Bad blogger day

I read Holly's post about bad bloggers some time back and was inspired to write this post.

This plate held my post-run toast with a smear of avocado.
Never mind that there's no proof that I really ate toast with a smear of avocado.
Or that I really ran.

The banana peel has disappeared somewhere into this waste bin.
I really did eat a banana.
But the peel is underneath the chip bag, the milk carton, and the Tim Tam packet. Sorry. 

I'd even have a Luna Bar wrapper for you (from earlier this week at work) but I threw it away, so here is a picture of homemade doughnuts instead (again, just in case anyone mistook this for one of those healthy living blogs).

The friend I fed these to for brunch called them 'zaftig'.
Are you calling my doughnuts fat, I said. 

Worse, I'm going to now proceed to write about things that I have no photos of. 

On Sunday (that's today) I woke up and decided on a whim to run to East Coast Park. 

That's 17km and took me two hours. (Half-marathon training: I know how far I'm supposed to run, but I often don't plan where to run until I'm actually out the door.) It went a whole lot better than that other 18km I did the other week.  

There would be lots and lots of lovely pictures of the river (and the canal, a little farther upstream, that is being dredged at the same time construction is going on - in other words, it was a huge mess and a road-crossing, fence-jumping nightmare but I can't wait till it actually looks nice again); except for one fatal flaw: if I stop running, I have a hard time getting started again. 

There would also be lots of lovely pictures of East Coast Park per se but the sun was in my eyes. Yes, I did bring my phone. No, I'm just too lazy to take it out of the pocket on my handheld. 

Sadly I was once again seduced by the pockets on my Mizuno short tights, which of course got soggy and chafed my thighs (there was much yelping when I discovered this in the shower) (thigh gap, what is that?). No, I'm not going to show you a photo of that.   

On Saturday I ran 10km up and down the usual canal path. There's a little bit of excavation work going on at one end, and seeing this fellow here always makes me smile: 

Zebra excavator!
I know I said there weren't going to be any pictures. Bazinga. 

This week's runs have been a little...end-loaded.
Tuesday: AM 7km, PM still restless so 5km (it was a public holiday)
Thursday: AM 8km, PM office bonding exercise (literally) - ran 5km with colleagues; did I mention we're training for the Stanchart ekiden relay?
Saturday: 10km
Sunday: 17km
I had the best of intentions to run on Monday morning and swim on Friday. I really did. No go. 

Fun-size triathloning, or Her Gumbyness at your service

I'm laid up today with an ordinary, garden-variety, nasty, virulent cold. While feeling sorry for my congested self and working my way through a box of tissues, and in between library books, I decided it was high time to write my Cold Storage Sprint Tri recap.

I am a terrible blogger and my husband/ superstar cheer team is a terrible photographer*, so there are almost no photos of this tri.

*He's a great photographer when he remembers to take photos.

This is tri number three. I always start with the best of intentions. I did WANT to train for the swim and bike, but life has a funny way of getting out of hand. And my first love is running - obviously. It's just so much easier to train for a run than a tri. But I train with a tri group, and it's hard not to be ever so slightly infected by their enthusiasm. And these things are great fun.

I'd been doing a wee bit of swimming, so the plan was to go somewhat hard on the swim, really easy on the bike, and push pretty hard on the run.

Pre-race: 
The marathon's really driven home the importance of carbo-loading and, uh, pre-hydration. I don't remember what I ate for dinner on Friday night but I do recall it involved a lot of rice, while Saturday morning involved Cheerios.

On race morning I hauled myself and one very drowsy husband to the start point. In fact I think I left him sleeping in the car while I cycled to the race, which wouldn't start for another hour and a half.

The swim:
Turns out it was more than an hour and a half - the race started a full twenty minutes late. In broiling heat. With transition a good ways away, and no hydration stand at the start point. So I was dehydrated by the time we started.

I have a tiny problem with getting motivated on the swim: in general, when I hit the water all I want to do is roll over and float for a while.

Anyway, from start to end I felt like I couldn't breathe. So much for going out hard. I hauled myself out of the water in 19:04. A bit dismal. Turns out this was my fastest swim split in a tri by about 15 seconds. My primary goal was not to get swum over by the men behind me - mission accomplished! And then it was up a ramp and over a specially constructed, carpeted, mildly slippery, absurd overhead bridge over the bike course, back into transition.

The bike:
We had to do three laps of a 6.6ishkm loop. Don't ask me why 3x6.6 instead of 2x10. I think it's to slow us down with all of those u-turns. I kept getting overtaken by men with frighteningly pointy helmets tipping perilously over in ever-more aero contortions position. As usual, I was happy to not fall off my bike.

There's really not a whole lot to say about the bike course, except that it was narrow in the wrongest places. And that perhaps if I insist on cycling in my trainers I should get some cages for those pedals?

Midway through this I discovered that my front derailleur wouldn't shift and the cable was loose! Fortunately or unfortunately the course was flat enough that I trundled around the whole thing using my big gear the whole way.

When I got back I saw enough of the bike rack still empty that I honestly thought I'd missed a lap, and had a moment of panic. I hope my bike split of 54:17 includes the transitions, because otherwise I was embarrassingly lazy out there.

The run:
I managed to actually stop and dismount instead of simply falling off my bike. Hooray. Popped into transition for a quick water/ Nuun stop before dashing out again. I even had the presence of mind to grab my Clif blocks, a mishmash of singleton leftovers from previous races. (This will be important later.)

