Finally a final year medic (ie survived exam) and still ran 10K in 45.38 in Dambuster duathlon!3/23/2014 What a relief after my exam result came out! I finally made it to the last year of the medical school. These 6 years has gone by way too fast. From the beginning of the year to the exam time has been one of the most stressful period in my life, trying to switch around studying with training was a tough job. I was running at 120% efficiently i.e. sleep (always comes first), eat, study and train. Couldnt manage to fit in anything else (but of course there is always time for quick cuppa with good friends =P). My first race of the season (Dambuster Duathlon) was the week after the exam so did not go out and get drunk as there was a race waiting. Thank you Steve P (bike doc), who I gave him an headache by clamping an aero-bar on the gear cable.....just to give my bike a stroke before the race! I'm not going to lie, I didn't go into this race with confident due to emotional stress from exam and a hard time I just had been through. Also I didn't feel like I was in the best shape both physically and mentally. Steve S picked my little bike and me up very early in the morning (and we managed the bike rack somehow... but not on the way back??!! haha) then we head east to Rutland Water, saying the weather was not that bad....but obviously we were wrong. It was absolutely freezing and the wind was just a horrid, especially on hills of the bike course! The first gun of the season went off, then I thought somehow a spirit of a racer in me kicked in. "Give it your best shot" was the only voice in my head. I knew I was running at a good pace....but didnt think it was a 45.38min 10K as that was only 27s off my 10K pb!! The bike was very tough climbing the ripples and the dambuster hill, the wind was definitely not on my side but hey... I just got on with it! My bike time was not the worse anymore and relatively sensible comparing to others. Then just another 5 K, why not blast through it in 23.11mins! I was very happy with the result and it does show that the hard work does pay off!! £ The training for London Marathon has been going well so far. Thank you coach Zack for making me work hard and I have a lot more confidence in myself now. Looking forward to race in East Leake next weekend as the first "triathlon" of the season! See how many minutes I could knock off from last year! I would like to say thank you to all my awesome family and friends, who stood by me through the tough time. Without your love and support, I wont be able to make it! Thank you so very much guys =) Also I'm raising money for Thai Children's Trust charity in London Marathon this year. Please help sponsor me via this link: http://www.justgiving.com/Niniforthaichildrentrust or simply text NINI66 £(amount) to 70070 Also I'm raising money for Thai Children's Trust charity in London Marathon this year. Please help sponsor me via this link: http://www.justgiving.com/Niniforthaichildrentrust or simply text NINI66 £(amount) to 70070
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I'm absolutely grateful that my 4th year medical exam is finally OVER and I can have my life back for now. I have to admit that it has been a very stressful period and I definitely let it got to me. Trying to juggle all the revision around with my training was definitely a challenge, but as me being me, I never took anything the easy way. ;) Two weeks approaching the exam , I was still going 10/11 hours of training per week. I'm not gonna lie, this was the only thing that kept me sane, without my training, I must have gone mad! (well, I think I'm kinda already crazy anyway..... but you know haha). Intergrating training schedule with revision timetable was definitely useful. When my brain cells got burnt from all the medical jargons and drug names, I cooled it down my doing my sessions. I always felt more refreshed and could concentrate much better so I knew I was learning more efficiently. To me, it's the "Quality" of time not "Quantity". I would never spend from dusk to dawn or staying up the whole night trying to cram things into my head. I could not see the point of doing that. Short-term memory is not a good way of learning and it's a waste of time since you have to relearn it again for the next exam. I am a believer of "Consistency". I tend to study not for the exam but for my own understanding, making sure I understand things properly while I was on the rotation/at the time the lectures are given and never leave things to the last minute! Lets talk a bit about training progress. I'm happy with the way things are going with managed to get my PB for 400m swim TT and cruising at 8.30 min/mile pace on my long runs (road). Really looking forward to be coached by legendary Jurgen Zack, starting in a week time :) This week has been rather rough with the exams. I decided to do stick to what I usually do which means 1 hour in the pool before 5 hours of written/SBA paper and 40 mins on a turbo trainer before practical exam [OSCE]. (I know this sounds like made but trust me it is definitely the best "panic" killer I have ever tried, since you have no energy left to waste on packing haha) Then I caught tummy bug on Friday, what a great way of post-exam and new bike celebration. But I guess it's good for me as I spent the whole day lying around for the first time in like.... more than a year? :p I had a very good day today taking my girl "Holly the Shiv" out for a date for the first time. I was planning for a short ride as I wasn't fully recovered but couldn't resist the nice weather and awesome bike and ended up with 53K ride, absolutely loved it. I actually felt "ALIVE" in ages :D So now I'm just going to keep my finger crossed until the exam result comes out and very looking forward to the first race of the season, Dambuster Duathlon. I would like to say "Thank you" to great friends of mine who were there for me through these couple of tough weeks, Claire and Dunc SS, Nicola Rossell, Haseen Ahmed, Martin Westall, Jane and Chris Sherwood. Thank you so much guys!! And of course, my two best friends ever, mom and dad ;') So things I have learnt (and hopefully might be useful for anyone who's reading):
"I'm only a girl in a silly race suit, looking for special things inside of me" :') (and It's not easy to be meeee)" |
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