Anne 的个人资料Keep On Keeping On照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
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2007/9/30 Earlier and EarlierThe usual 8 a.m. meeting time was brought forward to 7 a.m. That meant waking up at 5:50 a.m. and moving along half asleep and half crying.
The run today, after so a week's absence was characterised by thirst. I was hoping to run for longer but I felt so thirsty. The usual tactic of sipping from the taps of outdoor sinks fell through today. The run was so early, the cleaners had not made their rounds yet. It's difficult to drink water while smelling pee. I u-turned earlier and after quenching my thirst when I got to the car, I just didn't want to go on anymore. Now I understand why I see quite a number of joggers with mini-bottles strapped on a belt.
My headphones were very unwieldy today for some reason and I need to figure out the best way to tuck the cable without tugging and pulling. I lost track of the number of times the left ear bud popped out while I was running.
The watch was beeping again and in my haste to stop the beeping by changing the lap and just pressing all the buttons, I had turned the running computer off. I ran about 56 minutes today and have no idea of mileage. Frustrating.
Later JY told me his friend who had the same model turned the heart rate alarm off and after fiddling, I found it. No more beeping on future runs, I hope.
Legs are now aching, especially the calves.
JY was thinking of running from home to his dragon boat training, a way to warm up, clock mileage, while being environmentally friendly. He got me thinking about whether I want to drive all the way to ECP to run. It just doesn't make sense because I don't run the same route as the group and I pretty much run alone apart from the odd 0.5 to 1 km which JY runs with me to keep me company (which I greatly appreciate).
Let me think about it. 2007/9/26 Down AgainHad bad food poisoning of the double exit variety on Monday night. Still too dehydrated on Tuesday and didn't go for training. Was still a little queasy after lunch today. Hope I'm good-to-go tomorrow for training. 2007/9/22 See Hunk RunThe extremely hunky JY has set up a blog to capture his run mileage as he prepares for the end-of-year marathon. It's becoming more than a marathon training blog as he's starting to put down his swim mileage.
Beginning/Moderate/Non-exercisers (that would cover most of my friends) beware - the stats are extremely intimidating. It has the effect of making me sob and run towards the nearest packet of potato chips to drown my sorrows.
The charts are very colourful and fancy and I have no idea what's going on apart from it looking very "scientific" (Ed's word).
What's with all the beeping?This morning was just one of those mornings. I was moving in slow motion. Was supposed to pick GW up at 7:30 a.m. but I was still at home at the time. It was OK cos JY overslept and was running late too, haha. In the meantime, the morning was getting warmer and warmer as the sun rose higher and higher. Today's run was nothing like last Sunday's with great cool weather. It was hot and muggy and I felt weighed down. Didn't help that I forgot my iPod, had a stitch for 50 mins of the 1 hour and 6 min run, shin splint on right leg acting up and feeling generally miserable. Thank goodness I had a cap on. Managed to keep moving with minimal whining. JY was so sweet to slow down to my snail pace and run alongside me for the entire run. I dunno what happened to the watch, it kept beeping non-stop. Extremely annoying. JY, positive as usual, suggested I treat it like music. I just felt like a jogging time bomb waiting to explode. Words cannot express my relief when the run was over and drinking cold water from my water bottle. I couldn't even be bothered to change out of my sweaty top to a dry one, just wrapped myself in bath size towel and sped home to shower. It is inevitable, I have to read the watch's manual this afternoon.
2007/9/20 Tired Before I StartWarm up increased to 3 laps tonight.
When we started on high knee lifts, butt kicks and tiny steps, it was going to be striding night. It was turning out to be one of those nights; tired before I even started running proper. I don't have any Polar stats tonight cos I mucked it up trying to figure out the stop watch while tracking the workout was in progress. In the end I borrowed the coach's watch.
5 x 50m [3:1] - inconsistent timing, 12, 15, 11 seconds etc
4 x 100m [3:1] - inconsistent timing again, 24, 26, 28 seconds etc
5 x 50m [3:1] - in reality I only did 2 laps and didn't record the time
Warm down - 1 slow lap around the track and the usual conditioning exercises.
My legs were burning from all the sprinting, especially the hamstrings, quads and left side of shin on right leg. Feels different from the lactic acid build-up from lifting weights.
At the end of training, the coach dished out homework. Mine's a 50 minute run sometime this weekend and I offered 60 minutes since I did that last Sunday. Actually I plan to run 10km and see how long that takes me.
