Not long ago I was commenting to someone that there’s nothing for me to look forward to and every workout just seems to be a norm procedure of keeping fit. The next challenge is almost like half a year down the road. Too far away…..

It’s coming to end Jan now and without realizing, that half a year is only 4 months away!!! Adding on to the anxiety, I now have 3 races, possibly 4 leading up to end May. That is on average once a month! And what have I done to prepare??? Ha..ha.haha…..

Anyway, not entirely new to me BUT it is still as hard since Day 1. Splitting a 4km into 5 x 800m on track is freakingly tough! Ya..I was supposedly to do more sets but I punctured at the 5th set… Nevermind….try harder next time……

So...next week seems to be feasting week...I wonder how much mileage I can clock in or if there will EVER be one..... I've just requested Dad to bring me to one of the famous hilly place that's popular among runners....But then..things doesn't take place as expected sometimes....:) So we shall see.......

Lunching in at the office now, and being Friday, that should mean R&R if no hiccups.

Staring at my bowl of Salad from a newly opened shop called Garden Salad, felt so refreshing and healthy simply by looking at it! Haha..Too bad....I only thought of taking the pics after I've finish half a bowl. Don't assume it's salad and it's not filling. Here's what I have:

romaine lettuce
carrot
cabbage
beetroot
raddish
corn
olive
cucumber
tomato
eggs
onion
raisin
peanuts
celery
capsicum
tuna
kidney beans
couscus (whatever spelling)
pasta (abt the quantity of 2 table spoon)

All this mixing in homemade honey and soy sauce. Simply Delicious!!!!!!!!!!

I must have been a bit overly ambitious wanting to do too many things at one go at a wrong time wrong place. My mind is itchi for a swim and my legs wanted more from the previous sessions.


Can't decide which one to go for and brought two sets of gears to work. Up until I knock off, I still can't decide. I go for both. At least it ease off my mind a bit although I don't know what's the outcome would be like.


So there I go and put all my stuff ready in the gym before I head out for a run. Pack and arrange everything so that once I'm back I can just grab and go for the swim..Talking about smooth transition here?? The run......Oh man!! Lots and lots of construction along the way. Wasn't that enjoyable and I cut short the timing, make a u-turn back to the gym. Now the transition, hmmm.... rather troublesome. I need to walk several hundred meters, take escalator before I reach the pool side. That's not the main problem. The water is freaking freezing cold!!! It has been windy in the last couple of days and cloudy but never have I expect it to be that cold. The ang moh lady next to me ask me to dip in to the water and get moving to get myself warm up and so I did. Still.......it is way to cold for my comfort. I think I did about 20 laps (25m length) and call it a day. Finger is numb........:(

Weather for the night - cooling and windy

It was another therapeutic, in fact once in a blue moon run where I feel that I can go on and on. With the right beat on 93.3, strong wind, not-so-weak legs, the endorphin kick in pretty quickly this time round.

2 x 12 mins tempo and a couple of 200-300m (forgotten how many) before I call it a day. It's getting late and I have tonnes of household chores to settle. Short one but real sweet session :)

IF only I can be more sporty with sea sports........

WANTED: Caretaker for islands on Great Barrier Reef.

SALARY: A$150,000 (S$155,355) for six months.

JOB SCOPE: You scuba dive, snorkel, sail and go bush walking. Meet and talk to the locals and tourists. Give media interviews, post a weekly blog, photo diaries and video updates. Feed the fish, clean the pool and collect the mail.
TOURISM Queensland (TQ) is offering A$150,000 for a once-in-a-lifetime job to a lucky hunk or babe in search of a living.

Sounds like it's too good to be true? There's more. You'll work flexi-hours and stay in a fully-furnished three-bedroom home with great views on the luxurious Hamilton Island of the Great Barrier Reef. The package includes return airfare, travel insurance and free use of a computer, digital video, digital camera and Internet access.

"This is the first time something of this style and magnitude has been undertaken by Tourism Queensland on a global level," says Mr Anthony Hayes, Tourism Queensland's chief executive officer, commenting on the A$1.7 million marketing campaign.
TQ hopes to "achieve cut through in what is an increasingly cluttered travel market", create greater awareness and excitement over the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef as a fantastic and unique tourism destination, and have a flow-on effect to other destinations in Queensland, he adds.

