Lepas Gian

Haritu ada cuti weekend yang panjang. Bersambung dari Sabtu sampai Selasa. Time nak tido hari Ahad malam tu, tiba-tiba terlintas nak bangun pagi besok nya untuk buat solo run – 30km. Suatu perkara yang memang dah lama ditinggalkan. “Takde sakit cari penyakit” nama sindrom ni. Harap maklum.

Malam sebelum tido dah siapkan air dalam CamelBak yang dibancuh dengan Glucolin perisa oren. Letak dalam fridge, atau bak kata orang Johor “ice box”, bagi sejuk secukup rasa. Dua-dua henpon aku dah set dua alarm on each phone, to make sure aku tak terbabas tido di hari cuti.

Gedebuk gedebak, 06:35hrs pagi esoknya di dalam gelap-gelap suasana Subuh aku dah start mengorak langkah perlahan dari Kiara menuju ke arah Bukit Aman. Telinga tak tersumbat apa-apa hiburan muzik melainkan alunan lemak merdu burung-burung dan katak-katak yang baru bangun tido. Suasana amatlah gelap bila lari kat incline sebelah KLGCC tu. Sekali sekala melintas laju kereta-kereta kat situ dengan lampu high beam. Lantaklah kalau depa nak terkejut beruk tengok makhluk berlari dalam gelap sorang-sorang. Dalam diam, hati aku masih ragu-ragu samada boleh habiskan jarak 30km ni atau tak. Almaklum ajelah, last time buat long run sebegini jauh ialah tiga bulan lepas.

Dalam keadaan takde apa-apa race yang terdekat, dapat kumpul motivasi untuk berlari sebegini jauh pun dah merupakan sebuah kejayaan yang boleh disebut-sebut di wall FB la. Tengok aje prestasi kecundang tahun lepas, lapan bulan straight aku rehat mengumpul lemak kat perut. Punyalah takde motivasi langsung. Arakian, buat masa ni sementara stok motivasi belum basi, aku belasah je lah apa-apa yang terlintas di fikiran.

Half way bila dah sampai ke Hartamas, lepas panjat bukit-bukit sikit kat depan Plaza Damas dan juga incline yang kat sebelah Masjid Wilayah tu, kaki terasa bersemangat untuk break personal record for 15km. Jarak dari Kiara ke Bukit Aman kalau trace guna MapMyRun ada la dalam 15.3km gitu lebih kurang. Actually aku pun tak tau apa personal best untuk 15km aku. Tapi tiga bulan lepas masa aku buat solo run yang seumpama ni, I clocked 1h35mins. Itu je yang aku ingat. So, aku shift masuk gear lagi satu level up, cuba mendesupkan diri dari simpang Jalan Duta sampai ke Bukit Aman. Kejap-kejap mata aku melilau tengok stopwatch. Tak best la kan kalau dah penat-penat push but still takleh nak break personal record. Maka bermulalah larian ‘game-face’.. ahaha poyo.

Kebetulan pada weekend yang sama ramai yang masih berlari di Hong Kong, dan segelintir berlari di TNF Thailand dan juga cuti-cuti Chap Goh Meh, maka tak ramai runners masa aku sampai kat parking Bukit Aman. Time clocked was 1h28m for the first 15km. Walaupun tak laju sangat pun kalau nak dibandingkan dengan para pelari tegar yang lain, tapi aku rasa sedikit kembang la hidung bila dapat pecahkan rekod piring hitam peribadi.

Decided not to rest for long time, genap 8 minit rehat aku terus re-start stopwatch untuk merakam waktu larian dari Bukit Aman ke Kiara pulak, the second 15km. Ego punya pasal, lupa nak top up teh tarik kurang buih ke dalam CamelBak masa kat parking Bukit Aman tu. Akibatnya.. kita sama-sama nantikan di peranggan yang akan datang.

Baru 9 minit berlari dari Bukit Aman, tiba-tiba degupan jantung jadi tak tentu hala, hilang arah tujuan. Sampai kat satu bus stop tu, aku terpaksa melontarkan bontots ke situ untuk rest and recover. Kaki dah terasa sedikit penat, tapi yang lebih kelam kabut ialah heart rate. Nampak sangat aku masih belum fit untuk long run, bisik ku perlahan (fuhyo, macam bahasa novel siot).

Sambung balik larian sambil-sambil mengawal rentak degupan jantung. Ternyata short break aku tadi tak mencukupi, ataupun aku dah ter-mendesupkan diri tanpa sedar. Maka aku pun terbongkang lagi sekali dan terpaksa berhenti rehat kejap semasa melayan lenggok-lenggok bukit kat Jalan Bukit Tunku tu. Heart rate amat mengganas, tak berani aku nak push takut diserang sawan mengkarung.

Tukar plan. Tukar balik ke gear paling rendah, layan perasaan lari slow sikit. Matahari dah makin meninggi, dan aku sedar air dalam CamelBak aku dah makin mengering. Congak-congak dalam kepala hotak, ada lagi 10km. Kaki dah makin penat, peha dah terasa akan terkena renjatan cramp tak lama lagi. Bermulalah mental game. Kuatkah aku untuk mengawal nafsu daripada menahan teksi? Jeng jeng jeng…

Penangan ‘mileage shock’ ni sangat memeritkan. Kalau program training untuk marathon, biasanya perlahan-lahan mileage dinaikkan from week to week. Ini tak, ribut takde taufan takde tiba-tiba gatal kaki nak buat 30k. In the name of ‘nak test power’, aku teruskan jugak perjalanan tanpa menahan teksi walaupun dah lebih lima bijik teksi lalu di sepanjang laluan aku tadi.

Lepas je cross flyover Jalan Duta, peha dah sengal lain macam. Signs of cramp setting up semakin ketara. Tak pernah-pernah aku training long run sampai cramp peha. So, orang cakap alang-alang menyeluk pekasam kan… so aku belasah la jugak lari pelan-pelan sambil tahan sakit maskels peha. Bila dah tak tahan sangat sakit cramp, aku berjalan. Yang aku heran, bila berjalan je cramp makin menjadi-jadi. Apa-ke-hey-nya…

Pun begitu, jiwa masih tekad nak pecahkan rekod lagi. The previous solo 30km run, total time was 3h15m. So dalam hati aku, walau dapat 3h14m pun jadilah. Run walk run walk je lah. Jiwa dah kacau, especially bila air dalam CamelBak dah kering kontang, dan aku ada lagi 7km sebelum tamat larian, dan matahari pada jam 9 pagi amatlah menduga akal.

Duit ada bawak RM30. Lepas sebijik teksi, lagi beberapa bijik lalu. Aku dah terlintas bestnya duduk dalam teksi berhawa dingin tu. Tapi aku fikir, kalau aku naik teksi, aku takkan cukup 30km, dan aku takkan tau samada aku boleh pecahkan piring hitam lagi sebijik atau tak.

Mak aih, panjangnya aku melalut.

Oklah, to cut long story short (aku tau korang dah boring baca). Akhirnya aku habiskan jugak larian 30km tu dalam masa 3h9m (i.e. the second 15km done in 1h40m). Yes, kembang hidung aku sekali lagi. Peha memang dah kesakitan, tekak dah kering kontang, kaki memang dah tersangat lunyai tak larat nak berdiri, tapi kepala hotak sempat lagi fikir pantun apa nak letak dalam status DailyMile….

