Mish Mash

• This morning’s solo run around the lake was anything but a recovery run a.k.a. I went faster than 6 min/km. Yes, I actually did it on my own…it’s been a while since I did a solo other than in races. It was good; like the saying goes, you never regret a run you do, only those you missed.

Distance: 1km warm up from BA car park and 4 laps * 2.3km = 10.2km (Garmin: 9.19km)

Timing: 54:09 for 5:19 min/km pace

Laps 1-3

Kept it easy since this was supposed to be a recovery run after Sunday’s race. When I switched my mindset to zero expectations on timing and distance, a whole lot of weight gets lifted off my shoulders and I found myself enjoying the run and taking in the scene, people, sounds and smell. I guess this is the same with life – going with the flow of things (and in this morning’s case, the legs) instead of pushing or barraging your way through. Don’t get me wrong…sure there are plenty of times we need expectations, goals and end points to work towards. But there should also be times, we need to give ourselves permission to let go.

Lap 4

Things started to get a tad difficult here because I found myself pushing the pace and which made the right hip flexor mad. Not maddening mad but pretty unhappy. Apart from the pace, I had perhaps shifted a bit more load on the right foot since the left was still numb. My gait probably went a bit wonky as it usually does when I run faster. Ok, half a lap to go…hang on. Uh oh…watch out for the bike. Darn…what the h*** is the car is here???!!! And then, we were done. Surprise surprise…the average pace was 5:19 min/km, way faster than I expected and pretty close to last week’s adiNation Training Run. Guess, everything went well this morning – body is more accepting of heavier load/faster pace, weather, temps and humidity was lower, zero expectations etc.

• Was down south for the weekend and as usual, enjoyed the walkabout town. Like this morning’s run, it’s always refreshing to get out of your comfort zone or in my case, KL though I must say it was a “happening” Saturday over here. Hint: if you don’t already know, go Google for the Malay acronym of “clean”. Pretty amazing (and some disturbing) news came out and Vinz and I were watching them over YouTube. What are your thoughts on this? Arab Spring revolution in the making? More sinister or underlying forces at work – I found that it seemed too well organized and the fact that it happened simultaneously in a few cities around the world. Vinz thinks the power of FB, technology and the internet has finally caught up.

• Here’s a roundup of last night’s workout:

Supersets of:

a) LF lat pull down

b) Precor T-bar

Supersets of:

c) Hoist chest press

d) DB decline chest press

Supersets of:

e) LF cable close grip low row

f) DB bendover back row

Supersets of:

g) Smith machine incline chest press

h) Decline push-ups

Supersets of:

i) Technogym cable chest fly

j) Technogym cable criss cross standing back row

Single sets of:

k) Abs crunches on fit ball