Burning The Calories from Laksa Loading

My sister and her friend, Stella, who were here for a week's holiday, came over to the apartment to cook Sarawak Laksa on Fri night. All our cousins here in Melbourne (all 9 of them). Only Den couldn't make it. Anyway, it was a good to see all my cousins in one roof. Of course, we had our "adopted" cousin, Stella and Josiah. LOL! Josiah's wife, Kim came later in the night to "ta pao" some back to eat.

Most photos of the gathering are in my sis's camera, so can't upload many photos here...

My sister and Stella in action

The next morning, followed my cousins, Den and Andrew with Josiah for a ride to Frankston again. This time around we didn't go all the way to Frankston town. Stopped by a cafe about 35km out from where we started to have our breakfast. It's one of the hottest day I felt since reaching here, where temperature soared to about 32 C. Den went on a solo ride to Inverloch which is about 140km from city. For the rest of us, we rode back facing a headwind throughout the whole journey back. Well, me being the weakest, just sat back behind the 2 strong riders. We covered about 70km in about 2:37.

So what did I had for lunch? Well none other than leftover laksa from last night. Well we had a lot left from the night before, so better finish it before the laksa gravy is spoiled. Me and Keng could not even finish the leftovers for lunch. So invited Andrew over for laksa dinner again. Not too sure how many bowls I had since Fri night?!

Followed the Cool Running group for a run this morning. We started our run at Morell Bridge near the Tan. There were 7 of us who turned up for the day. Tony led the group. We ran along the Yarra River till Dight Falls, turn into Yarra Bend Park, passing thru Richmond, MCG before coming back to Morell Bridge. Total distance covered today is around 23.5km, with my extra 2.5km run to the start, that makes my mileage for the day 26km in about 2:27. Longest run I had since Melbourne Marathon. Legs sure do feel sore near the end of the run. We then head to our usual cafe in the Royal Botanic Gardens to have our coffee and food.

Some parts of the run we've covered this morning. A mixture of both concrete road with trail running.

A group photo we took at one of the rest stops.

From left: PJ, Steven, Bruce, Tony, Baz and Michael

With me in it

Starting To Get Warmer

Seems like the weather is getting warmer lately, which is a good thing. However, it's still not as warm you think it is. I still have to wear 2 layer of clothes and putting on hand gloves (and beanie at times) when going out for a run, with the exception of today. Sun was up today but after a few laps around the park, it was freezing.

I didn't do anything on Mon, thought I rest up my legs, which getting a little sore. On Tue, went for an hour run around Fawkner Park. Last night, I ran to Genesis Fitness Centre, Freshwater Pl, to join the training series run organised by the Melbourne Marathon organiser. The centre is about 3.5km from where I stayed, so I ran there to log in some mileage for the day. Reached there and saw there were about 20-30 runners waiting. Then a guy came out and asked everyone to gather around. He divided the groups. There were 8km, slow group, medium group and the other will be 12km group, divided into slow, medium and fast group. I was contemplating in joining the fast group but I thought I better not "kepo" in joinng the fast ones. A lot of them went with the fast ones, probably be doing 4:20-4:40 pace I think.

Anyway, it was a good decision. The medium pace group was at the speed I was looking at around 4:50-5:00/km pace. I just want to get my mileage in. The run started at around 6.10pm. There are 6 of us in the group and we started with a slow pace, running along the Yarra River and out around the Tan Track, then we went across the river to the Melbourne & Olympic Parks, better known in hosting of the first tennis Grand Slam each year, The Australian Open. The arena are also used to play host in some of the big concerts/events. Looking at their webpage, Beyonce, Black Eyed Peas, II Divo, Liza Minnelli, Nickleback and even Britney Spears will be down to perform. Melbourne will also play host to the coming UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics (Link). Speaking of which, Josiah actually lives where I am staying right now. Haven't got the chance to meet him yet, as my cuz told me that he is away in Japan for some track races. But he will be back for the World Cup. And oh....it's held on the day that Im flying off from Melbourne. Since my flight is at midnight, will be catching some of the events for the night session and head straight off to the airport after that.

Now where was I? Oh...we ran pass the Melbourne Park thru to Melbourne Cricket Ground or better known as MCG. MCG is the largest stadium in Australia which can hold a capacity of over 100,000 spectators. This stadium is packed every Sat due to the football game...no we're not talking about soccer you idiot. We're talking about the fiery game of Aussie Rule Football, the Footie. Everyday you take out the newspaper and turn to the sports page, you'll have 3-5 pages on footie before you have the other sports news. And everyday, you'll have at least one show or more on TV. These people are crazy about AFL (yeah, not EPL). Even my cousin, Alissa, can sing and dance to her favourite team theme, St. Kilda! Well, MCG of course did play host to the 1956 Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Back to my running. We passed MCG, then went on to run around Fitzroy Garden. Can't see much as it was already dark. But running in the dark, you are able to see the beauty of the city, where Melbourne's skyscrapers are lighted up manigficently. The run was pretty much a tour around the city for me, as one of the guys put it. We then ran across one of the bridge back to where we started. I ran slowly back to Kheng's place after that. Took a quick shower and had fried rice leftover I cooked in the afternoon. I think I logged in about 19km yesterday, I was pretty satisfied with it.

Today, as I went out to do a tempo run, my lower back hurts at the start of the run. Thankfully it felt better after a while. I cut short 10 mins off what I wanted to do. I've been feeling the lower backache lately, so I think I better not run for tomorrow. It could be the cold weather which is affecting my lower back. Even with the "koyok" I stuck behind my back is not helping at all.

Cooked some rice and as for vege, I dumped the mince meat, carrot and cauliflower into the wok and stir fry. Easy meal. Nothing delicious thou but it did fill my hunger. Mmmh, next time I should take photos of my cooking (well, some really look or taste like shit! Who asked me never learn it from my mother).

Oh, here's a photo of Lamington, generally found in Australia. Basically it's a sponge cake, with chocolate icing with desiccated coconut.


Boy, I wish I could have a massage right now for my backache!