A break from Running

Hi guys, it had been some time since I had made an entry in my blog. Well, to be exact, I had taken a hiatus from running since month of May as I was concentrating my efforts on my job, or 2 jobs to be exact. My saturday's are replaced by a full day working and it was also since June that I had seen my parents back in PJ. I had been working for 2 companies i.e. my present company in Johor for full time and another in Singapore on a consultancy basis. My initial aim was to make some extra cash in working for this Singaporean company but it seemed that now I am moving over for good. The boss decided to have me joining their operations and to assist in the Operations Director in overseeing factories in Johor and Singapore. My initial thoughts were happy but also, I can sense the burden that I will be shouldering 4 months from now. Well, as of now I am still busy but manage to have a breather and will be returning to running soon. Of course, the number of races may had to be reduced but will not disappear altogether. I will see you guys in races!

Updates

Updates at the photography section had been posted!

Updates

It had been sometime since I had blogged anything about running and therefore you should have known that my running had taken a backseat these days. For my work, the pressure is mounting which would explain all my late night working and I am evaluating my current position against the salary offered. I believe that with my current skills, I should be able to make it in Singapore where the salary scale is way higher and like all the Malaysians living in JB, I am prepared to travel every morning at 6am just to get across the causeway. Anyway, this may only to likely happen somewhere in 2008 after my current company had stabilised.

On my weekends, I had been helping my gf a lot on her ACCA exams (I’m a CIMA final Level student, so I am somewhat qualified to do so he...he...) which she will be facing this coming June. She commented that I am like a drill sergeant asking the soldier to march like nobody's business. Anyway, I just told her this is the only way to study in professional courses and I kept on drilling into her mind that professional courses are all about concentration and commitment to study. There are no other alternatives.

If I were able to find sometime left, usually I’ll just run off to any nearest scenic place to hone my photography skills. Anyway, I had taken an about turn in my choices for photographic equipments where instead of further investing in digital photographic tools, I had reverted to analog tools. Meaning, I am shooting photographs using a 35mm Film SLR instead of a Digital SLR. Just last Saturday, I had invested in a Sigma APO DG 70-300mm zoom lens f4-5.6 MACRO (capable of even seeing your nose hair from distance of 15ft) and the remarkable thing about this lens is that it is forward and backward compatible (ie. suitable for digital and 35mm film SLR's). Not only that, I had bought a Canon EOS 500N SLR (35mm film) from my brother to match this lens. I had done this with hope that it will improve my composition skills. I am now currently drooling over the Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 APO DG EX lens which is also capable of forward and backward compatible. This is the Pro version lens where the f-Stop does not change throughout the entire zoom range. It is priced somewhere between rm1500 to rm1800.

I know it is strange that with the widespread availability of technology, I choose analog imaging to learn photography but I guess it is the right thing to do. Without the convenience of digital imaging (unless you scanned your photo's into digital form) the photographer had to get things spot on (like exposure, composition, colour, framing, story, mood etc) before the shutter button is pressed. In that way, the skills of the photographer is more or less preserved while for amateurs, they are forced to learn the essential rules in photography and if pictures are awful, it is our fault of not getting things right in the first place. For the past couple of weeks, I only knew how weak my skills were when I began shooting 35mm films. With exception to colours (it depends on which type of film a photographer uses) all the rules with regards to photography had not been adhered to while not to mention, the pictures were uninteresting.

Anyway, it is the 'kick' factor of shooting a 35mm film and the need to improve my skills that had prompted me into investing in these accessories. The Field of View (FOV) in an FILM SLR is simply larger compared to any DIGITAL SLR's in the market (with exception of digital cameras like Kodak Pro SLR/c [discontinued], Canon EOS 1Ds-MkII and Canon EOS 5D) and when a lens like 70-300mm is fitted into an SLR, this is the true distance that you will get. Unlike a DSLR, there is FOV cropping factor (depending on camera model) and when any type of lens is fitted (with exception to specifically designed lens for DSLR ONLY) the images appear to be 'smaller' because the 'size' of the sensor (the medium which is used to capture image) is not as large as the 35mm film where a typical sensor size can range from diagonally 5mm to 28.4mm in contrast to the 35mm of a film.

On running wise, I had only begun to train for the upcoming Penang Bridge Half and I am not hoping for any smashing result rather, I just want to complete the course. I had gain weight (there is too much TLC from my GF) and my training schedule is somewhat stale where everyday it is the same 1hr run. However, from this week onwards, I am slowly edging towards the 1 1/2hr run and I am getting a new pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 10. Mizuno Wave Rider is still the best shoe I had used so far and I am not planning to change to any other brands as yet. Already, I am feeling the rush from this race as most probably, it had been quite sometime since I had entered any races in Klang Valley. Well, will post more during the coming weekends on what's happening in JB here. See ya.

