Went for a walk with my Kenshin together with my mum after dinner just now. Decided to use the Nike+ to track our distance again. The result was amazing! Never realised that I actually covered so much ground with my dog each time...



And it felt good!

The hubs and I took on the challenge of cycling to East Coast Macs for breckie, using the park connectors.

The original plan was to head all the way down to Big Splash to breakfast at Carl's Junior, but the plan was scrapped part of the way when Hubba started to feel the hunger pangs. Fair enough a deal, since the route just along ECP from where we would emerge via the park connector would possibly be close to 15km just to reach Big Splash, and upon getting to that start of the ECP stretch, we would have covered about 5km.

So after setting out from home approx 0930hrs, we took about half hour to reach ECP, and then another half hour to reach Macs. There we breakfasted and rested for another half hour, before continuing the journey home via Siglap Park Connector through to Bedok Town Park and Bedok Reservoir Park, before reaching home. That distance approximately another 12km, covered in a span of close to an hour.


Our cycling route

I'm so going to suffer the next few days from the burn in my thighs...

Total distance travelled ~ 24km
Time taken ~ 2 hours

Wow... after a hiatus of almost a week, due to the weather and also social obligations, this is the type of run that I had today:



This is bad. Think I have to push the consistency factor up... At least sustain a minimum of 2 runs a week.

The original plan was to try to wrap up my work by 6:30pm latest, and then head home to change for a jog before ending the evening with the laundry.

No such luck. The morning was totally crazy, with scheduled visit by a customer, requiring my presence for most part, giving me less than an hour to check my morning mail which had accumulated to more than 30 new mails in the inbox just in a span of half a day. Took time to actually check through the mail, before going for a late lunch.

The afternoon was equally crazy, with unexpected guests popping by, which meant that my presence was required again to entertain them. Only managed to breathe after 5pm to discuss some issues with some of my staff, before I could actually settle down at the laptop at 6pm to scan through the mails from the remainder half of the day, which possibly came up to another 30 odd mails. Ended up working more than an hour overtime to settle all the pressing issues so that I could have less to conquer for the coming days when I would be out of office half a day for both days.

Have a suspicion that the laptop would be coming home with me this long weekend, despite my best efforts in attempting to complete all work at the office so that I could have a clean break for work life at home. It simply is not possible to achieve that this week...

Will be a swinging single for these next few days as the hubs is away, and have the entire house to myself. Although that would mean entire set of chores is done by me as well...

Nice opportunity to set aside some time to spend with the folks. Chanced upon Pops and Kenshin after my jog, and ended up walking almost close to 5km with them, after my 3.37km jog. Can tell that Kenshin is really "aging" so to speak, coz his stamina isn't as good as before and he seems to show strain and fatigue after walking less than half of his usual distance. Yet that cutie of mine refused to admit defeat and still kept trudging along, pulling us here and there whenever a scent caught his attention.

Was pretty fun to catch up with Pops during the walk, and that chat session extended way after we finished the walk, when we sat at the stools in the void deck while Kenshin enjoyed his rest sniffing the air around. We only decided to wrap things up when he started protesting coz he was hungry.

Oh well, it's back to the empty home and blasting music while I surf around on Facebook and have a sms conversation with the hubs.

Starting to achieve a more consistent jog-and-walk nowadays... but I think I need to push myself to jog more and walk less. Think Sunday's break was not a very good idea...

May decide to push in another jog tomorrow, if I can complete my chores...

After yesterday's run cum yoga sesh, my body was screaming for mercy.

The dull aching slowly intensified throughout the day and I think inadvertently made up my mind not to go for my morning jog last night by okay-ing a midnight show. Pretty obviously coz I knew that without sufficient sleep, my body would protest to waking up early in the morning for another round of torture.

Don't regret it though coz last night's show, Tropic Thunder, was really worth the $$$ spent. With the star-studded cast, the show provided in-your-face kind of entertainment with crude jokes that most guys could identify with. And gosh... I actually laughed so much that my sides ached as bad as they usually do after yoga, which worsened the muscle aches as a result.

Will try to make up for it I guess... maybe go for a short jog or maybe utilise those bicycles later in the evening. But first, go away, aches and pains...

Did the running warm up again this morning before my usual hot yoga sesh.

Think I pushed my muscles a little too much the last run coz I started feeling my shin/calf muscles way too early, before I hit my first km. Started to slow down to a brisk walk for a while, before resuming a slow jog pace. After the muscles got warmed up and the body got used to the lactic acid build-up, the run got easier and I was able to increase the pace.


