Run - Day 1

When I was at school, I did many types of sports which specializes hand skills more than leg skills such as volleyball, table tennis, handball, tennis and hockey. Being not so good at leg-related-sports, I would choose a position where I can use hands more than legs, for example I would choose to be the goal keeper if I were to play football. I enjoyed playing those sports for exercise more than for competition. I didn’t like to compete, I don’t know why. Sebab takut kalah kot.

Anyway, today marked the day where I started running, hopefully seriously from now onwards. I went to the gym where there’s a small indoor track that one has to do 10 laps to complete a 1 mile (1.6km) distance.

I told myself not to push so hard since today is my first day running. But, being so excited to start running and without knowing what the best pace is for me at this moment, I just ran quite aggressively. After 3 laps I felt like I was going to puke, couldn’t breath So, I walked for one lap. Then I ran again for a couple of laps, and walk, and ran, and walk again. At first I thought I recorded every running lap times with my IM Timex watch, but it turned out that I pressed the wrong buttons. Hampeh betul. Therefore, no record of running time for my first day. I finally stopped running when I got side stitch on the right side of my abdomen. Manyak sakit woo...

Result of Day 1 (Monday)
Distance: Hmm, in total maybe 2 miles (3.2km), with 75% running and 25% walking
Time: unknown
Max Heart Rate: macam nak gila!

One thing I noticed about the difference between cycling and running is, it is much harder to run compared to cycling. My heart rate went up to the max just after 2 laps. I felt like all blood was pumped up onto my head. Never mind, I’ll go slow and steady. There’s more room for improvement as long as I continue to train.

Oh ya, I am not going to stop cycling yet. In fact, after doing the 43km ride that day, I feel like I wanted to do more rides with greater distance. But, there’s no more cycling event coming up nearby my place in the near future that I can join. I’m thinking of doing some solo long distance ride during early morning of the weekends. Itupun kalau kuat semangat, paham-paham ajelah.

The Dehydrator memories

Here are some photos during my fun ride at The Dehydrator, yesterday.

Final preparation, eating Powerbar(s) inside the car.

This is what I ride, same age as me. Classic.

Nice...

Some of the racers & riders. Preparing for the flag off.

Do I look nervous?

This is after I finished my first 43km ride.

Enjoying watermelons during the lunch.

- The End -

Bike – Day 13 (The Dehydrator, Duncan, Oklahoma, USA)

Wow, what a day! I just returned from the 43km fun ride. I don’t know from where I should start my story. At this very moment I’m feeling pretty tired and sleepy, so if my story started to be a nonsense one, that means my fingers are typing with my eyes closed.

Yesterday I didn’t go cycling, I just went to pick up the fun ride packets and at night I ate a lot of foods. Terboroi sekejap, carbo loading punya pasal. Just when I wanted to shut down my laptop and go to sleep, someone YM-ed me. Oklah, layan kejap. At last, I slept at around 12am.

This morning, I woke up at 6am. Get prepared, eat lots of breakfast. Boroi lagi sekali. Loaded my bike inside the car trunk and by around 7.30am I arrived at the starting location. Its summer here and you can already feel the heat even at that early morning. Parked my car, and started to eat two Powerbars inside the car. One for each leg, I guess. Haha.

The first Powerbar tasted good. When I was about to finish the second bar, I felt weird. Overdosed power kot.

At 8am, the racers started their journey. We, the “riders” (fun ride) were flagged off 5 minutes later. I’m not really sure how many turned out this time, but they are lots of people with colourful jerseys and bikes. It made me felt very humble when looking at their Cervelos, Cannondales, Treks and lots of ntah-apa-brand-aku-pun-tak-tau. Some say there were around 500 people participated this year. Anyway, keeping my mind in the positive mode I started riding and followed the pack at the front. All the riders who are doing the 27, 53 and 69 miles had to go on the same route for about 15miles and then we the 27miles riders took different route. The first half of the route has lots of rolling hills, it was tough. Luckily my musuh tradisi, the headwind, was absent today. Thank God.

