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

God works in mysterious ways..

Here i am lamenting that for the past two days i ate too much, exercised none, and He just made a masterful move. I was shocked to realise i missed about 4 bus stops before i could alight at the 5th. I think it is about 2 km home and after shaking off the zee-stupor, i smiled and offered my thanks.

It was an opportunity for me to walk my way home and clock my exercise time. No choice since i had no EZ-link card and no coins anyway! The walk home also gave me some time to reflect and think of how i am going to restructure my finances to keep up to dream 11-11-11.

It also gave me a chance to gaze at the impending sunset at Pandan Reservoir... what a sight. Nice bluish-orange tinge to the batik-like patterned cumulus clouds. Reminds me of the colour of KTM, the brand of my ride! "Ready to Race!"

Anyway, we went for a swim today. Scorching hot sun and so many people burning themselves up charred rather than enjoy the cool dip in the pool. *Ponders why* Manage to keep up to the discovered method of gliding and i find that even though the stroke rate seems slow, speed is much faster than my normal free style at frantic pace. That's the beauty of economy and using the elements with you... I managed to up my continuous lap to 100m sets without breaking my momentum and i am also able to go 6 strokes before taking my breath now. Allows me to glide longer however i find it a teeny-bit uncomfortable having to hold out awhile without air and doing work. Think i'll stick with the 4-stroke. I was also able to practise abit of sighting just now.

How?

After i bring my head up to breathe (i look behind and 'peep' in between the triangular window that my elbow creates), before i return into the water, i simply look in front. It is not as easy in open murky waters. In the pool, the water is somewhat crystal clear but in open water condition, you really need your head up above water to see. The art is to do that and yet not break your momentum. Plus, look for a landmark on land that is big, obvious and visible cause most of the time, you can just manage a glance at it before your head falls back into the water to continue your stroke. I still got about 3 weeks plus, got time to peak-up properly.

Kamie seems to be able to glide slightly longer now in the water too... doesn't really matter. :) Important thing is for her to get comfortable in water and soon she'll grasp the technique. Keep 'body sensing' and improving your techniques B. Give a target where you wanna reach before you stand up again. Soon, you'll complete one lap without stopping! You'll get it if you really desire it.

Like i said, God works in mysterious ways. Thank you for today... both of 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...

CNY 2010 is really quite a well worth break.

Met up with the girlfriend to walk through MacRitchie's tree-top trail. Lovely trail with beautiful refreshing sights. I notice the water stream seems to have more fishes in it now too! A sign that wild life is booming? I notice the trails make a good running spot too, so next time i think i should try running there. A good 8km run with plenty of undulating surface and twisty-turns. Lovely!

The maternal family also took this chance to come together and have one of the biggest dinner-outside ever. We had it at Simpang Bedok and practically the entire row of tables and more belonged to our family alone. From the aunties and uncles to the little children, even the nephew and nieces. It gets bigger every year with one more still in the production line! Due date for delivery InsyaAllah (god willing) is March. It's definitely nice when most of the family members get together and bond. I got to apologise to the Chinese first for hijacking their holiday and using it to our advantage. For our family who resides in Malaysia, it was their first time setting eyes on Maya Zafirah, my youngest niece and probably the chubbiest! I pray that we stick close and tight to one another. Hopefully, a family corporation can emerge out of this and we become (as the cuzzins always dreamt) to be like some Lee Foundation or some big organisation thingy where each of us specializes in one field of work. Lets home dreams do come true.

Today, i realise also that one should make the effort to maintain friendship with old friends too. Fazli asked me to join the old NUS Silat guys outing (the retired and the veterans, hahaha...). The agenda? LAN gaming... I was quite reluctant initially as firstly, i don't really like computer games and secondly, i just felt like slacking home.

However, it felt good meeting up with old friends and for once, not reminiscing old days of school and silat and gossiping. LAN Gaming was a great way to work together without breaking a sweat and it was a hell lot of fun! I still suck at computer games though but strategising and working together in the virtual world IS fun. What more, the game of monopoly (the deck of cards version... quite a new one i believe) after that at Arab St. You can't ask more from companionship of like minded people. No regrets making effort to stay up at all.

Anyway, this CNY is also a bad break from my resolution. These two days that i kept my eyes off the ball saw me eating more than i needed and i felt bad being bloated! It was a classic case of "it's ok, i'll finish up...", committing to more than i can give. It's ok though as later, the gf has planned for a swim! Yayyy...

Remember Zola, "Chill, relax, breathe and glide..."

I wanna watch Percy Jackson too... Hahaha...

OK! Back to focus... resolute on my resolutions. Go go go...

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...

Aptly used in this case... EUREKA!

I think i found my sweet spot to glide in water. I think i discovered my economy in swimming the front crawl. I think i did my Ch'i swimming!!

