5 miles this am.
3-ish more this pm.

Top 5 favorite smells:

Right before it starts to rain heavily, when the ground is just barely catching the first few drops.

Freshly mowed lawn

Cinnamon with apples

Jasmine

Freshly baked bread

12.3 miles this am. My first double digit single run logged in a very long time. I didnt take any walk breaks. My legs found rhythm as soon as I hit mile 6. After that it felt easy and comfortable. The run was progressive - the first part took an hour and the second half took 45 minutes.

None expected this pm.

Food - healthier this time :-)

I went for a 40 minute blood circulating run this am. Nothing special and quite unspectacular and I will spare you my whining.

I have been inspired by the humble persimmon to dedicate a whole post to its numminess*. It is quite biblical in its beauty and looks so out of place in this day and age of mass produced, grotesque beastly looking fruit. They look like orangey tomatoes - plump and juicy. Be sure to buy them ripe because unripe ones are awful and cause your tongue to curl (and not in the nice way that kiwi's do however - the fruit mind you, not the people). Anyway, I have been eating 5-6 of them nearly everyday and am obsessed! They taste sweeter than a mango and so much better than the cardboardy tasting peaches that taste of nothingness most of the time. I have 8 left over and will take them over to my Mother's house so we can use half to make a fruit crumble and the rest for a tart. I cant wait!

As you may have noticed, I've been re-acquainted with the kitchen and the stove lately and it gives me as much pleasure as running. Its peaceful and I get to use my hands and be messy. The OCD in me makes cleaning up just as fun!

See how hard I'm trying to be upbeat about my lack of activity. I will get in 4-6 miles before the day is over. Be safe out there today!

*numiness - I couldnt say "yummy" till I was a bit older than I should have been, so always said nummy. It hasnt changed and now everyone says it :-)

More of the same unfortunately

Frustration leads to anxiety which leads to anger. As much as I want to blog about happy things, I think its more inspiring to see ups and downs of something and how one overcomes their own shortcomings every single day. The last year has seen me struggling alot with running. The reason I started blogging about it was because I put in alot of miles for a recreational runner - on average 100 mile weeks while holding onto a demanding 60 hour a week banking job. I then made the transition back into academia, while continuing to run through the night. Right now, I can barely make it 7 miles and that too is a STRUGGLE!

It has been raining alot for the past twelve hours. I was so adamant though, that I still put on my big boy shorts and left promising myself that I would run eighty minutes continuously even if it killed me. I wore my Mizuno shorts since it doesnt stick to the skin during a heavy downpour. And there it was - I did run but stupidity as always took over - feeling very annoyed at the stinging pain in my lungs (because I am so unfit right now!!!), I peeled off my t-shirt and jumped into the ocean. The water was cold and it was pouring heavily. Not a soul in sight - and it was beautiful. I only survived in there for 10 minutes or so, swimming is very difficult for me right now because my breathing isnt disciplined anymore.

All in all, not a bad morning and I would say its been my best workout since I've been back. Not much competition here! I was out there for an hour and twenty eight productive minutes - no walking at all.

This is a happy time of year and nice weather to be outdoors in - so get out there and run already (its my favorite running mantra)!

Oh how frustrated I am with where I am with my running. I have been so mad at myself. I weigh 110lbs as of this morning and just everything is going south - I've lost muscle, fitness and my nutrition and hydration is awful. I cannot believe I've let it get this way AGAIN - twice in a year. What a pain in the rear I can be! Ok. RANT OVER!!

I would love to write 8, but to be honest, I only managed 7.5 miles this am - stopping 5 times.

4 more to be logged in this pm. I should tape bacon on someones ass and chase them because thats the ONLY way I can be motivated at this point. Or Jalebi's or something equally oily and bad for you!

Anyway, I did not do my pm run yesterday either :-(.

3 mile recovery this morning.

May do an actual 'workout' of 6 miles this pm. Atleast 3 quick miles will be clocked in before the day is done

Connections.

I moved back home for a few days yesterday. It is comforting - especially running my familiar running route. I know each marker to the second and can predict, again to the very second, the time I will be back even if I end up walking a few 100m's. I dont know if you know what the anticipation of a run feels like. Its excitement, nervousness, giddiness and knots in your tummy - much like falling in love, or so I've been told. Although I never remember feeling like that - maybe I never allow myself to feel that way about another human being.

Anyway, if you've ever seen me drink my concoction of "coffee", you would wonder why I put myself through that misery. This morning was no different. It made me gag as usual and left an ugly, but familiar taste in my mouth. So I set off bumping into the South Indian newspaper man who looks at me and looks away, as if hes never sure that I will return his greeting. This is routine - I have been living here for over 10years and he has always been this way.

I set off and promised myself that I would go 7 miles no matter how much it killed my legs. It is when you hit rock bottom physically that you realise how long even 2 miles can be. It is humbling. I felt my lungs working hard almost right away. Very very humbling feeling. I slowed to what would've felt like a crawl 2 months ago, but I was still happy because it was forward relentless motion whichever way you put it. I made it to 9 miles in a pathetic time. Its the farthest I've gone in so so so long. Without going into details, I am again very unfit for reasons other than just not running. Giving my background however, I will be back in a week. I promised myself to put in a 2-a-days atleast for this week.

I leave for Chinatown in an hour or so. There is nothing better to get to know a place than to go to a heritage part on an early weekend morning. There arent places like that left in Singapore anymore. It is a tea house, very dingy, no one speaks English or even Mandarin for that matter. All the stiff upper lips melt away when one put an effort to truly connect. Ultimately, all of us connect on a very basic level, no matter where you are from.

I connected today. I ran 2 of my 9 miles barefoot. I am truly happy when I can do away with all the trappings of "material". It has only been 7 hours of feeling this way. And my heart is already more open than it was yesterday :-)

Have a happy Sunday.

9 miles this am. Atleast another 3 this pm at some point.