Great run past weekend

Past weekend, CA’s very own thewildgym coordinator, Cheramiche (Che), organized a Trail Running cum PotLuck at Kiara Park. Twelve weekend warriors were there to take up the challenge. Che planned the route in such a way that it resembled the Salomon Trail Run, scheduled on 6th December 2009.

We covered about 14km of trail (based on Shuk’s odometer) and it was really a fun run with a really fun crowd. Here are some of the photos taken using my Olympus miu Tough.

We had a ‘buffet’ spread right after the run. Unfortunately, Syukran & wife Nazlee, and Doris & partner could not join us the potluck. For the rest of us,  we grabbed the opportunity to replenish what were lost during the run (well, based on Shaq’s HR monitor, he lost approximately 1,400 kilocalories). I prepared a do-it-yourself Salad SpringRoll. Big thanks to Kash and hubby for the one-inch thick watermelon slices (really sweet and juicy!), Syah for the jemput-jemput udang (springyly-soft prawn balls – with bite-size prawns in it), and Shuk for the freeflowing icy-cool 100+ and mineral water.

p/s – do check out these guys’ blogs too for more interesting stories.

KASH – http://run-kooky-run.blogspot.com/2009/11/kiara-trail-run-report.html

ENAIKAY – http://enaikay.blogspot.com/2009/11/sneak-preview-kiara-trail-run.html

SYAH - http://iamsyah.blogspot.com/2009/11/salomons-x-trail-and-janda-baik-weekend.html

SHAQ - http://lifeashaq.blogspot.com/2009/11/gbss-kiara-trail-run.html

CHERAMICHE - http://cheramiche.blogspot.com/2009/11/kiara-trail-run-14-nov-09.html

DORIS – http://doriscbwong.blogspot.com/2009/11/kiara-trail-run.html

SHUK – http://runningandsome.blogspot.com/2009/11/thingsof-trail-and-klang.html

SHAKHIR – http://wcr1414.blogspot.com/2009/11/trails-trails-trails.html

Come and join us at The Wild Gym

Corporate Athletes’ thewildgym was created earlier this year to provide the most recent reviews on parks, waterfalls, national parks, adventure activities and so forth. Our main aim is to get people to get active, and to get themselves involved in the outdoor activities, thus lessening the carbo footprints. For Corporate Athletes, the wild is our gym.

In making sure that reviews are proactively added and updated, Corporate Athletes is proud to announce thewildgym’s very own coordinator cum reviewer, and also a dear friend / team-partner of mine; Cheramiche, to look after this Project.

Cheramiche has a very strong passion in mountain climbing since 1999. He has even summited all the seven (7) top highest mountains in Peninsular Malaysia, known as The G7 mountains. He has also done several other mountains, including the highest in South East Asia, Mount Kinabalu.

He has also completed his first adventure race in the gruelling 24hrs race at Kuala Kubu Bharu way back in 2002. Since then, he just couldn’t get enough of adventure racing. He is also a team partner of macambagus; Corporate Athletes’ very own Adventure Racing Team. 

Now, he is one of the common faces in the major running events and adventure races on our local ground. In his free time, he loves to kayak, mountain-bike and bowl. His other hobbies include traveling, adding more Coke Collectibles, and photography. He is now a proud father of two sons.

This coming Saturday, November 14 2009, Cheramiche is organising a trail running at Kiara Park. There will  be a potluck kinda picnic right after. Following is taken from his blog. Come and join us for a good fun. 

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Attention all GBS! – Next Trail Run – Kiara – 14 Nov 2009 – Latest Update

Due to popular demand, we will be having another trail run this Saturday at Kiara Park. Shah suggested that we have a lil picnic so if u feel like bringing something to share, please do so. (sukarela)

In the mean time, here is the post-run ‘menu’;

• Delicious ‘home-made’ che-kodok by Shah
• Water and ‘iced cold’ 100+ by Shuk
• Tasty ‘mouthwatering’ melon by Kash.
• Healthy  ‘tummyfiling’ DIY popiah by Bro Ian

Meet at Kiara Park (TTDI) carpark (in front of the school) around 7.15am (we will try out the Salomon’s X-Trail route). Latecomers will have to run on your own la.. (as a reminder to myself as well not to be late). So please be punctual yer? There will be a group warm-up stretching before we start running (dengarnye our celebrity CA trainer will lead it? ).

See u guys this Saturday then! Dont forget your hydration bag/bottle as the run will be 1.5hrs – 2 hrs long.

