run baby run

its puasa month and everything slows down. that's the reality. fasting is to make you suffer and to experience the sufferings of other people. that's why i didnot stuff my face to much with food when i sahur. puasa is ment to be that way. to feel the hunger. i don't undertsand why people eat a lot during sahur to make sure they could sustain through out the next day. its not possible. no matter how much you eat, by midday you belly will growl. well, its one more week to go and frankly speaking, i got mixed feelings about ramadhan already ...

i did my runnings before i sahur. a good 30 mins. 4-5km. i don't fancy the idea of running during day or night. i doesn't go well with me. i did run in late afternoons during last year ramadhan and i think a did not benefit from that. this year i wake up at 4.00am, start running at 4.30 am and by 5.15am i'm at the table munching wholemeal beef sandwich. i need the vit. B from the beef to breakdown the carb. i took during buka puasa. it works! i got energy for the day and i don't mind the growling. i did not suffer much headache this year, most probably the food intake was just nice (no excess)...

it was fantastic! i practiced what have been tought at the Changi General hospital public forum the other day. plus vibram! i think if i stay focus and consistent, i can improve my timing ... btw, the correct webpage fo vibram is: www.vibramfivefingers.com i typed wrongly in my previous entry.

Changi General Hospital

I have registered to run this year end standard chartered marathon Singapore. As usual, the good people from standard chartered will e-mail me the e-newsletter. Something caught my eye, changi general hospital will be doing a public forum for runners. I signed up and attended the forum earlier today. This is the first time I ever attended a forum discussing on sports matters. Its kinda different from the forums which I used to go. Its all about science, you do this you’ll get that kinda thing and other things have to be equal.

Allow me to share with you what I’ve learnt (in general terms):

1. You got to know your body’s capability – through HR, VO2, lactic acid accumulation.
2. The purpose of training is to set your body to perform to your best capability – and it has to be done correctly – easy run, marathon phase, threshold training, interval training.
3. Don’t ignore supplementary training – weights
4. Like swimming, running long distance is all about making full use of your fluid movement (rebound, torsion disposition, vertical position, ground contact) and good economic use of energy.
5. Recover after training wisely.

6. Warming up / stretching – don’t overdo.

I am yet to try what I have been told. Let us see whether I can do it tomorrow.

desaru triathlon

was at desaru last weekend to witness the desaru triathlon sprint distance race. three months back i got this urge to register. lucky i didn't. the swimming leg was tough (to my standard). the sea was rough. i couldn't imagine me cutting through the waves. let alone going the distance of 500 metres. you might say it is just 500 metres and its like going 10 laps of an olympic size pool. that's different. this is the mc daddy. we are talking about the sea y'all. i'll try the swim4fun at stulang first come 30 August 2008.

oops...i did it again...

i've just registered for 42km this year's standard chartered marathon. man i am fast. registration was just open. not even a month old. what am i trying to prove? i dunno...maybe i'm a bit kiasu...worry i won't be able to get a "seat". i'm running in a singaporean race am i, it doesn't hurt to be a bit like singaporean...

i am scared. why? because i don't want the Sundown "tragedy" to repeat. at sundown i was overconfident that i forget the basics. maintain the steady pace. i learnt my lesson and i paid the price.

i look forward to prepare myself for this years run. i want to get in touch with people who are around jb and will run this 7 december 2008. i am not a damn good runner, just an average joe that clock somewhere between 5 to 6 hours. guys, i think its good for us to get together and say sunday morning at istana and do some kilos together...just a taught.

