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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Fuji Explorer II Ready For Xterra!

It took me a good 1 year (maybe more) to get my brakes fixed.

Needless to say, my last final time riding in Kiara was without any brakes.

I literally wore my brakes too thin.


new pad on left

Now i'm 10% ready for Xterra!

Xterra Malaysia website has been up and running. The website is way ahead when compared to the other race portal in Malaysia!

See to Believe!

XterraMalaysia.Com

Registration for the race opens tomorrow!!!

Monday, March 30, 2009

Ryan Has His First Hair Cut

Brought Ryan to the Indian barber for his first official hair cut (previously, we just trim his hair).

Lets revisit some old pics to see the hair-progression.


8 months


23 months


2 Years 1 month


2 Years 2 Months


Same as above

When he was done having the hair cut. The first word the mother aka wifey said was:

"he is not my son!"


Side and back view


Front and side view


"he is not my son" Mother and "he is not my son" son



You guys think i "tortured" him and his childhood are now forever scarred?

With the new hairstyle, i believe now he look more like me than ever!



Productive Saturday

My Saturday started when Nadia woke up at 5am and decided that i am the better bed/pillow than her rubber mattress in her cot.



I initially intended to go for a swim and run by 7.30am but Nadia decided that her daddy's man boobs was quite comfy when compared to her mum's bosom and she slept until 8am.

I managed to get to the club by 8.30am and swam for a good 30 minutes. I am preparing myself for my maiden Kapas-Marang swimathon on 12th April. It was simple compared to my usual other races as the only gear i require will be the goggle and perhaps a swim cap.

I just need to complete 6.5km open sea swim within cut off (which i have no idea how long is that, yet).

At 9am, i was torn between Run or Gym.

For old time sake and just because Rashid Robocop asked me about bodybuilding, i decided to go and do some "pumping iron" activities.

I.Felt.Funny.

Funny to be carrying weights again.

6 sets pyramid up-down bench press, same for fly. Proceed to Barbell curl same set and reps and dumbell curls of similiar sets/reps.

I used to bench 240lb. Last Saturday, i was struggling with 160lb.

Barbell curl was 120lb and now ended up with max of 55lb.

Damn shy.

Only saving grace is one uncle complimenting me that i have a nice upper body. he was suprised i am 33. He thought i am 21.

Now i am wondering if he was hitting on me.

Got back by 10am and spent sometime with the kids and my mum. It was not until 12.30pm that i recieved a call from a colleague and i have to go back to office to open the door for her. At least i got some kitkats and zip wafer as reward.

I then drove to Uncle Ong and took back the 2 bikes i bought there for service....one year ago!

Paid RM170 to service, changed 6 tires and tubes and paid the "space rental" fee. Not too bad for a year's storage infact!

I went back home with the bike, passed one (my trusty Le Run) to my sis in law and then drop the Specialized HardRock at home before going to my mum's house to repair one old bike and to take my Fuji Explorer II back.

You all know la, Xterra Malaysia is 67 days from today. I have no choice but to start training - on the MTB and knobbies!



After reaching home, i went to the hypermarket to buy some groceries.

Back by 8pm and switched off lights (non essential lights) at 8.30pm to mark Earth Day (i try to switch on only essential lights everyday - much to wifey's annoyance as she wants the house lighted).

By 9.30pm, wifey was back from Bangkok.

And like magic...the kids slept within 15 minutes...it took me 2 hours for the 2 nights she was away!

It was a tiring Saturday for me. But i was very happy to be able to complete that many things.

One thing i did not manage to do on Saturday was bringing Ryan to cut hair...which i did on Sunday! (watch this space - i will post Ryan's pic in another posting!)




Friday, March 27, 2009

Wifey's Away

Yesterday i ahd to put the kids to sleep all by myself.

What usually takes 30 minutes for Wifey took me almost 2 hours.

Nadia refused to sleep because the usual "bosom" is not there. She twist and turned. Cried and laughed as if mocking me for an hour plus.

Ryan then refused to close his eyes and asked me to read to him in darkness. That took close to 45minutes.

By then, it was already 11am.

It is a wonder what you don't know you are missing until someone that magically does that goes missing.

But i had good fun sleeping with Ryan on his bed. Call it male-bonding or whatever but the smell of his hair was just simply wonderful (sweat smell) and his limbs flying all around and all over as he move from position A to position B and to position C, all 90 degrees of each other left me with a smile.

