What if there weren't 24 hours each day? I think it'd be pretty crap, because the stoopid rainy weather would wash everyone's outdoor plans away. Thankfully it might have been raining buckets for a few hours each day, but there's always enough hours of sunshine (or at least, no rain) to squeeze in a workout.

Woke up at 6am to go for training with the national guys, but, like yesterday, I was back under the covers because of the rain. Decided then to go for 9am service instead of 11am. After church, came back home and slept like a baby. Don't know why but I've been feeling really sleepy this whole weekend. Maybe it's the weather. I didn't even have lunch.. just slept!

Woke up four hours later at about 4.30pm and lazed around the house a bit, then went for a longish run. I say longish because compared to when I was training for the Ironman, it wouldn't be anywhere near long. But compared to the past few relatively shorter and faster workouts I've been doing (18k and less), today's half marathon was something I'd been looking forward to. Looking forward to, but, I must add, that I had to really drag my ass out the door. And during the first half of the run I felt so sluggish... but it got better. Thanks in big part to the Nike+iPod gadget (have you got yours already, by the way?).

So, 21k done and dusted. Washed down some food -- fish cake and tofu (I couldn't stomach anything else) -- with loads of liquids (sugarcane and water chestnut, 100plus and apple juice). And it's back to being horizontal on the bed.

Oh no. This is the first Saturday in a long while that I've not done an early morning ride and I'm feeling a bit out of sorts. Woke up to find the rain beating down on my Pasir Ris pavements... I stayed awake for close to an hour hoping it'd stop, but it didn't. And by the time it did, it was too late for me to make my way down to meet the guys at Cycleworx. I'll probably head out for an easy spin along Coastal Road by meself in a bit...

Well the positives that I can actually take out of this wet, dreary morning is that:
1. The other Cycleworx dudes probably didn't make it either
2. Every triathlete in Singapore was affected so everyone's training plans were washed out too, yippee!
3. I can always bike now, and run later, and then join the national guys for their ride tomorrow, something I have not done in a long time.
4. Sleeping in was probably a good way to celebrate passing Teeline on the first try with a distinction, ... and to recover from a rare Friday night out of K-Box with Teeline pals Keith and Carol, and farewell drinks for Yishen with colleagues at Brussel Sprouts...

Everyone sing now... Y-M-C-A!

Colleagues with muscles mussels, and a rare bottle to myself...

Alright, time to drag my fat ass out for a ride. Ciao!

(two and a half hours later...)

Back from my lonely ride at Coastal, the first in that area in a long time. I was reminded why I hate riding at that place. First, I had circled that boring flat route umpteen times as a National triathlete for five straight years -- and that, I'm sure, is enough to make anyone sick of that place. Second, something about the wind at Coastal that gives you headwind or crosswind in pretty much any direction you're headed -- and that is a huge pain in the butt. Literally and figuratively so. But it was all good. I was plugged into my iPod Nano and just put my head down and cranked the pedals into the wind barrier. Managed to maintain 31-35km/h throughout the 80k bike ride (three loops of Selarang), so it was all good. I can feel myself getting stronger... or is it just the souped up Zipp Team CSC training wheels? HMMM!!!!!

So I guess I'm not much of a catwalker. Saturday's little gig at Zouk's Sweet Sixteen was, I think, quite an embarassing moment for me. Among the celebs (radio, tv, theatre, sports) and models, there was me, the sore thumb sticking out. I could have sworn there were question marks forming on everyone's faces when they saw me: "Who the heck is this?!". Anyway... the drinks were flowing and the cupcakes were yummy, plus the other catwalkers were a big bunch of fun, so despite the embarassment I had tons of fun that night. Randall, David, Byron, Shyam and I did the jocks portion of the little catwalk show. Here are a coupla pics:

Randall with his curry puff hair and David with his bling..

Randall and I while waiting for our turn on stage...

If you missed the party... too bad! It was really fun. Happy birthday Zouk!

Meanwhile, today marked the end of a three-week holiday period for me. We had our teeline exam today after three weeks of practice and I can safely say I can now transcribe 100 words/min at least. Whoopee!