"kaki ayam" - barefoot

bought this pair (viabram five fingers) in new york and been wearing them a couple of weeks already. ran in them a couple of times and i have never felt so wondeful. i have found my answer! i have been never satisfied with all of my running shoes because i felt that certain muscle of my lower leg is "sleeping". when i had my feet in viabram five fingers for the first time, i felt that something has been awaken.

that's viabram five fingers. it is like a sock with five pockets for each toe and a protective sole. i stumbled over rocks but my toes are in one piece. this thing looks like something that divers wear. what the heck, i happy running in it.

what's so special about this thing? it actually give the the owner the experience of barefoot running. this new experience made me realized that i don't actually need a good running shoe to run well. i have been forgotten that when i was very young i used to run with no shoes on and i did run faster. although i only had them for about one month, i have already felt the positive effect of barefoot running. for more info on barefoot running, do visit www.viabramfivefingers.com

i hope i'll do my first 21k in viabram and if everything goes well, i might think of doing this year's standard chartered singapore marathon in them!

what's life after marathon

i am eager to start training. when i was in new york, i went to 5th ave. visited citysports and got me a new pair of running shoes. an asics. i always wanted an asics. got good advice from the store people. i have never felt so satisfied. the next morning i slipped into it and ran in central park. it was like 12 C and i felt i was in heaven. did 10 km and i barely sweat. i remember last time i experience this when i was in urumqi, china. stayed at hilton and on the way back, droped by for starbucks. good life.



i got myself a pair of vibram five fingers. yet to run in it.



was chauffeured around in a limo in new york. nice.

adidas sundown marathon 2008 singapore ...

i fumbled. crossed the finishing line at 6 hours plus. embarrassed. bound to happen. was not discipline enough to carry on trainning. i was assigned to go to detroit and new york for 10 days. i am supposed to stick on my training programme but i got distracted by the flying hours and shopping. what really made me sick is that i did not stick to the rule of thumb, don't do something crazy like wearing a new pair of shoes on the marathon day when you have been training all this while in a different pair. this was what i did! i wanted to prove them wrong but instead i was the dumb one. after the 18km mark i felt my legs are killing me. nevertheless, this new asics is da bomb! i have never felt so comfortable before. just imagine, in the early distance, i have been knocking out most runners! but that contributed to my failure. i peaked early. once again i broke another rule of thumb. so to cut it short, i underestimate the run, overconfident in my ability and being stupid enough to ignore the rule of nature. who do i think i am? superman?



did not run with the camera coz anticipate rain. true to my gut feelings, it rained when i crossed the 38km. saw lots of runners took shelter. said to myself. you guys run with your blackberry, mp3, mobile phones etc. now that equipment dictate your run. you don't waht them to get wet don't ya?



i don't think many performed well in the run. even though i was slow, i heard at one point the marshall was yelling " you guys are behind 1,900 runners ". To me it is as expected. usually i will be at the other end of the bell shape curve.



i am ready to sign up for another run. once i recover i will train for my next marathon. this time around i want to train well and stick to whatever rules...



just wanna share with you guys, i got the opportunity to do my morning runs at central park...

too lazy to run this morning...

i should do 9.5km this morning but i chose not. why? i can't get out of bed. i didn't have enough rest last night because i just got back from k.l. attending a summit on education and participating in two meetings with japanese and south african. i managed to squeze in running and swimming in between. i really had a good time in k.l. zarin, sorry for not telling you i was in k.l. we could have some teh tarik...

i used to live/work in k.l. not long ago. the house which i live was just across a park/lake/jogging trail. i did ran on that trail yesterday morning and to my suprise, i saw many familiar faces. i was so happy! some i noticed have loose weight! i too noticed that the park is being well maintained. i concluded that it must have been the regular people who frequent the park that kept the park in good condition because i saw couple of ordinary people/park goers going around collecting trash. i miss that in jb. i pray one day jb will come to that stage.

another good thing about k.l. (for me) is that i own a small apartment in k.l. which as a swimming pool. guess what i did after running? i swim and boy did my skin love the that feeling. its a total work out for me and enough to make me alert through out the day. i wish i can do that in j.b., well if i can afford to buy another property in j.b.

i did not drive to k.l. i took the bus from j.b and travel in k.l. to the meetings and summit on lrt/monorail. i noticed more and more people use the public transportation. i hope one day j.b. folks will buy the idea of travelling on public transportation. i wish the monorail project in j.b. comes true.

so today i'm back in j.b. i will do my 9.5 km this evening and there's futsal tonight. wish me luck!

run, jog, limping, run

i should have update my blog yesterday after my 34km run, but i was too damn lazy. actually, i was enjoying the rest of the day doing nothing, watching tv and bonding with my kids at home.