Then it was time to scamper back up the ridiculous Green Carpeted Ramp of Doom - seriously, that thing must've possessed a 10-degree incline - and down to the road for the 5km run leg. I might've passed a few gentlemen on the ramp. Maybe. And also at the start of the run. And the rest of the way. I can do 5km in my sleep, I kept telling myself. I can do 5km in my sleep. (I can. I promise you. I have done 5km at the canal on many a morning before I've even woken up properly.)

And that's when I started to cramp.

I drank some of the prooffered 100Plus and fished around in my pocket for the baggie of Clif blocks. Hallelujah - two margarita shot blocks. These got me through the turnaround, as did the privilege of watching Holly crash into a large bush. After I stopped cramping I started doing that thing I always do - pick someone as a rabbit and try to pick them off - and then Holly's cheering and running a bit with me got me through to the finish in 29 minutes flat. Alas, I have no finishing kick; a girl I'd overtaken several minutes earlier blew right by me on the way to the finish.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO RACE ORGANISERS. Please to have drink stations AFTER the turnaround too. And distance markers - of which there were none. How do you have a run leg without distance markers? Some of us are a bit impaired when it comes to gauging distances...

Overall this was actually my fastest tri. I seem to be getting better at something. But what is it? I think the answer is transitions. One's transitions become very fast when there is a nest of large bitey ants underneath one's bike. Just so you know. So next time perhaps there should be piranhas in the water? Just small non-lethal nippy ones, maybe?

Next year I move up an age group, into the very fast and frightening 30-39. I still haven't really decided if I want to buckle down and train properly for these things instead of just winging it like I always do (going into this I swam three times,  rode on the trainer twice, and noodled around fiddling with my tyres and watching CSI once). I do want to do an Olympic-distance (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run) tri but I want to race it. Tell me, dear readers...how do I do this?
--
Workouts last week: 
Tuesday: track: 3[2(600 moderate/ 200 easy), 400 hard]
Wednesday: AM - Ran 5 miles (about 8km) with my friend A; every time I felt like giving up I thought to myself, 'I am running with a woman who gave birth six weeks ago and SHE isn't giving up, you wuss.' PM - tempo set at swim.
Friday: AM - Ran about 10K with Holly.
Saturday: Sprint tri!

Workouts this week have been temporarily sidelined due to a head cold. How is my chlorpheniramine not working???

Back in the land of the living

Iiiiiii'm back! 

This morning I had my first run in nearly a week, after being out of commission due to
- your everyday garden-variety generic cough/ sore throat/ cold that would not go away
- a wonky knee
- a janky hip

And. It. Was. Fabulous.
I didn't take my phone with me and still, after a decade of running, own no Garmin. But it was about 15km at what should be roughly marathon pace; I quit while the going was good. But it's too soon to celebrate. Let's get another consistent week or two of runs in and then talk.

I do a lot of runs, or sections of runs, on a canal path near my house. If I cross the road to run along the canal further down, and come all the way back to where I started, it's about 10km. The sun was shining, the birds were singing. I felt like singing and skipping down the path but didn't want to inflict that on anyone else. And I was - and this is very important when your run is at 7am in Singapore - in the shade much of the way.

After the 10km canal section I turned out and ran to the Botanic Gardens - another 5km or so. After which I came home, showered, did some work, and went to the Botanic Gardens AGAIN - this time for lunch at Food For Thought  with Mr GCA and a friend. I love FFT - it's down-to-earth and decidedly unpretentious and just has really good food. They must be doing quite well because they just opened a new outlet at the National Museum - so now there are three.

We had:
- mozzarella-stuffed meatballs with linguine and roasted tomato sauce (someone suggested an alternative. 'Does it involve cheese?' 'No.' 'Then you know which one to pick.')
- two orders of fluffy pancakes (mixed berries and dark chocolate raspberry, with fresh cream and gula melaka syrup)
- bacon
- garlic mushrooms

Marathon training

Today is all about lists, and I might as well share my weekly training for the Perth City to Surf Marathon (in five weeks!) as a list.

- One to two strength and core workouts a week
- Two to three times: 6-10km
- One Tuesday night speedwork session (about 6 km)
- One to two times: 10-15km
- Once a week: 16-25km
- Total mileage (ideally): about 70km
- Total mileage (realistically because let's face it, I don't have the most elastic schedule, or rather it's stretchy but only elongates): 50-60km
- About a cumulative half hour of stretching, tennisballing, and icewaterbottlerolling (WHAT. Those ARE verbs) each week
- If I find myself feeling under the weather from lack of sleep + stress + running, I have a multivitamin and more fruit and veg
- If I find myself tweaky, or injured in any way, I head straight to the pool and swim, about 1-2km at a go (hey, cross-training)
- This regime takes me way too long each week

Surviving the long run 

Now, even though what I did today wasn't, strictly speaking, a long run, I did think about ways to survive a long run. My long runs are up to about 25km, which sounds short for marathon training, but the whole weekend usually involves 35 to 40 km (it's all about tiring your legs out - and I am a wimp. A tired wimp).

Sometimes I have a really good long run or the beginnings of one - like this morning, when I could probably have run another hour and been quite happy about it. But more often than not, I barely want to get out of bed; when I do I barely want to get ready; when I do that and start running I'm tired when I start, or bored in the middle, or tired and slowing down near the end.

So here are my favourite strategies for surviving the long run:

- Call a friend. Someone to run with you for a section or two. Better if they live near you and make you laugh.
- Mantras and head games. Train hard, race easy, right? Or, when the going gets tough, 'you have to earn it'.
- I like the canal path, as routine and boring as it may be, because I don't have to stop and cross too many streets. If I stop I have a hard time getting going again. So my long run has sometimes been a couple of laps on the double canal - 2 x 10km. Treadmills are also good for this. If you stop you fall off.
- Distract your body. When I did that long treadmill run I had a Shot Blok every few km in the last hour and a half, simply to keep my mouth sufficiently distracted.
- Play head games: what is the most ridiculous thing you can see on this run? I have seen the same older gentleman on a unicycle at least thrice. I also once saw a man out walking his African Grey parrot (no, he did not have an eye patch and a peg leg). And the other evening I saw a car drive past with a bunch of balloons sticking out the back window and flapping merrily in the breeze. I must live in an odd neighbourhood (clearly I fit right in).

