15km Sperm Loop

The office gave Feb 14 half day off to all of us. I was taken a back but was pleasantly surprised. I left for home and was back by 2.30pm. I then decided to go for a run, perhaps to try out the route i had in mind for a 15km run. With traffic and logistic in mind, i figured out that running in Taman Tun would be a good idea. Instead of running like a hamster in rounds around the park, i decided to run from the park to Damansara Heights and back. I baptise this route as 15km Sperm Loop. It is easy to see why.

I did not wrongly name it, right?

The elevation on this route is more demanding than the 12km Double Hill, you will gain about 500m of elevation in total over the 15km distance. This route makes Double Hill looked like a pancake flat route.

Lung Busting Goodness

So, if you are looking for a 15km loop if you are staying at the Taman Tun Dr. Ismail and Damansara side of town, here is a guide and because i ran with my phone, there are photos instead of map. :)

 

IMPORTANT TO GET 15KM : Once you arrive at the TTDI park, run a loop of the lower loop. Essentially, it is only a 14km distance unless you finish it off with a 1loop around the park. You can opt to use this last lap as your warm down lap.

Lower Loop around the park's lake is 1.4km

A partial of this route was my Ironman run training route and Damansara Heights hills kick ass. The climb are longer and more demanding. You can have an alternative 5km loop just running the Jalan Beringin like how i did with a group of lawyers a while back.
The main draw of this route is the ease of accessibility without having to drive to Hartamas (to do a reverse Bukit Aman - Hartamas) or to Bukit Aman. With adequate hills, this route can be a king maker (for fitness).
Here are some other random photos i took while running it on Valentine's Day.

Up the longest steepest portion. Huff and Puff!

Behind KLGCC towards TTDI. Yes, i am on Instagram too. Find me at TriStupe

Translate to 89% HRmax with 80% HRave

Slow 7:47 average pace with max of another slow 6:00 pace. GPS distance was 15.5km. Uncalibrated Polar about 15km.  

Thank You PDRM!

My dad called me late Saturday afternoon about 6.15pm to tell me he had trouble with the car (a Kancil by the way) and it sort of stalled in the middle of the road near the Damansara Jaya - Damansara Utama turn off, the spot where road users can U-turn back to NKVE. It was pouring heavily and my first instinct was to tell him to switch on the hazard light, stay away from the car and under the flyover for shelter against the rain. I then rushed out and managed to persuade a mechanic at Uptown to follow me and troubleshoot the car.
As I arrived at the location, i saw two PDRM patrol car pulling away and my mum, dad and cousin (she had school that afternoon) was safely under the flyover.
I was about 30seconds too late and did not had the chance to thank the officers (there were four of them) and they gave two bottles of their drinking water to my dad to be filled up in the radiator. They were drenched in the rain as well, as they tried to help with the car. Kudos PDRM!

Published here

I wrote a few emails to the major English dailies hoping that the appreciation will be posted up. Many thanks The Star, for highlighting this.

20km Bukit Aman - Hartamas Loop

Fresh from running the 12km loop per the Double Hill entry, here is another favorite of runners in Klang Valley. The Bukit Aman - Hartamas Loop is also known as weekend long slow distance (LSD) training that will give a good 20km worth of distance to sweat it out. As per the entry yesterday, if you need the GPS coordinates, please email me at im at tristupe.com to get it. Else, here is a description on how where to run the 20km, turn by turn, as detailed as I can provide.

1. Follow the route to get to Taman Tunku Apartment per the Double Hill entry here (up to Step 5). Go straight on passing the National Tennis Centre on your left and up the small slope towards the main road that leads from Bulatan Segambut.

2. At the T-junction, carefully cross the main road, climb over the metal barrier, walk under the flyover, climb over the metal barrier again, and cross the road towards Arkib Negara (National Archives). Traffic on early morning are typically light, but be careful when crossing it after 9am, as it will start to get heavy. The GPS forces the route to go up to Bulatan Segambut. Just ignore it like how i noted below.

3. After you cross the road, run up the long slope (about 800m) passing the Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) on your left hand side. Keep running until you reach a cross-junction with the Jalan Duta Food court on your right.

4. Cross the junction carefully and make your way towards Majlis Wilayah. Run up this slope and down towards another cross junction. Cross it carefully and head up towards Solaris Dutamas. At the next cross junction, turn left.

