i can accept that people would want to talk to their friends in the study room, afterall, it is sort of a slack chill-out study-a-bit place. but seriously this bunch of year 3s are talking and laughing so loudly that i'm itching to give them a a good slap. they don't even have the decency to even attempt to whisper or speak softly when half a roomful of people are trying to study. and trust me.. when i say its loud, it's really LOUD especially i can hear almost every word they're saying over my earphones and music. For heaven's sake. you're just ONE table away from the door. can't you just go out to hold your gossip cum talk-cock session?
i think i might fall sick after the run in the rain just now, coupled with the late nights i've been keeping due to admiralty presentation and human rights paper but nevermind. i enjoyed it. the run i mean. what i don't get is why i never fail to fall sick when i run in the rain. i mean i'm quite healthy (i think) and i'm sure there are runners who love running in the rain (and sloshing through muddy puddles) but why do they not fall sick? in short ... why ME?!
anyway i downloaded this super nice old cantonese song last night and i love it so much that it's been on repeat mode on my itunes since last night. i must have listened to it like a hundred times or so already. i used to listen to the chinese version last time but seriously. cantonese beats all. for all those songs i know with both canto and chinese versions, the canto version is always always much nicer. its the language i think. even though most of the time i have to look at the lyrics before i even understand what they're singing about. which is rather a pity. i wish i was born in a cantonese family.
and i'm inspired. to go out and buy loads of canto cds. or download lots of canto songs from baidu ... but only after tuesday when human rights will finally be over. ARGH. i'm only like ... 1/3 done with the question.
oh my gosh i can't believe this but there's an ang moh guy sitting opposite me now in the library and he fits EXACTLY what Henry should look like. i could never imagine what Henry looked like before, but now when i see this guy i think 'oh gosh this IS Henry!' Henry Henry Henry ... i love Henry! not because of his character, but because he loves Camilla too .. just like i do! now i just need to find a Camilla somewhere around. heh heh.
sunday night / monday morning was fun. it involved getting overly stressed out over my admiralty presentation outline, going out for a quick supper, and suddenly, a quick decision that .. admiralty could just go to hell and that i would not do any more work that night.
whereupon we took the liberty of spending over an hour on the road exploring the dark, mysterious roads in and around nus where few people venture. the dark, infamous 13-bend-road where we met sports cars zooming around the bends at high speeds, high-beams and all too, driving into a huge swarm of bats, going up into kent ridge park hoping to find cars in which *ahem* action was going on, but nope, nothing, except some army guys at the summit carpark who were probably doing (according to ej) their signals training and who looked at us as if we were one of those potential want-to-make-out-in-the-car couples but who could not do so because of their unfortunate presence.
then we went through kent ridge route which had this really eerie feel, practically unlit main road, dark and seemingly uninhabited lone houses with names like 'centre for mathematical research' that make you wonder if the whole area is not some cover for one of the government's deep dark secrets like nuclear development or scientific research on human beings. tiny unlit side roads branching out to the left and right with 'no entry' signs, a particular one i remember --> huge driveway leading up and up and up a slope to an enormous round white building with no sign, so high up i had to crane my neck to even see the building itself. the forest at the side, uncleared for such a long time that branches extended out onto the road and leaves brushed eerily across the passenger seat window.
amazing. and i thought i knew every inch of nus.
at our table of 10 last night .. we discovered that 7 were left-handers.
like how cool is that????!!!!!
-big grin-
nothing much to write about -- yesterday's 4.8 and today's 8 round the track were extremely satisfying. was going almost all out and it's been a long time since i've gone almost-all-out during a training run. was just cooling down in the carpark after the 8 when wh jio-ed me for a 96 route run. and of course i succumbed. how can i ever resist a 96 route run? so it was another spate of almost-all-out-ness (how else can it be when you're desperately trying to keep pace with a guy?) which felt really good but i think my knees are suffering as a result of that wild pounding sprint down the yih slope.
i need to somehow find out my VO2 max and adjust my pacing accordingly. will get down to it soon. i remember seeing a way to calculate it w/o using a heart-rate monitor on some website somewhere. i'm way too poor to afford a heart-rate monitor. who said running was a cheap and easy sport anyway? it is so not. these things cost a bomb.