What are your mantras for getting through a tough run or race?
What, indeed, is the most ridiculous thing you have ever seen on a run? 

DON'T PANIC

What, I haven't posted in nearly a month? How did that happen, yadda yadda yadda.

I know exactly how that happened. Back in early May there was some sad news at home - my grandfather passed away (he was 96. We miss him. But don't feel too bad. Not everyone gets 96 good years and four great-grand-children close by). So we were dealing with all that. Then my parents whisked my grandma off to a nice restful holiday in Bintan, and the following week my husband and I went off to New Zealand. On which more in a future post. I promise. I remembered to take photos this time.

Throughout all of this, I ran. And ran and ran. We did a four-day hike in New Zealand, where it's now closing in on winter. On the North Island where my grand-aunt lives I had a lovely run. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, I felt like I was flying, and when I looked up I'd run for an hour and a half.

It's now week 5 of 18 of my Perth marathon training. I tend to panic all the way till the last three weeks of each marathon cycle and then finally sit back, relax and let my legs do their thing. Obviously this hasn't been very effective if you judge by my previous marathon times. Which are complete rubbish. (6:18 in 2009 in Singapore. 5:15 in 2011 in Tokyo. 5:20 here last year).

Today I had a minor freak-out on poor Holly, convinced that I will never be able to run a sub-5-hour marathon, that it's not just the heat giving me issues, that despite all the training I just don't have it in me. And that I'm afraid to go all the way to Perth and find that out.

Fortunately tonight's track session was downright magical and subdued the panic a little bit. 5 x 5 minutes at 5K race pace - so just under 1km per rep. I discovered that yakking away to a friend (well, a short sentence at a time) at the start of each rep helps stop me from going out tooooo fast and imploding like I normally do. Even if she isn't really responding to me. Tonight the laps were on target - and I felt like I was flying.

The panic is still there. But at least I know where my towel is.

One variable at a time

Yesterday and Monday I had the day off ('off' - as there is no such thing as an off-duty daily news journalist I also had a contact lunch meeting and did an interview). I managed to run 6km on Monday and go to the beach with my colleague (also off) and finish the book I was reading, and go to the track on Tuesday before my Very Long Day, which involved that meeting, the interview, and my sister's wedding-dinner food tasting (shortest and best wedding dinner I have ever been to, folks. Delicious.)

And today is a public holiday, Labour Day. Which totally explains why I'm still doing bits of work...

On Tuesday the thought that got me through my track workout was: "I would have to run an entire marathon at this pace to ever qualify for Boston." Why yes, that is my 10K race pace and the pace at which I was doing the interval set. There will be no BQing any time soon.

One variable at a time

Chatting with my colleague Serene about our lives in school reminded me of science practicals. And any good scientist knows you change only one variable at a time.

So I'm training for Perth the exact same way I trained for Stanchart: with one difference - going longer. Not a longer long run one day each week. A little bit longer every day. Nothing that much more than 10 or 12km at a go. Maybe 15 or 20 on weekends. Same pace range I always do (I am so slow that my marathon pace...IS my easy pace). But a little bit longer every day.
For Stanchart I started out at about 35km a week and worked my way up to 55km at most.
For Perth I'm starting out at 40-45 a week and working my way up to 60-70. And staying there until it's taper time.

As any scientist knows, you don't really know the outcome of your experiments in advance. You can have a good guess about what the outcome is supposed to be. But it can take years to nail down the best methods for what you want to accomplish. I have the rest of my life to play around with changing these variables for marathon training. Let's see how this works.

Weighty issues

No, I actually have no issues with my weight and never actually have - despite ten years of ballet (aka 'looking at oneself in a tiny leotard in a big mirrored studio' - somehow I was always more concerned with how high I could jump, whether I could balance on the pirouettes, etc).

Some people do though. This is called a mismatch between reality and the expectations in one's head/ imposed from outside. I especially like this wonderful, scathing commentary by a blogger I've never actually read before - 'on beach bodies and other reasons society sucks'. Thanks Holly for sharing it with me!

Some gems: "I don’t want to be the skinniest person in the cemetery. I want to be the last one to get there."

"All I’m saying is that you don’t have to get your body ready for summer, certainly no more than you should get your body ready for any other season. (*Editor's note. Except for the winter ski season if that is a thing you do, for which you really want strong quads to protect your knees. Also your core if you are doing really any sport at all in any season.) Your “bikini body” is whatever body you put a bikini on and anyone who tells you otherwise isn’t really helping you at all."

I agree with 99.9 per cent of everything she says except for one tiny mistake: assuming that skinny girls eat nothing but a lettuce leaf and a pea for lunch. (Didn't she see her own chart up top? The only thing that you can tell about a skinny person from looking at them...is that they are skinny. Not whether they have an eating disorder or are depressed or are starving themselves.)

Not that I am skinny myself (does it matter? who cares? NOBODY), but I HAVE got the 'You need to eat a burger' comments before from people who don't know me and my eating habits at all (my eating habits are my own business thanks...don't get me started on the instagram foodporn...). So judgey. I would be glad if people stopped making those sorts of comments about the way anyone looks. I'm going to have popiah at my grandmother's place now. You're all beautiful.

