training during ramadhan

My macambagus teammate for TNF100, Syah has warned friends in his blog recently on limited time for training for the said event, especially during this fasting month.  Hey people, it’s merely 8 weeks away from the event date .

To make it worst, with 3 new clients who just signed up last month, obviously, I will be under-trained. I seriously need to be back on my feet, and start training for the TNF100. I can’t let my teammate down. Syah is training hard now, aiming for his targeted weekly mileage. It is a fact that mileage-logging is so time-consuming, and I don’t think I can afford that at this point of time. Anyhow, I’ve worked out my own training routine for this fasting month and here’s a peek;

Monday, Wednesday and Friday :

0400hr – 0500hr (before sahur) : Fartlek Training on treadmill for an hour (did I tell you that I’m a big fan of Fartlek?).

Saturday

2200hr – 2400hr (after teraweeh) : LSD 

There you go. Simple and doable. How does your training looks like for this fasting month?

Note : I’ve also blogged about “Fitness Training During Ramadhan” previously. You can read it HERE. Also, look out for the details on our Progressive Outdoor Run (POR) no. 1 (which I will post later), to be held on 12 September 2010 i.e. 3rd day raya.

 

 HAPPY TRAINING!

no reason not to stay fit

As you guys know, I’ve been very busy for past two weeks with the birth of my baby Aaryan. In fact, we spent several more days in the hospital a week after, as he had jaundice. For times like these or when you can’t make it to the gym or when you are traveling, there are a lot of inexpensive and portable exercise products out there that you can use to get a full-body strength-training workout.

When it comes to strength training, most of us stick to the usual free weights and machines. What you don’t see a lot of, is work with resistance bands. They travel well. You can easily pack them in your suitcase for travel and do exercises in the hotel room or in my case, in the ward. There are no complicated instructions or tools required before exercising.

 

 

They’re great for all fitness levels. Depending on how you use them, bands can be great for beginners as well as more advanced exercisers. You can use them for basic moves or to add intensity to traditional moves. Earlier this morning, I hit the gym for my normal exercise routine, and brought along my resistance band. My dear colleague, Shaqi, helped me to shoot some of the moves, thanks dude! Since I was planning for a Chest workout, here are two basic moves that I did, targeting the chest area.

 

CHEST FLY

 

Using a resistance band is a great way to target the chest in a different way and change things up when the usual exercises get a little dull. The band can actually make this exercise feel tougher, but you always have control over the level of tension by moving closer or further away from the center of the band.

Really, there’s no reason not to stay fit!

running up Bukit Apek

After three months of marathon running and training on road, I decided to shift my last Sunday run to an off-road running. Alternating the training surface is one of the ways that I did to strengthen other ‘under-usage’ leg muscles. Yesterday, Cheramiche and I decided to recce Bukit Apek (near Bukit Saga) in Cheras. I think it was my first off-road run this year, and glad that it was also one of the steadiest trail runs I have done so far. I also noticed that my uphill running/hiking has improved tremendously. Come and see some of the pics;

How to get to Bukit Apek :

Use the Grand Saga expressway from Kuala Lumpur to Cheras. Take a left exit to Taman Cuepacs right after Petronas (before the first toll plaza). Follow the road to Econsave Segar Perdana. Upon reaching the T-junction near Econsave, you will see Shell on your left. Turn right and park your car along the road. This is the entrance to the trail of Bukit Apek.

The hike is interestingly very well marked with Level 1 (Station 1), Level 2 (Station 2) and so on until you reach Level 5 (Station 5) at around 386m. There you have a choice of going to the waterfall (steep descend) or continue on to Station 6 and the summit of Bukit Apek. As expected, we opted for the steep descent to waterfall.

We really had fun and hope to share this trail with others. Look out for our Progressive Outdoor Run (POR) sessions (Bukit Apek is definitely in the list), scheduled to start right after Raya.

let’s beat the sunrise

I am all set for the Sundown Marathon in Singapore tomorrow midnite. I’ve done the training that I wanted, and I am mentally prepared. As you are aware, I’m attempting this marathon in a slightly different way. It may work, it may not … but as a trainer, I think it’s worth trying.

1) I only did LSDs during my one month training;

• LSD no. 1 (25 April 2010) – 45km
• LSD no. 2 (02 May 2010) – 10km
• LSD no. 3 (08 May 2010) – 30km
• LSD no. 4 (i) (15 May 2010) – 25km
• LSD no. 4 (ii) (16 May 2010) – 15km
• LSD no. 5 (i) (21 May 2010) – 25km
• LSD no. 6 (ii) (23 May 2010) – 19km

2) I am going to use a pair of Adidas’ adiPRENE Trail Running shoes.

