Ever had that feeling of disappointment after a big meal( expensive ones) = TGIF

Ye lar. My aunt had this craving before she goes to Makkah for her Umrah, Nak Makan Steak lar, mm thought of going to Pavilion where she can shoe shop , again!! while me eye washing ckit...got to burn some calories jugak though its my cardio break day, ahaa...well there are several choices to have it here....mm and i chosed TGIF...

My order was Sizzling Chicken and Cheese and my aunt was NewYork's Grill Steak, the waiter and the services were fine but the food aiyo kind of sucks, Tekak Melayu ke aku ni?...anyway i had my fine share of steak when i was an avid red meat eater, but this time it just sucks big time, we took well done, cause half done would be eating something goooey...but some people enjoy it cause it brought the sweetness of the beef, its not a sirloin, we did ask the waiter which is the best ones minus the one's with the Jack Daniels or else my aunt will be a bit coocoo afterwards...

The side dishes to the steak were stir fried broccoli with garlic mashed potato, its was too bare to be called an American portions, honestly the meat tasted like...plain grilled beef, lagi sedap daging bakar kelate hok buak..makang dengan nasi kerabu, sorri ler i slang ganu ckit...Honestly.. Chllies is far more better than TGIF, this is the second TGIF which is out of my list.....i tasted TGIF in PJ which is good , and the rest fare bad....

Next time i'm sticking to my fave place for my American portions, have not tasted Tony Roma's yet....

having said that, it brought memories when my father used to make this weekend dinner meals we called western weekend feast, where my father would bought lamb chops and beef chops from the local deli's, my father is the connoisseur of western cuisine , being born and raised in KL, he used to hang out at the fav western outlets here, last time it was called Colliseum, wow fantastic they said, it was the birth place of Chicken Chop,...back to my childhood memories, my father would marinates the chops at least a day earlier and asked me Julliene and shred the vege's for the coleslaw , we would have it after Maghrib, he grilled it in an open pan, together with gravy of the marinates, ..... lots of fun back then, now sume dah besar jadi maleh pulok...maybe one day i'll do it for them,

Anyone up for ENM 10's Bib : Men's 20km Open

Alamak everyone must be joining Full Mara ler ni....if anyone interested please let me know yer....although i could run but better left it healed fully then go for Sundown...my maiden...

I'm letting go my bib, i just wanted the Running Vest for my collection .....please let me know

Dah ler tur trail running is up...yikes...tempted so much to join

Frustration

Sigh...not again, i been having these days where u just wanna be yourself and get out of these acting wardrobe and just be yourself nothing else matters....trying so hard to find the reason why am im here, it may sounds that i'm ungrateful of The Almighty gifts, i can't seem to find my strength and enjoyment anymore...

I wish i could get backed to my roots...and do the things i like...my knee is getting better, its no longer hurts as before (that's something good to feel about kan..) , ye lar i had no obligation ...its easy for people like me..well its true...may be i should looked at others whom unfortunate to work like dogs days and night without rest...at least i could buy a house now, lucky me...heheh

Staying positive is tough when u mind is constantly battling the downside of life, its hard battling emotions and keeping up a smile, making others happy will eventually lead to yours too right...well as what my friend would said Chin Up and Walked Tall cause u are precious...

Abstaining for Abs : No Roti Canai or Nasi Lemak Month(s)

I lost 5 kg since i stopped jadi pelari tegar ni, recuperating that Kenyan keting for awhile, simpan sekejap kasi polish ckit kasi wat alignment then baru pasang balik...hehehe.. Reconnecting back to my weight training, strengthening the core muscle, reading a lot about the six packs ( technically it is 8 packs), loves the quotes : Six Packs are made in the kitchen rather than the gym....points to ponder,

So now i'm trying to live without Nasi Lemak and Roti Canai for at least a month...if it last then maybe months to come...hehehhe my favorite place to have  Nasi lemak is my neighbor's one..fuhh sedap ler and for roti canai Raju's at bukit gasing...perr..macam teringin la pulak...gulp two Most Popular Malaysian Foods..can i resist the temptation well see...

