Thursday Training – 14 August 2014

Route: DH

Distance: 11.15km (Garmin)

Timing: 66:41 for 5:58 min/km pace

Yeah, you read that right. Yeah, I did the unthinkable. Yeah, I did really “run” DH on a weekday morning. Ok, maybe not “run”. Walk. Trot. Whatever. Feels like walking to me, so I’ll call it a “walk”.

Thanks for indulging me.

Still trying to figure out what possessed me to do the energy-sapping DH this morning. We can all agree that it’s energy sapping and no matter how many times you do it, DH will still eat you alive. The Hartamas route may be longer but is definitely a toddler compared to DH.

Km1-2.5

Started off somewhere near Lake Club and the idea was to walk but that gentle downhill along Jalan Parlimen meant the legs turned over pretty quickly (hey that’s relative!). Uphill at KTM/Sasana Kijang and there were already cars parked along the road. Man, some folks do really covert street parking that they come out early!

Km3-5

#$%^&* DBKL ought to get their act together! Street lights are erected for a purpose you know! And this is the 7^th month of the Chinese calendar aka Hungry Ghost month. And this is Bukit Tunku, which made it to the top10 of the most haunted places.

Though the scare I got was from my own shadows and some bright light from a car careening down Bukit Tunku.

Km6-8

The awesome steep “first” hill. Double Hill is such a misnomer; it’s not double hills…it’s many, many hills.

Km9

Back onto Mahameru and lots of cars whizzing past. The stretch I hate most coz it’s just seems never ending till you hit the turn off to the palace.

Km10-11

The “second” hill. No monkeys this morning. Whew! Love whooshing down hill towards Jalan Parlimen. Finished at the traffic lights since traffic was heavy.

And since a blog post is not a blog post unless it includes pictures

Last night’s loot

Collected Desmond’s race kit over the weekend

Scary picture for Adam

Weekend Roundup

A quick 30min spin on the trainer this morning coz the hips and legs were protesting

Lots of walking over the weekend including one barefoot traverse through DH

Photo credit to KK

Some food were inhaled (note…this is not everything! I’m just a bad blogger – I keep on forgetting about taking pics)

Three Things Thursday

1. This made me smile when I grabbed this as a carrier for the Hersheys Chocolate Soy Milk. Coincidental?
   
   
   
2. As if yesterday’s workout wasn’t enough, this happened at 6am: 1.2km + 20 sets of stairs at LG + 1.2km.
3. And for tea lovers, Fifi posted this and now I'm sipping on this
   
4. 
   
   

Ich Liebe Deutschland

Meine Deutsch nicht gut!

But I hope I got it right!

So has everyone recovered from this morning’s game? Nope, not a footie fan and slept through all the drama though I did bumped into the crowd leaving the mamaks when I was out running. And I didn’t know that the score was that dramatic!

Some Latte to kickstart Wednesday. And no, this is not a recycled pic.

It was an unplanned and unexpected #cutBackWeek as the leg squat press is out of commission. Darn it! Should have done Legs on Monday instead of this.

Supersets of:

a)    Smith machine squats

b)    DB sumo squats

Supersets of:

c)     Technogym leg extension

d)    Walking lunges

e)    Jumping squats

Supersets of:

f)     Nautilus Nitro Plus Hip Abductor

g)    Nautilus Nitro Plus Hip Adductor

Supersets of:

h)    Cybex seated calf raises

i)      Free-standing calf raises (this is probably akin to dropsets)

Single set of:

j)     Cybex Eagle Abdominal

Monday Blues

Starting the morning with Latte Caramel and yes, I’m that unrefined and use a stainless mug. Hey that happens when it’s 4:30 in the morning. The latte was sweet (absolutely must have for me!) and creamy – just the shot I needed while going through the papers.

Unfortunately that nice dull lull made me lazy and I skipped the “Run Appreciation” run this morning (taking cue from yesterday’s LYNRunners’ “Durian Appreciation” gathering).

Shoulders & Delts

Supersets of:

a)    Smith machine overhead shoulder press

b)    Standing DB overhead shoulder press (this is always the killer after the above; this and the Arnold press. I should count myself lucky that we didn’t do the latter)

And I made Michael take this pic before we went on. Demmit…only 4 packs! At best. Le sigh.

Single set of:

c)     DB lateral raise (dropsets)

Supersets of:

d)    DB frontal raise

e)    Bendover DB rear delt row

Supersets of:

f)     DB upright row

g)    KB (double) shrugs

Single set of:

h)    Precor AbCrunch

Taking cue from KK, some pampering had to be over the weekend.

And can anyone tell me if you’ve tried these?

