Thirteen point One all over again

Sometimes it’s good to give life a blank slate.  Work things from scratch in order to get a different perspective or meaning.  Considering that the end of the year is jam packed with half marathons, I decided to give this a shot.  Where in the past I’ve pretty much treated running as something I love doing on a whim and races as just another run with many people around me, I’ll be using the next couple of weeks to actually train for the half.  Yup, that means setting goals, sticking to a regime and all that jazz.  I figured, why not give it a try.

The program I’m trying out is the FIRST Plan, which advocates a 3-day week training schedule over the course of 10 weeks.  Theoretically, I like this plan for a couple of reasons.  It’s just 3 days a week which helps since I’m quite tied up getting runfool off the ground.  The 3 days are segmented into very structured components; i.e. one speedwork, one tempo run and one long run every week.  Also, being the plodder that I am, I’ve totally neglected trying to speed up my run which was fine when I was doing it for more “abstract” reasons.   So, this is something that’s going to add a new perspective to my running.

First Up

This plan begins with the end in mind.  And for me, that is a 2:30 half marathon.  Having that goal in place, the plan requires me to identify my “half-marathon race pace” or HMP, which comes to about 11:30 per mile.  That will be the golden figure to use as I set out to complete the 3 types of training runs; i.e. speed works at a pace of between 10:15 to 10:45, tempo runs at a pace of 11:15 and long runs at a pace of 12:00

What happens this week?

So, armed with my brand new sports band and my trusty pair of shoes, this will be my work out for the week.

Tuesday: 20-min jog (warm-up), 4x400m with 2-min recovery jog between, 10-min jog (cool down)

Wednesday: 10-min jog, 3-mile tempo run, 10-min jog

Saturday: 6-mile long run

Will be posting an update by the end of the week with a report on how it went.

All You Need Is Love

Today marks the 1st anniversary of Yasmin Ahmad’s passing.    To most Malaysians, there is no further introduction required.  Everyone carries with them memories of her.  A privileged few had the opportunity to work with her and others might have had the chance to meet her.  Even the ones that did not meet her in person would speak of how her presence radiates whenever they watched her many films and advertisements.  Yes, whether intentionally or unintentionally, she spoke strongly to all of us.  And her’s was a message of love.  Unconditional love for humanity itself.  The advertisement below says it all.

We lost a lot on that fateful day of July 25, 2009.  A voice that cut through a lot of nonsense that we’ve unfortunately gotten used to in this country.  Will there be another?  Maybe not embodied in an individual, but her voice was that of a collective Malaysia.  I think we should take cue from that and continue the legacy through whatever tiny acts we’re capable of.

A good friend of mine, Hafiz Ibrahim, was interviewed by BFM as part of this tribute to Yasmin Ahmad.

Silly wrong, vivid right

Drinking in the morning sun
Blinking in the morning sun
Shaking off the heavy one
Heavy like a loaded gun

What made me behave that way?
Using words I never say
I can only think it must be love
Oh, anyway, it’s looking like a beautiful day

Someone tell me how I feel
It’s silly wrong but vivid right
Oh, kiss me like the final meal
Yeah, kiss me like we die tonight

Cause holy cow, I love your eyes
And only now I see the light
Yeah, lying with me half-awake
Oh, anyway, it’s looking like a beautiful day

When my face is chamois-creased
If you think I’ll wink, I did
Laugh politely at repeats
Yeah, kiss me when my lips are thin

Cause holy cow, I love your eyes
And only now I see you like
Yeah, lying with me half-awake
Stumbling over what to say
Well, anyway, it’s looking like a beautiful day

So throw those curtains wide
One day like this a year would see me right

Mummy, I’m on TeeVee!

I will be terrorizing the Malaysian airwaves every week from 7th July 2010 till 8th September 2010.  The show is called DiGi The Next Level, a reality show that pits 8 budding entrepreneurs who eventually have to pitch their business plan in a quest to win 50 grand and some business support from DiGi.  It’s been quite an experience and I had a chance of meeting some pretty interesting people.

More about the show in weeks to come.  For now, do catch the show every Wednesday 8.30pm on ntv7.  And if you do miss it, ntv7 has a neat feature called Catch Up TV where you can follow the show whenever you feel like it.

100% Pledges Target Achieved. So What’s Next?

Photo by 

Todd Baker (License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs)

Firstly, I want to apologize sincerely to everyone for the long lapse of silence since I started collecting pledges for Project Haze Runner.  Having said that, I’m pretty psyched to find out that we’ve now reached the 100% mark for pledges to the project.  And that means we’re now moving Project Haze Runner into 2nd gear.

The long lapse of silence does not mean things have been idle though.  We have outlined some goals to be achieved for this next phase of Project Haze Runner.  I’m going to share some of these goals here for the purpose of discussion.  

The end objective is the article on the haze as well as the short film on the haze.  We would like to invoke support & recognition that this is a problem and make an emotive call for action.

On a month-to-month basis, here are the goals:-

1. October – mobilize team, planning & pre-production for article & short film
2. November – initiate & sustain conversations online, production of short film
3. December – on ground activities, short film out
4. January – article out 

I hope to get some thoughts on what you think.  Are they achievable?  Are they in the right direction in helping us understand the haze issue in Malaysia?  How can we further measure its success?  Your thoughts would help me a lot.

