Running Down Unda!

Australian Parliament

Joy here...From January until June when we left Canada for Malaysia, I spent more time in airports and on airplanes than I ever thought I would.  I fell off my workouts entirely, and have been struggling to get back into the swing of things ever since.  However, since arriving in Kuala Lumpur and getting settled, by mid-August I was starting to feel like I was turning the corner to being a runner again.  I huffed and puffed much less on my runs, and I was hitting more of my workouts than not, and even getting in my targeted hours of running per week.

But then I got on another plane.

Yet all was not lost.

Not yet at least.

We landed in Canberra, the capital city of Australia and checked into our hotel.  The Man had completed his Master's degree in Canberra some 14 years ago, and he was invited there to speak at a conference on Malaysian law and politics.  I brought my laptop along with me and planned to do some of my own work.  But, of course, I also planned to run.

The Man doin' his thing!

On our first day there, once we had checked in, we changed into our running gear and headed out to run around the ANU campus.  Now after that run, I'm convinced that university campuses the world over are all created equal.  This one was like so many others I've been to, beautiful natural scenery somehow not fully taken advantage of by the seemingly hodge podge collection of university buildings.  And like other universities, there are plenty of shiny, new buildings all the while moneys for full professors, scholarships, and actual research is shrinking.

But as we ran, I thought about none of those things and just enjoyed the upside down world of "down unda" where trees shed their bark rather than their leaves, and swans are black rather than white.

We ticked off our 40 minutes and headed out to dinner with The Man's former M.Phil. supervisor.  Okay, day one - check!

Running around the ANU...

...okay, done running!

Then I spent some time doing work and sight-seeing around Australia's capital, a "city" that is very pretty - bright blue skies, beautiful greenery, and urban lakes - but rather sedate.  After wandering through museums and developing blisters, I headed back for a dinner at the Malaysian High Commission.

The following day we decided to go for a run around Lake Burley Griffin, a man-made lake in the heart of Canberra.  The winds were high, and we had to run around some Aussie boys who were drunk, beer bottles in hand, by 11:00am, but we were undaunted.  We ran with Telstra Tower rising up from Black Mountain to our right and the lake to our left, the sky threatening but not delivering rain.  We chatted, we laughed, and we decided that as lovely as Canberra is, we don't necessarily want to live there.

Lake Burley Griffin

Yet another run under our belts - check!

We headed back to the hotel and headed out for Nonya food in a suburb of Canberra and packed our bags for the next leg of our Australian trip:  Adelaide.

We got up bright and early on Friday morning and headed to Adelaide.  But when we got to Adelaide, we were shocked by just how cold it still was - both inside and out - and opted for visiting with our friends, going on a wine tour, enjoying a driving tour of the sights and sounds of Adelaide, and gorging on amazing home-cooked meals over working out.  So that was a weekend with no running.

Now I'm back in KL and back where I started from.  I feel a little like Paula Abdul in the pre-Idol days.

Over and out,
Joy

Run Stats:
1st run:  Ran for 40:00.34 for a distance of 6.41km with an avg pace of 6:14min/km
2nd run:  Ran for 60:00.01 for a distance of 10km with an avg pace of 6:00min/km

KL Crime and Running Alone

Joy here...Just as we arrived in Malaysia in June an online site posted its list of the "10 most dangerous cities in the world," pegging Kuala Lumpur in the number sixth spot.  Everyone from our friends here to the mainstream media were quick to point out the problems with this list - from the absent metholodology for their ranking, to the bias that saw KL making the list but Kabul being left off, to official statistics claiming a decrease in crime of 27% rather than an increase in 70% as the ranking posits - but anecdotally speaking, Kuala Lumpur isn't the safest place in the world when it comes to certain kinds of crime.

For instance, in the last two months since our arrival, there have been a couple of high-profile shootings.  Now, shootings used to never be a problem in Kuala Lumpur, but organized crime and official "hits" are now becoming more common.  This is a big city problem (I can't help but think of sketchy parts of LA), and I'm not sure that KL has the policing professionalism or task force to deal with it.  (In fact, police brutality, corruption, a culture of impunity, and collusion has been cited as main problems contributing to KL's crime problem.)

A sign is better than nothing, but increased and professional
police/security solving the problem might be better!

And beyond targeted shootings that hopefully wouldn't affect me personally, there are other kinds of crime that are pretty worrying.

