from sunrise to sunset

I love the sunrise! I love the sunset! and everything in between – sand, scuba, snorkel, surf and sea. There you go, all the great “S”es. You may noticed that I’ve been blogging eveything about nature lately, all from my recent east-coast trip. Nature, in all its beauty, is one thing that excites me and brings out the WOW factor.

One that morning that I stepped out from my KL-K.Trengganu bus to go to Redang, I was stunned! There was a glow in the outdoor that I had never seen before. It definitely took my breathe away. And my first thought was, “Wow, and this is just from the mainland … it will be even more dramatic if I’m at the island” The colors were vivid. It was bright and full.

I do get excited about nature. I love to walk in parks. I love to sit, swim, run, cycle or just do nothing in the outdoors. It just goes to prove that the simple pleasures in life bring the most joy. And it also reinforces the bold statement of “The God’s Creation”. Maybe that’s why I feel the rush of excitement when I see the many faces of beauty in nature.

 

SUNRISE

 

SAND

 

 

SUNSET

 

 

and we even SNORKLE at night!

Well, we had with us several underwater torchlights, and were lucky enough to spot some shrimps, crabs and groupers. We even spotted a dead lady (and she’s naked) lying on the beach ..

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hahahah … gotcha! Have a good week!

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.

at a swimming gala

I was good in running; track & field per se, when I was a school kid. However, it wasn’t until after my O-levels that I started to take up running competitively. Seriously, I was not confident that I could earn a living in sports back then. Sports were always an extra-curricular activity. Like other students, I concentrated more of my time in studies, and only managed to be the ’simpanan’ or extra player for basketball, tennis, table-tennis and badminton.

With the announcement from Malaysian DPM recently to put a greater emphasis on sports in schools as a key element in national development, I find it as a very healthy move as it is a ‘culture’ where everybody can get involve, thus bridging gap between the races. Drawing on an example from South Africa, Nelson Mandela used rugby to great advantage in uniting the people. DPM wants sport to be taught as a subject in school, and a must for everyone. It is no longer regarded as extra-curricular activity.  One particular school that has been putting the importance of sports at par with academics is Cempaka International School. Last weekend, I brought my family all the way to Cempaka’s latest institution (and an impressive one too) known as Cempaka International Ladies College (CILC) situated at Bandar Enstek, Selangor to witness its annual swim gala. Cempaka produces many top swimmers – always among the top schools at swimming in Wilayah Persekutuan. In fact,  both the Cempaka Primary and Secondary School teams had emerged as overall champions in Wilayah Persekutuan in 2000.

Come and have a look at some of the photos taken using my Nokia E71. 

run, swim and eat in POS no. 4

March is a busy month for the ‘weekend warriors’ – so many races lining up this month. As for me and some of my buddies, we are racing practically every weekend. With Singapore Biathlon coming up next week, follow by KL Towerthon the following weekend and the Energizer Night Marathon a week after, it’s surely an energy-draining month for most of us – good thing am enjoying every second of it.

I didn’t take much time off to relax after the book project. Much of my weekends are now filled with training. We swim and run mostly. Last Saturday morning, dear friends Kash, Fong, Dr. Zana, Peter and me ran about 16km at the Bukit Jalil Park  and right after, all of us (except Dr. Zana) left for the National Aquatic Centre to meet up with Syah, Nadia and Shyrim. We were there for our Progressive Outdoor Swim (POS) no. 4 for a total distance of 3km. Here are some pics taken using my Nokia E71

p/s Tomorrow, a bunch of us will be doing our openwater swim training in Port Dickson. For more info, do check it out here.

more camwhoring in POS no. 2

Past weekend, a bunch of us did our POS no. 2. The swim was 1.5km in distance and we had great time swimming, eating and what else if not cam-whoring… hehhe… I met up with Cheramiche and Kash earlier for our pre-dawn run at Bukit Jalil Park. We had planned for a 12km run but only managed to run 8km-ish due to time constraint. We promised to run longer this weekend  

I love taking photos of people underwater … everyone seems to enjoy this session. Here are some of the pics taken using my Olympus miu Tough, enjoy (sorry cheramiche, you left early … tak sempat nak amik);

For this coming POS no. 3, we have changed the training location to accommodate for longer swim distance (we plan to run and swim again). Here are the details:

WHEN

THIS SATURDAY, 20 February 2010

RUN

RV : 6.30am @ Rear Carpark of Bukit Jalil Park … see my confusing map here for details … hahaha
Distance : 20km

SWIM

RV : 9.00am @ Entrance to Bukit Jalil National Aquatic Centre (RM4 per entry)
Distance : 2km

See you guys there!

