Run - Day 1

When I was at school, I did many types of sports which specializes hand skills more than leg skills such as volleyball, table tennis, handball, tennis and hockey. Being not so good at leg-related-sports, I would choose a position where I can use hands more than legs, for example I would choose to be the goal keeper if I were to play football. I enjoyed playing those sports for exercise more than for competition. I didn’t like to compete, I don’t know why. Sebab takut kalah kot.

Anyway, today marked the day where I started running, hopefully seriously from now onwards. I went to the gym where there’s a small indoor track that one has to do 10 laps to complete a 1 mile (1.6km) distance.

I told myself not to push so hard since today is my first day running. But, being so excited to start running and without knowing what the best pace is for me at this moment, I just ran quite aggressively. After 3 laps I felt like I was going to puke, couldn’t breath So, I walked for one lap. Then I ran again for a couple of laps, and walk, and ran, and walk again. At first I thought I recorded every running lap times with my IM Timex watch, but it turned out that I pressed the wrong buttons. Hampeh betul. Therefore, no record of running time for my first day. I finally stopped running when I got side stitch on the right side of my abdomen. Manyak sakit woo...

Result of Day 1 (Monday)
Distance: Hmm, in total maybe 2 miles (3.2km), with 75% running and 25% walking
Time: unknown
Max Heart Rate: macam nak gila!

One thing I noticed about the difference between cycling and running is, it is much harder to run compared to cycling. My heart rate went up to the max just after 2 laps. I felt like all blood was pumped up onto my head. Never mind, I’ll go slow and steady. There’s more room for improvement as long as I continue to train.

Oh ya, I am not going to stop cycling yet. In fact, after doing the 43km ride that day, I feel like I wanted to do more rides with greater distance. But, there’s no more cycling event coming up nearby my place in the near future that I can join. I’m thinking of doing some solo long distance ride during early morning of the weekends. Itupun kalau kuat semangat, paham-paham ajelah.

The Dehydrator memories

Here are some photos during my fun ride at The Dehydrator, yesterday.

Final preparation, eating Powerbar(s) inside the car.

This is what I ride, same age as me. Classic.

Nice...

Some of the racers & riders. Preparing for the flag off.

Do I look nervous?

This is after I finished my first 43km ride.

Enjoying watermelons during the lunch.

- The End -

Bike – Day 13 (The Dehydrator, Duncan, Oklahoma, USA)

Wow, what a day! I just returned from the 43km fun ride. I don’t know from where I should start my story. At this very moment I’m feeling pretty tired and sleepy, so if my story started to be a nonsense one, that means my fingers are typing with my eyes closed.

Yesterday I didn’t go cycling, I just went to pick up the fun ride packets and at night I ate a lot of foods. Terboroi sekejap, carbo loading punya pasal. Just when I wanted to shut down my laptop and go to sleep, someone YM-ed me. Oklah, layan kejap. At last, I slept at around 12am.

This morning, I woke up at 6am. Get prepared, eat lots of breakfast. Boroi lagi sekali. Loaded my bike inside the car trunk and by around 7.30am I arrived at the starting location. Its summer here and you can already feel the heat even at that early morning. Parked my car, and started to eat two Powerbars inside the car. One for each leg, I guess. Haha.

The first Powerbar tasted good. When I was about to finish the second bar, I felt weird. Overdosed power kot.

At 8am, the racers started their journey. We, the “riders” (fun ride) were flagged off 5 minutes later. I’m not really sure how many turned out this time, but they are lots of people with colourful jerseys and bikes. It made me felt very humble when looking at their Cervelos, Cannondales, Treks and lots of ntah-apa-brand-aku-pun-tak-tau. Some say there were around 500 people participated this year. Anyway, keeping my mind in the positive mode I started riding and followed the pack at the front. All the riders who are doing the 27, 53 and 69 miles had to go on the same route for about 15miles and then we the 27miles riders took different route. The first half of the route has lots of rolling hills, it was tough. Luckily my musuh tradisi, the headwind, was absent today. Thank God.

I tried to maintain medium-high cadence throughout the ride. My legs didn’t feel tired this time, breathing was controllable except for the time when I had to do standing climb up two of the very sharp hills. Speed was about 16-17km/h when I did the climbs, but there was one time I clocked 53.5km/h when going down a hill. It felt really good, rasa macam naik bullet train dua tayar.

