Interval Training

Interval training is one of the method to improve your pace & heart rate. It's a combination of fast & slow pace for a few cycles. I did mine by having 10 minutes warm up, 5 cycles of 1 minute speed & 4 minutes recovery, 10 minutes cool down. That would take about 45 minutes. If you have a running watch, you can set the reminder and intensity which could guide you throughout the run. You may start with this and then shorten the recovery time as you gain more stamina.

Post BWR2018

Post Bungwak Run 2018, I slowly developed the passion to start running. Started with just solo run around my housing area. No running buddies as most of them stay in Kertih. I tried to find time after work to run for about 3km. Pace was slow as compared to others. I still have trouble with breathing control and heart rate was at Zone 5 most of the time. Consulted with my coaches and they gave some tips and settings for the heart rate. Will share this in the next post.

Side Stitch

Have you ever feel pain at the right lower abdomen while running? Especially for starters who are still low stamina. My bros/coaches told me that it is called side stitch. Wikipedia described it as an intense stabbing pain under the lower edge of the ribcage that occurs while exercising. There is no specific theory that explains how it happen, some say it is because of our internal organs push on the diaphragm. Other theory says because of too much blood is pumped to our liver.

Whatever it is, we must know how to counter it or at least reduce it while continuing our running. One of the tips my rugby coach taught me last time is to run while bending our body forward. I also slow down my pace and try to control my breath. Normally it will just go away after some time. Googling some info also shows that running posture might contribute to this as well. Slightly incline our body forward to avoid this from happening.

There are a lot of tips on this in the web, some might work for you and some might not because different people has different capability. Just note that the pain is normal, no worries, no further investigation is required. If you can't stand it, just stop.

Bungwak Run 2018

It all started with this, Bungwak Run 2018. A brother from my 9195 batchmate, invited me to join this event during MCOBA Weekend 2018. It was a 3 men relay event with 2 legs, 1.6km per leg. Sounds easy but not to a noob like me. Long distant running never been a favorite sport to me. But I was a long distant cyclist before. Hence why not give it a try, just for fun & to celebrate our 40 years old this year. So I registered for the event with the team name Singa Semput. Singa because it was the mascot for our house Mohd Shah. Semput means no stamina or energy to run. But I guess, out of the 3 only I am the only one who is semput. My bros added me to this Kudakayu Running Bros Whatsapp group, where all the runners from batch 9195 are there.

I only got chance to train twice. First one was really terrible. After that, my bros advised just train for 1.6km and do the best, which is true enough.

On the event day, I just ran at my own pace. My only target was just to finish the run and receive the medal. It was my first finisher medal in life. I thought I registered for Veteran category but we were put in Open category. It was really a fun run. Besides the medal, we also got pau bun and cendol. Surprisingly, when I scrolled through the final results, Singa Semput was actually ranked 4th in the Open category. If I knew this, I would have pushed much harder. Nevertheless, I was satisfied and it became the starting point for me to continue running to unlock next achievements. Thanks to Peyjal & Andra for willing to be my buddies in Singa Semput team. Let's try again next year, Insya Allah...

Singa Semput Begins

Assalamualaikum & dear all,

This is a blog dedicated to my new passion, running!! I will share my experience as a beginner to start running and the struggle to sustain it. Of course, it will not happen without the support from my fellow brothers of Kudakayu 9195. I am already 40 but I guess it's not too late to start, for a healthier lifestyle. I will also share some tips and tricks that I got from my coaches, sifus & otais. You may give comments, feedback as well as contents to be shared here. Some parts of the postings will also include technical information with regards to running so we won't be running blindly. Hope this will benefit all of us. Stay tune!!