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

Customer feedback

Dear Runner's Gait,

I am writing in somewhat belatedly to thank one of your staff members - I think his name is James.

A couple of months ago I wandered randomly into your store for a new pair of trainers, and James very patiently helped me try on eight pairs. Eight. EIGHT!!! (It's lucky, right?) I felt like Goldilocks (too hard, too soft, too...erm... too tippy, too high, too hard, too soft, just right) or Cinderella ('if the shoe fits...').

Finally I settled on this pair of Saucony Fastwitch 5. (They're red - that should do for Chinese New Year shopping. I did wear them for the first run of the Chinese New Year. Which did not appease my mother at all.)

As we already know, I like being able to feel the ground (check), and I am the Switzerland of neutral runners (check).

It turns out Saucony apparently thinks these are a racing flat. I don't. They're not flat. But then I'm not fast either...

(Funny story. I just bought a new running shirt. It's black and says 'FAST' on the front in an alarming shade of pink. I don't think I deserve to wear it yet, so it's sitting in my closet gathering dust.)

I had a few niggling doubts about this pair of shoes at first. Not as low to the ground as my Minimuses/minimi/ minimodes. Not as plush and cushiony as my Nikes. A little hard and bouncy. But after Sunday's triathlon I think James made the right call - I think they're finally broken in. On the run leg, my shoes and I managed to pass - I think - every woman in my category who was a passable distance in front of me. (That's about five women over 5 km. Also some men who were walking - what were you doing?!?!?!?)

I'm still a slowpoke but I'll be doing nearly all of my marathon training (except for the longest weekend runs - need a bit more cushion for that) in these.

See you on the trails,

G.C

PS please give James a promotion.
PPS or at least a medal for persistence. But watch out: I'll be back for new shoes. He might want to hide.

Workouts this week. Marathon training week 1: upping the mileage a little.
Sunday: TRI day. 750m swim (terrible), 20km bike ride (terrible), and 5km run (29:23), dawdling through transition, going the wrong way to run out and turning around to run out another way. Pro-tip: Do not train for a tri by spending 3 months chickening out of swim training, cycling only twice, and doing no bricks ever.
Monday: 7.5km recovery run
Tuesday: Speedwork: 2km at 2:15, 1.6km at 2:10-2:12, 1.2km at 2:05, 400m (1:57). Total incl warm-up 6km.
Wednesday: easy day. 9.5km/ 59:15

tri-age

Yep, I'm doing a sprint tri tomorrow.
Nerves? What nerves?
The past month has been a rollercoaster of abnormal mystery fatigue and health issues and running-related mental struggle and HK getaway, and the last week has just been...emotionally draining.

--
Of course I'm still angry about Boston. Who attacks a marathon? Why? Seriously? These are some of the toughest people on earth. Who run 42.2 km for fun. And their families, loved ones, and random spectators - it's pretty much the definition of an international community coming together in joyous celebration. Every single runner I know has said the same thing - it's like your family being attacked.
I also lived in Boston for a year. My best friend from college lives there. And I ran down those streets and along the river. So when the bombs went off I thought with horror, I know where that is.
I was there for a science writing grad programme at MIT. When an MIT campus police officer was shot it was like seeing part of my family get hurt.
Boston is a small city, but a big community with a lot of backbone and pride. I have absolutely no doubt it will rally.

(And to the people going, 'X atrocity is so much worse than what happened in Boston and nobody cares' - quit being pious.
Yes, I agree that awful things happen all over the world, all the time. That's worth remembering.
But you can't quantify suffering. Nor should you assume nobody cares about all the other awful things going on - especially if you also live in a Western Anglophone bubble. Who is 'nobody'? The whole world is not focused solely on Boston (I am, here, in this specific instance, because I know and love the city and I. Am. A. Runner.) If your Internet speaks Arabic, bombings across Iraq and an earthquake in Iran and Pakistan were top of the news. If your Internet speaks Chinese, bird flu and an earthquake in Sichuan will be.)

This week can't be over soon enough.
--

I don't have any more energy left over to be nervous.
I'm not racing that tri, just finishing it and then cheering the rest of my triathlon family on. If my competitive instinct bites and I catch and pass you on the run, so be it. If I straggle in last - so be it. 

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.

double feature: 'fast shoes' & 'undertrained'

ladies and gentlemen - I present to you a special weekend double feature!

