I'm Spinning Around

One hour of butt-busting spinning does not rested legs make. But boy, oh boy, to feel my heart pump harder than it has the past few months was awesome. I've been running and swimming at a very comfortable pace where my heart barely races and though I'm dripping with sweat, it doesn't feel half as fulfilling as my spin class yesterday. I was dripping with sweat in about 10 minutes and my legs were burning not long after. Between the huffing and puffing and wheezing on the bike, I'm quite sure I burned off a bunch of calories. Well, I hope so at least. I'm thinking maybe it's time to start doing some sessions at the track soon.

What I did yesterday:
1 hour of spin class

You Can Get Hurt Swimming?

Swam 20 laps yesterday. Now my ribs hurt. I'm not sure why. In fact I'm not even sure whether I swam 20 or 21 laps because halfway through swimming, I was thinking of what I wanted to have for dinner and lost count. I did an extra lap just in case. And yes, it's so obvious that I'm not an athlete seeing as I was not at all focused on breathing, stroke blah blah blah and the only thought in my head was how I would kill for a steak.

Random note: I finally got the Tropic Thunder dvd although I paid waaaay too much for it, but what the hell, 65 bucks for more than an hour of laughs is more than worth it!

What I did yesterday:
Swam 20/21 laps in 35:44mins

My Version of a Long Run

Seeing how pathetic my mileage has been, yesterday's run qualifies as a long run to me and I completed it, albeit with the company of my best friend, the side stitch. Did a different route this time because I was meeting R, so ended up running from work to his place to shower and go for dinner nearby. Shorter route than running back to mine, but every bit as painful and grueling (if no one has realised this by now, there is a common pattern to every one of my runs all of which involve suffering!) Final note - the pork rack at Fosters really kicks ass!

What I did yesterday:
Ran 6.95k in 51:03 mins (I stopped a lot because my right side hurt like a b***h half the time)

Land of the Rising Sun, A Wedding and A Dry Run

I'm just back from my company trip to Japan and it was exhausting! Which didn't make sense since I spent most of it just eating and sitting for hours on a coach. Well, I suppose walking up and down the bus every couple of hours makes for some exercise. Actually I have nothing really much to say about Japan. Food was great, people were great and well I got to meet up with a good friend I hadn't seen in over a year.

On landing in Singapore, I had to rush off to KH's wedding. I came back a day early especially for this because I just love sharing in my friends' big days. I live vicariously through my friends, what can I say. All the same, the wedding was grand and I got to catch up with a whole bunch of my old church friends. So that was a laugh. And best of all, I am proud to announce that I was very very sensible and went to sleep instead of going for drinkies. Well, I suppose it wasn't so much a choice as much as sleep forced itself on me.

Yesterday, after days of eating non-stop (it was cold! I had to keep warm, so I ate!) and doing close to nothing, I decided to go do a sort of 'rehearsal' of sorts for the Biathlon in February. But too many things went wrong yesterday. For one, I chose to do this in the middle of the day, which meant every other kid and his clone were at the pool, which also meant I spent the whole while meandering around a strange obstacle course choke full of adults throwing beach balls, children jumping off ledges and babies in plastic floats...which was distracting, and I kind of lost count of how many laps I had completed. I did an extra lap anyway, in case I undercounted. Right after the swim, I dried off quickly and threw on my running gear and zipped out of the house. Of course, my foot pod chose this exact day to run out of battery. So I decided to just run 5k. Needless to say I got a stitch about one millionth way through. Long story short, yesterday was one of those 'Murphy's Law days' where everything that could go wrong did. Of course I ended the day off with a bunch of JD cokes. What's new, right?

What I did yesterday:
Swam 15/16 laps in 25:29 mins
Ran (approximately 4k or so, I think) 30 minutes

Another Slow 10-er

Yesterday I ran 10k again. A week after I did 10k and it doesn't feel any easier. My legs were still sore and my knees...oh my knees, I had to spend a good part of last night icing both knees. It was a weird run yesterday, most of the lights worked in my favour so I didn't really have to stop much, but I had two strangers on the street stop me to ask to ask for directions. Which I'm fine doing, but isn't it strange that of all the people on the streets to get directions from, they had to stop the one who's got her earphones on and clearly looks like she wants to get places fast (or fast-ish)? Also, there were more familiar faces in this run than any other run I've done. I ran by the bar where R was and where he shouted a quick 'hello' and my old friend and neighbour, Jamie, happened to drive past me and asked if I needed a lift. I must have looked completely out of shape!

