Tri-Factor 1.5k Swim Race Report

Urgh, I've not been very good at updating my race reports, so this is about 2 weeks late.

Before the Race

Anyway, the Tri-Factor Swim Race took place the Sunday before last and I signed up to swim 1.5km. I've basically spent the better part of the last month and a half training for that (and the Bintan triathlon). I actually was pretty diligent, heading to swim training 3 times a week. I gave up my Friday nights because swim training started was at 8am on Saturday and essentially didn't have much of a life. Well, I'm exaggerating. I did manage a trip to Bangkok and Phuket in May...and I did watch a ton of plays, musicals, concerts and even managed to squeeze in a comedic ballet.

Race Day

G had signed up for the 500m so her wave started earlier than mine. So while I was warming up and trying to look out for her (and somehow managed to miss her wave start), I was also freaking myself out with how darn long the 750m course looked. And I had to do 2 laps of that! Somehow doing 30 lengths in a 25m pool seems fine. Putting those 30 lengths into one long course is a whole other ball game.

Warm-up

Nothing to shout about. I didn't get bitten by sea bugs, but it could well be that the sea bugs had stuffed their faces on the 3k swimmers and the 500m swimmers nice sweet blood and were just flat-out full when I got in the water.

I did a few lame strokes. Kicked for a while. I'm not sure why I can never figure out the whole warm-up drill. Coach Alain told me before that I should do a 300m warm-up before the race. Which is all fine and good in the pool, but I had absolutely no idea how to measure 300m in the sea.

Race

What a nightmare it was. I started off fine. The usual everyone swimming over everyone else and all. Then the huge pack broke. I broke away from some people and then I became the swimmer everyone hates. I was the swimming equivalent of the annoying driver that weaves in and out of traffic. No matter how much I tried swimming straight, I kept swimming like a snake. So I was either so dang near to the ropes I crashed into it and knocked my googles off or I was swimming away from the ropes to oblivion. I knocked my goggles off a grand total of 3 times and hit the ropes God only knows how many times. If there was a way to swim inefficiently, I was acing it. In hindsight, I probably should have sighted more often.

Needless to say I was pretty much over all the swimming at the last 200m or so. I struggled to kick hard and push past this one breast-stroker (who might I add I am thoroughly impressed by!) but each time I slowed she caught up again. I was going to put down that she was where the adage 'slow and steady wins the race' came from, but then I remembered she was anything but slow. Hats off to her, whoever she is. I am happy to have been beaten by someone so worthy. Well played, breast-stroker.

Last note, the race once again ended with a 30m (I really am plucking arbitrary distances here...it seemed like 30m to me, but it could easily have been 5m) dash on my much dreaded sand. By this time I was biting breast-stroker's dust, so I just gave up and strolled the remaining stretch of the beach.

Results

Coach Alain had targeted a 40min finish. I targeted a more realistic 45min finish. In the end, I finished in 40:44mins. And I should be happy and all that I beat my target, but I'm just a little bit annoyed that I couldn't break the 40min target set for me. Dang snake swim.

15th of 33 - 40:44mins (breast-stroker made 40:17mins, I think)

First lap (750m) - 19:27mins

Second lap (750m)- 21:16mins

So much for negative splits.

All in all, I’ve never had anything bad to say about Tri-Factor’s races. They’ve all been well organized and good fun!

Bintan race report tomorrow!

A Snake and A Cramp

I've been a little bit better and a little bit less lazy last week. I did a 4k run the day after my first spin class in ages last week and did that in fairly alright considering the state my legs were in! Lately I've taken to running close to the office after work and just showering at my gym (Have to make full use of my 60 buck gym fees every month!). It's been a nice change and running up and down the bridge on Nicoll Highway provides that nice change in er...altitude(?!). The leg back is along the sea so it's all very pretty - insofar as you can call the waters around Singapore being pretty. All the same, I saw my first snake whilst running last week! And it scared me every bit as much as I scared it. But it was black and long and I may never take that short cut again.

Other than that run and the Nike run on Saturday, the only thing I've been doing more of these days is swimming. I did a sad 1/2 hour session last week before the Comedy show at the Club last week and then dragged myself out of bed on Saturday for the morning training.

