| April 23, 2008. Wednesday |
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I battered them today. Them poor soles. But it felt good -- no, great. The euphoria I got from running 48km this evening totally makes up for my inability to wear toe-revealing shoes without making the shoes look really ugly. Preparations for the big run started last night. Damo and I whipped up a recipe from Nigella Express, with a little improvisation. Lemon, mushroom and thyme linguini (the original recipe), with some spicy Italian sausages added in to up the sodium levels (our brilliant idea). Carbs and sodium, a must a night or two before a long run. It was truly yums. Damo thought we had cooked too much, but he cleaned out his plate (which looked like Mount Linguini to start with) in the end and so did I. Mmmmmm.. This morning I didn't have much of an appetite for breakfast, unusally, probably because I was still feeling stuffed from the linguini. So had a slice of raisin bread with PB&K and that was it. Some juice too. Lazed in bed on my day off, then did my laundry and folded me clothes. Then I whipped up lunch at about 12 -- eggplant and tuna parpadelle. Had a huge serving, probably double of what I usually eat, but it was yummy so I ate every morsel. Anyway, with thoughts of BIG RUN AHEAD lingering in my mind the whole morning, I figured I needed all the energy I could get. After lunch I read for a bit, then snoozed for a couple of hours, waking up at 4pm to prep my stuff for the run. Decided to go with my Nike waist pouch-bottle holder thing (what in the world are those things called??), instead of the hand-held bottle I bought last week. The decision proved to be the right one. Stuffed three gels, money and my house keys into the little pouch compartment. Filled up the bottle with 100plus-OJ mix. And then I decided to use the iPod shuffle for my run, so I loaded up some songs into it. Now, I don't usually enjoy running with music. But five hours or so on the road alone can get quite boring, so I decided to try running with music. It worked a treat! I think I might race the Ultra with the shuffle plugged in. I found that it took all distractions away -- pain, irritating road-blockers and starers at East Coast Park, comments from irritating people along the way, etc. Gone. Schweeeet. Thanks baby! Muacks muacks muacks. So, all set to go, I laced up my Nike Zoom RSs and headed out the door just before 5pm. The plan was to do 50k, or a five-hour run. At that point, 10pm seemed like ages away. But with every step my body slowly got into a good rhythm and soon I found myself cruisin'. I made four drink stops of about 5mins or less for each, almost every hour on the hour. The first was the toilet at the end of Changi Beach Park. My bottle of 100plus-OJ was still half-full, so I just took some swigs of water from the tap and doused my head in water. The second stop was at the toilet just outside Singapore Sailing. I bought a can of Pocari to refill my bottle, and I downed a can of 100plus, plus a can filled with water. Instead of doing the race turnaround at Big Splash, I ran all the way to the end of ECP at Fort Road to help make up the mileage, then turned around back towards the original route. The third drink stop was at Big Splash's 7-Eleven, where I filled my bottle with Pocari again, and downed a gel with a bottle of milk tea. The fourth and final drink stop was at the toilet at Bedok Town Park (I think that's what it's called, it's just before the Bedok Reservoir bit). I finished up the Pocari drink and downed another gel, then filled the bottle with water. I could smell home... less than 10km to go. Added more mileage again by doing a little loop at Pasir Ris Town Park, which brought the total distance of the run to 48km. The last five Ks or so I kept smiling to myself. My legs flowed with the music and I was feeling good. Total time: 4h 39min
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| April 22, 2008. Tuesday |
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I realised I calculated my weeks wrongly (surprise, surprise). I thought this week would be my last hard week for the Ultra, in order to have a four-week taper. But I realised I miscalculated and it's actually five weeks to the Ultra at the end of this week, not four. How how how? A five-week taper could be too long. But I don't know if my legs or head will hold up for another big week next week! Anyway, last week went pretty good. So I pretty much did what I said I'd do on Thursday. I ran 2h 45min starting at 4.45am, came home, chilled out for a bit then headed to work. Did a couple of hours of work till 12noon, then did a 55min run from office to Damo's place to get my car (he had driven it home from mine on Tuesday. I didn't drive on Wednesday). I reckon I probably did close to 40km in total, so it was good. Surprisingly, the legs felt pretty ok for the second run, despite having less than four hours rest in between. Went for a press con at 4pm and worked till about 8ish, then went to Damo's for dinner. He did a veggie and beef stir fry. Yum! Rested Friday and got a massage, then did a 75k bike ride with Damo, Ben and Siew Hua on Saturday. The other CycleWorx guys supposedly were going to Kulai, where my sunnies were nicked off me face last year -- so I didn't go. But turns out only six went to Kulai and four did the ride from the shop... well, basically our CycleWorx group ride was all over the place. Fortunately, in a way, because my legs felt a little dead. Sunday I had planned to run but decided I should rest me legs instead for this big week. Damo went to church with me for the first time, then we went in search of cat poo coffee but to no avail. The two cafes had closed down, despite still being in existence on their website. So, we went to House at Dempsey to check out a flea market (alkaline water, brown rice 'fit balls', fresh veggies and the usual vintage-y, retro-y garb -- we didn't buy anything). And we had brunch there too. I had Ahi Taki Tuna (or was it Ahi Maki or Ahi Mahi?? Anyway, twas yummy!) and Damo had a Cajun Chicken Sandwich (twas yummy too!). I was disappointed they didn't have the alcoholic chocolate milkshake anymore, though. I just had it in Dec/Jan (can't remember exactly)... ok well, not 'just'. But yeah, no more yummy alcoholic chocolate milkshake. Boo. Yesterday I did 12k on the tready. I picked the tready that had the track option, so it was like, well, running on the track. I did a four-round warm-up (1.6k), followed by six sets of 800m hard, 400m easy (7.2k total), then did two rounds easy, one 400m hard, two rounds easy, one 400m hard, and two rounds cool down. Pretty boring, really. But at least I got to try out my new pair of Nike Free 7.0s. It was sweeeeeet! Great shoe. For me, I think it has adequate cushioning and support, and might try it for some longer runs, even though the shoe was primarily designed for leg and foot strengthening drills. And so that brings me to now, 8am on a Tuesday morning, back in bed after a 50km ride that started at 5.15am. Decided to try a new route today -- to Seletar, Yishun via Hougang and back -- and it was nice. Doubly nice because I was caught in a mega rainstorm just when I hit Yishun, which lasted all the way home. I'm happy when it rains. :-) Triple-y nice because I had the companionship of a red iPod shuffle that Damo had surprised me with last week. Good tunes, baby! And the shuffle held up fine in the storm.
