Moving Up

Apart from feeling tired. The body is aching from yesterday weights. Abit lazy, nevertheless still manage to drag myself to the pool this morning.

Start slowly and legs abit aching. I was thinking, how to survive the swim in this stage? Slow and steady the time and distance get longer and body get warm up to the task.

After 1km, i feel so much easier and the pace picked up. Last 400 meters, swim side by side with pacer uncle. I haven't seem him for a couple of weeks, maybe abit rusty for him.

Stop at 2km. 52mins. Enough for today.

A free swim this morning as the machines are down. :)

The traffic at IBP is getting very bad. I was lated again. Damn it.

Tao, Zhu Er and myself took the stairs this evening.

It has been a long time since i last do climbing purely. It is good to do it again. HR is decent. Legs are aching as the time goes on. Around 7mins+ a set, 6 set of it. Though the timing isn't anyway near previous, but it is god to complete the sets.

Moving Up

Have this feeling, i shouldn't wake up so early this morning again. I should lay on bed and forget about going for workout office today.

I shouldn't have this thought! Woke up and drag myself to the pool. :p

It wasn't a drag this morning. For unknown reason, i decide to use breastroke for the entire swim. It was abit chuan and leg abit sng. Nevertheless i control my breathing and try to cruise along. After a "long" while, it get stabilise. I manage to clock laps after laps.

It is a good pace this morning. Along the way, think about "quiting".....but....i stick to it.....and finished off 2.5km in 60mins(i think, i didnt bring my watch). I could have done longer if i didn't arrived late at the pool and my pacer uncle came out of the water early. I would have done further, but mind isn't strong and the urgency to clock the mileage isn't there yet.

It seems that my pace are starting to pick up. Cool....look forward to the climb later.

That is how miserable Botak Jones have degraded. The size of the food is small and it is pretty dried.

Heard so much about Botak Jones, finally get a chance to try it and what a let down! :(

Before the start of the climb this evening. Felt a twink on the right shin. Damn it!

Can't recall when i went for solely workout on climbing! It is time to start moving up the stairs to do some cross training.

Toa Payoh Central Blk 79. The new 40 storeys block in TP. Saw it(old HDB) brought down and rebuilt from scratch. Finally get a chance to climb it, after spotting it last weekend. There are not many 40 storeys of HDB flat around. Most of it are in TP, i do not know why.

Tao, Piglet and CCF joined me for the climb. Since there are 5 blocks ranging from 79A to 79E, we did 1 climb in each block. 5 block of 40 storeys means 200 floors climb. Each floor around 6 mins i reckon.

Throughout the climb, i feel pretty good as a whole. Even though the shin is causing some anxiety during the climb. :(

Starting from Blk 79A, we slowly move from block to block and end up in Blk 79E. It was a good and slow climb. From the view that i observe, Blk 79A and 79E offer the best view. I reckon 79A is the best block.

Finally get my shoe bag back. Thanks guys/girls for taking care of me. It is bad of me to leave my stuffs lying around. :p

Hope the shin is not a passing matter. Finger crossed.

Post - Blood

Graze a few stars yesterday evening at home. It is not the ones on the sky, but the one appearing in my eyes every time i stand up from the seats or picking myself up from the floor.

Yes, i expect such symptoms after BD, but not so frequent and immediately after donation. This is NEW to me. Maybe the workout last evening, have taken alot.

This morning hit the bike again for 50 mins. Sort of recovery cycle or low intensity to get the body adjust to the less than perfect healthy body. It was a bit difficult initially and as time goes on, it get smoother. Didn't put in extra resistance on the bike as i want to slowly ease my body to the new "form".

System seems to be functioning well at this moment. Can't push up the intensity much this few days though. Wait, i still have a LSD tomorrow evening. Haha...Should be interesting....

Climb On

It has been a long time since my last climb. Hands itchy so drag Balasing down to CSC for a climb.

Forget almost everything that i was taught! Haha, lucky Balasing is around to assit. Thanks Mark!

I have 6 sets of climb this evening. Though the height of the climb is easier then SAFRA(Yishun), the quality fo the climbs are similar.

I was tired, especially the last set. Till now my arms and fingers are so SNG, that i have hard time typing this now!

I have a great time. Thanks Balasing.

Chicken Climb

What is the secret of having a good climb? Let me share a hidden secret, heard from the source close to our kampung.

In order to climb well, you have to consume lots of chicken wings prior to the climb.