Sepandai-pandai tupai melompat,
Akhirnya jatuh di atas batu,
Akibat LSD dah lama tak buat,
Baru 30K lunyai kakiku.

My First Bike Crash

Now I know how easy it is to break the collar bone when we fall down from the bike, i.e. bike crash. And I now also know how important it is to always wear a helmet while riding a bike.

Because it happened to me last night. My first bike crash.

Wednesday night is our normal weekly riding night. There were seven cyclists altogether last night. Together with another duathlete, he and I came early to training site to do a 6km run prior to riding. The weather was nice, with a very little drizzle at the start.

Done with the slow run, we went for cycling. I paired up with another triathlete who’s doing a last minute training for Desaru, and side by side with him I shifted to my heaviest gear (to do quads power training) and started the cruise. And paddling with heavy gears means cadence is within 65 to 75 rpm, perfect to be in aero position all the way comfortably. On the flat, or while climbing inclinations.

The first loop was ok. On the second loop, I almost hit a fallen tree branch lying on the tarmac, under the tree shadow. The road was actually well lit by the street lights, but there were some dark areas where the lights were blocked by the shady tree branches.

It happened on the third loop. I was still in aero position (i.e. hands are away from the brakes), followed by my friend at the back who was also in aero position. While riding pretty slowly up the incline (I reckon it was around 25kph or less), I suddenly saw the tree branch one meter ahead in the darkness of the shadow and there’s no way I could maneuver my bike away from it.

“Kayu!!!”, I shouted to my friend.

I went straight onto the fallen tree branch on the road. In a split second, I swerved to the left as my front tire lifted up from the ground when it hit the branch. My hands were still holding the aerobars and my left shoulder took the first impact, followed by another impact on the left side of my skull onto the tarmac. At that particular microsecond after the impact, all I could think was “luckily I was wearing a helmet”.

I think I rolled myself on the tarmac to avoid any other hard impact to any other bones. And the next moment when I re-opened my eyes, there I saw my buddy also fell down. He said he didn’t manage to avoid hitting my tires. Luckily there were no vehicles coming close from behind. Or else it will be a different story.

My aerobars were dislocated, with a bit of a scratch at the ends. The right hand side shifters were badly scratched, but still functioning. There was also a bit of dislocation on the back wheel, and no other major damage on my bicycle. My buddy were much luckier, both him and his bike survived the accident with injury free.

I stood up, checked my body, bones and skins. I felt a big pain on my left shoulder, blood were coming out from the big laceration there. There were also some other lacerations on my left knee, right elbow and on my left and right hand fingers.

We then picked up our bikes, and continued riding back to where we parked our cars. My left shoulder was tingling with pain, but I could still paddle. Once arrived at the car park, I quickly threw in my bike inside the car and told my buddy I need to rush to the clinic before it closes. Time was showing 10.30pm when I reached the clinic and luckily the doctor was still there.

The major laceration I had where I first landed on the tarmac.

Getting the ATT jab (Adsorbed tetanus toxoid).
The young doctor asked why I took the picture.
I told him, “Because I’m a blogger” (cewah, poyo)

The nurse helped to clean up the lecerations.
She also asked why I took the picture.
I told her, “Because I want to make you nervous”. Aahahaha.

Fortunately, the only thing that was broken is my water bottle cage.
Not any of my bones, not any of my spirits.
Syukur Alhamdulillah.

Anyway, the morale of the story are:

1) Always wear a helmet when you go riding. No matter how slow or short your cycling session is going to be.

2) If you see obstructions on the road, e.g. fallen tree branch, big stones, potholes, etc., please notify your cycling buddies and if however possible, stop cycling for a while and remove the obstacles away from the road.

3) Always bring along your ID and insurance card if you have. You never know when you will be needing them desperately.

4) Well, this is not really a morale of the story. But it would be good to have at least a phone with a camera along with you, especially if you are a blogger like me who likes to write drama. Ngeh ngeh ngeh.

Trail Temptation

The thought of going out for another trail run was so tempting that I brought back my trail running shoes during last Raya holiday. The sad news is, they never get worn. So, to stop having this little guilt feeling in my kidney, I quietly made a plan to join Ian's 3rd Progressive Outdoor Run (POR) at FRIM, last Saturday morning, with a mileage target of 15km doing one loop.

Plus, I wanted to test out my new CamelBak, for the first time.

I arrived at the agreed meeting point 15 minutes early. Geared up with my 2 liter hydration pack and I did some warming up while waiting for the remaining gang to arrive. Although it was my first time using it, the CamelBak didn’t give any much hindrance towards my running. The initial unfamiliarity having something on my back was quickly easing off as I finished the warming up run.

There were Ian himself, Peter, Daniel, Zaki and Syah on the scene by 7am. After a short warm up and stretching session, we hit the trail.

Now we know how the MacamBagus do their secret handshake.

Ian led the stretching session, as always.

Our Hong Kong superstar librarian runner (mak aih banyaknya pangkat dia), Zack Yui Chong Abdullah (I made this up, hihi) sedang meng-skodeng anak dara orang bulan.
On his left is Daniel and Peter.

The last time I went for trail run at FRIM was last year, and this time Syah took us on another route that I’ve never been to before. After a few minutes running on the tarmac, we started the trail portion from the entrance of Jalan Bukit Bujang.

Where the trail begins.

Syah was the group leader this time around.
And if you want to do tempo run, follow his ‘easy’ pace.
And if you want to vomit while running, try following his ‘moderate’ pace.

The first portion of the trail started off with some moderate inclinations, a bit of a flat and followed with some undulating courses. Its width reduces as we get deeper into the woods, making the trail run much more enjoyable and tactical at the same time. I tried my best to stay in pace with Syah, but I slowly got dropped off. It’s a clear indication of my lack in fitness.

Not long after, we get to the first regroup point. Something funny happened here. Since it was raining the night before, the damp ground where we stood were full with leeches. Tiny little ones, like babies. I started to notice one of two leeches on my right and left shoes and picked them out. Then, everybody else was busy picking out leeches from their shoes. If I’m not mistaken, I got 9 leeches, Peter got 10 of them, and the winner of the day was our Hong Kong hero, who got the highest number of leeches visit on his shoes. 12 of them altogether. The lesson learnt, do not stop for a break for more than 3 minutes.

You can’t see it from this photo how panic Zaki was when he first discovered the leeches on his shoes.
I should have taken a video shot instead. It was hilarious.
Anyway, an opportunity to grab his ‘betis gebu’ photo like this shall not go to waste.

We continued our run before more leeches get onto our shoes. I was on a familiar route now and the undulating up and down was a true pleasure to run on. There were a few other occasional hikers and walkers along this track on the lovely morning. The fresh, clean and oxygen-rich air in the morning that we can get here is something we seldom get nowadays, especially for us who live in concrete jungle.

This was the only time I went ahead of everybody else.
And I almost puked (oh, drama again).

Some portion of the trail gives you long steady climb, to which I was forced to start walking to ease off my breathing and heart rate.