How did it happen?

I believe it occurred during the 16th lap. Each lap, i was 'body sensing'... trying to find maximum glide with every stroke. I stretched out far with my hands, careful not to cross the imaginary line running through my body. I tensioned my core, believing that it will 'straighten' up my posture and i flapped hard with my feet, keeping to the two beat kicks. And yes! I pulled hard underwater... and breathed hard.

Result? I got tired and winded up... fast.

Somehow, i always believe in this quote..

"When you're tired and you can't give up, your body will naturally find economy in motion."

- vzoj

So at around the 16th lap, i decided to relax. Chill. Breathe slower. And let my hands 'glide' into the water rather than slam in it. And my legs? I tried to keep it together especially at my knees and flap with my feet only. I keep my body relaxed but straight from head to toe, streamlining it even when i flapped out with my feet and pull with my arms. To keep it streamlined even as i pull and flap, i have to slightly rotate my body left and right rather than keep it flat against water.

My breathing? I sucked in hard and swallowed the air right into my stomach or diaphragm and let the air out slowly and naturally through the nose. As a result, i am able to comfortable do 4 strokes before i breathe again as compared to 2 strokes. The advantage of doing 4 strokes is that i am now able to glide better and longer before i break the momentum slightly to breathe.

The next step is to practise sighting. The art of how to aim while swimming in open waters. This will be useful for the upcoming Biathlons as i realise, doing frontcrawls in sea water is easy BUT going straight especially when you see nothing much in the murky waters in difficult.

Will update on this soon.

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...

A day i did pretty much a bit of everything...

I swam, i camwhored, i gobbled and i spent time with people...

Woke up late today since it wasn't a work day and it's not that often that i can wake up later than the sun. Well, i woke up at around 10am. That's 4 hours past my routine wakie timing. I actually did wake up at 6 but decided to plonk down on the floor again after a brief pee at the loo...

Had lunch at home, the first in a long while on a weekday. Then i went to pick the gf from her workplace.. I kinda got lost there.. anyway.. what do you make out from this message "after you come out from blk 7, go right to where the circular building is." Is it the same as, "after you come out from blk 7, turn right, you will see a circular building, go there." This is what confused me! (Hahaha... sorry my beloved Teacher Kamie, not picking a bickerin' here... just want to disturb you! Love you too!)

Anyway, we went for a swim and FB and Charles popped along. Charles brought his family along and man his 3 boys were adorable! You should see how those tots come to you and with the 'rockers sign' exclaiming "WASSUPP!!" Hahaha... It's remarkable how comfortable they are in water too despite their tender age. What do you expect when both their parents were swimming coaches.

When the gf was done with her swim, i continued my laps and this guy actually came up to me and said "Hey, you're doing two beat kicks too!". He said he had just warmed himself up into Total Immersion swimming through YouTube and is grappling with it. I think he introduced himself as Saiful and works at the Boy's Home nearby. It's amazing how people can just come up to you and talk to you... i wonder how they pick up the courage to do so cause i would never muster enough balls to start a conversation with a stranger! Let alone talking to one in the pool...

Total Immersion was also a concept introduced to me by Charles in late 2008. As an avid swimmer and a swimming coach, he underwent TI training. To simply explain TI, it is like Ch'i Swimming.. To squeeze maximum economy out of every force exerted. My fascination with this Ch'i-style lead me to practise economy in motion for practically any sport i indulge in. Running, climbing and swimming. I got to admit, i'm not good at it yet. But i conciously apply Body Sensing, a concept i learnt form the book Ch'i Running by Danny Dreyer. Body Sensing requires for one to be aware and analyse every body motion and work done by each sinew of muscle. By doing this, you get to feel whether that particular muscle is doing too much and another doing too little. Allowing them to do so would risk straining or even injuries. This works on the premise that each body is created by God to be uniquely perfect and as KTM says, "Race Ready".

I love the idea that 'God has a plan for us' and that He made us each unique and perfect to live out our destinies. We just have to discover our strengths and make full use of each window of opportunities that is open at any moment in time.

After swimming, the gf and i went to have egg tarts and chendol...both traditional delicacies. I cut my hair too! Brings me back to the last time i did this hairdo, ermmmm 2006? For AUG.. Hahaha. My head felt light instantly! I can feel the cool breeze blowing right through the bristles! Then off we went home till we spotted the sun going down while passing through Mandai Rd... so i decided to take the Seletar Reservoir path and we stopped to admire the sunset for a while, a SHORT while! That's the thing with everything... when you dun enjoy things, time takes too long to pass by but when you are enjoying, time passes by in an instance. We could literally see the sun go down... too fast too quick! We managed to camwhore though...


*Hearts* the sunset...




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...