'the fast shoes'

When I was a kid we would run all over the place, light and fast like little kids are, in canvas sneakers with a thin rubber sole, or even barefoot. (There was the one time with my two boy cousins - this was after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when we all watched the UK's Linford Christie and US' Gail Devers win the men's and women's 100m - when we had sprint races around the estate and I ran till I nearly puked. I beat one of them, though.)

At home we walk around barefoot ('what, shoes in the house? that's just barbaric'). And to this day I can't stand having anything on my feet - not even the coldest of New England winters could induce me to ever sleep with socks on.

Which is why I also like to feel the ground when I run. So I really like my pink New Balance Minimus trail shoes - I got them in July or August 2012 and I think they're the original Minimus Zero Trail. They don't have much of a difference between heel and toe, they're super lightweight and have very sticky soles. (The difference between the heel height and the toe height is called the heel drop - just like a platform heel can be 4 inches at the heel and 1 at the toe.)

I definitely remember getting these last year and immediately going out gleefully to run quite a lot of the local trails in them. Like 16km worth of trail. (Don't try this at home, kids.) I've not been injured doing this, but if you're anyone else I strongly recommend starting slow!

If you look closely I am wearing the Minimus during the Green Corridor Run. That is probably how the rips happened...

These days I think of the pink shoes as my 'fast' shoes, even though the tread has completely worn off and I am not fast. There is a 1.5-inch rip in the little-toe side of each shoe, just from wear and tear. I might be replacing these sometime this year.

So that's three pairs of shoes in my current rotation: a normal 'cushiony' kind, the Nike Lunarglide 3; a lower-drop kind, the Saucony Fastwitch 5 (review later...it's very firm but still bulky/ hefty enough that I don't feel fast, and I don't like it as much as either of my other pairs...but they were on sale at the local running store); and my go-to trail shoes, the Minimus Trail Zero.

As a talentless, genetically challenged, non-elite mere mortal who has never won anything in her life, not even an age-group plaque, never mind hundreds of dollars worth of shoes, I can't afford/ don't deserve to have more pairs than that! (I wonder what other people do when they come to the realisation that they'll never win anything in their entire lives. Do you get fed up and stop running? Do you keep running, like I do, because it's really for your sanity and mental health? If I ever did run fast enough to place I would probably die of shock.)

&
'undertrained' - a run350 race report 

This morning I wore the 'fast shoes' to run the Run350 10K. The weather was incredible (for running - if you had wanted to go to the beach, different story), the route was wide open and well marked, the volunteers were both helpful and plentiful...

My so-called 'race strategy' was to paint my nails purple and try to stick with my faster friend Hilary! I got as far as the purple nails. While threading my way through the crowd (late) I got stuck behind a clump of people and then the starting horn went off, so I never did find Hilary. Which is a good thing because she finished in a very healthy 49:45. This is at least six minutes faster than I can run a 10K.

I spent the first 2km of the run still weaving through people. Saw Coach Rosie and Coach Hollie coming the other way from a turnaround in quick succession. Had exactly enough breath and time to yell GO ROSIE and before I could take another breath to yell GO HOLLIE they had vanished. (They eventually made it to the top 4, finishing in something ridiculous like 40 minutes.)  Picked another rabbit, lost her too, picked another rabbit, overtook her eventually (thanks, lady in the blue tank top), and spent the rest of the thing wondering nervously if she was trying to chase me down as well. (Does anyone else do this misattribution of mental states to fellow runners thing, or am I the only loony on the block?)

Finally I saw the 1-hour pacers just ahead of me, going through the finishing chute (pacers! how cute! there were 3 pace groups: 1:00, 1:10, and 1:20! this was ADORABLE), and I sprinted through. I honestly have no clue what time I ran, because the 1-hour pacers started right with the starting gun and I...definitely did not. I never did start my watch or my phone, and it was fabulous.

Afterwards I went off to look for Holly the one-woman cheer squad, found her cheering the half-marathoners in, ran another very scenic couple of km along the river, ran out of water (I DISLIKE being out of water), and took a bus home.

Still, I'm a little disappointed in myself because I haven't really been training terribly hard. I've missed three weekends' worth of long runs (BAD! VERY BAD!) for all sorts of reasons, and it's a miracle if I manage to run thrice a week. (To any coaches reading: I may be determined but unless I quit my job and suddenly have scads of free time, I am at ZERO risk of overtraining...trust me on this.)