5. After turning left at the second cross junction, you will find a gated community on your right and the new spanking Kementerian Dalam Negeri on your left. Run along this road until you reach Plaza Damas, passing the new Istana Negara on your left. Warning - Big Climb.

6. Run past Plaza Damas and down the hill. Petronas is a mere 1km away from there. You can stop there for some refuelling (though at this point of time, the station is closed for renovation). You can then take the same way back to Bukit Aman following the same route.

This route allows you to do some sort of benchmarking for your own fitness. Essentially, it is a 10km one way and you can use it to gauge your 10km split timing. Done properly, your speed will increase and so will be your fitness. There is a few other variants to get more distance out of this simple 20km loop which i will share separately soon. Meanwhile, if you have been wondering where is this 20km LSD that everyone is saying, you now know and can run this route safely.
If you feel this is useful, do share it with your friends!

12km Double Hills Loop Bukit Tunku

I meant to write about this for some time already. Having used this route for a lot of training and initiation of beginner runners to run in the open (i.e. not on treadmill), i never actually officially written about the route or posted map on it. Double Hills Bukit Tunku is a 12km loop that is challenging enough for any runners. Beginners will find them daunting with the name (HILLS!) and more experience runners will at time use it for interval training or for recovery run. Whatever the level of your running experience, this route is not strangers to runners in Klang Valley.

The run starts from Bukit Aman car park. It will be difficult to explain in writing which is the correct route/turn to take. If anyone need the GPS routing, please email to me at im at tristupe.com. If you do not have any GPS, Here is the rough guide to run Double Hills Loop.
1. Start from Bukit Aman Car Park and run out towards the main road, turning right and head down to Bank Negara, passing Padang Merbuk on your left. This first km is a slight slope downwards and gives good opportunity for a warm up.

2. Upon reaching Bank Negara, turn left and run along the road until you go under a flyover. That flyover is for KTM Komuter. You will then turn right into the road and run pass the KTM Komuter Station. Run pass the station and follow the uphill road, which will leads you to pass Sasana Kijang, the new Bank Negara Building. Admire the building if you want to. After all, it is build with some of your tax money. Run down towards the intersection and take a sharp right up, passing an Arab school on your left.

3. Running pass the Arab school, the real workout begin. You are now in Bukit Tunku area where the size of your house could be the size of a bedroom of these houses that belongs to the rich (not sure if they are famous). Just follow the winding road for about 2 1km(thank you Anon) until you reach a major intersection. You have to turn left immediately and not go straight ahead and down - or you will end up at The Mall and Legend Hotel.

4. After turning left, you will run passing a flyover with Lebhuraya Mahameru below you. You will also see two huge mansion on your left and a high end gated community on your right. Right in between these two is a small roundabout. Turn right and run down the small slope or use it for some active recovery before hitting about 1km of flat road passing more mansions and high end gated community.

5. Run along the road until you pass a bus stop on your left and right hand side. You will see Taman Tunku Apartment - an old settlement of quaint unpretentious gated community on your right, cross the 2-lane road after you pass the Taman Tunku Apartment and turn left into Jalan Pinggiran Tunku. Missing this turn, you will end up next to National Tennis Stadium and dangerously close to crossing the main road towards Hartamas ;-)

6. This is where the so called Double Hill starts. A short slope up Pinggiran Tunku, you will meet with a fork on the road. Turn right and and run in between more mansions. You can opt to count cars inside the two mansions on your right if you got bored of running. I last counted 12 cars in each mansion. Immediately after that, you will be facing a 8 degree climb for about 200m. This is the first "hill" of this run. Elevation gain over this short 300m is about 60meters. Decent enough for a good heart pump. Continue on the road and you will have an option to turn right into Simpangan Tunku and take the short 150m to Persiaran Bukit Tunku, before turning left down the road. The typical practice over here is that most runners will take the alternative route per below where Pinggiran Tunku and Jalan Girdle meet. Keep left and run down the hill and you will meet back with Persiaran Bukit Tunku. You only lose about 200m if you take the alternative route. Make it up with some hard running down the slope.

7. Run along the road and turn left at a T-junction towards a roundabout. Take the second exit at the roundabout and run about 1km before hitting Lebuhraya Mahameru. Make sure you exit Bukit Tunku and do not turn into Jalan Carruthers or Jalan Tunku Putra. One is a dead end and the other, a massive 10degree climb over 1km await! Carefully cross and run on the left side of the road. Run along the road that runs parallel to Lebuhraya Mahameru. You will reach an overhead pass and turn left, crossing the highway. Turn left again and run up the second hill (hence, Double Hill), flanking the Agricultural Ministry and the Department of Irrigation. The road is wide here, but careful of fast moving vehicles and always run against the traffic so you can see what is coming to you.

