Car rally is one of the motorsports that is pretty close to my heart.. the former 500cc motorcycle GP was my first love. Rallying requires such skill that even F1 drivers finds difficult.. Make no mistake : Rally drivers can just jump on the track & drive F1 cars.. but F1 drivers would need considerable guidance & tutorial before they can take on the gravel or dirt roads... having said that, AFAIK, Kimi Raikonnen have raced rally cars with some success after his retirement from F1.
In Malaysia, Karamjit Singh & rally is like husband & wife. Karamjit is the undisputed King of Rally or as he was fondly called,"King of the Estates".. as most of rally tracks in Malaysia goes through Felda settlements. He was WRC Asia Pacific Rally champion for 3 straight years, from 1998.. & he was Malaysia's first ever World Champion in motorsports, winning the WRC Group N (production cars) in 1999. This despite the lack of support he got from the govt, who instead prefer to waste money, effort & time into supporting Alex Yoong to be the F1 tail-ender of the year back in .. I forgot which year. It was THAT insignificant.
I remember in the 2000 Merdeka endurance race, Karamjit Singh smoked the entire field to win comfortably, a field which included seasoned Touring Car drivers & also our first ever F1 driver, Mr Alex Yoong himself. This shows how good Karamjit was. & he still is. Karamjit won the final leg of the recently concluded Malaysian Rally Championship, racing an ageing Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII.
I was baffled with the lack of support the govt had towards this excellent driver. He was racing for PERT during his venture into APRC in the late 90s, using an ageing Evo V at that time, with limited technical support & all. Yet he still emerged as champion 3 straight years. & when he decided to race the WRC (World Rally Championship) Group N in 1999, still the govt decided not to support him. Yet he still emerged champion. World Champion that is. In the days when Nicol David was still finding her footing in squash.. Karamjit had already been the world champion.
I had bumped into him once. I was having breakfast in Shah Alam & there he was, sitting at the opposite table, having roti canai & reading newspaper. I've read somewhere that Karamjit is a man of few words. Still, the tall, handsome world champion had a kind of aura surrounding him, the aura of a journeyman who'd been through a lot I guess..
I hope the govt can give more support into sportsman like this. I dun think Karamjit is looking for titles.. Dato' or Tan Sri.. he was just doing what he loves most : driving cars & winning races. I'm sure at times it would've been very frustrating. But He kept going on.
Mr. Karamjit Singh : I salute U.
Livestrong.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Asian Masters Road Race 10K
This was my final race of 2010. Actually, I'd planned the Malakoff as my final race, but something came up at work & I had to change my plans. The Asian Masters Athletics Championship was in town & I didn't know there was a road race. Then I got an email saying that the registration's been extended, so I decided to run the race. Some ppl told me that they couldn't get enuff participants, so they decided to open the race to locals so that it would be more of a race that it would've been. The registration & stuff was simple enuff & typical of any races organized by the FTAAA, everything was old school. There was no electronic timing chip, no numbers printed on plastic, there was a reporting card & ribbon system employed.
My preparation
I've been prepping for Malakoff by doing loads of hills, hill repeats & hill intervals. But when I knew I won't be going for Malakoff, I decided to do more speedwork. The route was similar to Larian Bomba, so there was still some hills to conquer. So I did 2 consecutive speed days. & 2 days before the race I had to go to Kangar, so I didn't do anything. I did a short easy run on Saturday evening, as I normally do before races, just to check on my equipment. All systems go.
The race
There was veterans up to 70 years of age, from Asian countries. But I guess not all of them was here. I didn't see anybody from China, there was a lot of ppl from India & Sri Lanka.. most of them ran barefooted. I got to the start pretty early. I decided to go with only one number, as I've always said there was no point wearing 2 numbers, it's not like I'ma get top placings anyway. The announcer kept saying tht those who ran with one number will be disqualified.. anything that makes U happy la...
I've set myself a pace of 5:15 - 5:45, slightly faster than my normal pace of 5:30 - 6:00. I started at the front to avoid the slower runners & I started off pretty well. I managed to maintain that pace up until the 1st water station. Then I started to get into trouble. I couldn't maintain the pace. Even on the downhills I was having difficulties. But the 1st 5K was pretty encouraging, covered in about 28 mins, which means I was still on course for a sub-60 mins finishing time.
After the 7K mark I decided that my stride was too long, so I shorten my stride & I was able to get into a manageable rhythm. I tried to maintain that rhythm to the end, but it proved difficult. At the end, I clocked 58:48, so it was okay, good enuff for #47. Out of how many I dunno.
Lessons learned
This race have again proved that I lacked speed. I had some speed but I couldn't maintain it. I need to do longer tempo. As long as 10K. So I must remember to put that into my program next year.
As I said earlier this was my final race of the year. It's been a long year, I ran 12 races, including 4 half marathons. I've definitely improved from last year. I've been able to run 2-3 sub-60 10Ks, with the best being at Nike 10K, but as I only recorded 8.8K at that race, the Asian Masters remained my best 10K performance this year. I didn't get to run on the track at all this year. I dunno if I can run on the track next year, becoz I plan to do more field events, including the long/triple jump. For the throwing event, I'd like to add discus as another event I'd like to try.
Nxt year I'ma stay with half marathon, with the ultimate goal of running sub-2hr half maras. & I wanna be more selective on the races I run nxt year, I wanna be more focused, maybe I'll still ran 4 half maras, but there must be ample time for me to prepare... I can't run back-to-back half maras in 2 months for example.
Hopefully I'll get lighter as well. Last year I put the target to get to 75kg, but I'm still at 83kg this year.
Till then, Livestrong.
My preparation
I've been prepping for Malakoff by doing loads of hills, hill repeats & hill intervals. But when I knew I won't be going for Malakoff, I decided to do more speedwork. The route was similar to Larian Bomba, so there was still some hills to conquer. So I did 2 consecutive speed days. & 2 days before the race I had to go to Kangar, so I didn't do anything. I did a short easy run on Saturday evening, as I normally do before races, just to check on my equipment. All systems go.
The race
There was veterans up to 70 years of age, from Asian countries. But I guess not all of them was here. I didn't see anybody from China, there was a lot of ppl from India & Sri Lanka.. most of them ran barefooted. I got to the start pretty early. I decided to go with only one number, as I've always said there was no point wearing 2 numbers, it's not like I'ma get top placings anyway. The announcer kept saying tht those who ran with one number will be disqualified.. anything that makes U happy la...
I've set myself a pace of 5:15 - 5:45, slightly faster than my normal pace of 5:30 - 6:00. I started at the front to avoid the slower runners & I started off pretty well. I managed to maintain that pace up until the 1st water station. Then I started to get into trouble. I couldn't maintain the pace. Even on the downhills I was having difficulties. But the 1st 5K was pretty encouraging, covered in about 28 mins, which means I was still on course for a sub-60 mins finishing time.
After the 7K mark I decided that my stride was too long, so I shorten my stride & I was able to get into a manageable rhythm. I tried to maintain that rhythm to the end, but it proved difficult. At the end, I clocked 58:48, so it was okay, good enuff for #47. Out of how many I dunno.
Lessons learned
This race have again proved that I lacked speed. I had some speed but I couldn't maintain it. I need to do longer tempo. As long as 10K. So I must remember to put that into my program next year.
As I said earlier this was my final race of the year. It's been a long year, I ran 12 races, including 4 half marathons. I've definitely improved from last year. I've been able to run 2-3 sub-60 10Ks, with the best being at Nike 10K, but as I only recorded 8.8K at that race, the Asian Masters remained my best 10K performance this year. I didn't get to run on the track at all this year. I dunno if I can run on the track next year, becoz I plan to do more field events, including the long/triple jump. For the throwing event, I'd like to add discus as another event I'd like to try.
Nxt year I'ma stay with half marathon, with the ultimate goal of running sub-2hr half maras. & I wanna be more selective on the races I run nxt year, I wanna be more focused, maybe I'll still ran 4 half maras, but there must be ample time for me to prepare... I can't run back-to-back half maras in 2 months for example.
Hopefully I'll get lighter as well. Last year I put the target to get to 75kg, but I'm still at 83kg this year.
Till then, Livestrong.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Racing the Bridge...
I just came back from Penang, from doing my last half marathon for the year, from running on the 3rd longest bridge in the world.. It was my first time running the Penang Bridge International Marathon, & it was my 4th half marathon for 2010 & my 11th race of the year.
Since it was already November, I decided to treat the trip to Penang as our holiday & asked my wife to come along. We went to Penang on Friday, 2 days before the race. We stayed in Summit Hotel Bukit Mertajam, we've stayed there a couple of years back during our trip to attend Azizah's wedding in Perlis. Most of the hotels on the island were fully booked for the marathon,& those who still got rooms was way off our budget. So we're gonna have to take a 20 mins drive to the start. This race had several firsts for me :
1. It was my first race outside of KL or Klang Valley
2. It was the first one with an early morning start (3am for half marathon)
The day before
We got to Penang at noon on the 19th. So we stopped for lunch at Aeon Seberang Perai, before checking into the hotel at 2pm. I'd reserved 2 tickets for the latest Harry Potter movie there at 8.30 pm, so we went there & had dinner before catching the movie. after the movie I decided to drive to the island to check out the course & the starting point. As soon as we crossed the halfway point on the bridge, it rained really heavily. So heavy that missed the turn into Queensbay & ended up in the Bayan Lepas Industrial zone. Roads in Penang are as winded as the sea surrounding them & as a result there was flash floods everywhere. We were lucky to have got outta the mess in one piece as there were times when we got caught in water so deep it slowed my car down considerably.
On the way back I saw the turning into the Queensbay area. We went back to the hotel & there wasn't a single drop of rain as soon as we reached the Peninsular. Strange. Tht's made me think again about my choice of clothing on race day. I tried to go to sleep as late as possible so that I can stay in bed the day after. I went to bed at 3am.
Race day
I tried to sleep as much as I can during the day, to prepare for the 3am start. But then the TV was showing the finals of the sepaktakraw inter-team finals at Guangzhou at 2pm so that kept me awake. Malaysia was soundly beaten by the Thais, who was much more superior, both in skills & in tactics. The Malaysians were so busy playing mind games & provoking the Thais that in the end, it was the Malaysians who couldn't live up to expectations. I played takraw during my schooldays & also during the early college days. Malaysians have been playing catch up with the Thais for so long, we didn't really have any secret weapons or tactics. Whereas the Thais have always been the innovator of the sport, introducing the "servis kuda" few years ago & now with the double killer. & their players really look lean & tall, Malaysian players look more like couch potatoes than athletes. We must innovate in order to survive, otherwise we'll lose out to the likes of China & Korea again.
I'd planned to catch another movie just before the start of the race, but then the TV was again showing the Arsenal-Spurs derby, plus the semi finals of badminton, LCW vs Chen Jin. So I decided to stay at the hotel.
The race
The bridge was closed starting at 1am, so we went off at about 12.30am. Traffic into Qeensbay was heavy, this time I didn't miss the turn. But the atmosphere was electric. There were at least 20 busses carrying runners from all over the country, even from Singapore & Thailand.. some of the runners have set up camp at the open car park, it was really cool. Once we got a parking space I decided to take a nap.
I got up with about an hour before the race. I decided to go on with my racing vest instead of the tshirt, seeing that the weather was okay. Then I did some warm up & was relieved to see my Polar footpod working fine, finally. Then we went to the start with about 30 mins to go.
There was like 6000 ppl in half marathon men's category alone, I was lucky to start quite far up. Traffic was heavy until the bridge, when the field finally broke up & I was finally into my rhythm. But as soon as we hit the bridge, I was in trouble. I was feeling drowsy & sleepy. I couldn't keep the pace up & was at times dragging my feet. I had some thoughts in my mind, I was reflecting on my preparation, on my targets... I've never felt that way in a race. & there was already some flashes of lightning on the horizon, the rain was coming.
As soon as we hit the turnaround, the rain hit us. The wind was unbelievably strong & the rain was heavy. Strangely, I felt much better running in the rain & as soon as we came off the bridge, I was back into my rhythm. I was really pushing it in the last 6K, I clocked 29mins for the last 6K. At the end, I saw the time, I got 2:10 unofficialy, better than expected, considering my preparation, the weather, etc... I couldn't have asked for more.
Lesson #1: Get enuff rest for early morning starts.
Maybe if I'd had enuff sleep during the day, I wouldn't have felt so sleepy & drowsy during the race.
Well, all the suffering, the weather, the traffic.. will I come back & do it all again next year ? Hell yess !!!
Livestrong.
Since it was already November, I decided to treat the trip to Penang as our holiday & asked my wife to come along. We went to Penang on Friday, 2 days before the race. We stayed in Summit Hotel Bukit Mertajam, we've stayed there a couple of years back during our trip to attend Azizah's wedding in Perlis. Most of the hotels on the island were fully booked for the marathon,& those who still got rooms was way off our budget. So we're gonna have to take a 20 mins drive to the start. This race had several firsts for me :
1. It was my first race outside of KL or Klang Valley
2. It was the first one with an early morning start (3am for half marathon)
The day before
We got to Penang at noon on the 19th. So we stopped for lunch at Aeon Seberang Perai, before checking into the hotel at 2pm. I'd reserved 2 tickets for the latest Harry Potter movie there at 8.30 pm, so we went there & had dinner before catching the movie. after the movie I decided to drive to the island to check out the course & the starting point. As soon as we crossed the halfway point on the bridge, it rained really heavily. So heavy that missed the turn into Queensbay & ended up in the Bayan Lepas Industrial zone. Roads in Penang are as winded as the sea surrounding them & as a result there was flash floods everywhere. We were lucky to have got outta the mess in one piece as there were times when we got caught in water so deep it slowed my car down considerably.
On the way back I saw the turning into the Queensbay area. We went back to the hotel & there wasn't a single drop of rain as soon as we reached the Peninsular. Strange. Tht's made me think again about my choice of clothing on race day. I tried to go to sleep as late as possible so that I can stay in bed the day after. I went to bed at 3am.
Race day
I tried to sleep as much as I can during the day, to prepare for the 3am start. But then the TV was showing the finals of the sepaktakraw inter-team finals at Guangzhou at 2pm so that kept me awake. Malaysia was soundly beaten by the Thais, who was much more superior, both in skills & in tactics. The Malaysians were so busy playing mind games & provoking the Thais that in the end, it was the Malaysians who couldn't live up to expectations. I played takraw during my schooldays & also during the early college days. Malaysians have been playing catch up with the Thais for so long, we didn't really have any secret weapons or tactics. Whereas the Thais have always been the innovator of the sport, introducing the "servis kuda" few years ago & now with the double killer. & their players really look lean & tall, Malaysian players look more like couch potatoes than athletes. We must innovate in order to survive, otherwise we'll lose out to the likes of China & Korea again.
I'd planned to catch another movie just before the start of the race, but then the TV was again showing the Arsenal-Spurs derby, plus the semi finals of badminton, LCW vs Chen Jin. So I decided to stay at the hotel.
The race
The bridge was closed starting at 1am, so we went off at about 12.30am. Traffic into Qeensbay was heavy, this time I didn't miss the turn. But the atmosphere was electric. There were at least 20 busses carrying runners from all over the country, even from Singapore & Thailand.. some of the runners have set up camp at the open car park, it was really cool. Once we got a parking space I decided to take a nap.
I got up with about an hour before the race. I decided to go on with my racing vest instead of the tshirt, seeing that the weather was okay. Then I did some warm up & was relieved to see my Polar footpod working fine, finally. Then we went to the start with about 30 mins to go.
There was like 6000 ppl in half marathon men's category alone, I was lucky to start quite far up. Traffic was heavy until the bridge, when the field finally broke up & I was finally into my rhythm. But as soon as we hit the bridge, I was in trouble. I was feeling drowsy & sleepy. I couldn't keep the pace up & was at times dragging my feet. I had some thoughts in my mind, I was reflecting on my preparation, on my targets... I've never felt that way in a race. & there was already some flashes of lightning on the horizon, the rain was coming.
As soon as we hit the turnaround, the rain hit us. The wind was unbelievably strong & the rain was heavy. Strangely, I felt much better running in the rain & as soon as we came off the bridge, I was back into my rhythm. I was really pushing it in the last 6K, I clocked 29mins for the last 6K. At the end, I saw the time, I got 2:10 unofficialy, better than expected, considering my preparation, the weather, etc... I couldn't have asked for more.
Lesson #1: Get enuff rest for early morning starts.
Maybe if I'd had enuff sleep during the day, I wouldn't have felt so sleepy & drowsy during the race.
Well, all the suffering, the weather, the traffic.. will I come back & do it all again next year ? Hell yess !!!
Livestrong.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Klang Run4It
This is one race that I would wanna do every year. The organization is nothing to shout about & I've seen races with better traffic control & security. But since the race venue is the place where I grew up.. & the race course goes through where I used to live, I've made it a point to do this race every year, as long as it goes through the same course. The fact that the course is the same every year (like Larian Bomba) makes it a good race to gauge your improvements year in year out. This race is also my 10th race of the year & I've still got a couple to do.
I went out early but even then I got to the start just 15 mins earlier. I had to stop for gas as I forgot to fill up the day before. But all is well & I went looking for Azam but he was nowhere to be found. I managed to catch up with him about 2km into the race.
The race goes through the very same route I took to ride home from school in 1989, thts 21 years ago... can U believe that ? The road was pretty much the same, but the surrounding areas is much more developed now. Taman Sri Andalas now in far more developed than it was some 20 years ago & that's a good sign.
