Run – Day 6

Everybody knows that today is Friday. But nobody knows how lazy I felt the whole day today, I mean lazy to do some training. In fact, after returning from work I was already on the bed ready to have a good evening nap, when suddenly the feeling of guilt for not doing any training came hardly knocking my head. Furthermore, yesterday I didn’t do any training.

So, I woke up with the laziest feeling ever, changed to my laziest running gear, lazily drove to the gym, lazily walked to the running track, and started to run lazy-mazy-ly.

But to my surprise, today I ran non-stop for 1.5miles (2.4km) in roughly 13minutes. Still slow, but never mind. Actually I had no plan whatsoever of how far I wanted to run, I just ran because I was lazy. Boleh percaya tak?

Not enough with that laziness on the running track, I went for a good 15minutes spinning. And since I was still feeling lazy and there was nothing much to do other than paddling, I started to count how many sweat droplets fell off from my chin, nose, temple and both arms. It was pretty fun to count the sweat drops. Haha, gilo apo? One, two, three… ninety, ninety one, ninety two.. and suddenly one old man walked in front of me and he being polite greeted me with a smile, “Hi, how are you doing today?”. After replying to his greeting, I lost my sweat droplet counts. Gosh, next time I should bring a calculator.

I should have gone home after doing the spinning, but for no reason I went back to the running track and ran again for another 0.5miles when at last I had to stop due to the side stitch.

Result of Run Day 6 (Friday)
Distance: 3.2km (2miles)
Time: 17min 58sec

Somehow I feel it takes longer for me to improve my running endurance and timing compared to cycling. My stopwatch rosak kot, itu pasal timing jadi slow.

Muka orang malas spinning tengah buat-buat terkejut ada candid camera

Run – Day 5

I have two sets of good and bad news today.

The first set:
Good news: I’ve completed one of the self-study courses, passed the exam with flying colours.
Bad news: There’s another self-study course I have to do within 1.5 weeks time, and this one has more syllabus than the former. Ayoyo…

The second set:
Good news: I managed to run a bit further than yesterday, 1.5miles.
Bad news: The time I clocked for today’s run was terribly slow. Ayoyo…

Result of Run Day 5 (Wednesday)
Distance: 2.4km (1.5miles)
Time: 13min 27sec

I’m so disappointed.

The Fear of Sinking

I’ve been reading some blogs of friends who are training hard to become or compete in triathlon. There are three compulsory disciplines, the swim, the bike and the run.

Some may say “running is easy”, others may also say “cycling is fun”. But, there are few people out there who don’t know how to or afraid to swim. Remember the two key words: DON'T KNOW & AFRAID.

To be able to swim, one must get over these two basic obstacles.

I never went for any official swimming lessons in my life, never. Me being the most adventurous son (read: naughty) in the family and growing up in the east cost state where floods occurred almost every monsoon season, I can’t resist my self but to join the other kids swim in the flood. In front of my house, the water levels were only knee high or waist high. But, nearby the river the water levels might be as high as 2 to 4 metres above tarmac. And the currents were normally fast too. But, the kids never say the water is deep, they would only say “ala, paras dada itik je”.

This was when I first started observing how other people swim. And this was the time when I knew I could swim, with the asal-tak-tenggelam-I style. In flood water, I normally swam following the currents direction and I never swam at an area where water is above my neck level. Wherever I swim I must make sure my legs can touch the land easily so that I can stop swimming anytime I want to. So, there was no fear of sinking yet. At that time I still didn’t know how to stay afloat in deeper water. Same thing when I swim at the seaside or at swimming pool, I never swam where the water is deeper than my height.

In late 2005, I started to swim as part of my exercise. No more playing and splashing water like kanak-kanak riang. I went to a 50m long swimming pool with the deeper side being 2.5m and shallow side being 1.3m deep. Gosh, how can I swim in this very deep pool? I cannot float, and I definitely do not want to sink. I get the “fear of sinking” feeling whenever I look at the 2.5m signage by the pool side.

At the beginning, I would only swim by the edge of the pool and trying hard to complete that single 50m length with my asal-tak-tenggelam-II style. By the way, professionals call it breast stroke. I was always scared when I get to the deeper side of the pool. Somehow I have to get rid of the fear.

While resting at the deeper side, I would hold my breath and dive for few seconds to observe how other people swim and how they float. I noticed everybody has their own different styles to swim and to float. So I guess I should start creating my own style then.