I tried to maintain medium-high cadence throughout the ride. My legs didn’t feel tired this time, breathing was controllable except for the time when I had to do standing climb up two of the very sharp hills. Speed was about 16-17km/h when I did the climbs, but there was one time I clocked 53.5km/h when going down a hill. It felt really good, rasa macam naik bullet train dua tayar.

I’m not sure why, but most of the times (after the first few miles) I rode alone. I didn’t get into any pack. Solo-molo je. I stopped once for a short break at 25km mark, teguk setengah botol Gatorade, and then continued cycling. Fortunate enough, after the 25km mark, the route was 70% flat.

I set my speedometer to see only current speed and average speed. And I depended on my IM Timex watch to see roughly how long have I cycled. Based on the average speed I was doing, I calculated that I could do this ride below 2 hours time. Then, after about 1.5hrs I came through a familiar location. Eh, dah nak sampai ke ni? I cycled a bit more and a few minutes later I arrived at the finishing point. YEAYY…! I finally finished it. Big smile was on my face.

Did some leg stretching, cooled down my self a bit and then I went to the pool for a relaxing few laps of swim. It’s like doing a reverse triathlon, haha. After that, I joined the others for lunch. I couldn’t eat much, just took one baked potato, a full plate of cold and juicy watermelons and lots of water.

During the lunch, I had a good chat with a 77-years old pakcik who also did the 27miles fun ride. He said he used to do 100miles ride few years back and he is going to enter a 50miles ride in October. Wa respect sama lu, pakcik!

As a conclusion, it was such a good experience to cycle with lots of people. I could see some cool bikes, great jerseys, young and old people having fun on their bikes, and I learned that it makes such a loud noise when one clip or unclip their cycling shoes. Furthermore, this is my first time. Good start, good ending, and hopefully more good things in the future of my sports life.

Result of Day 13 (Saturday)
Distance: 43km
Time: 1hr 39min
V Max.: 53.5km/h
V Ave.: 26.1km/h

So, what’s next?

I may need to slow down on cycling since I have to do some studying for my job training. I have two pre-requisite self-study courses to be completed before I go for a big training course in the middle of August. Kalau makan Powerbar, otak boleh jadi power tak?

Or, shall I start running? Cepat, cepat... sapa nak racun aku start running pulak?

Bike - Day 12

I almost put on my swimming gear and go to the gym to do some swimming. Instead, I thought I should push myself on the bike for another day, final day. So, put on my cycling gear, and off I went for cycling.

I tried to go for higher speed this time, choosing my normal route but shorter distance. It was not bad. Though there was moderate amount of headwind on my way back, I still managed to clock 27km/h ++ on the average speed. Very happy with that, I felt fast a bit. I felt good, my confidence level went up. I know it’s going to be tough to break this average speed record for the time being. Anyway, my fun ride on Saturday will be an endurance type for which I cannot push for high speed, but more on long distance. Hopefully this week’s mix of long distance and high speed trainings would do me just fine for this Saturday’s ride.

Result of Day 12 (Thursday)
Distance: 14.2km
Time: 30 min
V Max.: 43.7km/h
V Ave.: 27.8km/h

Once arrived home, did some cooling down and stretching. I then fell asleep on the chair in sitting position for few minutes, and upon waking up I walked to the room macam orang mabuk dan terus mati katak kat atas katil selama sejam.

Tomorrow will be a cycling-free day for me, time to go collect the packets from the organizer. Perhaps, I may do some easy swimming at the gym too.

P/s: Did you notice something? My blog entries are getting shorter and shorter, aren’t they? I think my strategy of channelling some energy from my fingers to the legs is working now! Haha.

Bike - Day 11

My morale is low and going down now.

What can I expect after 11 days cycling? Am I expecting too much from myself? I think so.