What I did yesterday:
Ran 10k in 1 hour 10 minutes

Detox

I'm freaking out. I've got the Biathlon on 22nd February and I've just realised that with my being in Japan followed by my trip to Canada, I'll only have 2 weeks to train (1 weekend to train) before the Biathlon. On top of that, I'm eating all this crap that can't be helpful to my cause in any way. Sooooo, I've decided I'm going to crank up the training by a notch and not eat anymore junk. It's just a bit more than a month anyway right? I'm sure I'll be able to resist the draw of oily, fatty food...urgh, saying that out makes me feel disgusted, I've no idea why I still eat all that!

The Southern Ridges

Early Saturday morning, R and I decided to do a short trek. My sister and my folks had been telling me about the Southern Ridges walk in Singapore and we decided to go check it out. It was actually pretty fun getting out and walking for slightly over 2 hours amidst a whole different bunch of routes. Given that this is Singapore and there's a dearth of rugged nature walks in this part of South East Asia, the routes were mostly on man made paths, but I have to say, they did a fantastic job in the planning of the Southern Ridges route.

R and I started off at Kent Ridge Park and cut through a canopy walk down to Hort Park which I found fascinating (and I'm not even that big a plant person). We did the floral walk (okay, this was very disappointing because there really wasn't anything much to see), followed by the Alexandra Arches (a fancy name for a bridge) and then the highlight of the walk, the Forest Walk. Seriously, a bunch of raised steel walkways raised really high up was just sooooo cool. Next time around though, we're thinking of taking the Earth trail through the forest for variety. The hilltop walk and the Henderson Waves (another name for a crazily high pedestrian bridge) came after the Forest Walk and the entire thing was wrapped up with the Faber and Marang trail.

I forgot to bring my camera and R's camera wasn't charged, so we didn't take any photos, which is a shame because it really was very pretty. Nonetheless, I'm definitely going to do the walk again (R is more ambitious and wants to run it) and will be sure to remember to bring the camera then.

What I did all weekend:
Sleep a lot, walked 6.5k in 2 hours 15 minutes

Allergies

I've always laughed at people who were allergic to something or another - how much they miss in life - but it seems I now have managed to develop some allergic reaction to dust of all things. My Karma.

R and I went for a run on Tuesday, fair play to him, he could still run after a 14 hour flight. But I may have over-exerted myself, because I had a little fever on Tuesday. I had to call in sick for work and go see the doctor. That's when I found out that this nagging cough I've had for the past few months that refused to go away, was brought on by a dripping nose, which was in turn brought on by dust.

So training has been put on hold since the Doc only allows me to run when I'm feeling a hundred percent (which'll be pretty soon), but I have to lay off the swimming for a while because he doesn't want me to catch a cold. I suppose it's just as well, that I'm going to be out of town the next couple of weeks in places without swimming pools, so it's not really like I'd miss it all that much.

What I did on Tuesday:
Ran 4k in 29 mins

Holiday Weight

I'm quite sure I overate during the Christmas and New Year period. How am I sure? Because I just feel a bit bloaty and it could be psychological, but it does feel like I'm carrying a lot more weight when I'm running these days.

Nevertheless, I managed to do a 10.1k run yesterday. T'was a very painful run, starting with the shins and followed by the ankles, knees and (here's a weird one) my right hip. You cannot even begin to imagine how many times I wanted to throw in the towel. The last fifteen minutes more or less went like this - Okay, 2.5k, that's like 6 rounds on the track, that's alright...1.5k, that's the distance to the main road and halfway...

So after a month or so I have finally completed 10k again. And I'm very happy once more. Now to cut down on drinking and making the runs more consistent! I'm probably heading for a nice, easy 4k today.