I’m not sure why, but most of the times (after the first few miles) I rode alone. I didn’t get into any pack. Solo-molo je. I stopped once for a short break at 25km mark, teguk setengah botol Gatorade, and then continued cycling. Fortunate enough, after the 25km mark, the route was 70% flat.

I set my speedometer to see only current speed and average speed. And I depended on my IM Timex watch to see roughly how long have I cycled. Based on the average speed I was doing, I calculated that I could do this ride below 2 hours time. Then, after about 1.5hrs I came through a familiar location. Eh, dah nak sampai ke ni? I cycled a bit more and a few minutes later I arrived at the finishing point. YEAYY…! I finally finished it. Big smile was on my face.

Did some leg stretching, cooled down my self a bit and then I went to the pool for a relaxing few laps of swim. It’s like doing a reverse triathlon, haha. After that, I joined the others for lunch. I couldn’t eat much, just took one baked potato, a full plate of cold and juicy watermelons and lots of water.

During the lunch, I had a good chat with a 77-years old pakcik who also did the 27miles fun ride. He said he used to do 100miles ride few years back and he is going to enter a 50miles ride in October. Wa respect sama lu, pakcik!

As a conclusion, it was such a good experience to cycle with lots of people. I could see some cool bikes, great jerseys, young and old people having fun on their bikes, and I learned that it makes such a loud noise when one clip or unclip their cycling shoes. Furthermore, this is my first time. Good start, good ending, and hopefully more good things in the future of my sports life.

Result of Day 13 (Saturday)
Distance: 43km
Time: 1hr 39min
V Max.: 53.5km/h
V Ave.: 26.1km/h

So, what’s next?

I may need to slow down on cycling since I have to do some studying for my job training. I have two pre-requisite self-study courses to be completed before I go for a big training course in the middle of August. Kalau makan Powerbar, otak boleh jadi power tak?

Or, shall I start running? Cepat, cepat... sapa nak racun aku start running pulak?

Bike - Day 12

I almost put on my swimming gear and go to the gym to do some swimming. Instead, I thought I should push myself on the bike for another day, final day. So, put on my cycling gear, and off I went for cycling.

I tried to go for higher speed this time, choosing my normal route but shorter distance. It was not bad. Though there was moderate amount of headwind on my way back, I still managed to clock 27km/h ++ on the average speed. Very happy with that, I felt fast a bit. I felt good, my confidence level went up. I know it’s going to be tough to break this average speed record for the time being. Anyway, my fun ride on Saturday will be an endurance type for which I cannot push for high speed, but more on long distance. Hopefully this week’s mix of long distance and high speed trainings would do me just fine for this Saturday’s ride.

Result of Day 12 (Thursday)
Distance: 14.2km
Time: 30 min
V Max.: 43.7km/h
V Ave.: 27.8km/h

Once arrived home, did some cooling down and stretching. I then fell asleep on the chair in sitting position for few minutes, and upon waking up I walked to the room macam orang mabuk dan terus mati katak kat atas katil selama sejam.

Tomorrow will be a cycling-free day for me, time to go collect the packets from the organizer. Perhaps, I may do some easy swimming at the gym too.

P/s: Did you notice something? My blog entries are getting shorter and shorter, aren’t they? I think my strategy of channelling some energy from my fingers to the legs is working now! Haha.

Bike - Day 11

My morale is low and going down now.

What can I expect after 11 days cycling? Am I expecting too much from myself? I think so.

Ironically, I was talking with my good friend about how bad an “over-expectation” can do to one self, especially in a relationship. Expectation is good at certain limit, and when it’s over the limit it will start to harm our mental or feeling. Imagine parents expecting too much from their children’s education, and imagine a husband expecting too much from the wife, or vice versa. Relationship may be at a risk.

But, what if you expect so much from yourself? What damage might it cause?

I almost cancelled my cycling today. In the office at 3pm, I was thinking whether should I rest or should I cycle today. If according to plan, I should train from Monday till Thursday, and then rest on Friday to be ready for Saturday morning fun ride. The mental-war has started. Not wanting to loose to negative thoughts in the brain, I opened up mapmyride website, tried to look for another route nearby my apartment. Being forced by my own self expectation, I was thinking to push harder and faster and further. I found a 25km route and I told myself, "Just Belasah It!!"

But, my physical ability hasn’t reached that high level yet. So, at last I have to surrender with only 19.2km today. The effect, now I have less confidence in myself to do the 43km fun ride as compared to when I registered for it. A friend told me to just enjoy the ride and just finish it.

But, I want more than “just finish it” thingy. I want to become faster. At the end, I think in making the best self expectation, one should balance between target and capability. That means more training for sure.

Result of Day 11 (Wednesday)
Distance: 19.2km
Time: 43 min
V Max.: 45.8km/h
V Ave.: 26.4km/h

I hope my Discovery Channel jersey can help make my bicycle go faster. Kalau sehelai jersey tak cukup power, nanti aku pakai 3 helai jersey sekaligus baru dia tau... hahaha

Bike - Day 10

Blog: Hi, how are you doing? How was your cycling today?

Me: Not bad, but not so good. I followed yesterday’s route, but this time I did slightly longer distance. I’m experimenting with my body to see how to conserve energy better while I’m climbing the rolling hills. Yesterday, I did few standing climbs and my thigh muscles were badly burnt out. Today, I decided to shift down to smaller gear and just do sitting climbs. I don’t know whether this is the best method, but at least today I felt better. But I still couldn’t increase my average speed so much.

Blog: Good to hear that. But, why do you look so restless and tense now? Are you worried about something? Are you tired?

Me: Yeah, tired a bit. I’m searching for something which I couldn’t find since 2 hours ago.

Blog: What is it? Maybe I can help you.

Me: I’m searching for ideas of what to write for today’s blog entry… hehehe

Result of Day 10 (Tuesday)
Distance: 20.5km
Time: 45 min
V Max.: 47.3km/h
V Ave.: 26.9km/h

Feeling tired today, off to bed now.

Bike - Day 9

Cycling alone is bad enough, and having to face the headwind during cycling is even worse. I guess I have to learn to love the headwind as much as I love the tailwind, so that whenever I have to face the headwind my legs will enjoy the burning feeling.

As I wanted to step out from the office, I can see some black clouds out there. Hmm, this is good, no hot sun today. Then, when I saw the flags waving wildly in front of the office entrance I know I will be in trouble if I were to cycle today. The wind was quite strong. Anyway, I don’t want to loose to this small obstacle.

So, after analysing the wind direction I choose a totally different route this time so that I won’t get pancit awal-awal. It was fun to be able to keep an average speed of 30km/h, at least for the first half of the ride. But on the way back, man oh man… the headwind welcomed me. Macam dah takde alasan lain, headwind, headwind, headwind. Then I know I just have to forget about my plan to do some speed work today. By the way, I still managed to break my personal average speed record.

Result of Day 9 (Monday)
Distance: 18.6km
Time: 41 min
V Max.: 45.1km/h
V Ave.: 26.8km/h

Should I stop blogging and shift the energy from my fingers to my legs instead?
Think about it, if I can do blind typing very fast, can I do blind-cycling fast too?
I’d like to try it one day... hehehe.

One more stroke…

Today is the hottest day in this week, I guess. Luckily I’ve planned not to cycle today. Instead, I went for a dip in the pool at the gym. It’s been more than two weeks since I last visited the gym either for spinning, running, swimming or some iron-pumping work out.

It was a bit disappointing since they put the swimming lines to cross over the width of the pool. Maybe because it is Sunday. Normally the swimming lines would be set on the 25m length, not the width. Anyway, I just swam as much as I could within 45minutes. Didn’t bother to check how far I swam since I don’t know how long the width of the pool is.

But one thing for sure attracted my attention when I was resting by the pool was, when one grandma talked to her granddaughter just besides me. I think the grandma was supporting her granddaughter who seemed to be struggling. I don’t know the full conversation between her and her grandchild, but these few lines of words really stuck in my mind until now.

“There’s one lady who was 5 miles away from the shore. She had no choice but to swim, or else she will be drowned. So, she started to swim one stroke after another. “One more stroke, one more stroke, one more stroke”, she told herself.”
“She knew she couldn’t swim for 5 miles, but she just focus on what she can do, to swim one more stroke after another. At last she arrived at the beach safely.”
“You see, sometimes we just have to focus on one little thing that we can do in order to achieve a bigger goal.”

