Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Live Free or Die Hard Tryin' !

Tribute to all those doing IM Langkawi 2010 this upcoming weekend.

Semenyih-Seremban Ride

First ever long distance ride,for me at least. Measured distance 65km back and forth. Took me 3:09. That's my longest duration for whatever discipline of sport i did. Average speed 20.29km/h. Very slow.

I guess luck is on my side,start rolling at 8:30. Cloudy all the way till Seremban. That took me almost 1:30 to get my wheel there. 3 stops along the way. Hydrating and cooling purposed stop. Finally i have 2 water mount. 1 for plain water and the other one for gatorade.

Barely going even 1km/h at the route 8-10km to Seremban. Very hilly. Stop once. Almost give up. Thinking bout pushing the bike up. This is a really good route since it's all covered with tree shades. Would love recommending this route for cycling. Even if u still cycle at 11am! The best part is, no dog encounter at all.

Need to try those Powerbar thing for refuel. I'm so not accustomed to their taste. Had my refuel stop in Mantin on the way back. 1 roti canai and 2 half boiled eggs. Water bottle refilled. Off i go. 5km reaching home,scorching sun appeared. Reached home around 12pm.

Was thinking to do some running in the evening. Mission failed. Too lazy. Let's see how it goes today. Next event, Energizer Night Run. Just checked PNM 2010 result, im 379/891. total time 2:29. My first 10km 59:50. Below 1 hour for 10km,finally.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Blister Plaster

After a long run,take off your shoes. Found out, there's blister on your foot. What you do? Pop it?

Check this out!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Breaking News!

Click here. Refer to my previous post on 15th km.

Putrajaya Night Marathon

Putrajaya Night Marathon (PNM). A well organized event. Just how i always make do with my rehydrating stop, 1 water station per 2.5km. The race start amazingly, 2 minutes earlier. Normally it would either be a minute or two late. Or even more. Mileage marker marked every kilometer. Nice.

I entered the half marathon,21km category,my second half marathon which is Ipoh Half Marathon in 2008. Starting the race felt pretty amazing. Lots of cheering from the spectators. There's even brass band rolling up their drum. Not sure if there any percussion involved,cant really tell with all the energetic noises.

Foot pounding start as usual, not in a rush. Manage to clock 38:40 for 6km. With this pace i can do 2:15. Well i doubt i. if my memory serves me right, i think at 5th km, 21km runners need to do a U-turn. U cross over the road divider then do a u turn which would fit 2-3 person for such a small space. It is between a lamp post and some small bushes. Nalarekek betui. This kind of u turn pun ada ka.

10km clocked 1:05:46. Looking at this timing, i still have the chance to do what i've been aiming for. 11km pace drop to 7min/km. 13k even worst ,7:51min/km. 14k at 7:53. 15k at 8:22.

Reaching 15km, rehydrating. Sponging. One guy collapsed. Can see blood stains on his vest. Did slow down a bit kot-kot ble dengar hot story. Nothing. Hope that guy recover well. Starting this point onwards, my pace just keep getting worst. Bye-bye 2:15. Long stretch of not so hilly road but still a killer on my knee. No pain so far, which is pretty amazing for me.

16k at 9:48min/km. Time clocked 1:54:12. 5k to go. Full marathoner goes left, halfer goes straight. Mental game session. Imagine this is your normal 30 minutes 5k race pace. It worked wonders. 17k reached at blazing 5:33min/k. OK! Another 4k to go. 6:40min/k at 18th km. My mental game lasted just for 1km ja. Ish ish ish. Clocked 2:13:59 at 18th km.

Ecstatic. Rapturous. I can see the finishing line from this last 3km. Its like the shortest 3k i've ever experienced. Just straight. Sepang Drag Battle kinda of distance. Quater Mile. Easy. 100 plus, 2 cups down my throat. Put some racing fuel. Last few km to go.

An arrow sign caught my tired eyes, turn left. It's a detour. Fuhh! Mental ni. No wonder la 3km look like drag race. Ada detour rupanya. 20k ticking at 2:21:59. "2-3 ratus meter ja lagi bro". "Gimme 5!". The volunteers keep on cheering. As i passed the juction, turned right. Drop gear dulu, layan corner. LSD locked in. Slow in, fast out (This is how you tackle corner, not fast in slow out). Pedal to metal. 4G93 rev redline. Changed gear. Woohoo! Go to hell la mivec ka vtec ka 4 throttle ka. The feeling is like you conquered Sepang 15 corners smoothly without any unforgiving understeer.

Completed the run in 2:29:00.

A really slow pace - 7min/km. Damn, my training didnt turn out as what as i expected. Queue up for Milo. Best ever! Give some to my fans. My fanbase is growing up to 3! Haha! You know who you are. Suppose to be 4. Better luck next time. Tried out the sport massage. Full lower body massage just for RM10. Managed to get the coupons. Full body massage for RM25. That is after 50% student's discount. How i love being a student.

Well, one more night run to go, 6 weeks of training to do. Energizer Night Run, starting point pretty close to MMU. Not going to be a good sight seeing foot pounding experience as PNM since there's pretty much nothing in Cyberjaya. Hopefully the organizer has think of something bout managing the traffic considering Cyberjaya is a track-junkie-heaven for RapidKL bus drivers'.

What a long post. Thanks for reading. Congratulations to all the finishers!