When everything is in order and suddenly....

You are hit with chicken pox, yes chicken pox at the age of 42 (my Christmas and birthday present for 2012).

I actually got it from my youngest son, which he had it about 3 weeks ago. We shared the same viral. It all started after my routine run on Saturday (22/12). Just did not feel right the whole morning and I thought I was dehydrated as I did not replenish as much liquid as I did usually after my run. Was busy preparing the food for the night's LYN gathering. Popped in 2 soluble panadol and felt much better later. Even went for a swim during that nights' gathering and felt nothing unusual then.

The next morning, Sunday (23/12), I even went for a run with Wai Hong, Ann Ric and Sebastian. However, 2K into the run, I know I am definitely no good and I started walking. Was also busy looking for toilet as nature calls. We ended up had a real short run and a lot of chit chatting. We even trekked up Wawasan Hill after the run but only turns back about 1.5k into the trail as its too muddy. Only Wai Hong continued to finished as he was trying on his new trail shoes.

By night, i was feeling very tired and the whole body was aching. Also feeling cold from the inside out. Went to clinic and was prescribed with the usual antibiotic, fever and flu tablets. My throat was swelling and URTI is on the way.

The next morning when I woke up, damn! its all over my shoulder and neck. That was it, there goes my Newton closing run for the year. Went to clinic again and the bill came up to RM162 and was given an antiviral medicine to be taken 5x a day over the next 5 days.

 It was tough over the past few days. This was how I looked on the peak, it was day 4 (27/12).

taken with the culprit who spread it to me

 Day 5, where it starts to itch a little where I had to apply to Calamine lotion to keep me cool.

28 Dec 2012

And today is day 6, when I am writing this up.

29 December 2012

I would say this a memorable Christmas and Birthday year for me to remember, 2012! :D

Seven days of training

Yes, its 6 days of running and 1 day of swimming. This was one of my highest mileage week, at 66km, since I started running 1.5 years ago.

It was a race event on Tuesday Klang Run for it 6, which I have not enough of running and ran another 6 km in the evening. Friday was supposedly to be a scheduled off day but adrenaline was still high. Decided to go for a swim at Bukit Jalil Aquatic Centre instead. Did a good 2000 M mixture of freestyle and breast stroke.

Started a solo run of 11km on Saturday at about 7.40am. It was a good run as weather was very forgiving on that morning. Was thinking will I able to do another planned 21km the next day with the rest of the LYN runners. Come Sunday, the run started at 5.30am sharp. There were a total of 11 runners with Wai Hong came in late where he got to go by himself. As usual, the run finished with breakfast at Aladdin Bistro.

Usual breakfast place after run, Aladdin Bistro

Looking forward for the coming weekend's LSD (16km), which will be the last before Newton run which will be held on 30.12.2012.

Day off for a run

Yes! I did take a day off, just because I want to run in an event. Partly its because wifey is not working as her office is in Selangor, which is Selangor's Sultan birthday, a day off for all in Selangor.

Thanks to a friend for being able to provide me with a free bib to run in the Klang Run for it 6 - 12km run at Bandar Botanic, Klang. Started the journey at about 5.30 am, traveled together with Kelvin Wan as we car pooled.

Reached there at about 6.00am and first person we bumped into was Yew Khuay, Renee and Hong Lan, which they all came in one car. They were surprised to Kelvin and I as we did not announce that we are starting this race. As we walked towards the starting point, more and more familiar faces were seen like Jeff Wong, Barkley, Wei Min and Alvin Yap.

The race started on time at about 6.33 am with no timing chip. The route was on the race morning and not earlier due to non-usage of timing chip and there are too many open road along the route which is subject to abuse, as per Alvin Yap, whom is part of the organizer team.

I am really liking my leg's muscle

12 km route map

Started the race pretty fast as usual the peer pressure from runners around you.

Lap statistics

At km 8, which you can see there is a drop in the pace, bumped into Kelvin Wan and Meng Yong. Both of them were walking and I joined in for a short stroll. It was because both were also looking for toilet wanting to do their big business. What a day for both of them! Upon crossing the small hill across the bridge at about km 10, thought that finishing line is near, started to sprint. 500m later, I saw the marker which display 1km to go and damn, I was already dead tired and about to punctured. Nevertheless, slowly pushed myself to the finishing line as I was reaching, as usual heard a lot of yelling and shouting...Captain, Captain. Those were the cheers from my fellow running mates.

Finished the race with my (nearly) intended average pace of (5:50) 5:52, if its not because I pushed myself too had in the beginning. Still very satisfactory with it. First time came across where Apam is being served in a race, maybe only in Klang.

Nice Apam 

As usual, cam whoring took place after the run, with many many candid shots. Look at my sweats and noticed my hair is getting lesser too.

Post race group photo

Rain Rain please go away

Rain rain please go away! Don't your resources dries up after such a long period of rainfall.
Look at my training log for the month of December 2012. I am targeting 50k weekly but its far from reach.

Training log for December 2012

As of today (5/12), this week is still zero mileage but I managed to replaced the last 2 days with 20 minutes each day with abdominal and cardio workout. But that's not enough.

I have practically less than 4 weeks to brush up for my next race, which is Newton Challenge 2012. Here is my training schedule for the next 3.5 weeks but with the continuous rainfall, must I really need to wake up 5.00 am daily to fulfill the schedule?

Training schedule for Newton Challenge 2012

Decided that if weather to continues to be as such, rain in the evening, come next week I will have to wake up at 5.00 am to run.