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.