Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Looking Back...

Since I started tracking my training running / swimming distance, I managed to get above 1000 km and 55km swim within 4 months. If that is taken as average, it means that I could manage to run 3000km only per year. Which is not a lot.

And I am still wearing the same Adidas shoe since early this year. Although at first it was a bit tight at the front, now it fits like a glove comfortably. I have no idea when to change shoes...maybe if the soles falls out, then I am going to get one.

I am trying to set a lifetime goal of 100,000 km (if I lived that long). This will translate into 33 more years. I am currently 28 years of age. So it's still a reachable goal.

On another hand, Ramadhan is here, so I will have to observe fasting. It's a month of testing your endurance without eating/drinking during day time. But frankly, after all these years, what I did observe is people tend to eat more, because the food is extra delicious. Me included. Just walk into any food market just before breaking of the fast, and you could see arrays of delicacies.

But, I'll still continue running at night...that'll burn off the extra calories from all the mouth watering food.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Runners have big hearts


The article by Yahoo "Tour de France cyclists have big hearts" captured an insight into how the body adapts to intense long period of physical activity.

It's mentioned there that their heart size is 20-40 percent larger than normal. It made me wonder how big a heart I had. Perhaps getting an x-ray would be a nice way to know.

I have a big concern on Malaysians who eat unbalanced diet, smokes, and exercise less. Our health minister keep on emphasising that diabetes, heart disease, hypertension is going up. Millions are being spent yearly on medicine for that. But one look around our society, and you know many will eventually come to terms with these preventable disease.


To smokers: Am I really stupid enough to do this to myself?

Just go to a night mamak stall, and you can see it coming. Smokers, and fat laden food.

In my opinion, it's better for us to have a culture of sports. Like running. I have met a guy from Holland during KL international Marathon. He said he was suprised to see so few runners 1 hour before the race. Over there, it's usually full.

By adopting some kind of sports, you have an alternative to bad health choices like smoking. You will have to choose between smoking or running. Eventually, common sense should take the better hold.

And of course why runners are such nice people? It's because they literally have big and healthy hearts :)