akmal's bike park

akmal's bike park

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Plentong Epic Ride 2013

Breaking news!

Plentong Epic Ride is back this year, according to people in Cyclemotion.
It will happen in May insyaAllah.

Stay tuned.


Tuesday 8 January 2013

Run Forrest Run (or Run and Walk)

adidas supernova glide 3 - KLCC Park 25.12.2012

My weekly-basis secondment in KL being extended monthly and it has been about half a year already. With that, my cycling has been sporadic. Sure, there were night rides and offroad rides in KL but they were very few.

With that, my daily doses of endorphin is dramatically shrunk. What's more alarming is that I had to buy new pants (bigger waist, not smaller).

Fueled also by friends' running activities that they posted over fb, I took the plunge. It seems that running is quite cheap (if you don't splurge >RM500 for a pair of shoes, that is) and doable. More and more people are doing it, and there are also lots of running events nowadays. Well, I'm not in it for the competition, rather for my exercise. If I do compete, it shall be with my own self (oh yes, the tee-off cliché so as not to be discouraged).

I always savour the morning walk to the office through KLCC Park whenever I stay at Corus Hotel Jalan Ampang. I envy the morning joggers, and had been wanting to do the same. And so I did, on a nice 25/12/2012 evening. Bought a brand new pair of running shoes with ¾ shorts the day before.

Of course, the first couple of runs bought aches to my thighs. Strangely, I kept on with the running. And now after 24km (total, with walking), the legs are not complaining anymore. Just that I have to improve my running form and start to work on endurance, speed, etc.

I'd say that the smartphone is my essential companion, but not without the armband. It is quite motivating to see the results of my running sessions and to track progress, while listening to the recitation of Al Quran Kareem or songs. There are numerous apps for running, but I'm sticking with Sports Tracker. And recently, Strava.

While running is considerably and comparatively cheap compared to cycling, I still love what cycling could give - especially the bike assembling part. My version of Lego, I might say. On the other hand, running would complement my mountain biking in terms of stamina and strength. In-syaa-Allah.

So I'm hoping that I could do this long term, and I'm interested to see where it would lead me to. I'm looking forward for my first running event soon (short one, fun run perhaps) and gradually up to 10k, half-marathon and even a marathon.

Meanwhile, stay calm and keep running. I'm getting back my doses of endorphin, Alhamdulillah. Yay!
:)

If you're interested in running, perhaps this is a good place to start reading:

http://running.about.com/od/getstartedwithrunning/a/beginnersguide.htm


Thanks for running by.
Have a blessed day.