Yesterday I went for spin again and my legs don't ache as much as they did last week! Woohoo! I also went for swim training in the evening and boy was it tough! Essentially my instructor has decided that Bernie, this nice Irish lady at training, and I match each other pace-wise. So when it came to the intervals he paired us both up. Which sucks. Because I couldn't slack off at all! It's not even as if I felt I had to beat her. I just felt that even if I lost to her I couldn't lose by too much. I think there was a point where I was thinking 'damn you Bernie, let up already! I can't slow down until you slow down!' Well, she didn't slow down. I didn't slow down. And we both wound up knackered at the end of training. We were also the last ones in the pool. I also had my first ever cramp in my foot! And right after I cooled down with a slow 50m swim. Which goes to show that my body is allergic to too much exercise!

What I did:
Last Wednesday - 4k run
Last Thursday - 30 mins swim training

Saturday
- 1 hr swim training
- Nike run

Yesterday
- 45 mins spin
- 1 hr swim training

Nike Goddess 5k Race Report

Well considering how the last race that I convinced the girls to run got rained out, we were all raring to go for the Nike run. Either C,G,or I are jinxed, and once again before the rain started there was a massive storm. Thunder, lightning...the works. Now what was actually nice about this race was that they gave us text updates on whether the race would start on time or not. Which was a pretty nice touch.

In the end the rain stopped before the race start, but somehow it still started late. Which made a bunch of people mad (judging from the angry comments on facebook). We had good company, had a nice little chit chat whilst waiting so it was all good.

The thing is this race touted itself as a BFF run so I guess I didn't really take it very seriously. To me it was just going to be a leisurely 5k that I was going to run with G and catch up on life and all that, especially since she's been so crazily busy lately! That probably wasn't so good for anyone else who was running for time. Because the race was in Sentosa (which I really liked because at least for once the race route was somewhere other than East Coast or the F1 pit stands!) there were areas where the road narrowed a little and obvious bottlenecks formed. G and I just walked those times. C and her running buddy had by this time shot ahead of us and we didn't see them till the end.

I've nothing to complain about the run itself. I liked how it was a different route for a change, I liked that it was nice and overcast and drizzly (not really something the race organisers can take credit for), I liked that it was in the afternoon and I didn't have to drag myself out at stupid o'clock and I liked the text updates.

Now post-run was a different story. It had started to rain then so having a bottleneck going from the end of the race to bag collection was expected to some extent. They could have widened the walkway, but I still wasn't that fussed over it. The main thing was waiting to collect my bags. Have a system for crying out loud! It is a total no-no having to wait longer for my bag than it is to actually run the race! It is an even bigger no-no when the wait is 2, if not 3, times longer than my run time! I didn't have time to have any beers after and I was late meeting my friend for dinner. Pffffft. And we weren't even the worst. The queues were so long, people actually ended up standing in the sea (bag collection was on the beach). I'm just glad it wasn't us!

Time taken: 45:27 mins (wow, G and I had a 45 minute conversation!)

Back to Spin

Yesterday was my first time back to spin in forever. I knew it was going to be tough. But I didn't know it was going to be THAT tough! I think I spent half the class looking at the clock hoping that by staring at it long enough I would magically move time faster with my sheer will. The other half of the class I spent debating with myself whether I should just hobble out of the class in shame.

Every time we were made to stand up and pedal, I died a little. Plus, each time the instructor made us do that it seemed like forever before we actually got back on the saddle. It was miserable and sweaty. Oh so sweaty. I also cheated a little (confession time!) by having tons and tons of ‘water breaks’ and ‘brow wiping’ just so I could seat my sorry little ass back down, if even for 2 seconds.

My personal instructor had warned me that the afternoon spin classes weren’t very good and that they’d be boring. Pah! If only I had time to be bored! My brain was on overdrive (screaming not-so-nice words, incidentally) the entire while.

The class was, however, dismally small. There were only 3 crazy people bobbing up and down their stationary bikes and my only bone to pick with the instructor was I never really knew what he was saying. But (and big BUT here) at least the guy was on his bike the whole while suffering every bit as much as we were. And because misery craves company, it made me feel a little bit better that at least he was feeling the burn. Ages ago I went for the evening class where the instructor talked a lot and walked around the class singing to his own songs. Maybe some people find those classes more fun, but it just always pisses me off when I’m suffering and the source of my pain isn’t suffering along with me!

Today I’m slated for a run but my thighs ache so much. I guess I’ll still run (or at least stumble around) because I feel a wee bit bad that I skipped out on swim training yesterday. Which brings me to the conclusion that I’d rather do 1 hr of swim training over a 45 minute spin class any day!

