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Thursday, March 31, 2011

My Slam King

Ta dah.........presenting my new shoes for Mt.Kinabalu climb. 
My initial plan was to get a pair of "Kampung Adidas" shoes which is cheap black rubber shoes whom a number of climbers swore by.  The shop that I went to didn't have that for my feet size and I was recommended an alternative instead. 

This unknown brand, Slam King, has better design, looks and feel sturdier, and of course more expensive than its counterpart.  It has the same rubber studs on the bottom, which hopefully will give me good grip during my nite climb.  Unlike the Kampung Adidas which is all rubber, Slam King is, I would say, 80% rubber.  The box advertised this shoe as Football Sports Shoe, most probably because of the studs.
 
Side view

Top view

Bottom view - check out the rubber studs
Wore this shoes 3 weeks ago on a hiking trip to test them out.  Verdict is..they're not too bad.  They're quite comfortable to walk in and the grip is pretty good.  I was able to focus more on my hike than be worried if I was gonna slip.  I can't say if the grip will be good enough on granites but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I intend to put extra cushion soles on later so that I will get the extra comfort.  With thick socks on, I think I should be a OK.  

Slam King is priced at between RM23.00 - 26.00, depending on which shops you get them from, I guess.  I got mine at a trading shop in Kuchai Lama.  I was told the price had gone up a bit....hmmmm.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Mountain climbing trainings

3 more weeks till my first mountain climbing trip.

Been doing some hikings, aside from the regular gym classes.  No trainings on treadmill, though I did spent 20 mins on a stepper machine some weeks ago.  It was extremely boring to say the least. 

Today, I followed 2 of my group members to Batu Cave early in the morning for our training.  The rest of the group couldn't join us. Some decided to go in the afternoon instead.  It was my first time to this area and I was excited yet fearful of the stairs.  They were pretty steep and the steps seemed kinda narrow to me (or prolly it was just my imagination).  

Batu Caves has 272 steps.
Round 1 of the climb started off slow.  As usual, I was huffing and puffing less than 15 mins into the climb.  The climb down was pretty scary (this really confirms I do have some fear of heights) and I was holding on to the handrail and walked down as carefully as I could, walked sideways in fact cos I was that scared.  There were quite a number of people there for their trainings too, I guess.  There was a group of runners jogging up the stairs.  I thought they were pretty crazy to be jogging up and down. Most of them ended up walking anyway, while their leaders kept shouting for them to keep jogging. If it was my leader, I would have said shut the duck up.   

By round 5, I thought I was gonna passd out.  I told myself that would be my last round but then Evon, one of my members said to go for 2 more rounds.  Alright...I told myself that I could do it.  By round 6, my legs were heavy and turned jelly.  At the last round (thank god), I had to motivate myself by not looking up at the stairs. Imagine my jubilant when I came to the end of the climb. I think I can pretty much say this will be the first and last time I will ever climb those stairs.

To continue on with our training, we headed off to Gasing Hill for hiking. With just a banana to refuel our body, we made our way to the hiking trail.  Again, I was almost breathless before I even started the journey


My previous 2 hikes up this hill were incompleted. First it drizzled halfway thru and on the 2nd trip, half of us got lost thus I never actually completed a full round of hiking.  The weather today looked group and my 2 group mates knew their way so everything was good.  The hike wasn't easy, considering that I was already pretty much beat from the earlier morning climb.  Towards the end of the hike, as I was coming down the hill, I could feel the soreness and tightness of my calves.  We finished nonetheless, yeah....  The entire morning training took us 3 hours. 

We ended our morning with Ipoh Chicken Rice for lunch.  Went home, soaked my poor feet in warm Epson salt bath and plenty of muscle creams.  My plan to join the second group for the afternoon hike was not to be.  I would be crazy to continue with that.  Furthermore, I was actually suffering from a slight injury to my left rotator cuff the nite before. Took an afternoon nap instead. 

But......I will be heading to Gasing Hill again tomorrow morning.  No idea how my calves would be by then but I hope they will be less sore.   Crazy to be doing this but I had to keep the training ongoing.  After all, the climb up to Mt. Kinabalu base camp will take 4-5 hours...and that is just the first half of the whole climb.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Let's talk gym stuff..

Went on a hike this afternoon.  For a newbie, it was actually more challenging than I thought.  Was gasping for air barely 10 mins into the hike. Anyway, it was a good training for my upcoming mountain climbing trip.  Did not hike the full trail as it started to drizzle 45mins into the hike.  Someone's prayer was answered. The gang is going again next week and hopefully the weather will be kinder to us.

This has been a pretty good year for my fitness bucket activities.  By middle of this year, I would have crossed out 6 items from my list.  Not bad eh...

I noticed that one gym member is constantly looking my direction during Pump class.  Initially I thought she was prolly glancing at someone outside the studio door but then recently when she did that, I turned around but saw nobody anywhere near the glass door.  So, I'm guessing she was either comparing the weights I'm carrying or she was checking out my fabulous shoulders....ehem! Anyway, I will take it as a compliment that people actually pays attention to me :)

After "slacking" off somewhat the past year, I'm back religiously to my workouts especially cardio classes ie. Combat.  Need to build up the endurance for my mountain climb.  No more slacking off, no no.

Was introduced to flex band pilates today.  Damn tiring on upper body.  Neck still not strong enough. Was feeling the strain.

Been thinking about returning to yoga.  Having a bit of fear that I may not be able to follow the program.  Been over a year since my last class. Anyway......

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Feeling very emo today

I wonder why I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Seriously need to take a deeper breath.