SCKLM 2012

Looks like I will be running tomorrow. Ah Houn is pulling out from the race to enter the FOOL distance...hehe. So I'll be taking his bib to run the 21km. I don't even know what time it'll start or where is the route (speaking of which I think I better go google on the information). Going to use this as my LSD to add on my mileage. Hopefully legs can last that far.....should I bring some power gel just in case? Brought some back from Boston, don't want to watse it. Ya, maybe I should just bring one....

So to those running tomorrow, BEST OF LUCK. See you on the road if I see you! I will bring my camera so if you see me, just shout out my name, will snap a pic of you!

Treadmill Running

What can I say about treadmill running? I really hate it! You just find yourself going nowhere and normally I can't last anything longer than 30mins. Well, even reaching 20mins, I will feel uncomfortable. But treadmill can sometime be beneficial too, especially with the hazy weather these days. Rainy days, lazy days, etc.

I did 6.2km in 30 mins today, not fast but my aim was just finishing a 30mins run. It does the job. I don't want to get suffocated running outside on the road.

So what can you do with treadmill running?

I guess pretty much eveything you can set on the treadmill depending on its technology. I guess the most common ones would be speed, incline, timing. You can do your hills, your intervals, your long run (well Im not a big fan here!) and so on. I normally use it when Im just plain lazy and just want to get some mileage, most times, nothing more than 30mins.

What do you do before you do your workouts on treadmill?

It should be the same with what you do when you run on the road, STRETCH. However, I do see a lot of people do their stretching before their run. I will usually do my stretching about 1km or so into my run, just to let my body warmed up a little before stretch. Some people may have different opinion on this, so there's no right or wrong way here. It's just my routine.

How long an how fast on a treadmill?

Well that is entirely up to individual on what you want to achieve when you run on the treadmill. You may want to do a normal run, intervals or hill repeats. For me if I'm on treadmill, it will be my easy run, or sometimes just increase the speed near the end of the run. That's just about enough workout I need on a treadmill.

Not much changes to my mileage this week. First run after a week. Click link for my training log.

Malaysian Marathon Record Broken!

Chan Yew did it again! He has broken his own national record with a timing of 2:25:07. He was placed 19 overall in Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota. The race was won by an Ethiopian, Birhanu Girma. Read more at this link. The old record which stands at 2:28:36 which he did in Montreal Marathon 2010. He did a PB of 2:26:38 but that was considered a downhill course. (Source: Wikipedia). I have a feeling the MAAU has not recognise the feat by Chan Yew as a national record since Shaharudin recently announced he will be gunning for the national record set by K.Baskaran 2:29:27 set in Singapore in 2001. The debate goes on....

Whatever it is, the feat of clocking the timing itself is already an accomplishment itself. He said to me when I met him in US that he is trying to qualify for the Olympics using the B standard qualifying timing of 2:18. Looks like time is running out since the dateline will be July 8. (Link). Not sure if he will be doing another marathon in such a short period but hoping he will qualify for it.



Pic taken with Chan Yew in Boston

Night Run With Mr & Mrs Wong

Had a nice and humid night run with neighbours tonight. We just did a easy run towards LHDN and back to Anggunpuri. I did some extra 70m stride outs just to get my running form back and of course loose that extra fat around my waist.

I decided to publish my running log since March. If you have noticed, I didnt do a lot of runs for the past months. This week run is already a lot more runs than what I did in May! Hope I can continue my comeback to better fitness state. Getting sick quite often these days. As for being competitive, may take a little longer but eventually I should be able to get back into shape.

Please click on the link to follow my training log. Those who always think that they are under-trained, well nothing beats this right?

Running the FRIM Trail

I was looking for buddies to run an easy 10-k on Sun but couldn't find any. Almost end up driving myself to Bukit Aman (which I have not done for a long time) to join the usual group run. But luckily, Ah Houn answered my calling and he was going to FRIM to run the trails there with couple of friends. 

He picked me up in the morning around 5.45am and we were there before 6.30am, which is still too dark to run. There we met up Ah Pak and Connie. Both were training for the 100km TMBT which will be held in Sabah on Sep 15. That morning was a cool morning (it rained the night before) and the air was fresh especially when you are running in FRIM. Ah Pak took us around the trail, going through the normal trail (a long uphill at the start), then we ran towards "Salem High Country" trail. I was told that the Salem advertisment a long time ago was shot there.

Ah Houn wanted to be Salem ambassador

I was looking to do just a short run but ended up doing more than 10km on the day. I was actually suffering that morning run cos I only had about 3 hours sleep that night. We were about to head out before Pak called out to us and asked where we were going. He took us to another route overlooking Sungai Buloh. On the way back out, I ran faster wanting to finish as quick as possible cos I was already half asleep during the run. We saw many trail runners there, also training for TMBT.

