Away

Hello, Yes I’ve been away again. I was in London last week for work and holiday. It was a good trip! A trip I never thought I would be able to do so soon.

I planned on running in one of the parks in London, or along the seaside in Brighton but it was just way too cold, and on some days rainy, rainy and cold! .

But being in London, well, the UK, it’s all about the walking and according to my calculations just walking to and fro to from the apartment I stayed in to wherever I went, I walked about 8km a day (4km each way). This is a good thing!! And the pace people walk over there is not a slow pace. It’s a fast pace, and you have to keep up to not get in the way of others. So it was good exercise!

I did however encounter one problem over there. My oh so problematic foot!

It was just so very very painful, and the pain got so sharp and excruciating sometimes that I just had to sit down and rest. It was so very painful, which I found so annoying, because it limited me in terms of time, having to sit down and rest my foot, and I couldn’t walk and do as much as I hoped to.  But all in all, I had a good time!

So, now it’s time to get back to the daily routines. I need to get going again. Continue with the exercise weight loss regime. I have yet to weigh myself from when I came back from London, cause I did cheat and eat some yummy food which I know I can’t get here. But I still controlled my intake.  I need to keep going, and must not be discouraged!

Ankle Frustration

Yesterday I decided to do a 7km. Which I have done before and can do it. I pushed myself to break my personal best of 5km, however my Endomondo kind of screwed up so I will never know. 

Anyway for some reason, I forgot to wear my rock tape. 

So now, my ankle is on fire and I can hardly walk properly. 

To top that, my shin splints are quite painful. 

I am so very frustrated with my stupid Accessory Navicular Syndrome. Why oh Why have I been blessed with an extra bone in my foot which causes pain every time I exert myself. 

I am so frustrated. But I will go on. 

I don't know if I can do the PJ this Sunday. Maybe I will do the 3km. It will depend on how this thing heals. Sigh. I am so very frustrated. BUT , I will go on. To the extent my body allows me to. 

Not Giving Up! Not Backing Down!

Yesterday, I went for one of my first participation's in a longer distance run. 6.4km Be a Runner Be A Giver. (Previously, the Jog for Hope was 3km)

And since I am purely honest in this blog, I would say I was quite disappointed and upset in myself, and I felt the worst I have ever felt after a run. I felt a kind of down, I haven't felt in a long time that I went home and cried.

Trying to push myself made the sharp pain in my foot come back, and it came back full blast, the pain was excruciating. And being yelled at to run and not walk when you have an excruciating pain in your foot, not the best experience.  Further more, taking part in it made me realize I am so far behind, and I've got such a long way to go. My friends are way up there, and I felt I will never be able to get there. It probably got to me more because I was doing it alone. It upset me quite a bit, and I felt extremely demotivated yesterday, and wanted to give up on participating in these events, till I am actually ready. I wanted to scratch the 7km PJ Marathon and the 5km Putrajaya Night Run.Because yesterday, I just felt like I really can't do it. Emotional and mental pain.

BUT, after I spoke to a few friends and I did some proper thinking, and watched the Shay Carl video again. I changed my mind and I have decided to not give up.

If I think I can't I never will be able to. The power of the mind.

So,I changed my perception and decided to suck it up. Yesterday I did 6.4km, even though it be slow, the fact is , I did it. I got up in the morning and did it. I lapped everyone who was in bed that morning. It IS something.

And I should be happy that I have actually gotten that far. I  have to remind myself, Small Steps. I mean, that is the title of my blog.

There is no fast road to achieving my ultimate goal. I just have to suck it up and keep going.

So I am doing the PJ and the Putrajaya, even though I suck! I will do it, I will keep going, to the extent my foot allows me to.

I should be happy and proud that I got up and did it, because I can. When I first started this, doing 4kms. I thought that was my limit. Now,my daily workouts are 6.5kms. Slow progress, but its progress non the less.

So, I had a bad day. It has to not stop me. It should never stop you. Yes, I had some irrational thinking. But now with my head clearer, I will not let it pull me down.

I will have one big challenge to overcome, which is the pain in my foot, but I will do something about it, and it should not stop me. And I will keep going.

Some pictures from yesterday. My favourite colour as well.

Thank you Wils, for making me do this. And Thank you Hanna for telling me to not let it discourage me. And thank you Hariz and Sam for making me feel better. :)

Small distance it is. But , I did it. And I will keep on trying. 

P.S, as of today, I've lost 13 KG! =)

Inspirational

So, I love watching YouTube, and I have my set of favourite youtubers who I watch daily. And there is this one guy, who I have been watching for almost 3 years now, he does daily vlogs of his life. I am an absolute fan of his.