Workouts this week 

Friday: 5.6km recovery run
Saturday: Swam 1.2km for fun
Sunday: Ran 12.5km
Monday: 6.5km
Tuesday: Speedwork - 800/1200/1600/1200/800 at 2:10 going up and a smidgen faster on the way back down
Wednesday: 15km - 10km from home to Tanjong Beach at Sentosa and 5km for the run leg of the fun sprint tri my tri training group was putting on

where the wild things are

A lot of Singaporeans go to Hong Kong to shop and eat. 

We went to Hong Kong for five days to HIKE and eat. It's called luxury hiking: you go out for a nice walk every day, somewhere you can get to by some combination of subway and taxi, and then come back every night to eat a lot and have a hot shower and sleep in a real bed. Why didn't I think of this before? 

The temperature was 15 to 20 degrees C. Perfect weather! Pity about the fog.

<--  a lot of my vacation looked like this.

Day 1: Wednesday 

Quarry Bay to ? Park View

Take the MTR (subway) to Tai Koo MTR station.
Turn left; walk all the way up Greig Road to the start of the Mt Parker trail.
Don't ask me for any more directions. We promptly got spun around A LOT, crisscrossed Mount Parker Road, got as far as Mt Butler, went up and down Sir Cecil's Ride, and finally were spat out onto Mount Parker Road again.
This took about an hour. By then it was 5pm and starting to rain and get dark...

before it got dark.

we also met up with friends for dinner and ice cream.
that's leanne in the foreground, levi in the middle.  

Day 2: Thursday. It rained the entire time.

We left the hostel three times: 

- for a breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, milk tea, and that curious Hong Kong delicacy, macaroni soup with ham, at Capital Cafe 

- for lunch with Jeanette, my former colleague who now works at South China Morning Post

- for dinner at Mak's Noodles with Lee, a kid from the UK we met at our hostel. 

Clearly a very productive day. 

yum. 

    Day 3 was even more productive. 

    How to hike Lantau Island: 

    1. Take the MTR out to Tung Chung, at the end of the orange (Tung Chung) line. 

2. Take a rollercoaster bus ride to Mui Wo, at Lantau's eastern tip. This is where the Lantau Trail begins. 

3. Walk a lot. 

4. Climb every mountain.

And I mean all of them. 

You're in luck; there are stairs. 

There are more stairs about twice as steep as this, much higher up, atop Sunset Peak and Lantau Peak which are fairly exposed. 

And then stairs all the way down. 

After this you will not want to look at a staircase again for some time. 

5. I don't know how you feel about the Buddha. I was quite happy to see him, or at least the giant statue of him at Ngong Ping. It meant I was definitely still alive. 

6. Sorry about the mist/ fog/ smog. As you can see, the views were few and far between. Sometimes this was a good thing - especially when I'm afraid of heights. 

7. When you get to Ngong Ping, which is a big tourist destination, TAKE THE FANCY CABLE CAR BACK TO TUNG CHUNG. By no means take the rollercoaster bus, if, like me, you have a very motion-sensitive stomach and have not eaten a full meal all day, only snacks. The cable car would've been worth the extra, oh, ten bucks. 

At the end of all that we had an enormous dinner of crab, razor clams, clams, whitebait, oyster porridge, salted-egg prawns, etc. at Qiao Tei with friends. (I think we earned it.) 

"You Singaporeans," laughed the lady at the hostel reception desk when we announced where we were going for dinner. "You come prepared with a whole list of places to eat!"

Day 4 was more sedate. 

Still sore from the 13km/ 5-hour walk of the day before, we took the Peak Tram up Victoria Peak and did the 3.5km Peak Circle Walk. Fortunately the sky was clearer - we even had some sun...

As my husband put it: "Yesterday was lots of effort for no views. Today - no effort, lots of views."

wok-seared rice rolls (chee cheong fun) with sesame and sweet sauces

And then it was off to Happy Valley for some dim sum at Yu Man Fang on Sing Woo Road. 

(I am a very bad Asian and keep forgetting to take pictures of my food. My husband has all the food photos on his phone.) 

After all that food we went back to the hostel, vegged out a bit - and headed out for more food: 

- fish congee and pig innard congee at Congee King at Heard Street,

- and traditional 'tong shui' desserts at Tsui Yuen across the road.  

What about Day 5? 

I woke up bright and early and took myself for a solo run up the Wan Chai Green Trail (ok, trudge - this part of the trail goes pretty much straight up and feels like a 30-degree gradient, but there were a lot of very fit little old ladies power-walking it, to whom I said a lot of 'zou sun'/ good mornings), and to the end of Bowen Road and back - about 7km. 

It was probably one of the best runs I've had in a long time. 

managed to take a photo of myself on the run.
still not sure how I did it. 

After that it was showertime and time to head for the airport - 

but not before stopping for MORE dim sum at the Tim Ho Wan branch that is very conveniently located inside Hong Kong Station - right where the Airport Express train is. 

At the end of this great adventure when we touched down back home I managed to be hungry again. I really must have done something to anger my metabolism.

I'm a little sad we didn't manage to make it out to Sai Kung or Lion Rock or any part of the Maclehose Trail... we can save that for next time though. 

Workouts this week: 

- None

- My entire holiday (is it really a workout if my brain is so relaxed?)

- Monday night: easy shake-out-the-legs 10km at the canal, half of which was run with my friend Lin. Took my new Oiselle shorts for a run on a very soggy evening, and at the end they were bone-dry. Either my behind does not sweat or...holy wicking magical powers. Perth Marathon training starts TODAY. 

As I write this it's Boston Marathon Monday and I'm virtually following it online! 