Some confusion over the location this morning. Fortunately sorted out quick enough to resolve the rumbling of the tummy. :)

Meet up with fellow chicken kaki at SAFRA. Lead by Qingwa, too tao, xiao zhu, bones and Indian Singh, we head up the mountain. From far, the tall straight mountain looks so TALL! Lokun complains of height phobia, whereas xiaozhu suddenly have a need to go toilet!

On closer look, a few small humps, 15 meters up. Nothing much to be worry about. Anyway we are scaling the most boring of the wall! *yawn*. Thanks to Yan Ting, she save us from the humiliation of begging someone to lay out the ropes and equipments. Though it is only a few weeks back that we get our Level 1 certification in sport climbing, somehow we just(at least for myself) couldn't recall how to do it!

We start our slow, leg wobbling, arm stressful, human pulley assisted climb to the top! It is fun though. My arms are stretched! Literally the muscles are pulled! I can feel my hands swollen!The watch strap have to be loosen! I didn't realise it can be so bad.

I did 3 and a quarter climb today. The most disappointing is the quarter climb. I thought i have enough within the tank to go up. Alas, somehow either the body is tired, not enough experience to handle tougher terrain, or the skill sets are not there. Anyway, i shall be back!

We have lots of fun watching each other climbs and put in some valuable meters into the climb! In climbing it is call meters,not kilometers! Skyver and Rainbow are there as well.

We did a short recee of the place and found an aircon boulder chamber. It is definitely a good place to learn and improve our skills. A worthwhile trip back next time!

After the climb, we headed over for our well deserved chicken rice lunch. The chick doesn't taste as good as the climb though...:(

Thanks for the accompany, till next time. Built up our chicken wings power and conquer our fear.

Sports climbing level 1

I have done rappelling & climbing during army, reservist and NCC days. I was young and do not know much about it. Since it is part of the training, just take it on the stride. Didn't realise years later, i would be visiting these sports again.

Thanks to Balasing, we have a contact that teaches climbing. The 7 of us, went for level 1 certification today.

Venue: First Toa Payoh Secondary School

Time: 8:30am - 4:30pm(we finished after 5pm)

Class size: 13 + 2(Trainers)

Trainer: Corrine & Derrick

Sgrunners: Sotong, Roonz, Roentgen, Fennel, Ronnie, Bee & Littletigger

It was light raining the entire day but pit stops here and there. It just make the circumstances more interesting as it is.

The lessons start with theory. As usual, i almost fell asleep. Lucky with a few folks "entertaining" me to keep me awake. Hehe. I feel hungry during the lesson! I couldn't understand why even though i did have my breakfast at home.

Lunch time. Wow, the time we have been waiting for. Especially to the person that states the reason what do i intend to achieve after the lesson - "to find out the good food in TP!". What to do, so i have to search my makansutra database for some yummy food stalls. Aiyoh, Corrine mention we should only have light lunch!!!! So bo bian loh...bring them to the nearest hawker center for sui bian jiak....so sad....could have done a makansutra in Toa Payoh ALONE!

8 courses lunch at Tao Payoh

We start our piratical lesson after lunch. The training must be done in pairs. Since i am the odd one out, i have to go around looking for buddies to tag team with me on being the climber or belayer.

It was fun doing those drills and memorising the steps. More practise it will be a second nature and wont need to be worry about remembering! Hehe...

I don't have strong arms. Mine are like chicken wings! Go for display and weak! Hehe...I also scare of height! The older i grow the more kiasi i am! *lol* But with my childhood spent in Kampung, i love to climb trees! Be in rambutan, durain or coconut trees, i will have a way to climb to the top! I think these experiences help me in the climb later on.

The fun part is to do the actual climb. There are 2 walls 12meter and 14 meters. 14 meters wall are more challenging as it is not flat and have a 90 degrees turn around 12 meters mark.

I am the first person to attempt the 14 meters wall! Haha...since nobody want to be the first! I climb till 7 meters, before my arms failed me. There are a few things that i have learned. 1) i have not learn the proper technique of climbing(It was not taught! this lesson is about belaying more than how to tackle or climb the wall!) 2) i lack the confidence of my strength. 3) i do not have the proper shoe for the climb 4) belaying or climbing is as equally tiring!

When i get into doing the 12 meters flat wall. I was pleasantly surprise that i didn't take too much effort and managed to climb to the TOP! I reckon i finished in 2 mins. With more confidence i should be able to do it within 1 min. This wall is easier that the one i did previously. Plus watching how other do it, plus the climb earlier make this climb easy.

At the TOP

At the end of the day, everybody pass the course. That is very good. Well done everybody!

Group Photos

It was fun for me, i hope everybody enjoy it as much as myself. Thanks for the accompany everyone, till next time, we shall climb again!