What's Been Happening

Had the rare opportunity to work 4-day week for 3 weeks in June. Hell yeah! And you know, having 3-day weekends are absolutely bliss and made it some much much much tougher to adjust to a “normal” week this past Monday. Oh well, we do have 3 PHs this month. Can’t complain too much since we got the dreaded-to-me-only Legs workout out of the way on Monday. And we were back to 700lbs leg squat presses. Go me!

This morning was Chest & Pecs – which meant lots of chest presses, push-ups and dips.

Supersets of:

a)    Smith machine chest press (nothing too tragic and I looked bewildered to say the very least when Michael stopped at rep 10)

b)    BB close grip chest press (and moving from 30lbs to 50lbs is not “adding a bit”!)

Supersets of:

c)     Smith machine incline chest press (kept the weight steady for this one)

d)    DB combo of chest press and fly

Single set of:

e)    LF cable chest fly

Supersets of:

f)     Free-standing dips

g)    Raised push-ups (yes, this was coming)

h)    Reverse abs crunch (Michael is making it tougher with a more upright angle)

PS: And if anyone ever disparage me for the 2mile warm up on both days, I swear I’ll strangle you with my bare hands RIGHT NOW. LOL!

PPS: Those headed Down Under, especially for GCAM, go stock up on AUD$ - a rare display of RM strength as it’s now RM3.

Wordless Wednesday

Lil indulgences to perk up the mid work week 

A Weekend of Lovelies

Now tell me if these doesn’t warm your heart

Grandma made these; looks like tonight’s dinner and dessert is settled. And Happy Dumpling Festival to everyone.

The ever thoughtful and charming Karen gave these to me. I’ve the best-est of the best-est friends.

And I’m sure Raymond’s entire FB community of friends have succumbed to this, yours truly included. Now tell me how I can order a carton of the chocolate flavor one as well.

I was WA-ing with Evelyn yesterday and was “poisoned” to get this.

Naturally all these decadent fare meant that this week will be or must be filled with a heavy load, starting with Legs this morning.

Supersets of:

a)    Smith machine leg squats (the trick is not to look at the weight plates so you can possibly fool yourself)

b)    Cybex weight plated loaded leg squat press (remember the advice above…before the shock sets in coz why is it heavier this week?!?! Turns out that there was a “tiny” weight plate in between the 100s)

Supersets of:

c)     KB walking lunges (hey, no obstruction today! The laundry guys got their trolleys of towels sealed and delivered before I started)

d)    Jumping squats at one end

e)    Split lunges on the other (both are guaranteed quad burning endeavours!)

Supersets of:

f)     Technogym leg extension (somewhat a fail after the 2 supersets above)

g)    Cybex prone leg curl (we don’t seem to have move much on this, weight-wise)

Supersets of:

h)    Cybex standing calf raises (this is new!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whatever possessed Michael to include this?! My skinny chicken feet?!)

i)      Cybex Eagle Abdominal (I asked for the abs to be superset-ed with the calf raises…was pressing for time)

It’s always better to get the Legs outta the way so I could put my feet up (literally!) for the rest of the week.

I hope your weekend was as enjoyable as mine. Let me know what you were up to.

Five Things Friday

1. 2 days of late dinners = 2 days of getting to bed even later = half dead today. Ahhhh totally worth it though coz I got to attend Penny and Manoj’s classes and it’s always good to have that break between the office and home. Hey, the weekend is just around the corner, so can’t complain much.
2. Being the total noob I am, I still haven’t got around to using the new toy. Heck I couldn’t get it to record my run much less this  
   
3. #Track Tuesday’s party was cancelled due to a high school meet. #Track Thursday’s party was also cancelled due to I-don’t-know-why-the-gate-was-locked.
4. Does a 2-mile run count????!!! That was all I could muster for a warm up this morning. One. Of. Those. Days. Which of course meant no Legs today! Ok, maybe 2 tiny weeny workouts but the rest were Chest & Pecs.

Supersets of:

a)    Smith machine bench chest press

b)    Cybex weight plate-loaded leg squat press (this was my suggestion since I felt guilty about cancelling Legs)

Supersets of:

c)     Smith machine incline chest press

d)    DB static reverse lunges (there’s always a first time to making a fool outta yourself…ok, not applicable to me since I do it all the time. LOL!)

