I love rain

On my bed. Tired from today’s run. Tonight’s sleep is going to be great.

It rained today. A heavy one. I love it as it cools down Bangkok by a lot. I ran yesterday morning in the Navamin park, and the sun was scorching at 9 am. Today’s evening run was much more pleasant, so I went long.

Running frees my mind. Bad day at work, good day at work, it doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter what happens between 8:30a-4:30p. Running is my medicine. It makes everything better.

Tomorrow will mark the end of the first quarter of 2009. March has been a very active month for me. Things are going well.

Push on.

A full day of stuff

Woke up early and drove to Nakorn Pathom. Arrived at 7 am. Gave Final exam at 8 am. It was finished at 11 am. I think the students tried hard. Already graded a couple problems Looking good so far.

Came back and watched the movie Marley and Me, which is based on a true story. Lovely Labradors in the film.

Sneaked in a run in the evening, on village roads. It was extremely hot even though it was almost 5 pm. I was the only person out there running. I don’t have much time. Just have to run when I can, not when the weather is most pleasant.

We ate a large dinner. BBQ pork, chicken, squid, and vegetables. In Thai, it’s called หมูกะทะ. Very popular meal type. This one was delivery, which is quite convenient. It was delicious. Pygmy loves it too. Pepe will eat it soon I’m sure.

Visited None’s grandma house today. None baked some blueberry crust bars. Look very good. Will try them tomorrow.

Work hard, train harder

A fairly productive work day. Lots of people attended an event off site. So it was quieter and more peaceful than usual. No phone calls interrupting what I was working on. No people walking in to assign me extra tasks. I just did my work. It feels good to get things done.

It wasn’t that I was alone in a room. I had a couple of colleagues with me. But they were working on their things also. I fed off their energy. It’s great.

Evening run went well. It was hotter than yesterday. Just have to get on with it. GPS seemed to operate normally today. That’s good. The legs felt strong throughout, except near the end, when the left knee started hurting and buckling. Same pain as usual.

A picture of my running route. Near the football field in Kasetsart campus.

Lying here on my bed Friday night. I’m satisfied. It has been a good week of running. Nothing but humble base building miles.

A thought during the run: All tall and spectacular skyscrapers have one thing in common. They all have strong base. Without a good base the building will fall and crumble.

Base building is a long and tedious process. Yet, it is the most crucial part of growth.

On my current state of pain…

I have some pain here and there. It’s normal. Key to be happy is to stop complaining and making excuses. Make commitment to yourself to get better.

Ignore the pain. Life is full of barriers and obstacles. When facing ones, just step over or climb over them. Otherwise, turn around and find something else to do. Something that means more to you. Someone out there is suffering a lot more than you do. Your pain is nothing.

A short note about my class: Tomorrow is the final exam day, closing out the term. Time to say goodbye. Hope the students will do well.

Windy Thursday

Had a long meeting today. Had to go to Ongkharak office. Long commute. I dislike going there because there is no easy internet/computer access. So I can’t get much work done. However, today’s meeting wasn’t so bad because it ended a bit early, so I could get back to Bangkok office and did some work before going home.

Today’s weather was nicer than yesterday. Cooler than it has been lately. “Cool” is relative here. Foreigners from Europe or North America would feel this weather is sweltering. But it had some wind out there. Wind is good. It cools my body down by a lot.

Had some good sweat going. Some discomforts here and there. Nothing serious. Lance Armstrong is going through a much worse injury. Pain is part of the challenge.

The GPS seemed to be off again today. The pace seemed way too fast. Oh well. So I had no idea how far I ran. Time is known. Distance is wrong. Can’t figure out the speed. Maybe I will go run on fixed distance track more from now. I was out there for a while, and got some solid distance.

I just got back to running the beginning of the year. So it has been less than 3 months. One should always try to get better, but also must be patient.

Random thought:

• Read this amazing story of a man who is still winning medals at age 90+. Mr. McPhie is quite an inspiration. (found via Trail Runner’s Blog)
• None just posted a recipe Ga-na Chai. It’s good with boiled rice.
• There is a nice Beagle dog in one of the houses in the neighborhood. Very good looking dog. He (or she, not sure) is regularly walked the street. Saw him again today. Our dog Pepe always barks when he sees this dog.

One hot day

Extreme heat again today. It rained a bit in the morning, though way too short. Didn’t help much with the temperature. My skin felt burnt as I walked to the campus for lunch.

The heat wasn’t gonna keep me out of the road though. Ran on the sidewalk outside the football field. Went for about 40 minutes, slowly to avoid the pain. Had to slow down and dodge a few stray dogs along the way. Not gonna risk being chased by them!

Many people were running around the 400m track at the football field. Good to see people pushing themselves hard out there. Some were fast, some were slow. Everyone was testing their own limit. The track is a bit softer than the road and sidewalk, but I found the gravel surface a bit slippery.

