A bid to keep to my 2010 new year's resolutions...

It had been a bad week at work somewhat for me. Not living up to my expectations and standards, perhaps others' too. Complacency perhaps setting in?

Albeit that, i manage to chalk up training time especially for my climbing, swimming and also the 2nd dawn trail run.

Climbing has always been a challenge for me as i am not naturally predisposed to it either due to interest or body composition. I always found difficulty in it and perhaps i am too heavy for it. (Lame excuses) After the ITC, it dawned upon me, "Why the hell am i in this course anyway when my interest don't really lie in climbing?!" I just wasted about $500 on something i don't really want but which i thought would be good for me professionally. The problem is, i am not a good climber! So why the heck do i want to be a climbing instructor. I can't negotiate a 6A route at all and i hated lead climbing.

But with Hairi's persuasion and encouragement, i decided since i paid for it, in a way, i am committing myself to being good at it. If not, it would have been a complete waste of half a grand! So the commitment is, every week if we're on course, we will climb and we will climb lead! No top rope unless he says we do. For those who are new to this, top-roping is the normal climbing we do with belaying rope already run through the anchor on top. Hence, you are belayed from the 'top'. With lead climbing, you go up to fix the belay rope onto the anchor. The belay line is attached to you but the temporary anchors along the way (every 1m or so) is fixed by you yourself. These two-sided snaplinks are called runners. It gives the illusion and also sometimes the reality of falling from height IF you are not able to clip in the belay rope to the runner as you climb up.

As of now, i am trying my best to apply efficiency to climbing; Ch'i Climbing i call it!

This week also saw me clock my second VFF run on trail at dawn, 5am in the morning at my private island sanctuary. FB finally managed to join me and he quipped that it was a real refreshing run. He immediately felt fresher after the run and felt that on trails, he naturally went fore-foot running even in his Salomons perhaps due to the uneven surface. One has to be prepared for anything; loose rocks, roots, branches and birds even especially since visibility is restricted to only a metre ahead under the canopy! He felt, he would continue joining me and encouraged me to carry on getting more and more people to join in the fun. As of now, people get turned off by the meeting time of 5am, they'd prefer to have more sleep. But i am sure once they feel the benefit of a cool morning run, they'd join more often! I think i shall form a group Ubin@5! Hahaha...or maybe Dawn Trailblazers? Name not that important... most importantly, it must be a routine and sustained effort.


Its about slightly more than 5 weeks before the biathlon too and this time, i want to clear the swim leg with freestyle more than 90% of the time within 40mins this time. Last year, my timing was approx 55mins due to slowing down to find space and also doing frogstyle about 65% of the time (by approximate feeling). Hahaha...

Anyway, the bad week should end soon. Meeting the girl for ice-cream and a run. Thanks love for always trying to cheer me up when i'm down! Love you..

May Allah guide us all..bless us with happiness and health n protect us from the dangers of this world, physically or mentally. Help us become successful people in the world and after...

I was inspired to just head out for a run in the dark out at the trails after reading Born to Run and asked around if anyone was willing to accompany me... none was until thursday night when one colleague of mine came up to me and asked whether or not i was still interested to run.

One of his students left behind a bag at one of the rest-huts which was around 2-3km away from base camp. So we figured, why not? Commit, grab a head torch each and off we went around 5.15am in the morning.

I found it exhilarating to run in the dark. Each and everyone of your senses were heightened. Every bird that was awaken and flew away, every owl that hooted, every fruit that dropped, every puddle and overhanging roots kept us alert.

I managed to test my KSO Trek VFFs on the trails and i must admit, it performed wonderfully. In my last review, i reported that the sole-protection was quite protective that it masked the feeling of complete nudity. However, on the trails, you naturally convert to a shorter, quicker forefoot stride. You spend lesser time absorbing impacts and i seem to feel more stable. The heels seldom impact the ground and i was literally on my toes. Traction was good as we went over some wet and loose rocks and soil. My calves really had a workout and i dun really feel pain on the sides of my knee so far as of yet.

It was quite a great run and i hope to be able to continue this and at the same time, grow the number of night trail runners amongst my group of friends. (Since we are really lucky to literally live and work in an island!)

Anyway, here's a good pictorial on barefoot running benefits. I got it off Barefoot Ted's site..



May Allah guide us all..bless us with happiness and health n protect us from the dangers of this world, physically or mentally. Help us become successful people in the world and after...