Anyways,recently he went through a whole get fit and lose weight regime, and he lost 100 pounds. He used to be big, and I was watching his videos when he was big, but then he decided one day to just get healthy.

Here are his after and before pictures pictures :

In the top picture he is the one on the right. 

He is truly inspirational. He lost all that weight, AND ran a marathon. 

And I feel so much more motivated cause he is one of my favourite youtubers, and he is real, and he did it! He did videos every week, of the process. He has a channel called ShayLoss , and its all about losing weight, and about how you just have to keep going. All you have to do is set your mind to it. 

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to share this inspirational running video he did, which I absolutely LOVE and is a good motivational video. I guess I feel it more, because I have been watching him for 3 years, and his transformation is just absolutely amazing and inspiring.

Please watch this video guys if you want to watch something inspirational! I love the whole concept of the rocks in the end and do Thumbs Up if you can :)

Quotes from the video :

"Someday doesn't exist, never has and never will.There is no someday,there is only TODAY."

"Real super man don't leap over buildings in a single bound, they take small determined steps, consistently over time."

"Its not about finding out who you are, its about creating who you are."

"Whether you think you can, or you think you cant. You're right."

"Ask yourself honestly, who do you wanna be, and what are you willing to do to become that person"

Breakthrough Distance!

Yesterday, I did my FIRST 10km ever!! =)

Slow and steady! And I feel good about it. I never thought I would actually be able to complete it, but I just kept pushing myself. At each km after doing 6km I wanted to give up, but I told myself "its only a lil bit more, I can DO THIS!"

I knew I could do it, and I did.

I did it slowly. But to me the fact is, I did it. And that was a true breakthrough.

Now, I have to focus on scraping 30 minutes of that so I can take part in the Standard Charted next year. I hope it is possible.

So yes, apologies for the long hiatus on the blogging, if there is anyone out there still reading this. A lot of things have been happening and I just could not find the time. I have not stopped working out though! I try to do at least do 3 times a week, but I have to get back to my pace of doing it almost every day. I have kept to my constant pace of 5km under an hour, but I know I need to take it a level up and beat my personal best of 5km.

I will, and I can.

I have signed up for more things, to note on the side bar. I hope these things will keep me going. I need to achieve that Goal of mine.

As of today, I have officially lost 10kg. Which makes me feel really good and happy about myself, because this is very first time I have done a weight loss regime and actually stuck to it, and got good results out of it. Another 30+kg to go! Slow and steady. It can be done.

Still Going

Apologies for the long hiatus in not updating.

No worries! I am still going!! Must keep going! Will post a proper update soon.

Been busy with quite a number of things.

New Personal Best!

Yesterday, I beat my personal best!! Yay!!

A 1m: 52s improvement from the last!! Small Steps! Everything can be done in small steps!

I owe a part of this improvement to Dr.Blake. I found his site while surfing around for advice on my foot condition (Accessory Navicular Syndrome, flat feet, collapsing arches etc.) and decided to write him in, and he replied with some advice which helped me tremendously during my workout yesterday. If you are having any foot or ankle problems, do go check out his sight because he addresses quite a number of conditions and gives recommendations. 

I did not feel the pain I usually feel when I run. 

So,the things he recommended and I attempted :

1.To heat up my insoles which are "Sole" brand for a more custom fit of my foot (though I knew these could be heated up, I didn't do this when I got them, cause it said you could either heat it up, or just wear them straight away and they would eventually form). 

These insoles provide me with the arch support I need, and I find these are the best insoles around so far, as I have tried many different types. I got them from Running Lab in Tropicana City Mall, the ones I got below costed RM169. These insoles have reduced the pain I feel in my foot by a huge margin. 

These are the pair which I got, they are called Softec Response Heat-Moldable Orthotic Arch Support Insoles which are for people who have plantar fasciitis ( a condition common for people with flat feet or low arches) or for people who need extra support.

2.As I was worried about the heel blisters I was getting which was getting to be quite painful ( a common thing to occur when you change your insole from the original one for support because it is thicker).He recommended to use BodyGlide on my heels, however I am not too sure where to find it here so I looked online for alternatives, and most of the results said to try Vaseline, which I tried and it work.

Of course in addition to this, I also bought anti-blistering socks. Which I picked up from Athlete's Circle in Jaya One. I believe they were call Wright Socks, as below. A pair of these are about RM50.

Double layered socks to prevent blistering.