Kampong Senibong Photography Series

For more info, please refer to the photography section!

Of running and Photography

It had been 10 days since I had posted anything. I was supposed to run the orange run but unfortunately, something crop up the last minute. Anyway, I am glad that I trained consistently since the past few weeks and it seemed that my momentum is going strong. However, there is one thing that I needed to learn and that is how to run fast. This is something different altogether. Although I can see an overall improvement in my pacing but then, I would not consider it to be fast. Well, there is one thing that I know and that is, in order to race fast, I must train to run fast. Sigh..it's going to be another painful weekend.

As for photography, right now I am concentrating on night shots only. I had completed my first night shot project (idea is adapted from 'Practical Photography Magazine') and I had named it City Abstracts. Below are the samples of some shots that I had made.


City Abstract


City Abstract 1

One of the key challenges in taking the photos above are my lack of proper equipment where I was supposed to use a wide angle lens of 17mm for this shot instead of 28mm lens. Not only that, the f-stop is slow in comparison of f-11 which is required to create better effects. The worst is that, I did not have a proper tripod where the legs are supposed to be flexible. Anyway, fixing the camera to the front passenger seat proved to be a tough task and I had to make sure that all the framing, focus is done before setting out for the night shots. Well, the result turned out to be pleasant enough and I am considering doing another round of this. Wish me luck.

PD Half report

PD half report is out! Please click the race report section for more action!

New postings for Photography

Hi All, there are new postings on the photography section and please do click on the Photography icon to visit!

KLIM 2007

Der race report is out! please click onto the race report section.

New Postings!

New postings on my photography section is up! Feel free to visit.

SMART Tunnel Run 2007

The race report is out! Just click here

New Postings!

There are new postings on the 'Photography' Section. Feel free to visit!

Blog restructuring

I had been having a hard time trying to integrate both sites (petalingrunner & Simbh.com) to function as one unit. However, upon inspecting Jamie's site further, it gave me the idea to have the petalingrunner site to be structured according to carboman's site namely having all the reports and other reviews to be hosted at simbh.com. For the next few coming weeks, new sections will appear on the sidebar and race report would be one of them. Thanks carboman for the great idea!

Fujifilm Finepix S6500Fd

Fujifilm Finepix S6500Fd

This is currently the latest gadget in my inventory and it is the Fujifilm Finepix S6500fd. In the first place, I had bought this camera 4 days ago to replace my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX7 which I HAD LOST. Yes you have read it right, I lost my camera. It was stolen and there is no one else to blame but me. Anyway, I need to thank Tey a lot if not for his posting of this camera on his blog, I would not have come to know that there is such good price for a camera with SLR like functions.


Profile View

Firstly, this camera is not an DSLR although it seriously looked like one (thank the designers at Fujifilm for fooling you guys). The S6500Fd is classified as a bridge camera where it has a fixed lens (28-300mm) in a single package plus, it houses a 10.7x optical zoom! For the price of RM1600, I get SLR like controls and not to mention, one of the best performing camera (for ‘bridge’ cameras) in terms of picture quality at the ISO output (in dpreview's opinion!) of ISO200-800 thanks to the critically acclaimed 6.3MP super CCD sensor. Although, there were significant artifacts appearing in its picture but then it wasn’t really that noticeable. Built wise, it had a solid feel to it although it is completely encased in plastic. The things that were missing in its total package was a hot shoe for an external flash and the use of an electronic view finder instead of an ‘optical’ one which is completely useless for focus checking. Anyway, for the price of RM1600, I really can’t complain much about that.


Top View

I had been doing weekend shooting on my Lumix and had always found that I needed something more. It is not to say that the Lumix is a bad camera, it is just that I needed more control over the camera as opposed to point and shoot only. As for the Fuji, I had been doing some shots of my own and it is a testament that with more controls, you can do more with pictures. However, I still needed more practice in composition and also learning on how to use the manual function.


Picture taken at 1 Utama


Picture taken at 1 Utama


Picture taken at 1 Utama


Leafy...


Woven Cross...


Ronnie Arumugam...


Bright Lotus...

