Time flies fast when you're not looking...

Man.. it's been one heck of a month.. all the drama, the change in environment, the finals for my modules, and finally, the IMWA. I am severely undertrained, mentally drained, emotionally unstable... and yet.. I still find time and peace to watch "Project Runway".. haha.. I think I just need the mental shutdown for awhile...

So.. tt's all fer now.. I just need to mentally block myself from thinking and reading.. and just rest abit... might run later.. see how.. I just feel tired.. :) but that has never stopped me before...

Trudge on.. all... no matter what life throws at you, or what you throw into your lives...

PS. I feel like eating cake now. .hmm.. weird cravings...

Races I plan to do in 2010....

Been planning the races I wanna do next year (2010). I kinda like trail running after TNF100 and Genting Trailblazers, and hope to do more next year. I also wanna do more adventure-ish kinda races to get back into the technical and wild bit of racing other than the road races and triathlons

Feb - Ironman Langkawi - Paid already.. so no backing out now

Apr - Sabah Adventure Challenge - wild.. wild.. wild
From their website:

"....teams of two mountain biking, orienteering, paddling, tubing and trekking from check point to check point along the highlands of Sabah with rolling hills, glorious views of Mount Kinabalu, and exploring through the native villages and rivers of North Borneo....."
".....bunked in at local villages.......challenged with the difficult terrain and challenging river crossings"
"...oldest multi-day adventure race."

http://www.sabahadventurechallenge.com/

I'm just hoping to settle logistic issues for now.. ie the MTB's.. cos I dun have one, and haven't even trained on one before.. But then again, it's not the first time I'm doing stuff like this... (for eg, I only learned how to use an aerobar for the first time in IML 2009 itself, after lap 1)

June - KL marathon - veteran there.. nuff said...
Doing this race has sort of schedule that me and BK follow.... Sat afternoon - arrive KL. Chk in hotel room. Go out kai kai until 11+pm, come back and hang around. Sleep at 1+ am. Get up at 4+ am and go and race...
After race... zzzzz until 12.30pm when need to chk out.. then hang somewhere until evening to take coach. Total knock out until arrive Singapore... :)
http://www.kl-marathon.com/news/default.asp?aid=65&sec=6&ssec=16

Aug - Desaru LTU -Aids station manager.. really.. this time I wanna look see look see onny
Desaru LTU is a race that heavily relies on the aids station put up by volunteers.. so may be a good time to be on the other side instead.

Oct - Perhentian Island Challenge and Kinabalu Climbathon; Maybe TNF again.. just mebbe

Nov - Genting Trailblazer, Phuket Laguna Triathlon.. swim in the fresh/saltwater, run on the raod/trails... hmm.. not too sure bout the biking .. trails.. hehe

Dec - REST and POM POM ppl!!!

Tt's all for now.. and the year... I hope... but then again...

Nevermind...

Trudge on..

A day in the "new" life of Lala...

0400: Wake up for no reason.. (really, I don't know why).. do a bit of reading
0500: Sleep for another 2 hrs
0700 Wake up for real now. Get ready for work
0730: Head to work
0830: Work

WORK
WORK
WORK

1730: Finish work for the day. Run Home
1830: Arrive home. Train either swim, bike or run
2130: Finish training. Shower
2200: Study, read, chat online
0000: Sleep
0400: Wake up for no apparent reason... again

hahaha... my life for the past 2 weeks... roughly...

Trudge on..

My 3rd near death accident in about one year's timespan

As above.. I almost got knocked down.. today.. while running...

My FB status... I can't type much for now...
"Some truck carrying Bangladeshi workers was speeding at about 30km/h. lucky only kena the right side of my hand, cheek and thigh.. then spun around and fell."

"now got big bruise over my right hand.. feels like no fracture.. and my glasses lens got chipped.. sobs.."

"managed to complete 18km run though :)"

Might go get an xray tml.. will see how.. and resume training tml morning if I can wake up in time.. still in aftershock mode, cos no time during the knock to have myself to get scared..

This is really not a good year for me.. 4th major accident, 3rd near death one.. think I got my life flashing thing memorised already..

ugh.. gonna have a hard time sleeping tonight..

trudge on!!

My past... and the future..

Hmm.. a lot of people have asked me numerous times.. why am I still single? And I used to get the perpetual nagging from my mum about finding "The One" everytime I called home.. till i threatened never to call or go home again if that is the only thing she will ever talked to me about, and it worked.. hehe.. but anyways....

My close friends who knows my past will know my whole story and how far I've come. It was a mistake from the start, somehow, I knew it, but yet... I played along, ignoring every single sign warning me. I also ignored my intuition, that I trusted all the while and that I "believed" that everthing was going to be fine.

I put everything I was into it, and lost myself. It took me a week to stop crying when I wake up, when I was alone in the my clinic room, at night before I sleep, two weeks before I was able to sleep without drinking myself till I was pissed, a month to start smiling again and a year to rediscover who I was.. but only a few months ago to say that it was finally over.

