Move over Sumo Sista...

Joy here...I think it's about time I said a thing or two about sizes.  Body sizes that is.  You see, many people (like my friends Training Payne and TriTwins) have sporting blogs as PFGs (previously fat guys) that chart their weight loss journeys:

Blogs like these are incredibly compelling.  They tell stories of people's determination, their struggles, and ultimately their unbelievable triumphs.

There are other kinds of sporting blogs - ones like that belonging to Coach Woods and his co-coach, marathoner Dylan Wykes - that chart the progress of elite-level athletes.  These kinds of blogs are those that demonstrate what high-achieving sport can look like.

Both these categories of online sporting exposés - the journey from fat to fit variety and the story of athletic prowess - can make for inspiring, exciting, and exhilarating reading.

Now my little blog is something of an anomaly here.

Luckily for me, I've never really really had to battle with weight.  Yeah, sure, I've burst out of my pants before (but who hasn't???), and my weight has fluctuated with the seasons (but whose hasn't???), but I've never really known what it's like to cart the weight of an extra human being around on my body wherever I go.  And for that I know I have dumb luck and some good genes to thank.

But even with that dumb luck and good genes, I've never been an elite athlete.  Sure I played some high school sports, but I was never a jock, never the captain of any team, and more likely to choose chilling out and relaxing over doing a hard workout any day.

That kid looks like a dork to me, not a jock!!!!
(I would guess this pic is from around 1989 or so.)

So when I hit my thirties and started running and cycling, and then decided that I'd try my hand at some running races and cycling races as the clock tipped me over the 35 age mark and I started blogging (first with my erstwhile co-blogger, Nomi, and then on my own), I didn't have the PFG (previously fat gal) fixation with weight loss, nor did I have the elite-level athlete's attention to weight detail.  I was just a girl who ran and rode her bike, who sometimes weighed more (and didn't like that) and sometimes felt fitter (and did like that).  But, to be honest, I didn't give much thought to the kilogram swings up and down, except in a vague "I hate myself" kind of way in the depths of winter when all I wanted was to curl up on the couch with a bag of chips and a chocolate bar.

But now that I'm in Malaysia, this lackadaisical attitude to my size is changing a bit.

You see, back in Canada, I'm considered pretty average.  I'm just under 5'7 and probably somewhere around 130Ibs.  My clothing size waffles between an S and an M, depending on the make, and I can usually fit into anything sized 4 or 6.  That's generally pretty middle of the road where I come from.  Not too big, not to small, just right...in Goldilocks terminology.

In Malaysia, however, I seem to be a giant of ridiculous proportions.

How Malaysians must see me.

Before I left for Malaysia, I went to the Nike store and bought a couple of pairs of running shorts.  I bought size M, and they fit a little loose, but that was a-okay by me.  I tried wearing them for the first time once I got to Malaysia and started doing my run workouts (including yesterday's easy 35 min run post-haze).  I really liked these shorts, so I headed to the mall to pick up a few other pairs.  I went straight to the Nike store, pulled a couple of size Ms off the shelf, and even grabbed an S just to see if they'd be better.  I grabbed a tank top as well (size M) and headed to the change room.  I almost didn't bother trying.

Good thing I did.

I couldn't even fit the shorts.  I couldn't pull them up over my butt.  As I stood there in my underwear with the shorts mid-thigh, I tried to pull the tank top over my head and ended up pulling a muscle by trying to pretzel myself into a too-small shirt.

Deflated, I peeled off the ridiculously too-small clothing and headed back out to get some bigger sizes.  In the end, I bought two size L shorts and one XL top.  The size L shorts are still a little snug, but I'm hopeful that with all my sweaty workouts, they'll soon be just fine.  My size M shorts (same make, same style, bought only 7 days earlier in Canada) fit larger than the Large ones.

The randomness of all this sizing makes me laugh.

But it also shows just how arbitrary and silly fixating on certain sizes may be.  I think it far better to just focus on feeling fit and healthy and not worry about what size I may be (or may not be).

That said, if I'm an XL...what the heck size do truly big guys and gals here wear????  Or am I really a sumo sista in denial???

Over and out,
Joy

Lazy Hazy Malayzie

Joy here...It's been two weeks since we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, and life has been rather hectic.  We've had to get over jet lag, live out of suitcases, find a place to live, deal with transportation, get phones, sort out our banking, figure out long-term medical insurance, visit with friends and family, and not let our training get totally derailed by the heat and the humidity.  And, to be honest, we've done a pretty darn, good job of it so far (if I do say so myself).

The hill - 8X - trust me, it's steeper than
it looks!

As I mentioned in my first blog since arriving, we did our run workouts - including our drills and strides - out there with the monkeys and the heat and humidity.  One of my workouts included 8 hill repeats, so like a good little student, I was out there running my little heart out up and down the closest hill.  To be sure, I garnered more than one odd look, but I was not to be deterred.  Coach Woods had given me a task, and dammitalltohell if I was to fail at it!

Then with 8 run workouts under our belts in our first week-ish of being in Malaysia, the dreaded Malaysian haze set in.

If you're unfamiliar with the haze, let me take a moment to explain it to you.  Haze in the atmosphere is generally due to large scale burning in Indonesia.  Deforestation there leads to smoke pollution that blows north to Singapore and Malaysia.  Then you add to that a healthy dose of domestic air pollution, and you find yourself breathing a toxic soup.  (Here's what the Malaysian gov't says about it...basically that it's just a fact of life.  And here's a bit from the Singaporean government:  

Transboundary smoke haze from land and forest fires during the traditional dry period between June and October has been a recurrent feature in the southern ASEAN region in the past few decades. These annual fires are caused mainly by land clearing and “slash and burn” agricultural practices in Indonesia, particularly Sumatra and Kalimantan. In the northern ASEAN region, agricultural burning activities are common during the traditional dry season between December and March can also cause large scale smoke haze at times.)

What this meant for our workouts is that we didn't do them for four days in a row.  We were essentially house bound.

The haze is so thick that you can't even see the trees
in the distance.  The jungle merges with the sky in a
haze of milk water grey.

Haze hazardousness (say that 10 times fast!) is measured in what is called the "Pollutants Standards Index" or PSI.  A PSI reading over 100 is considered unhealthy, and the PSI readings for Kuala Lumpur have been hovering around 115, which means we aren't supposed to be out there doing cardio vascular workouts breathing in all that crap into our lungs.

So we sat about like lazy louts doing our best to avoid the haze, but feeling having lazy hazy days ended up being less fun than it might sound.

By the end of the third day we were getting antsy, and by the end of the fourth day, I was ready to run, haze or no haze.

As luck would have it, over night the skies grew dark, clouds blew in, and rain washed away the haze, and after four days of no running, I awoke to clear blue skies.

I put on my brand new running shoes and out the door I went...

These shoes were made for running,
These shoes were made for running,
And one of these days these shoes are gonna run all over you!

Over and out,
Joy

We made it!

Finding time to finally put my feet up!

Joy here...Wow, life has been rather hectic of late.  And by hectic I mean bat-shit-crazy.  We've had to pack up our house, wrap up some work projects, organize our cross-globe trek, and arrive safely and soundly in Malaysia.  Oh, and we also had to fit in some workouts in there too.

On that last front, I'm happy to report that I've committed to the running, and have been hitting about 75% of my run workouts from Coach Woods over the past 4 weeks.  I'm starting to feel a bit better, and slowly I will feel like a runner once again.

Coach Woods' plan has me running on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and he wants me to work in some bike rides, and then he'll add in some more running workouts.

Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok

So the last few run workouts took place in Ottawa, with me and the running crew doing our drills in the cool-will-spring-ever-come air, and then we began our journey from Ottawa to Frankfurt to Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur.

We arrived - hot and sweaty - and made our way to the house where we are staying, promptly showered, changed, and headed out the door for a little run.  I won't lie to you: that was one of the most sluggish runs I've ever done!  I felt like a sweaty sack of potatoes (if potatoes could sweat), and everything from my knees to my toes hurt.  I think I lasted about 20 minutes or so, and then walked a bit.

But the next day was better.

The next day we got up and headed out to do our drills and workout.  So we found a flat stretch of road and while the Malaysians looked on at us like we were aliens, we were out there in the early morning sun doing our running drills -- see the video of The Man doing his one-legged squats!

Then I did an easy run - dodging monkeys the whole way - and felt my legs slowly but surely waking up to my new (sweaty) reality.

Gotta run around the monkeys!

Yesterday I had a 45 minute run scheduled, and we got up before the sun rose so that I could get out there and run loops around a 3km route close to where we are staying (I've run here before; for some previous posts with pics, please see:  Dec 2011, for instance, or May 2011 when I nearly shat myself, and where the monkeys roam freely).  There were loads of people out walking, and I seemed to be the only runner, but there were a few folks out there who saw me on my loops and would shout encouragement:  "woah, run so fast!"  It sure was a boost to my ego to have the Malaysians think that my jet lagged shuffle looked fast...they ain't seen nothin' yet!

So stay tuned for more updates, more photos, and more thoughts as I get over jet lag, get some fitness back, and discover what my new Malaysian life has to offer!

Over and out,
Joy

Off we go...

Joy here...If you've read this blog before or know me in real life, then you'll know that The Man and I spend our time split between Ottawa, Canada and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  And during our Ottawa time, I routinely grapple with my hate relationship to winter...so instead of divorcing my husband and running away somewhere where I'd never have to deal with snow again, we've decided to take the next 12 months and relocate to Malaysia.

Who wouldn't want a view like this every day??

It helps that The Man works on Malaysian law and politics and has a one-year sabbatical so that our move is one that's funded.

It also helps that I've left the wonderful world of academia for life as a footloose and fancy free consultant.  So long as I've got my brain, a phone, and an internet connection, I can work anywhere.

So we've decided to make a go of resettling in Kuala Lumpur for the next year...we'll see if we can stay longer, but at least we know where we'll be for a year, which is saying something.

Here's to tropical drinks and our new tropical lifestyle!

We've rented our house out to a couple from Australia, and we will stay in my cousins' house in Kuala Lumpur upon our arrival.  Then we'll find our own place.

So get ready for some tropical updates as I fully recommit to running and set my sights on some 5km and 10km running races in Malaysia over the next few months!

Over and out,
Joy