Core Training

Yesterday during my 'lunch' (which as mentioned before is pretty flexible), I headed off to the gym to get some running in. I warmed up, then decided I was more interested in doing core work...Yes I am fickle like that. I found the wiggle board (I have no clue what it's really called but essentially it's a board of wood with another strip of wood under it making it...well...unstable) and did 3 sets of 10 squats, did 3 planks (1 minute 20 minutes/1 minute/1 minute) , did some work on the obliques and did a couple of bridges. After all this, which to be fair took me at best 20 minutes, I did a 2.4k run on the treadmill. All good.

This morning, my stomach muscles ache a little. But like a good 'I worked those suckers out' ache.

Race Results!

The race results are finally out for the Tri-Factor swim! And I'm pretty darn proud of myself (I'm easily proud of myself, so my pride isn't really a reflection on my performance in the race). I finished off 15th out of 35 women with a time of 28:30 mins! And I thought it'd be at least a half hour! So good start to the day!

I had my first pilates class in ages on Tuesday and I forgot how much I enjoyed it. The zen music, the core workout, not sweating like a pig, feeling real worked out after....what's not to love about it. All that didn't help the aches I'd picked up from the 10k run, however. Well all the aches coupled with my monthly dinner meet-up with James (read: dinner plus lots of wine, booze etc) made me a very miserable person at work yesterday morning, so I took a half day off and headed to some Chinese reflexologist that R had recommended and got myself a full body massage. Sure beats a sports massage in the pleasure department. That aside, I did nothing very much the rest of the day.

Race Photos (I've been slow at this, so I'm just going to dump all the race photos over the previous few months):

TRIBOB SPRINT SERIES







TRI-FACTOR SWIM





For some reason the photos are back to front and I really can't be bothered to upload them all over again. Yes I know there's probably a faster, more efficient way to do it, but I'm well aware that I'm destined to do everything the hard way.

What I did on Tuesday:
1hr of pilates

First 10k in Ages

I don't even remember the last time I did 10k, but I'm sure it was many many light years ago.

Last evening's run went pretty fine. Knees hurt, ankles hurt, had a stitch...yet, I still trudged on and finished off the darn 10k. I was stinky, wet, tired and all my joints hurt at the end...which is kind of why I sunk to the oh-so-pathetic level of ringing my mum up to come get me in the car and send me the 1k journey home. Legs are feeling a bit tired today, but I've got a good old pilates class tonight and that should get things all stretched out.

What I did last night:
10k in 1 hour 15 mins

Another Weekend, Another Climb

I think I've forgotten what it's like not to ache. I haven't stopped aching since my 1k swim and I don't think my arms and legs aching are purely due to the swim anymore than they are due to the fact that I haven't let them have a good long rest.

The easy-peasy walls were all closed on Saturday for some little brat's birthday party, and I had to start off my session on wall that was way too hard core for a warm-up climb. I want to grumble and grumble about how they shouldn't close walls for birthday parties on the weekend, but well, it's the recession, I doubt the school gives a damn about my feelings and (much as I hate to admit it) the kids looked kinda cute scrambling all over the walls. Nonetheless, because I was stuck with the harder routes, I pretty much did more this climb class than I did for a long, long time. Which is why my forearms, triceps, biceps, shoulder blades etc etc aches so so much now. Sigh....

I was supposed to do a long run and windsuring this weekend, but I did neither. I did, however, make it down for the Singapore Repertory Theatre's (SRT) Shakespeare at the Park event on Saturday. Warm as hell, but R and I had a lovely curry picnic (my idea, I decided to go all chinese on him) and 2 very nice bottles of wine. Food and booze aside though, I actually really enjoyed SRT's version of 'Much Ado About Nothing', which says a lot considering after the Bridge Project: A Winter's Tale last month, I decided that I would probably never ever like Shakespeare and that had resigned myself to the fact that I was essentially an unartistic and uncultured git.

Anyhooo, long-ish run tonight! Wish me luck!

6.95k

How annoying when you finish a run and realise you're just 50m from making the run a nice round number!

I ran to R's place last night before we went out for a nice dinner. Because I had to fit my nice dinner clothes and a nice dinner bag in my backpack, I was running heavier than usual, with my dinner bag poking into my back the entire while. Needless to say it wasn't too comfortable. However, after a while, your back just adapts to the shape of the damn bag and it gets easier to bear.

On another note, I think I'm not actually pushing myself when I do my runs. I remember reading somewhere that if you're able to run the last 400m super fast too comfortably, you've been running way too slow the previous distance. I managed to dig (I want to say 'deep within me', but that really wasn't the case) into my energy reserves and do a dash at the last lap to R's place. I guess I spent so long being paranoid about running out of energy, that I spend half my time over-conserving it. I think I'm going to have to find a nice comfortable balance at some point. Or get over my fear of being breathless.

What I did yesterday:
Ran 6.95k in 53 mins

Spoke Too Soon

Legs felt like lead last night. It felt like I was dragging two huge bags of flour on each leg. My shins hurt, my calves ached....so much for the good run the day before. However, I decided to finish off the run taking the hillier road back to my house. At first it was torture, but after a while you brain stops working and all you're focusing on is getting it the hell over with. Which I did. Hurrah. 6.5k tonight...and I'm not optimistic about it.

What I did last night:
4.6k in 36:18min

Finally! A Comfortable Run

I don't think I've said anything good about running the past few weeks, months etc. But last night, in spite of the fact that my back and neck felt like someone had pummeled them (I had a sports massage in the afternoon, with the vain hope that my muscles would miraculously stop aching after that) I had a sweet sweet run. I wasn't going too fast because I knew I wasn't ready for that, but I realised I didn't do too shabbily as well...namely, no stitch, no feeling like dying, no random aches and pains...

What I did:
Ran 4k in 29:10 mins

Tri Factor Series - Swim Race Report

I'll make a confession straight out and say that I didn't do as much training for this as I should have. Neither did I abstain from anything or rest well. In fact, right till the eve of the race I was happily knocking the beers back. Why? Well, simply because I was so darn cocky that I didn't die at my 'trial run'.

Well, despite all that I don't think I did that badly in my swim. There was a storm early that morning, so it was grey and dull in the morning. The sea had also taken on a life of its own, which made swimming in it that much more 'fun'. I don't think I have much to say about the race except for the fact that it had less people than the Sprint Series aquathlon. Still got kicked a couple of times though but because the group got a lot more spread out after a while, there were times I found myself swimming without anyone beside me...very very nice.

1k in the sea didn't seem like too much of a big deal, but I'm aching crazily today and just drained of energy. I'd like to think that, for a change, I did push myself a little harder than usual, but I'm also sure it could be due to the fact that I've been lazy.

No times yet because I forgot to set my watch and the results of the race aren't out!