Stormy Thursday evening and indecision

Will I or won't I go to track? That was the prevailing question that bugged me between 515pm to 615pm. For a while it seemed as though I won't be going; then I thought I'd be going.  After checking with Azwar about a possible shorter route to Kg Pandan, I initially thought I'll be heading there.  Then I went downstairs just to check on the traffic situation at Jalan Ampang. Diagnosis- BAD.   The cars were stuck and could barely get past the traffic lights. One bonus- the opposite side of the road (Ampang LRT station) was ok so I might decide to make use os Azwar's recommendation. Still I decided I wasn't going.  I called Kenneth to tell him so.  I also spoke to Ronnie who tried to convince me to change my mind.  For a moment, I wavered and thought I was going.  This was as I left the office at 615pm.  But then I saw something that completely made up my mind- the traffic, which has become worse in the space of 30 minutes.  In addition to the jam I spoke of earlier, there was a massive jam from the Ampang Park LRT station side, onto Citibank and beyond.

 

I smsed Ronnie to tell him I won't be heading to track, changed into my running gear and headed to KLCC.  Whom do I see but Newton and Rohaizad running at a nice leisurely pace.  I joined them and later Li Sar joined us after zooming past us initially. The pace was at a nice conversational leisurely pace, which is was appropriate, because I was feeling tired and sore.  It's just as well that I was not at track.  The workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday were hard, and I needed a recovery day.  Going to track could have exacerbated my sore and tired legs, and who knows- to injury.  Later Ah Loong joined us as well. 

 

Total- 10 laps at a very easy recovery pace.

 

Mileage this week so far since Monday- about 61km

 

Drove home at 815pm and it was still jammed up! Goes to show how a little rain can really mess up the already horrendous traffic in KL.  Drank the Recovery drink and felt better.  Once again dunno if it's all in the head.

 

 

Thursday update

My "confirmed" meeting in Melaka was cancelled at the very last minute. I found out about it at 5:30pm yesterday. Woooo hooo! That means I can make for track today. I intended to go for an easy run this morning but my legs were just soooo dead from yesterday's run. I was extremely hungry last night and ate more than usual, but by the time I woke up this morning at 615am I was already feeling hungry. When I arrived at the office I bought lotsa stuff from Bee's Bakery which is located at Megan Avenue- Chicken Pie, Donut, sandwiches and I devoured them.

Lunch was with Jamie and Newton at City Square- had claypot chicken rice. Really worth the price. Lotsa vegetables, rice and chicken.

Der legs are much better now. As I'm typing this I look out the window and it looks like rain. Actually, whether I'll go to the track will depend on the weather. If it is still raining around 6:15, chances are Jalan Ampang may be badly jammed. If that's the case I'll just skip track session and head to KLCC.

There's one song that has been stuck in my head of late- Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl". Call the song what you like- "Brain Itch" or "Ear Worm"- but the effect is the same- I just can;t seem to get that song outta my head. It just keeps playing in my head, all the time. It's been going on now for 2 days. Watching TRL on MTV last night didn't help, as her video was on. The host of TRL is HOT! Vanessa, Vanessa...

Mileage up to this point is about 48.5k since Monday. I hope to put in some decent mileage and workouts until the Pacesetters 15k. Thereafter there'll be the usual tapering, and if all goes to plan, I'll run a good race.

Another side plan- to lose some weight in time for the 15k race. I've deliberately put on weight since December 2004 (after the SIngapore marathon) because my family have been gicing me some heat about how skinny and emaciated I look. However since I plan to do well in the race, I should be in the right physical shape too. Haven't weighed myself of late, so it's difficult to say.

27/4, Wednesday evening

I was feeling a tad tired when I left the office.  My legs were lacking zip and I thought I would run slow at KLCC park.  When I arrived at the park I had the good fortune of bumping into Newton, Kenneth, Yong and Rohaizad at around the 700 meter mark.  I joined them and they were running at around 8:05 pace.  Good recovery pace, I thought.  We chatted and talked trash mostly, until after the 4th lap, Kenneth groaned aloud that he was "f****ing bored".  I suggested that we up the pace a little.  Upped the pace we did and we ran side by side briefly until Kenneth had to make a quick drinking stop, and I continued.  I wasn't sure what my time was but I knew then i was running alone.  Ronnie was there stretching and chatting Jamie who had just completed his 8 laps.  I continued with my lap and as I completed the next lap, I realised that Ronnie was just behind me, shadowing me! He told me that I had run the immediate preceding lap at 6:00 flat.  I slowed the pace down because I wasn't sure I'd complete the remaidner laps at a 6:00 pace.  Overall, our average times were between 6:18-6:30.  I completed my final (12th) lap in 6:00 flat. 

 

Total laps- 12

 

Mileage for Wednesday- about 21km

Wednesday 27/4

It's confirmed that I will be heading to Melaka for a meeting tomorrow.  The meeting starts at 11:00am, so I suppose I should leave KL about 2 hours beforehand.  I'm not entirely certain how long the meeting will take, but hopefully it wouldn't take too long. But I'm not counting on being able to make it for track.  I am considering running tomorrow morning but that seems improbable judging from my difficulties waking up in recent weeks. 

