Dreams Come Alive

That was Ben Pulham’s observation after my Fuel Efficiency test at Racers’ Toolbox this afternoon. Founded by sports scientist and kinesiologist Jon Fong and world ranked elite triathlete Ben Pulham, Racers’ Toolbox specialises in sports science testing, fitness assessment and crafts personalised training plans for their clients.

Today was my first appointment with the experts and I was being tested on how I am currently using my energy. In a nutshell, our body uses a mix of carbohydrates and fat during exercise (click here to read more about this) and the Fuel Efficiency test is designed to test just how much of each we burn and when.

From a starting speed of 3.5 km/hour I began walking and then running on a treadmill and watched as the machine recorded the levels of fat and carbohydrates I was burning. My fat burning stopped after 17 minutes and at a speed of just under 12 km/hr. Had I continued running I would have drawn my energy from pure carbohydrates. This would eventually lead to a situation of what athletes call “hitting the wall”. Not good.

The better news is that my body composition revealed pretty ideal figures, with my sum of 8 skinfolds (to us laymen, it means I had my fat measured by callipers on 8 different parts of my body. Twice.) reading 63.3mm. Apparently ‘normal’ people average 100mm. My body fat came up to 7.7%. While I know of many friends who would kill to have that number, I think I may need to increase that a little, just so to help me withstand the cold in Antarctica.

Following the test, Jon sat down and explained what my charts meant and how he intended to use that information to draw up a training plan based on my needs and goals. This is excellent news to me as my training has so far lacked structure and scientific basis, reduced to simply clocking up distances.

We will start off with long slow runs and build on volume. Volume here means time spent on feet at an efficient heart rate zone. Distance is immaterial here as I need to train my body to burn fat and maintain that over long periods of time. In due course this will lead to my running faster and longer. Also an initial thing to work on is my cadence and stride, with an aim of 88 to 92 strides per minute.

The exact plan will be drawn up next Tuesday when I return for my Lactate test, which determines my lactate thresholds. This is the point in exercise when our lactate begins to accumulate in the muscles. It is a physiological marker that is closely associated with aerobic endurance performance – the higher the lactate threshold, the better the aerobic endurance performance. From here we can establish my exercise intensity and increase my performance in endurance events.

So the fantastic news is that because I am simply good and not great, there is massive potential and room for improvement! Can’t wait!

Just a fortnight after my completion of the Gobi March, Braving Antarctica was officially launched on 21st July Wednesday evening at VivoCity. Graced by Mr Teo Ser Luck – Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, main sponsors Pet Lovers Centre presented The Salvation Army with an initial $15,000 cheque donation to go toward Gracehaven, home for children and youths from dysfunctional families.

Click here for more information on Braving Antarctica. Warm hearts are also needed as I prepare for this freezing endeavour, so please do make a difference now.

Now that I have had a few days to get over the daze of post-Gobi March, I shall get back to blogging. Many people want to find out how the Gobi March (GM) compared with the Sahara Race (SR). As you may know, I am working on a book to be published upon completion of the 4 Deserts (after the Sahara Race last year and Gobi March last week, I have Antarctica this Nov and Atacama next March to go) so I will be relatively brief with my lessons and discoveries here and begin with some factual experiences as per the following categories:

Blisters

SR: Rather fortunate to have gotten away with a mere 5 blisters.

GM: Ended with 3 teeny weeny itsy bitsy little blisters that are enough to be an annoyance but not sufficient to be a serious impediment to progress. Various muscle groups on both legs and parts of soles were sore, pulled and aching but early detection and appropriate TLC made sure that they did not threaten to balloon into anything major.

Weight Loss

SR: Only 3.5kg

GM: A negligible half kg, which I attribute to better food selection and moving at the right pace. What I brought gave me the appropriate levels of nutrition required for the task and I consumed just about everything bar a packet of miso soup and two muesli bars.

Pack Weight

SR: 11kg without water

GM: 9.5kg without water. Dispensed with powder electrolytes in favour of tablets for the Gobi, and in fact went the first 3 days without using any. I gather that my salt intake through food proved sufficient replacement for what I had lost through perspiration. Also left the packets of desserts at home.

Terrain and Difficulty

SR: Flatter with greater expanse of nothingness, which makes for easier running.

GM: More terrain variation and absolutely spectacular and stunning scenery, combined with river crossings and traipsing through villages. The temperature swings made things more challenging; I hardly slept the first two nights and the shivering just consumed precious calories.

That’s all for now. Will be back soon with more and with updates on my sponsorship and fundraising efforts for The Last Desert – Antarctica.