The other day, just beyond the guard house that leads to our neighbourhood, one of the cleaning ladies who works up the hill from us was walking down the hill to catch her bus home.  It was still during Ramadhan - a time of reflection and spirituality for Muslims the world over - and as she walked, she was attacked by two guys on a motorcycle, armed with a machete. They grabbed her purse, and when she resisted, they cut her multiple times along the arm.  Bleeding and crying, she made her way to the guard house and the police were called.  They showed up the next day, more than 24 hours later.  A lot of good help they'd do then!

Just this Monday, a friend of ours (who I've even blogged about before), was getting set to drive from KL back to Singapore where he is based.  He had his car loaded up with all his worldly belongings:  passport, laptop, suitcase, and a friend's bike was racked up top.  And well, what do you do before a road trip?  You often stop at an ATM to make sure you have cash for the road.  So that's what our friend did.  He pulled up, parked his car, went into the ATM, and on his way out, he was approached by two guys wielding a long machete who demanded his wallet and car keys.  He handed it all over and was stuck standing in a parking lot with nothing.  Hours later he had made his police report and visited the British High Commission to get a new passport, but has likely seen the last of everything else he lost to two armed burglars.

These two incidents hit a little too close to home for me.

They make me see that crime isn't necessarily something "out there" that happens to "other people" somewhere else that won't touch me.  Rather the Kuala Lumpur crime problem may just be increasing, which means that I have to be extra careful.  In living in any big city, there are certain risks.  One needs to be careful and vigilant; being a woman makes vigilance second-nature; and so I have to be conscious and mindful not just when I'm out and about doing my day-to-day things here, but also (and perhaps more importantly) when I'm out running.

Running alone.  Let's hope that I'm safe.

I mentioned the risks of the monkeys swarming my previous running loop, and their increasing aggression, and how I had to find the loop in my little gated community as my place to run, and now I headed out there for my first 1 hour run in months and months and months, and instead of running through some of the beautiful neighbourhoods and scenery around here, I just ran 20 loops of my safe and guarded neighbourhood, waving to my neighbours walking their dogs and making friends with as many folks as possible.

So while I'm proud of myself for hitting my long run target time for the first time since getting to KL; and while I'm happy and safe in my own neighbourhood; it saddens me that KL, such a wonderful city with such amazing potential, may just be walking the razor's edge between being a live-able city and one too ridden by crime to be habitable.

For me...I'll just keep my pepper spray handy when I run alone!

Over and out,
Joy

Run Stats:
Ran for 1hr for a distance of 9.95km with an avg pace of 6:02min/km

Feeling like a runner again...

Joy here...It's been nearly 2 months since we arrived in Malaysia to start this next adventure in our lives, and I've spent a lot of that time since arriving whinging about not being in shape, or opining about feeling like I have no running fitness.  I cringe when I look at my past blog entries, because they read as a litany of whining and complaining, and I'm usually one with little patience for whiners and complainers.

But as with anything, the only way to move forward is to just take one step at a time.  No one achieved anything on the back of a mountain of complaining.

And at least I can say for myself that along side my complaints, I have been taking those steps forward.

Those are looking like runners toes to me!

In fact, I've taken enough of those steps forward, one after the other, that I'm starting to feel like I'm only a few small steps away from being able to call myself a runner.  I've even got the gnarly bruised toes to show for it!

It's been nearly 3 years since my co-blogger Nomi wrote about our bruised toes, and it feels like it's been almost that long since I've felt like I've had any running fitness.

But, yet, as each day unfolds and I get myself out the door to run loops around my taman or do my drills as ordered by Coach Woods, I'm getting closer and closer to hitting 100% of my workouts, and closer and closer to feeling like a runner.

Now why, you might wonder, would feeling like a runner even matter.

The answer is rather simple, running is a metaphor for life.  You don't get better at it by whining and complaining.  You don't achieve your goals unless you get out the door.  You don't improve without failing and floundering a bit first.  And you will never ever get where you want to go without a bit of pain along the way.

So when I write that I feel like I'm getting my running a bit more on track, what I'm really saying is that amidst the insanity of setting up shop in a new city, in a new country, I'm also maybe - just maybe! - getting my life back on track too.

Over and out,
Joy

Here are my run stats since my last post:
Tuesday - Ran for 30 minutes for a distance of 5:41km with an easy pace of 5:33min/km
Wednesday - Day Off
Thursday - Easy 15 minute warm up, followed by drills, and then 2 X 5 minutes at Tempo
Friday - Ran for 25 minutes for a distance of 4.28km with an easy pace of 5:56min/km
Saturday - Easy 15 minute warm up, followed by drills, and then 5 hill repeats
Sunday - Went swimming for an hour at a friend's house

And now it's a new week, and we'll see what I can do!

