Kiara#1 Jan 2011

RoLance LegStrong told me that i am lucky to be staying so near to Kiara. I concur. He then asked me why am i NOT riding Kiara. I concur too.
I am not a technical rider. I can't ride over tree roots and stumps, let alone soft ground with soil that sinks your wheels in.
I can't climb on switchbacks and i have bad MTB that do not change gear when it have to and needed to.
As fate has it, my days of telling RoLance (real name : Roland. The moniker was given as he is as strong as Lance Armstrong) i will ride Kiara with him came. Fresh from my ride yesterday at the KLMBH ride 196, i was gonna use the excuse that i am tired and won't ride.
With SAC coming close and the pressure mounting to be able to be a more wholesome rider on both XC and technical trail, i decided to just go ahead.
I pedalled from home and met Roland at the park. We started immediately and the plan was to do Twin Peak trail and then the 2K loop.

It was the Kiara-fright and i kept dismounting and pushed the bike the first 500m. I was unable to ride over the terrains and it was a bit disheartening to see Roland doing it really well.
Slowly, i gained more confidence and i started to ride more climbs and over more ruts. Upon reaching Twin Peak, we took 5 and just chatted. Then it was downhill all the way before we went into another route(can't recall) and then the 2K loop before exiting back to the car park the way we came.

I rode close to 80% of the trail and i am pretty happy about it. Not great, but happy. This mark my return to Kiara perhaps.
Thanks for the ride Rolance!

Week 5: Jan 31, 2011
Distance : 17km (home - Kiara - Kiara Loop - Home)
Time: 1:30mins
HR range :90%~95% maxHR.
Average pace : Did Not Check Meter.

2011 Mileage so far:
Run: 20.6km
Bike:109.53km

KLMBH 196 : RRI

It was a good weekend. I joined the KLMBH #196 ride to RRI from Ara Damansara/Tropicana.

It promised a 32km worth of cross country or XC ride through RRI. What make this ride extra special is because this could be the last time anyone will be able to ride in this pristine area.

Yes, you read me right. Development will take over this place. SAD.


Thanks to RRI and KLMBH committee, we were allowed to ride in this area before it all goes to the dog (and development to the dogs' pocket).

The ride attracted closed to 300 riders and most opted for the LONG ride of 32km. There is a 16km Scenic route that would break up some sweat too. Good for beginners and kids.
My ride was with Bandit and Adeline. It is also my second Hash and Adeline's first. With XC trail, the route would be gentler on beginners like myself. So this is perfect to Adeline too.
We started the ride at 8am sharp and it started to drizzle (little did we know, it was to be the EPIC rain of January 2011).

We goof around and basically had fun. There are fast flats and good climbs. There was also two downhill route that promises to please those that wants a bit more adrenalin.
By virtue of riding in a rubber plantation, it is important that the hashers go prepared for biological war. I bought a mozzie coil holder and strapped it to my bag. It was epic failure too as it rained the whole day and the coil was soaked in rain water.
I lost count how many mozzie bites that has landed on my butt and thighs...through my cycling shorts!

The route and trail was sort of damaged because of the downpour and that pretty much sealed the fate of how we are to approach any downhills.

On The Butt.

Or Face.

We had fun. The amount of muck thrown at us (from the tires) and the speed on the fast flat literally made us very dirty.

And lets not even see how dirty we were!

The ride took us about 4hours of slow and easy ride through the pristine RRI. There is no rush really.

Week 4: Jan 30, 2011
Distance : 29.98km
Time: 4:37mins
HR range :85%~95% maxHR.
Average pace : 7:00

Along the way, we met many riders and it was certainly a place to know some riding friends. While those faster riders (read : fitter) are long gone within 5 minutes of the ride start (or a colleague actually did the Long in sub 2hours! WOW!), i took my sweet time to ride through this and put in some interval training along the way. It was well worth it.

2011 Mileage so far:
Run: 20.6km
Bike:92.53km

Ocean Potion Malaysia Fun In Sun Contest

I did a review on Ocean Potion sunblocks about 2 months ago and i can vouch for their non-mineral oil/petroleum sunblock.

Now, Ocean Potion Malaysia is running a Photo Contest and the prizes are up to RM10,000 in total!

All you need to do is to "LIKE" the page here : OCEAN POTION MALAYSIA FACEBOOK PAGE

And then, you post your photo, get your friends to LIKE your photos and the most numbers of votes will WIN!

For your friends to LIKE the photo, they have to LIKE the OCEAN POTION FB page as well. It is a simple exercise and i have since joined the contest.

