The Grand Journey..

I'm tapering to our holiday! There, I can't believe I used a running term to describe our winding down to our holiday this weekend..but its true. My running is winding down and my long run tonight was just 8k, tomorrow I will be going easy with my old running buddy DK along Bedok Reservoir.

In truth, my run tonight brought back old memories, with lessons re-learnt. I remember CG telling me some 20yrs ago along the MacRitchie trails that I had to land in the middle of my foot (and slightly on the outside too). Rightly or wrongly, I have been doing that and I have become a neutral runner as a result (I think). The concentration of making a proper footfall tonight, all the harder on the minimalist Lunar Trainers, brought back the memories of CG, DK and myself as students on our Sunday runs. The dedication to keeping proper form is a lesson itself tonight. Just as it gets difficult to maintain form as I tire into the run, it also gets difficult when professional work piles up prior to going on holiday. And just as good form did see me through the run tonight, I am hoping my training and experience will see me through the work pile in time for my holiday.

We are going away!! The tickets were secured over the weekend and tonight, I will complete the hotel bookings. Every succeeding trip does not get easier and the smallest thing (like how to get from the airport to the hotel.."why you take a bus from the airport to the pier, get on board a ferry for Euro15/person and get off at the end where someone from the hotel will be waiting to pick up your luggage"...said Ava kindly as she took my hotel booking) taxes my mind into the night. I am really old school on these things and I slave over the small matters - Nisa just takes them in her stride. Right now, I've secured 2 hotels and need one more before i rest.

Jamie will learnt to pay attention to detail, but not slave over tiny issues that will not matter in the wider scheme of life. I will teach Jamie to enjoy the journey and not mind the destination; that it is the process that yields the experience, and not the result.

So until we go away, I will taper. No running on Thurs and Friday, a hop along the Tugu Negara / Carcosa route Sat morning and then its a dash back to Spore for the night flight away to holiday.

Son, Daddy didn't speak to you tonight but Daddy loves you all the same.

Mommy, I want to sleep..

In place of the SCKLM, I did something equally rewarding. I ran with an old buddy I have not seen since our wedding 2005 but effectively, have not seen since we all graduated together in the early 90s. We were a 3+1 person running club then, Sunday afternoon regulars at MacRitchie, literally ran rain or shine (because I remember we did a few runs in the rain!!). We've drifted apart but I am hoping we continue to see and run with each other more often now. At least I am no longer the laggard (I think) to them as I was then. Today, we did a 4k+ somewhere along Simei.

I called Nisa after that to find out about the rest of her day after the SCKLM. She had brought Jamie to see the "Transformers" - his very first show! He sat and watched, had popcorn and somewhere in the middle, he said "Mommy, I want to sleep.." and drifted off. I hardly hear him say that to me because we are always playing when I am up home for the weekend but it really cuts to know I am missing many significant moments of his life. I did not see him taking his first steps (away in Sweden negotiating a transaction), high fever cum admission into SJMC cum infusion (the nurse told Nisa - "Kak, you better wait outside and not see this") where he came out whimpering, and his first trip to the movies, his first long distance trip (to South Africa no less), him seeing penguines (at SA) etc. It really kills me; and I think he only drifted off to sleep in my arms once....

To Jamie : when you are older and are reading this, you will know Daddy means it everytime Daddy says he loves you a lot..

But we do have a lot of fun. Our current favourite games are (i) "Zhanng" - this is the sound of the light sabre being unsheath. He's darth vader and I'm skywalker; (ii) "Hidding" - we both crawl under the blankets and try to surprise Nisa as she walks into the room; (iii) "Toing-toing" - he jumps on the bed, with me lifting him up as high as possible. These games change from week to week and we both look forward to new games all the time. The games bring joy to him, and memories for me through the week until I see my family again during the weekend.

He's sleeping now and, God willing, he'll sleep through the night, giving Nisa some time to herself.

Yang, did you smile a lot?

I'm waiting for Nisa to call, and I have my 100+ questions of how it went all ready.

Nisa did not find it easy to collect our race packs Friday but when she went again Saturday (some mess-up with the email confirmations so she had to go again for her sisters') it was a 15min breeze. Nisa even got her tee-shirt changed because it was the wrong size so she's quite pleased.

I remember the night before our first race. She was pottering around the house, with Jamie in tow, whilst I was in our room, quietly pinning on my bib, laying out my singlet and shorts. As we were about to sleep, she noticed I was all ready and she was not!! And we had a laugh because this is so typical of me..to be all prepared ahead of time to the point of obsession. Her bib got on in 3min that very morning, straight too.

We did the 11km Orange Run together and when we met at the finish, we could not stop smiling. The experience was just an experience!

Last week before I came back to Spore from KL, I told her I had decided on my outfit for the SCKLM - all one week in advance - and that I only needed to pin on the bib once collected. The Orange Run preparation thingy came to her mind and she smiled her pretty smile (the one that a wife reserves just for her husband).

Yang, are you smiling today at the end of the SCKLM?