What I did yesterday:
Ran 10.1k in 1 hour 12 mins

Misadventures in the Gym

On Saturday, I did my 'circuit training'* again and don't ask me how but I managed to pull my left quadricep(s?) stretching. So much for my lunges this week, I had to settle for squats and they hurt because my thigh was sore (I'm using that as my excuse as to why I didn't do my long run yesterday as well).

As usual ("usual" being all of two times) I did the "tens" (7:26 minutes - I remembered to time myself!) but this time I cheated. I started the first 9 push-ups doing proper pushups, but then the rest of the push-ups that followed were girly pushups, on my knees. Somehow despite cheating, I managed to hurt my left wrist. Don't ask me how I did that, I have no idea. In fact I don't even know whether I hurt it doing pushups or I hurt it when I was fiddling with the weights. Aaargh, clumsy clumsy clumsy.

So as I said earlier, I didn't run on Sunday because my thigh was sore, but more because I was just too darn lazy. And 'Zohan' was calling to me from my DVD player.

What I did over the weekend:

Saturday
- Circuit training (approx 45 minutes)
- Swam 15 laps (25:36 minutes)

Sunday
- Went shopping with my good mate (that's like cardio exercise!) who's back in town

*I really have no idea what to call what I do in the gym, so I'm just going to keep calling it 'circuit training'.

First Run for the New Year

And it sucked big time. Note to self: Don't run after 10am in the morning, it's just way too hot.

I was supposed to run 8k yesterday so that I'd start the year on a good foot. I had a relatively quiet New Year's eve, opting to stay at home and watch Friends instead of drinking my body weight in alcohol, so in theory my body was all well rested when I woke up on New Year's day. At first I thought I'd go run in the evening, since I hadn't woken up early enough, but then it struck me that if I did that, I pretty much had to spend the whole day sober, which was a pretty depressing thought. That's when I decided to go for a run at 11am, with the sun high overhead. It was complete insanity. The heat was just sapping my energy and my feet felt like there were stones tied around them. Which is kind of why I ended up only running 5.5 pathetic kilometres. My first failed run of the year!

Nonetheless, I'm sure this won't be the only failed run, so I just have to get over it and move on. Meanwhile, HAPPY NEW YEAR one and all!

What I did:

Wed: Ran 4.2k in 29:02 mins

Yesterday: Ran 5.5k

Pool Etiquette

I usually go swimming in the pool at my apartment not because it's particularly great for swimming, but because at 9 at night, it beats travelling out just to get a swim in for the day. Because I'm not entirely sure how long my pool is though, what I refer to as a lap usually means going to and fro, which I convince myself is equivalent to approximately 50m.

The thing I hate about my pool are the kids. Every time I go for a swim my life is on the line. The youngsters think it's funny jumping off a high ledge into the pool and it's just a matter of time before they land on someone and break their neck. I like to hug the wall when I swim because I feel since I'm doing laps, the kids can have the rest of the pool to mess around with. However, since I've started wall hugging, I just feel that swimming is so much more precarious. When I went swimming last night I almost had a kid jump on my head, and believe you me, I wanted to wring that kid's neck right there and then. I also wanted to wring that kid's parents' necks. Firstly, isn't it way past that youngster's bedtime and secondly, you'd think they'd be a little more responsible instead of finding their kid funny. The thing is even if they didn't kill the unwitting swimmer below the ledge, the pool isn't all that deep and just one day some kid is going to crack his head and all these kids/parents would learn the hard way that sometimes a little bit of discipline is good, probably too late.

Other than jumping on my head, the thing I can't stand is when these kids take up the whole entire pool. I'm not asking for much, just the area across the length of one wall. But that apparently is still too much. I spent the bulk of my swim last night very frustrated and very pissed off, because I had to stop every now and then when the kids and their parents played ball the entire width of the pool.

The thing is, I hate being the prick that doesn't understand that children will be children. But it's gotten so annoying swimming in my pool lately that I'm wondering how I can get about all of this. I suppose I could pack up and swim at the club instead of at home, but somehow that feels a little like I'm being chased out of my pool by a bunch of unruly kids and their irresponsible parents.

