Orang kata..

Sejak kebelakangan ni…

Orang kata, aku dah makin kurus, muka dah sedikit cekung, macam orang tak sihat…
Orang kata, aku nampak macam stressed up, muka selalu masam mencuka…
Orang kata, aku dah tak ceria macam dulu, tiada lagi lawak-lawak bangang…
Orang kata, aku dah makin senyap, tiada lagi kedengaran hilai tawa pemecah suasana…
Orang kata, aku dah berubah, semakin berubah, semakin parah…

Apakah yang telah terjadi kepada aku?
Kenapakah aku jadi begitu?
Sejak bilakah orang mula perasan tentang perubahan pada diri aku?
Bagaimanakah dan apakah yang harus aku lakukan untuk kembali kepada keadaan asal ku yang lebih ceria, lebih sihat, lebih relax dan lebih gembira?

P/s: Amacam, best tak puisi tak senonoh yang aku reka cipta kat atas tu? Macam emotional gile je kan? Hahaha. Sebenarnya, aku cuma sekadar nak update blog je. Kuang kuang kuang…

Mixed Emotions...

The last time I cycled was at night with the Johor gang, doing 4 loops of 6km (3km flat + 3km climbing). I guess it was on last week Wednesday.

I think I improved a bit on the cycling, but still not yet up to the standard of these Johorians. Apa taknya, only on the first loop I managed to be in the peloton of 14 cyclists, averaging about 38km/h on the flat and roughly 25km/h while climbing. And then, as they started going into the second loop, masing-masing bukak enjin turbo. Zuuusssss… makan asap aku dibuatnya. So, starting from there, aku kayuh la sorang-sorang sambil berangan.

Punyalah boring bila kena tinggal dan terpaksa kayuh sorang-sorang di waktu malam. Sambil aku kayuh, mata asyik dok tengok kat speedometer je. Just to make sure how’s my performance. From second loop to third loop, my average speed was dropping. By the fourth loop, both of my legs started to get cramped.

After I finished with the-very-seciput-4 loops of cycling with slightly cramped legs, I joined one on the guy doing another 3km loop – this time, running! As soon as 100m, I got serious cramps. I was thinking to stop running and turned back to my car. But the guy asked me to run a bit slower. So I told him to keep up his own pace and keep on running, no need to wait for me. I don’t want him to sacrifice his training plan by slowing down his run because he’ll be joining the A’Famosa tri race that weekend. At the end, I did manage to finish the 3km run, alone of course. Rasa puas dapat habiskan 3km run tu, walaupun kaki dah sakit.

In my mind, rasa dah nak give up from these cycling or triathlon activities. I was thinking I won’t ever be stong like them and the others. I don’t see myself joining any triathlon race anywhere soon. I have not even built my main muscles yet. That was my emotion at that time – demotivated, down, disappointed with myself. But, the least I get from doing these sports is stress release. Keje kat ofis terlalu banyak and stressful. By doing some sports, at least kepala takdelah 24/7 fikir pasal kerja je.

On the other hand, there was A’Famosa triathlon race last weekend. As frequent blog reader myself, I would go and read those local triathlete’s blogs. Bila dah baca masing-masing punya cerita pasal race triathlon yang diorang sertai, naik pulak semangat nak start balik sukan-sukan endurance ni.

I really had mixed emotions. At first, rasa tak confidence untuk teruskan endurance sport ni. But now, rasa macam naik semangat pulak untuk ikut jejak langkah diorang. Entahlah, kita sama-sama tunggu dan lihat.

Ups and downs…

Ayoyo, it has been weeks since my last update on this blog. Here’s some quick recap on the activities happened after the weekend of the orange run until today.

The next weekend after my lanun orange run, I did my first solo ride. Couldn’t join Aini’s group at Putrajaya since I will be receiving guests on that day. So, on Saturday morning, I cycled from my house, passed over IKEA/IKANO, went up the fly over at LDP towards penchala link, climbed up the killing hills, went through the Penchala Link tunnel, went down to Hartamas exit and made the u-turn somewhere at the traffic light there. I guess it was almost 80% climbing effort all the way from my house to the u-turn point with an average speed of I don’t-know-how-slow-I-went, perhaps just around 18km/h, or less. Climbing is still my weakness. Bila la nak power nih?