Finally, my first post for 2009. Shall not go over the usual review on 2008 nor resolution for 2009. But a couple of incidents in the last couple of months did trigger some thoughts in me. We never know what's gonna happen tomorrow. So do not procrastinate on things that you wanted to do, do not take things for granted, spent more quality time with family and friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brick training is tough!! Strangely in comparison with run/bike, a bike/run gives a totally different feeling on that pair of legs. Felt like tau-huay....:)

I gave myself many many excuses...yes it's excuses of not going for CBD yesterday. Let's see....

- it was a very quiet day at work so I'm all ready to leave on the dot at 5pm. Can't shop for the next 1.5 hours to wait for 7pm run because I have been doing that shopping during lunch hour in the past few days.
- need to be home early for some errands
- sudden urge to explore new route
- sudden need to do a solo run. Just me, the road and the mp3 kind of run

So I dash off slightly after 5 and is all ready to explore...Amazingly, just by changing into running gear, it convert you instantly from being a lethargic sleepy head to a semi-energized person. Suntec-Marina promenade-nicoll-mountbatten-fort rd-ECP B1. I have always wanted to do this route for ages and ages. It never get materialized for whatever reason. It didn't take too long for me to reach B1. Of course not because I'm fast. Perhaps I'm happily looking at the surrounding. They all looks new to me..haha....And by the way, now I finally know where's Mountbatten swimming pool is... LOL!!!!

Till then....HAPPY NEW YEAR to all....... May all of you continue to stay healthy, stay strong, stay fit, stay handsome and pretty...:)

Christmas Day 2008 marked my virgin ride with my new babe. I set out from home at 6am sharp, slowly made my way to Changi Beach to meet the rest.....

The ride was a little bit shaky occasionally. Not as stable as I want it to be. But today is purely a short and sweet trial session, let my babe see the world kinda ride...Few humps along the ride but all the tips given actually helps a little although at one point of time, I couldn't change it back to the gear for flat road, no resistance on the pedal...Gotta stop and figure out..:)

It was really a short ride along Coastal Road, no point to even mention the distance covered...hehe...Thanks to all buddies for keeping me accompany and 'orientating' me... Good morning ride but input > output again....Feasted on ECP MacD before the rest continue their 100-150km journey ride.

I have no where to rant but here........

On the eve of Christmas with gloomy skies, I see more and more people logging off from msn. One after another....Some was off at 12, then 1pm, then 3pm...... Everyone at the other side of the office have also left. My side...we're still here.... Not because we're busy but simply because there're people elsewhere (who is crazy enough) and not celebrating Christmas needing our help. And no...this is not an ad-hoc thingie..This is the fact..It happens every year....No early release for Christmas and New Year's eve. Soooooooo demoralizing..... I will make an attempt to apply leave next year onwards.....

Clicking my mouse, reading magazine, checking out forums....that's it for the next 1 hour....

This week has been and is going to be full of agenda, activities...

Let see...Monday ----- Is it an honour or pure stupidy in agreeing to be a guinea pig for 'him' to try out his newly acquired skill?!Haha...apart from the big blue/black/red mark that was left on me and tao as a souvenior, I think it was a pretty good session, though the pain especially on the ITB is beyond my description...haha.... And then....I was being questioned yesterday, "does your muscle and ITB felt more release now?" Hmm..... it took me a couple of seconds to say yes with a little bit of uncertainty..haha... Too overwhelm by the pain maybe.....Ok lah..for the benefit of doubt, sport massage needs to be done periodically. One session will not be enough to tell if it really helps or not...right? Portfolio & testimony will be given...:)

Yesterday was Christmas run at CBD. Short one up MF then the all time favourite makan session. Nothing but pure laziness in my mind. Not in the mood to chiong or even climb up MF..haha... U-turn with T just before the 4M barrier Kg Bahru slope. The return journey with Fennel far more enjoyable. The food......as always..............

Wed - spent the whole morning changing the blog skin...:)

After one whole year of emailing, conference call, meetings and more meetings....the time of the year has finally come. Throughout the entire year, this period is the quietest.....this period is the time where you will have some peace at work........Finally!!!!