Jom? for non-GBS also welcome aa.. I will be The Guide and dont worry, no one get to left behind (but u still have to run ok) we will stop for ‘take 5′ whenever necessary (and to make sure everyone are present).

Just a lil reminder : As we share the same trail with MTBikers, please watch out where you are goin, esp when running up or near a corner. Do shout ‘BIKE!’ if you think the person behind u is not aware of it.

Safe running and enjoy it! Tschuss!

-Cheramiche-

getting ready for TNF

At 10am this morning, Macam Bagus will be competing in The North Face (TNF) Run in Singapore.  This time around, I’m buddying up with my dear friend Syah for the very first time. We signed up for the 50km duo category. We have trained together in the last three Progressive Outdoor Runs (POR) held over three consecutive weekends, as logged below:

POR1 – Nuang Recreational Park (to/fro Lolo Camp) : 8 km

POR2 – FRIM (Cheramiche Trail) : 12km

POR3 – Nuang Peak (highest in Selangor) : 17km

My own training actually started earlier this week. With work and business at its peak, I could only spend 20-30 minutes on each of my training sessions. Most of the time, I trained during the lunch break i.e. only on treadmills. Here’s my training menu:

Tues (20/10/09) – Time on feet (TOF) : 10km/hr – 30mins

Wed (21/10/09) – Fartlek I : 5 sets of (in sequence) 10kmph (1min), 11kmph (1 min), 12 kmph(1min), 13kmph (1 min)

Thurs (22/10/09) - Fartlek II : 5 sets of (in sequence) 10kmph (1min), 12kmph (1min), 11kmph (1min), 13kmph (1min)

Fri (23/10/09) - TOF : 10km/hr – 30mins

Enough training? I hope it’s sufficient (macam bagusss!!). Anyway, TOF, here we come! …. and don’t be too hard on us.

POR III – Uploaded & Conquered

POR III went well last Sunday. 5 guys turned up that morning. Team Grim Duo arrived at the meeting place THE earliest. I came in 45mins late. Thanks to the two open houses that I attended previous evening. A newcomer, Zul, tagged along  in my car. It was his very first trail run. Our regular buddy, Syah, also joined the run. Since it would be around 6-hour POR, few had to give up the offer due to numerous raya open houses’ invitations. 

We started at 7.40am. The first 5mins  was just fast walk to warm-up our cold muscles, and soon after, we found ourselves running (or more like a jogging pace) along the rolling terrain. Somewhere at this point, Zul gave up and went back to the Park HQ. The four of us then continued our run for the Nuang Peak.

These are some of the photos taken with my Olympus miu Tough. Enjoy.  

We covered a good distance of 17-19km of trail running (hiking on steeper sections). We arrived at Park HQ at 1.40pm, approximately 6 hours after. It was a good run. After three PORs over three consecutive Sundays, Macam Bagus is now ready to face the The North Face Challenge this coming October 24th in Singapore. Wish us luck and hope we did well. 

Progressive Outdoor Run III

I am glad that  two PORs have been carried out in last 2 consecutive sundays – POR I at Gunung Nuang (until Lolo Camp only) for 8kms and POR II at FRIM Kepong for a good 11-12kms. To ensure that there’s progress in the running distance, I am planning for the Peak of Nuang, the highest in the state of Selangor @ 1498m, for this Sunday’s POR III.

As usual, Corporate Athletes are inviting friends and athletes out there to trail-run together. There are no charges/fees for this run, and please bring your own hydration belt or bag, preferably with the capacity of 2-3 litres. Please pack along some candies, ORS and food-gels too as we will be covering appproximately 17km of trail running/hiking for an approximate duration of 5-6 hours. 

Please find below the details about CA’s Progressive Outdoor Run III :

Date : 11 October 2009 (Sunday).

Meeting place : Gunung Nuang Park Headquarters. Look out for Corporate Athletes bunting near the carpark.

Registration : 6.45 am

Start : 0700 hr (with 10.30am turn-back time)

Finish : 1300 hr

Distance : 17+ kms

Some food and refreshments will be served after the run, courtesy of Fitness Kitchen. See you there!

p/s – This will be the last POR for the season. The following week is a tapering week before the TNF in Singapore.

For those who are new to trail running, you can check out my previous post here. 

POR II – FRIM Exposed

We just completed the Progress Outdoor Run (POR) 2nd Series at Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) yesterday. Total of five runners turned up that morning. We had a great Sunday run and managed to cover a distance of 10-11km. 

