My Polar Watch - simply Awesome

Not the best of times, but my first 10K in a long while.

I recently bought the Polar M430 as a little present to myself for going through a challenging 2 years of business. My opinion after about 1 and a half months of using it, is that this device is simply "awesome". I am a very late product adopter of the GPS watches having using more than 20 Timex chronograph watches over the last 17 years.

In 2007, I won a Garmin watch with heart rate monitor in a treadmill race. It was a cool toy except for monitoring the heart rate, I had to strap it around my chest like a bra.  The Polar M430 on the other hand has 6 thermal sensing devices to sense the heart rate on my wrist without the use of a chest strap. So technology has enabled the ease of use for this finicky consumer after 10 years. Ha ! 

In addition the M430 has 24/7 tracking of everything from my movements, siiting, standing, running etc. and has many superb tracking features. The features of this awesome toy are heart rate monitor, GPS tracking of your workout on the road, track or off-road trails for one.

Once you activate and stop the training mode (there are about 6 most popular ones), it tracks your maximum and average heart rate, your cadence (number of footstrikes per minute),your kcal burned, the % of fat used during the training (heh I love this one), and finally the distance covered. It will also tell you at the end of each day how much (in %) of the daily target steps (10,000) you have achieved.

You can also track your sleeping time, whether your sleep was interrupted and most ideal number of hours of sleep required, (mine is 8). 

The shop which sold it to me help setup the Polar Flow software, which I am to update my workouts every few days and voila ! there is so much to show there. Your entire workout summary like what I had mentioned above, in addition, there are maps (GPS remember) which show me exactly how far and where I had run. I am also an avid recorder of my workouts so my Workout Summary is also recorded for posterity. 

Finally, this cool video enables me to "relive my run" and thanks to Google Maps (or whatever they use to video this), it shows me again exactly where I ran, my start location (at the exercise station beside carpark B1), my fastest pace of 6:04 min / km just after the yellow lighthouse, where I turned around at Ski 360 and returned back and finished the last km at 7:48 min /km. Video of location, speed, elevation, kcals burned and total workout summary all in the video. 

How cool is that ??? 

Leaky Defence ; No Luck led to this 3 - 3 draw with Bristol City ;

Wolves played Bristol City this morning Wednesday 13th Sept, and watching the highlights, I could say I am disappointed that their defence is still weak, letting in 3 goals to Bristol City and not having a penalty in the second half and taking another half dozen chances could have swung the game their way.

Process is always about planend strategy, execution, productivity. Add luck and the supreme will to win or confidence and you will end up the winner. As humans, we have moods and emotions which will always come into play.

Coach Santos can tighten up the backline. 3 goals is 3 goals too many after having kept so many clean sheets for almost 10 games (except for Cardiff who scored 2 against Wolves).

This is their best start in 19 years so Wolves, wake up your idea !!!  

Climate Change effects is Real... and Deadly to us all

The devastation and chaos caused by the 2 hurricanes Harvey and Irma which literally destroyed properties, homes, hotels, beaches, people's lives and not to mention the upheaval of the flora and fauna of the Everglades, the cities of Houston, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Tampa, Naples and many other small suburbs causing hundreds of bilions of dollars in damage.

Climate change is real, global warming is real and everyone must do their part to heal mother Earth. It is so painful to watch the hammering the poor Caribbean islands have taken and  the island of Barbudos is wrecked.

Every country must do its part to reduce its carbon footprint NOW. We may well leave the world in a much worse shape for our children and our grandchildren. than when we set foot on it. 

That would be a monumental disaster for humankind. 

Wolverhampton Wanderers - Championship team with European flair

          9th Sept 3.00 pm and Wolves notch another win that makes it 4 out of 6 league games played, 1 draw and 1 loss to the top team Cardiff City. I notice that team manager Santos has introduced many European players who prefer to build up the game from deep inside the defence and then play their way towards the opponent's goal. This is reminiscent of the European game as compared to the wingers and crosses of the English game.

         A 1-0 win at home courtesy of Diego Jota makes all the fans happy. It is my wish to watch at least 1 match (maybe 2) one day. The Chinese owners Fosan Group have made a coup signing a top class coach in Santos. He is the 'special one' who will finally bring this team to the Premier League. The coach Santos has brought in 3 top class Portuguese players namely Jota, Neves and Cavahlero who bring the much needed passing, speed dribbling and counter attack which is trademark of European flair. 

         I wait in anticipation ! 

1 month target ; lose 2 kg ; run 64 mins for 10 K

After my run, a quick shower and all changed up for the day at the Swim Club 

I have set myself another 2 targets ; weightwise I aim to lose 2 kg by September and 3 kg by the end of the year ; that means 73 kg by year's end. A lot of the 'bad stuff' has to go ; the white wine after dinner, the chocolates,snacks and the rice. I am trying intermittent fasting, which my cousin introduced to me, whereby after dinner (normally 8pm), my next meal is targetted to be 12 noon the following day. This gives 16 hours of fasting and forcing the body to use up the stored fats. 

After the Run

As the suave looking 50 year old model said, the process of achieving the ideal body shape is 70% diet and 30 % exercise. This is a revelation to me, but as I analysed my past exercise routines, it dawned upon me that he is 100% correct, as the food intake is the main entry point into the body, feed it perhaps below the 2000 kcal level and exercise more, and I am on my way to losing the kilos. In the early weeks and months, it will be mainly water, but my regimen includes cross training like karate training, walks and of course the runs. I am only at 20 km per week, I hope to increase it to 30 km, that means 1 10K and rougly 4 x 5Ks. The issue is the body is no longer young so recovery takes longer but I am determined for 1 last hurrah.   

My pathetic time 

I believe that when I lose the 2 kilos, my running will get faster, and hence my timing will drop to below 1 hour (if I can do 55 minutes I will be over the moon !). 

The other thing is that all this training and exercise process tweaking should lead to some reward, so I intend to sign up for either the Paris Marathon and 1 other marathon by middle of next year.

Seize the Day 

Take this Money and Shove It

Cool Living in Parchinburi, Thailand ; Artisan Coffee in airconditioned comfort after a hard morning's 10K run  

A very successful friend of mine, has this very insighful piece of advice to me. He has managed companies with thousands of staff in a nearby foriegn country, and has had to deal with countless of issues and stresses while he was the CEO. He decided that at the ripe old age of 54, he decided to retire, in early 2008. 

The subprime crisis hit in Autumn 2008 and institutional banks,trading houses, merchant banks were swimming in massive losses and thus started the great (US) Financial Crisis. My friend's timing was perfect, leaving at the top of the 'game' with a decent cash pile and he headed back home to Singapore.

I have known him for almost 10 years and recently over lunch he had this message to me : aim for a financial target,once you have hit it and you calculate that its sufficient, prepare your exit and do it.

He has given me much financial advice over the years and they have all been proven correct.

I left the lunch a very thoughtful man.   

  

Mike Posner I took a Pill in Ibiza - cool song with a strong message ;

            This song has a strong social message and talks about the high life of a pop star figure who got addicted to money, sex, drinks and all the trappings of the fast life.

Loneliness, sadness, depression and an emptiness results when his star fades, and the money runs dry. Fame and money is fleeting

He advises all who want to be like him, he sings : 

"You don't wanna be high like me,
 Never really knowing why like me
 You don't ever want to step off the roller coaster

 And be all alone

You dont want to ride the bus like this
Never know who to trust like this
You don't want to be     
Stuck up on that stage singing (2)

All that I know... are sad songs...   
Sad songs                                       "