Adidas’ adiPRENE is a highly shock absorbent material that cushions and protects the heel at impact (thicker layer at heel). That way, if I were to use the heel landing technique, my heels do not have to go all the way down. Trail running shoes also do not allow much sole movement. The only bending point is between my forefoot and midfoot. It lets my midfoot-heel section stays impact, thus, providing better stability for my landing. This is very different from what running shoes provide. Again, I’m just testing out and not proven at this point of time. I’ve used tennis shoes in my KL Marathon last year and it worked fantastically well, especially when the weather is wet. 

3) I’m changing my sleeping pattern.

This is my first time running a marathon at midnight. Since it is a holiday today, I’m taking my family down south this morning and will spend the rest of the evening entertaining family with lots of fun stuff; swimming and shopping mostly I’m going to try to get myself very extremely tired and will only hit the bed around 4am so that I can sleep well until noon the following day.

Strategies look good so far, but now the biggest challenge is to execute them. Let’s hope for the best.

To friends and those who will be running the Sundown (whether 10k, HM, FM or Ultras), do your ultra best and don’t forget to enjoy the run. Do take care of yourself and each other, and have a safe one.

Let the Sundown begins!

a full marathon distance

A group of us attempted another Long Slow Distance (LSD) last Friday evening. Cheramiche, Fadhil, Ijam, Kash & Rais (as Kash our official support ‘team’ … hehehe), Ziff and I met up at Palace of Justice (PoJ) at 9.00pm for another round of training. Initial target was 25km but we were more than happy to have it completed at 24km. Cheramiche, Fadhil and Ijam left earlier after reaching their targets. As usual, the rest of us spent another hour for our usual chat & makan2 session. Kash brought very delicious Meat Fried Rice with loads of cili-padi (small fiery-hot chillies), mini bananas, icy cold Gatorades and Chocolate Milk, while Ziff brought some montel bananas. I came empty-handed and wallop these free feast :( yikes!

I also received an unexpected request from one of my PT clients to do another LSD of 19km on Sunday. Well, work is work. I accepted her request and off we went for my 2nd LSD of the weekend. We started from Kiara Park, ran to Petronas @ Sri Hartamas, off to Mont Solaris and ran back to Petronas before we shot back to Kiara Park. All in all, we covered at least 19km. We also bumped into “late Ngae Koh Hieng” memorial runners along the route. It’s so good to see many runners turned up for that run. He surely left  a big impact on all of us – he will be sorely missed.

All in all, I’ve covered 43km of running over the weekend and I’m all ready for the Sundown Ultra Marathon. so, this is the list of LSDs that I’ve done in getting ready for my Sundown;

LSD no. 1 (25 April 2010) – 45km (6hr Rogaining Championship) (DONE)

LSD no. 2 (02 May 2010) – 10km (Bomba Run) (DONE)

LSD no. 3 (08 May 2010) – 30km** (DONE – in split session …err …counted?)

LSD no. 4 (i) (15 May 2010) – 25km (Putrajaya) (DONE ~24km)

LSD no. 4 (ii) (16 May 2010) – 15km (pirating NB-Pacesetters) (DONE)

LSD no. 5 (21 May 2010) – 25km (Putrajaya) (DONE)

LSD no. 6 (23 May 2010) – 19km (Kiara-Hartamas) (DONE – unplanned!)

Sundown Marathon, Singapore – 29 May 2010

going LSD all the way

As I mentioned previously, I am attempting this Sundown Marathon with totally different mode of training. My training consists of none other than Long Slow Distance (LSD) sessions. And I only do LSD over the weekends. This is what I have done and plan to do in my next coming weeks leading to Sundown Marathon in Singapore.

• LSD no. 1 (25 April 2010) – 45km (6hr Rogaining Championship) (DONE)
• LSD no. 2 (02 May 2010) – 10km (Bomba Run) (DONE)
• LSD no. 3 (08 May 2010) – 30km** (DONE – in split session …err …counted?)
• LSD no. 4 (i) (15 May 2010) – 25km (Kiara-Hartamas) (Putrajaya) (DONE ~24km)
• LSD no. 4 (ii) (16 May 2010) – 15km (pirating NB-Pacesetters) (DONE)
• LSD no. 5 (21 May 2010) – 25km (Kiara-Hartamas) (Putrajaya)
• Sundown Marathon, Singapore – 29 May 2010

We had another round of LSD last Friday evening. These are some the pics that I took;

 

I’m planning to do another LSD training this week. Here are the details:

• Date : 21 May 2010 (Friday)
• Start Time :  10.00pm   9.00pm
• Place : infront Palace of Justice, Putrajaya
• Route : 11.6km loop
• Distance : 25km

See you guys there, yes?

Have a good week, guys.