Clueless Mind Over Power Walk

I am in a state of clueless, not knowing what to do? Last Monday, i planned to go out walking in the park early in the morning before going off to PD in the afternoon, i'm just bored sitting at home without doing any workout/ exercising without any impact to my knee, that would be impossible to create zero gravity...hahah,

Armed with my MP3 player and my latest pair of Adidas runnig pant, huhu it was supposed to be a walked around the park with slighly faster pace or some says power walk, wow i felt so refreshed and joyful, smiling to myself and gleeing along the joging path...started with small pace progressed to fast stride..it continues on without realising that i'm actually running...brushing through people...oopps got carried over...who would not when u are beaming with joy in your hearts...i did finished 2 rounds non stop..when it reaches half of the third loops ...the pain strike back...The Empire Strikes Back... well it has only been three days since i did my MRI scans...tendonsitis ouch....i stop running immediately which was supposed to be power walk kan..dumb dumb me

I went home immediately iced my swollen tendon...ahh what a relief it was,,,or else limping pulak kat PD...dah tak smart ,awek pun tak nak tengok..huahuah...it is not as prolong pain as it was before,,after the icing ..i could walk again as usual and climb stairs..as normal....but not giving it a go for running just yet...
i will rest till the Doctor says so...

So next time when u power walk make sure it is  power walk yer Shaqi....jangan lak berlari...

Blazing Hot PD..CNY Getaway session

Haha this is definitely not another....sports related session yer..its just me telling  a story about my getaway with my friends up in PD, ...we spent a night ajer di sane....ape PD jer...at least its not KL..hahah

Letting go of some steam from hustle anf bustle of the quite life in KL during long holiday break is ..gila ka....i..yup PD is fulled with all sorts people and families enjoying their very long weekend even though...bukan celebrate CNY pun hehe...anyway..the weather there was blazing hot...yet u can still see all of this guys and girls terkinja kinja kat pantai at Noon...aiyo...memang SPF tahap 150 kot...as for me i chosed to stay indoors ..and wait till the sun is set.baru mandi...hehehe

The beach where we swim is fronting Bayu Beach Resort, thought it is clean but turn out to be quite a disaster, ape ler depa ni...buang sampah merata rata ler....begang tul aku...cehhhh....

pandangan yang berbeza boleh menyebabkan your mind goes astray from the stress of day to day life...semacam soccer daddy jer i ni....hopefully one day ler...i'll be one

The food, we ate at Restoran Nasreen Songkla , its nearby Ming Court hotel (yang closed down)...on the left side road leading to Teluk Kemang town,  each of three of us ordered two dishes, honestly, i can't recalled the menu, but there were two types sayur, one pandan chicken, tomyam pok tek, cashew nuts chicken and fried prawns....The verdict is superb ler...we enjoy the food very much...its very tasty and the flavors are balanced of sweet, hot, spicy and tangerine tinge -macam masakan Thai kebiasannyer ler..  there goes my diet of free carbo katanyer...hehe it was a joyful thing to us due to foods are very dear to our hearts.. lupe the price is considerably cheap ler..the bill with drinks total up to RM 39.00..well worth it...recomended to anyone for a stop here ..if  u are thinking of going there for dinner make sure u get there early..cause the crowd could pull back the serving time of the foods...but well worth the wait

The night we spent reminiscing of our past life ...kutuk the old friends yang tak jejak bumi whenever he/she talks about themself..ay yadayadaydaya....next day chow to KL...surprisingly the road was clear..

We made a stop at Al Diafah in Sri Petaling for some quick Arabic lunch feast....our menu was A whole roast chicken with bread ( its not that typical pita, its kind of puffy) and mint sauce, my drink was lemon tea while friends opt for Almond'd milk ( cow's milk mixed with almond and a tinge of mint)...loves every bit of it...though its pricey RM 45.00 for a whole bird...well its worth it..sedapler...sgt...

Sorry pics taken kebanyakkan nye censored so x leh nak upload...

