Univesiti Malaya - University of Sydney Coaching Science Seminar

I attended the Coaching Science seminar at UM today. Glad that my friend, Selina, who works in the department (UM), invited me. Very informative seminar. It was a joint collaboration between the two unis to exchange and share knowledge in researchng their approach to Sports Scinece and also in relation to their PhD programme.

Haven't attended a lecture class for a long time. Initially there were supposed to be 4 invited lecturers from Unversity of Sydney but one could not make it due to unforseen circumstances. She was supposed to give a talk on "Preparing Youth Coaches". Too bad, would have gain some insight into coaching. But I got loast when they talk too much on scientific or technical terms. Hello, not from science class lah!

Some of the attendees in the seminar

Dr. Abdul Halim Mokhtar, Director of Sports Centre, UM - Welcoming Address

A/Prof Dr Martin Thompson - Training & Recovery

Dr Helen O'Connor - Current Trend in Nutritional Practices for Elite Athletes

Dr Peter Sinclair - Systematic Analysis of Factors Determining Performance

Although the topics are too wide to be covered in a half day seminar, the speakers did well in delivering the topics from their specific field of expertise. I enjoyed the seminar espeially topics delivered by Dr Martin and Dr Helen. Maybe cause both used a lot of examples on endurance athletes. Dr Martin himself has completed a 100-mile (yeap, a hundred mile, not KMs) before. He mentioned he did a time of 13 hours plus. That's almost an equivalent of a sub 3:20 for every marathon distance. Damm!

Hope there are more of these type of seminars, who knows I might just taking up coaching as a career.

2nd Klava Back To Nature Relay

Today was yet another race in short distance. 3.39km. There were 3 in team. My team mates were Raymond and Michelle. We called ourselves, Der Pacemaker Network MRK (Mich, Ray, Kiat/Khoo). Some thought Mr.K was my name. When we reached Taman Metropolitan Batu, we had to walk at least 1km to the starting line. There I met quite a number of familiar faces. Some even wondered where I've been all these while since I was out from the racing scene in KL for 3 months.

I told Ray and Mich that I wanted to start off first. Followed by Ray, then Mich. Before the race started, I told the 2 ladies in front that since they are standing in front of me, I am apologising to them first if I do pushed them at the start. But I guess they both didn't get my message, "If you are starting slow, please move to the back." Instead, one of thm replied, "No, don't push, don't push". Of course I'm not going to push her deliberately, but sometimes it could be accident can happen. As soon as the race was flag off, couple of runners sprinted to the lead. Lucky for me, I didn't have to push through the crowds to get near the front. Due to my lack of speed/threshold training, I was never confident throughout the race on how fast I could hold on to the fast pace. Sometimes I feel I was holding myself back too much as I was worried the lactic acid build up so fast that I can't maintain the pace.

4 runners were ahead of me at the start, then a young chap got beside me and we ran together for most part of the race. We managed to overtake 2 runners as they tire. Then the young guy got ahead of me slightly (I'd only got to know at the end of the race, he is actually running in the same category as me). Should have gotten ahead of him to give our team a chance to win it. I finished in time of 13:32. Ray did well to pull away from the 2nd team and finished in a time of 14'14. It was up to Mich to hold to the lead, but the team behind us had Lian Bee Hoon in their team, so it's always going to be tough. In the end, Bee Hoon managed to overtake Mich and went on to win. Mich held on to 2nd place. Good work!

The time taken for prize presentation were so long and some didnt even wait for it. Kind of disappointing. Things should have been done more efficiently. All teams are given finishing medals after they have completed the race. Since the Mens Open team event had about 39 teams, the medals were presentd to each team. They should have just presented the top 3 teams and the rest can collect it after finishing the race to speed up process.

After prize presentation, me and my teamates went for breakfast at Jalan Ipoh for some Cha Siew/Roasted Chicken Rice. After reaching home, took a shower and rested for while before heading out to catch the movie "2012". Not a bad movie. Just make us wonder whether the Mayan prediction will come true?