34km a distance people like me should give its undue respect. i started running, then jogging, then reduced to limping, and then at the 30km mark i started running again. why did i limped? stupid me, too excited to forget that i am running long. hamdi once told, what made the difference between malaysian athletes and others is that malaysian athletes does not think as to what they are programmed to perform. i am no exception for two reasons; i am not yet an athlete and i did not think to what i have plan to perform. hamdi said, "just ask any malaysian athlete what's in their mind when they were performing," "they might say something like i just ran and suddenly i was at the finishing line," he continued. "But observed American athletes when the same question was posed to them, they might say something like the first 5 seconds i was using might right leg to make the leap and the next 5 seconds its time for my left leg and....they are so precise......."

my mistake was that i let my legs do the thinking, and my mind goes elsewhere. I should have let my brains do the thinking on all aspects of running the 34km- pacing, avoid injuries etc., while my legs focus on the biomechanics.

how did i managed to run the last 4km? i got to my senses and let my brain do the thinking and legs do the running....

i always run with my heart rate monitor device and my average yeaterday was 140. i did 160 throughout my last 4km. that's 80%, or my anaerobic mode which is the top tier on my target zone (interval workouts and AT training), well according to Karvonen Formula. now you know how old i am.

woke up at 4.45am. got my wife to make me coffee while i dress up. started running around 5.30am. stop for 5mins soon after that to perform the religous obligation. at 8.30am i started to fell the heat. it was ok, i need the tan.

no swimming and riding yesterday. just enjoying the body recovering from the torture. the feeling was great. that's what most runners look for, not the medal, not the glamour, but for the "high" feeling.

swim, bike, run

last weekend i inflate my bicycle tyres to its optimum. that was saturday morning. i have forgotten the last time i did that.

so it happened that i didnot ride my "old faithful" that day. i went for 8km run instead. i parked it in the middle of the driveway and let the sun shine on it. as if it would garner energy from the sun. once i reached home, i get my family ready for a swim. it was a jiffy. they have been expecting that.

It was a good session for them. my wife got to do her laps and the kids, i noticed progress. i baby sit my Soraya.

The next day i did my 11km run. when i reached home i noticed something was staring at me. it was my bike, and off we go. we went to jb and back (34km). my bum was sore. i should have take it a bit easy. stopped couple of times including on my way back, at the wet market for "ikan tenggiri". i drolled over "ikan tenggiri goreng kunyit" throughout the rest of the journey.

that night i started to have some thoughts, wanna try triathlon? crazy... i replied. but my body has never felt so good before....run and bike in a day and swim the next day. maybe i'll just fill up my brain with all the necessary readings first on this subject matter before i jump into it. moreover i would want to jeapordize my midnight marathon training. i'll stick to my plan, which is to swim/bike on no-run days. or cheat a little bit, run + swim on one day and bike on the other, or run + bike and swim on the other. sounds better.

so last night i told my wife that i'm gonna bike + run to office. i got my blessings and i was too excited to sleep. every alternate hour i woke up to check on the time. come 4.45am, my alram went off, had my caffaine shot and i'm off to kpg pasir puteh. lock my bike at one of the signage pole and ran 9.5km to office. reached office way before the doors were opened. later, i'll take a bus ride to kpg pasir puteh and cycle back to home.

thinking of it, i actually done my bit to reduce the carbon footprint. i hope the public transportation in jb is up to our dear neighbour's standard, so that more people can use that tranportation mode. Maybe one day jb would prohibits motorized vehicles from entering its city limits. it can be done. as long as more and more people buy the idea of walk/run/cycle in the city limits.

take a dip...

i took george to re-visit nusajaya. george is a kiwi who promotes asean to new zelanders. on and off he will make a day trip to jb (from singapore) and every now and then he will come and see me.

he was so amused to see the development of puteri harbour. i casually asked whether he would want to buy a house here. he said if he could swim in the man made lake we would consider. we later found out that swimming is prohibited, only above water surface activites are allowed. "like what?" i asked. "boating, wind surfing etc." said george. "we are not designed to live in this weather. a little dip really helps." continued geroge.