On the way back from the u-turn point, revenge time! Most of the times turun bukit je, apa lagi? Tukar crank besar, belakang tukar gear kecik, terus belasah je la 45 to 50km/h inside the Penchala Link tunnel. Memang puas hati walaupun air hidung dah meleleh-leleh. The solo ride was only 16km ++, takde la jauh sangat but very the penat nak mampos. Firstly maybe sebab pagi tu tak makan apa-apa lagi, secondly maybe sebab I was still tired from the long drive from Johor to KL the night before. Tak cukup tidur kot.

On Sunday, terasa macam nak demam. Itchy throat. On Monday, terus kena demam panas for 3 days. Apa boleh buat, the body needed its rest. Layan je la telan antibiotic & ubat demam.

The next weekend after that, masih rasa tak berapa sihat. Actually niat asal nak buat another solo ride around Kota Damansara, tak pun solo run around Tropicana/Bandar Utama route. At the end, layan tido je on Saturday morning. Evening time, sempat jugak buat run sikit around my in-law house, perhaps around 6km je kot. Boleh la, untuk keluar peluh sedikit sebanyak. For me, that 6km ++ was still a little thing as I was hoping to run much further, at least 10km. Yet, when I told my in-laws about my running route, they asked me “Jauhnya lari. Tak rasa macam nak pengsan ke masa lari tadi?” I don’t know what will they say when I tell them one day I want to run a marathon (42km).

Last weekend, sempena labour day I took additional leave to go back to hometown. Visited my parents, lepak-lepak at home, chit-chat, shopping buah-buahan kat Pasar Siti Khadijah. It was a hot weekend over there, langsung tak hujan except on Saturday. Zero fitness training of course.

Continued my leave until Monday (yesterday). Today I did another ride with my office mate. He got a MTB (mountain bike) and has been eager to cycle with me. I brought my road bike to office, kept it in the car. At around 5.30pm, changed our gears, started kayuh from ofis. At first I was at the front, tengah sedap layan kayuh tiba-tiba bila pusing belakang tengok my friend dah hilang. Rupa-rupanya MTB dia ada problem with the chain, so kayuh sangkut-sangkut sikit. Afterwards, I just let him cycled in front of me, I just followed his pace slowly.

Ish, tobat tak nak buat dah keje separuh gile kayuh beskal time peak hours, especially kat jalan-jalan kat Johor ni. Ya ampun, driver kat sini korang sendiri mau ingat la. Diorang ni macam tak nampak atau buat-buat tak nampak je kitorang yang dok cycle kat tepi jalan ni. Few times jugak kitorang stop kat tepi jalan sebab terasa macam bahaya, especially bila bas lalu kat sebelah. So next time, no more cycling at peak hours. Or, we have to change our route.

Plan asal nak buat u-turn somewhere at the main road depan ofis dan pusing balik masuk ke area Taman Universiti Skudai, but then sebab kereta laju sangat dan banyak sangat, kitorang terpaksa lencong masuk ke arah Plus highway (Skudai). Tengah syok layan kayuh kat atas highway, tiba-tiba datang peronda lebuhraya dan dengan misainya yang cukup lebat pegawai polis tu stop kitorang dan bagitau kitorang yang sebenarnya takleh cycle kat atas highway. Terasa malu sekejap, terus kitorang patah balik masuk jalan biasa.

Another 5km back to office I ‘attacked’ on the flat road. Gian punya pasal, I tekan habis-habisan. Nak test power sikit. Maintained speed of almost 50km/h for few minutes, my friend dah jauh ketinggalan kat belakang. I felt quite strong today. Total of 22km that we did today was not as painful as when I did the 16km last time at Penchala Link.

Tomorrow night, will be joining the Johor gang for the night rider group. 3km flat + 3km climbing per loop, at which they normally do 5 loops. Last time I only did 3 loops. Hopefully this time boleh improve sikit on my climbing speed and total endurance. Doa-doakanlah ye, amin.