MMIG-Desa Water Park Haze Run on 9th August 2009

Alright folks, we've got 7 days to go till the MMIG-Desa Water Park Haze Run.  And in case you're still wondering what this is all about, here's the low-down on the event.  It's gonna be exciting, so shake up your typically mundane Sunday morning and head down to Desa Water Park on 9th August!

"Looks like the Haze Runner is not alone in “running the haze out of town”. We have now partnered with the lovely ladies from the Miss MalaysiaIndian Global (MMIG) to jointly bring you the MMIG-Desa Waterpark Haze Run on 9th August 2009. 

The run aims to:-
I) To mobilize vocal on ground anti-haze support and create an awareness of the hazards of the HAZE to public in general and women in particular. 
2) To raise seed funds for the production of a well-researched documentary on HAZE in collaboration with neighboring countries.

This is a charity 5km run that starts and ends at Desa Waterpark. The registration fee for this event is RM 25, of which RM 10 will be pledged for Haze Runner’s documentary on the haze and the balance to the benefiting Charity: GIFT HER WITH LIFE FUND operated by the Miss MalaysiaIndia Care asscoiation (MMICARE ASSOCIATION). The GIFT HER WITH LIFE FUND supports mammograms for women, dialysis for kids, unconventional women empowerment programs such as Deception Is Not Romantic -Stop Trafficking in Women & Children, and scholarships for girls.

So, show us your support and REGISTER FOR THE RUN AT :
http://www.socialwalk.com (click on the MMIG-Desa Water Park Haze Run event to register)

For more information on MMIG, do visit: www.missmalaysiaindianglobal.com 

For more information on Haze Runner, do visit: www.unreason.my/hazerunner

The MMIG-Desa Water Park Haze Run has been made possible with the participation of the following organizations:

ORGANIZERS:

CO-ORGANIZER:

MAIN SPONSOR:

SPONSORS:

TECHNICAL SPONSOR:

SELANGOR AMATEUR ATHLETICS ASSOCIATION

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Registrations now open for Singapore Marathon 2009

Registrations for the region’s premier marathon event are now open.  I’ll be running my first full marathon there this year.  Gulp!  Going for broke!

You can send in your registrations here.  Hope to see you there.

Issues (Think about it….do something about it)

Okay, now that I’ve got your attention, please focus on the words that are coming outta my mouth.  We all have issues that we’re peeved about, right?  Stuff that makes us go “Geez, my life would be so much better if this thing were fixed”.  And I’m not just talking about touching monkeys, but real issues.

My issues often revolve around the challenges I face as an avid runner.  Like the haze, hence Project Haze Runner.  And now there is a platform that would allow me, and other Malaysians, to try and fix issues that they’re seriously pissed off about.  It’s an event called Unreason @ UrekaWeekend.  Read all about it.  It’s happening on 3-5 July 2009.

If you’re as psyched as I am, then join me at the event.  I’ll be working on details for Project Haze Runner and am looking for runners and others who would be interested to participate in this project.  Contact me on Facebook or Twitter if you’re interested!

Now, can somebody please remove these cutleries from my knees?

The first 48 hours

Alright folks, here’s my first update on what has been happening for Project Haze Runner, or “Running the Haze out of Town”.  Since the project went live on Friday afternoon, we have managed to raise USD 153 out of the USD 350 needed to come up with an initial pitch video for the local networks.

With all honesty, when I sat down with the rest of the guys, we did have some doubts about how this whole thing is gonna take off.  Malaysians are apathetic, very kedekut, cynics yada yada.  So we set a target to raise the initial USD 350 by 18th August.  And you know what, we’ve been proven wrong.  It’s only Day 2 and we’re already close to the half way mark!  The Haze Runner video has been viewed over 50 times already and there is quite a buzz going about on my Unreason project page.  Malaysians actually do care for issues that affect them personally and are willing to go out of their way to lend their support in whatever means possible.  *wipes off a tear with a tissue.  tsk tsk

Love you guys!  Keep the support coming.

Remember – Ruuuuunnnnning the Haze outta Town! *Does a jig ala John Travolta in Saturday Night Live

Running the Haze Outta Town

So let’s see, we’ve got less than 10 days to go till the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon.  And I have to say that I’m still stuck at doing 10 – 12km runs, last run having taken place on Wednesday last week.  I’m not very happy about it and it’ll definitely affect how I complete the half marathon, but I’m guessing that since I’ve done it twice last year I should be able to do it again this year.

Which brings me to my rant of the day.  We all know what’s stopping people from running these past couple of weeks.  It’s impossible to ignore that thick blanket of smoke and debris that has engulfed us recently.  Yup, it’s the haze.  So I’ve decided to quite bitching about it and do something.  I’d like to call it “Running the Haze out of Town”.  You can check it out on my Unreason page.  To make this thing work, the righteous ones at Unreason* helped me shoot a video and here’s a small snippet of what happened that day:-

There’s another video on the Unreason page, which explains the project and what we intend to achieve with it.  So check it out!

*Unreason is a movement to get ordinary Malaysian to collectively do extraordinary things to address issues that they’re unhappy about.  Cool stuff.