T minus 9 days and counting! I can't believe it's almost here. I didn't actually train much (again) for this race but I tried to do more than my previous runs at least to have an ounce of preparedness for the 16th. But, before my race, I'm accompanying my mum to Vegas! ;) I guess that's kinda nice, to have a brief holiday before a holiday-ish race. Hehehe!

We're leaving for Vegas on Sunday and returning on Wednesday then leaving for San Antonio on Thursday. I have to remind myself to pack two separate bags on Sunday -- one for Vegas, and another for San Antonio and hope I don't mix up the bag I bring to either destination! LOL.

p.s.,
Soz I haven't been updating this journal much... Been busy. So busy in fact that I've a demo/presentation tomorroz and then as soon as I return from San Antonio, I've another project to kick off. In other words, expect sporadic updates from me from now until the new year! ^_^

p.p.s.,
Did I mention I'm trying to write a novel in November again? You know, that NaNoWriMo thing ;) (www.nanowrimo.org)

Actual Distance: 6.32 miles (10.17 kilometres)
Time: 1:19:22
Date: Nov. 7th 2008

Notes:
Because of my hectic schedule this weekend (and thanks to Sheryl's idea!) rather than skip this last run before the race, I've decided to run it this morning. My plan was to get up at 6:45AM and be by the strand by 7:10AM; naturally, I didn't do so well -- I did get up at 6:45AM but ended up being at the strand around 7:38AM! LOL. The temperature was cool but for the last 3 miles running back and into the sun. I was trying to convince myself that this is the sort of training I need to survive the possible heat in Texas but I give up too easily and found a nice shaded street where I continued my run! I ran most of the time but still not to my liking... Average pace was 12:33 min/mile and burned 608 calories. That's not too bad considering I had pizza for lunch yesterday! AHHH.

Actual Distance: 10.06 miles (16.2 kilometres)
Time: 2:21:26
Date: Nov. 2nd 2008

Notes:
On Sunday we had pretty good running weather (it had actually just rained so by the time we reached the strand, it was still fairly wet) but temperature wise, it's something ideal for me... Now, it must be psychological, then that I did not do so great -- that is, I walked most of the time. So much so that after the "run", I probably could've done it again, but this time, actually run it. In any case, I'm disappointed in myself that I couldn't stick through this last "big" run before the race! Pah! Average pace was 14:03 min/mile. Calories burned were 968.

Actual Distance: 6.47 miles (10.41 kilometres)
Time: 1:19'40
Date: Oct. 26th 2008

Notes:
If you check the graph below, it seems as if I suffer mostly in the beginning to mid part of my run. After that, I feel like I can just go on, except for the fact that the sun blazing today. Oddly enough, compared to today, I felt better running last week during my Nike+ Women's Half Marathon challenge. I'm guessing it's because the sun didn't get too hot or intense until the last mile last weekend. Knowing that my weakness is running in the sun, I think I should just try to run about the same time as I did today -- then again, I could run earlier in the morning and run faster to finish before the sun gets too hot! LOL. Anyway, average pace for this run is 12:19 minutes per mile and I burned 622 calories. I consumed about 3 Jelly Belly Sportbeans, too.

Chelsea lost to Liverpool. At home. That's all for now. Gotta post my post-running details.

Event: Nike+ Women's 1/2 Marathon
Actual Distance: 13.1 miles (21.08 kilometres)
Time: 2:46:10
Date: Oct. 19th 2008

Notes:
Well, I did it. I ran another 1/2 marathon without training. Though I had some pains at some point during the run, it wasn't bad enough that prevented me from finishing. It's the normal stuff you feel when your body is shocked into running long distances after weeks of inactivity, you know? LOL. This run will really motivate me to do the remaining training runs for my November 16 race! Thanks to Sheryl's awesome advice about this thing called Nuun. It kept me hydrated without sugar. Well, I got a boatload of sugar from my Sport Beans, so it was cool. My average pace was about 12:37min/mile and burned 1267 calories. I tried to keep the pace up in parts where I felt like stopping and giving up, but based on the graph below, you'll see a downward trend to my speed (or lack-thereof) lol!