My department are given a sum of money every quarter called the 'fun budget'. Do whatever fun stuff u want for team building. But as part of cost saving plan, no fun budget for Q4. But it's Christmas, it's end of the year. We need to be pampered and be rewarded with all the hard work :) Of what is supposed to be just a log cake, drinks and some chicken wings and nothing more sponsored by a few of us, guess what......................... we ended up having THISSSSSSSS for lunch just now!!!

donut factory, polar e'clair & egg tarts

pizzas, wraps, old chang kee (gyoza, curry puff, fish ball, sotong), KFC, chicken pops,french fries

With all that fatty stuff, there is a need for some healthy salad for sure

More items not captured.....Root beer, wine, sparkling juice, sushi platter, ice cream log cake.....

How many pigs are feeding here?? Just the 10 of us..... I reckon it will take hours and hours of intense workout to burn them off...THAT IS ONLY...if I can do hours and hours of workout...haha....

DAMAGE DONE!!!!

I bought myself a Christmas present....It must be the most expensive things I've bought for myself....I shall survive on loti and plain water from now on......:)

Times are bad...In a day, I have 2 calls from anonymous :-

1) Education center - asking if I'm thinking of pursuing my education. No thanks...
2) Insurance - offering me a good saving plan. No thanks

and the usual never-ending credit card company offer me this and that.........NO THANKS.....

Being a public holiday….I should be sleeping in late especially with the cooling wet weather. I was awaken by the rain at 5am and alarm rang off at 6am. Why am I doing such silly thing again? I dunno…I’m infected by the ‘bugs’ is all I know…..

I was still wondering whether the swim today will materialized with such wet weather while on my way to meet Tao. In addition that we (all the crazy one) are doing this at Tanjong Beach. Strong wind & rain is not a good combination to swim in open water, no? But as expected, when that someone decided to do it, ‘he’ will do it regardless…there’s no bad weather, only weak minds….

So 8th Dec 2008, marked my 1st time swimming in open water. Hmm….let’s see…the last time I soak myself along the beach (no swimming) was during a holiday at Pulau Tioman and that’s like…..>10 years ago? The adventure starts….Get myself settled down in the water and try out a short distance..Not too sure how to express myself but it was indeed a good experience.

Firstly, sea water is so ^$&%*&#$@!$ salty. Super irritating. Can’t imagine those on ironman soaking themselve in there for 2 hours!

The guys went off to the other side doing their 400m laps while myself, Tao and Fennel is still staying near shore, trying out various method of swimming along. Soon after, we decided to slowly swim over to where the guys at… I was happily targeting the guys from the other end and taking my time to swim across, trying very hard not to panic and affected by the waves and current. The next moment, Tao called up to me from a distance away. I stopped and S***!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness – it scared a hell out of me!!! I couldn’t touch the ground!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m far away from the 2 girls.. Ok..I really got a little panic honestly….I don’t know if I’m really treading water, I’m just kicking all over and make sure my head is still above water… As if I’m being chased by a shark….swam as fast as I could to the shore!!And drank some sea water along the way…:( Thanks Tao for calling me out…. I seriously dun know what happen. I thought I’m swimming in a straight line??? And the best thing is…I’m not even on freestyle. Breast stroke all the way and I really thought I know where I am heading!! Damn it…took me a while to re-compose myself…. Panic big time man!!! Come to think of it….dunno to laugh or to cry…..

And then, re-group with the guys, was given another challenge to swim across to the other island. Which means….I’ll have to swim thru the deep water!!! ^_^Contemplating for a few minutes before I give it a go with the condition that the strong one must swim side by side with me. Ok..LT happily agreed and provide me his strong arms if I’m in need :) The distance is a bit deceiving which is a good thing for me cuz…it doesn’t seem to be that far as I thought…and without me knowing…I’ve reached the other side…wohoo!! Oh yes…still need to swim back to the shore…I had another man escorting me back….Ha…

and guess what…I have sea sick and nausea after the whole thing…probably swim too near the shore..the waves are stronger. But but but…I’ll panic if I swim too far away from shore…So nevermind..I’ll choose to have sea sick instead..haha

Oh, and the holiday adventure is not over yet…decided to catch a movie with the gang after lunch…We went for “Quarantine”. Have no idea what the movie is all about, just tag along. This is a once in a blue moon where I pay to suffer really..Beginning till end….the shooting of the film is ‘live’..Ok..I dunno how to describe it but that 1.5 hours..the camera is shaking all over the place… I officially declare I’m sick!! I’m nauseating!! Close eyes for like half the show…sigh…. We went for kopi and I told the guys as if I just got out from an operation room..I’m weak, cold, nausea…while sipping in a cup of milo..haha…But apparently, I’m not the only one who felt the same hor….