I killed some time by taking a self-shot while waiting for the last runners.
It took me seven tries before I get this one in the frame.

After reaching the junction nearby The Tea House, we took it further into another portion of the trail which later leads us to the Steroid Hill. We made another quick break stop for regrouping before proceeding up the Steroid Hill.

The start of Steroid Hill…

… and what you see here is not the peak yet.
And if you are interested to know, only three persons here managed to run all the way up to the peak without any walk break.
And surely I was not included as one of them lah.

One of the many beautiful sceneries you can enjoy while being on the top.

I stopped taking picture from then onwards as I was feeling so much fatigued. Perhaps I was hallucinating as well when I thought I saw Daniel from afar taking a wrong junction while he tried to follow Syah and Ian upfront. I stopped to wait for Zaki and Peter, just to make sure which junction should we take (since Zaki ran this route before). I told them I saw Daniel taking another junction so we started calling Ian and Syah to check whether Daniel was with them. To my delight, everybody was OK. Yup, I guess I was hallucinating.

The return route was much easier on the foot as there were more down hills. Out of a sudden while I was running with Zaki, Yip came by passing through like a bullet train. He slowed down for a quick “hi-hi bye-bye” to us, and then blasted away. He’ll do well in the upcoming solo 100km run at TNF race. All the best Yip!

Yip is surely one of the most hardcore and fast long distance runners we ever have here in Malaysia. He’s also an Ironman triathlete.

When we get back to The Tea House, the run on tarmac towards the car park was really torturing me. The sun was up high and blazing too. I was so fatigued that I can’t even run straight for 200m without taking any walk breaks. We finally reached back to the car park and I took 2.5hours for the whole journey (including break times). I only did one loop of 15km, while Syah and Ian continued further with another loop, making it 30km.

Squatting L-R: Daniel, Ian, Syah.
Standing L-R: Peter, Zack Yui Chong Abdullah and EnAikAY.

There will be another session of FRIM trail run this Saturday. Details can be found at Ian’s blog.

And for the sake of Coney Dog, I’ll be there insyaAllah.

P/s: Next, my Newton 25km race report will be filled with photos (and quirky captions). If only I have more time to start writing about it lah. I have a nasty busy week.

After All

Sorry guys, for being out of touch all of the sudden without any news or clue. My sincerest apology for making some of you worried about me. Never expected that to come. I appreciate all your concern, from the bottom of my heart. Thanks so much.

Anyway, this is not a gimmick, or a drama, or a strategy for a big come back. I was just unable to balance my mood and emotion with what’s been bugging me recently that I lost my interest in reading blogs, or participate in the blog commenting race. Let alone to write up my own blog entries. My life went on just like usual, minus the blogging part. Here are some random stuffs behind the scenes of what had happened to me, or of what I’ve been doing, or not doing.

After SCKLM, I experienced a pain on my right knee, at the ITB area. Not sure if it is already an acute ITB case, or just some sort of over-used tendon. I put myself out of running for few days after the marathon. I iced my knees as often as I could. But then, when I was with the guys doing the trail run at Kiara Park few weeks ago, the pain came back. So, I had to rest some more. And when I rest and do nothing much, I had nothing much to blog about. Nak tulis pantun pun dah malas daa.

Work? Hmm, what else can I do if my customers from all around the world keep on calling me to ask for the things they requested me to do on daily basis? Right at this moment, I have more than 340 working emails unread. I wish I can put an out-of-office auto reply such as below;

“I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.”

or

“You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything at all.”,

or even better..

“Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks. That is, if I get back into the office.

My previous few weekends in KL were not as great as what I normally anticipated. With both of my princesses down with flu, cough, fever and what-have-you, my weekends were mainly spent just being at home. So, with not much of sports related stuffs I did, the lesser chance for me to come up with blog entries. Perhaps by now you realize that I don’t write anything much other than triathlon or running related stuffs, don’t you? Such a boring blog, isn’t it?

Ok, maybe this is the part you wanted to know the most. Yes, I did continue doing some training for PD triathlon (yeah, I know you want me to say “secret training”). The weather down here in JB has been nice and I’ve been swimming 2 or 3 times per week, building up my endurance and speed (which was never in existence). I also did some cycling just to kill the nervousness, rather than not cycling at all. Nothing much really, only the once-a-week cycling at night plus another few sets on the trainer just to activate the fast twitch cycling muscles (which I never have). Running was kept to the minimum and mainly focused on some hills repeats. My fast twitch muscles need extra work this time. To keep it simple, I’ve been training everyday, except for weekends.

And whamm!!, as I was into my second loop running at Taman Kebun Bunga yesterday, ITB pain re-surfaced. I also did some hill repeats afterwards, bearing the pain (because I promised myself to do hill repeats). Though I survived the running session in pain, I finally surrendered myself during the cycling at night where my 42km plan ride was cut into half, before the pain gets even worse.

Now, I’m limping again. But there will always be tomorrow. At least, I can still swim, right?

After all, I’m just a normal pirate human being.

Getting Back At It

As many say, the hardest part of any endurance races is not the race itself, but the hours upon hours of training prior to it. While we are attracted into doing the races due to being influenced by other friends taking part, or the exclusivity of the races themselves with big sponsor names, nothing much can be said about the training.

To step up into the training regime, the secret ingredients are in the words such as own willingness, self motivation and determination. Training can sometimes be lonely and boring, it may also be so mind boggling even when we put our eyes on the training plan with the incremental mileages we have to cover week by week. At times, you’ll face unfriendly weather. At other times, your work-family-own self time balancing act is at the edge of a smack down.

I completely rested myself with seven no-running days, after the Sundown. It felt very long. It almost felt like I am into resigning from running. I gave my body the chance to rest, while excusing myself with the busy work schedule. While the rest was good for the body, it has somehow affected my mental strength. The strength I needed to get back into the game.

Last Saturday was the first time I lost it. I had planned for a long run, either with a buddy or alone. But the slightly blocked nose, dizzy head, coughs, and comfy blanket won the battle over me that particular morning.

On Sunday morning, I took my family out to Kiara Park. There was an outdoor group aerobic session there where my wife joined, while I ran around the park with my daughter who was enjoying her moments being pushed in the stroller by her panting dad. It was a very short run, nothing more than 45 minutes altogether.

While my two girls were busy with their own activities, I ‘partially’ joined the other RBU in the stretching session, coordinated by IM Julie.

My daughter and Syah’s, enjoying themselves coloring the book while enhancing their motor skills.
Simple friendship, established almost instantly.

78% of those standing in this picture are actively writing their own inspirational blogs.
And all of them are either runners, duathletes or triathletes. There are many more, but they couldn’t come.
L-R: Shakhir, Alwin (hiding his face behind water bottle), Fadhil, EnAikAY, Syah, Ziff, Ian, Yim and Julie.

After the run and stretching session, we gathered at Mosin restaurant in TTDI for what they call as “Tribute to Sundowners TT session”. This was the largest, yet a simple gathering so far, if I can remember correctly.

We occupied five tables altogether.
I remained slightly shy and quiet this time around as I was not feeling so well and still coughing intermittently.