8. Once you clear the "hill", there is a turning on your right (first right actually) to a road called Persiaran Sultan Salahuddin. This road is winding and only about 1.5km long, but adequate flat and slight downhill to perform a fast interval. I managed (my fastest) a 4:45 pace here a hold it before the heart rate peaks at 169bpm (my 90% max). You will run past Tugu Negara (National Monument) before hitting the crossroad back to Bukit Aman Car Park. Cross the intersection carefully and sprint to your car to finish!

So, there you go. The 12km loop of Double Hill Bukit Tunku. This route has been ran by runners back in the 80's and still remain a favorite for many today. While there were news of runners being mugged by Mat Rempit (biker gang), they are isolated incident. Just remember to run in group and avoid running this loop too early in the morning or too late in the morning. Meanwhile, here are some photos to share from the Double Hill Escapade Saturday morning with wifey.

HR a low 48bpm at 6.30am...wow!

Wifey clearing first hill. Nice calves by the way!

Today's effort that translate to 65% - 90% of my HRmax. 12km covered in 1:10.

Project 365 : Day 129

Nikon D40. 35mm cropped. F11. 1/200.

Saw a pack of Herons hanging around some fresh fruit bunches and couldn't resist to photograph them. They sensed my presence and immediately after the first one flew, the rest followed.
Photo cropped from original below. Applied some color filter and add in vignetting to the photo for some wannabe effect.

Petronas Photography Contest

I posted about the Petronas TVC for Chinese New Year recently and mentioned that there is a photography contest. Together with the launching of the Chinese New Year Campaign is a Photography Contest themed "Reimaging Energy", in collaboration with Leica Camera AG. With prizes ranging from RM288 to RM2,000, the contest has attracted close to 2,000 entrants to submit their creative photos or even interpreting the theme of the photo contest in their own best possible photographs. 
The contest is open for all Malaysians and you may submit as many photographs as you like taken using mobile, point and shoot, and dSLR. The closing date is February 12, 2012. 
More details could be obtained at the Facebook Apps page where the rules, regulation and submission for the photographs will be done.
They say there is no bigger pleasure apart from winning the prizes from any photography contest than to have the winning photo being exhibited for public viewing. So, if you are just a casual photographer or someone that does it for hobby, even if you are a full time photographer, this is an opportunity to showcase our talent and win some money.
I have submitted my entry on my understanding of the theme and it shows a dragon, guarding the entrance of a temple. Remember to VOTE for me (if my photo/s is/are deserving!). Look out for the photo below in the Gallery!

My photo are driven by the mythical Chinese Dragon which guards the entrance of a temple in Gombak. Casted as a concrete pillar, i find it aptly representing the energy that the dragon brings - supporting the foundation of the temple and at the same time acting as the guardian to the temple.  The photo was taken with my Nikon D90 and 50mm lens. The last i checked, the photo received only 5 likes. But that is already 5 votes too many ;-) Thank you for voting!
If you have not joined the competition, hurry up! Closing date is Feb 12, 2012!

Beware Of Fake "Butter"

Much has been discussed and written about hydrogenated oil or transfat in my blog. However, i noticed that many are still not too clear or perhaps in denial about these in their daily food intake. Just remember that BUTTER originated ONLY from Milk source. Anything less than than Butter made from MILK is Margarine.

This include the very misleading "vegetable spread" that uses olive oil (Wow! Healthy!) to "Special Butter Blend" that has X% milk with Y% vegetable oil origin.

Oh wow! With Olive Oil too! Gotta be healthy!

Butterblend are made to look like butter, but they are not butter. It is a cheaper alternative to butter and allow the product to be kept longer and without refrigeration.

Butyric acid is the fermentation of milk to be butter. Butterblend will have some butter, but it is essentially margarine

Misleading information and lack of awareness by the general public is what caused the propagation of these less than butter to be passed off as butter. Essentially, the process of making margarine involves mixing the vegetable oil with emulsifier and then freezing them to solidify. This process is time, space and energy consuming. Frozen vegetable oil is white in color - similar to what you will get if you freeze your meal leftover (usually with broth or anything cooked with vegetable oil) and you will get white residue on the food surface - that, my friend, you made  spreadable margarine, but in smaller scale. This is the process used to make spreadable "butter" and claim it to be "transfat-free or without hydrogenated fat". Clever ain't it?
The other process of making margarine that will requires less space or energy would be via a process known as hydrogenation. Usage of hydrogen, usually in the presence of nickel as catalyst will increase the melting point of the fat - allowing it to solidify at room temperature. You can read more about transfat and its effect by reading my previous posting.

