Spartan Race - Aftermath

The past week has been rather busy with troubleshooting my desktop, and therefore I wasn't able to take time out to write out this post.
So even though I'm a bit tired, I felt like finishing up this post tonight before I rest for the week ahead of me.

Last Tuesday, I took leave to go to Sim Lim Square to do a diagnosis on the desktop from a very nice guy called Nigel (owner of PC Care & Solutions) who managed to drill down my issue to the Motherboard or Power Supply Unit (PSU) in a matter of minutes.
So if you're having problems with your desktop, can probably visit him for help.
Best of all, he did it for free~!

Apart from dealing with the desktop, I have also been resting my tired body from the... SPARTAN RACE!!!
Yes! I have conquered the Spartan Race on 15 Nov 2015!

AROO~! AROO~! AROO~!

It was quite a challenging and fun race for me. My timing was 1:34:17, could do better.
Was resting quite a lot and making myself comfortable before each obstacle. haha...
To note down this rather memorable achievement, below are 3 aspects of the race that I felt made it challenging for me.

1) The LONG run...

I'm not a strong runner, so long distance running is a bit tough for me.

Seeing that it was a Spartan Race Sprint, of which the description on the website said it would be a 3+ mile run with obstacles, I thought the race would be around 5 km only (3 miles = 4.8 km).

What I didn't expect was when I ran past the board which said "6 KM", and I'm still nowhere near the finishing line. -_-"

During the run from Nicoll highway to the floating platform, I kept asking myself... "Where the HELL is that turn-around point?!#$^*&"

In the end, I estimated the total distance to be around 7 km, which is something I didn't really train for. 

On hindsight, 3+ mile oculd also mean 3.9 miles (which is 6.8 km).

Next time I should probably train towards the upper limit, instead of just being optimistic.

2) Monkey Bars

Monkey bars is something I'm used to playing back in primary school days, and also when I was in the army.

Overcoming the Monkey bars back then wasn't that challenging, even with full uniform, helmet, webbing, magazine, boots, and a SAR21 rifle on my back.

But in this race, in just my running attire, I actually failed. 

Here's the actual depiction of what the Monkey bars station was like during the race.

It wasn't just 'bars'; it was a lot more than that!
The set-up wasn't the conventional type that I used to have in army.
It consisted of bars that are not stationary, rings, and hanging ropes with a knot at the end.
And worst of all, as I climbed through the obstacle, the next handle was a bit higher than the one before.

I think I managed to get to the 5th handle, before I looked at the next one and decided that the next handle was too high for me; I did not have the strength to do it.
I just dropped down.
I tried a second time (although I think it wasn't allowed), and failed at the 3rd handle this time, while injuring my right shoulder (which is still recovering from my Switzerland trip in July).

Oh well, 30 burpees it is~
At least this was the only time I did the burpees through the race (*pat on the back).

3) Bucket Brigade

This obstacle was the one I deemed the toughest of them all.

It wasn't like the Monkey bars whereby you can simply fail, do 30 burpees, and then move on.

This was a grueling 100+ metres of carrying a bucket full of stones, which I think is around 45 kg.

It was a torture for me!

Around 15 minutes of carrying this bucket, resting multiple times, dropping and lifting it up...

It took me great discipline to not 'accidentally spill' some of the stones during the obstacle (which a few of the runners did).

I was really using my 吃奶的力量!

But still, step by step, I completed this obstacle, along with the other obstacles.

Aftermath Thoughts 

It has been a short but fulfilling journey of training up towards this race.

I was training for a specific goal, and it felt great to work towards it.

Completing this race is nothing of a great achievement, but it does gives me a small sense of life fulfillment.

Therefore, in addition to labelling this event as an enhancement to my Physical Well-being, I also want to label it as an enhancement to my Lifestyle.

I would definitely recommend anyone to take part in it!

Enjoy the process of preparing yourself for the race, and enjoy the race itself by going at your own pace.

And if you have like-minded friends to form a team, even better!

Bonus GIF of me doing the Fire Jump in 'style' =p

Understanding CPF - Part 1

I promised myself to write this post on Wednesday.
So here I am, in the middle of the night, not sleeping, but pushing through with my objective.

For tonight, I want to focus on a topic which is close to the hearts of many citizens here in Singapore.
And that is...

