Announcement

To our new long distance track members,

Our schedule is the one posted on the right column.

There will be no training on 30th sept and 1 & 2 oct (this Friday, Saturday and Sunday) due to most of us going for muds 2 or king of the road.

If you have any questions you can call me(chau), write in the chatbox on the right or by facebook.

Thanks

VS. our toughest rivals

Hey, before I start this post, I gotta give a shout out to Amirul for helping us apply for a hostel and later paying for us and collecting our bibs even though he had a fever! Thanks man!

A little clarification about the title, here's a brief (and maybe slightly biased) chronology of the kakithon-UPNM MUDS rivalry:

2008-first ever MUDS, Men's University category Ong 1st, with close competition from UPNM

2009-Men's University category Ayie 1st, followed closely by UPNM

2010-Chan Jun Shen Men's University Category Champion, with Ong coming in second

So there you have it.... I would be lying if I said that this was just a regular race for us. For the uninitiated, MUDS is not the plural for mud but a duathlon (run-bike-run) series of 3 events with the overall winner crowned as duathlete of the year/best university.

Me, Ong, Wong and person X rendezvoused with Amirul at UPNM on race morn after we unloaded ourselves and the bikes from the car and met with Syahidan who was there without uni's support too. (Question: Izzit possible to fit 4 people, 3 bicycles and 2 bags into 1 car? Answer: Hell Yeah! All you need is a bit of yoga skills!)

The run start felt crazy fast to me, most likely due to Edan pulling the pack. Ong kept within 10m of Edan while I was further behind. Got into T1 and found my bike without much ado thanks to Ong standing beside it, got on and tried to follow the first pack but was left in the dust with Edan and were eventually swallowed by the chase pack.

Our group proved to be too laid back on the bike portion and couldn't bridge the gap with the Ong-Chan-Amirul group. Hence we found our-self about 40s behind when we entered T2. Caught a glimpse of Ong during the U-turn with him leading Chan and Amirul. Finally, I was running abreast with Chan just before the final straight, felt like puking during the final sprint but managed to finish 2nd without incident. Wong wasn't so fortunate, as he had the bad luck of getting injured during last sunday's 1 Malaysia seremban run and encountered gear problems on the bike.

Okie! Enuff of this monologue, here's a buttload of pictures to tell the rest of the tale!

Fast start!

Found my bike easily thanks to Ong..

Transition 1.0

Transition 2.0

Wong: Watcha lookin' at buster?!

Champ (rear view)

Aiman and co.

Edan and co.

kluang race report

Yo, before we get to the race report this week, i'd like to talk about NPT. Huh? NPT??? haha... it stands for No Planning Trip. The 4 criteria of a NPT is:

1) Don't book hotel (sometimes even sleep at McD)

2) Don't know the exact location of the starting point

3) Last minute on the spot registration/payment

4) Have not been to the town before

The general feelings of kakithoners about NPTs is towards the negative side, b'cos...

nobody likes to sleep rough (duh), and it affects race performance(duh).... but... i kinda like it... for no particular reason....

Anyway, this kluang trip was a NPT, so i was a bit nervous not knowing if everthing would turn out right. Tareef, Yien Wei and me took an hour plus bus trip from utm to kluang bus station. We had a chin chai meal there and were really lucky to get the last room in the hotel that was nearest to the starting point (2km). Went out with Chan's friends from Singapore before picking up Ong at 11pm, all 4 of us squeezed onto the double bed for the night.

So down to the race. Ong ran a bit slower than usual and got 6th, I was 8th with Chan just slightly behind at 11th. So congrats to Chan for still being fast even after the previous hiatus from running. Tareef also got 18th (cool!) so kakithon was all in the top 20. BTW, Tareef was mobbed by primary schoolgirls at least 20 times at the event! (see pics below)

Despite the outrageously poor organizing during prize giving it was a good experience. (Imagine the organizers calling the prize winners randomly into a small room... random of category and placing....)

