New Running Shoes

Yesterday I got myself a new pair of running shoes. Brooks Beast 12. At a very low price of RM212 including GST. This is considered a very good deal because the RRP is RM499.

I bought it at Paragon Vest warehouse sales at Dewan Dato' Ahmad Razali, Ampang. The sales is still on-going until next week, June 7th.

The pair was the last one sitting there at the rack. I think it was waiting for the rightful owner to purchase it. Amongst all the Brooks shoes on sale that day, the shoes is the only one that's "wide" and under "control" type of shoes. At the size is Euro 42, which is a perfect fit for me although I normally use UK 8 size. I have taken the shoe advisor test online, and the recommended shoes for me was Beast. Definitely that shoes was meant for me.

I gonna use it first time tomorrow in the morning at the gym. Hopefully it will improve my treadmill running stance. And if everything goes well, I'm gonna use it for my first run after Hari Raya Aidilfitri, myMercy 3km run.

30 days squat challenge reboot

Last time I didn't even finished my 30 days squat challenge. In fact, I merely done 3 days of it before quitting. The reason was I injured my right knee during hiking at FRIM and it took me 4-5 weeks to heal it completely.

Now that I at the top of my body condition level, I'm thinking of doing this challenge again. In fact, I will start tomorrow, Monday, 11th May 2015. Hopefully I will able get though this until the end of thirty days.

If everything goes to plan, I will add 30 days plank challenge at the middle of it.

Wish me luck!

JK1M: The end and closing dinner ceremony

Yesterday was the final day of the six week Jom Kurus 1Malaysia Season 4 challenge. The final weigh-in was done in the morning but unfortunately, I couldn't attend it. Not because I don't want to attend it but my right knees was hurt very badly,

It started after I was back from the Friday prayer, the day before. At first I thought my right knee which not in good shape since the FRIM hike few weeks ago just acting up but it was more than that. The whole knee cap was swollen badly. I couldn't even stand properly. It was so painful until my whole body felt weak, got headache and I felt I I'm gonna have a very bad fever. It was so painful until I decided to skip the company's CNY dinner that night. The walk from my office at 4th floor to 3rd basement was excruciatingly slow and painful and so was the drive back home.

That's why I couldn't join the rest of my team mates for the final session. I literally has to hold the walls even to walk to the bathroom. Thank god after eating gout medication and pain killers, the pain subsides until 90% and I was able to enjoy the closing ceremony dinner.

We had a lot of fun during the dinner. Aside from the dinner itself, we were treated into bunch of stage performances, such as karaoke sessions, acoustic singing and dances. There were lucky draw as well, which I'm not lucky enough to win anything.

Overall this 6 weeks was an amazing journey and experience for me. I met a lot of people who inspire me to do better and share the same passion and desire as me. I met a coach, Haniff  Ghadaffi, who taught us a lot especially on how to eat properly and how to train effectively, inspire us to become more active and adopt a healthy lifestyle. Also, I manage to attended the seminar hosted by Kevin Zahari and he opened my eyes on dieting which I've never thought about the able or point of view before..

Overall I've lost a total of 5.2kg from my weight. It's not much but it's quite a feat consider that I'm struggling to lose any weight before this. Even-though it's far from my initial goal of losing 10kg, I quite satisfied because I learned a lot from this experience. My journey actually has just begun, This is just a start. I will not stop until I get into my ultimate target of 88kg. In fact, I might never stop at all because after all, living a healthy lifestyle is a life-long journey that you will carry on until you meet your maker one day, Insha-Allah.

JK1M: Obstacle Race at Taman Metropolitan Kepong

This morning we participated in the last event of Jom Kurus 1Malaysia season 4 event, obstacle race. It was held at Taman Metropolitan Kepong, Kuala Lumpur.

Again, as the Zumba and aerobic event, this was for all the team in Klang Valley but sadly only 8 teams participated.

For us, Wangsa Maju team, we were divided into 3 group since almost 30 of us came today. I was on the 2nd team

The were 8 obstacles station scattered throughout the whole park. The first was burpee and taking 6 kg kettlebells up the stairs. Not much problem here but the next station, we need to jog for almost 1 km. The next station challenge was to carry 2 water container up and down a hill.

At the 3rd station, we need to flip tyres. Again not so much problem but I started to feel the heat. At the 4th station, we need to run with a 10kg sand bag on our shoulder, clean it 5 times and run back to the starting point.

At the 5th station I gave up. Half-way climbing the 50% slope hill, I feel like gonna blackouts. So, I opted out from the race entirely. The next station was bear crawl, duck walk and climbing up the 4 stories observation tower.

The guys of Wangsa Maju troopers

In the end, our team managed to finish at 8th place, while the other two teams got 9th and 14th place.

