Dream Machine

It has been a month now. And a blissfull month it has been.
No hassles of work, no worries of deadlines and paperwork. Don't get me wrong, I love my job.
I just hate the paperwork and administrative aspect that comes with it.

I spend my days taking care of my babies. I do some chores, watch loads of crap TV and get myself hooked on an Indonesian sinetron ( I blame my mom for this)
Best giler.

The other day, I went for my one month post natal checkup at the clinic.
The nurse asked me my weight the last time I stepped on the scale post baby.
Told her I didn' t have the guts to even peek at the numbers.

All I can say is, that day I found out that I 've lost
10 kgs over a month without even trying.
Bestnya if it's like this all the time.

The reality of it is, I have 4-5 kgs to go to get my pre pregnancy weight back and I predict that will take months and months.
Tu belum sentuh lagi pasal mantaining it.

Now that I've got 2 grown kids and a baby in the mix, I need all the motivation I can get to continue running.
So, it's plain logic that the next step is to splurge on a spanking new treadmill , right?
Logic la kan?

I want a ridiculosly large treadmill with its belt possibly wider than my current one. I want one with a built in LCD screen so that I can not only watch movies from it, but possibly surf the internet. I want one that is so quiet, smooth and efficient that I will not feel the minutes go by the whole time I'm running ( okay, this is like pushing it a bit).

I'm so peeved by manufacturers selling treadmills with belts so narrow, all you can do on it is catwalk. Sadly most of the treamills displayed here in Taiping are similar to those.

So nak tak nak kena venture pi KL la in search of my dream machine.
 Suggestions on where, anyone?

A Theory ?

So I got through it. And alhamdulillah, everything went pretty well.

While other women runners were struggling to finish or achieve their PBs during The Women's Marathon, I was on a struggle of my own, in full blown agony and pain, in labour with our 3rd child.

It wasn't easy (as if the first two was....pfftrtt).

With this one, at the 38 th week, I was admitted for 5 days due to maternal pyrexia ( demam daa..) and had to endure intravenous antibiotics 3 times daily ( sakit daa...). Seriously, nobody warned me beforehand it would hurt that much. Everytime they injected the antibiotics in me, I would wince and they'd be like, " It stings a little kan?". And I fight the urge to say, kepala hotak hang. Ha.

But I guess that's basically what's on my patients' mind when I give them a jab

An eye for an eye kot. Padan muka aku.

Then after that, was a long wait of when the contractions would come.

WIth my previous two children, both were born by the 38th week. This one decided to take her time and wait it out until full term.

After the 5 day stint at the hospital, I was too tired to continue working, my appetite was out and it seemed like everybody I knew who had the same due date had already given birth and there I was, still a blimp not even close to labour. And it didn't help that I got daily messages from family and friends asking " Tak beranak lagi ke?"

Tensi tau.

So then, after setting a record of being pregnant for 10 months and 2 days, FINALLY the contractions came. I was so relieved to finally carry my baby outside of me that I hardly blinked when my ob-gyn specialist told me I had to be induced because the labour was taking
too long.

Okay girls, if anyone tells you there's not much difference between natural labour pains and induced labour pains, that would be a big fat LIE.

I felt non stop strong contractions for 2 straight hours even after I was drugged with Pethidine and Nitrous Oxide. And you may be wondering, after all that pain, why not go for an epidural?

Okay 

1. I was too stingy to fork out another 800 bucks for someone to stick a large needle up my spine

2. For goodness sake, I'm NOT letting anybody stick a needle up my spine 

I won't go into the gory details about the birth giving process but what I would like to share here is the benefits of keeping physically fit prior the whole procedure.

Aku tak kata la aku ni Kathy Smith ke Jillian Michaels ke hape, but I guess working out during pregnancy and strengthening the ab muscles really helps.

When my 3.35 kilo baby came out without the need of episiotomy, it surprised everybody except WW, whose theory attributed it to the result of my excercises.

And sure I was battered with my whole body sore after the whole ordeal but the soreness and fatigue was almost completly gone by the 3rd day. 

