Happy New Year

Workouts continue as I "doubled" again yesterday- a lunch time 35 minute run at about 5:30 per km pace, followed by RPM class at 6:45pm. Tested the biking shorts and the padding made the extra difference- now I see why it is essential for cyclists to wear them! If I, an indoor/gym cycling, 5-times-a-week, an hour-per-session RPM-er am having aches on my butt, what more for a hardcore cyclist who spends hours on his/her bike every day?

I was only able to do a single workout today during lunchtime. I managed to clock in 40 minutes on the treadmill. I had some urgent matters to attend to in the evening and had to head back to the apartment earlier than usual for dinner as Mrs Rabbit is on leave till the beginning of next year; plus I had to pack my clothes again for the impending trip to KL.

It's already Friday tomorrow and I'll be heading down to JB again after work, before driving to KL. The workout plan for Friday is to go for an early morning RPM class, followed by a lunchtime run.

Saturday is Mrs Rabbit's birthday. We'll be having a birthday lunch for her. Monday (new year's eve) is Mama Rabbit's birthday, and there'll be a dinner do at USJ.

Network Run is on new year's day, and I know I won't be in contention for any trophies, but what matters more is that I will be seeing some old friends and running with them again. Besides, I will be tired from the partying the night before! Come to think of it, my aim will merely be to complete the 6 loops round Lake Gardens. Chances are I will be hitting the sack very early in the morning, around 3-4am, leaving me with 2 hours' worth of sleep. Unlike Steve Prefontaine, I don't have the physical capacity to run hard after putting in an all-nighter in terms of partying.

Well, I'll give it my best shot.

Anyway, this I think will be my last post for the year 2007. Don't think I'll be online this next few days, as I'll be back in KL. So, have a Happy New Year! May 2008 bring you better health, more happiness and greater fulfillment in your lives.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!

It was a good Xmas break but it was still 4 days too short. Too little time to do so many things. I left Sg on Friday night but not before some apprehension and stress. What happened was that I had decided to drive back to KL from JB. My relatives in JB kindly agreed to loan me their car to drive to KL. It was just a matter of me taking the shuttle bus from Sg into JB, getting my cousin (who also has kindly agreed) to pick me up; drive to her parents' (my mom's sister and her husband) home so that she can drop herself off, and then I can go on my own merry way back to KL. There was some apprehension and stress on my part was because I didn't think I would make it back to JB on time. My cousin had mentioned that she will wait for me at a certain spot in JB, (which is only a very short walk from the JB immigration) at 730pm. I had it in my mind that the timing would be such- arrive at JB by 730pm, then dinner by 815pm, before leaving JB around 930pm. Guess where I was at 730pm? Still in Sg!!! I left office a tad late, but I also realised that I forgot to take something from the apartment, something that I have kept so well hidden that it simply did not cross my mind to pack it into my luggage because I simply did not see it. It was Mrs Rabbit's Christmas present.

Went back to the apartment, took the present, stuffed it in my bag and waited for the shuttle bus at the bus stand situated directly across the apartment. I waited since 715pm, and at 745pm, the bus was still nowhere to be seen. And I started to feel spits of water hitting my face and forehead. Bad sign, I thought to myself, because I knew then that it would rain. Within seconds, I made my mind up to hail a taxi, and (obviously) pay for the taxi fare to take me to the Woodlands checkpoint because I was already so late. What is all the more apparent about life in Sg is the "time or money" aspect. If you want to spend less time, you need to pay more money. I calculated that even if the bus arrived at 745pm (which it hadn't, anyway), the bus driver would have had to follow his set route, pick up more passengers along the way at the various stops, which would have made me even later than I already was.

So, taxi then. No sooner than 3 minutes into the taxi ride, it began to really pour. Coupled with the fact that the taxi driver told me that Rochor Road (the bus terminal from which the particular shuttle bus begins its journey) was chock-a-block jammed up (hence their non-appearance) I was all the more convinced that I made the right decision.

Despite the rain, it took me less than 20 minutes to arrive at the Woodlands checkpoint. Past immigration and onto the bus into JB, the entire process took about 15 minutes. I managed to arrive in JB by 820pm, which was an amazing feat when you consider I was still waiting for the bus just an hour earlier, and I only began my "journey" to JB at 745pm.

I had dinner with my aunt, uncles, cousins and my parents. My parents happened to be in JB visiting, so it was one (not so big) happy family dinner. I took my leave at 10pm, and drove back to KL. I didn’t shotgun it back to KL, honestly- but I arrived in KL in about 3 hours flat. I kept to the speed limit all the way, but the roads were just so clear and I did not stop at all. I spent the night in my in-law's.