 

A slight problem is the chafing between my thighs.  Yesterday at track Kenneth graciously let me use some of his Bodyglide and that made my running much easier.  His business partner was in the States and a few of us ordered Bodyglide, so I'm looking forward to using it when I finally get it.

 

Ran 6ks in the morning.

Tuesday 26/4

Ran 8k at KLCC park in the morning.  My legs were absolutely dead after that.  Luckily I brought my "Recovery" sachet (produced by PowerBar) which I bought from a outdoor/hiking store (can't remember the name) at Bangsar Village the night before.  I happened to be in the vicinity having dinner.

 

Anyway I mixed it with cold water, and drank it.  I felt much better after that.  I dunno- maybe it's all in the mind.  I read of one research conducted in the UK where they served people with 1 pint of alcohol-free beer and researchers asked these people how they felt.  Most of them replied they felt more relaxed, and that the alcohol was "starting to kick in", thereby illustrating that people assumed the beer was alcoholic and they "conditioned" themselves to think that by drinking that pint of beer, the were going to be more relaxed.  On my part maybe there are recovery properties in that drink; but I don't know if they were sufficient to make me feel so much better after that.  Like I said, maybe it's all in my head.

 

Traffic to Kg Pandan in the past week or so has been alright.  Not entirely clear, but clear enough for me to arrive in time for track.  Usually I arrive 5-10 minutes late due to traffic.  When I arrived, I wasn't allowed to park at the car park. The guards banned me.  @#@$@%!!! There was one clear parking space there! Anyway I had to park near the main road.  Missed one warm-up lap because of that. 

 

Did a warm-up lap.  Coach arrived shortly after and he told us that the menu is 5000 meters, at 90% effort; if we're not feeling so good then back off accordingly.  So off we went.  My first km time was 4:16.  I decided to up the pace.  Despite that I was lapped once by Cecil and Eugene! Imagine how fast they were running.  Eugene's breathing was very laboured, like he was gasping for every ounce of oxygen in the atmosphere as if it were his last breath. But he was running really hard and fast.  Good stuff.  I really hope to be near his standard someday. 

 

Anyway I finished the 5000 meters in 20:29, averaging about 4:06 per km.  I was quite tired after that, and Coach asked us to jog one lap before telling us that the plan was 5 x 400m.  I was tired but determined to complete the menu.  Alas, after completing one lap the lightning practically lighted up the track and Coach asked us all to stop.  It was an unsatisfactory end to the track workout. 

 

Total for track- 5.8km. 

 

Total- 8km in the morning + 5.8km- 13.8km

Monday 25/4

Monday.  Practically the worst day of the week for most of us.  I found out that I had to go to Melaka on Thursday for a meeting.  That means that I may miss track, or even worse, not run at all.  I could run early in the morning but of late, I've had major problems waking up.  Well, problems falling asleep quickly in the first place.  I think it takes me almost an hour before I fall asleep.  And I'm probably in my deepest sleep when it is time for me to wake up.  Naturally I look forward to the weekends when I can sleep in a little.  Generally waking up at about 9am is good for me.  Apart from my trip to Melaka, I look forward to this weekend, because it's Labour Day weekend- May 1st falls on Sunday, so Monday will be a public holiday. 

 

My legs have been a little sore and tired of late.  This is probably due to the mileage I've been doing in the past few months.  It may be catching up on me.

 

Ran 11 laps at KLCC today. Initially it was Jamie, Kenneth and John.  We were running in the opposite direction, clockwise.  Newton was in the usual direction running with Yan.  Later after 6 laps I decided to run anti-clockwise where I was joined by Ronnie.

 

Total distance- 11 laps;

Pace- 1st 8 laps about 6:45, next 3 laps about 7:30.

Sunday 24/4

Was still tired from previous night's exertions but I met up with my parents to have breakfast with them at Old Town, around 10am.  Then something happened- the back bumper of my car just gave way! It happened as I was driving away from the coffee shop.  I tried to place it back, but it lasted no less than 5 minutes before dropping off and hanging lop-sidedly.  I stopped at a shop along Jalan Gasing (right next to the Lotus Restaurant) and bought some tape.  I literally taped the bumper to the boot of my car.  But it worked! At least as a temporary measure.  So, for a while I was driving with a taped bumper.  Sigh, this month's accident (which I had to pay RM300) and now this? More money out of the window...

 

After all that I went home and slept for 2 hours.  Had some tea, rested a bit more and went for a run after the hour-long evening rain.  Ran about 12k.  Pace- about 5:10 per km.

 

Total for the week- around 90k, since Monday.  Could've run more on Thursday, but my legs were quite dead- hence the 5 easy kms.   It will be a 3 day weekend again (being Labour Day) so I look forward to putting in some mileage, depending on how I feel.

Sat 23/4

Something's wrong with my blog, the latest entry always seems to be "Running Dangerously".  I'd better do something about that.  In the meantime, I'll just continue with the posting.

