Catching Up

I've been using this blog as a photolog for my mediocre photos and has been neglecting the passion for writing (and drama, some would say) for the past 108 days. In the "religious" way of comparing, I had deviated from the "real" teaching on why this blog is up in the first place.

I know some of you comes to this blog to read about my ups and downs in life - in particular about my training and my quest to be an Ironman. I am still a wannabe. Yes. I've completed three Ironman. But that is about it. I have just "completed". Yes, it is a sense of achievement. A personal glory. A song to sing. But when the radio plays the same song 25 times a day, it gets tiring for the listener (are you vomiting on Nobody yet?).

I came to work early today. Earliest i could recall for the past six months. In my email on Friday was a conference call with a client at 8. But in my tiredness and blurriness, i thought it was AM. The mere fact that i can write about this now meant that the call is tonight, not now.

And just like a sign of some sort. A divine intervention to prevent me from sleeping past 8am and get to work earlier...i have decided to dedicate the next 15 minutes to ramble about more things incoherent in many coherent ways.

So, how much do you all misses me?

For someone as loud and narcissist as me, it's hard to miss or ignore. While i am not busy in this blog, i am stuck on Facebook many times (read: all the time). This social networking stuff is changing the way we are communicating. I no longer need to call a friend to know what is happening as i can read it right from their "wall" everyday. I now know when my friends kid can crawl, walk, run, talk. I even know if the friend just broke up from his/her relationship without them telling the obvious - all by just looking at the small nitty-gritty changes in their statuses.

It was also through Facebook that i was able to expand my network of friends. While i admit in the 1194 people that i have as "friends", i maybe only know 30% and kept in touch with about 5% of them. It is a number game after all.

Do i have intention to cut off the fat? Maybe. But this takes more time that to add people back. Should i ask them why they want to add me in the first place? But what is the point of not adding if i am already in Facebook?

So, with my updates constantly on Facebook, it is pretty obvious why this Blog is taking being neglected.

I am sorry about that. Not everyone has Facebook. It is not compulsory like the Identification Card that every Malaysian should have.

Someone i know recently has been asking advices about a few gadgets and i was very happy to be able to help him/her with it. More so by recommending the place to get it, i sort of help another friend to make sure he/she can put food on the table to feed the family. So, i thank you all that has helped friends of mine and in return, gotten what you want.

It was later then i gotten another request to reccomend shoes, the running type. This friend has been told to lose weight, or lose his life. This is serious. While i complains about those extra kilograms I have put on over the past six months or so, this friend has a even bigger task to lose weight equal to half my weight or pay for the consequences.

Losing weight is not easy. What more if you have to give up the food you love. The drinks you crave for. The snack that makes you happy.

Running as an exercise is even worse. The pain in the joint. The feeling of the heart popping out of your heart's cavity. The heavy legs feeling. The pain of not being able to accomplish. The giving up. They are very real. It can make a grown man cry.

Also, for the past one year or so, I've gotten people walking up to me - people i do not know, telling how my stories and my writing inspired them. How reading and emulating what i did changed their lives. While some scratched their head over those 'extra hours' i have in the day that never existed to do the things i love and still make everyone happy.

I am truly flattered by the compliments.

So, yesterday, I re-lived what I am training wise. Those of you that knows me will know that i have been struggling to get my blood iron up. Some thought i am anaemic. Some thinks i over trained. Many even think i am just covering my none-performance with this excuse.

Let me assure you that i am not any of the above. The loss of blood iron is very real. It is not something i want and not something i planned. It took a whole year (first detected in August last year) to recover from it. The past 6 weeks has been rewarding as i finally gotten my "glow" back.

I met up with Jabir, Farouk, Ezan and another friend of theirs at Bukit Aman at 6am. There was a large crowd usually found on a Sunday morning in Bukit Aman. The hardcore runners, the beginners and of course the wannabes like me. I felt good despite not clocking in enough hours of sleep the night before cycling through work materials. This is one thing i need to get to use to - Work and how the new responsibilities is changing my life from now onwards. It is like saying i will finally have a career. (But is this what i want to do?)

The first 5km of the run from Bukit Aman was good. it was a HIIT over the undulating route. Wrapped up the 5km in just under 30minutes with average pace of 6:00/km and managed to push it up to 5:11 on some hills portion. But of course, that is just OP Sofian "The Legend" Ismail's pace on a Sunday non-racing morning (he did a 4:18 at Perth Marathon).

I was very excited that my HR stayed below 90% the whole while and peaking at 94% when i stopped near the Jalan Duta Tennis court. I was feeling a-OK. No dizziness, no fainting. Just pure joy.

And i have another 15km to go. Ouch.

The next 5km was pretty alright, other than me having issues to keep the dinner i ate the day before down. The gasping and active breathing (aerobic mode) i did somewhat made me swallowed more air than i should (into the stomach). I have burping urge and i know if i burp while running, i will spill my guts content out. So, i went slightly easy, trying to imagine the joy of burping and coaxing it out. By then, Jabir has already went all the way upfront and has reached Plaza Damas. He was fast and maintained a steady 6:00 pace up the small little bump towards Plaza Damas from Segambut.

Then i saw Tey. The first thing that came to my mind was...IS THERE A RACE happening?

Guessed not. I found out later that Pacesetter club has a LSD training, which explained the crowd that took onto this route (usually, weekend warriors will just do double hill route and call it a day).

We finished the first 10km in about 1:10, meaning I've slowed Jabir down by a good 10minutes for the next 5km. I was still feeling good. If you ask me this about 18months ago, i would be pretty upset for clocking 10km in more than 60minutes. Yesterday, i was proud as i still have energy for the remaining 10km.

We rested for about 5 minutes and started running back to Bukit Aman after bidding goodbye to Farouk. The return run was much better as the bottle of gassy 100+ made me burp. It felt good to be able to burp all the misery out.

At 15km mark, I was holding on and holding strong. Smiles was all over my face and i guessed it tells when Jabir said i was actually smiling. I was running at about 12mg/l of blood iron - slightly better than the couch potato that has a weekly dosage of "walk the dog" as workout. I was still OK until the last 3km, which i walked.

And there was certainly nothing shy of me walking...or crawling.

It was a long one year journey of heartache (literally and figuratively) and frustration and i am glad that i am catching up with my old self again. Soon, the only excuse i will have if i don't perform to my own expectation is that i am simply un-fit.

Yesterday, i covered 19.5km (but it should had been 20 or 21km in about 2:25 with Jabir. It was a good outing for me, last long run was also with Jabir which i struggled. Good to say that yesterday, the Hills was looking much flatter! Now, lets steam roll it within the next 1 month!

Farouk found a new kickass hill

And for the rest of you reading, i will post more than just my lame Project 365!