Before starting the race

Thinking of strategies

Overall, it was a good challenge, eve though I didn't managed to complete it. I was nice to get some workout done with all my comrades together, Hopefully, in the future we will be able to have this kind of activity again.

Solving the puzzles

The beautiful lake scenery

10kg sand bag challenge

Busy taking selfie

Selfie

JK1M: Fitness Challenge

Yesterday was our sixth meet. This time it was started later, at 7.15 AM.

As usual, we started with a light warm up. Stretching and few basic body weight movement such as squat and burpees.

The first workout of the day was a random workout. We're split into two groups and given few set of card. Each card has one or more exercise taht we need to do. So we ended up with burpess, squat, various planks position, jacknife, push ups and so on. We finished the workout with a one lap run on the 400 meters track.

Next workout, we were paired up and need to do 20 squats, 15 burpees, 10 outs and 50 meters sprint. This workouts were too hard ans I still feel tired after the first workout set. In the end, we both managed to do one set each.

The real cobra pose

The last workout was running around the track six times, which approximately 2.4 kilometers. I only managed to complete 5 rounds in 29 minutes.

Cool down tiger pose

After that, it was weigh in session. Too bad this week I didn't managed to lose any weight but instead adding 100 grams to my weight. Maybe it's because I didn't do any workout at all for the whole week except for Thurday morning jogging around the lake at Taman Metropolitan Kepong.

Waiting for turn to weigh in

So, the challenge will end next week on 28th February. Hopefully I can manage to lose at least 2 kg more before the end. Jia You!

Serious face

Freestyle!

Cobra pose

Selfie before eating

Eating time @NZ Wangsa Maju

Shopping Spree: New badminton racquet and shoes

Since tomorrow is the Chinese New Year, I've decided to do some shopping today. Luckily for me today, our office was closed half-day.

First, I headed straight for Mid Valley Megamall. I went to 4 different place, My Pay More, Stadium R, Aeon and Aeon Big but to my dismay, none of them carry them items that I wanted.

So, I decided to go to Pertama Complex instead. Park my car at Maju Junction Mall. Before I headed there, I made a quick stop at the famous wholesale sports shop at the first floor. On this shop, all the items that I want, are on sale there. After browsing the racquets and shoes for few minutes, I headed for Pertama Complex.

There are a lot of shops selling badminton equipment there. Mostly, the price is above RM150 for one, without string and strings service included. As a casual beginner player, I think this price is a bit steep for me, thus I went back to the shop at Maju Junction Mall.

After carefully browsing ad testing, I made 3 purchases. Yonex Nanospeed 66 for RM 79 (with sting included), a RM 18 Yonex badminton bag and a pair of Yonex badminton shoes for RM 59. Total damage was RM 158.

Yonex World Champion '74

Yonex Bag with Dato' LCW signature

Yonex Nanospeed 66

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with my purchase. I will update this post will all the pictures later.

p/s: pictures added

JK1M: Zumba and aerobic party

This morning was the 5th time that we meet officially. This time, the venue was the Pandan Indah MPAJ Hall. The order of the day was Zumba, cardio-kickboxing and piloxing.

Before start

Before start with the coach

This time, it involves all the team in Klang Valley. There are teams from Ampang, Melawati, Setapak, Gombak, Petaling Jaya and our very own team Wangsa Maju.

punch! punch! punch!

The session starts with piloxing. You might wonder what the ef piloxing is. Well it's a combination of standing pilates, boxing and dance. The workout is quite tough and requires a lot of stability and balance. And the instructor is damn ripped also. I think she can take me out with a single swing :P

After the workout pic

Next, we were treated by short aerobic dance routines. Only two songs. The instructor was one of the trainer which I forget what's her name is.

1641 kcal burned!

After that come out coach Salleh from Bukit Jalil team. He's expertise in cardio-kickboxing. The workout was so intense and so much fun. I think he's the best instructor today.

After the workout at the stage I

After that, comes the Zumba part. Two instructors, each for one hour. Half-way doing the routine, I stopped. My ankle was hurting so much and couldn't take it anymore. Furthermore, I could get the dance done properly. Maybe because she never gives instruction through the mic. And maybe also the moves is too much dancing-ish can workout. It's complicated and too many steps.

After the workout at the stage II

After finished all the event of the day, come the weigh in. Alhamdulillah, I managed to lose 1.4kg this week. This bring my total weight loss to 5.3kg overall. It's not too bad considering I didn't workout at all for the whole week because of my injured knee. Hopefully, I can lose more than 2kg next week as there only left 2 weeks for this challenge to be concluded. Pray for my success!

p/s: And if anyone interested, Coach Salleh do a free cardio kickboxing workout at Pudu Ulu recreational park every Sunday, 8-9 AM.