In case you are too lazy to read what i wrote. This should sum it all up nicely

So, still think your spreadable olive oil is healthy?
Always read the label when you are purchasing anything. United States and European countries has long ban the presence of transfat or hydrogenated fat in food items. Margarine in these countries are sometimes known as shortening (familiar?) and they are white in color. It is just another fancy name for Margarine. Manufacturer that produces these butter substitute would put in permitted coloring to make them look like butter. The truth is often in the label. That is the last defence against buying anything that is highly processed.
Compare the ingredient used to make a block of SCS butter (salted) to a block of  "Butter" below.  Take this chance to educate yourself and those around you. Share this post if you feel this is useful.

The Real Thing

VERSUS

Notice the "coloring" and "flavoring"? It even have palm kernel oil in it...wow! It's high in saturated fat and semi-solid at room temperature. Palm oil (from mesocarp) and palm kernel oil (from the seed) is two different type of oil.

Pure butter are expensive and will cost twice as much as margarine or butterblend. Make the informed choice. I have try raising the level of awareness in this blog with regards to healthy living and eating. If this is useful, as with other posting, do share it around - for health is a wealth no amount of heirloom can buy.

Valentine's Day 2012 Cancelled

According to some Political Party, Valentine's Day will encourage the youngster to engage in immoral activities. So in the spirit of that, a colleague told me that it is CANCELLED.
I have to agree with him. Thanks for the late afternoon joke BRS! Needed it for today rush to get things completed.

So, we should just tell the political party that all is well.
And we don't need to wait for Valentine's Day to have sex.

Malaysia Airline Flash Mob

There has been some buzz over the social media that a flash mob actually took place in KLIA arrival hall that has prompted almost 850,000 views since it was posted on January 14. I was curious about it as to what the flash mob was about. Thinking it was some usual "planned" and "unexpected" everyone get together then do something silly and then disperse...I was wrong. This flash mob took almost 10 minutes!

And if you were to think it's the usual ONE off flash mob, this one actually was done as a few flash mobs at a few places around the arrival hall and it sure caught those arriving from their trip by big surprise! They managed to pull it off, though choreographed in an almost flawless manner in a string of what seems to be a continuous chain of event.

To add color to the whole event, there was a medley of songs being sung representing the four major languages that is used in our country Malaysia. Expect retro songs such as My Boyfriend's Back, Janet Jackson's Miss You Much, M Nasir's Istana Menanti and even a Hindi song!

The breaking out of songs in an “impromptu” manner is refreshing as the crew looked very well-rehearsed for a life performance. Now, it will make you wonder if the flight crews (pilots included) will one day break out in songs 30,000 feet in the sky over some oceans to surprise the passengers.

I can almost see that happening.
Meanwhile, enjoy the Official video that has received close to 850,000 view to date.

Sciatica Staying Away

I am happy to announce that the Sciatica condition has been staying away. The persistent stretching done every night (sometime missing a day or two due to tiredness) has helped greatly. My personal favorite is still the lying down leg up stretch where it really loosen the hamstring and give me a few shiver down the legs as I attempt to hold it straight as long as i could.

Grimacing in Pain - September 2011

The next favorite is where i do it often when sitting down in the office table doing my work. It is the Cross-leg and bend forward stretch that pulls the side of your thighs and hamstrings to ease the tension.

Breathe as you do this

Other things that might help would be eating well and eating clean. As mentioned in my the post on what to eat if you are having Sciatica, eating clean and sensibly is the main way forward. i have seen so much improvement personally by eating clean. The results beats any meal replacement or hunger some people needs to go through.

Click to enlarge.

Having said all the above, i ran many times recently without the Sciatica coming to bother me. I had my best (as in feeling)12km, my best 21km (again, feeling) and possibly, the best (yeap, feeling) few interval training that was executed in good form and quality compared to the previous 6 months!

And a whole load more comfy doing the stretching -  Feb 2012

Biggest challenge now is to keep Sciatica at bay and hope it never return. If it does, i will just have to find better ways to deal with it pronto. Life is too good now to be bitching about Sciatica!