My Running Thing Cycle 4-II Week 6: To The Gym We Go!

Yes, we did it! We joined Kilos Fitness Centre. the gym in Concorde Hotel. Shah Alam. More about it in the Exercise section below.

There isn’t much difference between Week 5 and 6. I walked a lot in lieu of running, and I considerably toned down the body weight exercises because my right knee could not handle the strain. I struggled to do even the simplest stretching exercises so walking is the only thing that I dare to risk. Once I am a bit familiar with the machines in Kilos, I intend to lift weights instead. We’ll see how it goes.

Updates for Week 6:

GEAR

• Gym Bags Galore. We went to Tangs, Empire Shopping Gallery today and went buck-shit crazy buying bags as they were in sale. The total damage:
  • 3 Crocodile gym bags in varying sizes
  • 2 Alain Delon knapsacks
  • 1 Arrows messenger bag (which we returned coz we didn’t really need it)
• As everything was discounted between 50-70%. the total damage was only RM210.
• New on my wishlist are:
  •  A windbreaker to ward off the cold for my 6.30am walks. I have one that is about 5 years old, it will reach its maximum usefulness soon as I wash it every couple of days. I also use it to warm up at the gym, I am one of those people who could not stand the cold or air-conditioning.
  • A heart rate monitor cum digital wristwatch. I don’t really need it now that I go to the gym, but it is a nice-to-have.
• We’ve managed to sell the Treo Treadmill so that is good. I’ve also put the Daiso hanging earphones to the test a couple of times. The verdict – the sound quality is nothing to be excited about (it’s RM5, so I am not complaining) but yes it stays in place even when I am sweating buckets so I am very happy with that.
• I have decided against getting a separate MP3 player, at least at the time being. It is much easier to just carry around one gadget, in this case it’s my Sony Ericsson TxtPro phone and use it as a phone, camera, stopwatch and music player. While its memory bank is small and I can only save about 10-12 songs in it, it is adequate for an hour’s worth of workout so all is good.

FOOD & BEVERAGE

• Cutting Down Carbs Pt II. My sister bought 4 of those small Japanese-style bowls that they use to serve miso soup. I find these bowls to be excellent measurement device to control the rice portion that I eat. As I eat a lot of rice (twice a day on most days),  the temptation to have seconds is great especially since I am one of those who hate seeing leftovers in my plate or in the wok/pot.  Now I scoop only enough to fill one bowl and that’s it. No more seconds. I put the rice cooker in perpetual warm mode so that my leftover rice will be warm and fluffy for dinnertime or the next day. I have also cut out bread from my diet. I love having a grilled cheese sandwich as a snack and I use white bread for it. The solution is pretty simple – we just don’t buy bread or cheese anymore so I can’t make grilled cheese sandwiches even if I wanted to.
• Sugar-Free Zone. A few posts ago, I wrote about wanting to cut out table sugar from my diet. I am happy to report that I have managed to cut down most of my table sugars – I do allow myself the occasional sugared  drinks like teh o’ ais and fruit juices or a sip or two of soda drinks when we eat out. I don’t use sugar substitutes either, mostly I just stick to water or coffee. I can’t give up milk though. I love my coffee strong, but I love it with milk. I do make it a point to buy low-fat milk and to ask for the skinny version when I buy my coffee at coffee bars but I am not religious about it. It’s fine, milk is a source if protein and calcium; even if I consume whole milk all the time I don’t think it affect my weight all that much.
• I have also given up kicap (catsup or light soy sauce), not totally though coz I still use it in lieu of salt but I don’t take kicap as much as I used to. Maybe someday my tastebuds will adjust and will accept complete absence of salt or kicap in my food, but not today. Small steps.

EXERCISE

• Elliptical, go! At the gym, my torture of choice is the elliptical (cross-trainers). I use it to do my basic HIIT: 10secs intense x 50secs regular x 20 reps. Once my body can take more punishment, I will do the 30secs intense x 270secs x 12 reps. I cooldown using the step, followed by  a little freeweights and then stretches to finish things up. It takes about 45 minutes to complete the routine. I don’t remember seeing yoga mats at the aerobics studio so will bring my own so that I can do my yoga stretches too. The weight machines look very tempting, I am going to give myself a few weeks at the gym before I get the trainers to assist me in using them.
• Walking is the new Running. We intend to go to the gym 3x a week. On days that we don’t go, I wake up early to go for a walk. I use the same route that I use for running, it is about 3.2km in distance. I guess you can’t call it power or brisk walking as I vary my pace depending on the state of my knee. It is a bit faster than regular walking but definitely not challenging enough for the heart as I was able to sing as I do so. The solution is to walk faster or longer or use a different route that leads to the National Library as the slope there is steeper. I miss running but being able to use the elliptical machine makes up for it. I find walking more of a relaxation exercise, quite enjoyable especially early in the morning. My area is lined with trees – in the morning you can hear crickets, birds chirping etc. But the walk back is torturous as the roads will be full with cars (people getting to work) – exhaust fumes everywhere. But you can’t win them all.

