foodie in sabah

from never tried before deepfried mashed mung beans, to my favourite claypot chicken rice . from trying out fried mee tuaran, to eating mcdonalds. from trying out spinach pie, to the typical chicken rice. from icecream, to more ice-cream. from seafood, to land game (i like to call it bambi, but to be politically correct, i will use the term venison). from kinder buenos, to overdosing on crisp. from drinking my favourite rekordelig beer, to cup noodles in bed. from traditional kaya butter toast, to of course home-made half boilt eggs for breakfast in bed. 

seriously been overdosing on food. and training has been pretty slack. it has been more of a recovery-ish by way of eating trip. not that i'm complaining. 

today was a good day. woke up, had breakfast in bed whilst watching the IAAF world championships live from beijing. i tell u, it was pretty damn inspiring. snuck in the opportunity to put on a facial mask whilst watching. of course i also ended my day with the evening session of the IAAF world championship, watching the gallin vs bolt throwdown. 

so true. lately, these few days i have been in the latter mood. not that is ain't good. it's been a good few days laying in bed and forgetting the world exists. but tomorrow, it's back to reality. much to get done. pau is arriving tomorrow and we need to go shopping. teehee. and its also racepack collection day. and its also, i need to get my morning run in day. 

so, eggcited. if you haven't guessed by now, my trip down to sabah, other than to support the x45 challenge is purely to run the tmbt 50km. so fingers crossed for me. 

kinabalu park hike sneak peak

wanted to say a few words about my kinabalu hike today. but. way too tired. and going into a food coma, major food coma. will just have do that tomorrow instead. but a sneak peak, and also leaving a few quotes i find so apt, considering what i see happening around me lately. goodnight people.

'everything we hear is an opinion. everything we see is a perspective. not the truth'

'maturity does not mean age. it means sensitivity, manners and how you react.'

'everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. be kind always.'

'maturity is the ability to think, speak, and act your feelings within the bound of dignity.'

'maturity starts, when drama ends.'

'just because i don't fight back, does not mean i am weak. it means i am mature enough to know that anger does not solve anything.' 

'may you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong. enough sorrow to keep you human. and enough hope to make you happy.'

eat training from the land below the wind

nyehehe. my favourite swedish beer, rekordelig. found right here in malaysia, the pearl of borneo, labuan. so of course, i grabbed as much as i could. back in london, i would always have the strawberry-lime flavour. i got the passionfruit, pear and apple when i was in hongkong. my best friend got me mango and wildberry rekordelig beer from the land down under. this gooseberry flavour, i've never seen around. so of course i whacked the shelves. downing a can as i'm typing this, reminiscing my good old uk days.

so, training what? aiyoh. race-cation what? more like, eat-cation/drink-cation.

and, yes, hello, from the land below the wind =)

puma 24 hours trainathon

thanks to the people who came out to support. 24 hours is no small feet, especially for someone who greatly prioritizes sleep, like myself. so, thanks for the support and encouragement. of course, have to thank the team for having faith in me and believing in me, especially at times when i didn't even believe in myself. i was so frustrated at the pistol squat challenge, because of course i've never been able to do pistol squats. so my very first pistol squat on this day, definitely made my day. and of course, i am super grateful that the family came out as well. that really was the icing on the cake - the best part of the experience. 

unforgettable experience. great weekend. we managed to emerge 4th place. 

the aftermath - sore back. sore arms. sore shoulders. sore legs. i felt like i lost all sense of time and space. 

but still, something i would do all over again. 

asean unity run

last year, i instilled  and planted this idea in their minds. they attempted, but due to unfortunate circumstances, they failed. and so, this year, more determined than ever, their road to 42 continues. 

additionally, i managed to convince alot more of us to do either the 42km or 21km together. training for it together, attempting it together, experiencing it together, achieving it together, and having great stories to tell together, will make the entire experience sweeter and more worthwhile. and so, now there are 10 of us and still counting. this is going to be big, so so big.  

i'm really proud of their commitment this time round. they don't miss their weekly runs. they succumb to my non-stop bugging. i make sure i see them weekly and watch them run. because, this time, they are going to make it. this time, even better, at their own initiative, they signed up for their maiden 21km run on sunday. i really wanted to watch them complete their very first proper 21km run. so i thought of ghost running the event.  i had minimal sleep the night before, and woke up with a terrible sore throat. i played with the idea of not going, but how could i not go right. i told myself í hope i don't regret this. and now sitting here, with a terrible non-stop cough, i have no regrets. 

there was super no burden, no pressure going there. we arrived only 15 minutes before flagoff. which under my racing circumstances would be super insufficient. well, they were already counting down and already flagged off when i was about 30metres from the starting point. the plan was to do my 15km long run on my own, then stop and wait for them, and pace them for the last 6km. 

i had a great 15km run. i thougth the route was pretty nice to run. signages were great as well. and the two managed to complete their 21km run. congratulations to the both of them. not sure if my non-stop talking during the last 6km annoyed or encouraged the both of them, but they definitely had a taste of what's to come in their last few km of their marathon hehe. 

it's nice to be at the other side this time. often i get supported, but this time i went as a supporter instead. 

and of course, how can we not miss the post-run breakfast. we headed over to yellow brick road to meet the rest of the people. and also to celebrate special k's birthday. okay, now i know why the mad cough - the cake, the hashbrown, the fries, the ice-cream, the chocolate, no wonder. i told you, the struggle is very real. 

here's to a great august ahead. like i said, raceless august, but have big things coming. 