Last night, in the cool of a wet, rainy evening, five Cycleworx riders -- Kee Meng, Joe, Jessica, Yusoff and myself -- braved the weather and continued with our Wednesday ride. Due to low visibility and dangerous slick roads Yusoff decided to cut short the ride to 46k much to my disappointment. But my whining stopped and turned into wheezing as soon as we hit Mandai. Yusoff's theory is if we go short, we go fast. So I hopped onto his wheel, but could hardly draft because of the fountain of water spurting from his rear wheel. I stuck on as hard as I could (Yusoff wasn't even really pushing it) and I swear I left my heart on the slopes of Mandai. Tired, sweaty, dirty -- in other words, feeling great! -- I met J for dinner for some cajun chicken at the Botak Jones beside my office. Ahh, perfect.

Thankfully, I had enough heart in me today to pass teeline!... and enough heart to do a long easy swim tonight. Off to do it now, ciao!

I soooo did not want to ride when I got up this morning. Woke up to the soothing sounds of Everything But The Girl's 'Like Deserts Miss the Rain' album which I bought at Borders yesterday. That made me all the more want to go back to bed. But, yes, will power overtook fatigue and I dragged myself out for the ride. Actually left my house earlier than usual, so decided to spin slowly to the usual meeting point (Cycleworx). There were 24 in the peloton today, one of the bigger groups we've had. When we turned onto the road leading to the Second Link, Antonio surged ahead and I followed... we were hovering between 40-44km/h (I was just sucking wheel all the way). I thought it had been only two of us, but Ben followed... so Ben and Antonio worked while I hung on. It seems Antonio was rushing off for a meeting and Ben, well, I don't know what he was rushing for. Me, I was rushing to get the ride over and done with and get home for more sleep. Decided to go shorter today, so only did 125km.

On the way back at Mandai, I went past a girl and a guy cycling, and the guy jumped onto my wheel. ARGH! I sooo hate that. People should understand there's etiquette even in sports. You don't just draft anyone who passes you, especially when you don't even know them! I swerved left to shake him off my wheel and he fell back. The poor girl was way behind. Dude, you gotta learn.. not.. to.. suck.. just.. anyone..

Anyway, by the time I got home my legs were well and truly tired... had two bowls of Chex with ice cold milk... a nice long bath... cleaned up my bike.... and returned back to bed and Everything But The Girl.

Post-ride pic: the new Cycleworx team jersey.

Tonight I'm going to sooo embarass myself. Am catwalking at Zouk's Sweet 16 Birthday party. Uh-oh.

Images from the couple of days gone by...

Sunday's dinner with the family: Chwee kueh at the Outram Park food centre
(Not in the shot: Pork chops, prawn paste chicken, beef hor fun,
steamed fish in awesome spicy sauce and a ton of veggies.
For dessert: mango pudding, almond longan and glutinous rice balls.)

Aye, but I didn't eat all that ok. I barely had half a bowl of rice and nibbles here and there of the food. Probably had most of the veggies though! I figured my 3.5k swim after church on Sunday would have only accounted for the chwee kueh. And the 135k bike ride the day before had been consumed by an awesome chicken tikka sandwich from Swissotel's Thos SB for lunch, a mini chicken and white wine piper's pie for tea, and my first KFC meal in years for dinner.

And from today: shorthand class in session!

There's eight of us in the class, all SPH rookies. We're into our second week of learning Teeline. After picking up the basics last week, we're into speed building this week. The target: 100 words a minute. The current speed: 60 words a minute max. Oh mn, im so in trbl! But my classmates are great fun. We even went for early drinks at Brewerkz last Friday. Just imagine that, journos enjoying beers (for them) and a mango margherita for me (total damage: close to $300) in daylight on a Friday. Pigs are flying, I tell you. At least for two more weeks.

And then I get to train without any hindrance. Today I ran at 5pm in an empty gym... doing an hour hard -- ascending speed -- and a 30 minute easy run to follow for an 18k total.

Life couldn't be better.

Dear Men (in general, that is),

You are welcome that you have us women to boost your egos. You are very welcome that you get a kick out of passing me in the swim, bike or run. No need to thank me for that surge of superiority you experience everytime you race me for 50 metres intermittently as I do a 4km long, easy swim. Yes, I did mention 'easy'. And yes, I do notice how you anticipate my tumble turn as I approach the wall, and kick off just at the right time, swimming ever so close to me with your flailing freestyle arms and screwed up strokes. It's ok, I don't have much of an ego so it's ok if you beat and batter me (over 50 metres). It's perfectly fine also that with an eight-lane swimming pool, you choose to swim right next to me when the other lanes are barely occupied. In fact, your species in the other lanes, I notice, also race me, albeit over different times. You must enjoy beating me (over 50 metres). FYI, I'm a mid-pack swimmer who picked up freestyle aged 18 and I'm really not very fast in the water.

