Firstly, every fight is really just a huge mind game. Its really like a game of chess. Yesterday, I already lost the match before i stepped in the ring with coach. Because i know I'm not on the same level as him both technically and match fitness wise. It was a really demoralizing mentality going into a match already picturing defeat.

The result? I had my left arm all smashed up and got a total bashing. By the second round I was so tired and coupled with the horrible -out of this world- pain in my arm, i felt that i was already mentally fried. In fact i didnt really care about how my opponent was showering me with kicks in all directions anymore, just thinking "OH FUCK IT seriously, you know what, hit me for all i care, I really cant be bothered with this already". well, as the saying goes, no pain no gain. I guess i learned my lesson. If you go into a fight with a mentality like that, then you've already lost the match before it's started.

And then when training was over, i went to vivo for an outing with my long lost classmates. It was actually fun-ner than i expected it to be, and i swallowed half a can of Heineken for the first time. And i don't understand why people drink that shit. Sorry but I'm not the kind that drinks stuff to intentionally fry my liver up. I reached home at midnight, and slept at 1am.

After 3 hours of sleep, i woke up at 4am to eat breakfast for my race. I seriously felt like shit. My left arm was feeling the full force of yesterday's pounding and smashing, and my legs and back were seriously fucking sore ( yeah, fucking - sore ). So during my race i was really just fighting to put one foot infront of the other in a comfortable running pace. In fact, my whole strategy was to run the distance between the water stations in the race route (maybe 2-3km intervals), pour water over my head, drink a cup of hundred plus, and walk for a few minutes, and set off for the next station and repeat. hahahahaha. In the end it was a real fight mentally (strangely i was more mentally exhausted than physically exhausted). And i managed to finish the 12.5km in around 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Plunging into waist deep water, crawling through mud pools that smell like shit, climbing steps, walls, monkey bars, this is definitely one of my favorite races so far !!!

My body is a machine that takes me where i want to go.
It does what i want it to do, goes where i want it to go.
It doesn't stop unless I give it permission to
it doesn't control me, i control it.

Life is a journey we all go through. And at some point, we're going to meet a challenge, like a wall in the middle of our path that reaches high into the sky, and stretches wide across the oceans. Its like a wall that we never know if we're going to be able to cross, a scenario where success is never guaranteed. It is what we do in times like this that make us different. Will you turn around at the sight of the wall, and give up without trying to cross it? Or will you attempt, and give up halfway through? Or will you keep trying until you're time's up, knowing that you may never even achieve success anyway?

If you have tried your best and persevered long enough, with abit of luck, you may finally achieve your goal, then that success is your final reward. If we have tried our best and given all it all our juice, whether or not we eventually attain the success we want, we're champions in our own way. We're champions of our mind, and we've lived our lives without leaving any regrets. That's a meaningful life.

Went to Pulau Ubin for cycling with tkd mates today. I'd say that our trip was really good !! We cycled from around 12.30 till around 4pm, though in reality it felt like a flash forward because it was so fun especially on the down-slopes (though the up hill climbs put a really cruel burning sensation on my thighs .. hahaha!). What a better way to spend a sunny afternoon cycling along the trials of pulau ubin in the company of good friends ? :D. In the end, we went to eat at Just Acia at Plaza Sing, where the highlight was mainly the free flow of ice cream and drinks, and went home, most of us feeling tired and sunburnt after a good day.





Next week, I'll do alot of interval trainings right up to race day on Sunday. FYI, I'm participating in the Men's Health Urbanatlon on Sunday (12km), feels kind of embarrassing to run this race given the title 'Men's health', sounds like some kind of macho dude event, which I'm totally not.
(im following the schedule from the men's health training recommendation for the race)

• 4x200m Monday
  
• 4x600m Tuesday
  
• 4x300m (and Taekwondo :D) Wednesday
  
• rest Thursday
  
• 4x800 Friday
  
• rest (Taekwondo :D) Saturday
  
• race SUNDAY !!

To encourage those around me to try out long distance race events, I've always told them not to fear coming in last place in the race since the chances of that is really low. Firstly, they're the people that get injured or muscle cramps, those people are usually the people limping towards the finish line near the cut off times. Then , they're the jokers that start strong and run quickly, and later on when they start to feel tired, they just walk slowly ( very slowly in fact, because they're so tired. even a normal person would probably be walking alot faster than them. ), and those jokes usually come in very late in the race as well. If you just took the time to just walk the entire distance of the race, you probably still wouldn't come in last !!!

Ironically, today I'm worried that I may come in last in my race this Sunday :(, since its only 12km, I'd expect everyone to go out all strong and mighty fast. I'm really hopeless when it comes to speed / timed runs. My failure 2.4km timing is evidence of this fact !! T_T





Now that I've been living a life of no responsibilities for 3 weeks already, I've been thinking of how I'd make my living my everyday productively and fruitfully.

So, I've decided today. I'm going to give Mixed Martial Arts a shot ! If all goes well, I could just be joining Evolve Mix Martial Arts soon ! And I'm pretty excited about that :). And, I'll start writing a diary (Not that I'm trying to do anything sissy or gay , but I figured that if I recorded my life and take a look back at the things I've done, then I'd learn to appreciate my life better :D ).

If you have any suggestions / tips on living fruitfully, please tell me :)

You wont be thinking of cars when
You're on ur death bed and dying
you'll only be thinking of what you'll be paying for
what you'll be praying for

Well, coincidentally, the lyrics of this song was playing on my MP3 as i was walking out of BBDC after my first ever driving practical lesson !! strange.