I choose a calmer area by the pool side, and slowly started to teach myself how to float. First few tries were unsuccessful, my head sank few times. I kept on trying and finally I believed I can float. Next step was to float away from the pool side where I have nothing to grab to stay afloat. I have to depend only on my own confidence of floating. After few times practicing I was proud that I no longer have the fear of sinking.

Soon after that there was one occasion where two people came to me and asked me how I float. I told them I learnt by observing other people and still not so good at it. They were in the swimming lesson and the training menu for that day was to float and they are afraid to do so, plus they don’t know how to float yet. They asked me to teach them. Knowledge comes with responsibility, huh?

First thing I remember I told them not to be scared of sinking. If they are scared of sinking, they will easily turn to panic mode. I told them to control the breathing and hold the breath whenever they sank, then kick the legs or swing the arms in a proper manner until the head come out from the water again, and hold breath again if they sank. Once or twice they still sank down slightly under water.

Secondly, I told them to understand the effects of legs kicking and swinging the arms inside water while floating. It’s important to understand what happens if you swing like this or if you kick like that. Provided with these two humble advices and some hantam sajalah demonstration from me, I could see that they are starting to be able to float. They just need more practice.

The next time they met me, they said “Thanks so much for teaching us that day. Now we know how to float and we are very happy about it”. Well, I was happy for them too. To be frank I never thought I could teach other people something that I’m not good at.

And now I’m still struggling to keep up with my freestyle. Something is still wrong somewhere. Or, should I eat more fish?

Run – Day 4

After having the super-delicious nasi beriani kambing last weekend, makes me realised that I have to work out more to get rid of the massive saturated fat I’ve swallowed. Yesterday has gone without me doing any training. First reason, I was so hungry that I couldn’t think of anything else other than to cook and eat my dinner. Secondly, I was reserving my energy for some self-study at night, hehehe. Have to maa. (Alasan, alasan…)

I was thinking to make some kind of revenge today, to pay back what I’ve missed yesterday. Target: 3miles run. The run started quite well. Well enough that I managed to run continuously for 1 mile non-stop. On previous runs, I had to run-walk-run to complete 1 mile. “Hmm, such an improvement. Must keep it up”, I told to myself. But, as soon as I had that positive thought in my mind, side stitch attacked my right side. Gosh! Potong stim betul.

Looks like the 3 miles run target has to be postponed to a latter day, hopefully anytime within this week.

1 mile run was not enough. So I headed to the spinning machine and continued with high cadence training for about 15minutes. At least the side stitch disappeared. And I was sweating like err... sweating like myself la. Kalau peluh tu boleh jual 50sen setitik kat pasar malam, kayo pakcik, kayo!!

Result of Run Day 4 (Tuesday)
Distance: 1.6km (1mile)
Time: 8min 40sec

Have to stop now, need to continue my self-study. Stress betul, hari-hari kena study.

Bike - Day 14 (My first 100km)

When I went to the gym last Thursday for my running, I bumped into a group of cyclist who were preparing for their routine ride. One of them already knew me during the Dehydrator fun ride. She then invited me to join them for a 100miles ride on Saturday for which I said “OK, I will join you guys on Saturday”. What was I thinking??? Mau bunuh diri ka?

I was planning to do some swimming on last Friday, but upon returning from work on Friday I fell asleep almost immediately. Woke up at 7.45pm and it was already too late to go for a swim. “Well, let’s just call it a rest day”, I told myself.

Saturday morning came where I woke up at 6am, took shower, had a tuna sandwich and loaded up my cycling gear into the car. Not to forget some PowerBars and 2 bottles of Gatorades. I was a bit nervous with the distance. 100miles = 160km. Gulp! The furthest distance I’ve done so far was the 43km ride which I did a week before.

I arrived at the gym 10minutes before 7am. There were Linda, Mark, Susan, Mary, Danny, Pagon and me. Once everybody was ready, they discussed about which route to take and by 7.05am, off we went. I had no idea what so ever of where they were going to go, but I know it will be a very long ride. Mark was the leader, he was at the front.

I cycled side by side with Mark for the first 25km (I think). It was fun to be at the front with him, furthermore the route was pretty flat with only some small hills and we were cycling at a moderate speed of 25km/h average. Mark works as a pilot, so I talked a lot with him about his career, his experience. I told him how much I wanted to become a pilot when I was small, and all other stuffs about flying and piloting. He told me that if he got the chance he would bring me flying with him on his friend’s light aircraft. I hope it will come true one day.