Saturday was spent with Mrs Rabbit. Headed to Uptown for tea and to do my banking, then Taman Megah to get my bicycle shorts, and then Bangsar for a foot reflex/massage spot. We then went to Lake Gardens, and jogged/walked through the usual Carcosa/Planetarium/MGS route. Caught up with an old friend from the legal fraternity later that night. Stayed up till 3am.

Sunday- church in the morning, followed by breakfast. Later, headed to Lake Gardens again, same route with Mrs Rabbit. Dinner with in-laws. Watched the Everton vs Man U game. It was a tense moment when Cristiano Ronaldo stood at the penalty spot. The score was 1-1 at that point (towards the end of the match) and Everton were playing very well and holding their own, but a goal to put Man U 2-1 up would probably have knocked the stuffing out of Everton's brave performance. It needed a cool, calm head to score the penalty. Even Sir Alex Ferguson was tense at that point. And to his credit, Cristiano Ronaldo despatched it with insouciant aplomb. It looked so casual, you'd think he was just doing practice penalties at the training ground.

Monday- Lake Gardens again, Carcosa route. Then lunch at the poolside of Lake Club. Every Monday, Indian food (buffet style) is served. Good stuff! Thereafter I had to rush back to Subang for an urgent legal matter- that took almost 3 hours, before visiting a good friend who stays in Ceylon Hill. Spent almost 4 hours there. My mistake, because I had a Xmas dinner at home to attend- it was a small do which my parents had organised, and they have invited some of my relatives and friends. My mistake was staying there longer than I should have, because it was raining at that point and traffic out of KL was horrendous. I spent almost 1.5 hours getting out of KL. I picked up Mrs Rabbit (who had another party to attend in Bandar Utama) and headed back to Subang, arriving close to 9pm. There were a few comments made about my physique, how I've put on weight and look good. As an endurance athlete, more specifically a runner, you know that you're not in shape when people tell you that…

On Christmas Day (12am), we exchanged hugs, kisses and gifts.

Tuesday- Christmas Day. Christmas Day mass at church. Met up with Der Dr for brunch at Taipan. Haven't seen him in 6 months! He passed me a DVD which I will watch in due time. Later, I picked up Mrs Rabbit and we headed back to Subang for some food before driving back to JB at around 615pm, repeating the process in the opposite. From JB, I picked up my cousin who drove me near the JB immigration. Once past the JB immigration, I boarded the shuttle bus into Sg. I was back home by 12am-ish.

Today- back in the office. Friday I'll be doing the same thing all over again. Hope to be back in KL by 1am Saturday. In the meantime, I will have some time to burn off the food I've gorged myself with over the festive period. I can't wait to test my new biking shorts! Already put in a 35 min lunch time run.

Xmas break

Another RPM class on Wednesday, although not followed up with my usual 30-60 mins run, because my butt was really starting to ache (I really need to buy those padded biking shorts) and I was starting to get tired from the intensity of the workouts. Imagine doing intervals for 5 days in a row, all-out, which was the effort I put in. Plus, I had a dinner date with my wife! We were having dinner at a restaurant called Dan Ryan's, a Chicago-based franchise that served food not dissimilar to TGIF's.

We had planned to indulge in some hearty steaks but realised that we weren't that hungry- so I ate meatball pasta, and Mrs Rabbit had salad instead. We then walked to Border's and spent some time there buying Xmas presents for our respective brothers. We bought our brothers a book from Mitch Albom titled "For One More Day", which is a very touching story about a man's self-absorbed, self-centred lifestyle, and maternal love. I think it is an especially good book to be given to those whom you feel have taken their parents for granted.