My husband again theorized that the reason behind this was because I am a runner who's used to fatigue and have a fast muscle recovery rate due to this.

I don't know whether anyone has written a paper between the correlation  of excercise and post labour recovery ( malas nak cari kat internet) but I think it's a valid theory. 

So anyone yang sceptical or just wondering, feel free to test it out. 

Ha.

So now, post pregnancy.

Now what?

After reading all those race report of the recent marathons, it sparked up a bit of interest to try marathoning again. What's with my last full 42. Ks being almost 3 years ago. 

Tapi bila pikir balik all the time and sacrifices needed for training, tambah ada baby kecik lagi, tambah demands of work lagi, tambah no domestic help lagi, tambah bila teringat balik we had to start LSD for 30K pukul 4 pagi to make up time for the kids lagi ( wah, I still wonder how we pulled it off running loops around our housing estate), tetiba rasa cam berat je nak try balik.

So we unanimously decided to put that dream off for a couple of years and maybe just continue to focus on shorter distances  for the time being. Shorter distance means shorter training time comparatively because that's all we could afford right now. 

As for now, I'll give myself another 1-2 weeks rest before I get back on my feet again because hiding all these extra skin is too much to handle.

When I say skin, I actually mean flab.

As if you didn't know.

Pffttrtt......

Shut The Hell Up

With all the commotion going on in Sabah, I get nervous eveytime WW mentions about some sudden meeting. Sometimes he has to be on duty and sleep at the office to stand by for the latest command.

People have asked me, even the military dental devision is involved? Really?
Tell that to WW's boss, who's already in the field for some forensic work.

I hate to read what those keyboard warriors say online.
Rasa cam nak cabai je sekor-sekor sampai lunyai.

Our boys are out there defending the country's sovereignty, yang kau pulak dok canang hal politaik.
Asking about petty things such as who gets the contract of providing trailers to transport our military tanks and all that shit.
Dey, kubota bapak kau boleh bawak for free ke?

I don't know much of what's going on besides what you read in the papers. Being an army wife doesn't allow one such privilege to know confidential matters. But I really hope this will end soon.
In our favour of couse.

Pardon me for being emotional.

Anticipating

Still here.
I'm just 1-2 weeks away.
Finally.

When I punch in for work every morning, my co-workers are like, " You're still here?"
It's funny most of the time, annoying some of the time.
People have asked me, whether I'm still excercising.
As scary as you may picture it, I still am. To some limitations la.

No , I'm not trying to look slim at my 9th month. I'm just trying to maintain my fitness so it wouldn't be so hard bouncing back post-natal. Also , I hate to see the faces of the nurses during my antenatal checkup scrunching up when the scale goes slightly off the estimated weekly gain.
They'll bold the wretched numbers in red with a big fat arrow pointing upwards. Not that I got that many reds but even once is a hard embarrassing lesson ( although I suspect the student nurse read the darn scale wrong because I had to get on and off at least five times untill finally she jotted down the reading).
Denial.

I walk funny now. I remember once I saw a heavily pregnant woman in a shopping mall waddling away, and I was smirking to WW, " Why is she walking funny like that?"
Me and my big fat mouth.

What do I feel now?
Happy. Elated. Scared. Frustrated.
All in one ball.

Wish me luck guys.
I feel like I'm at the starting line of a race.

Pacemaker - A Review

Today I will review a movie in which we just saw yesterday after WW berjaya memeram this movie because he couldn't find the English subtitles the first time he got the movie and somehow forgot about it, for 8-9 months..

When it first got out, I was pretty psyched about it. I mean, you don't get a movie about running that often, do you? And the trailer looked great.

In fact, I think only a handful of movies was done before with a running theme. Documentaries excluded.
The one I remember best ( though very vaguely) was Forrest Gump. Tu pun not the whole movie was on running kan? Just a small part when Forrest decided to run because he remembered his momma saying "You gotta put the past behind before you can move on'" and at the time he was suffering from a heart break of some sort and ran for 3 years non-stop.

I remembered that particular scene (although I was only 14 at the time) because I thought it was epic and, let's face it, kinda sad.

