nuts and slept at 2am, I pretty much have been getting 7 hours of sleep in a day and also getting some training in here and there. I did a 1.2k swim on Tuesday, a 900m swim on Thursday and ran 4k on Friday. Running has taken a back seat to swimming and my pathetic-ness at it is evidence of that. I had a stitch early on in the run and pretty much hobbled the last 1k of the dang 4k. I guess I'll start running properly again after the swim race this Sunday.

So Saturday last week as a whole dress rehearsal, I trotted off to Sentosa's Tanjong Beach to see if i could do a 1k swim confidently. Maaaan, I obviously forgot how long 500m actually was, because when I got to the beach and saw that I had to swim from one end to the other twice, I freaked out. But I had dragged R down and I couldn't possibly NOT do the swim, so into the water I went. The last time I did a swim in the sea, I was with a whole bunch of girls being kicked in the face and I had to constantly remind myself not to freak out. Essentially I thought the only reason I was freaking out was because I was getting kicked constantly. But when I was swimming by myself on Saturday, there was a period where there was a sudden surge of waves and I started panicking. It's insane actually, I continued swimming but my head was just filled with thoughts of how I might get sucked into an undercurrent and drown miserable. Talk about positive thinking, huh.

All the same, I completed the swim safe and sound, thank you very much and R and I went off for some kickass curry. And me being a person of extremes headed off for climb classes after. Completely overdid the exercise and wound up doing nothing on Sunday because I was all achy!

Easy swim again tonight! Just to keep the whole stamina there and all!

Drama Drama

The past few weeks have been filled with drama. We've just had our alumni AGM last Saturday and I got elected as President (woohoo!). Unfortunately, there's a faction of not-so-nice people (I'm exaggerating when I say that...there are only 2 nasty people) who've been spewing lies and half-truths about R and I via email to random people. I've had to take the high road, which meant shutting up and not tearing them to shreds for a change....it was soooo hard! It's hard enough to get me to shut up on a normal day, but when I'm pissed off with someone? Gah, sheer torture.

Nonetheless what's gotten me through all this have been my swims, well, and some runs...although the swims have been more zen-like than the runs. Your brain stops working on overdrive, you stop over-analysing and you stop hating people (who fully deserve to be hated) quite as much. Peace out doods!

Post Sevens

I was a bit less lazy post-sevens. For one I actually dragged myself to spin classes last Thursday (the night before the long weekend where people were partying the night away! And I was sweating my lungs out...okay, I went for drinks after), went climbing on the last 2 Saturdays, swam 1.2k yesterday and squeezed some windsurfing in here and there. It sounds like I've achieved so much, but really, this was all done over a 2 week period and a lot of it in between was spent lazing around. Sigh....

Had my first full body health check this morning and I was shuttled from one place to another to go through a whole battery of tests. Most depressing is the body fat test, where I think I heard wrongly, but if I didn't, I'm going to have to eat super duper healthy from now on. No more chicken skin, fatty pork, deep fried food...just plain old boring healthy crap...well, that and waaaay more exercise than I'm doing now. Wish me luck!

Hong Kong Sevens 2009

My second year at the Sevens and I enjoyed it as much as I did last year. I ramble on constantly about how I really don't like rugby, but the Sevens is great for someone like me with a short attention span. If the game's dull, it'd be over in 15 minutes and something new'll be on in no time!

But of course the Sevens is never just about the rugby, it's also about the booze, which surprisingly I didn't really do a lot of this time around. I also got to meet up with all my really good friends from Hong Kong over delicious meals and cheeky glasses of vino. Timmy made it up from Malaysia as well, so it was really a big reunion the bunch of us.

The day before flying back to Singapore, R and I went for the Dragon's Back hike. I had been there previously with Jimbo, Stepho and my sis, and the walk was very enjoyable. Very pleasant and easy with fantastic scenery all around. Unfortunately, because R and I got there pretty late on, we ended up rushing through the entire trek partly because I was freaked about being stuck up in the middle of nowhere when it got dark. Soooo, because of my paranoia, I now have a new PB (2hrs 15 mins) for Dragon's Back. Hah! I might throw in some shots we took during the trek, hopefully sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, my calves and shins still ache a little 2 days after the walk which is just a little on the tragic side.

Good Old 6k

I did a good, not-so-comfortable 6k run the day before yesterday and the run was plagued with stitches. I had to stop about 4 times along the way just to stop the darn ache. But, as always, I felt good after it was over. And strangely enough my average pace was better than all the other half-hearted runs I've been doing over the past few months. Which still isn't some great fast pace, but considering how little I'm doing lately, is better than nothing.