Ironically, I was talking with my good friend about how bad an “over-expectation” can do to one self, especially in a relationship. Expectation is good at certain limit, and when it’s over the limit it will start to harm our mental or feeling. Imagine parents expecting too much from their children’s education, and imagine a husband expecting too much from the wife, or vice versa. Relationship may be at a risk.

But, what if you expect so much from yourself? What damage might it cause?

I almost cancelled my cycling today. In the office at 3pm, I was thinking whether should I rest or should I cycle today. If according to plan, I should train from Monday till Thursday, and then rest on Friday to be ready for Saturday morning fun ride. The mental-war has started. Not wanting to loose to negative thoughts in the brain, I opened up mapmyride website, tried to look for another route nearby my apartment. Being forced by my own self expectation, I was thinking to push harder and faster and further. I found a 25km route and I told myself, "Just Belasah It!!"

But, my physical ability hasn’t reached that high level yet. So, at last I have to surrender with only 19.2km today. The effect, now I have less confidence in myself to do the 43km fun ride as compared to when I registered for it. A friend told me to just enjoy the ride and just finish it.

But, I want more than “just finish it” thingy. I want to become faster. At the end, I think in making the best self expectation, one should balance between target and capability. That means more training for sure.

Result of Day 11 (Wednesday)
Distance: 19.2km
Time: 43 min
V Max.: 45.8km/h
V Ave.: 26.4km/h

I hope my Discovery Channel jersey can help make my bicycle go faster. Kalau sehelai jersey tak cukup power, nanti aku pakai 3 helai jersey sekaligus baru dia tau... hahaha

Bike - Day 10

Blog: Hi, how are you doing? How was your cycling today?

Me: Not bad, but not so good. I followed yesterday’s route, but this time I did slightly longer distance. I’m experimenting with my body to see how to conserve energy better while I’m climbing the rolling hills. Yesterday, I did few standing climbs and my thigh muscles were badly burnt out. Today, I decided to shift down to smaller gear and just do sitting climbs. I don’t know whether this is the best method, but at least today I felt better. But I still couldn’t increase my average speed so much.

Blog: Good to hear that. But, why do you look so restless and tense now? Are you worried about something? Are you tired?

Me: Yeah, tired a bit. I’m searching for something which I couldn’t find since 2 hours ago.

Blog: What is it? Maybe I can help you.

Me: I’m searching for ideas of what to write for today’s blog entry… hehehe

Result of Day 10 (Tuesday)
Distance: 20.5km
Time: 45 min
V Max.: 47.3km/h
V Ave.: 26.9km/h

Feeling tired today, off to bed now.

Bike - Day 9

Cycling alone is bad enough, and having to face the headwind during cycling is even worse. I guess I have to learn to love the headwind as much as I love the tailwind, so that whenever I have to face the headwind my legs will enjoy the burning feeling.

As I wanted to step out from the office, I can see some black clouds out there. Hmm, this is good, no hot sun today. Then, when I saw the flags waving wildly in front of the office entrance I know I will be in trouble if I were to cycle today. The wind was quite strong. Anyway, I don’t want to loose to this small obstacle.

So, after analysing the wind direction I choose a totally different route this time so that I won’t get pancit awal-awal. It was fun to be able to keep an average speed of 30km/h, at least for the first half of the ride. But on the way back, man oh man… the headwind welcomed me. Macam dah takde alasan lain, headwind, headwind, headwind. Then I know I just have to forget about my plan to do some speed work today. By the way, I still managed to break my personal average speed record.

Result of Day 9 (Monday)
Distance: 18.6km
Time: 41 min
V Max.: 45.1km/h
V Ave.: 26.8km/h

Should I stop blogging and shift the energy from my fingers to my legs instead?
Think about it, if I can do blind typing very fast, can I do blind-cycling fast too?
I’d like to try it one day... hehehe.