I do wish they would start an hour earlier though. It's 11.45pm and the lead women still have a good 7km to go - not to mention the friends I'm tracking online who started in Wave 3. I'm propping my eyelids open. Husband has long since gone to bed. Time zones...uff da.

Update:
It seems pretty clear this morning that Marathon Monday was not a good Monday. 
I'm particularly mad about this because what have runners (or their families, or spectators, or race volunteers) ever done to hurt anyone?
But that's the way terror works. right? 
Fortunately there is still goodness in people: people finishing the race and giving blood, helping each other up, offering a place to stay for the night. That's what a community is for.

Not About Running: Things I Learned At The Gym

Written by a gym class antihero 

This past week I've been on the afternoon shift. Theoretically that means 2pm to 11pm, and I cover any news that breaks late, but in practice that stretches...just...a...little...bit...longer...at...both...ends. (There is no such thing as an off-duty journalist.)

What that really means is that I wake up around 8 or 9, and because I'm a chicken, I don't want to be roasted on a late-morning run. So to save my sanity and my skin, I tried out a Fitness First 5-day trial pass I got from the Green Corridor Run earlier this year. There's a Fitness First gym basically around the corner from where I live, so this was great. The goal was to try as many classes as I could, while also sticking to my sprint-tri training plan, and chat with a trainer.

Here's how it went.

I had a longish chat with a sales person, who handed me a couple of brochures. This was one...

Not encouraging... the whole purpose of working out (for me, anyway) is for my mental health and to be able to race faster and stronger.

Small digression: here's something else I got in a recent race pack: Shape magazine.

Check out the coverlines: there's one woman losing 30kg, 'the #1 secret of skinny women', and (because this is the Valentine's Day issue) '15 tantalising recipes he'd love' (so you can't cook sirloin, lamb chops or chocolate pudding for YOURSELF, just for YOUR MAN - hello, Cosmopolitan?...I will cook these things for myself anyway - they look delicious). Mixed messages much?

note also that the 'recommended' weights are 1.5-litre bottles. YEP 1.5kg.
i get a better workout carrying my bag to the mrt station.

looks like she does work out regularly, but that is still a WEE TEENY kettlebell.
story says '4-6 kg'.

Also, you can totally tell which photo shoots were done locally and which were done in the US. The models in the local ones have no discernible muscle definition. Now, I'm in media, and this could just be a limitation of the local industry (small). There are no fitness models here to speak of, I think, and finding models with the right experience is probably very difficult. It's still funny/ sad though. (I know, the world has room for a whole diverse range of body types, but poor underfunded Shape magazine looks as though it's been using the one same model this whole time.)

Trying to sell me exercise because it'll change my size or shape just doesn't work for me. I work out because I want to be stronger and faster and better at the sports I love to do; because I want to be more flexible and graceful for dance; and because it's fun and a source of stress relief. The size I am or want to be has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with it.

Back to the gym, or I'll get too annoyed to keep going.
Day 1 - Zumba class. Nothing new here - just a bit of dancey fun. Not the greatest class - I had more rhythm than the instructor. For better classes, try Gonzaga at Fiesta de Fitness!

Day 2 - Hot yoga followed by 4 x 800 on the treadmill. I quite liked the yoga class. Apparently it wasn't very hot - I just...sweat a lot...and lose a lot of salt. I could do COLD yoga and I'd still be a puddle. By the end of class my toes were cramping. Then I drank an entire waterbottle of Nuun and punched out a bunch of 800s on the treadmill in 4:06 apiece.

Day 3 - The branch I was at had a rooftop pool, so I went up there to do this: 200 warmup, some drills, 3x200, 4x50, cooldown. Skipped the drills. The pool was pleasantly chilly (plus) - I hate it when the pool is like hot soup before you've even started swimming. Also deserted (plus). Also rather short (minus, doubleminus because silly me bumped my head on the end of the pool after a too-fast sprint). After living in the US for 5 years and swimming all winter in a chlorinated, echoey hall-pool (as opposed to pool hall, duh...) I will NEVER take a 50m outdoor pool for granted again. We're incredibly lucky in Singapore to have full-size public pools you can get into for a dollar!

I also had a chat with a personal trainer. I explained that I want to get stronger for long-distance running and triathlon, and he was like 'you'll have to talk to one of our trainers who does specialise in functional strength training'. Oh well.

Day 4 - Spin class with a hilarious instructor, Sherlin (BIG PLUS) but I do like the feeling of riding outside and the wind in my hair (only a small minus, I ride at home on the bike trainer too). Then I did a core workout on my own in an awkward corner by the window of the 'functional training' section, between one machine and another. My flat is quite small so having space to lie down and stretch is nice. Lying down and stretching with other people watching you is just awkward.

Day 5 - I got off work at 11.30pm and had to wake up at 5.30am for a 6.30am event on a boat (didn't I say there is no such thing as an off-duty journalist?) and felt jetlagged all day so I skipped the BodyPump class I was planning on trying. Whoops.

Conclusion: The classes are fun, but I don't like working out on my own in confined spaces (AKA 'indoors'.) I'm quite happy to take classes - I just wish they didn't have to be tied to having a gym membership!
It could work for you - I have friends who are gym bunnies and go to all the classes by a specific instructor, or who are religious about their personal training - but it's just not for me. (I'm too lazy.)
Another thing - I think it's a riot that franchises like Zumba and Les Mills have managed to trademark exercise. It's like a little cult (but in a slightly healthier way)!

Are you a gym-goer? Favourite class? Should I try this again? 