Bunny Run Bib's 20km Men Open Is Up For Grab..Opps Energizer Lerr

I'm listening to Glee's version of Defying Gravity,quite aspiring indeed, but letting go is what the best thing to do now ...Anyone interested please kindly leave any messages, U don't have to pay, i just wanted the Running Vest only ( collecting It for my training needs)......

The MRI had spoken and the verdict i have left knee bicep tendonsitis with some fluid( can't seem to remember what is called medic terms) if it is worsens in another 3 weeks and it may required to be stitched, yikes seems very painful i will be out at least half of the year,

Final Verdict : There is no use defying gravity , humbled grounded here...

Resting Again and Lookin Back

Another run missed, this did not happen to me last year, sumenyer rempuh jer..., now i know that the art of running is to be able to run the next day after any races, flexibility and agility should be hand in hand...held and bonded together for life long..

Never knew resting is a part of training, pergg..hand on my head now.. always into pushing higher and higher further up the mileage bank, now it left me humbled in my own less impact world..makes u think, is this what  u missed when u are running all the time...pondering to some of my family members whom are being cynical about me running all the time...ko ni tidak bosan ke...asyik lari lari jer nanti injured padan muka hang...its hard to explain to them unless they are in my shoes...or runners too...hehe..running for me is like paracetamol to headaches, penicillin to bacterial infections, steroid to athletes (over lak..)...

Infectious in a good manner, it has brought joy as well instilled positive values about life, plus meeting with new running buddies whom are very supporting and encouraging in every step of the way, building new network of friends from all walks of life, jumping with joy every time we run while sharing stories of up and down of our life apart from our running series, this a part of running that i really missed, listening to their stories..seronok tau..they are indeed .. very good story tellers, aku ni hampeh ckit...but i can count though....reading blogs is not the same as making direct face to face contacts...where u can see their grins, laugh, cheeky...sharing their stories while agonizing the pain after a long run.

The carboloading session, at times it went overboard ler pulak...melantak macam esok tak de ler pulak... well that was me...hehe semacam dapat license to kill, can't help it they are so many foods to try when u are at foreign places...hehe...

Cam-whore at every point along the run as much as u could possibly can...Abg Nik with his trusted Canon and Bro Ian with Olympus Tough plus my friend's Warie's Sony...me taking picture while running ? mesti kelam kabut tahap cipan ler......thought of doing that after this....photographed my memories...   

Shoe shopping has been very technical lately...unlike before..ahh any shoes will do as long as it comfortable..comfort yup, well it could only be for a short distance ...sekarang tengok kasut dah pandai dah predict what will happen if i bought this kind of shoes...cheewahh.....shoes evolves from Power to Adidas AdiZero...lum kira Trail running gear lagi hehehe...thinking of moving into MTB pulak..slowly saving enough cash for it...

I will keep my Chin up and rest till i'm ready to brush through the tarmacs and hills again...thanks again to all my fellow blogger runner for the support and not forgetting Congrats for finishing the gruesome PNM..

Resting and Supernatural Ability

I wish i could have the ability to tell what is happening in my knee right now and projecting my rate of recovery, this is what every runners are unable to tell and which lead to devastating results, after yesterday chit chat with Nadia at Bro Ian's POR swimming, macam ler aku swim sgt kan....i'm reactivating back the swimming mode, hopefully it will be back in the veins,

yup the supernatural ability i meant is to know your body functions, u are able to look at yourself far beyond any modern machines would able to do....wah hebat tu, u can even tell how much actually your body endured, She did mentioned that one ex runner stories that really gave me the creep, now a cyclist - his knee was toast due to excessive running, yikes, he wished that he could run again and warn her that don't avoid the warning signals, please rest well make it 100%, gulp,

The supernatural ability will enable me to see myself beyond the skin thus making sure that i would not hurt myself too much, morally i would not able to see others except myself, hehehe..

I'm enjoying the resting period i'm in although its hard to see most my running buddies were enjoying their run, if they are happy then i am too right, reading their stories in their blog brought me closer the running world, hehe ...yup taking their advises-venturing into other side of running swimming, biking (i wish i could are there any bikes to rent ke?, for two months) motivating myself ,believing and praying hard to Almighty that i could run like the wind again.............................................................................................................................