After alot of experimenting, I've concluded that the reason why I cant grasp the 540 hook is because my foundations aren't good enough yet. I'll improve my 360 turning, then my back hook, and finally a 540 turning kick, then attempt to learn the 540 hook again.

one day I'll fight at the top level
well, at least that's the dream
haha

Now that I have all the freedom I need, I've come to appreciate being a busy person. Being busy keeps my mind occupied. It keeps me from procrastinating. Keeps my mind off all the little unnecessary things that I don't need / don't want to think about. It gives me a sense of purpose and a footing in the surface of the harsh reality of life.

Another piece of the puzzle that doesnt fit
You throw your arms up, you're so dam sick of it
What are you working for
What are you searching for
love

I think i totally fucked up for grading today. Whats the point of being good or practicing so hard, when you cant show it to the person who needs to see it most (the examiner) huh?

Anyway. I skipped my workout today to eat chili crab w my sister. Probably one of the worst ever. Waited 1 whole F***ing hour for the stupid crab to arrive. And it didn't even taste good. Plus, the store owner got some kind of attitude problem. And while eating, some cleaner was standing behind me cursing and swearing at how shitty her job is.

I'm having a bad day today.

This week was a tough week. I'll let the statistics explain why.
Calories burned : 2750 kcal
Training duration : 5 hours 8 minutes. (as recorded by my new watch :D)

Of course this is the first complete week of training I've had with my new polar watch :D, and i gotta say. its one of the most freaking annoying things (in a good way ironically) I've bought. Limme explain how it works. It uses my profile (weight, height, age, average physical activity, heart rate .. etc ) to set training targets for me to achieve every week.

So to put simply, my target training duration I've got to hit this week, is 6hours! Freaking 6 hours! I've been working my ass off all week at the gym and running, and I've only barely managed to hit 5 hours of training (not counting 3 sessions 3 hour taekwondo of course). I feel tremendously overworked having to go workout everyday without fail, like my body hasn't even had time to recover, and the next moment I'm out running for another hour.

But its a good thing. Keeps me busy and legs in my shorts out in the sun. :)

Counting the calories i burned from taekwondo included, i think i probably burned over 3000 kcal this week. what a tough week. :)

I wonder what the future holds

Everybody meets an obstacle at some point in their lives. Take running for instance. At some point when you're tired, some part deep in your mind just switches off. It tells you to stop, to stop the torture, to start walking. This is when we gotta beat the corrupted little dude in the corner of our minds. Lock him in chains and throw him out of your mind. This is where yer' old fashioned determination and motivation comes in handy :)

But, things are easier said than done in reality, haha

Whether I will be able to do it one day, I don't know.
What I know,
is that I'll keep trying.

We're funny creatures. We spend everyday in the pursuit of an ultimate objective : to achieve perfection in whatever we do, however elusive it may be. Ironically in reality, perfection is the ultimate state of imperfection. Because when you are finally perfect, there's nothing left for you to improve on, to accomplish, to dream about. Whats the point of living then? 'perfect' is an illusion. Living things have spent millions of year's in evolution. Yet today, no living being is immortal. No being is the ultimate predator.

Yet, this is the cruel nature of reality. Because we cannot be perfect, we're all born into a rat race. We live our entire lifespans in a never ending cycle trying to improve ourselves both physically and mentally, never satisfied with what we have. Because when the day comes that we're totally contented with what we have, then on that day, the thrill of life disappears.

Yet, while we're imperfect, we complain and sulk about it. We get depressed and sad about it. So ultimately, we try to strike a balance. A perfect balance. And that idea itself is flawed since there's no such thing as a perfect.

We can only live life trying to be better than what we were yesterday. Physically, mentally, socially.

my watch finally came today. Cant wait to try it out tomorrow :)

some things seem so near.
yet they can be so far away from you.
Ironically, reality is sometimes elusive

Its the same in fighting.
No kick is perfect,
No punch is perfect,
No opponent is perfect,
No fighter is perfect.
Because it can always be better

Status: Arrived Abroad

Your item arrived in SINGAPORE at 3:18 PM on January 4, 2010. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.

shitttttttt. This is one of the longest weeks of my life :(

By the way, Chester has a great voice -->

And, I need a part time job, so recommend me if you've got one :)

New Year's resolutions

Hello blog! Made a good start to 2010 at today's tkd training. AH I haven't trained so hard in quite awhile, but my legs aren't really aching. they're just, tired, like I cant lift my legs up to fold them on my chair, hahah.

And as I type this post out, MY WATCH IS BEING FLOWNED OVER! Come to daddy man! heheh!

Anyway. This year is probably going to be the most eventful year of my life on planet Earth. This year I will know where I'll be going (not back to JJC i hope !! ), and above all. I'll experience the army (If i dont go back to JJC that is).

Who knows, I might just sign on (Provided I dont become an NDU reject that is.).

Alright, time to cut the long story short. Here are my Resolutions this year.

• Finish my urbanathlon in Janurary (12km w obstacles)
• Finish Nike 10k
• Dont retain in JJC (retaking alvls would shorten my lifespan by 10 years lol)
• Get into Physiotherapy :D
• Learn the 540 back hook , and 540 roundhouse kick (turning kick)
• Shave 2minutes off my 2.4km timing before N.S. ( from 12 minutes to 10 minutes )
  
• Enter the NDU in April, and stay in NDU. (Many people get kicked out of NDU because they cant handle the tough training, so, my objective is simply to be fit enough to stay IN NDU. haha)
• Get my freaking driving license
  

There you have it. Not running too many races this year cause I dont wanna stress myself out with race prep. during NS time huh. Okay thats it for now, astalavista baby. or whatever it's spelled. lol