Anyway - off to run more next week. The next time I post will probably be from Hong Kong...

update! my eventual time for the run350 10K was 58:04, which is all right for an undertrained, slightly disappointing race.

obligatory running photo. thanks Running Shots! 

Going long (short post)

This appears to be my favourite time of day to post: in the evening, sitting in an exhausted heap on the couch, wearing a bathrobe after a shower, and waiting for the laundry (endless laundry!) to be done.

After going through a year and a half of training logs I've noticed that all my race PRs regardless of race distance show up either while I'm training for a marathon, or shortly after. I guess increasing mileage a little (or a lot - going from 35km a week to 45 or 50 or more) makes a big difference! It's time to bring my long weekend runs back.

Super excited for next week - I'll be taking some time out to go to Hong Kong with the husband and wander around on the trails! Expect pictures. What should we eat while we're there?

Workouts this week:
Sunday - 10k training run, 1:01
Tuesday - warmups, 6x100 strides, 5k time trial (ouch) (27:45)
Thursday - 6km tempo in the morning, 6x hills in the evening. I seem to have displeased my metabolism and must offer it food sacrifices. 

Liebster and lovin'

Oh my goodness, nearly forgot to share the Liebster Award bloglovin':

I nominate my friend Shu - an ex-colleague, now teacher (once a journalist, always a journalist...no getting away from it) with the most delightful sense of humour. She's no slouch in the photography and fashion departments either! I suspect she has too many followers to qualify for the award, but I wanted to share the love because I miss her.

Things I'm loving right now:

1. Edward Humes' book Garbology, about America's (and the developed world's) addiction to refuse-generating Stuff and what this does to the environment. Each chapter reads like a magazine article: you'll meet the Bay Area family whose entire trash output per year fits inside a mason jar, the world's first garbage archaeologist, and the Trash Trackers of MIT.

2. This week my friend from our university's dance group visited Singapore with her boyfriend in the middle of a trip around Australia/ New Zealand/ Southeast Asia. So of course we had to feed them. We all had crab last night.

 this is salted egg crab. it doesn't look like much but it is delicious.
not my photo, borrowed from someone else's review...too busy eating to take photos. 

3. The Yellow Fellows, who are running to raise funds for the Singapore Cancer Society, which does free cancer screening, public education, home care, and funds treatment and transport for low-income patients. They ran the same 10K I did this morning, and their shirts were even yellower than mine. There's a link to their donation site on their Facebook page.

4. We had friends over last night and they used all the regular glasses so I'm drinking my Nuun from an old pasta-sauce jar. Lemon-lime with an ethereal whiff of tomatoes.

5. The watermelon and grapes I thought to toss in the freezer yesterday. Mm.

Things I'm loving somewhat less right now - because I am also a curmudgeon, ok?: 

This morning I did the 2XU

 ("2XU: two times you!" "one of me is enough for the world to handle, thank you very much")

10km as a tempo run, using the bib of a friend of a friend who couldn't make it. (I got stuck behind a lot of people at the start, started tired and got tireder, and my phone claimed it was a tiny bit short: 9.8km in 1:01. Except my friend's GPS said 10.41 km. I feel like I've fallen into some kind of gravitational distance warp here.)

But my body, without my consent I might add, has made it its mission in life to chafe in as many interesting places as possible. And I don't mean interesting places like 'inside Marina Bay Sands'. Stupid weather. Stupid shorts seam. Stupid me, forgetting the Bodyglide...

The reason I want to do longer tempo runs is... I signed up for the Perth marathon in August.

I've cramped after 25km on every single marathon I've done, and if I don't cramp I will almost certainly PR (under 5:15). A bit of back-and-forth email discussion with one of the coaches led me to the conclusion that what's going on is
a) I lose a lot of salt
and
b) muscle fatigue from not being conditioned to push hard on longer distances.

So part of the solution I've come up with is
1. longer tempo-paced runs (which for me is a little bit over 10 km/h). Going to force myself to do more of these in the months ahead. I hate tempo runs...
2. speedwork + strides - which Tuesday night track takes care of, but it's geared towards sprint-distance training
3. more strength training -  anyone got a good routine?

"If you can't run a fast 10km, you can't run a fast marathon," said my coach.
(Hey coach, I'm just trying to PR here, not qualify for Boston! This IS my 'fast', or at least a level of fast I'm confident of doing. It's not very fast for the other people you coach, but where I am is where I am, so let's work with what I've got, OK? Having the inverse of natural ability is kind of frustrating sometimes.) (And here we insert a very important note about mental health: I have some stress issues and if I'm not running with joy, if I'm running on upset or stressed or angry, I don't race well...so please don't feed the self-doubt demons in my head.)