Note : Bukit Jalil Park is located merely 3km away from National Aquatic Centre.

camwhoring @ first POS

Corporate Athletes’ Progressive Outdoor Swim (POS) no. 1 went well last Sunday. Four of us were there; Toll Doll, Shaq, Haris and me – unfortunately few guys didn’t make it. For the rest of us who turned up, we swam 25 laps of what we thought a 40m pool – only to find out later that it was only  25m, thus, short of 375m to 1km … yikes!

It was indeed a good training ground, especially for me who had left the swimming scene for almost 10 months now i.e. I only teach swimming nowadays. Since it took us hardly 30 minutes to complete the “1km” swim, we killed the remaining time camwhoring . Here are some of the pics that we took using my Olympus miu tough. Hope you guys enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed taking ‘em underwater …. let’s swim people!

A friendly reminder that the upcoming POS no. 2 will be this coming Saturday 13 Feb at 8.00am, where we will be doing a 1.5km swim. Please look at my previous POS entry (click here) for details.

another day in my life

Running a business while working full-time, plus having a family, can lead to a real hectic, but fulfilling life. And I for one, have been living like this for five years now. I guess I owe my deepest thanks, love and appreciation to wifey, who has been supporting me all this while, braving thru thick and thin. I owe her big time (thanks honey!).  Last Monday (a FT holiday for me, wifey and munchkin) was another crazy but fun day. This time, I brought along wifey just to let her experience ‘my’ life. This is how the day was spent;

6.30am – Wifey and I woke up. After morning prayer, we drove from our home to TTDI Park, KL.

7.00-8.00 am – PT session with a client. Wifey did her own training at the Park.

8.15am – After a quick Body Composition scan of my client, we made a budge back to Bukit Jalil.

8.30–9.30am – AquaPeople (swimming) session with two of my latest clients. They wanted to start sometime last month but kept postponing due to my busy schedule.

10.00-11.00am – Supposed to have another PT session with my client in PJ but it was cancelled last minute due to some unforeseen matter on his side. Instead, I took wifey and munchkin for some grocery shopping as I need to prepare some dishes for photoshoot session later that day.

12.00pm - Drove to Shah Alam for a meeting with my Publisher. I dropped munchkin and wifey at nearby shopping complex. Shopping is wifey’s fav. pastime … hehehe

12.30-2.30pm – Meeting with Publisher. My team was there as well. We discussed many issues and few new datelines cropped up. So far, the dateline seems achievable to me and my team. However, the initial plan to include a second book on Fitness had to be scrapped off due to time constraint. I promised the Publisher to complete the second book by June this year.

3.00pm – fetched wifey and munchkin from the mall. We had a late lunch together, and brought munchkin for a simple ‘funfair’ ride, before making a rush back home.

3.30-7.30pm – I cooked / baked 5 new dishes for the photo-shoot session, among it were Home-baked Mixed-Nuts Granola Bar and Peanut Butter Cornflakes cookies. By the time my team arrived at 4.30pm, I already had 2 dishes ready to be photo-shot. The recipes turned out to be very tasty, and each of us had our share right after the shooting. I was grateful that the session went well, with no leftovers!

Unfortunately, I had to re-schedule my 5pm fitness/health consultation session with a client (whom took up my Personal Health Lifetsyle Program last year) to 8pm later that night. My plan was to drop off wifey and munchkin at my in-law’s hse (which is just along the way) before the session, and to fetch them soon after I’m done with the consultation. 

8.00pm – It rained heavily with vicious lightning. I called up the client to cancel. Luckily, my client was very understanding and  I resorted to watching The Panic Room over AXN with wifey, while munchkin was busy completing her homework. In between, did more write-ups for the book until eyes were too heavy.

10.30pm – Received a missed call from my previous client, which I found out later that she wanted to start another PT package with me, and possibly to sign up her son for some sessions as well.

There you go! A very long Monday for me and I thank God for giving me loads of energy (plus good supplements too … hehheh ). So, how did your FT day go?

wild whitewater weekend

Few weeks ago, I blogged about my strong passion in whitewater rafting. I love water activities and practically tried to get myself in any activities that have water involved! Past few weekends, CA collaborated with the local whitewater rafting expert, Riverbug, and organised a rafting and abseiling escapade at Sg. Itek, Gopeng. Nine friends/clients of CA participated in the outing - Zaidi & wife Zetti, Syukran, Anne, Amir and his bro & friend. We also met a nice Singaporean couple, Kiran & Omar; and trio-bachelors, Tengku, Fairuz and Fendi (first stopover of their cuti-cuti malaysia roadtrip). Ahhh the latter reminds me when I was young …

We went through several rapids with grades ranged from 1 -3, namely

Have a look at some of the pics taken:

More photos can be seen at my picasa web album (just copy and paste the add) or just click here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ianyusof.corporateathletes/WhitewaterRaftingGopeng#

We were served great lunch prepared by the locals after the rafting. All the rafters were then transported to Kg. Geruntum located merely 45mins away from the rafting put-off point, where we abseiled down the Geruntum Waterfall. I’ll upload more pics on abseiling in later post. I plan to organise another rafting trip probably in Feb or March this year. Just look out for the updates in this weblog. Cheerio everyone!

