.... the jackal rides and run....

Ok, will be leaving for Ipoh Century Ride tonight. Me and Ben will be making a trip up Cameron Highlands tomorrow morning upon arrival on our bikes. It will be a non competitive ride of course. On the Ipoh Century Ride, I am just not in that kind of competitive spirit as last year to be honest so I'm just gonna shoot for a 5hr finish. I think doing so is already in itself quite a challenge! Monday : Went for a 10km run at ECP. Warm up 3km and then went on to sprint and recover exercises. Basically run fast for 18 light poles and recover for 8 light poles all the way up to the 10km point. Tuesday : Went for a 43km ride with Ryo. Revisiting the hills in the west, namely for this time; Pepy's road, Telok Blangah hill and Mt. Faber. In addition, a sprint finish at Nicoll Highway. Good workout. Wed & Thurs : Rest. Was on MC yesterday due to sore throat and cough. My whole family is down. I better take it conservatively this weekend....

I was kinda inspired after watching a few episodes a Malaysian program called Asian Food Adventures on the Asian Food Channel. It is a wonderfully (and tastefully) done and conceived program that touches upon local Malaysian traditional street and coffee shop fare. The difference between this program with many others, at least to me, was that it was able to connect to the human side of these dishes....focusing on the dish, the history, the evolution and most importantly the people who continue to cook and serve them. I feel kinda nostalgic and a bit sad when it is apparent that the cook is the last to serve those dishes as his/her children are generally not interested to continue the trade which brought them up. Strange but true. So yes, it features a lot on the older generations....and when these people stop cooking, the dish is either gone forever or in some form or another re-surface as a boutique dish served up in some old skool dish chain restaurant like Old Town White Coffee or

Saturday : This was a good workout ride with Ryo. Started out 5.30am from my place and cycled leisurely to the meeting point at AML. As usual Ryo was already waiting. Mr. Punctual. I was prepared to suffer as I know between the 2 of us, on this of ride there will be a lot of 'challenges' along the way. Pace was decent up to Old Upper Thomson Road where we got stuck behind a big group at relatively slower pace. After that, I think all hell broke loose. Sprinted at the slope going towards Mandai road.....went quite fast (with headwind as well!) at Mandai Road. Ryo led at 35+km/h along Kranji leading up to Neo Tiew and I tried to keep the pace there when I took over. At LCK, yet again going up to 38-40km/h just the 2 of us. Jalan Buroh was pure excitement as I knew he would do his best to destroy me at the slopes. The icing on the cake was the West Coast Viaduct where I managed to lead up 80% or 4.5km at average speed of 40km/h. Not that many trucks to help but I could detect a

This is the most expensive weighing machine I've ever bought. Of course, its much more than just that. This little fella measures/estimates body fat %, muscle %, visceral fat index, resting metabolism and even gives an estimate of 'body age'. The measurements are pretty repeatable as well; tried a couple of times and the measurements were about there. In brief, I have 19.5% body fat, 38.3% skeletal muscle and visceral far index of 7. All are pretty normal I guess. The visceral fat index is basically telling me how much internal organ fat I have and an index of < 9 is normal. The concerning thing was that it gave me a 'body age' of 48! arrrgh. Had quite a bit of fun letting some people try it our in the office.

Monday : Rest day as usual Tuesday : Went out for a 1hr ride at nearby Parbury Ave. Its quite a steep short ascent (>12% at its steepest I think). I haven't done this since July 2010 (!) on my Colnago. Decent as I managed to complete 13 rounds in slightly over an hour. Last time I normally only get to do about 10 rounds within the hour, there's some improvement, probably due to weight and a lighter bike! Wednesday : 10km run...just felt soooo sluggish the first few kms. By 7km the ave pace had increased to 6:10min/km.....determined to complete within the hour, I forced myself to get my ass moving. Managed to complete in just under the hour. Thursday : Got up early to do a ride but it was raining. Instead I swapped my wheels back to the HEDs. Friday : ECP Coastal ECP again. Feeling a bit tired as worked till late and only got home after 10pm. Nevertheless, still decent effort of 32.6km/h average over the course. The HEDs do feel 'better' and they lo

Short weekend as planned to head out for a short holiday with the family on Sunday. Did a long ride for Saturday. As usual, set the time 6.30am so that everyone could make it while I did an extra 30km prior by heading out earlier. Only Ryo turned up and rather disappointingly since the time was quite late and the traffic was getting horrendous, especially for a small group of 2! Decent ride with some fast pace in between. Ryo experienced 2 punctures which forced him out of the ride. The first was along Mandai and the other right after LCK, due to a slow leak in the 2nd tube. In the end, he had to stop and take the cab  back at Boon Lay rd as I headed back home alone. Just a short 10km run at ECP but with a slight twist. Ran at the grass and sandy areas instead of the normal path. Helped with my butt pain I think but by no means easy especially on beach sand. A good workout.

