Dawn

It came to me. My revelation

I was wondering why after Ramadhan, I felt exhausted. I no longer felt the rush to run. Running felt more like an OCD-ed chore. I felt lousy doing it but at the same time, it felt awful not doing it.

So I figured, I'd run faster. I increased my normal pace of 5.5-6 mph on the treadmill to 6.5-7 mph. Sure it got me on my targeted mileage faster, but I was sweating like a pig and breathless at the end of each run. I also tried to go faster on my long runs. I wanted to have a 10 K sub 1 hour record. I was obsessed with other people's achievement that I wanted to make them mine too. She's 5 years older than me but she's pacing at 7 mph. He's a dinosaur and he's doing 8 mph.

But I couldn't do it and I was stumped. And my left knee hurt.

Then, as if God didn't want me to be discouraged just yet, I stumbled upon this book which told me straight in the face what I was doing wrong. I wasn't training right. I was going too fast for my heart which hasn't yet developed for that stage.

So now I'm rebooting myself to heart rate monitored runs. This heart rate monitor thingamagig monitors my heart and tells me whether I'm going too slow or too fast. I understand that initially, it's gonna be a pain in the ass as I have to run slower than my usual pace. But eventually, as my heart builds up its endurance, I'll be able to go faster but not as tired as I was before at that pace. Macamana nak cakap ek? It'll be like, I'll still feel the muscle fatigue, but minus the exhaustion. Minus the injuries.

Last Saturday, I tried my first heart monitored run of 14k. As expected, into the 6th km, the monitor buzzed every 10 minutes we ran indicating we were running faster than we ought to be. So we had to bite our egos and walked for about 20 seconds to decrease our heart rate. Then, we ran again, and it buzzed again, and we walked, then ran, buzzed, walked, ran right up to the 14th Km.

Sure it took longer,but it felt way better. I can talk more with my partner and not be as grouchy in my faster runs before. And I can be rest assured that if I follow this heart monitor plan, I'll eventually go faster to my heart's content. Literally. I'll just have to be a little bit patient these few months.

For now, I'm settled if I can't go any faster. I'll just train at my pace. I have to remind myself that I'm not a natural born athlete. I can't afford to go out on daily outdoor runs on my time constraint. I don't sprinkle protein dust on my food. I can't do that sub 1 hour 10 K (for now).

I'm just a working mom, with a loving hub and two little kids trying to make ends meet. I'm trying to juggle work, household chores and hobby like your next Bozo the clown. I'm just a person who polished off that half a pizza pie without the slightest pang of guilt.

And with that in mind, I'm ready for my next run. And this time, I'm happy ready.


Footnote : I'm not a whiz when it comes to explaining all this technical mumbo jumbo, so if you're interested, try Googling about this heart rate monitor training plan. It could do you good too.

Accumulated week run : 23 K

Buat je

This entry is to motivate my good friend KC and my demotivated best friend PP

Out of nowhere she asked ," How do you start?"
Interesting as that's what I struggle with everyday.
How do you overcome all the lame excuses you try to make? How do you overcome the :
"No mood la"
"Ate too much"
"Ate too little"
"Too hot outside"
"It's raining" ( even tho it's just a drizzle)
"No time"
For an amateur, I think I'm in no place to give out big advices.But the best I could come up with is ~ Don't think, just do.
That's just about it.
When you're tired or down or full or swarmed with work or just plain lazy, don't over analyze it, just put on your shoes and go.
The first 5 minutes will be grueling. You'll want to stop, you'll want to haul those shoes in the drain, you'll swear under your breath what the hell you got yourself into, but trust me after those 5 minutes it'll be okay. Just do.
Best yet, somewhere in the run, your feet will go on autopilot and suddenly you find yourself thinking "What? *insert appropriate mileage* already?
Trust me.
Don't really think of how tired you will be, how fast you are, how slow you're going, how far you're covering. At least, not too much.
At the end, you'll think, by golly she's right. You did that much. You did that far. You did it.

As I mentioned, I struggle with this too everyday. If only runs were not that tiring. Ain't it grand if you can run all day without being tired? This I told him. He wisely nodded, then said " That'll be just great. Right until you drop dead smack in the middle of the road"

Right.