CPF

Yup, it's our CPF!
It's being talked about everyday, it's a hot topic during election (recall HHH's and Roy Ngerng's #ReturnOurCPF), and it will continue to bug us for the rest of our lives.
Therefore, I feel it's rather important for me to understand fully what is CPF in order to make informed decisions on future plans for my retirement (not that I'm near retirement age, but I do want to retire early. =p)

I will have to keep the materials light because I'm researching on them while I'm typing out this post.
Therefore, I titled this post as "Part 1", hoping that in future I can educate myself more than what I can read tonight.

Well, here goes~

Question 1: What is CPF?

Basically, CPF stands for Central Provident Fund.
It just dawned on me that I have no idea what does the word, Provident, means.
Thus, in the spirit of learning, I have looked up the definition:

Provident (adjective): making or indicative of timely preparation for the future. (From Google)

I guessed that a 'Provident Fund' would mean something like 'money saved for the future', which is generally describe what I think the CPF is. I tried to find a statement to describe what CPF is from the CPF website. But ironically, I couldn't, and so, I turned to Wikipedia.

"In Singapore, the Central Provdent Fund (CPF) is a compulsory comprehensive savings plan for working Singaporeans and permanent residents primarily to fund their retirement, healthcare, and housing needs." - Wikipedia

The word, 'compulsory' was highlighted because sometimes I do feel a bit unfair that I am not given a choice on whether I want to be a responsible adult to save up for my future, or be an irresponsible guy who just spends every single dollar of my salary.

I'm forced to be responsible. 

Sounds like an arranged marriage? 

Like I have no choice but to marry this girl because my parents say so, and feel that this girl will create a better future for me.

Question 2: What are the different accounts in CPF?

Before the age of 55, it seems that I would have 3 different accounts in my CPF.

1. Ordinary Account (OA)
2. Special Account (SA)
3. Medisave Account 

Each of these accounts has their own unique uses and clauses on how they are being managed.

I shall not go deep into them for now because it would take a long time to read and filter the information I think it's important to me (and also because I want to sleep...)

After reaching 55, I believe my OA and SA would become my Retirement Account (RA).

The retirement plan is also another long story. 

So I will leave at this first. 

Question 3: How much of my salary do I have to contribute to CPF?

Or, how much am I getting if I don't need to contribute to CPF?
I believe this arithmetic question has, from time to time, appeared randomly to working adults like me.
I do know that currently I have to give 20% of my salary, while my employer has to contribute an additional 17% of my salary on top of my contribution.
Thus, if my salary currently is $4,000:

Own Contribution (20%) - $800
Employer's Contribution (17%) - $680

=> Take Home Salary - $3,200

So, imagine if there is no CPF contribution.. my salary would be $4,680!
It's quite shiok to think of it this way. haha..

One surprising find from the CPF website is that the percentage of CPF contribution from myself and my employer changes as I hit 50 and beyond (see Table 1). This isn't really that impactful, as it would be another 20+ years before the contribution rates change for me.

Table 1: Contribution rates

Employee's age(years) ​	Contribution Rates from 1 Jan 2015 (for monthly wages ≥ $750) ​ ​
	By Employer (% of wage)	By Employee (% of wage)	Total (% of wage)
50 and below	17	20	37
Above 50 to 55	16	19	35
Above 55 to 60	12	13	25
Above 60 to 65	8.5	7.5	16
Above 65	7.5	5	12.5

Source: Link

An even more amazing find is that there is something called the Ordinary Wage (OW) ceiling.

This 'ceiling effect' limits the amount of salary that will be effected for the 20% contribution.

At the moment, it's capped at $5,000 (will be change to $6,000 on 1 Jan 2016).

So if I am earning $8,000 now, my CPF contributions will be:

Own Contribution (20% of 1st $5,000) - $1,000

Employer's Contribution (17% of 1st $5,000) - $850

=> Take Home Salary - $7,000

I'm quite delighted at this realization, because it means next time when my salary is higher, I get to keep a larger chunk of money (>80%) as compared to now (80%).

The allocation rates into the 3 accounts in CPF also changes over time. 

But the changes start from 35 years old, which is l0 years away for me.

Changes seemed small, but I think these are still considerable factors to ponder over when deciding to transfer funds between the accounts (where applicable) or to dump in more cash from my pocket into the CPF accounts.

Table 2: 

Employee's age  (years) ​	Allocation Rates from 1 Jan 2015 (for monthly wages ≥ $750) ​ ​
	Ordinary Account (% of wage)	Special Account (% of wage)	Medisave Account (% of wage)
35 and below	23	6	8
Above 35 to 45	21	7	9
Above 45 to 50	19	8	10
Above 50 to 55	14	10.5	10.5
Above 55 to 60	12	2.5	10.5
Above 60 to 65	3.5	2	10.5
Above 65	1	1	10.5

Source: Link

Alright!