Seems like I hardly update mi giornale anymore. I'll do my best to keep it fresh as I did in the past but you know, time constraints! But I digress -- tonight's rather special because tomorroz is one of those days where you get greeted by people who remember and where you have to remind yourself that after tomorroz, you have to add another year when you give your age ;)

Anyway, I've figured out that I like pain (or don't care about it) cos I'm starting my birth day with a 13.1-mile run. At 6AM, to be exact, a mad Asian lady's gonna be running at her local beach and hoping to the heavens that her iPod and Nike+ gear doesn't fail so she can get a limited-edition Tiffany keyring (in the mail)! Back to the pain: I know I do well when I train and I've already experiened the pains with the lack-of-training; seeing that I haven't trained for tomorrow, I've decided to take it 3 miles at a time. Yes, that's my plan: imagine I'm running about four 5K races tomorrow, one after the other. This way, those little milestones will keep me motivated and make me forget that I'll totally die at mile 8. >_<

As if I didn't have enough challenges, I'm also trying out a new flavour of my Sportbeans Jelly Belly (i.e., Fruit Punch) and will be drinking Nuun-enhanced water, rather than my normal Gatorade.

Wish me luck! I'll be reporting during (via Twitter) and post-race as usual tomorroz. ^_^

Happy Birfday, Paddington Bear!

Can't believe this bear icon is 50 years old. I still recall making my sis Annelle (when she lived in London) travel all the way to Paddington Station just to get me an "authentic" Paddington Bear; only to find out later that it's not the best of places to be at night -- no wonder she was stalked by a shady looking man when she exited the tube! Then, after getting this cute little (actually, tiny 5") bear, my other sis Minel was able to find him at Heathrow Airport! LMFAO! Thanks again, sistahs!

I guess that's probably why Annelle refused to go to Kings' Cross station when I asked her to just go and take a photo of Platform 9 3/4! She said NEVER AGAIN! LOL!

That is all. ^_^

Actual Distance: 6.09 miles (9.80 kilometres)
Time: 1:17:28
Date: September 14th, 2008

Notes:
Started out well, then somehow, in the middle of my run, lost steam -- I literally stopped running and just started walking. I think my body is bored of running! LOL. I'm looking forward to the speed work tomorrow. I'm hoping that'll revitalise my training.

Actual Distance: 4.2 miles (6.75 kilometres)
Time: 0:45:49
Date: Sept. 9th 2008

Notes:
404 Calories burned and average pace 10:55/mile. The chart does not actually show the speed increases, which leads me to believe that: 1) I did my speedwork training incorrectly; 2) My Nike+ doesn't detect gradual speed-increases. LOL. I gotta get my Garmin watch back from my sis.

Did I mention I've begun training again? Hehehe...

Event: The Nike Human Race
Actual Distance: 6.2 miles (10K)
Time: 1:19:57
Date: August 31st 2008

Notes:
What can I say, I'm proud I finished it and just 5 minutes off my normal pace. This is considering that I haven't run in like, 3 weeks. LOL. I think I like to torture myself -- don't train but sign up for a run and go run cold. >_< The reality is, the race was rather warm, people were all over the place (and I mean, crazy runners weaving through!) and the course was poorly lit -- yes, THIS WAS IN THE FREAKIN' EVENING.) I guess I could have pretended that I was in Kona, HI doing the marathon stage of an Ironman.... but this one had the fear of getting shot at (we were in East/Downtown LA) and with loads of people running about. ;)

On top of all that, the bag check pickup was horrid! There was no organization at all -- there was just this one huge-arse line and dozens of Nike volunteers running about like chickens with their heads cut off looking for someone's bag, whilst trying to remind themselves of their runner's bib number over and over again... Did I mention our bib numbers were 6-digits long?

All in all, it was an OK event but it reminded me why I never do short races again. Then again, if Fall Out Boy or the All American Rejects were on stage, instead of Kanye West, maybe I would've not been so cross whilst waiting for my bag...

I thought that the USA's Nastia Liukin's balance beam routine was way better than Shawn Johnson's but I'm not really an expert. I also thought I heard the former have a much higher rate of difficulty : At least the US got gold and silver, right?

I need to buy a lotto ticket or go back to Vegas and bet huge or summat! LOL. It's the luckiest day of the millenia or summat like that.

Happy 888 Day! =)

p.s.,
It's no surprise the Chinese planned this to be the opening night for the Olympics.