(Last week accumulated run was only 19K. Don't think, just do. Hehe)

blue suede shoes

hai hai

Pada satu hari, saya telah pergi ke shopping mall tanpa ada niat apa-apa. Tiba-tiba, kaki saya melangkah masuk ke kedai Adidas dan hati saya terpaut kepada sepasang kasut.


( waahh..shantekknyaaa)

Setelah men'test drive', saya berasa sangat teruja lalu bertanya kepada sang suami, "Patut ke tak patut?"
Sang suami menjawab, " Ambikla kalau rasa tengah kaya."
Ya, saya perasan saya kaya pada waktu itu, terus merembat kasut tersebut.
Budak kedai memandang saya dengan wajah skeptik lalu berkata,

Budak kedai : Akak beli ni sebab nak lari saje-saje ke ada tournament?
Tournament? tournament pun tournament la
Sang suami : Tournament
Budak kedai : Oooo, ye ke? Kat mana?
Saya : Merata-rata. Perak, Penang dan sebagainya.( macam bagus)
Budak kedai : Oo..kalau camtu kasut ni bagusla untuk akak.

Saya dapat agak budak kedai pada mulanya hendak merekemen kan kasut yang lebih murah untuk meyelamatkan saya dari hangat-hangat taik ayam. Syabas adik, usaha murnimu itu saya hargai.

Setelah dapat kasut di tangan, saya sungguh-sungguh teruja. Saya berasa ingin pulang ke rumah dengan berlari memakainya. Heee....

Oh Gazelle, semoga dengan kehadiranmu, saya akan sepantas namamu.
Chiuuuu chiuuuuu chiuuuuu... (bunyik seekor gazelle membelah angin di Afrika)



Nota kaki : This week, did my long run of 12km.. tu pun pancit jugak..hahah..bahana sebulan tak buat long run. Accumulated runs for the week : 23K

the spider and the ant

Wah! Dah bersawang blog ni rupanya. Sorry for the neglect. Been busy doing things:

1. Gaining back the 2Ks I lost during Ramadhan (unintentionally) hee..
2. Trying to learn how to play Heartless and Poker Face( and failing miserably)
3. Catching up with friends yang dah bertahun tak jumpa ( success!)

Now, I guess it's back to business. I just visited Kak Haza's blog and realized it's only 55 days left till PBIM on the ticker. Yoikes!
To those who are achieved marathoners, mesti fikir " Alah, mende la minah ni. 21 K pon nak kecoh"
Tapi I got really antsy just now. I got less than 6 weekends to train to 21 k. That's minus the weekend off training that I have to attend a friend's wedding in KL.
Guess I have to resume that 16 k next weekend.
This weekend? Err..malas lagi kot..heh.

Eid Mubarak!

Selamat Hari Raya to you and you and you!
Maaf zahir batin and have a safe ( not to mention looooooongggggg..ggg..ggg..dan gg lagi) trip home.
Buckle up people!

Taking a break

Early Ramadhan..
Mak : udah, udah le tu larinya
Me : bla bla bla ( long string of lectures about the benefits of running)

Late Ramadhan ..
Mak : Udah udah la tu larinya
Me : okay!( without batting an eyelid)

Dey, raya season is a week away...udah udah le tu..

Try to keep up, son

Phew!
3 days of all food and no work ( or play) made me one lazy lady.

I caught the flu on Friday and luckily that gave me 3 days of cuti to recover.
However on Saturday, my 4-and-a-half year old son insisted we take him running ( we promised earlier -adehhh), so ignoring my lethargic sluggishness, we geared up and went for a short 1k jog. My parents were out of town so we had to take his little sister along too.
Initially,we took turns running with Chiam, because Adik needs to be carried ( she can walk perfect, but on that day she demanded to be carried) but after some time it was all me and Chiam.



It was quite funny because Chiam tends to concentrate on other things besides the road so there was this one time, he ran straight into a bush because he was staring at his own shadow.


here's the promised pemandangan di kampung.


he just loves this ' telowong'


keep up, son.


" Back in the day, they used to poop in there"
Ye ke? Ntah..aku auta je lebih.


Gambar menunjukkan kami mengkaji grafiti di terowong
Chiam : Mama, FOK tu apa?
Me : Err.. it's a misspelled kitchen utensil, dear.


Balikkkk..try running on flu mode..1 k pon penat tau.

Sekian , trima kasih
p/s I'd like to thank Hub, as he was the photographer-child carrying extraordinaire.