People always say you should have loud thumping music when you run, you know, keeps you pumpin and the adrenalin going. Sometimes it works, but it was only 2 years ago that I realised that talk radio was also a great running companion.

I used to listen to alot of Scott Mills podcasts. I’d listened to it at work, on my commute, at home, so much so I got Janice on it as well. I guess it’s great for running because you’re concentrating on what is being said that I tend to forget how painful or how long the run is.

adidas recently took this step a bit further. They have created “missions” for your run! I thought the concept was really cute! The adidas Colour Missions is a set of downloadable tracks that can be downloaded from www.adidascolourmisssions.com that can be uploaded onto your mp3 player. There are 4 missions to choose from:
Yellow – The Getaway
Green – The Mothership
Blue – The Rockstar
Red – Before Dawn

Each one has a different scenario using sounds effects and storytelling. The storytelling goes through the whole track. It’s kinda cool because you try to visualise the scenario.

For example
“You are the lead singer in an international rockband, tonight is the gig of your life and you’re late…”

It’s a novelty thing and a cute campaign for the new ClimaCool Rides and worth trying out for the fun of it. Check out the splash of colours in this season’s shoes!

Anyway, going for a run with Mission Yellow – The Getaway, the scenario when my heist has gone wrong and I need to escape!

New shoes have come my way and I’m really excited to blog about this pair. It’s ANOTHER PURPLE PAIR OF PUMPS! Adidas unveils this bright and energetic range for fall/winter 2010.

Funny how purple seems to be popping into my life a lot as of late. Or maybe it’s just a natural inclination. Laws of attraction. Not just any purple, but more towards the fuchsia colour palate.

Going to show you two shoes under the Adidas Fluid range, the one pictured in this post is the Adidas Fluid Trainer light.

First impressions
Design and Colours: The shoe comes in 8 colour combinations for the female version and 7 for the guy’s model. The one that really stood out for me was the purple one.

Material: I love the mesh material at the front and sides, it makes the shoe smaller and a lot cooler!

Function: sole with deep grooves means I get a better grip. And midsole flexibility makes it comfortable to walk with. And what I love most about the shoe is the multi-functionality. It may not be a half-marathon running shoe, but it’s good for the gym, dance and casual attire. Which means essentially I can just wear one shoe on gym days!

Price: The Fluid Trainer Light retails at S$119 which is pretty affordable for a dual purpose shoe.

Final verdict: I guess one word to sum it up is flexibility in terms of shoe design, technology as well as usage! To be honest, one side of the shoe was giving me heel blisters at first. But after the second time, it was okay. I think it needed to be worn in a bit. I especially think it’s a freakin fantastic shoe for travelling! I’m definitely taking this for my next holiday!

The collection is available at adidas Sport Performance stores, the adidas online store, leading e-retailers and selected sports retailers all around the world.

I like to pair it with my jeans rolled up 3/4, purple nail polish, and a purple top. Here are some en route shots to date.

By the way… Haven’t blog about it yet, but my hair is purple too! Muahahaha

Late last year, I decided to take part in another Adventure Race. The memory of pain from the previous race in Penang had diminished, so I signed myself up for another round of torture in January earlier this year.

The SAFRA AVventura is an adventure race consisting of multiple disciplines ranging from trail biking, running, kayaking, rope ascend, abseiling, navigation and mystery tests all rolled into one exhilarating race to fully challenge those with a passion for adventure.
Taken from the SAFRA website

This year, my race buddy was Andrew (ickle’s hubby), who is an adventure racing veteran and possibly 10X fitter than me. And without his help and motivation, I probably wouldn’t have completed it. Again, I jumped into another race without training and survived. Was stoked that I finished it, although we had to miss the abseil because there were just too many people in the queue. Nonetheless, chuffed.

I love my mummy. She left this message in the kitchen table so I’d see it in the morning on race day.

For this year’s SAFRA AVventura, Some 274 adventure racers took part, which was a larger group than I had expected. We were told that the total distance would be approximately 51km. In hopes to keep things competitive, we weren’t given information on the combination of activities. We had no idea how far we had to run or how long we had to ride.

Post event reports say we had run 17km, cycled 26km, kayaked 4km and finished off with a biathlon of 4km. And besides physical endurance, they also threw in few mental challenges at several points in the race.

If I remember correctly, we had to solve a word puzzle after a bike leg, thank goodness it wasn’t Sudoku. Second obstacle after another bike leg was to inflate and deflate bike tyres. Andrew was pro at that and got us in and out of that challenge in good time. And the last one was to move a potato across 20 metres by striking it using another potato hung by a string tied around your waist.

