Mid autumn ala Perth

Weather was too windy to play lanterns outside. So we played INSIDE my house.

This was actually taken with the lights TURNED OFF and the candles LIT UP. My camera phone no night mode lah...

The oriental supermarket was closed right before I got to it. So can't buy any mooncakes.

SINGLE mooncake SHARED by us... thanks to Eric Siah...

*Edit* more photos (and better ones too...) from Renee's camera...

Kid again...

With Natasha

With brother Eric Siah...

From left... myself, Eric, Tasha, Jessie, Brendan and Renee...

What drives you?

From the title you'd think that this a post on my training yeah?

Well, WRONG!

Hahhah...

For the past week, since I have been driving to the client's place for work rather than taking the bus to my office... I have been listening to 92.9FM (yeah, we have it here too!) on the radio.

When I first started listening to Australian radio, I found it a bit boring... they don't play as much music... but they have a lot of talk shows.

Now I found their talk shows very interesting... they tackle some REAL issues...

Em, Wippa & Tim are on air 6am to 9am every weekday morning. They brought up an issue regarding whether it is right or wrong to visit brothels... and Wippa actually went undercover to visit a brothel! He personally feels it's wrong... but he went there just to see for himself what it's like... check out the podcast here, the 19th September segment.

Taken from www.929.com.au

And on the drive back home, there's Hamish & Andy. These 2 blocks can do some really crazy stuff! I remember one segment when Hamish made a comment that there aren't many fires in Perth... so he reckons that firemen had the easiest jobs ever (or in his words, Tim Tams and board games whole day). Andy felt that his comment was very unfair to our unsung heroes, so they made a bet... they hanged out all day at a fire station, and if there was a fire, Hamish would be sprayed with the fire hose on national TV... otherwise, Andy gets it!

Their recent stunt included getting Britney Spear's mother's private phone number and prank calling her. How COOL is that? Check out the podcast here, the 20th September segment.

Taken from www.929.com.au

I think Hamish (the guy on the right... I THINK) actually won Cleo Bachelor of The Year before.

CANCELLED

Yup, the duathlon that I was supposed to do this Sunday was cancelled due to lack of interest. Only 12 participants! Hahhah... the announcement was posted on the Triathlon WA website but NOTHING was mentioned on the organizer's website. In fact, nothing was mentioned about the event AT ALL on the organizer's website before this... the only information was from the entry form which was posted as a link on Triathlon WA.

Anyway, the organizer called me yesterday and mentioned that a refund would be organized via mail. I have also paid in advance the discounted price of AUD80 for two events... another one in end of October. So, I would be getting to take part in that for AUD40... otherwise it's AUD60 per event.

So, back to training then... this morning's run wasn't too good... 38:30 for 8.5km (average 4:32 per km)... which is about 1.5 minutes slower than usual. Felt some slight tightness around my left knee again... also a bit tired, had about 6.5 hours of sleep compared to my usual 8 hours (yes, I believe in sufficient sleep for a healthy body and mind!).

Domestic

Rental inspection is in a week's time... I've started doing a bit of cleaning. I'm not exactly a neat freak... only do cleaning when it's time for inspection... which is about every 2.5 months...

Brought Li-Ann out for dinner yesterday... thought she needed a break. Wanted to eat Mediterranean at George's Meze in Subiaco BUT by the time we got there, it was all fully booked out. Yah, next time want to eat out, must plan first.

So since we were already in Subiaco, we went to Woodpecker's for wood fire pizza. The place was packed too... but service was pretty fast. Somehow, the pizza seemed smaller than the last time we went... but still tastes good. We had a pizza each (or rather Li-Ann had 2/3 of hers and I had my full pizza AND the remaining 1/3 of hers... hahhah). The taukeh was very nice... he asked me to keep my 25% discount Entertainment book voucher, so that I can use it there again.

Mediterranean seafood... tastes really good with garlic prawns and all!

Woodpecker's special... I was attracted to it because it had a mix of everything... but later felt I should have ordered something more exotic... like Spicy Indian...

