It's ALMOST a month already...time really flew much faster than I could imagine. I'm beginning to catch a glimpse of the revelation of BreakThroughs...overcoming and transcending the current limits into a higher level performance. The comfort zone is the most dangerous!!! It is where you stagnate, get complacent and stay UNCHALLENGED! Over time, you require lesser effort just to maintain the same level of performance just because one has grown familiar with the techniques. In order to break through into a higher ground, one must challenge the pain barrier...Herb Elliot, an Aussie who was unbeaten over the mile/1500, Olympic Champion and WR holder, once said that the objective is to move the pain barrier....and that he ran on fear! This quote was what my runner-friend shared with me. In addition, I was thoroughly inspired by what I read in the Runners' World newsletter: "Bad races are the result of giving in to natural urges: running fast when you feel fresh and slowing down when you start to hurt." -Joe Henderson How true and how magnificent...that which we hate to do is supposed to push us over the hurdle into a new plane. It's only when one feels the pain and exerts even more, gasp even more, feel more pain, hurt even more and keep the lungs burning. Coach always says to push thru' the pain barrier...keep pumping even though our forearms and body are burning with pain...once we push thru' that, we've broken thru' the limitations made through the confines of our bodies. I realise that for this to happen physically, the break through's gotta happen in our spirits and minds first. I could not help but think that what I'm going through is tough and I'm not up to it yet. That way, I would always feel fatigued and under the circumstances. I asked God for a breakthrough in my faith level...He said to go forth and take the land, that He's given me the land. What I did was hold high expectations for myself at my daily trainings which were unrealistic. I always aimed to come in first overall among the boys. This will be the best miracle since I always suffered the most doing the exact physical trainings as the boys. Water trainings will not be as discriminatory as land trainings. This whole week I've done well. Or so I thought. We had gusty wind conditions over the weekdays, shifty and puffs of gusts which can arm a sailor or handicap a sailor. We were able to plane most of the time and since I didn't have to pump as much, I did rather well, coming in 1st several times and others, 2nd and 3rd...mini races were the last items of a day's training. We would have done more than 2 hours of hard sailing: 4 sets of Starboard and Port tack each; sail for 4 min, focusing on stance (closing the gap and railing the board), tack and pump downwind. For this, we would have 8 times of upwind/downwind over about 1 Km each time. The second activity includes 800 pumps. We are required to do 100 upwind pumps on each tack, 4 sets in total and pumping downwind to start again. We would have done many tacks and gybes b4 we have our races which are considered quite huge for the race course. The third activity is to do a bow figure of Starboard/Port sailing for another 4 sets, focusing on speed tuning. By then, it would have been 4+ p.m. and I would have been bonked by then. We would be allowed our rehydration time on the sea, resting for 5 min b4 he starts the timing for the race. 2 sausages each. We would run 3 races each day. I learnt to look for gusts, when to tack into lifters and away from headers, point high through the waves. It was exciting for me since they are the conditions which I usually hate. But I take joy in spotting gusts and planing in them while others did not. Or pumping to plane on a broad reach while others and slowly scooping their sails. I am no doubt a better sailor now than 1 mth ago. At least I have the physical changes to prove it, in addition to the weight loss and toner muscles. The popping veins would prove the amount of pumping I had to do everyday. More importantly, I'm looking forward to shocking my foreign windsurfing friends with a whopping improvement, a lean, mean physique and a sharper attitude. Weekend races are a breeze for me now...since they make up only about 20% total effort of a normal weekday's hard work. I did relatively ok over the last 2 weekends. I sailed the correct course, no major mistakes for one wrong idea. I read the shifts fast and capitalised on them to gain over others who did not. Physically I was fresh though I was typically fatigued. We would be driving up to Penang, Malaysia for the Penang Regatta this coming weekends. I would be racing in the Mistral Men's class as there was no Open class (not to mention Ladies class). I wish I do not have to deal with such unnecessary problems as fighting for a Ladies class for me to race in. However, they exist and I have to compare myself with the boys. Good!!! The SEA Games trials would commence for 3 weeks from next week onwards. It'll be one month of packed racing, not to mention high-strung and as peaked as I possibly can! I need God's anointing and grace...Stay tuned for race results.