What I did last night:
Swam 10 very frustrating laps full of starts and stops

Resolutions for 2009

Because it's THAT time of the year again. Actually I stopped making resolutions when I was 18. I kind of realised then that I couldn't disappoint myself if I didn't put any expectations on myself. Just shows how completely 'ambitious' I am.

Anyway, because I've decided that I'm too easily satisfied with my life and I think I need some new challenges, here goes:

1. Finish a 10k race under 1 hour (the original purpose of this blog!)

2. Finish a half marathon

3. Run at least 20k a week

4. Master how to use the harness in windsurfing

5. Take part in a Bi-athlon

6. Be Triathlon ready - i.e. be able to ride a tri/road bike confidently

7. Have some money to show at the end of 2009 (I am terrible at money management)

8. Eat healthier - more fruits, vegetables and fish!

9.Do more for the less fortunate

10. Finish reading all 101 books in this list

Meanwhile, I had plans to go running tonight but I'm going to have to put that off again because I'm still aching! In fact I'm aching more than yesterday! Might go for a swim instead if my weary, aching self is up for it.

Recap for the Past Few Days

I've eaten way too much this festive season. Since my last post on Christmas eve, I'm proud to say I actually managed a 4k run back to my kitchen to roast a chunk of beef. The beef turned out pretty darn good, but the gravy, not so much. Ah well, at least I got half of it right.

Christmas day was spent eating the whole day. Well eating and fitting in a nap in between because I had a massive food coma. After two consecutive meals of festive fare, my dad who's a closet Chinaman, had enough of 'ang moh' food so my sis and I built up on our brownie points and brought the folks to Si Bon for a swanky (and in hindsight, ridiculously expensive) Japanese dinner. The service was fantastic, the food was up to standard, and thank goodness no one ordered alcohol...yes, I am cheap like that.

Anyway, as I've mentioned before, I've eaten way too much this festive season. And I didn't do much by way of exercise. I managed to squeeze in a pathetic 2.5k run on Friday. It was one horrific run. I was running late meeting a friend, so I figured I'd run faster. Only the lights worked against me. So every 200m I came abruptly to a stop. I tried to lie to myself that I was doing some strange sort of tempo, interval training thing, but frankly, I was completely exhausted just running the 2.5k. I blame the Christmas gluttony. Of course, instead of sitting home and feeling remorseful, I went out and drowned my sorrows in a lot of alcohol instead.

Needless to say, Saturday was a complete bummer of a day. Yet despite a crazy headache for the whole day, I managed to have two dinners. Well, actually I ate about half of all the leftover turkey stuffing from Christmas eve and then went over to my friend's house to have another Christmas dinner.

Did I say I've eaten way too much this festive season?

After all the eating, sleeping and doing not much else, yesterday I decided I needed to get off my lazy (probably significantly bigger) ass and do something by way of training for the biathlon in February that G and I are almost definitely taking part in. It was too sunny to run yesterday, so I decided to hit the gym where I stayed and do some core training and then head for a swim.

I've wanted to try this Crossfit workout that I've seen on one of my favourite blogs, but was too chicken shit to try the whole twenty one. I figured 10 was good enough for me seeing as I hadn't been doing much core training for the past couple of months. So in essence here's my wuss version of the Steve's "Twenty One" or what I shall un-creatively call "Ten":

9 sit-ups + 1 push-ups
8 sit-ups + 2 push-ups
7 sit-ups + 3 push-ups
6 sit-ups + 4 push-ups
5 sit-ups + 5 push-ups
4 sit-ups + 6 push-ups
3 sit-ups + 7 push-ups
2 sit-ups + 8 push-ups
1 sit-ups + 9 push-ups

No clue how long I took to do it because I was completely exhausted (even after modifying the whole darn workout) and forgot to check my watch.

Following that I did one set of lunges, two sets of split jumps, a whole bunch of crunches, worked on the plank twice (which essentially was all I could manage) and did some arm work with weights. I rounded all this up with 15 laps in the pool which took me approximately 40 minutes.