Monday was a rest day. No thanks to that highly disappointing England - Italy live football match that I watched live.By that its apparent which team I supported. A terrible performance but some piece of good defending though. Anyway, started back on the saddle on Monday for the usual 30km to sweat it out. Didn't go outright fast as felt kinda sluggish yet again. Top off the ride with 5-6 mins spent on planking below my block with rest time of course! After a week from running (longest period free of running in months I think!) I decided to go for a 10km barefoot run. The sore butt syndrome is still there but less. Got pretty decent speed out of the outing; just 10s than my PB barefoot 10km. Soles were, of course, battered. There's something about this soreness of sole when it hits the ground that I like! I went out again on the saddle on Thursday morning for the same 30km route. This time did it noticeably quicker and felt better too (maybe because I forgot to p

Truth be told, I've been feeling rather under the weather ever since the Marathon. I think its the culmination of all those days of running with lack of sleep and a poor core since March. I will gawk at the idea of doing another run more than 10km, to be honest. I really did not know what drove me the past months to do so. It's time to focus on cycling with the Ipoh Century Ride 2012 just around the corner plus that customary Cameron Highlands climb with Ben that we did last year as well prior to the Century Ride. I've no doubt that I can complete it with no issue....I guess I'm wondering if I could better my time from last year. A decent average speed of 33+km/h over 160km. On Saturday, made arrangements with Ben, Ryo and KL for a 70km ride starting 6.30am from AML (only took on this late timing due to Ben but he couldn't make it last minute). I headed out earlier on my own at a bit past 5am and did the Coastal Loyang loop, completing 34km prior to the ride wit

Felt quite lazy after the holidays to be quite honest and did not really rest very well at all! 3 minor workouts this week. Still have some butt soreness (could be piriformis acting up) on the left side so running wasn't too pleasant. On riding, the saddle feels good now that the saddle sores have 'healed' and its place some 'armor plating' has formed but from the 30km ride, I felt that the saddle was a tad too high and have since reduced it by a mere 5mm. Monday 10km Run Lethargic but at least managed to do it below the hour. High HR. Body weight was up 2kg due to holiday loading.After run was 79+kg.Didn't feel great due to the butt soreness.Hope it is not some major pelvic problem creeping up. Tuesday ECP-Coastal-ECP 30km Standard Saddle felt great. Decent speed actually but had massive winds heading back which is accounted by the high HR. I felt like I could not maximize my legs probably due to the saddle height. After the ride, I lowered by 5m

I inadvertently left my spanking new H-Street purchased from Al-Ikhsan at Mahkota Parade, outside an optical shop and thought it was gone. I only realized after leaving the shop but running back there they were already closed. I called them up the next morning but they claim to not find anything INSIDE the shop. Hours later they called back and said that from the CCTV, they saw me going out of the shop with the bag coming back to with the kids without the bag. I thanked them for the information and just gave up on it. Guess what, the lady (Esther) and the owner (Mr.Lee) of Tai Fah Optical at Mahkota Parade didn't stop there. Hours later they called again to inform us that they have found my shoes! Well, their CCTV also revealed that a cleaner picked up the bag. Esther went on to locate the cleaner and managed to get the bag back. Apparently, he was already trying to sell it back to Al-Ikhsan! I was really really touched and impressed by this level of 'service'. It was g

Totally disgusted with the cost of flying 5 people on budget air to anywhere for a short holiday, I opted a drive-to holiday this year to Melaka. I always liked this town and it does bring back to me at least, fond memories of Ipoh when I was younger or course. Ipoh town is more or less dead these days but in Melaka, its still bustling. The old colonial buildings are still very much in business albeit nowadays they are slightly more geared towards tourist dollars (local and abroad). Still, no charm is lost in this transition and I simply love coming here and just walking about the old town. A good chance to also test out my Sony NEX 5N..which did not disappoint though I need to really read up to learn-in the host of features that I've not touched! Here's a brief run-down on my trip with the family The Hotel : Casa Del Rio  I booked the 'family fun package' and even though it was a 'package' it did not come cheap. roughly about 300SGD per night. Upon a