Badminton and dinner on Sunday

After sweating and feeling the start of aching muscles from the badminton game, my friend, her little boy and I had a nice dinner at a hawker centre.

Jogging at Bishan Park

I have been jogging there quite often and have seen the changes over the past year. I hope people will enjoy and appreciate the park and amenities. My friends and I saw some litter appearing in the river, on the grass patch, under the plants, etc.

Jogging, thosai & Bob

The highlight of this evening were jogging with S and my exercise buddy, Fion. Hopefully S can join us whenever he's free. S and I had plain and masala thosai for dinner but now that we are still feeling full, we decide that in future we should just share instead of ordering 2 portions. I managed to do a bit more exercise by walking Bob around the house on the leash.

My collection of sports shoes

I tried to get the cobbler to glue the fabric and sole at the toe area and sides of my Vibrams Fivefingers shoes but he wasn't successful despite using 2 different types of glue. I guess I will still wear them to jog for a while more. Last week, I bought Puma's Faas 250 NM running shoes (black body with pink laces), as they are light and comfy and selling at discounted price of $89. They could replace my Fivefingers when they expire.

However, both Puma and Fivefingers won't do well on wet uneven terrain, so during lunch, I checked out some shops at Velocity. Colombia has run out of my size for the model that I like, while Salomon has an arch support that I find uncomfortable. I like the 3rd pair I tried as the Merrell shoes with Vibrams feel cushiony. Compared to other brands like Timberland and Northface, it's cheaper at $159. I like the red laces with the dark grey body. I'm all ready to jog or trek :)

Ate, jogged and ate again

That was what I did this evening. I had only the potato carrot peanut minced pork soup before the jog. We jogged around the park, outside the stadium before exploring the nearby private estate. The speed was faster than my usual pace, but it felt good to test my limits. Wearing Fivefingers made my legs and feet feel lighter and as I had to land lightly, my knees don't ache. After the jog, I had part 2 of my dinner, including beancurd skin (Dow Kee) salad and vinegar beef from S, but I could only eat half and keep the rest for breakfast tomorrow. All the food taste better than they look in the photos :)

Rich vs healthy food

Lunch was decadent pig trotters, egg and rice since I was going to jog in the evening. I managed to do 2.4km around the park while mom was feeding the cats. Dinner was supposed to be just 3 pieces of sweet potato but it's not filling for me. I made some instant oatmeal with beetroot oat milk which didn't seem to help at first but after my shower, I felt satisfied :)

Warm up before swimming

Yesterday evening, my friend and I took a 15min bus journey from our workplace and another 10min walk to the swimming pool. We saw this lovely sight along the way.

Warming up before exercise

My friend heated up some leftover soup from her dinner yesterday and we had it before our jog. It was yummy and gave me the energy to jog about 3km :)

A good swim

I haven't been swimming the past few months and finally this evening my exercise buddy and I had a 30 min swim after work. I only managed 20 laps of breast stroke - my arms will probably ache tomorrow :) During a lap, when there was a small wave created by a guy swimming freestyle in the next lane in opposite direction, my head broke the water surface for breath and the water suddenly gushed in. I choked on the water but quickly recovered and continued swimming. My friend even commented that the pool water was quite dirty today. Haha. (I drank some concentrated brown rice vinegar with honey just now, hoping to destroy any bacteria in me.)

Dinner was @ Adam Road food centre. The stalls selling fishball noodle and fruit juice were already closed when we were there after 9am. Most people were eating Malay food. We decided to take prawn & pork noodle soup and Cheng Teng dessert which were the healthiest of the lot.

Jogging in Fivefingers

I have worn Fivefingers for four 30 minute-jogging sessions on the following dates and venues:
(1) 15 Oct @ Botanic Gardens
(2) 22 Oct @ Botanic Gardens
(3) 6 Nov @ Bishan Park
(4) 11 Nov @ Bishan Park

For the 1st and 2nd sessions, I ended up with the back of my leg muscles aching for a day or 2 but no knee aches. I experienced no muscle aches at all for the 3rd and yesterday’s sessions. I have to wear my toe socks to prevent discomfort and blister of the skin from rubbing against the plastic piece of the shoe.

We’ll be jogging at Botanic Gardens next week, so I will be able to tell if the terrain/route makes a difference or Fivefingers is one of the greatest invention! J I notice that I feel lighter on my feet and can run slightly faster by landing on the balls of my feet. I can’t sustain the higher speed for more than a few minutes though and have to go back to a slower comfortable pace.

Exercise plan

I have just found out that the swimming pool is opened from 8.30am to 6pm. I thought I could do an early morning swim before breakfast at 8am and meeting at 9am. It seems like I can't do that. Maybe tomorrow morning I'll wake up slightly earlier again to do some light stretching exercise at the little balcony in the hotel room (if I don't have to feed the mozzies) or take a walk at the beach within the hotel compound. I was so looking forward to a quick swim.

Water weights

I bought these 2 dumb bells from Daiso @ Vivocity last Fri. They will add nicely to my collection of Fit Ball, yoga mat, taiji shoes and sabre which are tucked in different parts of my bedroom. Haha. Right now, the weights have not been filled with water. I wonder when I will start to use them to tone my arms. Probably when I have time to sit down and do nothing.