Yes.. it took me that long, but it was because I am who I am.. and that I am passionate in whatever I do, and I believe that to do anything in life, I must give all I have. And that is who I'll always be... I am serious when I am with others cos I dun like to hurt their feelings... I am like my mum, strong for others on the outside, but soft in the inside. Hurting others hurts me more...

For now, work and studies and training supercedes everything else.. and those are now my priorities, right below family and close friends. Which is the main reason actually that I wanna take a break from racing next year.. so I can focus on other things in life... :) .. I'm sure my mum will be happy to hear tt.. till I tell her that I wanna spend more time on diving (scuba and sky) next year too.... hehe

Hmm.. many wonders await me next year.. I can just feel it in my bones... and I am all looking forward to it :)

Trudge on...

Trailblazing... second time round..

Last Sunday, BK and I went again for this year's Genting Trailblazer, and it was yeah... FUNZ!! For those who don't know, GTB is a 14 km trail run around Awana Genting, and it is one of the tougher trail runs I've ever been to as the tracks are not as straightforward as it seems. This year, we were in the competition category, hoping to win some moolah.. hehe.. and so, with tt in mind.. off we went.

We had a lot of change in plans, so we air-asia-ed to KL LCCT, bus to KL Sentral, Cab to Awana. Chked in and registered.....
And off we were to our room.

After a short break, it was off to Rajawali for makan. The food was only so so this time, and the dessert platter not as nice as last year's. Lotsa ppl were there to eat their fill.. and I'm sure the restaurant was fully prepared for us.. hehe

BK happy and finally full

After that, up to Genting for a stroll. Walked around First World and tried to shop for shoes.. As usual, failed miserably... conclusion: I am so not a women's shoe/sandals shopper.. hehe

BK enjoying a Candy floss

Me and my gorilla

The next morning, it was super misty... had a Power Bar and prepped for the race. Walked to the starting point.. and there were sooo many ppl. Found Ah Tey taking photos of everyone.. hehe.. good ole Tey...

Lotsa ppl at the starting point

The before pic

The race started with about a 3km run through the roads along the golf course. Mind you, not a flat road, but one long one filled with slopes, and with the surrounding mist, it was hard to gauge when the next upslope was (plus, it kinda felt like some Silent Hill scenery too). After about 20mins or so.. we hit the trails.. and whoa.. it was damn muddy and slippery. My shoe had no traction most of the time, and I fell a few times even on the flat trail ground (ok, ego bruised here) leaving with me 2 deep cuts on my right palm.The first part was similar to the previous TB route and was up and down and up and down over and over again. Some parts required us to slide, some parts had ropes to pull ourselves up.

After about the 3 river crossings (where I consistently cleaned my hands) we reached the hardest part of the race... the almost never ending UP UP UP hill. This itself took about 20 to 30 mins to complete and I had to stop and take a breather about 3-4x before completing the hill climb...

Small river crossing

ok.. starting to see steps.. gg to reach liao... about 10 more mins..
and yes!!! I am on the road... yay!!! the last water point and toilet break before head on to the finish point.


The last part last year was a road run to the obstacle course.. and it was mainly downhill.. and I thought it was the same this year.. I WAS DEAD WRONG.!!!... we turned off into another sandy trail area and it was upslope... AGAIN... before heading down to the obstacle area.
Now, HERE is where the fun begins. There were a few water pits and a tall mound on the site. We had to go through the water pits.. and I didn't know of it was deep or shallow. There were a few photogs on the mound to the side.. and well.. we asked.. they said just go ahead... I took one step.. and.. whoopps.... I went into the water. I stood up and the water was at my shoulder level.. haha.. oh well.. ok.. cursed at the photog for abit.. hahha.. next were walls limbs, more water pits, bamboo bridge walk, well.. let the pics tell the story.

Wading under the bamboo poles

Big wall to climb, then jump into the muddy water

Bamboo pole bridge

Climb up and jump in to the water

Anyway, we ended the race at 1:55 hrs and it was fun!! We were mixed number 7.. damn ... missed the podium by 2 positions again.. oh well..

Some new frens at the event : Tweet & Ribbit

Ah Tey at his job!!

Back to the room, showered, ate food, took more pics, before heading back to the room to clean up and pack. Had a nice HOT bath .. mm.. I love hot baths.. and chked out. BK bought some Brooks shoes and off we were to the First World again to get bus tickets to head back to SG.

The medal and shoe bag

As usual, had lotsa fun times this race, although it was tough. To me, this year's race was better than last year's, maybe cos a little but fitter and that the route changed a bit. The obstacle course was different as well, with new varieties of obstacles to go through. This was much more interesting and was soooo much better than just climbing last yr's walls. Hope they make it better and better as tiem goes by.. so...

Might join again next year, so watcha waiting fer !!

Trudge on...