Chinese New Year

Short, super slow trot/walk around Bird Park – Planetarium – National Mosque route this morning. I mean it! It was a shuffle, walk whatever. I like walking actually – it’s so underrated. I like the quiet meditative time.

Ok, enough of Zen talk. Here’s what happened in the office yesterday evening.

But before that…this was on standby for the lion. Oh whew…lucky the lion didn’t “makan” the octo. It would have been takoyaki feast in that case.

Revival

A revival of sorts I guess. Yup, it has been sometime – no justifiable excuses. It’s just that I lost the spirit to blog and needed some time out. This will be a short one post and we’ll see how things go from here. No promises that the posts will suddenly flood the blog; actually I’m still thinking if I’ll even hit “print” on this one.

Despite the CNY hols last week (perfect excuse for slacking!), Michael and I put in 3 full days [pat on the back, please]. So this morning’s session didn’t really felt there was any time away.

Back & Lats

Supersets of:

a)    LF cable lat pulldown (Guna used to call this the “mother of all back workouts” and “mother” did really made sure we worked the lats as the weight bar kept increasing)

b)    BB deadlifts (IMHO a 5’ + girl looks odd handling the long 45lbs bar; just too difficult balancing which got worse when the weight plates were included. The thought that kept me going: stop whining, the faster you get this done, the closer we’ll be done!)

Supersets of:

c)     LF low row with a straight bar (not too bad…until the weight stacks started going up in which case FML!)

d)    BB bendover row (at least we didn’t use the long bar! Yeah, sorta consolation)

Supersets of single arm:

e)    Bendover DB row (wasn’t too bad)

f)     Overhead DB row (whatever…it’s something like an overhead swing but not really; this was tough for me coz I’ve weak upper arms/shoulder/back muscles)

{Finale} supersets of:

g)    Chin-ups (why does the toughest one have to be the last????!!!)

h)    Precor Abs Crunch

And we’re done!

Some random pics from the weekend…where I ran outta body lotion and sub that with face cream…and when that ran out, sub that with whatever I could scrap from the body lotion bottle and dropped some lavender oil (hey…this is to maximize mileage).

So it was a whew…when I got my hands on the body crème last nite. The Natta box? Oh, that’s my just-ordered face mask (it’s green and I probably scared the hellavu anyone who I passed by).

And this is my angpow from our team head. Wanna take a guess on the amount? Let’s just say we’re super happy.

Holy Moly!

That’s right, folks…holy moly morning! I overslept and was this II to being late for this morning’s training. Nevertheless to say, I had zilch time for cardio and had to jump right into the following. Ok, back track, I blame it on yesterday evening’s Gua Sha – oh BTW, it wasn’t as “painful” as the massage prior to that. For that, I’m still traumatized! And my neck, shoulders and back are sporting red welts and bruising. Call it the badge of honour! Not sure if I’ll go back – like I say, the combo of both treatments were traumatizing.

Tell me why I didn’t op for a leg workout given that the entire back felt like a truck rolled over me?!?!?! Then again, perhaps it did me good to work out those knots and whatever toxins remained in the shoulder blades. Surprisingly (or not!), I felt much better after the workout.

Shoulders & Delts

Supersets of:

a)    Precor overhead shoulder press (slow going but hey, I got a bonus set…to my horror!)

b)    Standing BB overhead shoulder press (you know it seems like both workouts are the same…it is! And that’s like 30 reps at one go…go figure if your shoulders aren’t begging for mercy!)

Supersets of (on Bosu):

c)     DB lateral raise

d)    Medicine ball frontal raise (nothing too dramatic for this superset except they inflated the Bosu to the max)

Supersets of:

e)    TRX shoulder delt row

f)     Bendover DB rear delt row on bench

Supersets of (on Bosu):

g)    BB upright row

h)    KB shrugs

Finishing off the morning with abs roll out.

Here are some pics from yesterday’s evening supposedly-TLC-time…don’t let the pics fool you…it was all nice until I stepped into the “torture chamber”. Ah but I’ve no one else to blame except myself – pretty much given since my muscles were all tight and inflexible.

Happy New Year 2015!

