The 15 Truth Of My Silence

1. Since the start of Ramadhan, I’ve lost much interest and passion in writing, or sharing stuffs on my blog. I still blog hop almost everyday though, including hopping on my own blog.

2. On many occasions (when they happen), I thought of writing it up on my blog. But, once I sat in front of the laptop, I can’t even complete the first sentence. So, I blog hop some more.

3. To ease myself from guilt feeling, I excused myself with these three words, “I am busy”.

4. I’m ok with buying food at Pasar Ramadhan, for as long as we don’t buy more than what we can eat. But, I can’t fathom those who spend RM50++ or RM80++ just to fill the belly at the many Ramadhan buffets served here and there. Don’t they know that one of the reason or teaching behind fasting is that we humble ourselves with food? The real celebration of fasting in Ramadhan should be on Hari Raya itself, when it is the sunnah to cook more food and invite people to come over and enjoy the feast. Our Ramadhan “culture” needs to be corrected lah I guess.

5. The first 5 days of Ramadhan, totally no workout or exercise for me. I almost forgot what LSD stands for. Does it stand for Let’s Sleep & Dream?

6. From 6th days of Ramadhan onwards, I began a conquest of revenge. I hooked up my bike on the trainer, filled my ear lobes with headphones which were connected to a laptop that plays DVD movies, and punished my legs by forcing them to keep the cadence at 90rpm and above, on various gears. Each sessions would last for 30min to 60min, depending on how interesting the movies are.

7. I normally start the sessions after terawikh. The most I could do was during last week. Total of 4 nights, with each session lasted 45mins ~ 60mins. Seeing the sweats dropped off from my chin was a little bonus. Seeing the increasing average speeds as they progressed day after day, was double the bonus.

8. For the 1 hour time I spent per week at the gym doing upper body workout, I get 48 hours of muscle soreness then after. The good thing is, the gym is not crowded before iftar. I hope to clock another 1 hour gym session next week.

9. I did not do any fitness workout during the weekends, other than to carry my daughter when she’s tired of walking while following her mom doing the shopping.

10. I only ran twice during Ramadhan so far. One was two weeks ago, which was only an embarrassing 36mins of super slow run after work. And another one was on yesterday’s hot evening, which was truly a self humiliation. I started a series of walk breaks from the 7th minutes onwards. It was a total 40 minutes of self humiliation. I felt crappy, I felt unfit, I felt awful, and I’m not proud of it at all even though some non-Muslim runners said it was awesome that I still managed to run while fasting.

11. After the run and breaking fast, I went into the pool for the first time in Ramadhan for a slow swim session. All this while I was a single sided breather (taking air on right side only, per stroke), and a friend told me that this technique disrupts the momentum, hence relegating the speed. So I slowly tried double sided breathing. It’s still difficult for me to break the current habit of single sided breathing, and my stomach was filled with pool water as much as what I had for iftar whenever I took the air from the left side. But, I promised myself to train more on double sided breathing or at least, single sided breathing for every two strokes. Yes, I’m hunger for speed.

12. I’m still having the doubt whether I can finish the 25km distance for Newton hilly run on September 26th. Big workout plans (mainly consisting of more running and lower body workouts) have been set for launch after Raya. I just need to buck up on my discipline and not fall over with a bulging tummy filled with rendang, ketupat, satay and many other Aidilfitri delicacies (oh gosh, it’s gonna be tough to resist).

13. Out of all, there’s only another guy or two from JB that I know who are going to do the long distance triathlon in Desaru this coming October. So far, looks like my training is almost at par with what they are doing (maybe a little bit less). But I still don’t think I can fully prepare for the race. And I really don’t like to race with unprepared fitness. It’s not fun. Anyway, the registration is open until Sept. 18, and who knows my mind may turn 180 degrees. Sometimes, I don’t know myself, especially if the race course is only a 1.5 hours drive away from where I work now.

14. I’m not buying new Baju Melayu for this time as my previous ones are still in perfect conditions. I haven’t thought much of what else to pack for balik kampung next week, but one thing for sure my Avia Bolt running shoes will follow me.

15. I actually miss blogging. It is not that I love to write. Plus, I’m not good at writing and I tend to spend lots of time whenever I write something. But sometimes (actually, most of the times) I don’t have anything of a good quality to be jotted down here. After all, it’s difficult to be a perfectionist I guess. In that case, the “I am busy” excuse is always the best way to disguise my silence-ness in the blogging world.

My routine, twice a week.