Some Points

I was clearing up my desk and I saw some old notes I took during one of the sales course which I attended last year August. Just feel like sharing it out here. I've forgotten the whole context of these stuffs, hence I won't be elaborating on each of them (and bore you to death). I jotted them down while I was struggling to keep myself awake during the course (teruk gile kan.. hehe).

1) Don't postpone any appointments - it shows your commitment.

2) Change something every month.

3) Do things that ONLY YOU can do. For other things... delegate lah!

4) Don't let people see or know your weaknesses.

5) In a win-lose situation, don't be afraid to walk out (if it is obvious you are on the losing side).

6) Don't believe others, just believe yourself.

7) Don't be a victim from the surrounding, be influential to the surrounding.

8) Don't be distracted by other things that make your progress slow.

Dah, itu je... sekian. :)

TNF100 - In My Perspective

Most of the times when I participate in endurance races, I take the opportunity to test or experiment on certain things which may or may not give benefits to me. The experiment may range from using different shoes, or attire, or taking different kind of meals before the races, the ORS loading, and many other factors.

There was no exceptions this time when I went into the TNF100 duo event last weekend. I'm not claiming that whatever I did below will work for anybody else. It is also not a guarantee that you will be able to complete the race for sure. Heck, I'm not 100% sure whether what I did below was the significant factors which contributed to my success to get to the finishing line of the grueling 50km race.

And before I proceed, let me clarify once again that in doing endurance events, sufficient training and preparation are the two core ingredients for success. Other supplementary factors are as below, in my perspective.

Mental and Psychological Preparation

Apart from the extensive physical fitness training at which you train your body to adapt t o the race requirement (i.e. mileage wise), you must not forget about the mental and psychological strengths. This is an ultra race, where many casualties are normally resulted from the mind shutting down the body. You need to set a specific and realistic goal and target which will drive you to the finishing line. And if you like, you can also set a time target.

For this particular race, I set my mind to finish it within cut off time. I will push my limit for as long as I'm not injured. To be frank, I didn't think or care much about the trail, because for me those are the external factor that I cannot control or change. But, I can control what I think and what I set to achieve.

However, you must also be smart enough to decide when or whether you should quit the race, if any bad circumstances arise. You know your body best. We do this sports to become healthier, not to commit suicide.

Fueling Strategy

You may be able to go through a 2 or 3 hours endurance race just fueled with plain water along the way. But, for an endurance race lasting up to 9 hours, you will definitely need something more than just plain water.

Being requested by the organizer to carry our own hydration systems for this TNF100 race, I used the opportunity to bring glucose drinks instead of just plain water. On top of that, I also used plenty of Nuun tablets to mix with my glucose drink. I'll blog about my glucose drink recipe some other days. Remind me if I forget.

During the run, I set my timer to beep every 10mins to remind me to take a sip. I noticed that this strategy works well with me, to avoid getting into dehydration state. I think my energy depletes very quickly when I started to feel thirsty. And I drank a lot at every water stations, both isotonics and plain water.

In my previous marathons, I always get muscle cramps. Perhaps it was because I pushed myself too hard for the speed, or because I didn't sufficiently load my body with ORS prior to the race. This time, I started ORS loading earlier, and quite a lot of if actually (I think). I took 4 sachets of ORS per day, starting from 3 days prior to the race day.

This time I brought along 6 PowerBar gels, but I only consumed three as I didn't feel so much need for it during the race. I started the day with a very heavy meal which was nasi lemak (I didn't have other 'healthier' choice on that morning though). And I made sure I took it early and still have plenty of time to purge out my stomach contents before the race.

And from my previous experiments, I can only swallow banana during races. No dates, no Milo bar, no Mars bar, no asam boi, no other things – I can't swallow them without torturing my throat. For me, not only can it supply an instant energy boost, banana also solidly fills my tummy up. I made a mistake in this race where I did not take a banana after the 25km mark, which later on made me feel so hungry and left me running with growling stomach which was a bit of a nuisance. Luckily it was manageable.

Gear and Equipment

Trail shoes are not designed for nothing. Each model and types has their own specific functions. The Cascadia trail shoes by Brooks that I have suits my feet very well and I have no complains about it so far. It's one of my good investments, with regards to sports attire and gear.

During TNF100 race, the trail surface varied from loose pebbles, gravel with small and big rocks, medium soft sands, hard and slippery clay, and also tarmac. Unless you cannot afford a pair of decent trail shoes, you should not be wearing anything else other than a good pair of them in a trail run race like this.

I have no comments for those who decides to wear Vibram five fingers though. Maybe he/she who wears VFF in trail is trying to experiment something else.

It is actually comfortable to run even with a hydration bag on our backs, provided it is securely fastened to our body. My CamelBak weighed 3kg at the start of the race, with a full load of 2litre of glucose drinks, and other stuffs. It only bounced a little bit, but easily ignorable. It snugged nicely behind my back. I don't mind using it again in other long distance races. In fact, I'm planning to use it during Powerman.

Prayer

Nothing goes without HIS willingness. Enough said. So, don’t forget the power of prayers ya.

Other Factors

There is one more last thing. Well, although this final factor has not been scientifically proven and is highly debatable and arguable, I still like to believe that my sparkling clean shaved legs had given me a little advantage in running speed during TNF. At least a fraction of microseconds was saved for each click I ran.

And I guessed no one noticed that.
Ngeh ngeh ngeh.

HTTP vs HTTPS

HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Ptotocol, which is a protocol for information to be passed back and forth between the Internet and your machine (computer).

If you are visiting a website or webpage, and the web address begins with http://, it means that the website is using the regular 'unsecured' language. In other words, it is possible for someone to 'eavesdrop' on your computer's conversation with the website.