Finally, we get ourselves the Fitness Food Made Simple book, authored and signed by our own Ian.
We get 10% discount too! Woot woot.
If you would like to order, you may reach Ian at his blog.

Monday was a holiday for me, so I had another day or resting and recovering. I had another episode of ‘sleepless on the bus’ when returning back to JB, when out of a sudden diarrhea attacked me. Ouch!

With that lack of sleep, and hundreds of emails needing my attention at work, topped of with nice cool after-rain weather in the evening of yesterday, I felt the mother of all laziness to do a run. Although I had packed my running gear and brought that along to the office like I do everyday, when the clock indicated that my working hours have ended, I hesitated on every move I made from then on.

I hesitated on going out of the office, instead I was thinking I could spend some more hours in the office, blogging.

While driving, I hesitated on making my way to the garden. I was thinking of going to either the pool or hit the gym, or just head to a movie theatre. But anyhow I ended up parking my car at the garden.

Even after I put on my running shoes, I still hesitated on whether I should start running, or just get back into the car and listen to the radio, killing time. Or take a nap.

To be frank, I didn’t really understand why I ran yesterday. I was so lazy to run. I thought I was still on ‘vacation’, at least for another few days. Getting back at it (running) after such a break has never felt this tough.

Whatever it is, now that I’ve jumped over the first barrier, I better make this ‘come back’ a hard one. Another marathon is just around the corner, to be followed by my first OD triathlon of the year in PD next month. Training (preparation) is the key, and if I let my bum pamper too much in my laziness, I know I will suffer in the races. And I’m sure, I won’t enjoy them.

Am I the only person left who hasn’t (or not gonna. I don’t know, I can’t differentiate) register for TNF100? Gosh, I feel so left out. There’s also Desaru Long Distance triathlon a week before TNF. Hmmmm...

Or, shall I register myself for TNF and just become a photographer-runner for you guys? Who wanna be my sidekick then?

Races in Singapore are a bit expensive to start with (subjective to my ownself lah), but I don’t want to become a pirate again and again and again.
Nanti kena ban baru padan muka..

Defibrillized

You all know what do the doctors do in the emergency room when one’s heart has stopped, right? They use the defibrillators to send some electrical shock signals to some sort of “re-starting” the heart.

When the ‘heart’ of my legs stopped for three weeks, it has gone into a serious state that my endurance and stamina dropped so drastically since I didn’t even do any maintenance fitness activities during the days where I got stuck in the office up till almost midnight. I almost call my insurance company for a review, in case anything bad happens to me due to this effect. Not wanting for it to get any worse, this whole week I went to the ‘emergency room’ to get myself defibrillated (I’m not sure if there’s such a word). I need a drastic ‘re-start’ shock.

Monday, I got a very small dose of a 30 minutes cycling session on trainer. Just to test the water. Takut terlebih bagi shock kang terus kojol on the spot tak sempat mengucap.

Tuesday, managed to increase the defibrillation factor with an hour of run at the garden, followed by a 50 minutes swim session. System was showing a good sign of being re-energized.

Wednesday, I got myself the biggest voltage shock! Started with a 1.2km swim, 6km run and a 30km cycling sessions. A big plate of nasi goreng kampung with telur mata goyang served as a perfect bonus to end the day.

Thursday, I was planning for another hour of run to which shall be followed by another hour of swim session. However, the thunder-stomerly-weather in the evening forced me to swap the plan with a 1.5 hours cycling session on the trainer at home. My new phylosophy for the day was, "better than nothing, and much better than staying in the office".

I'm defibrillized!

So now, I’m out of the emergency room. Next, I can’t wait for Ironman 2 the movie to hit the big screen. Seeing the ads on TV last night when it shows the screening date will be on April 30, I can use the remaining of my annual leave I guess. No harm, right?

Did I tell you before that when I grow up I want to become like this guy?

Recovery Konon

It was a hard swim because I still have a little bit of stiff neck pain and mainly due to the fact that my last swim was, ermm.. I’ve forgotten when it was. So, my very first 50m swim yesterday evening already saw me struggling in the pool. I rested for few seconds by the pool wall, and continued to the other side of the wall. Rested another few seconds, and proceeded with another few more 100m laps swim. Quick rest by the pool wall was done after every 100m.

I lost count of how many laps I totally swam yesterday, but it was definitely my worst in the current state of affairs as far as training for triathlon is concerned. Shoulder muscles were screaming, triceps too. After about 50 minutes struggling to glide forward in the pool, I packed up my stuff.

After a light dinner of roti canai telur, I went to the normal Wednesday night weekly cycling venue, 45 minutes earlier than the promised meeting time. Slipped on my running shoes and off I went plodding the tarmac under the dim of the street lights. For what supposed to be a recovery run, I covered the 6km distance in 31minutes. A minute slower than my best time on this route, so far.

As I reached my car, few cycling buddies were already waiting. I quickly prepped up my bike, put on the helmet and cycling shoes, and began another journey on the bike. This time, it was only for 24km as I felt like nothing much left in my tank. Cycling is a region that needs a lot of attention from me from now onwards. My cycling muscles have long gone.

There you go. What supposed to be a recovery session, turned out into something else instead. I was lying down on my back on the tarmac after completing the cycling and the view of the stars in the dark sky was amazing. That was all because I discovered some great Ironman triathlon motivation videos over the internet and I get so much inspired over it.

Perhaps, I should learn to calm down a little bit when I'm stressed.

Push

When the weather is nice and the mood is good, I normally like to push myself slightly harder during my training. And looking at the current pattern of my daily training, Wednesday is normally the day where I tend to push more, if however possible lah.

So yesterday, right after my work ended I rushed to the swimming pool. I was fortunate that the big dark clouds were only passing by, pouring down the heavy rain and thunders somewhere else. I quickly changed to my swimming gear and hit the pool at 5.45pm. I wanted to start early, with a mind set to do 1 hour swim, non-stop.

With not so many other swimmers, I put my water bottle on the edge of the third lane of the pool, as to indicate that I am ‘reserving’ the lane to myself. The first few hundred meters were good enough that I did not feel any discomfort in any of my swimming muscles. Perhaps, the pain has been really ‘broken down’.

Getting to 1km point, breathing was still manageable, and the time clocked was around 25 minutes, if I’m not mistaken. Upon taking few sips of water from the bottle, I continued to reach 1.5km point, where the time shown that I’ve spent 38 minutes swimming.

I know I’ve done 2km swim before, only I forgot what the time I clocked was (and I’m lazy to look back at my old post). Anyway, this time, I managed to swim 2km in about 53 minutes or so (not so accurate, I did not use stopwatch, just reading off the needles).

Ok, I have about 5 to 7 minutes to go before completing an hour of swimming, and I spent those final minutes to add another 400m. So, I did 2.4km in 60 minutes, and I’ll try to beat this record next time, when I have the mood to push again.

Done with the swimming, I went home to collect my running and cycling gears. I’ve promised a buddy to run together before we cycle, and I was 15 minutes late when I arrived at our normal gathering point. He was already doing 10 minutes of warming up run.