What I did:
Tuesday: Ran 6k in 42 minutes

*Wheeze Wheeze*

The past weekend was spent ill. Evidently I was playing too much and it all came back to bite my in my big, fat ass. Which meant I did one huge zero exercise-wise over the weekend.

Yesterday I wandered back into swimming. Finished 10 laps in about 16 minutes and my arms were burning after just the first one. I have neglected swimming for a whole month now, so needless to say all this was kind of expected. But I'm back now, so all you kids at the pool, WATCH OUT!

What I did yesterday:
Swam 10 laps (600m)

Why I Haven't Been Updating

It's a very simple reason actually, namely I just haven't been doing much exercise at all. I haven't been windsurfing, climbing...I haven't been running much, I haven't gone near a pool since the biathlon...And sure enough, because of all the playing till late, lack of sleep and booze filled nights, I'm down with an annoying cough again. Nonetheless, I did a 4k run on Tuesday and I have big plans to do a 6k run tonight. Or I might just do a 4k and leave the longer run till the weekend. Ah lazy lazy.

What I have done since my race:
Tuesday: Ran 4.2k in 30:33mins

The Suburban Run Race Report

Before I begin rambling on, I want to say how absolutely proud I am with S who ran her first 5k ever and kicked sweet ass. She's a complete rock star! Welcome to the world of sick people who wake up at stupid times of the day to attend a race!

There actually is nothing much to report about the race, other than the fact that there was one strange dood at the race wearing biking gear for a race, and a glaringly neon coloured one at that. Very very odd. Overall, the race was pretty well organised, except for the bit where people running the loop back kind of collided straight into people running into the loop. I wasn't running for time (not that I'm such a speedster I expect to win each race...hell, one can dream) for this run, because I promised S to stick by her the whole while and also because I've been so darn lazy and unfit the past 2 weeks. I had a rough last week and instead of running it off and getting some training in, I decided to drink a lot of alcohol instead. Not smart.

Today the legs are aching from the race yesterday. Could either be from the race (which is just telling how little I've been doing by way of running) or from the boozy St. Paddy's Day celebrations I partook in yesterday. I think I need to lay off the alcohol for a long long time.

Race time: 38:36mins
Official Race Results (this race didn't take note of when you started running, just when you ended): 40:18 mins

I'm Back!

After half-heartedly attempting to exercise the past few days, I finally got a semi-decent run in yesterday. Granted it was slow, and I did walk a few times and stop a lot of times (the dreaded stitch is back!), but it was nice round 7k and I finished all of it. I'm not going to beat myself up over the lousy run, because frankly, I've been sitting on my ass a lot the past 2 weeks. Plus, my dad had his birthday last week and I bought him the Wii, which of course ended up being my toy - hey, you get to wield a fake 'gun', pretend you're in WW2 and kill bad guys, it's kick-ass!

So in all of 2 weeks, I've done one sad little run (last Thursday) and one run yesterday. I did go for a nice short trail walk with R over the weekend and it was pretty fun. The thing is, it's pretty hard to find a nice untouched area in Singapore. Everything is buildings and roads. Every time I do a run back, it's always by a busy road, although I do run past the Botanical Gardens sometimes, which is a nice break from the pollution.

All the same, I've always wanted to do this trail which starts about a 5 minute walk away from my place and ends up at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (Singapore's tallest hill...which isn't really all that tall). It's a short trail (slightly more than 2k), but really pleasant and green and brown. I really enjoyed it. Plus I really enjoy these little moments with R because it's always fun 'discovering' a new place with a really good friend. I'll attach some photos to this post once I get them up.

I got some windsurfing in this weekend as well! Finally! The monsoon is gone and the wind's my kind of crappy wind. Of course all the big-time windsurfers are grumbling, but hey, they had their fun the past two months, it's time for me to get some windsurfing it! A good 1/2 hour of it to be exact. And boy did I ache for the next 2 days. It's amazing how quickly my muscles got used to slacking off.

What I did since the race:
Last Thursday: Ran 3.5k
Yesterday: Ran 7k in 53 mins

Singapore Sprint Series (Aquathlon) Race Report

This has to be the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life. To start off with, I spent the night before freaking out about the numerous injuries I would have after the swim leg. I've obviously heard too many stories about bloodied noses and black eyes to be able to even have a nice, peaceful night's sleep before the race. Needless to say, like all the other races, I woke up at about 4am thinking I was late. I should just come to terms with the fact that I will always be doing this in future.

There were no hiccups all the way till the start of the race, minus a few moments of shock when G (my rockstar race buddy) and I realised that a 750m swim was a lot less further than we imagined. But G and I had a game plan. In order not to be kicked in the face, we decided to start at the back, way back, essentially as far back as one could possibly get. It was a stupid stupid game plan and I realised that as soon as I started the swim leg. Good gawd, I can't even remember being kicked that many times before by my own fair sex. And because I was at the back, I was stuck with a whole bunch of breast-strokers, which meant more kicking. My goggles got kicked off halfway through, resulting in me treading water and trying to get the water out; I got completely winded when I got a foot in my chest; and one evil b***h tried shoving me down.

I have never felt so out of my depth before. I didn't think I was the fastest swimmer in the world, but I always thought I was a rather strong (which again, doesn't mean fast) swimmer, but the number of times I had to tell myself not to panic was unbelievable. And forget about clear waters blah blah, Sentosa's waters are every bit as crap as the waters at East Coast, minus the garbage floating around you. Half the time I was veering too far right or too far left and because of my need to stick near the buoys, I kept swimming into in. Real clever, huh.

With the swim leg, because of length of the lagoon, we had to swim to one end, run round a cone and swim back again. R, who had come down to give me some moral support, said he witnessed me physically sigh at the start of the lap back. Well, it felt like hell knowing that there was still some more torture to go, so I wasn't all too surprised.

Swim leg was done and I stumbled out of the sea to the transition area, where frankly all I wanted then was for the whole thing to end. I was tired, wet, uncoordinated, thirsty and I had spent what felt like forever in the sea mentally encouraging myself. Somehow though, I stumbled along for the run. Along the way, I saw my best girl pal and CH, who had also come down to cheer me on, bless their souls, and it picked me up a little. G had come out of the water a little behind me and she had caught up with me by now. Thank the good Lord for her, because I swear, without her, I would probably have just walked the entire run leg. So plod through we did and at the end I had to ditch her for the last 100m and just make a wild dash through. It was the 'the faster I get to the finish line, the sooner this will all be over' logic that you almost instantly regret as soon as you make that dash.

Overall, it was a good feeling finishing it, not because I felt the race was fun at any point of time, but because it was so insanely difficult that to complete it felt like I had unlocked some part of my brain...I know it all sounds very abstract but I just can't think of any other way to describe it. The best part about the race though was seeing those friendly faces at the end, that my best friends were there to go through my moment of torture with me, made me feel all fluffy and warm inside.

Race results:
Swim (750m) 23:02mins
Transition 1:40mins (I was really dreading leaving the transition area)
Run (5k) 33:46mins
Overall time 58:29mins

I finished 36 out of 42 for my category, which is crap, but hell, it's my first bi-athlon and I'm really thrilled I finished it under an hour without drowning!

One Long Swim and a Bunch of Allergies

Yesterday I got home to get a long swim in before dinner. And that I did! All of one and a half friggin' kilometres, doods! I totally kicked ass! It was a sweet, sweet night.

Of course all good things must come to an end and today I wake up with a strange rash on my legs and arms. Headed off to the docs to get that checked out, since that annoying allergy cough I had previously is back with a vengeance (thanks to the haze the past couple of days) and I needed that treated. The bombshell was dropped on me - I may be allergic to alcohol....Noooooooo! Don't get me wrong, I'm not so hardcore an alcoholic that I require a drink to get me through the day, but I'd like to think that a night of drinkies wouldn't result in a breakout of hives the next day. Bah.

What I did last night:
Swam 1.5k (phweet phweet!) in 41 minutes

An Attempt at a Long Run

I say attempt because I swear I really did intend to run all the way home, but I ran out of motivation and grit pretty early on in the run. It's been really hot in Singapore due to the 'bush fires' (I feel stupid using 'bush fires' in the Singapore context because the 'fires' here seem so trivial compared to Aussie bush fires) and the haze that has descended on us. I felt like I was just running in a sauna after 10 minutes and decided to just cut the misery short. Nonetheless, it was a pretty good run - I got to take my new backpack out for its virgin run and it performed well under pressure; I ran 6.5k, almost stitch-less might I add, which is really the furthest I've run in over a month; and it was a decent last run before the Aquathlon on Sunday. So the game plan is one last long swim tonight and then I'll be taking a 2 day break....maybe squeeze in a bit of my much neglected windsurfing on Saturday morning!

What I did yesterday:
Ran 6.5k in 48:58 mins

Career Crisis

A little background, I work for a hedge fund (yes, I still have a job!) and this has actually been my longest job to date. I think I have a pretty short attention span, considering the million and one sports I take up and give up...soooo anyway, it's pretty impressive that I've been here for almost 2 years now! I'm not complaining though, because I'm working with a team of crazily intelligent doods who've also become great friends.