Anyway, you're also very welcome each time you refuse to let me pass you on the running trails or road. I don't mind that as I do my long, easy run I help you take your pace just that little bit higher. Yes, I do notice, because the quiet of the jungle is disturbed by your incessant panting just to not let me pass. And I appreciate all your effort in keeping up with me, and often passing me back, after I have passed you. Like I said, I'm just glad I'm giving you a good workout.

At least on the bike I can say there are gentlemen out there. Yes, cycling is a true gentleman's sport, just like golf. These men (at least the ones I bike with from Cycleworx) don't mind you being in front of them now and then. It's called working together -- sometimes I draft them, sometimes they draft me. Of course, I can't say that I have the same power and top speed as them, but both they and I are not out to prove anything. We just want to have a nice long ride (and we often do). I'm happy to say the cyclists I know have no problems with their ego.

But that is perhaps where the distinction lies. It is the fast who don't care, and the slow who are out to prove they're fast, when they really are slow (and I'm referring to men in general here). It is the good guys who know inside where they stand and don't need to show it, and the not so good guys who're insecure that a chick is faster than they are.

So, really, go ahead and get a kick out of using me to get your daily fix of an ego boost. Because, darling, I really don't give a damn.

Love,
Jeanette

People always have an excuse for not being able to train, but I believe you can make things happen if you really want to. You'll find the time to train if you were really passionate about your sport. And that's what I preach and practise. Wasn't able to join the Cycleworx ride on Wednesday 7.15pm, so I woke early on Wednesday at 4.15am to start my 100km ride at 5am. Was done at about 8.15am and made it in time for work at 10am. On Thursday I was tired and could not wake up for my planned morning run, so I went to work and then squeezed in a 65 minute run at lunch. Today I woke at 6.15am and headed to the Jalan Besar swimming pool for an early 4k swim before work.

Of course, sacrifices have to be made, but I still managed to squeeze in time with friends yesterday and today (including a mango magherita!). So, really, there is no such thing as no time to train..

Anyway, talking about swimming at Jalan Besar, if you ever had phobia of the mass starts in triathlons, swim at Jalan Besar at 8am. There were more than 100 kids (I kid you not) having swim lessons there this morning during my workout. That's not including a group of elderly folk doing their leisurely breaststroke. So really I was dodging people all the way. Had to exxagerate my strokes a bit to overtake people, look forward and sight ever so often and spent the whole 4k swim expanding more energy than I would usually. But I just told myself that this was perfect race simulation, and I got through the swim pretty smoothly. In the past I would've gotten so pissed I would've kicked the kids. Heh. (Ok the shitty thing is when I finally finished my workout, so did ALL the kids finish their swim class. Another lesson: go to Jalan Besar after 9.30am).

Ran 18k on the treadmill after work. Felt good, felt strong, felt great for burning off my Botak Jones caesar salad 'n fries lunch. Did a 30 minute warm-up, picking up speed gradually from 10.5km/h to 13km/h, then going at 13.8 - 14.0km/h for 20 minutes, easy for five minutes, then 5 sets of 2min30sec hard (14.5-15km/h), 2min30sec easy, followed by a 10 minutes cooldown. Good stuff, 18k passed by in a flash. I should've pushed myself harder though -- I was hardly panting throughout. Oh well, guess I'll leave that for tomorrow morning's bike ride.

Am on course right now. It's called Teeline and it lasts for three weeks. Teeline is a form of shorthand and supposedly we are learning what is usually taught in a year. Calling it a crash course would be an understatement. But I can't complain. We're pampered with 10-5 days, weekends off, three breaks during the day (two 20 minute tea breaks and an hour lunch break), and free grub (including Spinelli's coffee) during the tea breaks. It's the first time I get to see daylight after knocking off. No writing for three weeks... and this course is compulsary, lest you think I'm slacking off. Need to complete it within your first year to get promoted. My second year at SPH begins on June 9. Time flies! Just seems like yesterday I was still whining about lectures and homework in NTU.