I joined him and started my stopwatch. The plan was to run one big loop of our normal cycling route, which would give us approximately 6km distance to run or cycle. He’s a very strong runner and in fact, I could say he’s among the top 3 in JB (out of all this very little community of active athletes I know). I don’t know what you would think, but he holds a personal best time of 3hr36min for a full marathon race.

So, following his running pace can be categorized as a hard effort for me. But, I pushed myself, and managed to stay behind his foot steps throughout 95% of our run last night. It was also a battle with my own mindset which kept on sending me signals to stop and just run with my slow pace. I won the battle, and I was glad that I completed the 5.8km run in 31 minutes.

Still not yet as fast as I wanted, but I’m reminding myself that I’m still in the journey towards that goal.

Right after the run, we cycled. Again, I wanted to see how far I can push myself on the bike after having done the swim and the run. Our normal menu was to do the 6km loop, 5 times.

On the first loop, I was doing fine. The pace was not that fast yet as most of them were still warming up. Getting into the second loop, I was still feeling good as I place myself to lead the peloton cruising at 36-37 km/hr on the flat road until suddenly…

“Pssssttttt…..”

… at 8km mark, my back tire exploded and there gone my chance to push on the bike.

Instead, I had to push the bike back to the car park. What a good 20 minutes cooling down walking exercise that was.

This was not last night's photo (obviously). This was during one of the times where I pushed myself on the long rides, back in February 2009. I did a 79km long ride on Saturday morning, followed by a 131km long ride on the next morning. It was really tiring.

[Training Log]
Wednesday: Swim 2.4km, 1hr, moderate; Run 5.8km, 31min, moderate/hard; Cycle 8km (supposed to be 30km ride, but DNF due to puncture)

Easy question, difficult answer

Last Sunday when I ran at Salomon X-Trail event, some other blogosthlete friends went to Singapore to run the marathon. None of them that I know got disqualified or did not finish (DNF) it. So, big congratulations to them all. Well done!

Reading the stories they shared on their blogs, none of them skipped the word “pain”. Yeah, to run or even to walk the gruesome 42km of distance is not kindergarten stuffs. As the famous runningmom Haza said, we have to respect the distance.

Very true indeed.

Talking about the pain when doing it, to be frank, I’ve forgotten how painful it was for me to get through the 42km. But I remember that I hated stairs so much after that. Jalan kangkang-kangkang mengalahkan orang utan. The painful journey was not only on the marathon day itself. It has started few weeks prior to that. If I may summarize how I trained for it, it might look something like below:

During the initial stage of training when I first broke my 15km barrier, not so much pain yet. I knew I could go further.

The next LSD run training when I went 20km for the first time, I started to feel the pain in the legs, especially at the knees.

Upon breaking the 25km barrier mark the week after that, I got disturbed with the continuous pain at the knees after running pass 18km. Few friends suggested me to take some supplements for the joints. Thank goodness it worked for me.

I cannot really remember now, but I think I also did a 30km LSD. Or, was it 34km? I can’t recall. But, that was the last LSD training before I started tapering 2 weeks prior to race. Don’t talk about the pain. It was the worst among other earlier LSD’s.

And as much as I wanted to run all the way throughout the 42km distance during the marathon, I was humbled by the unbearable pain I had at 28km or so. From then onwards, even walking was painful.

Towards the finishing line of KL International Marathon.
I kept running just because there were lots of photographers there.
I was already suffering from cramps on both calves, 2km before the finish line.

Now, there are already talks around the corner about the forthcoming Pacesetters 30km run at Putrajaya in January next year, and also the first in Malaysia, night marathon which will take place few weeks after that, and many other races in 2010.

I can’t deny that I am so much bugged into participating in some of these events. But the question is, why?

Why do I want to suffer my physical and mental, yet once again?

I don’t have an exact answer for that, yet.

The reason why I’m writing this entry up is that, out of a sudden I come to think that is it possible to run 30km or 42km, or do another triathlon without suffering any pain?

This question lingers me so much, that I’m planning to put myself into a self experiment. An experiment to see whether I can run or race long distance events with lesser pain than before, or will I suffer it every time?

Hmmm…

And weird enough that I’m not so worried about the suffering I have to endure for the training because I know training harder is a must. But, I’m more concerned with the already limited quality time with family, as many more people will suffer if I wrongly balance it between family and my interests in endurance sports.

Balancing act – something that I thought was non-existence, until I start doing endurance sports. I’m still learning to become better at it. Wish me luck ya!

Tackling the Stairs

Something might be wrong with my biological calendar right now as I easily lost tracks with what’s happening in the near future. Previously I used to use tiny sticky notes upon sticky notes on my calendar as to show my agenda, especially for the weekends.

It shocked me a big time yesterday when I had this phone conversation with a friend who upon sharing his Penang Bridge Marathon story, he asked me of what I have in plan.

Him: “I’m looking for a running buddy this weekend coz soon I’ll be running for Singapore marathon pulak. Are you free this weekend?”

Me: “Hmm, this weekend is the Raya Haji la, I’ll be going to my in-laws’ hometown. What about the week after that? Maybe we can do something?”

Him: “Wei, the week after that is already the Singapore marathon la bro.”

Me: “Ooh, I see.” (I was still blur at this moment)

Him: “Bro, have you not registered yourself for Salomon X-trail run?”

Me: “Yes I have. Why?

Him: “But that Salomon run is on the same date as Singapore marathon.”

Me: “What? Really ah? Ayoyo. I thought I still have three weeks to go.”

That’s how blurry I am now. Mostly due to the increasing job loads I received, on top of the back log of unsettled ones which I got since the weeks earlier. Facts and tasks and dates (deadlines, races, events, blablabla) where jumbled up in my brain and I didn’t bother to jot down any of them. Thus, more blurry of me.

Anyway, focusing on the Salomon X-Trail run I’m going to attempt in less than two weeks time, I tried something new on my training menu. Instead of plodding more on the tarmac, I tackled the stairs.

Running up the stairs should equally simulate the uphill run on the trail, so I hope.

Yesterday was the first time in my own little history to run on a field track, inside the football stadium. I ran 2km as a warm up, and sure enough circling the track 5 times was so monotonous. Running outside on the road is much better than this.

After the warm up, I started running up and down on the stairs at one portion of the seating area. I did not count the total number of steps on that stairs, I just put a mental note on how long of the duration I can last running them up and down non-stop.

I was surely huffing and puffing in the first few minutes. I took small steps as not to fall into anaerobic state of exercise if I were to do big and slow steps. Getting into anaerobic state will just burst out more lactic acid in your muscles.

Extra care should be taken while running down the stairs, as weakening leg muscles will cause you to crumple and fall down. Same thing when running on a downhill. So, go slow on your way down (unless you’ve trained hard for it)

After about 10 minutes or so, I took a short break to re-hydrate myself. Never did I think running up and down stairs would be so demanding on one’s fitness. I was already drenched out with sweat, indicating a good workout. So I hope.

Not feeling enough with that, I continued running up and down the whole upper level portion of the whole stadium, 360 degrees. Well, putting aside the roofed area, perhaps it was only 300 degrees or so. Ran up one stairs, ran to the neighboring stairs, then ran down, then up again on another neighboring stairs. Repeat until all stairs were covered.