Aqua Fitness

Corporate Athletes‘ Personal Swimming classes have gained its popularity since it was first estalished under the brandname AquaPeople three years back. This year alone, more than 40 clients have attended these ‘highly’ personalised classes. While AquaPeople’s purpose of existence initially was meant for lifesaving courses, my strong interest in swimming and water exercises have slowly brush aside the lifesaving certification courses.  

I love water and I love to swim. I’m truly a beach bum. I am the person whom you will see swimming in the sea at 12 noon …. stupidly enough, without applying any sunscreens. I will do any activities that are associated with water – kayak, rafting, scuba, snorkel, windsurf, bodysurf etc … geez, only if  I have a beach hut to support my aqua life.

Now, I am very happy to be able to educate other people how to love water too …  Basically, the aqua programs that I am offering emphasize on physical movement through water to stay healthy and fit, while enjoying the good feeling of submerging ourselves in the water – its therapeutic altogether. 

There are definitely more updates on AquaPeople – just keep on checking our website. In the meantime, we are still offering these programs at usual price until the end of this year :

• Aquapeople Personal Swimming Program – A package of 4 x 30mins sessions (RM100 per package)
• AquaFitness / AquaCardio / AquaStrength / AquaFlexi - A package of 5 x 60mins sessions (RM500 per package)
• Lifesavings certification Course (RM350 per course) – complete with certification from Malaysia Lifesavings Society, MLS i.e. if you pass the exam…hehehhe)

Grab the opportunity to love water and to feel good about it. Own one today.

Water for Fitness. Water for Wellness. Water for LIFE!

Contented with Life

Too many things happened for past few weeks, both joyful and sad experiences.

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5 new clients signed up for my AquaPeople swimming program last Friday. They were truly enthusiastic about learning the right techniques to swim. What supposed to be a 2-session syllabus were cramped into an hour of solid training. Now, they swim so much faster while utilising lesser energy …. job well done to all of them. Couldn’t wait to meet them up for the second session to share some other techniques…:)…

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I also had the chance to train the latest client of Corporate Athletes on Saturday over at his impressive condo at Jelatek KL. Was being told that some celebs live there as well – the famous designer Rizalman and his awesome duplex (just love the deco of it) and model Samantha Shubert & her Penthouse. My new client is a very commited, humble and easy-going guy. With his high level of commitment towards a healthy lifestyle, we should be able to see the results in no time ….. well, I will train another new client at the same location end of this week

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Visited an orphanage home ‘ Rumah Amal Limpahan Kasih’ (RALK) at Kg. Seri Aman, Puchong on Saturday. Brought along more than 20 teddies that we collected during the Teddy Bear’s picnic party (we even washed up some teddies and dressed them up in iana’s baby clothes and ribbons…hehehe) and also managed to collect more than RM900 from family and friends. Thank you so much to those who have contributed. I repeatedly told the caretaker, Ustaz Zawawi, that the contribution is from a Friend-Friend Network and nothing got to do with whatever business or association. Again, to the readers out there, the contributions are definitely neither from ‘Macam Bagus’ nor ‘Corporate Athletes’. I use this blog merely to share the experience that I had on behalf of this Friend-Friend Network’s sincere effort in helping out the under-priviledged children. Again, sorry that I couldn’t share my experience in pictorial form as I don’t find it right to snap photos while on their premises …. In fact, I do not want to let them feel ’special’ …. “vice versa“. We arrived there abit late as I was bogged down with some personal trainings. In fact, we came with 3 boxes filled with local kuihs which were snapped up in less than 5 minutes…..and what made me extra sad was that they enjoyed that only with plain water . I was also touched by the act of sincerity showed by the host. He came to join us for chat with 2 curry-puffs in his hand, and ended up having to snack only half of the puff as the rest were given to the boys who were continuosly fighting for the food…(well, you know how much boys eat..:)..). I guess that’s what differentiate true heroes from the average Joe like me. In fact, I’m truly not satisfied with the amount of food that we brought along with us (you know ler the price of kuihs right now….how much can you get out of RM30?), I will definitely cook up something for my next visit – at least with a RM30 budget, I can assure you that I can produce pots of ‘mee goreng mamak’ (well, that’s my specialty….hehehhe) for them.

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My aunt (dad’s sister in-law) passed away peacefully on 30th June 2008. She was diagnosed with cancer early February this year. She left behind a very loving husband (my Dad’s elder brother) and three wonderful daughters who grew up so well. I guess that completes a mother’s life and her satisfaction showed well on her ‘calm and smiling’ face prior to the burial. May Allah bless her soul. Al-Fatihah.