Registration

I scratch your back, you scratch mine

Aiyo, this guy, everything also slow and steady

Ray passing baton to Mich

Mich finishing strong

Ray, Mich and Me - 2nd (Mixed Team)

Tey showing how photography should be done (with a nasi lemak on one hand)

Other results (from PM1's blog):

Men Open Category :

Der Pacemakers Network Live2Pia : (6th)
16'25 > 16'25 -Wong Kei Ming, Pm55
16'27 > 32'52 - Chin Teck Sin, Pm18
15'33 > 47'25 - Liew Chen Kwok


Mixed Team Category :
Der Pacemakers Network Mr.K : (2nd)
13'32 > 13'32 - Khoo Yit Kiat, Pm28
14'14 > 27'46 - Raymond Ng, Pm48
17'40 > 45'26 - Michelle Looi


Der Pacemakers Network All Star : (3rd)
14'35 > 14'35 - Ronnie See, Pm1
15'24 > 30.00 - Stanley Cheong, Pm53
18'20 > 48.21 - Lavin Saty


Der Pacemakers Network G.I. Jue : (12th)
00'00 > 00'00 - Teh Seong Yee
00'00 > 00'00 - Kelvin Ng, Pm2
00'00 > 00'00 - Julie Wong

Quiz : Guess who?

Cool Running With Extra Flava

I made a trip to Lembah Kiara, TTDI today as I was getting a little tired of my usual Hartamas/Duta/Bukit Tunku route. I was supposed to meet up with Ray and Mich who wanted to do their LSD in preparation for Singapore Marathon next weekend. But I kena FFK and I thought I was late. Parked my car down at the slope, didn't see Ray's car. So I ran towards the park to see if they are there but they weren't there. I assumed that he couldn't wake up, otherwise he would replied my sms. Maybe the cool, gloomy morning was nice to sleep in. Well, I had a hard time getting up his morning too.

Anyways, since I've already drove all the way there, I was ready to run on my own. Did couple of laps around the park (not a big one), when I saw a guy whose face was famiiar to me. He looked like the guy from Fastfik, whom I stumbled upon his blog while searching results from Dukethon. I just stopped and said hi to him and asked if he was the person. He is. His name is Armin. Click here to link to his blog. We chatted for a while before we called it a day. Certainly, he wasn't a newbie to running as he mentioned that he ran a few marathons already and the best part was he attempted the Langkawi Ironman with 5 weeks of training (Link). Ya, you heard me right the first time, IRONMAN!! Although he didn't complete the race, got to give it to him for even trying it. A guy who has never swam before, completed the 3.8km swim with 5 weeks of swimming training. Haha, I would probably drowned before 50m into my swim. He mentioned he was more of a 'leisure' runner, but since Dukethon, he is keen to improve his time, so I gave him some tips in getting faster. Not sure he's going to follow it or my advice will help in any ways, but we'll see how his performances are in the next few races.

While doing my stretching, the rain started pouring, but luckily it wasn't heavy and managed time to get to my car without getting too wet. Next stop, Alex stall, for breakfast. I had Sarawak Laksa today.

Sarawak Laksa (Picture courtesy from Crazytomatoman blog)

Ray and Michelle joined me later. Now after shower and typing out this blog, I'm feeling hungry again. Should have had 2 servings earlier. Got to find myself some food now!

Astro A Rip Off

I was so disappointed in Astro. I was waiting eagerly to watch the matchup between Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro to be shown live. Andy Murray won his earlier match against Verdasco and whoever qualifies for the semi will very much depend on the outcome of this match. But instead of showing the match live, Astro decided to show live broadcast of NFL match. Seriously, how many of us watch American Football when it's not even popular game in the country. How many even play American Football here?! I had to go online, watching it on my small little screen. Then I thought, 'Won't it be cool if I hooked it up on my LCD?'. So I went on and give it a try, adjusted the screen to fit the LCD and it worked! Checked this out:

Anyway, Federer managed to level the set to 1-1. With that, Federer is safely thru the semi even if he loses the match. Del Potro however had to win the set by 6-3 or better. And he did. Finishing off Federer 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3. This is the 2nd straight lost for Federer to Del Potro after the US Open upset win. Federer, Del Potro and Murray had the same 2-1 win records and the same number of sets won in the group, therefore it all came down to the number of games won. Federer tops it 44-40, Del Potro pips Murray by just a game at 45-43 (Murray,44-43) How close was that.

Astro charged an extra RM12 for those with Sports Channels and make us watch something in which majority of the people in the nation don't watch at all. Come on, the channels are not even in HD yet.

