Timex Global Trainer GPS Review

One of my favorite pieces of gear right now is my Timex Global Trainer with GPS navigation. It is also my first piece of super-high-tech training equipment and something that I would have never dreamed of owning because it's so expensive. However, thanks to Agnes accepting whatever I could scrape together from my meagre bank account at that time, I became the happy owner of TGT.

First Impressions

My chunky wrist adornment

Most people I meet exclaim how HUGE the thing is. I take this as a compliment. It's most definitely eye-catching! Folks, TGT isn't all that big. It's my wrist that's small. :p

How to: Change Bike Tires

I swapped out the road slicks on Kermit and put on big fat knobby tires today. Here's how:

What you need
I had the fat tires, inner tubes, tire levers and pump.

Step-by-Step How To
First, I took the wheels off the bike. Then, I let out all the air and pulled the tire and tube off the rim

My First Mountain Bike Ride

Summary of Post
I have had my mountain bike (Kermit) for 7 years, but mostly rode Rails-to-Trails in the US. Just twice on tame single track at Harrison Hills Park. Spencer lugged Kermit over to Malaysia in 2010, but I was too scared to ride on actual mountain biking trails. Today I rode 10 km on beginner trails in FRIM. I fell down. But that's ok. I think I'm going to be just fine :D

Kermit with his gaggle of admirers. Ain't he a looker?

By the way, I'm going to save my story on how I acquired this dratted bike phobia for another post. I think you might enjoy that one. It's got all the essentials of a good story: Blood, Gore and Sex... okay, there's no Sex. But it's still a good story.

I'm sitting at the computer, pecking away at the keyboard and feeling so pleased with myself that I just had to share it with The World :D.

Today I managed TWO stupendous achievements:

FRIM Trail Map & Entrances

Hey folks! I have heaps of stuff I would love to post about, but wanted to get this out right away, so here you are. I've marked four entrances to FRIM: the KBG (Kepong Botanical Gardens) entrance charges a smaller fee than the FRIM Main Gate, and parking there gets you closer to your Steroid Hill run/bike. (More info on KBG and FRIM).

I'll update with more trails as I continue to explore. Come join me for a run some time! :D

A click on any ad below this post will put a few cents in my pocket, from the advertisers. Thanks for supporting my blog!

xo Gracie

November Notables and the Laguna Phuket Triathlon 2011

So, the last time I blogged was 29 Oct, 5 days before Spencer arrived in Malaysia for our 1 month adventure. November was just a really great month! How to do you condense a month's worth of happenings into a short blog post? Answer: You Don't. Heheh. You have been warned, this is gonna be a long post but this is my blog and I'm allowed!

Dedication
I'd like to dedicate this blog post to all my friends and family... and Spencer. Thank you for always being there for me. Love you all.

Pre-LPT Secret Training ;)
Quite a bit of what we did in November was geared toward the Laguna Phuket Triathlon at the end of that month. Neither of us had done a long distance triathlon before. The LPT calls for a 1.8 km swim, 55 km bike and 12 km run. Spencer has done a few sprints these past few years, is good on the bike and is a strong swimmer, but not runner. I took part in a few sprints this year, but had never cycled more than 20 km (blame my bike phobia!). So we went running to get him used to the heat. In preparation for the purportedly crazy hills on the cycle leg of the LPT, we also got some rides in: 25 km bike ride halfway up Genting Sempah, 35 km at Putrajaya with Raymond and Mich (thanks for the tour!), and 58 km at Hulu Langat with Yip (to whom we are forever indebted for loaning us his babies for that month, Thanks Yip!). The Hulu Langat ride was a huge confidence booster for me, because after that, I knew what 55 km feels like. Even then, nothing would have prepared me for the Naithorn Hills in Phuket... (more on that later). While Spencer and I packed our days with activities, we were careful to keep me to my sleep and diet regimen. Throughout Nov, I continued weaning off the hydrocortisone with no relapse.

Can Swim Straight?: Port Dickson Open Water Swim and other happenings

Whoa my last post was nearly three weeks ago! It’s been BUSY! I was going to get busy again today with a trail run in FRIM then it started chucking down rain, so I thought I’d dash off a short note here. But first, here's a route map of the PD Open Water Swim that I yak about at the end of the post:

Errr.... I can explain this (see end of post)

Desaru 116 International Triathlon 2011 Race Report: My Mish Mash!

Dedication

For Mama

Pre-Race Training

Unfortunately, training wasn’t as much as I woulda liked. I had a relapse of my autoimmune condition early in Sept that left me quite weak. I readjusted my goal and training from trying to do well, to trying to finish. As I pulled out of the relapse, I gradually increased training, which was mostly done at home on my Pseudotrainer. If I could keep going for 2 hours, I would be able to finish the race.

