Hard core

Back from Pangkor. Straight to the lab. It’s NOS time.

1st set – 1:32. Can slow down a bit…

2nd set – 1:38. Can go faster a bit…

3rd set – 1:34. Something’s not right… chest feeling tight…

4th set – 1:36. I’m already sucking in air!

5th set – 1:50. I’m gone.

6th set – 1:39. It’s a wrap. Didn’t even finish 8 sets.

2 weeks in Pangkor didn’t really do me much good. A few valuable lessons here:

1. Your diet matters. This was how Pangkor’s menu looked like: Spicy curry. Killer sambal. Oily papadam and keropok. High cholestrol crustaceans. High toxicity cockles and clams. But I still ate like there’s no tomorrow. Not because I didn’t know they were bad. It’s because they were free!

2. Doing LSDs (long slow distance) only is not a good way make you a better runner. Yes, you will learn to stay on your feet longer. But it may give you a “perceived” sense of fitness, not a real one.

3. A NOS workout at the lab is a very good indicator of your fitness level. NOS workouts can’t lie.

I incorporated a few moves after the NOS workout to work on the core.

This is the reverse crunch…

Dunno who that girl is.

This is the plank…

That is Matt Tegenkamp. American record holder for 2 miles.

And this is the side plank…

Dunno who that guy is. From some men’s fitness magazine.

Anyway, the moral of the story is…

The core is very important. It helps you maintain a good running form for a longer period of time. Those exercises help you to get a strong core.

Do you notice that when you run fast and far, when you’re nearing the end, you body tends to bend a little backwards and your nose starts pointing to the sky? That’s because your core is giving way. Your running form is out. Gut feeling tells me your speed is out too. And when you finish, you will be down and out.

A hard core helps to prevent all this from happening. If you wanna finish strong in a 10km run, then you definitely need a hard core!

As Jack Black says in School of Rock:

“You ain’t hard core… Until you live hard core!”