Another book I've been reading (way overdue) is Lance Armstrong's "Its Not About The Bike". Let me just say this- we all know how Lance fought cancer (and won) and went on to create history by winning the Tour De France 7 times. But I haven't yet read his book before this and didn’t fully appreciate what he experienced in his cancer treatments. I've just gone past the halfway point and it is a truly emotional experience. I couldn't help but respond viscerally as the chapters unfolded, how Lance's mother gave birth to him, (a healthy 9lbs baby) at the age of 17; how he grew up without a father; how brash and (seemingly) arrogant he was; how supremely talented and physiologically perfect (for endurance events) he was; how he discovered he had cancer; how he felt before and after the operation to remove the lesions; his experiences pre and post-chemotherapy. Reading what he has experienced makes it all the more amazing that he won as many Tour De Frances as he did. I haven't reached the chapter on "Kik" as yet, but at this juncture I'd like to comment that I think those who experience near-death episodes and come out better for it to truly achieve success. Maybe they have a greater appreciation of life, how fragile and short it is, and that one must seize and utilise every day that they are on this earth. Kanye West (the world famous rapper) was just another record producer. But on an early morning at 4am, exhausted and driving home from work, West fell asleep at the wheel and got into a major car accident. Firemen had to cut his car up to extricate a badly injured West. He spent some time in the hospital, with his mouth wired shut. Since then, he has moved to super stardom, clearly being the biggest rapper in the planet. Lance was a promising, brash rider who rode with questionable tactics and rubbed the European riders the wrong way- after cancer, he became the legend that we know today.

Spent Thursday (day off being Hari Raya Haji) over in JB. Mrs Rabbit and my bro (who's now working in Sg as well and staying temporarily with me) came along. Actually it was my bro's birthday yesterday and we had lunch at JB. We spent a little over 4 hours there, before taking the bus back to Sg. My folks were there for a visit.

Well, I'm back in KL! Its good to be back. Spending some time with the family but I hope to get in some workouts too. Have a good Xmas everyone.

Monday is good when Man U won the night before, beating their rivals

A relatively fruitful weekend as far as workouts are concerned. Saturday and Sunday were spent among others, working out in the gym- RPMing on both days, followed by a short run. I didn’t run yesterday as I went all out for the RPM challenge class and was completely exhausted thereafter. And my butt was aching. I think its high time to get me one of those padded cycling shorts since I do spend at least 3-4 hours on a bike per week. A quick search yesterday at Motion Sports (at Paragon) revealed the prices to be rather expensive- the cheapest was priced at $79.00. I've been reliably informed by my friends that a pair of biking shorts costs in the region of RM90 in KL. I guess I'll have to bear with the pain until this weekend, when (hopefully if I have the time), I'll purchase a pair in KL. My butt is still sore as I type this.

I can't wait for Friday to come. This is a good week because- work is less hectic; it is the end of the year; I've been working out more often in the last 2 months; it is a 4 day working week this week, with the 20th of this month being Hari Raya Haji; I'll be going back to KL this weekend for a few days of R&R.

Pre Xmas

Am happy to report that now we're at year-end and in the final 2 weeks of the year, I am less busy. I've managed an hour of running and an hour of RPM-ing yesterday, which is no mean feat when you consider the little time I have for my workouts.

There was an office party earlier in the evening but I managed to get in a quick 40 min workout at lunchtime on the treadmill, at a 6:00per km pace. Saturday's and Sunday's plan will be to get in at least an hour's worth of workout, in some form or another. I've been to 2 good spots for working out, either in the form of trekking, power walking or running (depending on your preference)- Bukit Timah Forest Reserve and of course, the MacRitchie Reservoir. For the latter, I wouldn't recommend running on the undulating, stone-riddled paths of this particular 12k (or so) loop, unless you are very experienced, and you wear the proper trail shoes. To me, it is just an invitation to injury- especially sprained ankles (at least) or torn ankle ligaments (at worst). But there are many runners running that path (albeit not at a fast pace) so I suppose most of them are used to the terrain and are able to make the necessary adjustments. I was trekking with Mrs Rabbit and her friends some 4 weeks back, and it took us some 2.5 hours to complete that route.

Having said that, there are plenty of other routes within MacRitchie to choose from, some of which involve running on the boardwalks by the side of the lake. These boardwalks lead you to very interesting parts of MacRitchie- some parts of it are reminiscent of the tropical jungles/rivers you see in the movie Apocalypse Now, and it does feel rather eerie when you're there during dusk, because it is quite dark and all you hear are sounds from the jungle, some of which are identifiable (toads/frogs croaking, crickets, insects buzzing, water splashing). I just haven't explored the whole of MacRitchie, so I can't yet comment on the best (or rather most suitable) route for me to run on.

In anticipation of the festive eating and the possible weight gain during that period, I've decided to eat light from now until the festivities begin. As mentioned in the last post, I will be back during the Christmas and New Year breaks, but with a proviso. As I will be working the very next day on both occasions, I will have to go back to Singapore on the very days itself- on the 25th December, and on 1st January. Which, come to think of it, makes it all the more important that I try to get back to KL on Friday itself to maximise my time there.