19.2
1) 12 rounds track in the sun. i never knew that the 5pm sun was so damn hot. anyway for some reason running in the sun always makes me feel weak and nauseous so ... i proceeded to the
2) round nus-pgp route (approx 4.8k). much better. at least there was more shade. but the slopes which i'd always conquered with no problem were somehow very painful to run up today. i dont think i'm in very good shape now. damn. and running on the road gives my knee problems so ... i went back to the
3) track. 24 rounds. hardly any sun left. managed to find a steady comfortable rhythm finally but there was this nagging pull at the back of my right thigh. is that my hamstring? stopped to stretch a little but decided to run through the pain. and i'm glad i did. coz after a few more rounds i couldn't feel it anymore. hurhur. am i a living example of how everyone should just run away their injuries?
i think now i'm at the stage where distance is more addictive than speed. i dont think i can run a sub-11 min 2.4 anymore but that hardly bothers me. what really bothers me is that for this week my longest run is only 14.4. damn.
post-ahm muscle ache cleared up within 2 days. kinda amazing really because i couldn't walk down stairs properly for 3-4 days after my last 16k training run. decided (rather reluctantly) to make tuesday a rest day due to a combination of unforseen circumstances but did a 10k on weds and then 4.8 on thurs. will do 19.2 tmr (oh it's today already!) hopefully and have been looking forward to it since .. erm thursday. that is .. if my legs will still hold me up. been feeling weird twinges now and then in various parts of my right leg lately .. hope it's nothing too serious. my friend william is being extremely pessimistic about my weekly mileage ... he thinks that 30++km/wk is really pushing it and that it will lead to the total destruction of my body soon. like HELLOOO nobody can run a decent marathon on 30++ km a week; you need twice that at the very least and yet i don't see marathoners dropping dead like flies around me. bah. and the groo thinks i'm running too much for my own good too. whatever. who cares what others think anyway. i'll just do what i love most which is pounding away up and down the slopes of nus and around the track (yes i desperately need new running routes!) until i tire of it or until my legs give way, whichever comes first.
and also. the only reason why i haven't started full out on marathon training yet is coz i don't know which of hal higdon's programmes to use (www.halhigdon.com -- if any of you are interested) -- novice or intermediate 1. okay technically i AM still a novice and this is going to be my first marathon and all and you know i'm just supposed to aim to finish but i don't want that. i want to finish well. and his novice schedule doesnt seem like it will train me to finish well. but on the other hand his intermediate 1 looks like it just might be a little trying on my legs. yes dilemma dilemma. and no. designing a mid-way schedule for myself is out of the question -- i dont trust myself at all with what little experience i have. actually i think i already know deep inside what i'll do. i just haven't voiced it out because everyone around will start protesting. but i must do it well this year because i doubt i'll have the luxury of time when pupillage / plc starts. there ... i've made my choice. wish me luck.
i'm not particularly proud of myself, really, becaue i know i could have done better. after 16km i just totally lost it. as in i was just putting one leg in front of the other mechanically because everyone was doing so and because i had to do so. i was dead tired. mentally tired too. i'd even lost the motivation to motivate myself .. you know what i mean. and also because there'd been times in the past when my lungs had been burning, my legs had gone soft, when i was literally gasping for air and so freaking tired that i was running with my eyes closed but somehow i managed to force myself to push on through all that pain, to not give in to the temptation of slackening my pace, and i came out of it darn proud of myself. but it was not like that on sunday. i let the fatigue overcome me. at the 20km mark waves of guys started surging past me but i was just like .. whatever. let them surge. argh. disappointing. and that 4 second thing is just painful really. if only. if only i had opened up my strides more at the end. if only i'd started faster. if only i'd taken 1 less waterbreak. if only i hadn't missed so many training runs. if only the police didn't make me stop for the traffic so many times. if only every time i had just tossed my cup onto the road instead of actually running towards a dustbin and throwing it in. oh man. so many if onlys. so many regrets. i need to work on my endurance. and mental strength.