Been feeling slightly under the pump at work lately... been assigned to this major client with 2 inept junior accountants (yes, I know I should be more patient and less arrogant... but I don't remember myself being so dependent last time...). Also manager expectations are pretty demanding... I'm expected to work late but still have to make money on the job (meaning can't charge too much time)... I can't win...

Anyway, have not been neglecting my training. Swam 5000m yesterday for the first time in my 1.5 hour session (I usually do about 3.5k to 4k). My usual coach wasn't around as the other swim kids had competition. So my friend, who's also a coach, gave me some custom-made endurance training.

Been doing a lot of spinning lately... as this client starts early in the morning, I can't make it to the swim sessions. Have been able to clock consistently above 30kph average for my 20 minute sessions now. Looking forward to next week's duathlon.

Study-free weekend...

It was my first weekend that I did not have to think about studying for CA... and it would stay that way from now on! (Assuming that I passed my final paper last Tuesday...)

Friday night... was at Shirley's and Jessie's... with Eric, Renee, Brendan, Tasha... and darling was there too! It was pot luck... the hosts made curry fish balls, man tou, and roti canai... ALL DELICIOUS! I also had many helpings of Renee's Hokkien noodles. Yours truly can't cook... so brought fried chicken courtesy of Colonel Sanders... hahhah.

We also had chocolate fondue for dessert with strawberries, apples and bananas, thanks to the hosts!

It was nice catching up... with lots of laughs... played Twister, and there were even more laughs there... (not to mention the penalties for the losers... I mean, LOSER... you know who you are! Hahhah!)

Saturday... went for grocery cum window shopping trip at Subiaco... haven't done that for ages! I got some shoe advice from Sports Fever. The sales girl was really nice... she assessed the way I walk and brought out some shoes for me to try... even lent me some socks... but no pressure whatsoever to buy the shoes OR the socks. That's one thing Malaysian sales people should learn... but I supposed most of our sports shops haven't got the expertise nor the passion to help select the right shoes for their customers. The girl recommended either the Brooks Dyad or Mizuno Wave Alchemy.

The Brooks actually felt quite good... but I'm a Mizuno fan! And paranoid me... always wanted to check the weight of the shoes... came back to check the website... and found out that BOTH shoes weigh almost TWO POUNDS more than my current pair. What to do... shoes meant for my flat feet are usually heavier than average... for the EXTRA SUPPORT for my low arch.

Anyway, just WINDOW shopping lah... In the end, I always get my shoes back home when it is during Mega Sale... and in RINGGIT! I get to choose what type of shoes I want too... without any advice from sales people...

Was supposed to watch DVDs for the whole of this afternoon... but I locked myself out of the house... and my flatmate, Chai was in the city. I went looking for darling.

Chai just got back and I finally was able to get in. But I'm pretty tired now... had quite a good gym session this morning (finally able to clock above 30kph on the new spin bikes!). Going to get some shut eye now... maybe watch the DVDs later...

PPPPIIIIIIAAAAAHHHH...

Slowly getting back to work now after Tuesday's exam. It was pretty open ended, so a bit hard to tell if my answers were correct or not. Also I found that some questions were asking for the same thing... so not very confident when I have to repeat the answers. Hope for the best...

My half marathon results are out. Official time 1:36.11. The timing chip only records the time at the finish... so it starts the same for everyone... I must have started about 4 seconds behind the start line. Position 94 out of 422 overall... 8 out of 11 in my age group category. Vanessa did 1:47.33. Full results here.

My finishing picture from the half marathon... didn't know I looked so constipated...
And pictures from the full marathon in July. I wasn't able to download them from the photo website earlier... but thanks to my sis for teaching me how to print screen (yes, did I mention I was lousy with technology...), here they are...

Hmm... I looked a lot thinner then...

"The Little Engine That Could"

This was exactly how I feel about the Perth Half Marathon this morning. Forgive my gloating... but I feel like a Lean, Mean, Runnin' Machine right now...

Woke up at 6.15am to have my Nutrigrain cereal breakfast and to do my streches. I had a pretty decent night's sleep. Woke up once to go to the toilet... must have drank too much water. And woke up a few times when it was nearing the alarm... means enough sleep already lah.

