Bali here I come

Lunch with Kenny today at his house. Marianne cooked a lovely meal- spaghetti carbonara. Being the sucker that I was, I had 2 helpings (massive ones). Followed by some fruits, and almond-coffee. Good stuff, and compliments to the chef!

Will be in Bali tomorrow, Thursday. Back only on Sunday night. Chat again when I get back.

Running is a long term sport; so, train with that in mind

Didn't get to run at all as I had a late evening meeting to attend. Met Ron at Lake Garden to give him the money for signing me up in the forthcoming Larian Polis (8th April) and KL Power Run (22nd April). By the time I finished I was too pooped to run properly, and jogged for 30 minutes.

I'll be heading to Bali from Thursday to Sunday. This will be my 4th visit there, and I never tire of the place. Accommodation already settled- there's no need to pay for it because a friend owns a villa there (woo hoo!). So all that needs to be paid are the flight ticket, and food! Did some checking on any races/running events there during that time but alas, zilch.

Gosh, I've been on a few trips already- I was in Siem Reap in October, Phuket in December, now Bali again.

Kenny's on the road to recovery. Will ta-pau lunch and go to his place tomorrow.

Weather's been scorching hot.

Plan today- RPM in the gym, followed by other cardio works.

Can't get Justin Timberlake's song outta my head; by the way, KANYE WEST is coming to KL 8 April!

I visited Kenny at University Hospital on Thursday. He was weak but very upbeat, already looking ahead and even talked about running the Penang Bridge marathon. Well, good on you mate but first and foremost I think you should be focused on completely recovering. Apparently the recovery process will take some 2 months. At any rate, it is good to know that he is on the road to recovery. The rest of the PM gang have visited him last night, and their comments on the shoutbox confirmed what I just wrote.

I haven't been running much, although I've been doing some cardio work. I ran on Monday (easy 5k), Tuesday (easy 6k with Kit and Anil), Wednesday (easy 10k with Ronnie), on Thursday was at the gym, consisting of RPM (hard), then 20 minutes each on the rowing machine and eliptical trainer. After that my legs were like jelly.

Well, its Saturday and I'm in the office, although only for half a day. Plan for today and tomorrow- easy run, and hitting the weights. I might attend RPM class tomorrow, depending on my time.

Have a good weekend.

Kenny Tan

I received a call from an unknown number as I was finishing dinner with my parents in USJ. It turned out to be Kenny Tan, who was using his mother's mobile. Worryingly, he told me that he was moments away from going for an operation in his stomach. I asked him to explain but details were rather sketchy. I suppose he was rather apprehensive and I can't blame him for that. He told me to inform Ronnie, which I duly did a few minutes later. I muttered a quick prayer for him.

If you had read his latest posting, he has been afflicted with bloating, gastric and stomach pains since post KLIM.

I called Marianne (Kenny's wife) this morning, and good news- the operation was successful. Again I asked for details of Kenny's condition, and she mentioned that Kenny's intestine had contrived to make its way into the cavity and touched his hernia. Apparently if Kenny had waited, chances are that the intestine may have burst. That was the explanation. But, quite honestly I don't know the implications of Kenny's condition. Heck, I don't even know if I'm describing his condition accurately.

Nonetheless, Kenny is now resting in University Hospital. For those who wish to visit him, contact me or visit Ronnie's shoutbox for details.

KLIM report

Not a very clear shot of yours truly but much appreciated nonetheless. I was approaching the Westin Hotel when this photo was taken. Photo courtesy of Tey.

Approaching the u-turn at Jalan TAR. Photo courtesy of Rohaizad.

Post run with Kelvin Ng and Draco. Thanks Ronnie


Race- Kuala Lumpur International Marathon
Date- 18 March 2007
Distance- 21k (half-marathon)
Time- Watch 1:47.42, Chip 1:47.53, INCLUDING 2.5 mins spent in the bushes

I was dwelling on whether I should run the 21k. I wasn't in the best of condition to run the distance in a timing which I feel would be at least satisfactory. But after reading the build-up (the past week) in Ron's shoutbox and various runners' blogs, I decided (on Friday evening to be exact) to go ahead and run. No expectations, no friendly competition with my friends, just go out there, soak up the atmosphere, and have some fun.

Friday night I called Ron and asked him if there any bibs available for the 21k, and he answered in the affirmative- pm4 had decided to run the 42k and his 21k bib was available. All that was required was the small matter of contacting and collecting it from pm40 who was residing in Klang. No problemo, I thought. I sms-ed pm4 and made tentative arrangements to collect the bib from him sometime in the afternoon.

Saturday morning I told my wife about collecting the bib from pm40 at Klang and she came up with an idea which I failed to consider- pm20 is probably back in Klang, as is his wont every weekend. Why not ask him to collect on your behalf? I called pm20 and true enough, he was in Klang. He kindly agreed to collect the bib for me. I couldn't answer his call when he called me sometime in the afternoon- I was in my RPM class. When I returned his call, he used the immortal words of the rapper X-zibit in the MTV show "PIMPED", "You've officially been PIMPED- I collected your bib already..." Thanks, Ken. Arranged to meet Ken at 515am.

Race Day
I woke up at 4am, drank a cup of coffee and had 2 slices of toast with liberal usage of honey. Drank a whole litre of water. Changed, and got my stuff ready. Surprisingly, I was quite awake and ready to run.

Met Kenneth at our rendezvous point and we parked our car. He passed me the bib and I pinned it on to my vest, and we walked towards the start/finish line at Dataran Merdeka. We saw Sim who was walking in the same direction. He told us that he was running the 10k. Into the "kandang" and the usual faces- Jamie, Kevin Chow, Adam, Lawrence, Eric, Bose and so forth.

The race started quite on time, with the VIP gunning us off. I was running at a comfortable pace.

Then, came the "urges"- within the 1st kilometer into the race, I felt the urge to pee again (after having relieved myself before the start of the race). More worrying was the stomach cramps I was experiencing. I felt the extreme urge to relieve myself the "other" way. So, to put it bluntly, I needed to pee and shit. Peeing is not a problem- I happily relieved myself as I ran. It was still dark and no-one could see me anyway, so I just let it go. The stomach cramps were more tricky, though- I wanted to hold on to the end of the race before letting go, the stomach cramps attacked me in waves- it seemed to come every few minutes, with each attack getting worse. I had a close call as I passed Kuen Cheng Girls school (on the Federal highway), barely holding on. As I approached the turn-off at Mid Valley, I noticed the Mobil station on the left side of the road, and contemplated using the toilet there. But I thought that it was too far in and I would waste precious time. Within a few seconds, another attack. I had goose bumps on the back of my neck and ears, and was shuffling. I ran another 700 meters before deciding to head into the bushes to do my business.

(Warning- graphic description below, read at your own risk hehehe)
I was trying to untie my shorts and pull it down straightaway, but I realised that I had tied it so tight that un-knotting it would have taken up more precious seconds. Thankfully, I found that if I did it right, I didn't need to pull down my shorts to poop. I half-squatted, pulled my shorts and underwear to the right butt-cheek, and let it rip. Loud and violent squirt! All I can say is, extreme relief! I grabbed some leaves and grass (heck, there wasn't any tissue paper there!) which surprisingly did the job. No unintentional soiling on my legs or anything! Shortly after, I was back on the road. Total time elapsed- approximately 2.5 minutes. Moments later, came the water station and sponge station. I grabbed the sponges and used them to clean by ass and wipe my legs. The next water station, I took a few cups of water to splash 'em all on my shorts and legs.

I felt much better after that!

I was feeling reasonably strong at the Sungai Besi point, and used that opportunity to run slightly harder. I was very comfortable. Up to that point, I didn't see anyone I knew. On to the road towards Dewan Bahasa, Imbi Plaza and the left turn towards Westin Hotel-Starhill-KL Plaza, I chugged along comfortably at a 5:00 per km pace. It was there that I saw Tey, who took the photo that you see above. Then the right turn onto Jalan Sultan Ismail, I saw DK, who urged me to "go go go". By the Shangri-La point, my arches were starting to ache, but I soldiered on as Nezz called out to me and I waved back. Past Sheraton, then onto Jalan TAR, I held on to my pace , made the u-turn and completed the run in 1:47.42, including the 2.5 minutes spent in the bushes relieving myself.

After the race, I walked to the public toilet by the National Mosque and hung around for almost 2 hours after that. Chatted with the gang there before heading home.

Conclusion
Overall, considering my arches, I'm pretty satisfied with my performance. As Jamie had rightly pointed out to me, this was to be an easy run for me anyway. I was able to maintain a 5 mins per km pace, meaning that I didn't lose too much of my aerobic fitness- I have to thank my RPM sessions for that. My arches are still slightly painful but nothing too major. For now, I'll just maintain my aerobic fitness until my arches are fully healed and I'm able to absorb harder training.

weekend recap

I decided not to go for the SMART Tunnel Run because I had belatedly (on Saturday) realised that the race was to start at 730am. As the race was to be over a distance of 16km (which turned out to be 13km subsequently) it would have taken me over an hour to run it. I usually head to church by 830am, so it was a no-go for me.

Great result for Azwar- he ran a superb race to finish in 30th spot. Congratulations, bro. Goes to show that your training has tremendously increased your aerobic capacity. Carboman did well too- certainly on course for a good timing for the 21k.

I've been going for RPM classes, and thereafter supplementing them with 15-20 minute runs on the treadmill. I had mistakenly thought that there were no rowing machines in FF- fact is, I just wasn't looking. Now, that will be another useful cross training option. I tried it for 20 minutes, and it was a good workout. I have to check on any articles available for the proper technique, because I'm not really sure if I'm doing it right.

Arches are feeling much better now. Been self-massaging the affected area, icing them and also stretching them.

Plan to run today.

Friday

Friday is here! Woo hoo!

I've been running again in the last 2 days. There was a slight ache when I ran on Wednesday but yesterday was totally pain-free when I ran with KNN. We saw Kenny, Ron, Lai and Rachel at the children's playground section of Lake Gardens. We stopped briefly to collect my race pack for the Tunnel Run- Ron had registered for me before my aches- and KNN collected his Pacemakers vest. I managed to stuff the race pack into my shorts as we continued our run.

I will probably run the Tunnel Run at an easy pace.

Have a good weekend

Runner breaks leg

This was reported in the Star on Sunday (if I recall), and taken off iaaf.org. 800 meter runner Karen Harewood fell and broke her leg.

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There were no major surprises in the opening round of the women’s 800 metres, but there was plenty of drama after a horrendous pile-up left bodies scattered about the track in the second heat.

Just as she passed the midway point, Briton Karen Harewood was tripped from behind by Russian Mariya Shapayeva, fell hard to track and eventually caused Eleni Filandra of Greece and Portugal’s Maria Carmo Tavares to the ground as well. More than 20 minutes would pass before a team of nine carried the 30-year-old Harewood from the track; the initial prognosis was a fractured left femur.

When the dust settled, only world leader Tetyana Petlyuk (2:05.44) and Brigita Langerholc (2:05.95), Slovenia’s No. 2, finished, and by default, subsequently advanced. Shapayeva, who was third at this year’s Russian indoor championships, continued the race after regaining her balance and finished, but was later disqualified.

Jolanda Ceplak, who lowered the World record to 1:55.82 en route to the 2002 continental indoor title, took control of the fourth heat and maintained it through the finish to win the fourth heat in 2:02.82, the afternoon’s fastest performance.

“We were waiting so long to start,” said Ceplak, also the 2004 Olympic bronze medallist over the distance. “I couldn’t really do anything and it affected my preparation. And we really didn’t get to warm up.”

Russia’s Oksana Zbrozhek was the easy winner of the first heat in 2:03.67, with Briton Marilyn Okoro advancing as well, while Aneta Lemiesz of Poland and Jenny Meadows, another Briton, moved on from heat three. With Ceplak’s pacing assistance, everyone in the third heat moved on as well to Saturday afternoon’s semi-final round.

The main casualty of the opening round was Bulgarian record holder Teodora Kolarova, who late last month fell just shy of dipping beneath the two-minute barrier.

Heroes- what will happen next?

Went for RPM Challenge class at FF yesterday evening from 645 to 745pm. Usually, the (non-Challenge) RPM classes will take 50 minutes. It was a pretty satisfying workout, if I may say so. The breathing and effort level were akin to running a LT (tempo) workout, and I worked a muscle which I think is rarely used due to the manner of my running- my thighs. During and after the workout my thighs were burning. They felt like jelly for a good few hours after that as I ascended the stairs. Essentially, you only work as hard as you really want to in these classes. The knob on the bike determines the level effort which you want to expend. Twisting it clock-wise will increase the resistance. I think you'd be cheating yourself if you rode easy all the way, which is something I noticed with some of the participants yesterday.

Anyway, I think this is a good workout to maintain my aerobic fitness, at the very least. Dr Carboman had suggested another method of cross-training- the rowing machine, which FF, sadly, does not have. Gold' Gym has one, but only one. Still, I found that is rarely used, probably because many are unaware of its benefits. For now, this will be my workout as I struggle, against my will, to stay off my feet.

Man U vs Lille is up next. Rooney is still a major doubt after the nasty gash he received courtesy of Jamie Carragher's challenge. More ominous is Paul Scholes's domestic 3 match ban because of his red card against Liverpool. Man U is really stretched in terms of personnel. I can only hope that the reserves do their job competently.

Plan today- can't go for RPM class at FF as it starts only at 8pm. I'll just head to the gym and hit the eliptical trainer and the bike.

Weekend

I can't help it. I'm freakin' happy after watching Saturday's match between Liverpool and Man U. To summarise, Man U, after being thoroughly dominated in the 2nd half, and having to withstand a barrage of shots on goal and a sending-off of Paul Scholes 4 minutes before the end of the 90 minutes, somehow managed to score in injury time and win 1-0. After the sending-ff of Paul Scholes, I was hoping that Man U would be able to hold on for a draw, but then O' Shea was in the right place at the right time to score. I was screaming my head off in the apartment and I hope I didn't wake the neighbours. This is a giant step towards the Premier League title.

Spent Saturday evening in the gym doing some cardio and weights on the machines. I ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes and felt fine. Ditto for Sunday. I do feel envious for my fellow runners who have been running well in races or been clocking in the mileage. But I have to think about my body first and foremost and I have to be patient.

Plan today- to go for RPM class, starting at 645pm.