squareberry’s

Archive for the ‘Running and Exercise’ Category

A Breath of Fresh Air

 

 Okay, probably not really fresh air, but it felt like it, analogically (does this word exist?) speaking.

This morning, I crawled out off bed at 6:45am (Bangkok time- so effectively I slept an hour more than normal) and decided to try jogging around Lumphini Park, which is right outside my hotel. Why waste a nice park right?

I was a little afraid that it’d be dark and dangerous, but instead, the sun was already blazing and there were loads of people in the park! I had an interesting time taking in the sights of other joggers, people doing Tai Chi (popular here among all ages man!), the lake and badminton players. Also got a peak of parts of the city through the bushes, which somehow felt like a safe way to find out what’s around.

I’m glad I took this route instead of the gym, never would have seen so many things otherwise!

PS: The gym here is awesome though. Spent some time having a good workout after the run.

Encouraging

I’ve been jogging/running round the Upper Thomson/YCK area for 7-8 years now and it occurred to me this morning that the number of runners around has increased steadily over the years. On the way back from home in the evenings, I see runners. On Saturday mornings, I see other men and women of all ages starting out early to run to the reservoir.

Somehow, I find that incredibly heartening. I love running, and its nice to see more people running. I’m a believer in the notion that running/exercise is good for your health and heart, and that endorphins keep you happy, and its great to see more people trying to get healthier and happier! =D

On another note, I complain about my piano kids sometimes-  so naughty! But its also extremely encouraging when you see them improving, or when you see a student you taught from scratch playing on the piano with both hands. I had moments like that this morning, with many of my students. It keeps me going.

Shoe Day!

Its finally Saturday, Lennel day! This week, we planned to get me some new running shoes. Can’t live without running shoes! And I was determined to hunt down some nice and comfortable purple shoes from Queensway…

…and ended up buying NEON PINK shoes. O M G. I don’t hate pink, but pink is so not me, especially hot neon pink! And I find these shoes WEIRD and FUGLY. The design is weird and the colours are fugly. So what went wrong?

For once, I chose fit and comfort over design- the Nike Lunarlite Elite. I was told that this was light and suitable for long distance running…(marathon rem?), and it was also comfortable for my high-arch feet. All the Lunarlite shoes were ugly, at least the female ones. I was deciding between this and another purple pair…

In the end, the decision was made by Lennel, who felt that I could afford to have some girliness (i.e. pink) in my life. In fact, he decided upon that much earlier because…

He b ought me the pink Nike Sportsband! He arrived at Queensway earlier than me and went to get it for me first as a surprise. <3! I was very surprised he chose pink over the dark grey and blue ones, but there’s nothing to complain about… sponsored sportsband!

*slight sigh* My pink shoes! Cannot believe I’ll be in them everyday for the next year at least … I must say, they do seem to live up to their reputation of being very comfortable. Cannot wait to try it with the sportsband!

Failed attempt to look real spunky and sporty.

After getting my shoes, we had a walk around Ikea (such a couple thing to do!), and then Anchorage…

I was eyeing this pair of deep purple heels from Charles and Keith since last year, but they didn’t have my size at every outlet I checked. And I found it today in my size…the best part? They were on the discount rack!

<3 wearing high heels! Who said tall girls can’t wear heels? I think tall girls should love wearing heels – long legs look even longer!

No more shoes!

Time to Get Fit!

Looking at my Sundown race results has inspired me to do more than just run to finish without stopping. I want to improve my speed as well!

No more slack jogging, shall put in more effort. I need an action plan to get fitter for the next few runs.

And now that my old purple Nikes with half their soles gone have survived a half marathon, its time to retire them. New shoes! And I shall get shoes compatible with either the Nike or Adidas sports band, so that I can record my time/distance and upload it automatically.

Cannot wait to go shoe/band shopping, shall do it soon! *looks at Lennel*

Adidas Sundown Marathon 2010

I was pretty excited about the Sundown Marathon (first night race) and it finally arrived! The last time I did a half marathon was back in 2008, when I didn’t run for months before that, and crawled to the finish line in nearly 3 hours (to my credit, I never ever walked!).  

 On the way there, I took out my runner’s tag to take a look and I realized I had a 42km tag!!! Freaked out for awhile, then got quite irritated that I could possibly have my race time not recorded. Then Darren (my running khaki) suggested I should just go for a full marathon, which was quite a ridiculous notion to me, haha!

Later on, I found out that it was a printing error and they stuck a ’21km’ sticker onto my bib.

After dinner, we planned to take the shuttle from Pasir Ris to Changi Exhibition Centre… but the queue looked 1km long!!! We tried to take a cab to the place and the cabby was trying to convince us it was impossible.

Met my boss at the run and in his words,

‘Getting here was rocket science. We took 2 cabs.’

 The cab journey felt like it took ages… and when I got there, I confirmed that we were in the land of nowhere. See picture above and read Lennel’s words-

 ‘Is this even in Singapore???’

Darren! Super fit running partner who doesn’t even have to train. We bascially meet up at all runs, haha. Thanks for trying (unsuccessfully) to wait for me to catch up Darren!
 Lennel. My male WAG  among all the tai-tai WAGs (if you don’t know what a WAG is, please knock your head and then search Urban Dictionary). He prefers to be called a ‘HAB’ (go figure) or ‘bagboy’. I’m fortunate to have a bf who doesn’t run, but supports me by hanging around and looking after my bag. =D

 We got there at 7:30pm and waited for ages for the 9pm race to start! I was actually pretty excited while standing among the crowd of 6000 half-marathoners to wait for the race to start. It started and off we went!