Alrt, gdnt frm m. Gta wk up erly tmrw fr a bk rd. If u cnt rd ths, u nd to lrn shthnd.

I'm thinking Good Friday is named as such not just for its religious reasons, but plainly because the day probably turns out pretty good for everyone. It certainly did for me. Woke up at about 8am and had my usual two slices of PB&K (peanut butter and kaya) toast while doing some work from home. Left at 9.30am -- well it turned out to be 9.45am by the time my Mom got ready -- for the combined Presbyterian service at the Singapore Expo. Now, this is one of only the few times staying in God-forsaken Pasir Ris is a plus -- we took barely five minutes to get there. Wonderful. The service was pretty alright, I liked the songs we sang during worship and the speaker was pretty good (at least I stayed awake). We then ate at the foodcourt at the expo, then drove to Bedok South to get popiah skins and came home. It was scorching hot outside and I promptly took a bath and crashed under the comforter with the air-con turned up. Woke up, did more work, and then decided to haul my ass out for a medium-long run.

I really wasn't feeling like a run, but I figured I needed the training if I wanted to kick butt at next month's duathlon. I also wanted to try out the new Nike+ stash I got earlier in the week. So, put on my favourite Nike shorts & sports bra & the new Nike+ women's running tank, laced up my brand new Air Zoom Vomero+ 2 with my favourite Nike anatomic socks and hooked my iPod up. Tied my hair up and put on my visor and I was good to go.

Started the run by calibrating my Nike+iPod sensor kit first. I hadn't since I gotten it weeks back. Using the 100-metre markers along Pasir Ris Town Park, I followed the simple instructions on the Nano's screen, ran 400m and voila! Calibrated. Great! It was giving me the wrong speed before -- way too fast. It was pretty much accurate now. So, off I went...

Through Pasir Ris Town Park, along Pasir Ris Dr 3 (I think that's what it's called), followed the road down to Tampines Ave 10, straight down to Bedok Reservoir. Made a round of it, went onto Tampines Ave i-duno-what, past Tampines Stadium and the Nike office onto Tampines Ave 9, onto the running path by the canal which led to Pasir Ris Dr 1 and then my flat.

17k went by like the breeze thanks to Justin Timberlake, Jamiroquai, Kings of Convenience, Jack Johnson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, India Arie, Gwen Stefani, Jem... and I can't remember who else. Man, I'm a convert. I used to think running with music was irritating, but I think it actually helps in long runs. Especially around my estate, where people stare at you like they've never seen a girl run before. What you don't see or hear, you don't know. So I shut out everyone's stares and the noise of everyone's hurried lives, and just do my own thing. Wonderful.

The Nike+ women's running tank was absolutely the best running top I've ever used. I can't describe the material, but I can tell you it wicks sweat like hell, is super light, breathable, and doesn't chafe cos it's seamless. Excellent stuff. The iPod's wires were tucked away neatly and never once got in the way. Forget the armband -- I tried that the last time, but using the top to hold the iPod is much better. The buttons were easy to reach too. People have complained about the iPod bobbing up and down, but I solved that easily but tucking the bottom bit of the iPod into my shorts. It didn't affect me one bit. People have also complained about the earbuds falling out of their sweaty ears, but I use the Sony in-ear earphones and have no trouble with that at all. The Air Zoom Vomero was a dream too. Extremely plush ride. I'm a lightweight, neutral runner who likes lightweight and fast shoes. I don't like too much cushioning. The Vomero is cushioned just right using my favourite Zoom Air technology, has the right support at the right places, and is light enough for a relatively fast run. It's going to be my regular training shoes now. Best of all, it's Nike+ enabled!

17k done and dusted and I'm delighted...
Me and my Vomeros...

A tip for those sweaty runners like myself...
glad wrap your iPod before you head out!

Love at first sight... my favourite cake from Canele, L'Amour.

Happiness is finally getting my legs going after two days of headache-inducing work, 14-hour days and non-exercising. Happiness is running 17k on the treadmill -- 20 minute warm-up, 8x(5 min hard, 2.5 min easy), 5 min cooldown -- hurting and yet loving every minute of it. Happiness is having a Spinelli's cajun turnover after all that effort and a hot cuppa. Happiness is coming home to my room. Happiness is knowing I have the day off tomorrow, and a morning swim and long ride at night to look forward to.

Sleepiness is what I am feeling now.