My mum slept on my bed with my cousin (she's 4) while i took the floor with Ryan.

Nadia was in her cot and cheekily woke up a few times throughout the night and clapped her hand and amuse herself with the pillow and bolster.

It is scary how much i've learnt to depend on someone whom i call wifey.

She is the real Hero(ine). She wash, clean, took care and still managed to go to work on time.

As for me, all i do is go to work, come back, spend some time, sleep. Repeat.

Don't take your spouses for granted.

I know i now appreciate her more than ever now.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Tuts My Barreh - Don-won Kim-Carey

Thanks to Jason Hue, i had the best laugh this week.



Lyric: Touch My Body (Mariah Carey)
"Touch My Body"

MC, you're the place to be
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah

I know that you've been waiting for it
I'm waiting too
In my imagination I'd be all up on you
I know you got that fever for me
Hundred and two
And boy I know I feel the same
My temperature's through the roof

[Chorus:]
If there's a camera up in here
Then it's gonna leave with me
When I do (I do)
If there's a camera up in here
Then I'd best not catch this flick
On YouTube (YouTube)
'Cause if you run your mouth and brag
About this secret rendezvous
I will hunt you down
'Cause they be all up in my bidness
Like a Wendy Interview
But this is private
Between you and I

Touch my body
Put me on the floor
Wrestle me around
Play with me some more
Touch my body
Throw me on the bed
I just wanna make you feel
Like you never did.
Touch my body
Let me wrap my thighs
All around your waist
Just a little taste
Touch my body
Know you love my curves
Come on and give me what I deserve
And touch my body.

Boy you can put me on you
Like a brand new white tee
I'll hug your body tighter
Than my favorite jeans
I want you to caress me
Like a tropical breeze
And float away with you
In the Caribbean Sea

[Chorus]

Touch my body
Put me on the floor
Wrestle me around
Play with me some more
Touch my body
Throw me on the bed
I just wanna make you feel
Like you never did.
Touch my body
Let me wrap my thighs
All around your waist
Just a little taste
Touch my body
Know you love my curves
Come on and give me what I deserve
And touch my body.

I'm gonna treat you like a teddy bear
You won't wanna go nowhere
In the lap of luxury
Baby just turn to me
You won't want for nothing boy
I will give you plenty
Touch my body

Touch my body
Put me on the floor
Wrestle me around
Play with me some more
Touch my body
Throw me on the bed
I just wanna make you feel
Like you never did.
Touch my body
Let me wrap my thighs
All around your waist
Just a little taste
Touch my body
Know you love my curves
Come on and give me what I deserve
And touch my body.

Oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah
Oh yeah oh yeah
Oh oh oh oh yeah
Touch my body...

I don't know about you, but i'll stick with Mariah instead of Kim.



Thursday, March 19, 2009

Wifey Kiara Run

Any other woman (Le Tuang ladies excluded) will freak out and be angry if her husband or partner bring her for a run on their wedding anniversary.

But luckily my name is Ee-Van and i'm a member of a few crazy weekend warrior atheletes. These attribute has rub off to wifey and she is very determined to run competetively.



10km to most of us is not far. But i recall my first 10km race with Doc Hisyam and i remembered it as "not pleasant". Infact, it took me 1H 20Mins to complete that 10km during PJ Half Marathon eons ago. Since then, i've learnt that the human could be coaxed and pushed to achieve what they don't think they could in the first place.

Yesterday was wifey's longest run/walk. I did not make it easier by bringing her to run/walk Kiara.



I parked as far as i think is adequate and we walked up the ascent and run down the descent.



Usually, people would just go for some nice dinner and some private time together. But i guess this is no ordinary wifey.

We went home for some home fried meehoon (my mum's) and later that night, after the kids has slept, we sneaked out (and told my mum to help babysit for a while) for some supper.

And it wasn't any fancy places either.

We ended up at the Uptown7 food court, devouring some Hakka Yong Tau Foo (please, it is not that overrated chee cheong fun on the other end) and ABCs.



Then this morning, she woke up at 7am and asked me for a quick run.

I took the opportunity to help her calibrate the Nike+ and she managed to run 80% of the short 2km this morning.



Reason for the short run was because her heel has a blister - not from running, but by being a fashion victim and wore a new shoe to work, which caused the blister.