That was a good lesson for me as well, indeed.

Watching movie alone

Last night I went to watch Ratatouille. I went there by myself since my housemate hasn’t come back from shopping yet. The movie should start at 9.40pm.

9.25pm: I arrived at the cinema and bought one ticket.
9.30pm: Entered theatre number 4. Nobody’s inside. Hmm, this is quite weird. Well, I seated myself in the middle of the cinema. It is a free sitting cinema, sit wherever you like.
9.40pm: The trailers started. I wondered why there’s nobody else entering the cinema. Maybe they prefer to enter later. “Nevermind”, I told myself.
10.00pm: The movie started. “Eh, aku sorang je ke kat dalam panggung wayang ni? Biar benar.”
11.45pm: Movie ended. I can see only ME came out from the cinema.

Memang sahih aku tengok wayang sorang-sorang.

Bike - Day 8

Today I went to a bicycle shop to get my saddle changed. I mean, to buy a new well-padded saddle. The one that I have originally with the old bicycle is very hard and stiff. Often made my bums get numbed. Together with that saddle, I got myself a Discovery Channel racing jersey too. It is made in Italy, Nike brand, combination of blue and white colours, nice fabric. I’m happy to have bought the jersey. I wanted to buy that jersey since the first time I saw it on my first visit to that shop last month. But now, when I open my wallet and see inside it, I feel like tears are starting to come out from my eyes. Looks like there will be no more cycling-related-shopping for me until I get my new salary. Maybe I should also start my no-money-diet. Diet is good for health, right?

“Tu lah, sapa suruh gatal tangan pegi beli cycling jersey tu!? Tengok orang lain pakai dah la.”

Returning home from the bicycle shop with smiling face, I went out to cycle again. This time, I tried a totally different route, the shortest so far. I wanted to test whether the new saddle gives better comfort to my bums. If it does, at least I won’t feel so bad spending money for it. So far so good, thank goodness. My bums didn’t get numb as much as it normally did. By the way, this time the route was lots of flat roads, and headwind was not a factor for today. And no, I didn’t wear the Discovery Channel jersey yet. Sayang wooo..!

Result of Day 8 (Saturday)
Distance: 12.7km
Time: 28 min
V Max.: 42.4km/h
V Ave.: 27.2km/h

Hmm, maybe the formula for being fast on your bike is flat roads, no headwind, and to buy yourself a new cycling jersey… hahaha.

Bike - Day 7

I don’t really know what I am doing now, but yesterday I registered myself for the 27 miles (43.5km) which is going to be held next Saturday. It’s a kind of charity rides plus they also arranged a race event simultaneously for those race-maniacs. So, can I do the 43km? Of course I can because I’ve registered myself for it. But, CAN I FINISH IT?

This is a tough question for me at this moment. Based on my daily cycling routine, I am still far from reaching 43km. Though I have the not-so-detail-map, I have not much clue yet of how the fun ride route is. Hilly? Flat? I hope there will not be so much of hilly roads. And since the ride starts at 8am, hopefully there will be no headwind in the morning.

However, being registered for the ride gave me extra inner strength to prove to myself that I can go further. I am happy with my ride yesterday. I took the same route on the way to the pit stop, only this time I took the longer way back home. It gave me a little bit of extra mileage. You can see how much headwind could affect your speed. The headwind was not as strong as the day before, allowing me to push slightly faster. Notice the higher average speed? Here’s the result.

Result of Day 7 (Friday)
Distance: 22.7km
Time: 51 min
V Max.: 40.8km/h
V Ave.: 26.7km/h

Yeay! I’ve passed the 20km barrier after 7th cycling day. It’s a big achievement for a small beginner like me. Next target, I want to pass the 1hour cycling time barrier. Sikit-sikit lama-lama jadi bukit. Future target, break the sound barrier... muahahahaa.

Bike - Day 6

“So, I have good news for you. After finishing your training here, you will be spending around 6 months training at our facility in Dallas before you go home. Now, we have to speed things up a little bit here, okay! There’s a lot of things you guys have to learn here.” My boss told me this yesterday during a late evening meeting for which I had to cancel my cycling routine.