Workouts: 

Almost none this week, it has REALLY been a nightmare at work. 

Tuesday extra exhausted track session.

Thursday easy 5k recovery run.

This morning: 10?km, getting slower every km I ran. 

Perfect 11s

Jumping on the Liebster bandwagon that seems to be going around the blogiverse. Because this is a thing on the internet its provenance is not entirely clear, but what the Liebster Award seems to be is a way of helping little blogs (like yours truly) with a handful of followers (<200? <3,000? I prefer the latter because it has a heart in it) get noticed.

You're supposed to write 11 things about yourself...

1. I have the attention span of a bored housefly.

2. There are many things I would like to be. Eg: a vegetarian (not out of love for vegetables, or any particularly animal-activist reason, but out of sheer meat-takes-more-resources-to-produce guilt.)

3. Or: a boy (this about ten per cent of the time).
3a. Or at least, "gender-fluid ambisexual pancuddler".
3b. Or Tilda Swinton.

4. I hate labels.

5. I have always had a terrible crush on Tilda Swinton.

6. My single favourite item of clothing is a pair of bright-pink size-small fleece trousers with neon green frogs on them going 'Ribbit', which I obtained for $7 from the Marshalls in Somerville, Massachusetts. I have worn them on all sorts of chilly nights: a climbing/ camping trip in Red Rocks, Nevada; apres-apres-ski during a ski trip to Nagano; and reallyreallysoon, to hike the Heaphy Track in New Zealand.

7. I can't sleep with trousers on - it's shorts or less. Yes, this ties in with the fact that my favourite item of clothing is basically a pair of fleece pajama trousers.

8. From age 9 to 16, I was in a gifted-students programme, which basically meant "where they put the nerds". (True story. Fellow programme victims are at a science-olympiad type competition. Three of them in one corner having a very intense discussion about something. One of the others turns around and says, "Is this how the rest of the world sees us?") The programme was also my salvation: take one awkward, nerdy 9-year-old and put her with other people exactly like her. Presto - friends!

9. I'm right-handed but I wear my watch on my right wrist. Don't ask me why, it just feels right!

10. When I was 8, I memorised the longest poem I could find in any book I owned: "The Highwayman", by Alfred Noyes.

11. This is taking far longer than it should - can I go to bed now?

...and answer 11 questions from the blogger (Holly) who nominated you...

1. If you could eat any breakfast food right now, what would it be?  Please be very descriptive.  I love breakfast food and want to drool all over your descriptions.

A large breakfast burrito, scrambled eggs, cheese, salsa, and guacamole, in a flour tortilla. Alternatively, poached eggs with corned beef hash and some homefries from The Fort diner in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Or homemade granola with lots of nuts and chocolate chips. Alternatively alternatively, a large cup of oatmeal with warmed blueberries and a drizzle of cream...

2. What book is closest to where you’re sitting, right this very minute?

Edward Humes' 'Garbology' - about how very much trash we developed countries produce. (If we were so developed we wouldn't produce that much trash.)
Also the very funny Mindy Kaling's 'Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and other concerns'.

3. Think about something you really want to do (you don’t have to share what it is).  What’s holding you back?

Timing. (Isn't it always timing?)

4. Which holiday has the traditions that you enjoy the most?

Chinese New Year, mostly because it involves serious time with my wonderful extended family.

5. Fill in the blanks: I would do twice as much (insert household task/chore), in exchange for never having to (insert another household task/chore) EVER AGAIN.

I would do twice as much laundry (I feel like I am already doing twice as much laundry), in exchange for never having to take out the trash EVER AGAIN.

6. Do you like how common your name is?  [ie, "Sarah"s, do you like sharing your name with half the world?  "Shelande"s, do you like having such a unique name?]

When I was in Secondary 2, there were three of us named Grace in the same class: Grace Chua, Grace Chong, and Grace Chen. Even our Chinese names were similar: Wan Jun, Xiao Jun, and Cai Hong. I don't know how traumatic this was for the other two but it was for me.

7. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you “grew up”?

