My Middle Name is 'Bruise'

This weekend was not spent as fruitfully as I would have liked it to be. Saturday was pretty much a lost cause since I spent almost all of it feeling crazy tired and slightly hungover from playing till too late on Friday. Sunday was my saving grace because I hauled my aching ass and legs (from my PT class on Friday) over to East Coast (by that I mean, I drove down there) and did a short bike ride. All of 14km (ooooh!). Met some of the windsurfing folk, who gave me a hard time for giving up the sport...which I haven't! I just hate my sail. And now I've gotten rid of that, I might just go back to renting equipment...but that's another story.

Now after my crazy night on Friday, I found a nice big bump on my shin. Probably from kicking myself unknowingly or something. I tend to do that after having some vino...I suspect I have some masochistic streak in me! Then I found 4 more shiners this morning after my bike ride. I have no idea how I'm riding the darn bike that I would get 4 weird bruises in completely random places. I don't think I've ever been bruise-free in my life, come to think of it! Firstly I bruise easily and secondly I'm clumsy as hell. It'd actually be amazing if I were ever bruise-free!

What I did:

Friday: 1 hr of leg/core work - torture getting in and out of my chair now!

Sunday: 14k bike ride in I don't know how long, but my legs were jelly after. Weak, I know!

Friends Once More

Rain and I kissed and made up last night, and I had one of my most enjoyable runs in a long time. The light drizzle coupled by the coolness (which in Singapore is very, very, very rare!) made everything so comfortable and well...pleasant. I had a bit of a stitch, but the weather was just too good to stop. It was just one of those nights where everything in the run fit from the moment I stepped out of the house till the moment I got back in.

And Jim Croce - you're my man. I tend to run listening to this upbeat playlist of random songs I like, but last night I took a break from that and put on the Jim-man. And he did a good...no great job. Like I said, everything fit last night and I can say (at least, just for last night) I do actually love running!

Rain + Gerry + running = BFFs

What I did
Ran 3K

Rain Makes Me Fat

Sharon and I had a tennis session all set up yesterday and (story of my life) it starts pissing down - the heavy, I'm-not-going-to-let-up kind of rain. Darn. So we decided to meet for drinks instead. We're just terrible influence on each other. I, however, felt bad enough that I did a 600m swim before. Ooof, having not put in any swimming in the past weeks, my arms were ready to pop out of their sockets after the swim! Then I met Sharon for dinner and vino. Lots of vino! My left deltoid aches today! Poor weak arm!

What I did last night:
Swam 10 x 60m

A Date with the Sports Doctor

So early this year at the adventure race I fell and hurt my little toe. After a couple of months of it hurting I went to see the sports doctor about it and on doing an ultrasound on the toe to check that no tendons(?) were torn, established there was nothing wrong it. Still it continued to hurt if I put any weight on it.

Early this month, being the total klutz that I am, when I entered CMPB to get a couple of drinks I tripped over a step and made a very unglamorous entrance. And OBVIOUSLY I would land on the very same toe that has been hurting all this while. So after a couple of weeks, and in the course of them I've squeezed my toe into heels twice (I had to attend fancy dinners! They required heels!), my toe still ached if I moved it back which meant another trip back to the sports doctor. I'm not complaining, the guy's great eye-candy so I'm happy to stare at him all day; but I felt so stupid. It's the last toe, and really in my day-to-day activities, it hardly affects my life, but it's still annoying and I'm a little bit of a hypochondriac - so really, half of me wants to get something sorted and the other half is just going 'this is sooooo lame!'

After looking at the X-ray of my toe and finding out nothing was wrong again, he said the joint might be a bit sore and if it was really troubling me, I could get a cortisone jab. Now I have no problem with taking jabs, but frankly if it's not absolutely compulsory I have one, then I'd rather just lay off the jab. So the plan B is icing the crap out of my toe and going on a week of anti-inflammatories. Hopefully that'll wipe out all the pain on the toe and I can go back to....well, it's not like I stopped my life because of the toe! I guess the upside of all this is I got another look at the doctor, I just wish I didn't come across like a complete klutz!

Another Weekend Another Run

Well, a teeny tiny run. A little 2.5k run. A run up and down a 'hill'...or rather a bunch of slopes. That makes it a 10k run, no?

Ever since my training session last Thursday (and that includes today even), I've been aching madly. Deciding to do the run on that 'hilly' (I'm going to keep using 'hilly' because it makes me sound hard-core) road was probably not the brightest idea since I haven't run in ages and since I was already aching. Obviously Sunday wasn't so great for me. Oh hang on, I forgot to add that after my run, I went off to meet Merle and Sam in the evening for drinks and Rai for further drinks at stupid-o-clock. Very very stupid. I actually managed to get a headache mid-way through drinks with Rai and I woke up the next day aching even more than ever. Way to rest up those muscles.

My dad decided he wanted to do a walk on Sunday, so that meant dragging my poor achy legs to Botanic Gardens with both my dad and mum doing a fast-paced walk for a good 1/2 hour. My butt ached after. Well to be specific my right butt cheek ached after. I'm not sure why but I'm putting it down to just pure unfitness.