WHAT!? Am I dreaming? I was hoping so much that the good news would be to let us go back to Malaysia next week or next month. I thought it’ll be sunny until evening, who knows it rained in the afternoon. I guess I have to celebrate Raya alone again this year. Well, There Will Be No Success Without Discipline & Sacrifice, right?

Therefore, today I put some extra effort on my ride. If looking at the result alone, it is not that impressive as compared to any other days. But, I know I pushed a bit harder today since I have to cycle against the strong headwind again as I was cycling back to the apartment. I set my speedometer to see only current speed and average speed. Looking at average speed as my benchmark for today's ride. From home to the pit stop, I managed to keep average of 30.2km/h (no headwind). One the way back, I can see the average speed is going down and down and down. Kepala angin punya penangan la ni.

Result of Day 6 (Thursday)
Distance: 19.5km
Time: 45 min
V Max.: 44.0km/h
V Ave.: 25.7km/h

The good thing is, I don’t feel so tired today. Maybe because I was rested yesterday, or maybe because today I swallowed extra bar-of-power, hehe. I have until this Saturday to decide and register myself for the fun ride on July 28th. I was contemplating whether I should do 10miles or 27miles. But, after today’s ride, the confidence to do 27miles is starting to show its face to me.

Multi-lingualistic-ability

This post is dedicated to those who’s having hard time to master a foreign language, be it English, Japanese, Korean, or whatever. I want to share some tips here, but bear with me for a while because there’s always a story before morale of the story. Hehe…

I remember during my school time, I didn’t really like language subjects, be it English or Bahasa Melayu. My SPM result for Bahasa Melayu in fact was lower than my English, shame on me. Anyway, I took language for granted as I thought language is only a language.

However, upon being given the chance to do higher education out of the country, automatically means that I have to depend on my English capability more than just a language. By then, I noticed that my everyday life depended so much on how well I can communicate in English, especially during lectures. To cut story short, I survived few years there and after returning to home country with a passport-to-get-a-job in hand, Alhamdulillah I got a fairly decent job in a Japanese multinational company.

There are few Japanese staffs in the office. Even my boss is a Japanese (who likes to karate leher orang tanpa was-was. Ingat seronok sangat ke kena karate ni?). Roughly 50% of my time in the office I cannot help it other than have to listen to my boss having phone conversations in Japanese language, Nihon-go. He was seated just 3 steps away from me, and he may karate me if I cover my ears with my hands. So, new language is entering my brain a little bit day by day.

One day, my boss asked me to go for long term training in Japan. Can I say NO? Nak mampus? So, a man got to do what a man got to do, hehe. I boarded a flight from KLIA at 11pm, and by 5am in the next morning I was already breathing Japan’s air. My initial excitement of being in Japan for the first time was destroyed completely when I can’t understand what people speaks, I can’t understand what are written, and I can’t say what I wanted to say. Everything has to be done in Nihon-go, and I never learned that language before. For those who know only a little bit about Japanese people, trust me, most of them don’t like English!

I was firstly sent for a 6 weeks express Nihon-go class, just enough to cover for beginner level. But, I have to live in Japan for one full year. Was it tough? Yes it was. The teachers didn’t speak English at all in the classroom. 80% will be taught in Nihon-go, 10% by the assistance of drawing on the white board, and another 10% by bahasa isyarat. Anyway, it was fun to learn a new foreign language. I had a very fun 6 weeks in Osaka. Maybe partly because I managed to be the best student in the classroom by the end of the days, after all the hard work of memorizing everything I learnt.

After completing the 6 weeks Nihon-go lesson, I was sent to my real training plant, far away from Osaka. There, I was by myself. This time I had to do self-learning, or else I won’t be able to read the documents or communicate with the colleagues there. If I can’t communicate or read, how on earth can I do the job training? Ktung ktang ktung ktang, one year period was over and I was able to converse in Nihon-go pretty well, and made some good friends with the Japanese colleagues too.

Back in home country, I speak in Nihon-go with my Japanese boss, and he speaks in English with me. Macam ayam dengan itik, tapi dua-dua boleh faham. Can you imagine that?

So, here comes the list of some tips that I discovered while I was learning English and Japanese. They worked for me. Hopefully this will help you to master a foreign language faster.