I left them behind and ran to our finishing point. I found a place to sit and waited for them. My eyes were struggling to open. Not long, Houn came back. After shower, Houn sent me back and I took a short nap, probably only for an hour which wasn't enough. But I got an appointment that day, so couldn't sleep on.

Connie, Houn & Ah Pak

I suffered in the run but I was glad that I took the step of going out for a run, instead of giving excuses which I normally will end up sleeping more. Mentally, I felt good to sweat out but wish I had more sleep and I would have enjoyed the run more. But I will find more time to do the trails more since I have 2 trail shoes to use.

There are probably 3 races I am planning to run this July but all of it will be for fun. One is the Intermark Charity Tower Run. It will be held at my office building, so at least give it some support. This run supports SOS Children's Village & Shelter Home Malaysia. 

Next up will be BHP Orange Run on July 15. Ran this fun run couple of times already, easy going run and carnival like since it's held at The Curve every year.

Last of it is the KPAC Relay on July 21. Partnering a few of our Dutamas Runners. Paul, Wei Li and Seng Chor. Seng Chor will not be making it so I am looking for replacement now. Anyone keen, let me know. RM30 per person. 

Looking to gain back my fitness and doing a little more trail running to take care of my foot which has been pain-free when I stepped out from the bed in the morning. I will try to be careful with it so it won't disrupt my training.

UOB Heartbeat Run 2012

I've waited long to run this as I missed in on the first year joining UOB in 2011. As this was an annual event, I had every opportunity to run it again. It was held in Padang Merbok on May 13 and the distance was shorten from 7km to 5km. The run is open only for UOB employees and held co-currently with UOB from other region, e.g. Singapore, Indonesia, etc. It is divided into a 5km run or a 3km fun walk. Maybe it's a way of encouraging more runners to take part but the way I see it the turnout wasn't that great. The committees of the event were also quite generous this year by throwing out prizes for the Top 5 runners in the mens and womens categories. Then there is the lucky draw with Samsung Galaxy Tab up for grabs. For the winner of the running event, it'll be an Ipad 2!

I was quietly confident that I can win it but have not been feeling well since I got back from US of A trip. Anyways, I wasn't going to put too much pressure in winning the race, after all, there are 5 prizes up for grabs and I was quite sure that I will win one of them. The main purpose for this event was to support the Start Society, a provider for children of lesser privilege.

Had to pick up a few of my colleagues who car pooled with me for the run. The race director for the event was Mr Wan, from Runners Malaysia. He got a few volunteers whom I am very familiar with. Jamie, Yin, Pueh Tian and many more. Alex Au-Yong who ran 100km to raise the awareness and funds for The Start Society last June was one of the guests invited to lead the warm up session. More info on Alex can be found at this link (an interview he did with Jamie).

From left: Tony, Me, Jamie and Lim Tee Kian

Jamie and Alex giving the thumbs up for the event

Mr Wan says, "Bankers better not be late!"

A priceless picture taken with our UOBM CEO, Chan Kok Seong

Mr Wan giving his safety precaution speech

Alex and Jamie led out the warm-up session

Keen participants

Mr Chan giving a big smile before he flagged off the race

With Tai Lee Fei. He just ran 21km @ PJ Dawn and came straight for this run

Before the flagged off, Mr Wan made some comments about me to the CEO saying I should start from the back since I am a seasoned runner. That was embarrassing. So I had to quietly take a few steps back to hide.

The flag off went smoothly, no pushing and shoving. I still had a good view of the front eventhough there were couple of guys who went out like a rocket. I waited  patiently for them to tire since there was a slight uphill slope a few hundred meters from the start. Before the 1km mark, I was in the lead. I wasn't sure whether I should just go faster or just holding on to the pace. I decided to go slightly faster to put some distance behind the second runner. By 3km I already had a huge lead, so I slowed down a little bit to catch my breath. I was seriously out of breath!

With just slightly less than 600m from the finish, I caught a glimpse of the chasing runner, so I went for it. Didn't want to make a mistake of waiting out and he pipping me to the line. I crossed the finish line in 1st place and Ipad 2 was mine! : )

Me and my big boss, Mr Wee (he is very active in the world of  hashing)

My fellow colleagues, Loh and Koon Koon (and her daughter)

Azizul walked the 3km with his children

A speech by Mr Chan after the run

Performance by the kids from Start Society

Sue Ling receiving her prize being the top female runner

Yeah...that's me receiving the prize from Mr. Chan

All the winners for the 5km run

More performances from children of Start Society

The man with many masks

Fellow colleagues: Loh, Vic, me and Koon Koon

My prize unwrapped - Ipad 2 16GB with 3G and Wi-fi

I've played with it for a while but decided to give this to my mum, just to keep her mind active. Anyways, it's easier to connect with a lot of family members who are on Facebook. So thank you UOBM for the amazing prizes given out for this year's event.

