Sunday, May 18, 2014

KL International Towerthon 2014

This is my first towerthon. It was never the same as running.

KL Towerthon 2014

2,058 steps to the top of the tower. Flagged off at 5am and the runners started by batches.

It was a 1+ km hill hike before we enter the tower and start climbing the stairs.
During the climb, there's air vent to provide the runners air flow and several water stations to help them along the way.

I did made a few stops along the climb and it was never easy for me. After 35 minutes, I reached TH03 which is the top and moved to the observation deck. It was a great view of KL indeed. 



Thursday, March 27, 2014

Thirsty Runner 2014

My fourth run in 2014, 7km Thirsty Runner 2014.

This run organized by Water and Energy Consumer Association of Malaysia (WECAM) and held at Dataran Petaling Jaya. It was to "increase awareness and also to educate the general public to realize the importance of water sustainability".

The route planned in this event was nice mixture of hilly + flat route. Constantly maintaining my timing around 8:00/km pace. At the end of the run, managed to clocked 50 minutes.
Yet more work/training need to be done for me to achieve sub1 for 10km.

A bucket as medal

Me and Mary, barefoot runner

Monday, March 10, 2014

Brooks Half Marathon 2014

09/03/2014 marks my first Half Marathon after 2 years I started running.

This was also my most excruciating event; period. 
At the start of the run, I started slow at 9:05/km pace to preserve my energy for the hilly route. 

It was pretty straight forward route for the first half of the route but my stomach muscle cramped as usual in the first few KM. However, it does not stop me from continue and I picked up my pace to 8:30/km till 10th KM.

That's where the hilly route start and how I got my calves muscle cramped along with my knee pain.
At first, I thought the knee pain has been fully healed but I guess I'm wrong on this. 
As I proceed further, the calves doesn't do any good on my timing thus causes me to walk for the rest of the route.

The walking made me to be with the last pack of the runners.
When I reached the finishing line, my final timing is 3:32 hours and this is the time that I will beat in my next HM which is in PBIM 2014.

Me and my running partner, Andy. Without him, I could never finish the run.

The finishing medal for Brooks HM

Monday, February 24, 2014

Mid Valley City Charity Run 2014 (MVCCR2014)

Mid Valley City Charity Run or MVCCR is a charity run organized by Mid Valley and The Gardens to raise fund for St. John Ambulance.

As I mentioned before, my knee was stressed too much on previous event so I take this easy as my recovery run. Hey, it's a non-competitive run :)

As the race started, I kept my pace at a constant timing of 7:30/km and as soon as the road ahead getting lesser and lesser runners, I picked up my pace to 7:00/km. The knee was starting to feel very tight during the uphill and I started to worry that the injured is not fully recovered.

As I reaches the finishing point, my final timing is 30:15 minutes for 4.3km run with a pace of 6:55/km. Hopefully that I can maintain this timing in the next event which is my virgin Half Marathon.

MVCCR medal

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Melawati Run 2014

First event for me in 2014.

I was quite nervous of running again due to I was inactive for almost 2 months but I was confident of finishing it.

On the first 4km, I was running at a faster pace of 6'40"/km. Everything looks good till the 5th km where I stopped and takes a breather. My knee starting to feel some pain and it gets worsen at hill route.
Nevertheless, I ignore the pain and kept on running until 8th km then proceeded to walk run walk run.

Knowing that the finishing line is near about 500m left, it was time to make a final sprint to cross the line.

At the end, managed to clocked in my PB of 1 hour 15 minutes and 26 seconds beating my previous time of 1 hour 20 minutes.

Overall, satisfaction > pain. Like they said, no pain no gain.


Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Malaysia New Mazda 3 2014 Review

Almost 1 year I bought my Mazda 3, now they come up with the new design called "Kodo" design.
According to Mazda, the reason behind of the name is "it captures the very instant energy becomes motion. It’s the muscular beauty you see when an animal pounces, or when a human leaps into action. Everywhere you look, this dynamic poise is enhanced by elegant detail. The five-point grille, defining body lines and powerful stance all show our design philosophy in action". 


New Mazda 3 2014 Soul Red
Malaysia has received its amount of CBU units to be sold to customers, however there are mixed reviews from the users. 

To prove them wrong, I decided to personally take a look of the car and test drive it and boy, it caught me by surprise totally. So here's my small review of this new Zoom-Zoom

1) The pick up acceleration is exceptionally good considering this is a NA car. For a short 500m run, I managed to clocked 140km/h while cutting cars left & right to test on the steering.
2) The steering is pure feather light due to it is electric power steering. 
3) Air-conditioning is rather cold but not as cold as Proton.
4) The command center is a lovely add-on to replace conventional buttons. It will take some time to get used to it but it definitely looks cool!
5) Sound system is crisp clear with 6 speakers. Much better than previous version.
6) CBU units produced extra horsepower compared to the CKD units.
7) Cool looking DRL which I feel it is similar to Range Rover Evoque.

There are drawbacks as well.

1) The price for this unit is a little bit steep for most consumers in C-Segment. With Rm139,000, there are more choices to choose from unless they decided to go for CKD units.
2) 18" rims which lead to expensive tires when replacement time comes.
3) Lack of additional features such as auto-wiper, auto-headlight, dual climate control, leather seat, cruise control, power folding mirror & etc. But I believe it will be added in the CKD units. So I can say consumers need to give & take.

Conclusion: 
If consumers have extra moolah and fascinated with the exterior, this new Mazda 3 is worth considering. 
If consumers need more features, he/she should consider other options such as Kia Cerato or K5.

Speed cluster with RPM display and fuel gauge

Dashboard

Gear knob with command center

Rear view

Front view with DRL


iOS Paper app, by Facebook, Inc

Paper is a new app developed by Facebook, Inc and released on 3rd February 2014.

It's almost similar to Flipboard except that Flipboard covers more stuffs such as Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. I've been using it for the past 2 weeks and it's actually pretty neat compared to the original Facebook whereby it is buggy and with the latest update of auto-play video, the app is very annoying.

Two features that I liked about Paper:

1) The tilting to view the high-resolution picture instead of moving it with our thumb.
2) Flip up to view stories and flip down to close it. It is very convenient.

iPhone Screenshot 1

iPhone Screenshot 2

iPhone Screenshot 3

Conclusion: For those users that are very annoyed with Facebook app, give this app a try and give me your thoughts. Plus it is FREE!