1) Memorization. Language requires lots of memorization. The grammars, the vocabs. This one is a no escape, must work hard on memorizing. Reading, listening and speaking will do a good deal in helping you to memorize better.
2) Imitation. Imitation means you follow how other people speak. By doing this, you will appear as fluent as the person you imitate. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself. I always observe and imitate those Japanese when they speak. So, you will know the lenggok bahasa and the words they use when they talk on the phone, when they make jokes, when they are having meeting and so on and so forth. In each situation the lenggok bahasa is different. And that is important too!
3) Imagination. I personally believe that the ultimate way to put you at the top of mastering a foreign language is to always imagine in that language. People say “cakap dalam hati” or talking in your head. For me, cakap dalam hati means we are processing the thoughts, i.e. thinking. So, try to think in the foreign language as much as you could. Train your brain to think in that specific foreign language rather than your mother tongue language. Don’t be surprised if one day you will be automatically saying “Opss, oh no!” rather than “Opocot mak kau!”

Good Luck!

Something about deejay...

Have you ever wake up as early as 4.30am in the morning, and drive to your work place, then at 6am sharp you start talking by yourself in front of the microphone, with a big headset hanging on your head, and you keep on making jokes upon jokes while playing the songs, and answering phone calls, then talk and talk again until the clock shows 10am? Plus, can you do it everyday from Monday to Friday???

Difficult to imagine, huh?

When I was young, I used to listen to radio just because of all the hit songs they play. Never ever have I thought who’s “behind” the radio. Deejays in the old times normally have this kind of same voice, macho-style. But now, my perception about radio deejays changed a lot.

Normally, I listened to the radio when I drove to work from home to P.J. As early as 6.45am I can hear the deejay in her best state of life, laughing and cheering up everybody in Malaysia, wishing a good morning and a good day ahead. I wonder how she (my favourite female Malay deejay) could be so happy and energetic every single morning she’s on air. Came to my mind, “Doesn’t she ever have any problems in her life? Personal problems, work problems or relationship problems???”

I think normal people would easily be affected or disturbed when they have some kind of problems, especially in the morning. You can easily tell from the face and from the mood. If one day your colleague entered the office with no smile on his/her face, at that very instant you can tell that your colleague is having or have had a problem prior to coming to work. If you accidentally ask wrong questions, silap haribulan pelempang singgah ke muka.

What about if you work as a deejay? Can you keep up your happy-go-lucky and cheerful mood in the morning if you just had a big problem the night before that? How strong can your mind control your emotion? Is this a part of being a professional, where you have to ignore everything about your emotion and let your mind take over everything? For normal people like us who work in the office, that may not be so tough since we do not have to make jokes or be cheerful early in the morning while doing our job. We can sit down in our cubicle without anyone else knowing what we are doing. But, being a deejay who has to talk through the mic and everybody in the country is listening live on air, how to hide your bad emotion if you have one? I guess one must have a very strong mind & heart, positive attitude and a very deep love with the job.

If I ever have a chance, I would like to interview my favourite deejay…

P/s: I have a good friend, everybody calls him DJ though he is a medical doctor…

Bike - Day 5

Today was a very kepala angin day. No, no, it’s not about wind in my head, and not about somebody made me mad or angry. It’s about the headwind. Headwind was blowing quite strongly right to my face while I cycled today. Now I can appreciate the reason why people like to drag behind other cyclist. Just imagine, due to the headwind I only managed (macam nak pengsan) to keep constant speed of about 25km/h on flat road. While on the way back where the headwind changed to tailwind due to me facing backwards to the wind, I managed to cruise at a steady speed of 35km/h. Such a big different huh?

Yeah rite! Big different konon. Those cyclists who are reading this entry might be laughing like they never laughed before.

Though feeling not so happy with today’s result, I will still put it down here so that more people can have more reasons to laugh at my performance. Hehehe.

Result of Day 5 (Tuesday)
Distance: 15.7km
Time: 37 min
V Max.: 41.7km/h
V Ave.: 25.6km/h

I still have doubt whether I can do the 27miles for the fun ride next Saturday… in serious mental problem now.

My Biking Routine

This is normally what it looks like for my ride every evening. (Chart is not to scale) Picture quality is not so good, so i will help your visualisation by some texts.