A paediatrician (my parents are doctors), a journalist (my mom keeps copies of a 'newspaper' I put together at age six, complete with ads), a ballet dancer, a journalist, a forensic pathologist, a journalist... and then I kind of stopped there.

8.  Do you have as much trouble with the “Insert Numbered List” function as I do?  It always – ALWAYS – screws up my formatting.  I’ve resigned myself to actually typing the numbers.

Hogawd. It's word-processing programs. They hate me.

9. What are you using to replace/instead of Google Reader? 

Trying out Feedly...

10. What smell is nostalgic to you?

Books have a very distinctive smell. (I spent a lot of time in libraries growing up.)

11. Self-Serving Question: What would you like to read more of on this blog?

What work is like for a running coach!

...and ask 11 more questions of other small-time bloggers i want to share the love with. (It's 11.30pm and I've run out of energy after a hard track workout this evening involving 8x100 strides, 4x400 at mile pace, and 4x800 at mile pace which quickly degenerated into 4:15s. Now I'm sitting in a puddle on my couch waiting for the second load of laundry to be done, so this might have to wait.)
---

But wait! 
I have some BIG NEWS and some not-so-big news.

Big news: I am slowly shedding a toenail. (Aren't you glad I waited till after the description of breakfast food?) Toenails are overrated - at least that's what I'll keep telling myself. Last year I'd go for a long trail run then (this is the correct order, pay attention!) come home, eat second breakfast, take a shower, stretch, and THEN check to make sure my toenails were all still there.

In other news, I SIGNED UP FOR THE CHEVRON CITY TO SURF MARATHON IN PERTH this August!
The goal is the same as ever - A goal - sub 4:30 even if it hurts a little (and learn to hurt a little); B goal - sub 5:00 and have fun, no cramping; C goal - run an entire marathon without cramping.
Last year I did the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon in 5:19, thanks to crippling quad/knee-cramps. It may be time to treat myself to some compression capris. I love my calf sleeves but my calves haven't been giving me any issues of late. Time to give the quads some love. Nuun has been keeping me relatively cramp-free and I may try taking a half tablet for some concentrated electrolytes mid-run.

What's your goal race this year? Or your running goals for the year? 

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? 

'slow' + a musical interlude

The group I've been training with for nearly two years is quite a bit faster than I am, and that's why this little bit of THIS Rachel Toor COLUMN (not so much the rest of it) resonated hugely with me:

Despite my sense of invisibility, many of the women on the team welcomed me, and some even cheered for me as they zipped past, calling out my name as I slogged in after they finished their workouts. But still, I felt like I ran too slowly to belong and I couldn't stop myself from apologizing. I was ashamed and wanted them to know that I knew that I was slow.

But then I go out and do local races like the Venus Run and wind up on the first page of results. (Never before have I been on the first page of results, which surprises and delights me to no end.)

Which puts me in mind of Amy Christensen's wise words from Expand Outdoors:

...A few weeks later I was at a different workout (with different folks) and assured them I was really slow. [Insert foot into mouth here.] It turned out I wasn’t the slowest. I wanted to take back my statement as soon as it dawned on me how inaccurate I’d been. I knew what it felt like to hear someone say they’re really slow, only to be much faster than me.
I’d been there and it sucks.
...When I tell myself “I’m too slow,” I limit myself—and miss out on the kinds of experiences that might push and motivate me to grow and expand.
These days, I’m working hard to stay objective and state the facts instead of trying to guess what pace a potential partner runs, then assuming what pace they think might be slow or fast (because really—that’s just a lot of assumption and subjectivity going on). I’ll simply state, “I usually run ‘x’ pace on trails and ‘y’ pace when it’s flat for about z minutes.”

It's a purely mental thing. I don't judge anyone else for their pace - just MYSELF. (Runner problems.) In fact, we all know better than to judge someone for their pace - you never know how far they have already come. To me, any runner, whether she is just getting into it or has been running for most of her lifetime, is welcome on the track or trail.

So really what I need to do is keep training, keep racing myself, accept that wherever I am is wherever I am, and HAVE FUN.

Speaking of fun (fun! fun.) on Friday night I watched one of my favourite bands, fun., in concert. (I am a music person. I am a running person. Strangely, for me, never the twain shall meet. Can't listen to anything when I run. Too busy trying not to wheeze. Also, deeply regret thinking 'I'm a poor grad student, I have no money, and therefore can't go see live music' while I lived in Boston - because Singapore is just about the most expensive place in the world to be an indie music fan. /rant)

Here is fun. ('all the pretty girls')

I've loved them since 2009 when they were a little baby band, and my husband and I walked down the aisle to 'The Gambler'. Twice.