Cocky, arrogant me. My training log yesterday writes 'Lower back aches a little and thighs are quite fatigued. Everything else fine'. Guess who woke up this morning aching from neck down? And I mean aching to such point where it hurts lowering my ass into a seat, coughing, laughing, reaching for something...in fact, I can't think of anything that doesn't hurt doing at this point.

I'm taking a much needed break today. I couldn't sleep the whole of last night despite lying in bed since 10.30pm at night, which could be because I overworked my body, overate at dinner or overworked my brain by reading when I got sick of tossing and turning. Whichever the case, I'm meeting good, ole Keithie for dinner in what I hope is a sensible night-out.

What I've done other than ramble for 10 paragraphs:
Last Wednesday - Ran 4k in 28 minutes

Last Friday - Ran 2.5k in 15 minutes

Yesterday
- 45 minutes core/weights training (essentially circuit training)
- 15 laps in pool in approx. 40 minutes

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

And a Happy New Year's Eve to one and all! Being brilliantly efficient I've more or less finished all my work by 1pm, but here I am waiting to go home, where a chunk of raw beef is waiting for me to magically transform it into roast beef for tonight's dinner. Essentially, if I screw up, we get no beef. No pressure on me at all.

So anyway, I had big plans today to go for a run, prepare my beef, save the world, but instead I'm here in the office watching time pass me by and stalking waaaaay too many people (who really aren't worth stalking) on Facebook. Hopefully if all goes well, I'll be off at 4pm (my fingers well crossed) wherein I'll try to squeeze my favourite 4k run into journey home. It's a grey, rainy day here, which translates to a nice, cool run...something I haven't had in a while.

Last random point, I went for Carols by Candlelight at church last night and I love it to bits. Singing carols in a place that could potentially go up in flames has that nice christmas-y feel with a dash of that adrenalin rush that one needs in life. God bless everyone and have a great Christmas eve!

My Weekend Run

It's always been hard for me to run on the weekends because I always feel this need to do things I can't do on the weekdays. In that sense, running has taken a back seat to windsurfing or rockclimbing come Saturday and Sunday. However, with the onslaught of the North East monsoon in Singapore, I've been too chicken shit to go windsurfing. So over the past few weeks, there've been stories of people bruising ribs, getting hit by masts and I've just decided to be a complete coward and just give the whole monsoon period a miss. I'd like to think I'm being smart, knowing my limitations and all that, but bottom line is, I'm just a wuss.

However, because I have given my beloved board and sail a well-deserved break for the next couple of weeks, I now have time to fit a run into my weekend activities again. The thing is (and you'll see why this is just an excuse to buy more gear) unlike running home and all on the weekdays, I don't have to carry a backpack on the weekend with my work clothes and all...well, in theory I could do that, but it just seems a bit lame. Anyway, since I don't have a backpack, I also can't chuck my bottle of water anywhere. Yes, I know there are people who carry it in their hand, but I've tried that and I really don't find it very comfortable. After debating all this in my head (because I over analyse everything and because I'm also very very paranoid about not being completely hydrated despite me not running looooong distances), I decided to go out and buy me a hydration pack. And you know me, if I buy something new, I have to make an effort to perform up to standard.

So, I'm proud to announce that I'm back! Woo hoo, did me a whole 8k of runnin' in the sweltering heat! Of course, needless to say, all things leg related were screaming in pain throughout the run and I needed to rush into a toilet halfway through because in my focus on being well hydrated I forgot that water gone in had to come out somehow. BUT....I did a long-ish run for the first time in ages and it felt soooo good when I was done!

What I did yesterday
Ran 8k in 54:16 mins

Batam and Then a Longer Run

My exercise over the weekend was courtesy of Habitat for Humanity. A couple of us from the Manchester Alumni headed to Batam to help build houses. Boy oh boy was that the best workout I've gotten in a while. G and I were digging soil to lay on the floor of the quarter built house and level it. It was back-breaking work. We dug and we dug and we dug...and two days later we were still aching all over. I highly recommend working with Habitat, you get to help people and get a fantastic workout! Seriously though, it was an amazing eye-opener for the bunch of us spoilt little brats from Singapore and I think the we returned home with a greater awareness of the world around us. Essentially it was good to get out of our comfort zone and step into a life that wasn't so easy and where material goods weren't as readily available.