I'd set a target to better my last year's time of 1:14 & I set my Polar for a 5:30-6:00 pace zone. I started off pretty fast & got a 28mins first 5K. However I started to suffer from stitches again at KM7. Normally breathing heavily in & out would make it go away, but even after a few mins of heavy breathing it didn't go away. This is the 2nd time in a race I gt stitches & I dunno why. I stopped for water at the 2nd water station & almost immediately it went away. Hmm...
Becoz of the stitches I couldn't follow Azam, but after the last turn & with about 3K to go I was feeling much better & began to push for the finish. At the finish I clocked 1:12:10, with a 30min second 5K. I'd done 59 mins for the 10K. I guess I could've done better but with a 5:58 average & 2 mins off my previous best, I guess I've achieved my race objectives. & with 2 days sick leave, a tooth extraction, & 2 days outstation, which has left me with no running at all in the week before the race, I guess I couldn't ask for more.
I'm now making plans for Penang & I guess I'm not gonna do any tapering, maybe a short one. I still have to do another LSD this week, preferably 20K before beginning my taper the week after that. Until then, Livestrong.
I went out early but even then I got to the start just 15 mins earlier. I had to stop for gas as I forgot to fill up the day before. But all is well & I went looking for Azam but he was nowhere to be found. I managed to catch up with him about 2km into the race.
The race goes through the very same route I took to ride home from school in 1989, thts 21 years ago... can U believe that ? The road was pretty much the same, but the surrounding areas is much more developed now. Taman Sri Andalas now in far more developed than it was some 20 years ago & that's a good sign.
I'd set a target to better my last year's time of 1:14 & I set my Polar for a 5:30-6:00 pace zone. I started off pretty fast & got a 28mins first 5K. However I started to suffer from stitches again at KM7. Normally breathing heavily in & out would make it go away, but even after a few mins of heavy breathing it didn't go away. This is the 2nd time in a race I gt stitches & I dunno why. I stopped for water at the 2nd water station & almost immediately it went away. Hmm...
Becoz of the stitches I couldn't follow Azam, but after the last turn & with about 3K to go I was feeling much better & began to push for the finish. At the finish I clocked 1:12:10, with a 30min second 5K. I'd done 59 mins for the 10K. I guess I could've done better but with a 5:58 average & 2 mins off my previous best, I guess I've achieved my race objectives. & with 2 days sick leave, a tooth extraction, & 2 days outstation, which has left me with no running at all in the week before the race, I guess I couldn't ask for more.
I'm now making plans for Penang & I guess I'm not gonna do any tapering, maybe a short one. I still have to do another LSD this week, preferably 20K before beginning my taper the week after that. Until then, Livestrong.
Mizuno Wave Run 2010
The Mizuno Wave Run was my 2nd race in October, the 2nd one in my 3-race line up for October, which began with the Nike KL City Run & ends with the Klang Run 4it. In the month of October, I have a race in every weekend except the 1st & the 4th week. All of them is 12K or less, so it was okay. I couldn’t imagine doing a half marathon every weekend, which never is in my plan anyway. The Mizuno Wave Run is also pretty special for me for one reason : it was my first race after my accident last year. Even with that condition I managed a 1:08 for an 11K course, so my goal for this year obviously is to do a better time.
Mistakes
I did some mistakes in the run-up to the race. Firstly, I didn’t even bother to read the race program or study the route, assuming that everything would be the same as last year. I didn’t know the start time, which I had to ask my race partner Azam the nite before the race. On the other hand, the race also had a few firsts for me as well. would be the same as last year. I didn’t know the start time, which I had to ask my race partner Azam the nite before the race. On the other hand, the race also had a few firsts for me as well. During the bib collection day, I decided to purchase the Powerbar Recovery drink mix. It costs me RM110, with a free Powerbar bottle, a Powergel & a Powerbar. At RM110, with 36 servings, it cost me about RM3 per serving. & after each race (or workout), I’m gonna need two servings. All this while, I’ve been relying on Gatorade as my post-race drink & usually I’ll down 2 bottles of Gatorade after each race, with each Gatorade costing about RM2.40, the Powerbar Recovery will cost me an extra of RM1.20 each race. Complicated huh ?
Race day
Well, on to the race 1st. Since UPM is pretty close to my house, I decided to go out a little late. I got to the stadium at about 7:05 & immediately I heard the announcer telling it’s 5 mins to the start. What the ? Azam told me that the start is 7:30. So I put my gear on & ran to the line. Strangely, the field was filled with ppl warming up, nobody seemed to care about what the announcer just said. Apparently the 7:15 start was for the women’s category… which is a bit strange still, coz most of the races (if not all) I’ve been, all the categories for the same distance will be flagged off the same time. So I went to the Powerbar booth but no one was there edi. So I just proceeded to the line.
My next mistake was to start too far back, although I had the chance to start further up. The thing I didn’t learn from last year was, the 1st 3K of the course is through a very narrow road, like half the width of a normal road. It was just chaotic. & my foot started to hurt almost right off. So I tried to navigate through the crowd of the slower runners, but it was pretty difficult. Normally I’d just bear with the slower runners, but that day, the urge to just shove a couple outta the way, along with some verbal abuse was just too great. Luckily I managed to keep cool.
I only managed to break free after the 1st water station, which I customarily skip. But the situation there was just awful. There was not enuff staff, & becoz the water distribution was slow, some of the runners just grabbed the bottles & threw it away half empty, which was bad race etiquette. & some was just standing at the station as if they were drinking at a kopitiam. I understand that there was a lot of rookies & non-competitive runners in the race, but that was no excuse.
The next mistake I made was thinking that there were 3 water stations, as what normal races would have. Generally, each race would have 3 water stations, at the beginning, mid-way & at the final 3rd of the distance. But for some incomprehensible reasons, the Pacesetters decided that 2 was enuff. When I finally got to the last water station I was already suffering pretty badly. & by then also I began to notice that the route didn’t go through some of the places I raced through last year.
I hit the line at 1:04, better than last year, but at 10K, it was worse than KL City Run. It was just a bad race for me. I met Azam after the race & had a look at his new Brooks T6 Racer. I guess that shoe can be a good half marathon shoe for me, as I dun think I’ma race with my Asics for anything more than a 10-12K races. More on that later.
Some of the lessons I’ve learned from what turned out to be my worst race of 2010:
1. Always study the race program & route, even if U’ve done the race before. The organizer might change the route, U’ll never know..
2. Always take note of the water stations. Some organizers might go against the norm. At the KL City run there was water stations every 2.5K, which was extraordinary.
3. Always try to get to the start early, at least 30 mins earlier. That way U won’t rush anything & won’t risk forgetting anything.
4. Try to start as high up as U can, especially if U’r targeting a PB.
Livestrong
Mistakes
I did some mistakes in the run-up to the race. Firstly, I didn’t even bother to read the race program or study the route, assuming that everything would be the same as last year. I didn’t know the start time, which I had to ask my race partner Azam the nite before the race. On the other hand, the race also had a few firsts for me as well. would be the same as last year. I didn’t know the start time, which I had to ask my race partner Azam the nite before the race. On the other hand, the race also had a few firsts for me as well. During the bib collection day, I decided to purchase the Powerbar Recovery drink mix. It costs me RM110, with a free Powerbar bottle, a Powergel & a Powerbar. At RM110, with 36 servings, it cost me about RM3 per serving. & after each race (or workout), I’m gonna need two servings. All this while, I’ve been relying on Gatorade as my post-race drink & usually I’ll down 2 bottles of Gatorade after each race, with each Gatorade costing about RM2.40, the Powerbar Recovery will cost me an extra of RM1.20 each race. Complicated huh ?
Race day
Well, on to the race 1st. Since UPM is pretty close to my house, I decided to go out a little late. I got to the stadium at about 7:05 & immediately I heard the announcer telling it’s 5 mins to the start. What the ? Azam told me that the start is 7:30. So I put my gear on & ran to the line. Strangely, the field was filled with ppl warming up, nobody seemed to care about what the announcer just said. Apparently the 7:15 start was for the women’s category… which is a bit strange still, coz most of the races (if not all) I’ve been, all the categories for the same distance will be flagged off the same time. So I went to the Powerbar booth but no one was there edi. So I just proceeded to the line.
My next mistake was to start too far back, although I had the chance to start further up. The thing I didn’t learn from last year was, the 1st 3K of the course is through a very narrow road, like half the width of a normal road. It was just chaotic. & my foot started to hurt almost right off. So I tried to navigate through the crowd of the slower runners, but it was pretty difficult. Normally I’d just bear with the slower runners, but that day, the urge to just shove a couple outta the way, along with some verbal abuse was just too great. Luckily I managed to keep cool.
I only managed to break free after the 1st water station, which I customarily skip. But the situation there was just awful. There was not enuff staff, & becoz the water distribution was slow, some of the runners just grabbed the bottles & threw it away half empty, which was bad race etiquette. & some was just standing at the station as if they were drinking at a kopitiam. I understand that there was a lot of rookies & non-competitive runners in the race, but that was no excuse.
The next mistake I made was thinking that there were 3 water stations, as what normal races would have. Generally, each race would have 3 water stations, at the beginning, mid-way & at the final 3rd of the distance. But for some incomprehensible reasons, the Pacesetters decided that 2 was enuff. When I finally got to the last water station I was already suffering pretty badly. & by then also I began to notice that the route didn’t go through some of the places I raced through last year.
I hit the line at 1:04, better than last year, but at 10K, it was worse than KL City Run. It was just a bad race for me. I met Azam after the race & had a look at his new Brooks T6 Racer. I guess that shoe can be a good half marathon shoe for me, as I dun think I’ma race with my Asics for anything more than a 10-12K races. More on that later.
Some of the lessons I’ve learned from what turned out to be my worst race of 2010:
1. Always study the race program & route, even if U’ve done the race before. The organizer might change the route, U’ll never know..
2. Always take note of the water stations. Some organizers might go against the norm. At the KL City run there was water stations every 2.5K, which was extraordinary.
3. Always try to get to the start early, at least 30 mins earlier. That way U won’t rush anything & won’t risk forgetting anything.
4. Try to start as high up as U can, especially if U’r targeting a PB.
Livestrong
Monday, October 25, 2010
Past 2 races
Nike 10K KL City Run
This is the 1st time, if I remember correctly, that a race in Malaysia being sponsored by Nike. Nike, despite it's claims as the #1 running shoe maker in the world, has never been actively involved in any running activities or the running fraternity in Malaysia. Most of the races in the country are being sponsored by New Balance, which is actively involved with Pacesetters Malaysia. Adidas have the King of The Road (recently known as Adination), Mizuno also have sponsored the Mizuno Wave Run for a good few years now, Newton & Brooks have also entered the fray. Why ? I dun really know why. That is why, if U ask any runner, seasoned ones especially, REAL runners dun wear Nike. They wear everything else BUT Nike. Me included.
So when Nike decided to have the KL City Run at 10/10/10 recently, the response was overwhelming. Proly becoz of the t-shirt they're giving away (worth at least RM99.90 retail), or the chance of running in the middle of KL (not a new idea, the SCKLM & Pacesetters have been doing it for years)... but more than 5000 runners signed up. So much so that it made the other running event held on the same day, sponsored by Brooks, looked like a local neighborhood jogathon.
Anyways, I've always liked Nike running apparel, although I dun own any of their running shoes. I've got 3 Nike running tees, a couple of Nike vests, a couple of socks, & 2 running-specific caps. I hv running shirts from other brands as well, Adidas, Brooks, doRunning.. but they dun quite match Nike in terms of comfort & lightness of the fabric. The Nike 10K running shirt is another addition, to pay RM50 & get a shirt of that quality is a good investment I guess. A new concept intro'ed by Nike is to print our race numbers on the t-shirt itself. This is an ingenious concept for 2 things : U MUST use the shirt for the race, which ensures uniformity, & there's no tedious bib to pin to the shirt. Great job !!
Well, I've been targetting to break the hour on the road for this race. It was really boosted by my fine performance during the Newton 12K. So I've set a target of getting 55 mins, which means I've to run below 6:00/km pace. I set my Polar at 5:30 - 6:00. But the build up to the race wasn't anything to shout about. I couldn't do kilo repeats more than twice (I threw up on the 3rd rep) & I felt really, really slow.
The race started late, at 7:15. I've earlier set up a meeting with Low Yat.net runners at 6:45. But I got to the start at 6:55 &I thought I was running late edi. The good thing was that I get to start from the front, but the downside was that I had to warm up right in front of the monstrous speakers they've put up nxt to the start line. I can't hear right from my right ear for days after the race.
I was going comfortably at the 1st half of the race. But I felt slow. Really slow. The route was flat except for the short trip on the AKLEH. But I couldn't pick up pace. My Polar was beeping slowly, a sign that I was below my target pace. My morale was further battered when I reached the halfway point, & my Polar which was set to record auto lap every 5km, showed 31 mins... which was well below my target pace.
But I continued to press on. After AKLEH the route brought us down to the tunnel next to the Tabung Haji building. This is certainly a surprise. While the tunnel is less than 300m long I think, it was made hard by the traffic that got stuck in it. The tunnel was filled with smoke. Maybe if there was no traffic it would've been easier.
When I got out of the tunnel the marker says there's only 500m left in the race.. & my Polar read 52 mins !!! I was really surprised !! But I didn't check the distance on my Polar, I just pressed on. I hit the line at 55 mins !! Mission accomplished !! Or was it ?
My Polar recorded only 8.8km. But most other forumers claimed that their Nike+ GPS device recorded between 9.9 - 10.1km distance. Well, I hate to put an asterisk nxt to my PB, but I guess I've to accept it. I need to train more, no doubt. But come to think of it, it had only been a month after Raya. So I shud be happy with the way I ran & the time I got. I need to build on this...
Livestrong.
(next... Mizuno Wave Run)
This is the 1st time, if I remember correctly, that a race in Malaysia being sponsored by Nike. Nike, despite it's claims as the #1 running shoe maker in the world, has never been actively involved in any running activities or the running fraternity in Malaysia. Most of the races in the country are being sponsored by New Balance, which is actively involved with Pacesetters Malaysia. Adidas have the King of The Road (recently known as Adination), Mizuno also have sponsored the Mizuno Wave Run for a good few years now, Newton & Brooks have also entered the fray. Why ? I dun really know why. That is why, if U ask any runner, seasoned ones especially, REAL runners dun wear Nike. They wear everything else BUT Nike. Me included.
So when Nike decided to have the KL City Run at 10/10/10 recently, the response was overwhelming. Proly becoz of the t-shirt they're giving away (worth at least RM99.90 retail), or the chance of running in the middle of KL (not a new idea, the SCKLM & Pacesetters have been doing it for years)... but more than 5000 runners signed up. So much so that it made the other running event held on the same day, sponsored by Brooks, looked like a local neighborhood jogathon.
Anyways, I've always liked Nike running apparel, although I dun own any of their running shoes. I've got 3 Nike running tees, a couple of Nike vests, a couple of socks, & 2 running-specific caps. I hv running shirts from other brands as well, Adidas, Brooks, doRunning.. but they dun quite match Nike in terms of comfort & lightness of the fabric. The Nike 10K running shirt is another addition, to pay RM50 & get a shirt of that quality is a good investment I guess. A new concept intro'ed by Nike is to print our race numbers on the t-shirt itself. This is an ingenious concept for 2 things : U MUST use the shirt for the race, which ensures uniformity, & there's no tedious bib to pin to the shirt. Great job !!
Well, I've been targetting to break the hour on the road for this race. It was really boosted by my fine performance during the Newton 12K. So I've set a target of getting 55 mins, which means I've to run below 6:00/km pace. I set my Polar at 5:30 - 6:00. But the build up to the race wasn't anything to shout about. I couldn't do kilo repeats more than twice (I threw up on the 3rd rep) & I felt really, really slow.
The race started late, at 7:15. I've earlier set up a meeting with Low Yat.net runners at 6:45. But I got to the start at 6:55 &I thought I was running late edi. The good thing was that I get to start from the front, but the downside was that I had to warm up right in front of the monstrous speakers they've put up nxt to the start line. I can't hear right from my right ear for days after the race.
I was going comfortably at the 1st half of the race. But I felt slow. Really slow. The route was flat except for the short trip on the AKLEH. But I couldn't pick up pace. My Polar was beeping slowly, a sign that I was below my target pace. My morale was further battered when I reached the halfway point, & my Polar which was set to record auto lap every 5km, showed 31 mins... which was well below my target pace.
But I continued to press on. After AKLEH the route brought us down to the tunnel next to the Tabung Haji building. This is certainly a surprise. While the tunnel is less than 300m long I think, it was made hard by the traffic that got stuck in it. The tunnel was filled with smoke. Maybe if there was no traffic it would've been easier.
When I got out of the tunnel the marker says there's only 500m left in the race.. & my Polar read 52 mins !!! I was really surprised !! But I didn't check the distance on my Polar, I just pressed on. I hit the line at 55 mins !! Mission accomplished !! Or was it ?
My Polar recorded only 8.8km. But most other forumers claimed that their Nike+ GPS device recorded between 9.9 - 10.1km distance. Well, I hate to put an asterisk nxt to my PB, but I guess I've to accept it. I need to train more, no doubt. But come to think of it, it had only been a month after Raya. So I shud be happy with the way I ran & the time I got. I need to build on this...
Livestrong.
(next... Mizuno Wave Run)
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Hyperspeed has landed !!!
