ORDINARY SUPERHERO

This is the game plan for this weekend. Friday Night: Futsal match with fellow SDARA '84. It will be competitive game, I can ensure that even though we call it friendly game. He he....it will not be a friendly when inter-batch bragging rights are at stake plus a challenge trophy to grab! Saturday: to rest for running event on Sunday, but of course that will include normal and usual Saturday duties. Kids have co-curriculum activities in the morning and tuitions in the afternoon. Also need to go to pasar tani to buy usual stuffs. Sunday: I have to choose between running for 14.5km somewhere in Puncak Alam in the Dragon Back Run 2013, or to participate in the 48km Challenge Category in the middle of Kuala Lumpur in the OCBC Ride 2013. I am choosing to do the Dragon Back Run, because of the challenge it provides. Not often you will get the opportunity to tackle the hills of the famous dragon back route on foot. I have tackled the route on my bike before and the sight of the ...

I never thought that one day I will be doing a duathlon event.  Really and seriously, I thought it was beyond me. I have set a personal target to do a Full Marathon (42km) run at the age of 42, which I did. But still I thought a duathlon event still a step too far.  In fact I did the FM twice already, at the StanChart KL Marathon - in year 2011 and this year. I still struggled to complete the 42km run within 6 hours. I was not satisfied with my trainings, I mean with my commitment to the rigorous training demands of doing a Full Marathon event. If you don't have enough mileage, there is no way your body could withstand the running over 42km within 6 hours, injury free. In my case, my training would always start to slack towards the closer date of the FM event. Coming back to this Malakoff Powerman 2012 event, I registered for the Sprint Category mainly because I felt so 'tercabar' when a friend of mine put up in the fb that he has registered himself for the event. You s...

Sorry, mood tak de...dah hilang; hopefully my mood will come back soon. I hate these kind of mixed feelings....when you feel - anger building up inside you; when you feel frustrated; when you feel like you want to choke someone to death; when you feel like you want to smash someone's head to the wall; when you wanna curse everything and anything but at the same time, the other side of you keeps telling you to keep cool; to be more patient; to be forgiving; to accept the qada and qadar of Allah and rezeki comes from Him and on His wills, rezeki can be taken back. All these has taken away the joy and excitement I had last night after I bought a new pair of running shoes... Damnnn!

Currently at departure lounge, Nha Trang airport. Will be taking local flight VN445 from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh city. Flight is delayed by half an hour; now expected to depart at 3:55pm local time. Nevermind, nothing to rush anyway. Free and easy until tomorrow afternoon. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Something not quite right about this blogger account. This was what I updated after we have safely arrived in Nha Trang. It was supposed to be uploaded more than an hour ago, but never came out. "Alhamdulillah. All praises to Allah. We have arrived safely in Nha Trang (pronounce Na Chang) - our final target destination. Good climb, beautiful beach views from the cliff. What a fitting finale after four days of grueling ride. Alhamdulillah." Nevermind, what is important is that we have duly arrived safely at our final destination. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Oh God, the headwind is too strong. Help me please.... We stopped at a petrol station for a short break after we found out that cycling against headwind would not bring us anywhere. None of us had ever experience this before. Imagine cycling at the average speed of 25-28 kilometer per hour against the headwind of the same speed....it was almost as standstill!

We are passing by the beach town of Mui Ne. Beautiful beaches and lots of tourists, spas, massages and live bands. They even have their very own version of "alleycats". Stopped several places to take pictures. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Second break right after the town of Pan Thiet. And I found myself a Twister. Heavenly drink. Before this, we had a fruity break. We still do not know the name of this fruit. It is sweet and taste like durian belanda or sour sop. Even the seeds look the same. Hamdan called the fruit as the passion fruit or buah nona. Others disagreed. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Nothing beats a good hot shower and followed by a glass of hot milo after a long and tough ride. Alhamdulillah... We cycled more than 120km on this second day of the tour. After a good lunch - well meals for lunches and dinners so far have been marvelous, we pushed for Ke Ga. A seaside destination about 35km from our lunch stop. We thought we could reached there in slightly above 2 hours but it took more than 3 and a half hours. When we the junction to route 712 leading to Ke Ga it was about 4pm. The signage said 15km to go. Doc Olmo suggested for us to proceed; myself and Zul followed suit. We thought we could reach the hotel early and have more time for ourselves. But the headwind was slowing us down again. As you cut through the headwind you could even hear the sound of the whirlwind buzzing in your ears. The road condition was quite rough and bumpy also slowed us down. At one point we passed by a school where the school session was just ended. We were practically swarmed by the exc...

