Went running with my section this morning, learnt lots of stuff from Darius. I decided to note it here in case I forget.
Some mistakes I make while running (pointed out by Darius)
- Arms too high and tensed up, not relaxed. According to Darius, tensing up my arm muscles would waste energy while running.
- Looking down instead of straight. I will be breathing in the CO2 I exhale if I look down while running.
- Landing too hard. Bad for the knees and wastes energy
Some tips that he taught us:
- When running up slope, open up ur stride to clear the slope in as little strides as possible.
- When running down slope, open up ur stride and allow gravity to assist in ur running. If you are going down slope after a tiring climb up slope, take deep breathes to recover your heart rate (which will usually increase when running upslope).
- Maintain good body posture – keep your back straight, look straight.
- Land on your mid-sole
- Control your breathing
Woke up at 830, met Danson and went to Macritchie Reservoir to meet our section mates. Zhi Qiang, Wei Lun, Ben, Jia Junn and Darius were there. I haven’t run since Thursday because of my fever and I’m still recovering. My head still feels clogged and my mind is very slow nowadays, the kind of feeling I hate the most. 
Anyway, we had a great run today. Feels great to breathe the fresh air out there and sweat it out after resting at home for so many days. We ran 5km today. 5km used to be a daunting distance to me, but it seems to be the minimum nowadays. Darius really helped us alot today. He corrected the mistakes we made while running and gave us lots of tips to improve our running. I really should give him a treat some day. They are planning to go play some water sports some day, something which I really look forward to.
Ben drove us to Adam Market for lunch after running. The nasi lemak there rocks. Ben almost got a ticket for parking without coupons, we saw the parking attendant near the car when we got back. 
Went back to NP to collect my diploma after that, something which I procrastinated doing for 6 months.
Life is OCS is pretty fun although training is very tough. Everyone started to open up to one another and interact more. I am glad to be in the platoon I am in now. Lots of funny people as usual. Theres always lots of funny people in the army. I think its probably because we are each other’s only source of entertainment (I know it sounds wrong), that is why we always find things to joke and crap about to lighten the atmosphere when training gets tough. We eat, sleep, shit, bathe, train and go through all the shit together, its the kind of camadarie you can only experience in the army.
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It isn’t easy to acknowledge the truth of our power. Too often we fear our own greatness. We pretend to be powerless, mistakenly thinking that this somehow frees us from the responsibility of power.
-Steve Pavlina