These are still rather basic information about CPF.

There are a lot of other information to research on, such as the prevailing interest rates, the uses of the accounts, minimum sum, retirement, etc.

But since it's getting late, I shall stop writing and go to bed.

Progress Update

It's been more than a week since my last post.
I figured I should sit my butt down in front of the computer to properly chart out my progress instead of scrolling through the never-ending pages of Facebook, or playing games on Steam, or viewing random Youtube videos, or ... seriously, there are tons of things that are more attention-grabbing and have short term gratification than typing out this post.
But still, in order to live my life, I should evaluate myself more often through blogging.

First of all, I have been quite satisfied with myself on being consistent with improving my physical well-being.
For the past 12 days ever since I have recovered from my recent cold, I have exercised for 9 days, and each time is around 30 to 45 min. Hurray~
It hasn't been easy for me to cater time to exercise; to put on my running shoes, get out of the house, and pant like a dog in view of others.
I would have to say the greatest motivation for me so far is the impending Spartan Race on 15 Nov.
I'm left with 1 more week to prep myself so I wouldn't die from running through all the obstacles.

Previously I was quite into working out at home using the Sworkit Lite mobile app due to the haze which restricts me to indoor activities.
However, the recent weather seemed to have cleared up the foggy sky!
Perhaps it is due to the increased in efforts (or the acceptance of efforts) to extinguish the fire.
Or, it could just be the wind.
No matter what, I'm grateful for the good weather to get my body sweating outdoors!

I felt that it is important for me to get my body conditioned to running some distance instead of just staying indoors and doing static exercises.
I have tried out 2 methods so far:

1) Running 2 km with a 5 kg body weight + arm strengthening exercises

I did this twice, and decided to drop this method.
Although carrying an extra 5 kg load sounds pretty mild, the weight pulled down my speed quite significantly.
It seemed to be good training.
But it caused my back to hurt a bit at the end of the 2 km run.
I figured that the 5 kg load is putting too much burden on my body to train efficiently.
So after 2 tries of this, I decided to give up on running with the 5 kg load.
I felt that the body weight vest would be utilized better when I'm doing static exercises at home.

2) (400m + 10 burpees) * 6

I came up with this routine to train my body in running short distances and also the prepare myself for the possible burpees that I would be doing during the Spartan race.
So far, this routine has been a good workout (i.e. I felt like dying, but not dead yet).
I would probably continue this for the week coming up to the race.

I don't think all these physical training is sufficient to prep myself well for the race.
But it's probably near the limits to what my body can take given the time constraints.

As for my self-guided Java Learning journey, it has been rather sporadic.
It was hard to build a routine of reading and practicing the materials taught in the book, most of the weekday nights I'm quite exhausted from work and exercise.
I did most of my learning on the train if I managed to find a seat while I'm travelling to or from work.
There are 16 Chapters in total, and I'm only at Chapter 3.
It's getting more sophisticated, but it's also getting more interesting =p
The experience of writing codes is rather similar to answering Mathematics problem sums.
Both are finding logical solutions to a problem, and there are also multiple ways of approaching the problem.
Sometimes, I also have to try certain things to see whether a certain approach would work.
Lots of trial and errors.
Feels like learning Mathematics all over again! Wee~!

In starting a habit of reading, I tried to force myself to read a book while I was waiting for dearest to get ready to chat at night.
I only managed to do it for 2 nights so far. haha..
Ya, reading is definitely not my thing.
Therefore, in order to keep to it, I have reduced my daily aim from 15min to 10min.
Hope that helps! >_<

I haven't been doing much micro time management.
That means I'm just doing all these activities on an ad-hoc basis without much planning before hand.
I probably should start doing more planning to ensure that these habits will follow through even when I'm hard-pressed for time.

On a side note, blogging is also become cumbersome because of the time I have to invest to writing this kind of long post (because I could have used the time to play games and watch Youtube videos).
Since it's a way of keeping track of my progress,  I should probably have a schedule for writing on my blog.
Therefore, I have decided to publish at least two blog posts per week; one on Wednesday, and one on the weekends (either Sat or Sun).

I also want to list down some of the topics that I would like to blog on in future so that I can remember them.
I will try to figure out how to put this list on the blog.

So far, so good.

Living my life.