What I did:
45 min spin

Better but Barely

I've been swimming more than I've been on my bike. I think it's the curse of the Bintan Triathlon - I just can't seem to bring myself to get on my bike!

What I've done:

Last Tuesday - 1hr Swim Training
Last Thursday - Ran 4k
Last Friday - Does spending a whole day on my feet at Universal Studios count?
Last Saturday - 1hr Swim Training

Where Goes My Mojo?

So I did a big fat zero by way of training last week. I did a lot of “I’ll do such and such tomorrow” but actual physical exertion? Zip, zilch, nada. And nothing helped to make me feel bad enough to lift a finger. I went to youtube and watched people running, swimming or biking; read countless sporty blogs and still I couldn’t find my mojo.

In all, I feel a little bad. And I couldn’t even enjoy my short little break because I just spent everyday feeling just that little twinge of guilt that wasn’t big enough to make me move but wasn’t quite small enough that I was going to bed feeling quite at peace with myself (or more the way my so-called ‘training’ was going). More than that twinge of guilt thought, is the growing fear that with the Bintan sprint triathlon looming closer and closer, I’m wasting precious time lazing instead of putting in bike hours. And mainly, I just really don't want to push my bike up at the beginning of the bike leg like I did last year.

I moved a bit on the weekend, just to make myself feel somewhat better. I was supposed to do a 5k fun run on Saturday, but it got rained out and after sitting around waiting for the rain to stop, I decided about a half hour before the postponed flag-off to go off for breakfast (and convinced my friend to come along as well). Which meant my forced exercise that weekend was blown. I went for a pathetic excuse of a swim instead. 2 x 300m in all. It wasn’t anything to cry about. Pfffft.

On Sunday, Rich and I cycled from his place (via park connectors and sidewalks) to Robertson Quay and got lunch before cycling back. It came up to 10k. And mostly I held him back because I was the biggest wuss and was terrified of narrow pathways. This is what happens when you don’t ride regularly – every damn thing makes you freaked out that you’d fall off your bike. I think I need a good fall to get over this. Nonetheless, we made it through without a scrap (but with a lot of ‘oh crap!’ and ‘woah!’ shouts along the way) and I quite enjoyed it. We did learn from this slow, not-so-long ride though that firstly we probably should have started earlier than noon; and secondly we should probably have sloshed on some sunblock! I have the weirdest tan lines on my back and Rich is just…well…red in various places. All fun and games.

What I did:
Last Monday to Friday – Absolutely nothing
Saturday – 2 x 300m swim
Sunday – 2 x 5k bike (and lunch in between – green curry, yum yum!)
Yesterday – 1 hr personal training (aching so much now!)

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)

Being Realistic

I figured that if I signed up for 20 races in a year (which is probably close to what I signed up for last year), I’d probably only turn up for...well...pretty much none. This year in a bid to save more money and not accumulate any more race t-shirts, I’ve decided to be a bit more realistic and sign up only for races I find so fascinating I would have to turn up. Also to leave a reasonable time of rest in between and not assume I could do a race every weekend.

It hasn’t really started off so well. R and I didn’t turn up for Safra Avventura even though we signed up and paid a bomb for it (I even bought a new bag for the race!) and I fell sick a week before the MetaSport Aquathlon so that plan got scuppered too. I resisted the urge to sign up for a million races in its wake - well done, me! So this year other than my 2 failed non-races (which probably isn’t the best way to kick start race season), I’ve only got a 12k trail race, a 1.5k swim race and a Sprint triathlon to look forward to. Now, how much self-control is that!

As for my training schedule, I may have gone a bit overboard and might have been a bit over optimistic, but let's sort out one thing at a time!

New Walk!

Well, the not so new start of the new year (or new start of the Lunar New Year) brings with it a new walk! 50.1KM of walking from the West to East of Singapore. Say a prayer for us!


View Walking directions to Changi Point Ferry Terminal Lorong Bekukong Singapore in a larger map

Fish Burps and other Weird Running Things I've Discovered

1. I’m glad that I’m only doing the halfie and not a full marathon because I’ve pretty much run out of detours to make to get home. Also, I realise my ‘ultimate running playlist’ doesn’t last for all that long. Plus, around the 16k mark is when my bag’s jostling against my neck starts becoming unbearable.

2. Having a filling sushi meal before a long run gives you fishy burps and it lasts the entire run. And it isn’t pleasant. The thing is I actually know all this because I’ve stupidly done it before, but apparently I’m not smart enough to learn from my mistakes.

