Friday

Yesterday I managed to leave the office early. Headed to Lake Gardens. Had the good company of Kenny, Kenneth and Adam to run with me. The miles passed by pretty quickly. Total- 17-18km approx.

I'll be heading to Penang tomorrow. This will be my first trip to Penang in almost 20 years. I hope the weather will be fine.

Tonight I'll be watching KC Leong's performance at the Actor's Studio, at Bangsar Shopping Complex.

Have a good weekend.

PCD report

Well, PCD came and went.

I left the office early yesterday and headed to Subang for quick dinner. Was due to rendezvous with Mrs Rabbit there by 7pm and then leave for Sunway but a combination of extra work and bad traffic meant that we only managed to leave at 730pm. We still managed to arrive at Sunway Pyramid (and found parking) before 8pm, despite the traffic diversions (there were major construction being carried out) and the crowd. We then trudged along slowly to the venue of the concert. Coupled with the crowd (which consisted mainly of poser teenagers, dressed-up like idiots, smoking away and generally behaving like they're God's gift to men/women) it was quite a long walk.

Because Mrs Rabbit hadn't had her dinner, I bought a burger and a drink for her. Feeling somewhat peck-ish myself I bought the same. The price came to a whopping RM22!!! These sharks really know how to make killing profits out of the patrons.

We made our way to the left side of the stage, some 50 meters away from the show (which was a decent view I think), and stayed there throughout. It was really really hot and I was regretting wearing a pair of jeans there. Note to self- wear t-shirt and shorts the next time you go for a concert. Anyway PCD were obviously not out yet and we were "entertained" by the MCs, who tried to work up the crowd and got some fans to go on-stage and do some stupid things to win prices. Stupid things included- best PCD pose, best PCD dance, etc. Then Reshmonu came out and gave a spirited performance, and although I'm not a fan of his music, he did give a rather energetic performance, and as far as local acts are concerned, he's as good as they come. When the MCs came on stage again, the crowd were getting really restless. At least MCs were smart enough to get off the stage rather quickly!

PCD finally came out at about 930pm and opened up with "Buttons", followed quickly by "Beep". The girls were hot! The lead singer Nicole was especially hot, and she looks the way she looks on the PCD videos- not skinnier, not fatter, not taller, not shorter. But the other girls were looked much much better in person and much much leggier! They had endless legs. They belted out all their hits (StickWitU), gave us a little history lesson on how PCD began, and finishing with "Don't Cha". The show lasted a mere 30 minutes! Everything pretty much ended by 10:05pm. Thankfully I didn't pay too much for the tickets. Kevin Chow was there and we attempted contacting each other but the phone line was too busy and we missed each other.

Trudged along slowly back to the carpark, and managed to arrive home by about 1130pm.

All in all it was ok. But I think many people would have felt ripped off paying the max price of RM200 for what essentially was a 30 minute performance for PCD, unless of course, they felt that it was worth paying that amount of money.

Plans for today- the firm is in the process of moving offices. My new office will be a mere 1.5km away from my apartment! I can practically walk there if I wanted to. So we're gonna be busy packing up all our stuff to move to the new office. Apart from that I do plan to run at Lake Gardens today. Kenny Tan will be running today too.

I've just read that Penang is especially hazy. With the Penang Bridge run looming this Sunday, I'd have to re-assess my effort. If the haze is really bad, then there is no point in running at my race pace. I'll back off accordingly and just enjoy the run. Running at a hard race pace in the haze will surely endanger your health. We'll just have to wait and see.

I'm watching Pussycat Dolls tonight!!! Don't cha...

Yes, I'm watching the Pussycat Dolls tonight. Woo hoo! Looking forward to it although I doubt if their performance will be anything as burlesque as what we see on the videos. Nevermind, even if they're fully covered up I'm fine, as long as I get to see the lead singer, Nicole. She is H-O-T, albeit a tad skinny.

Left work at around 645pm last night and managed a 12k run, followed by 5 x 100 meter strides.

I watched a bit of Eurosport this morning and saw that Kenenisa Bekele won the 1500 meters at Stockholm, the Swedish stage of the IAAF World Athletics Tour 2006. This man's range of running in various distances is incredible. As we all know, speed is of paramount importance in the 1500 meters, and Bekele, despite better known for his feats in 5000 meters and 10,000 meters, won this race because he needed some speed work. But not before some controversy. I did see the runner attempting to push Bekele away from him.

