Weekend runs

I was supposed to join Choi and some others at Bukit Aman for a 20k on Saturday morning. When I woke up at 4.45am it was pouring with rain so I send an sms to him saying that I would not be coming. Kenneth was also supposed to join me and he had the same thought, so we decided to do some hill training later in the evening.

Met Ken at the reservoir hill around 5.45pm. After doing 5 hill repeats and one loop of the jungle trail I was totally flat out. I knew that this kinda training is what I need to improve my speed and also endurance. I was impressed with Ken that despite putting on some weight he was still way ahead of me on the hill repeats.

Yesterday evening I took my son for his first bike ride around our housing area. He must have cycled well over 1km by himself. I am amazed how fast children learn these days. Later I decided to do a tempo run. Started the first lap at an average pace and pickup up the pace slowly. Total distance covered was 5.7k in 27'04" which translates to a 4'45" pace per km. I wonder if I could hold a 4'55" pace per km in a flat 10k race?

I will be leaving for Mumbai this Wednesday night. My trip is primarily to ensure that our first project there at the State Bank of India runs smoothly. My return flight is booked for the 22nd of July. My sister will be down from Sydney at the beginning of August. We had some things planned as I've not seen her for almost one year, but I've just had to setup an interview to get my US visa for a 10 day trip to Dallas early August as well.

All this travel is not something I enjoy. Too much travel was the main reason I left my previous job two years ago. Looking through my old passport as I need it for my US visa, I noted all the countries I have been to between 2001 and 2004... Australia, England, Scotland, Greece, Holland, Dubai, India, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philliphines. I used to be away for months at a time. Most of my travel time was spent in Autralia, India and Dubai.

I must say that I used to enjoy my previous job much more as it was more technical in nature and I use to 'get my hands dirty'. However part and parcel of all the perks in moving up the corporate ladder is that we need to do all the 'boring' stuff like prepare monthly budgets, work on sales forecasts and attend 'kick ass' meetings. However I am grateful for this job as it pays for more than what my family needs and allows me more time with them.