I got word last week that our division's long postponed badminton tournament will be continued next week. When I was in MOF, I played badminton regularly with my colleagues & the Treasury complex had excellent facilities..with rubber courts & adequate lighting. We also had regular tournaments & also friendly matches between sections & divisions. I'd even went for selection trials for the Treasury team, in which of course I wasn't selected. There was just too many good players around. I played in the doubles & I had a couple of very good regular partners.
So I decided to call up my old friends from MOF, asking if I could join them for some warm up games. Although it's just a very low-key tournament, as usual I take my sports very seriously & becoz the last game of badminton I played was in March I think, I need to at least play some pick up games. They didn't have any problems with my joining them, so I went to buy some shuttlecocks. I had 3 racquets, but only a couple was in good shape, including my favorite, the Wilson K-power, strung with Yonex BG66 (what else?) at 26 lbs tension. I had some good games, so I guess I'm prepared for the 24th. Not just that, I met my old friends & although it took me a couple of games to reboot my skills, it was all good. Good game.
Alternative fuel
Since I started running half marathons, I've been using energy gels as my main source of energy during training runs & of course racing. My favorite brand is GU gels, their chocolate-flavored gels tastes like real chocolates. In contrast, Powerbars' chocolate gels tastes like medicine. In choosing flavors & brands of fuel for your workout, it's absolutely important that you choose flavors that's palatable, so that you'll eat it. After 2 hours of running, you'll need something tasty at least. When I was cycling, I had no money to buy those gels, & my main fuel was a chocolate bar called Cloud 9. At 50 sen for the large bar, it was good enuff for me on long rides. Although I'd prefer bananas, chocolate bars are cheaper & lasts longer.
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| Alternative fuel |
This morning on my last LSD before Newton 25K next Sunday, I decided to fuel my run with another of my favorite chocolate, Choki-choki. Actually, I had 3 GU gels in my fridge, but I wanna use it for the race. So the only other alternative was Choki-choki. It's in gel form, but a lot smaller than those energy gels & I wasn't really sure about its nutrition content. But I had used Choki-choki to fuel my trekking expedition years back, where we trekked for almost 8 hours & I survived on those Choki-choki.
So off I went, & those Choki-choki worked, at least to some extend. If I had to take one energy gel every hour, with Choki-choki I had to take one every 45 mins. & I had to use a lot of water to chase it down, becoz it was thicker than the normal gels. But the cost, RM2.00 for 5 sticks of Choki-choki which can fuel me for 2 hours, compared to RM8 for one GU gel. I guess I'll be using Choki-choki mostly for my training runs...not races la.
Old friend
During my LSD run this morning, there was a cycling event going on, the Putrajaya Fun ride which happens monthly. During my 2nd lap, as I approached Palace of Justice, I saw a familiar face sitting on the kerb, in full cycling gear. & that familiar face was Suhaimi Keton, one of the country's top road cyclists from the 90s. He was really happy to see me, & me likewise. The last time I saw him was during last year's Asian Cycling Championships (ACC) which was held in Putrajaya...or was it in 2011? Of course I had to stop & talk to him, a lot of catching up to do. He now has a bike shop in Langat & he's coaching the local guys there. I told him how much I missed cycling, but becoz I had no bike, I just had to keep it to myself. He told me he'd met some of my old teammates from Selangor in a race last week.. I haven't met them for quite a while. He gave me his number, so that we can meet up later, maybe I can visit his shop one time.
Meeting old friends like him, talking about our common interests brings back old memories about cycling. How different it was then. I had a less than RM5000 bike & that bike brought me all over the country with the Selangor team, getting me into 2 SUKMAs & the SUKOM 98 & the Gemilang 2001 projects. These days RM5000 will only get you an entry level bike with aluminium frame & 105 groupset. My bike had a carbon main triangle with aluminium stays, aluminium forks & a mixed Shimano componentry from almost all groups. It's becoz it took me 4-5 years to built that bike, which started with a replica Colnago steel frame. Ask the kids from the current crop of cyclists about toeclips & straps pedals & they will probably scratch their heads, becoz these days the pedals are all clipless. Which makes me wanna laugh when my friends told me they had to practice using clipless pedals... these days pedals with toeclips & straps belong in the velodrome only. How things have changed.
Livestrong.
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