Supersets of:

e)    Technogym cable chest fly

f)     Push-ups on ProGrid

Supersets of:

g)    Reverse abs crunches

h)    Free standing dips (my suggestion again. Yes, you’re welcome)

5. Aren’t these lunchboxes stinking cute? I feel like stealing them off the gals!  
   

Three Things Thursday

1. #DOMS #Legs #Workout or more aptly #IOMS since it was instantaneous. Yesterday’s “most intense leg workout to date”

Supersets of:

(a)   Cybex weight plate loaded leg squat press (started with 225lbs for “warm ups” and incremental of 100lbs…on each side; writing it now makes me feel total #badass; operative word being “now”, yesterday, not much)

(b)   Smith machine squats (heavy and high reps; trying to put on my #gameface)

Now at this point, I was walking like a crab and we weren’t even a third of the way around. Next up, supersets of:

(c)   KB walking lunges supplemented by

– jumping squats at 1 end followed by

– static lunges on the other (the burn on the quads! And glutes! And basically the lower limbs)

Try walking up the stairs after this..or in my case, hauling my ass up with the aid of the banister (my new #BFF).

Supersets of:

(d)   Technogym leg extension (if it was any consolation, no dropsets this week!)

(e)   Cybex prone leg curl

Finished with abs on the Cybex AbCrunch

2. I think we were hoping the other would cancel this morning’s run but neither of us did. Thank goodness because we felt so much better after putting in some mileage in hilly Seputeh and it was a nice cool morning.
3. Rewarded myself with this – soft nice coconut flake filled bun, all the way from the Cat City courtesy of Raymond. And let me tell you this – this is so worth braving yesterday’s traffic! Very old school and 10x nicer than any found in your usual humdrum bakery!

Wordless Wednesday

From yesterday

The frozen Garmin during the stair climb after the Double Hill run (BTW, you guys should have been there for TPRC’s breakfast run – lots of camaderie and even more runners than in a race!)

Passed this to Elvin since it’s not vegan. I’m envious coz it says “chocolate truffle”. Now this makes me wanna go out and find a vegan option!

Yesterday’s dinner after a good sweaty yoga session with Richard. Felt guilty about missing a run-walk session with Evelyn. L

Five Things Friday

Looks like the blog has taken a backseat but I’m “super determined” to check in here more often (fingers and toes doubly crossed!). It’s been a busy week starting with the PACM dinner on Saturday night followed by an awesome weekend getaway before crashing back into reality on Tuesday (aka work). 

PACM Dinner

Some desserts were inhaled over the weekend

This week’s humdrum of activities:

1. Hot Yoga at BYCH in the morning followed by a delightful breakfast at Tiong Bahru Bakery. Good thing I chose the Cardio class instead of Classic – don’t think my hips would have survived the onslaught of berbanyak-banyak hip openers! I didn’t enjoyed the class as much as I did previously – while the instructor did help point out some of my “flawed” alignment, I felt he was just parroting through the class. You’re supposed to do 2 sets of each pose and his instructions on the second set is EXACTLY the same as the first and again on the other side (left/right), down to the pauses. Sure I get it that it’s basically the same thing but I felt I was listening to a tape recorder. I might give the Classic class a try the next time. Now…does anyone know where I can schmooze hot yoga in KL? Brekkie of scone with apricot jam 
   
   
   
   
2. Short run in Seputeh – covered the usual out-and-back but extended it a wee bit by including the mini loop at the playground near the train station. Felt good to have the legs back.
3. Another short run around the neighbourhood before meeting up with Michael for a Back & Lats workout. Unfortunately I got caught in the rain at km2 and cut the run short. And can someone please check if I’m ok?!?!?! Coz I went for yoga after work! 2 classes in a week????!!!! I like Susan’s classes and that evening, we did the seated Ashtanga Vinyasa series – lots of alignment and holding the poses a tad longer. Susan is a good teacher especially her understanding of physiology.
4. It was a cool morning as I set out prancing in Bangsar (hey, I needed a change!) only to discover to my “horror” that it was 2km of pure uphill along Jalan Cenderai-Jalan Ara! Why didn’t someone tell me that it was such a long road????!!!! Guess what I did after work yesterday? Yeah, yoga – I’m getting the hang of this, eh? I think gentle, easy, alignment/supported yoga classes should be mandatory for the 9-5ers. Manoj is an excellent teacher and we covered a lot of backbends and chest openers. Looks like only Manoj and Susan’s classes are for me – their knowledge of the skeletalmuscular and physiology system allowed them to plan and outline the various poses (with modifications for some of the less flexible ones); instructions were clear and they take the time to explain why a certain pose is done in a particular way or how it affects the body etc. Lily’s class on Saturday  just doesn’t cut it for me. I tried! Gave it 2 goes but it’s no-go.
5. Took the day off running and focused on Chest & Pecs. No, I’ll probably not head for yoga after work and will break the streak. But never say never, right?