15km 2hr @ Macritchie

My first time attending an SG Runners event. I had a really long day so I wont go into it except that I enjoyed it despite the humidity and I enjoyed meeting so many friendly people.

I finally up-ped my mileage for the week.



Although I shall remind myself its fine because I have been at yoga or swimming which are healing to my tired muscles. I think I have put on weight, but take a look at this:

Freestyle attempt #5

Lame. Still gasping. There must be something wrong with the way I roll my body from side to side that I find its slowing me down.

I have moved back to my mum's place.

I think I put on weight because my tums arent flat.

I need to go to bed because I am going to Macritchie tomorrow at 7am.

Freestyle attempt #4

Today I thought I felt more comfortable. The active trainer video about looking into the sky as your breath really helps me to relax and swim more comfortably. But the old habits come back as I become more tired. I can tell when the paddles have a lot of drag. i.e. my hand enters wrongly because the arms have become lazy.

This blog was supposed to be about running. seems more swim focused now, maybe I shall change the objective, no matter its still about celebrating health.

This week I had quite a few doses of organic and vegetarian food. give me organic rather than vegetarian. The latter doesnt imply healthy. Organic however is lovely. Food seems to taste ten times better. I reckon its the sensation of someone who stopped smoking and starts to taste food.

7 Sensations just opened at Tanjong Pagar, though with a much smaller menu and a self service style. No matter the delicious cakes are still there. Yogihub at stanley street is also fab. I had the avocado mouse, oh so heavenly.

Besides that I think its mostly pretty healthy stuff. I had soup spoon 2 days in a row for dinner. in fact I think anything you eat cannot be bad so long as you do things that would burn the excesses out in the right way.

I felt with all that eating i am starting to feel a little heavier. My tums for a start arent so lean anymore! my pects are hidden somewhere!

OK got to mamam for the evening

Freestyle attempt #3

My ear is logged with water again. I used swim paddles today. I think I am swimming fast but how do I prevent myself from getting breathless? I still dont feel comfortable turning on the side to breathe. Ends up being short, sharp and panicky. I try doing 4 strokes before breathing because I want to perfect the strokes first but this means I turn blue by the forth stroke and then gasp for air like I've been strangled. I did try breathing after 2 strokes but I find it quite tiring.

So after a few bouts of short length worth 12 strokes each, at least that's what my oxygen deprived brain thinks, my heart was beating very hard. I havent heard this kind of hard beating in a while, last time was during my feeble attempts at intervals when I felt dizzy half the time.

I shant lose hope yet.

5km 28.45

OK I dont think i did 25 m in 6 strokes yesterday because I seem to be doing 16 to get 25m. I dont know if my strokes were as efficient as yesterday, now that I am doing it without supervision. I cannot continue beyond 25m confidently. I think maybe I did 10 times 20m. Or probably less but I feel that fatigue from swimming that I think i have not felt since swimming lessons in primary school. Maybe its a good thing.

On the running front I guess I am stagnating. How so? I dont have to key in teh title for this blog entry because I have done the same speed and distance again and again. The touch screen machine got stuck and I couldnt change speed nor stop it and had to use the emergency stop button. Not that I had to change speed anyhow, it was only in the last 300m that I actually reached to change the speed by a tiny bit.

Its a little pitiful, the amount of running I do since Sundown. But I reckon by signing up for friendly runs I might get myself motivated a little. Dunno if I will do the MR one this weekend.

Swimming lesson

How do you teach a bimbo how to swim?

Tell her: "Reveal your sexy shoulders and sway your hips"

It got me swimming 25m in 6 strokes with ease. Today my friend taught me to do freestyle properly. I'm excited to get to the pool and try it again.

I have to confess I am not really trying hard to train for the Shape Run. But I have to be fair to myself. Its been a rather stressful week. I signed up for the Adidas women's run at vivo city on 6th July. I suppose thats a good opportunity to get me running outdoors.

I need a new pair of shoes and I'd like to buy a few more Nike tops.
I had another good meal at banalun. Unfortunately I dont have the pictures because the bimbo left it either at the Banalun or in the taxi.