For more reviews, please go to www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms6000fd/

Chinese New Year and Running

I had started my journey going back to PJ on Friday after lunch and already, the traffic is showing signs that it is going to be bad on Saturday. There were many cars and throughout the journey I could not help but noticing that there were many like me whom chose to travel back on Friday. Reached home at around evening and was totally pooped. On Saturday, I joined Lai, Ronnie, Kenny and Loong for the pre-Chinese New Year run. I felt good today and for quite a long time, I had not clocked 54mins for the double hill route and I was feeling satisfied. As usual, my parents went early to the market and throughout the day, it was shopping and shopping all the way. At evening, it was time for our family reunion dinner and we had a great meal. On Sunday, it was CNY day 1 and as usual, it was all eat and sleep. In the evening, we had a heavy bout of drinking session and unfortunately, I was drunk. End of the day.

On Monday, we visited our relatives in Banting and again, it was all about eating and drinking. Again, I was drunk on this day and needless to say, the day had ended just like that. Tuesday, I was supposed to run with Ronnie but then I guess I was too drunk to run in the morning trying to recover from the hang over. However, before the recovery actually started, again I consumed alcohol and strong doses of coffee. By midnight, I was already feeling dehydrated and weak. Shit, this is not going to be good for my run next day. Indeed, the effect was really bad where I suffered really bad on Wednesday’s run at the double hill. Not only I felt very hot but then the legs just refused to move. Not only that, the lactic acid build up on my legs refused to clear and by the 6^th km after the run started, I had to walk already. By the time I reached the car park, it was 1 hr plus and I was reaching for water. Anyway, this is a good lesson for me that I should not be drinking at least few days before any runs. I am not sure any of you guys out there experience this but it really sucks big time.

On Thursday, I fared much better. Kenny decided to introduce to us the ‘extreme’ route in the lake gardens and by 9.15, the pia kaki’s were already there at the parking lot. I was the last one to reach and after a brief warm up, Kenny led the way. The first 1-2km’s were ok but then when the hill arrived, I was shocked to see that it was really steep. Imagine we have to go through that for 3 rounds and already, I felt like wan to pengsan!! On the first lap, we were generally going slow in order to familiarize with the route. When it came to the hill I knew I am going to lose to all of the runners today as my weakest link in running is still running up hills. I had no choice but to really slow down and my thighs were burning from the accumulating lactic acid. I noticed that I had difficulty setting a pace as there were many twists and turns while not to mention, there were many steep downhills. But it had been a good run and it was only towards the end that I had not managed to catch up with Loco Lai and Siau Lang Ronnie because they really pushed hard in the 3^rd lap. In fact I was kau kau lat overtaken by Lai at the hills which would only confirm that I need a lot more hill work. Anyway, my thighs are sore but then the training still had to go on. As for my Friday menu, it would be a kau kau lat cross country run at Bukit Gasing followed by a 10k run in lake gardens on Saturday before resting for my drive back to JB on Sunday.

Updates

Catch more updates at simbh.com!

Run and Run and Run

I had missed this year's edition of GE30k due to some overtraining injury that I had sustained on my Achilles. However, after much resting, it got better and currently I am back on my feet training as usual. My main races this year would be 10k however, I will incorporate several 20k's in between. After talking to Ronnie previously, I had learned that I ran too many speed workouts and it really stressed my system out. True enough, every workout that I did it was very stressful but I guess, I had only one aim in my mind and that is to break my PR of 44mins for 10k. However, those speedwork is well worth it as currently, I manage to hold a 5.1min pace for the distance of 10k with a lot of fuel in reserve. My next phase of training would be to improve my pace to a sub 50min with reserve in fuel.....I am praying now that my heel would be ok...

Achilles Tendonitis

Yes, I am suspecting that this injury may surface very soon as I had been experiencing pain on the lower portion of the Achilles tendon. For the past 2 months I had been neglecting the pain on my heel area and it was last week (which i had my most intense training week) that my heel became painful. And when I pressed the Achilles tendon area, there was a sharp pain as well and this had forced me to adjust my running gait to accommodate this problem. At this current moment I am approaching my training with care and trying to follow the program that I had drawn up as closely as possible. I am not sure but I guess the main culprit would be the shoe and my program where for the past 2 weeks of training, I had only rested 2 days. Not only that, the majority of my training program is centered on speed work (on Racing Flats!!) and not enough mileage. Right now, I am readjusting the schedule and hopefully, when march comes, I could run a consistent 48mins and below for my 10k. As for the GE30K this weekend, I don't think that my Achilles would be in the condition to race and hence, I would be giving it a miss. However, I would be there to support you guys and see you there!

Email Address

Hi All,

Due to the inability of my browser to access my Lycos Mail, I can be reached from this new address:

[email protected]