Beefing up after the race.

The bread and butter of running...

The new schedule for this sem is liddat:

mon- rest

tues- interval (ktho l22 busstop)

wed- diagonal (padang hoki)

thurs- circuit/gym (ktf gym)

fri- long (padang hoki)

sat- hill (road to balai cerap near fke and ktc)

sun- race or misc.

5:30 pm! canceled if it rains.. this schedule is till stadium is opened for usage...

prologue to the ridiculously looooooong holiday: Klang Run 4 It

Yep, it looks like the 4 months of my hedonistic life style will finally be coming to a full stop. Despite a nagging foot injury, I was looking forward to this race due to the lack of running events during the fasting month... as Mr. Black used to say: training and racing must be balanced to keep improving and to enjoy your sport (or something like that lah). Well... all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy; so.... all training and no racing makes running no joy?

Anyway, Wong decided to give this race a pass due to the fees and Mr. Moey went to Solomon X-trail in search of greener (and muddier?) pastures. Hence it was just me, Ong and Sylvia running this race. Ong led for the first k and maintained front pack throughout most of the race (nice one!) to finish fourth. Sylvia took a wrong turn and finished a few secs behind no.3... haha... too bad! As for me, I was dropped from the pack after about 3km and could only finish at 7th... haiz... during the run, the 3 top indian runners were even able to have a conversation when i was already panting like crazy!

Back in utm now, looking forward to the new semester, hope u all feel the same way too... The most unflattering finishing pics only here at kakithon.blogspot.com. heh...

Too plain?

Still thinking of a new poster for the upcoming semester... Actually this one is ciplak of a book cover 'fuel'....

Will post a few more that are more colorful after this...

Any comments?

P.s: Ting i saw your comment about providing a name below every post, but i still think it's good to keep the reader guessing... haha...

Becoming a better runner

Since i got some time to type in my office apart from my site work,then i just type down some of the tips which i saw in runningtimes.

its actually a very good reference for all of us,and i hope you all will take note of it.This is tips to becoming a better runner by

Shannon Rowbury an elite US runner.Among the tips are:

1)Focus:in this point she mention whenever,wherever anything change in ur surrounding or ur schedule list,u have to really focus of what

u wan to achieve.dont easily lost ur focus.For an example in our uni case.When theres sem break,all of us will back to hometown and this

is where focus is something that we need to always remind ourself.Thing can change easily if we not hold on our mission/target that want to

achieve.And now i'm sure almost all of you have lost your shape and the condition during in uni.

2)More sleep:Shannon is taking 9hours of sleep.u need to sleep well in everytime,though you may change to new surrounding or getting some

stressful thing.All this need to be arranged properly.As myself also stress alot in having nice sleep.

3)Extra exercises:She mention that by doing more plyometric exercises,circuits and gym work can improve general strength as it can make her train

harder and longer.General strength exercises like push up,planks and squats can be done daily.Abdominal exercises 6times a week for 5-10mins.

Weights 1-3 times/week

4)Less racing=more training:She mentions that more focused training can make her achieve a much higher and longer lasting level of fitness.Sometime

we tend to go racing all the times which actually will not really give any good sign to our own body.One of the example can be seen is Jean Pierre

an experience French runner in our country who not join the race everyweek though if he joins sure getting 1st placing with the speed he poses.

5)Altitude training:She said going to places like SAN Luis Potosi,Mexico,Font Romeu.I think this will be abit difficult for those stay in uni,but

what can i say is first u nid to improve your hill training skill and speed that only choose to go up such place training.So make sure everyweek

u slot in hill training.

6)Regular treatment:Taking ice bath regularly(10mins after hard training session)stretch regularly with the stick,a rope,tenning ball or trigger point

roller.This i would like to say is something prevention treatment for our body being exhaust.

Hope that what mention here can spur u guys further either physically or mentally.