A Step in the Right Direction

Joy here...On June 14th we arrived in Kuala Lumpur for our 12 to 24 month trial (which might turn into resettlement if all goes well).  We spent the first night in our new apartment on July 4th, had our first dinner guests over for pizza on July 5th, our second for cold dinner July 7th, and were able to cook a real meal with our stove on July 8th.  The Man's mom finally came by to check out our new place on July 10th, and we moved our bags over from my cousins' house where we had been staying on the weekend of July 13th.  On July 17th our first guests from Canada arrived, and on August 5th our guests left.

The man waving from the screened-in patio of our new place!

In there we hosted a house-warming party, had friends and colleagues over, met new friends, headed out to dinners/drinks with friends/colleagues; we bought a car, registered and insured it, and even managed to ding it already; we bought bits of furniture for our apartment (including a sofabed that's big enough for guests); we went through all the paperwork to register our consulting company in Malaysia; we continued with our own work-related projects - The Man working on a few articles and conference papers, especially in preparation for our upcoming trip to Australia where he will be featured on Aussie TV, and me working on Canadian Museum for Human Rights-related issues (including participating in numerous conference calls beginning at 4am KL time!) as well as a number of other editing/writing and education-related projects that I have on the go - we balanced bill-payments and responsibilities of a home in Ottawa and one in Kuala Lumpur, and generally we have been busy, busy, busy.

So maybe it's not surprising that I've felt my fitness wane in direct proportion to the increase of my midsection.

The bright, late afternoon sky and the condos up on the hill
overlooking our little taman that lies midway up the hill.

I've blogged about my lack of commitment to training during this busy transition period as well as opting for playing tour-guide and hostess to working out, but slowly I'm getting back into the swing of things.

For the past four weeks, Coach Woods has scheduled 4.5hours of workouts for me each week.  And, well, on week #1 I did 0 hours, on week #2 I did .5 hours, on week #3 I did 1.5 hours, and at the close of week #4 I completed 2.75 hours.  Now those hour counts are sadly embarrassing.  I mean, I should be up to around 7 hours per week (which is only an average of 1 hour per day!), and even though I've fallen far short of a very conservative plan, at least I'm moving in the right direction!

So at the start of week #5, I had a 60 minute run scheduled.  I had the best of intentions to get out there for the full 60 minutes; I thought I had timed everything properly, but with a taxi booked to take our guests to the airport at 7pm and the need to run, shower, make dinner, and eat it before-hand, somehow the day just got away from me, and I was lucky to squeeze in half of that planned workout.

Let's see how the rest of this week goes!!!

Over and out,
Joy

Run Stats for Monday:
Ran for 27:10.26 for a distance of 5.01km with an average pace of 5:26min/km.

4 X 1km

Blue skies, sun high above, and temperature
way up there!

Joy here...Okay, so I had a workout planned that looked like this:  Drills + Strides + 4x1km @ 3km pace w/ 1/2 recovery + core.  What that means is that I had to warm up (around 15 minutes), and then do my running drills, followed by 4 strides, and only once I did that was I to get into the "meat" of the workout, namely 4 sets of 1km distance at around 4:45min/km, with around 2:20min of rest between each set.

Follow me?

Basically run your ass off for 1 km, catch your breath, and do it all over again 3 times.

I did this workout once just before we left, and it was H-A-R-D, so I knew what I was getting myself into.

Sort of.

You see, it wasn't 35C and humid when I last did this workout.  I wasn't as out of shape when I last did this workout.

The first 100m straight section of my
four-sided 500m-ish loop around the 'hood.

I started, already sweating in the mid-morning sun, and did a little 10 minute run warm up (as if I needed to warm up!!!).  My pace was 5:26min/km, and while that's not fast, it's well within my regular range, and so I was taking it easy and not pushing things from the start.

And then I reached the first corner where I was about to start my 1km portion - essentially two loops of my taman.

Now when I last did this workout, my times for each 1km set were 5:04, 5:05, 4:51, and 4:32.  Obviously, I played it pretty conservatively in the first two sets, found a good groove for the third, and pushed it for the fourth.  Really the times should be the same, so I should probably have run those sets at 4:50 or so.

When I last did the workout, I was running on a straight stretch of land, and so I would set my Garmin for 1km and run my little heart out until it beeped.  Same plan this time.  Only this time, I had to run two loops of my taman in order to make the 1km mark.  And let me tell you, it is psychologically waaaaaay harder to run two .5km loops than it is to run one 1km straightaway.