candice
danette
danielle
diana
fang
hanshuo
james
jieyun
joanne
mavis
melissa
ru
shan
sharon
sylvia
xiuling
xiuying
i can accept that people would want to talk to their friends in the study room, afterall, it is sort of a slack chill-out study-a-bit place. but seriously this bunch of year 3s are talking and laughing so loudly that i'm itching to give them a a good slap. they don't even have the decency to even attempt to whisper or speak softly when half a roomful of people are trying to study. and trust me.. when i say its loud, it's really LOUD especially i can hear almost every word they're saying over my earphones and music. For heaven's sake. you're just ONE table away from the door. can't you just go out to hold your gossip cum talk-cock session?
i think i might fall sick after the run in the rain just now, coupled with the late nights i've been keeping due to admiralty presentation and human rights paper but nevermind. i enjoyed it. the run i mean. what i don't get is why i never fail to fall sick when i run in the rain. i mean i'm quite healthy (i think) and i'm sure there are runners who love running in the rain (and sloshing through muddy puddles) but why do they not fall sick? in short ... why ME?!
anyway i downloaded this super nice old cantonese song last night and i love it so much that it's been on repeat mode on my itunes since last night. i must have listened to it like a hundred times or so already. i used to listen to the chinese version last time but seriously. cantonese beats all. for all those songs i know with both canto and chinese versions, the canto version is always always much nicer. its the language i think. even though most of the time i have to look at the lyrics before i even understand what they're singing about. which is rather a pity. i wish i was born in a cantonese family.
and i'm inspired. to go out and buy loads of canto cds. or download lots of canto songs from baidu ... but only after tuesday when human rights will finally be over. ARGH. i'm only like ... 1/3 done with the question.
oh my gosh i can't believe this but there's an ang moh guy sitting opposite me now in the library and he fits EXACTLY what Henry should look like. i could never imagine what Henry looked like before, but now when i see this guy i think 'oh gosh this IS Henry!' Henry Henry Henry ... i love Henry! not because of his character, but because he loves Camilla too .. just like i do! now i just need to find a Camilla somewhere around. heh heh.
sunday night / monday morning was fun. it involved getting overly stressed out over my admiralty presentation outline, going out for a quick supper, and suddenly, a quick decision that .. admiralty could just go to hell and that i would not do any more work that night.
whereupon we took the liberty of spending over an hour on the road exploring the dark, mysterious roads in and around nus where few people venture. the dark, infamous 13-bend-road where we met sports cars zooming around the bends at high speeds, high-beams and all too, driving into a huge swarm of bats, going up into kent ridge park hoping to find cars in which *ahem* action was going on, but nope, nothing, except some army guys at the summit carpark who were probably doing (according to ej) their signals training and who looked at us as if we were one of those potential want-to-make-out-in-the-car couples but who could not do so because of their unfortunate presence.
then we went through kent ridge route which had this really eerie feel, practically unlit main road, dark and seemingly uninhabited lone houses with names like 'centre for mathematical research' that make you wonder if the whole area is not some cover for one of the government's deep dark secrets like nuclear development or scientific research on human beings. tiny unlit side roads branching out to the left and right with 'no entry' signs, a particular one i remember --> huge driveway leading up and up and up a slope to an enormous round white building with no sign, so high up i had to crane my neck to even see the building itself. the forest at the side, uncleared for such a long time that branches extended out onto the road and leaves brushed eerily across the passenger seat window.
amazing. and i thought i knew every inch of nus.
at our table of 10 last night .. we discovered that 7 were left-handers.
like how cool is that????!!!!!
-big grin-
nothing much to write about -- yesterday's 4.8 and today's 8 round the track were extremely satisfying. was going almost all out and it's been a long time since i've gone almost-all-out during a training run. was just cooling down in the carpark after the 8 when wh jio-ed me for a 96 route run. and of course i succumbed. how can i ever resist a 96 route run? so it was another spate of almost-all-out-ness (how else can it be when you're desperately trying to keep pace with a guy?) which felt really good but i think my knees are suffering as a result of that wild pounding sprint down the yih slope.
i need to somehow find out my VO2 max and adjust my pacing accordingly. will get down to it soon. i remember seeing a way to calculate it w/o using a heart-rate monitor on some website somewhere. i'm way too poor to afford a heart-rate monitor. who said running was a cheap and easy sport anyway? it is so not. these things cost a bomb.
