Costa Rican Vacation - ENJOY!!!!

(Courtesy of Ian Hay)



I'd like to say that I'm posting this for education purposes but to be honest it's because it's gross. You have been warned.

Bankers - A couple of gems

(Courtesy of Matt and the Telegraph)

Having been on the receiving end of a banking collapse partly due to their greed (but also the incompetence of the British Government), I particularly enjoyed these little gems - at least I can still smile about it.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Mohan the Great sent a video with a message

Mohan sent this email and the following video clip - inspiring! Watch it next time you're feeling a bit sorry for yourself and then stop ya bitchin and get on with life.

"Please spend a few minutes of your time to watch this video.
Nick Vujicic who was born without arms or legs, has such a powerful message to share.
I am sure we can all learn from him.
Just click on the link below.

Regards
Mohan"

GE 30K a.k.a. GE 30H(ills) (with photos)

(Photos courtesy of Shazly and Tey)

Race organisers in KL are starting to get a little wearing - in more ways than one. After Mizuno 10k was renamed Hillzuno 10k and then the Malakoff 12k course was changed to two loops of only uphill running (or that's how it seemed). Now the Great Eastern 30K, which was hard enough this close to Christmas as it was, has been redesigned to test the mountain goats within us.

The course was all the usual hills, plus hills in KL that I didn't even know existed and to make matters worse the race organisers having obviously run out of hills made us run up the same flippin hills again on the way back.

So to the race, being deep into Ironman training now and last week being the heaviest yet with 26 hours of hard core cardio work, Saturday being a hot 186k ride to PD and back (via Megamall) followed by a 9k hilly interval brick run, I wasn't expecting too much from this race.

I started at the back with the rest of the Team Tri Hard members (except Sam who was reported to be at the front toeing the line with a steely look in his eyes). The gun went and a couple of minutes later we shuffled over the line. You won't be surprised to hear that the first couple of K are straight up - non stop climbing. My plan was to put in the distance and nothing else.

That's when I met one of my usual inner training buddies, Earnest Ego; Neil and Aaron were starting to pull away once the runners thinned out a bit so Mr Ego pushed me on a bit and soon I was in front of them with a spring in my step and a feeling of invincibility.

Oh well I thought, I have nothing to prove today I can give myself permission to back off as soon as I run out of steam. So how long could I keep it up was the question. I didn't push too hard but it was certainly above moderate for such a long hilly run.

Running down Double Hill I passed Kona Carmen who was looking very strong, she informed me that Sam wasn't too far ahead; that may have been the case but it was quite some time before I saw him in the distance and quite a while longer before I pulled up on his shoulder.







He was having a very solid run, and looked in fantastic shape for IM (he should be quietly confident).











A few hundred metres later the first runners were on their way back, a Kenyan in first place, a Moroccan in second. We are so privileged to have these sort of guys running these races, they are awesome. Iwata-san was up there too, looking "as hard a nails" as usual, Don looking good too and he didn't look too worried when I told him I was catching him up.






As I ran up the final hill to Sri Hartamas and the Petronas turnaround I came across Gan from my office, I couldn't believe it, he was just a beginner not so long ago and now he was nailing this run. As I ran past him I asked him if he was trying to make me look bad! He just laughed and 30 seconds later came steaming past me again. It was quite some time before I caught him up again but by then I think the hills were starting to take their toll on him. I doubt that I'll be ahead of him on any run by this time next year though if he carries on like this - keep it up dude.

On a similar note, I met loads of people during the run that I know from the tri circuit and quite a few that said hi that read this blog, which was really nice of them. Today was a real festival, I was totally inspired by the people that were still heading out long after I'd gone round the half way point. Without exception they had smiles on their faces and were doing what the rest of were, just a little slower but with the same commitment, the same job to do and they are no less important, if anything these are the real heroes, the weekend warriors, the grass roots of what we do - there were several thousand people running on Sunday and a story worthy of any Sunday Newspaper Supplement behind each and everyone of them I'd wager - Glorious!

As we headed ever nearer the finish I reminded myself that there is always a sting in the tail of this run, you just start to think that it'll all be over soon and then they send you right instead of left (away from the finish) and over another hill. Thankfully I was prepared and dealt with it as we went up up and up across the second part of Double Hill, past the National Monument and back to Lake Gardens. Just a final 100metres now...HANG ON...what do you mean turn right...we've already had the sting...surely not another one!!!! Fortunately only a little hill, it was just a shock that's all - credit to the organisers, they tricked me again. Down to the finish, 2:25:30 my personal best for this race by over 30 minutes.

