Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Oh no.

21km this saturday but i'm nowhere near race ready. I'm still recovering from a bout of flu, fever cough. I barely did 4km today when my body decided to shut down.

It's bad. But at least i know i've got the drama out of my system - I can't handle all the girl drama so i'm doing what i do best, walking away. Sad thing is alot of friendships at stake is going out of the window. I guess i can handle that.

Got too much to handle at work and time to prepare for Dec's 42km.

Goodbye drama, hello focus.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Choices

My time is running out and i have to make a decision hard and fast. Usually a good run would help clear my mind and set my heart at peace.

This time, i don't even have the mood to run. I changed into my kit and just sat there - i couldnt even lift myself off the chair to lace up.

I'm not depressed, i'm not sad. It's a happy problem you could say - but i'm just afraid of making promises i cannot keep. Saying things that i have to take back.

Maybe not so bad la. But my focus has clearly been off. 21km less than 2 weeks' away, i need to get my focus back where it should - juggling between gym and distance running.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

OSIM 2011

Time for my race update! In short, I not only failed to improve my timing, I clocked slower and dropped in rankings. Depressed? Nope.



Firstly, there are legit reasons I could use as an excuses to explain the drop in timing. This year’s waves were tough. I found my strokes and rhythm all over the place, bobbing up and down and tossed off course. I found my swim leg down by a whopping 3 minutes.



The bike leg was surprisingly painless. Although I did clock a time 2 minutes slower, compared to last year’s race, my legs still felt fresh after the 40km. Oh did I mention that I only found out it was a 4 lap bike leg at the very last minute before the horn went off? A friend I met (Thanks KK!) at the start line casually wished me all the best for the 4 laps on the bike – say what? 4?!



Then on the bike leg, I actually asked fellow cyclists if it was 4 or 6 laps. Some said 4, others said 6. In the end, based on plausible timing, I settled for 4. Pity those fellas who said 6 and actually did it. That’s extra 20km on the bike. Wa. Might as well go do Ironman. Suayamakalaosai.



Anyway, back to the race. By the time I racked my bike, my legs were surprisingly fresh. I glanced at my watch and I knew I needed to do a hell of a run to make back the time. At about the 2km point, I figured I couldn’t beat the clock at the risk of burning out of air too soon. So I decided to just screw it, take my time and enjoy the race. Since I can’t beat the clock, let’s make this a race to remember.



And remember I did.



Race lesson #356 – Never try a power gel for the first time at the race itself. Sublime Lime flavor my arse! Rar!



That lime-flavored gel gave me the runs. I getting the runs while I was running. I was seriously fighting the urge to go take a poop. I was farting uncontrollably midway during the race. But heck I was too tired to care about people giving me stares or pinching their nose at me in disgust.



I clearly remember trying to psycho myself saying, “you can’t sh*t…you can’t sh*t…cos got no toilet paper..cos got no toilet paper”.



Don’t laugh. It worked.



And other than the minor breaks in running rhythm to break wind, overall I’m glad I kept pace throughout the run and viola! I managed to cut my run time.



So all in all, I clocked 3 minutes slower than last year. As I said, I could blame it on the choppy waves and tummyache, but that should be acceptable in every race and I’m not kicking myself about it. I’m glad I kept a good pace throughout and that, more than anything else, has motivated me (not out of anger and disappointment) to race better, train harder.



Next up in 3 weeks… 21km!