After 2 somewhat agonizing weeks has passed, I finally got hold of the latest weapon in my ever-growing arsenal, my race shoes : Asics Gel Hyperspeed 3. This shoes is my first Asics shoes, ordered from Pro Direct Running in the UK, as I've never seen it in any store in Malaysia. Plus, Asics shoes are very expensive in Malaysia, even the simple basic models would cost upwards of RM300. So to get this very light racing shoes, with a free running tee, & a Livestrong gymsack, for less than RM300 (plus shipping) is indeed a bargain.
The journey
I'd been calling Poslaju for the past few days to check on the shoes. It was delivered on 17/9 using Royal Mail. The system is such that, once it gets to Malaysia, it'll be passed to the local courier service, in this case the Poslaju, to be delivered to its final destination. I was really worried as the PDR had omitted "Bandar Saujana Putra" from my address. But PDR told me to check with the local courier service once it gets to Malaysia. I was told my Poslaju that the package will take 10 working days to get to Malaysia, & a further 3-4 days to get to me.
But when I called Poslaju again this morning, they told me to call Pos KLIA. So I did & they told me that the package has arrived at Pos KLIA on the 23/9 !! What the ... ? & it had been given a new, local tracking number, which explained why the system couldn't track that my package has arrived. So with that local tracking number I was able to track it down to Poslaju Puchong. I took off on my bike to collect it as soon as I was released by my boss. & there it was, sitting on the office counter since Monday.
This would never have happened if I placed an order in the US. The Running Warehouse insisted that all overseas package be sent using courier service like DHL or FedEx. My javelin spikes was shipped to me in 5 working days, using FedEx, right to my doorstep. Expensive, much more expensive than RoyalMail, but at least U won't be given the runaround & U dun risk losing a precious cargo.
Asics Gel Hyperspeed 3
I've been looking for a replacement for my Adizero Ace, after it was pretty clear that the shoe won't last another half marathon. It just got worn out so quickly, less than 250km. In fact, I had just about 207km with that shoe. I used it for my 1st two half marathons this year, & all the other short distance races less than 15km. But after Energizer Half it was already showing very visible signs of wear. I dun even use it for training.So after browsing around, I decided to try Asics. It was reasonably priced, light enuff, has good support system and although it was last year's model, it was only recently replaced by Hyperspeed 4. & I've decided to try purchasing from PDR, since the shipping was much, much more cheaper than US, plus I dun really need it urgently.
The shoes are really low profile, lower than Adizero, with only 10mm forefoot thickness. The Adizero was 12mm I think. The Hyperspeed is 10mm/17mm. The cushioning system is Asics' trademark Gel Cushioning. The Discovery channel recently had a feature on Asics Gel system in its "How Do They Do It" program. In that program, Asics demonstrated how advanced & hi-tech the Gel cushioning was. They dropped an egg, from a height of 6 meters, right onto the Gel which was placed on the floor. & the egg didn't break. Amazing. I hope it can protect my feet as effective as it had protected the egg.
Even with Asics reputation of being a running shoe with the best cushioning shoes, only a few well-known marathon runner uses Asics. Maybe the most famous one would be Ryan Hall, the American who got 4th in the Beijing Olympics & 5th at 2009 London Marathon (won by Sammy Wanjiru). Asics also have a few world-leading athletes under their sponsorship, like Lolo Jones (100m hurdle) & of course Andreas Thorkhildsen, the world javelin champion. Maybe Asics is still working on the commercial side of their products. Japanese companies tend to let their products do the talking, like Asics & Mizuno. If only they have the marketing prowess of Nike, they'd be one of the giants by now.
The sole pattern is also pretty interesting. Looks like it's gonna last longer than the Adizeros. Hopefully, as I've no intention to buy new racing shoes once every six months. This shoe is marketed as racing shoes for distances up to 10K, or even half marathon for lighter & efficient runner. Well, I'm no lightweight, but I can work on being an efficient runner. I'ma use this in my sub-hour attempt at the Nike 10K on the 10/10. If everything is okay, then I might also use it for Penang Bridge.
I really look forward to trying this shoes, possibly in my planned 10K training this afternoon. But it's raining outside, & I've no intention of giving this shoes its first wet test. Maybe it's gonna have to wait until Sunday, or maybe tomorrow morning.
Here are the other things that I received in the package today:
doRunning is PDR's house brand. But their running tee is pretty thick although light. Not as light as the Nikes or Adidas. & of course I have got to get them Livestrong gymsack, a very, very rare item that U can never, ever get in Malaysia.
Can't wait to see what the Hyperspeed can do..!!!
Livestrong.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Newton Challenge 2010
The Newton Race was my first race after raya. The fact that it was just a couple of weeks after raya prevented me from registering for the 25K distance, knowing that I'd never have enuff training to even complete it, let alone complete it with a decent enuff time. & to suffer for 3 hrs in the hot sun is not really my idea of a good race.
The main reason of my joining this race was the 2XU compression race socks, which was given free to all participants. This socks retails for almost RM180, & to pay just RM50 to get those, plus other race goodies like the vest, etc, was enuff motivation for me to sign up. Having used 2XU calf sleeves for the past year, I know what these compression socks & sleeves can do for U. The vest though, was a disappointment, not that I'ma use it anyway. I now have at least a dozen race vest with me, with at least another 5 to collect. I dunno what I'ma do with those, I've got my favorite race vest that I always wear in races. Normally I'd wear 'em for training, maybe also for going to bed...
The race was held in Bandar Kinrara & I've no idea how hard the course was. One of the runner/blogger went there & took some pics of the course. He called one of the climbs the "ammah" climb.. & from the pics it did look scary. But the problems was, I didn't know that climb was just one of many. There was to be another 4 climbs.. luckily, us the 12K runners won't have to tackle the "ammah" climb.
Since the race was pretty close to my house, I decided to go alone. I've also decided to use my Newton Neutral Racer, as it was the main sponsor anyway... also I'd use my Nike running tights, but I couldn't decide which top to wear. So I brought both my red Adidas Formotion running shirt which I just acquired during puasa & also my usual Nike fire-engine red race vest. My race began at 7.00am, these days the sun was already up by then, so in the end I decided to go with the Nike vest. A wise choice it turned out to be, as it was scorching hot. My usual gear that is the Livestrong visor, Oakley M Frame Livestrong glasses, & of course the 2XU compression race socks. & this time I didn't forget my Livestrong band. I decided not to run with my music on.. I'd earlier wanted to take this race lightly, just as a training.
I got to the start early, just after the 25K runners was sent their way. I did some warm ups & managed to get to the front. I'd set a target to run at 6:30-7:30 pace. So I set my Polar at that zone.
The climbs were murderers. It was harder than Lake Garden double hill course I did during the Pacesetters NB 15K. There it was steep, sharp climbs. Here it was more of a gradual climb, but there were 4 of them. 5 if U include the ammah hill we didn't have to do. The course went easy & flat for about 4K, then it started. Boy, on a bile it would've been hard ! It was one after another, rolling hills. Even the water station was uphill.
I just put my head down & tried as much as I can to maintain my cadence & rhythm up the hills. That seemed to work. I managed to maintain a smooth stride, which I didn;t really expect. There was 3 water stations in the 12k course, I skipped the 1st one, & stopped at the last 2. For short races under 15K, I dun normally bring my hydration belt with me. So I had to rely on water stations.
Then it came. I saw the ammah hill. But I saw that there was a signage directing some of the runners to the right.. it was for the 12K runners. We didn't have to climb it !! Hurray !! I would've been down on all fours if we had to climb it. I managed to cover the hills pretty much unscathed.
But as soon as we reached the last K signage, stitches hit me. I dun normally suffer from stitches. Even if I had stitches, it would go away in a few minutes. But this one didn't go away. Only when I saw the finish line the pain went away.
When I got to th finish, I received the medal. & I was surprised to see so few ppl at the finish. Normally it would've been crowded when I finish. Later I learned that I'd finished really early, #54 out of 392 finishers in my category. There was almost 2000 finishers in all. My time was surprisingly fast, less than 40 secs slower than my last 12K race, Men's Health Shape run. My 10K was also 1:01, which was surprising considering the toughness of the course.
This performance has given me the confidence ahead of the Nike 10K run. I really hope to run a sub 1-hour race, hopefully I can get around 55 mins. With about 10 days to go, I think I can.
Livestrong.
The main reason of my joining this race was the 2XU compression race socks, which was given free to all participants. This socks retails for almost RM180, & to pay just RM50 to get those, plus other race goodies like the vest, etc, was enuff motivation for me to sign up. Having used 2XU calf sleeves for the past year, I know what these compression socks & sleeves can do for U. The vest though, was a disappointment, not that I'ma use it anyway. I now have at least a dozen race vest with me, with at least another 5 to collect. I dunno what I'ma do with those, I've got my favorite race vest that I always wear in races. Normally I'd wear 'em for training, maybe also for going to bed...
The race was held in Bandar Kinrara & I've no idea how hard the course was. One of the runner/blogger went there & took some pics of the course. He called one of the climbs the "ammah" climb.. & from the pics it did look scary. But the problems was, I didn't know that climb was just one of many. There was to be another 4 climbs.. luckily, us the 12K runners won't have to tackle the "ammah" climb.
Since the race was pretty close to my house, I decided to go alone. I've also decided to use my Newton Neutral Racer, as it was the main sponsor anyway... also I'd use my Nike running tights, but I couldn't decide which top to wear. So I brought both my red Adidas Formotion running shirt which I just acquired during puasa & also my usual Nike fire-engine red race vest. My race began at 7.00am, these days the sun was already up by then, so in the end I decided to go with the Nike vest. A wise choice it turned out to be, as it was scorching hot. My usual gear that is the Livestrong visor, Oakley M Frame Livestrong glasses, & of course the 2XU compression race socks. & this time I didn't forget my Livestrong band. I decided not to run with my music on.. I'd earlier wanted to take this race lightly, just as a training.
I got to the start early, just after the 25K runners was sent their way. I did some warm ups & managed to get to the front. I'd set a target to run at 6:30-7:30 pace. So I set my Polar at that zone.
The climbs were murderers. It was harder than Lake Garden double hill course I did during the Pacesetters NB 15K. There it was steep, sharp climbs. Here it was more of a gradual climb, but there were 4 of them. 5 if U include the ammah hill we didn't have to do. The course went easy & flat for about 4K, then it started. Boy, on a bile it would've been hard ! It was one after another, rolling hills. Even the water station was uphill.
I just put my head down & tried as much as I can to maintain my cadence & rhythm up the hills. That seemed to work. I managed to maintain a smooth stride, which I didn;t really expect. There was 3 water stations in the 12k course, I skipped the 1st one, & stopped at the last 2. For short races under 15K, I dun normally bring my hydration belt with me. So I had to rely on water stations.
Then it came. I saw the ammah hill. But I saw that there was a signage directing some of the runners to the right.. it was for the 12K runners. We didn't have to climb it !! Hurray !! I would've been down on all fours if we had to climb it. I managed to cover the hills pretty much unscathed.
But as soon as we reached the last K signage, stitches hit me. I dun normally suffer from stitches. Even if I had stitches, it would go away in a few minutes. But this one didn't go away. Only when I saw the finish line the pain went away.
When I got to th finish, I received the medal. & I was surprised to see so few ppl at the finish. Normally it would've been crowded when I finish. Later I learned that I'd finished really early, #54 out of 392 finishers in my category. There was almost 2000 finishers in all. My time was surprisingly fast, less than 40 secs slower than my last 12K race, Men's Health Shape run. My 10K was also 1:01, which was surprising considering the toughness of the course.
This performance has given me the confidence ahead of the Nike 10K run. I really hope to run a sub 1-hour race, hopefully I can get around 55 mins. With about 10 days to go, I think I can.
Livestrong.
Raya 2010
Selamat Hari Raya !!! Although there's only a couple of weeks left before Syawal ends, everybody's still in Raya mood I guess, with open house invitations, 4-5 of them, almost every weekend. I on the other hand, haven't been able to have my own open house, becoz I was busy attending others' !! Quite a good excuse huh ?
Well, this year's Raya has been pretty good for my wife & I. There was no major incident, traffic was smooth, there was enuff resources, all is well. Traffic was a pretty major surprise I'd say, from lackthereof. Maybe it was the timing of this year's Raya. When we went back to Besut on the 2nd day of Raya, there was smooth traffic up until Kuala Krai, about 2 hrs from Besut. & during the trip home there wasn't really much of a traffic either, except for the usual crawl at Raub & Bentong. & the Ops Sikap had also a great success, managing to reduce traffic fatalities to acceptable levels. Kudos to the police.
In Besut on the 2nd day of Raya, it was like in a warzone. There was firecrackers all over, meriam buloh... it was really like a battle was going on. Well, Besut is just about 2 hrs from the Malaysia-Thailand border, so... getting all those mercun bola & ketupat was easy.
Sosilawati's murder.
The nation was shocked by the discovery of a gruesome murder of a prominent businesswoman, Datuk Sosilawati & 2 of her companions. The fact that it happened during a time of joy & festivities for the muslims & the manner of which the murders were allegedly carried out, I think everybody took notice of it. Not just the families involved, not just muslims, but everybody. Kudos to the police for working tirelessly to uncover the evidence & the gruesome details of the murders. To the families of Datuk Sosilawati & other victims, Malaysians are with U. Al-Fatihah.
Post-Ramadhan training
I'd stopped training about 2 days prior to Raya, I mean stopped all real training. I still did pushups, pullups, stretching... & I'm happy to note that I managed to maintain pretty much my training conditions during puasa.
After I came back from Raya holidays, I managed to get hold of a used tractor tire. I'd been looking for it & finally found it near a rumah kongsi near my house. Why would I need a tractor tire ? Well, for training of course ! Strongman athletes uses big, 350 lbs tyre to train. They do tire flips, tire pounding (with a sledgehammer), etc. Since there was playground with quite a big field just next to my house, I'd have a perfect place to use that tire, which require a big space of course.
The first problem was getting the tire home. I had to roll the tire about 2km back to my house, since it won't fit in my car's trunk & I can't find any lorry to transport it. Even rolling the tire home was a major exercise by itself. As soon as I got it home, I gave it a wash & started flipping right away.
Now, I dunno how much did the tire weigh, but it was a damn good workout for the whole body, not to mention the explosiveness needed to flip such a huge tire. The tire vertically was almost as high as my chest. After 3 reps of back & forth flipping, I could feel my legs, my arms burning.
The next step was to get a sledgehammer & do tire pounding. I'd earlier learned that U dun really need a huge tire to do it, a normal car tire will do. But since I've already got a huge tire, I'll just use it. I went to my local hardware store & the guy showed me 3 sledgehammers with different weights. The lightest was 6lb, 8lb & 12lb. The 6 pounder cost RM38, the heaviest one is almost 80 ringgit. I want a 10 pounder, but he didn't have it. So I guess the tire pounding will have to wait.
Post-Raya race menu.
This is my post raya race menu:
1. 26/9 - Newton 12K, Bdr Kinrara
2. 10/10 - Nike 10K, KLCC
3. 17/10 - Mizuno Wave Run 11K, UPM
4. 31/10 - Klang Run4It 12K, Klang
5. 21/11 - Penang Bridge Half marathon, Penang
There's still a couple of races in November that's not yet opened for registration, the Malakoff 12K & Adidas Adination of Runners (formerly known as Adidas King of The Road). That's 7 races in 3 months.. pretty bz eh ?
Livestrong.
Well, this year's Raya has been pretty good for my wife & I. There was no major incident, traffic was smooth, there was enuff resources, all is well. Traffic was a pretty major surprise I'd say, from lackthereof. Maybe it was the timing of this year's Raya. When we went back to Besut on the 2nd day of Raya, there was smooth traffic up until Kuala Krai, about 2 hrs from Besut. & during the trip home there wasn't really much of a traffic either, except for the usual crawl at Raub & Bentong. & the Ops Sikap had also a great success, managing to reduce traffic fatalities to acceptable levels. Kudos to the police.
In Besut on the 2nd day of Raya, it was like in a warzone. There was firecrackers all over, meriam buloh... it was really like a battle was going on. Well, Besut is just about 2 hrs from the Malaysia-Thailand border, so... getting all those mercun bola & ketupat was easy.
Sosilawati's murder.
The nation was shocked by the discovery of a gruesome murder of a prominent businesswoman, Datuk Sosilawati & 2 of her companions. The fact that it happened during a time of joy & festivities for the muslims & the manner of which the murders were allegedly carried out, I think everybody took notice of it. Not just the families involved, not just muslims, but everybody. Kudos to the police for working tirelessly to uncover the evidence & the gruesome details of the murders. To the families of Datuk Sosilawati & other victims, Malaysians are with U. Al-Fatihah.
Post-Ramadhan training
I'd stopped training about 2 days prior to Raya, I mean stopped all real training. I still did pushups, pullups, stretching... & I'm happy to note that I managed to maintain pretty much my training conditions during puasa.
After I came back from Raya holidays, I managed to get hold of a used tractor tire. I'd been looking for it & finally found it near a rumah kongsi near my house. Why would I need a tractor tire ? Well, for training of course ! Strongman athletes uses big, 350 lbs tyre to train. They do tire flips, tire pounding (with a sledgehammer), etc. Since there was playground with quite a big field just next to my house, I'd have a perfect place to use that tire, which require a big space of course.
The first problem was getting the tire home. I had to roll the tire about 2km back to my house, since it won't fit in my car's trunk & I can't find any lorry to transport it. Even rolling the tire home was a major exercise by itself. As soon as I got it home, I gave it a wash & started flipping right away.
