Monday, December 14, 2009

am devising a exercise set which i will religiously follow from tonight onwards! day and night :) hopefully will help tone my muscle groups up nicely before sundown and reduce chances of cramps :) must increase the strength and flexibility of my core muscle groups i think it really aids running.

anyway while random online researching on which exercises to incorporate into my masterplan i did dig up useful stuff. like how more researchers are starting to suspect that stretching before a run actually weakens the muscles! esp for hamstring and calves. i've suspected this for quite some time already actually. stretching cold muscles is a bad bad idea. best way to warm up for a run is to do a slow jog to warm the whole body up :) or well SAF's dynamic stretching might help too im not sure.

and yeah the long known fact about fat-losing: its totally IMPOSSIBLE to lose fat in any particular area no matter how hard you work on that area :p doing thousands of crunches will only build up abs muscles while not slimming your waist down! only way to lose fat is to lose fat as a whole : aka full body workout sessions which make you sweat and stuff. but correct exercises WILL tone your muscle groups which will then in turn make them appear slimmer. hmmm still works i guess haha :)

i need to find out why my soles always cramp! esp the arch of the feet. its like they're permenantly on "cramp" mode even when im not exercising. for normal activities they're fine but if i purposely stretch the arch of my feet they cramp up immediately >< the cramps worsen after a long run, and worst thing is that its permanent its been like that for ages ><

10:40 PM

Thursday, December 10, 2009

4:37:58! new PB for marathon (=
wasnt the most ideal preparations before the race (monsoon season just screws up all your planned runs) but hey not too bad la i think. next race i hope to finish below 4:30 (= originally thought i might be able to do it at stan chart hehe. first 20km was done at a sub 4 pace and i didnt feel like i was overly exerting or anything. but cramps hit at around 26-27. same old story! but its getting better though cramps are hitting later and later. maybe next race will only be at 30+km :)

supporters along the way was much much better compared to sundown (unearthly hours) and north face (less trodden paths). both official supporters and the public were out in full force. appreciated it especially along the ECP route where it's the most boring haha. some japanese guys really helped motivate me. and that ang moh with his "this is a no walking zone" sign. damn funny (=

full marathoners finished together with the 21km and 10km runners at the final few km. not the most ideal cause of the insane crowd size - overtaking is barely possible. and thats the part which usually i overtake the most ppl! bleaghz >< saw some guy who pushed a wheelchair along for 42km. amazing. saw a 1 armed runner. saw runners in all shapes and sizes. its quite a carnival haha especially at the finishing line.
overall ranked 1573th (1101th in singapore). not too shabby! next year will definitely try to be better :)

experience really helps with it comes to marathon running. preparations before the race, pre race planning, getting there early to avoid the crowd, finding more comfortable toilets before the race (other than the portable ones provided - went to fairmont hotel's one =p ), psyching myself up, motivating myself after 30+km, and changing up in a comfortable toilet after the race (esplanade's one). all these minor minor details add up to alot! to running your best race and to your personal comfort haha. next race i wanna be at the starting line even earlier! dont want so many ppl blocking me ><

sundown open to registration already :) they changed the starting location to Changi exhibition centre. smart move haha. this year's super traffic jam at changi v taught them a lesson i guess. especially since next year's sundown will have the 21km run as well so probably means another 10 thousand more runners or something.

i realised i might have influenced ppl around me to run. dont think they'll admit to it (its a very personal thing anyway) but it cant be mere coincidences haha. firstly was definitely nicholas, and its purely by chance on my part. kenneth couldnt run this year's sundown so i asked nicholas if he wanted to take over and he did - and ran sub 5 without much training -.- and next year he's gonna go for BDM 102! omg haha.
and then persuaded jason to sign up for new balance run with me (however much he complains and whines i bet he enjoyed the experience), and two of us (and henry i think) probably had much influence on steve to make him go running (and losing like what 9kg in the process? amazing). and my sister ran great eastern (total non runner in the past serious), eugene ran his first marathon, and now willy's asking me about sundown registration for next year!

haha and whats more some (most) of these ppl are those that go "crazy ah you" when i used to talk to them about running :p my dad also o.O he went for stan chart to take photos and i was talking alot about the race at home asking him to run also and then he just went "maybe next year go and walk 10km la". WOW haha o.O

its been like so many months but i still rmb how i felt when i decided to take up running. and i bet its the same for all these ppl. that feeling of "hmm maybe i can do it. it'd be a very good experience huh. at least go and try and walk and finish haha"
its a feeling of wanting to be part of that crowd that can say they finished a race, so even though they say "crazy ah you", deep down inside they really dont mind having a go :p just that singaporeans have this inertial mentality so its difficult to start haha

ok lunch! MACS! I'VE BEEN ABSTAINING FROM FASTFOOD FOR SO LONG AHAHAHAHAHAHA ^^

12:37 PM

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