BEFORE


AFTER


*I was starting to have a weird tanline on my legs from my $10 pants before taking the 'AFTER' shot (I went out to get $10 pants the day before the trip just so there'd be no heartache if I tore them or anything) so I wound up rolling the pants up to create makeshift shorts, or what I shall now call "shpants" - which sounds like 'shit pants' and being immature, that completely amuses me*

After the day trip to Batam on Saturday, I did a longer run on Monday. Longer than what? Longer than the 4k rut I've been stuck at for the past goodness-knows-how-many-weeks. So I ran my 6.5k on Monday and it was well...quite quite exhausting. But seeing how lazy I've been lately, that was hardly surprising. Nonetheless, I made the 6.5k target, so hopefully this is a sign of less lazy days to come. Fingers well crossed.

What I did on Monday:
6.5k in 49:54 mins

Hong Kong Trip

I got back from Hong Kong on Tuesday and since I've been back I've finally hauled my lazy ass out of the taxi on to the roads once again. Before I ramble on about the first run I've done in weeks, first Hong Kong.

There's nothing much to say about Hong Kong since I've pretty much made my friends there tired of meeting up with me because it stops being special when the 'guest from out of town' appears about 3 times a year forcing drinks down peoples' throats. Nonetheless because of their selflessness (and I suspect they secretly hope if they turn up this time, they never would have to again!) I met up with a bunch of them for drinks (what else?) and a good ole catch-up session. T'was great. I love all my friends in HK and they take the edge off the mandatory relative visiting.

The one thing I did this time round in Hong Kong that I've never done before though was go trekking with Jimbo, Steph and my sister. The view from the top of Dragon's Back was fantastic and it was the first real exercise I had done since my last run. After the 8.5k hike, many M&Ms and a bag of crisps later, all of us were ready to just collapse...but of course, one must have the mandatory celebratory drink! And all four of us tumbled dusty and all into some sports bar where we proceeded to order a whole bunch of food and of course a bunch of drink! It always feels great knocking back a couple after a good 3 hours of exercise. I'm hoping the next time I get down to Hong Kong, I get to squeeze some trekking in again. Note to self to wear proper trekking shoes next time, because I slipped on my old pair of trainers and my feet were sore the next day! I'll put the piccies we took up just as soon as I manage to figure out how to transfer them from the camera.

Now to the run. Yesterday, I finally had enough of my sloth. I packed all my running stuff and took a bus down to the track and ran home from there. I ran really slowly, and I still felt quite tired at the end, but I did enjoy my first run in weeks. Muggy and hot conditions aside, the music was good, the legs felt good and in all it just felt like I found my old friend again.

What I did last night:
Ran 4k in 29 minutes (I did say it was a slooooow run!)

Death

Death always trips me up. I'm not great at dealing with it. And more than anything else I become teary eyed over small little things for the next couple of days. Which is fine if I was really close to anyone involved in the death. But when all it is is that I've studied together with the girl who passed on more than a decade ago and that's probably the closest link I can muster up, somehow I feel like a complete fraud. What right do I have to feel so sad for her husband or her family? All I can do is sympathize and offer nothing by way of empathy. And then on top of all this, I realise how lacking my life is. At least she loved and she was loved. I just feel as if I take everything for granted and get very caught up in meaningless nonsense. I don't even know what this entry is for because now I feel like I'm just typing out random thoughts that happen to float into my head and there seems to be no obvious reason or train of thought I'm having at all.

Okay, I Feel REAALLLY Bad

I do, I do. I've been so utterly lazy the past two weeks and I am wrecked with guilt. But apparently not enough for me to do any real exercise. Sigh.

What I did over the weekend:
Saturday: Windsurfed for 2 hours (had a backache for 2 days as a result)
Sunday: Rockclimbed for 1 hour

Found out on Friday that one of my old school/classmates was a victim of the Indian tragedies. My prayers go out to her husband and family at this point in time. Terrorists suck.