<3

Besides playing most of their second album and some of their first they also did a cover or two - I nearly lost it when they went into the opening sequence of 'Seven Nation Army' (by the White Stripes) and they covered 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' by The Rolling Stones. Too cute. I called their encore songs (theatrics! they were totally going to do at least one encore) but they failed to play Sight of the Sun - they'll have to come back, obviously.

I hope all the people who paid $70 to hear their two hit songs ('We Are Young', 'Some Nights') fell in love with the rest of the music by the end of the show. There was one guy standing in front of me. Tall. Clearly dragged there by girlfriend. If you don't want your view of the stage, I'd like it thanks.

Snippet of our conversation on the train home.
Friend while doing background research on ever-reliable Wikipedia: "Hey, it looks like they've collaborated with the singer P!nk."
Me: "What's with the exclamation mark in P!nk? Is that what she's calling herself now?"
"If you can have fun. with a period you can have P!nk with an exclamation mark."
"I never have fun with periods."
"-_-"

This week's workouts:
Tuesday: 5 x 4:00 (800, 800, 810, 810, 780m)
Wednesday: Swim training
Thursday: 6x hills
Friday: Bouncing up and down at fun. concert
Saturday: Bike clinic in which I wobbled around and failed to negotiate hairpin turns on my road bike + the rollercoaster Rifle Range Road + half-yearly dental appointment == enough excitement for the whole day and then some. I'm wiped. Goodnight.

Music person? Running person? Running with music person? Why? Why not? What do you listen to when you run? 

Race report: Venus Run

Yikes, I've been away far too long - sorry!
Somewhere in between, I was in Qatar on a work trip - had a morning to myself and so I visited the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. Here it is - isn't it spectacular?

I also brought home a box of dried, sweet dates and made sticky date pudding with caramel sauce (but reduce the sugar sliiiightly) - that was my Saturday morning.

I also brought home a cold. !@&)(*!$ I felt just fine when I got back and even went to training on Thursday night. But on Friday morning I woke up with a sore throat and a sniffle. Friday and Saturday involved a tug of war with my stubborn cold, lots of fluids, and rest.

Today I woke up feeling just fine and ran (not raced) the Venus Run, a 5km road race put on by the Singapore Athletic Association. Because I was just getting over the cold I was very cautious and fighting my competitive catch-up-and-pass-the-person-in-front-of-me instincts the whole way.

Aside from all the sparkly pink*, it was actually very well-organised.
(*It's just a colour. Why do colours have to be gendered? They don't, actually. Slate tells it like it is.)

Funny aside: I sold my cerise Venus Run shirt to a coworker, who asked, aren't you going to wear it on race day?
I never wear (eat/ drink/ you name it) anything new on race day, I told her. What if something I haven't tried before itches? Or is uncomfortable? I'd have a pretty miserable race day. I don't know why most runners here don't realise that.
I think they assume you have to wear it, she said.

Running columnist Rachel Toor has a pretty funny account of running the Singapore Marathon.

"On race day the streets of Singapore looked like the Dean Dome during a UNC-Duke game, with nearly everyone wearing a brand new sky blue singlet. When I expressed surprise about this to an expat friend she told me that Singaporeans are accustomed to wearing uniforms. If you give them a shirt, they think they are supposed to wear it. Singaporeans try to do what they think is expected."

(Oh.)

The race started and ended at Marina Barrage. Yep, on the vast green roof, which people normally use for picnics and kite-flying. Meaning: you had to run down the slope at the start, and then UP THE SAME EVIL SLOPE on the other side at the end. When I got to the upslope I started laughing: on Thursday my coach Trudy had us do high-speed zigzags up the grassy slope at the Botanic Gardens. Eight times. I was not expecting to have trained for PRECISELY THIS SITUATION...!!!

The route was a pretty straightforward out-and-back, across the dam, through Marina Bay East, a lollipop u-turn and back again. According to Holly it was at least 0.2 miles/ 321.9m too long, tacking on a good minute and a half for me, and I finished in 29:21.

My coach is right - I DO cross my arms way too far across my body. Photo courtesy of RacePix.com.

At my weird in-between pace I often find myself running alone, which usually means more space for me...until there isn't. On the way back, the mid-pack came thundering along towards me in the opposite direction and spilled over wayyyy across the invisible centre line. I'll just squidge over to the left now...

