Thursday, April 30, 2009

Tagged again - Trivia

Months ago, I was tagged via the Facebook from Makcik Power to which I had no time to respond immediately. Today, as the last working day of the week (yeay, tomorrow is holiday!!!), I had this urge to do some blog updating.

The tag goes like this, enjoy!

Three names I go by:
1. Nik (the casual/normal call name I prefer people calling me)
2. Nik Fa (some friends from old school used to call me like this, as there were few other Nik(s))
3. EnAikAY (my ‘online’ name)

Three jobs I have had in my life:
1. Dish washer/cleaner (only for two days)
2. R&D Engineer
3. Mechanical/manufacturing engineer in Oil n Gas field
(Hmm, suddenly I feel like I’m updating my resume)

Three places I have lived:
1. Manchester, England, UK – 5 years
2. Tsuyama, Okayama, JAPAN – 1 year
3. Duncan, Oklahoma, USA – 9 months

Three TV shows that I watch:
1. Air Crash Investigation (from National Geographic channel)
2. How Do They Do It (from Discovery Channel)
3. Mega Structures (from National Geographic channel)

Three places I have been:
1. The Pyramid of Giza, Nile River & Alexandria, in Egypt
2. Disneyland Paris, France
3. Songkhla, Thailand

Three people that IM/email me regularly:
1. Work colleagues (for a very obvious reason of course – work!)
2. Some good friends from old school
3. Dr. Mercola (I don't know who you are but you such a die-hard spammer. Go away and stop sending me email laahhh!!!!!)

Three memorable movies:
1. Thunderbolt, starring Jackie Chan (for my interest in rally-style driving)
2. Rambo I, II, III & IV, starring Sylvester Stallone (I wish to have a body like him)
3. Pretty Woman, starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts (Yes, I like to watch romantic-comedy)

Three people that text (sms) me regularly:
1. My wife
2. Triathletes friends here in JB
3. Maxis (Don’t you know that I’m not interested with all that SMS contests, huh?)

Three of my favorite foods:
1. Roasted lamb
2. Roasted chicken
3. Anything to do with chicken or lamb

Three of my favorite desserts:
1. Watermelon
2. Other fruits would be OK too
3. I’m not so fancy about dessets, so I can't think of anything else

Three things I would like to do (a.k.a. I can dream on!):
1. Pilot an aeroplane or helicopter
2. Drive a rally car/become a rally driver
3. Ironman Triathlon (Are you out of your mind Nik?)

Three things I am looking forward to:
1. Bring my family for holiday once in a while
2. More triathlon and marathon races
3. Digital SLR camera, HP Mini laptop and Nokia E63 handphone
(Gosh, if only I can afford them all)

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Ouch!

On an attempt to do a run yesterday evening, I felt a pain at the center of the chest, internally, somewhere near the lungs.

Yes, I did a mistake by not fueling up the tummy with anything since my lunch at 12 noon, for which I thought the pain was due to a super empty stomach. But the pain was just weird, never that I felt that kind of pinching sensation in the lung area while running. I'm totally sure it was not becuase I was out of breath. Was it heart burn? Well, I can't tell because I don't remember having a gastric.

Knowing that my tummy was empty and the weather was not that shady, I fueled up with half a bottle of plain water for hydration prior to the run. Not long after, I felt hungry, and then I felt super hungry, and moments later the pinching pain came to the stomach, and then to the chest.

20 minutes into the run, I turned back to my car to finish up the remaining half bottle of plain water I kept in the car. I really thought I was just super hungry, and secretly hoping the water would help ease up the pain. I then continued running, slightly still in pain.

As for body check - the legs were OK, breathing was not so bad, and I was mentally fresh and motivated to start training for marathon. But, it was the pain that kept on psycho-ing me to stop the run.

My intention to run 1 hour yesterday, ended up with a 45 minutes one. Well, better than nothing.

If weather permits, I will try to run again today evening and see whether the body condition has improved.

I hope it does.

Monday, April 27, 2009

How Ironic

I remember when I was growing up in the village (yes, saya berasal dari kampung), our mothers or grandmothers or great great great grandmothers would always ask us to put on the blanket up to the neck when we got fever so that it would make us sweat and get rid of the high body temperature.

