Knee injury but making a comeback

It has been a few weeks since I truly ran. My training routine has been bogged down by this receent injury that has literally stopped me from running. The injury wasn't sustained at the PBIM, but it was sustained AFTER PBIM. Probably this is the only regret that I have from not being able to run now

Sometimes, I just feel that it is painful for me to climb 1 flight of stairs. Even running 5km is difficult for me nowadays. I used to be able to run 19km in one morning without much of a problem. Now, seems like 3km a day is already considered a feat.

I was running yesterday in Teluk Intan where I normally run. After around 3km (which is the distance of the entire course), I stopped running for fear of hurting my knee too much. It wasn't perfectly fine and I was feeling mild soreness. Today, I had mild muscle soreness in my thighs. This is how far backwards I've moved since completing the PBIM in 4 hours 33 minutes.

Even so, I am determined to continue running in marathons. The next one should be Energizer Night Race (apparently in Sepang). I was told about this by my friend who ran her first 10km in Energizer this year. The early bird registration deadline is 31 January 2011. Until then, I have another 1 month to get myself into good condition before I register. And when I register, there's no turning back.

From now until then, I shall have a very busy month in January:
1st weekend: should be out partying with friends from University
2nd weekend: District Rotaract Conference
3rd weekend: Cousin's wedding in Kluang
4th weekend: Futsal competition organized by SJBAYS
5th weekend: TBC

In the mean time, I hope I'm able to recover from this recent bout of knee injury. Hope my recovery will be fast enough to allow me to run in Energizer Night Race. I shall remain optimistic

Harrassed In Public

Today is a very eventful day for me. I got harrassed by a Malay dude while crossing the road on my way to have dinner. The only thing it did was to cement my belief that Malaysia is a nation with first world infrastructure and third world mentality.

Almost Caused An Accident

Just came back from Cyberjaya not too long ago. Almost caused an accident with a bus. Braking too hard right in front of a bus after speeding. Got honked pretty terribly but luckily I wasn't involved in the accident :D

Triathlon?

Considering to join a triathlon at the moment. It feels really challenging which makes me even more excited to try it out. The pictures I saw on Ric's iPad made me want to do a triathlon

However, at the moment, I already have a pledge to complete the 84km Ultra-Marathon first before everything else. It's due at the end of the year and I haven't really done that much of preparation at all. Need to buck up soon

Hope to update soon :D

Work Life

I've been working for a bit now. It's been almost one month so far. Learnt a lot through real-life experience. There are times when you have customers who are cocky walking in to ask for information, there are times when you have very polite customers walking in. There are just so many kinds of people that you meet everyday. Some are just contented with the information that you can offer them while others would want to speak to your boss instead of you. At the end of the day, I'm just glad that I met all of them because it's a learning experience that I'm going through at the moment.

I have to say that it's been rather rewarding so far since starting work. I'm very glad that I had a group of very supportive colleagues to advise and facilitate me when I need help. They really gave me some quality feedback on what to do and what not to do. Thanks! This is especially to the people who had not only trusted me but also gave me close guidance on what I need to do etc. during work. I'm pretty sure that the friendships that I have made in this job will last for quite a while. It's just that I don't know how long it'll last over the years.

Aside from working, I've also ran in the KL Marathon. For the first time ever, I managed to complete the marathon in less than 5 hours!! LOL... In fact, I managed to do the run in less than 4 hours 29 minutes. It's indeed an achievement for me since I haven't done less than 5 hours at all before. I guess all the effort of training a few times a week really paid off.

I have to thank Energizer Night Race for the 2-week Celebrity Fitness membership that I cashed in and got good value for. I went there almost every other day after work including weekends. Not only did I manage to use the treadmill in the gym, I also managed to use the weight training equipments in the gym for upper-body workouts. There are really top-notch equipments in there but the problem is that the monthly fees are very expensive!! >.<

The last time I ran in a Half-Marathon (three weeks before KL Marathon), I sucked terribly. This was at Setia Eco-Park in Setia Alam. I have to admit that I didn't train hard enough for this race. Had a nagging cramp and slight pain on my calf at 18km and 20km. It took me almost 1 hour just to finish 3km of the race. Horrible! I guess that might have woken me up from my laziness.

Next target would be training for BHP Orange Run and PBIM in November. I might be going for an Ultra-Marathon in December if I have the time to train so hard at that time. Hope no issues until then. Ciaozz :)

Achilles?

It was recently that I started to feel a slight pain on my left foot. It's really nagging and sometimes, I can't even walk straight!! It was only today that I asked a medical student friend of mine and he said the place of the pain is the Achilles tendon. I was like @.@

For those of you who do not know, a ruptured Achilles tendon means that you will be out of sports for a few months, possibly more. David Beckham isn't able to play in World Cup '10 because he ruptured his Achilles tendon a few months ago in an AC Milan game. That is how much trouble a ruptured Achilles tendon can cause

As it is, I believe it's only a sprained Achilles tendon at most. I have a half-marathon to run in 2 weeks and a full-marathon to run in 1 month. Now I'm not even sure if I'm physically fit to run 21km >.<

Busy Weeks

The past few weeks have been a very busy period for me. Initially, it all started with assignments. Like LOTS of them. Really felt burnt out from the assignment rush. Had to compile the work for my group and I can tell you that compiling is the most difficult work in every group assignment (that's if you're a perfectionist).