Time for some catch up. Yeah, I know it’s been some time since I last posted and can I throw in the oft-used-cataphrase-busy-with-work? Ok, guess not. Anyway, let’s kick things off with some lovely Xmas messages and gifts…hey, who doesn’t like pics and who will not melt at seeing these:

It was back to {hard} work this morning with Michael after a short warm up. Operational work here is “short” like a 1km trot around the neighbourhood. And yes, it was ONE km, not a typo of 10 or 11k or whatever.

Shoulders & Delts

Single sets of:
a) Smith machine seated shoulder overhead press (first set doesn’t count coz if it did, we wouldn’t have topped 40lbs)
b) {my nemesis} DB lateral raise
c) Standing DB Arnold press (this wasn’t too bad. For real. Only coz we use a lighter weight…to start!)

Supersets of:
d) DB bendover rear delt fly
e) Nautilus rear delt fly (worked both the shoulders and upper back if you do it correctly which I’ll lay no claim to this)

Supersets of:
f) KB upright row (again, not too bad)
g) KB shrugs (again, again, not too bad)

Single sets of:
h) DB bicep curl (ever noticed that we keep doing the biceps but not the triceps?!?! Gotta put a note in to Michael)
i) Reverse abs crunches

And now, if you don’t mind me…I’m gonna nurse my sore glutes from that warm up. What?!?! You don’t get DOMS from short runs????!!!

Thursday Training – 14 August 2014

Route: DH

Distance: 11.15km (Garmin)

Timing: 66:41 for 5:58 min/km pace

Yeah, you read that right. Yeah, I did the unthinkable. Yeah, I did really “run” DH on a weekday morning. Ok, maybe not “run”. Walk. Trot. Whatever. Feels like walking to me, so I’ll call it a “walk”.

Thanks for indulging me.

Still trying to figure out what possessed me to do the energy-sapping DH this morning. We can all agree that it’s energy sapping and no matter how many times you do it, DH will still eat you alive. The Hartamas route may be longer but is definitely a toddler compared to DH.

Km1-2.5

Started off somewhere near Lake Club and the idea was to walk but that gentle downhill along Jalan Parlimen meant the legs turned over pretty quickly (hey that’s relative!). Uphill at KTM/Sasana Kijang and there were already cars parked along the road. Man, some folks do really covert street parking that they come out early!

Km3-5

#$%^&* DBKL ought to get their act together! Street lights are erected for a purpose you know! And this is the 7^th month of the Chinese calendar aka Hungry Ghost month. And this is Bukit Tunku, which made it to the top10 of the most haunted places.

Though the scare I got was from my own shadows and some bright light from a car careening down Bukit Tunku.

Km6-8

The awesome steep “first” hill. Double Hill is such a misnomer; it’s not double hills…it’s many, many hills.

Km9

Back onto Mahameru and lots of cars whizzing past. The stretch I hate most coz it’s just seems never ending till you hit the turn off to the palace.

Km10-11

The “second” hill. No monkeys this morning. Whew! Love whooshing down hill towards Jalan Parlimen. Finished at the traffic lights since traffic was heavy.

And since a blog post is not a blog post unless it includes pictures

Last night’s loot

Collected Desmond’s race kit over the weekend

Scary picture for Adam

Weekend Roundup

A quick 30min spin on the trainer this morning coz the hips and legs were protesting

Lots of walking over the weekend including one barefoot traverse through DH

Photo credit to KK

Some food were inhaled (note…this is not everything! I’m just a bad blogger – I keep on forgetting about taking pics)

Three Things Thursday

1. This made me smile when I grabbed this as a carrier for the Hersheys Chocolate Soy Milk. Coincidental?
   
   
   
2. As if yesterday’s workout wasn’t enough, this happened at 6am: 1.2km + 20 sets of stairs at LG + 1.2km.
3. And for tea lovers, Fifi posted this and now I'm sipping on this
   
4. 
   
   

Monday Blues

Starting the morning with Latte Caramel and yes, I’m that unrefined and use a stainless mug. Hey that happens when it’s 4:30 in the morning. The latte was sweet (absolutely must have for me!) and creamy – just the shot I needed while going through the papers.

Unfortunately that nice dull lull made me lazy and I skipped the “Run Appreciation” run this morning (taking cue from yesterday’s LYNRunners’ “Durian Appreciation” gathering).

Shoulders & Delts

Supersets of:

a)    Smith machine overhead shoulder press

b)    Standing DB overhead shoulder press (this is always the killer after the above; this and the Arnold press. I should count myself lucky that we didn’t do the latter)

And I made Michael take this pic before we went on. Demmit…only 4 packs! At best. Le sigh.

