Jeanette Wang
Jeanette describes herself as just a girl who is lucky enough to be doing things she is passionate about -- sport and writing -- and to combine both into a cocktail I call my life.
Been running since: 1996
Personal Best Time for 10km: 39 min
This PB was achieved during the opening 10km leg of the 2001 Asian Duathlon Championships in Hong Kong
When do I usually train: Either 5am or lunchtime, or both.
Fav running routes:
I stay at Pasir Ris and there are quite a lot of different routes I take, depending on the distance I need to go, ranging from 6km to 48km. My favourite route would be an approximate 17km loop that takes me from my place through Tampines, round Bedok Reservoir and back. It's a pretty flat and fast route and it usually seems shorter than 17km when I do it.
What's in your water bottle during a run:
I don't usually carry a water bottle during a run, unless I'm going for longer than 2h30min. I usually just plan my routes to go past at least one park's public toilet along the way. If I do have a water bottle I drink the PowerBar Endurance Sport drink, or put a mix of 100-plus and OJ if I ran out of the powder.
What drives you on to get up early in the morning or miss out on doing things your peers would normally do but you cant?
Frankly, I don't see it as a loss. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything exciting -- partying, drinking, movie-going just doesn't do it for me. Call me old, but I'd much rather a quiet, chilled-out night at home watching some DVDs, reading or listening to music. So finding the drive to sleep early isn't much of a problem. Waking up early can be a problem on some days, but most days I manage to haul myself out of bed because I want to do the best that I can for whatever race I'm training for. Sleeping in means I'm not giving myself a chance to see how good I can actually be. The first 30 minutes of a morning run might feel really sluggish, but after that I find I get into a great rhythm. The calm and quietness at 5am does wonders for my soul, too. The best feeling is when you get back from a 30km run in the morning, it's only 8am, and you have the whole day ahead of you. Suddenly the day just seems more promising. Running is my drug. I get withdrawal symptoms and extremely grumpy if I don't get some exercise in during the day.
What goes on inside your mind when the pain starts kicking in?
When the pain starts kicking in, my mind goes into denial. Of course if I'm 20km into an 84km ultramarathon, I know I'm going too hard too fast, so my mind will tell my body to slow down. If it's in the last stretch of a race, my mind goes back to all the hard sessions I did and how I survived them, and so my body listens and deals with the pain. A race without pain is probably a race where you didn't push hard enough.
How does your boyfriend cope when you are away or busy training ?
It's not too hard to cope with my training schedule, seeing how I do it before most of the world, boyfriend included, wakes up. He is extremely supportive of my training, and being a pretty serious cyclist himself, he understands why I train as hard as I do. We still manage to get loads of time to spend with each other.
Any tips for beginners ?
Ask yourself why you're doing the race - whether it's to prove yourself, lose weight, win the race or just achieve a personal best. Keep that goal in your head, scrawl it all over your diary or the walls of your room, put daily reminders in your handphone, announce it on your blog for the world to see and make sure at the end of those 10,000m you have achieved that goal. If you've no reason for running, don't do it, because you'll probably find no motivation to train after a week!
Work-life plus training, how do you juggle all that?
Like mentioned earlier, it's about discipline, training smart, sacrifices, early mornings, excellent time management, and probably the ability to operate on a few hours of sleep a day. Also helps if you're a journalist beause you work long hours but it's flexible so you get to fit in training sessions anytime you pretty much want to.
Why endurance sports?
There is no better way of learning about yourself than swimming, cycling and running alone for 226.2km. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself to see.
How old do you think you will be doing this until? And why?
Till I die. I'm serious. Why? Start doing it yourself and you'll know why
Been running since: 1996
Personal Best Time for 10km: 39 min
This PB was achieved during the opening 10km leg of the 2001 Asian Duathlon Championships in Hong Kong
When do I usually train: Either 5am or lunchtime, or both.
Fav running routes:
I stay at Pasir Ris and there are quite a lot of different routes I take, depending on the distance I need to go, ranging from 6km to 48km. My favourite route would be an approximate 17km loop that takes me from my place through Tampines, round Bedok Reservoir and back. It's a pretty flat and fast route and it usually seems shorter than 17km when I do it.
What's in your water bottle during a run:
I don't usually carry a water bottle during a run, unless I'm going for longer than 2h30min. I usually just plan my routes to go past at least one park's public toilet along the way. If I do have a water bottle I drink the PowerBar Endurance Sport drink, or put a mix of 100-plus and OJ if I ran out of the powder.
What drives you on to get up early in the morning or miss out on doing things your peers would normally do but you cant?
Frankly, I don't see it as a loss. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything exciting -- partying, drinking, movie-going just doesn't do it for me. Call me old, but I'd much rather a quiet, chilled-out night at home watching some DVDs, reading or listening to music. So finding the drive to sleep early isn't much of a problem. Waking up early can be a problem on some days, but most days I manage to haul myself out of bed because I want to do the best that I can for whatever race I'm training for. Sleeping in means I'm not giving myself a chance to see how good I can actually be. The first 30 minutes of a morning run might feel really sluggish, but after that I find I get into a great rhythm. The calm and quietness at 5am does wonders for my soul, too. The best feeling is when you get back from a 30km run in the morning, it's only 8am, and you have the whole day ahead of you. Suddenly the day just seems more promising. Running is my drug. I get withdrawal symptoms and extremely grumpy if I don't get some exercise in during the day.
What goes on inside your mind when the pain starts kicking in?
When the pain starts kicking in, my mind goes into denial. Of course if I'm 20km into an 84km ultramarathon, I know I'm going too hard too fast, so my mind will tell my body to slow down. If it's in the last stretch of a race, my mind goes back to all the hard sessions I did and how I survived them, and so my body listens and deals with the pain. A race without pain is probably a race where you didn't push hard enough.
How does your boyfriend cope when you are away or busy training ?
It's not too hard to cope with my training schedule, seeing how I do it before most of the world, boyfriend included, wakes up. He is extremely supportive of my training, and being a pretty serious cyclist himself, he understands why I train as hard as I do. We still manage to get loads of time to spend with each other.
Any tips for beginners ?
Ask yourself why you're doing the race - whether it's to prove yourself, lose weight, win the race or just achieve a personal best. Keep that goal in your head, scrawl it all over your diary or the walls of your room, put daily reminders in your handphone, announce it on your blog for the world to see and make sure at the end of those 10,000m you have achieved that goal. If you've no reason for running, don't do it, because you'll probably find no motivation to train after a week!
Work-life plus training, how do you juggle all that?
Like mentioned earlier, it's about discipline, training smart, sacrifices, early mornings, excellent time management, and probably the ability to operate on a few hours of sleep a day. Also helps if you're a journalist beause you work long hours but it's flexible so you get to fit in training sessions anytime you pretty much want to.
Why endurance sports?
There is no better way of learning about yourself than swimming, cycling and running alone for 226.2km. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself to see.
How old do you think you will be doing this until? And why?
Till I die. I'm serious. Why? Start doing it yourself and you'll know why
