Tuesday good day

Good cardio. No hesitation in the morning, even when I slept at nearly 2am. I knew I was going to have to put in some cardio today and there shall be no excuses.

Woke up, got ready, drank milk, then started. It was fast, and furious (for me) and too soon my heart started racing, legs burning. I kept to my pace, afraid of cramps. At the usual stop I did forward bends until I'm a noodle. Then I continued again, but due to the busy traffic (forgot that Selangor has to work) I have to be careful about the cars. It bothered my pace and I hate having to slow down especially when I'm on a roll. My legs seem to be quite heavy and I worked them hard to 'man up' to the speed. No mollycoddling!

At the last stop I picked up pace that really got my heart pumping and my thighs groaning. The whole distance felt short but I knew I worked hard today, pushed myself.

But when I came back from a hearty breakfast, I realised that it's not enough. I want to be doing more - so I went to the gym and spent about an hour there. I was dying of thirst afterwards.

Chocolate milk is such a good recovery drink. Just a thought.

Training checklist:

1) if it's going to be windy, then make the weather cool.

I know, I know, I hate cool, overcast weather, but seriously, if the wind's going to give me tons of resistance and make me feel like I'm dragging the school bus with my hair, then might as all make it a little bit cooler so I don't have to refuel that much.

2) When there is no wind (and there usually isn't) then make it blaringly hot.

I LOVE blazing hot sun. The hotter the better. The more humid the nicer, and even if it's dry I'll take it. I find that I am mentally stronger when I work out under the hot sun. It's easy to give up when your head feels like it's frying an egg, but YOU DIDN'T give up, so that's a good accomplishment.

3) Throw in some dehydration as well.

I am crazy, but I like testing myself. Sometimes I push myself even when I ran out of water. My throat would be parched but I held on. Isn't it a sweet feeling when you get the reward all rested.

4) There should be no excuse.

Not your knees or the weather or whether you had a late day at work the day before or you didn't have breakfast. you either performed or you didn't. I try to tell myself this everyday so that it wouldn't affect my workout. too many times I blamed lack of energy and sleep for my flailing performance. Nobody cares. it's only a self defense mechanism we use when we know we suck. My advice to myself: suck it up.

5) have fun

some days I feel like pushing. some days i feel like taking it easy and concentrating on something else. and i am okay with every decision. im doing it because i am able to, and i enjoy it, not because i have some deadline to complete. i realize that the more i put less pressure on myself, the better i get.

today was one of those days. lousy distance, poor planning. but instead of focusing on the negatives, i decided to make it into tiny intervals. most of them didn't enjoy the set, citing too easy, too short. but I felt i put in 100% effort for it. I'm glad.

till next weekend!

Unfit but getting there!

Tuesday:

OUT OF SHAPE.

Those were the words screaming repeatedly in my ears Tuesday night as I did my much-sought-after-but-hardly-indulge cardio workout.

Let me just lay this on the floor: I knew where my fitness is, I knew I'm so far behind, and I knew I have to put in effort just to be where I was before (before what? I have no idea too).

But that night was a shock to my cardiovascular system. 2 minutes into starting, as always, I felt bile at the base of my throat, my chest tightened, and I fought to keep my breathing even. Classic signs of out-of-shape, too much rest, too much hours working, so-called weekend warrior.

I started to entertain the idea of giving up. I have a LOOONG way to go, and the route's not exactly easy anyway. I was left behind, alone, and the only thing that I could think of is a ghost attack. I hate night workouts.

But I hate giving up more. I COULD FINISH THIS, I told myself fiercely. Doggedly.

Thank God a friend came ambling along. He would accompany me, he said, plus, I'm not in the mood lately, burnt out I guess. I don't mind following your pace.

I'm so unfit, I gasped.

Don't worry, he said. You'll get back to it after a few more repeats.

1 hour and 40 minutes later, I finished it. The unforgiving, take no prisoners, no mercy kind of a workout even for seasoned athletes.

You know what I love? The fact that I loved the hardest, most difficult parts of the whole thing. The fact that instead of feeling like I have to slog through it dreadfully, I went at it head on and horns thrusted.

Wednesday:

Sometimes I wonder where I find the motivation behind all these routine. I mean, look at me - I am no paid athlete. I do not have a race coming up soon, and even if I do I end up forgetting it or missing it out. But I still rely on these routines.

Big help for Wednesday was writing down exactly what I want to do with my workout time. Listing out the drills, the time and the RPE I expect to achieve makes it easier for me to just go ahead with the workout instead of worrying in the middle of it what to do next. It's like having a coach except that this coach knows you reallly well.

I also planned to push this workout hard. I want to be tired at the end.

For the first time in a decade, I also timed myself. Haven't been doing that because I didn't see a point of it.

The session went well. I did not cheat one bit, except to change one set because my knees were hurting (paranoia). I took my time to stretch and really stretch the muscles between sets. I made sure my heart was pounding furiously or else I'd give myself one more set just to piss me off even more.

I worked so hard that I had trouble keeping my eyes open during dinner.

And today I ate Nasi Lemak and 2 slices of Pepperoni Pizza.

additional: Dinner is nasi goreng! Damn tasty.

Friday Speedwork

I realized the importance of doing intervals or speedwork after my first 10k run. The kick you need to run faster at the last stretch of the race does not come from simply just training at a normal pace. You need to condition your body to be able to run fast at short bursts. It's just like my field hockey training when I was in high school. We all, in addition to having a top notch endurance, should have the stamina to run fast and stop for how many times we need to.

I warmed up at a normal pace for 1.1k around the lake, then did 7x30 seconds of fast running, maybe RPE 6-7. In between instead of walking like last week, I ran at a slow pace. I finished the whole thing in 26:35:78. The sky was already dark when I started, didn't really want to push it even more.

Today is Saturday. I didn't go for a swim. Felt a bit guilty, but I was tired and I think I deserved a nice rest.

Friday Speedwork

Today was my first attempt at doing speedwork... or intervals or however you call it. To be honest I have no idea how to do it but I figured the easiest way would be speeding for a distance and doing it for a couple of times. I remember when me and my dad used to run at the subang lake 4 years back there was this uncle who always did speedwork on wednesdays mornings. I haven't seen him around at the lake anymore.

Measuring it by time would be tough because my stopwatch is a simple 'start-stop-erase and start again' system. So I used distance markings. I warmed up with an slow 1.1km run in 7 minutes trying to loosen joints on my knees and ankles. Then I did 200m (roughly) in a pace of RPE 5-6. I wanted to run slowly in between but my heart was pounding so hard I had to walk, but I was careful not to let my heart rate slowed down to a normal level. So this is what it feels like to do speed intervals, I was thinking to myself. What torture!

I did it for 5 times before calling it quit. I would love to do more, but I didn't want to overexert myself plus I've been feeling quite tired the past few days. I spent more time on stretching then headed home. I was satisfied because despite the brief workout (30 minutes) I covered 3.3km haha. Any km is good!