In which my immune system fights off some invaders, and a few surprises

Remember how I said I was training kind of half-heartedly for a sprint tri, and that I'm not really a speedy sprinter? Well, my body was in the mood to deliver some surprises.

This past week and a half have been kind of a headless-chicken period at work, in which I finished four stories and a commentary, covered a conference, and have been hovering just on the verge of coming down with a full-blown cold. As in, not sick enough not to do any work - and in fact thanks to the adrenaline rush I felt fine - but tipping over the edge of properly sick.

On Friday night I got off work at 9 and chickened out of a dear friend's birthday shindig, because I didn't really want to be a plague vector. Then I had a quiet, early night in with hot tea, Archer and some vitamins.

On Saturday I felt ok enough to drag my arse out of bed for a slow run. (How slow? After 7km I started walking and looking at the birds in the canal - ooh, herons...) That night I went to another friend's farewell party and went home early to sleep.

On Sunday I did the Metasprint aquathlon. It's the first in a series of sprint events: swim and run, run-bike-run, and swim-bike-run; I signed up for all three (talk about getting your money's worth) because I did the tri last year and they were so incredibly well-organised.

Improbably, my body delivered. I think it has a mind of its own.

I always start the swim all the way at the back and to the left, because I'm not a strong swimmer and I manage to get to swim training about once a month. This time, I was so startled when I realised I was overtaking people that I nearly stopped swimming.

The swim course was an M-shaped out-and-back-and-out-and-back - super calm and warm! A couple of minutes in transition (seriously, I need a race belt). Then we took off on the run, in which I managed to pick off several other women before one or two picked me off.

least awful of the race pix. that timing chip strap also gave me an abrasion which was a total nightmare in the shower later while i was also washing off the salt water...

I completely failed to see the 4km sign (not the organisers' fault - just me being dopey) and didn't have time to get up a good sprint before I was confronted with the finish line. Oops. At the end I was VERY surprised to also see a new 5K PR (26:40). Apparently my secret to a short-distance run PR is to take a long, slow swim first?  (This also happened in the Singapore Biathlon last year, when I broke an hour for 10K for the first time...after swimming 1.5km first. No, I have no idea how this works, but thanks!)

proof. i'm a slow swimmer...  

Some thoughts: I make a lot of mistakes during short sharp races:
1. I don't go out fast enough. If anything I'm too conservative.
2. I never race hard enough to blow up. (Gotta take chances!)
3. I always let my thoughts drift and never focus. Trying to look cool for the cameras? Guilty as charged.
So one of my goals is to be more aggressive during short races(5 or 10K), and really race. There's a 5K coming up next weekend...

Sunday afternoon we went to the National Museum with a friend, Marta; I wanted to see this exhibition  -'Being Together', a photography exhibition by Singaporean lensman John Clang, involving modern technology and Skype witchery. But we walked right into this indie craft/ food fair and I had a milkshake that tasted like an orange creamsicle. (Singapore peeps: this is from Once Upon A Milkshake, hands down THE best milkshakes in this city.)

The best part? Because of the indie festival/ open house, all the exhibitions were FREE! 'Being Together' turned out to be excellent. GO AND SEE IT. I PROMISE.

Workouts:
Tuesday track (got there late, did most of the set on my own): 2km (2:10-2:17 per lap), 1.6km (2:05-2:15), 800m (2:01, 2:07), 400m (1:48)
Saturday: 'Long' run - 10km double canal, really easy because I was still trying to get over that cold.
Sunday: Aquathlon race day! 750m swim, 5km run.
Monday: Recovery run - 5km eeeeeasy - plus core work
Tuesday morning: 1km repeats at the track: 5:20, 5:15, 5:15, 5:14, 5:09. (Was that supposed to be 10k pace? Felt good all the way to the end, for once. I'm a morning person. Don't judge.)

The off-season slump

Days like today, I suppose I really am an endurance runner at heart.
Sometime last year, I had an athletic epiphany - also known as, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Racing. Somewhere along the way I decided to train for and really RACE a half marathon, then a marathon.

Right now, I'm training sort of half-heartedly for a sprint triathlon. I'm not really a speedster so am not expecting to win anything; swim class leaves me with crippling, puke-inducing sinus headaches (does anyone have any remedies for that?) and on the bike I'm quite happy to just not fall off. There's a sprint aquathlon next weekend, a 5K, duathlon and 10K in March and the tri and another 10K in April.

But I'm feeling strangely adrift without anything BIG to train for. Base fitness means I can get up off the couch and run a 10K without much trouble - well, not unless I'm gunning for any PRs, anyway. But last year I really got used to rolling out of bed on a Saturday morning and ambling along for a couple of hours. Speedwork every Tuesday night. Tempo runs. Recovery runs. Doubles on Thursdays - 10km along the canal, where I'd say hi to my colleague (an older gentleman who walks 4-5km Every! Single! Morning), then hills at night. Marathon training got to be kind of a comforting routine.

This year, I'm not signed up for any marathons or even anything longer than a 10K just yet. I have travel plans (New Zealand in May!) and family plans (sister's wedding in July!), and there aren't any long races in between; though I'm thinking of the KL half-marathon in June and the Perth City to Surf marathon in August. I get my butt to the track on Tuesdays if only because it's still a comforting routine, I get to see friends and it's also good for my mental health. But I'm just not super motivated... help!!

Workouts this week:

Tuesday - super hilly 12k easy with some friends. Well, easy pace for them, anyway. At the end I was kind of clinging on for dear life...
Wednesday - swim training - a few drills, a little speedwork - about 1.7km all told
Friday - tempo 5k, super tired
Saturday - swam 2km at the local pool, J's prof's birthday party, partied till 1am
Sunday - easy 7k, completely exhausted (what is wrong with me??), followed by a very much needed massage
Tuesday - well, let's see how I feel at the track tomorrow.