3. I sing when I run. Well mostly I mouth out words of songs, but if ever I’m feeling out of it and there’s no one around I sometimes belt out the chorus of a song. Obviously I run out of breath really quickly and then regret doing that. I also regret it when sometimes I don’t do a good enough check and realise there are actually people near me. There actually is a good reason why I sing/mouth words whilst running: I find it helps me run through a stitch. I wish there was some scientific way to explain this, but there isn’t. It just works for me. So if someday you’re in a car and you drive by a crazy person running and looking like she’s talking to herself. It is likely to be me trying to get rid of a stitch. Sometimes I do a little jig too but that has nothing to do with side stitches and more to do with me being a little too into my music.

4. My brain stops working when I run. When I was running back last week I spotted someone I thought was an old friend of mine. I yelled his name as I ran past. The guy stopped and looked quizzically at me, which should have been my first clue. Instead of running on, I stopped, looked at the guy, pointed at him and said ‘SR?’ Doh, obviously it wasn’t him and obviously I looked like a complete fool. I refused to take that route when I did my long run this week lest I meet the guy.

5. On top of achy legs, my stomach muscles ache after a long run. I’m not sure why, but today it feels like I did a bunch of crunches yesterday night!

6. Not really running related but I take back what I said about good yoga schools. I realise I meant good yoga teachers. I went back for a yoga class on Monday this week and had a very blah class. The instructor was nice, but it just felt like a whole bunch of stretching. And it was hardly challenging. And there was a lot of sitting around cleansing your mind of this or that. Yawn.


What I did this week:

Monday: 1hr yoga

Yesterday: 16k run in 1hr 57mins (The last time, and only other time, I did a 16k run I did it in 2hr 26mins, so even if this is the slowest a human being could run, I’m not complaining!)

Training Updates

Last Monday: 1hr Personal Training

Last Thursday: 14K run

It was long and painful. I was pretty much over it by about 10k but I pushed through (woohoo!) and made it all the way without stopping to trot...well at least not till the last 1k. Point to note, overhead bridges are the enemy 13k into a run!

Saturday: Woodcutter's Trail/Butterfly Trail in 3.5hrs

It took that long not because the walk was particularly long but there was just so much stopping and waiting around for people. We did this with the local Y and there were a lot of people. While I think there are overseas treks that I might do with the Y, the local ones just have a lot of slow people. I'm not particularly fast, but these guys are sloooow.

And while I think it's great that the Y organises walks like these because it gets people (who might ordinarily be inert) out and moving as well as raising awareness on the presence of this ("natural") side of Singapore, but short of there being another local trail I need directions through, I'd probably be a bit reluctant to join them. Sorry Gracie!

Sunday: Salomon X-Trail Race - See below.

On a side note, since Jo asked - I wasn't actually doing real yoga yet. It was a beginner class to prep your body for yoga (or something like that) and it involved doing a lot of squats. I think when I progress further I'd be learning Ashtanga yoga?

2011 Salomon X-Trail 10k Race Report

Despite signing up for a ton of races this year, this is the first running race I've turned up for in ages and my legs are feeling 'achy' today.

Overall I like the Salomon X-Trail. When I'm mentally prepared to get muddy and gross then sloshing around in mud is actually pretty fun. More fun is running right through mud puddles and getting mud on the nancies who were tip-toeing around the puddles. It's a trail race and you're already half covered in mud, might as well enjoy it!

The morning started off well weather-wise. Clear skies and all that. I was sleepy. Very very sleepy. I think I probably was half asleep at the start line. By the time my legs started working, Rich was already off like a shot while I mucked around at the back trying to get into a rhythm.

As Rich describes it, the trail route basically looked like someone took a pen and just scribbled all over a map.



Although it's not completely obvious, the course isn't on a huge area, but somehow it never really felt boring. Well actually there was a lot of scrambling up and down hills as well as overtaking walkers on narrow trails, so there wasn't much time to get bored. And there was never really much of a bottle-neck situation...yes there were bits where I had to slow to a trot but frankly I was just pleased to have an excuse to rest my tired legs.

When we met up after the run, Rich and I agreed that the Salomon X-Trail is one of the more fun races. Hills, mud and lovely trails...what's not to love about it? And a special shout-out to the volunteers at this race who are one of the best race cheerleaders!

Time: 1:20:24 (86th out of 254 women! woohoo!)