49kg 15 min 2.7km

I have been doing weights and yoga so I think am more muscular now. And I dont do so much running. So I dont know why I have not put on weight. I dont think I have been eating any more or less. Maybe I just have many things going on this week. They say moving house is one of the most stressful affairs in one's life. And I'm about to do this 3 times in the span of a year.

I had 15 minutes on the treadmill before yoga class. I think its good to have a run before yoga. I'm too lazy to stretch on my own so yoga is a good opportunity to keep me at it for the next hour. I like it when they work on the hips. I used to have a lot of pain in the butt. none of that now.

Ashtanga yoga after a run, in particular, will keep me burning for longer. I'd be dripping with perspiration if I keep at the sun salution. Today I attempted the headstand. I managed to get my knees up but I think my abs are still not strong enough. They are not strong enough for many things, but after every class Derek would say that you should thank you body, and I will be grateful enough for what I have achieved that day.

Cheezels

The newspaper carried an article today about the recent duathlon being poorly managed. They cut down distances from 55 to 22 during the race. I guess then a difference in a mile in a 10 km or 42km race is actually nothing in comparison to the booboos the organiser can make.

The article mentioned people complaining about diluted isotonic drinks during the sundown Marathon. I hope the reporter made a mistake. If everyone drank 100 plus from the bottle directly people would have dropped like flies from dehydration. Everyone complained about that same one drink station that DID NOT dilute the drink.

I never saw the importance of diluted isotonic drinks till Sundown. I have always been drinking 100 plus mixed with water during a workout. but really because water is so plain I hate to drink it on its own. nor have I seen isotonic drinks as a energy drink. i thought its just sugar, what. but at some point during my own runs I have come to realise how much more refreshing the diluted isotonic drink is compared to water.

And so I wonder, how bad it is to drink those sorts if you dont exercise. Its full of sugar and salt. Imagine if they arent for replacement.

For that matter I was eating a small packet of cheezels and realised each serving is 140 calories. thats the energy to run 1.5 km. Did you know cheezels was so energy packed? You dont even feel full eating that tiny packet of like 10 rings. And so light but salty. if not for the puffiness and how ridiculous it may look, I'd bring them on a run.

5km 28.45

I left work early; my mind was definitely not at work today because the entire day I was negotiating the lease for my apartment. Its not easy to let go of something you put your heart and soul into. Not even for money.

I left work at 5 and went to the gym hoping the physical activity can settle my mind a bit. Of course the treadmill didnt. Doing the treadmill doesnt have the same effect as running outdoors. The latter would practically unravel answers I am looking for. But maybe I was running without glasses. I was squinting to see how much I am running. I cant tell between 5 and 6.

At Yoga class I feel I am regaining my strength and flexibility. But the knees dont feel very good in the tree pose.

I have 10 days to move out of my place. Really difficult. trying to be objective about it. Its played its role as just another stepping stone to bigger things.

I dont know if I'll still be around for the Shape Run. But I think I dont mind. I just want to get a move on.

5km 28.50

I'm a treadmill whore. What can I say?

Today I did a steady 10.5km/hr and was surprised I managed to do it. Usually I start at 10km/hr and increased the speed by a modest .1km/hr each time. And by the time I reach 10.5km/hr I am huffing and puffing and willing my fingers to bring the speed down.

So I am convinced I am usually deluded and if I start off at 10.5 its not so overwhelming on my weak mind.

I think I am equally deluded on how I look. I feel like a reverse anorexic. I look in the mirror and think i am thinner when in fact I have always looked that way. I don't know for sure. Sometimes i think the running T I wear makes a difference too. Say if I wear a singlet and bike shorts I look scrawny. if I wear a sleeveless, i,e, show less shoulder, I look more meaty. if I wear modest tennis shorts I look meatiest. All this while my weight has been a steady 50kg, plus or minus .5kg.

Yesterday was my first body pump class in a while and I thought all of a sudden I have biceps again.

I think I am overanalysing. I need a life.

