Tag Archives: malaysia

Injuries, Training

A roller, a roller, my kingdom for a roller

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61 dFeEhrnL._SL500_AA300_I’ve been desperately hunting around Malaysian sports shops looking for a foam roller, which you may remember was a big part of my miracle cure for ITBS.

Admittedly my current plans for heavy running training have been somewhat curtailed by  breaking the treadmill but we’re hunting for a gym I can use (only madmen would run outdoors in the 34 degree heat, torrential tropical thunderstorms and / or mosquito haven). Also, without incurring cost-prohibitive data roaming charges, I don’t have Runkeeper here to track distance/pace, and so my motivation for outdoor running falls to zero…

Unfortunately, either Malaysian runners don’t suffer from ITBS (despite previous assurances from doctors in the UK that it was the most common running injury), or… people here don’t really run, and running/sports shops are for trendiness only.Given there is a KL marathon the latter doesn’t seem too likely, but garrrrrrrrrrr all the same.

I may have to resort to tying together several yoga mats into a tight roll and seeing whether that will help. Any Malaysian runners out there can help me find one of these???

Training

Running statfest

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YTD mileage total  as of the start of March – 62.9 miles

Minimum target for the year, at approx 6.3 miles per week  69 miles.

So 6 miles down. But now arrived in Malaysia, on sabbatical, and have a working treadmill upstairs so plan to get running later today – although jetlag has slapped me about, as anticipated, and am running on about 3.5 hours sleep so may collapse later today and start tomorrow…

Wish me luck – think this will be what Sensei Paul calls a series of ‘sweat’ runs as  the temperature outside will climb to 34 degrees C today. Crikey.

Running, Technology, Training

Running at the Equator

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In Malaysia helping prepare for my sister’s wedding. (Half)-Marathon training is easier, but not nearly as fulfilling, exciting or entertaining.

I have managed to get in a couple of runs, which, because of the 30 degree+ heat, take place shirtless, indoors on a treadmill, usually under a fan with accompanying air-conditioning. It’s very, very sweaty. But oddly satisfying.

On the plus side – am actually enjoying treadmill running for the first time in ever. Doing some moderately quick sessions with some intervals – run 1 saw me alternate between 10.5 and 12 km/h, completing the 5k circuit in 26.13, and run 2 saw me jogging at between 10.7 and 11km/h, finishing in 27ish minutes (run briefly interrupted). I’m discounting these as ‘personal bests’ as treadmill running is just so much easier than real life running…

My Dad’s treadmill setup includes a box set of ER, which you can’t really hear over the running (my Dad tends to just use it for walking so less of an issue), but is totally watchable with subtitles – good motivation to keep going for 4o minutes tomorrow as the knee recovers and strength starts to build again…

Current affairs

Malaysia tidak boleh

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I don’t often blog about Malaysia, despite it being my birth-country and home for many of my family, but on receiving an email on the family mailing list last night warning my Malaysian family off going to Church I was suitably inspired.

The news is that Malaysian churches have been firebombed overnight because of an upset that the courts have ruled that Christians can refer to their god as ‘Allah.’

Why do Christians want to refer to god as Allah? Well, as I understand it, this desire is derived from three sources – first, a desire for national unity; Malay is the National Language, ‘god’ to the Malays is ‘Allah’ this is both coincidence (as pretty much all Malays are Muslim) and the actual definition of the word in Malay — a lot of Malay words are derived from Arabic (and English). Secondly, because Malay is the National language there are Christian youth that don’t speak English, so presumably there’s a desire to integrate them (the “Lord’s prayer” is often read in Malay). Thirdly, Christians are probably trying to draw a link between the various ‘gods’ in an attempt to promote some idea of religious harmony – all gods are one etc.

Now I’m not particularly religious, but I find it absurd that when we’ve got massive economic problems, climate change, etc., to deal with, an argument of the semantics of worship has resulted in violence, terror and fear. There’s a part of me that wants to tell my family not to give in to it, to defy the fearmongers and go wherever they want, but the larger part of me that’s afraid for their safety agrees with the warning off church.

Extremism cannot be tolerated. Despite the appearance of sophistication and development Malaysia delivers to the casual visitor, it seems there is still a brutal, ignorant core of people happy to make political statements with violence – I can’t believe things haven’t changed since 1969, despite 40 years of Malaysia’s New Economic Policy (designed to diffuse issues over race and religious tension). And over an issue that cannot be an issue – I simply do not understand how this matters to anyone. I find it particularly surprising as I have myself never met an intemperate Malay person – not about anything like this. Where do these people come from, and what should be done about them?

Personal

Christmas Holiday Craziness

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Christmas has been amazingly busy so apologies for the lack of posting and hope you all had wonderful seasons and enjoyable new years. Some of the things filling my time:

1) Flights to and from Malaysia

2) Introducing Amanda to about 30 people in my extended family, another 20 in my extended extended family, about 20 additional family friends and a number of randoms and associates. She did amazingly well in overwhelming circumstances and I think mostly had a good time!

3) Visiting Taman Negara in Pahang, where we jungle walked, I spoke Malay to Orang Asli, and we stayed in the delightful Traveller’s Home.

4) Visiting Malacca for a dim-sum fest, travelling on a ferris wheel at the Malacca River Pirate Entertainment Park (consisting of four rides), an interrupted swimming session on the 9th floor of the Ramada Renaissance caused by a brief monsoon shower.

5) Reading: The Reluctant Fundamentalist, finishing the brilliant Bad Science and diving into the Inkheart trilogy, as well as devouring the brilliant ‘Invincible’ Ultimate Collection 1&2 which Arvind bought me for Christmas.

6) Saying “I’m Batman” a few times following Sheila and Dave’s purchase of a full Bat-costume for me for Christmas.

7) Shopping with Amanda for the ‘ring’ and learning from my Aunty Ann about the four Cs of diamond shopping.

8) Three days in the ‘honeymoon’ suite of a less good hotel in Pangkor, including a scenic tour of the Island, some slightly grotty beach, and the most awesome clamshell poolside showers. Flickr will soon have photos. Despite grottiness, was a lovely escape and involved driving down some wonderful plantation road and all the adrenaline that entails (overtaking the lorries involves finding a window and then accelerating into oncoming traffic).

9) A lot of food, including Roti Canai, Dim Sum, Cantonese & hokkien mee, peanut-free Satay, Bhatura, Dhosai, Appom (sp?), and even fish and chips and lamb chops for good measure.

10) Tourist visits to KL Tower, Central Market

11) Shopping visits to 1 Utama, KLCC

12) A lot of jetlag

13) A fantastic Christmas eve featuring the increasingly infamous hat game and the family’s first Secret Santa, a resounding success (I got a Superman Belt Buckle which I failed to work out was from Geets, but she didn’t clock that I’d given her Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker DVD either, so we were even)…

14) New Year’s Eve on Asian Heritage Row in Central KL

…and a great deal more. The first couple of days back have been characterised by jetlag, kitchen construction, a cold, and initial attempts to improve healthiness through swimming and resisting completely unhealthy food. This will be helped by the completion of the kitchen…

Anyway, if you want to know more on any of the above points, let me know and I’ll find some time to write further.

Post holiday email count: 960 in my work inbox, down to 560 after initial pass on Sunday and down to a mere 368 after a second pass early this morning. Fingers crossed for a sane January, but it seems doubtful!