Distracted Spin

Went for an hour of RPM Challenge. Rode ok, not lung-bursting or quad breaking. Long day at work and mind was still hyper active. I was constantly distracted by various thoughts and could not focus on the ride. Hopped over to Lau Pat Sat after class to indulge in the famous Qiu Lian noodles. Huge serving. :)

PI Run Series (I)

The PI Run this morning was disastrous. I should have maintained my sanity and not take part in a 12km race. I knew several of the road marshals, a number of my gym members were volunteering and they cheerfully waved the runners on. The weather was hot and humid. After 5-6km, I would be happy to end the run. The guys caught up fairly soon. Initially I saw Teck Hou, Kim Hong and Joshua. At one point Kim Hong was leading, then Joshua. Kim Hong called out as he overtook me. He looked strong and was still smiling, so I guessed he still had some reserves in his engine. At 7/8km, the water point was serving some diluted 100-plus and I took a cup. Bad judgement, because it was gassy and I felt like I could not breathe properly or deeply. The run went downhill from then. Around 10km, many of our Safra guys ran past me. Stomach still felt queasy.... Finally managed to finish the run after what seemed like forever. Hopeless.... Mental scolding to self never to sign up for short races again....

Swimming Techniques

Today was swim day. We hit the pool with the Eddie, JD and Sumiko. All the swim experts were there, and Alber and I were about to tap their expertise to correct our swim techniques. Eddie pointed out a couple of bad habits in my front crawl. It was difficult to alter my rhythm immediately. After a few laps, I began to feel the corrections, albeit still not fast at all.

Night Cycling

We went riding tonight. Quite a big turnout, about 10 cyclists. We met at the Bt Batok Swimming Complex and rode towards Ten-Mile Junction. The plan was to do 40ish km non-stop tonight. The guys were going fast, high-speed. I was trying out a new seat post from Eddie, and trying to use a more efficient cycling cadence. At certain sections of the route, traffic was still fast and heavy. Mandai Rd was a series of rolling hills, my quads burnt in the headwind. We then went along Old Upp Thomson Road, which was our usual Pierce Reservoir running route. There were several bends along the winding road, which made for a great chiong-ing stretch. We headed back along Mandai to Choa Chu Kang area after that. Whew, I was looking forward to the end of the ride. We stopped at a coffee shop near Petir Road after the 'end' of the ride, before everyone headed back separately. I reached home around 130am, totally bushed.

Pretzels Wheezing RPM

Went for RPM Challenge this evening. Had polished off an entire packet of cheeze pretzels in the office before class. Damn pretzels. Breathing felt obstructive as throat was protesting from the excessive & heaty snacking. Wheezed and coughed through the class. So sitting on stage (last week) vs being back on my usual bike today, the difference was obvious. Being up there totally exposed to everyone meant I had to work doubly hard to 'put on a good show'. Back down in the class, I could slack off somewhat. Haha. Oops. Went home to cook instant noodles.... more unhealthy food! Oh geez....

No Running Mood

Since Sunday's run was cancelled, I thought I should attempt to run tonight. I popped by Safra and saw quite a number of runners there on their individual trainings. Ong, Peter, Jimmy, Trevor were there too. Alber and I did the usual Canterbury route. I was getting tired of the route by now, having done it for the last couple of runs. Bumped into Chairman, Shirley and Dora inside the estate where they were doing some speed work. Felt lazy when we exited Hort Park and decided to short-cut at Henderson Road. I needed to revoke the magic of running. After Sundown, I was basically not very inspired to run. Well, I had a few short lung-bursting sprints last week, but they died with me after 30min.

A group of us went to Henderson for dinner. Alber was lucky, he ordered a cheese sausage, and got a free fish & chips too as the shop was closing! Shirley ordered some fried rice and the uncle undercharged her. Now, how come I don't get such luck when it came to food......

Abs & Stretch

I thought I was headed for a Pump class, but the schedule was changed today. Luckily there was an "Abs and Stretch" session listed later in the afternoon, that I could try since I was already at the gym. Did some workouts on the gym machines while waiting for the class. It was so hard to kill an hour on machines. The rowing machine looked good enough, but lasted a mere 12min. I went from the various leg press, leg curls, leg extensions, abductors, to some lats and triceps. Pretty good, I managed to fill up 45min.

Abs and Stretch was a freestyle class. In any case, it was almost entirely new to me since I did not normally do Pilates or Yoga. We started with some stretching moves, pretty easy to follow. Then the abs. Ok, the normal crunches and stuff were easy enough. Then the trainer decided to progress into a couple of pilates stunts that were next to impossible for me to execute. There were some hardcore regulars in class who obviously did plenty of pilates, body balance types. So there I was in a class, where the fair-frail-fragile damsels, as well as the plumpish aunties could execute all those moves perfectly. Whereas me, the supposedly lean-mean-looking athlete could not even balance on my butt! On hindsight (no pun intended), it sounded funny. But the actual scenario was far from hilarious. So we had to lift our legs and hold various poses, or rotate or extend them in all imaginable angles. Flexibility was always my nemesis since schooldays. It was still not a friend now.