Other obstacles included crossing a swinging bridge, monkey bars, Jacob’s ladder and army crawls. All this in unbearable morning and mid-afternoon sun, heat exhaustion would have definitely been the #1 cause of casualties.

On the last run leg of the race, our race support crew Janice and Chris were waiting by the road with ice lollies from 7-11!!! When you’ve been racing for 8hours, anything and everything tastes so good.

It’s really a test of your mental and physical endurance. By the end of the race I was broken, and so were my adidas trail shoes. Looking forward to doing another adventure race soon.

One afternoon, I made my way down to The Cathay at Orchard to get myself some shirts from the Taylormade golf shop. (On a side note, did you know that Taylormade is under the adidas brand? That’s why you’d see adidas attire in their shops.)

Anyway, I was tempted and decided to just browse through the new collections at the adidas store next door. Then… this baby caught my eye, and I was in love.

It encompassed everything I love: adidas, cycling and a fantastic price tag. Carrying the message “Watch out for bikes” just made it extra special.

Sold!

Not sure if there’s any stock left, but you can try finding it from the shop I bought it from

adidas
The Cathay
2 Handy Road
#02-06/07
Singapore 229233

Chope

Feet

Not a great finish, but it’s a great picture.

Last month, adidas hosted a fantastic house party at the Timberlux warehouse to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the iconic 3-Stripes mark introduced by company founder Adi Dassler. The worldwide campaign encapsulated the cool and trendy factor with a fantastic TVC “invitation” which is available to watch on their website. Loved it and managed to find it on youtube.

The local house party was really well planned and executed, not forgetting brilliantly designed. When you walk in, you’re welcomed with a visual history snippets with pictures on the walls, frames, all in the style of someone’s living room. It was literally like a house party. Shelves were decorated with trophies, photos, candles.

Let me list the “I Likes”
- The shoes hanging from the ceiling, which made it look like a feature wall ceiling
- Free flow (FF) Blue candy floss and drinks
- FF Frolick Yoghurt and popcorn. (I’m actually really starting to like yoghurt more than ice-cream. It’s a healthier alternative if you keep the toppings to fruits. Frolick is like a Pinkberry for those more familiar with that name)
- FF Tiger
- The DJ table which stood inside a ginormous shoebox
- adidas styled vespas
- catching up with old friends
- meeting new friends
- liked how everyone made an effort to dress adidas or at least brand neutral

I leave you with a collage of photos from the night.

Went for a slow run this morning down the canal jogging track and there were two ladies wearing the same top as me. I guess it just comes to show that the adidas team did a good job on choosing the right colour and cut for last year’s Standard Chartered Marathon.

Of all the running event tees, this was my favourite too.

On a side note, I missed the deadline to sign up for the Sundown Marathon this year If you know somebody who might be pulling out of the Women’s 10k run, please drop me a message.

In conjunction with yesterday’s International Women’s Day 2009, I’d like to share with you an article published for Strong magazine.

After reading that article again, I just want to say that I’m no super woman nor am I perfect. Am just a 26 year old girl living in Singapore, sharing the joys and perils of life with voyeurs, family and friends. I’m not a poster girl, model or celebrity, but your friend, daughter, lover and colleague.

Being a brand ambassador for a sports brand is not about being thin, it’s about being a sports enthusiast and living a healthy, balanced life. I think the fact that I struggle with weight makes me as human as you are, and I hope that you can relate to my experiences i share with you.

A big thank you to Sheralyn who carried out the interview and arranged for the photoshoot.

Click here for the article.

The launch of the adidas Me, Myself campaign couldn’t have come at a better time.
I’m at the stage of my life where a change is at hand. Life really threw a curveball at me recently, and I believe it’s just a sign that its time to move on.

Me time is not just about doing things alone, it’s about dedicating that small bracket of time in the day doing something which will enrich your life. It could be taking a 30min jog around the neighbourhood, a long hot bath, or even a movie with friends.

Lately, I’ve learnt to enjoy the solitude and margins of my emotions, and it’s amazing how much you learn about yourself when you have no one to depend or rely on. You start to think about how you are becoming the person you want to be, and the necessary adjustments you have to make for that to happen.
I read somewhere that “solitude today is less available and yet more necessary than ever” and I couldn’t agree with it more.

Me time has brought some much needed balance in my life, and has helped me to be more honest with myself. Somehow the world and everything around me seems less urgent, and more manageable.