Unlucky 13 and an Eventful Weekend

13 isn't my lucky number it would seem. I've got to 13k on my training schedule but it's been a hard to actually run it. The first time I managed only 10k (and this involved a lot of stopping, wheezing and walking), the second only 4k-5k (?) because my watch/foot-pod bailed on me and I had a bad stomachache (which resulted in more stopping, wheezing and walking) and the third I have no idea how far I ran because (11k-12k maybe?) the same watch/foot-pod was still spoilt despite sending it to get fixed. So no idea if I've done 13k yet but I did feel completely wrecked after my 1hr 41 min run on Friday and there was a lot of walking, hobbling and near-crawling at the end of it. I also felt like throwing up after which I'm not sure was really a great achievement.

Anyway, I just got back from Hong Kong last week and wound up with a massive stomachache for a week. I supposedly had an acidic stomach (whatever that means) so was put on meds for a week, which is my justification for being a bit lazy last week. All I did were the two runs (the 4k-5k and the 11-12k one)!

I felt a bit better over the weekend and went for a 2.5hr trek on Saturday(I always feel a bit stupid using 'trek' in the Singapore context since trails here are hardly challenging!) and then yoga and rock-climbing on Sunday. I was supposed to meet Karrie for a drink somewhere in the weekend but my stomach was still a bit iffy and I didn't want to risk aggravating it.

Incidentally I tried yoga again (see above) and went to a proper yoga studio this time. It was so difficult! And we're talking just the beginner lesson, not even a real yoga class. At first I wanted to laugh because he made us sway to and fro and for some reason seeing everyone do that seemed hilarious to me. But as he made us do squats combined with some complex arms above head moving at your waist thing, I wasn't laughing and was just desperately hoping the class would end. So I sweated it out like a pig and today I ache so bad. But a good ache. They did all the 'close your eyes, cleanse your mind' thing at the end, but that gave me time to just lie down and die a little, so I was cool with it. Bottom line, I'm glad I gave yoga another shot and the yoga at True Fitness is kind of crap.

What I've done (at least what I remember I've done)

3rd Nov: 10k run
Wednesday: Ran 4k-5k
Friday: Ran 11k-12k
Saturday: 2.5hr trek from Rifle Range to Mandai
Sunday: 1hr yoga and 1hr rock-climbing


In Hong Kong-

5th Nov: 4k run and 20 minutes weights
6th Nov: 2hr hike @ Dragon's Back

So Far So Good

Not sick so far and keeping my fingers firmly crossed.

In the meantime I've managed to fit in a walk/trek at Bukit Timah Hill with friends twice and I've done a bunch of runs. Bukit Timah Hill is really challenging. I keep forgetting that somehow and every time I go back it hits me really quickly how much the uphill stair climb is just sheer torture. I do like though that, in my head, it somehow translates to a great ass workout!

Oh on a side note, R and I went to Macritchie to do a trail run (although half of that run was on a boardwalk, so not really trail) yesterday and I have to say, the people at the Nature Reserve just seem a lot friendlier than the Macritchie crowd. I mean it's nice when people say a cheery 'good morning' every now and then. I think I said 'Good Morning!' to only one person yesterday...or rather I greeted a few people but got ignored. People need to be nicer in our world!

What I've done since my last update a gazillion years ago:

14th Oct: Ran 5k in 35:09 mins
15th Oct: 1hr walk with B at Bkt Timah Hill
16th Oct: 600m swim
17th Oct: 1hr personal training
20th Oct: Ran 8k in 58:16 mins
22nd Oct: Cross-trainer 10 mins and some number of crunches
23rd Oct: 2hr walk with D at Kampong Trail/Bkt Timah Hill
24th Oct: Ran 5k in 34:24 mins
26th Oct: Ran 4k at Macritchie in 29:29 mins

Tonight I Run

It's been a real pain. Every time I get back on the training schedule, I fall ill. I don't even know how many times I've been ill this year. Sucks. Basically I've been sick the last week. I got back from Samui/Phangan with a flu then pretty much ended any hope I had of doing the Nike Run. So while R and G had a guilt-free champagne brunch buffet after to celebrate, I just stuffed my face in celebration of well...being ill. And I just felt a bit left out when everyone was talking about how the race went.

Yesterday I went back for Personal Training and did some weights. I'm still a bit coughy, but going to head for a 5k run tonight and get an early night. Hopefully this doesn't mean I get ill tomorrow because I would really like to get to where I can run 10k at one go and not get sick the next day!

What I've done:
1hr personal training