A packed weekend

I had a packed weekend.

Saturday

On Sat is Ben Swee's Running Clinic in the morning starting at 7.30am. I am back to running now after many months of break due to injury, and this is my 2nd week back. I am taking a conservative approach in my come back, don't want to rush into it and get injured again. Today I plan to do a 8km jog in Botanical Garden before the running clinic which will be in Youth Park. I started at 6.37am (7mins late causing me only able to finish 7.55km).

The running clinic was organized by My Triathlon Shop, which officially open one day before on Fri 10 Aug. They sell Inov8 brand of shoes and at this running clinic, they have trial shoes for participants to try on throughout the duration of the clinic. I tried a pair of Road-X 255. It is a minimalist shoe, very little cushioning making my feet very close to the ground. That's the 'IN' thing in the running world now, minimalist shoes. Read Born To Run and I assure you, you'd be able to catch up to that hype.

All right, so after marking attendance (we were pre-registered) and putting on new shoes, the running clinic started by us running a few rounds around the Youth Park field. Then we go back to the stage area and was shown some dynamic stretching from hands to legs. Arm swing, leg swinging, bending on the hip, star jump and...er, that is all I can remember for now. Then off again to another few rounds of running. After that we were ushered off to the field for more strengthening exercises.

Stretching, which I think can tell from the photo I am not doing a good job :P

Lunges, many different way of it; static lunges, jumping lunges, moving-forward-lunges...by the time we are done with lunges I must have done a hundred times of it on each leg. Squats, also did many many times of it, static as well as moving squats. Running by lifting knee up high, butt-kicking run, hop + squat both legs, and single leg hop. Basically we were ask to do all sorts of leg exercises, it was very tiring and I sweat non-stop throughout.

When we're done, we went back to the stage area and was served Hammer Heed, it an electrolyte drink of strawberry flavor. The taste was quite mild and quite nice to drink. And most importantly, it was cold drink...very refreshing after such tough exercise. Next we moved on to stretching. Sitting down on the floor bending the waist, lying down strengthening the core, a couple of minutes of plank followed by side plank. And many other stretches that I think I have now forgotten. Sigh~

At the end of it, I was tired and hungry as it was near to 11am already. And I have been out running since 6.30 in the morning! Lastly was lucky draw. There was some Hammer products to give away, some socks and water bottles all sponsored by My Triathlon Shop. I was one of the lucky ones to win a pack of Hammer gel and Hammer Heed melon flavor. Am going to try them out one of these training days :)

Me, presented with my lucky draw prize from My Triathlon Shop taukeh soh on the far right and Mei Ling, a kind helper for this clinic in the middle

In the afternoon, I went into office to work for about 3hrs+. Been really busy at work and have a lot of things left to do. I had to left work even when I didn't finish with it because at night is i-Run 2nd Anniversary Dinner at Red Rock Restaurant on Macallister Rd in town. Car pool with Miow and Chin. There's plenty of lucky draw prizes for the night as well, contributed by the runners. From electrical appliances to sports equipment like shoes, cycling jersey, recovery drinks (sponsored by me and Chin Chin) and cash prizes. Dinner was a bit crazy as alcohol was involved. I was sober throughout. Didn't do much socializing, just sit at the table and eat eat EAT!

Sunday

Woke up to a lot of muscle soreness on inner thigh, buttocks and abs. All thanks to Ben Swee's running clinic exercises the day before. That tells me one thing, that many parts of my muscles are not activated in running, I have to find ways to strengthen and build up these muscles. I plan to dedicate a day out of a week to do the exercises shown during the clinic. Body movement today is a bit slow with all the pain around, but I am happy with the pain...haha, yea, I think I am sick. Like to torture myself and will be very happy to get muscle pain. No training for me today, sleep-in day.

I eventually wake up at 8 something and got into office to work a little. Had my breakfast in the office too. Free coffee ma...haha. Left at 11am to attend 2nd day of Ben Swee's training talk. Today's topic is nutrition, training plan and transitioning to barefoot running. Quite an informative talk on the training plan. Break for lunch at 1pm, and continued with another topic by Samuel, covering about barefoot running and how to slowly transition to it without getting injured. I left half way to attend MPSP Green Run volunteer meeting.

I volunteered to help with Andrew's running event, MPSP Green Run to be held on 26 Aug. Meeting is at Youth Park at 2pm. I was assigned to the start/finishing line team. Was briefed on the running route, and some information about the event. Then our own small team have a discussion on what to do on event day and task assignment. The meeting was done by 4pm. The running clinic is still on-going so I head back there and was in time for the Q&A-win-a-prize session. I didn't win any prize though, coz I don't know how to answer the question they asked...haha, been missing a whole big chunk of the talk.

After the talk, I tag along when Chin Chin bring Yee Hua and Ben Swee for a short tour of Penang Heritage zone sculpture + mural. We walked around Armenian St, Cannon St, Acheh St and then moving on to the Tan Jetty and Chew Jetty. Of course, stopping for some street food when we see it.

Fish ball, pork ball, roti bak kua and many other food on sticks

When we're done touring Georgetown, it is starting to get dark and we drop Ben and Yee Hua to Ocean Green Restaurant where they'll be having dinner with their friends. Heard this place serve good seafood...**saliva dripping

We went to get our own dinner after dropping them and basically that ends my very packed weekend. And no, I am not going to wake up at 4am to watch Olympic closing ceremony.