Today it was back to the gym with my sadist of a trainer again. I said my arms ached, so we did boxing. Make sense to you? Sure didn't to me. I essentially spent an hour whining away to him. I also convinced him to get me on core work. And of course I proceeded to regret that since my core is the only part not aching. I guess....achy abs tomorrow then! Gah....can't feel my arms now!

What I've done:

Saturday - 2.5k at grandma speed
Sunday - 1/2 hour walk

Today - Personal Training: 1/2 hour boxing, 1/2 hour core work

Tired!!!!!

Yowza!

After taking all the time off the past weeks and doing nothing very much but put my liver to the test, my trainer finally bugged me enough for me to show up for training yesterday. He said it'd be an easy session. He lied. Did a whole bunch of inner thigh/outer thigh, shoulder blades, back, arm work etc etc etc. Guess who's aching today. Well, aching and sleepy...namely because I played till 4am last night. And I wonder why I fall sick so easily! Must be ALL that sleep and rest I'm getting!

Hopefully, this training session kicks me back to a more normal human sleep cycle, or at least one where I get a nice 7 hours of sleep. I was supposed to go for the Choo Choo Trek tomorrow, but it got canceled, so I may at least be able to sleep in! Maybe I'll be able to fit in a bike ride/rock climbing/swimming/golf over the weekend! Although it seems highly likely I may just wind up doing nothing in the end.

What I did yesterday:
1 hr personal training

Sleepy but Happy

Because I'm still not fully well, my solution has been to hang out with friends till late lately. It's been really good fun in a whole chill-out, no-fuss way. Minus the complete lack of sleep because we're yabbering till early morn, I actually love the camaraderie, the vino and the mad conversations. To all my friends out there I love, here's sending good thoughts your ways! I'm really glad I've got you all!

Yes and all these emotional flighty updates are purely because I haven't done much training....hang on...I actually do have something more meaty to put in here...

So I met Sharon at a bar. As one does when they want to make new friends - they go to a bar and pick up random strangers (kidding!). Anyway, Sharon and I realised we were super alike and somehow became really good friends...at least I take her as my really good friend, she may not....Last week Sharon and I decided to be good and do some sport so I had my first game of tennis in ages! And we went for a walk over the weekend. It was a load of laughs...and chatter. This weekend, I join the British Club for their Choo Choo Trek. I shall see if I can get some pictures of that trek!

What I did last week:
Wednesday - Tennis (1 hour)
Saturday
- Walked (Jln Kampong Chantek - Bkt Timah Nature Reserve - Rifle Range Road: 2 hours)

Crosswords, Vino, an Old Friend and the Arts

**Warning!!! slightly emo post!!**

Since I've been unable to do anything too strenuous lately and since I've had my heartbreak a couple of months ago, I've been trying to fill my time with things I've always wanted to do but didn't because I had no one to go with me or because I was too busy training (or at least thinking about training, not doing it and then feeling guilty about it). So in a whole bid to seek this independence that I seem to have lost over the years, I went off and got myself a ticket for Jeremy Monteiro (one of Singapore's more famous local Jazz talents) to see his solo piano recital. Right after I did that though, a friend, Ed, and his wife decided to join me - okay, so I didn't go solo in the end, but the thought was there! The three of us also got tickets to watch Natalie Cole at the Sun Festival and did that just last Sunday.

I have to say, I've really been enjoying these recitals/concerts . Previously I would kind of wait around for my man (now, ex) before I could do anything...not because I really needed to have him around, but just as a whole 'if I enjoyed the moment, I would really want to share that moment with the person I loved'. So I would always wait for my man to be free and he wasn't free a lot for me somehow, which meant I didn't end up doing a lot of things I wanted to. I guess it is a blessing in disguise that I now have the opportunity to do all these things now. I've been reading a lot, going for blue-sky holidays and attending more jazz concerts - things I could never seem to make time for. Also tonight I'm off to watch Jose Carreras in concert - I'm not sure I'll fully enjoy it, but who knows? Mainly I'm once more starting to get out there and be curious about the world again.

Along with this life change, an old friend has also reappeared in my life. A very good friend and a friend who I've shared certain important moments in my life with. It's been weird because in the last week I've seen more of him than I have in the last 2 years. For 2 years, we've had, at most, a handful of half-hearted calls; if we met up, it was because we ran into each other and nothing more - then all of a sudden he rings up one day, we meet up and magically we're the best of friends again. And it is nice. And I realise I do actually miss our little chats and that bizarre chemistry we share as friends. We've met up about a good 4 times last week - as if to cram in 2 years worth of yapping - and we'll play crosswords over a glass/bottle of vino till late into the night. Did I mention I've become a huge crossword buff as well lately? Really really love doing them! So, a good friend, some vino and crosswords - what more could one ask for?

Side note - I've not been doing much by way of exercise. I did 10 lunges on each side on Sunday and my hamstrings were aching the next day (I'm totally in fighting shape). Also did a 3k walk with my folks and a bunch of crunches. I think I need to watch an episode of Tomb Raider for inspiration again!