Feeling completely unprepared for the Gobi March. Have spent the last month cramming as much work in as I can before I leave and as a result am feeling rather burnt out. Have not done any running at all in the past weeks and am nursing a cold and mouth ulcers. Not the best way to prepare for a 250km endurance race at all! Add to that word emerging from RacingThePlanet to expect stifling temperatures of 50 degrees celcius with no wind and heat that can boil water on car bonnets and it doesn’t make for a pretty picture.

Still, am confident that once I arrive in the Gobi there will be nothing on my mind except completing the race and doing myself and those who believe in me proud. As a matter of fact, I can’t wait to start running and have a quiet positive expectancy of this brand new experience.

As was the case in the Sahara, am looking forward to receiving messages of love and support. I find that they are a tremendous source of nourishment for the soul and would love for you to make a little space in your day and heart to send me some positive words.

You can do so by going to www.4deserts.com/gobimarch and selecting email a competitor from the Race Coverage drop-down list. Names are arranged according to surnames, so look for Lawrence Thaddeus

Thank you much from my heart.

If there was an environment where one could develop an instant bond and trust with another person, then a desert race would be the ideal backdrop. The camaraderie and friendships that form out of adversity at a 4 Deserts event is the stuff of legend. Living in close proximity and subject to conditions to which the average person is not accustomed, a deep sense of esprit de corps is immediately established.

This fellowship manifests itself in many ways: someone waiting for you at the end of a stage to help carry your pack to the tent; or checking in on you during the evenings or early mornings; or hanging back to walk with you when you are struggling. This was service leadership at its best.

Even though we are all grappling with our own personal predicaments, we somehow discover that little extra to give someone else a shot in the arm. It’s so much easier to get outside yourself when you’re thinking about someone else. This is the best way to overcome challenges and difficulty: focus outwards.

For being there, we are already winners – we go on to run not so much to beat one another, but to be with one another. The joy of participating in such an event is the joy of adding our power and personality to the pack. And many extend their reach and influence to their wider community by raising funds for assorted charities.

As the official post-race update articulated, “The bonds made…are strong and all those who have taken part in this event are now part of a much wider family, one dedicated to seeing the world through different eyes and finding out what it truly means to be a member of the human race.”

You cannot not make a difference.

In a scene from the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, Christopher Gardner tells his son, “You got a dream…you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it.”

A life worth living is a life of passion in the pursuit of our dreams; it is about what excites our spirit and our energy. When we’re doing the thing that we love and that we’re good at, time takes on a different dimension completely. If we’re doing something we love, we come alive and an entire day simply flies by. Avid runners think nothing of popping out the door for a long run, while others dread just lacing up their shoes. If we’re doing something that doesn’t resonate with our spirit, five minutes feels like forever. The reason so many people go through life like zombies is because it doesn’t feed their spirit; it doesn’t feed their energy or their passion.

In the struggle between practicality and passion, many choose the former. They give up their passion and dreams in order to do a job they don’t feel anything for, so they can earn money and keep up with the Joneses. The alternative is to pay the price of sacrifice, perseverance, hard work and even rejection, in order to pursue our passion and do the job we love, and in the process earn money and create meaning in our lives.

What is your dream?

Of the many words I have heard used to describe participants of ultra events, champions in life and leaders of industry, is courage. And of the many definitions of courage, I like that by Raymond Lindquist best.

He called courage the power to let go of the familiar. To be courageous is to let go of familiar ideas and comfortable assumptions. An example is our set attitude toward age. In my formal talks and informal conversations on the Sahara Race, I invariably get responses along the lines of “I wish I could do something like this, but I’m too old.” And these are people in their 30’s and 40’s! Somehow it has been drilled into our consciousness that sporting pursuits are the domain of those in their teens and 20’s.

Running down the list of participants of any of the 4 Deserts races, it is clear that participants run the gamut from young to old. The oldest in the Sahara Race was Jack Denness, who at 74 years young, was a school caretaker in England. And this year he will be competing in the Badwater ultramarathon. Who says old people are of no use and should simply rest up and wait to die? Who says the youths of today can’t contribute and make a difference? Who says if you come from a certain school or socio economic background, that you should expect only this much from life and that you will end up at a certain point? Or that you will be this sort of person?

All too often we are too obsessed with how our labelling according to our schools, qualifications, colour, age etc, brands us for life. And so we are told and we believe, that it starts at a certain point and we go through a particular path and if we follow it, we will end up set for the rest of our life. But it doesn’t.

Roger Bannister. Gong Baoren. Cliff Young. Richard Branson. Barack Obama. Helen Keller. Ray Charles. Andrea Bocelli. Rosa Parks. Marie Curie. These are a random sprinkling of personalities, familiar and not so familiar, who had to courage to let go of familiar assumptions and perceived disadvantages to achieve greatness and make a difference.

