benchmark

Went to my benchmark route today. Small group, just the way I like it. I'm pretty sure my fitness has waned but I didn't know how much. This route will tell all. This route stays fixed.

It was obvious that while my endurance is still around, I have completely lost the leg power. They just. Won't. Move. Any. More. I suffered on parts I didn't normally suffer. Suffered earlier than I normally would.

I seriously want to get better at this.

The best part, of course, was the conversation at the end of the exercise. I love friends with benefit... fitness off the bed benefit, that is.

Baked

A friend summed it up: the journey is hard but the reward is sweet.

Another awesome weekend topped with awesome companies. And this proves just how much I love what I do for the sake of doing it. No hard earned medal. But it was well worth slogging the hours for. The cramps were paralyzing. The aches and pain beyond tolerable. But mentally I was sound. The heat was an old friend; nothing could beat the scorching Nepal heat. The scenery was fantastic. At one point we passed through a majestic looking factory/industrial building that was covered in rust dust. LaFarge Cement, the signboard says. It loomed against the blue sky, and I literally went, "Wow," - all painful extremities forgotten.

Things I passed:
1) Cemeteries: One Chinese cemetery, Christian cemetery and Muslim cemetery.
2) Roadkills: 2 cats, 1 white/ginger kitten (sob!), and a fox.
3) Kids: Who high-passed me along the way.
4) Bridges: Awesome.
5) HILLS - I JUST LOVE THEM LIKE A FAT KID LOVES CAKE.

When you don't train, you're not fast. My speed is slow, but I was constant. I enjoyed the route. And the route enjoyed me.

Saturday was bodywork day. Went for a strengthening/stretching class after a long time of not going and ohmygod it was awesome. Awfully awesome. My arms were sore, my legs were straining against the load and when they were working on the abs I tried not to pass out. Another 2 runners were there and they were discussing about running in the Tokyo Marathon? I love seeing running comrades at the classes.

Then went for a reflexology and acupuncture session. Acupuncture was good; my knees really got a nice zapping. I think I slept throughout the session.

Okay gotta go to work.

Slog, Butt, Race

I had a nice weekend, although I wish certain things could go better. That thought stayed with me the whole drive back, until I am convinced there is nothing I could do about it. There will be bad moments and good moments. And most of the times you gain more with bad episodes. A famous super athlete once wrote -

"But I need to have these days (bad days) - because the 'defeats' expose my weaknesses, and enable me to grow, learn and develop as an athlete."


Not to say that I am an athlete, but you get what I mean. I would label this as an Experience/Lesson learnt and shelf it for my future reference.

That being said - I enjoyed the camaraderie. It's amazing how it buoyed me tremendously when I was running. I thought that I was going to have a bad run, but instead it turned out to be the best part of the race. I didn't care about the timing, I just wanted to stop and chit-chat with the other runners. I gave my Milo to someone else, paced with a good friend of mine Chris, and cheered on everyone whom I passed. Friends cheered on me too, which makes me feel like I'm doing something RIGHT.

I enjoyed it even more when I get to deal with thoughts of giving up. This is the best part of being in a race, I think, eventhough when you're in the midst of fighting yourself it just felt ugly. I kept telling myself that this will only make me stronger, and I will feel so damn proud of myself. I began listing out the things that are way worse than running a 10k under the hot sun after having your body slaughtered for the past 2 hours. So many things:

1) Losing/thinning hair
2) Fabregas out of Arsenal
3) Contador winning NEXT year's TDF
4) Lelaki berlagak
5) The extinction of Milo Ice
6) The death of my beloved cat, Cik Mek Molek

and on and on. In retrospect, running a 10k is way better than all of the above. It's not so bad really, with sexy girls and their asses hanging out, grandmas overtaking me and disappearing from sight, good looking men with skin the color of brown sugar.

The best for me is the company of Kash and her little support crew, Rais and Citra (who is my good friend!). Sometimes you wonder about the kindness of people and where/how it comes about - one of life's mysteries we will never figure out, nor do we want to. If you can have a savings account for good karma, I'm sure Kash and Rais would be millionaires. Thank you for making this event a great, close knit one.

So to summarize:

The best part of the race: the running event
The best part of being in this race: mentally fighting yourself not to give up
The best part of this event: Kash+rais+citra and meeting friends.

And now I am just tired and I want to sleep till the cows come home.

Look Ma, I'm Not Tired! (and zipping through trees)

I've been having a good month so far since December working out a sweat. At first the daily ritual of waking up early during weekends to play sports were a bit torturous since I wake up at 530 am for work and I always love to sleep but after about 2 weeks I find it easier.

