Safra Run

Training tonight was 2x MF hill via Morse Rd and Kg Bahru. Each round was 6km. I followed the runners for the first round, and did the usual 'flat' Harbourfront route for the second. I felt so out of shape and slow. Whew....

Swim & Run

Near starvation after the imposed liquid diet. At 5pm sharp, I ate. Oh my, milk & cereals, and a tuna bun. Food never tasted so good. Haha. But had to be mindful not to eat too fast or over-gorge!

Headed to SAFRA. Managed to do a slow 20lap swim and a run around Canterbury estate. Adam said the route was about 8.5km. Quads were still a little sore, but the soreness eased shortly into the run.

Shared a steamed fish head and vegetables with Adam at dinner. Oh bliss. Food. Solid food. :)

Achalasia & Dilation

I had a 'procedure' this morning at the hospital. The nice doc and nurses call it a procedure rather than surgery, maybe because it's a short sub-1hr affair. But anything that is invasive is surgical to me. *blink*

It's for a condition called Achalasia, which according to Wikipedia, affects 1 of 100,000 person per year. I need better luck to strike 4D. Haha. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achalasia)

In layman, it means:
Problem: esophagus narrowing at base that connects to stomach, giving rise to various gastro-related problems.
Solution: put a balloon to force dilate the constriction, and hope it stays open. *hope*

It was to be done much later, hard to find an appointment slot. But the nice doc was particularly sympathetic to triathletes. When he heard I had a race in late March, he penciled me on his day off so that I can recover to carbo load for the race. Awww.....

So the procedure involved a scope and a balloon, both of which had to be swallowed. Before that, the nurses hooked me to a machine to monitor my BP and pulse rate. But apparently both were so low that the machine went turned schizo and could not register anything! Haha. In the end, the doc had to manually count my pulse rate. Then came the sedation injection. The nurse poked and fiddled around one vein, could not get it right, and withdrew the needle. Ouch. Poked and fiddled a second time. Double ouch.

Some sedation, I felt drowsy. I guess the patient had to be somewhat awake and responsive as they needed me to swallow. First the scope, that was easier to swallow. Took a couple of pictures of the inside.

Then the balloon. Shoots, it was a plastic thingy, about 1" wide, 2.5-3" tall. That was terribly hard to swallow. I coughed as the doc shoved it down my throat. In my half-sedated state, I thought I would choke and die. :( Finally, it cleared. But the 'comfort' was not for long. The inflation began, and I could literally feel something expanding from within, and pressing against my ribs/ chest. People with heartburn might be familiar with that feeling. Or I suppose some pregnant ladies might feel that too, something pushing up or pressing into the lower chest walls. It was actually painful. I think I made a couple of unglam pathetic groans. The inflation lasted 3x 1min. Ouch ouch ouch. The doc said they were very small inflations, since it was the first time 'stretching' the constriction, and we did not want to risk tearing it. Oh my, culd not imagine bigger inflations! Finally it was over and retracted. Goodness! I hoped I did not have to repeat the procedure!

Now the tough part.... no food or drink for the next 6 hrs. Thereafter only liquids for the next 24hrs. I was already starving, having fasted before the ops. Oh geez, that would be harder to get over than the procedure! Food oh food......

Mt KK Climb

Joined a corporate trip over the last weekend for a climb at Mt. Kota Kinabalu. It was a fabulous trip, great weather this round relative to my previous climbs. This would be my 4th time at Mt KK. Not that I particularly loved the place. But it was the closest mountain with some decent altitude exposure, so I treated it as part of training for future climbs. We went by Mersilau and descended to Timpohon. Everyone did rather well, considering there were many first timers in our group of 27. 25 made it to the summit.

Time check for the first group, we were right in front:
Mersilau to Laban Rata - about 6h
Laban Rata to Low's Peak - 2.5h (too fast! had to wait an hour in the dark for sunrise)
Laban Rata to Timpohon - about 4h (many were not very confident in going down fast and the average pace slowed down)

RPM

Sort of recovered from jet lag, surprisingly not too tough this time. Went for KL's RPM class. Legs were fresh and could spin just fine!

Met up with Vince and KC etc tonight. Vince was back in town for a week and it was great to catch up again.

Tired though. Had to pack for KK climb, leaving tomorrow. Yawn. Just had to get over this period of massive flying around.

Slug Pool

Back from Switzerland early this morning after a long trip away. Trying to overcome jetlag and went for swim class. Bad move....... Swimming felt like slugging through a mud pool. I seriously could not cut through the water! Oh boy, such a struggle. Can't recal what sets we did, except that I was 1 lap behind the rest in my lane, as usual.

When Travel Plans Go Totally Wrong

A most adventurous and eventful day. Let me recall the highlights of today:

Zermatt (postponed)
- Mis-read train times, so misjudged the travel time required from Lausanne to Zermatt - How on earth did I get so careless?!
- Therefore also missed the train by 1min
- Next fateful train stalled in between 2 stations, 40min into the ride
- Someone jumped in front of the oncoming train! Driver traumatised, train damaged. We were stuck for 2hr!
- Befriended a young lovely vivacious Swiss girl, only 17 years old and totally mature. She translated everything for me, and offered me her mobile in case I needed anything else later. Still waiting for a replacement train, we chatted and took silly pictures. Her eyes lit up when I said I would post them on facebook. Ahh, I felt less of a dinosaur....
- Decided not to wait for train. Hopped off train and hitchhiked our way to the next station at Sion. Hitchhiking! My first! Like a scene from the movies - 2 girls standing by the roadside, flagging a piece of paper that had our destination, arms stretched, hoping a helpful driver would pull over. 10min later, help came in the form of 3 big-sized men in a jeep, playing rock music and smoking. Gentle giants. We hopped on.

Montreux (impromptu)
- Too late to continue the 3hr journey to Zermatt, so I bought a ticket back to Lausanne
- Hopped off at Montreux, a scenic town
- Walked along lake to an old castle - Chillon Castle
- Helpful ticket seller charged me student rate instead of adult, cheaper :)
- Wonderful walking tour of the huge castle, like exploring a maze

Lausanne (unplanned)
- Wanted to see the Olympic Museum, but did not know the way nor have a map
- Had only 40min to spare before Museum closed, took a risk and blindly jumped onto the first bus that came along
- Helpful bus driver gave directions for a transfer that went direct to Museum
- Ran to the reception to buy ticket, but lady did not want to sell - 15min to spare before closing time, she said it was not worth paying to enter
- Desperately, I told her I was flying off the next day and really wanted to see the museum
- To my utter surprise, she offered me free entrance into one section instead! I chose the sports section. It was an emotional moment when I stood in the middle of the exhibits, staring at the bicycles and shoes the Olympic champions used.

I thought my day would be spoilt by the train accident. I guess being very flexible and adaptive helped to turn it into an awesome day. The 3 generous and helpful locals I met made it a beautiful day in the end. :)