Anyway, I guess I wanted to watch Pacemaker to get the essence of that. How great running can be. How healing and profound it is. Lagi pun, come on, it's a movie which centers upon marathoning. I'd be a fool not to be interested in that.

Spoiler alert. Don't go on reading if you don't want your opinions on this movie to be biased.

SPOILER ALERT!
SPOILER ALERT!
SPOILER ALERT!

It started out okay. It centers on Man-Ho, a runner, down on his luck, in heavy debt, working as a delivery guy for his friend's small restaurant and stayed there at night because, well, because he's down on his luck. He used to be a marathon runner with a PB a of 2:27 I think, but that was like a gazillion years ago. He had to stop marathoning because of some sort of a leg/knee injury but couldn't leave running entirely because he's so in love with it and because he's bad at everything else.

So to support himself and his younger brother, he became a pacemaker for the national running team. His job is to train with and pace other runners during a race and drop out midway to, you know, get the rhythm going.

Honestly, to tell you the truth, I forgot why he stopped being a pacemaker and ended up as a delivery boy instead but somehow his ex-coach approached him to be a pacemaker for the Korean Marathon team for the 2012 London Olympics. As a pacemaker for the team, he will be given a chance to participate in the Olympics even though it means dropping out halfway.

I mean, who wouldn't want to be given the chance, right? It's the freaking Olympics!

So he joined the team, being the butt of the jokes to some of his teammates just because he's well past his prime for a marathon runner. He didn't seem like a threat at first.

What I like about this particular part of the movie was that it reminded me of my training camp for the KKM Games back in June. When I had the chance to train in a stadium with real athletes and we breathed, slept and cried running. And for a moment there, it felt awesome.

But then, some parts of the movie bothered me. Like the fact that the marathon runners in the Korean team weren't gaunt like long distance runners are supposed to be. In fact, they were buffed and looked more like sprinters. Only the hero and the supposedly star runner of the team had that appropriate marathon runner physique. The writers didn't elaborate much on the training needs and methods of marathoning and road racing.. Instead most of the training scenes focused on them runners running laps around the track. Tapi kalau fikir secara logiknya, tak sempat  nak squeeze in all those fartleks, speed training and LSDs in the 2 hour movie kot because it'll probably bore the hell out of non-running viewers.

And then, just like Malaysian movies, and Thailand movies, and Indonesian movies, and Indian movies and all other Asian mainstream movies, mestiiiiilaaaaaa nak ada watak pak lawak Johnny Lever type dalam cerita. In this case, a black runner in the national team who claimed to be born in Korea and spoke fluent Korean ( I'm not too sure about that because I can't understand a word of Korean). Funny thing about this guy  (besides him cracking unfunny jokes) was that he's supposed to be on the national team but failed to start at every race due to stomach issues. So macamana depa ni nilai dia deserving to be on the national team?
Adoiyai.

Okay, back to Man-Ho, so he went off training with all these dramas around him. What's with his conflict with his more successful and ungrateful  little brother, the loan sharks and disputes with his team mates, he also had an inner conflict in which he fought to finally run for himself for the first time and not be a rabbit to anyone else. He ultimately found out that his  injury will take him to the final straw in which if he runs that Olympic marathon to the fullest, he will bust his leg/knees forever and will have to retire completely from running.

Somewhere along the film, he decided to quit the team because of all the conflicts and train with his restaurant- owner- friend to qualify for the Olympics.. Here, you will see some almost familiar scenes from Run Fat Boy Run and you will almost roll your eyes. After failing 2 times to successfully finish 2 marathons ( because his leg/knees will automatically bust at the 30th km) somehow he managed to get back on the national team and qualify for the London Olympic marathon. How that happened, I have no idea. Maybe his president pulled a few strings, suggested WW.

So he went and ran the marathon, initially as a pacemaker for the star runner. He's in good shape, weaving in and out of the pack, leading the team, picking up drinks and wet sponges for both him and the star runner. He's doing super and he's right on track until the 30th km in which he stopped because:
a. he's supposed to do that as a pacemaker.
b. his knee got busted. Again.