3. He recommended taping my foot with either Kinesiotape or Rocktape, to provide arch support. I do not know where to find kinesiotape, but Rocktape can also be found at Athlete's Circle and costs about RM60 for a roll, which can last pretty long. There are a variety of patterns and colours, which I find quite cool as below :

But the shop didn't have the purple colour one, which I really wanted, so I decided to go with Black.If anyone sees purple RockTape out there, please do let me know where I can find it in Malaysia. 

Now, I am not too sure how this RockTape actually works, but it has something to do with the lifting of skin away from the soft tissue and it is supposed to accelerate blood flow, reduce swelling, strengthen muscles and other things. You can read more about it here. Once you apply this tape on your foot, you can leave it on for 5 days, if it doesn't come off before that. This kinesio type tape can be used for a number of purposes eg. Shin Splints, Knee pains, Thighs etc.

Anyway I followed Dr.Blake's method for taping for Arch Support as below :

There are many other ways to tape for arch support which I have watched on YouTube. I will slowly try these and see which one fits the best. 

But the taping really helped me a lot yesterday. My pain was almost to a point where it was non-existent during my run, and I didn't get the burning sharp pain I usually get after running. This I guess added together with the more comfortable fit of my insoles helped. 

So there, these three things helped me push myself yesterday, and it worked. Now, that I have sort of sorted out the issue of the pain in my foot, he has told me to try to find an every other day running distance that does not seem to push it too far and cause pain. And to stay at that distance for 10 runs and if all works out increase by 10% the next 10 runs, and so on. This I will definitely do. I find it so awesome that there are such helpful people out there, his advice helped me instantly boost my personal best time. 

Oh he also recommended to get either the Brooks Ariel, Brooks Addiction or Brooks Adrenaline shoes, which I checked out online are shoes that have really really good support, which is something I definitely need, however these do come at quite a high price and I am not even sure they have them here, the Ariel one seems like the one I need. Those shoes would be an investment. But anyway,  I shall make do with what I have now, and see how it goes. 

When you have a problem, find the source of it, and fix it. You won't regret going through the trouble or going that extra mile. 

The absence of the excruciating pain during my work out has really motivated me to keep going and keeping pushing myself. I admit the fasting month, did bring me down because I could not do the workouts as often. But now it is ending, and it is time to get back on track!

I feel motivated to give it my all again. Beating my personal best makes me want to beat it again, but slowly of course. Small steps! I will not give up on this, I will keep going. Today, I could fit into a skirt which I have been trying to fit into ever since I started working out. I have been trying it on constantly, and have never been able to close that buckle. 

Today, I could close that buckle and wear it to work.

Small steps.

Feet Woes

Everyone keeps telling me to stop running/walking, because of the pain it causes to my foot.

They tell me to take up cycling, but I do not think that will keep me going.

I need to fix my foot, so I don't have to feel pain each time I run.

Its so damn frustrating. Sigh.

Hiatus

Hey guys, sorry about the hiatus on the blog. Been so tied up with work that its been driving me crazy, to a point where I haven't been able to keep up with my routine. And further more its fasting month, so no morning runs.

Last week I only went twice. Bad Bad!! So very bad. I feel so completely guilty.

Work swallowed me whole the past two weeks, it even took away my weekends.

This week, so far I have done only once at DPC with sunshine, in which I pushed myself a little too hard and my foot just started acting out very very very painfully.

After the work out, it was just incredibly painful and yesterday, in the office I could not stand up for more than 15-20mins without the pain in the foot in that area, even when sitting down the pain was still there. I still even feel it now. I have got to go for my physio, or find a way to overcome this problem. It is quite a huge problem, and I feel so frustrated because I have finally found something I enjoy doing, and want to keep going in, and my stupid left foot is holding me back.

Anyways,I will definitely try and do the work out two more times this week. So far, I believe my past few workouts have all been 5km under one hour. Which I am glad I am keeping up with.

I need to keep going, and I MUST keep going. I cannot give up. I am doing this for ME. If there are obstacles, I must find a way to overcome them.

I can't wait for fasting month to be over, so I can resume my morning routines. 

Improvement on Personal Best!!

YAY!!

*click on the picture if you would like to see my Endomondo profile. 

Yesterday I went for my workout with my friend Weili at the Desa Park City track and I beat my Personal Best!! Yay!! It was good day!!

I pushed slightly harder than I normally do, because this week was not a good week. I missed a lot of my usual routines because my work was taking up most of my time, and to top that up I am not able to do my morning runs.

I hope I can make next week a better week. I do not like missing my workouts.