On the most left is my house.
"la la la la laa..."
"hmmm.. bukit sudah mari"
"GO! GO! GO!"
Going down the hill "yeay..."

After the U-turn point, heading back home..
"Oh, no! Not the climb."
"Gulp, legaa.. turun bukit"
"Not again!!"
Upon arriving home.. "Help me.. help me.."

So bola2api, who's chart is more canggih now??

Bike - Day 4

After having an over resting days on Saturday & Sunday, I tried to cycle again today. DISASTER!! My legs felt weak even to keep a constant speed of 25km/h, and my spirit went down drastically. “Tu lah, sapa suruh rest lama-lama”. In spite of feeling excited because today I’m wearing my new cycling shorts and long sleeve tight shirt (to avoid sun burn to the arms) which I bought on Saturday, I felt demotivated to continue cycling. My physical exhaustion is brain-washing me. Is this normal for a beginner?

At first, I planned to cover a longer distance than what I did on Day 3. But halfway through, I almost decided to make a u-turn and call it a day. But, the legs still kept on moving. ”Just a little bit more”, I told my self. Looking at the speedometer, I was only doing around 30 to 33km/h on flat road and it dropped to 25km/h or below on a bit hilly long climb. Even when going down the hill, I couldn’t go faster than 38km/h. I just couldn’t. And as usual, the double small hills were waiting on my way back to the apartment. This time, I switched to smaller gear (tak tau lah gear no berapa, tapi tayar belakang tu ada 6 gear), I was on the 5th gear counting from the smallest one. Paddled as fast as I could, trying to keep above 20km/h on both climbs. Sampai rumah terus terpengsan setengah jam kat atas sofa.

Result of Day 4 (Monday):
Distance: 15.5km
Time: 35 min
V Max.: 42.7km/h
V Ave.: 26.7km/h

When I realised that I did faster than the other days, I was able to smile a bit just before my body switched to its hibernate mode…

My rides on Day 1, 2 & 3

Last week, I managed to borrow a very old ride bike. It’s a 1978’s Fuji! I told my boss that I wanted to join a 27miles fun ride, so he happily lent me that bike which he doesn’t use anymore. I am much happier that he is, I got a bike, woohooo!

On last Tuesday (Day 0), I started my very first ride. Prior to that, I need to buy some basic stuff for the bike and for my ride like a helmet, gloves, speedometer & water bottle. With a very strong spirit (but very weak leg muscles) I rode my way down the road. At first, the speedometer was not functioning for i-don’t-know-what’s-the-reason. Punya penat kayuh laju-laju, meter tak jalan. I was a bit disappointed. At the pit stop, I godek-godek that speedometer, opened up the battery cover and put it back. And out of a sudden voilla, it worked! Then I cycled back to apartment with smiling face. “Okay, that was a good warm up”, I said to myself.

The next day (Day 1), I tried a different route. Further than Day 0 route. Speedometer was running good, legs were full with motivation. The sun was so hot on that day. I targeted to make a pit stop under a flyover bridge located not so far so that I can get some shades from the burning sun. then, I cycled back to my apartment from the pit stop, but this time the energy level was already below zero. In addition, there’s a hill I need to climb before I reached home. Tried my best, keeping in mind only one thing; “Biar kayuh slow asal tak turun beskal”. With that, here is the result of Day 1:
Distance: 14.3km
Time: 34 min
V Max.: 42km/h
V Ave.: 25km/h

On Day 2 (Thursday) , I took another different route which gave me slightly further distance from the day before. With the help of Powerbar (yummy), I managed to do better:
Distance: 17.5km
Time: 40 min
V Max.: 45.8km/h
V Ave.: 25.9km/h

Result of Day 3 (Friday):
Distance: 19.2km
Time: 43 min
V Max.: 41.4km/h
V Ave.: 26.4km/h

I’m too tired to write long for my Day 3, sorry.
I treated myself with a very good rest on Saturday and Sunday, enjoying Harry Potter & Transformers (again) at the movie, and blogging!

New hobby begins...