Speaking of which, lemme go rub on some muscle ache gel.
2007/9/19 A Bit Flat TonightIt was humid tonight in the gardens. I was also feeling a bit flat. Decent mileage nonetheless. Watch was started at warm up and stopped before warm down and conditioning.
2007/9/16 One Whole Hour of FlowThe rain woke me up at 6:38 a.m. this morning. I sms-ed JY who replied the run would be postponed by an hour. I promptly went back to sleep.
ECP was pretty crowded today with 2 separate events so instead of running towards direction of city on the footpath, I ran with the others towards the direction of the airport. When I got to the part of the beach where we used to bring our dog to swim, I started crying uncontrollably but I didn't stop running. I did however, blow my nose onto my shirt in the most un-ladylike manner.
I had not reached the u-turn when the rest starting running back towards me. JY saw me and turned again to run alongside me to keep me company for a while to show me where the u-turn was. I waved him on to continue at his usual pace and he sped off and disappeared. Along the way, there were other solitary runners and we started greeting "Morning" to each other. There's something about slogging on soggy terrain on a Sunday morning, it justs makes people acknowledge one another's existence and shared suffering.
As I look at total calories used during exercise this week, it's no wonder the scales haven't moved. A pound is about 3,500 calories and I've only burned 1,995 this week on exercise. Looks like it's time for the inevitable - watch food intake, add another run and extend duration of all the runs. I'm thinking of doing the next weekend run by mileage instead of time. I want to run 10km and see how long it takes me.
My muscles were still aching today from Thursday's workout but it was OK once I warmed up. Once I warmed down and cooled down, I was limping my way to the car from muscle ache. JY got me Relax Gel from Phiten and I was amazed it actually works. Muscle ache creams usually burn and turns my skin red but this feels cool and relieves muscle ache and increases my range of motion. Love it! JY also assisted me in passive stretching which helped alleviate the muscle ache temporarily.
2007/9/14 AchingJY's friend told him long runs gets you small muscles while short runs get you big muscles. Makes sense. Look at sprinters versus marathoners.
Let's just say my bigger muscles like the quads and calves were aching when I woke up this morning.
But damn I love sprinting. The Start of IntervalsI didn't run much tonight but I ran as fast as I could. Training consisted of:
5 x 50m, 1:3 e.g. if I run 50m in 9 seconds then I rest 9 seconds x 3 = 24 seconds and run 50m again until I reach 5.
4 x 100m, 1:3 [24 seconds]
5 x 50m, 1:3 [slowed down from 9 seconds to about 12 seconds]
I pushed really hard cos I like sprinting and the maximum heart rate reading says it all. I worked my heart 101%.
So far 3 ladies asked me if the scales say I've lost weight and I replied with a sad, no. They said it's very obvious that I've gone down in mass. Lately I hear that quite a bit but the scales say nothing's changed.
2007/9/12 Some StatsThese are the stats captured so far on running computer which I've transcribed onto a spreadsheet:
I don't listen to iPod when I'm at training or running with others so the running computer is good in a sense that it's personal but not anti-social.
The assistant coach has advised me not to do heart rate training using the watch and to listen to my body instead. This is because she says I've just started running and I need to get to know my own body better before I start using technology to help. Pretty sound advice. In any case, I've keyed in my details into the watch so if the watch starts beeping, I'll know I'm exceeding my maximum target heart rate for my age and I need to slow down, if I haven't already by that point.
What I'm using the running computer for is mainly mileage. I'm noticing that Nike+iPod is very generous in distance covered compared to the Polar. Perhaps one of the key differences is that Nike sports kit is essentially a pedometer while Polar markets the Foot Pod as a speed and distance sensor with emphasis that it's not a pedometer.
Whatever the case, the point is to keep on keeping on.
One of the ladies in the running group was a source of inspiration last night. She said she was 63 kg last year when she was 42 years old and could only run for 3 minutes continuously and kept at it to increase it to 5 minutes and so on. A year later with 2 times running a week, she's gone from 63 kg to 47 kg. That's a 16 kg weight loss in a year!
I'm running up to 4 times a week now and the scales haven't budged since I started in July this year. It's time to tackle diet and give myself 6 months from the time I started running to see progress. The progress so far has been being able to run 45 minutes continuously when I could only run 5 minutes max in the past.