I got my medal, said hi to Hayley (she won of course), Julie who is looking fabulous and pregnant - she'll be back next year showing us the way, and then Sam tapped me on the shoulder - blimey just 4 minutes behind - nice job (no need for quiet confidence, you can start shouting I reckon).

I then jumped into the car and speed off to take the boys to a birthday party at the Science Centre - as I pulled out of Lake Gardens I saw Bee streaking for the line, Gan struggling a bit but he was almost there and then KK, Randy and Emma who all unceremoniously threw themselves onto the bonnet of my car - NICE, thanks for that guys. Fortunately there was a policemen right there so making the police report was fairly simple.

On a final note, Shazly was out on his motorbike, camera in hand, he took the attached pictures. Very cool shots I thought, different from the usual sports angles. If anyone is doing the Ironman in Langkawi, Shazly will be there with an assistant taking pictures which he will then edit and build a photo book for anyone that is interested. He will be charging a fee of course but if you want to explore this further he can be contacted on smoothshazly@gmail.com.

Mohan The Great

Now this is a story worth telling. While Shilpa was running the Bangkok marathon a guy running along side says something along the lines of - "You're from Malaysia aren't you?", "Shilpa isn't it", "Your husband runs a lot I think".

It turns out that this guy is a Pacesetter from KL (I stand corrected, he's from Singapore but treats KL as his second home) called Mohan. He takes a few photos of Shilpa and promises to send them to her when he gets back - he does just that but a bit belatedly because of the busy schedule he has...read on...

At that time he was in the middle of running 9 marathons in 9 weeks. Last weekend he finished his "9 in 9" at the China Coast Marathon in Hong Kong - he says "Only words to describe the race: - 'Tough but Fantastic'- Very hilly but very scenic course - you should try it next year".

Mohan takes his marathons very seriously but doesn't spoil them by trying to set new PB's, instead he focuses on making new friends and taking photos (he seemingly always runs with a camera). Now this is an attitude I like, you can never get burnt out, never be disappointed with your performance and never get bored with an attitude like this - I have the utmost respect.

A final thought regarding Mohan's achievements, in 2008 he ran 21 Marathons, actually 17 Marathons and 4 ultra's - Hence I decree that he shall from henceforth be known as "Mohan the Great" and all runners on the Sri Hartamas route on Sunday mornings shall bow down before him.

I have a new sporting Icon.

The Week That Was - (IM - 7 weeks to go)

This week was the heaviest yet culminating with the Pacesetters/Great Eastern 30k Run. The injury seems to have been kept at bay with lots of heat treatment (deep heat ointment) but it's still floating around so I have to be careful. Lost another KG so that's all on track.

Monday Kicked off with a very sore left calf muscle/Achilles. A solid swim helped "massage" that and loads of heat ointment to hopefully stimulate the body to repair it. Managed a decent hour and a half on the turbo in the evening without aggravating it too much but boy is riding on the turbo boring or what (even in front of the home theatre)

Tuesday again started with a pool session, longer this time and my right arm is definitely feeling strained - blimey, I'm falling apart. At lunchtime I did my usual spin class and a bit of core work and stretching. The evening turned out to be rather eventful - I started a gruelling 15k interval session on the treadmill only to have the treadmill split in half during the session (how fat am I) - the belt kept on going so I finished it anyway - similar to the bike turbo this is numbingly boring.

Wednesday Ironman training is starting to get into a routine now and today is my usual 80k ride before work immediately followed by a run. Last Wednesday I managed a little under 11k but for some reason this morning I was totally in the zone - I added a couple of K onto the run at the end and managed a very credible 12.5k at quite a rapid speed - must be getting fitter - can't help thinking there's a big crashing abyss lurking around the corner. Wednesday night was the tri swim squad coached session at Bukit Jalil Stadium - my right arm was strained so I was a little nervous about this session - after a few drills and some input I felt that my technique was massively better and sure enough no strain on the arm - BREAKTHROUGH!!! 3.5k of hard sets in the bag.

Thursday real long hard swim at home again in the morning, even after last night it went well (another 3.7k in the bank). The evening is what I try to tell myself is a recovery run but I hate it, legs are like stumps and it really is a slog. I did two loops and Shilpa ran with me for the second loop which helped enormously (9k but the less said about it the better)

Friday a turbo session in front of the tele. A mindnumbing hour and a half but the boys came and kept me company for the last bit before they went to school. Somehow I managed to break my saddle during this session - should I be starting to get paranoid about my weight I wander?

