Éclectique

So, I did my first duathlon last weekend. It was the Powerman Duathlon Asian Championships & some big names came down hoping to secure points to qualify for the Duathlon World Championships in Switzerland. The duathlon I participated in was held in Putrajaya. Such a beautiful place to race. I hope they do it again next year. A duathlon is run-bike-run & sounds easier than triathlon -- which is swim-bike-run.  It's simpler, yes but it is in no way easier.  Most likely due to the slightly different distances.  That being said, I like the duathlon distances better.  Maybe I should start doing the long distance triathlons after this. Anywho... Compared to the Desaru triathlon, I was able to put a 5 minute gap between my brother & myself.  Best part of it; I started creating that gap in the first run & he never closed it.  In Desaru, Akid had a 1 minute advantage out of the water but I was able to close it & we arrived at T2 (bike-to...

The last time I blogged was before my birthday. Wow. So much has happened in that time span.  My cousin, Hamid, got married, I raced the Desaru International Triathlon, did the Salomon X-Trail Run, went to Legoland, I coordinated a two-day Halloween bazaar, & last but not least, Hari Raya. Was kind of surprised when Hamid popped the news about getting married. Was so happy for him.  My family is very close to him & his siblings so we were more than happy to help out in anyway we could.  We all bunked out at a homestay in Pasir Gudang, his new wife's hometown.  After the wedding, we went to JPO! Muahahaha. JPO stands for Johor Premier Outlets and is basically a shopping mall selling high-end stuff for cheap.  Well, mostly.  Long story short, I got a Adidas AdiZero jacket! :D Akid got a running kit, Abah got a track jacket & pants combo for cheap, & Mama... well, Mama bought a lot.  O-O She got the previous generation F50 AdiZero r...

Religiously, I cannot endorse homosexuality.  However, the recent flurry of posts regarding a supposed guideline endorsed by the Ministry of Education offends me as to how shallow & simple minded they are when it comes to identifying homosexuals.  Their list pretty much includes majority of Malaysia. -,- Each category only has four items or guidelines.  Yes, there are only four things.  Who knew homosexuals were so easily identifiable, eh? Just to quote & comment. Quoted is in red italic  while comment is not. :) Symptoms for gays Have a muscular body and like to show their body by wearing v-necks and sleeveless shirts .  This applies to pretty much our ENTIRE athletic contingent.  Is the government implying they are gay?  Also, straight men do it to attract girls because let's face it, a well toned body is a big ego booster for men, and an attraction for women. Prefer tight, and light colored clothes .   I tend to...

Classes have resumed.  Last two semesters have felt like open season & I was the deer.  Mechanics & Heat  in the short semester, then Multivariate Calculus in the following semester were really a blow to my CGPA. I've probably rambled a lot about this so I'm not going to say anything more.  Let's just hope that hunting season is over & this little deer is not going to face anymore trouble. This semester I'm only taking 3 subjects; Thermodynamics, Electricity & Light, & retaking Multivariate Calculus.  Multivariate Calculus has a new lecturer so hopefully she's good.  Going to work hard at all my papers now.  Have to.  Need to bring up my CGPA so I can apply. Talking about applications, I'm now looking at Canada rather than the States due -- primarily -- to safety issues...  There has been literally a shooting every week.  It's frightening.  Going to apply to McMaster, University of Calgary, & Queen's. ...

So today, Aneez, Fang, Vic, Naufal & I went on a daytrip we had planned for quite a while now.  Things only came together so it was a bit rushy.  Pulled off the logistics, though! :D The original plan was to rent a van & go to Bidor, Perak.  After a few discussions, plans changed and we opted to visit the Orang Asli village in Trolak, instead.  The whole objective of the trip was to deliver the NoKero lights we had raised funds for during our events in school. Left rather early, and made it to the Sungkai exit on time.  Unfortunately, we got a little lost thanks to a mislabel on Google Maps.  Luckily, it wasn't difficult to get back on track.  Once we were deep-er into the plantation, we turned off the a/c & rolled down the CR-V's windows.  It was fun as we weren't going that fast.  The final stretch going up was fun to drive.  Hehe!  The village itself was very quaint, and despite being rather close to the Felda Resid...

So as most of the world is well aware, ongoing right now is one of the greatest sporting events in the world; The Olympics.  People all over the world have been glued to their TVs watching their favorite athlete run that bit faster, smash that bit harder, push that bit more, cheering them on, feeling their pain, their joy, feeling pride in their athletes regardless of a win or not. Malaysia may be a soccer-mad nation -- yes, soccer -- but when it comes to the Olympics; there is one sport that I can safely say ALL Malaysians are eyeing; badminton.  Since the glory days of the Sidek brothers, Malaysia has been a powerhouse in badminton.  The Men's Singles final was a replay of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  Sad to say, even right down to who won the match. :( Nevertheless, our Dato' Lee Chong Wei performed superbly, gave it his all, never backed down, but most of all, held his composure till the very end.  Chong Wei, you are one awesome player.  It is sad yo...

Ramadan is a tricky time to stay fit. It's very much possible, just for me, it requires more discipline compared to other months.  Usually after iftar, I'm either too full/worn out to do sports and/or I am going to tarawih with my family. My parents seem fine with me doing exercises late-er due to Ramadan but when something isn't in your routine, it feels odd. Maybe I still should train at night, like when I played rugby; we trained at night after tarawih.  I'll do that. So tomorrow night, night run. I'll try to hit 6km & see how I fare. Minimum distance I need to run is 4km. I'm sure my fitness is quite bad. I haven't really done much training since Port Dickson International Triathlon, which was about three weeks back or so... O-O September is going to be a busy busy month.  I have the Adidas King of the Road 10km road run, Taiping International Marathon (I'll most likely be doing the 21km half-marathon), Desaru International Triathlon (still ...