5km 29.25

I am on the treadmill and there is someone next to me who started at the same time. He smells sourish. I think he breathes through his mouth. I avoid breathing through my mouth when I am on the treadmill and someone is next to me, because I become aware how I might annoy others as they have annoyed me. ;-)

I often imagine people who run on the treadmill pace themselves based on what they see on someone next to them. Why is it that I always find people (usually men) dont stop running until after I do. If I do a 10km stretch on the treadmill, I stop at 5km to fill up my water bottle. Sometimes the person next to me stops too and quite ready to go off, until they find me restarting the machine.

Or they keep looking at your stats. if they do that too obviously I'd do the same. like, come off it. do your own thing, you know.

Its a source of amusement and the result of vivid imagination. I am sure they have their own agenda.

Passion Run '08

1hr 7 minutes

This is my worst 10km time since last year's Great eastern run. But if I had done last year's GE timing I'd have gotten 10th place today.

It wasnt the best managed run. At the last supposedly 2.5 km mark I met the slower 5km fun run group. I had to weave through this group but if I was true to myself, if the lane was clear I may not have run any faster.

Its strange, how I felt I ran the first 10 km at sundown at a relaxed pace and thought I ran faster than today. Maybe its the cloying heat and humidity.

As it turned out most people logged 11km or more. So I dont feel so bad.

My knees didnt complain. I guess they are up to going back to the usual training. The next run isnt till 20 July.

Sundown Marathon '08

5 hr 37 min.

When I got home I didnt know which to deal with first; I was dirty, dead tired and hungry. And my legs hurt like mad.

The timing fell way short of my target, but I know now 5 hours would've been pretty unrealistic. I never trained beyond 22km. My knees never knew the meaning of running beyond this distance. And last night they learnt the hard way.

The first 20km was breezy. I mean it was a really great experience; there was sea breeze; and I felt my energy levels were great. I did not have to stop running unless at the water stops. I felt really good. I felt I could do this all the way. The runway route did not feel endless like the last time. But at the 20km mark, my knees started to scream, and scream it did for the next 20km. It was awful. It got so bad sometimes I had to stop. I had to learn to deal with the pain, to put it at the back of my head as if its just a buzzing sound in my ear. it would work for a bit when my own fatigue sets in and then I stop to walk and then find that restarting the run would mean relearning to deal with the knee banshee.

20 km on was also a little demoralising because most people around me had by then merely walked. There were numerous overhead bridges to cross. At the SG Runners forum I discovered I wasnt the only one who thought some of the 2 km distance markers appear stretched. My ipod logged 43km in all. And so did many others. Perhaps the bridges made it longer.

At one point, quite near that strange suspension bridge with the photographer at the end, someone was running alongside me motivating people around him. I dont know if he was in the race, but he really cheered me up. I spoke to him at some point about the distance to the next park connector. A mature guy came along and spoke to him, "I am in my 60s" he declared, "and I can still do this!" and he shot off. Whoever they were, I wish to thank them because they brightened my spirits. And those guys who made delightful expressions of disbelief at the sight of the overhead bridge with the steps.

At 30k, the lactic acid in the legs have built up to the point that I get that constant dull ache. I felt sleepy. It was 4 am and I was lightheaded. When I looked up I saw stars. I dont think it was the galactic kind.

Throught the nasty up and down "gentle" slopes of the last few km, I found motivation in a topless guy. He did a run walk, which was what I did too, and found myself, ahead or behind him in turn until almost at the end.

I managed to almost run continuously, though slowly, the last 800m because everyone else were. At 400m to see everyone pushing themselves that last stretch really helped keep me going. It was quite a good feeling knowing you are so close to the end. I crossed the line, met TLR and congratulated him on his 84km. Then I sat down to enjoy a banana next to another lady, when it started to pour very very hard, with some lightning and thunder.

I was lucky enough to get myself under the massage tent. I took my luck with me and looked for the massage tent. I feel asleep and by the time I got up it was bright. And I made my way home. After lunch and a good hour's massage with Joey I slept the entire afternoon away.

My lower back is sore. My legs are recovering but I will probably be walking down staircases like a crab for the next couple of days. I remember suffering from this the first time I did a half marathon. By the second attempt, I did not ache like that.

I missed the rain by seconds but that night it was raining men. Maybe only 1 in 10 were women. And sometimes they (the men) rained perspiration on me.

Will I do it again? Of course. And again and again.