And the nausea lasted till bed time……Hmm….maybe next time have to pop in motion sickness pill before going for open water swim????

This year...being my first time volunteering at SCSM sgrunners support station, I managed to witness the whole event at 29km mark, seeing the first runner all the way to the last 1% runners I would say. Many many different facial expression. Some ignore our cheering, some look at us without expression, some smile back, some wave back, some say thank you..another...one-armed man whom I reckon is a sub 3 runner greeted us back with a good morning & thank you...So sweet....:)

It was almost 6 hours stationing at the support station but supporting along with a bunch of great people, full of laughter and funs...the time went pass pretty quickly. In additon, the 2-4 hours was busy helping the runners, cutting hydralite stick most of the time...haha..It gets a little out of control at some point of time, where all I see was hands with their palm open wide surrounding me. I couldn't tell if all of them are from sgrunners but I can see from their facial expression, that they are truly in need of the fuel. Hmm....Being runner myself..... I know how they feel..... Help as much as I can....Just quickly close up the ice box when the crowd goes away...so that it won't draw anymore attention to other ppl and make sure to reserve some that have place their "order" with me. In a way, I'm glad that I can bring some "life" to the exhausted runners, hoping it can boost them up for the remaining 13km.....:)

It was pre-arranged to collect SCM racepack yesterday night followed by carbo loading dinner...I reached Expo at 7pm sharp and was amazed that at such hour, the queue is still as long...For the past years the queue is expected to be long and chaotic for the first few hours but it should subside towards the end of the day...But I was so wrong at this time....To cut the story short, it took me no less than 45mins to clear.......

Anyway.....I was compensated by getting myself some real good deal from Pearl Izumi...Muahahaha......Someone bought the same pair of shorts but I paid just half the price....**hiak hiak hiak**...Couldn't control myself and text her immediately......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On leave today but ended up waking up earlier than normal days for some errands. And then...it was bike hunting the whole afternoon..... Oh man.....this is as difficult as choosing the right husband.... Colours that attract, price that is within budget, size that fits....... The chances of getting all this is really not that high..... Try harder......

While I did mentioned that I should do more laps in a public pool, I seriously need to re-consider my options. About 2/3 of the lane are all block for classes, I head out to the training pool instead. I can only do a decent 2 lap in the beginning and before I knew it, there's this bunch of kiddies jumping in, and swimming over in all directions!! When some saw that there's no proper 'traffic', in the pool, everyone started to swim in all possible directions including me......

Maybe I should just stay with public pool to practice water treading and nothing else.......^_^

And so......I made my 2nd attempt two days ago. I was put on hold for quite a long time when I called up to make sure that the person I'm looking for will be around. Nevertheless, I took the risk for another time since the shop is on my way home......

It's fated...... after like half an hour chatting...etc he checked his stock and there's only 2 model available for my size... One is so low end there's no point getting, one is perfectly fine, good deal but the color really sux...^_^. The next batch will probably have to wait till Jan or something.......Sianz...x100 So what now..... I dunno....I'll probably have to sacrifice more of my time to go hunt for another one....:(

I am nothing but tired this morning...... I need more sleeps.......... Lack of sleep from the workout cum the late night DVD few days back, the idea of going to 3 classes at one go yesterday, turned out to be 2.5 in the end :) I sneak out for a 20mins break to chat with my spin 'classmate' who fell asleep while spinning ^_^ ***faint*****


On a side note.......IT'S FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trainer give a short briefing to all when we reached the top of FC. 4 loops of 1.2km in interval speed....Uhm..... But.....I'm already on tempo speed in the first few km keeping myself within a distance with the group. And now interval speed for 4 loops....Hmm...giving myself excuses again....I'm not running SCM, so I'll just tag along in recovery speed and to settle down my heart rate a little...No interval for the time :) I still need to conserve some energy to go back...And...Ihad a great company on the way back jogging/running/walking :)

Oh...and I must say that Mr.Bean soyamilk with watermelon juice is heavenly!!!!!!!!!!!

~~~~

I must have been too pampered of having the luxury to swim in a pool that hardly have more than 10 swimmers. It's smaller than the usual 50m pool and is within my height in the entire pool. As expected, I got a little panic when dipping myself in a public pool with many swimmers around. Got worst when looking down the pool seeing that it's deeper than my heights. Haha.... I think I need to go to the public pool more regular to get used to all this obstacle and practice on my 'vertical breast stroke' :)