There are a lot of benefits of working out. And since we are all runners I don't really have do much convincing about it. I only know that my sleep patterns are much more on track now, and instead of getting tired easily I always wake up refreshed. The most obvious would be my eating habits. I seem to be eating good food continously these days. I had the worst dietary habit ever for years thanks to being a stressed out engineering student on scholarship wrath. Sometimes I forget to eat my meals and always had crackers or maggi noodles endlessly to fill up. But since I've been playing sports I keep wanting to eat, and I find myself reaching for 'good' food. Raisins, oatmeal, bananas, cereal, nuts, milk, veggies, etc. They're filling, not heavy and gives me energy for evening's workouts. Plus the healthier you are the more aware of what you put in your body. It doesn't make sense to sabotage your good efforts.

Last Monday I took a break from all my sports to join my friends for this thing called the SkyTrek Adventure. If you haven't heard of it, it's in Bukit Cerakah, Shah Alam, and it would have you strapped in a harness, 22 feet above ground, zipping from tree to tree either by doing flying foxes, or going through the obstacles. The obstacles vary; you had to walk across a tightrope, or through loops, or 'charlie chaplin' style (refer pics), etc. There's a platform on each tree and only 3 people are allowed on it. Most of these obstacles were challenging in a way that you have to be mentally ready to attempt them with the ground way below you, plus without any support underneath they require you to use your muscles to balance yourself when you wobble on them (and you will wobble and jiggle and hobble, I tell you). All in all it took us about 3 hours to complete I think about 11 obstacles.

The Skytrek offers variety of packages but we took the Extreme one. It is RM 45 each, but since we booked for a large group - 14 pax - we got a discount (rm40.50 each).


That is me climbing the first step to the first challenge. It's really high! I thought I would be ok, but halfway up I started to get nervous and was thisclose to give up - on the first challenge!

First flying fox... well technically it's not really a flying fox since you don't zip across a river but it was a rush nevertheless! Beware of reaching to the platform too fast, most of my friends with a larger mass tend to hit the tree with a thud!

Another flying fox challenge. Could you see the small platform at the end?

One of the obstacles. This was hard cause the tubes move back and forth like crazy! You need strong core muscles and quads+hams to stable yourself!

Charlie Chaplin as modeled by my friend. heheh.

One of the many flying foxes stations. I enjoyed this.

Everybody was exhausted either in the middle of doing the obstacles or slumped on the platform. I found myself still steady and active and I totally owed it to the fact that I exercise everyday. The scorching sun didn't really bother me, plus lack of water didn't really foil my mood, and I even closed the day with a nice in-line skate session at night! Working out gives you tons of energy ok. Why don't more people do this?

All in all, it was a good overall body workout. Not only you have to use strength (to lift yourself up on the stairs and platforms) you have to use your balance, co-ordination, and mental power to conquer this challenge. We all sweated buckets, even my boyfriend, who is having his off season for football, was panting a little bit. Well, he was deathly afraid of heights and had worn himself out during the first climb heheheh.

And plus after this Skytrek, one could always go for a run or rent a bike and cycle up the hills and peaks for a nice exercise. They have good supply of snacks and refreshment stands spread around the park too, so you're never deprived of fuel.

10 more days until I start running!! Wowwwwieee Junior Juice! I'm so nervous and excited it felt like the night before I went to Disneyland at age 13. hahaha.

Great Run

One of the reasons I love running is because it is a solitary sport. It's just you and all the long empty road stretching ahead. You could be having the biggest problems in the world, or you could be feeling horrible, or tired, or anything, but they provide the best form of base for you to start your running. Most of the time I enjoy running with my mind going loose. I would go through anything my mind could think of; how lazy I am at work, the next haircut I'm going to take, my annoying friend who keeps talking about her pregnancy, etc. Then something would catch my eye and my thoughts would go towards it and work until another thing catches my attention.

 Today as I was going for my run I was thinking about how - even though I love the solitude - how nice it would be if I had a friend to run with. Maybe I am just demotivated or plain lazy, but today I was not feeling up to it as much as the other day. Sometimes running around the same lap more than 4 times could get boring. A friend that I could converse with could take my mind of the boredom that sometimes plagues runners.

 As I was doing my second kilometer, Dennis fell into step beside me. We went to the same school. Shared a couple of classes throughout middle and high school. Even so, we weren't friends-friends - our history in school was more of a mere acquaintance. He was a prefect until the senior year and once chased my ex-boyfriend up until the hills. Should have known he was a runner even then. We met a couple of times at the lake but always said hi-bye or the customary what are you doing, do you know this and this is married? Today was the first time we ran together and had a conversation. After the second round, the skies were as dark as night and lightning stuck a few times. I wanted to stop but Dennis suggested that we have another round. Not wanting to give up, always liking a challenge, I said yes. And I was glad I did. I actually ran at a faster pace today than any other days. And I managed! I thought I'd be gasping for air but I was able to maintain for about 2km.

 It's so obvious that running alone has somewhat dwindled my training. I never seem to get better because I don't seem to be pushing myself. Running with someone forces me to try to keep up and keep my mind of the possible tiredness.

 We did only 3 rounds today due to the rain but it was a nice run. 3.3km for 22 minutes and 07 seconds.