The knee pain flared up slightly. My body was also overheating. I needed to drink. So I knew it was time to stop. Summer time running. Not the most pleasant thing to do. But it is a good challenge.

GPS tracking in my Nokia phone was not accurate today. The distance it measured was clearly much longer than the actual one. Not sure why it misbehaved today.

Drinking lots of water at home. It is so, very, very warm these days.

Good thing about working out: I get to eat a lot!

Pain management

Super warm weather this evening. Heading toward April, Bangkok is not getting any cooler anytime soon.

Bangkok forecast (24-27 March 2009) by Wunderground

I ran today. At first it felt easy again. Suddenly, the knee pain came. The left leg got weak. Kept myself going and got a respectable distance.

I want to keep running and keep my conditioning. At the same time, I shouldn’t push too hard and intensify the injury. My goal is to do the best I can when the race day comes. To achieve that, I must train hard, but avoid injuries. It’s all about managing pain.

Writing an exam now, to be given to the students this Saturday. If one is prepared, he will be ready and the test will be a good challenge. For those who aren’t, it will be a long, painful morning.

If you want to do something well, be prepared. True for everything in life.

focus

My office life is full of noise. Must learn to disregard things that makes me unhappy. It can be overwhelming. A routine job really doesn’t fit me.

Monday evening run once again. Ran to a good distance. Breezy at the start, when the legs were fresh. The last mile was a struggle, because of the same old knee pain. When I was done it stopped hurting. So nothing serious. Must maintain the moderate pace for now.

Happy to complete my daily run. It clears my mind. Makes me forget about work, and other people. It’s what I need. Running is my therapy. It helps me disregard unimportant stuff in life, and makes me focus on things that matter to me.

Random thoughts:

• Barcelona makes me happy. 6:0 vs Malaga and maintain six point lead over Real Madrid.
• Still hopeful for Federer to win another grand slam or more. But right now he can’t seem to beat younger guys like Nadal or Murray. Must cut down those unforced errors.
• I love my dogs. Wish I could spend more time at home with them.

Easy Sunday

Played tennis this morning. It’s been a while. I got to the courts early and ran on a street sidewalk beforehand. Not much time to run on the weekend. Sneaked in a run here and there.

Tennis was fun. Played for an hour. It got pretty hot near 9 am. Afterwards, we had breakfast in Soi Ladprao 71. Good dimsum and noodle.

Dim sum dishes at a Ladprao 71 restaurant

Then we came home, showered, and went out to Central World Plaza in Chitlom. It is a nice place to spend time in (too cold for me though), with many good stores and restaurants.

Had lunch at Mos Burger. We had Mos Burger and Chicken Teriyaki. It was a delicious lunch although the burgers are a little small. After that we walked around in Isetan food section for a while. It has a bunch of appetite-inducing selections. Must visit it again someday.

Mos Burger

Just a nice, easy Sunday.

Busy week concluded

SPC conference was okay. My second conference in three days. Seeing other people working hard gave me a motivational boost.

Though we were near the beach the whole time (can see it from the hotel), I never got time to walk down to the sand, much less the sea. Too bad I could only stay for a short while there.

I was happy to sneak in a run each day. They were short runs, but they kept my streak going. Cha-am road was not that inviting to run. Just too crowded. The area is heavily commercialized with food vendors and beach chairs.

Took a van back from Cha-am last night. The traffic was bad when we got inside Bangkok. The trip from Bangkok on Thursday took about 2:05 h. Yesterday, the trip back to Bangkok took about 2:45.

The reason I had to rush back was I had to teach. This morning we had the last class. Final presentations were given by the students this morning. They did a good job and I learned things from the seven talks given. Next week we will have the final exam and that’s it for this term. Hope the students will be well prepared.

It’s been a busy week. Now I’m glad it’s over. More work will arrive comes Monday. But now it’s Saturday afternoon. Time to relax and run.

Rainy day

Heading to Cha-am tomorrow. Attending a physics conference, SPC2009, being held at Methavalai hotel. Getting outside Bangkok once in a while is usually nice. Excited to see the beach.

We (me + research colleagues) had to attend an event at Ministry of Science in the morning first. Then we are gonna head to the Victory Monument to take a van to Petchburi. Events overlap; so we had to adjust our travel plan quite a bit.

Ran in KU campus this evening. The weather had been cloudy all day. Drizzled during the day. Did my run with a hat on. Just wanted to move today. No concrete goals. Just want to run till it hurts. The first part was breezy. But the second half was difficult.

Need to heal. Must take it easy.

Right after I finished, it rained pretty heavily. Went to the Football field. A match was being played. Caught the end of the first semifinal. The players had to deal with the rain. First time it rained since the tournament started.

A football match in Kasetsart being played during the rain.

Packed my bag. Ready for the trip.