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today was suppose to be my rest day.

but with my insectosaurus-like appetite, i could not stop eating from morning all the way till 3 in the afternoon. as in non-stop-continuous eating. so i felt very bad, and went and do track in the evening. i went to SP track, cause it was next to the mrt so i could save on travelling time. it was actually quite a nice place there.

8 x 800m intervals and 4 x 400m intervals.

was pleased that i could more or less maintain my times around the same.

tomorrow i will have to change epaulets. (finally)

pray to Him who makes all things possible. and even though we dont see it, He's there. thats why it's called faith.

happppi

had a good weekend. sunday was spent meeting up with the tri 21 peeps for lunch and to collect our team tri suits from JJ. really nice suits man! wait till the next race we will wear it and kick ass together!

evening's transformers was alot of bang and booms. i enjoyed it, though it was quite a mindless show. not something i would pay to watch again. or to buy the dvd, for that matter.

west coast was soothing and enjoyable, and the night ended nicely.

took leave for today so i could go for arts camp beach games. woke up early in the morning to do hill intervals on the TH slope. died after 8 sets. then did core.

joined the OG for the games and sentosa. sadly the beach games was marred by the sudden rain fall. so anti climax. so went back to school for bi swim training. 8 x 200m on descending timings. then josh, ben, chermaine and i added in 8 x 100m descending just for kicks. dieded...

i binged today cause i didnt get to eat properly today. i had a chocolate bar, 3 subway cookies, 1 cinnamon bun, 1 snickers, 1 mr bean pancake and 1 mr ice cream. gain back all the fat (and more)

training for the past week:
monday: rest
tuesaday: afternoon 3.8km swim, evening 24km run
wednesday: rest
thursday: 1.5km paddle swim, 3 x 3.5km run intervals
friday: traumatic day. mentally tiring.
saturday: noon time gym, evening 21km hillslayer run
sunday: bike trainer intervals, flapping around in the pool

quite happy with the run mileage thisweek. 55.5km! pathetic bike though...

trauMA

friday was a day that started out with so much promise, only to become such a huge let down

passed my lifesaving test, but after like what, 5 to 6 hours?! who the hell takes that long to do an examination?! stupid-old-piece-of-shit-retard-long-winded-crap-ass examiner ruined all my plans for the day. at least 3 to 4 hours could have been put to so much more better use.

rushed down to soon watt to collect my bike. only to find it not cleaned, and my bar tape had been changed to black. i said HALF-SERVICING and change BOTTLE CAGE. omygdness. then the cracking bad news. now i have no idea what to do, and my fate is in the hands of others. buce, buce, buce.........

had fire drill assessment at night. didnt pass. sigh... but at least things idnt look too bad... bit more practice and i should be able to pass soon.

crashed arts camp this morning. brought back lots of good memories.

halfway i disappeared to gym at the students gym at MPSH 3. not a bad gym i must say... then evening i went for my slope long run again. 21 plus km of PGP, vigilante, reverse mt faber, mt faber, faber loop, pepys rd, then science slope. returned dead.

ok thats it tired. gonna zZz and look forward to a better day tomorrow!

another day, another swim, another run

today was a good day in a i-got-to-do-almost-everything-i-wanted kind of way

1.5km swim with paddles

3 x 3.5km intervals on 20mins

shioks.

getting my bike back from boon's tomorrow, then for my ffdc assessment when ship returns.

o and yes my lifesaving BM test tomorrow morning.

the psycho returns

after resting and eating the whole day yesterday, i came back to training with a vengeance today.

swam 3.8km in the afternoon when there was nothing to do in base. i was still aching so my timings were horrible, so i took it as an easy way to do high mileage swimming

ate somemore. when onboard ship and there is nothing to do. u just feel like eating.

go home at 8 plus. there wasnt anyone to train with in school today so i got a lift home with comms o. i was pretty determined that i would run tonight, cause i felt like it.

when i reached home, i realised that i didnt bring my keys out!!! AHHHH!!! called dad, who said he'll be back in a while. after a good 40 mins later i got the keys from him and i could get back into the house.