Photo comparison between Week 5 and Week 6 below. I don’t think I will see much physical difference from now til about Week 12 or so but I’ll keep on taking pictures anyway as a matter of record.

My Running Thing Cycle 4-II Week 5: My Poor Knee

I didn’t get to run over the weekend like I intended to. On Saturday, while walking around in a shopping mall, suddenly I felt sharp, shooting pains on my right knee – the same knee that had been giving me problems for the past 6 months, the last incident being about 4 weeks ago. I decided to give running a miss as I do not want to exacerbate the situation. The knee guard is back on and I massage the knee a bit with deep heat rub before I sleep to help with lessening the pain. I am not debilitated like I did before, probably because I now recognize the pain and immediately stopped myself  from walking or doing anything to put more stress on the knee til the shooting pains went away. Still, it was a cold sweat moment. It is a little painful to walk and to get up/sit down and to sleep as I cannot straighten the leg or turn to my left or right, but this time around it is a lot more manageable than the last one.

There are several theories as to what’s bugging my knee. I am ashamed to admit that I haven’t gotten it properly checked. I should and I will. That’s all I have to say about this matter.

Updates for Week 5:

GEAR

• Purple and Pink Penelope Pants. In preparation for our foray into the world of fitness, my sister and I went to F.O.S (Factory Outlet Store) to buy running pants and socks. I was very happy since I spent a lot of time last week to mend my (old and tattered) running pants and socks. The running pants were selling at RM39-47 per pair, sizes ranging from S to XXL; while the socks that I got was RM20 for a set of three pairs. I wanted to get something thicker but those were too expensive; the ones that I was using were by Byford and they only cost RM16 for a set of three at Giant so it didn’t make economic sense to me to spend in excess of RM20 for socks. Anyway, once I tried the socks with my trainers, I was happy with them. The running pants are excellent, of course.
• Daiso For the Win! We bought another pedometer from Daiso, a pink one this time for my sister. She has been wearing it religiously since; we both aim to walk 10,000 steps a day so now the pedometer is my compulsory accessory. I’ve achieved in excess of 10,000 steps a day twice now, something that I hope to be able to do every single day. In meantime, I cannot praise Daiso enough – they make such lovely, functional things at such cheap prices (everything in the store is RM5 each). If this pedometer breaks in a week, no problem, I’ll just get another one! I also bought a pair of hanging earphones from Daiso, the kind with “hangers” or “hooks” that you put over the ears so that the buds stay in place. Due to my knee problem, I haven’t had the chance to give this a go to see if it stays in place as I run but at RM5 a pop, I won’t sweat so much about it if it doesn’t :) Hey, a pun!

Price: RM1,600 (selling for RM6,690 in stores), please email me to fix appointment to view. I am located in Shah Alam, SEL.

• The Treo Treadmill Must Go. We are letting go the Treo Fitness T707 Treadmill; details and pics here. Why? 2 reasons:
  1. The Treo T707 is good, entry-level unit and it has served us well. Seriously no complaints. But we are at the point where investing in a more heavy-duty machine is a good option so this Treo has to go to make space for a new one.
  2. I love running and I intend to continue running for as long as I can, but with this knee… Since treadmill is high-impact, it’s bye-bye treadmill. We are joining a gym hence I’d still have access to a treadmill whenever I need to use one for warm-ups or cooldowns. And there’s always running outdoors as an alternative. Either way, it’s going to be a treadmill-free zone for me for a while til my poor knee is given the all-clear.
• We have not decided or window-shopped for the equipment that we will buy to replace the Treo. I think we should put in a month or two at the gym first so that we know what’s our equipment of choice and then go from there. We still have the OSIM iGallop and 1 more mountain bike to sell, if you are interested please go to my Stuff For Sale post for details.

FOOD & BEVERAGE

• Cutting Down Carbs. As I said last week, I am now very aware of the fact that I have been eating way too much carbs than the recommended daily allowance. This past week has been all about cutting down carbs. It is not easy. I don’t have any updates to give on this front coz I just started. Let’s see what happens next week.

EXERCISE

• Step Step Step. Running is definitely out of the question right now and I am bored with body weight exercises.  We are yet to join the gym, so I took up walking and stepping instead. Stepping means I hang out at the lobby, put my mobile phone speakers on high then walk up and down one step of stairs for 30 mins (30 secs stepping as fast as I can + 90 mins regular stepping x 15 sets). Walking is fine though I get bored easily so I am thinking that I may need to switch my walking/stepping time from the evening to early morning i.e. 6.30am. The cool early morning breeze would perk me up and make it a bit more interesting. See how.

Photo comparison between Week 4 and Week 5 below. You can totally tell the difference between when I am working hard vs hardly working :) I promise Week 6 I will do better.

Stuff For Sale: Treo Fitness T707 Treadmill

It’s time to de-clutter the apartment again.

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Items For Sale

1. ***SOLD*** Treo Fitness T707 Treadmill

Price: RM1,600

Unit is <2 yrs old, moderately used with reasonable wear and tear. Asking price is RM1,600 only. As comparison, brand new Treo T707 sells for RM6,690 at the stores; or RM4,290 if you buy it online directly from Johnson Fitness.

Specifications:

1. 1.75 horsepower (HP) continuous – 3 HP peak output
2. 0 – 18 km/H speed range (0 – 10 mph)
3. 0-10% powered incline
4. 4 window LCD display
5. 10 programmes including heart rate control
6. Grip heart rate monitor
7. Chest heart rate compatible monitor
8. 45 x 132 cm walking/running surface
9. Cushioned deck to reduce impact
10. Air shocks assisted fold mechanism
11. Maximum user weight 136kg (300 lbs)

This foldable machine is very easy to install and lightweight. Go to Johnson Fitness MY website to get the product brochure if you would like to read more about it.

We do not offer any warranty with this purchase (brand new units are given 2-yr on-site limited warranty); so if you would like get new belt or additional accessories, or tweaks to customise the treadmill to your liking, we advise you to call Johnson Fitness MY for assistance (check the link I gave above).

You can read user reviews about Treo T707 here. Reviewers give it a high rating of 81% for the entry-level, basic treadmill category. From personal experience, I’d say that it is a very good machine.

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2. One (1) Adult Mountain Bike 

Barely used, rusted here and there due to exposure to weather (bike is placed at apartment’s corridor) – a little oil, new rollerchains and a good rubdown and these will be as good as new. Suitable for adult male and female.

Red Bike for Sale @ RM350

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 3. One (1) unit of OSIM iGallop 

A fitness equipment that simulates the real-life experience of horse riding, 3 fitness levels: trot, gallop, race. It’s a great piece of machine to exercise while watching TV. Purchased at RM2600, letting go at RM900. This machine is hardly used and in excellent condition. No manual or warranty. See its promo video below on how to use machine.

OSIM iGallop @ RM900 – front view

OSIM iGallop @ RM900 – side view

OSIM iGallop @ RM900 – top view

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How to Purchase

If you are interested, please send an email to ijahamran@yahoo.com or drop me a tweet at twitter.com/ijahamran in order to make an appointment to view or make an offer (prices negotiable).

Terms & Conditions:

1. Self pick-up only. Our location: Sect 13, Shah Alam, SEL. If you need us to arrange to deliver within Klang Valley, we can assist for a nominal fee which varies according to location. Anywhere outside Klang  Valley, you will have to make your own delivery arrangements.
2. Payment terms are cash or bank transfer. Item(s) will not be released to you without full payment.
3. All items sold as-is, caveat emptor applies. What that means is that you need to reasonably examine, judge, and test item(s) that you are considering to purchase; we do not provide warranty and/or manuals and we do not fix defects or imperfections (if any) on the items. So, please come and view/test the item(s).
4. First come, first serve basis. We do not hold items for buyer(s) unless when a reasonable, non-refundable deposit is given and we agree on the duration of the holding period. Otherwise, whoever makes the best offer first gets the item.

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My Running Thing Cycle 4-II Week 3 & 4: A Holiday, A Fever & A New Toy

I didn’t write an update for Week 3 because it was a very busy one for me. My super adorable niece (seen below offering to share the cucumber she has been chewing with me) came to recuperate from her fever at our apartment and we ended the week with a quick holiday at the hillside. I meant to write a post, not just about running but about a few other things as well, but taking care of a teething 10-mo old baby is a full-time round-the-clock job. I don’t mind babysitting at all (in fact, I love babysitting) but man, carrying the baby around your hip even for as little as 10mins could feel like a second to forever. I definitely need stronger hips and steelier arms!

Here achik ijah, you can have my half-chewed cucumber. You look so thirsty. I don’t mind sharing :)

Then, once we came back from the hillside, boom! I was down with fever and was holed up in my room for 3 days. My first day of exercise for Wk 4 started yesterday; I intended to put in another session today but we went out in the afternoon and by the time we got home it was late and I had chores to do et cetera.

Tomorrow (well, today actually) I have an afternoon date with IMAX 3-D to watch Avenger Assembled. It’s 4:15am right now – looks like it’ll be an all-nighter for me – so the plan is to get all my chores done by 7am, do a quick HIIT then take a nap to make-up for lost sleep, lunch and then Avengers. Hopefully I can manage one more workout over the weekend to fulfill my min 3x a week quota. If there’s a will…

Here’s the update:

GEAR

• Neon Green is the New Pink. We went to Sunway Pyramid last week for coffee and cakes (in my defense I was walking a lot and carrying baby alternately so while I didn’t get to do proper exercise, it was a heck of a workout I assure you). There is this shop called Daiso, which is essentially a chain of the infamous 100 Yen Daiso shops in Japan, where everything in the store is 100 Yen! Ok, in Malaysia everything in the store is RM5. Surprisingly I found a selection of pedometers, what luck!, and this is what I got for myself:

Isn’t she a beaut? I am in love. It’s only RM5 and yes, battery included!

• This is a basic pedometer that counts steps continuously to 9999, then it resets back to 0. What I do is to reset it daily every morning before clipping it to the band of my pants (which is the correct way to place a pedometer though sometimes I clip it anywhere convenient). It is recommended to walk 10,000 steps a day, which is equivalent to 5K. I have only gone up as far as 5,000 steps/day but to be fair I don’t wear the pedometer all the time and clipping it to my tank top apparently doesn’t make the counter move. Still gonna be a while before I will remember to clip the pedometer on habitually like wearing underwear but I’ll get there. (I can’t believe I am so excited about this little piece of gadget that I devoted 2 paras writing about it!).
• Anyway, I also bought 2 sports bras and 2 pair of leggings from Daiso, and for good measure since I do intend to wear the pedometer all the time, a pair of spare batteries. All in all the damage totalled RM30. Daiso is officially, definitely my favourite shop of the year.

FOOD & BEVERAGE

• Carbs Overload. As I wasn’t full-on exercising, I only had one protein shake last week (and none this week yet). But this is what I realized: I eat way too much carbs. I know that there is no good food or bad food, but not taking the protein shake made me realized how little protein I eat naturally in my daily diet and, more alarmingly, how carbs feature way too prominently.  I do not have cholesterol problems so what I have been doing is to take two half-boiled eggs to make up for my protein intake. The more important step to take is to cut down my carb to comply to the recommended daily intake, so if that means I have to use a cup to measure how much rice to eat every day, I will use a cup. It will be tough to give up carbs, perhaps tougher than giving up table sugar, but it is bothering me a lot so I need to take charge and do something about it.

EXERCISE

• Stopwatch Function! I just discovered, much to my embarrassment, the stopwatch function on my phone. What a nifty little helper.  I try to keep on moving continuously for a minimum of 30mins – using a stopwatch is a lot more precise than using songs to measure time (a song is roughly 4 mins, so 7-8 songs were my indication that 30mins had passed). If I can move longer than that, bonus. It also helps me greatly when doing HIITs.
• Daydreaming Makes It Fun-ner. When doing HIITs, it is very easy for me to tire out. So, these days I imagine that I am a fitness instructor teaching a class of rookies on how to do HIITs. As I do the routine, I talk out loud to take myself through it (as if I was literally talking to a class). As the instructor, I can’t stop/cheat so I don’t. I know it sounds loco but it helps me to stick to the reps in the proper amount of time and rests. Whatever works :)
• Gym-much? My sister asks me if I’d contemplate joining a gym so that I can have access to machines that are too cumbersome (read: bulky and takes up space) to buy and put at home. There is a gym at the hotel nearby – the fees are reasonable and it is halfway between home and my sister’s workplace so we are thinking of joining together and do our sessions in the morning (after sending the kids to school, before heading to work). Sounds like a plan. I think it is great if I can log in 30mins in the gym every morning (on the elliptical and/or weight machines) and then another 30mins of running (or HIIT) later in the evening 3x a week. I used to run for more than an hour at a time, and I coupled that with weightlifting and spinning so I would easily spend up to 2-hr  non-stop at the gym. These days it is hard to do 2-hr at a go, no reason except for my own inadequacies, so if I can break it up into a morning and evening session daily – great! I have a lot of work to do and a lot of abuse to undo so I am quite excited about the prospect. It is still just a plan at the moment, we’ll see if it happens.

No photo for Week 3, so here’s the comparison between Week 2 and 4. Not much (physical) difference but check out the pedometer on my shirt, man :)

(p/s: I am doing a separate post on runs happening in and around KL/SEL after this. I haven’t forgotten to add that in, I just haven’t gotten around to checking the calendar yet. Just wanted to post this first).