Running Sucks

So what have I been up to these past 2 weeks? Last week was eat eat eat. It was probably the longest stretch of time where I did no exercise of any sort - not even a single push up. And so not unexpectedly gained 1 kg. This week, well 6 days gone and still no running. Monday did some weights. Tuesday more weights. Wednesday managed to do an hour of swimming. Thursday half an hour on the Elliptical trainer + some more weights. Friday rest and Saturday half an hour on the bicycle in the gym and another half an hour on the rowing machine + more weights. Hmmm but still nothing beat running:(

Mumpty Dumpty had a fall, again. Some people in the forum described her as 'brave' for carrying on the run. I will call it stupid. It's just a run and since the fall was at the beginning barely 500 metres from the start, should have just stop and take care of the wound rather than continue for another 1+ hours.  But then again, she has ' experience ' with fall and since injuries seem to be following the 2 of us, what else is new? SoI reckoned she decided might as just well just do it!

Found a TCM practitioner near the office. Actually it is the mother of all TCM here - the TCM Orthopaedic Centre run by the Singapore College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. According to the physician, they are teacher of TCM. The lady physician assessed my leg. First thing she noticed was that it was swollen on both inner and outer ankle and silly me didn't even notice it. So it was worse than I thought. But the good news was no fracture, no dislocation. Bad news was it was going to take another 2 weeks to heal. Anyway she did a tui na for me which felt so soothing - much better than the aggressive rubbing Ye Sifu did last week. When I informed her that I was self treating it with ice, she was shocked. According to her, ice is only good for immediately after injury and icing the injury more than 24 hours later does not help and in fact will make it worse. Not too sure what she was trying to explain to me with my limited understanding of mandarin and she with her accent:( Interes...

While bored and with nothing to do, browsed through the photos taken by friends at the recent Aviva Half Ironman. Something strike me - a common theme that ran through a number of contestants. Take a good look. What do you see? No no I am not a pervert! I don't have any fetish for torso! Look closely. Look at the size of their tummy er sorry I means abs. Most of them look like they are like 3 - 4 months pregnant. Sorry my friends if you recognise yourself in there. I mean no disrespect but is that where the extra reserve of energy come from? After all, its not called spare tyre for nothing - and spare tyre is as everybody knows, something pretty handy in hand when you get a flat which is what most participants will be feeling after the swim and bike. Hmmm maybe I should emulate their example and get one of that proportion to give me more energy.

Have recommended a few people to Ye Sifu, the TCM at Bedok North but myself never had to see him or for that matter any other TCM until now that is. Yesterday afternoon, went to see him, got a rub down and the normal yoko paste. Now the ankle is all wrapped up like a bak chiang:) Hopefully, it is just a sprain like the Sifu said and nothing worse than that. So for the next 1 week going to slack big time!

Probably the one and only chance to run in the KPE so when the run was announced, quickly signed up just for the experience. And what a 'run' it turned out to be. Sighed........ It started well enough. There was no parking facilities near the start point so the organiser kindly provided free transport from Tampines & Kovan MRT. Reached Tampines MRT at around 7am and didn't have to wait long to board the bus. Reached the KPE in less than 10 mins. Bummed into a few sgrunners and a group of 'siow kia' who called themselves Fatbird but I looked left, looked right, looked up and looked down, didn't see any guy who was fat or any bird:) They had tied this rope around themselves and looked like were preparing to run tied together! Anyway M and me we tried to move forward past the 5km fun crowd. I slipped and I think twisted my ankle while coming off a kerb. Back then, I didn't think much about it. Anyway, the race was flagged off and I started slowly. M had alr...

I have been using glucosamine cream for the longest time ever together with super duper expensive glucosamine pills. Have it work? I certainly hope so considering the amount of money that I have spent on these products so far. Anyway, today I have decided to compare the various creams that I have used throughout the years: Tiger Balm Joint Rub This was the first cream that I tried and used for a long time. I find it effective especially at masking pain. According to the product write up : “Tiger Balm Joint Rub provides temporary relief from aches and pains due to muscle sprains, stiffness, and joint pains associated with arthritis. It contains glucosamine, chondroitin, and methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) - ingredients commonly used for treating and preventing osteoarthritis. This topical cream is pleasant to use, as it is greaseless and contains no alcohol which can lead to localised, dry skin conditions” Like: It comes in a pump bottle, making it easy to use and is the che...

As most of those who have a full time running spouse (read: lady spouse) will attest - running with the spouse is oh... so bitter sweet. I have been running together with M for the past years and while most time I look forward to running together as a time of bonding, sometime it can be nerve wrecking. Just like yesterday. I wanted to do our lsd by running from home in Simei to ECP via the Bedok PCN and from there to Changi Coastal Run and than Loyang Ave and back to Simei. She didn't want to run along the side of the road and prefer just running up and down the ECP. To me, doing a 28km up and down ECP was not my cup of tea. It is so boring. In the end we compromised, from ECP to Changi Beach and back. And that is one hell of a monotonous and tortuous routes. But what to do? And that is the problem for most of the runs that we do together. I love to run new routes, routes that do not entail going up and down the same old path and I will travel all over Singapore just to run. She pr...

Since the AHM, has gone for 4 more runs: Tue – 5km easy run with the Fatbird team at the I-run Thu – 7km easy hill run with the RL people at Fort Canning Sat – 12km easy trail run with some sgrunners to/from Bedok Reservoir to Tampines Sun – 26km lsd run with M at East Coast Park So far so good. The knee seemed to have rectified itself. No more sharp acute pain. No more locking. No more swelling. Will continue to use a knee guard for the time being just to play safe. But then, some school of thought is that knee guard serves no purpose. More psychological (is this correct term?) than useful? But I think it does help in event of fall, etc to protect the knee and not so much to prevent injury whilst running. So it’s not the end after all!