Landing, How Do U Do It?

Me and Bro Ian were chatting and discussing our running techniques, and he did mention to me, how do you land your feet during running, i said forefoot..well...that may be the main cause of my injuries, i should be focusing more - landing on my mid foot or heel...however there is this interesting article about landing.......written by Jonathan Dugas and Ross Tucker both are pHd holder in Exercise Physiology from University of Cape Town, very enlightening indeed, enjoy reading it and ask yourself which one are u ? and What should u choose to land on?

Heel vs. Midfoot vs. Forefoot: How do elite runners land?

I've finally gotten around to this post, which is probably two weeks in the making, and it follows on from our recent series on running shoes. That series began by looking at whether shoes are in fact as much a cause of injury as a cure, and then evolved into a discussion of how the running market is evolving. Twenty years ago, it was all about motion-control shoes preventing overpronation to prevent injury. Today, it's all about running "barefoot in your shoes", as companies try to go back to "natural" without selling you "the Emperor's clothes", in effect! (It's quite a long post, my apologies, but a lot of important information to get through...)

The next logical question is to ask how is the foot supposed to land during running? This question evolves out of the discussion of shoes. vs barefoot running, and is often at the heart of discussions on running technique. Very often, debates of "technique" tend to start from the feet, jump to the knees ("lift your knees") and then skip to the arms, and that's about it! We won't go into too much detail on technique today, focusing instead on only one of many aspects - the landing of the foot, and particularly, whether the elite runners tend to land on the heel, the midfoot, or the forefoot.

Elite runners footstrike patterns

Perhaps surprisingly, there are very few studies looking at elite runners and footstrike patterns during actual races. Despite this, until recently, the overwhelming majority of coaches and experts were advocating that heel-striking was the most effective technique, simply because most athletes did it. That claim will come up again, but the perception that it was most effective has, over the last few years, been changing. And with the advent of Pose and other running techniques, as well as the observation that not all elite runners are landing on the heel first, people have now begun to advocate that forefoot landing is better! So we have this 180 degree shift, often in the absence of any substantial data to support the claim.

I am sure that many will have seen this kind of assertion (this one is from Wikipedia):

Leaning forward places a runner's centre of mass on the front part of the foot, which avoids landing on the heel and facilitates the use of the spring mechanism of the foot. In other words, landing on the heel is bad, to be avoided...

Or there is this, from Gordon Pirie (admittedly somewhat older):

"Running equals springing through the air, landing elastically on the forefoot with a flexed knee..."

But what is "better"? Where science has yet to catch up with opinion

It's important at this point to ask the very pertinent, but infrequently asked question: "What does 'better' mean?". In other words, when people are advocating that it's 'better' to land on the forefoot, what do they mean? Is it faster? More efficient? Less injury-prone? The fact is, the word "better" is used without studies specifically looking at any single one of these aspects. And the 'prudence concept', as applied to science, says that you cannot say something is "better" unless it's been studied and compared to the alternatives. Unfortunately, the science lags behind in this regard.

So for example, above you have the quote that you are supposed to land elastically on the forefoot. That implies performance and efficiency, which might be true for short exercise, lasting a minute or two. But in an event like the marathon, are we sure it remains the "better" option? If you went out and ran 2 hours today, landing on your forefoot instead of landing as you've always done, what would be the likely outcome? Chances are, you'd be hurting for a few days, with calf muscles that you had perhaps forgotten you had! Worst case scenario, you'd be injured for months with an Achilles tendon injury. That is certainly not a desirable outcome. So there are problems with making sweeping statements about landing patterns.

But more than this, these kinds of statements are never grounded in proof. So for example, when it's written that you land "elastically", has anyone ever done the study of elastic energy return in different types of running? They haven't, but there is theory about it, and that's where these recommendations come from. So the approach in the discussion that follows is for me to adopt the role of "questioner", playing Devil's Advocate, with the humble admission that science simply does not know the right answer, only the possibilities...