by 2122, i was out of the house. i felt really really good and i just kept running. i didnt have a planned route and i kinda winged it. so i ran towards coastal, and just kept going and going. in the dark. i was the only runner at coastal tonight, and it was pretty cooling, so i just kept at it.

it was really fun, and i got to focus on my running form to try and improve my running economy. on the way back i bumped into these 3 kids who were obviously lost. i guided them on some options on how they could get back to seng kang. funny, how they actually ended up in the middle of the road. so poor things as well.

after 2 hours of running, i finally got home. and i felt really good. 24.5km in 2 hours. not bad. this was my sundown marathon pace. and although i felt a bit of aches here and there, i was quite happy with the run, just something i really needed to get out of my system. yay! (even though i came back at 2325) 4min 48 s /km.

along the way, i just could not help but thank God for giving me this joy i get when i run. shiokness-saurus rex.

ok gotta go zZz... gotta wake in 4 hrs time to get to work! o the things i sacrifice for training!

the psycho is psyched

my legs are gone from the bike yesterday

my arms are gone from the gym the day before.

i still went for lifesaving this morning.

and thanks to some grace, i had most of the day off and got to shop a little with lala and QR at key power, then lunch at garden slug.

went home and rested for a while.

and then i went out for a while. ran from simei to the bedok stadium track. did 2 by 1km intervals, then my legs gave up on me. so i focussed on torturing the only muscles that still wasnt aching on my body. after 5 mins, even those were gone. i truly died-ed.

cooked for dad for fathers day. cheese baked fusili, chicken breats, and minestrone soup. ended with a mango for dessert.

sorry all, not in a blog friendly mood. heh.

training for the week:
monday: rest
tuesday: 2km run (pathetic, i know. but right quad was injured.) core training.
wednesday: swim with bi team and then the swim team
thursday: 19km run with lots (and i do mean lots) of slopes
friday: gym, then lifesaving
saturday: 110km desaru ride
sunday: lifesaving, short track intervals, core and static

my run mileage this week is low due to the stupid injury that i got from dunno where. wait till i recover!

2nd desaru ride

went to desaru with coach david's friends and the tri 21 peeps today. was my second time there and this time i was a bit more mentally prepared for what was coming up. i started the morning with a double portion of what i usually had for breakfast, so i was very full for quite a long time after that even on the bike...

met up with the rest at the ferry terminal, then took the ferry over. there were many of us, 23 in all! the ride started off easy for the 17km to the town for breakfast (at least for the others) everyone had wanton mee and chee chong fun (i had a bit of that) while i had soft boiled eggs. i bet my cholestrol level is now off the charts after the egg yolks i had...

then we went off for the rest of 30++++++ km to head to the roundabout point, where we would all stop to meet up. feeling quite good, i chionged and pulled my pack at bout 38km/h (according to the rest. my speedo not functioning today) that was until we hit the slopes, where i just died miserably and had to play catch up all the way till the roundabout.

after everyone gathered we headed to the hotel where we were planning to stay for the desaru long d tri in august. had some drinks there before we went off again to head back to town. along the way, the wind picked up and it just came at us from all directions but behind. head wind, cross winds all threatened to push us off, but we held on tight and just pedalled. norman and i took turns pulling the pack, and somewhere along there i must have lost my mind. cause looking back i have no idea why i still kept pulling the pack against that kind of headwind. nut case.
but i just told myself to keep going and pedalling, and somehow i managed to pull it off.

wind resistance has just level up!

reached the sugar cane juice stop where we had much needed refreshments and shelter from the heat. it was also here that i had my first taste of eating rambutans! not bad... quite an new experience... after which we headed back to town for some light eat and more drinks. it was getting reallly realllly hot, so we had to hydrate as much as we could. and ice cream! =D

last 17km back. i had already delcared i would just whack this last stretch, so off i went with josh sitting on my wheel as usual drafting. he's now my shadow. this went on at 35km/h... then........

with about 5km left i suddenly dieded and josh broke out of the shadows and pulled me! yay! well done josh! level up le! we plodded along at about 31km/h before finally reaching back to the ferry terminal unbelievably tired and burnt...