Saturday 196k, rolling hills to PD via Megamall - pretty hot today - Sam took a shorter route so it was left to Aaron to keep us honest and hurt us. He did a fine job. Did my usual 8.8k brick run afterwards, it was tougher than last week, partly as it was hotter but pulled it off OK. Thought to myself, nice job, the week's over - but then remembered the small matter of the GE 30K race in the morning - oo ere!

Sunday GE 30k Race, went better than it should have, fabulous pace for a training run, can't help thinking that I'm still motoring on borrowed time - I'll keep it going while I can though - no complaints, I just don't want to fall flat on my face come race day.

Again very happy with the week 26 hours of hardcore cardio all quality sessions (even the ones I hated). I've dropped another Kg but the Calf/Achilles is still niggling and may pop at any point if I'm not careful. If I'm to follow my periodisation training then this week should be an easy week, however, I may start the week with the intent on keeping the volume the same or similar as last week but easing off on the intensity and see how that goes.

A solid swim again this morning kicked the week off nicely and I took the boys to school (almost on time) afterwards - 6 more weeks to go and 4 weeks of misery before the taper starts.

Ride/Run & Run Alert - Sat 17th & Sun 18th January

Saturday 17th January

Ride
Destination: PD
Distance: 186k
Intensity: IM training, moderate, endurance
Difficulty: Flat & some Rolling hills
Meet point: Mega Mall
Time: 06.30am

Brick Run
Location: Country Heights
Distance: 8.8k
Intensity: Hard - intervals
Difficulty: Rolling hills
Time: Immediately after ride

Sunday 18th January

Run
Destination: Pacesetters/Great Eastern 30k
Distance: 30k
Intensity: IM training, moderate with easy start and finish
Difficulty: Hilly
Meet point: Bukit Aman
Time: 05:30am

Broken Saddle

I'm setting myself up for the obvious comments again but I can't lie, my big fat bottom broke my beautiful San Marco Aspide Trigel saddle this morning. It had made some funny noises during the ride on Wednesday and as I was struggling through this morning's turbo session there was a big cracking noise and the saddle became very asymmetric.

Deja vu after Tuesday night's treadmill incident but in the spirit of things and as I'm becoming accustomed to broken gear mid session I carried on and finished an hour and a half set, albeit a little lopsided.

As it happens the almost indestructible titanium rail sheered in half!!

All sarcastic comments will be ignored but feel free to post them - I'm a big boy (too big it seems).

Dirty, Filthy, Lying...

Ironman Germany, the company, the organisation the whole melting pot of them are dirty, filthy, lying b'stards.

Sam and I sat at our computers waiting for the 10:00am (5pm KL time) deadline; we kept refreshing the online registration site every few seconds or so and not once was the site shown as active and accepting online registration.

Now there's a message on the website saying: -

- Frankfurter Sparkasse IRONMAN European Championship -
Additional slots for the race in 2009
All additional slots for our race 2009 are full. The online registration has been closed.

Clearly all the additional slots had already been filled by "insider" registrations and the whole thing was a dirty corrupt scam.

As you can see I am spitting bricks - I've waiting months for this moment as the original race was sold out instantly. I've telephoned them, emailed them, had my extremely patient sister help as she lives in Germany and speak fluent German and the result is this load of trollop nonsense.

I didn't assume that either of us would get in but at least we thought we'd have a fair shot at it. As you may know I don't like to lose but I hate, despise and will never except being deceived.

YES I AM ANGRY

Ironman Germany

In just under an hour and a half Sam and I will be desperately trying to secure two of a handful of places that will be opened up for Ironman Germany 2009. The race was sold out in minutes and these places are from those athletes that have had to withdraw for one reason or another.

The registration will only be open for a few seconds - nail biting stuff - we have to get the application form filled out and the online payment made before the hundreds of other hopefuls.

Can't say I'm overly confident that we'll pull it off but we have to try and be optimistic - we both registered with the payment site, I have practised filling out the minimum requirements on the entry form and I have 6 different credit cards lined up to ensure payment including my sister's German credit card.

Fingers crossed - the next post on this subject will be total elation or a short comment expressing the fact that Sam and I didn't really want to go anyway (you know the truth though!).

WISH US LUCK

Broken Treadmill

Can you believe it - I broke Shilpa's treadmill in half last night? Surely I'm not that fat am I? (Don't answer that)

The belt kept on turning so I finished the session running on one side or the other - quite funny when you think about it.

Golf made simple

(Courtesy of Mike Williams)

Mike sent me this with the following comment "Can you take a look at this before we play golf next time - want to make sure you're completely f*cked up so I can start winning some money again!"