First Long Run Back In KL

Today marks the first long run in KL since coming back from Melbourne. It sure was tough going. I was sweating so much in the first 10 mins. By the time I finished my run, I was soaking wet. Worst still, when I was doing my stretching, my legs cramped a little. Not too sure what was the distance I've covered but the total time was about 1h 20m, or slightly lesser due to the time taken to cross the busy Duta Highway, cutting across from LHDN to Jalan Tunku (vice versa). I started my run at 7:00pm on purpose, since it was extremely hot day today. Anyways, glad that I got the training done.

Came home to cook but somehow don't have much appetite to eat. Actually quite normal for me when I run here in Malaysia. Usually after a morning run, I would rather go back, take a shower and take a nap before eating. I don't feel that way when I was running in Melbourne. Most likely due to the cooler weather in Melbourne which makes me hungry all the time.

In the afternoon, went over to Amcorp Mall to meet up with Sonny. He became a first time father couple weeks back. It was his time out from home as he wanted to get some children books from the Big Bad Wolf Book Fair in Amcorp Mall. Kid is going to be a genius by the time he can talk. The queue to get in the book fair was so long, I decided to wait him outside. Since I was there, called up Ray for lunch as his office is in the building itself. Took Sonny an hour or so just to pay for his books at the counter. We chatted at a mamak store in LG. Ray's colleague, Bob joined in. Lots of interesting topics from the short chat. One of the best one is how Bob compared workers today with sugar cane. Why you may ask? Well, if you know how sugar cane juice is extracted in the pasar malam (night market), it's generally crushed a few times through the machine till it's dry. Well, according to Bob, that is how workers are nowadays. The employers will squeeze the employees dry till they are not able to work, so bosses will get rid of you and get new blood in. Haha.

Outside Amcorp Mall, lots of stalls were set up for the mobile phone fair. Interestingly, most stalls are selling "iPhone" and "Blackberry". What's with the "_"??! Well, all these phones are from china and replicas of both phones. Man, I can tell you the phone has a lot more function than what iPhone has to offer. TV, FM Radio, Dual Sim Card, Stylus, etc. Just don't know how long can the phone last. Ah, if I was working, wouldn't mind giving this phone a try. How much? One with Wifi - RM599, one without - RM299. Then the guy said to me, "You buy today, special offer for you". He took out the calculator and typed out the figure and showed to me "RM450". : ))

Next Race:

Klava 2nd Back to Nature Relay 3 x 3.9km

Date/Time: 27 Nov / 7:30am

Venue: Taman Metropolitan Batu, Tmn Mastiara

Team mates: Raymond and Michelle

Hainanese Chicken Rice Dinner

I had home cooked Hainanese Chicken Rice by a self proclaimed "First Time Cooker". I met Joyce through Geoff recently. How's the food? Not too bad...I was so full that I couldn't walk. Haha...nah, it wasn't that bad, but really, I was full.

Cabbage Soup

Hong Kong Kai Lan

Dory Fish Fillet with Ginger & Spring Onions

Mien Yee enjoying the food.....

Main dish for the evening....

Some Pia (Pushing Hard) Faces in the "Dude"thon

Here are some of photos of the run, courtesy from PM Tey:

This is the guy I was trying to hang on to early in the race....

This is the guy Iost in the final few hundreds meter, Ong Chin...


You can see me behind him in this photo


This is the Iron "Ray the Tomatoman" Dude.....


This is the Iron "Mich" Lady......


The Evergreen Veteran....Don Khor....he ran faster than me yesterday! (for your info, he is 50!)


For more photos, pls click on the link below:

1. Dukethon 1


2. Dukethon 2


3. Dukethon 3


4. Dukethon 4


5. Dukethon 5

First Race Back in KL

I'm back in the KL race scene! The Dukethon. It's only a 5km race held over a stretch of the new DUKE highway. Most of the local runners are in Penang for the Penang Bridge Marathon today. I wasn't too keen in running Penang Bridge as it'll be quite hectic for me to travel 5 hours (drive) to Penang for the run. But it was mainly the start time that deter me from running the race. Marathon event will usually start at around 2.30-3.00am and the Half race starts at around 4am. This is way too early for a race.