Arrived at WA Marathon Club at Burswood Water Sports Centre at 7.30am. Ate my Powebar Performance bar (Cookies N' Cream... yum!) and drank Powerade. Did about 10 minutes of warm up. As I just washed my shoes, I was a bit worried about them being too tight. But they didn't give me too much problems during the warm up. So did the knee pains... went away after I jogged for a while.

8.00am we started... it's Father's Day over here. The national anthem (or rather half of it) was played before we were flagged off.

I lined myself up somewhere towards the front as I didn't want to slither through runner traffic. BUT the front runners must have brought me too fast... 4:18 was my 1st km. I actually wondered if it was really the accurate distance.

2nd km was done in 4:32. Now that's more like it. The pace seemed comfortable. The weather was fine and sunny, with a light breeze. I kept slightly above 4 1/2 minute pace for the next few kms. Didn't pace with anyone... just running my own race.

The route was along the Swan River... flat course, out and back. The second half of the 1st lap is actually my usual running route... which is quite ironic, considering the turnaround point is so close to my house. I think it's a bit funny that I drove to the race start, run to the turnaround point, back to the race finish and drive back home.

There were only four drink stations on each lap. I timed eating my Powergels somewhere after the 10km mark, near one of the stations. The first one was the Tangerine one... 2x caffeine! I had a bit of difficulty tearing it open. It spilled a bit... and I had to lick the remainings off my hand (gross I know...)

At the halfway mark, they were giving away Carbo Shotz gels. I wasn't going to be kiasu... didn't want to eat something foreign while racing... didn't want to hold onto it throughout the race either.

There was a bit of headwind coming back. I averaged between 4:35 - 4:40 pace per km. I met Vanessa, who was heading to the turnaround point. I used to attend her BodyPump classes but she teaches during weekday evenings now.

I was a bit confused at the 14km mark... as the running route were the running/cycling paths along the river, there were some casual joggers and pedestrians using it too. I was following this jogger and I overshot one of the turns... but only for a few seconds. A pedestrian told me, "I think you should be heading THAT way..." How EMBARRASSING...

Again, I had a bit of difficulty having my 2nd Powergel, Chocolate. I tried tearing it near the drinks station... but it just didn't open in time. So holding onto it with my mouth... another hand grabbing the drink cup... I wanted to finish the gel before I passed the rubbish bin... didn't want to litter mah... I think I still had about a quarter of it left before I disposed of it.

1:36.07 was the unofficial time on my watch (average 4:33 per km)... my initial target after completing the marathon was below 1:37 when I was still in form... and lately, with all these knee pains... I targeted just below 1:38... so I REALLY can't complain with 1:36!

ALTHOUGH... if I didn't overshoot that turn, I could have done sub 1:36... OH WELL...

Here are my laps and splits.

5km 0:22.26 22.26
10km 0:45.04 22.38
15km 1:07.57 22.53
20km 1:31.05 23.08
21.1km 1:36.07

I walked around a bit and did my stretches. Somehow this half marathon didn't leave me feeling too sore... and I found it a short, fast race too... that's what you get aftter completing the full... every other race is short hehheh. I did however, feel a bit of chaffing around my... erm... chest area...

I chatted with Vanessa a bit after she came in... waited for the prize giving, while chewing onto Performance Chocolate Peanut Butter bar and drinking Powerbar Recovery. There were no fruits or massage after the race. There were also no age group prizes this time... only top 5 finishers. Maybe cut costs... half marathon only mah... The men's winner came in about 1:15... he actually looks familiar... like someone who runs along the same running route as I do.

Wasn't so lucky to win any draw prizes... but I can't complain. It was a good outing...

I just found out that I had TWO finisher medals with me. Either I was given two or I must have packed someone else's by mistake!

Front and back... DIFFERENT medals

That's the end of my running races for the year. I won't be doing my Saturday afternoon 17km runs either. It's taking too much of my time... the duathlon/triathlon season is starting again as winter just ended.