For the record, Mike is a fabulous golfer and always wins money off me, except a couple of times when he played with a strained arm and flu!

However, I have looked at the diagram and it appears fairly straightforward and just reaffirms what I think I'm doing already - reality might be different but the mind is convinced.

Click to enlarge

For Seb and Sid

(Courtesy of Chris Wayman)

Bob the Builder teaches us to rave!!!

PS When Chris sent this he'd just done a run in the UK - IT WAS MINUS 8 DEGREES CELSIUS

The Week That Was - (IM - 8 weeks to go)

As promised a quick update. The volume is starting to mount and I'm now flirting with injury 0h-O!

Monday started off with me sore as a sore thing after the mega run the day before. Couldn't bring myself to do either the planned swim or turbo.

Tuesday was much better though with a solid swim, spin class at lunch time and a mega treadmill interval session in the evening. The treadmill session seemed easy on paper but turned out to be a mind bending exercise of pain, torture and torment. Somehow I finished it but on reflection I'm not looking forward to that again on Tuesday.

Wednesday was a bit of a tormentor too, it was a 80k ride followed by an 11k run all before work. I kicked off at 5am on the lonely lonely ride. All went well though and even the run afterwards seemed to come together nicely. The evening was the usual triathlon training session at the Commonwealth stadium. 1k of warm up and drills followed by 5 sets of 300m at which point the coach went a bit insane and instead of giving us one last short set he came up with an idiotic 20 x 50m sprints. Even after that he gave us another set of something or other but I'm too tired from thinking about it to remember what that was. Total swim 4k - strangely I felt good!

Thursday real long hard swim at home in the morning followed by a 9k run in the evening - Shilpa ran the first half with me but by the end my legs felt like numb tree trunks!

Friday I was supposed to do a bike ride but just couldn't face it in the morning...or lunchtime...or evening - USELESS!

Saturday 190k, very hilly ride - didn't cook myself but did all the hills very solidly - my bike distance has increased rapidly and I'm finding it easier than I think I should - I'm not going to complain though. After the ride a mind bending 8.8k hilly interval run - collapsed into the pool to try to cool down afterwards.

Sunday was the usual long run although I was hoping to do at least 25-30k. As with last week I felt strong and so headed out at a reasonable pace although glycogen levels were clearly lower and muscles tireder - ran back from the 11k drinks stop with Sam and then it happened, I started feeling a twinge just above my left Achilles tendon and at the bottom of my calf. I soon decided to stop at 21k just in case.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the week, I've dropped another Kg and the volume is on target with speed way ahead of where I expected. Next week will be tougher though as the volume picks up - I won't miss any of the sessions and have a couple more to add in there too. Calf/Achilles is a bit of a worry though, it's giving me jip this morning so I need to watch that - ice, ibuprofen and deep heat will sort it I hope.

A solid swim this morning kicked the week off nicely and I even got some more done to the boy's climbing frame over the weekend so all looking good so far - 7 more weeks to go and 5 weeks of misery before the taper starts.

Where's the Sense?

Seeing dead children on the front page of the newspaper every morning is eating me up.

It seems to me that the Muslim world primarily focuses on the plight of the Palestinian people. While the West and in particular America seems to mainly focus on the Israel side.

Understandable perhaps, but people and children are dying needlessly on both sides - PLEASE STOP IT!

I've always held the view that to stop a conflict of any sort, one side or the other needs to be the bigger and better person. Stand back, even if it's your own loved ones that have died - hitting back will ultimately only mean more pain and misery for yourself, your people and possibly your loved ones...

Now it's more complicated, things have changed... I'm a dad now... just the thought of those pictures... They send horror and anguish to my very core. In the same situation how could I stand back and be the better man? My heart would be filled with the same feelings of rage, hatred and revenge. But something must be done... somehow sense, peace and sanity must prevail.

Hamas, (Iran, Syria and anyone else for that matter) accept that Israel is here to stay - they are just as passionate about their religion, their people and their families as you are. You think firing rockets at them and killing a few of them every few months is going to make them go away? I don't think so!

Israel, you have the might and the power to destroy and kill but you also have the power to bring this conflict to an end, give the Palestinian people their own homeland; it may not stop the extremists but their grass roots support would be gone - it shocks me after the holocaust that you choose violence over what is the right and honourable thing to do. Of course you have the right to defend yourselves but do you honestly believe that killing families and their children will stop them wanting to hit back? I don't think so!