Too bad UOB is not sending any teams for the annual Rat Race organised by Bursa Malaysia. Otherwise, we may have a chance of finishing in a good position!

Trail Running In Salomon S-Lab 3 XT Wings & Save Lembah Kiara Trail Run

Only in recent months that I got to try out my second Salomon shoe, S-Lab 3 XT Wings. This is supposedly one of the best trail racing shoe (once upon a time before the newer models came out). Now you have the newer model, XT S-Lab 4 and also Speedcross 3. I don't really like the outsole of Speedcross 3, which I think would suit those hardcore trail runners more. Me, as a runner coming from road running, would prefer the design of XT S-Lab 3. The other shoe I had was the XR Crossmax Neutral CS which I reviewed earlier.

I took this shoe with me to US. I guess I spent more time walking on it rather than running. But me and Moey had a chance to try out some trail running in Washington. For most part we had to run through the tarmac surface, but once we hit the the Four Mile Run Trail, Arlington County in Virginia we get to run some form of trail running. This shoe was a little uncomfortable going thru the tarmac but once it hit the trails, I find it easier to run with. For XR Crossmax, shoe is a little heavier but due to the outsole build, it fares much better on tarmac.

The S-Lab series are designed specifically with the international trail racing individual in mind.

This is what it says on their website....

"Salomon Lab is a process of making dedicated products to meet the individual fit and performance needs of our international team. Athletes and designers work together, through every step of the process, because a millimeter or a gram is ultimately the difference between gold and silver."

Here's a short video on Salomon S Lab

This is where renowned trail running champion, Kilian Jornet comes in and work with the designers to come out with shoes that makes him a champ. The recent shoe he wore, Salomon S-Lab Sense won him the 2011 Western States 100 and the 2011 Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc. Of course, winning relies a lot on the runner themselves, but equipment and apparels do play a big part in increasing the performance. Here's a preview of S-Lab Sense (this probably one of the trail shoe I will get as it looks just like a road racing shoe!).

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Back to the XT S-Lab 3. This shoe is much lighter than the previous XR Crossmax I was wearing. The funny thing about the Salomon trail shoes is that the sizes come in 1/2 size bigger or smaller (depending on how you see it). As I am wearing UK Size 8, I took the 1/2 size bigger. It doesn't seem to be fitting my feet well but since I have wide feet, it still held out well. But it would be better if it was snug fit.

As with the XR Crossmax, it comes with the Quicklace™ Kevlar one-pull lacing an easy-on, easy-off system for a secure and customized fit. The shoe also comes with an Ortholite™ footbeds which provides step in comfort and enhanced durability by using a combination of special PU and rubber crumbs. Ortholite™ footbeds use an anti-microbial treatment for reducing odor.

Quicklace™

With its Agile Chasis System (ACS) provides better cushioning when you run through those rough trails. As for the outsole, the Contragrip provides better traction and stability on the rough terrains. In front of the shoe, it is made of stronger material that provides protection to your toes when your feet hit the rocks. 

Overall, this shoe is light enough if you want to do your intervals in the trails or race. Personally, I have not try both but I will be looking out to running a trail race in this shoe. My target will be the KPAC Trail Relay Run 2012 which will be happening in Klang. I will gather some of the Dutamas Runners to run in this. I won't be aiming for a podium finish for this relay but it's more of keeping myself race ready, as it is going to be 4 x 3km, so this will be a short and speedy run across the trails. 

I had a chance to use this shoe in one of our local trail in Lembah Kiara. I showed up in this Magic Carpet Trail Run, organised by Raymond-Tomatoman. What we did was to run along the trails and pick up the rubbish along the way. A special gift will be given out at the end of the run for the runner who picked up the most rubbish. Fellow runners were quite surprised by the number of rubbish especially plastic bottles. The run was also in support of Save Bukit Kiara! Say NO to Development. In recent months, part of the park has been heavily fenced up which is suspected cleared for development.

If you care about the park, do head on this link to sign the petition.

I do have an opinion that Klang Valley currently has an oversupply of properties with many units unsold or unoccupied. There's no need for more developement especially those which is enroaching into the greeneries of Lembah Kiara. Looking from the viewpoint, the Hartamas and Mont Kiara area are pretty much cleared in the name of development. Do your part by signing the PETITION which we hope will save the greens in Lembah Kiara!

Here's a group photo from Tri Stupe