Now, I dunno how much did the tire weigh, but it was a damn good workout for the whole body, not to mention the explosiveness needed to flip such a huge tire. The tire vertically was almost as high as my chest. After 3 reps of back & forth flipping, I could feel my legs, my arms burning.
The next step was to get a sledgehammer & do tire pounding. I'd earlier learned that U dun really need a huge tire to do it, a normal car tire will do. But since I've already got a huge tire, I'll just use it. I went to my local hardware store & the guy showed me 3 sledgehammers with different weights. The lightest was 6lb, 8lb & 12lb. The 6 pounder cost RM38, the heaviest one is almost 80 ringgit. I want a 10 pounder, but he didn't have it. So I guess the tire pounding will have to wait.
Post-Raya race menu.
This is my post raya race menu:
1. 26/9 - Newton 12K, Bdr Kinrara
2. 10/10 - Nike 10K, KLCC
3. 17/10 - Mizuno Wave Run 11K, UPM
4. 31/10 - Klang Run4It 12K, Klang
5. 21/11 - Penang Bridge Half marathon, Penang
There's still a couple of races in November that's not yet opened for registration, the Malakoff 12K & Adidas Adination of Runners (formerly known as Adidas King of The Road). That's 7 races in 3 months.. pretty bz eh ?
Livestrong.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Mercun...
A couple of days ago, a 6-year old kid became the 1st casualty this year due to firecrackers. But the thing is, he didn't get killed becoz he was playing with them, he got killed becoz he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He got killed just becoz he happen to be at an illegal firecracker storing facility, which happened to be owned by.. get this.. his parents.. His parents duly went on hiding as soon as the incident happened... the icing on the cake was that the boys' parents went to the police station that day to bail his uncle, who was arrested due to.. possession of firecrackers... I guess what goes around come around..
During my day as a kid, I never really was into firecrackers. My friends was playing with those meriam buluh, with a contraption devised from spark plugs.. but I didn't really find those things interesting.. which was funny really, considering my interest in everything military. But I did play with firecrackers. I liked those mercun burung (or whatever they called it). It was a small paper tube, about an inch long, it had a very short fuse. The thing was that, it didn't explode or anything like it, rather it flew with a buzzing sound.. on the box was printed drawings of birds, hence the name : mercun burung. It was pretty harmless.. until one day, when one of friends bury a big one (there was another bigger one, about 1 1/2 inch long), into the sand & lit it. Of course it blew the sand up &... into his eyes.. he spent 2 weeks in the hospital & one of his eyes was damaged. Pretty high price to pay.
These days there are those mercun bola & ketupat. The mercun bola especially, was very dangerous. I consider it high-explosive, it was very loud. & it can cause injury if mishandled, just by itself, U didn't even have to modify it into something else.
While I understand tht it's extremely difficult to catch all this firecracker smugglers (they got their supply from Thailand). But what puzzles me is the willingness of people young & old to risk their lives & play with it. Even with all sorts of news about hands, fingers & other body parts getting blown away by that mercun, people keep buying them & gave them to their kids to play. Granted, they want their kids to experience what they felt when playing those things, those at my age wouldn't know.. we didn't have those mercun bola back then.
There are other better things that you can do with your money & your lives, life is short. Use it wisely.
History Channel
Beginning from middle of August until 16th September, the History Channel on Astro will be showing documentaries about our nation. From the Malayan Emergency to the Al-Maunah arms heist, building of KLCC, the SMART Tunnel & also most recently, the inauguration of Yang diPertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan, it provided Malaysians a chance to learn about things we wouldn't have been able to learn in schools. I've always loved history. To me, we have to know our history. Some ppl said that to embrace history is like taking a step back & we would never progress if we are tied up by history. But I think that in order to move forward, we have to look back. & I've always think that the smartest ppl are those who learn from their mistakes & never repeat them. How are we gonna learn from mistakes if we don't know our history ?
The inauguration of the Yang diPertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan was especially interesting, simply becoz that the Negeri Sembilan monarchs, & also their people, are very high in tradition. Hence the inauguration ceremony was very unique & rich in tradition. The ruler of N. Sembilan was the only monarch in Malaysia in which the ruler was selected via democracy of some sort. 4 of the highest ranked rulers of 4 of the biggest districts in N.Sembilan will convene to select the ruler. In short, I think it was the oldest practice of democracy in Malaysia, if not the world.
The Al-Maunah arms heist was a dark chapter in the nation's history. It created many firsts.. the first conviction due to waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, or in simpler terms : Treason. Those who thought that the government staged the heist oughta think again...
Livestrong.
During my day as a kid, I never really was into firecrackers. My friends was playing with those meriam buluh, with a contraption devised from spark plugs.. but I didn't really find those things interesting.. which was funny really, considering my interest in everything military. But I did play with firecrackers. I liked those mercun burung (or whatever they called it). It was a small paper tube, about an inch long, it had a very short fuse. The thing was that, it didn't explode or anything like it, rather it flew with a buzzing sound.. on the box was printed drawings of birds, hence the name : mercun burung. It was pretty harmless.. until one day, when one of friends bury a big one (there was another bigger one, about 1 1/2 inch long), into the sand & lit it. Of course it blew the sand up &... into his eyes.. he spent 2 weeks in the hospital & one of his eyes was damaged. Pretty high price to pay.
These days there are those mercun bola & ketupat. The mercun bola especially, was very dangerous. I consider it high-explosive, it was very loud. & it can cause injury if mishandled, just by itself, U didn't even have to modify it into something else.
While I understand tht it's extremely difficult to catch all this firecracker smugglers (they got their supply from Thailand). But what puzzles me is the willingness of people young & old to risk their lives & play with it. Even with all sorts of news about hands, fingers & other body parts getting blown away by that mercun, people keep buying them & gave them to their kids to play. Granted, they want their kids to experience what they felt when playing those things, those at my age wouldn't know.. we didn't have those mercun bola back then.
There are other better things that you can do with your money & your lives, life is short. Use it wisely.
History Channel
Beginning from middle of August until 16th September, the History Channel on Astro will be showing documentaries about our nation. From the Malayan Emergency to the Al-Maunah arms heist, building of KLCC, the SMART Tunnel & also most recently, the inauguration of Yang diPertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan, it provided Malaysians a chance to learn about things we wouldn't have been able to learn in schools. I've always loved history. To me, we have to know our history. Some ppl said that to embrace history is like taking a step back & we would never progress if we are tied up by history. But I think that in order to move forward, we have to look back. & I've always think that the smartest ppl are those who learn from their mistakes & never repeat them. How are we gonna learn from mistakes if we don't know our history ?
The inauguration of the Yang diPertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan was especially interesting, simply becoz that the Negeri Sembilan monarchs, & also their people, are very high in tradition. Hence the inauguration ceremony was very unique & rich in tradition. The ruler of N. Sembilan was the only monarch in Malaysia in which the ruler was selected via democracy of some sort. 4 of the highest ranked rulers of 4 of the biggest districts in N.Sembilan will convene to select the ruler. In short, I think it was the oldest practice of democracy in Malaysia, if not the world.
The Al-Maunah arms heist was a dark chapter in the nation's history. It created many firsts.. the first conviction due to waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, or in simpler terms : Treason. Those who thought that the government staged the heist oughta think again...
Livestrong.
Friday, August 13, 2010
What's wrong with the world these days ?
For the 1st time in weeks, if not months, I managed to watch the news, more precisely Buletin Utama last nite, just after buka puasa. The primary news was that of a murder of a 13-year old student, who was slit on the throat by his friend, a 16-year old. I'd read about the murder in the Star Online in the morning, but at that time they haven't catch the alleged killer. In the news there he was. Just imagine. For what reason could a 16-year old have to kill somebody ? & he even went on the continue with his class in school after killing his friend. I could only imagine... If it were up to me, I'd have killed a considerable number of ppl in my life.. I would have loved to kill my thesis supervisor who gave me a C+ instead of the B+ I required to get 2nd class lower degree... hahah... These days ppl are getting killed for much, much less.
Then there's the news about a 70-year old who was hacked to death by his neighbour over a house renovation dispute. The offender was 64 years old. A house renovation dispute. Haih... some ppl got killed over a parking space.. some ppl got killed becoz his handphone's ringtone was too loud... some ppl would get killed just becoz of the way he was looking at somebody.. (remember,"Apa pandang2 ? Nak mampos ?). The devil must be having a field day yesterday... Wait.. the devil are being tied up now.. it's the fasting month... Some ppl might not even need the devil to kill ppl...
Capital punishment for baby dumpers
The Cabinet has approved the act to punish baby dumpers with capital punishment if found guilty. With that, baby dumpers will be charged with murder (punishable by death) or attempted murder (punishable by 30 years in prison). Hopefully with this, it will deter would-be baby dumpers to think twice.
But is that really the solution to the problem ? Capital punishment is exactly that, to punish. But they dun address the root cause of baby dumping. The powers that be shud be looking at ways to prevent those teenagers from ever engaging in sexual activities. For me, the main source is the internet. U can find all sorts of sexual contents online. Even with the most sophisticated firewalls or content filtering software, it doesn't do any good. Ppl thought they can censor the Internet. Now they found out that there's no censoring the Internet.
I read Tun Mahathir's blog posting about this matter. He said that there must be a concerted effort among all the countries in the world to denounce pornography. If everybody in the world act together, then we can stop porn contents from circulating freely in the Net. I think he's right. But another thing to remember is that porn industry is a multi billion dollar industry, just like drugs. That's why it's very difficult the get rid of them.
Well, the least we can do is try. If we dun try then we won't know.
Bazaar Ramadhan
Hari Rabu lepas umat Islam seluruh Malaysia mula berpuasa Ramadhan. Macam biasa la, bagi org2 yang bekerja, especially dua2 husband & wife keja, mmg tak sempat nak masak ape2 time buka. Mungkin kalu nak buat tu mmg buleh, tp beli lagi senang la. Kat depan ofis aku ni mmg port bazaar Ramadhan terbesar kat Putrajaya. Tp aku belum lagi menjejakkan kaki ke bazaar tu, sbb malas org ramai sgt. Dan dah gerenti menda2 kesukaan aku mmg ramai org beratur punye.
So hari Rabu tu aku & wife (tak keja, MC) pegi la ke bazaar kat area rumah kitorg tu je. Kecik je, dalam 100m je panjangnye. Aku dapatla ape yg aku ndak, nasi lemak ayam goreng rempah. Tp kesian kat wife aku, nasi kerabu yg dia beli, mmg tak sedap langsung. Mcm tanak bagi org makan je. Pastu semlm dia beli pulak murtabak, mmg ade sorg je yg jual murtabak kat situ. Bila aku makan aku nak tergelak... langsung xde rasa. Masin pun tidak.. manis pun tidak.. pedas jauh skali... Dahla kecik... ade la besar tapak tangan aku.. dua hengget.. langsung tak berasa.
Kengkadang aku tertanye2... org2 yg jual makanan ni.. dia makan tak makanan yg dia jual tu ? Kalu makan takkan dia tak rasa... sedap ke, idak ke.. Aku penah berjual kat bazaar Ramadhan skali.. dulu la.. tahun 1998, tolong mak aku. Bukan nak cakap besar, tp mak aku masak mmg sedap. Dan yg seronoknye, bila dia berjual pun, dia akan masak macam dia masak kat rumah jugak.. so mmg sedap. & alhamdulillah, menda2 yg kitorg jual (nasi beriyani, pecal, lauk2), mmg habis almost hari2. Tu satu contoh yang baik.. org yg mmg tahu memasak & mmg sedap, bukak gerai, jual kat org, suma org pun dapat merasa kesedapan masakannye.
Tp yg jual murtabak tawar, nasi kerabu takde rasa, kuih keria keras... diorg ni agaknye semata2 nak menjual je la. Kita yg membeli ni kadang2 rasa tertipu, & tak berbaloi nak menyabung tekak membeli masakan2 yg mmg tak layak utk dijual ni. Ape agaknye rasa org2 yg menjual ni ? "Lantak ko la situ, peduli ape aku sedap ke tak, janji org beli." Camtu ke agaknye diorg fikir ? Kalu camtu, mmg tak ikhlas la. Tak berkat. Dan aku rasa, paling lama pun seminggu la org beli dari diorg ni. Kalu tahan lama pun, sbb dah takde pilihan. Bagi aku, walaupun murtabak tu mmg favorite aku, baik aku makan capati la.. dh tentu mmg tawar.
Thn ni kami suami isteri ade strategi baru dalam berbuka. Thn2 lepas kitorg tak makan berat2 masa buka, biasanye mkn murtabak, pastu ade la kuih2 skit. Kengkadang makan mihun ke, kueytiaw ke. Pastu malam pas terawikh baru makan berat. Salah strategi rupanye... So thn ni, time buka je kitorg dah belasah nasik.. pastu tak makan ape sampai la sahur. Kalu makan pun mungkin buah2, atau yg ringan2 je. So kitorg takle tidur dgn perut kenyang. & dgn strategi ni, mungkin berat aku akan dapat turun lebih skit la... Wallahu'alam.
Livestrong.
Then there's the news about a 70-year old who was hacked to death by his neighbour over a house renovation dispute. The offender was 64 years old. A house renovation dispute. Haih... some ppl got killed over a parking space.. some ppl got killed becoz his handphone's ringtone was too loud... some ppl would get killed just becoz of the way he was looking at somebody.. (remember,"Apa pandang2 ? Nak mampos ?). The devil must be having a field day yesterday... Wait.. the devil are being tied up now.. it's the fasting month... Some ppl might not even need the devil to kill ppl...
Capital punishment for baby dumpers
The Cabinet has approved the act to punish baby dumpers with capital punishment if found guilty. With that, baby dumpers will be charged with murder (punishable by death) or attempted murder (punishable by 30 years in prison). Hopefully with this, it will deter would-be baby dumpers to think twice.
But is that really the solution to the problem ? Capital punishment is exactly that, to punish. But they dun address the root cause of baby dumping. The powers that be shud be looking at ways to prevent those teenagers from ever engaging in sexual activities. For me, the main source is the internet. U can find all sorts of sexual contents online. Even with the most sophisticated firewalls or content filtering software, it doesn't do any good. Ppl thought they can censor the Internet. Now they found out that there's no censoring the Internet.
I read Tun Mahathir's blog posting about this matter. He said that there must be a concerted effort among all the countries in the world to denounce pornography. If everybody in the world act together, then we can stop porn contents from circulating freely in the Net. I think he's right. But another thing to remember is that porn industry is a multi billion dollar industry, just like drugs. That's why it's very difficult the get rid of them.
Well, the least we can do is try. If we dun try then we won't know.
Bazaar Ramadhan
Hari Rabu lepas umat Islam seluruh Malaysia mula berpuasa Ramadhan. Macam biasa la, bagi org2 yang bekerja, especially dua2 husband & wife keja, mmg tak sempat nak masak ape2 time buka. Mungkin kalu nak buat tu mmg buleh, tp beli lagi senang la. Kat depan ofis aku ni mmg port bazaar Ramadhan terbesar kat Putrajaya. Tp aku belum lagi menjejakkan kaki ke bazaar tu, sbb malas org ramai sgt. Dan dah gerenti menda2 kesukaan aku mmg ramai org beratur punye.
So hari Rabu tu aku & wife (tak keja, MC) pegi la ke bazaar kat area rumah kitorg tu je. Kecik je, dalam 100m je panjangnye. Aku dapatla ape yg aku ndak, nasi lemak ayam goreng rempah. Tp kesian kat wife aku, nasi kerabu yg dia beli, mmg tak sedap langsung. Mcm tanak bagi org makan je. Pastu semlm dia beli pulak murtabak, mmg ade sorg je yg jual murtabak kat situ. Bila aku makan aku nak tergelak... langsung xde rasa. Masin pun tidak.. manis pun tidak.. pedas jauh skali... Dahla kecik... ade la besar tapak tangan aku.. dua hengget.. langsung tak berasa.
Kengkadang aku tertanye2... org2 yg jual makanan ni.. dia makan tak makanan yg dia jual tu ? Kalu makan takkan dia tak rasa... sedap ke, idak ke.. Aku penah berjual kat bazaar Ramadhan skali.. dulu la.. tahun 1998, tolong mak aku. Bukan nak cakap besar, tp mak aku masak mmg sedap. Dan yg seronoknye, bila dia berjual pun, dia akan masak macam dia masak kat rumah jugak.. so mmg sedap. & alhamdulillah, menda2 yg kitorg jual (nasi beriyani, pecal, lauk2), mmg habis almost hari2. Tu satu contoh yang baik.. org yg mmg tahu memasak & mmg sedap, bukak gerai, jual kat org, suma org pun dapat merasa kesedapan masakannye.
Tp yg jual murtabak tawar, nasi kerabu takde rasa, kuih keria keras... diorg ni agaknye semata2 nak menjual je la. Kita yg membeli ni kadang2 rasa tertipu, & tak berbaloi nak menyabung tekak membeli masakan2 yg mmg tak layak utk dijual ni. Ape agaknye rasa org2 yg menjual ni ? "Lantak ko la situ, peduli ape aku sedap ke tak, janji org beli." Camtu ke agaknye diorg fikir ? Kalu camtu, mmg tak ikhlas la. Tak berkat. Dan aku rasa, paling lama pun seminggu la org beli dari diorg ni. Kalu tahan lama pun, sbb dah takde pilihan. Bagi aku, walaupun murtabak tu mmg favorite aku, baik aku makan capati la.. dh tentu mmg tawar.