Looking at one particular study - elite 21 km runners

So in the current climate where real evidence is scarce and opinions hold sway, let's take a look at one study that has examined footstrike patterns during running events. It was done in 2004 in Japan, and published in 2007 in the Journal of Strength of Conditioning (not sure of the reason for the delay - it happens sometimes in science!). The full reference, for those interested, is Hasegawa et al., J Strength & Cond., 2007, (21), 888-893

It was performed at the 2004 Sapporro International Half Marathon in Japan. The scientists set up a high speed camera (very important for accurate collection of information - beats YouTube science any day!) at the 15km mark of the race, and captured most of the runners coming through. In total, they were able to observe the foot strike of 248 men and 35 women, and characterize them as either heel-strikers, mid-foot or forefoot strikers. They also measured Ground Contact Time at the 15km point.

The finding - what do you expect?

Before giving their main finding away, take a moment to guess what they would have found...If you are anything like me, and have read the substantial amount on the internet and in books about how it's "better" (there's that word again) to land on your forefoot, then of course, your expectation might be that they found:

• The majority of runners land on the forefoot
• Those that DO NOT land on the forefoot are the runners who finish towards the back of the field

Well, if that's what you thought, you'd be completely incorrect...! Because the finding is the following:

• The vast majority (75%) of the elite runners land on the heel
• About 1 in four (24%) runners landed on the mid-foot
• Only 4 out of 283 runners landed on the forefoot

Those runners that landed on the forefoot did not finish in the first four positions, so the common argument (a flawed one) that the best athletes are forefoot strikers is not supported by this finding.

Possible conclusions - how you read the study is influenced by what you wish to prove...

So, given this, one is tempted to say that the landing of the foot makes no difference to overall performance. Of course, this is not necessarily true. As I wrote above, science is often taken out of context, and this is one such example. You cannot, for example, rule out the possibility that these heel-strikers might be a few seconds or minutes faster if they just learned to land on their forefoot! Personally, I think that's highly unlikely, and what is more likely is that they'll end up in rehab for Achilles injuries, but even that is a "bald assertion", based only on opinion!

Now, however, here is where it gets interesting, and this is where the forefoot advocates got quite excited. When the researchers divided the finishers into groups of 50, they started to see something of a change in mid-foot landing as you moved further down the list. In otherwords, there was a higher percentage of midfoot strikers in the first 50 runners than in the second, and then third, and so on. The graph below shows this for heel-strikers and mid-foot strikers (I haven't shown forefoot, because it's so tiny and insignificant by comparison):

At first glance, the conclusion from this graph is that if you want to be a faster runner, finishing higher up in the overall order, then you should be a midfoot striker, not a heel-striker. That's how many people interpreted the finding. And this may well be true. Unfortunately, there is another possible reason it looks like it does - perhaps it's simply a function of running faster.

Speed and footstrike

In otherwords, you naturally shift your contact point with the ground further forward when you run faster. The average speed, incidentally, of the first 50 runners was 3 minutes 3 seconds per kilometer. The second group of 50 runners averaged 3 minutes 10 seconds per kilometer. Hardly a big difference, but given the range (the 50th runner is at least a minute behind the 1st runner), is it possible that groups of 50 is too big, and that all this "finding" represents is a speed effect on footstrike?

The point is, this study does not allow you to differentiate between three possibilities:

1. Faster runners are midfoot strikers (could be co-incidence or some other cause); or
2. Midfoot strikers are faster runners (and therefore we should all change our running style and land on the front part of the foot more); or
3. All runners would eventually be midfoot strikers, if they just ran fast enough!

This is another classic example of how a scientific result can be taken out of context and applied to give advice that may not be 100% correct.

Personal opinion and implications of this study

My personal reaction to this research, when it came out, was that it disproved the popular theory that all runners should be aiming to become midfoot or forefoot strikers. Most of us (well, I'm in this group, apologies if you are not) are nowhere near the elite level, and we're often told by experts and coaches that the elite are landing on the ball of the foot or the midfoot, and so we should too.

But the next time you think of running like Gebrselassie and trying to land mid or forefoot, consider this: if you go out and sprint 100m, you're likely to run on your toes the whole way - because you're running faster, you land more on the mid-foot, or even the forefoot.