Tomorrow, I shall attempt a 50km run. Can't wait...
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| April 16, 2008. Wednesday |
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Right. My first post since Feb 20, 2007. Or should I say, 2008. Looking back on my posts for the year so far (which haven't been many, especially not since I haven't written anything since Feb 20), I realised I dated everything to 2007. Starting this post today, I also typed 2007 initially. And saving the february page, I typed 'feb07.html'. Of course if you try to look at the dates now you'll realise it's all the correct dates.... ;-) Right. Either I'm gettting really old or time has passed so fast I've forgotten it's the fourth month of twenty-oh-eight. Or maybe I've just been having too much fun. Or maybe it's all the crazy training for next month's Sundown 84km Ultramarathon that has gotten to me. Or maybe it's work (crazy as usual). Or maybe it's the boyfriend (as some would say, even told me so already). Or maybe it's just me being lazy. I'd like to say it was a combination of all the above factors that I got the date wrong and also have not written anything in almost two months. (yes, people who said it was the boyfriend, stop grinning) What can I say, but I think I've finally found someone I love like crazy and who loves me like crazy back. Yes Mr Hopkins, I have. Wait, I don't think. I know. And he knows. Or should I say I think he knows? No. He knows. Because that's what we tell each other all the time. I love you, forever and ever. Is it crazy to be so sure so soon? I don't know, I don't care. He's crazy, I'm crazy, we're both crazy. About cycling. About tuna. About Flight of the Conchords. About The Frames. About Haribo. About chilli flake pasta. About silly dance moves where your index fingers bob more than your ass. About each other. Soppy sop sop bags, as trina would call us. Yeah, I know. So I'll stop grossing you out with our soppy sop sop bagness. What (else) have I been up to since Feb 20? Well. I think the best way to do this is to list the highlights in point form: - I turned 26 on March 13. I think it was a Thursday. Damo came by me place to get me and we went for a massage before a really, really, really (I can't stress this enough) nice candlelit dinner at Les Amis. He surprised me with a really beautiful Claddagh ring which he had bought on his trip home to Ireland in Feb (or was it Jan? heck you should know by now I've cleary no sense of time keeping). And at the end of the dinner surprised me with a slice of Le Royale from Canele (substitute for the discontinued personal favourite L'Amour), which we were both too full to eat by that time, so we doggie bagged it and ate it at the weekend. - I got filmed on March 13 (my birthday if you recall), and the show got aired last night. Highly embarrassing and only did it as a favour to a friend who was the camera guy for the show. I got madeover with curls and all. Had to pretend I had no sense of style or dressing, hated girly stuff, hated dresses... well all acting for a 'reality show'. Anyway, as soon as the shoot was over I took a really good bath to get rid of all the makeup and hair products on my head. And then Damo brought me for the massage. Obviously I'm willing to say this all after the show has been aired, because I didn't want anyone to see me on the tube. At least I was hoping. I got a grand total of seven SMSes, two facebook mails, and two scrawls on my facebook wall regarding the matter. Oh, and one call from the boss. How embarrassing. I can't really think of anything else exciting that I did, actually. So, now, let me bore you with the training I've done since Feb 20. I think I may have gotten some of the less important sessions on some days wrong, but overall it should be 95 per cent correct. Here goes: Mon (Feb 25) - rest EASY WEEK Mon (Mar 10) - 17km run Mon (Mar 17) - 3.4km swim (1,000m WU, 5x400m H, 4x50m
H, 200m CD) Mon (Mar 24) - rest EASY WEEK Mon (Apr 7) - 2h 30min long run Mon (Apr 14) - 35min interval run on tready (4x800m
main set) Next week is my last hard week before I taper for the Ultra. Am planning to go up to at least a 60km run. Wish me luck, again... Hopefully I will post something tomorrow after I'm done! Time for bed, good night! |
