Limping Marathon Runner

Been missing out on postings for trips. Writing now. Done with Kota Kinabalu and have yet to start on Mount Rinjani.

Massive number of photos and hence taking a little more time to consolidate which are the nicer ones to upload.

Pics are done for:
Tioman compressed air weekend
Mount Kinabalu Day 1
Mount Kinabalu Day 5

Waking up slightly later than usual (late night, last night), I picked up my shoes and did a slow 5K under the hot sun. Immediately after that, I collected my bag and ran off to Bukit Timah, clocking another 5K. The slow me was 20mins late where TOBB was already there and reading a book. With a quick bite to finish an apple and topping up my 4L bottles, simulating weight, we moved to walk some trails. Without breakfast and lunch, I was just waiting for the power from apple to kick in. Once out of that trail, I opt to head back down to get a can of 100Plus. Heavenly. Slightly recharged, we headed back up to the Diary Farm loop for the high steps and back to the Park Office. We did a total of 2hrs 50mins walk. We needed to re-fuel and had some simple food to cure our hungry stomachs.

Yes, I was perspiring.

Back on running again. After ten months in this job, more or less, I know what to expect from my work. Starting to make adjustments so that I can workout more often. TOBB wants to run over at Changi. Hmm... I have yet to run there. Seems inviting enough to give it a try. We went slow, slow enough to accommodate my ITB's threshold. Sea breeze was good. The sky above was dotted with stars. Not much, but that'll do for now. Apart from a rat that ran out of nowhere and the scream that woke me up, I got some calipers treatment as well. At the end of the run, I did receive some rewards like prata with egg, popiah and passion fruit. Yummy. Taking the train back, Z-Monster hit me with a full blow.

I did a mixture of easy 5Cs and up to difficult (my level of difficult) 6A+ routes, that mount to a grand total of 14 climbs last night. The last climb (15th) was not that successful. My arms are okay and was not pumped yet. Some how mysteriously, I could not get pass the 6A+ yellow route. There was a route that I did with a leap of faith. In the past, I used to do a press down and shifting of weight. However, last night, I saw someone leaping. I tried, following his method and it worked pretty well for me. Sometimes, you just have to take a giant step / leap and trust that everything will turn out okay.

Since the long day yesterday, I woke up slightly later today. I spent a hour or so on games and then went on to reading. Lots of catching up to do. Around 3pm, I went to meet Kit-Kat for a discussion and was surprised to see that Setron building has been torn down. Ahh.. a place that holds lots of memories from many people. Ever changing and I guess that's life. Walking around shops in Queensway and I found what I have been looking for in ages. Now, I know where to get them. We went to get dinner across at AV market. Seafood fried rice, sambal stingray and with a mug of Avocado drink. Happy.

Waking at precisely planned time, I got an SMS that says "Are you coming at 8am?". What? All of a sudden, 30mins taken away from me. I grabbed the bare minimum and dashed out of the house. "Coffeeshop, coming?", was the next SMS. I raced to the usual place with no one familiar looking in sight. Wrong info again. When I finally linked up with Kit-Kat and her colleague, BeauQi is said to be at the summit Bukit Timah waiting for us. What?! I re-tuned my expectations to the lowest click.

Upon reaching Bukit Timah, with toilet breaks, shoes changing and what-nots, we started walking. I quickened my pace since I wanted some cardio effect. At the short cut steps to the summit, BeauQi was on her way down and said she needed to use a washroom urgently. Guess we'll meet at the bottom? I proceeded to the top. On the way down, I was lead to a path that I have never tried before. I had always wanted to try out all the tracks, but never had the chance. Strange and I wonder why. Anyway, it was a path with high steps. To me, its like a like gem (for training) hidden in all this glam (if there's any) of making your way to the summit. After all, most of the time, the unbeaten track has much more to offer. I foresee that I will visit this track much more in the near future. Same thing, I picked up pace, often turning back to check two of our sweepers to see if they are still there. No load, pick up pace then. Finally exiting the nature reserve, we took lunch before parting ways.

Ready for my second appointment of the day, I made my way to find our Sport Scientist. Just to help him out, presenting myself as another additional value or number in the statistics sheet. Measuring my weight - precision weighing machine calibrated twice a year, as he said, as good as you can get. He measured my height as well. Next up was body marking with plenty of crosses, lines and dots on my body. The final and most enduring task - surviving the pinch-me-o-measure-me-fats-meter. Hmm, I'm sure I receive lots of pinching, somewhere. Glad to know that I have a pretty standard fat index among endurance athlete (if I'm considered one?), not necessary the lowest. Thanks Philip for the knowledge and it was much fun for me in helping you out.

Lined up for third appointment of the day was a chill out makan and coffee session for a Birthday gal. Some folks couldn't make it. For the rest of it, it was porridge with mixed dishes as our first route - appetizer. We changed to a cozy cafe as our next venue for eat out on finger food and drinks. I had a good time as I have not seen some of these great friends for a while. Around 10-ish, all of us left for home. I had to settle some stuff and only slept around 2am or so. Dead tired.

As Kops21 suggested, all of us woke up and went for a good breakfast at a local coffeeshop. While all of us were still walking like ducks, we managed to find seats and ordered our food. I did not find the noodles to be fantastic but was glad to have something substantial in my stomach. Stazla was right on this. With out packed bags, we made our way to the airport and got back to Senai before splitting up into two cabs heading back home.

Thanks everyone! It was an enjoyable trip!

After our breakfast, there was a bus ready to pick us and others to a town called Tenom for our train ride. It was a day of action with water rafting! We had a short briefing before we stepped into the raft for Padas river. Just ahead, we could see plenty of water movement. The first few rapids already had 2m waves. I can't recall how many times I had to spit the water out. The water was chilly and had a shade of brown. Most of the journey, I was taking the front left paddle position. It was great fun with water splashing all over. Soon, we stopped for lunch where it rained and I was really getting cold. Brrrr.. Rain? Means that the water temperature will drop and higher volume of water? Uh oh. Once the rain stopped, we continued. The second part of the journey was less challenging than the first. There is a stretch of the river where it is just calm where we can just jump into the waters and let the water bring you down stream. Chilly waters? I changed my mind. When it all ended, we transfered to our speed boats and then over to our buses. We changed out of our wet clothing (yes!!! lousy wet clothes feeling) before our bus ride back to hotel. We chose to drop near our hotel for our KFC dinner where fast food has never tasted so good before! Must be the hunger.