Thn ni kami suami isteri ade strategi baru dalam berbuka. Thn2 lepas kitorg tak makan berat2 masa buka, biasanye mkn murtabak, pastu ade la kuih2 skit. Kengkadang makan mihun ke, kueytiaw ke. Pastu malam pas terawikh baru makan berat. Salah strategi rupanye... So thn ni, time buka je kitorg dah belasah nasik.. pastu tak makan ape sampai la sahur. Kalu makan pun mungkin buah2, atau yg ringan2 je. So kitorg takle tidur dgn perut kenyang. & dgn strategi ni, mungkin berat aku akan dapat turun lebih skit la... Wallahu'alam.
Livestrong.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Look what I found...
I was browsing through the web tonite.. I took a day off almost everything today, my training, eating.. watching TV.. I wanted to look for photos of some of the races I entered this year. U see, during every race, there would be many ppl lining up the road sides, taking photos. Sometimes I could find those photos, usually posted in some online album like Picasa or Flicker. But lately I found that it's getting increasingly difficult to find those photos. Well, here are some of the photos I found...
Tongue slip
What does the phrase "tongue slip" means ? Is it a situation when U accidentally said something that might heard somebody U were talking to ? Or is it something U said that should've been left unsaid ? In Malay I believe it means "tersasul". Well, I guess my tongue slipped when I was talking with one of my close friends this afternoon. The thing was that I didn't really know whether what I said was deemed offensive by her or not.. Well, I tried to apologize later by texting her, but she seemed ok with it. So I guess all is well. I hope it doesn't happen again.
The thing was that, we were talking about bikes. I told her that I think bikes .. superbikes I mean, nowadays it's considered a luxury item, much like a luxury car or a million dollar house. Superbikes nowadays are so expensive, U could buy a house or start a small business with the money U use to buy it. That is why I feel that somebody who buys a superbike just for show, is exactly that.. a showoff. But for those who really love bikes, of course it's like a dream come true. Even I dream of owning a superbike one day. An ST12, that's all I want. Nowadays it would cost me like RM60k to get my hands on one. Or I can go the easy way & buy a Singapore-registered used ST11 or ST12 for under RM20k. But buying is the easy part.
I used to be one of those who got crazy just by seeing a superbike... way back when I was in primary school. My uncle Cik Lan was a biker. His first bike was Yamaha FZR600. I got to ride on that bike a couple of times, but I was too small to ride it myself. I only get to ride his 2nd bike, a Kawasaki ZZR600 or ZX6. & then about 5-6 years ago, when he bought his final bike, a Vulcan 500, I was allowed to take the bike out for a date !! Too bad I was always sick as a kid. I'd get a fever right after riding with him. But of course I got to know some of his friends, bikers of course. Cik Lan would go on bike trips with his friends, the biggest one being TMBA2 or Trans Malaysia Biking Adventure, at that time the biggest biker convoy in the country with more than 2000 bikes, organized by Roda-roda. I'd reckon if they have one of those again, I'd be the 1st to join.
I've seen superbikes ridden at snail pace becoz the rider didn't really have the guts to push the bike. That usually means he bought that bike becoz his friend or uncle has one & just to go with the flow as the saying goes. I pity this kind of ppl. But it's their money to spend, not mine. So, who am I to say they dun deserve to buy that bike ? So leave it be...
Decathlon
Decathlon is an athletics discipline that consists of 10 events, contested over 2 days. A decathlete is often called a Man of Steel, for their toughness. Believe me, competing in 10 events which are so different from each other is no easy feat. Even Wall Street Journal, in an article about the best athlete in the world just before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, selected decathlon world record holder Roman Sebrle as the best athlete in the world, ahead of LeBron James, Roger Federer & others. Decathletes compete in 100m, 400m, 110m hurdle, 1500m, long jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put, discus, javelin. Ask a high jumper to run the 100m, no go. High jumpers are usually very lanky. Ask a pole vaulter to throw the discus... again, no go. Ask shot putters to run 110m hurdles... U must be joking right ? Not for a decathlete.. these ironmen can do it all... well, almost all.
My fascination about decathlon & decathlete is not just on their abilities.. but also their shoes !!! Just imagine.. almost every event require a different spike. U can't use a 100m spike to contest the 1,500m. & U can't use the shot put shoes for pole vault. They must've with them like at least 8 pairs of spikes for the entire 2 days of competition. After the pole vaulters, decathlete must be the ones travelling with the biggest luggage to competitions. That's why they have sponsors...
U can use a spike for 100m & 400m.. one for 1500m, which can also be used for 110m hurdles. Thts 2 pairs. Javelin requires a special spike. Three. Shot put & discus U can use one spike.. four. High jump.. special spike. Five. Pole vault, special one. Six. Oh.. & U can use the same spikes in the 100 & 400m for the long jump as well. Tht's it, Six pairs of different spikes. If U carry spares with U ? At least one extra pair ? 12 pairs of spikes !!! Man, U need a separate baggage handler just for the spikes.. Hahah..
Livestrong.
Tongue slip
What does the phrase "tongue slip" means ? Is it a situation when U accidentally said something that might heard somebody U were talking to ? Or is it something U said that should've been left unsaid ? In Malay I believe it means "tersasul". Well, I guess my tongue slipped when I was talking with one of my close friends this afternoon. The thing was that I didn't really know whether what I said was deemed offensive by her or not.. Well, I tried to apologize later by texting her, but she seemed ok with it. So I guess all is well. I hope it doesn't happen again.
The thing was that, we were talking about bikes. I told her that I think bikes .. superbikes I mean, nowadays it's considered a luxury item, much like a luxury car or a million dollar house. Superbikes nowadays are so expensive, U could buy a house or start a small business with the money U use to buy it. That is why I feel that somebody who buys a superbike just for show, is exactly that.. a showoff. But for those who really love bikes, of course it's like a dream come true. Even I dream of owning a superbike one day. An ST12, that's all I want. Nowadays it would cost me like RM60k to get my hands on one. Or I can go the easy way & buy a Singapore-registered used ST11 or ST12 for under RM20k. But buying is the easy part.
I used to be one of those who got crazy just by seeing a superbike... way back when I was in primary school. My uncle Cik Lan was a biker. His first bike was Yamaha FZR600. I got to ride on that bike a couple of times, but I was too small to ride it myself. I only get to ride his 2nd bike, a Kawasaki ZZR600 or ZX6. & then about 5-6 years ago, when he bought his final bike, a Vulcan 500, I was allowed to take the bike out for a date !! Too bad I was always sick as a kid. I'd get a fever right after riding with him. But of course I got to know some of his friends, bikers of course. Cik Lan would go on bike trips with his friends, the biggest one being TMBA2 or Trans Malaysia Biking Adventure, at that time the biggest biker convoy in the country with more than 2000 bikes, organized by Roda-roda. I'd reckon if they have one of those again, I'd be the 1st to join.
I've seen superbikes ridden at snail pace becoz the rider didn't really have the guts to push the bike. That usually means he bought that bike becoz his friend or uncle has one & just to go with the flow as the saying goes. I pity this kind of ppl. But it's their money to spend, not mine. So, who am I to say they dun deserve to buy that bike ? So leave it be...
Decathlon
Decathlon is an athletics discipline that consists of 10 events, contested over 2 days. A decathlete is often called a Man of Steel, for their toughness. Believe me, competing in 10 events which are so different from each other is no easy feat. Even Wall Street Journal, in an article about the best athlete in the world just before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, selected decathlon world record holder Roman Sebrle as the best athlete in the world, ahead of LeBron James, Roger Federer & others. Decathletes compete in 100m, 400m, 110m hurdle, 1500m, long jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put, discus, javelin. Ask a high jumper to run the 100m, no go. High jumpers are usually very lanky. Ask a pole vaulter to throw the discus... again, no go. Ask shot putters to run 110m hurdles... U must be joking right ? Not for a decathlete.. these ironmen can do it all... well, almost all.
My fascination about decathlon & decathlete is not just on their abilities.. but also their shoes !!! Just imagine.. almost every event require a different spike. U can't use a 100m spike to contest the 1,500m. & U can't use the shot put shoes for pole vault. They must've with them like at least 8 pairs of spikes for the entire 2 days of competition. After the pole vaulters, decathlete must be the ones travelling with the biggest luggage to competitions. That's why they have sponsors...
U can use a spike for 100m & 400m.. one for 1500m, which can also be used for 110m hurdles. Thts 2 pairs. Javelin requires a special spike. Three. Shot put & discus U can use one spike.. four. High jump.. special spike. Five. Pole vault, special one. Six. Oh.. & U can use the same spikes in the 100 & 400m for the long jump as well. Tht's it, Six pairs of different spikes. If U carry spares with U ? At least one extra pair ? 12 pairs of spikes !!! Man, U need a separate baggage handler just for the spikes.. Hahah..
Livestrong.
Men's Health Shape Run 2010 @ Putrajaya
Finally I was able to go for this race. In 2008 I missed it becoz I only got to know about the race AFTER it was over.. then last year I was in Sabah (or Sarawak) for a meeting, so I couldn't enter. Anyway, there was nothing much about this race, just that it was organized by a magazine I read & the goodie bag was better than most other races. Actually the goodie bag was enuff motivation for most ppl to enter. This year it was held in Putrajaya again, at nite & the distance was 12.3km. Well, under normal circumstances tht wouldn't really trouble me. The distance I mean.
I wasn't in a really good form before the race. I haven't had any long distance training since the end of PSP & PSKK, I was focusing much on weights & short sprints. So I was carrying a bigger than normal bulk in my body, result of all those weight work at the gym. The only real distance training was about 3 days before the race, where I ran a 10.3km midtempo. I even had to skip my normal pre-race tune up (testing the shoes & all) becoz I didn't have time. So running it was just a gamble & I'd planned to take it easy, it was to be my last race before puasa anyway.
I'd planned to meet up with Azam before the race. I went there quite early with my wife & we parked next to BPP as I wanted to be as close as possible to the start, becoz I'ma have to perform the Maghrib prayers just 30 mins before the start. I did my prayers near the lobby of KPDNKK, & by doing that I had plenty of time to get to the start. I couldn't find Azam, so I just walked to the start while doing some warm-ups. Suddenly he appeared out of nowhere. I told him since I wasn't really prepared to race, he could just drop me if I was going too slow or whatever. He had a new shoes on, the Kswiss, & he wasn't feeling comfy with the shoes.
So, how did the race went for me ? Better than expected. I was able to run at my target pace (5:30-6:30) thruout, & even faster in some sections. I was feeling surprisingly good. I even managed to run a faster second 5K, & at the end I finished the race with an average pace of 5:57. This year I ran faster only at the Larian Bomba. I was able to accelerate after the 1st 5K, so I was happy with that. & I didn't really feel heavy at all.
I lost Azam after the 1st water station, near PICC. Afterwards he told me he was having probs with his shoes. Well, I told him at the start he shudn't race with new shoes. He finished 3 mins down, a 1:16. I placed 329 out of some 1300 runners, so I managed to stay within the top 30% in every race so far, which is good. The medals was only for the top 75 runners, the only minus point of this race actually. There was also lotsa complaints from the road users due to inefficient road closure. U could hear ppl arguing with traffic police at almost every junction. Funny, since it wasn't the 1st time Putrajaya was having a nite race. Well, U can't really pls everybody.
European Athletics Championship
Last week I was going to bed late to catch the European Athletics Championships. I didn't really watch every event, since the live shows was like from midnite to 4.00 am. I was focusing much on the field event of course, javelin, other throwing & jumping events. On the last day, on Monday morning I stayed up to catch Blanka Vlasic in action. Unfortunately, since it was the last day of the championships, they didn't really focus on the women's high jump. Rather they showed it in segments. But the much anticipated duel between Blanka & Arianne Friedrich, her German rival didn't materialize. Arianne was only able to put pressure on Blanka until the 2.01 mark. Even she had to take 3 attempts to clear that height. Blanka only took 2 attempts & she cleared 2.03m in 2 as well, which turned out to be the winning height. I thought she was going to attempt to break the world record, 2.09m. But she wasn't feeling good, so I guess it was good to stop while Ur leading. Nevertheless I went to bed at 4.00am & was late for work.
The javelin event was a couple of days earlier. Andreas Thorkildsen was the favorite, but he had problems clearing the qualification minimum of 70m. So everybody thought he would have some problems.
In the final the German World Junior Champion De Zordo was bettering Thor's mark at every throw until the 3rd attempt. Even Tero Pitkamaki only came to life after the 4th attempt. But Thor was just amazing. The way he threw the spear.. I mean javelin... was so relaxed U'd wonder where he got the power to throw that thing over 80m. The effort wasn't visible at all... not in the run-in, not in the shuffle.. I guess it was the powerful arm, core & shoulder.
Pitkamaki's style was a stark contrast to Thor's. He would fell off just before the foul line after the release.. in the 3rd attempt he fouled. U could really see the effort. Well, it was only good enuff for the bronze. I guess he's got some ways off now that De Zordo has emerged as the new force in pro javelin.
Other events, well, Lemaitre won both sprints plus the 4x100, although he wasn't the reason France won it. The Italians almost won it as they were leading in the final leg, but Mbanjock's fighting spirit was just incredible. He didn't give up at all.
All said, in the track events, I'd say the Europeans have beginning to show signs of catching up to their African (long & middle distance) & American (sprints) counterparts. But they still got some ways to go... Lemaitre for example, was way behind in most Diamond League meetings. No question about their authority in field events though...
Now.. to the weekend's Diamond League Final in London...
Livestrong.
I wasn't in a really good form before the race. I haven't had any long distance training since the end of PSP & PSKK, I was focusing much on weights & short sprints. So I was carrying a bigger than normal bulk in my body, result of all those weight work at the gym. The only real distance training was about 3 days before the race, where I ran a 10.3km midtempo. I even had to skip my normal pre-race tune up (testing the shoes & all) becoz I didn't have time. So running it was just a gamble & I'd planned to take it easy, it was to be my last race before puasa anyway.
I'd planned to meet up with Azam before the race. I went there quite early with my wife & we parked next to BPP as I wanted to be as close as possible to the start, becoz I'ma have to perform the Maghrib prayers just 30 mins before the start. I did my prayers near the lobby of KPDNKK, & by doing that I had plenty of time to get to the start. I couldn't find Azam, so I just walked to the start while doing some warm-ups. Suddenly he appeared out of nowhere. I told him since I wasn't really prepared to race, he could just drop me if I was going too slow or whatever. He had a new shoes on, the Kswiss, & he wasn't feeling comfy with the shoes.
So, how did the race went for me ? Better than expected. I was able to run at my target pace (5:30-6:30) thruout, & even faster in some sections. I was feeling surprisingly good. I even managed to run a faster second 5K, & at the end I finished the race with an average pace of 5:57. This year I ran faster only at the Larian Bomba. I was able to accelerate after the 1st 5K, so I was happy with that. & I didn't really feel heavy at all.
I lost Azam after the 1st water station, near PICC. Afterwards he told me he was having probs with his shoes. Well, I told him at the start he shudn't race with new shoes. He finished 3 mins down, a 1:16. I placed 329 out of some 1300 runners, so I managed to stay within the top 30% in every race so far, which is good. The medals was only for the top 75 runners, the only minus point of this race actually. There was also lotsa complaints from the road users due to inefficient road closure. U could hear ppl arguing with traffic police at almost every junction. Funny, since it wasn't the 1st time Putrajaya was having a nite race. Well, U can't really pls everybody.
European Athletics Championship
Last week I was going to bed late to catch the European Athletics Championships. I didn't really watch every event, since the live shows was like from midnite to 4.00 am. I was focusing much on the field event of course, javelin, other throwing & jumping events. On the last day, on Monday morning I stayed up to catch Blanka Vlasic in action. Unfortunately, since it was the last day of the championships, they didn't really focus on the women's high jump. Rather they showed it in segments. But the much anticipated duel between Blanka & Arianne Friedrich, her German rival didn't materialize. Arianne was only able to put pressure on Blanka until the 2.01 mark. Even she had to take 3 attempts to clear that height. Blanka only took 2 attempts & she cleared 2.03m in 2 as well, which turned out to be the winning height. I thought she was going to attempt to break the world record, 2.09m. But she wasn't feeling good, so I guess it was good to stop while Ur leading. Nevertheless I went to bed at 4.00am & was late for work.
The javelin event was a couple of days earlier. Andreas Thorkildsen was the favorite, but he had problems clearing the qualification minimum of 70m. So everybody thought he would have some problems.
In the final the German World Junior Champion De Zordo was bettering Thor's mark at every throw until the 3rd attempt. Even Tero Pitkamaki only came to life after the 4th attempt. But Thor was just amazing. The way he threw the spear.. I mean javelin... was so relaxed U'd wonder where he got the power to throw that thing over 80m. The effort wasn't visible at all... not in the run-in, not in the shuffle.. I guess it was the powerful arm, core & shoulder.
Pitkamaki's style was a stark contrast to Thor's. He would fell off just before the foul line after the release.. in the 3rd attempt he fouled. U could really see the effort. Well, it was only good enuff for the bronze. I guess he's got some ways off now that De Zordo has emerged as the new force in pro javelin.
Other events, well, Lemaitre won both sprints plus the 4x100, although he wasn't the reason France won it. The Italians almost won it as they were leading in the final leg, but Mbanjock's fighting spirit was just incredible. He didn't give up at all.
All said, in the track events, I'd say the Europeans have beginning to show signs of catching up to their African (long & middle distance) & American (sprints) counterparts. But they still got some ways to go... Lemaitre for example, was way behind in most Diamond League meetings. No question about their authority in field events though...
Now.. to the weekend's Diamond League Final in London...