In the modern medication world, the doctors would ask those who have fever to take cold shower, or to wipe the body with iced-cold napkin, or to lower down the air condition temperature in the ward, so that our body temperature decreases the soonest possible.

Hmm, how ironic it is. I tried to think.

I was out of the office (better terms rather than "taking emergency leave") for three days last week, sleeping in the ward room of the Damansara Specialist Hospital to accompany my dearest daughter who fell sick, thus my hiatus from the bloghosphere arena for a week. Monday to Wednesday I was in the ward room, Thursday and Friday was busy-gile-nak-mampus at the office to recover the piled up works.

That was how I spent my last week, roughly speaking.

Thank goodness, after 6 days staying in the prestigious hospital (where the bill amount is higher than the building itself), my daughter was discharged last Saturday and is recovering well at home with dearest wifey, Alhamdulillah.

Now that I'm back to my normal life routine, I hope to be able to start the necessary training for my first attempt of a 42km run, i.e. full marathon which is going to take place in a mere 2 months from now. Or, 9 weekends from now, or 61 days to be more precise.

To be frank, I don't have any detailed training plan from today till the race day. With the target just to finish the run within cut off time injury free, my plan is to peak myself (i.e. to be able to run 3 hours at least) by the middle of next month, if it is not too late prior to the race day since I still need to do the tapering as well.

Oh gosh, I'm so clueless now. But, what concerns me now for the race day are:

1) Where am I going to do my Subuh prayer on the race day? The run will start at 5am, and I'm not sure whether there will be suitable places for me to perform my morning prayer during the run. Feel free to throw in advices if you have any.

2) With who am I going to carpool? I don't have the luxury of having more than one car in KL (wifey may need to be using the car), plus I don't really know how to drive to the starting point, plus I'm the type of person that if I'm going to have to wake up at 3am in the morning by myself, and to drive without knowing exactly where to go in KL for the sake of running 42 km for the first time in my life, I know it is very unlikely that it is going to happen. Hahaha...

Actually I have more concerns about this marathon, it's only that I'm not sure what am I really concerning about. Actually I'm scared because I have not started any training yet

It's good to have idea of what to blog about be back.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Kenyir Tri Result Is Out

And I got 37th placing in my age category (out of 49 participants).

(Time shown as: Swim, T1, Bike, T2, Run, Total Time)

And WOW, the new look of triathlonmalaysia website is superb!!! Great job.

And WOW, I've registered myself for the forth coming Desaru Long Distance Triathlon on 1 Aug 2009.

Cari penyakit lagi aku ni...

Re-start

As you have read in my last entry, I was feeling so unfit that I could not even run a straight 36minutes. Not really sure of why and how it happened, I take it as the body is doing what nature has set it to be, or do. Human is not a super being anyway, so we might be so fit one day, and end up sneezing non-stop or having running nose the other day. Normal stuff.

Making sure I do not push my self too much and too quickly, I followed the Wednesday night ride at the back, alone this time. The speed demons were much further at the front, and I don’t mind it at all. They are very strong cyclists, I know. I just cycled as comfortable as my breathing would allow me to. And yet, I still got a catch of cramps on my calves when doing the second lap. How unfit I was.

I kept on paddling until I completed 5 loops (30km total), with a slight posture change as I was using the aero bars (Yeay, how happy I was to have an aero bars on my bike that night, I was smiling while cycling. Imagine that! Hahaha). It was not so comfortable at first and I was not sure whether I was in the right position to cycle with aero bars, but I hope with more mileage on the bars, it would become second nature to me.

Yesterday, I did another run. Much more improved as compared to Tuesday. At least, I could run non-stop for 40 minutes. With an unfit condition like now, 40 minutes felt like hours. I was not feeling satisfied with my running performance yesterday when more and more people overtook me on the run, but I know I should not go all out when I’m still coughing and having migraines now and then. But it was good to be able to get drenched with sweat again.

I feel like I’ve pressed the RESTART button on my body. Everything needs to be started again. The fitness training, the motivation, the emotion.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Sick of running

No, I’m not fully recovered from the flu and coughing yet, but yesterday evening it was so shining and bright (read: no rain) that I couldn’t resist the temptation to go out for a little run at the normal place, Garden. It’s been nearly 2 full weeks where I did not do much of endurance activities.

My head still felt heavy as I made my first steps on the tarmac. Each pounding steps from the foot delivered a vibration sense to my head. Dizzy all over.

10 minutes into the run, my breathing was already out of control. It’s the first sign of how unfit I have turned into. So, I walked a bit. And when I have regained control on the breathing, I continued running, slowly.

Few minutes later, I felt the same thing again. Had to walk again. My initial target was to run for 1hr since I arrived a bit early at the Garden, but with this kind of unfitness self of mine, I would be happy if I can survive 50% of it, though by the means of walking in between the run.

Mental strength was as lemau as my body. At every moments of non-comfort breathing, my brain quickly sent a message to my body to stop running and just walk. Some say if we push our body further, it will get better and stronger, but with the condition of health I’m in now, I think I should take it a little bit easy.

After what I felt as a wasteful 36 minutes effort of running plus walking, I pressed the “Stop” button on my watch and called it a day (and secretly hoping my flu won’t get worsen).

I’m not sure whether I’m sick of running or I’m running sick. One thing I know now – my running sucks!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Lemau

Lemau, a Malay word that brings the meaning similar to "not crispy", in a sense.

For example, a biscuit when being left outside its packaging for a certain period of time, will turn from crispy to lemau.

Though I'm not a biscuit, I mean, I do not have any similar characteristics of being crispy like the biscuit, but I'm feeling so lemau since returning from Kenyir.

Since I returned from Kenyir until this very moment,
I only swam for 45minutes ONCE,
... and cycled for 100km ONCE,
... and ran for 9km, you guessed it, only ONCE.

How much lemau could I become? I'm not sure.

But, once being attacked by this lemau-ness, I am yet to find the cure for it. Being busy at work plus the sore throat and flu that I am having since last few weeks, blended very well to make me more lemau.

If before Kenyir I would feel frustrated if it rained in the evening, but now, I secretly hoping and praying that it would rain more and more so that I can easily put the blame on the rain for me not going out to train for my next event. And the worst thing his, I didn't even feel regret for not training.

I've missed the BHP Orange run last weekend because I was late to register. They went with first come first serve basis and in Klang Valley, to meet the number 3000 when it comes to a free running participation, would be like a matter of hours.

And although the route for the BHP Orange run was exactly in front of my house, I was so lemau that Sunday morning that I continued sleeping, where else I could wake up and pirate the run as I did last year. (Pirate run = to run without bib number).

I was making flu as my excuse for not running. How easy was that.

Well, I even feel so lemau for being this lemau.

Things have to change for me, the faster the better. Other friends went for the very challenging swimathon, some triathlete friends have also started training for the forthcoming Xterra off-road triathlon in Kuantan, and some others have even started training for their half or full marathons.

And what am I doing now? It's 7:22pm now, and I'm still at work updating this boring blog finishing up some left over work.

Another day has gone without any training. Gosh... what's happening to me?!?!?!

Friday, April 10, 2009

What a prank

One of my friend (I think he got nothing much to do at work, hehe), did this prank on me. He emailed me yesterday saying that,

"Hi Nik Fahusnaza,

I couldn't believe it when I spotted you on the news last night. Well done - it was a great story.

In case you didn't catch it you'll be pleased to know I recorded it. You can view it here.

Congratulations again."

Well, I did not watch the news that night as I was out cycling. Trusting him as a friend of mine (though I already had suspicions when looking at the URL of the link), I clicked the link, watch the news and then...

...I laughed like crazy. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Title

Yesterday, I received an SMS from a cycling friend here in JB asking my full name for the purpose of sending me a wedding invitation card.

Friend: ”Nik, may I have your full name please?”

ME: ”Sure.. blablablablabla (me giving out my fullest name)”

Friend: ”So, what title should I be addressing you with? Mr., or Sir, or Dr., or Dato’, or Tan Sri, or Yang Berhormat?”

ME: ”Aaah, no need lah those titles. Just address me as TRIATHLETE lah....”

Hihihii...