Single set of:

c)     DB lateral raise (dropsets)

Supersets of:

d)    DB frontal raise

e)    Bendover DB rear delt row

Supersets of:

f)     DB upright row

g)    KB (double) shrugs

Single set of:

h)    Precor AbCrunch

Taking cue from KK, some pampering had to be over the weekend.

And can anyone tell me if you’ve tried these?

Wordless Wednesday

Lil indulgences to perk up the mid work week 

Wordless Wednesday

Was at the Nissan All-New Teana launch at Mandarin Oriental yesterday.

Eye candy for the guys ahead :) 

A Weekend of Lovelies

Now tell me if these doesn’t warm your heart

Grandma made these; looks like tonight’s dinner and dessert is settled. And Happy Dumpling Festival to everyone.

The ever thoughtful and charming Karen gave these to me. I’ve the best-est of the best-est friends.

And I’m sure Raymond’s entire FB community of friends have succumbed to this, yours truly included. Now tell me how I can order a carton of the chocolate flavor one as well.

I was WA-ing with Evelyn yesterday and was “poisoned” to get this.

Naturally all these decadent fare meant that this week will be or must be filled with a heavy load, starting with Legs this morning.

Supersets of:

a)    Smith machine leg squats (the trick is not to look at the weight plates so you can possibly fool yourself)

b)    Cybex weight plated loaded leg squat press (remember the advice above…before the shock sets in coz why is it heavier this week?!?! Turns out that there was a “tiny” weight plate in between the 100s)

Supersets of:

c)     KB walking lunges (hey, no obstruction today! The laundry guys got their trolleys of towels sealed and delivered before I started)

d)    Jumping squats at one end

e)    Split lunges on the other (both are guaranteed quad burning endeavours!)

Supersets of:

f)     Technogym leg extension (somewhat a fail after the 2 supersets above)

g)    Cybex prone leg curl (we don’t seem to have move much on this, weight-wise)

Supersets of:

h)    Cybex standing calf raises (this is new!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whatever possessed Michael to include this?! My skinny chicken feet?!)

i)      Cybex Eagle Abdominal (I asked for the abs to be superset-ed with the calf raises…was pressing for time)

It’s always better to get the Legs outta the way so I could put my feet up (literally!) for the rest of the week.

I hope your weekend was as enjoyable as mine. Let me know what you were up to.

Five Things Friday

1. 2 days of late dinners = 2 days of getting to bed even later = half dead today. Ahhhh totally worth it though coz I got to attend Penny and Manoj’s classes and it’s always good to have that break between the office and home. Hey, the weekend is just around the corner, so can’t complain much.
2. Being the total noob I am, I still haven’t got around to using the new toy. Heck I couldn’t get it to record my run much less this  
   
3. #Track Tuesday’s party was cancelled due to a high school meet. #Track Thursday’s party was also cancelled due to I-don’t-know-why-the-gate-was-locked.
4. Does a 2-mile run count????!!! That was all I could muster for a warm up this morning. One. Of. Those. Days. Which of course meant no Legs today! Ok, maybe 2 tiny weeny workouts but the rest were Chest & Pecs.

Supersets of:

a)    Smith machine bench chest press

b)    Cybex weight plate-loaded leg squat press (this was my suggestion since I felt guilty about cancelling Legs)

Supersets of:

c)     Smith machine incline chest press

d)    DB static reverse lunges (there’s always a first time to making a fool outta yourself…ok, not applicable to me since I do it all the time. LOL!)

Supersets of:

e)    Technogym cable chest fly

f)     Push-ups on ProGrid

Supersets of:

g)    Reverse abs crunches

h)    Free standing dips (my suggestion again. Yes, you’re welcome)

5. Aren’t these lunchboxes stinking cute? I feel like stealing them off the gals!  
   

Wordless Wednesday

From yesterday

The frozen Garmin during the stair climb after the Double Hill run (BTW, you guys should have been there for TPRC’s breakfast run – lots of camaderie and even more runners than in a race!)

Passed this to Elvin since it’s not vegan. I’m envious coz it says “chocolate truffle”. Now this makes me wanna go out and find a vegan option!

Yesterday’s dinner after a good sweaty yoga session with Richard. Felt guilty about missing a run-walk session with Evelyn. L