Livestrong.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Anger Management
It's really interesting what anger can do for U. It can destroy ppl, start wars, destroy things... but if used correctly, it can boost performance, make U do things U never thought possible, & in some cases, turn U to the dark side & become a certain Emperor's apprentice...
Take yesterday for example. I'd planned to do a long run (not tht long la, 10K only). But by 4.30 pm I was feeling really tired.. maybe tired from the tough workout in the gym the day before. So tired that I closed the door to my room & took a nap. When I woke up about half hour later, I ate some snacks while considering my options for the day... do I go out & run or just go home ? Or do I still go out (since the weather was okay) & just do an easy run ?
Then something happened. I did something I shouldn't have done, at about 5:30pm, & as a result, it triggered my anger switch. I was just so upset by that, it actually helped me decide.
So I went out late, about 6.00 & did 3 laps instead of 2, finished the 10.32K suffering like a sick, angry dog. I haven't done any run longer than 7K for the past 3 weeks or so. Fueled by my rage, the 10K felt like a blur to me.
I kept replaying scenes from Star Wars.... all six of them, in my mind. How Anakin went from being a good boy to a Jedi apprentice, to a Sith Lord just becoz he was angry. Yoda told him,"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." (Attack of The Clones). I guess he was right after all. Do not live with hatred in Ur heart. U'll suffer silently. I feel Ur anger.. release Ur anger.. & take Ur place by my side (Return of the Jedi).
It wasn't the first time I used my anger to fuel an out-of-this-world performance, but this is a very rare occasion. It's also quite rare for me to get this angry about something, despite my character & what ppl perceive me to be. I dun get angry easily.
But the thing is, I wouldn't wanna get that angry about something. Anyway, the good thing is that my feeling is clear about certain things now. I know what to do, or rather, what I should've done much earlier.
I'm ok now. I guess.
Winning...
I wonder if winning a small event, with less than an average quality field, takes away the satisfaction of winning ? How does one compare ? Winning a small event with only 11 ppl competing, by a margin of more than 10 mins, or getting a 100th placing in a field of 3000+, or setting a PR in a rain-soaked half marathon ?
Well, I guess a win is a win. I did all I could so that my victory wouldn't look like a 3rd grade victory. I made sure I got a huge victory margin, made sure my average pace was of a high standard, etc.
A win is a win.
Livestrong.
Take yesterday for example. I'd planned to do a long run (not tht long la, 10K only). But by 4.30 pm I was feeling really tired.. maybe tired from the tough workout in the gym the day before. So tired that I closed the door to my room & took a nap. When I woke up about half hour later, I ate some snacks while considering my options for the day... do I go out & run or just go home ? Or do I still go out (since the weather was okay) & just do an easy run ?
Then something happened. I did something I shouldn't have done, at about 5:30pm, & as a result, it triggered my anger switch. I was just so upset by that, it actually helped me decide.
So I went out late, about 6.00 & did 3 laps instead of 2, finished the 10.32K suffering like a sick, angry dog. I haven't done any run longer than 7K for the past 3 weeks or so. Fueled by my rage, the 10K felt like a blur to me.
I kept replaying scenes from Star Wars.... all six of them, in my mind. How Anakin went from being a good boy to a Jedi apprentice, to a Sith Lord just becoz he was angry. Yoda told him,"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." (Attack of The Clones). I guess he was right after all. Do not live with hatred in Ur heart. U'll suffer silently. I feel Ur anger.. release Ur anger.. & take Ur place by my side (Return of the Jedi).
It wasn't the first time I used my anger to fuel an out-of-this-world performance, but this is a very rare occasion. It's also quite rare for me to get this angry about something, despite my character & what ppl perceive me to be. I dun get angry easily.
But the thing is, I wouldn't wanna get that angry about something. Anyway, the good thing is that my feeling is clear about certain things now. I know what to do, or rather, what I should've done much earlier.
I'm ok now. I guess.
Winning...
I wonder if winning a small event, with less than an average quality field, takes away the satisfaction of winning ? How does one compare ? Winning a small event with only 11 ppl competing, by a margin of more than 10 mins, or getting a 100th placing in a field of 3000+, or setting a PR in a rain-soaked half marathon ?
Well, I guess a win is a win. I did all I could so that my victory wouldn't look like a 3rd grade victory. I made sure I got a huge victory margin, made sure my average pace was of a high standard, etc.
A win is a win.
Livestrong.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Dealing with disappointment
I hate to lose. To make it even worse, I really, really hate it when I knew I can do better. I think to be a great athlete, that hating to lose mentality must be embedded in Ur brains & heart. & to be an even greater athlete, U need to learn to deal with disappointment & U need to have that desire to comeback stronger next time.
This year.. to be more precise, yesterday, was my first time competing in a field event in PSKK. & this was my first time competing in the javelin event, after soooo many years. To take the positives out of this, well, it was my 1st time & some of the competitors are seasoned veterans. The defending champion was also there. The field was 18 strong.. & at least I made it to the final round.
So, what went wrong ? Abg Nik, one of the seasoned veterans in field events, told me that my run-up was fast but I slowed down just before the release. My shuffle step was slow & my momentum sorta died just before the release. He said that I'm capable of throwing father than 40m. The coach from BNM also said the same thing.
So what went wrong ? After my final throw of a pathetic 27m, I sat down & wondered what have I done wrong. Long after the event I was all by myself, still wondering what did I do wrong ? I was hoping to at least better my winning mark at PSP of 35+m. Not even close. In the final round I fouled 2 outta 3 throws & the last throw was really pathetic.
I conclude that I was being too careful. My inexperience showed & I was being too careful in the run up. I didn't keep my focus on the field. Instead I was too busy worrying about where the foul line was. Becoz I had a big run up, I had to have the confidence to make the final release before I get to the foul line. & I took too many shuffle steps, slowing me down dramatically.
So, how do I move on from here ? Next year I'm coming back stronger. I'ma find a coach to train with 2-3 months before the event. I know I'm capable of much more than this. I'ma get myself my own personal javelin. I'ma find myself a coach. & I'ma throw a 50m throw next year. That's my target. I dun wanna suffer the humiliation of losing again next year. I wanna dominate this event. I wanna make this event in PSKK my own for years to come.
I really hate losing.
Livestrong.
This year.. to be more precise, yesterday, was my first time competing in a field event in PSKK. & this was my first time competing in the javelin event, after soooo many years. To take the positives out of this, well, it was my 1st time & some of the competitors are seasoned veterans. The defending champion was also there. The field was 18 strong.. & at least I made it to the final round.
So, what went wrong ? Abg Nik, one of the seasoned veterans in field events, told me that my run-up was fast but I slowed down just before the release. My shuffle step was slow & my momentum sorta died just before the release. He said that I'm capable of throwing father than 40m. The coach from BNM also said the same thing.
So what went wrong ? After my final throw of a pathetic 27m, I sat down & wondered what have I done wrong. Long after the event I was all by myself, still wondering what did I do wrong ? I was hoping to at least better my winning mark at PSP of 35+m. Not even close. In the final round I fouled 2 outta 3 throws & the last throw was really pathetic.
I conclude that I was being too careful. My inexperience showed & I was being too careful in the run up. I didn't keep my focus on the field. Instead I was too busy worrying about where the foul line was. Becoz I had a big run up, I had to have the confidence to make the final release before I get to the foul line. & I took too many shuffle steps, slowing me down dramatically.
So, how do I move on from here ? Next year I'm coming back stronger. I'ma find a coach to train with 2-3 months before the event. I know I'm capable of much more than this. I'ma get myself my own personal javelin. I'ma find myself a coach. & I'ma throw a 50m throw next year. That's my target. I dun wanna suffer the humiliation of losing again next year. I wanna dominate this event. I wanna make this event in PSKK my own for years to come.
I really hate losing.
Livestrong.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Champion at last !!!
My calf injury proved to be a blessing in disguise. I knew I couldn't be competitive if I'd entered both the mile & 10K events during the last PSP. Being as tenacious as ever, I still tried to run on the eve of the opening ceremony of PSP on the 25th. At first I felt fine, my calf felt fine & I did an easy 5 laps on my Mizuno Wave Aero. I decided not to use the Newtons, becoz I feared that it would worsen my injury. After that 5 laps, I decided that it was time to put on the spikes & after that everything went downhill again. So I knew it was over for me.
As big a bummer as it was, I still remain faithful on the javelin event. I'd no idea on how I would do in that event, the last (& first) time I threw the javelin was when I was 14. I got second that day. & to make matters worse, I didn't get to train at all before the actual event. Luckily there was this thing called YOUTUBE. I searched for javelin videos & there was tons of them. So when I did my warmups, I looked like a season thrower edi.
I got to the venue about 2 hours before the scheduled start. It was very hot. But being a pro-wannabe, I put on my warmups & proceeded to the track to do a thorough warm up, just as I'd seen in the videos. So, when it was time to start, I got to the line soaking wet. We got to throw one warm up throw, so everybody was anxious to see me throw. I had the longest run-up & my technique was ... well.. I was actually the only one with the proper throwing technique. The rest just relied on pure brute strength. Last year's winner was also there. & I drew the first blood, my first throw was well over 30m.. still short by javelin standards.. but I was ahead of everybody.
I held the pole position well into the 2nd round.. & during the 4th throw I got well beyond 35m but it was a foul throw. & during the 4th throw the guy from AG actually managed to throw farther than me. But I took a slim lead during the 5th throw. & during my final throw I sealed it with a 35m throw. Actually, I didn't even have to take the last throw, it was in the bag edi. But, I wanted to see how far I can go.
It was my technique. I might not be as strong as the other guys. But with the correct technique, I didn't have to use that much strength. & I'm confident, with more training, I could go well beyond 40m during PSKK. One of the officials came to me during the event & complimented me on my technique. I was pleased to know that the officials actually took note of my throwing the javelin. I've to work on my technique though.
So, at last, I won one individual event in the PSP. Alhamdulillah... In fact, I was the only other winner during the athletics event, the other one being my friend Hisham from eP. He won the high hurdles. I'm really looking forward to the PSKK. I'd learned that last year's winner threw a 45m throw... I think that's within my reach. If I could win in PSKK, javelin would be my discipline of choice for athletics...
Livestrong.
As big a bummer as it was, I still remain faithful on the javelin event. I'd no idea on how I would do in that event, the last (& first) time I threw the javelin was when I was 14. I got second that day. & to make matters worse, I didn't get to train at all before the actual event. Luckily there was this thing called YOUTUBE. I searched for javelin videos & there was tons of them. So when I did my warmups, I looked like a season thrower edi.
I got to the venue about 2 hours before the scheduled start. It was very hot. But being a pro-wannabe, I put on my warmups & proceeded to the track to do a thorough warm up, just as I'd seen in the videos. So, when it was time to start, I got to the line soaking wet. We got to throw one warm up throw, so everybody was anxious to see me throw. I had the longest run-up & my technique was ... well.. I was actually the only one with the proper throwing technique. The rest just relied on pure brute strength. Last year's winner was also there. & I drew the first blood, my first throw was well over 30m.. still short by javelin standards.. but I was ahead of everybody.
I held the pole position well into the 2nd round.. & during the 4th throw I got well beyond 35m but it was a foul throw. & during the 4th throw the guy from AG actually managed to throw farther than me. But I took a slim lead during the 5th throw. & during my final throw I sealed it with a 35m throw. Actually, I didn't even have to take the last throw, it was in the bag edi. But, I wanted to see how far I can go.
It was my technique. I might not be as strong as the other guys. But with the correct technique, I didn't have to use that much strength. & I'm confident, with more training, I could go well beyond 40m during PSKK. One of the officials came to me during the event & complimented me on my technique. I was pleased to know that the officials actually took note of my throwing the javelin. I've to work on my technique though.
So, at last, I won one individual event in the PSP. Alhamdulillah... In fact, I was the only other winner during the athletics event, the other one being my friend Hisham from eP. He won the high hurdles. I'm really looking forward to the PSKK. I'd learned that last year's winner threw a 45m throw... I think that's within my reach. If I could win in PSKK, javelin would be my discipline of choice for athletics...
Livestrong.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
An early off-season
An athlete usually can remain competitive for around 6-8 months every year. They will have a build-up training for maybe 3-4 months, reach their peak for 2-3 months, then they will have an off-season where they scale down on competition or dun compete at all. For me, my off-season is usually during the fasting month. This month is usually a period where I take a break from serious training. I'll just run lightly, maybe 2-3 times a week, just to remain active. This is the period where I'll try to recover from any injury that I have & plan ahead for the next year.
After setting my personal best during the Setia Alam about 3 weeks ago, I was on such a high spirit & I felt so strong that I'd skipped my usual one-week post-race recovery period. I continued training at high intensity becoz I felt strong. Then I had to take a 5-day break from training to go back to Tganu for my sister-in-law's wedding. So during that period, I didn't train at all. When I came back, thinking that it was okay, I did an 11km run at mid-tempo intensity, using the Taman Wawasan lap, which is quite tough. The result was an injury to my right calf. Now it's very likely that I'm gonna miss both PSP & PSKK.
I thought it was just a cramp. At KM 9, after coming down the hill for my 3rd lap, I began to feel pain in my right calf. So I stopped & stretched, & I continued running. But then I felt that the pain didn't go away. So I stopped running at KM10.5 & finished the lap walking. When I got back to my room I stretched as usual. I applied ice pack immediately when I got home.
The next day I went to UPM to train on the track. That was when I realized the injury was serious. I could only run for about 50m, then the pain came back. This time even with my calf sleeves on. & even using that couldn't prevent the pain. So I stopped running & went home. I only did weights during the weekend & continued the RICE treatment. Last Monday I tried running on the treadmill. It was as if the pain never even been treated. It was still painful. Now THAT is serious. I fear the worse, maybe muscle tear. If that is so there is no way I can run the 10,000m. Dun even think of running 1,500m, which is much, much faster than the 10K. I can only do the javelin, even that require some running. That is a bummer indeed, becoz I heard the 10K winner last year won't be competing this year, & this could be my best chance of winning an event. Bummer...
This should be a lesson to me. A painful lesson indeed. The best I can do now is to prevent this from happening again. & not to overreact that might cause it to become even worse & takes longer to recover. I've got the Seremban Half on 11/7 on my schedule, I dunno if I can make that one. I haven't registered for that yet. On the 31/7 there's the Men's Health run, maybe I can still do that. That would be my last race before I take a break during fasting month.
Haih. From an all-time high to an all-time low, in a blink of an eye. & all due to my own stupidity.
Livestrong.
After setting my personal best during the Setia Alam about 3 weeks ago, I was on such a high spirit & I felt so strong that I'd skipped my usual one-week post-race recovery period. I continued training at high intensity becoz I felt strong. Then I had to take a 5-day break from training to go back to Tganu for my sister-in-law's wedding. So during that period, I didn't train at all. When I came back, thinking that it was okay, I did an 11km run at mid-tempo intensity, using the Taman Wawasan lap, which is quite tough. The result was an injury to my right calf. Now it's very likely that I'm gonna miss both PSP & PSKK.
I thought it was just a cramp. At KM 9, after coming down the hill for my 3rd lap, I began to feel pain in my right calf. So I stopped & stretched, & I continued running. But then I felt that the pain didn't go away. So I stopped running at KM10.5 & finished the lap walking. When I got back to my room I stretched as usual. I applied ice pack immediately when I got home.
The next day I went to UPM to train on the track. That was when I realized the injury was serious. I could only run for about 50m, then the pain came back. This time even with my calf sleeves on. & even using that couldn't prevent the pain. So I stopped running & went home. I only did weights during the weekend & continued the RICE treatment. Last Monday I tried running on the treadmill. It was as if the pain never even been treated. It was still painful. Now THAT is serious. I fear the worse, maybe muscle tear. If that is so there is no way I can run the 10,000m. Dun even think of running 1,500m, which is much, much faster than the 10K. I can only do the javelin, even that require some running. That is a bummer indeed, becoz I heard the 10K winner last year won't be competing this year, & this could be my best chance of winning an event. Bummer...
This should be a lesson to me. A painful lesson indeed. The best I can do now is to prevent this from happening again. & not to overreact that might cause it to become even worse & takes longer to recover. I've got the Seremban Half on 11/7 on my schedule, I dunno if I can make that one. I haven't registered for that yet. On the 31/7 there's the Men's Health run, maybe I can still do that. That would be my last race before I take a break during fasting month.
Haih. From an all-time high to an all-time low, in a blink of an eye. & all due to my own stupidity.
Livestrong.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Setting a new PR at Setia Alam
I got up late, at about 5 am & about 5 mins after I got up, the rain started to pour in. I decided to wait it out & fortunately, it went away at about 10 mins to 6am. So I went on with my plan to ride to the start. Anticipating a cold & wet start, I decided to bring along one of my running tee. I'd earlier decided to use my red Nike top. I got to the start about 10 mins past 6am & was able to park right next to the starting line. There were signs of rain coming down but I decided to use the Nike vest anyway. & I took my Oakleys with me, with the black lens on. I won't be using it throughout the race. I met Azam at the Powerbar booth & decided not to wait for the other 2 runners becoz we dun recognize them & we didn't have their bib numbers.
The race
Azam earlier told me he forgot to bring his footpod along. Great. I'd set my target pace to 6:00 - 7:00min/km. We went off pretty fast. So fast that I was worried I couldn't maintain the pace. The rain came down at about KM9 or KM10, fortunately it wasn't that heavy. I lost contact with Azam at the turnaround. Although the course was slightly different from last year, it was mostly flat throughout. & we were really flying. My Polar couldn't stop beeping, I was going faster than 6:00/km for more than 40 mins. I decided to try to maintain that pace, I kept Azam within about 100-200m from me.
