Polar Bear on the run

Had a shopping spree mid-week last week. Not really a spree, just wished it was. Actually went to Mantat's sports shop in Bandar Tasik Permaisuri. Mantat co-owned this outfit. They are, if I'm not mistaken, sole distributor of Powerbar in Malaysia. You'd never missed them in any of the endurance events. They'd normally set up booth to sell their product, which BTW not limited to Powerbar only. And sometimes, co-sponsored those events.

If you want to buy cheap high quality sporting goods, u guys can go to his shop, sorry la lupa nama kedai dia, but u wont miss it if u go to Bandar Tasik Permaisuri as his shop is the only sport shop there. It might not carry the major brands, but I can tell u, the stuffs that he is selling is the same quality if not better than what u can find in the mainstream market. I bought an un-orthodox designed cycling jersey for RM75 and Polar(HRM+FootPod) for a much lesser price. Cant disclose, but definitely much cheaper. So guys, pergilah beramai-ramai ke kedai Mantat. And Mantat, aku dah buat promo ni bagi la diskaun lagi.

Bila dah dpt jam baru, apalagi, Batak la nak try. Petang tu jugak sudah layan Taman TAR dgn Tesa. Yes, my wife has picked up again her love for running. So she was using the nike+ while I used Polar. She did 1 round but I continued another round to test out more features on the watch. Verdict - Very satisfied, couldnt say much actually as I have only compared it with nike+, I know, its not apple to apple comparison.

On the other note, Ezan, Mantat's wife is also addicted to running now. And I felt good cos she said I'm one of the reason she wanted to run again, well, actually the main reason bcos her hubby gave her a Polar watch too. I was happy that I could give some tips for her to get started, not to say that I have enough experience, just trying to help anybody starting out. In Ezan's case, starting out again.

Slowed down my run routines for last week as the big race was on Sunday. Did freakish carbo loading on Fri and Sat. Tibai nasi 2 pinggan pkl 5 on Friday and malam boleh tibai pizza and pasta lagi. Saturday was no different, had 3 pinggan nasi and lauk sikit during my batch 20 yrs friendship re-union dinner. But had to passed the Kambing golek.

The dinner was great as this time we did something more meaningful. Did the Maghrib, Yassin, Isya' and sembahyang Hajat. After dinner we viewed a slide show on old photos. As you could imagine, suasana gamat ya'amat. Kudos to Ikang and other committee.

Well, at last, Sunday is here. Woke up at 4.30. Had 2 slices of bread and a cup of coffee. Azmil and Faisal came to my house and we went off together at 5:15. Arrived arnd 5:40 had difficulty finding parking space. Walked down for about 1.5 K, which is good, sort of to warm up. Lepak kat tent Powerbar Mantat. Met Kam. Terkucil 2 kali behind the bushes.

The run started excatly at 6:17am. Cant do much on the 1st K as the run started up a hill, so it was quite slow and very crowded. Took this oppotunity to jump into the bushes and terkucil for the 3rd time, well, at least tak terasa nak ter'kubab' tu dah kira cukup bagus la. Maintained arnd 5:30/k pace for a good 10K. Clocked 56 min/10K. Was dong quite fine and was enjoying the climbs more than the decsends (note: need to work on downhill run). Reached 15K on 1:26. Walked for few hundred meters to eat the carbo gel and replenish my fluid.

As I started running back, felt some pain on the outer part of my left foot. Kept on running but couldnt shake off the pain. Stopped and re-strapped my shoe. Pain still there. I think Adizero LT is good only for short distance 20K or less, coz the impact of the run started affecting me arnd that distance. The cushion is quite minimal, more for speed I guess (Shd have listened to Stupe to get a more cushioned shoes). Just buat bodoh and kept on running. Met up with Stupe(he was pirating) arnd Plaza Damas. He ran with me for few hundred mtrs and he left off to seek for OP Chief Kutu. Tabik la kat Stupe. He was supporting few other runners as well by giving encouraging words, even after he had ran more than 20K.

The real pain started at 18K mark. It was unbareable, the pain in my foot. But had to maintained as I know Shazly is waiting somewhere there taking photos, tak nak la dia snap photo muka aku kesakitan. When I reached 20K. The pain was too much. Walked for about 500m. And started running very slowly for abt 1-2K. Was doing as slow as 7min/K.

But some how, got back my spirit. Was telling my self don be such a sissy. So pushed myself not to exceed 6min/K if I were to complete it sub 3 hrs. Almost wanted to stop again at KM 26/27. But Shazly came a long and told me 'jgn nak mengada2 berhenti skrg, 3K je lagi'. Well, just pinned back my ear and pushed whatever left in my tank. Finished GE30K in 2hrs 57min. Puas hati...memang puas hati. Next stop, Kenyir triathlon.