Late in the game I did a flying split in front of a race photographer, and he cracked up.

Because of my cold I didn't get a chance to push myself till I (almost) blow up, till it really hurts. As Amby Burfoot writes about marathoning, "I don’t hit the Wall, because I don’t tempt it. I’m the Cowardly Lion of marathoners, and that’s okay with me." I am also completely chicken. No offense to chickens.

Right at the end I spotted Holly cheering everyone on, all by her lonesome, with a steady stream of 'You can do it little steps little steps you're right around the corner you can't see it but I can just one more minute you can do anything for one minute'. So I joined her. A little while later she was ambushed by a fellow American tracking down a familiar accent!

This afternoon I had some very good coffee with friends, ate too much, and ate too much again. In all, pretty good for a lazy Sunday... and how was your weekend? 

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? 

Reclaiming the run

A little more than a year ago, Montana schoolteacher Sherry Arnold went out for a run and never came home. Two men had abducted and assaulted her barely a mile from her house, and it took two months for her body to be recovered.

Last year, her cousin Beth organised a virtual Run for Sherry to honour her memory - print out a bib, run as long and as fast as you like.

No one should have to feel threatened when they are out running on their own - no matter whether you're on a trail deep in the woods, or on the sidewalk in your housing estate. The annual Run for Sherry memorial run is a way of reclaiming that mental territory.

On Saturday (yes Chinese New Year's Eve) I did the virtual Run for Sherry with a new running friend, Holly and her husband - one loop around MacRitchie, one of my favourite places to run here.

After the run (I can't think and run at the same time - seriously) I thought about what happened to Sherry Arnold; and about the horrific Delhi bus attack last year, where a gang of men driving a mini-bus kidnapped and assaulted a young student and her male friend, leaving her so badly injured she died of her wounds.

A great deal has already been said about both of these cases; about violent crime; about a culture (particularly in some parts of Asia, but the US is not exempt) of harrassment and victim-blaming and complete disrespect for women's rights (And you wonder why women in this part of the world don't run? Well, now you know.) A great deal has been said, and better than I can say it.

But everyone - women in particular, since we ARE more often targeted and more vulnerable whether you like it or not - should have the freedom to move about the city, whenever and wherever we want. The Run for Sherry is about reclaiming that freedom.

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...

Race review: The Green Corridor Run

Pre- rail removal. Today, the rails and sleepers have been removed, and the land grassed over.

I've walked this piece of land many times for the past few years. I'm sorry to say I hadn't walked it before the trains stopped running, but then, my sense of self-preservation forbids me from taking a stroll along an operational railway line.

The whole line is 26km, perhaps five to ten metres wide at its widest. For more than 70 years it shuttled people and goods from Tanjong Pagar up to Malaysia, and onward up through the Malay Peninsula to Thailand. In 2011, the railway land was returned to Singapore by Malaysia's Keretapi Tanah Melayu national railway firm in part of a land swap. Heritage and nature enthusiasts have pleaded for it to be retained as a continuous green lung.

(I am writing this paragraph basically from memory. I covered it for the local newspaper for two years.)

And here I was, Sunday morning, at the start of the Green Corridor Run, along this former railway line now called the Rail Corridor.

For Singapore, this was a relatively small race. The 10.5km run from Tanjong Pagar Railway Station to Bukit Timah Railway Station consisted of three waves of about 2,000 people each, starting at 7.15am (competitive), 7.45am (competitive with self) and 8.15am (adventure walkers). We took the 7.15am wave (because heat.)

There were people wearing white shoes and socks, massing in with the others. People! I am not sure what you were expecting from a trail run. But then, this is a country that calls concreted-over, tree-lined pathways next to canals 'park connectors', so you are forgiven for expecting tidiness. (Instead of park connectors, I would prefer connector parks, but then people would complain about fallen leaves.)

The race wound through Tanjong Pagar, Queenstown, Commonwealth, Ghim Moh, and Bukit Timah; it went past my old junior college (high school) and the HDB estate where we live and our neighbourhood hawker centre. It went past relatively quiet estates, left undeveloped because the trains would thunder through. Once, there were shrines and small temples along the route, when it was technically part of Malaysia. Orderliness is in Singapore's DNA; many of these were deemed not only illegal but perilous structures, and demolished.

