k r i s a n d r o

I am alive!

And I’ve been a bad, bad blogger. So bad that you ought to have me on your lap so that you can give me some good spanking. But we both know that you don’t want that to happen so let’s just pass.

Work and life has been keeping me really busy and I really find it hard to update this space of mine. I won’t say ‘sorry’ because I don’t owe you guys any updates and I won’t promise anything because I probably won’t fulfil any as well.

Some PR agencies have probably given up on me as well because I’ve been attending events and have not been sharing my experiences even though I enjoyed most of it. So much for being in the social media scene and not practising what I preach. Even KuKuNehNeh nags at me about those posts.

My health has been really bad for the last 2-3 months and it pretty much killed the biggest event that I was looking forward to for the year. I had to give the Standard Chartered marathon a miss as my fitness level was not up to mark with all the flu and cough that plagued me like no tomorrow. I have however not given up at running my first marathon and I have signed up for next year’s Adidas Sundown marathon for the 21km event to prepare me for the Standard Chartered marathon at the end of 2010.

I am in the midst of stabilizing the priorities in life and deciding on the next big thing. There is something quite unsettling about turning 28 this Christmas and wondering why I haven’t been able to say, “This is what I want to do for the next 30 years.” My laid back personality is probably the cause of this uncertainty and I’d like to think that it’s high time I find what I want to do for the next chapter in my life before I can confidently ask someone to spend the rest of her life with me.

“Good things come to those who wait…”

So… happy waiting for my next blog post!

Meanwhile, catch me on Twitter and Plurk where I update much more frequently!

Without sounding like a drama queen who has been denied to eat her favourite McDonald’s Seaweed Shaker Fries…

I am so dead. I am so DEAD. I AM SO DEAD. I AM SOOOOOO DEADDDD!!!!!!!!!

Ok. Fine. That really sounded like a drama queen who has been denied to eat her favourite Shaker Fries.

My running routine was interrupted by a bout of flu some time back and I had to steer clear of my jogging shoes while I recovered from the nasty bugs for 3 whole weeks.

Not only did I miss at least 90km of training but after trying to run again after the 3 week long break, I realized my mind, body and heart were so much weaker and I could not go back to the same intensity I was training prior to the flu. I should be hitting 22km for my long run this weak but instead, I have only managed to run a furthest distance of 12km so far.

With the Army Half Marathon only 11 days away, I am in serious deep shit.

I have thoughts about forgoing the 21km race next Sunday and concentrate on the year end’s Standard Chartered Marathon instead but I find it such a pity to not run when I have paid up and actually asked friends to join me for the run.

So I am probably going to generously adjust my pace so that I run as fast as a Shaker Fries deprived drama queen to make sure I am slow enough to finish the run.

I am so dead.

The running event of the year, the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009, has been open for registration since the 16th July and early birds who register during this period till the 5th of August will get to enjoy discounts for the registration fees!

Wow~! 3 variations of the word ‘register’ in the sentence above and it doesn’t take a genius to guess the purpose of this post is to convince YOU to register!

Take the chance to register for a race so that you’ll find a valid excuse to put on your running shoes and get out there to sweat it out!

Well, if you are not as crazy as the few of us going for the full marathon, there are other categories to consider like the half-marathon, 10km, team races or even the 750m kids dash if you are 13 years of age and below.

Here is the breakdown of the fees involved.

And do consider registering yourself as a charity runner by joining their “Run for a Cause” (RFAC) program whereby you can help raise funds through a pledge card or an online donation portal to either of the 3 identified charities or all of them. The 3 charities are:

1. Bukit Ho Swee Family Service Centre

- a community-based focal point of family resources that promotes and strengthens the well-being of families in distress.

2. Lions Befrienders

- reaches out to lonely senior citizens with limited or no family support, to help dignifying and enhance the quality of their golden years.

3. Rainbow Centre Yishun Park School

- is a place where children with autism and multiple disabilities are respected and provided with specialised curriculum and services to develop their full potential.

Not that it is important if your motive is to help raise funds but the top 500 RFAC participants who raised more than $300 will be waived for their registration fees and be given a limited edition RFAC shirt.

I have yet to decide which charity to aid but I do hope that you guys will at least help to donate in the event that you do not wish to take part in the running.

See you on the 6th of December 2009!

I had a great week of marathon training last week, hitting 30.13km of total mileage and meeting all my training goals except for a very disappointing Tempo run yesterday. I could blame it on the weather, the lack of breakfast, or the absence of babes on the jogging track that day but it’s probably all due to my bad planning and unrealistic pace for the run.

Setbacks like that are very good for my analysis and besides, the rest for the 26km ran that week was better than what I have expected.

It’s now week 7 of my marathon training with 25 weeks remaining to the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 and although my margins for improvement are starting to get smaller, it is still quite apparent that I am getting faster and longer. Faster in terms of pace and longer in terms of distance of course. You peeps don’t get dirty now.

Besides the improvement of my resting heart rate from 66bpm (beats per minute) to the current 60bpm, I can see from the logs of my Long runs that even though my pace and distance has increased, the effort perceived by my heart rate has actually lessened!

It’s quite exciting and interesting to see my body improving and adapting to my exercise regime and that makes me look forward to the next run as I can predict and plan my pace much more easily than just running by pure feel and intuition. So I highly suggest that everyone who is training to collect as much statistics as you can about your runs. At the very least, invest in a watch that has a lap function. And I believe the same applies to training for any sport as well with reference to collection of statistics.

Grab your shoes and a watch and head out to run peeps! Feel alive!