DO help me to LIKE my photo here

Today rained the whole day and while many think that they do not need any sunblock while out in the rain would be wrong. UV ray still penetrate through and you will expose yourself to them!

So, do yourself a favor, slap on those sunblocks (Ocean Potion is recommended) and go out and have fun! I know myself, Adeline and Azly did!

BeyondTransition.Com

Something exciting is happening in the Triathlon scene in Malaysia.

Something that pulls together a multitude of tips on training and nutrition, ramblings and facts, upcoming race and race reports updates.

Watch out for them when they go LIVE tomorrow, January 31, 2011!

IronMan Langkawi 2011 : Sure or Not?

There was a press release on Jan 17, 2011 in Bernama stating that Ironman Langkawi will be held in May 2011. Read it here. In case the news is taken off the Bernama server in a few months time, i am pasting the print screen here for the record.

The news that 2010 Ironman was the last was nothing new. In fact, the 2010 installment were almost not certain as it was taken over by a new organising company, made up from previous organizing team.

I never crossed my mind back then it will be my last Ironman Langkawi race bib. It is even sadder than the most affordable Ironman race in the region will not be organized anymore.

So, how do one react when the news that Ironman Langkawi will be back in May 2011???
I was excited.
But it was short lived.
IronmanLangkawi.com.my domain is up for sale/renewal. Meaning, there is no confirmation that it will actually happen, apart from the fact the organizer needs RM3Million to organize it.

Then Emma Bishop from Beyond Transition blogged about it, i couldn't help but feel that Dato' Chandran might be misqouted by the press (see news cutting above).
Emma reiterated from WTC (fact) :

‘WTC advises that official information regarding Ironman races in Malaysia can only come from WTC. Any information coming from other sources is unauthorized.’

WTC, if you do not know what it is, stands for World Triathlon Corporation, which is the company that owns, runs and licenses Ironman races. And if what WTC says is true, there is no update as far as the IronmanLive.com website for Malaysia Ironman race.

Emma even wrote to Dato' Chandran, the owner/director of the (supposedly) new Ironman license holder in Malaysia that made the above press statement (again, see above). And this is what Emma said in the Beyond Transition blog

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Chandran,

As a participant for IM Malaysia over the past 3years I like everyone

else was saddened by the news that there would be no race in 2011.

I have listened to the rumours going around within Malaysia over the past

few weeks and it seems people are still holding out hope that the race will go

ahead – now in May?

I believe them to be false and feel that perhaps people are
just being told what they want to hear.

I am now giving you an opportunity to comment on this rumour so we can
hopefully put some facts out there about what is happening. If you do not
wish to respond I will go ahead and publish without comment from you

or your organisation.

Please feel free to contact me, or email me asap you thoughts on this.

Best regards,
Emma.

So what say you?

The response was ZIP. ZERO. SILENCE.

They say no smoke without fire but I think in this instance the smoke is just a smoke screen and when it clears there will be nothing to see except the slam of the garden gate hitting a lot of hopefuls in the face as they once again have been led down the garden path.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I could not agree more to what Emma said, and thanks for sharing your thoughts Emma.

Fingers crossed, let hope the gate will not be slammed. Lets just hope there are glimmer of hope.

Until then, keep moving forward and keep training.

Training Log : Run-Bike-Run Wk2&3

Training for Wifey's maiden 42km has started. It will be a slow build up towards June where she will attempt the full marathon distance during the StanChart KL Marathon. As the registration has been successfully completed, there is no reason not to train.

This also meant pressure on Wifey as her furthest distance was 21km (officially). It is also a good opportunity for me to return to my fitness level by committing myself to a standalone marathon.

Last last Saturday, we ran Kiara park in TTDI. We ran at 3pm in the afternoon when the park was almost deserted with only one or two people walking/jogging. The last time we actually ran together was Powerman in November 2010. Per plan, we were to complete 5km and that translate to 2 small loop and two bigger loop of Kiara park.


Week 2: Jan 16, 2011
Distance : 5.6km
Time: 37mins
HR range :80-85% maxHR.
Average pace : 6:30

We plan to run at least twice a week in the interim to raise up the endurance to run longer and further. LSD has been slotted in late April/May and that would very much inline for the marathon.

Yesterday was a public holiday (Thaipusam) and i rode Batu-14 to Peras via Bukit Hantu. Good workout though i struggled with the climbs. I lost my climbing legs and is still struggling to find them back.

I have ridden Hulu Langat many times but this is absolutely the very first time in many many years that i attempted Bukit Hantu. The climb is tougher than Genting Peras but not as steep as KM4 Genting Highland. Average speed seems to be about 9km/h-12km/h depending on your climbing prowess.