- Anyone know a good fix for swim-induced sinus headaches?  
- What do you do when training hits a slump? 

Weekly roundup

Lost another toenail. I have given up going for pedicures, because the pedicurist a) snickers b) complains but c) should really give me a no-nails discount. Okay, TMI. Here's this week's training roundup.

On Sunday, we did another trash run at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park, and my friend Hannah joined us. The park itself was pretty clean - either people really are getting neater, or the cleaners were out early. The bit that was NOT clean was the part from the MRT station to the park. Anytime there's a bit of bush in which to throw ciggie butts/ drink cans/ tissues/ cigarette packs - you can rest assured there will be rubbish there. (Who are all these people standing around gleefully flinging their empty drink cans into the bushes?)

Tuesday night track session:  it was raining AND I got off work late. But since you all know I run more for my mental health than anything else, I told my coach, "I don't care how much I run - or how slow - as long as I run today." Great, he said. Here, do 5x400, then 4x400, then 3 then 2 then 1. I got as far as the 3-lap bit and called it a soggy, soggy night.
But with Singapore being as hot as it is, I love running in the rain - as long as I know there's a hot shower in my immediate future.
I also found another use for the fleece sweatshirt I wear in the office (because the air-conditioning is ferocious): keep self from freezing on the train home...

Last night's run: it was raining again and I didn't have the heart to do hills at the Botanic Gardens. (Kudos to you if you did!) I finally remembered that my office has a tiny, slightly rickety gym, so I did 8km on the treadmill at a steady half-marathon goal pace, about 10.5 to 11km/ h. (I'm training for a sub-2h half marathon - I can run 20km in two hours, it's the last 1km that always gets me!)

Do you love running in the rain as much as I do? Or is it a blustery, blistery affair for you?

What, me swim?

via https://www.facebook.com/MomandRunningIt

Just had to share.

We live in a 700 sq ft, 2-bedroom flat so we don't even have a garage. Or a laundry room. Or a pantry. Crazy people from other countries and their crazy spacious houses... But yeah, what's the point of folding running clothes when they're just going to get used again really soon? Also, my swim cap and goggles are drip-drying from the window, and socks aren't really dirty until I've run in them... no?

I actually DIDN'T run today (what???). Instead I swam 2km at the local pool. I'm organising a Trash Run* tomorrow morning, though.

Here's what my week in workouts looks like:
Monday - rest day
Tuesday - track night!
Wednesday - short recovery run or swim, strength train
Thursday - hills; last year while training for a marathon I'd run 10km in the morning and hills at night
Friday - rest or strength
Saturday or Sunday - long run and some other activity - if I sit around too long, I get antsy.

*Edit - Trash Runs are some combination of fun/ community service/ core and back workout - see my previous post for a description. Tomorrow's is going to be mayyybe 5 or 6km - but you'd be surprised how much of a workout you get bending down and picking things up. It's really sad, but you'd be less surprised how much trash there is at the local park...especially around the McDonald's...

Catching up

...and catching my breath.

Two weeks since I posted, two weeks of workouts. (I keep a log, religiously, even if the entry just says '11km run' - everything else is in my head.)

Jan 9 - swam 1.6km in all, crippling sinus headache
Jan 10 - Hills at the Botanic Gardens, 8 x (3:08 - 3:24)
Jan 12 - 16km on road and trails in the NB Minimuses (minimes? minimi? minimodes? ack - somebody tell me what the plural is)
Jan 13 - a hilarious 10km track relay with Kate and Linna - we each ran one lap and passed on to the next person. We were very, very far from first.

Last week I was on the afternoon shift - I work from about 2pm to 11pm or 12am, then come home, collapse, wake up at 8 or 9, by which time it's too hot to run... which throws a huge wrench in my training. So I barely ran:

Jan 17 - 5km canal run - EXHAUSTED.
Jan 18 - Ooh, this was #doprah day. Friday's 'workout' consisted of me lazily pedalling on the bike trainer (but not too hard, or I wouldn't be able to hear Lance mumbling) while watching Oprah lightly grill Lance. (That day's lunch in honour of the event: lightly grilled shrimp, pan-blackened, with a dash of sambal belachan.)
Jan 20 - ran 10.7km with the hubs
Jan 21 - long run for the week, 14km - not really training for anything long at the moment - and did a Zumba class in the evening. (To this creaky ex-dancer Zumba is a riot. It's like dancing, except you don't need skills. I am still not 100% sure how I feel about it.)
This evening at the track: 4 x (1km at 10k race pace/ 400m hard): 5:24/ 1:47, 5:21/ 1:43, 5:58/ 1:52, 5:23/ 1:47 <-- I think of this as the 'teaches you to finishing kick' workout. // finally catching up with my speedy friend Janice - I feel like she's hauling me around the track.

It's nearly Chinese New Year. Time to undo all my nutrition! ::gleefully::

Also, a little boy I adore is almost 1. (This is our nephew - his mom and dad live in Baltimore and he turns 1 TOMORROW EEEEEEE.) 

Turning up the heat

The other day I read something that made me laugh out loud.
It was this sentence: "Roberts is the medical director of the Twin Cities Marathon who published a report in 2010 that recommended a Do Not Start temperature of 68 degrees [20 degrees C] for races held in northern latitudes." - from this Runner's World story.

I mean, yes, I fully understand that it's all relative. That if it snows in Chicago, municipal authorities are completely prepared, but dust Texas lightly with snowflakes and all traffic comes to a halt. If it snowed here race directors would call the race off and the entire country would shut down. (Unless climate change goes really nutso and we have a new ice age somewhere, it's HIGHLY unlikely to snow here.)