365 is a long time to wait

After all the excitement of going for runs, learning about LSD, surfing for Ryan, Brian and Dathan videos on Youtube, discovering flotrack, dragging my friend at the office (a senior IB person no less) down to Funan more than twice to look at Asics and Nike Frees during lunchtime...sigh..I will not be at SCKLM..

My sis inlaw's colleague has been fell by H1N1 (suspected) and she has been sent home on quarantine. I live in her's/Nisa's/Mom's/Dad's home in KL on weekends and it would not be responsible for me to chance a trip home to KL this weekend. No one in the office will believe me innocent (forgive!! me) if I brought IT back; saying I caught it from the throngs lining up some 4+ hours to collect racing bibs at DM would just ring hollow to those infected by IT through me.

So no SCKLM this sunday...365 is a long time to wait too...

Instead, I have plans to run with my cousin, whom I hardly see, Sunday.

I said "MacRitchie" and he said "come over for dinner";

I said "why not do both" and he said "just come over for dinner..lah".

Flo always whips up something yummy and healthy, making it look hip along the way too.

I'll do a 10k tomorrow morning at East Coast park. Its a younger crowd at East Coast than those at Bukit Kiara and Lake Gardens, but no less dedicated. The East Coast crowd run with their shirts off, and at high speed they can be intimidating to my shuffling-along pace.

Jamie's well!! Alhamdullilah!! Before he went back busy playing with his cousin Rayyan, he told me on the phone (all the way from KL) that he was chewing on gum; and he's clever enough to promise, in addition to remembering, not to swallow. He has also learnt one of the most difficult words in English - "Kayano" - and says it with glee.

Nisa brings life to me, and Jamie, joy to us.

Over the moon

Tonight was the last run prior to the SCKLM; and also confirmation that the Lunar Trainers were just about right. I took them out for a 5k jaunt and they felt light, almost absent...and they tricked me into going fast, which I did! It was even tiring to slow down, as if the quads were under the stress of braking, interrupting the flow. Not exactly a bad thing if I were to be doing the 5k.

The cushioning seemed needing to warm up and after some 2k, they were just fine - skwishy. All in, they would be the shoes that I will take with me into Sunday.

I am getting excited as the days draw closer. The last race we participated in was the Orange Run in April 09 and we spent the rest of that day fawning over the event, wanting to participate in another the very next week (we didn't, there wasn't any). Now the wait is almost over. I'll be keeping a lookout for the who's-who on the KL running scene, trying to spot those who frequently (triumpantly even) blow past me at Bukit Kiara. And to my friend who only knows me as the S'porean guy who travels to KL every weekend to be with his family, and who speeds up the Bukit Kiara hills in his sandals, race well and see you at the finish!

But today is not a happy day because I am worried sick about Jamie..my darling, my life.

Weighty issues

I have been trying to figure out why the Brooks Defyance has not been working out for me. Nisa and I obtained the Brooks "membership" card for the Brooks running shop at the Curve a few months back and I decided to have a go at the Defyance. The review in a magazine also pointed me in the direction of that shoe.

We took it for a test drive at Bukit Kiara the very next morning [Nisa got the GTS 8] and I have been since figuring out why it has not been working for me. About 2 months later, I got the Cumulus 10 with some of my vounchers.

And the latest issue of Runners World led to the eureka moment!

It seems weight plays a part in the compression of the midsole [ok, ok Jamie could have told me that..] and if you're light in weight, you would not be able to compress the sole sufficiently for the cushioning to result. And this explains why I have found the Defyance to be fairly thickish to the point I could not feel the ground. The Cumulus is...skwishy..(in a good way, for me at least). Sigh lah..so not only will I have to think of the price, and whether the shoe is pronator-suitable, but there is now the swishy factor to consider before we buy our shoes.

Taper to SCKLM

Here I go deciding that Nisa and I we should taper this week into the StandChart KL Marathon and I just did a fast 6km run along East Coast park because I just could not help myself. Probably over-did it as well and I am determined there will be no running tomorrow and the rest of the week, save for a slow jog this coming Wednesday night.

There is another reason for the Wednesday night run - I need to get used to my Nike Lunar Trainers which (I am hoping) will come out with me for this Sunday's KLSCM. I have never been a Nike fan and I wanted to try a light weight trainer. After days of nighttime pouring over the internet, it was down to the DS-Trainer 14 and Lunar Trainer (the cushioning on the NB903 was hard and the T6 was too minimalist). What won me over was the pricing at Queensway; the Lunars are a full $25 dollars cheaper.

The first run on the Lunars was not encouraging. After years of running on Asics, the Lunars seemed to lack the cushioning to the extent that it was just my feet, (the lack of) rubber and then ground. But the 2nd run along the Tugu Negara route was encouraging and that's when I began feeling the cushioning others were all excited about. This Wednesday ought settle the issue and if it goes well, it will come with me Sunday. One thing's for sure, the Lunar's are bloody light!

Err..full disclosure required..I'm just doing 10k at the SCKLM