 

Set my alarm for 615am.  When I woke up, all I wanted to do was to go back to sleep.  I groggily smsed Jamie and Ronnie telling them I couldn't make it for KLCC and 3k time trial, respectively.  The previous night's 16 lapper really took the stuffing out of me; my legs needed the rest and I wanted more shut-eye time.  I woke up for good at 10am.  Had breakfast and went online briefly to check out the results (if any) of the 3k time trial.  Ronnie in the meantime smsed me and told me the times of a few of the PM team members.   Chatted with Ajeep and Tey for a while, before deciding to go to my parents' gym located at Holiday Villa for a run on the treadmill. 

 

Managed to run 13.25k.  Running on the treadmill bored the heck out of me.  Even the presence of the television did nothing to help.  All I did was to concentrate on my form (there was a mirror in front of me).  Being a new treadmill, I was quite confident that the pace and distance on the monitor were accurate- I ran at 4:40 pace. 

 

I had to run in the afternoon because I had some socialising to do with my colleagues in the evening, in the form of dinner at the Luna Bar, and clubbing thereafter at Bar Savanh, located at Jalan Doraisamy, right next to Sheraton Imperial KL.

 

Went home after my run, showered and ran some errands.  Slept for about an hour before heading to Luna Bar. 

 

Luna Bar is located at, literally, the top floor of Menara Pan Global.  This bar was opened only recently.  The place itself is beautiful- wonderful sitting arrangements by the pool with the view of KL Tower and the KL skyline, it is a place to go on a date.  Music is good, not blaring, and non-intrusive.  Food-wise was ok, a bit pricey and service was a tad slow, but I would recommend this place anyway.  It is a good place to chill, that's for sure.  Even the toilets are something to look at!

 

I arrived at Luna Bar at about 810pm, and I found myself being the only male with 5 other female colleagues.  The other fellas couldn't make it.  Anyway I was seated at one of the seats by the pool, and we had pizza with some beer. Good stuff. 

 

Thereafter we were at Bar Savanh- it was R&B night- not exactly my cuppa tea but I could live with it.  I don't like too much of a particular type of music being played.  I prefer a mix of everything, tunes that are "danceable" be they trance, hip-hop, R & B, rock, pop or anything else.  Too much of a certain type of music is a bit of an overkill for me, and I get bored pretty quickly.   Had a pretty good time dancing and having some drinks.  I left about 3am.  When i arrived home, I just crashed on the bed.   I still harboured hopes of running at Bukit Aman with Ronnie, but obviously that was practically impossible, at least for me.  I need my sleep.

Friday 22/4

Check out pm20's blog on our running session on Friday- where we ran in the rain, although I always enjoy running in the rain. PM20 ran 10 laps, and I ran together with him, and ran another 6 laps. By the 13th lap I was starting to tire and the pace per lap slowed to around 7:15. The increasing fatigue I felt was muscular, not cardiac, suggesting that I was reasonably fit (cardiac-wise) but not necessarily physically fit. Maybe it is my mileage catching up with me. After all I've run quite high mileage from October/November of last year (leading up to Singapore Marathon 2004) and after about a week's rest from Singapore, I continued with my mileage up to this point. I've been taking more protein since the turn of the new year. Carbs-wise, I think I'm taking in enough.

Drove home in a slight daze- my legs were dead, I was tired and hungry. I ate so much rice for dinner. Had a long shower and went to sleep. I was pretty sure that I could not make it for tomorrow's 7:00 am 3k time trial at Kg Pandan. But I set my alarm anyway- maybe I will feel better when I wake up.

Distressing news

Read some distressing news about a runner, Jenny Lim, who was struck down by a car while she was on her run (see- http://carboman.blogspot.com/2005/04/distressing-news.html and the comments thereafter). Not good, and bearing in mind my last run at Bukit Aman where I foolishly decided to take the double hill route on a busy and heavy-traffic evening, I'd better be very careful. Sigh, running in KLCC park will be pretty safe from the traffic, for obvious reasons. Next time I'm in Bukit Aman in the evenings, I will just take that loop in Lake Gardens although I don't really fancy it.

Thursday turned out to be a pretty lazy day for me, running-wise. On Wednesday after my run, I had a late night because I stayed up to watch one of the DVDs that Jamie loaned to me- The Anchorman-Legend of Ron Burgundy- which was such a hilarious movie. I'm a big fan of Will Ferrell. I remember first seeing him at "The Night in Roxbury" (I think that's the title) with Chris Kattan (another mad fella). In "Old School", his streaking and shooting himself in the neck with a dart gun had me in stitches. I watched those scenes over and over again and just couldn't stop laughing.

Anyway I went to bed at 3:10am and woke up at about 10:00am with a headache. Went downstairs and had a nice breakfast. Chatted with mom for awhile. It's been awhile (almost one week) since I had a good, nice, sit-down chat with mom. She asked me how Nurotevil was. I also realised- I haven't heard from Nurotevil in a while. I will try and contact him and see how he's doing.