No, this is not the actual stadium where I ran yesterday. Just want to give you some rough idea on what I meant by neighboring stairs in between the seatings.

The seating of this particular stadium has lower level (from ground, up 20 steps or so), and the upper level (from the top of lower level, all the way up to the most top (another 20steps or so).

I tried my best to run up and down non-stop, but my fitness level didn’t allow that to happen yet. Total training time yesterday was only 50minutes. I’ll try again another few times this week, and next week. I might try to push myself a little bit further. We’ll see if this new training menu (kind of a crash-course to me) can help me survive the Salomon X-trail with considerably good timing, and injury free.

Hmm, I still feel like 6 December is in another three weeks time. I don’t know why.

Spring In The Leg

This whole week I’ve been out to train every evening in my effort to get back to train much more seriously as compared to the previous couple of months. I ran in three evenings, and cycled yesterday night. Not wanting to put additional running pressure to my running muscles, I skipped the planned run today and I as a substitute, I skipped.

Yeah, I skipped. You know, using the skipping rope as we Malaysians know it.

But the standard jargon for it is, rope jumping.

I totally cannot remember when was the last time I did rope jumping. Must have been more than 3 or 4 years ago. I was surprised I still can do rope jumping, not only the forward rope jump, but I also did the double rope jump (double spin of the rope with one jump), cross-over jump, and also the reverse rope jump.

It was fun and after 45 minutes of leg springing actions, I was as drenched out as if I’ve just ran 5km or more. What a good way to sweat out and laugh at my own self.

Equipped with my digital camera, a small tripod and a jumping rope I borrowed from my colleague, I enjoyed my evening outside my office making my first self-documentary.

The title of my first little movie is called,

EnAikAY Went Skipping.

Hope you enjoy it.
(Promise me you won’t laugh ok!).

Failure and Success

I was not born as an athlete, but I just like to be active and do lots of sports. For me, doing sports is fun, ever since when I was a kid. However, the kinds of sports which I did during school were those played-at-court types of sports, like hockey, volleyball, tennis, and such. Not much (or maybe never) did I do endurance sports like long distance running or cycling.

So, I failed a lot of times since I started doing endurance training or sports. For example, let’s take a look on my running history.

Looking back through my own blog when I started my first day or running back in July 2007, I can’t even run continuously for 3km. It felt pathetic at the beginning. Even 1km felt very far a distance to run, even slowly. I tried running on the treadmill, as well as at the indoor gym. Not being able to do as what I wanted to do, I took that as my first failure.

I kept trying to run further, very slowly building my mileage and endurance months after months (I was not so consistent in training though, mainly just to kill the time). Only about three months later that I can run continuously for 3km. OK, one step up. From not being able to run continuously, then I can run continuously for the same distance. But I still failed to run further.

Even 9 months after my first attempt or running, I was still not able to run 7km non stop. Another failure you can say?

In July 2008, I attempted my first triathlon event which was the PD triathlon. My very first triathlon event was an Olympic distance event. After swimming and cycling, it was time to do my first 10km run. And I failed miserably as I can’t run continuously throughout the course. And my time for that 10km run, not worth mentioning at all. One more failure.

Fast forward to another year, in June 2009, I completed my first marathon, a 42km distance which I somehow suffered a bit, and had to recover for a week or two to nurse my aching knees and legs. I didn’t even run all the way during the marathon. Had to walk for few kilos due to the fatigue. Fail again.

Similar stories for my swimming and cycling journey. Lots of failures over the years since I first started.

Why did I keep on mentioning about failures here? Have I not be successful even once?

Because for me, failure is very subjective as it reflects to what our expectations about success is. We all have high expectation towards ourselves, don’t we? And knowing that I’ve failed so many times, I know I have to keep on doing something to improve myself for a better success.

So what should I do then?

The answer is simple, but doing it is one of the most difficult thing to do.

Never Give Up

Perhaps, the best general formula would be,

“Failures + Never Give Up = Success”

P/s: Reading some of my initial posts in this blog since back in 2007, made me smile…

Training in Ramadhan

During Ramadhan last year, I didn’t do any fitness training at all. My fitness activities last year was not as much as this year. I only did one triathlon last year compared to three triathlons plus 1 marathon this year. So, I can say that my fitness level back then was at very minimal, very low. This year, slightly better.

As for preparations for this year’s races, I kept my momentum going since the beginning of the year. It is true when people said that it may take quite a long time for one to notice an increase in performance, especially when one is building the endurance.

Remember when I blog about fighting the ‘M’ bug? Yes, I was that skeptical and kind of worried if my fitness drop in the case of not continuing my training. Not having any big races to do, normally the motivation to train will slowly reduce.

My experience of building the basic foundation of fitness level since beginning of the year was not easy, and it was tough. I had to put up hours upon hours of training, continuously. Well, that was to build the basic foundation alone, not yet including any speed work, and it was already tough.

So, I don’t want to start from scratch again. And for not having to do that, the only way is to maintain the fitness level I currently have.

Maintenance is the key word here.

I’m a heavy sweater, and I sweat easily upon any slight increase in my body temperature, or ambient temperature. That means, I need to keep my self hydrated, especially before, during and after training.

But now, it’s the holy Ramadhan month. So how can I continue my training properly?

Before starting any kind of training session (swim, bike or run), I normally drink half a bottle of plain water (approximately 200 ~ 250ml) to hydrate myself. And depending on the level of intensity and duration of my training, I might need to drink while training too. And rehydration after training is a definite must. I sweat a lot and I need plenty of water or else I’ll face the risk of getting ‘switched off’ (go kaput laa).

With that, I don’t dare to train during fasting (i.e. daytime). The only choice left is to train during night time. Here are some summary of what happened during this week.

Monday
Oh gosh, I suddenly forgot what I did on Monday. Oh yeah, now I remember. I went to the gym after tarawikh. Fortunately the gym extends its operation hour up till 12 midnite during Ramadhan (normally it closes at 11pm). So, I spent 1hr ++ there doing some mix upper and lower body workouts. I also tried running with speed of 13km/hr on the treadmill, and I could only last for 5 minutes. So pathetic. Next time, I’ll try beating this one.

Tuesday
Here in JB I live nearby UTM Skudai. I can’t think of any other ‘safe’ place (i.e. well lit, less traffic, no dogs, no thieves) to run at night other than to run inside UTM campus. So, I decided to run there. Again, after tarawikh.

With still a full tummy from the break fast, running that night was not as comfortable as normal. At 4km, I felt some abs cramp and I settled for some fast walking for about 50m to recover the cramp. I then continued running in the humid environment where I sweated a lot, and by 6.5km-ish, after completing 3 loops around the campus, I called it a night.

Wednesday
It was the night of the least cyclists showing up. Only three of us. When I arrived, there was one guy who wanted to do some running before cycling, so I joined him to do the 2km-ish warm up run.

With no speed demons cycling that night, I took leisure during cycling. I did not push at all. However, I only settled with an embarrassing 18km ride distance. Embarrassing because I know I had the energy to do 30km, but I cut it short just because I was attacked with the M4L4S bug. Plus, with so little cycling buddies around, it won’t be much of fun.