Ray came over to my place to pick me up together with Mich and Tey. The starting line wasn't too far out from my place. We reached the location at around 7.10am. The highway was closed due to this event. Cars are parked along the highway. I could see that a lot of top runners were there, mainly because the race was only open for local runners and it offers cash prize for the 1st (RM2000), 2nd (RM1500) and 3rd (RM1000) in the mens and womens open category. Penang Bridge Run is open to foreigners and usually Kenyan runners will dominate most categories.

Ray, Mich and Tony

A sleepy Tey, our "official" photographer

The race started in a quick pace and soon find myself in a gap behind the fast runners. Although I was like 2 lines from the front at the start, I still had to push thru the crowds to get into a better position. I just can't understand why the slower runners like to put themselves in a risk of getting pushed by standing in front at the start. I already had first hand experience in getting step on the ankle from behind and fell at the start of the race. I had bad cuts then and didn't continue the race.

Back to the race. I tried as hard as possible to hang on to the pace, but had to slow down at around 2km mark. At the U-turn, I tried to check on the runners behind me and they weren't far behind. So, when Ong Chin (a fast veteran runner, never beaten him before nor gotten near him) overtook me, I tried to hang on to him. With about 1km to go, I decided to push my pace and leave him behind. I thought I was going to have my first victory over him but unfortunately, I ran out of gas. Still managed to get 10th place in a time of 19:07.

Head over to the drink tent to get some isotonic drinks and also one of it was giving out hot dogs. Then saw a tent giving out free massage, so told myself, "What the heck, it's free." It was only a short one and it didn't feel good at all. The masseurs there are mainly trainees.

Supervisor: This is how you do your massage

I think there was a competition for modified cars, as there were a lot of Ah Beng/Ah Lian cars parked along the road. For the benefits of readers who don't know what Ah Beng/Ah Lian means: It's basically stereotyping applied to young Chinese men (Ah Beng) and women (Ah Lian), particularly in Singapore and Malaysia. These groups are known to colour their hairs, bad sense of fashion, and of course modifying their cars. So when we see modified cars as in the photos below, we usually refer it as "Ah Beng" cars, albeit a Malay version as those taking part here are mainly Malays.

So what do we have for post run breakfast? Well, these are some of the meals I missed most in my time away to Melbourne. Teh tarik (literally means pulled tea) and roti canai (I had roti pisang). These delilcacies are mainly found in an Indian-Muslim (we refer them as Mamak) coffeeshop or stall. It usually served with gravy for taste, e.g. fish curry, chicken curry. So my running mates in Melbourne, we generally don't keep a healthy diet here. Kind of like Tony a.k.a Tiger Boy, ordering his usual fries in our post runs coffee sessions in The Terrace, Botanic Gardens.

Roti Pisang (Banana Bread)

Teh Tarik (Pulled Tea)

Too bad I missed out in witnessing the World Cup Mens Kierin final in Melbourne. A historic 2-3 finish for Malaysia, with Azizul Hasni Awang taking the silver and Josiah Ng getting the bronze. But just heard from cuz, both got knocked out from the early round of the Mens Sprint.

Report from The Star:
Saturday November 21, 2009

German Bergemann prevents a one-two Malaysian keirin finish
By LIM TEIK HUAT
PETALING JAYA: German cyclist Carsten Bergemann spoiled what could have turned out to be an historic one-two finish for Malaysia in the keirin final of the Track World Cup at the Hisense Arena in Melbourne last night.

But it was still a glorious day when Azizul Hasni Awang and Josiah Ng came away with the silver and bronze medals as two Malaysians rode in a World Cup final race for the first time.

After the disappointment of the opening round in Manchester, Azizul got his act right in Melbourne to secure his first World Cup medal for the year.

Seasoned campaigner Josiah also showed flashes of the form which took him to the Athens Olympic final in 2004 when he secured his first World Cup medal in three years.

Winners: Azizul and Josiah posing with their World Cup medals after the keirin event

Both Azizul and Josiah qualified automatically into the second round after finishing second in their heats.

Both Azizul and Josiah qualified automatically into the second round after finishing second in their heats.

Azizul, riding for Australian trade team BT Technologies, turned on the power to storm into the final as the winner of the second round heat ahead of Australia’s Shane Perkins and China’s Tang Qi.

Josiah just pulled through to the top six final after finishing third behind Bergemann and New Zealand’s Simon Van Velthooven.

