Snippets

Look at that - my last post was 1 month ago. I don’t know if it has been 30 days or not but I do admit that in between these days, my work and school combo has drained me very much. Not to mention that I have Saturday duties nowadays. 

Basically this means a whole lot more reshuffling of plans and many more sacrifices to be made. It also means that I have not been running for one whole month. Till today. And boy, it was tough.

The thing about my body is that it takes some time to move from gear one to the next level. Perhaps everyone else is the same but I felt that I made a great mistake in undoing all my hard work of increasing my fitness level in the month of December.

Honestly, I felt really unmotivated to run. On days that I don’t have class at night, I would wanna rest or just do my own stuff like surfing forums for camera and technology talk. The fatigue was really snowballing week after week.

However, this week there are no class due to the Chinese New Year so therefore, I had the luxury to choose the days that I wish to go for runs. Plus I’m not mentally and physically drained from studies. Trust me, it does make a hell lot of difference.

I know I can’t complain. I chose this path of studying while working. And chose to run to improve my fitness level as well as be healthier as a whole.

Forgive me but sometimes I do like to feel that I am a human being after all, subjected to feelings and emotions, fatigue and weariness.

By the way, today’s 8 laps were a torture :( 

I bought a weight set today that costs me $210 buckeroos to be exact. Yes, $210. *GASP!

But to the neighsayers, I have a rationale behind it. I recently am on track to quit my puffs and while technically it saves me from buying the packs, it doesn’t really mean I’m getting richer by the day. Also I started to embark on a healthy lifestyle which I hope will bear fruits one day. What started out as runs for cardio has now branched out to weights for strength training.

I did a lot of thinking before plunging into buying the set. I figured out once my schedule of work and school kicks in, there will be little time or motivation for me to run. In fact, with my current lifestyle, I already feel so lazy to get out and hit the gym. So I concluded, hey why not invest in one. It’s for my own good anyway and I’ll have no more excuse not to include strength training into my regime. 

Another factor was that I am currently extensively looking for a graphic card that can hold my games or handle editing work smoothly. This little beast would have cost me even more, perhaps in the range of $300. 

So I thought that my PC is working just fine. It’s just human nature to want something better every time and not realizing that what we have has been adequate. So I jumped boat to the fitness equipment instead since I don’t have any to start with except a pair of 4KG dumbells which I think is not sufficient for me right now.

Plus there was a free delivery. I know the seller’s made quite a tidy profit perhaps since they’re even able to include the free delivery but hey I did my market research and these items outside cost a lot more.

It’s the same rationale as my protein shakes. I’ll never buy from GNC ever again for they overprice their items and market themselves as if there are no other options available to get these supplements. But in fact there is. 

Looking forward to a much more healthier me in the year 2011. :)

I realized today that running without my music is akin to running round and round the park aimlessly. I don’t know if my mentality is weak or not but I feel much more helpless without my earpieces on. And my mind keep drifting off the fact that I’m running without much cause. 

That equates to heavier strides and reminded me of my days in Tekong for those 2.4KM runs. Once it’s a “GO!” the next destination will be the finishing line. If I were to slow down or worse, stop for a breather, I’d regret till the next time trial run. It was always a lonely run I tell you.

So no matter how neon green my earpiece is, I guess I had bought it for a reason and might as well fully utilized it. And hey, it keeps me focused on my running too since I have to go round and round.

In other news, I landed myself a job in the social service sector! It has been something that I had been wanting to do so I better make the most out of it. Yes, that was a note to self.

On paper - I was literally given one - my job scope looked daunting. But I hope to adapt quickly and have them all on my fingertips. It’s gonna be a new year, a new beginning. Hopefully it’ll be a start of a wonderful career for me.

I can only know that when I look back to today, perhaps in 5 years time. Will this space even exist then? Who knows?

It’s gonna be Christmas Eve tomorrow and flashback to last week, it was a killer week to get myself into any fitness activities. There were unpredictable weathers and certain circumstances which let’s just say were much more important to tend to than keeping up with my runs.

It’s true. I had ran in between showers; getting caught in it while on the way home from buying dinner. And I must admit my running wasn’t consistent throughout the week - it was like Mon, Thurs and Sun. Period.

This week, I reverted back to the Mon-Wed-tomorrow (pending) schedule. Cross fingers, I WILL run tomorrow. Judging by my schedule, it’s supposed to be a morning run. But I know how much of a morning person I am. Not.

But I did something outrageous on Monday. I don’t know what hit me but I clocked almost AN HOUR OF RUNNING/JOGGING/BRISK WALKING or approximately 20 rounds of my normal route, whichever rocks your boat.

Thinking back, it was insane. But at that point of time, I remembered vividly that at the 10th round, I decided to go for 12. And at the end of the 12th, I say go for 15 because I’m not feeling that weary yet. Come the 15th I told myself, “Hey what’s 5 more rounds man!” The next time I mentally wanna clock 20 rounds, I had to start from Round 1. So why not now?

And so it came - 5 more rounds that seemed forever to complete due to cumulative lactic acid in my legs and fatigue.

Yet the feeling when I was cooling down was breathtaking, quite literally too. My legs were sore; I had to walk as if I had abrasions on my thighs but luckily no. I breathed out as if I had completed the 42KM Standard Chartered Marathon but no too. It was just a 20 round-er.

Perhaps I should up my rounds to 12 and make it consistent from now onwards.