Getting Ready for G.E.30K

The whole week was spent wisely, I think, to prepare my self for the run on th 18th.

Started of with 14K on previous Sunday, from my house, Wangsa Maju to Taman TAR + Taman TAR loop.
Recovery on Monday, 6.5K, KLCC.
Intervals on Tuesday, 6.5K, KLCC.
Long run on Wednesday, shorten to 4 K only, perut buat hal.
Long run on Thursday, 10K, Pandan Loop.
Leisure ride 22K with Bandit, Kam and the Melewati gang on DUKE, before it opens on Friday.
Bogged down with stomach bug, Friday and Saturday.
Long run on Sunday, 24K, Bukit Aman-Hartamas-Double Hill-Bukit Aman.

Tested the nike+ plus sensor(borrowed from Azmil) for the 1st time on Thursday, and I think the reading was quite accurate. Did not have any problem eventhough I was wearing Adidas shoes, easily slip it in the side of the shoe. This was what it reported. Time= 1:01'29", Dist=10.83K, Pace=5'40"/K. Wasted a lot of time as I was fiddling with the iPod and stop so many times bcos of that. Maklumla, perak, baru 1st time pakai.

Enjoyed it so much that Ibought it the next day for RM 109. As I have iPod Nano already, the investment made is minor. I figured, before I have enough money to buy the Polar GPS watch, I can just use nike+ plus for the time being. Now, I need to korek in my boxes to look for the arm strap, leceh siut nak bawak keluar masuk iPod from my running short's pocket.

On Friday, went to The Bike Boutiqe by accident. Went to pay my bills at Flora Damansara, and then teringat Bandit cakap TBB is besides Citibank. Spent quite some time there looking arnd and bought the magnetic reflector/LED lights that u can paste it on your running/cycling jersey. I think this is one of the best device from safety point of view. The lights are quite strong and can be seen as far as 1/4 mile. Now I'd have a better peace of mind if I ride/run in the dark.

Saturday went to Irina's (Charlies's and Noreen's daughter) aqiqah in Putrajaya. The food catered was fantatastic, had this poached telur itik masak lemak. Sedap gile siut. And ayam goreng Kg. Attap was to die for. As this day was my carbo loading day, apalagi, hantam cukup2 la.

Sunday, the plan was to do the GE route. Started of at 6:50. Was actually sesat after the Memorial Tunku Abdul Rahman. Managed to find my way back. That was also the point where I realised that the nike+ sensor was not working. I've slip it in my shoe the other way around. Stupid, only realised this after running for abt 23 mins.

Nevertheless, reset the device and ploughed my way quite solidly to Hartamas Petronas. Had a can of 100 plus. And continued up Jalan Hartamas and turned back. Was still running solidly to the start of double hill. Stupe would have been proud of me. I was not panting as badly as when I had the run with him few mths back. He had made a significant change in my life from that run, I stop smoking. Went tru the hills without stopping a single time.

This was the timing I got from nike+(after fixing it).
Dist= 19.62 KM, Time=1:44:32, Pace=5:19/km.
As I had ran a good 23 mins before I reset, taking avg pace of 5:19/km, I'm guessing that I actually have covered 4.3 KM. In summary, this wd be the details.
Dist= 23.93 KM, Time=2:07, Pace=5:19/km.
For the race on 18th, I need to cover 30K. My target is to complete it in 3 hrs. I sure hope I can.

2nd Half Dec Updates

Where to start, too many things to talk about as I've not been updating this blog for quite some time. Basically, Dec was jam-packed.

Attended few kenduris and B'day parties. Aisyah's wedding, Anak Arfan's Aqiqah, Iman's B'day and the biggest of them all, my brother's wedding ceremonies.

Also had few rounds of golf, the first one for Maon's farewell, and the other one for Atuk's homecoming. Nothing much to talk about except that now I know Maon can hit his drives 270-300m. Mamat ni makan besi agaknya, and to top it off, he hit 80% fairway with that monstrous drives. If only his putter could be more loving to him, he could have easily hit mid 80s.

Kapt Mior Azmir Shah (Mir)'s wedding was the major and significant event for my family. Since he's the last one, our family wanted to finish it with a bang. I was really feeling the heat and stressed as I was being tasked as the entourage coordinator for the trips to Syikin's(Mir's wife) house and the floor manager for the event in KGPA.

A lot of planning needs to be done and it was made much more difficult bcos u are dealing with families, not so easy to dictate them, if u know what I mean. I cant recall the number of times I need to print and reprint the itineraries and plans to accommodate changes that changed so dramatically like the weather in December. Alhamdullillah e'verything went smoothly for the Akad Nikah on 31 Dec night, Bersanding di rumah perempuan on 1st Jan and of course, the biggie one at KGPA on 3rd Jan night.

I am very proud with the committee members and all the working personnel as the event at KGPA was right on the dot, starts at 8pm and finished at 9.30. Very rare nowadays. And I fell very satisfied that more than half of the guests could witness for the first time the ceremony full with Military tradition with sword bearers, bag pipes etc. My sister in-law, Jehan, even said that one day she wants to marry a Military man, just so she could have this kind of wedding.

On the other hand, I was not able to do much training for the GE30K this 18 Jan, even though I was so inspired by Dean Carnazes, the Ultra-Marathon man. So inspired that I ran from my house in W maju to Taman TAR, complete the Tmn TAR hill and finished at 7E Ampang Jaya..at 12 noon last Sunday. Hoping that this punishing route could cover up for my lack of training the past few weeks after Malakoff 12K.

Before I forget, the whole family witnesed the first time Noah rolled over un-asssited...this just tops everything.

Malakoff Sunday

With all the postings I had made before, this posting would be the first on an actual race that I participated.

Date: 21 Dec 08

Time Start: 7:12 am

Venue: Taman Rimba Kiara

Route: Taman Rimba - KLGCC - Sime Darby Convention Center, patah balik and make another round.

Distance: 12K

Time :(unofficial 1hr 03 min)

First and foremost, I'm glad that I completed the run, and shaved 2 mins from the trial run I did a week ago. However, there are few things that I'm not satisified and I can see a lot of improvement could be done.

Woke up at 4.40 am. Straight away ate half of Powerbar energy bar (courtesy of Mantat). Manage to kubab a little bit. Went out abt 5:20. Reached TTDI arnd 5:40. While looking for parking, mcm biasa, perut buat hal lagi. So dashed off to look for the nearest Petrol station. Kali ni byk sikit keluar. Lega...

Met Azmil, with Suraya, adik dia and his children(kecik2 dah ikut daddy, besar nanti boleh jadi pelari M'sia) on the way to check in. Sampai je kat padang tu, I can see a long line (min 10) of runners queueing up to use the toilet. Nasib baik aku dah melepas. But, walking further down the field, I saw 2 mobile toilets with nobody queueing up, and tak pasal2 perut meragam lagi. Apalagi, terus la pergi melepas for the 3rd time!!!. I think I have the opposite of 'jambanophobia'. Nampak jamban je rasa nak melepas. Apa ubat dia ha???

The runners line up for the run at 6:40. Very uncomfotable dgn bau mcm2 and nyamuk yg dok tibai kaki aku. And boleh pulak rasa nak terkencing pulak masa tu. So, mcm biasa la, sprint out to take a leak.

Finally, thank god, the runners we let off at 7:12. I took the righmost lane, and was running at 60% capacity. Started tu bukak langkah on the first small hill. Just to create gaps and distance with other runners.

Had no problem on the first long hill. But, starting to fell sluggish on the second hill towards turning back point at Sime Darby Convention Center. Took a sip from the water station. And maintained a good rthym untill the hill at klgcc. I think I made a mistake by quickening my pace climbing up that hill, when I reached the peak, I felt my legs a bit heavy and I'm panting more than usual. So just strolled down the hill untill the turning back point for 2nd round.

I could not maintained the speed that I wanted to on the long hill for 2nd round. And the worst thing happened at KLGCC entrance hill. I WALKED for 30m. This is unacceptable. After walking, I was not running at the pace I did on the first round. However, to my surprise, looking at my analog watch. I have 10 mins to complete abt the last 1-2K to equal the time I made last week. So, apalagi, dgn segala kudrat yg ada, I quicken my pace and did the striding ala 400m to reach the fininsh line. And still sempat to senyum to Suraya who took my picture at the finish line.

The positives:

I know I can complete 12K

I know I can push my body for the last 1-2K.

I broke my personal best for 12K

The negatives:

Bad preparation, need to eat the right food and control my bowel urge.

Walked for 3om.

Did not maintain pace

Action for improvement:

Educate myself on better preparation (food, going to toilet, etc)

Buy heart rate monitor, pace checker watch

Train harder..definitely.

And so the DUKE was conferred

On Saturday, 20 Dec 2008, 7.30, The 'DUKE' highway was officially conferred by myself, Bandit, Kam and dozens of other cyclist/runners.

Bandit called me on Friday dgn penuh semangat to tell me about the Saturday ride. I told him I shdnt be doing any serious activity as I wanted to ease up my body for Sunday's Malakoff run. Bu tthen he said, kita layan pelan2 je, and the total distance shd be less than 30K. Its too good to resist and so I agreed.

