Malaysian Sport Industry Convention (KISMAS 2009)

Sukacita dimaklumkan bahawa Kementerian Belia dan Sukan Malaysia (KBS) melalui Institut Sukan Negara Malaysia (ISN) akan menganjurkan Konvensyen Industri Sukan Malaysia 2009 (KISMAS 09) pada 7hb dan 8hb Ogos 2009. Konvensyen ini akan diadakan di Berjaya Times Square Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur yang akan dirasmikan oleh Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Abdul Razak, Perdana Menteri Malaysia.

Objektif utama penganjuran konvensyen ini ialah untuk menjana pembangunan sukan sebagai suatu industri di Malaysia dengan lebih professional, teratur, berkualiti, kompeten dan menguntungkan bagi semua pihak yang terlibat baik secara langsung mahupun tidak langsung. Selain itu, ia juga diharap dapat menggalakkan rakyat terlibat secara aktif di dalam sukan dan rekreasi agar faedahnya dapat dirasai seluruh Negara sekaligus membentuk “1 BELIA 1 MALAYSIA”.

Para jemputan khas “by invitation only” terdiri daripada CEO-CEO mahupun presiden-presiden syarikat swasta korporat, bank, insurans, hotel, kelab, universiti, persatuan-persatuan sukan, wakil semua kementerian berkaitan, agensi kerajaan, pengarah Majlis Sukan Negeri, Exco Majlis Belia Malaysia, Exco Sukan Negeri, blogger, editor sukan dari media cetak dan media elektronik.

Bagi mereka yang berminat untuk mendapatkan maklumat mengenai KISMAS 2009, bolehlah menghubungi Sekretariat, Cawangan Industri Sukan dan Sukan Pelancongan, Bahagian Dasar dan Perancangan Strategik, KBS atau melalui:

En. Azman bin Maarof 03-8871 3348 Emel: gman@kbs.gov.my
Cik Normila Ismail di talian 03-8992 9759 Emel: normila@isn.gov.my
atau
Emel: kismas09@isn.gov.my atau kismas09@gmail.com

MUDS 2009 Path: It is Not about Winning

After racing in two MUDS legs, I saw many new athletes came to competing in this humble sport. They came from various background, profession, fitness level, high performance athlete to recreational athlete, Big Bob to Skinny Chaplin, also the foreigners..

They knew that this event actually didn't offering any single cent of prize money. A medal for top five winners from each from seven categories. But why they came to participate and competing in this race?

It was not about a winning. Top performer, Stephanie Chok, Iwata Takatoshi, Ironman Chan Jun Sen, Ironman Mr Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, Managing Director of Malakoff, Ironman Juliana Ali and others name that I didn't mention came together to compete in this event. Together with first timer, recreational athlete, seasonal athlete, runners, cyclist, university staff, and of course University students. It is about support, it is about social network, spending weekend in high adrenaline event and it is sport for lifestyle.

When a person started to involve and become finisher in this sport, he or she will not turn off any similar race like MUDS. Duathlon and triathlon, either sprint, full distance or relay, it being held far away from your home or just at your next door, you will start to feel and addicted the intensity, determination and effort to be there, to compete as an athlete.

Hopefully one day we can see new high performer that exist from this effort, this event, this humble race named as Malakoff University Duathlon Series.

MUDS 2009 Path: UNITEN 2nd Leg Post Race

The first ever duathlon in Private Higher Learning Institute, UNITEN!

UTM making their peak performance last Saturday when Muhammad Nazri (Ayie) came as a champion for the 2nd leg of MUDS 2009. Last year MUDS defending champion Ong Wei Xiang sat on 4th place in Men’s University Category. Meanwhile Nurul Hidayah Nasir claimed 3rd spot in Women’s University Category. Unpressured Kakithon athlete, Nazihah Abdul Ghani won 2 consecutive times in Women’s Open Category. Kakithon also send a newbie to compete both in Mens University and Men’s Relay Category. Congratulations to you all, and welcome to the club for the newbie.

wall of warriors

While I was did what I have did in my training, I still can grab a top five spot in Men’s University Category. But in the other hand, if I was competing in Men’s Open, sure I will receive a medal!

My housemate and long time sparring partner also did his first duathlon in this year. He was so busy outstation job, 5 day per week. But last week he managed to join me training in UPM in the evening and we together completed duathlon training on Thursday. His target was easy: to finish the race in front of Women University Champion, Stephanie Chok.

UNITEN race, I was surprised when Shebby, a football commentator has come to be a MC of the day. Then after the race site being cleared by "The Boss", Led Yee (Quick Release Adventure), and his team, I spent my time to have a conversation with Shebby. We talk about duathlon training, nature of this sport and some issue regarding the level of knowledge (sports specific) of Malaysian's present commentator.

Later, when the sun straight on my head, I was cycled back to my place nearly 12km from the race venue..

Thanks UNITEN, see you in Finale of MUDS 2009 in Universiti Malaya!

Speed Training

The racing season is coming up quickly (of course MUDS). Hopefully you are well under way with building your aerobic base. Many of you have started into speed work in the last week or two. This will be the time when you fine-tune the fitness gained in your aerobic training. Speed work has three variables: when to start, volume in each session and frequency of workouts. Let's look at each of these in a way that will help you maximize the benefits you gain from this high-end work.