Nevertheless, i'm proud of her! I've happily put up a Nike MiniMe on the right of this blog so everyone could see her progress!


Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Happy 3rd Anniversary Wifey!

What can i say?

I love you very much.

Here to our 3 years...and next 3000 years together.

Till Death Do Us Part (even if that happens, i will still come back to see you).
:)





Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Body Test System with Wifey

The title sounded wrong. Body Test System with Wifey.

What really happened wasn't in and out or up and down between the sheets but it was equally as sweaty when she decided to sign up for the 10km run in the upcoming KL Marathon run. I've made my commitment to her to train and run with her - bearing in mind that this will be her very first official sanctioned run.

I took this opportunity to get back to training as well.

Today's menu was to walk as far and as fast as we can within 40minutes.

It was made possible as my mum came over yesterday night and we left the kids with her this morning.



I walked the pace i did in IM, which was comfy for wifey to follow as well.

Her target within the next 2 weeks would be to run the whole 30 minutes (and cover 5km in the process).

With 3 months to go, i am more than sure she will be able to cover the 10km in less than an hour.

I know she could. She is my wife.



Monday, March 16, 2009

Batu 18 - Tekala Body Test System Ride.

As per Yusran defination, Body Test System or BTS for short is really to check if the body is ready for re-training after IM09.

This is also the first time i rode after IM09 and the first time after 4 months on Dream.

I woke up at 6.30am and it begin to pour. By 7am, it was pouring so heavily i thought the ride would be cancelled. A quick SMS to Shazly and he replied back by saying it's all sunny in Batu 18. (Ironically, i found out much later, it flooded in Hulu Langat on Friday 13th)

I drove as fast (and as safe) as i could and reached the RV point by 8am.

Mac, Ade, Bandit, Upiq and of course SK were waiting rahter impatiently. My apologies to all of you!

The ride from Batu 18 to Tekala and back was full of laughters admist the seriousness of the two soul that has placed their ass on 70.3 in 3 months time.

I felt fine on the bike. Body seems to completely coordinated with the mind to receive more beating soon.

Infact, i wasn't tired at all and had plentiful of energy later the day when me and wifey went to paktor without the kids in tow. Yes, this is the first time in 2 year and 3 months that we were away from the kids by more than 10km for the whole day (IM not counting as we weren't together physically).

Here are some pics taken from the ride. Enjoy.




Bandit - CTT on holiday in Malaysia


SK - Back In Action.


Angel Mac and IronLady Ade


All Lining Up for pic




Group Pic




Friday, March 13, 2009

Xterra June 7th Malaysia!

Take out your mountain bike. Get your trail shoes dirty. XTERRA is coming to Malaysia and it's confirmed!




What is Xterra?

It's OFFROAD Triathlon covering distance of 1.5KM swim, 28km bike and 8km run.

It's for people like me with mountainbiking background and was seduced to the darkside and was seen riding on the road bike for the past 2 years to go back and repent!

Wait for more info in this Blog!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

1988 : 6 Emas SRK Taman Melawati

Add caption
What memories!
:)



Thursday, March 05, 2009

My SuperWoman

Without her, nothing is possible.





Love you Wifey!

ps- everyone that do not know her name do come to her and say "so, you're the wifey?"

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

My Medals Audit

My medals which i accumulate over the years.


Primary school SRK Taman Melawati- all are "strength" type of medal, all silver as i always lose to Chan Kim Hoi


Lower Secondary - SM Lembah Keramat - again, all brute force sports - all gold


Upper Secondary - Royal Military College - nothing but brute force, again


Upper Secondary - Victoria Institution - again...brute force


Upper Secondary - Victoria Institution - what does arm wrestling, tug of war and bola kepten tell you?

College - TAR College - Brute force all over!

I think i'm being viewed as a bully perhaps?


Rugby Years - Champ KRS both League and Secretary cup


The adventure races years and the social ride year - bearing in mind i did not get medal for AXN races and a couple more hardcore adventure races


Duathlons and Powermans - where i started dabbling in multisports


KL International Marathons - not too bad, 4 times!


Desaru Long Tri - the days when i add 2 long distance and call myself IronMan


PD Tri - Late Zoob remembered, always. However, last year's PD medal was missing


Tri medals - one that took place during my birthday. Missing was last year's Kenyir medal


IronMan - hoping to collect more of these

So there you go, as you can see, i'm not really a Jock, just a wannabe.