In my last half mara at Energizer, I made the mistake of not eating in the last 10K, with disastrous consequences. So I was determined not to make that mistake again. However, my Chocolate-flavored PowerGels proved pretty hard to swallow. I think I'ma have to try other flavors after this. Maybe Tangerine or Banana. & I kept myself hydrated to prevent cramps.It was raining, so the risk of getting cramps was significantly higher. At KM12 I began to notice my hamstring tightening.. so I had to pay attention to it. But I didn't slow down.
I managed to run 3 30 min 5Ks. I hit the last 5K at 1:42, which was good. & I was able to sprint to the line summore.
The verdict.
I clocked a new personal best of 2:04.38, which was 21 mins faster than Energizer. & I went faster than I did at NB 15K last month. Truthfully, I didn't know I could run like that. It really opened my eyes & mind that I could really run a sub-2hour half marathon. & it really boosted my confidence ahead of PSP & PSKK. I knew I could run faster than 55 mins for 10K, so I'ma train for that.
I also felt really fresh after the run. So fresh that I could afford to have lunch at Wendy's after that with my wife. I rewarded myself with Wendy's 1/2 pound double burger with fries, to cover for the 2600 calories I've burned earlier. I just didn't have ice-cream. Maybe later.
After this my next stop would proly be Seremban Half.. although it clashes with Klang Centro run, I think I wanna do another half marathon, since I'm gonna miss SCKLM. I'm proly gonna do that with Azam as well. Proly try to set another PR.
Livestrong.
The race
Azam earlier told me he forgot to bring his footpod along. Great. I'd set my target pace to 6:00 - 7:00min/km. We went off pretty fast. So fast that I was worried I couldn't maintain the pace. The rain came down at about KM9 or KM10, fortunately it wasn't that heavy. I lost contact with Azam at the turnaround. Although the course was slightly different from last year, it was mostly flat throughout. & we were really flying. My Polar couldn't stop beeping, I was going faster than 6:00/km for more than 40 mins. I decided to try to maintain that pace, I kept Azam within about 100-200m from me.
In my last half mara at Energizer, I made the mistake of not eating in the last 10K, with disastrous consequences. So I was determined not to make that mistake again. However, my Chocolate-flavored PowerGels proved pretty hard to swallow. I think I'ma have to try other flavors after this. Maybe Tangerine or Banana. & I kept myself hydrated to prevent cramps.It was raining, so the risk of getting cramps was significantly higher. At KM12 I began to notice my hamstring tightening.. so I had to pay attention to it. But I didn't slow down.
I managed to run 3 30 min 5Ks. I hit the last 5K at 1:42, which was good. & I was able to sprint to the line summore.
The verdict.
I clocked a new personal best of 2:04.38, which was 21 mins faster than Energizer. & I went faster than I did at NB 15K last month. Truthfully, I didn't know I could run like that. It really opened my eyes & mind that I could really run a sub-2hour half marathon. & it really boosted my confidence ahead of PSP & PSKK. I knew I could run faster than 55 mins for 10K, so I'ma train for that.
I also felt really fresh after the run. So fresh that I could afford to have lunch at Wendy's after that with my wife. I rewarded myself with Wendy's 1/2 pound double burger with fries, to cover for the 2600 calories I've burned earlier. I just didn't have ice-cream. Maybe later.
After this my next stop would proly be Seremban Half.. although it clashes with Klang Centro run, I think I wanna do another half marathon, since I'm gonna miss SCKLM. I'm proly gonna do that with Azam as well. Proly try to set another PR.
Livestrong.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Preparing for Setia Alam Half Marathon..
Tomorrow I'ma race in the Setia Alam Half Marathon, on a Saturday, & it's gonna be my first daytime half marathon this year, after Putrajaya Nite Marathon & Energizer Nite Run. Having a race on a Saturday will also give time for me to recover on Monday, which is good actually. Had the race been held on a Sunday, I would only have the rest of Sunday to recover.. but I guess, after having run in 3 half marathons this year, things would improve for me, in terms of my recovery.
I ran in Setia Alam last year, in the 11K category, where I finished in the top 100. The course was generally flat, except for some overhead bridges that we have to go through to cross the road. & we'll have to do around 3 laps I think, judging from last year.
A flat course & a target time of 2:10, 15 mins off my previous best. That means I'ma have to run 6:10 average for 21km... doable ? I dunno la. With the amount of training I've been doing, I hope I can beat my PR. Before Putrajaya Nite Mara, I've never ever ran more than 13K. Before the Energizer Nite Run, my farthest training run was 16K. Now I've done at least 3 long runs during the past 3 weekends, each run was at least 18K. So I guess I'm better prepared for this race. My runningmates, Azam & Shahwan was targeting sub-2hr times, I dunno if I can do that.. heck.. before Putrajaya I didn't know I can run 21K either.. so I'll take this challenge head on.
I'ma try & go to bed early tonite, I've to leave home before 6 am tomorrow, to avoid getting stuck in traffic. I reckon since I'ma ride my bike to the start, I shud be able to park pretty close to the start & not having to take the shuttle bus. My wife won't be coming along as well, so I better have enuff strength to ride back home after I finished.
Looks like I'ma use my new Newtons for this race. I dun have any problems with my Adizero, I tested it on Wednesday & didn't have any problems with it. Maybe it's easier to switch from Newtons to normal shoes than having to do vice versa. I reckon the Newtons are light enuff for tomorrow. Cushioning won't be an issue, Newtons are well-cushioned enuff. I've just bought a new Nike racing tops last week, bright fire engine red color. But most likely I'll be using my other Nike tops, the blue-green/yellow ones, becoz it goes well with the shoes. I'll keep the red ones for Pesta Sukan Perbendaharaan (PSP).
I thought Setia Alam were to be my last half marathon before puasa month, but last nite I came across an ad for the Seremban Half Marathon. I might be doing that one, on July 11th, a week before Pesta Sukan MOF (PSKK). I'ma miss the KL Marathon becoz of my participation in PSP. & I'ma miss the Siemens Run as well becoz of PSKK. So I guess I'ma do the Seremban Half & Men's Health Shape run on 31/7, my last race before puasa.
After Setia Alam, I'ma focus on my 10,000m in PSP & PSKK. I wanna go below 57 mins. So I'ma focus on building up speed for the event. I dun think endurance is gonna be a problem. The problem now is I'm lacking speed. I'ma spend more time at the gym, perhaps going back to twice a week. Of course do a lot more speedwork & intervals. It's just for 3 weeks.
Goodluck. Livestrong.
I ran in Setia Alam last year, in the 11K category, where I finished in the top 100. The course was generally flat, except for some overhead bridges that we have to go through to cross the road. & we'll have to do around 3 laps I think, judging from last year.
A flat course & a target time of 2:10, 15 mins off my previous best. That means I'ma have to run 6:10 average for 21km... doable ? I dunno la. With the amount of training I've been doing, I hope I can beat my PR. Before Putrajaya Nite Mara, I've never ever ran more than 13K. Before the Energizer Nite Run, my farthest training run was 16K. Now I've done at least 3 long runs during the past 3 weekends, each run was at least 18K. So I guess I'm better prepared for this race. My runningmates, Azam & Shahwan was targeting sub-2hr times, I dunno if I can do that.. heck.. before Putrajaya I didn't know I can run 21K either.. so I'll take this challenge head on.
I'ma try & go to bed early tonite, I've to leave home before 6 am tomorrow, to avoid getting stuck in traffic. I reckon since I'ma ride my bike to the start, I shud be able to park pretty close to the start & not having to take the shuttle bus. My wife won't be coming along as well, so I better have enuff strength to ride back home after I finished.
Looks like I'ma use my new Newtons for this race. I dun have any problems with my Adizero, I tested it on Wednesday & didn't have any problems with it. Maybe it's easier to switch from Newtons to normal shoes than having to do vice versa. I reckon the Newtons are light enuff for tomorrow. Cushioning won't be an issue, Newtons are well-cushioned enuff. I've just bought a new Nike racing tops last week, bright fire engine red color. But most likely I'll be using my other Nike tops, the blue-green/yellow ones, becoz it goes well with the shoes. I'll keep the red ones for Pesta Sukan Perbendaharaan (PSP).
I thought Setia Alam were to be my last half marathon before puasa month, but last nite I came across an ad for the Seremban Half Marathon. I might be doing that one, on July 11th, a week before Pesta Sukan MOF (PSKK). I'ma miss the KL Marathon becoz of my participation in PSP. & I'ma miss the Siemens Run as well becoz of PSKK. So I guess I'ma do the Seremban Half & Men's Health Shape run on 31/7, my last race before puasa.
After Setia Alam, I'ma focus on my 10,000m in PSP & PSKK. I wanna go below 57 mins. So I'ma focus on building up speed for the event. I dun think endurance is gonna be a problem. The problem now is I'm lacking speed. I'ma spend more time at the gym, perhaps going back to twice a week. Of course do a lot more speedwork & intervals. It's just for 3 weeks.
Goodluck. Livestrong.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Let's eat...
I try to eat healthily all the time. But of course, from time to time I'd give myself a time out to pig out or indulge in anything. & of course, like most ppl, even health-conscious ppl, I have a vice.
My biggest vice to date is Vanilla Coke. How can a drink be harmful ? Well, considering the amount of calorie contained in a 500ml bottle of Vanilla Coke.. it can be harmful in the long run. But I just can't stay away from it. I'll make sure there's at least a 1.5L bottle in my fridge at all times. & usually it'll take 3-5 days for me & my wife to finish it.
A typical day of eating for me will start with a breakfast. As the saying goes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Usually I'll have some fried rice, or meehon or noodles, with my current favorite quail eggs.. if I had rice for breakfast, usually it'll be the only time I'ma eat rice the whole day. Then for lunch normally I'll have a can of corn, either a big one or a small one. Sometimes if I go out then I'll have something else, heavier. It also depends on my training program for the afternoon. & sometimes if I have things to do in the afternoon, then I'll be at the gym during lunch time.
Dinner time. This would be my lightest meal of the day. Usually I'll have some roti pratha with sardines, or maybe chapati, or again some fried meehon or noodles. The key here is to have dinner as early as possible.
Friday lunchtime is normally my pig out time... Normally I'll have a hearty meal of rice & chicken curry, some veges.. not too much actually. Considering that normally I'll do my long runs on Saturday, I consider this as my fueling up moment..
Whatever it is, too much of even the healthiest food is normally not good at all. So eat in moderation, watch what U eat & U shud be okay...
Livestrong.
My biggest vice to date is Vanilla Coke. How can a drink be harmful ? Well, considering the amount of calorie contained in a 500ml bottle of Vanilla Coke.. it can be harmful in the long run. But I just can't stay away from it. I'll make sure there's at least a 1.5L bottle in my fridge at all times. & usually it'll take 3-5 days for me & my wife to finish it.
A typical day of eating for me will start with a breakfast. As the saying goes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Usually I'll have some fried rice, or meehon or noodles, with my current favorite quail eggs.. if I had rice for breakfast, usually it'll be the only time I'ma eat rice the whole day. Then for lunch normally I'll have a can of corn, either a big one or a small one. Sometimes if I go out then I'll have something else, heavier. It also depends on my training program for the afternoon. & sometimes if I have things to do in the afternoon, then I'll be at the gym during lunch time.
Dinner time. This would be my lightest meal of the day. Usually I'll have some roti pratha with sardines, or maybe chapati, or again some fried meehon or noodles. The key here is to have dinner as early as possible.
Friday lunchtime is normally my pig out time... Normally I'll have a hearty meal of rice & chicken curry, some veges.. not too much actually. Considering that normally I'll do my long runs on Saturday, I consider this as my fueling up moment..
Whatever it is, too much of even the healthiest food is normally not good at all. So eat in moderation, watch what U eat & U shud be okay...
Livestrong.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Tricky race
It's been more than a couple of months since my last entry. I've been really, really busy.. even with my KPSU around. More ppl means more work can be dumped on us, so that's what happening now.
New Balance Pacesetters 15K
I've just completed the race for the 1st time yesterday. I registered for the race last year, but didn't run becoz I had a fever just after Larian Bomba 2009. So I had no idea what the route was like. & yesterday was a brutal introduction to the route... it was.. a killer. I thought the Jln Beringin lap down in Mont Kiara was tough.. this was even tougher.. doable.. but tough. What makes it so tough ?
It was the climbs. The route wasn't a rolling course like Jln Beringin. This course was like.. uphill for half a mile or so.. slight downhill.. then up again.. man... The toughest climb was at Jln Dato' Onn, I was almost reduced to a walking pace.
I had earlier set a target of 6:00/km or faster pace, becoz I thought the course was somewhat like Larian Bomba, where I was able to maintain a 5:40 pace. So my Polar wouldn't stop beeping was I was only able to do a 6:24 pace. I had set it to beep if I go beyond 5:40.. overestimate.. lucky it wasn't one long tone... beeeeeeeeeeep..
My pre race prep wasn't an ideal one either. I didn't run for 4 straight days before Sunday. & the nite before I couldn't sleep. It wasn't the heat, but proly the fact that I had taken a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.. so at nite I couldn't sleep well. When I woke up at 5:30 I felt tired still. Hmm...
15K distance is indeed a tricky one. U couldn't go as fast U would in a 10K race, that would be too fast. & U couldn't go at half marathon pace either, that would be too slow. I ended up with something in between, at 6:24 pace. That gave me a time of 1:32.49 unofficially, official time would be somewhere around 1:33.. was it bad ? My 10K time was around 1:03. Considering the brutality of the course & my conditions.. I guess that was okay. But the bright side of it was that if I can maintain this pace for my next half marathon in Setia Alam, I can run at slightly faster than 2 hrs, which is good news.
I didn't bring any feeding for the race. It turned out to be that I didn't need any. But what I needed was water. & there wasn't enuff of them. There was 3 water stations. & the last one was just 3K from the end. & that was like 4-5K after we tackled the killer hill. I was really desperate for some water by then. & at the end as well. I was really ill-prepared for this race. I didn't even bring any Gatorade with me to the race. Gatorade was my primary thirst quencher & by not having any meant that I had to settle with plain water given in the goodie bag. I was shaking at the end. I didn't even talk to Azam@Elgato, my running partner. He was getting better. He passed me just before Jln Dato' Onn & I didn't see him after that until I finished the race.
Well, there are lessons to be learned from this race. Learn from our mistakes & we can certainly be a better runner.
Larian Bomba 2010
This race was where I started racing last year & I made a promise to do it every year. & this year I wanted to break my previous time. The race course remains the same every year & Choi told me it's a good way to gauge Ur performance. I couldn't agree more.
It wasn't a bad race, but maybe I've overestimated myself. No.. not really. Actually I wanted to break the hour so bad that when I realized I won't, I got so demoralized I slowed down... not a good sign. I had maintained a constant 5:40 throughout & was happy enuff, but I when my auto lap beep for the 2nd time, signalling 10K completed, I was still a good 1K from the end. I had done the 10K in 57 mins, & I realized I won't break the hour this time. So I just rolled along & finished in 1:03. Even worse than last year. Bummer.
But again, looking at the bright side, my 10K time was 57 mins, 2 mins off my previous best. So I have improved to a certain extent. Phewww..
Livestrong.
New Balance Pacesetters 15K
I've just completed the race for the 1st time yesterday. I registered for the race last year, but didn't run becoz I had a fever just after Larian Bomba 2009. So I had no idea what the route was like. & yesterday was a brutal introduction to the route... it was.. a killer. I thought the Jln Beringin lap down in Mont Kiara was tough.. this was even tougher.. doable.. but tough. What makes it so tough ?
It was the climbs. The route wasn't a rolling course like Jln Beringin. This course was like.. uphill for half a mile or so.. slight downhill.. then up again.. man... The toughest climb was at Jln Dato' Onn, I was almost reduced to a walking pace.
I had earlier set a target of 6:00/km or faster pace, becoz I thought the course was somewhat like Larian Bomba, where I was able to maintain a 5:40 pace. So my Polar wouldn't stop beeping was I was only able to do a 6:24 pace. I had set it to beep if I go beyond 5:40.. overestimate.. lucky it wasn't one long tone... beeeeeeeeeeep..
My pre race prep wasn't an ideal one either. I didn't run for 4 straight days before Sunday. & the nite before I couldn't sleep. It wasn't the heat, but proly the fact that I had taken a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.. so at nite I couldn't sleep well. When I woke up at 5:30 I felt tired still. Hmm...
15K distance is indeed a tricky one. U couldn't go as fast U would in a 10K race, that would be too fast. & U couldn't go at half marathon pace either, that would be too slow. I ended up with something in between, at 6:24 pace. That gave me a time of 1:32.49 unofficially, official time would be somewhere around 1:33.. was it bad ? My 10K time was around 1:03. Considering the brutality of the course & my conditions.. I guess that was okay. But the bright side of it was that if I can maintain this pace for my next half marathon in Setia Alam, I can run at slightly faster than 2 hrs, which is good news.
I didn't bring any feeding for the race. It turned out to be that I didn't need any. But what I needed was water. & there wasn't enuff of them. There was 3 water stations. & the last one was just 3K from the end. & that was like 4-5K after we tackled the killer hill. I was really desperate for some water by then. & at the end as well. I was really ill-prepared for this race. I didn't even bring any Gatorade with me to the race. Gatorade was my primary thirst quencher & by not having any meant that I had to settle with plain water given in the goodie bag. I was shaking at the end. I didn't even talk to Azam@Elgato, my running partner. He was getting better. He passed me just before Jln Dato' Onn & I didn't see him after that until I finished the race.