We made our first break stop at a convenient store at 27km mark (I guess). The sun started to show it’s fierce. I refuelled myself with my second PowerBar and some Gatorade. No nasi lemak or roti canai as what those friends of mine were normally having during their long distance rides back in home country. After the break, we went off towards a big lake. There is a dam at the lake, and to get there we had to do some long climbing. This was where I started to be at the back of the pack. I hate to be at the back because somehow I know I have to chase them back later. We crossed the dam. Left and right sides of the long flat road are surrounded with lake water and the wind was blowing quite hard. The view was amazing but unfortunately I didn’t snatch any photos.

We made another short break stop just after crossing the lake. The ladies had to visit the restroom. I took this chance to lepak under the shade of a tree while refuelling myself with more Gatorade.

The next stop we made was at a gasoline station. It was already 10.30am if I’m not mistaken and it was so hot. We went inside the air-conditioned convenient store at the gas station. It felt great to be inside that cool store. I bought a bottle of Gatorade, filled up my bottles and started to drink a lot until my belly became boroi. Ah, boroi pun boroi lah, janji hilang dahaga. Anyway, the guys are also boroi, so ok la tu kan.

During the break, Mark told us that he couldn’t do 100miles ride since he had to rush back home to do something. I was the first person to say “Mark, I will escort you back home”. Hahaha. But at last everybody agreed to replace the 100miles ride with 63miles ride and follow Mark back home. Phew, lega siot!

The remaining route from that stop to home was 28miles. I think Mark was really in a hurry because after that stop he really went berserk and cycled very fast on the flat highway. I was able to ride side by side with him with a steady speed of 38 - 40km/h for at least 15 minutes. When it came to some climbing I had to surrender and joined the other two guys at the back. By this time the ladies were at front with Mark and we get separated by quite a distance. The heat from the sun was really draining my energy out. I cycled slower with the two guys at a moderate speed of 30 – 33km/h.

After about 18miles high speed cycling I told them I had to stop to cool down my body. I felt very hot. So we stopped again at a convenient store, resting under a fan. There was no sign of Mark and the ladies, maybe they didn’t stop at all. Power gile!

With a good 15minutes cooling the body under the fan, we continued our journey home. I saw one mileage sign which showed “Duncan 8mi”. Another 8 miles? Oh no. My speedometer at that time was showing 87km++. I was having doubt whether I can do the final 8 miles (12.8km). It was already 11.45am and the heat from the sun really affected my strength.

Nonetheless I continued cycling in the hot sun. There were salt crystals on my face and arms due to evaporation of the sweat. Luckily I was wearing long sleeve tight shirt underneath my cycling jersey. The last few km were the toughest I guess, felt like no more energy to paddle. Luckily the other two guys were kind enough to accompany me at the back pack.

Finally I reached the car park where we started our ride. Mark waited for us at the car park just to congratulate me and to see how we were doing. I thanked them all for the good long ride. They were a good bunch of cyclists, very supportive, friendly and sporting indeed. I could never do that long ride without them. My speedometer was showing a good 101.55km.

Result of Day 14 (Saturday)
Distance: 101.6km
Time: 4hr 4min (not including break times)
V Max.: 45.8km/h
V Ave.: 24.9km/h

Will I do the long ride again? I don’t know.

After the ride I went back home, took shower and went off to Oklahoma City with my housemate to buy some chicken and beef. That’s the nearest halal butcher I can find. It took me 1.5hrs to drive there. There’s an Arab shop nearby there too where we bought kebab for lunch. Then, we ordered our chicken and mutton at a Bangladeshi shop, and I tapau two nasi beriani kambing for myself that will give me a free-cooking weekend. Lazy to cook.

I was struggling to keep awake on the way back. The combination of driving with full kebab-filled-stomach under a hot sun at 4pm was not fun at all. I kept on yawning all the way back home. My friend was already kong in the passenger seat. Luckily the car has auto-cruise so that I could sleep while the car drove itself. Hahaha.

Today is Sunday, and I have to spend it for some self-studying. Hopefully I won't fall asleep halfway through.

Run - Day 3

For no reason, I’m totally out of idea of what to write. OK, let’s try to make it as simple as possible.

Today I went for running at the gym, then I went back home feeling tired and pain on my left thigh.

Result of Run Day 3 (Thursday)
Distance: 3.2km (2miles)
Time: 17min 23sec

Bila la nak boleh lari laju macam superman ni…

DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)

Now I know what really caused what I used to call “lactic acid effect”. Mr. Wiki told me that the soreness or pain in the muscle after excessive physical activities is not mainly caused by lactic acid, but it is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, DOMS.

Read more about it here.

Knowledge is power, indeed.

Encik DOMS, sayonara!