The result of 68.7km. Everything on the table was wipe out clean. This is grilled cuttle fish. And this is grilled chopped fish. It is like "keropok lekor" but with black pepper mixed into it. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Lunch break. Almost 1:30pm. Reached La Gi. Our target destination for lunch today. Going to take a break before continuing with our journey to Ke Ga. Approximately 20km more to go. Will use highway 709 to Ke Ga. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Stating the obvious. It says...KAYUH LAGI 12KM! And it's climbing... P/s: La Gi (pronounced as La Zi) is our next target destination en route to Phan Ri Chua. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Taking a break again. It's hot and we are heading to La Gi (pronounced as La Zi). Another 19km to our half way destination. We have covered about 48km in slightly over 4hrs of cycling. Happy kids coming out of school waved at us. "Hello, hello....". Some even said "good morning" with a peace signs. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Second coffee break at about 10:00 am at Binh Chou. After about 34km from our hotel. Happy faces after long coastal road and riding against the headwind.

Dinner for tonite. Mmm...yummy 'siput batik'. After the whole day of cycling today, we were looking forward for a good dinner. But since today is Sunday, we have to search for for place to eat because most restaurant close early. And the taste of that siput....marvelous! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's about 9pm local time. We are on our way to our hotel in Bien Hoa located about 35km away from the city of HCM. We made the right decision to start our journey outside the city - there is no way we could cycle in this place. We could easily be swarmed by the sheer number of the motorbikes. You can see all kinds of motorbikes on the road; but mostly 150cc and below. They came from all over directions. Left, right and even opposite direction. Reached hotel at about 10pm local time. The assembly of the last bike was only completed almost after 1am. And we are ready tomorrow! Modest room for tonite. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I am on flight AK882 from KL to Ho Chi Minh city. Expected to arrive at about a quarter past 3:00 in the afternoon or a quarter past 4:00 KL time. Time difference in HCM is one hour behind KL. I am excited and really looking forward to enjoy this "jalan-jalan kayuh basikal" touring Vietnam from the city of HCM to a city called Nha Trang. The total cycling distance is 445km within the span of 5 days. Amazingly 445 is also the total aggregate number of years of age of the guys in my cycling group. At 42, I am the youngest of the group. Other members are all above 50s. We have 60(2x), 59, 58, 56, 55(2x) & yours truly at 42. If you add up those number of years, you will get 445! Amazing....and I pray and hope this is going to be another amazing journey! Pray for our safety throughout the journey, InshaAllah. My bike was all set in the bike bag. Started dismantling the bike after 11:00PM last nite and only manage to complete at about 2 in the morning. Alhamdulillah the check i...

Arrgh...., too many things to do and so little time left. Soo Stressed out! ***update camni boleh ke? Almost 4PM now. Belum lunch. Immediate things to do: - to go to penggurup wang and change RM to USD - to buy travelling bag (at sogo?) - to buy new camera (slim and slick? kalau sempat) - to dismantle my bike and pack it in the bike bag (gonna take the whole night tonite!) Many more things to settle in the office. Still got one more meeting tonite at 9pm. Oh God, help me! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

"Circle in the sun, round and round...." that intro of the song by belinda carlisle somewhre in early 80's kept ringing in my ears when I was cycling this morning. The only thing was that the lyrics were changed to "cycle in the rain, round and round....". Yes, it rained when my friends and I were doing Semenyih - Lenggeng - Ulu Branang - Broga - Semenyih route. We had to cut short the trip because of the rain. So, bukit mandom, I will try to conquer you next time. Distance covered: about 60km with my new tourer bike. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Training log for today. Distance: 11.41km Time: 0: 51: 41 Activity: cycling all the up to the new Bukit Antarabangsa mosque at Taman Bukit Utama Average Climb: 242m (highest point 202m) Average speed: 13:24 km/h Highest speed downhill: 49.4 km/h.