It went under some very dark bridges with ankle-turning gravel, festooned with some pretty creative graffiti. In the good sense. (This IS Singapore.)
There were plenty of plywood boards over the very muddiest areas. (See, there are uses for plywood besides hoarding it for election hoardings <-- link is pure comic gold)

Midway, there was also a traffic-jam of people daintily picking their way over the plywood boards. The mud is the FUN part - I splashed straight through. Nearly lost a shoe. (Must tie laces tighter next time.)

I chatted a bit with an older white-haired gentleman who was very fit; and when I got to brunch with friends and friends of friends later, discovered that he was the father of a friend of a friend!

I also took it very easy, walking over the rockiest bits - I've sprained my ankles so many times before and it's a horrible setback each time - and finished in 1:05:40 for my pains.

back in there in the purple shirt...image from the Running Shots facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.478889168826027.105765.309422402439372&type=1

At the end, there were plenty of water bottles, apples, bananas; we each got a handy sport towel and a finisher medal. Best of all, there were shuttle buses at the end to the nearest MRT stations. A very well-organised race!

We took a bus home from the end point at Bukit Timah Railway Station, and it was slightly surreal to cross the overhead bridge to get home and go over the very same race that we just finished.

& here's the view from the bridge!

But the most important thing about this run is that it gets people outdoors - people who might never have set foot on the Rail Corridor otherwise - in the kind of tamer/ 'safer' environment that Singaporeans are used to, with water and exit signs and snacks at the end. It shows people some of the possibilities of what the railway land could be. In the end, isn't that what really matters?

More information on the Rail Corridor/ Green Corridor can be found here and here.

In which I am a curmudgeon

Also known as, the one in which some marketers ought to be taken out back and shot. (In a manner of speaking.)

I made the mistake of signing up for the Venus Run. (I wanted a timed 5K and other people to chase. Don't judge.) Now, there are all-women's runs and there are all-women's runs. The Great Eastern Women's 10K is a stellar example of an excellent one.

I have, depending on how you look at it, very high or very low standards for a race.
- Is the distance correct?
- Was the course smooth?
- Did the race start on time?

But a race organised specifically for women? That's a nice thought. In Singapore, and in Asia in general, you don't find a lot of serious women runners. That's due to all kinds of things: historically, general poverty and agricultural societies meant nobody ran for leisure (what a concept! to be running while you could be working); it's very hot; it's not culturally acceptable (dainty? ladylike?) for a woman to be wearing very little in public and sweating copiously, etc. That's shifting these days, but we don't have the same level of enthusiasm about women in sports that the post-Title IX US does. So yes, I appreciate the effort to get women moving.

The Great Eastern Run does this very well, and its message is very clear: women, you need to be fit for the health of your heart. (Great Eastern is a very large insurance company, and they have a big financial incentive to do this!)

But then there's the Venus Run. And I present to you THIS GODAWFUL SHIRT:

It's going to have THAT PROBLEM isn't it. The one in which it's too short for my hilariously long torso. 

Aesthetics aside, there's so much wrong with the things on this shirt.
I am not sparkly. I am not bioluminescent. I AM NOT A SQUID.

Squid, btw, are amazing.

 I do not want to be exhorted to sparkle. If I want to sparkle, I will wear nail polish, gosh-darn it. (I enjoy sparkly nail polish.)

The bigger problem is this: Don't define me in relation to all these other people. Sure, I'm a daughter, (ex)girlfriend, sister, wife, granddaughter and proud of it. Sure, I love my family - but I'm me first, capisce? I'm also a runner, a writer, a journalist, a...so many other things that you can't stick a convenient label on.

That and, let's see you put all these things on a men's version of this shirt. (What? Unimaginable? EXACTLY.)

I am not trying to discourage women's participation in sports and outdoor activities. In fact I will be your biggest cheerleader and better yet, run with you. And I very much respect the people who run marathons dedicating each mile to a person they love. I just don't think we need to be defined by all of these other people in order to find our motivation to run.

Suffice it to say I will not be wearing this shirt.

It gets worse. There was one last year, the Shape Run, that featured male pacers. (Unless you are trying to break a world record, there is no need for male pacers. In fact, these days, the records people don't accept women's record times from mixed-gender races. Which is a whole nother kettle of fish.)

What do you think of all-women's runs and the Venus Run marketing? Is there a good way to sell these things to women without being demeaning or reducing us to a series of limiting labels?