Running With Lawyers

I had the pleasure to run with a group of lawyers from a well known local firm based in Damansara yesterday. Many thanks to my batchmate Amin Majid for making that possible. The plan was for me to show up at about 7pm after their run and speak to them on my background and personal endeavour as an "average joe", and to share my outlook on eating and living healthily. Apparently, they run often around Jalan Beringin (a loop of 4.5km) and they have a mixture of seasoned and casual runners.

Since I started work at the new place, i more or less get more time for myself as well. And with Bali and Borneo Marathon (YES! REGISTERED!) in place, what better way to start the training pronto? Plus, wifey bought me a new shoe to replace all the worn out shoes i ever had - a Brooks Ghost 3, i have no better reason NOT to run yesterday.

Ghost 3 in Blue.

I managed to reach the starting point by 6.30pm and the team has already started running, a brief introduction by Amin and with wifey and Chit arriving at about the same time, we started running a few minutes earlier.
Jalan Beringin in Damansara Heights is a good training ground for hill work and speed work. With elevation gain of about 129m and a perfect mixture of undulating route, it will gives the strongest runner a good run for their sweat.

Altitude vs. Distance. Each peak is an opportunity to run up the hill strongly!

Damansara heights has been the training ground for me for the longest time. If you ask me, this route kick the Double Hill route any day. This is the real footwork for hill-work as you will make or break in the short 4.5km loop. The initial 500m was downhill which provides enough ground for a quick footwork/tempo run. It will then be a good almost 1km climb up till the junction at Science Centre/Security Commission turn off which will burst your lung and heart.

wifey pushing hard. I had to run fast to keep up.

Even Chit had a good time running up the hills. Kudos for going all the way up with minimal stops!

Woohoo!

The lawyers was running pretty fast too as i had to put on some extra effort to catch up with some of them. Nevertheless, safety was paramount as the road is busy during daylight and a few junctions (and one roundabout) need to be crossed. Those did put a dent in an otherwise seamless-almost-PB kinda run on Damansara Heights ;-).
Personally, i felt good and perhaps that has prompted wifey to say "I see you are back" when she has to try catching up to me (for a change). To be frank, i know i can do better, while not trying to be arrogant about it. I am glad that Sciatica did not visit (perhaps i left it in 2011 and my Xmas wish came true?). Perhaps, it was the new shoes too. I pushed pretty hard and i just love the burn that the run provides. We wrapped up the 4.5km in exactly 30minutes with an average pace of 8.8km/h - which is respectable for the kind of terrain we were running (oh that hill up from ManuLife aka Fitness First is kick-@ss!)

Speed vs. Distance. Faint line denotes altitude. Running at 10km/h up the hill? YOU BET!

It was only near the primary school that i finally catch up with Amin. For his first 2012 run, he did really well. Kudos bro!

pant! pant! pant!

The run ended at the shoplots near the school and we sat down for some refreshments. There, i started to share some of my stories - of which, i seriously was lost for words. I am not a world class accomplished athlete to start with. But with some nudges and backing up from Amin and wifey, the conversation started flowing and the topic went from sharing my experience as a triathlete to how wifey started running to craving controls and even discussed about milk (it get a bit awkward, but flattering when you found out they read your blog!)
All in all, it was a good session of run and sharing. I shall try to make myself available again for the quick run - we all can certainly always make use of those speed work and hill work.
Many thanks for the opportunity lawyers from Zaid Ibrahim & Co! And thanks for the refreshments too! (to set an example - i only took water!)