Saturday morning, ride down to Bandit's house to pump my tyres. Kalau pakai my pump tangan yg kecik tu berzaman la nak habis pam. Started out from Bandit's house abt 7.20, went down from Akademi TV3 simpang and managed to get thru the plastic barricade to get into the highway at Setiawangsa intersection. Bandit called Kam, and he was just abut to leave his house, so Bandit ajak layan time trial. Clocked max 43km/h. I think I can tekan some more but didn't want to overload my quads (Sunday Malakoff).

Turn back and waited Kam under the Setiawangsa overhead. Kam, future IM09 came riding with just a mountain bike and without the cycling attire (short n jersey) Dia pakai seluar and T-shit biasa je. As we started off, he told us just to carry on if he's lagging behind as he was using Mountain bike. But, that did not happened, he was with us all the time pedalling effortlessly on his MTB.

From Setiawangsa, the hway took us thru belakang polis depot, belakang ttwangsa and cut thru in the middle of setapak near the Masjid Jamek. Its a bit weird bcos u never knew all the Taman perumahans existed kat area Setapak, but one thing that was very familiar was the 'tungkik' smell from the Loji belakang TTwangsa GC.

The highway stop short at Sentul. Stop for a while to check out the incomplete part of the hway. We think it will take 1-2 months more to be completed, hopefully they can do it sooner, tak larat la nak pakai Jln Tun Razak kalau nak pegi to the other side of KL.

From that point we turned back and headed to Gombak. On the way, there was this high point on one of the bridges/ramps. Stopped to look at the view of Genting and the range of moutain belakang Melawati. Kalau photographer mesti suka gile because the view was exhilarating that it made me fell off the bike, litterally. Very funny man, I forgot that I was using cleat pedals, so when we stopped, I just fell down with my bike like a nangka busuk, lupa nak unclip the shoes.

The Gombak part stops at the simpang 3(kiri Sentul, kanan Setapak). So we turned back and made our way back. The wind was blowing very hard on our ride home. That was where I learned from Kam that he had experienced the difference between aero and normal position, it can go about 20K/h.

Parted with Kam at the Setiawangsa intersection, and still need to climb damn steep hill to get out of the hill. Nevertheless, this will be my new favourite route if I need a quickie.

Morning smile

One of my colleague today asked why I smiled without no reason. I was smiling from ear to ear bcos I was happy. I was happy bcos now my blog has attracted readers that are very critical and sharp minded. It was reflected on the comments made on the previous post.

Those kind of of comments are good. It helps me to check myself rooted to the ground and be more sensitive to what I write or tell. How ppl view issues or ideas almost always depends on which side of the wall they are in. Like Charlie always said, its a matter of perception.

Even though initially the idea of creating this blog was to logged all the UP stories that my close circle of friends always discussed(bunyi intelek giler, padahal bergosip sebenarnya), but it has evolved into a place where I logged my quest to become a triathlete( disclaimer: ada unsur2 UP disini), and also a way for me to share interesting stories about the activities, places, events that took place.

But some times, what I put into writings were completely bcos I was angry, frustrated, sad, disappointed and many other negative feeling. So it can be very one sided and biased and to a point can be a little bit hostile. But, as I mentioned in few postings before, writing to this blog is one of the outlet of my emotions, hence, I can be emotional at times.

If any of you readers think that I depicted you guys in a negative way, I'm so sorry for that. I don't like to mention names when I talk about bad things, names are not important, the lessons learnt is.

Can u really save?

Saving money might be one of the important agenda to most of us nowadays... impact of the current economic crisis. But come to think of it, this is also a good opportunity for us to start investing as prices of stocks and properties dipping further down. And sometimes, for you to invest, you need to save up for you to be able to put your hard earned money into good portfolios.

Talking about saving, I'm still trying to figure out, to what extent can you save? Would it be to a point that you 'ikat perut' and suffer on the basic needs of a human being, like eating?

A friend of mine, just bought a house for half a million. After going thru the hassle of getting loans and coming out with the down payment, he is still scratching his head(even though there's not much hair left) to figure out how to fund his renovation works as he claimed costing up to 150K.

I guess, after doing much scratching, he figured that he could save a lot by only drinking plain cold water(not mineral) for his meals. It is definitely not for health purposes. If he goes to places like Nandos for example, he would specifically ask for plain water. But if he goes to say, McDonald's, he wont even be ordering any drinks. I wonder, how much can he save by doing this.

Ni semua pasal dia nak UP la. Brader, 'ukurlah baju di badan' dulu. (mcm Karam Singh Walia la)