He was left standing there, while the rest of the runners left him behind for a good , what? 5 minutes? Then, miraculously he spotted his brother in the middle of the spectators opening a red umbrella as a cue for him to run faster ( this is in reference to a flashback in which his little brother opened a red umbrella for him to run faster in a school race).
Tetibe je, he was inspired to finish the race, limping and all.
 We all see that this is impossible. He will never make it. Not the whole remaining 12 km of it.

He was left behind so far. He had a serious long-standing injury. He was doomed for humiliation.
But cliches of all Korean drama cliches, he suddenly grabbed a flag from one of the spectators and used the stick to stab his right thigh. Repeatedly!
Konon to encourage more blood flow to his leg. Medically, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard but in the movie, somehow it did the trick.
With blood flowing down his leg, he was suddenly alright again and got the 2nd wind. Wah!
He managed to zip by all other runners in front of him, Kenyan, Ugandan, American, Chinese and all the big shots to chase the top two leaders: his team mate/ star runner and a runner from Japan ( Japan!).
People, this is impossible to do in a real race. In reality, in an actual race where all runners are at almost the same potential, even a 10 second lead is hard to beat, let alone 5-10 minutes. Unless orang depan tu jatuh tergolek.
But the hero did it.(Gasp!)
Well, almost.
He got second place. To pun photo finish. (In a marathon?) With the timing of 2:08. Wah...from 2:27 to 2:08? Giler kentang!

END SPOILER ALERT

Sebenarnya to be fair,  this movie ain't that bad. It teaches you the reality of the sport when it comes to running in teams. If you are good, then you're the star, it's all about you. If you're just so-so, you are just the team's domestique to make sure that the star player succeeds.
 To be successful in running professionally is not to be just good enough, you have to be better than everyone else.

In parts, I enjoyed the movie. I rolled my eyes at most of the 2nd half of the movie. It screamed all the Korean drama cliches in which I couldn't stand. Plus all the continuity errors.
But that's just me.

If you want to enjoy watching this, watch it with your running brain switched off. No doubt, it is inspiring in some ways.
Better yet, watch it with a non-running friend or family member to spark the interest of the sport.
Mana nak tau, boleh tambah satu lagi umat.

For me, I've had enough of the movie and the hero's freakishly large teeth.
Arrrr...

Keyboard's Fixed

Yes, yes, it actually took me 3 weeks to get my keyboard changed.
And it's a darn good excuse not to update as well.

I'm doing alright.
To keep being at this place, I ignore the digital scale in my bedroom. I don't let the cobwebs get to my treadmill. My son keeps the thing going every other day.
 Don't worry, he needs the exercise.
I still religiously exercise to that pathetic walking aerobics CD that I instruct my husband to hold his tongue while I'm at it. He tends to make fun of the people in the video especially the guy at the right hand corner who has the cheesiest smile and makes you feel like slapping him silly every time. EVERY TIME
I feel like a heel echoing the steps of the instructor to  90's-esque music, but I know it must be good for me.
Especially when I sweat like a short-no-neck-big-nosed-type-of animal at the end of the routine.

And it's this time of the year again, folks. When they start to advertise and post about races here and there. Among our favorites, Bidor Half and Larian Hari Keputeraan Sultan Azlan Shah are back this year. And so conveniently, the first all women marathon event will be held at around the same time I will be giving birth.
I read about all these updates, take a deep breath and brush that feeling aside.
That feeling of doubt whether I'll be back with my previous stamina post-baby.

But don't worry about me. It's just the hormones.
I blame everything on the hormones.
In fact, the hormones are responsible for writing this entry
The real me is actually munching on  mini seaweed rolls and wondering what to whip up the kids for dinner.

Irrelevant

A few weeks ago, I accidentally flipped on MTV and caught Taylor Swift's new video.
We had a good laugh.
Intro sikit punya ganas tapi bila start je lagu.......FAIL!

But a few days ago, this appeared on the net.
Brilliant!
Walk Off The Earth made the song a billion times better.
Almost made me reach for my guitar again for the chords.
Almost.

Short one today. My keyboard is busted so I'm writing this with he help of the mouse and an on-screen keybord.
Seksa.