HTTPS - The 'S' stands for 'Secure' Hyper Text Transfer Protocol.

If the website address begins with https://, that basically means that your computer is talking to the website in a secure code that no one can eavesdrop on.

Hence, if a website asks you to enter your credit card information or bank account details, you should automatically look to see if the web address begins with https://. If it doesn't, DO NOT PROVIDE any sensitive information like a credit card number.

Salam Aidil Fitri

This week is a busy week for me as I have so many things to clear at work before enjoying my one week off for Raya. Perhaps this is why I easily fall asleep right after breaking the fast. Trying to wake up to go do my night training is another challenge by itself. In addition to some sleepless nights, I feel like a zombie now.

Anyway, Raya is coming shortly and with my busy-ness graph going up to the peak, I’d like to take this opportunity to do a short entry, while I still have a little time to spare.

Here are some tips I can think of, when it comes to Raya season:

Safe Driving

1. Don’t drink and drive Batal puasa wei! Unless if you travel at night, you can drink some water or fruit juice to keep your body hydrated. Your brain need to be sharp to focus on the driving. And for those non-Muslim, no alcohol please. If you end up in an accident, you’ll be causing bigger traffic jam. Jangan cari pasal ye!

2. Buckle up dude! Your wind screen and car may be insured, but your head and skull are definitely not.

3. Don’t rush! It’s okay if a car or two squeezed in or overtake in front of you in a traffic jam. The most is that you will only lose few minutes. But if something bad happens, you’ll lose hours. Let’s leave our ‘competitiveness’ spirit to the real triathlon or running races, not when we are driving on the road. Most of us who are used to driving in big cities with traffic jams, we do not realize we’ve actually turned a bit ’kiasu’ when we drive out of the city. It’s okay to be a bit late. It’s Raya time, not a meeting or an interview appointment, right?

4. Don’t tailgate. Whether you are driving slow or fast, observe the distance between the car in front of you. I had an experience having an accident when the car was moving at a mere 20km/hr. How did it happen? I was following the car in front too close (it was in a traffic jam during Raya) that I did not have enough space to brake when the car in front suddenly hit the car in front of it. So, the three of us ended up at the police station and wasted 3 hours there just to settle the police report.

5. Inspect your car condition. Inflate your tires, and also your spare tire. Make sure you have the jack and know how to change the tire in a case of flat (Google up if you don’t know). Check your brake lights, reverse lights, indicator lights (front and back, and sides) and front lights. Also, make your intentions known to other drivers. Put on indicator lights when changing lane or turning.

6. ABS. ABS stands for Anti-lock Braking System. If your car has this, nothing much to worry about. But if you have a car without it, don’t jam or lock the brake when you want to do an emergency stop. If you jerk and jam the brake, your tires will be locked and your car will glide on the road uncontrollably. You can’t steer or maneuver to avoid hitting something in front. Instead, what you should do is to “pump” on the brake repeatedly. This will simulate the ABS system. Some info here as a start. Plenty more on the internet, help yourself.

7. Stay focus! Majority of accidents happen when the driver is distracted. If you need to answer to a phone call, please please please.. use the hands-free kit. The best is not to answer any phone call at all, if you can. And another big sinners are those who read/do text messages, i.e. SMS while driving. Aiyooh, ini paling bahaya dol! I sometimes do this too and I will try my best not to do it anymore.

8. Be considerate. Yeah, we know you own expensive cars and pay huge amount of money for your road taxes. But we are all road users for God’s sake! What makes you think you can give high beams to the car in front of you when he/she is overtaking someone else by being on the third lane of the highways? Especially when YOU are the one who is going faster than the speed limit. I hate this kind of selfish people, really really hate them!

9. Oh, if you have a second car that you will leave at home for few days or a week, you can plug-off the negative terminal of the battery so that when you return back from kampung, your car battery won’t be dried up, i.e. battery gets weak. As a substitute for the safety for not having an alarm system activated (when you plug-off the battery), you can use the steering lock or gear lock. This is optional, as new brand cars have good power management system that the car battery won’t go dry (in terms or its energy) even if the car is idle for few weeks.

10. Don’t forget to recite the ‘doa naik kenderaan’, say ‘Bismillah’ and tawakkal. At the end, our lives are at the hands of the Almighty.

Safety at home

1. Leave the minimum amount of fresh food inside your refrigerator. You never know when black-outs will happen. Imagine coming back from kampung and once you enter your house, you get this pungent smell coming from the kitchen and you have the entire refrigerator to clean up.

2. Throw all rubbish from the bin. You don’t want your house to be a breeding ground for flies, do you?

3. Make sure all doors and windows are securely shut and locked. Also make sure all electrical goods are being unplugged. If you have a timer, you may use it to lit up your house during night times while you are away. Also, don't forget to shut the main water pipe line.

4. Do you know that you can make a report to the police station saying that you won’t be at home for Raya? By doing so, you can ask the police officer to make rounds at your housing area during the holidays. Ask your neighbors to do the same, as the more people reported their home vacancy, the higher the chance that the police will do more rounds at your housing area. Please go and ask at the police station nearby you. I got this info while listening to a tazkirah keselamatan during tarawih given by a police inspector in Bangi.

5. Once again, when you lock the doors and gates, recite ‘Bismillah’ and tawakkal, and pray for the safety of our beloved properties.

Let's choose to be safe!

Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to wish every reader a very best of safety during the holiday. My practices during Ramadhan this year is not as good as I first anticipated, and I hope I will live for another Ramadhan next year, insyaAllah.

Thanks again for visiting this blog, I appreciate it very much. I’m happy to read any comments left on this blog too. It makes my little effort to keep on writing, worth it!

Raya picture of 2008

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI
MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN