My post-snowboarding endeavours

After my blissful time in Hokkaido snowboarding, I decided that I really needed to get back to doing my non-running sports so last weekend I went rockclimbing and windsurfing the next day. The rockclimbing turned out alright, not many aches and pains after, which led me to foolishly think I was uber fit. I have come to the conclusion that it was only because I was sharing my lesson with a good friend, so I climbed for half the time, hence hot and sweaty, but without the aching muscles.

How did I find out? I went windsurfing on Sunday and it was brutal. In essence, I sucked. BIG TIME. I guess it part it was just complete lack of practice. All the bad habits I managed to erase are all back. Which means I'm hardly sailing and I'm just dropping my sail, uphauling it, dropping it, uphauling it....you get the picture. It was very very depressing. All the muscle aches and nothing to show for it. I barely sailed yesterday. Instead half the time was spent hauling my board back to shore to rest because it was so dang tiring! Round 2 next week. Fingers crossed I'll do some sailing!

What I did:
Friday: Ran 3.5k
Saturday: Rockclimbing 2hr (or rather 1hr)
Sunday: Windsurfing

Snowboarding in Hokkaido

I just got back yesterday from Japan and I'm sooooo sad! After 4 straight days of snowboarding in Hokkaido (waaaay too short), I was depressed when we had to pack up and leave for Tokyo. The parents were probably bored out of their mind, since mostly everything about Niseko (or any other ski resort) is just ski ski ski or snowboard snowboard snowboard...Since they did neither of both, they just walked around the village a lot. But the snow...oh the snow in Niseko was heaven. Pure powder. The best day we had was when my sis and I got up for our respective classes at 8.30 in the morning and it was just beautiful, fresh snow. And we were knee-deep in it. It was probably one of the best moments of my life. Or maybe I'm exaggerating, but it was pretty close to being one of the best moments in any case.

After 4 days of sweet snow, we headed to Tokyo and I was pretty bummed. For one, I was used to waking up and doing something for a whole day, but now I was stuck waking up early and going for a short swim then walking around aimlessly in the city. The main problem is, I'm a bad shopper. I don't really go out and buy something unless I need something (okay, there are some days I go a bit mad and just buy random crap) so to be 'shopping' everyday was kind of dull. The food was fantastic though, but you generally expect nothing less from Tokyo. I didn't have a chance to hit any jazz bars (which was my original plan) because I was just too tired at nights. My sister and her bf would generally head back to the room past 1am every night and whilst trying to be as quiet as they could, somehow managed to make just enough noise to wake me. I guess Tokyo would have been great if it came before Hokkaido. Because it was after, it basically just succeeded in being rather dull. I did swim about 3 times there and did a very short run as well, so it wasn't like I just ate and sat on my fat ass!

No pictures. I'm terrible at taking pictures and even more terrible at uploading them. This time around it was too cold for me to want to take my hands out of my gloves to snap a shot, although I am pleased to say that the camera survived the bitter cold that is Hokkaido and is back in Singapore in one piece.

What I did
Mon (8th Feb) - Thurs (11th Feb): Snowboarding
Saturday (13th): 500m Swim
Monday (14th): 45 minutes in the gym
Tuesday (15th): 375m Swim
Wednesday (16th): 375m Swim

Back to the Groove

I've let myself get really lazy towards the end of last year and this year I've made my mind up to change that. I've gone for spin classes and I've been turning up for swim training. The problem is though, a part of me is worried that I'm being a bit over-enthusiastic about all this, which will inevitably lead to a burn-out. I know, I know, I don't really train hard enough to even have 'burn-out' as a word in my dictionary, but if I look back on last year, a certain pattern emerges. I started the year off on a bang and was training regularly or somewhat so. I ended the year on a limp and a huge gut. Why? Because I just got bored. My short attention span kicked in and I just couldn't be bothered anymore.

So I'm going to try to tweak my training this year. Instead of planning a run or two every month, I'm going to have a big run that I look to and then take a rest after. Also, I think I'm going to lay off the half marathons until I feel comfortable with the 10k runs. Maybe another adventure race in the middle of the year and then work towards doing sprint distance in a triathlon. That's the aim. Although I'm well aware I might get distracted/bored at the end of the day. We'll see.

Meanwhile, what I've done this week so far:
Tuesday: Swim training for 1 hr
Wednesday: Personal training
Thursday: Swim training for 45 minutes

Going for a short short run today. First in ages. Wish me luck!