Sprinting as you are, you'll probably cover 100m in 14 seconds, which puts you only 1 second ahead of a Bekele or a Gebrselassie in a 5000m race, so is it any wonder they are midfoot strikers on the track - they're running as fast as most of us sprint? The point I'm trying to make is, if you ran the speed they did, you'd be a mid-foot striker too! But just as I suspect they change as they slow down, we all do. So why, and on what basis, should you try to run with the same foot strike when you are running perhaps 3 minutes per kilometer SLOWER than them? Again, these are relatively bald assertions, but hopefully you recognize the implication of speed on foot strike.

So when you go out and run a 3 hour, or a 4 hour marathon, that's another story altogether. And what the Pose running study at UCT showed me a few years ago is that if you change the landing of the foot, you predispose the athlete to injury - that study took a group of runners and within two weeks had them all running on the midfoot (please don't write in to say that Pose doesn't mean midfoot, because Romanov was the coach and he was happy with their technique!). Two weeks later, they all broke down with Achilles tendon injuries!

Why? Because sitting where you are right now, if I was to walk into your office or your home and take you outside and ask you to please run landing on your forefoot or midfoot, I can pretty much guarantee that the way you would achieve this is to point your toe down...you're probably doing this as you read this - contract the calf, and point your toe away from your body, like in ballet. Now imagine your body weight landing on that contracted calf muscle 85 times a minute for 4 hours. That, simply put, is a recipe for disaster.

However, if you can gradually change your landing, then I do believe that you can shift your footstrike. But it's a gradual process. And more important, what is the point? There is no evidence that heel-strikers are injured more, no evidence that mid-foot runners are faster and perform better than heel-strikers, and so the ultimate question is:

Why would you want to change your foot landing to begin with? Science has little to offer you in support of this. And so my advice, having read this far (well done!), is to forget about the possibility that you're landing "wrongly", and just let your feet land where, and how they land, and worry about all the other things you can when you run!

If there is one thing you change in your running, don't focus on your footstrike, but rather on WHERE your feet land relative to your body. Because if you are over-reaching and throwing your foot out in front of you, that's a problem, but what happens when the rubber meets the road is less relevant!
I'm sure there's more to this topic, based on your questions and comments. As usual, fire away! And remember the humble admission from earlier - science, believe it or not, does not know the answer definitively! (just as we can't tell you why Bekele is so dominant in World X-Country!)

Resting Is A Part Of Training Vs Degil Nak Lari Jugak!

I always been known for my stubbornness.. itu ler...orang kata rehat tak mahu dengar nak lari jugak.... i tried talking to myself tapi susah ler...it keep on saying alar lari je lar...your knee able to take it punyer....

anyway kedegilan dah terbukti, we are human, biologically different from one person to another therefore our recovery rate are not the same, kemaruk berlari lar katakan...itu ler nasib baik ler...Dia tak marah..understanding... but how long tak tahu ler....

Resting meaning no high impact activities for me, thought of pursuing back my swimming lesson and continue on my search for that dream MTB..if everything goes according to plan i will be move in to my new house by end of this month...Alhamdulilah ...

Pastu leh ler continue on swimming on regular basis since i got a place to do it, tak payah ler nak sneak in to the apartment anymore heheh,

Part of resting cum training ni..is to avoid the running temptation, ohh tu yang susah tu, treadmill pulak vacant tak de orang guna..plus on Saturday and Sunday , i'm almost free all day...tambah lagi nafsu makan bertambah tambah...gulp...funny?? Since i stop running my friends said that i'm so thin, i said really i dont think so, i ate alot plus i'm not burning a lot calories as did during running, mmm point to ponder?

Iyerlar zaman dulu dulu, orang bersilat pun kene bertapa bebulan bulan, i guess it must be a part of their training so that they will be able to recover and rebuild the muscles lost during training ir fights....

Hopefully i will be fit for Energizer...tak best ler nak derma derma bib ni...tapi kalau ade orang nak derma to me, Saya terima ajer...heheh(tamak betul ko,Shaq)

Resting Here but not in Peace yet or ever ,i meant Running not that Eternal Peace...

Happy Training