To keep myself occupied after the working hours, normally I would go to the gym to do some exercises to regain my stamina and simply to keep fit. But, I’m not that type of body builder. I’m still far away from having muscles like that. Initially, I did some running on the treadmill. After 10 minutes of running, “Hampeh, I haven’t got that bionic legs yet”. Then, I tried some spinning, “Hmm, this is not bad at all. But, there’s no wind blowing to the face, not so fun”. And sometimes I would dip myself in the pool and do some own-style swimming while struggling to keep breathing. That’s basically my routine at the gym, 30-45 minutes per day – simple.

At the same time, I’ve been reading my ex-schoolmate’s blog for quite some time. She’s doing triathlon now back at home country. She started by running, then she bought herself a road bike, entered some duathlon events in running-cycling-running stuffs, joined long distance cycling events, and now she’s training hard with her swimming and soon I guess she will participate in a triathlon.

I am impressed with her strong spirit, in spite of being a full-time-working-mother-of-three; she still manages to find time to train hard, and challenged herself in the tough competitions. Furthermore, she started from ground zero. Reading her blogs and her friends’, I feel inspired to do the same thing. I haven’t done anything like that before. I never did any endurance sports. At school, I used to play volleyballs, tennis, hockey or ping-pong, those fast paced sports where you need an opponent to compete with. And since I am here alone (literally), I might try doing the run-bike-swim stuff as well. Let’s see how far I can go.

Why not, right?

Heaven

[Sorry guys, just got this message from Youtube: This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Avex Entertainment, Inc.]

This lovely song is sang by Hamasaki Ayumi. The lyrics (in Japanese & English) are listed below if you want to sing along with her.

Heaven - Hamasaki Ayumi

Saigo ni kimi ga hohoende (What you offered straight to me) Massugu ni sashi dashita mono wa (With a smile for the last time) Tada amarini kirei sugite (Was just so beautiful) Koraekirezu namida afureta (That I gave way to tears)

Ano hi kitto furari wa (Surely, that day) Ai ni fureta (The two of us touched love)

Watashitachi wa sagashiatte (We sought for each other) Tokini jibun o miushinatte (Lost ourselves at times) Yagate mitsukeatta no nara (And found each other at last) Donna ketsumatsu ga matte ite mo (So whatever result may be waiting for us)

Unmei to iu igai (It's nothing but) Hoka ni wa inai (Destiny)

La la la la la la la la la la La la la la la la la la la la

Kimi ga tabidatta ano sora ni (In the sky you set out for) Yasashiku watashi o terasu hoshi ga hikatte (Stars are shining tenderly upon me)

Chorus: Soba ni ite aisuru hito (Stay by my side, my love) Toki o koete katachi o kaete (Crossing over time and changing your shape) Futari mada miru mirai ga koko ni (You see? The future we haven't yet seen) Nee konnanimo nokotteru kara (Remains here like this)

Soba ni ite aisuru hito (Stay by my side, my love) Toki o koete katachi o kaete (Crossing over time and changing your shape) Futari mada miru mirai ga koko ni (The future we haven't yet seen) Nokotteru kara (Remains here)

Shinjite aisuru hito (Trust me, my love) Watashi no naka de kimi wa ikiru (You live within me) Dakara kore kara saki mo zutto (So I'll never) Sayonara nante iwanai (Say goodbye to you)

Ano hi kitto futari wa (Surely, that day) Ai ni fureta (The two of us touched love)

First Article

Hello World Wide Web!

I almost cannot believe myself that I’m writing this blog for the very first time. Remember when we were at school? The teacher would ask us to write an essay with the title “the pros and cons of A vs B”, e.g. staying in hostel vs. at home, etc. I’ve been thinking a lot about this kind of essay inside my mind, which holds the title “To blog vs. not-to-blog”. It’s been a few weeks of brain-crushing doing all sorts of analysis, comparisons & surveys, and looks like I’ve completed my essay. Yeay!

My main two hobbies are sports and observing human’s behaviour. One is the thing that I do to keep my body fit, while the other is to keep the most valuable organ one could have fit – the brain. Thus, this blog is created to provide a small space for me to write about these hobbies of mine, and perhaps any other things that may come across my mind.

To be honest, I’m not quite good at talking by myself one-directionally as writing a letter or doing this blog. I prefer to chat or talking thru the phone. However, I will try my best to imagine that you are smiling while reading this blog. At least, that makes me happy to blog more, I hope.

So, sit back and enjoy reading!