The plan to do another run after the cycling was quickly trashed into the ditch without any second consideration.

Thursday
I made another visit to the gym last night. This time I spent 1.5hrs, doing higher intensity upper and lower body workouts. I’m having muscle soreness now, especially the arms and chest. OK, good sign I guess.

So far, things were going pretty well. At least, I can still do some maintenance and strength training during fasting month, though I think I have to temporarily forget about doing any speed work due to timing unsuitability.

If I want to run fast, I need lots and lots of water. Hence, no running during day time.

If I run with full stomach (i.e. to run after tarawikh), it won’t be comfortable. And if I want to speed up, there will be high possibility that I’ll vomit during the run. Ugly, ugly.

If I take light iftar, I might be able to increase my run intensity. But I also don’t want to stuff my stomach so near to my bed time (i.e. to eat after the run) as it won’t be healthy either.

It’s OK. I’m taking it easy for now. At the end, I’m only maintaining my fitness.

Tee Dough Lar Ghee Sir Darp

Pulun

As if I am going for a race this weekend, my daily training for this week particularly has been kind of – overly done, I guess.

Monday was a rest day, due to late hours driving from KL back to JB the night before.

Tuesday – 1.5 hours gym session for strength training which also included a 7 minutes speed work run on the treadmill. I ended up having sore quads.

Wednesday (yesterday) – I did another speed work running 6km-ish on the road. Continued with a 30km bike riding at night (or was it 36km? Don't know, I lost my speedometer last week) which I got attacked with calves cramps at one point (for trying to keep up with the speed demons). And I ended the night with another 2.5km itchy (geli-geli lah) run right after the bike ride.

Today evening – I will be attempting a 10km-ish run after work (hopefully, if the rain stops). And if that is not enough, I’ll re-visit the gym for another round of strength training, maybe focusing on the upper body muscles.

Pulun gile, kan? Hahahaha…

P/s: Sorry, I don’t know what is ‘pulun’ in English. I initially thought of putting “Poo-Loan” as the title of this entry, but… hrmm… enough with daily shitty shitty things at work lah.

Work Out

It has been very long time since I last visited the gym for some weights training. The last times where I went to the gym were the ones where I wanted to increase the strength on my swimming muscles – mainly upper body workout. And with few constant visits to the gym, spending about 1 hour on each visit, I could see and feel some increase in my swimming performance, compared to before.

I’m in the situation where my target is starting to change. I guess a better word for it rather than using ‘change’ is – develop. My target is starting to develop. My initial target when doing endurance sports was just to see whether I can do it, whether I can endure the whole journey. I think I’ve passed that with flying colors.

My developed target now is, to see whether I can do it, faster.

I’m starting another journey to see how far of that target I can achieve. And I know this time, the journey is going to be tougher than before. And definitely going to be longer.

Jealousy drives me into this. Yes, I’m jealous to see other athletes who can swim or bike or run faster. It’s the inner competitiveness character inside me that is causing the shift in my target. Not to compete with anyone else, but to compete against myself.

Though I did not record them properly, I always keep in mind of the timing of each of my training so that I know where I stand as I go along. The mental torture is greater when what you want to beat is your own best timing. So, I have to be really careful with what I’m doing, so that I won’t burn out before hitting my peak performance.

And I believe it’s ok to take it easy once in a while. Give the body some rest. Resting is also part of the training. By the way, I’m only doing this mainly for fun. So, I will push when I can, and I will rest if I feel I needed one.

Now that I’m targeting to go a bit faster, lot’s of things need to be done. One step at a time, no rush here. I’m starting to read some books and online reading on the topic of effective training, and anything similar to it. I hope one day I can come up with a proper training plan specific to a race or target, and stick to it.

One of the things to do is, to strengthen the muscles. Stronger muscles will drive you faster. It’s like the car engine. I discussed this over with one friend, and without any doubt, strong muscles are necessary if you want to go faster. Well, strong muscles do not mean that you have to have a body shape like those body builders. They are in a different regime and endurance athletes are in a different regime. The way we use our muscles are different.

Well, I’m still learning more on the scientific facts behind this, so I won’t preach so much on it yet at this moment.

With Ramadhan coming close, and with a first small target to improve my running speed, I went to the gym last night. At first I only planned to do a 10km run after work, but my car air-cond broke down so I have to ditch the run and bring the car for repair. Hence, I’m RM200 poorer.

Not wanting to waste a day where I’m healthy and energetic and have the time to train, I went to the gym after an early dinner of nasi ayam penyet. Paid RM5 for a daily entry fee, and duh…!! I forgot to bring my tights. So, I just changed to my sleeveless dri-fit shirt and running shoes, and still wearing the pair of jeans from work, I started my lower body workouts.

Please don’t ask me on the movements names of the workouts, because I don’t know. But I worked out mostly on the leg muscles, mainly quadriceps and calves, and a little bit on hamstrings.

The front leg muscles

The back leg muscles

In between the repetitions, I also did some upper body workouts, just to alternate and balance up the muscle usage. Just as I was doing the last few repetitions before calling it a day, I took some photos so that I have some ‘idea’ of what to merepek (ramble) write in my blog. Hahaha.

Do you notice me wearing the jeans for working out? Next time I will dress up properly and suitably. Yesterday was an ‘emergency’ case.

At one point, my legs were so “itchy” that I went on the treadmill and do a fast run for about 7 minutes (yes, while wearing jeans!). Upon coming down from the treadmill, I can’t feel my legs. Then, back on to do some more weight training before finishing up with some stretching, when the gym was already getting too crowded.

Having spent more than an hour at the gym last night, now I have a little bit of soreness on my quadriceps. For me, it’s a sign of a successful workouts and I hope my work outs worked out alright.

This might be my training menu during Ramadhan.

Fighting the ‘M’ bug

Some friends used to ask me, “Are you not tired of training for almost everyday?”

Sometimes I just smiled back, and sometimes I would just tell them that I needed to train because I had races to do.

To my housemates, they only see me for few minutes while we are preparing to go to work, and another hour or two at night before we go to sleep. On Wednesday when I go for the weekly night ride, I’ll be home so late that I’ll be greeted by men under their blankets, snoring. Normally they’ll be home by 5pm, when it’s the time for me where I start my daily (or alternate days) training.

That was sort of the routine for my training, when there were races to do.

Just after Desaru, I got no more targeted or planned races to do. Actually I had a plan to do the Singapore marathon, and some friends also invited me to join Powerman duathlon in Lumut. But due to some financial constraints, I had to let them go. Fine with me though. I’m not a race ‘catcher’ or medal collector anyway.

With no planned races in the near future, and with Ramadhan coming around the corner, I switched myself to the ‘off-season’ mode. By off-season, it means that I will still do some training, but with lower intensity and volume.

And with that, I got heavily infected by the ‘M’ bug.

”Bugger!”

So, how do you tell if you got infected with the ‘M’ bug? Here are some of the things I noticed happen to me, upon getting the bug (in random order):

1. You would wish and pray hard that it will be raining or even thunderstorm at the time when you normally go out for run or swim.

2. Your heart rate shoots over the roof upon seeing a 1kg increase on the body weight even without heavy carboloading. Anything more than 3kg increase of body weight within a week, please ask you spouse/friend to bring you to the ICU for a panic shock treatment.