That made me laugh, because seriously, 20 degrees C is just about the COLDEST it ever gets here.

The other day I did 5x800 repeats at 4:09-4:22 - the temperature was about 26C (79F) and humid, and the day was heating up.

But a year ago, while visiting Japan, I did 6 x1km repeats at 4:30-4:57 apiece.  It was February, and the temperature was probably about 6 deg C (42F). Sure, I was chilly for a bit, but that's what a warm-up is actually for. BLISS. 

----

Here is a story - the very first marathon I did took me just over six hours. I sweat a lot when I run, and I lose a lot of salt when I sweat. I am a puddle. My eyes sting. I cramp. I run hot - I've been on winter hikes, in New Hampshire, where after half an hour I am down to a t-shirt. A worrisomely damp t-shirt.

This marathon started at 5am, and it was mayyybe 24C/ 75F. In December. (The temperature doesn't really vary much year-round.)

 As the day wore on, it got hotter. I lost more salt. I cramped up. It got even hotter - like 29C/ 84F...in the shade. In the direct sun it was easily 31, 32C - 88 or 90F. I was carrying a single bottle as always, which then caused my wrist to cramp. (I didn't even know my wrists could cramp.) I hadn't yet figured out how to swallow a gel. The salt capsules I'd carefully prepared were a mushy mess in their little ziploc in my pocket,  from the heat and humidity. I cramped. I was miserable. I got sunburnt and ended up with a hot pink nose to match my hot pink shirt. I walked. A lot. (This is the story of my life.)

This, ladies and gentlemen, has been my motivation to train for every marathon since then: want to get out of the sun? Run faster! 

Of course I've also cramped on both marathons since then. There is an electrolyte/ hydration sweet spot that I haven't found yet...

Sometimes, I wonder what I could do if the weather was cooler. Me and Singapore weather, we're a bit of a mismatch. Just be warned - now you know what to expect if you attempt a marathon in Singapore!

But Singapore is a nation of runners. So how do we survive running in the heat?
Hydrate a bit more.
Start early. Or run late.
Wear a visor, not a cap (that just traps too much heat).
Tote something cold. I like to freeze my water bottles the night before.
Wicking clothing is nearly useless - at track workouts, my friends have had to wring out their shirts. (We're all disgusting, it's cool.)
And if you run on shaded trails, you can run at pretty much any time of day, because it will feel the same no matter what.
---
I have been seriously hungry all week. Five meals a day hungry. Starting to wonder if I have an actual tapeworm.

Workouts:
Thursday hills x 8
Saturday morning easy long(ish) run: 5km on roads, then 11km on trails with my friend Adrienne -at conversational pace, we had a good catch-up because I haven't seen her in person in months! - strides at the end.

--- 

Head games, or, the wasted energy of envy

Yesterday I did the first speedwork of the year, 5x800 (4:22, 4:20, 4:18, 4:09, 4:13). Not great, but ok splits for someone trying to recover from a very mild cold - a cold so mild that I never got sick enough to skip work or other commitments. I was just very, very tired and slightly sniffly and had the lingering feeling that my head was stuffed full of jello. Christmas bug, you win...

How to get over a cold - day 1: (have someone else) make fresh tomato sauce for pasta.
Day 2 - Turn leftover sauce into gazpacho with the addition of salt, water, tomato paste, vinegar, hot sauce, great glugs of olive oil and two punchy cloves of garlic. (Do not consume immediately prior to interview, meeting or generally any human interaction.)
Day 3 - Go to the track for speedwork. Do 800s until less fatigued.
--

"Stop wasting energy on letting 'talentless' be a stumbling block!" - sage advice from my runnerd friend Desiree, when I complained I was struggling with being talentless and...you know... genetically challenged.

This is much harder to write. In this age of facebook and twitter and dailymile and athlinks, it's so easy to compare myself with other people. Other people who have been running, not even semi-seriously, for half as long as I have, and who are so talented they are able to waltz in and run my times with half the work. (And are genuinely nice people. And hot. And have the supernatural ability to not be a dishevelled, soggy mess after a workout - I am not one of those girls.)

I've had this struggle as long as I do...pretty much anything I love. There will always be more talented writers, more talented runners, more talented dancers. At least running is objective - a time is a time is a time. In the arts, the choreographer or dance instructor can have favourites, the publisher and prize committee can pick and choose.

It doesn't help to console myself with the knowledge that I work *hard* for everything I have - because the people with more talent work just as hard and shine brighter.

I must add: it's impossible to be miserable while running solo. I might be more or less tired than usual, but never miserable. It's when I run with other people that the trouble starts: other people motivate me, but I'm miserable when everyone else disappears into the distance (ahem, upcoming Green Corridor Run) and I am dead last.

I know comparing is a waste of energy, that I should buckle down and work even harder and keep breaking my PRs. But it's hard not to compare.

How do you stop yourself from envy?

Some recent workouts

Saturday. Enduro 'triathlon', a comedy of errors - could not find bike pump, roads too wet to ride. Spent half hour searching for my goggles in my burgeoning 'sports gear' drawer (have not swum a stroke since May). Swam, then ran the run leg twice in lieu of the bike leg, then ran the run leg twice with everyone else. Or more accurately behind everyone else. Swim 750m. Run ~8km.

Sunday. Walk/ jog with my friend Daphne - the goal was good company and a little fresh air.

Tuesday track. 4-minute 800m repeats ("that's aspirational...") followed by 400m recovery at half the pace.

Thursday. 1.3km swim. Did not sink. Success. I am now ready for the weeks of eating ahead...