i suddenly felt that i have neglegted swimming. i used to swim everyday. i even subscribe to a membership plan. maybe running has taken the lead. i love both actually. i want to do justice to my body. for the days which i am not running, i'll swim! its that simple.

for a start, i took my family to the pool at nusa mutiara on saturday. armed with sunscreen, i let my wife go first while i keep an eye on my boys and daugther. they had a wonderful time i must say. It is time for me when they are done. i did 500meters i had fun! we ate after that and boy did my wife eat without the guilty feeling. i boys had prata.

guess what? we decided to go back the following day. everybody enjoyed the weekend. today my wife told me that my boys were already planning what to do for the coming weekend, and they are only 6 and 5 yrs old!

i love running even more...

13 km was what i did this morning. i did something out of routine. i would usually run from kebun bunga to aseana and back. this time around i drove from home and parked my car at kobena and i ran from there to office. how did i got back home? i took a bus (paid rm1.60) from office to kobena and drove back home. wow! it cost me only rm 1.60 + 6km worth of fuel burned + car depreciation + calories burned, to travel from home to office and back today.

at office i met a true malaysian athlete by accident. he's hamdi jaafar. Malaysian record holder for, damn, i can't recall correctly. Anywho, he's da man. he got this scholarship to get a degree at states together with jeffry ong and nurul huda abdullah.

he is an athelete with a sport science degree. he shared with me lots of things which i have never heard of. i was amazed. i tought meeting hairul azwar, adrian mok etc. was the once in the life time thing and i thought at that time was the greatest moment, i am so wrong. if there is one thing that i treasure most from our conversation, it has to be on the topic of consistency. it gave me a fresh look on training. now i am more eager to do my runs!

i think every aspiring runner should be given the chance to meet up with world class athele. getting tips from the horses mouth is priceless. that's why i am thinking of organizing a session for him to give out tips to them aspiring runners out there. maybe i should do it properly, say have it a proper venue and charge a small sum to defray cost. let me sleep it over and put up a plan for that.

back to reality

this morning i woke up to run 9.5 km. yeah, i am back training. few months back it was so difficult to go back training after running an event, and i know why. i took it slow and steady at last Sunday's KLIM and i went for a message session at the padang right after the run. my muscle relaxed much faster and true to what had been said by the lady who promote the massage - don't bring the pain back, leave it with us.

i ran my normal 9.5km course. from lot 1 (kebun bunga) to aseana (danga bay) and back. noticed the high tide. lucky it did not rain, it might give a hell lot of problems to jb folks. heard a documentary on bbc the other day about waterwolves. the flooding episodes which johorian experienced a couple of months back is nothing compared to what the Dutch encountered decades back when the waterwolves attacked.

during my run i noticed 3 souls who shared the same interest as mine. 1 uncle and a veteran couple. it is all good. i hope more and more johorian will make running as part of thier way of life.

"Kau tender nombor ni ke?" (did you tendered for this number) asked the president of pacesetter club to me before the start of race. I smiled at him, did know what to say. I told him that my friend helped me out during registration and I was lucky, I guess. I said to myself quitely, I hope I will not run out of luck for the race.




I did say that my wife and I will be participating in KLIM 08 - 10 km race. Well, it did not turn out as planned. Wife stuck looking after the kids and her training went "funky monkey". Mine went fine so we agreed that this time around I'll do the running. I decided to do the half since it coincides with my sundown training plan. That was Monday of the KLIM week. Called my ever reliable friend to help me out on registration and race pack collection on Tuesday, bought return ticket on Friday and by Saturday afternoon I was in K.L.


My race starts at 6.00 am. Woke up at 4.00 am. By 4.15 am I was flanging the cab. I was at Dataran well before 5.00 am. Going around snapping pictures. Looking for a sign that tells "you are gonna have fun running this morning". Finally my prayers were answered, I saw Spiderman - not sure of the person's gender behind the suit, I take it his or her appearance is the sign that I am looking for.