I'm not a big fan of religion, its divisive and causes too much conflict but this conflict has gone way past just being a religious issue - it's become two feuding clans who have forgotten what the real issues are - they are blinded by their own hatred - THEIR 'TIT FOR TAT' VIOLENT ACTIONS ONLY REINFORCE THEIR COLLECTIVE BLIND RAGE AND INSANITY.

I believe that Bill Clinton was on the cusp of achieving something of a lasting understanding and peace between the two sides and I squarely blame George W(ar) Bush for the thing falling apart. Clearly the Israelis and the Palestinians aren't capable of sorting this out between themselves - let's hope Mr Obama can restore some sanity.

Now that's got to hurt

(Courtesy of the Telegraph)

A New York surgeon who donated a kidney to his wife was so upset by her alleged infidelity that he has gone to court to get it back.

Dr Richard Batista, 49, said he didn't think twice before giving up the organ eight years ago when his wife Dawnell fell ill.

But now he claims that she repaid his kindness by having an affair before filing for divorce, and is determined to receive recompense for risking his life.

"There's no deeper pain you can ever express than to be betrayed by the person you devoted your life to," he told reporters. "I saved her life but the pain is unbearable."

The vascular surgeon's lawyer Dominic Barbara said his client wanted $1.5 million in compensation for the kidney as part of a bitter matrimonial break-up which has dragged on for three years.

Sugar Low

I'm experiencing a bit of a sugar low at the moment - I wrote something about the Middle East conflict and that sent me into the mire so I looked for something to make me chuckle - sorry but this is the best I came up with - lame I know but what to do. I know! I'll watch the Death Star Canteen again (Click Here) that always make me laugh.

Ride/Run & Run Alert - Sat 10th & Sun 11th January

Saturday 10th January

Ride
Destination: Titi maybe Kuala Klawang if the legs are good
Distance: 185k
Intensity: IM training, moderate, endurance
Difficulty: Hills & Rolling hills
Meet point: Mega Mall
Time: 06.30am

Brick Run
Location: Country Heights
Distance: 8.8k
Intensity: Hard - intervals
Difficulty: Rolling hills
Time: Immediately after ride

Sunday 11th January

Run
Destination: Petronas Sri Hartamas
Distance: 25k+ (28k if the legs are up to it)
Intensity: IM training, moderate with easy start and finish
Difficulty: Rolling hills
Meet point: Bukit Aman
Time: 06.15am

The Week That Was - (IM - 9 weeks to go)

So with one decent long run under my belt last Sunday I was a little more motivated to get stuck into Ironman training.

It was New Year's Week but I'd had enough of drinking, eating and varnishing. Time to get fit again. The chest was better (ish) so I started putting some runs, rides and a swim in.

To be precise 1 swim, two runs and 3 rides. Not huge but spread across the week and better than I'd achieved since Phuket. In fact the ride turned out to be a reasonably strong 186k to PD and back, starting at 5:30 in the morning through torrential rain. I started to bonk (run out of energy) at one point and told Sam about it - he suggested I eat something - simple really but when the brain is starved of energy and sugar it sometimes misses the obvious - a bit of food and some liquid (I think I was getting dehydrated too which only compounded the problem) and I was right as rain again (appropriate pun considering the prevailing weather). All in all a confidence boosting ride.

The following day the final run of the week also turned out to be a bit of a eye-opener. I turned up 5 minutes late, only to see the group disappearing down the road. I parked quickly and chased after them. I fully expected to catch them at about the 10k point but instead came across them at about 4k - inspired (and showing off) I raced past them. I had fully intended to stop a few metres later and then join them but I thought "what the heck, let's see how long I can keep this up".

At the 11k drink stop I was on fire (in the sense of going well rather than spontaneously combusting). Had a drink and stormed back to the car park - 21k in 1hr35 - blimey I'd better keep going - so I knocked out another 7k to make it a very satisfying and rather swift 28k.

Was I sore on Monday - OH YES - but it was worth it. Training started again Tuesday and this is when the real volume starts - update on Monday (if I survive).

HORRIFIC - be careful out there!

Not really sure why I'm blogging this - totally horrifying - it was sent to me by Nick Flynn who has always stated that bicycles and Lycra do not belong on the same piece of asphalt as 1 tonne pieces of metal propelled by enormous engines - can't really argue that point when looking at this although it won't stop me (or Nick) from riding but hopefully it will make us ALL even more careful than we already are.

My thoughts go our to Alejandro Alvarez and his family, amazingly Alejamdro was the only fatality in this crash. It won't surprise you to hear that it was caused by a drunk driver apparently falling asleep at the wheel.