The time to start working out has finally arrived. Yes, it's IPPT month soon, and the excess baggage around my tummy has began to show, particularly after all the good food from Chinese New Year and the Bangkok trip. For the uninitiated, the IPPT is a form of torture the Ministry of Defence has devised in order to reduce the national obesity index while forcing the men to go for runs in the beautifully decorated national parks. No seriously, it's a good way to motivate people to keep a healthly lifestyle and there is monetary incentive given to people who perform certain up to certain standards in the test. For myself, due to my age this year I'll be hitting another category and hopefully it'll be easier to hit my target. Yes, this is one of the few benefits of getting older in Singapore.
Anyways, I've been going to the East Coast park in recent weeks to train with some friends, in preparation for the North East run which was held yesterday. It's a 16km charity run. Not a huge event but still a sizable turn out was present. I was keen to sign up due to the fact that the organisers gave out finisher medals and there was a running singlet too. Best of all, it was a good chance to train with friends and a good time to get together since there was always a customary breakfast and talk cock session after the session. We've also signed up for the Adidas Sundown Marathon, although they will be doing the half marathon while I'll be attempting my second full marathon. The plan is that we'll sign up for Standard Chartered's full marathon in Dec, if we can keep up with the regime so far. I sure hope we can keep this up till then.
I received my 1st medal of the year for completing the 16km run. My goal is to hit at least 5 for the year: one for this North East run, 1 from the Adidas Sundown Marathon, 1 for the Army Half Marathon, then the Mizuno Wave run, and lastly from the Standard Chartered Marathon. In between I'll still see which are the more interesting ones to join, perhaps the Nike Human Race, etc.
Last week also marked the week in which the US version of Final Fantasy XIII was released. I ordered the game with a colleage the day before the release, and collected it on the actual day itself. It's been quite a while since I've been so excited over a game, which isn't really too surprising since my fave game of all time is Final Fantasy X. I didn't play FFXI due to the online nature of the game, and I gave up on FFXII halfway because the story didn't grow on me and the I hated the combat system which didn't give me as much control as I wanted. I'm optimistic that FFXIII will be the one to get my faith back in the series, especially when I logged over 99 hours each for FFX and FFX2. More to come on my feelings on the game in due time.
I also collected my order from a local store this week. These Tensou Sentai figures actually cost quite a bit and I would have saved the extra money if I got them overseas. However, I've already spent a good amount this year on my imports and I figure I can reduce the signature a bit if I bought these locally. Well, my ordered items usually get delivered to my mum's place since no one's at home when they deliver. I'm planning a few photoshoots of these figures with Rena so look forward to that in the future.
I'll be logging off to get back to my world of Final Fantasy XIII soon, so please excuse me while I finish up on this adhoc blog update. I've also gotten the strategy guide, but like I've explained previously, I don't use the guide for the game and plot advancement, but for the other information such as item listings, charts, beastiary, etc. Games cost so much these days I've got to exploit them fully and do everything inside, right? Time's a wasting, so off I go now. Ja!
The time to start working out has finally arrived. Yes, it's IPPT month soon, and the excess baggage around my tummy has began to show, particularly after all the good food from Chinese New Year and the Bangkok trip. For the uninitiated, the IPPT is a form of torture the Ministry of Defence has devised in order to reduce the national obesity index while forcing the men to go for runs in the beautifully decorated national parks. No seriously, it's a good way to motivate people to keep a healthly lifestyle and there is monetary incentive given to people who perform certain up to certain standards in the test. For myself, due to my age this year I'll be hitting another category and hopefully it'll be easier to hit my target. Yes, this is one of the few benefits of getting older in Singapore.
Anyways, I've been going to the East Coast park in recent weeks to train with some friends, in preparation for the North East run which was held yesterday. It's a 16km charity run. Not a huge event but still a sizable turn out was present. I was keen to sign up due to the fact that the organisers gave out finisher medals and there was a running singlet too. Best of all, it was a good chance to train with friends and a good time to get together since there was always a customary breakfast and talk cock session after the session. We've also signed up for the Adidas Sundown Marathon, although they will be doing the half marathon while I'll be attempting my second full marathon. The plan is that we'll sign up for Standard Chartered's full marathon in Dec, if we can keep up with the regime so far. I sure hope we can keep this up till then.
