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Thursday, Jan 19, 2012 - 01:35 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Running Through


Pick of Parliament

The much-loved hamster expert on Singaporean politics is back, with his observations on the ministerial salary non-debate!

"... but of course slightly lower because having looked at the (completely independent) committee's report, they decided as the opposition party, surely they must recommend something a bit less".

Herr Ahm: Here, your Prime Minister confirms that he has at least a theoretical understanding of the Principle of Working Backwards From Desired Outcomes Before Creating Plausible Justifications *whistles innocently*

Then again, the Workers' Party has indeed shifted its position on ministerial salaries far closer to the PAP's in recent years, and deserved to be called out on it; they seem to be slowly morphing into a safe-alternative-underdog-pseudo-PAP, which as strategies go is a very tenable one.

One obvious observation which has been murmured online often enough, but expressed most concisely in the ST Forum, is that the independent committee might have cherry-picked justifications, such as keeping the Westminster practice of paying both the ministerial and MP salary, but refusing Westminster-like pay levels.

I dunno, sounds rhetorical enough to me.


"In response, WP NCMP Yee Jenn Jong wondered if Mr Nair thought MPs were there 'to rubber-stamp the proposal'."





Run Baby Run

So... I managed to pass my IPPT for this window, which was somewhat less than what I had hoped to train for last year, but you know, this and that, I found moving heavy stuff more to my taste than pounding out laps, and here we are.

My original booking on the third of the month ended in Miserable FailureTM, which was not wholly unexpected given the amount of specific training I had engaged in (zero, exacerbated by my job description which basically entails sitting very very still for hours on end, every day), and was therefore selected so as to allow an additional couple of weeks before the window closes for good.

It wasn't exactly enough time to improve much, and even the option to drop weight evaporated in the face of seasonal Ramly burgers and exotic instant noodles (I picked out a new brand! How adventurous!), which left me at about 73kg going into the test, from anywhere between probably 64kg to 67kg for my last two attempts.

As it was the sit-ups and 2.4km (a sad 14:21) that were the problem the first time round, I decided to *sigh* actually run, and revisited the neighbourhood park by my primary school for that purpose for the first time in over a decade. Let the training commence:

  • Jan 7: 12x100m dash in ~23s followed by 200m walk (yes, yes, I wasn't in very good shape)
  • Jan 9: 2.4km jog followed by 2.4km on the campus track - there was a football match going on at the same time, which upped the entertainment factor
  • Jan 10: 4km run in 25:08 (getting back into it)
  • Jan 11: 2.36km run in 12:17 (eh, pass liao leh, wasn't even too winded at the end)
  • Jan 14: 2km dash/walk

Mindful of gleaning any possible shred of advantage, I impulsively picked out Why We Run by Robin Harvie at the library. It happened to be not all that useful in this respect, especially as I knew the answer deep down (Run. Just keep running.), but it did reacquaint me with just how crazy Emil Zátopek was - the guy trained in his army boots in winter, and then resorted to stomping on his washing in the bathtub for hours when it was too cold outside!

"By keeping and increasing his exercise a person can train his willpower... when a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing 100 times then he certainly has developed. Is it raining? That doesn't matter. Am I tired? That doesn't matter either. Then willpower is no longer a problem..."

The first sub-four-minute miler, Sir Roger Bannister, wasn't amused, being an amateur of the old British school; Bannister regarded him as cheating by training so hard as it did not give others a fair chance, so different strokes for different folks (note that he ran his historic mile two years after Zátopek's feat, so he may have changed his mind on training methods). Zátopek's times would eventually be blown away by the Africans, but that's another story.

In the end, all I got out of it was the advice not to tense up - I do have trouble relaxing - by gently touching thumb to finger and checking that the shoulders do not rise while running. So, with "five practices" under my belt, I went for it again:

  • Chin-ups - 7 (down from 9 last year): I suppose I should have kept at it after getting 9 the first time round...
  • Standing Broad Jump - 222cm (up from 216cm last year): Encouraging given the additional weight
  • Shuttle Run - 10.3s (up from 10.6s last year): What would I give for a pair of shoes with soles that grip...
  • Sit-ups - 31 (down from 36 last year): Still crap at them - the PTI was nice this time, the last few were barely legal. Should practice more
  • 2.4km Run - Paced properly this time, 1:50 first lap. Knocked out sub-2 minutes for the next three, but began to struggle on the last two. Ended up walking twice, but made it up to finish in 12:21.

Verdict: Pass

Clearly, there's no huge secret to it - knock out a two-minute 400m pace for over 10km, as was routine back in NS, and sub-11 times are well within reach. One of those simple-but-not-easy things [N.B. Bloody heck, Murakami's an ultramarathoner. No, I haven't read his books]. Can I find a reason...?



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