The first thing that you must do before you compiling is to proofread their work. This means you have to spend time to read through the stuff that people have prepared. It's not easy to do it when you find it difficult to understand the message that your friends are conveying through their work. Lots of guesswork and lots of cracking-my-head-to-figure-out-what-it is. Sometimes even grammar checks by itself can take an hour or more. Really tedious

BUT.......

The biggest problems that I always have with compiling people's work is that they give below-par work to you. It's not like they expect you to do it for them but at the end of the day, you'll feel that the work that they've given you is not on par with your expectations. So I usually end up editing it myself when this happens (or more like overhauling their work sometimes). As it is, I've already had to overhaul 1 person's work completely. To put it bluntly, the materials this person has sent me is completely rubbish. I think I spent half to 1 hour reading his materials and ended up spending another 2 hours just overhauling everything.

Now that I'm pretty much done with assignments for good, it's study week last week and exam week this week. Did quite a fair bit of studying for the past 2 weeks. 1 more week of studying before Camp X. Then, I'll be a part-time in the job market =D Ciao

Energizer Night Race 2010

I know it's been 3 weeks since Energizer Race.

I have to say that Energizer Race is one of the most well-coordinated runs that I've participated in thus far. Kudos to the organizing team. If there's Energizer Race in Malaysia again, I'll surely participate :D

The Energizer Night Race was my second ever full marathon. I have to say that I didn't prepare enough for this race. I was physically not as fit as when I went for the Penang Bridge International Marathon last November.

I've managed to finish the 42km in 5:03:44.87!! I have to say that I missed my target of under 5 hours but it was still a fairly satisfactory result considering my lousy physical condition. A better strategy definitely worked for me this race :D


Went for the run with Wing and Feng but met many other people that I know from MMU. They're either running or manning the drinks station. Other than that, we also met Sis. Sharon and Ming Hui (not sure if I got it right)


The run was really tiring. I took a 2 week break from running and just started running this week. Thanks to my laziness and demotivation

NEXT UP! KL Marathon --> 27 June 2010

[All photos are courtesy of Wing's phone. Thank you very much!]

Stressful Weeks

It's been a rather stressful 1 week with 1 more week to go. All the assignments are not coming due this soon but I have made myself a goal to finish everything by this coming week. This will give me approximately 2 weeks to settle my revision for finals before I go for it.

Strategy, Corporate Accounting, Securities Investment, Advanced Taxation (individual and group) assignments and Advanced Management Accounting mid-term exam. It's starting to take its toll on me physically and mentally already. When you have to supervise people's work in most of the assignments, it becomes a heavy burden when they don't produce the work that you expect. Then I'll usually end up with editing their work so much that sometimes it won't even look like what they sent to me

Now that these assignments are pounding my schedule like shit, I don't even have time to go running! One of the reason is because I'm lazy after the Energizer Night Race la... But another reason is because I'm rather busy lately XD

Ciaozz

Time to Change My Comp?

It feels like it's time for me to change my computer. I just had to reformat my computer again for the 3rd time in the past 6 months (that's very frequent imo). It becomes more frustrating when you have work to do on the computer that needs Internet, only for it to not perform properly when you need it most =(

I don't know what happened to the driver but somehow, my computer is not able to connect to the Internet (for God knows what reason). I ended up without Internet for 24hours before I decided to reformat the computer. Now, I'm left without that many software in my computer. Have to collect it slowly once again

I suppose I need a strategy to enable me to reformat my computer very fast. I was thinking of keeping my Drive (C) light on data (only program files) so that I can reformat it almost immediately when problems come up.

The Best Socks I've Worn

Before I go on, I should state that I did not receive any kind of endorsement deal from adidas or any other brands. I'd love to get paid for endorsing these brands though =D

As someone who exercise rather often, I'd say that socks is one of the issues that I face. It was only yesterday that my sister wanted to give me a thin sock that she doesn't want. I knew it right away that the socks will tear after I've worn it 3 times.

While we're at it, I'd like to promote adidas sports socks (the thicker ones). They're by far one of the most durable socks that I've ever worn before. The fabric of the socks are the cotton-like fabric which is good for absorbing sweat. Aside from that, the thread on the socks don't come off that easily. Thus it doesn't tear that easily when your toe nails rub against the fabric.

Another kind of socks that I find very durable is the Levi's cotton socks (usually worn with dress pants and leather shoes). They're a bit warm for the feet when you're wearing it in your leather shoes but extremely comfortable when wearing it with sports shoes. The cotton which is good at absorbing sweat ensures that your feet feel comfortable during your session of exercise.

If you happen to have worn other durable socks, let me know. I can QC them for you =D

It's Been A While

It's been a while since I last posted here. I just didn't find the urge to post here. I don't know what happened.

Sometimes, we make stupid decisions that we will regret. I just did one last night and that was to go out to have fun with some friends until the wee hours of the morning, only to have a full-marathon to complete the day after.

To be out and about the night before a full-marathon really took a lot out of me physically last night. Now, I'm having issues of whether I can finish this full-marathon within 6.5 hours.

The last time I ran a marathon, I did it in 5 hours or so. The difference between the last time and this time is that I'm not as fit as I was in the last run and I made a stupid decision to drain myself physically last night

The full-marathon starts this evening at 6pm. Hope I can prepare myself physically to run 42km before 6pm (starting time) =D

I Wonder Why People Gets Annoyed

Yesterday and today, I've had 2 person getting annoyed because I asked questions. Maybe my questions were repetitive but I can't confirm it because I don't really remember my question word for word.

The reason I asked the questions is because I cared for the people involved. If I didn't care about the person, I just wouldn't bother about asking that person so many questions to clarify things. Maybe just 1 question as courtesy and after that, I don't think I'll even bother to talk to them always

I'm starting to feel that I'm weird. Or probably there's some kind of obsession of asking questions or wanting to know. I was also thinking of the obsession of attention to details but this couldn't be. Otherwise, I'd probably be very obsessed with arranging things neatly.

As it is now, I don't think that this obsession is affecting me directly. It is affecting (usually annoying) those around me and it may have a slight impact on my relationships with those people around me. So far, I'm thinking about consulting a psychologist but is it worth the money? Not for now

Interesting Weekend!

It's been an interesting weekend!! The weekend started early for me on Thursday night when me and a bunch of friends went out to have some fun (if you know what kind of fun we had, just keep it to yourself). Btw Zheng, you don't have to announce to the entire world what I did on Thursday night

Then, the next morning I went for a run in Tmn Bukit Jalil Feng, Yian and Ian and had dim sum for breakfast after that. It was followed by carolling practice which went pretty well. It was fun to be singing the CNY songs and Buddhist hymns.

The more important day will of course be the day of CNY Carolling. Had a pretty long day of being kapiya and time-keeper at the same time. Had a few issues here and there but thanks to Amy, Su-Jin, Feng, TT and all those involved, we managed to iron out all the issues during the day. It was fun to be singing. Watching Zheng's high look when he's singing the CNY songs never fails to make me laugh. Stayed over at Wing's place. Thank you very much for the hospitality!

The most interesting day will definitely be today (Sunday). Woke up at about 9.00am and started joking with Zheng, Jason, Wing and Feng until about 10.00am. Then prepared to go to karaoke in GreenBox in Jusco Cheras Selatan. This is the first time that I went to karaoke with them and it was really fun. The group is also pretty small, so everyone had their opportunity to sing the songs that they liked. Then, we went back to Wing's place to play some mahjong before going home

Back in Tmn Desa, I went to play football in the evening, followed with dinner with my sisters. The best part was my sister's car tyre was punctured by a nail and I had to change the tyre for her. Managed to get it done within 30 mins!! GRAHHHH!!! (all thanks to Zheng's car because I learnt to change car tyre better from there) :)

Signing off tired,
Lex

I Hate Being Old!

In the past few days, I've been feeling the effects of being old. A sprained ankle and wrist, a slightly weak lower back, and a knee and right hip that feels weird. As it is now, I just feel as though I've grown older by 10 years already.

I'll be going for a 15km run in the middle of next month and a 42km run at the end of the same month. Carrying all these joint injuries isn't going to make my life easier. Especially when joint injuries have the tendencies of recovering slower than other injuries. It usually takes a few months to recover fully from joint injuries. In my present physical condition, I'll only be able to complete 20km max. So far, I still don't know how I'm going to find the energy and mental power to finish the 42km run.

All that I'm hoping right now is to recover as soon as possible from these injuries. Presently, my injuries might not recover fully for the full marathon at the end of next month. Countdown: approx. 30 days

Annoyed Someone for Weeks?

Sometimes, when you are told that you're annoying may be very hard to accept by someone. I wonder what is wrong with me

I was told by a mutual friend of a friend (someone that I was a little interested in) that I am annoying. To be told that you're annoying is already pretty bad and a little difficult to accept. But to be told that you're annoying by another person feels a little bit more difficult to accept. And to make matters worse, it started a few weeks ago. Which also means that I've been annoying the same person for the past few weeks.

I wonder what went wrong. It was only less than a week ago that I was told by a close friend of mine (in Teluk Intan, he's a guy) that I can attract girls. I thought there is some truth in that statement to say the least. But to be told that I'm annoying to someone that I was trying to attract was really a big blow to me. Probably was how I behaved, probably it was how I talked to her. Maybe I've been talking to her too often about something that doesn't matter to her so much that it started to get boring and annoying. Probably I was asking too many stupid questions. I do not really know.

I guess I'm just destined to be a bachelor