Courage is the power to abandon our narrow way of thinking and with courage comes the curiosity and hunger to learn. With courage comes freedom for new ideas and new creations. With courage we break new ground, get better and become a better person.

What would it take for you to let go?

This was the question I had left the audience to ponder at this year’s Pre-U Seminar 2010. I was honoured to have been invited as panellist alongside the Director of Institute of Policy Studies and former Secretary-General of ASEAN, Ambassador Ong Keng Yong; and Project Director at MOE and ex-CEO of SINDA, Mr Manogaran Suppiah. The panel was chaired by the ever affable Chairman of the Public Transport Council and National Kidney Foundation, Mr Gerard Ee.

With One People – Living the Pledge as the theme, we were tasked with exploring how Singaporeans in general, and young Singaporeans in particular, could “achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation”. Having recently completed the Sahara Race – a multi day 250km footrace in the Sahara desert – I found it a fitting metaphor for life.

One can fake his way through a 10km run or put his head down and persevere through the pain barrier of a standard marathon, but a multi day run is a different kind of beast altogether. Once done with the gruelling endeavours of the first day, you have to get up the next day and do it all over again, and do it within the cut-off time. This means that you can neither afford to take your time nor can you over push yourself. Each day is about growing stronger and stronger to tackle the demands of the next.

And how do people fare in this multi day endurance race called life?

Having had the privilege of meeting and working with different cultures and people around the world and experienced the magnificent camaraderie of the Sahara Race, I think there are generally two groups of people in this world. The first are those who do not enjoy what they do, simply going through their lives just getting on with it and getting by. They derive no great pleasure from what they do and survive it rather than thrive, and wait for the weekend or the holidays to come. But there are also people who love what they do and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. They start the day with a relish because they get to do what they love and work doesn’t seem like work to them. Because it isn’t so much what they do, it’s who they are. Life is exciting and they thrive.

Which group do you belong to?

Earlier this week I had the privilege and honour of running a 2.5 day empowering workshop for close to 20 young Singaporean athletes who are in the squad or in the running to represent the nation in the upcoming Youth Olympic Games.

This was a workshop with a difference. Different because this was a group of special individuals. Coming from a variety of backgrounds, schools and sporting history, they were united by a common aspiration, a dream to do their utmost best and do their country and themselves proud. And it told.

From the word go, their maturity, discipline and camaraderie stood out. Perhaps juggling school life with a punishing training regime over the last several months has imbued in them an appreciation for precious time with one another. Or maybe their exposure to regional and international competition arenas has raised their confidence levels. Quite possibly the rigour of pursuing sporting excellence and making sacrifices has inculcated a respect for achievement.

Their willingness to participate, to explore, to go deep and above all, to be real was greatly moving and at the end of the workshop I felt that it was I who had learnt the most.

Champs, if you are reading this, I thank you for revealing who you really are, for teaching me the value of humility and authenticity. And for showing me what it means to make your dreams come alive. In my eyes you are champions and I dedicate this weekend’s ultra marathon to you all.

In many ways the first half of this year is a runaway success.

On the professional front I secured a role with a consultancy firm involved in organisational development work for a global oil and gas giant and recently I earned a position to provide coaching and facilitation services for the military. Both of these developments have skyrocketed my learning and work on the corporate fronts to a whole new level. Plus I will be sitting on the panel of a prestigious forum in June which will be opened by the Prime Minister.

Personally, I have cemented a deeper level of understanding and intimacy with my significant other and stepped up my preparations for my next ultra endurance footrace that is the Gobi March. Looking forward to the Antarctica challenge in November, I have hooked up with an old school friend who owns a successful chain of pet food and retailing businesses in the region and we are at an advanced stage of talks to fundraise for a local charity.

So why am I so tired and drained?

A big part of it is that I haven’t stopped to take stock of my achievements.  While I register them as significant milestones on an intellectual level, I haven’t yet taken the time to fully celebrate my growth and development and congratulate myself on my results. On the contrary, I had made mental notes and then immediately looked forward to the next thing to conquer.

To tell myself that I have done a good job is one part of it; to really feel the sense of accomplishment and delight is the other. It is perfectly fine and necessary to just stop and marvel and simply….do nothing. That is to say, completely get off the treadmill of life and take a break, relax and be completely ok with it. This is because I know I am not resting on my laurels but taking a breather to soak it all in and gather strength and move forward again.

To use my training for the Gobi March as a metaphor, I am feeling the effects of overtraining and being too fixated on my goal. It is time to take my foot off the pedal for a little while and allow my body to recuperate and muscles to grow.

Breathe in…breathe out….