I thought the Sundown would be cool (literally) because it was a night race. Then I realized that In reality, it was humid and dark and…boring.

 We ran along Changi Coast Road, along the Changi Runway…and then back by the same way. There was nothing to see besides the occassional plane taking off, and lots and lots of trees.

 I normally find the 14-17km leg of the journey the most ‘epic’, but I’ve improved this time. I started to feel like my legs would give way between 18-20km…EPIC 2km. At least I had no ‘crawling’ moments, which I usually do (i.e. run so slow that I’m better off walking, just that I refuse to walk ever!).

But everything was quite a breeze when there was just 1+ km left. Even overtook a few caucasian men as I sprinted towards the finish line in the last 200m. (I always have this incredible burst of strength out of nowhere at the end!)

I’m not that fit. I was gasping for breath the moment I stopped, and gulped down 1 can of 100+ and 1 bottle of Ice Mountain water…and standing on the shuttle bus was quite a torture. 

When I went home, I discovered my toes were bleeding and I didn’t even know! There were blisters all over my body from the friction of my clothes…and it certainly hurt like nuts when I showered.

  My target was to run it below my personal best of 2 hours 30 min and I took 2 hours, 18 minutes and 42 seconds!!! =D Finished 196th out of 1944. Not all that satisfied since I had lots of ‘weak’ moments when I jogged to various water points to gulp down water…I don’t normally drink at all! Probably could have been a bit faster if I didn’t.

Anyway, I’ve since recovered… actually, I just don’t get muscle aches in general. And now I’m looking forward to the Army Half Marathon  (21km) in Sep, Newton Run (30km!) in Oct and Standard Chartered Marathon (42km!) in Dec.

I thought I’d try for the New York City Marathon, supposedly the easiest among NYC, Boston and Paris one day, but I just checked the qualifying timings and Gave up. Click here and see it for yourself! The qualifying times for guaranteed entry is NUTS, sigh.

Its Official

 I’ve not even completed the Sundown Half Marathon, and I started considering the Standard Chartered Full Marathon …

Now its official. I’ve signed up to run 42.195km on 5th Dec 2010. Will have to think of a get-fit-in-half-a-year action plan soon.

I only paid $38.25 for it, thanks to Early Bird Special ($45) and an additional 15% discount from somethingboutrene‘s credit card (Thanks babe!).

The $/km seems to be a good deal, considering I paid $60 for the Sundown 21km category.

I feel nervous about the marathon already…

Running Gripes

Ran 14.3 km in 1 hour 22 min today and I nearly DIED. That is on the assumption that my Polar watch records a fairly accurate distance. Since that included pretty steep slopes, I shall comfort myself and be optimistic about the upcoming half marathon.

Actually, the worst thing about running is not the running, or fighting the urge to just stop and lie down in the middle of the road. I’ve two major gripes:

1. I get REALLY hungry. At about 8km, I was already looking forward to dinner.

2. This is even more irritating- I alerady wear dri-fit singlets to run, but I still HATE it when I’ve ran so long that it gets wet, smelly and heavy with sweat. Yuck, so uncomfortable. Sometimes I feel tempted to do the shirtless thing you see professional runners do.  But I probably need a year to make sure my abs/tummy looks acceptable first, haha!

By the way, no. 2 applies to my FBT shorts too.

Looking forward to the Sundown Marathon in general! =D

Since I’m 24…

I’ve decided that I should try a 42km marathon at the Standard Chartered Run this Dec.

It makes sense. It probably only gets harder to get fitter from this point on, and I can’t possibly wait until I’m 42 right?

I need an action plan to make sure I can finish it, and in <10 hours (LOL). Let’s see how well I survive next week’s Sundown 21km run, and then I’ll think about how to get myself in better shape.

PS: I love running! Right, as if anyone didn’t know that.

My Early Mornings…

I was complaining about how my morning runs were getting mundane, so I’ve tweaked my routine a bit and I’m really enjoying them.

Now, I jog just the slope part of my estates, then sprint up a particular slope/or the flight of steps  4-5 times. It rocks and despite the initial lethargy when I crawl out of bed, I look forward to it everyday!

Ironically, the most dreadful part if stretching and doing situps after- boring, and all I want to do is shower. haha, I’m weird.

Feeling pretty confident about getting ready for the Sundown Half Marathon on 29th May now. Been doing 2 x Upper Pierce slopes, so I should be fine. But I shall *try* to do 3 x next week, just for good measure.

Can’t wait.

 

Date with an Old Friend and the Morning After…

We were classmates and saw each other every in Nanyang, Hwachong and NUS Business School. But we were also penpals-yes, we gave each other hand written letters. Hundreds and hundreds.

Now we office ladies just Email.

Met up for dinner yesterday and had a wonderful time catching up, bitching, gossiping and laughing. It was awesome.

We also shared a Mudpie at Coffee Club (the last time I had it was with FOUR girls)…I’m sure it all went straight to my ever-expanding tummy.

This morning…I woke up and did the most tiring run I’ve done in a year or so. I ran into Upper Piece Reservoir, reran every single slope along the route, and ran out. My legs actually felt quite numb after, and I’m amazed that they seem recovered now and haven’t started aching.