Went to Plaza Damas at Sri Hartamas- and man that place has really developed- there's a new shopping complex there, which is of a reasonable size (probably bigger than Bangsar Village, about the size of Jaya, perhaps). Though not yet fully occupied, there are quite a number of shops in there already. I think this will cater for the Sri Hartamas and Damansara Heights residents who don't want to go to Bangsar Shopping Centre or Bangsar Village or Mid Valley (for obvious reasons- traffic and parking) for their shopping. But I foresee this place to be really jammed up when this shopping complex fully takes off and the people are more aware of Plaza Damas. In addition, there are a few cafes, kopitiams and shops at the accompanying shoplots. I had lunch at KimGary's. Not bad food, but not out of this world either. One major disadvantage- it allowed patrons to smoke, which irritated me.

I ran 5km easy yesterday. My legs were pretty tired and sore from Wednesday's run.

Had dinner at home. Polished a bottle of red wine (Merlot).

Alright I'm off for lunch with Jamie and Newton.

Running Dangerously

Was looking forward to running with the gang later in the evening, but then...
Got summoned to a last minute meeting at Damansara Heights, so that means I couldn't run with the gang at KLCC. TNS! I was looking forward to it. I mean what kind of person schedules a meeting on an eve of a public holiday at 4:30pm??? It took me 45 minutes to reach there because I left at 3:50pm, and traffic was already filled with people rushing to their destinations. Tomorrow being a public holiday, it was a good time to take Friday off too. I guess everyone was just rushing to various parts of Malaysia- north, south, east, further west. Jalan Tun Razak was jammed, Loke Yew was jammed, Lebuhraya Mahameru was jammed, Jalan Duta was jammed, Jalan Damansara was jammed. Thought I'd never get there. Arrived 5 minutes late. Meeting went on until 6:20. Had to drop off my colleague who attended the meeting with me at the Bangsar LRT station. Already smsed Chen telling him I couldn't join him at Kiara. Realising that it was also too late to run at KLCC park, I decided to cut my losses and drove to Bukit Aman.

After changing into my running gear, I had this strange compulsion to run the double hill route, even though at the back of my mind I knew traffic was going to be heavy on the roads that I had to run on. Still I persisted. After passing Bank Negara, I started realising the folly of my decision- there were many cars on the road, even on the windy roads leading towards Bukit Tunku. I spent my run worrying more about dodging cars than anything else. I ran against traffic so that helped a little. Still I couldn't help being paranoid that cars or motorcycles couldn't see me. There were a couple of close calls- well, close enough for me. But I was already too deep into the run to consider turning back and running in the Lake Gardens. And I find running in the Lake Gardens really boring. That was what made me decide to run the double hill route instead. The quieter section was in fact, only the double hills. Back onto the main roads, I tried to run on that little space of green grass that was no wider than 2 feet. Back onto the Sultan Salahuddin palace, the roads were quiet again. There were still some cars (driving pretty fast) near the National Monument. Thereafter, I crossed the road and decided to get into the Lake Gardens instead. I completed another round, before stopping. Note to self- NO MORE RUNNING THE DOUBLE HILL ROUTE ON A BUSY DAY!

Overall, total distance- 10.8 (double hill) add 2 x 300 meters (being the estimated distance, to and fro, I THINK, from the Bukit Aman car park to the entrance of Lake Gardens) add 2.3km (estimated distance of the loop around Lake Gardens)

Approximately 13.7km. It was run at 5:30 pace.

Tuesday Track

Looks like many of the pms are on the crocked list- pm20 has an ankle injury; pm26 is slowly recovering from possible shin splints; pm25 had a bad case of ITB; pm1 isn't fully fit; pm18's hip problem seems to have recovered. You do thread a fine line between training hard and overtraining; we as runners are just so eager and impatient to see results that sometimes we do too much too soon. If you want to make running a sport for life, then you must pace yourself. I'm writing this to remind myself too. At this point in time I'm feeling pretty good- touch wood, I haven't had a serious injury so far that would have forced me to take an extended time off from running. I do try to monitor my body on a daily and hourly basis- even just before I run- to gauge the type of effort I would be running on a particular day. Usually in the mornings the legs feel a tad sore- probably due to the workout of the day before- but by lunchtime the muscles feel much better. Another possible reason is that the muscles feel stiffer in the cooler temperatures of the morning. Note to myself- stretching and proper warm-ups are extremely important for your morning runs.

Lunch was with Jamie, Newton and William. We decided to try out a restaurant on the 4th floor of Wisma MCA; my dish was a Cantonese style Yee Mee, which was mediocre at best. Jamie tells us that his wasn't much better either.

Traffic to Kg Pandan today was pretty decent again- it took me about 20 minutes to arrive. Managed to warm up 3 laps before Coach arrived. The menu was as follows:-

1 easy lap;
1 lap, 50 meters fast; 50 meters easy;
1 x 800 meters, 3/4 pace;
1 x 1200 meters, 3/4 pace;
1 x 2000 meters, 90% effort (completed in 7:56, averaged 3:58 per km pace);
1 x 400 meters, 3/4 pace;
1 x 1000 meters, 90% effort (completed in 3:36);
5 x 400 meters, with times of 1:30, 1:25, 1:22, 1:23, 1:24;
1 x 800 meters warm down.

Total- about 10.2k worth.

After the workout, Coach asked us what we thought of moving the workouts to Monday and Wednesday, at 6pm. He sat us down on the track and asked for a show of hands for those who supported the current arrangement- being Tuesday and Thursday, about 6:30pm. A resounding majority (20 plus people!) voted for the current arrangement. Phew. And I thought my speed work days were over. Only about 4 or 5 voted for Monday and Wednesday. So the majority wins, and the current arrangement stays!!!

Thereafter stayed on track, chit-chatted and talked trash with Azwar, Ronnie and Kenny.

A satisfying end to the day!

Monday run

So far the past 2 weeks have been relatively alright, work-wise and I've been able to put in some mileage. Monday wasn't any different- although I had 2 meetings- one in the morning and the other later in the afternoon, both with a different firm of lawyers- I was still able to leave at 615pm.

Lunch was at La Manila, Ampang Point. It's abit pricy for local food, and the food wasn;t anything to shout about. The only thing- they served me 3 large prawns in my fried rice.

Went to KLCC park and joined Kenneth, Newton, Jamie and Lisa for a while. They were running in the opposite direction. One by one they stopped and I managed to complete 5 laps with Newton before he too stopped. By then Ronnie was already there. Ronnie was later than usual in the past 2 weeks because he's been pretty busy at work and his superior (NOT BOSS) is giving him some grief at work. I fully understand what you're going through, buddy. At my previous place of work, I had an @r$eh0le of a superior (not boss) as well, and he dented my confidence and sometimes made my life a living hell. Hang in there buddy- I hope things get better soon. Anway I managed to run another 7 laps with him in the rain.

Total- 12 laps, about 15k. Pace- medium.

Saturday, Sunday

Ran 10k on Saturday. Time- 44:30, which was roughly a 4:30 pace. Felt very comfortable and strong. Sunday was a day of rest for me- didn't have the time to run and I thought I'd better give myself a day's worth of rest as a "present" for my previous weeks of hard training.

Friday evening

After the hard workout of Thursday, it was going to be an easy Friday evening run for me. Had lunch at the City Square foodcourt with Newton, Kenneth, and Ronnie. Jamie couldn't attend as he was having a meeting. We had a good lunch- nothing surprising really, when you have good company. Only thing- I paid for a plate of chicken rice that was too little in size, whereas Ronnie and Kenneth got Claypot Chicken Rice with much larger portions. Ronnie couldn't stop teasing me about how unworth-it the Chicken Rice was- he said so on the shoutbox and in his smses to me. TNS!!! I get your point lah!!! Next time I will order Claypot Chicken Rice!

Passed my Running WIth Legends book and Prefontaine DVD to Jamie in the evening, before joining him at KLCC for my easy run. Rohaizad and Jessica were there. Jessica had just recovered from food poisoning which she got from her diving trip to Sipadan. We were taking it pretty slow- Jamie and Jessica were gearing upfor the Cops Run on Sunday.

All in all it was an easy recovery run that took quite some time- but the purpose of the run was presicely that- for my recovery from the previous day's speed work.

Total- 15k

Friday post

Arrived at the track pretty early on Thursday evening- traffic was excellent and it took me around 15 minutes to arrive at the track. Managed to warm up 5 laps before starting our intervals. Coach was there for a short while. He told us that he had just returned from A'Famosa and was rushing off to another meeting. He divided us into 3 groups and with my pathetic attempt at hiding, I was instructed to join the 1st group consisting of Ah Toh, Ah Wah, Phua and Ah Seah. Menu for the 1st group- 15 x 400m, with a set time of 2:00, inclusive of rest. Managed to complete the workout at an average time of 1:30 per lap, whereas Ah Toh and Ah Wah completed their laps betwen 1:17 and 1:19.

Thereafter ran another 5k warm down.

Total kms ran for Thursday- 13k

KLCC 8 lapper

When I arrived at KLCC park yesterday at approximately 635pm, the running gang were already there. It didn’t take me long to spot them- within a minute or two I saw Jamie, Lisa, Rohaizad and Yong bunched together. I joined them and within seconds I knew they were running at a decent pace- the completion of my first lap (Jamie’s 9th!) confirmed it- 7:15. Yong stopped after that lap. The subsequent laps got faster and faster- 6:50 (at which point Jamie and Rohaizad completed their workouts) and I was left alone with Lisa. Man, she is FAST! The 3rd and 4th laps were run around 6:35. After Lisa stopped, I decided to pile on the pace a little bit. To my surprise I ran the next 4 laps in the following times:-

Lap 5- 6:00 flat
Lap 6- 6:00 flat
Lap 7- 6:00 flat
Lap 8- 5:53

Total: 10k

I was surprised because I didn’t feel as though I was running at that pace. And to top it off, I was running very consistently, hitting every laps at 6:00.

Completed my 8 lapper, and joined Kenneth, Newton and a girl named Yan. I saw Ronnie and John whiz by too.

Left early because I had to attend a dinner.

SHOUTBOX and track

In the past 2 days Ronnie’s shoutbox has been filled with humourous entries with the usual suspects making the contributions. But something happened yesterday. Jamie became an unintended contributor of a “joke”. After lunch time yesterday, he responded to Ajeep’s inquiry (it was about the location of the Larian Cops and Larian Kubur races) with “yes, both in KL”. Thereafter I think he had problems accessing the shoutbox, and everytime he clicked on the “Refresh” button, the shoutbox proceeded to repeat his “yes, both in KL” entry over and over again until Ronnie finally cracked up and laughed. He then proceeded to type in “yes both in KL”, and I joined in too.

Oh well, it was funny at the time!

Track Tuesday- coach turned up temporarily. He had a meeting to attend. Anyway he proposed that the track session be changed to Mondays and Wednesdays, as opposed to the usual Tuesdays and Thursdays. The reason is to accommodate for the triathlete cyclists who will now do their cycling sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I think). It won’t affect my schedule in any way, because I run at KLCC on the other days. It’s just a matter of adjusting the running efforts before and after the track sessions. I think though that the change of days may affect other runners, who probably have other things to attend to on Monday and Wednesday. This change may not suit everyone.

As usual I turned up late so there wasn’t much time for me to do my warm-ups. Damn traffic. Back to the workouts- after 2 warm-up laps, it was a tempo run consisting of 1 x 4800 meters (12 laps) and 1 x 4000 meters (10 laps). Time: 20:02 and 17:03 respectively. Then I did 3 warm down laps with Kenny. Chatted for awhile with Kenny, Cykosis, Ronnie and Azwar before heading home. Not fully satisfied with the day’s (or rather night’s) run, I ran another 2km.

Total for the day- about 14k

"The eyes see what the ears hear and the mind perceives"

Strapped back

After lunch with Jamie and Newton at Phileo Avenue, went to Ampang Park, and managed to get my strap fixed for RM7.90.

Stripped bare and strapless

To my dismay, my watch strap snapped yesterday. I don’t own a Timex or any better known athletic brands- just a Casio. It is a basic watch with basic stopwatch function- no memory laps or anything. Just something that keeps track of my running time in a completely no frills manner. I bought the watch for a dirt cheap price, and so far it hasn’t failed me. The strap? Well, I’ve had it for about 3 years now, and considering the frequency of use (i.e. every time I run, which is practically daily), I’m happy it has lasted this long. I’m going to send it to one of the watch shops in Ampang Park. Hopefully the strap won’t cost as much as the original price of the watch itself.

It’s Track Tuesday. Interesting to see what the coach has for us. I think there’s another upcoming triathlon, so he may take it easy. We’ll see.

16 lapper around KLCC park

Monday didn’t turn to be so bad after all. I wasn’t too busy with work, and that gave me an opportunity to participate in Ronnie’s shoutbox fairly actively, which is something I haven’t done in some time. I had a good lunch with Jamie, Newton. Lunch time passes by a little too quickly when you have good company.

Anyway I think there’s an advantage in coming into the office early. I get to start work earlier and finish the work that I have to do, sooner. I might decide to come in earlier in the future. Unlike Nurotevil, who works at a petrol station in Kangar, I have less luxury of time and have other things to do. I’m sure the other pacemakers can attest to that, and balancing work, family and running can be consuming emotionally. You’re working when you want to run, for instance. Plus not many spouses/partners really understand our obsession with running. The way I see it, at least we’re not engaging in other dodgy activities such as visiting “karaoke” lounges or “health centres”, womanizing or consuming drugs. You should be happy that we’re taking time to remain physically fit while other husbands/boyfriends sit on their fat arses and gain more weight!

Having said that, I salute all pacemakers who have been able to juggle their careers, responsibilities as parents/husbands/sons/in-laws and running. Jamie, Newton, Ronnie, Azwar, Chen, Kenneth you are the fellas that come to mind.

Anyway back to running- I thought I’d see Jamie at KLCC park yesterday, but he was nowhere to be seen. I saw Kenneth and Newton running together and decided to join them. They were running at 7:30 per lap pace, which was fine by me. They had already run 4 laps by then. After 4 laps with them (which was their 8 laps) I decided to pick up the pace. My intention was to run another 12 laps to make it a total of 16 laps. The next 8 laps, I averaged about 6:45 a lap before “warming down” to about 7:00 per lap in the last 4. My legs were pretty tired after the run, and I reached home pretty late. All in all a satisfying run. Total: 16 laps KLCC park.

Monday

With the Pacesetters 15k coming soon, I have given some thought to running my long runs along the double hill route. Actually this has been on my mind since hearing that the roundabout at Jalan Duta en route to the Petronas station in Sri Hartamas is no longer in existence, making it very dangerous for us runners to cross Jalan Duta. Not only do we have to go onto the main road past the tennis stadium (running with traffic), it also cuts off the other hill along the Inland Revenue Board. Running early on Sunday morning helps, but it still pretty dangerous nonetheless. Having said that, any of the routes, in one way or another, do take us onto the main road, but there’s something less secure and safe about Jalan Duta, probably due to the fact that it is a high volume (in terms of vehicles) road, and people do drive pretty fast.

Anyway my plan would be to run 2 to 3 loops of the double hill route. The route is about 10.8k (if you start at the Bukit Aman carpark), so the run will be close to 22 or 33k depending on how many loops you run. The 15k race will be along that route, so it will be good training. The hills on that route are fairly steep, but nothing compared to the hill along the hockey stadium on Jalan Duta. Jason seems to enjoy it. Jamie proposed that as part of my long run, I do at least one loop along that route. Interesting idea- I might just take that up.

First and foremost though, I’d have to get my lazy ass out of bed at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning! I tend to be an afternoon/evening runner, so I do find it difficult to run in the mornings. But I have no problems with races.

I’m looking forward to the end of my working day today, which is another 3 ¼ hours away. Hope to get in a long-ish run. Here’s to the end of the worst day of the week.

Weekend running and plan for the week

Morning y'all. It's pm19, who's not as busy (at the moment) as he was in the past 2 weeks. Another brand new week. This week my plan is to log in more mileage. It started pretty well, because although I ran an easy 6 lapper at KLCC on Friday, I managed to run 15k on Saturday and 22k yesterday, on Sunday. All were done at a relatively slower pace of between 5:30-6:00 per km.

Jamie told me that he managed to obtain a copy of Endurance of VCD. That got me all excited because the movie is about possibly one of the greatest distance runner of all time, Haile Gebrselassie. As far as I know it is only available on VCR format but someone must have recorded this onto a VCD format. Jamie did try copying the same into his computer but the VCD skipped numerous times in the process so I think it was unsuccessful. Hopefully a copy can be made. I'm sorry- I usually buy originals and I really want to buy Endurance, brand new, but Amazon has run out of them and it seems to be no longer in production. Endurance is now being sold 2nd hand, and I don't trust any of these fellas who purportedly sell them. I'm not just gonna use my credit card for what may be a dodgy sale. So, I really hope a copy can be made.

This morning started with rain- traffic is probably worse than usual. Luckily I chose to come to work early.

I read with interest the latest entry of John's blog- scary stuff. This whole thing is disturbing. Ronnie's blog and his accompanying shoutbox is a focal meeting point for runners to meet, discuss and generally joke about running- but there have been some weirdos around as well. There are idiots and weirdos in all walks of life, and sports. Running is no different. On Ronnie's shoutbox and mine, generally I've chosen the only way I know to deal with them- not to respond to them.

Thursday track

Morning all. Nurotevil here reporting again, assuming pm19’s duties. Anyway this time around pm19 was far more careful driving to the track. Despite the jam, he kept his cool. He arrived at track with time to spare- coach wasn’t there yet, and he managed to squeeze in 3 warm-up laps (around 2:20 per lap pace). Then, the action began:-

1 warm-up lap easy;
1 lap, 50 meters fast, 50 meters slow;
5 x 800m, in the following times: 3:12, 3:11, 3:08, 3:06, 3:05
5 x 400m, in the following times: 1:26, 1:24, 1:27, 1:25, 1:22
1 x 400m (ALL OUT): 1:07

Thereafter followed by 5 warm-down laps with Kenny (around 2:15 per lap pace).

Total: 10.4 km.

Overall a pretty exhausting workout, but coach has given us far worse.

Thursday TODAY

Justin is looking forward to today’s track workout.

This is Nurotevil reporting, Over and out. Till the next report.

Wednesday

Justin had lunch with Jamie and Newton.

Then in the evening, at KLCC park, after running the first 2 laps alone, I ran another 8 laps with Ronnie. Time for the 10 lapper: 1:04 plus (can’t remember). The rest of the gang were there- Newton, Kenneth, Jamie (who PRed in his 10 lapper- congrats!), Lisa (who did the pacemaking duties for Jamie), Rohaizad. Anyone else left out?

Monday and Tuesday

Monday

Running at KLCC park, Justin completed a 10 lapper. Nothing interesting to report.


Tuesday

As it turned out, the workout was less intense than expected. Because coach was accommodating those who just returned from the Kenyir Triathlon, he decided to make it easy for us. After the usual warm ups, the following workouts were performed at ¾ pace, which were about 1:42 per lap: 1 x 400m, 1 x 800m, 1 x 1200m, 1 x 2000m, 1 x 1200m, 1 x 800m, 1 x 400m. It was not quite at the intensity that Justin wanted.

Sunday

After an exhausting journey back to KL from Ipoh, and night’s worth of sleep, Justin went to Bukit Aman for a scheduled run at 10.00am (!!!) with Ronnie See. Upon arrival, Justin found Ronnie, Sim, Jason and Ryan chatting at the nearby stalls. The run only started at 11.00am. As you can imagine, the sun was out in full force by that time. It was decided that they would run the 2.3k loop around the Lake Garden.

1st loop time: 13:05
2nd loop time: roughly 12:49
3rd loop time: (Justin was dying by this time, wilting under the relentless heat of the sun) roughly 12:25
4th loop time: (At that point in time it was just a matter of hanging on) roughly 11:45.

So there you have it. The distance run was about 10k. The prize for completing the workout: drinking copious amounts of water!

Saturday

No runs today. Justin was stuck in Ipoh all day long. Midway through the training h fell asleep and dreamt that I, Nurotevil ran 5 easy ks.

Friday

Once again, Nurotevil here reporting. Justin told me that after a fairly restful sleep, he was ready to go to Ipoh- but it took him a while to get out the door. The initial plan was to meet his colleagues at the Kelana Jaya LRT station by 1030am but at 1020am, he was still sitting on the throne reading Bob Glover’s book for the competitive runner. Realizing the time, he “did” his business, and rushed out the door by 1030am. He arrived at the Kelana Jaya LRT station only some 20 minutes later. Anyway the journey took some 2 hours, and after lunch, he drove to the Heritage Hotel, his stay for the night. He then found out that the Ipoh Polo Ground was very close to the hotel- woo hoo! But first things first- a visit to the branch in Ipoh. The branch head bought us all white coffee, which tasted a tad sourish. After their visit it was back to the hotel again and Justin ran from the hotel to the Ipoh Polo Ground which was about 2 km away. The Polo Ground had a track made of asphalt which measured 1360 meters. The width was slightly less that the KLCC park. It was very crowded, with walkers, power walkers, parents in strollers, and runners. Justin ran 5 laps before running back to the hotel. Total for Friday- about 10k. Justin then showered, got changed and met up with his colleague from the Ipoh branch who proceeded to take him for some Chicken Taugeh (great stuff!) and thereafter, just a drive around the town to get us all better acquainted with Ipoh.

Report by Nurotevil

Justin pretty much updated me on last week’s workouts, which consisted of the following:- Wednesday was an easy 10k. On Thursday coach didn’t turn up again! We all speculated that he must be busy organizing the Kenyir Triathlon which was on Sunday. So, with no one to dish out the pain on us, the Pain Master Ronnie See decided to dish out the menu- 1000m x 10! It seemed pretty daunting at the time but Justin decided to go ahead anyway. 1000m splits between 3:57 to 4:02 were recorded, but the repetitions fell short of 10. We managed to complete 8 instead. Still, a pretty demanding schedule and we were all pretty tired from the workout. We chatted for awhile after that but Justin had to leave early while pm20 completed his warm down lap. Justin was heading to Ipoh the next morning and he hasn’t packed yet! Why Ipoh? 2 reasons- to make a customary “hello” visit to the branch in Ipoh, and secondly to attend and provide support to his boss at an all day training session on Saturday.

K-anGRRRRRrrrr

Due to my busy schedule of late, I’ve requested Nurotevil to contribute to my blog, since he took my Zoom Milers (and owes me a favour in return!) and has far more time than I do.

Regards,

Justin

Hi guys! I’m back! Nurotevil reporting from Kangar and I will be doing some updates on the workouts that Justin and I have been doing. Remarkably, our workouts have been EXACTLY the same- a testament to how “connected” we actually are, physically and mentally. The only difference is that I’m here in Kangar, and he’s there in KL. More of “our” workouts later. Anyway I’ve also been assigned to write Justin’s workouts.

Anyway, a little update on my life. I’ve settled into Kangar and found a fairly comfortable, not exactly intellectually stimulating job as a petrol attendant cum mini mart shop assistant. It is a 24 hour operation, but my shift is from 9am to 5pm, which is something very ideal. It gives me time to train, in addition to the monthly salary I earn, which is peanuts really, but good enough for me to survive. Kangar is a small rustic town and the pace of life is definitely less hectic than KL. I’m not able to enjoy everything like Justin- so no Astro, no KLCC, no car, no Nike shoe sales etc, but life here has its advantages and charm. Traffic here is definitely far better, the air is fresher, and things are far cheaper! Training wise, I’m able to run on the main roads without problems- there aren’t many cars around and there is less concern of being hit. I always run against traffic anyway so that I can minimize being hit.

Food wise there’s nothing to shout about. But I’m still discovering this place so I will update you if there is anything decent to eat.

Back to running- congrats to Justin on his time in Nilai, although I was led to believe that the course was short by at least 2km. Justin told me that he regarded Nilai as a training run and wanted to run at an easier (non-race) pace, but decided that as a training run, he would instead run at race pace for as long as he could, until he felt tired enough to then slow down. As it turned out he felt good the entire distance.

As for me, no races- just been doing my training. The only disadvantage is that I haven’t found a running friend here in Kangar. Most of my runs have been based on how I feel- my workouts usually consist of one long run, 2 speed sessions, one tempo and the rest are easy paced. Pretty similar to Justin’s.

Well enough of life here in Kangar. See ya’ll later!

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Updates of this blog will come soon. Allow me some time. It's been a busy 2 weeks.