Friday, The Day Before the Race

Putrajaya Night Marathon Make That Change Reality Show: My Thoughts

Summary of Post
What I think of this whole Reality Show Contest thing. My personal struggle deciding which entry to vote for ('what, you don't vote yourself ah?'). A voting strategy that I feel comfy with now. And a pledge, if by some miracle I win, half goes to my friend with SLE, and half goes to Jiana's friend with DLBCL Stage 4 cancer. Be warned, a rambling blog with no pics!


Back in July

I was approached by Anand of Hooha.Asia to be in a video promoting the PNM Make That Change Reality Show.

I didn’t hesitate to say ‘Yes, I want to help’. I have wanted to run for SLE for ages (but was held back by my own illness), so this was a great chance to help raise awareness of this killer disease. The result: Make That Change Promo Video.

In the video, I was the friend who wanted to help another friend, who suffers from a lifelong autoimmune illness called SLE (Lupus). Viewers were asked to think of people in their own lives who needed financial help and to submit a 90 sec home video highlighting their ‘cause’. The five best submissions would be interviewed and re-taped. Then the official videos would be open to public for voting. A RM6000 cash prize would be awarded to the person/cause voted by the public as most needing the money (read more HERE).

This promo video, and also another sample video were publicised on Hooha.Asia, emailed to everyone who signed up for the PNM and etc. I thought there are 10,000 runners in the PNM, if 1% answered the call to ‘Make that Change’ that would mean 100 entries!

For whatever reason, by the Sep 3 deadline, only 2 vids were received, including my video. I suggested that Anand extend by another week, to give more time to people to submit. After the extension there were 4 entries total. Hm…. I think a post-mortem is needed to find out why response was so poor. Was it insufficient publicity, or people were intimidated by having to put out a 90 sec vid, or apathy (‘tidak apa’)?

Fast forward three months

The public is now voting enthusiastically for the four video entries each featuring a different cause, all noble ones.  (View Vids HERE)

Teaser Update! Desaru 116 Triathlon, Singapore Total Immersion Swim Race, Putrajaya Night Marathon etc.

I'm baaaack! It's been a busy three weeks since my last post 'Why I Love Triathlon' and it's possibly gonna stay that way until December! Here's what (I hope!) will be a short recap of the past three weeks, and brief of what shenanigans Gracie will be up to in the next month or two. I will follow with detailed race/event reports some time in November when I have a chance to sit down for the full day it takes me to produce each of these things. Ya, I'm so pokey, but hey, it's worth the wait right? ;)

My health was generally ok this month, kidneys somewhat behaving, though joints hurt a bit. I put in decent effort training on my Pseudotrainer (elliptical machine = pretend bicycle since I still too chicken to cycle on road), some swimming and a good-ish running mileage. I probably spent 1 to 2 hours a day doing some exercise, i.e., 1 hr swim, bike or run, sometimes combined. All great fun!

Gracie in pretend aero position on Pseudotrainer

10 Sep: Port Dickson Open Water Swim, organized with the help of consultants Kash, Jaja and Dogpapi.

Why I Love Triathlon

It’s been a while since my last post where I posed the question ‘Why Do A Triathlon’ and received incredibly heartfelt and inspiring responses. Thank you so much. Your comments, and the events of the past two weeks have caused me to dig deep and truly examine my motivations for doing triathlons.

My motivations now are different from two years ago, when I loved the idea of Triathlon, but had not done one. Two years ago, I thought I was completely cured from the autoimmune illness that had put a serious damper on the previous 10 years of my life. I had been medication-free for over a year, and running 5 minute miles – feeling strong.  Triathlon sounded like an extreme physical challenge that would be my way of saying ‘Hey Life, I’m back!’. I imagined my healed, new body pushing through the limits of endurance, something my sick body could not do. I said to myself, ‘I will know without a doubt that I am strong and whole again when I finish my first triathlon’ (More background HERE).

Well, they don’t call Henoch Schonlein Purpura ‘chronic’ (lifelong, incurable) for no reason.

When I actually completed my first mini-triathlon ('Hoohathlon'), I was sick – in early stages of a relapse. During my first Sprint triathlon, and my first Olympic distance swim the following day, I had barely recovered from yet another relapse (Also read 'First do no harm').  Both at the Hoohathlon and Sprint triathlon, I was happy beyond words that I had crossed the Finish Line, but this happiness was tinged with a bit of sadness. This wasn’t how I imagined it would be.

I had imagined a ‘comeback Grace’ sending a powerful message to myself and others with chronic illnesses that ‘Yes, it is possible to take back your life!’.

Instead, here was a frail and still-sick middle-aged woman swimming, biking and running with the dream of one day being whole again.

I will be whole again!

Here’s why I love the sport of triathlon: