1. when one is has no technical background, with no actually technical interest, it is best to stick with the ready user friendly to be productive.
2. when one is not an expert in social media marketing, it is best to utilize the ready platform.
3. when the above criteria are not met, it is foolish to continue paying for service which one can’t optimize while there are FOC platform

I can go on & on…To cut the chase, I am to discontinue this URL & move this entire blog over to blogspot. So, please allow me to invite over to my new blog home at endorphins-addict.blogspot.com. See ya there !!

I was never sick in the past couple of years. It can be everyone else having flu, cold, cough, fever,…whatever in the office or home, I was never “touched”. My ex-boss used to say his best bet was me. But 3rd month into my current role, I caught the flu & cough bug from my partner.  Holy cow, it lasted 3 weeks !!! Worse, I still can’t shake that stupid cough till today and this is the 6th week !!

Since I retired from RPM, weekly workout sessions have been reduced to Tues nite ride, Sat & Sun. When the flu & cough bugs visited, it was down to KOSONG !! I attempted to ride. 70-80km ride used to be short. Not anymore. A ride to Batu Arang was flat battery and in need for rescue. Timing for a 8 hills intervals was gap up by 6-8 min. WTF !! The distance with the EPS increased from 800m to a difference of between front & mid peloton, and different range of average speed. How sad can that be ?

Today, I decided I will make a return, be it blardy or not. 95km to Malaysia Gold Coast. It is either inspired by LTDL or the up and coming IS, we saw a good 30ish riders with several newbies. It started out cool & nice coz it rained earlier. 20km into the ride, the sky was still covered by heavy clouds but holding up. 30km we felt some drizzle. 40km, no rain. 47km @ gold coast, clear sky, the sun was out. Sorry, late comers cycling god & pfir was caught in heavy down pour but thanks for doing support though.

Unlike earlier, the ride leaders didn’t make pit stop @ Shell or Salak Tinggi From Shell onwards, the front pack up the speed. I decided not to push it. I want to make this return a success. I drafted Tony for a while but after the up slopes, he & Vincent were dropped. So, I sucked on Time Jeff until Petronas. After a brief break, I rolled out with Azahar and YK. Surprisingly, De Palmar Hotel hills was not a monster after all. After that, I was just making sure I followed Azahar’s gears & speed closely. Heard a lot of gear change at the back and just before the 10km mark, I realised YK hilang. The last 10km in this route is always mental. It plays on you. Somehow, my speedometer decided to fail on me today. So, I can only mentally gauge how close to base am I based on experience. 12.25pm, yes, I made it. I am sure glad I made this return. Thanks to 4 strepsils and Azahar for the tarik.

Moving forwards, lets adjust life for living, fitness & health then only work. In any case, should I need to make sacrifice, work can go. Lets see how the next three months turn out with this alignment.

Sick of being sick, I decided to accept the invitation to test ride Thurs night new route @DPC. Jamie, Ling, EPS, MK & son, VC FFK king and myself. Ling yawned on the ride (i saw & hear it !!), EPS VP craving for surge & redline, not very courteous drivers, my nose was running, not sure to cough or to breath or to suck my mucus on the not tough climb. 4 loops later, we ended up @ Secret Recipe w alphabet fries, spaghetti and tripple ice-cream and followed by tonnes of “boring ride” complaints status in FB. LOL.

Less than 20km, not exactly a ride. Certainly don’t like how I feel on the climb. This sickening flu & cough has to GO !! EPS said everything is in the mind. To set the mind for speedy recover, I decided to use my half day on Fri to swap my crank & saddle. It was beautiful but I was having headache & feverish the whole day due to cough. Sick of being sick, I up the medicine dosage, told the gang am coming to ride with them & retired.

Seems like the right move. I woke up before the alarm rang. Felt better. @ Extreme Park, it was EPS VP, MKRAM, Tony, Alison, Ling, Jamie, Chris Hey, Chris another FFK king and Alp. Rolling out, 52 36 felt good. Mojo ? Maybe. The heart racing @ the slopes didnt happen. Because I was still recovering from flu & cough, Ling has a blardy ride, Jamie is still getting stronger, we decided to take the short route. We were joined by Chris & MKRAM. Ling pulled the speed to 39kmh @ one point. Makes me wonder if it is blardy power LOL.

Overall I felt better than Thurs. A good sign. Lets keep it that way. Lets have the mojo return in all aspects. Miracle it will be hence on, when you believe it.

But here’s the reality: Endurance athletes do fret about weight. They count calories. They chart body fat percentage. They’re on a quest for leanness.

They don’t talk about it much, for fear others may suspect them of having eating disorders, which truly is a problem for some (especially female) athletes. But it’s there. A 2009 survey of endurance athletes, published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, reported that 74 percent were “concerned” about weight, 54 percent “dissatisfied.”

A new book, “Racing Weight: How To Get Lean for Peak Performance” (Velo Press, $18.95, 224 pages) by certified sports nutritionist and runner Matt Fitzgerald, has brought the issue of body weight among even the most fit into the open.

When Fitzgerald, the author of 17 fitness books and a senior editor at Triathlete magazine, made his pitch to publishers for what he jokingly calls “a diet book for skinny people,” he encountered much head-scratching, even skittishness.

Eventually, Velo Press bought the rights. In December, when “Racing Weight” was first published, it cracked Amazon.com’s top 100 best-sellers.

The book’s thesis is simple: “Excess body fat is the enemy of performance. … As body-fat levels go down, aerobic capacity goes up, because muscle has less competition from fat tissue for oxygen and fuel.”

Studies support that notion. University of Georgia researchers found that a 5 percent weight gain decreased performance by 5 percent in 12-minute test runs. In another study, it was determined that a 160-pound runner needs to exert 6.5 percent more effort to run the same pace as a 150-pound runner.

“Let’s face it,” Fitzgerald said in a recent phone interview, “even a few pounds can make a difference.”

The concern among nutritionists and some athletes is that people will interpret the findings as a dangerous “can never be too thin” prescription.

But Fitzgerald is not advocating anything as severe as calorie restriction. He stresses “body composition” (percentage of body fat) more than weight and acknowledges that the “lighter is better” mind-set is simplistic and sometimes hurts performance.

Rather, he advocates boosting the nutrition-per-calorie ratio. In other words, eating higher-quality foods: grains, legumes, lean meat, vegetables and fruit. He says the accepted nutrient ratio – 60 percent carbs, 20 percent protein, 20 percent fat – can be tweaked depending on training load.

In fact, Fitzgerald says, endurance athletes can consume more fat – provided it is made up of “essential fats” such as omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids – and less protein than the 20 percent commonly recommended.

“There has been some research where, when you bump protein intake way up, it can harm performance,” he says. “An analysis of elite Kenyan runners shows they’re right at 10 percent (protein intake), and they are the best runners in the world. So there you go.”

Fitzgerald acknowledges that an athlete’s leanness can reach a point of diminishing returns – but few ever reach that point. He says athletes should aim for “ideal weight” for big competitions and “limit your off-season weight gain to no more than 8 percent of your optimal performance weight.”

He uses the example of Olympic distance runner Ryan Hall, who routinely gains 5 to 7 pounds during recovery periods after marathons. Another test case is cyclist Lance Armstrong, who after battling cancer in the mid-1990s transformed his “linebacker genes” body to one featuring leaner muscle mass and lower body fat to become a better climber. Armstrong still has a bigger frame than most elite cyclists but compensated for it with a strict diet regimen.

Article link :  For the endurance athlete, calories do matter

Ijok, Batu Arang, punchak Alam,…have become quite a boring route by now as it has been done too often. Personally, I do not like the stretch of highway we have to pass to get into Kota Damansara as it is at high traffics & the traffics are high speed. So, some of us were trying to find some alternative route for today. Some suggested Mex, but some others worried about the traffic. Then someone mentioned Malaysia Gold Coast. Bingo! But, no one knows the route for sure. :D.  Champion Shang  volenteered to check with Teik.

Shang Shang, in the end he came back to say Teik promised to bring us somewhere new from CP. Very suspicious thing. Anyway, putting the stale route aside, the prospect of catching a little more sleep is nice. Some tens of sms-es later, I believe we have gathered a very sizeable group.

6.20am, time to down that breakie. All of a sudden, I thought I heard rain drops. Oh yes, it’s raining !! While contemplating going back to bed, I sent off a msg to the Conalgo Champion OJ. Yup, it’s raining over his place too!. Dayem ! Then Champion Shang text to check weather.

The rain came & go. By 7.15am we were gathered @ CP. Azahar, Kai were there. Even BF came. By 7.30am, we have a sizeable 20. But the rain was getting heavier. There were some doubting thomas, but the positive joes overruled. Off we went. As we rode along Utama road, the rain was getting heavier. Road was getting even wetter. As we turn into Persiaran Surian, the splashes of the road & car was not fun. At the traffic light turning off to Tropicana, I checked with Conalgo Champion if he wishes to continue. It turns out, even Shang & Azahar were doubtful of continuing. Apart from BF, the kwai lou & JK who went ahead, we took the left turn and back to CP.  8.97km & about 15min.

So much for 2010 1st ride.

Enjoy the little insights into Johan Bruyneel’s :

After morning con-call, the rushed to meet on site team for lunch, back to office I notice the KL skyline was CLEAR !!!! hmm….”how nice if I can ride tonight” But well, nobody can forecast moody weather.

Rushed off to interview for new hire in the late afternoon, while stucked in the jam, i noticed the skyline is STILL CLEAR !!I spoke to OJ about my thought that maybe we can ride tonight. He thought the same too. The amazing thing was, an hour later, Shang sms-ed “We are going to ride tonight. Let OJ know” Wooohoo…!!! Still I didnt wanna have my hope too high. 

By the time I was done with interview, it was 7pm. CLEAR !! Rushed home, set up the bike, changed & went to TTDI KSH. I was the only female rider,. Opps ! The rest was the mad fast & furious fellas. Have I made the wrong decision ?  I can still feel the work stress on my neck & back. How am I going to keep up with guys ? Aiks, can’t worry too much now.

Strong fellas are strong fellas. They blast off like a wind. I did my best,  still was about at least 100-200m behind. Good thing it’s a climbing ride. I get to catch up on the hills, but tore my lungs out. It felt so stretched. My heart rate went through the roof. Max heart rate went to 9 years younger than what is suppose to be. I was pleasantly surprise to have maintain my PB for this route. OJ was right, it wasn’t that I was slow. It was they were FAST !! How to be as fast as them ah ? Install turbo engine I think.

26.3km, 733cal. At least i get to ride. But I wanna ride this weekend…I also want to attend the seminar…..arghhh