3. Whenever you plan for a 40km bicycle ride, the actual outcome would be 20km (or less).

4. And whenever you plan for a two loops of run (whatever the distance is for one loop), the result surely will be only 1 loop run. A three loops run plan will also turn out to be one loop run. No doubt about it.

5. A 1 hour trainer session plan will end up with only 20minutes (trainer = static cycling device).

6. A plan to do some swim will end up with nothing!

7. The sun at 6pm ‘feels’ as hot as it is at 1pm. Hence, you tell yourself ”Are you crazy to go out running at 6pm with that sun on your head? Don't be stupid ok!”

8. You would classify dreams (while sleeping) having anything to do with swimming, cycling or running as nightmares. Even to have a view of a swimming pool in your dream is already bad enough.

9. On a fine evening where the weather is good for a run, and then you receive an email from the customer which at the end says, "I would appreciate if you can give some feedback by end of next month”, you would immediately rush to settle the requested job on the same evening and make that as an excuse for not going out for a run.

10. Lastly, you’ll end up writing a blog entry with the title “Fighting the ‘M’ bug”.

Oh ya, ‘M’ bug is also known as the M4L4S bug.

”Bugger!!!”

P/s: My housemates have started to ask why am I home so early...

A colleague drew this on my cubicle's white board, and I wrote the dialogue

Long Journey

Upon returning to work after KL Marathon last month, few colleagues who knew I took part asked me, ”Nik, what placing did you get?”

Same thing, when I get back after PD triathlon, some colleagues would be asking the same question, about what prize I won and what was my number.

Nothing’s wrong with that. And I think it’s quite normal for people to ask what we got upon completing a race, or a match. Just like football, people will ask who wins and who loses, and what the score is.

What I did was only to show them the finisher medals that I got with pride and honor. The honor of completing the races I took part.

Perhaps they don’t know that I did not care about what position I get. Anyway, let’s just leave this issue to end here. I don’t even know why am I writing this up.

During 2008, I only participated in one event which was the PD triathlon. This year, I plan to participate in few others. So, with more races to do, more hours of training is definitely on high needs. And the training can be quite demanding too.

Though the training may be demanding, but if you are granted with training buddies where you can train together, you won’t even notice how demanding the training would be because you are enjoying your training sessions.

I still remember my first long distance ride in JB which was a 90km, from Kampung Melayu Majidee to Kota Tinggi waterfall and back. Never did I think I will bonk on the ride after 50 to 60km riding upon which I had no more legs to pedal. I told two of the training buddies to proceed ahead, and they agreed to wait for me somewhere.

I bonked so badly that I even stopped to rest my thighs. Luckily I didn’t break down into tears. I almost, though. At that instant, I ‘regretted’ doing it and tell my self not to torture myself again.

But my training buddies told me to keep on going at it. It will make me better and stronger.

I tried putting some beliefs in their words, and so I continued to do another long distance ride.

For the second time, doing slightly over than 100km, I bonked again. Not that I rode fast or tried to be the leader of the peloton. I was at the back and cycling at my own pace all the time, mostly alone. And yet I still bonked. And at that instance of time, again I felt the regret of doing it and promised myself that it will be the last time I ride my bicycle.

But then, those buddies who waited for me at a petrol station ahead said that they did not have to wait for me as long as they did during the previous one.

Ok, some smiles started to grow on my face.

That was a year ago.

With more and more training I did from then onwards, be it short distance or long distance rides (or swims, or runs), if I ever to plot a graph of my performance, I know it will be showing a positive inclination line. However, on the x-axis (the horizontal axis, i.e. the ‘time line’), the scale would be big. Big scale here means, to achieve a mere 10% increase in performance, it may take me few months, maybe a year, maybe more.

Anyway, it’s good to know that I’m progressing positively, though very slowly. I just cannot loose it to my temper or impatient for not getting up there fast enough like some other people do. If I want to reach up faster, I know I can do it by pushing myself harder. But I may also lose the fun of doing all this stuffs and I may be neglecting my many other obligations as a normal person who has a family and a job to keep. I don't want to risk having an injury either.

Yeah, I cannot deny that I’m tempted to be faster, stronger and better. I don’t want to rush though, as I know I am an easy to give up type of person (sometimes). In fact I’m still teaching myself never to give up. I know I can be better, and yet not lose a single bit of fun while doing it. But it’s going to be a very long journey for me.

I think, having fun is the cure for the pain that we have to endure.

And I feel that my long journey had only just begun.

Monday blues

I’ve swam 2km before.

I also used to cycle 90km few moons ago.

A 21km run was part of my marathon training.

But, to do all three of the above, one after another, on a same day, back to back, is something that I have yet to experience.

Two weeks to go. How time flies.

I’m planning to go all out on the training this week and half of next week. Hopefully the weather and body condition permits me to do so. I know I don’t have enough time to do everything, but I don’t want to live a life doing nothing.

On the other hand, work has been and still is on the high tide now. More input than what I could output. But, that’s the normal working life, right? No point complaining, bukan naik gaji pun.

Not gonna do PD triathlon

Yup, you heard me right.

I’m so not going to do PD triathlon this year....

Not as how I did it for the first time last year.

What I meant by that is, I’ll be doing PD triathlon this year with lesser preparation as how I did during last year.

Sounded better, right?

Immediately after Kenyir triathlon in April, most of the training effort and focus was to prepare myself for my first attempt of marathon, hence run after run after run.

I’ve neglected swimming and cycling pretty tremendously. During last Wednesday’s weekly night ride, I was glad I could still remember how to unclip my shoes off the bike. And if I am targeting for better timing than last year’s, in the next coming week my effort should be to focus more on cycling.

Not that I am already good at swimming. My 1.5km swimming time in the pool is still quite embarrassing to be mentioned here.

Ok, to look at things rationally, not including today (Friday), I have about 8 days left before race day. Something that may look like this:

Saturday – Maybe will do some running nearby my house in the morning. I’m going back to PJ this weekend.

Sunday – A full day of family time. I’m just an average Nik (I don’t like using Joe’s name) who has a family, a work, and a tiny bit of interest in triathlon. So, a good balancing act is a must.

Monday – Combo swim and bike. If it’s not raining here in JB.

Tuesday – Combo swim and bike, again, if it’s not raining.

Wednesday – Combo bike and run and nan cheese tandoori, if it’s not raining. Err, the nan cheese tandoori thingy can still be done even if it is raining though.

Thursday – Don’t know what else to combo. Maybe bike only, if it’s not raining.

Friday – Not sure yet. Maybe no training at all.

Saturday – Might already be travelling to PD for the race on Sunday.

See, that’s how the next 8 days will be spent, IF IT IS NOT RAINING HERE IN JB.

I guess the raining season has started here in JB. Not sure about other places though. Last two or three months we had been complaining about the extra heat. So now we should be grateful that the heat has reduced a lot with this rain. And I’m so grateful for that.

Therefore, if it rains in the evening for everyday of next week, I’m sure I won’t be doing PD triathlon this year as how I did it last year (better preparation).

But, I will still be standing at the starting line, insyaAllah.