----fast forward----

after reaching back to singapore, nic, norman, JJ, coach david and his friend kenneth cycled back. i went to boon's and left my bike there to get my rear wheel true-ed, and came home bare footed.haha. didnt want to walk on my cleats.

total mileage: 110km approx

ok thats it. tired. end of entry.

pain is temporary, but never forever

yesterday, i was able to go down for swim training due to a change in plans.

sets were a pyramid set. 100, 200, 300, 400, 300, 200, 100. then followed by 8 x 25m sprints. after that, i decided to join the swim team's session. 6 x 200m paddles on 3:30, 400m kicks, 5 x 100m on 1:45, then a relay 50m all out. after all this. i died-ed.

even during dinner at botak jones with some of the team, i was really just drained. when i woke up this morning, OMGDNESS. ache ache ache ache ache.

today i went mad. despite aching legs, tight hamstrings, and a niggling injury in my right quad, i went for a run. a run that started from the NUS track, to s.buona vista rd, vigilante, down whatever road that is all the way to do reverse mt faber, then mt faber, then all the way back to reverse vigilante (pepys rd), back south buona vista, then KE 7 loop and back to the track. i took quite long, almost 2 hours due to the fact that my right quad still cannot take the impact from the downhill running, so i had to walk down slopes in order to run up them. but iw as glad that i could finish my run, even on a bad day.

a quick check on mapmyrun.com shows that i did about 19 plus km. gdness. no wonder i feel so tired. mad. crazy. insane. died-ed.

now not only my back aches, my legs ache too.

sushi tei kicks sakae sushi's ass big time!

shall we allow confusion to continue? and who knows what it'll turn out to be? we can only wait with abated breath and see........ interesting...

tri-bike, life-saving, garden slug, cosmetics and starbucks

had my second leg of the tri-factor series this morning, the bike!

i didnt manage to get the tapering for it as i would have liked, having overslept on thursday morning and was unable to do my trainer intervals. so i just took it as extra rest.

this morning i had my usual pre-race muesli and cereal breakfast before heading out to ride to the race site. after a 12km warm up, i managed to find the race site (hidden!) and find mok and chit chat with him there while waiting for josh.

when josh arrived, the first thing i heard from him was that he had forgotten to bring my rae pack! AH! hahaha i actually found it farny, and josh was so apologetic... it's ok! we managed to get another race bib and timing chip, no. 101 and change the name to mine.

fast forward to race start. i had earlier told josh that my strategy was to go easy at the start and then hit the harder gears at the end. so when we started at 37km/h, i was a bit taken aback, but we were in the first wave's second chase pack, and the drafting made the going at this speed much easier than expected.

kelvin lie, liau kah han (saw their names on their race tags) and i took turns pulling our pack. and so it went on like this the whole way for 3 loops. josh had earlier told me he'll stick to my tail, so everytime i broke away to pull the pack, i looked back, and true to his word, he was right there behind me all the way =D what a partnership!

on the last lap, i pulled away a bit too early, and the rest caught me again to soon. after the final turn for the last 2km, that was when i just hit my big gears and sprinted my lungs out at 45km/h. i couldnt remember much, cept for the fact that i was just pushing myself to the limit to last the whole final stretch at this pace. i was quite surprised that no one else from the pack caught up with me at all. i was panting my lungs out as i crossed the finish line. i have never hit this kind of exertion on the bike before, but it felt really really good. my trainer intervals had definitely paid off.

josh was right behind me. i finished in 1:37:38, and josh at 1:37:43. well done!!!

after a short quick chat with the rest and some congrats, josh gave me a lift home, so i could rush out for my lifesaving lesson. the test is in 2 weeks, and i needed the training badly.

after the lesson, there was garden slug. it was such a nice place to chill out and have greeaat food. then it was cosmetic shopping (not me!) and then chilling at starbucks. it was a nice way to end off the weekend!

tried to run, but there's a sharp pain in my thigh everytime my right leg lands... jia lat...

food for thought:

1) there is a fine line between being stubborn, patience, and faith

2) God gives us blessings, but whether i am happy with them is up to me.

3) Sufferings draws us apart from the world, and brings me closer to God.

4) Patience is a by-product of tribulation. It is not granted, it is earned.

5) sometimes, could a selfish answer be a good answer?

sundown results

the finalised results are out... i must say that i was a little disappointed, cause i honestly think i ran much faster than that... the race photos showed me crossing the line at 3:45, but as QR and XP would testify, we really took our own sweet time to walk to the stating line, so how acn the deficit be 1 min plus only?

but o well, at least now i know that i can do this kinda timing very comfortably... =)

Chip Time: 3:44:28 (how can my chip time be longer than my gun time?)
First 10k: 50:40
10 to 20k: 52:34
20 to 30k: 44:55 (speed up!)
30 to 42k: 1:11:47 (so long? i upped the pace here...)

Rank: 9th out of 4638

"work work" (in warceaft peon tone)

work has been disruptive to training very much. so in order to squeeze in training, im sacrificing sleep. this is not right.

bo bian

but this makes me appreciative of eveything else more. time spent with others. certainly an interesting way to look at things.

ok gotta go zZz. gonna wake in less than 4 hrs to do trainer before heading off to work.

w/W stands for wonderful weekend

today was ditto as yesterday

did 60km at coastal. dieded as i still felt the aches from yesterday. but i needed to do it cause of tri factor bike next sun. so now i feel im ready. i think.

after that went for lifesaving. i wa so tired i could barely finish 1500. omygdness.

did a bit of mugging for ROR on tues.

then i waited at tamp. but i can say that it was well worth the wait. fun fun fun.

my weekend had one constant, and once again it was not my bike. =D

training for the week:
monday: 70+ pullups
tuesday: gym plus core
wednesday: 10km run in the morning in base
thursday: rest ( i think)
friday: trainer intervals in morning, core plus 2 x 1.5km swim at night
saturday: hillslayer plus the rest of the day on the saddle
sunday: 60km bike, lifesaving sets, 1500 and 2 x 100m sprint (dieded)

not your average saturday

wake up.

ride. hill slayer = mount faber, reverse mount faber, mount faber. reverse vigilante. science slope, arts slope, pgp slope, TH slope, arts slope x 2.

TH room bidding. D409

sentosa. kofu. ramen. ten cents in ramen. yong tau foo. coconut. fruits. explore. slopes. sentosa cove. expensive cars. yachts. chill. falls.

pukka. lime and ribena and gummi bears and granola. coffee and horlicks. plans for tomorrow.

the best saturday i had for a long time. and there was one constant, and it wasnt my bike.

Tim Hughes - When The Tears Fall

The song, "When The Tears Fall," was birthed out of a hard time I was going through. One evening I sat with my guitar and poured out my heart to God. I found great hope and strength being able to express my pain, and in the midst of the doubt singing, "I will praise You. I will praise You. When the tears fall still I will sing to You." Initially, I thought it wasn't a song that could be sung in a Church context. We don't seem to sing many songs of lament. However, as I read through the Psalms, I discovered many cries of worship that came from a place of brokenness. Life is full of pain and sorrow. Loved ones die, dreams fail, people get hurt – we are left with unanswered questions. That’s the reality of the world we live in. Yet in the midst of the pain, through the tears God is good. He is and always will be worthy of our praise.

"How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? But I will trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me." (Psalms 13)



I've had questions, without answers
I've known sorrow, I have known pain
But there's one thing, that I'll cling to
You are faithful, Jesus You're true

When hope is lost, I'll call You Saviour
When pain surrounds, I'll call You healer
When silence falls, You'll be the song within my heart

In the lone hour of my sorrow
Through the darkest night of my soul
You surround me and sustain me
My defender, forevermore

When hope is lost, I'll call You Saviour
When pain surrounds, I'll call You healer
When silence falls, You'll be the song within my heart

I will praise You, I will praise You
When the tears fall, still I will sing to You
I will praise You, Jesus praise You
Through the suffering still I will sing