HomeMade Burger

After IronMan, i'm back to be IronChef.

Decided to make our own burger patty yesterday.

Infact, after IronMan on Saturday, or rahter, during the race, i had cravings for burger. I almost wanted to go buy one after the race but i feel asleep in the shower at 3am. I had sticks of Satay Kajang upon my return home and i had fried chicken and fried sotong yesterday for lunch. But nothing satisfy my "recovery" tummy.

So, wifey and myself decided to try and make our own burger. Here's the recipe.

500grams of mince beef (we spent a bit on the "weight watcher" beef as it has noticeably less/no fat compared to the other mince beed version)
2 shallots, diced
1 garlic, diced
L&P sauce
dash of french dressing (basically anything we found in the fridge).

Mix the above well in a big bowl and cover it with cling sheet to let the mixture set.

Place in the fridge for 20 minutes at least (we left it for a good 2 hours and went shopping)


Mix it well

You don't need to worry that the meat won't stick and fall apart as beef has enough moisture to hold itself together. If you are going to use chicken, use some eggs to keep things in place.

Once the settling is done, take the mixture out and shape it into a ball of whatever size you think you want your burger to be.


300grams/patties

Next, all you need is to grill/fry it over the fire. I choose a non stick pan and grease it a bit with butter for that unmistaken aroma of mouth watering and salivating experience.

Turn the patties over often and you just need to cook the patties for about 4 to 5 minutes and you will end up with a medium cooked burger. Adjust the "rare-ness" accordingly.





As for the dressing of the homemade burger, it is limited to your imagination (and palate, obviously). What we did was to bake a loaf of seed bread (basically all the seeds thrown in with flour and all).





We had lettuce, onion and cheese as the dressing, top with some mustard of course.



And don't tell me this isn't delicious looking...



I'm resorting to comfort eating to make up for my dismal performance in IronMan.

My 226KM Journey aka IronMan 2009

I completed my second IM and here is my report.


Swim

The part where I trained the least and only for a month at most. The gun went off at 7.45am and I took my time to enter the water and started swimming.

As usual, IM swim is like contact sports. It could get ugly with all the hands and legs flying around. I tried to find my beacon, but everyone around me was just swimming in an almost zigzag motion. I spotted AJ and a few of them. I saw Senn, I saw Julie. I stayed closed to them to get a bearing of where I am going.

The water was unusually calm and the usual jelly fishes and water lice did not show up on race day. I must say I enjoyed the swim thoroughly and it was evident in me posting an almost identical time for the 3.8km swim in 1:35:57, but it was essentially 15 seconds slower than last year. I initially thought I did better, but I guessed I did not as I am writing this now.

One thing did go wrong. I kicked, twice, on the stone that was used to weigh down the buoy. I am not sure which events were more severe as I had 2 cuts at the ball of my left feet.


as of yesterday afternonn

I waste no time and ran into transition and I guess I totally ignored some of the cheers along the way and I knew the pain from the cut would be bothering me the rest of the day.

Ran into T1 and realized that the cut looked nasty and it was still bleeding. I reckon it was about an inch gash, with the deeper portion along ¾ of the gash. It was deep enough to see the red flesh and I could feel the pulsating effect when I open up the gash to see if I require any medical attention.

But I guess I was man enough to handle this gash/cut. I carried on.

T1 was a fast 6:57 and I was out to the bike.

Bike


Out To Bike

The bike route this year was different. But not very much different that it would create more problems for most of us. Well, that was what I thought until at 60KM mark, I realized that I will need to climb this Bukit Hantu 4 times!

This hill is maybe a couple of times harder than the hill in Lenggeng. It’s steep and sharp and it makes granny gear looked hard.

A lot of people dismount and pushed the bike up, but I refused to do so and just continue to crank my way up.

I covered the first 60km in good timing, averaging at about 28.9km/h. But that was the fastest ever average I got for the day as I slowly see my average dropping to 25km/h by the end of the day.

I seriously do not know where I went wrong on the bike. I felt strong. I keep pedaling. I did not have any cramps. I ate. I drank. But I must say that after 105km, the pain on from the cut sort of went off; maybe my foot was just numb. I don’t know.