Although the Terengganu-born Azizul failed in his bid to defend the title he won at the same venue 12 months ago, it was still a well-executed comeback effort from him.

The 21-year-old had targeted the keirin in Manchester but lost out in the first round where he was relegated for an infringement.

Azizul subsequently failed to make it through the repechage, riding unprepared after a miscommunication with the race official.

Josiah, who shut out British rider Matthew Crampton, the World Cup silver medal winner in Manchester in the second round to qualify for the final, was delighted with his form coming after just five weeks of training.

“I finished ahead of so many good riders and this is my first World Cup medal after so long.

“There is a big team of younger Malaysian riders training together and this is helping me to keep my level up. It’s the first time we have two Malaysians winning medals and I feel like there’s still a lot more to come,” said the 29-year-old Josiah in a telephone interview from Melbourne.

Finally Back To My 2nd Home

I'm finally back to my 2nd home (Kuching will always be my first lah). Didn't do much on my last day in Melbourne except walking around in the city. I am really going to miss the city, the people, my runs, my rides and my bike. It has been a good 3 months there but due to financial constraints I would have hope to travel a little more. Now I have to head back and make myself some money!

Elvin picked me up from Keng's place at around 9.30pm. Aaargh! He forgotten about the chocolates I bought and left in his house. Well either he has to finish it or pass it to someone who is coming back to KL. Well, friends in KL, wanted to share my chocolates with you, but looks like it's staying in Melbourne. Haha.

Queue for the Air Asia X to KL flight was a long one. Well next time do a web check-in and just drop in your baggage and get your documents checked. Faster. I was looking for Hungry Jacks to try their new Angry Angus Burger but only had McDonalds at the airport. I thought it's inside the boarding lounge but nothing much in there except some duty free stores and convenient shops. So no Angus Burger before I left the country.

I got a window seat at my request, but totally forgotten about the stand of the seat which is preventing me from stretching out one of my foot. I wanted the window seat as I want to lean on the wall to sleep, but seems I couldn't really sleep in the plane. Watched "Taking of Pelham 123" on my laptop. Good movie.

I've always like John Travolta and Denzel Washington as actors. Travolta seems to excel in both good and bad characters! He's playing the bad guy in this movie, Face Off, Punisher, etc. Then couldn't finish my latest Heroes episode as my laptop ran out of battery. So listen to my iPod for the rest of the way. My head did nod a few times when I fell asleep for a "short" while.

Reached KL at around 6.40am and bought some stuff from duty free shop for friends. Han was there to pick me up. We went straight to Alex food stall in PJ for some good old Kuching food. On the way there, we were stuck right smak in the city rush hour traffic. After breakfast, went to Mid Valley to change back my money and while there, Maxis had a promo on their broadband service, so thought I just give it a try and cancelling my celcom broadband which my sis is using now. Speed wasn't that great for Celcom.

Came home and found my apartment is so dusty as it was unattended for past months. So spent some time mopping floors and wiping windows. Still haven't unpack my bag, just feel so lazy. Couldn't wait to try out my new broadband service, but when I switch on my laptop I find every applications I tried to open seems to be lagging. Took a few minutes to open just 1 application. Han adviced me to leave my computer on for few hours and reboot it after. He says it could be window's running some maintenance work. So I showered and took short nap before heading out for dinner at 9pm with my neighbour. Came back, and find my laptop is A-OK. So far the broadband performs better than Celcom Broadband Basic that I've used before. I went to check on my "snail mail" mailbox too and it was filled with bills to pay!!!

Note: My next race will be a 5km this Sun at Dukethon.

Farewell To My Beloved Bike

I had my last ride with my bike, MERIDA ROAD 905-COM, today. A short 5km ride to the city. It's time to bid farewell as I will not return to KL with it. Decided to sell it here since I will be getting a better price here in Melbourne. Well hopefully someone will buy it at a good price.

I had it all cleaned up at Elvin's place and it sure takes a while to clean it, especially the chain. It wasn't as clean as I wanted it to be it was alright.

Riding history with the bike:

* Multiple rides in Putrajaya/Cyberjaya/Ulu Langat

* Bukit Jalil - Port Dickson

* Batu Caves - Ipoh


* Powerman Malaysia, Sri Manjung

* Around the Bay, Melbourne

What will I be riding next? Maybe this.....