Planing time!! We had 4 hours of solid planing today...sunny and windy, what else can I ask for? Albeit the chops, the planing was enough to lift my spirits and rekindle the windsurfing passion once again. I just had an emotional outing to my close friend's wedding in the morning, seeing her married with the man of her dreams gave me relief, joy and much anticipation of more good things to come for her. She's had a rough journey at times, and thoroughly deserves every love she can get from this man. Back to windsurfing, it wasn't the overpowering and catapulting conditions, juz a nice long afternoon of consistent 11 -13 knots with predictable chops. We started out sparring with our coach which resulted in mere tagging along and 'following', which I must admit, frustrated me a great deal. He wasn't telling us where to go and longing to watch his techniques, simply have to follow him, not concentrating on my own board speed but making sure he's always the leader, no matter how slow he is. We sailed around Siglap, Bedok and made our way back to shore. We were supposed to have a series of 'starts' practices after which we would go on upwind, focusing on railing and sheeting in the sail. Apparently, we had many problems with the wind and the buoy while we conveniently planed up and down waiting. We 'watched' him stay on the line, start without us knowing when he started, so i never failed to lag behind. We would sail for a while b4 we tack and plane on a broadreach back to the start line. We did that several times b4 the powerboat died right there on the sea, despite many desperate tries. By then, I was totally bummed. I was falling all over the place, from my board, over my sail and under it as well. I'm ok on the move, but trying to stay stationary on the unforgiving chops took its toll on me. I was secretly glad that we are not doing any more starts, which I wasn't learning anything anyway...aha! We planed for the next 2 hrs...till the wind died and I went back shore more bummed than I expected. I felt I had been planing much better today...firstly, with my harness lines aft sail, I literally felt no tug or pressure on my hands/arms at all...I was totally relaxed!!! I was sheeting in very well, able to point well when I want to and bear away when I need to. I only had one good gybe...sad! The rest were pretty much chicken gybes or failed ones. My daily gym workouts have saved me from early fatigue...allowing me to concentrate on my techniques and stance etc...previously, I would have bummed out after 2 hard hrs of sailing. I managed at least 4-5 hrs this time. yay!!!! My gym work-outs are manifesting the benefits. Plus, what also contributed much was my weight loss *everyone clap along...yay yay yay!* which definitely made me much lighter on the plane as well as plane earlier. I was having much problems in upwind in choppy conditions, however. I juz could not find the equilibrium--i either under-rail or over-rail (board almost flipping over). Frus! Plus, the waves keep my board into a constant zig zag route which I was trying hard not to get into. I couldn't straighten my legs, hence pulling the sail too far down towards me and killing the wind flow. yikes!!! I very much prefer the planing in strong wind/choppy conditions. To say the least, I don't have to stress out my forearms that much...upwind's a sheer torture on my forearms whatever the wind strength...it's either pumping or fighting against the gusts with your forearm. I very much prefer the former as the pulling motion is via self-will whilst pushing is because-I-have-to. Towards the last half an hour, my gybes were only executed 1/3-way though my spirit is willing my flesh was literally very weak. aha! After that was dinner with my secondary sch pals, one of whom was getting married in a couple weeks' time. I should like to think that it's up to us to choose what to think about, focus on and talk about. If all we think about is how scared we are about this, that, that's all life's going to be. The company we mix with is as important as faith can be imparted, just as much as fear and negativism. Let's choose to be full of faith, hope, courage, resilience, tenacity and love. Then Ling passed me a booklet "More than Gold" which features 20 Olympic and world-class Christian athletes who excel in sports for the glory of God. That is what they live for, breathe for and suffer pain for...to glorify the name of Jesus!!! This will best complement the CD version that I bought b4 the Sydney Olympics season. Soon, I will share a couple quotes when I've gone thru' it. Meanwhile, gotta recuperate from the 5 hrs of hard planing...gym again tomorrow! Try to smile ok...