Running Sucks

Went with the Mrs, Bambi and Michelle to Pierce for this weekend training run. Michelle brought her 2 kids along so I played baby-sitter. The kids are so lovable and friendly very unlike my 2 who will not warm up to strangers. The ladies are doing very well now. They complete the 11km or so run up the nasty slopes in a fairly good time of 1:25 mins without walking the slopes. Very good indeed for people who have never ran there before. Had roti-prata at the relocated and renovated Casurina Prata House together with Michelle's hubby, Notme who had ran 30km earlier with the Animiles. Thanks Yu (pun intended) for the breakfast. I have now been cleared by the doc to go without the brace and to use 1 crutch. It is so much more convenient. Also started cycling at CSMC at yesterday physio. Cycled for 20 minutes. Tried to swim today but rained out after 10 minutes. But the 10 minutes felt good. Will try and do 20 laps today.

Sunday at East Coast. Training for the marathon but not me - the Mrs and the ladies from VRP and Chris. They are doing the half for the 1st time and training hard. With 11 weeks to go, they are doing 12km today (14km for the Mrs). All of them finished in good time (1:18 - 1:34). Target for them is to complete the half without walking in 2:30 minutes, an achievable target I think. I managed to walk 4km in a record time of 1:01 minutes :(. Came back to the start point and was doing some exercises when saw some sgrunners going past. Managed to stop quite a few for a chat and a drink. They were running from Changi Village in what is known as the 'Demoralising Run'. Wished I could have joined them. The last time I ran with them on this route was only up to the mid point of the runway. This time round, they were running to Bedok Jetty and for I think - Teelee, Real and Dream, even further. Didn't expected so many to be doing the full 28km distance though. Pretty soon, ran out of ...

End of the first week back at work. It has been an interesting time moving around on crutches in public places and taking public transport. Now I understand why the handicapped keep on complaining about the lack of empathy by the public and the people in charge of transport and buildings. At my office, to reach the lift there is a flight of steps no bid deal to the able bodied but to the disabled, it is a mountain to climb. As my cubicle is on the 2nd floor and the pantry is on the first floor, everytime I need to replenish my drinks, it is either go down 2 flights of staircase on 2 crutches carrying the bottle or take the cargo lift which means I have to exit via the back door to use the cargo lift and logged in again at the main office entrance to reach the pantry - no mean feat balancing bottles, ID passes and crutches and rushing to open the door after keying in the key before it shut down again. Interestingly, 2 colleagues offered to get the water for me and both are not from my d...

Sigh, just when I was enjoying myself at home it's time up to go back to work. No more Justice League, Superman, Martin Mystery, Drake & Josh..... No more waking up at 9.30, going to an empty gym in the afternoon for nice quiet workout, no more pampering from everybody at home. The nice folks back at the office has cleared everything for me. For once, no coming back to a desk full of piled up overdue work. Whew and thanks everybody! The office folks had a mini wager whether anybody will give up their seat for me on my way home via the MRT. Do they really expect our practical stressed Singaporeans to give up their seats to anybody? After all, they paid the same fare so why should they be deprive of a seat? So as expected, no seat for me even though everybody can see tall old me standing with 2 crutches. Or maybe watch too much cartoons and somehow managed to turn myself invisible so nobody saw me. So got to stand all the way from Tanjong Pagar until Kembangan before getting an e...

Got this absolute real gem via email. Question 1: Question 2: Question 3: Question 4: Hopefully my kids don't answer their math problems like that tho.

It is the 11th day since the operation. I have gone off the pain killer totally although there is still some pain now and than but nothing unbearable. I am now able to walk and bent the leg a bit but under doctor's order, still have to use the crutches. The physio has promised that when I can bend my legs to 80%, I can start going on the stationery bike. Right now it's about 60% so am working hard to reach that. Went out for the 1st time other than to the hospital on Saturday to Raffles City. The Vitamin Research girls are having a relaunch of their shop. There is a small crowd there. Their business seems to be doing well although I don't really understand their concept. Who do they sell to? They are not retail based although they have a retail outlet. To clinics? Do clinics dispense the supplements they sell? They also don't really promote their bio-testing aggressively. I guess being in the financial line make me real curious about how people run their business. Ayway...

It's been 5 long days of pure torture - it's so freaking boring staying at home Already finished all the movies borrowed from Eric, made a mistake and borrowed 1 whole lot of John Grisham's books and find that I don't like his style of writing. Got so desperate yesterday that I decided to play the Xbox but old already don't know how to use the controller got fadup of crashing the cars after 10 minutes switched to Halo and after 10 minutes of walking around gave up and went to sleep again! Really looked forward to today physio - anything just to go out for a while. Stayed at CGH for 4 hours before reluctanly returning home. During the physio session, got some bad news - seem instead of being out for 1 month - I am unlikely to be able to run or even swim for the next 6 months because the surgeon did an additional procedure on me - ie. microfacture of the bone. That was what was causing the pain and also why I'm not allowed to bend my leg. Came back and read the d...

29 August 2006 9.30 am Checked myself into CGH. Feeling very hungry. No food since 11pm the previous day. Operation is schedule for between 9.30 am to 12.30 am. Stayed in the ward waiting for my turn. Getting hungrier and hungrier and also thirsty. 12.30 pm The guy next to me got his lunch. Where's mine? 12.45 pm Finanlly! they came and pushed me to the operating theatre. Must lie on the stupid bed and get pushed down by the amah. Why can't they let me walk by myself? 1.00 pm. Told Dr Chang I am dead hungry. He said he already pushed me up by 1 patient. 1.15 pm The anesthesist asked me to breath in oxygen and than I zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 4.00 pm Woke up to see Dr Chang standing over me. He flashed some photos and started explaining what he had done for me. Too groggy to understand what the hell he's talking about. Than he gave me a small bottle. Fluid from the knees 4.45 pm Pushed back to the ward. Now damn hungry. I could eat a bear!. The Mrs is waiting for me. Took a sip of wa...