2007/9/9 Gadgets GaloreFirst of all I'm amazed I even woke up this morning. I think it had to do with how I offered GW a ride to ECP to be there at 8 a.m.. I met a group of 4 including JY to run. They were running 18 km in preparation for the end-of-year marathon. I was just there to do my 45 min run homework for the week and to start getting used to running in the morning humidity and heat. They sped off from the start and as I jogged at snail's pace, they moved further and further away from me. I barely saw them this morning, just a little at the start because I left when I completed my homework which covered 6.67 km.
It was gadgets galore this morning. iPod for music, Nike sports kit for iPod, new Polar watch, chest strap and foot pod. I wanted to compare Nike+iPod with Polar but I didn't "stop" Nike+iPod (earlier) and Polar (later) at the same time so I can't really compare the results. It all boils down to how the information is presented.
From the album "Polar Inauguration", the data from Nike+iPod is synchronised through a widget on my desktop to Runner+ and graphics on the Runner+ site are really nice. Polar has a monochrome read-out as it's a watch. I haven't figured out how to upload the data from watch to web site yet, gimme a couple of days.
Of course Polar gives a lot more run information e.g. pacing (maximum, average), heart rate (maximum, average). While running, I was glad to be able to look at watch on wrist to see time elapsed. It was cool to keep looking at watch to see when I could make a u-turn (when about half the homework time was reached). Then again, I could keep pressing the centre button on iPod to hear the male voice tell me the information.
It was so cool to see my heart rate on the watch. Most of the time I think I'm dying when I'm running and now I know how hard my heart is pumping per minute to keep me alive. At some point I was 176 beats per minute worth of alive.
The Nike+iPod will run out of battery at some point and from what I've read, the battery in the sensor can't be replaced. I also don't know how long the battery will last.
My conclusion? It's what information you think is important and the form factor.
For me it's all lightweight that I can carry it all when I run.
2007/9/7 Running In DarknessThe coach likes to keep us guessing. We never know what we're going to do for evening until the 2-lap warm up is done.
Last night was drills and striding. Slow jog on the curved parts of track and picking up the speed and striding on the straight parts of the track. I did alright, completed the 4 laps by focusing on own time, own target.
Coach said she was going easy on us this week cos most of the ladies are running at event this weekend or recovering from flu (that would be me). She said she would be tougher on us from next week onwards.
I'm actually looking forward to being pushed harder because I'm using coaching and technology to help me improve/accelerate in training to catch up with friends who have been running for 5 years or more. I have yet to decide if it's about sense of accomplishment or just sucker for punishment.
When we were done JY had not arrived yet and I was chilling. When he arrived he said he wanted to calibrate his watch and speed sensor and wanted to run 1 km around the track. While JY calibrated his watch, I took the opportunity to re-calibrate my Nike+iPod sports kit. It was pretty late at the time and it was quite eerie. No field floodlights. No tennis court lights. No street soccer pitch lights. No basketball court lights. Only illumination from the spectator stands and street lights.
It was one of those evenings when everything just lagged and by the time we were done we were a full hour behind our usual run/meal/shower.
I got a really nice surprise - a heart rate monitor with chest strap and foot sensor, which JY told me was my belated birthday present. Nice. I really appreciate it because I don't even have a digital sports watch and was looking to get one so I could use the stopwatch function to time my runs. This present is way better than something I was going to get for myself.
2007/9/5 Commando RunningAt some point of a discussion, it was revealed JY wears his running shorts without underwear. Interesting. Tonight I thought I'd try going commando in my running shorts and hoped it wouldn't be a case of who let the dogs out (who? who? who?) or that it might be drafty. Only one way to find out.
After yesterday's dismal run, I wanted to put in some extra mileage this week and go for a nice slow and easy jog around the neighbourhood. I did OK and ran 5.41 km then slowed down to walking pace as warm down and walked home.
It's been a while since I ran on my own and with music, usually it's with the ladies running group or with JY. During the run, I found the headphone cable a little unwieldy and the left ear bud kept popping out when I ran. Confidence restored after tonight's recovery run. That and running in running shorts without panties is...interesting.
Thrashed at TempoLast night was first run in a week, after second flu in a row. No more fever, still on antibiotics.
Warmed up with 2 laps. Coach wanted to take our timing for 1 km - 3 sets of it. My heart was beating so fast and my lungs were dry after the first 1 km. There was a pounding in my temples and pain behind my ears. I had to stop cos I felt like throwing up.
The rest of the training session was pretty much wasted. I felt very disappointed with myself. I tried to slow jog but even that was a challenge so I walked then later slow jogged.
Crappiest night ever.
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