19.2
1) 12 rounds track in the sun. i never knew that the 5pm sun was so damn hot. anyway for some reason running in the sun always makes me feel weak and nauseous so ... i proceeded to the
2) round nus-pgp route (approx 4.8k). much better. at least there was more shade. but the slopes which i'd always conquered with no problem were somehow very painful to run up today. i dont think i'm in very good shape now. damn. and running on the road gives my knee problems so ... i went back to the
3) track. 24 rounds. hardly any sun left. managed to find a steady comfortable rhythm finally but there was this nagging pull at the back of my right thigh. is that my hamstring? stopped to stretch a little but decided to run through the pain. and i'm glad i did. coz after a few more rounds i couldn't feel it anymore. hurhur. am i a living example of how everyone should just run away their injuries?
i think now i'm at the stage where distance is more addictive than speed. i dont think i can run a sub-11 min 2.4 anymore but that hardly bothers me. what really bothers me is that for this week my longest run is only 14.4. damn.
post-ahm muscle ache cleared up within 2 days. kinda amazing really because i couldn't walk down stairs properly for 3-4 days after my last 16k training run. decided (rather reluctantly) to make tuesday a rest day due to a combination of unforseen circumstances but did a 10k on weds and then 4.8 on thurs. will do 19.2 tmr (oh it's today already!) hopefully and have been looking forward to it since .. erm thursday. that is .. if my legs will still hold me up. been feeling weird twinges now and then in various parts of my right leg lately .. hope it's nothing too serious. my friend william is being extremely pessimistic about my weekly mileage ... he thinks that 30++km/wk is really pushing it and that it will lead to the total destruction of my body soon. like HELLOOO nobody can run a decent marathon on 30++ km a week; you need twice that at the very least and yet i don't see marathoners dropping dead like flies around me. bah. and the groo thinks i'm running too much for my own good too. whatever. who cares what others think anyway. i'll just do what i love most which is pounding away up and down the slopes of nus and around the track (yes i desperately need new running routes!) until i tire of it or until my legs give way, whichever comes first.
and also. the only reason why i haven't started full out on marathon training yet is coz i don't know which of hal higdon's programmes to use (www.halhigdon.com -- if any of you are interested) -- novice or intermediate 1. okay technically i AM still a novice and this is going to be my first marathon and all and you know i'm just supposed to aim to finish but i don't want that. i want to finish well. and his novice schedule doesnt seem like it will train me to finish well. but on the other hand his intermediate 1 looks like it just might be a little trying on my legs. yes dilemma dilemma. and no. designing a mid-way schedule for myself is out of the question -- i dont trust myself at all with what little experience i have. actually i think i already know deep inside what i'll do. i just haven't voiced it out because everyone around will start protesting. but i must do it well this year because i doubt i'll have the luxury of time when pupillage / plc starts. there ... i've made my choice. wish me luck.
i'm not particularly proud of myself, really, becaue i know i could have done better. after 16km i just totally lost it. as in i was just putting one leg in front of the other mechanically because everyone was doing so and because i had to do so. i was dead tired. mentally tired too. i'd even lost the motivation to motivate myself .. you know what i mean. and also because there'd been times in the past when my lungs had been burning, my legs had gone soft, when i was literally gasping for air and so freaking tired that i was running with my eyes closed but somehow i managed to force myself to push on through all that pain, to not give in to the temptation of slackening my pace, and i came out of it darn proud of myself. but it was not like that on sunday. i let the fatigue overcome me. at the 20km mark waves of guys started surging past me but i was just like .. whatever. let them surge. argh. disappointing. and that 4 second thing is just painful really. if only. if only i had opened up my strides more at the end. if only i'd started faster. if only i'd taken 1 less waterbreak. if only i hadn't missed so many training runs. if only the police didn't make me stop for the traffic so many times. if only every time i had just tossed my cup onto the road instead of actually running towards a dustbin and throwing it in. oh man. so many if onlys. so many regrets. i need to work on my endurance. and mental strength.