True to my instinct, I had a good run. Timing was lousy - 2 hrs 30+ min. I am not complaining, its part of my training regime. Organizers did a wonderful job in getting things done, well, almost. Except for some traffic mismanagement, runners might not have complained. Medals were given once crossing the finishing line, thank god they did not make us line up to collect our well deserved medal. Lots of refreshments, and one thing that I really appreciate was the shower facility. You guys are great.



I will definately coming back next year. I was not sure a week ago but now I have made up my mind. Full or half is yet to be determined.



I thank you my friend who helped me with the registration and collection. You rock. I have the feeling that you will do you first marathon within 18 month from now.

14 more weeks to go for Sundown Marathon

Got back early from work today. Called wife to get ready for some action in the park. She got her 20min run/jog/walk but I got the babysitting part. Seeing her in action is all worth it. I want her to be fit physically and mentally. Ever since I got her to use my heart rate minitor, I've seen progressed in leaps and bounds. She no longer carry her inhaler during the run/jog/walk. And her face got this radiant-like thing. Now I'm thingking of getting another one. Now I got all the reason to grab the RS something-something...in my dreams...

I was so mad with e-banking. Tried to make payment after registering on-line for Sundown but was turned down. Well, I didn't get through registering just now and I didn't want to use my other card. I'll just wait for tomorrow and settle this things. I'm kinda eager cause I want to have the feeling of training legitimacy. You see, I have putting up some mileage for Sundown but I have yet to register.

What's on my plate tomorrow? 6.5km. I think I'm gonna run from Taman Bunga northwards 3.25km and back.

I am back on track

It has been a while since I had my last entry. From that day to last night, I wasn't sure of a lot of things. But this morning, waking up to my morning run and looking up to the sky, I got all figured out; I am not going to go all out futsalling.

I always have bad feelings about this game (futsal). It is all about kicking the ball into the back of the net. The problem is that it is not like soccer where you got to pace yourself. In the game of futsal, you are bound to get all excited and you tend to forget yourself. In excitement, you will hurt yourself. You only find it out when you are about to leave the court. That was what happend to me. I expose myself to injuries. And injury did I get. I couldn't walk straight and my butt hurts. I can't even jog. I didn't have my routine long run during weekends. man I feel like a slob. I vow that I will never play this game again. Well, if I got no choice I'll just be in the court do my best to avoid fancy movements.

This morning I try to run. Man it was difficult. But half away running there's this guy who always keep up to my running pace, joined me and I have forgotten about the pain. And I did quite well. It proves that its all about the mind. its the mind game. Gotta be focus and stay in the course.

My wife will be joining me...

Told my wife that I have decided to do 2 marathons this year. Along the way I managed to convince her to do 10K. She's no runner but she's has the desire to keep fit.

I assured her that I will train with her and run side-by-side with her during the event. So she has decided to do the 10K event in the AmBank Kuala Lumpur International Marathon 2008. Way to go! Now got my wife to train with me.

Next step, we gonna search for a suitable training program from the internet and stick to it.

So, you wanna do 2 marathons this year....

I am a Malaysian working in Johor Bahru (JB). Did most of my practice runs in JB and participate in running events mostly in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

I did my first marathon in 2006. The Putrajaya Marathon. My second was the Standard Chartered (Stand Chart) Singapore Marathon. This year I plan to do 2. I am thinking of doing the inaugral Adidas Sundown Singapore Marathon and the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon.

Why the heck I wanna do marathons in Singapore, where it costs more and I got to cross the border? Well, its all because of timing. Sundown is scheduled on 31 May 2008 and customarily Stand Chart's will be held in December. It nice to have about half a year to practice.

I started running in late 2005. In less than a year, I already did my first marathon. The Putrajaya. I did it in 5hrs 55mins. I aimed for sub-6hrs. It was my desire not my strength that made me cross the finishing line. My Stand Chart 2006 was terrible. I did 6hrs 25mins. I only aim to finish the race.

So for this year, with the aim of doing 2 marathons which is 6 months apart, I should train well and beat my personal best.

Here we go ...