Time to put those feet up and relax!

You see, at the end of each loop (only half way there), psychologically my mind and body were like, "phewf, I'm done," but then I had to keep going!  When your body thinks that it's passed the finish line and your head agrees, it's really hard to convince them both that really you haven't.

So I had to push myself through the second loop like I was whipping a recalcitrant mule uphill, with one of the 100m sides having a slight, 3% incline that sucked the will out of my feet and heart.

But in the end, I finished the workout.

And then I nearly collapsed.

This time I did the workout in 5:02, 4:51, 4:51, and 4:41, followed by a very slow walk around the taman so that I could catch my breath.  And by slow, I mean S-L-O-W, shuffling.  So I shuffled my way around the streets of my new KL neighbourhood, sweat running into my eyes, the salt stinging, my breath laboured, but strangely feeling better than I have in a long time.

Over and out,
Joy

A Little Bit of History Never Hurt Anyone

Joy here...In keeping with the theme of retrospection from my last post, I've been thinking a lot about Kuala Lumpur, my new home-city.

I first visited Kuala Lumpur in 2007 - with my boyfriend, sister, and brother-in-law in tow - and have come back many times since then (once or twice per year, every year since 2007).  And as a part of my life, the city has also been featured on the blog over the years in many different guises.

A meal this July at one of our favourite restaurants in
Kuala Lumpur, Tamarind Springs.

FOOD:

There are three monkeys in the trees in this photo.
Can you find them all?

There have been posts dedicated to the food of Kuala Lumpur, like these ones from December 2011:  "Can Eat Eat Malaysia Styles" and "Can Eat Eat Malaysia Styles Part 2," or this one from January 2013, simply called "Running in Malaysia" (I think I was running out of creative inspiration on the title for that one!).  And these posts have not only expressed my frustrations with trying to balance sport with indulgent food choices, but they've also tried to showcase food as part and parcel of a KL identity, or even a Malaysian identity.  Malaysians take their food seriously!



MONKEYS:
But in addition to having a few posts that show the wide and tantalizing variety of foods to be found in this great city, I've also had a few that have highlighted the perils of monkeys in the city scape.  There are the three posts so far this summer dedicated to the monkeys:  Our first run upon arriving in Malaysia in June, the one detailing the monkey taking a swipe at me, and the one about the monkeys in the trees in my 'hood.  And there was the one back in May 2011 where I first talked about those damn monkeys.  All this is to say that I think I've done a fair job of detailing the ups and downs of trying to do sport in the midst of KL as a monkey habitat.

The Petronas Towers dominating the city skyline.

SHOPPING:
If Malaysians like food, their love of food and identification with it as a key cultural marker is closely followed by their love of shopping.  I wrote this blog post about the perils of sizing in Asia (where I am apparently an L or XL), and this one from December 2011 about Christmas in Malaysia.  Kuala Lumpur is home to countless mega malls (including one that is, in fact, named Megamall), and even the famous Petronas Twin Towers rise up out of a six-story mall, Suria KLCC.  Malls are filled not only with anything and everything you might choose to buy, but their air conditioned spaces offer room to socialize and dine in comfort.

And while I have meandered off topic, away from my ups and downs with training to give a sense of Kuala Lumpur - its food, its wildlife, its shopping - I've not really taken the time to showcase any of its history, but in the spirit of retrospection, history certainly has its place, and it's about time that I remedy my omission.

After all, once upon a time I trained as both an English AND History teacher, and have been known to be a bit of a history dork.  Oh, and I did a 3 hour walking tour of Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) and the surrounding KL colonial districts and buildings this weekend, and all of that is waaaaaaay more interesting to this big nerd than her workouts!

Malaysian colonial history goes back very far, like as far back as the 1st Century BCE.  It seems like this area has been appealing to all sorts of colonizers through the centuries, but Kuala Lumpur as a city wasn't founded until 1857.  It was opened up as a tin prospecting area, with the Sultan inviting Chinese tin prospectors, and since the British had been in the Malay peninsula since the 18th century, they soon settled in the burgeoning tin town...and from those humble beginnings grew the city today; here's taste of some of that history:

Here's the Sultan Abdul Samad building, the former courthouse that now
houses the Tourism Malaysia offices.  It was built in 1897 and named after the
Sultan of Selangor at the time.

Masjid Jamek (Jamek Mosque) at the confluence of the Gombak
and Klang rivers, where the city of Kuala Lumpur was founded.
The mosque was opened officially in 1909 and until the big, new
national mosque was built in the 1960s, this served as the city's main mosque.