With the launch of the adidas Me, Myself campaign, I decided to make an effort to dedicate some “Me Time” during the week. You can check out the facebook group to read what other women are writing about “Me Time”. If you’re my friend on facebook, you can check out my Me Time calendar.

There’s even an option to embed the widget on to your own blog. Saves me from doing all the coding work. So if you want to take a look, it’s on the right hand column.

The cool thing about the application is the randomized activities the application can suggest if you feel like trying something new. Would be cool to know what you constitute as “Me Time”? And do share with me some ideas on some “Me Time” activities!

Oh Noz! 2 weeks till the Women’s GE Run! Been running a bit here and there, but I’m no where near my desired fitness level. Doesn’t help that I’ve been down with the flu and been feeling kinda chubs!

*bloat*

Wow has it been one year since my first 10km run. Dang!

Anybody has tips for a 2 week training regime! Help!

Looks like I might be dropping by the adidas shop this weekend.

Click here to see the write up of each artist.

A weekend ago, we all went over to the Tampines trail for a couple of rounds, a trail which we’ve all gone round plenty of times. But not too long ago, PLing had a pretty bad spill on a gnarly section near the bridge.

So on the first round, Rebecca, thinking she should go slow and easy, still had a pretty bad spill down the rocks and got her shin pretty badly chewed up.

On the second round, it was my turn. I was going too slow too and the bike was taking me down the left into the water. But luckily I managed to throw the bike away from me and grabbed on to the bridge. But the fall didn’t come without injuries.

As my nephew would say it, I got an Ouwweee! The bruise was there for a week! Which meant no skirt or dresses for a week! That part now is almost un-ridable due to the weeks rain and erosion.

Here’s adidas Wayne, i say that because he actually took time this morning to match his shirt with his shorts with his socks with his shoes!

Was waiting for Wayne to try on some clothes at Adidas originals at Pacific Plaza. Bored, I sat on the step and slapped on the nearest cap.

I’d like to think it looked good on me, because soon after, 2 girls looked at me and picked up the hat to try it on themselves. One of them ended up buying it. Glad I could do my part! Tehehehe…

The longest 84km of my life.

We were support cyclists for the Adidas Sundown marathon, the last time were doing this, it was for the 70.3 half ironman last year.

My day started really early, Wayne and I were running errands in town, so I’m surprised I managed to stay awake all the way till 7:30am the next morning.

Adidas lighting the way for runners

We rushed to pack and load the bikes at 7pm and headed towards Changi Village to report for ‘duty’ at 8pm. Wore my ‘Race Official’ bib, whistle, walkie talkie and I was good to go.

Wild boar William and Wild boar Wayne
Initially, I was assigned to lead the marathon category (42km), but we had someone pull out. So I had to bike the Ultra-marathon category (84km) instead.

DirTraction Crew
I’m not too fussed, how bad can it be right? It’s just going to be double the distance?!

And there they go
Well how wrong was I!?! After 42km, my bum was starting to numb and hurt from all that sitting down. It came to a point where I had to stand and cycle for awhile just to get the blood flowing.

And because we were cycling at running pace… no disrespect to the runners, but it felt sooo loonnggg.

Jeanette and me at the finish line

9 hours 14mins and 36 seconds later… Ladies 1st position crossed the finish line. My job was done. Congratulations Jeanette!

When we were driving home, it started to piss down really heavily. We felt so sorry for all those runners still on route, they must have been drenched, cold and tired.

You know what’s the best part? Going home, taking a HOT shower, turning on the air con, having a piece of toast, and climbing into cold bed sheets exhausted.

Check out my new cycling shoe from Adidas!! Talk about a pimped out shoe!

Limited edition Beijing Olympics 2008 cycling shoes.

It comes in two different editions i think – road or tri. This one is the tri ones.


It’s so white and clean, I’m afraid to wear it out to the trails! But seriously, that’s what its made for, to use and abuse! Not as a display in your shoe cupboard. Wish there was more information about the shoe online. I want to know what its made of, and the design elements of the shoe.

So Sexaaaayyyy

I did my first 10km last year at the Great Eastern Women run, and I still remember how torturous 10k felt. I did zero training (not that its a good thing), but I thought it was pretty awesome that I still managed a decent time. But I don’t think I want to go through that struggle again. This year, I’m not going to make the same mistake.

Great Eastern Women 10k 2008 will back on Sunday, 26 October 2008.

So I got back to jogging. Oh lordie… I hope my knees hold up!