Just the other day though, the boss-man asked me to think about how I wanted to develop my career going forward and that has somehow caused a huge crisis (I'm sure by now everyone more or less realises I'm melodramatic). It's not that I'm unhappy where I am, but the future also seems kind of hazy at the moment. I know I'm being completely ungrateful, people are getting laid off every day and here I am whining about figuring out my life's purpose, but don't get me wrong, I am thankful every day that I'm where I am. I just wonder whether there should be something more I should be pursuing to enhance my presence at work.

I've toyed around with the idea of doing a Masters in Law, but it just seems completely pointless when I don't really have any intention of working in the legal line. Plus I've always only enjoyed the coursework bit of Law - reading through tons of journals and writing a long essay on it. Then I've thought about doing the bar in Singapore, but for the same reasons, it just seems quite pointless.

Another friend suggested doing an MBA, but it just seems too network-y for me. Granted I'm being a tad biased - I think there are quite a number of MBA graduates who're real pompous asses - but an MBA is a lot of work and a lot of money! I could probably come up with the money, but then the one thing I love about my job now is the time! I have time to go for a run after work, I have my weekends free to windsurf if I choose to...I feel very reluctant to give that up somehow.

So after all the pondering I've come to realise that I still have no idea what I want from life. Which doesn't sit too well with me, I've always needed to have an idea of where I'd be in 10 years time, but currently I have no idea, no plan and absolutely no focus, which is slightly scary. On the flipside, I am doing that whole 'living life for the moment' thing.

A Wasted Weekend

I was very lazy this weekend. I find it funny that the closer I get to the biathlon, the less motivated I am to move a muscle. I was pretty good last week, did a miserable stitch-filled 4k run on Wednesday followed by a morning swim on Thursday. And then I did nothing for two days. Friday was my rest day, so I didn't feel too bad sitting around staring at the TV, but when that dragged on to Saturday, my conscience started acting up a little. But still not enough to get me to move my sorry ass. In spite of the slight pangs of guilt, I managed to spend a lovely night with R. He whipped up a kickass curry and we headed out to watch a hilarious play 'What the Butler Saw'. Then it was off to the Dubliner to catch the rugby with a bunch of the work doods. All in all, it was a nice chilled out Saturday (I convinced myself at the end that watching a sport I didn't really enjoy was more or less equivalent to doing a lot of sport).

I think I somewhat redeemed myself on Sunday though. After sleeping in and waking up in time for lunch, finishing lunch and heading back to sleep again, I hauled myself over to the pool to do 15 laps (ended up being 16 laps somehow) and then a 5k run. I felt like dying at the end of it. But at least I did it all (and a little bit more considering the extra lap I swam)!

What I've done:
Last Wednesday - Ran 4k in 33:35mins (had a stitch halfway and had to walk...what's new)
Last Thursday - Did 10 laps in what I considered a relatively fast pace

Sunday
- Swam 960m in 26:05mins
- Ran 5k in 33:06 min

The Wonders of Jet Lag

I'm finally back from Canada where I did a lot of snowboarding, went snowshoeing once and cycled twice around Stanley Park. I love Vancouver so much! I love the weather, the people (except for one exceptionally bitchy sales person at Hollister called 'Molly'...evil lady), the snow, the lights....Every year I come back home thinking the same thing and every year I resolve to head down to Australia mid-year to get some more snowboarding experience under my belt. Of course, being me of the short attention span, come mid-year I'd have discovered some completely random other thing to do and the Australia idea gets thrown out the window. We'll see how that works out.

Anyway, I arrived back Sunday night and started work the next day and so far the jet lag hasn't been awfully bad. I slept at half past midnight on Sunday and woke up around 7 in the morning. I did an interval session midday - completely stupid because I hadn't run in 2 weeks and I felt dizzy and nauseous...and I hate the treadmill! - and that pathetically short session kept me awake all the way till dinner, where the jet lag hit me. Being the last day of Chinese New Year, we had to go out and do the good Chinese thing and have dinner together so that carried me through till 10pm and therein I died.

Well, after all my longwinded rambling, my point is today I woke up at 6am and managed 15 laps in the pool. And I know I've gone on about how people who exercise in the morning are insane, but it sure is nice waking up really early and having some exercise done before the day really starts. Jet lag rocks...when you're on its good side!

What I did:
Monday - interval training (running fast and loose with the term 'training')
Tuesday - Swam 15 laps in 26:27 mins