The photographers such as Kharis, SK, Tey, Din, Tini, Jim and supporter such as Bandit, Luvis, Mervin and of course Wifey, sort of made my day and gave me more strength and power to continue what I was doing. I won’t deny the fact that I was hoping to see them at every turn.

But I guess what really went wrong was that I stopped at every 10km to SHOWER with ice cold water – in my effort to stay cool under the hot 40 degree heat.

That, together with the pain on the ball of the feet that came back after 140km on the bike, threw my race out of the window as I realized I was really slow on my 3rd loop.

I was so slow I was wondering what the !@#$^ I was doing wasting my time racing!

I carried on pushing and dreaded the last climb up Bukit Hantu. By then, I already see more people pushing. On the top of the hill, the supporters were there cheering. I had to stop for a leak.

Now, why do I have to stop? I know for a fact that if I don’t have any urge to pee by then, that would mean I am severely dehydrated and I can kiss the race goodbye.


Guess Who?

I found myself talking to my family jewel why he did not want to take a leak. I did after 10 seconds of coaxing and by then, Yusran and Kam had caught up.

And that was when I knew I am really slow on the bike.

Indeed, it was, I clocked in at 6:59:38, a good 11 minutes slower than last year.

Into T2, I saw Yusran and was later joined by Kam and Hoh (which incidentally, reads my incoherent blog and remember both my kids name – thank you sir, it’s an honor to be racing with you).

I took the shoe off and the gash closed off at both end, leaving the gash to be about ¾ inch wide. It stopped bleeding and it did stain the inner part of my cycling shoe. I guess the pressure I put on the wound during the bike course has sort of help to stop the bleeding.

Show must go on. T2 was a quick 15:31 (as compared to the almost record breaking 29 minutes last year).

Run



What a chore. Not only we have to run 5 loops, it gets as confusing as hell. I ran the first 1km and then I had to stop. The gash was pulsating and I felt the shoe to be extremely tight. Every step I take is like walking on nails. I then found out that Senn has the same injury, but hers was deeper. I saw her on the run course and I must say she hid the pain really well. Unlike me, which were showing all over my face.

Needless to say, it was my personal worse marathon. I completed the run in 7:15:41. Which isn’t even a run but a walk.

I am truly disappointed with myself for not being able to ignore the pain. For not able to push myself more than I actually could.

Wifey and the supporters were there to cheer me on; I had to try to hide the pain as much as possible as not to make wifey worry. I then took a painkiller that wifey offered me and trust me, it did nothing to the pain (I took acoxia, which is amongst the best NSAID pain killer around) and I just had to continue onwards.

I saw my finishing time went from 13:30 if I was able to run, to 14:30 because I managed to run my second loop to 16:30 as I was walking the remaining last 3 loops.

Along the way, I cheered people I know on. I am very very happy to see Barath pushing himself and determined to finish the race. I was very pleased to see Bandit running along with Barath – something money can’t buy and only friendship could offer.

I saw AJ’s determined face. I saw Julie pushing on. Sofian was walking but confident. Edwin was strolling compared to last year. Kam managed to take a dump and still finish in good timing. Halim was soldiering on. Arif was happily running, Ishsal was chasing cut off, Bean was as usual, calm, Steve was with a bag of Jambu Air as food/snack for run, Faisaal running like it’s a 10km run, Adzim despite bad cramps focused to complete the run and the ultimate would be Senn, numbing her pain with her smile and crosses the line a good 15 minutes ahead.

The highlight of my race on Saturday was the 2km walk that wifey took with me to the finish line.



That itself was priceless. It was her sacrifice that I managed to do some training. It was with her support, that I managed to do this sport.

I crossed the line in 16:13:43. A good 1:13:40 than last year.

To be frank, I don’t really have the urge to write the race report this time around.

I know I should be happy to be able to complete the IM this time around, but I guess my frustration was because I know I could have done it better.

After all is said and done, and with the minimal training I had, I should just be happy I am now twice IronMan finisher.

There is always next year to improve on my timing; and the year after…and after…and after. It will get better; I promise all of you, and to myself most of all.

Thank you to all the supporters and well wishers, there are too many to be named, you know who you are.

Well done to all the IronMan that managed to complete their first ever IM or even first ever triathlon and well done to all that has improved their timing.

Most of all, well done to all of you, for beating one person. YOURSELF.