Well, there are lessons to be learned from this race. Learn from our mistakes & we can certainly be a better runner.
Larian Bomba 2010
This race was where I started racing last year & I made a promise to do it every year. & this year I wanted to break my previous time. The race course remains the same every year & Choi told me it's a good way to gauge Ur performance. I couldn't agree more.
It wasn't a bad race, but maybe I've overestimated myself. No.. not really. Actually I wanted to break the hour so bad that when I realized I won't, I got so demoralized I slowed down... not a good sign. I had maintained a constant 5:40 throughout & was happy enuff, but I when my auto lap beep for the 2nd time, signalling 10K completed, I was still a good 1K from the end. I had done the 10K in 57 mins, & I realized I won't break the hour this time. So I just rolled along & finished in 1:03. Even worse than last year. Bummer.
But again, looking at the bright side, my 10K time was 57 mins, 2 mins off my previous best. So I have improved to a certain extent. Phewww..
Livestrong.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Too much weight is bad...
I've been preparing for my next half marathon, the Energizer Nite Run, for the past 3-4 weeks or so. I wanted to do more running before the event, my target is to have at least 150km in my legs before the actual race. While I've significantly improved on this compared to my preparations for Putrajaya, I might have made some mistakes in other aspects of my training. Last week, about 3 weeks before Energizer, I realized that I've done too much weight training. Or maybe the routine I've used for the past month have caused me too bulk up too much.
I now weigh between 84-86kg. Not that I've become fat or anything, but I've bulked up. & that has caused me to slow a little bit in training. & that's not what I want, at least not yet. I know it's almost impossible to lift weights & not bulking up, I'm still not THAT big. I've to change my routine. Instead of lifting heavy weights with less rep & having protein shakes before & after my weight workouts, I'll shift to lifting light weights with lotsa reps & having the protein shake post-workout only. I'll do this until I get back to around 82kg, hopefully before the 27th. & I'll go to the gym only once a week, even then it's for total-body workouts, like the Spartan.
Over the weekend I also thought about my upcoming races after the Energizer. Word has it that the Sukan Treasury will be in March. But with Dato' Bob gone for a month & it's already 8th, I highly doubt that. Nevertheless, I think my next 2 half marathons will be the Setia Alam & Standard Chartered. Last year the Setia Alam was in June. I like it a lot becoz of the virtually flat course. I did the 11K last year. & naturally I'd want to do the biggest half marathon in the country, the Standard Chartered KL Marathon. In between there's the Pacesetters 15K & also the race that started it all for me, the Larian Bomba. & for the Sukan Treasury this year, I'd like to try the mile (1,500m). I'd reckon I can have that as my warm-up for the 10,000m.
So, up until June, there are 2 half marathons & at least 3 other middle distance race for me. I'd like to do between 10-15 races this year, maybe half of those are half marathons. Also, I'd like to run in Singapore, maybe Sundown Marathon. I dun think I'm prepared to do full marathon yet, not in another 2 years maybe. Once I feel that half marathon is easy (somewhat), I'll move up to the full marathon.
Until then, Livestrong.
I now weigh between 84-86kg. Not that I've become fat or anything, but I've bulked up. & that has caused me to slow a little bit in training. & that's not what I want, at least not yet. I know it's almost impossible to lift weights & not bulking up, I'm still not THAT big. I've to change my routine. Instead of lifting heavy weights with less rep & having protein shakes before & after my weight workouts, I'll shift to lifting light weights with lotsa reps & having the protein shake post-workout only. I'll do this until I get back to around 82kg, hopefully before the 27th. & I'll go to the gym only once a week, even then it's for total-body workouts, like the Spartan.
Over the weekend I also thought about my upcoming races after the Energizer. Word has it that the Sukan Treasury will be in March. But with Dato' Bob gone for a month & it's already 8th, I highly doubt that. Nevertheless, I think my next 2 half marathons will be the Setia Alam & Standard Chartered. Last year the Setia Alam was in June. I like it a lot becoz of the virtually flat course. I did the 11K last year. & naturally I'd want to do the biggest half marathon in the country, the Standard Chartered KL Marathon. In between there's the Pacesetters 15K & also the race that started it all for me, the Larian Bomba. & for the Sukan Treasury this year, I'd like to try the mile (1,500m). I'd reckon I can have that as my warm-up for the 10,000m.
So, up until June, there are 2 half marathons & at least 3 other middle distance race for me. I'd like to do between 10-15 races this year, maybe half of those are half marathons. Also, I'd like to run in Singapore, maybe Sundown Marathon. I dun think I'm prepared to do full marathon yet, not in another 2 years maybe. Once I feel that half marathon is easy (somewhat), I'll move up to the full marathon.
Until then, Livestrong.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Success !!!
I've successfully completed my 1st ever half marathon during the Putrajaya Nite Marathon on Saturday. Here is the story....
Pre-race...
Despite my injuries early on, I decided to just give it a try & run the half. I woke up early on Saturday, put on my running shoes & ran for 15 mins around my housing area & I felt okay. The pain on my calf has gone, but now there's some new problems. But then, I thought those were my normal problems.. so I told my wife, I'ma run tonite.
Just as a precaution, I kept on putting ice pack on both my legs, just to make sure. I took a nap just after lunch. I'd also agreed to run together with one of my LYNet pals, Elgato. He's also running his 1st half.
Then off to the start. The half marathon started at 8.30pm. The marathoners started 1/2 hour earlier than us. We planned to run easy for the 1st 10K, then see if we could up the pace a bit after that. Easier said than done.
The course...
The course was generally soft rolling. The hardest climb was proly at the PICC (very early on, around KM3), & just as we were about to re-enter Presint 1, near the traffic light at KM15. I was able to maintain a comfortable pace of around 6:50-7:10. My target pace was 6:40. At that pace I thought, we could hit the finish line in less than 2:30.
Feeding...
I brought my own water, using my Ultimate Directions Blaze pack. I also had with me 2 packs of PowerGel, chocolate flavor of course, the ones I've been using for training. so I could afford to pass on the 1st 2 water stations. I'd planned to take my feeding every hour. So that was exactly what I did. & it turned out to be okay, when I finish I didn't really feel that drained. I took some 100Plus at every water station after the 10K mark, plus a couple of stops at 2 sponging stations. Those gels really was helpful.
Gear...
My last 3 races last year I ran with tights, short tights. But for this half marathon, I decided to go with my normal training outfit, a Nike running tee with normal shorts. My underpants was great, it didn't give me any problems whatsoever, so I was grateful for that. I've heard stories about runners getting blisters "down there", which certainly can't be good. But I was okay throughout. Maybe for morning events, I'd use vests instead of tshirts.
My Adizero Ace was just superb. Pretty much thruout the run, I was just cruising & my shoes really helped a lot.
Injuries...
I was really grateful that I was able to run virtually pain-free. But I was really careful with my stride, tried not to open up too big a stride. After KM10, I felt like I was just hanging by a thread, just a slight overstriding would cause my calf to tighten up & I certainly dun wan that. That was why I took some 100Plus from the water station, to prevent cramps.
I was pretty much cruising thruout. Now I know what they meant by cruising along. After KM10 onwards, I pretty much just let my legs carry me thru. My stride didn't really have any knee lift at all. Mostly becoz I wanted to avoid getting cramps. It was especially true during the uphills.
The ending..
I was pretty confident that I managed to up the pace in the last 6K. I didn't really push that hard, but it was enuff. With the ending in sight, I was smiling. But then, it was pretty demoralizing to discover that we had to make a big circle around KPDNKK & POJ. Coming from MOF, I thought it was straight on to the finish in front of POJ. But we had to make a left turn at the traffic light at KPDNKK, before emerging on the other side to approach the end from KBS side. I was really in pain by then, mentally. I crossed the finish line at 3:01, minus 30 mins.
The way the organizers arranged the endzone was commendable, it made it less painful for us. Immediately after the finish was somebody handing over mineral water bottles, then the medals, then the snackpack, then the Milo tent. I took 2 cups, then somebody bumped into me & I was drenched in Milo. I took another 2, then only I realized there was 100Plus available. I walked in my Milo-soaked shoes & found my wife waving to me at the MeCD junction. Then she told me the good news, we had to walk another km becoz she couldn't park the car close enuff... grrr...
Overall I was really satisfied that I was able to compete the run with just 12 mins off my target time. To be honest my preparation wasn't the best, so I that makes it more worthwhile. I'll try to run a better race in the Energizer Nite run, I have approx. 6 weeks to prepare.
Livestrong.
Pre-race...
Despite my injuries early on, I decided to just give it a try & run the half. I woke up early on Saturday, put on my running shoes & ran for 15 mins around my housing area & I felt okay. The pain on my calf has gone, but now there's some new problems. But then, I thought those were my normal problems.. so I told my wife, I'ma run tonite.
Just as a precaution, I kept on putting ice pack on both my legs, just to make sure. I took a nap just after lunch. I'd also agreed to run together with one of my LYNet pals, Elgato. He's also running his 1st half.
Then off to the start. The half marathon started at 8.30pm. The marathoners started 1/2 hour earlier than us. We planned to run easy for the 1st 10K, then see if we could up the pace a bit after that. Easier said than done.
The course...
The course was generally soft rolling. The hardest climb was proly at the PICC (very early on, around KM3), & just as we were about to re-enter Presint 1, near the traffic light at KM15. I was able to maintain a comfortable pace of around 6:50-7:10. My target pace was 6:40. At that pace I thought, we could hit the finish line in less than 2:30.
Feeding...
I brought my own water, using my Ultimate Directions Blaze pack. I also had with me 2 packs of PowerGel, chocolate flavor of course, the ones I've been using for training. so I could afford to pass on the 1st 2 water stations. I'd planned to take my feeding every hour. So that was exactly what I did. & it turned out to be okay, when I finish I didn't really feel that drained. I took some 100Plus at every water station after the 10K mark, plus a couple of stops at 2 sponging stations. Those gels really was helpful.
Gear...
My last 3 races last year I ran with tights, short tights. But for this half marathon, I decided to go with my normal training outfit, a Nike running tee with normal shorts. My underpants was great, it didn't give me any problems whatsoever, so I was grateful for that. I've heard stories about runners getting blisters "down there", which certainly can't be good. But I was okay throughout. Maybe for morning events, I'd use vests instead of tshirts.
My Adizero Ace was just superb. Pretty much thruout the run, I was just cruising & my shoes really helped a lot.
Injuries...
I was really grateful that I was able to run virtually pain-free. But I was really careful with my stride, tried not to open up too big a stride. After KM10, I felt like I was just hanging by a thread, just a slight overstriding would cause my calf to tighten up & I certainly dun wan that. That was why I took some 100Plus from the water station, to prevent cramps.
I was pretty much cruising thruout. Now I know what they meant by cruising along. After KM10 onwards, I pretty much just let my legs carry me thru. My stride didn't really have any knee lift at all. Mostly becoz I wanted to avoid getting cramps. It was especially true during the uphills.
The ending..
I was pretty confident that I managed to up the pace in the last 6K. I didn't really push that hard, but it was enuff. With the ending in sight, I was smiling. But then, it was pretty demoralizing to discover that we had to make a big circle around KPDNKK & POJ. Coming from MOF, I thought it was straight on to the finish in front of POJ. But we had to make a left turn at the traffic light at KPDNKK, before emerging on the other side to approach the end from KBS side. I was really in pain by then, mentally. I crossed the finish line at 3:01, minus 30 mins.
The way the organizers arranged the endzone was commendable, it made it less painful for us. Immediately after the finish was somebody handing over mineral water bottles, then the medals, then the snackpack, then the Milo tent. I took 2 cups, then somebody bumped into me & I was drenched in Milo. I took another 2, then only I realized there was 100Plus available. I walked in my Milo-soaked shoes & found my wife waving to me at the MeCD junction. Then she told me the good news, we had to walk another km becoz she couldn't park the car close enuff... grrr...
Overall I was really satisfied that I was able to compete the run with just 12 mins off my target time. To be honest my preparation wasn't the best, so I that makes it more worthwhile. I'll try to run a better race in the Energizer Nite run, I have approx. 6 weeks to prepare.
Livestrong.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Big trouble in little Putrajaya...
It was 6.40 am.. my new Philips MP3 player haven't even finished playing the 2nd song in my playlist.. I haven't even get into my first kilometer.. just before Masjid Putra... disaster struck... the thing all athletes preparing for something fear most... injury with less than a week to the big day.. arrghhhhh !!!!
The problem started on Tuesday.. I was doing my intervals, 5 x 800m .. I decided to do it without my 2XU calf compression sleeve.. just as I was finishing my last rep.. I felt a slight pull in my left calf, just a very slight one. I wasn't going really fast, about 5:00-5:25 pace.. & the slight pull stayed there throughout my warmdown run. When I was doing my stretching it was gone.. so I thought.. okay..
Maybe the biggest mistake happened on Wednesday. I went to the gym. I haven't lifted weights for about 3 weeks, & I decided to do the full body Spartacus workout, currently my favorite full body routine. I only managed to do 2 sets instead of the usual 3. The next day my body was sore all over. It was my rest day anyway, so I thought.. okay...
Then on Friday I was supposed to do about 8km tempo run. There was where I felt all the problems.. the slight pull on my left calf didn't go away.. the injury on my shin bone made a rerun, & I had a back pain. A back pain !!! I've never had those.. never, ever. I mean, during my runs la... So I cut short my program to just 4K of tempo. Then I went to play badminton.
& now. Sunday. Today I was supposed to do my long run, at least 16K. It was to be my last long run before the Putrajaya Nite Marathon. All the injury, sans the back injury, came back to haunt me. I couldn't even walk right. The walk back to the office from Masjid Putra took me half an hour. Slow by any standards.
Injury is not new to me. I've got injured before. I've had worse than this. But not with less than a week to my first half marathon, ever. Injury frustrates me. Even worse when U dunno what caused it. Was it the gym ? Was it becoz I decided not to wear my calf sleeves ? I tried not to rely too much on the sleeves. But it seemed now that I couldn't run without it. The last time I got injured bad.. was when I tried to break my 5K PR with my new Adizeros, without the calf sleeves. How's that ?
How do I fix this ? RICE ? With 6 days to go ? I wish I could just go to the hardware store, buy a new pair of legs, take this one off & bolt on the new one. I wish it was that easy. What I'm worried about is not getting enuff mileage before I do the race of my life. I mean, it's gonna be my 1st ever half marathon, of course it's a big thing to me. I know I can complete the run, but I dun wanna just complete it. I've got goals to achieve, targets to meet. & how would I know that this injury won't return during the race. It would've been worse.
All I want is to run pain-free. & I've been able to do just that for the past month or so. Why this injury choose this very moment to come back is really beyond my understanding.
Haih.... as strong as I am, there's only so much I can do. Right now even walking is painful, let alone running.
I hope I can fix this ASAP. Steroids anybody ?
Livestrong.
The problem started on Tuesday.. I was doing my intervals, 5 x 800m .. I decided to do it without my 2XU calf compression sleeve.. just as I was finishing my last rep.. I felt a slight pull in my left calf, just a very slight one. I wasn't going really fast, about 5:00-5:25 pace.. & the slight pull stayed there throughout my warmdown run. When I was doing my stretching it was gone.. so I thought.. okay..
Maybe the biggest mistake happened on Wednesday. I went to the gym. I haven't lifted weights for about 3 weeks, & I decided to do the full body Spartacus workout, currently my favorite full body routine. I only managed to do 2 sets instead of the usual 3. The next day my body was sore all over. It was my rest day anyway, so I thought.. okay...
Then on Friday I was supposed to do about 8km tempo run. There was where I felt all the problems.. the slight pull on my left calf didn't go away.. the injury on my shin bone made a rerun, & I had a back pain. A back pain !!! I've never had those.. never, ever. I mean, during my runs la... So I cut short my program to just 4K of tempo. Then I went to play badminton.
& now. Sunday. Today I was supposed to do my long run, at least 16K. It was to be my last long run before the Putrajaya Nite Marathon. All the injury, sans the back injury, came back to haunt me. I couldn't even walk right. The walk back to the office from Masjid Putra took me half an hour. Slow by any standards.
Injury is not new to me. I've got injured before. I've had worse than this. But not with less than a week to my first half marathon, ever. Injury frustrates me. Even worse when U dunno what caused it. Was it the gym ? Was it becoz I decided not to wear my calf sleeves ? I tried not to rely too much on the sleeves. But it seemed now that I couldn't run without it. The last time I got injured bad.. was when I tried to break my 5K PR with my new Adizeros, without the calf sleeves. How's that ?
How do I fix this ? RICE ? With 6 days to go ? I wish I could just go to the hardware store, buy a new pair of legs, take this one off & bolt on the new one. I wish it was that easy. What I'm worried about is not getting enuff mileage before I do the race of my life. I mean, it's gonna be my 1st ever half marathon, of course it's a big thing to me. I know I can complete the run, but I dun wanna just complete it. I've got goals to achieve, targets to meet. & how would I know that this injury won't return during the race. It would've been worse.
All I want is to run pain-free. & I've been able to do just that for the past month or so. Why this injury choose this very moment to come back is really beyond my understanding.
Haih.... as strong as I am, there's only so much I can do. Right now even walking is painful, let alone running.
I hope I can fix this ASAP. Steroids anybody ?
Livestrong.
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