The Long Bar in the Royal Selangor Club, a private social club founded
in 1884.  To this day women are banned from this portion of the club
(although I walked in to take pictures...I don't take "no" for an answer very easily).

The interior of St. Mary's Cathedral, once the only Anglican church in
all of Kuala Lumpur.  The original church was built in 1887, and this current
one was built in 1893 and has been expanded over the years.

Over and out,
Joy

But in the interests of history, here are the run stats from my recent history:
Thursday's Workout - Drills + Strides +2x (10 min @ T stright into 5 min @ 10km pace straight into 2 min @ 3k pace + 1 min rest + 45s @ 1500m pace) w/ 5 min rest + core -> I was supposed to do 2 of those sets, and I managed only 1.

Friday's Workout - rest

Saturday's Workout - Ran for 30mins for 5.22km with an avg pace of 5:45min/km

Perspective

Joy here...I'm feeling a little retrospective lately.  Not only does this summer mark a full two years since I was a full-time professor (and actually three years since I was last in the classroom as a prof), but it also marks five years since I defended my Ph.D. and then got married and a full ten years since I was a young, wide-eyed scholar just starting doctoral work.  These kind of milestones can't help but get one thinking.

Being a bit of a doctoral ham for the camera!
(What's the point of earning a Ph.D. if you can't
use it as an excuse to be an unadulterated dork?!)

And, so, thinking is what I've been doing.

But not just thinking about where I've been and where I'm going professionally, but also where I've been and where I'm going as a runner.

You see, I first started running around six years ago when The Man and I moved our relationship from the "friend" stage to the "dating" stage of things.  But it wouldn't be until the summer of 2010 when I completed my first running race (a 10km race that I ran with my good friend Nomi).  And then that summer of 2010, I started up a co-written running blog with my friend Nomi as we tried to urge each other on to train for our first half marathons.  Nomi's gone on to run a few half- and full-marathons, and I've done some running and cycling races myself.

Our co-written blog is now defunct as she grapples with some knee pain and trying to just maintain some fitness and I grapple with motivation and scheduling issues, blogging on my own sporadically and when I find the time.

Whether you see a young lady or an old
woman all depends on your perspective!

But back when we were running a lot together and feeling fast and fit, I took it all a bit for granted.  I remember flush on the success of my first half marathon, I was full of the excitement of meeting that challenge, and I told my sister that I would make her a half marathon running plan - I mean, if running a half marathon was good fun for me, surely it would be good fun for her too, right?  And I remember thinking that the starting point for the plan would be the basic fitness to be able to run for around an hour-ish, and then from there, building to a half marathon would be easy peasy!  At the time I thought, "heck, anyone can run for an hour."  I had forgotten that it had taken me the better part of a year of running to be able to run for one hour without taking any walk breaks.  I had forgotten that running - like anything else - takes time and dedication.

Now that I've not given my running the time and dedication it deserves, but left it kind of languishing on the shelf like an unread and unloved book, I shouldn't be surprised that I can no longer run for an hour.

In fact, as I made myself head out the door into yesterday's late afternoon humidity as the heavy clouds threatened rain (that later fell with a vengeance and accompanying thunder and lightning), I had to goad myself into a mere 20 minutes.  At the 7 minute mark I was ready to quit; at the 15 minute mark I could feel my feet getting heavy; and at the 19 minute mark, I convinced myself that I had done enough.  Yet, I kept going.  I hit 20 minutes, and while I know that once upon a time, that wouldn't seem like much of anything - less than a warm up - my fitness isn't what it once was, but to quote one of my friends, "you've got to start somewhere!"

Do you see the face in the trees?
Perspective really is key!
(But once you've seen her, can you not see her?)

As with life, so with running.  Just because once upon a time I got a Ph.D., doesn't mean I can sit back on my laurels and assume a certain kind of intellectual sharpness.  Just because once upon a time I got married, doesn't mean I can sit back, get lazy, and assume romantic happiness forever.  Just because once upon a time, I could run for 90 minutes without a second thought, doesn't mean that I can sit back, be lackadaisical and assume my fitness would be there when I called.

In fact, nothing - not professional success, romantic success, personal success, nor physical success - comes without just putting in some consistent time and effort.  There's no magic to it...just time and effort.

And that, my friends, is a little bit of adult perspective from someone closer to 40 than to 20.

Over and out,
Joy

Run Stats:
Ran for 20:08.87 for a total of 3.91km for an avg pace of 5:09min/km