New Territory

The past week my swims were horrific. Apart from the laps under Eric's eyes, I did none on my own at home. I went to the class feeling I have just wasted my hard-earned bucks. The entire circus with work and its related paraphernalias were overwhelming.

I was going nowhere with my front crawl. I need to bring the swims as regular to my runs.

If I remember correctly, I walked for the first 6 months before I started running, so this shall be the case too.

Well, the weekend came with a plan - to finish our report A.S.A.P and go for printing with Saturday and SUnday on a chopping block. I told wifey to forgo any plans. Tapi plans to lari mesti ada punya...

I had planned a Kiara run on Saturday and doing a short 10k at Bukit Aman with the bloody Double Hills on Sunday, but I woke up with a conscience, that I have been neglecting Iris with full classes from weekends on end, that I wake her up and enticed her with a badminton at Kepong Metro, and swims afterwards. It was an invitation she obliged without hesitation as she jumped up and down our bed, and off we went.

By noon, and stuck in a meeting room with 6 others steaming our reports and calculations, I was floating above them all and romanticizing the idea of pirating Kash's LSD when an SMS from Shuk came in and concurred my plan.

We arrived Kiara at 6.30 a.m., and there were Kash, Nik, Ian, Shuk and his eldest son, Akif, warmed up with our antics and laughter before headed out towards the golf course complex, then Hartamas for our customary pitstop. A very short one, before we moved towards Matrade, government complex (love these buildings by the way), back to Matrade and to Petronas en route Duta Tropika. We stopped at Petronas for a long break before parted ways - Kash and Nik went on with another Matrade loop to complete a 35k-er, while the rest of us returned to Kiara. Along the way, we saw Dush, Abu Power and Steph making their last few warm-ups for IM Langkawi. Hebat diorang nih...

It was a good run. I love running LSDs with great companies where we know each other's pace, and could choose to up our paces etc. This week was with extra flavour with Shuk's super-fast-paced Akif. We all uncles and an aunt were left breathless.

Double Hills is still elusive, but aku masih berdendam dengan kau, wahai bukit-bukit...

Arrived home for breakfast and Iris was ready for a dip in the pool with her pink one-piece. But after breakfast, we re-scheduled for an evening swim instead as she tans easily. But again, swims with Iris are more to get her water confidence rather thank me correcting my front crawl. But seeing her now and a month ago is huge improvement. Her old man is still afraid of open water at the age of 35.

Chicken!

Come Monday, I woke up late for the gym, and headed out to the pool instead. Might as well, lah since driving MRR2 at 7.30 a.m. towards KL is pointless.

As always, the pool is void of any kids, which is great. It seems that it all works the same, either you run, swim or hit the gym early morning, you mostly get the space to yourselves. Perhaps one day when I open my own practice, the office should start at 11 noon or something. Yes, 11 to 8 p.m., not bad at all.

I see swimming as a complex exercise for me as it involves many muscle coordination, which I suck at.

Left pull, right pull, left pull, bubbles and pause 4 seconds, then right pull while gasping for air. Uh, at the same time, kick those big feet, swing left and right, keep your head down and keep body straight or else you'll sink, or create drag.

Mouthful, didn't I tell you? Simulating those is hard work for me. But I vowed to make this happen, regardless how slow I am. It is similar to all fundamentals. What Richard Burke said (in Grey's Anatomy nonetheless) was he is not a great, gifted Surgeon, but what he lacks in talent he doubles up with hard work. Hmm, hard work is what I need.

I did 12 laps of 25m in total, stopping at every lap - total of 300m. Good enough for a start. The last 2 laps were not without some shoulder ache - an ITB-equivalent to runners? Or I just did not warm up or stretch enough. I finished, elated and happy to start my Monday. That feels amazing!

Happy Monday, people.