Long time no post

It's been some time since my last post, and with reason! The settling in process, now 6 months old, has taken longer than expected. One would have thought that there were few differences between Boleh Land and The Lion City but the fact of the matter is, the differences were sufficient enough for me and the missus to take 6 months (and counting) to settle in and assimilate. Work has been the focus of my life and running has taken a back seat. Gone are the days when I could leave by 6pm sharp and head to Lake Gardens/KLCC Park for my daily workouts. Nowadays, it is a roughly 12-14 hours per day in the office. I usually leave the office around 8pm and it is dinnertime by then. Luckily the weekends are still free, for now. On average, the workouts have reduced to around 2 to 3 times per week, with the 2 usually packed in during the weekends. But, as Der Dr said, if I really want to maintain my level of fitness, I would have to just find some time during the day to do my workouts, even if it means waking up at the crack of dawn to do so (something which I am not exactly keen on doing, but I seem to have little choice). I realise that I need my mileage to maintain a certain level. I lose my fitness very quickly, unlike other runners. And, no other form of cross training would make you run faster other than running itself. Which brings me to the Stand Chart Singapore International Marathon.

I printed out my acknowledgement form the day before I was due to collect my bib for the 21k and realised something- during registration day (refer to my last post), on the registration form, I had optimistically penned my projected finishing time to be 1:33!!! I suppose I had reason to be confident- I had finished the previous year's race in 1:35, and I thought that with some high quality training (longer runs on the East Coast Park, tempos etc) I would be able to finish it within that time. Obviously, that all went bust because I didn't factor in the settling in process, and the longer hours at work. So I chuckled when I saw the projected finishing time, because obviously, I was not in 1:33 shape by any stretch of the imagination. Not embarrassing myself (which meant finishing under 2 hours) would be a much more reasonable expectation. In the preceding 3 weeks prior to the event, I was able to leave the office by 630pm. Work had slowed down and I had to take that opportunity to put in some last minute workouts. I attended RPM classes for 1 hour, following it up with 30-45 minutes running on the treadmill (the latter at which was at an approximate 6:00 per km pace).

3 weeks of real workouts did help marginally with my finishing time in the 21k, which was 1:52 but I was never ever comfortable throughout. As was the case with the previous Stand Chart Marathons, it was a carnival-like atmosphere to what can be best described as a world-class running event closest to KL. This year alone attracted some 40,000 participants. The organisers had wisely staggered the starting times between those running the full 42k and the 21k. The additional 15 minutes meant that the 21k-ers started at 615am, a full 45 minutes after the 42k-ers were flagged off (or rather, "horn-ed off"). It did help, to certain extent. For the first 12k, it was relatively smooth. There were runners of course, but not to the point of impeding or affecting my running pace. But, as we passed the Esplanade and on the road towards the East Coast, that was where it started getting pretty jammed up. I suppose many of the marathoners were slowing down by then, but the narrow roads (2 lanes and the curb) meant that my pacing was affected and I had plenty of zig-zagging to do. And it didn’t get any better until the u-turn point, when we made our way back in the opposite direction and the roads were clear again. My breathing even more laboured than it already was at that point, form ragged, arches for both feet killing me, I literally willed myself to the finishing line. I couldn't kick or go any faster even in the final 200 metres. I was just happy to have completed it.
I stayed on for sometime to look out for my friends who had run the full distance, and updated PM1 and Der Dr on their finishing times. Kenny Tan ran a superb 3:52 but it was Loco Lai who astounded me with a superb time of 3:45. After a full year of despair, he has finally fulfilled his potential. Details are still not entirely clear on his mileage and training but I was informed that he had run a few 30ks on Tuesdays in the month leading up to the race. Whatever it is he has done, the finishing time says it all and I take my hat off to him. Congratulations on the 3:45, Loco Lai. Something stirred inside of me that day. I want to be running at the level I'm used to again. And I must do something about it.

So, what lies ahead for me now? My weekends are reserved for my workouts. If I can't workout in the evenings now, I have to make time for it at the crack of dawn. No 2 ways about it. I plan to wake up early at least twice a week to workout (don't want to shock the system, just gradually do it so that the body gets used to waking up at the crack of dawn). And move on from there. This will be a pre-New Year's resolution for me, which I plan to execute to fruition.

I hope to see some of my comrades in arms when I get back to KL during the Christmas and New Year weekends. I'll be running during that time, so please feel free to join me. But I'll be slow…