After the run, we had a quick breakfast of eggwhite bruschetta with lettuce brought from home, and loaded further with FRIM’s cafeteria nasi lemak. As we burned more than 1,000 kilocalories that morning, we could still manage to spare few more calories for other open-houses that day. Well, this is what exercise can do to you – consume food without guilt! 

p/s – Since POR I and II covered 8km and 11km respectively, I’m seriously thinking of doing Nuang Peak for POR III. It will be a good 17-18km of trail running. It will be this Sunday and expect the run to be abt 3-4 hrs long. Any takers?

Progressive Outdoor Run II (POR)

POR I at Gunung Nuang went well last Sunday. We managed to trail-run for a total distance of 8km. This Sunday, CA will be organising POR II,  hoping to cover a good distance of 10-12km.

Corporate Athletes are inviting friends and athletes out there to trail-run together. There are no charges/fees for this run, and please bring your own hydration belt or bag (also as part of the training).

Since we are still in the raya mood for open houses, expect the run to be abt 3-4 hrs long only, and we should be back to homes by 11am-11.30am, just in-time to prepare for any Raya Open House at noon …. )

Please find below the details about CA’s progressive run :

Date : 04 October 2009 (Sunday).

Meeting place : Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) in Kepong. Look out for Corporate Athletes bunting near the mosque’s carpark.

Registration : 6.45 am

Start : 0700 hr (with 9.00am turn-back time)

Finish : 1030 hr

Distance : 10-12 km

Some food and refreshments will be served after the run, courtesy of Fitness Kitchen. See you there.

For those who are new to trail running, you can check out my previous post here. 

a great Sunday run

CA’s very first Progressive Outdoor Run (POR) took place yesterday at Mount Nuang, Ulu Langat. We had a great time. It was also the first time that I met in-person with other runners/triathletes cum bloggers whom became dear friends over such a short period of e-social networking.

The day started very early for my helper and me as we had to prepare few sets of Fitness Kitchen’s signature Triple Decker sandwiches. We prepared 8 sets to be exact. Frankly, I wasn’t sure how many people will turn up that morning. I thought if worst comes to worst, we could just split the sandwiches in half, as half of it is already ‘filling’ enough (Isn’t that right, Kash? *wink* *wink* )

Seven runners turned up that morning.  Syah arrived first, followed by Kash and hubby, Rais and friend, Day-O. Nik came in next, while the Grim Duo team (sapa lagi kalu bukan Cheramiche and Shaqi) came -in last (hmmm, I kinda like this statement) ….. from now on, the latter will be the greatest enemy of Macam Bagus.  grrrrrr …. see you at Genting Trailblazer 2009.

As all of them are experienced athletes and due to time constraint, I skipped the trail-run talk and the warming-up & guided Flexibility Training session that I intend to do. After a very informal briefing and own stretching, we started the run.  We started the run 15 minutes behind schedule, and decided to change the turn-back time from 8.45am to 9.00am. I think we did a good job in keeping up with the time, plus we were not far from each other too. Hope you enjoy the pics.

* I wrongly led them not once, but twice  We had to clear bushes in our first ‘Lost’ episode i.e. that was also the time that Kash told us that we had over-trained. gulped!

We had a great time, and I truly enjoyed the company. There will be POR no. 2 this Sunday, and Cheramiche is assisting me in coming up with the venue. One thing for sure, the distance will be longer. We will post the venue once it is finalised. Again, it’s open to all but do inform us in advance ya to allow us to prepare sufficient post-run breakkie. Ciao.

Reminder : Progressive Outdoor Run (POR)

Alright guys, this is just a reminder for the upcoming POR. The details are as follows:

Date : 27 September (Sunday)

Meeting place : Gunung Nuang Park Headquarters’ Carpark. Look out for Corporate Athletes bunting.

Registration (by Park Authority) : 6.45am

Start : 0715hr (with 8.45am turn-back time)

Finish : 1000hr at Carpark (expect to reach KL around 1100hr, just in-time for any Raya Open Houses) 

Distance : 4-6km

Things to bring / wear :

1. A hydration pack – can carry at least 1.5L of water. For those who do not have any hydration packs, pls. bring water bottles and place them in a daypack. The heavier the pack gets, the better is the workout
2. A pair of trail/running shoes – you just have to make sure that the shoes have good sole as the trail can be rather slippery.
3. Oral Rehydration Salts (optional)

IMPORTANT : You will have to sign the Indemnity Form on the day of the run. Also please make sure that you have your own breakfast prior to the run. Our sandwiches will be distributed after the run.

Please take note that this POR is not necessarily for those competing in the race only, but is also opened to those who want to venture into trail-running. However, you need to attest that you are physically fit to take part in trail-running.

For those who are new to trail running, you can check out my previous post here.