I hit my fastest km today at 6'53"! :)

Somehow I think my jogging pace is as fast as my brisk walk pace, from the constant shape of the graph. Hmph...

Hot yoga sesh was good... Anil gave us some new position to try today, and I was able to improve on my flexibility. Only thing is I started getting cramps in my metatarsals mid way... which made me ease off slightly during the warrior 2 and plank poses.

Think having high arch is really irritating, coz I'm always prone to getting cramps in my metatarsals and twisting my ankles. Wonder, if and when I need to get a new pair of running shoes, I can get one to fit and support my high arch...

Took a different approach this evening and decided to run to the stadium and then continue from there round the track.


Some personality (the name I didn't catch) congratulated me for attaining my farthest run. :)

No prizes for guessing that it was a jog-and-walk affair, but I do think that it's getting better. I still feel the burn from the lactic acid build-up, but it isn't as bad as when I first started last week. Admittedly, it seems to be a little more attainable with each jog, and I find myself being more encouraged to continue this routine.

Only thing I still need to improve on is my breathing... really find it very discouraging when I start gasping for breath! Advice anyone?

I managed to calibrate my Nike+ after all.

Found out by accident that the reason why the sensor was not detecting well was coz it kept slipping into the shoe. Sighz... Read from some forum that the sensor is meant to be kept as near parallel to the ground as possible in order to get the best results.

Lesson learnt: Must tie my laces tight-tight to ensure that the sensor doesn't slip in again... nor fall out.

Today's run:

Plus calibration run: 0.4km

Total distance: 2.21km
Total time: ~16mins

Plus... I heard Tiger Woods congratulate me for achieving my fastest mile @ 12' 05"!! Yay!

How many km is a mile anyway???

After realising my Nike+ wasn't reflecting my true distance covered, I decided to go jog at the track this morning to calibrate it. Ya, silly old me took it for granted that I needn't do calibration coz the instruction manual said so...

Took me 4 tries to calibrate it properly. Somehow I think the sensor wasn't able to read properly when I ran, as opposed to when I was walking. Walking calibration didn't pose any problems. But when I ran 400m, it only clocked the distance as 150m! This happened three times! The last time round, I actually ran an extra 10+m just so that it could close the gap up to complete the calibration, as the past three trys were rejected due to distance difference.

Perhaps next time round I'll monitor it by running on the track or treadmill...

Distance ran: 1.6km
Time: 10 mins
Distance walked: 0.4km
Time: 4 mins

Went for hot yoga this morning... and decided to push myself to do something different.

Since I had to get there earlier to get a place for the class, I decided to jog during the period before class started. Armed with my Nike+ and iPod, I went on to the treadmill and just programmed for a manual workout. Somehow I think running on the treadmill is easier coz I had other distractions in front of me like the telly and other fellow joggers around to take my mind off the running and breathing. Managed to cover 1.7km on the treadmill in about 24 mins, taking into consideration not to strain myself so that I could have enough energy left for the hot yoga class.

It was then when I stopped the workout on my Nike+ that I realised it had not registered the same distance that was on the treadmill. Somehow I think my sensor is unable to detect the movement at certain periods, thus only registering 1km as the total distance covered. Wonder if it's possibly due to the lack of the required impact to register the movement... Shall monitor it again the next time I jog... and if it happens again, I think I might have to bring it for servicing...






In any case, the jog did wonders, as my muscles were warmed up enough for yoga class later. Managed the positions better and despite having jogged before class, I felt I had more energy or stamina for the class, even though the muscles were screaming in pain.

Think this routine of jogging on the treadmill before class will be permanent routine from now on...

Made myself go jog today after work. Don't know if it's coz I was still aching from Sunday's run or coz I hadn't eaten dinner, but tonight's jog wasn't as good as I hoped it would be.

Oh well... have to keep pushing it!!!

October is going to be a fresh start for me... to kick start a jog/yoga/cycling exercise routine for me. Need to get off that lazy butt of mine and start burning calories!!!

Like what ickleoriental and tiffanyx said to motivate me, the only way is just to overcome that initial inertia. So onwards to a healthier lifestyle!

Activities for this week:
27th Sept: Cycling trip at Pulau Ubin
1st Oct: Bowling at Safra Tampines
4th Oct: Hot Yoga
Today:

My first logged jog using Nike+ and my new iPod Nano

The jog would have been longer if I had not tripped while trying to avoid an uncle doing his morning walk. Sheesh! :(