Half way during the climb, my chain has to drop off as i shifted to granny. Lost the momentum and immediately i could feel sweat and HR shot up the roof of my head as i dismounted. I took a break until Raymond came back down to check on the backmarkers (i.e. me).

Looked like Bukit Hantu will be a staple climb for me before going up Peras in the near future.

The ride was well attended by people i have never ridden before. It was called by Ray "TomatoMan" Ng. Along with us was Michelle Looi, Tony Quay, Soo Min (which happened to be a common friend with Mich and Chim), Selon Yap (which i only see in Facebook), John Wai Mun and Nik Raiha (which happens to be Jaja and Julie's friend). Yip Ultra caught us half-way up Hantu. He is fast, as usual!

We exited Jalan Hulu Langat near the dam and headed to Genting Peras, which i climbed with better than usual average compared to 1 year ago! Fingers crossed that soon i will be able to climb this hill on the large chain ring!

The return journey took us down to Batu 18 before stopping for a break at the Hainan Kopitiam at Batu 18.

And here is my breakfast

Week 3: Jan 20, 2011

Distance : 52.55km

Time: 2:37mins

HR range :80-90% maxHR.

Average pace : 20km/h

On the same day, me and wifey went for an impromptu run around the housing area. Not the best run as we both struggled to complete the 5km.

Week 3: Jan 20, 2011

Distance : 5.0km

Time: 36mins

HR range :75-80% maxHR.

Average pace : 6:30

Fingers crossed, we will run tomorrow, 10km, hopefully.

2011 Mileage so far:
Run: 20.6km
Bike:62.55km

Training Log : FRIM Biathlon

Showed up on Saturday at FRIM for a ride with my teammate, Bandit. We started early by any outdoor standard (at 7am) and we plan to wrap things up by 9.30am so i could go home and run some errands with my dad.

"Kam is trail running tomorrow. We push off at 7am". His sms read the day before.

With 2011 started and i have so far only clocked 10km of run in the first 7 days of the year, I can't help but felt the inadequacy of my training for anything.

As i cycled in, i saw Bandit, Kam and Rashid. Bandit was without his bike but clearly seen was his hiking sticks. I then found out that Kash will be there too. So, indirectly, i was actually going to have a Saturday workout with a bunch of SAC hopefuls.

Uh-oh...i turned up for the wrong sports!

To a certain extend i felt like a dumbo, but on the other hand, this makes perfect sense! There is a day where myself and Bandit will be required to be doing biathlon. It will be either of us on the bike while the other one runs. We know what each of us are capable off and we already started to strategize about the interval of who bike and who runs and what we will do if we meet with steep climbs or downhills.

And since paying RM3 for entry on a MTB (they have ticket for that!), i might as well enjoy it!

We headed for Steroid Hill, the famed "all the way up" trail that is about 3km from the last point that (FRIM claimed) any joggers could go.

*pic from previous FRIM session

Bandit was almost all race suited except his knee straps that he forgot to bring. With his hydration pack filled and me in my simplistic pouch and a bottle of water, we cycled (me) and ran (him) about 10km. The pace was about 8km/h and we stop every other junction to check on each other.

I used the opportunity to test my fitness level by doing interval on the trail. Sprinting up and raising my HR to close to 90% and feeling the pumping sensation in my ears. NICE!

My fitness is not up to it's mark yet, but it's a start. I have to get my fitness level up again after almost a year of none-performing in any races.

I then took a detour towards the helipad up on the hill. Many many years ago, i could cycle up this place without stopping on my old Le Run. I was not any fitter than now, but i was way lighter. That day, i had to stop twice.

*i blogged so little that i actually even mistyped my own blogname! So, have to blur the old one because i was too lazy to re-edit!

There was no shame in stopping up this climb really. But i intend to make this place as flat as an airport landing strip within the next 1 month! Just you wait Steroid Hill! I WILL MAKE YOU LOOKED KETONIC!

I reached the landing/heli pad and i am not quite sure how any helicopter can land here - not after watching many episodes of Bear Grylls!

I then made my way down to the T-junction where i met with the rest of the gang that was running trails in preparation for SAC.

Myself and Bandit then left them and went back to the RV point. It was a good workout and a "feel" of things to come for the coming months when outdoor would take precedence over usage of my roadbike. What can i say except i am back to where i started - mountainbiking!

Next weekend menu? Likely somewhere in Gombak! ;-)LONG and HARD!

2011 Mileage so far:
Run: 10km
Bike:10km