passionfruit sorbet & hojicha icecream

truffle fries @yellowbrickroad

greentea latte float w vanilla bean i-scream @yellowbrickcafe

rootbeer float topped with salted caramel and popcorn @ÿellowbrickroad

eggs norwegian, served on potato rosti @yellowbrickroad. suffice to say this attracted the attention of most of us, think 5 of us ordered this. 

classic mac and cheese @yellowbrickroad

blackforest cake @swich cafe

fallen soldier

the struggle is real. 

i haven't gotten the fever in quite awhile, maybe almost 2 years- completely forgot how much i hated the fever. the body-aches, the lost of appetite, oh and the shivers and heat that for some miraculous reason find themselves able to co-exist at the same time, yeah, hate them. 

so, basically i was 12km into my 15km run on thursday morning when it begun to rain. i was so close, so i decided to brave the rain, and complete my run. i was major drenched when i was done. and next thing i know, i was down with fever. 

so when a sick person is also a foodie, the struggle is real. you majorly lose your appetite, yet you feel like eating at the same time. this morning, i could hardly finish even half of my porridge, yet, i really wanted to eat currycheecheongfun. after this amazing dinner my grandmother cooked for her sick grand-daughter, i wanted to have hojicha ice-cream and greentea kitkat that was calling out to me from my freezer. i tell you the struggle is real. 

i need to get well soon. because, i have so many things i need to do. and this having close to zero energy levels, is not going to cut it. 

in terms of race updates, this space will be lacking as i am race-less for 2 entire months. i guess its also high time i nurse that ankle injury of mine. so it is a much needed break. i would like to call it the calm before the storm. 

but, watch this space. something big is about to happen. wait for it, it's going to be legendary. 

in the mean time, feel free to follow my day-to-day on instagram. @peabutnutterchoc 

oakley pd duathlon

the so many things that could go wrong, probably did go wrong for me at my pd duathlon race. 

1. we headed to mcd, for myself to get my fix of hot milo and for the cousins to get their breakfast. i had my standard routine breakfast, my banana flavoured moolabar. the hot milo, took 10 minutes to serve up, and the cousin's brekkiewrap took even longer. so we were pretty late to the racestart to set up our bikes and transition. 

2. i'm quite useless when it comes to setting up bikes. i have zero knowledge. i only know how to ride the bike, not that i'm that good at it anyways. so my uncle had to do the setting up for me. by the time we were done setting up 4 bikes (myself, my uncle, my cousin sister and her boyfriend), it was 630 already. 650am was the call to the starting line. so technically, we had 20 minutes to get ourselves from the carpark to the racestart, check in our bikes, set up our transition area, for me - i needed to go shit, warmup, and get our butts to the starting line. hmm, didn't look too optimistic about getting everything done. 

3. i forgot my helmet - thankfully uncle noticed so got it out of the car. 

4. i went to check in my bike and set up my transition area as quick as i could. so much so i forgot to take note of my bike row, later on causing me to run into the wrong row. aihs. 

5. after that i ran to look for the toilet - which was pretty damn far away. i've mentioned before, not being able to shit before a race majorly stresses me out. so, thankfully i managed to unload before the race. 

6. i didn't manage to warmup, because once i was done shitting, it was already 650. 

7. but that was also when i realized i left my timing chip in the car. i had to run all the way to the car, grab my timing chip, and run back to the start line, with really minutes to spare before flagoff. phew. 

8. my quads cramped up for the first time in my life. 300m from the finishing line on the 2nd leg of my run, my quads cramped up. i was in 2nd position at that point, unfortunately, i wasn't able to hold on to the lead and came in 4th. 

9. oh and i didn't win the lucky draw. 

but looking at the bright side, so many things did go right for me hehe. 

1. i came in 1st after the first leg of the run. i knew i was weak at cycling, well, because i never cycle, i cycle once in a rainbow moon (not even blue moon). i don't cycle - cycling is just something i need to do to get to the run leg. so i knew i had to put in a substantial gap during the run leg. the next girl caught up to me at the 10km point of the bike, which of course was not to my surprise. i would be surprised if noone caught up. 2 other girls passed me on the bike leg. but i think i still did pretty well. during the 2nd run leg, my first kilometre was a 5min10s pace before moving to an under 5 minute pace. i completely forgot how heavy legs could feel when running after a bike sesh. but all in all, i think i did pretty well. i didn't train for this, so i can't complain about the results. our coach always tells us, when other people win, its just because you didn't train hard enough, they did, which is super true in this case. my training effort for this duathlon would probably be at 5 percent. 

2. my cousins and uncle completed their first duathlon. i'm mad proud of them. i'm sure they had the time of their life 

3. when i was cramping up, it was comforting that alot of people actually did stop to help. it was my first time cramping, and not in the calves but my quads. i was screaming in pain.  after a few minutes of being stationary, i limped, hopped, then set back into running back to the finishing line. 

4. our saturday night down in pd was crazy fun. roadtrips are always fun. espicially with the cousins.

5. we raced for 2 hours, but ate for more than 2 hours lol. 

6. i bumped into many old friends. it was good to catch up with them during the race pack collection and welcome dinner. 

many thanks my cousins and uncle for really, just everything, from helping me with set up, to stopping to help me with my cramps. to my friends who always more confident in me than i am in myself, thanks for all the kind encouraging and supporting words, texts and messages. got a last minute surprise visit from coach since he ended up volunteering for the event. thanks for his last minute help during my super havoc sunday morning. more importantly, thanks moolabar for never failing me as my pre-race breakfast. and also, salomon for my super-shoes. 

next year again? maybe. 

respect

remember, respect, is not to be demanded.