(taken from iaaf.org)

A small controversy over 1500m

World Indoor bronze medallist Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain made a brave run, right behind pacemaker Kenyan Faith Macharia in the women’s 1500m and won in 3:58.96 at the beginning of tonight’s meet. She was challenged all the way by France’s Latifa Essarokh who broke four minutes for the first time (3:59.61). Australian Sarah Jamieson, who tops the world lists for the Mile, improved to 4:00.91 as she came nearer and nearer the leading duo.

But there was a small controversy in the men’s race. Multiple World and Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele looking for some speed work won his competitive debut at 1500m in 3:33.08. But his last 30 metres were so full of lactic acid that as his legs began to fail he dramatically veered across a couple of lanes of the track in the final 50 metres, right in front of a duelling World silver medallist Adil Kaouch, who found himself forced wider and wider to the outside. Virtually unnoticed Kenyan Isaac Songok’s run on the inside of this pair almost took the victory, finishing second in 3:33.25.

In the 5000m three men broke the 13 minutes-barrier in a race where $500 were awarded to the leading man at the end of each lap from 3000 metres and on. Ugandan Boniface Kiprop saved his effort to the last lap and won in 12:57.11, ahead of Moroccan Abderrahim Goumri in 12:57.89, and emerging Jonas Cheruiyot in 12:59.08.

**************

Have a good day ahead. Bring on this evening and PCD!

Wekend updates

Friday was a very easy day for me. My legs were very sore, so I decided to run just 25 minutes, very easy. With the soreness in mind, I decided to rest the whole Saturday and load up on protein. Performed some self massage on my legs as well.

Friday night dinner with the wife was at Shook. It was a good dinner, and we managed to spend some quality time together, had good conversation over live music and a beautiful atmosphere (albeit most of the patrons were just a bunch of posers).

Saturday I woke up amazingly late at 12pm, and paid the price for it- when I sleep too much, I end up feeling even sleepier and more stoned than usual. Had my lunch, (tuna with scrambled eggs and toasted bread), watched some tv,and it was time to meet Jeanne's friends for a movie at 5pm. Oh before that D'sara Heights experienced a severe storm. You read Sunday' Star? Yeah, my apartment is located on the very street, which photos were taken. It was pretty much a carnage. The winds were so strong that many trees (some of which were probably almost 100 years old, or more, I think) fell.

Watched Pirates of the Carribean 2 at GSC One U and it wasn't as good as the first one.

After the movie we headed to a restaurant in D'sara Jaya which served Brazilian BBQ. It was a meat-fest buffet and I loaded myself with all manner of meat- lamb, fish, beef, turkey, chicken. No pork of course, because it's a hala joint. But for all you meat lovers out there, this is the place to go.

Sunday was the usual- headed to church breakfast with parents. Went home and rested before running at Lake Gardens. Total- 18km, easy.

Monday I was on MC and didn't come into work. Zero running.

I feel better today but there's work to be done. Hope to be able to start running around 7pm.

Registered for Singapore! Wooo hooo!

Yes, I've registered for the Singapore Marathon, albeit the half distance. Wiser from my experience of last year, (where I attempted to sign-up sometime in September/October, I can't really recall and found that entries are already closed and had to take my Tey's registration for the FULL distance and ran the FULL without any proper training) I signed up early this time- on the very day that it is open for registration, which is today, 21 July 2006. It may seem a far away but believe me- it isn't. After all, we have already passed the mid-point of this year! Just goes to show you how time really flies. For many people who sign up for thie race, it will at least represent something to train towards, a tangible goal of running their chosen events in the best possible time. A rough calculation on the calendar shows that it is about 19 weeks away, so it gives you plenty of time to put in the required workouts, time, schedule, condition and fitness permitting of course. In the meantime there will be several races between now and then, which one can use to gauge one's level of fitness, or simply use the races as a means of putting in the mileage. I'm really looking forward to it. To me at least, the Singapore Marathon is the only world class event which is closest to home. The organisation of the event is fantastic. It is my "Olympics". Other races matter less; the concerted, all-out effort will be reserved for Singapore. If I were to practice the delicate are of "peaking", it will be for this event.

Anyway enough of that. I ran at Lake Gardens yesterday but I couldn't run more than 10k because I didn't have the time. I managed to leave the office at 6pm once again and started my workout around 625pm, after braving the traffic. Completed my workout in under an hour.

Rushed back to have dinner with my parents; my aunt from Johor, together with my uncles and cousins were in Subang visiting. Plus, together with an old family friend, with her husband and daughter, the house was quite packed. Had nice duck for dinner.

I then had to excuse myself by 840pm to pick Mrs Rabbit up from the airport. After pciking her up, I headed back to Subang again and we drove separate cars back to D'sara Heights. I had left my Wira in Subang to get the broken boot fixed.

Oh yeah, I'll be going for the following upcoming concerts (I figured I better go see them because it's so rare nowadays)
- Pussycat Dolls- 26 July
- We Are Scientists- 9 August
- INXS- 18 August
- Robbie Williams (SINGAPORE)- 18 November

Well, it's Friday! Plans for tonight- run, then going on a dinner date with Mrs Rabbit. We've hardly spent enough quality time alone together, because we're usually alternating between both our parents' houses for dinner. So tonight is some quality me-and-Mrs Rabbit alone time.

Will definitely be running during the weekend but I'm not sure what time as yet.

Have a good weekend.

Wednesday

It was a pretty decent Wednesday workout. KNN had originally planned to run with me but had arrived home early and he decided to run around DJ so I thought I was left to run alone. But Ronnie mentioned that he wanted to run with me at Lake Gardens, and Yaziz indicated his willigness to join in as well. I spoke to Adam just before I left the office and he told me that he was already at home.

I managed to get off work at 6pm sharp because the boss left the office early. Long may that continue! That would however seem highly unlikely. Anyway I parked my car at Lake Club and ran to Bukit Aman . Yaziz was already there warming-up. A few minutes later, Ronnie arrived. We then began our workout. Perhaps in my excitement of running with Mr.Lau Sai, I forced the pace a little too much. Yaziz was content to run his own pace, which was a smart thing to do, unlike yours truly. Anyhow I was feeling fine when we completed the first "loop", which was Bukit Aman, on to the Lake Gardens, then the children's playground, up the steps to Carcosa, then onto the Carcosa road, back into the Lake, past the public toilets, up the deer park, onto the Memorial Tun Razak, into the Planetarium, past the National Mosque, up the slope by Methodist Girls School, and back to Bukit Aman. Ronnie tells me that the loop must be more than 6km. The 2nd loop I was feeling fine, until we hit the slope towards the deer park. I was starting then to feel the pace and slowed down while Ronnie maintained his pace. He graciously slowed down a tad, asking me to complete the loop side-by-side with him. I pressed on the pace slightly, but that lasted only a while. We by passed the Planterium because we weren't allowed to enter after 7pm. By the Methodist Girls School slope, I was tiring again and I told Ron to just go on ahead. He obliged and completed his workout some 250 meters ahead of me.

Overall I'm satisfied with the workout. It's good to know I'm working my way back into shape. Maybe the sharpness isn't quite there yet, but I can't complain.

After the run I saw Adam (who changed his mind and decided to run at Lake Gardens too) and Yaziz. We chatted a while before going our separate ways.

Mileage- approximately 12k.

I won't be able to run much today. Gotta pick up Mrs Rabbit from the airport by 9pm but I'm having dinner with the folks by 730pm. If I leave the office late today, I'm lucky if I can run 30 minutes. Hopefully I'll be able to leave at 6pm sharp again today, as I have in the previous 2 days. We'll have to see.

It's already Thursday!

Workouts

Thanks to all the well-wishers.

In the midst of my ranting I forgot to blog my workouts. Saturday and Sunday were obviously "wash-outs", but on Friday I ran a 10 lapper at KLCC. Ronnie started late and joined me for 5 laps. Thankfully he ran at a "recovery" pace.

Monday it was back to Lake Gardens again, since the dreaded Floral Show was over. I don't understand why one would choose to beautify a park only once a year, for 10 days at a time, and leave the rest of the year to be in the usual state that we come to know of Lake Gardens. Oh well. I wanted to take my usual route but found that the gate leading to Carcosa was still shut. So instead of the usual run at the Carcosa route, I ran round the lake (which stank, by the way), up the deer park, Tun Razak Memorial, Planetarium, National Mosque, MGS, and back to Bukit Aman to complete a loop. Ran about 12k in total.

Tuesday I was in KL for a Due Diligence and was situated at Megan Avenue. Met Dr Jamie and Newton for lunch. Then, back to the office and I managed to leave at 6pm sharp, because it was a very rare occasion- my bosses both left the office by 555pm! Ran with KNN man but my legs were very sore for some reason and managed to run about an hour.

The weather has been bad. Looks like the haze has returned. I wonder if this has anything to do with the higher than usual level of humidity that I experienced yesterday when I ran. I felt the humidity this morning as well, when I got out of my air-conditioned room (after waking-up) and headed to the kitchen. The heat just hit me straightaway when I opened my room door. It's as if I left a cool room and entered an extremely hot one. As we speak, the office feels warmer than usual. I will drink more water than usual. On the avreage I drink about 2.5 litres a day, so I will probably drink 3 litres or more in light of the current climate.

Have a good day y'all.

Bad Weekend

What was planned to be a happy weekend (Mrs Rabbit returned from her week long trip from Europe, and Mr Rabbit missed her dearly and wanted to spend some quality time with her) turned out to be a bad one. Why? To put it simply, some thieves broke into my car and stole all of Mrs Rabbit's luggage. Allow me to explain.

Sequence of events

Stayed over at Subang. Woke up at 630am. Placed my bag (comsisting toiletries and some clothes, including my linen trousers and 1 weeks' worth of running clothes, my running book (Duel in The Sun), another book written by Anthony Robbins, and Jamie's 15k Nike pacesetter vest which he had loaned to me for the PAR '06 run). Left the house at 640am and managed to arrive at KL Sentral at the planned time of 7am. Mrs Rabbit arrived right on time, and I placed her luggage in the boot of my car. I was feeling hungry at that point and suggested that we head to Jalan Ipoh for dim sum. I parked my car less than 50 meters from the coffee shop. We had our breakfast, and when we returned to my car, I noticed something strange- my boot was opened! I looked into the boot and found that EVERY single piece of luggage (including my own bag) gone. Mrs Rabbit's brand spanking new laptop costing RM9k was obviously missing as well. And the boot would not close anymore. Mrs Rabbit and I were completely stunned. We just didn't what to say or do.

She suggested that we drove around the Jalan Ipoh area, which in my heart I felt was a futile exercise but I thought I'd better do it given the value of the things that we lost. Obviously it came to a futile end. We headed to the nearest police station- Sentul. I was attended to by a completely useless and incompetent officer. She was so blur. She didn't know how to prepare a police report. It was just pathetic. Another thing that struck me was how little care or concern they showed towards our plight. Its that "oh another usual case of break-in. Nothing much we can do about it" attitude. Subsequently this lady directed me to another police offcer who then took the proper details down for a report- when I parked the car, where, what time, when I discovered the incident, estimated loss, and so forth. In the meantime my in-laws arrived. My mom in-law typical of the woman she is, attempted to force the issue- when can we meet an officer, what will happen next etc. But she didn't get very far, despite that.

Thereafter I was directed to another officer who was supposed to take photos of my car, but guess what? He was not available. Why? He was out for breakfast. This added more to an already-frustrating day- and it wasn't even 9am yet. So we waited. And waited before he finally arrived. He took some photos, and attempted to use some sort of powder that was supposed to detect finger prints- alas, he said, my car was just washed and as such, no finger prints could be detected. The wonders of modern technology! Again, we were told to put things into perspective- at least we were not robbed at gun/knife point; things we lost were of material things, which can be bought back again.

I want to say this- I fully understand what they were trying to tell me. But it doesn't detract from the fact that it was a very painful and (especially for Mrs Rabbit) traumatic experience. Whatever one has to say about material things and how it can be replaced or bought again, the fact of the matter is that we have established a connection of some sort with those material things. Whatever it is- your handphone, your PDA, your iPod, the clothes that you wear, your new running shoes, your watch, certain toiletries that you use- you have a certain attachment, connection and (to a certain extent) sense of sentimentality to them. So it is obviously still very painful. There is still a sense of shock when I woke up this morning. This is the 2nd time in 2 year that this has happened,. Remember, the last time it happened was when I had parked my car a mere 20-30 meters away from MPSJ stadium as I headed for my run. I left my wallet and handphone in there. Lost both items together with the new Nike Prestos I had just bought. There was a slight consolation in that my wallet was discovered some 2 weeks later in Taman Maluri, Cheras, and a Good Samaritan returned it to me, with my i/c, ATM cards and credit cards intact (although I've cancelled them all). At least i got my i/c back and didn't need to have it replaced.

Still, despite what I've just written in the above paragraph, I know we have to move on and just put things into perspective- there's just no other way. At least we weren't in Mumbai for instance, sitting in the train when it suddenly blows up and the next thing we know, we've lost our limbs. Yup, we can buy back the things we lost. I guess its just the idea of being so violated in that way- obviously it's not rape or anything like that- but someone stole your belongings. Belongings that you worked hard for to buy.

Alright enough of that, PM19. Just keep things in perspective. I guess I just to type this out as form of ranting and raving, as a form of catharsis.

I know- maybe I shouldn't have left all the items in the boot- but I guess I was happy to see Mrs Rabbit again, and when you park your car some 50 meters away within view, you don't really expect your car to be broken into. I guess another contributing factor is that my beat-up Wira doesn't have an alarm.

So, obviously no running during the weekend. We went to Low Yat and Sungai Wang later that day to try and buy some of the elctronic items that Mrs Rabbit lost- camera charger, phone charger, etc. Even some clothes from Factory Outlet Store. On our way home, it finally hit Mrs Rabbit and she started breaking down in the car. I tried my best to appease her, but it was difficult. We took a nap when we reached home, and she woke up feeling better. We headed to the in-laws for dinner. Went to bed early.

Sunday we didn't do much. Went to have some comfort food for brunch.

Sunday night after dinner, fetched Mrs Rabbit to the airport again. Yup, she's in Singapore for another 4 days.

Anyway Jamie sorry that I lost your vest.

That pretty much summed up the weekend. I planned to do some work but I couldn't. In an effort to make up for "lost" time I woke up at 5am this morning to do my work. Been typing away ever since. I want to leave the office by 6pm today. Dunno if my boss will ever understand being the prick that he is. Screw him. I'm leaving soon. Gonna go for a run.

Thursday evening

I was held back (against my will obviously) by the boss, who decided to have a meeting with me only at 615pm. I think he does this on purpose. Anyway, I only managed to leave the office at about 650pm, and with traffic being as bad as it was, and the fact that I had to queue up to enter the KLCC open-air car park meant that I only started my run at 735pm. The usual band of runners have completed their workouts, so it was left to me to run alone.

Another 12 lapper at KLCC yesterday evening, averaging about 7:00 per lap. Surprisingly it was slightly windy.

Once again, I hope to run at KLCC this evening. I hope that traffic is not too bad, and that I'm able to leave early today. Plan for the weekend- to pick up Mrs Rabbit who is touching down in KLIA at 6am tomorrow morning!

Quick workout report

I ran for about 1hr 23 minutes yesterday.

Met up with a friend for dinner at the famous Soong Kee beef noodles coffee shop located at Jalan Silang and was pleasantly surprised to see Cecil there! He had just arrived at the coffee shop. He told met that he had just completed his swim at Chin Woo. Looking fit as usual. I can only hope to be as quick as him.

Woo hoo! Another 12 laps!

I only managed to leave work around 630pm yesterday but once again, traffic was surprisingly mild, although not as light as Monday. I arrived at KLCC park in good time, got changed and saw some of the gang who were converged at Der Bench. Ronnie, Rohaizad, Rachel, and I saw DK running too. From a distance I saw Tey and Phyllis running together. Quickly fixed my key into my shoelaces, tied 'em up and joined them. We were running at a nice comfortable pace. Around the 1200meter mark Ah Loong joined us briefly, before stopping near the Exxon building. In total, I ran 12 laps again. I was left to run on my own after 6 laps, because Tey had completed his planned hour-long run, which was approximately 8 laps.

Anyway here is the breakdown of the laps:-

Lap 1- 7:45
Lap 2- 7:45
Lap 3- 7:43
Lap 4- 7:30
Lap 5- 7:52
Lap 6- 7:32
Lap 7- 7:05
Lap 8- 7:05
Lap 9- 7:00
Lap 10- 6:58
Lap 11- 6:58
Lap 12- 6:52

Total- 1:28.11 (approx)

Well that was it for yesterday. I'd better try to take full advantage of my available time for running, since time is at a premium nowadays. But I'm starting to feel fit again.

Planned workout for today- again at KLCC. Once again hopefully traffic is ok. How many laps? Not sure yet, let's see how I feel when I run.

Paula pregnant

Taken off Running Times

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The Times of London will report in tomorrow's edition that marathon world record holder and reigning world champion, Paula Radcliffe, is pregnant.

The 32 year-old athlete and husband Gary Lough told reporter Alysun Rudd that they are expecting their first baby on January 6.

"What has surprised me most is that people ask if I will carry on competing," Radcliffe told the Times. "This is especially surprising as I have said I want to carry on until 2012. And this news means it is more likely, rather than less likely, that I will do that. I want to get back running as soon as possible."

Radcliffe has run three of the fastest marathon times ever run by a woman, and four of the top five. Her 2:15:25 set in a mixed-gender race in London in 2003 is nearly two minutes faster than her next best performance (2:17:18), and must be considered one of the greatest athletics performances in history. Radcliffe has won the Flora London Marathon three times, and the ING New York City and LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathons once each. She won the world title in Helsinki last August after dropping out of the Olympic Marathon in Athens in 2004.

A neuroma surgery put Radcliffe out of the Flora London Marathon last April, which was won by American Deena Kastor in a national record 2:19:36. Many observers had hoped to see a match-up between Kastor and Radcliffe at a marathon this fall. Kastor had already committed to the ING New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 5, and had welcomed the possibility of racing Radcliffe, according to published reports. That match-up may not occur now until the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Monday isn't so blue when you manage to run 12 laps @ KLCC

It was a pretty good Monday. I managed to leave the office by 6pm and traffic to KLCC was excellent. I managed to arrive at the KLCC carpark by 620pm and started my run around 635pm. As I was stretching I saw Ronnie and Phyllis running side-by-side, some 100 metres away. Set my Triax watch to "Run", and off I went with them. Ronnie tells me that he started early and was already into his 4th lap! Phyllis, who had run a 20k the day before, was running at recovery pace. Ah Loong joined us around my 3rd lap. Phyllis completed her workout around (my) Lap 5, and thereafter I decided to catch up with Ah Loong who seemed to be running with a surfeit of energy some 50 metres ahead. Ran a total of 12 laps. The breakdown of the laps were as follows:-

Lap 1- 7:44 (nice and easy)
Lap 2- 7:58 (having a nice conversation!)
Lap 3- 8:03
Lap 4- 7:54
Lap 5- 7:44
Lap 6- 7:04
Lap 7- 6:54
Lap 8- 6:48
Lap 9- 7:00
Lap 10- 6:46
Lap 11- 6:27
Lap 12- 6:27

Total-1:26.55. Approx 15km. Or is it 16k?

Well, I should think that traffic will be back to normal after the World Cup hangover. Even if I managed to leave by 6pm today, I don't expect to arrive at KLCC park in 15-20 minutes. I expect to start my run around 715pm. We'll see how it goes, depending on the boss's mood.

Gotta buy reasonably priced, new workout t-shirts

How was the weekend for everyone?

Well, there were 2 crowns handed out in the last 10 hours- Roger Federer won his 4th consecutive Wimbledon, defeating Rafael Nadal in tightly contested match and Italy were crowned world champions after beating France in a penalty shoot-out. I was too tired to stay up/wake up to watch the World Cup final. Anyway England wasn't in the final, so it mattered little.

I wasn't able to run on Friday. I was ordered to head to the client's office at 430pm and was only able to leave at 815pm. I rushed back to Damansara Heights as I had to fetch Mrs Rabbit to KL Sentral train station by 845pm. It wasn't as easy as it sounded; it was a Friday night, and traffic everywhere was just awful. The LDP, SS2, were just chock-a-block full of cars. I managed to arrive just in time, but not without some speeding and overtaking. I know- it was dangerous. After dropping Mrs Rabbit off, I met with an old friend of mine for drinks. So, zero running for Friday. I'll take that as a rest day.

Saturday I ran 11k. I ran at USJ again (after a long while), which was alright, but definitely not one of my favourite routes. Watched the Wimbledon ladies final on tv. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I was at work as well? From 2pm to 5pm.

Sunday was the usual for me- Sunday mass, followed by breakfast with the parents. Thereafter I headed to Banting to attend a wedding lunch. Funny thing was that the wedding couple weren't even there! And because I had to catch a movie at KLCC, I excused myself early without even congratulating them. Oh well, at least the groom's brother knew I was there. I then rushed back to KLCC to catch "Superman Returns" with Ronnie, Rachel, Adam and CM. It was a decent movie- but more importantly, it was watching it with good friends that made it more enjoyable.

Kenny Tan then called me and asked if I wanted to run at KLCC. How convenient! I agreed and we proceeded to run 8 laps.

Total mileage for the week- 61k. Wish I could have done a little more during the weekend. Oh well

I plan to run at KLCC for the next 5 days (due to the floral show at Lake Gardens), although I'll only be able to start quite late, around 715pm. Hope to see some of guys there.

One step closer to the edge and I'm about to break

Spent 3/4 of the day at the client's office before heading back to the office. Left the office at 730pm. Because Lake Gardens is temporarily off-limits to runners (unless you choose to pay the prescribed entry fee) and Mrs rabbit was due (for a change) to be back in the apartment by 8pm, I decided to go home. Arrived home, put on my running shorts and shoes, and proceeded to hit the treadmill. Ran 5km before having to stop- had to go to the in-laws for dinner, which was at 830pm.

TGIF. I'm not sure what my running plans are for the weekend, but one thing's for certain- I plan to put in some mileage.

Mrs Rabbit's off to Europe tonight.

I'm not supporting France or Italy. But if I had to make a choice between the 2, it would be France. I'd prefer to watch football which is won in a fair manner, not in an aggressive and theatrical manner. The worst culprits are the Portugese.

Have a good weekend.

The power of aerobic running

Please click on this Link

That's my middle finger to you, @#$%^!

After yet another difficult work day yesterday, I was looking forward to my run at Lake Gardens to release all the accumulated, pent-up anger, stress and frustration. Called PM20 who informed me me that neither he nor Lawrence were running. Attempted calling Yaziz- staright to voice mail; Adam- no answer. I resigned myself to running alone. But, while parking my car, lo and behold, I saw Adam, Yaziz and John Tan walking towards the designated "starting line" at the Bukit Aman carpark. I quickly parked my car alighted and immediately hollered out to Adam to wait for me. I was so happy! At least I would have some company. I got changed quickly and after a quick pee behind the bushes, joined them. Because there was a floral show of some sort being held at the Lake Gardens, certain gates were shut. Most notably was the gate leading out towards the windy Carcosa road. So we decided to bypass runningon that portion of the park, and took the main road leading into Carcosa instead. That aside, it was ok. The park was congested with floral displays of various municipal councils- MBPJ, MBSA, and others, but we still managed to weave our way through. Forget about running there from today until the 16th July though, because you would have to pay an entry fee into the park. No exceptions, even for us runners.

Anyway it was nice to have some company, especially in the form of Adam, Yaziz and John. Thanks guys, you made the workout more bearable! Ran a total of 10k.

I've just bought the book "Duel in the Sun" which chronicled the famous Boston Marathon race of 1982 between Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley. Having bought it only on Sunday, I'm surprised that I've managed to devour half the book. It IS a good read- that is why I'm finding it difficult to put it down. Not only does the book cover the race, but also expands on the different paths both runners originated from, their approach to life, their training methods (both ran in excess of 140 miles per week), and how events, after the Boston race, "conspired" to painfully extract them from running. For Salazar, he was administered his last rites after the race (he drank only 2 cups of water during that race); his running was never the same again, and he was later treated for depression. For Beardsley, he had to retire from running sometime in 1983 due to irreparable Achilles injury; he further descended into drug addiction- more specifically, pain killers. The book is a compelling read.

Well, it's another bad day again. I do hope to leave the office by 630pm today but I'm not optimistic. And, because Lake Gardens is closed, I'm considering heading to KLCC park. If I leave at 630pm, I'm estimating at least 30-45 minutes to arrive there.

Then again maybe I might not be able to run today. See how it goes.

Mrs Rabbit is travelling to Europe on a business trip. Flight is tomorrow night, and she'll be away for one week.

I'm so glad it's already Thursday.

Quickie posting

Tuesday was a frustrating day at work again. Ran 13k with Kenny Tan.
GRrrrrRRRRRRRR

I like Madonna's "Get Together"

Ran an easy 12k yesterday. Am posted in Kelana Jaya again, and will be there today. Hopefully I'll be able to make it by 645pm.

Fri-Sat-Sun

Friday was a nice, somewhat stress free day. I had a nice lunch with the family. It's the tradition in the Lee household that birthday celebrants have mee sua (or similar form of longevity noodles) together with 2 hard boiled eggs. So, that was lunch. When I enquired with my mom on the dinner plans, she made a very vague statement about meeting us at my apartment around 730pm and deciding from there.

Work was a little stressful and I managed to leave the office 7pm. Arrived at the apartment around 712pm, before getting ready. Something was amiss- Mrs Rabbit didn't hurry me to get ready, and the apartment was even cleaner than it already was. Even though I didn't say it, I suspected that they were coming to the apartment for dinner. 740pm and our doorbell rang- lo and behold it was my parents, brother and his girlfriend! It was wonderful to have them all at the apartment. My parents had brought some food- roast chicken! Jeanne had prepared the pasta, salad and soup. So we had a pretty nice dinner. Oh, and some wine too.

I didn't run on Friday, obviously. I wanted to, but I just didn't have the time.

Watched most of the Germany-Argentina but my eyes were so heavy to the point that I decided to call it quits shortly after the equaliser by the Germans in the 80th minute. I had an appointment to keep with Kenny Tan. Proposed route- double hill. Lights out at 1am.

Saturday morning I met Kenny at the Bukit Aman carpark where we started around 7am. Kenny's story telling certainly took my mind off the pain. As most of you are aware, I'm not really a morning person, so there I was shuffling and ambling along. When we just about arrived near the Sultan Salahuddin palace, I decided to stop. I was just too beat to carry on. Walked back to the carpark. Then decided to go to the Lake Club to do some strengthening exercises. Ran another 2k on the treadmill as a form of warmdown. Rested most of the day before heading to Berjaya Times Square- bought some wine glasses from Debenhams, who were closing down and were having clearance sale on most of their items. Not much left to buy though, as most of the items have been bought by kiasu Malaysians.

Mrs Rabbit had dinner plans (without me) and I decided to head to my parents' for dinner. After all the shopping, etc, I found that I could squeeze in around 30 minutes of running on my home treadmill. So I ran another 5k on the treadmill. Total for Saturday (albeit in 3 workouts) 15km. Not an efficient use of my running time.

I watched the England-Portugal match. There's no need for me to really say too much abouot the match itself. Rooney's sending-off was a bit of a shocker. I'm still not certain for sure what the sending-off was for- his alleged intentional stamp on Carvallho (it looked unintentional to me, or his subsequent shove of Cristiano Ronaldo. England played better than their previous matches, and hung on bravely to the penalty shoot-out. England's record, however, in penalty shootouts were awful and I wasn't optimisitc. It turned out to be right. Apart from Owen Hargreaves, everyone else missed. Their efforts were very tame.

In the aftermath, Beckham stepped down as captain. About bloody time I say! He has done nothing for the England since scoring off the free kick against Greece in the previous World Cup qualifying campaign in 2001. Instead of football, all he was ever interested in was his image. Don't get me started on his wife, a freaking has-been golddigger. At any rate, this is probably the last World Cup for him. At 31 years old already, I can't see him playing in the next World Cup at 35 years old.

Still there is reason to be optimistice about England. There are some very good youngsters coming through. The defenders will be at their peak in the next World Cup. As will Lampard and Gerrard. All in all, it is still a young team. Now, if they will only work on their fitness. In the "scorching" heat of Germany, they wilted in all the matches played. Since the World Cup will be in South AFrica, they will have plenty of time to work on playing in the heat.

Sunday was the usual- heading to church and breakfast with the parents. Then we headed to Times Square again and bought more wine glasses, bowls and plates. In the evening, ran an easy 6k. Mileage last week- less than 60k, for sure.