 

of LSD and bowel problem

As I mentioned in previous posting, we planned for a Long Slow Distance (LSD) training last Saturday….. indeed it turned out to be a good one. Approximately 16 of us turned up for that training, our running mom Haza also dropped by (all the way from Klang) to lend us the support (it’s amazing to witness the level of camaraderie and comfort that runners have towards one another although we only ‘meet’ 98% of the time in blogspace and remaining 2% at races.) 

Well, we had a great time catching up stories and made few new friends as well. It was indeed a great pleasure to have them around. The meeting point was infront of Palace of Justice, Putrajaya at 9pm. Our dear friend Kash, who will be attempting her maiden 84km Ultra Marathon logged an amazing distance of 65km that evening/morning while the rest of us did somwhere between 20-30km. I did 25km myself and it felt good to be ‘able’ to run again. We killed the remaining wee hours of the morning at nearby mamak restaurant, replenishing the fuel that we had lost.   Come and see some of the pics;

I also noticed that in my last ENR marathon and subsequent LSDs, I had to hit the toilet soon after. This can only mean one thing - my body is metabolising the fat (secreting the by-products) rather than utilising the glycogen in my muscle  to fuel the run. While it is good to burn off the fat (running aerobically), however, it also means that I’m not running fast enough. Running anaerobically uses glycogen to fuel the workout as glycogen is more readily converted to energy.

I have to monitor the way my body reacts to this slower pace again in future runs, and if the pattern continues, I will have a problem – well, not about clocking a slower time, but to find a nice clean toilet at the finishing line.

Jom LSD this Saturday at Kiara-Hartamas route – at least, the toilet at Kiara Park is clean …

Progressive Outdoor Swim (POS) no. 07

The next Progressive Outdoor Swim (POS) no. 07 has been postponed to next Sunday, 4 April 2010. However, the venue has been changed to accomodate for slightly longer swim duration. Here are the details of POS no. 07;

Venue : Panasonic Sports Complex, Shah Alam.

Time : 8.30am @ entrance of pool (it costs RM2.50 per entry). The pool closes at 10.30am and re-opens at 10.40am. You have to pay another entry fee if can’t complete the targeted distance.

Training distance : 5km

There is only one more POS session after this i.e. POS no. 8 for a distance of 6km which will be held on 10 April 2010 - just intime to prepare oneself for the upcoming 6.5km Kapas-Marang Swimathon scheduled on 18 April 2010. The registration for the swimathon is now open and you can register yourself online at www.triathlonmalaysia.com. 

How to get there : There are two options to this training location;

• Option 1 -  Take the first left exit after the RM1.10 toll at Federal Highway (after passing Subang Parade on your left). Drive straight until you reach a major roundabout (you should be able to see the Panasonic Sports Complex e.g. Stadium, Tennis Courts etc. on your right before reaching the roundabout). Make a u-turn at the roundabout to get to the Complex. 
• Option 2 – If you were to take ELITE Hwy (NKVE-KLIA), exit at Batu Tiga. Turn left at the T-junction after the toll and drive straight until you reach the roundabout. Make a u-turn at roundabout to get to complex.

———————————————————————

The venue for last week’s POS no. 6  had to be changed last minute to Kelana Jaya Pool because of the MSSM swim competition held at PADE (sorry guys, I should have checked that earlier). Swimmers Kash and daughter Citra, Nadia, Syah, Ziff, Shyrim, Fong and hubby, and Day-O were there. Sorry I don’t have pics for this session. However, I managed to grab few pics from the mini-LSD that was held earlier that morning at Shah Alam Lake Garden. Enjoy.

 

 

next Progressive Outdoor Swim (POS)

hi guys, sorry for the last minute notice. Been so tied up with work here.

There won’t be any POS (no. 5) training session tomorrow, 13 March 2010,  as I will be away in the little red dot this weekend for the Singapore Biathlon. 

The next session is scheduled as follows;

Date : 20 March 2010 (Saturday)

Location : Syah Alam Aquatic Centre (PADE)

Time : 9.00am – 11.15am (since the next target distance is 4km, we have to make sure that we are in the water latest by 9.15am)

Before the POS, there’ll be also an mini-LSD training at Shah Alam Lake Garden @ 6.45am (meeting point at carpark near Kedai Kopi). See you guys there.

 p/s Please bear with the outcome of this entry as this is my first time trying to blog using my nokia E71.

a great morning in the open water

As planned , we had our openwater training in Port Dickson over the weekend. The weather was perfect, the sea was calm, but turned out to be a little choppy on our way back to shore. Six of us braved thru the session – Kash, Nadia, Shyrim, Bro. Nazli, KabusGunung and myself. Kash has blogged about the entire experience in her blog here.

It was definitely a good training session in preparing myself for Singapore Biathlon this weekend. It was also part of our training for Kapas Marang Swimathon this coming April. We truly enjoyed the session and there were nothing more that we could ask for.  Have a look at some of the pics taken using my Olympus miu Tough.

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