Running Sucks

This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice in it .. so goes the line .. but a bit difficult to rejoice today. In another 5 hours or so, I will go for the Arthroscopy and cartilage repair. It is not the surgery that I worry about but what if after the op.. I find that I can no longer run? According to the Doc, he's going to trim the meniscus if possible If not, he will have to remove it. More information on the meniscus : "Medically speaking, the "cartilage" is actually known as the meniscus. The meniscus is a C-shaped piece of fibrocartilage which is located at the peripheral aspect of the joint. The majority of the meniscus has no blood supply. For that reason, when damaged, the meniscus is unable to undergo the normal healing process that occurs in most of the rest of the body. In addition, with age, the meniscus begins to deteriorate, often developing degenerative tears. Typically, when the meniscus is damaged, the torn piece begins to move in an abnormal f...

At last the day of the AHM. This is the race that I been waiting for - since it was my first race ever back in 2004 and I missed last year's due to the flu. Also, this will possibly be my swansong for this year as I doubt I will be able to do the SCSM so soon after the op. However, it is a race that I'm really ill prepared for. Mileage has been extremely low for the past months and the past 2 weeks only did 1 5km (treadmill) and on Thursday a slow 6km or maybe less at the Running Lab run. Moreover, I don't know whether the knees will be able to take the pounding as it has swelled up again after subsiding for about a month. Also, there is some problem with the left ankle which I can't place. After the screw up of last week NBRR, I was really apprehensive about today. Will I be caught in another traffic jam? Will I be able to find a parking lot? Yet it doesn't make sense for me to go too early. In the end, decided to reach there by 4.30 pm. Picked up Cosmic and M'...

The NB RR results are out and the Mrs clocked a very credible 1:03:17 (chip time) I am very proud of her. The last few practice at Sentosa she was still doing 1:11 to 1:15 and this is a drastic improvement. She was an unwilling runner. Initially, when I started running seriously in 2003, she always said I crazy don't want to sleep wake up at 5.30 am to go running. My efforts to get her to run didn't work. Her excuse: "I can't run". Then she started joining me in the gym to reduce 'weight'. She started running on the threadmill but try as I could - couldn't get her to run on the road with me. She said she can only runs on threadmill. When I started going to the Running Lab run, and told her of the people and the lady runners there - I think she got worried that I will run away with someone from there. (Too bad so far no takers for me:) So she decided to join me. Now she runs 3-4 times a week more than me and I am the one who have to keep telling her to ...

What a screw up race this turned out to me for me. May be somebody up there is really trying to send me a message that I'm not suppose to run. It all started well enough. Picked up Cosmic at 6.30am reach Keppel Road at 6.45am. There was a long queue of cars so I patiently waited. After 10 minutes when the queue did not move, I started to panic. 10 minutes later and we had hardly moved 10 metres. Oh shit, this is bad. Many people in taxi were alighting and walking. At 7.15 am when we haven't even move pass Prima, I asked the Mrs and Cosmic to walk. By the time I reached the junction to Gateway, it was already 7.40. Sigh, it's going to be a mad rush to reach the start point in time like that. At 7.45am I managed to move pass the ticketing booth at the causeway. At 7.50 I was just outside the Visitor Centre in my car when I saw the runners coming down from the Gateway Park. It was another 20 minutes before the traffic could move. I sped up to the Beach Car park only to be turn...

2nd time in a row that I skipped the RL Thu Night Run and for the slightest of reasons. Last week was this funny feeling on the left sole. Told myself didn't want to take any chances. So skipped. Yesterday, using the Enbebe Bio-Ray knee guard for the second time, the knee felt very tight, in fact the whole leg felt very tight. So decided to skip last night as well. Very unlike me. Growing old or just becoming plain lazy? Mileage these few weeks have been very low - averaging only 15k and at most 20k max and only 2 runs a week. May be the lack of running is the cause? Maybe just a case of getting sian of running. Anyway, only 3 more runs (2 races and 1 normal run) to go before calling it a day temporarily. Time to change the title of this blog to "Life Sucks"??

Went for my fourth treatment today. The knee feels better but unfortunately even Jose admits surgery is necessary after viewing the MRI and x-ray. :( What exactly is Osteopathy ? According to the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia - it is the practice of therapy based on manipulation of bones and muscles. This school of medicine, founded by A. T. Still in 1874, maintains that the normal body produces forces necessary to fight disease and that most ailments are due to “structural derangement” of the body. Frequent slight strains are held to be capable of causing misalignment of bones and various other conditions of the muscle tissue and cartilage, and treatment is directed toward correction of these conditions.* For those who tends to suffer pain/injuries after running - I strongly recommend paying him a visit to check out what's wrong. Like in my first visit, he checked the wear patterns on my shoes, made me run and found out my left leg tends to swing out and my right leg lands harde...

Alicia went to try out for direct admission to Anglican High this morning. Unfortunately, she was not shortlisted after the basketball trial. I had high hope initially as she represents her school and her teacher seems to think she had a good chance. There was a big turnout for the basketbal criteria - about 20 + and they were only looking for 12. When I saw the group of Poi Chun girls played, I knew she had no chance. Fast, agile, big sized and skilful - Alicia is way off their league. And with about 8 of them, they already easily took up most of the places available. But to be honest, if I am the selector, I also couldn't have pick her. The rest were simply too good. No wonder all the rest of her team mates stayed away.

How about that? A new race in town as reported in Today - Scurrying down to this derby . What's it all about? A race for cockroaches. That should be damn fun. And the best part - Guarantee no running injury, no long hours of training and cheap too! And after that, for those with fear factor courage - can slurp up the protein rich creatures and for those who are sadist - can just stomp on them! Think I go catch myself some roaches. Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches - This one like me only know how to make noise - cannot run sure to lose to the German and American roaches