Starting point

A well-timed speed block will allow enough time for you to work your fast-twitch muscles and the associated energy systems. The starting point of interval work can be determined by two things: the date of your first race and your age.

A well-designed base period enables you to take good nutrition, speed work, rest, and positive thoughts and transform them into your best race possible. The choice is yours. You can either try to race with an engine the size of a lawnmower or you can build your engine up with a good base so that you are racing with a huge-turbo charged jet engine.

So figure out how many weeks of speed you can absorb and count back from your first goal race. This will give you the start date for interval work.

If you are not sure, try this test. First make sure you have a good idea of your aerobic pace at your maximum aerobic heart rate. Now go out and do between 15-20 minutes of fast running either in the form of interval work (such as 3 x 1000 on the track or 1 x 5 minutes, 2 x 3 minutes, 3 x 1 minute fartlek). Now monitor your body for the next few days. If your aerobic pace gets quicker from this workout, you will probably benefit from doing speedwork. If you get slower or get sick, your body is not in the shape to handle speed work at this time and you may benefit from doing a couple more weeks of base work.

Volume in a speed session

Now, for the second part of the speed equation: How much is going to be enough but not too much? In a nutshell, each speed-work session should have about 15-25 minutes of high-end work. The duration of each interval is not as important as the overall time you do high-heart-rate work. So you could do 8 x 400 on the track or a 10-mile time trial on the bike. Just try to do it at as high a heart rate as you can sustain and build on throughout the entire speed session. Doing 30-45 minutes of actual interval work will force you to perform at a lower speed than if you do 15-25 minutes. This will result in a diminished anaerobic and muscular benefit and will increase your risk of injury. Instead, save longer high-end efforts for the races.

Note however, that doing only five to 10 minutes of work intervals is not enough time for the body to adapt to the rigours of speed work.

Frequency

A general rule is to hold the number of days of speed work in your program to two a week. Thus, if you do one speed session in each sport in a week, you will need to double up on one of the two speed-work days. The most common way to do this is to do bike speed on one day and then run and swim speed sessions on another (if you're training for triathlon). However, feel free to mix this up occasionally.

An anaerobic speed session takes two to three days to recover from. This is why you want to have a maximum of two days per week where you are doing anaerobic work -- more than this can cause your aerobic base to be sapped away -- and you risk injury and burn out.

Workout pacing

Consider the goal of speed sessions. In essence, you want to improve your race pace and increase the amount of time that your body is able to maintain a certain level of effort. Thus, at least some of your speed sessions should include work intervals at faster than race pace.

Another adaptation that occurs when you do speed work is your body releases hormones that build new muscle tissue; however, too many weeks in a row of speed and your body will start to waste away. So keep an eye on your aerobic pace. If you see that your aerobic pace is slowing significantly (over 20 seconds per mile) this is a sign that you are at the point where it would be better to cut out speed work for a couple of weeks and do just aerobic training.

When you begin a speed session, consider the following approach. Start your first interval at a pace that will get your heart rate up to or just slightly over your maximum aerobic heart rate. On each interval after that, progress your heart rate up so that by the last repeat you are going at maximum speed and at the highest heart rate of the set. Also be sure that you descend the set, with your first interval the slowest and your last the fastest. However, if you approach the end of the set and start to lose good running form, then slow it down just a notch -- you are at the fastest pace you can go and still absorb the benefit of the workout.

As you descend speed and effort throughout a speed set, also descend the rest. Begin with a rest interval that is 50 percent of the "on" part. For example, if you run the first of a set of 400s in 90 seconds, your rest should consist of a 45-second slow jog, or, alternatively, half the distance of the work interval -- in this case, 200 meters. As you progress through the set, decrease the rest by five seconds each after each interval. This teaches you to recover at a high heart rate. As you get closer to your race, do the opposite: increase your rest throughout the set. This will help you build the high-end speed and allow you to do the anaerobic work without totally taxing your body.

MUDS 2009 Path: First Leg in UPM Post Race

Hot and crowd..

Massive participation from Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia and International Islamic University of Malaysia and others small participants from UPM, UiTM, as far as Pahang and of course Kakithon from Johor (UTM).

Distance covered only 3 km of run, 13 km bike and 3 km run toward to the finish line. 40 minutes to be champion! Maximum 3 hours to be finisher..

Good set-up by organizer (Quick Release Adventures Sdn. Bhd.), nice clinic conducted the day before (brought to you by PowerBar, well done Julie as a speaker), excellent atmosphere around race venue (thanks UPM and volunteers)..

registration

Powerbar DU Clinic

I will update a result as soon as it published..

So to all competitors, start to look at yourself, listen to your body and feel the warm of this season MUDS!

Jiha won Women's Open Category

post race pose

See you next in UNITEN!

Budget Race Accommodation

When my athletes in UTM faces the difficulties when universities’ sports authority couldn't find adequate accommodation for race day, I started I get 'panas', my heart rate increased dramatically, and my brain starting to find a solution..Normally OUT OF BOX solution..(in Malaysian culture).

Many racers found a process to get an accommodation for the race day was a hard process. Furthermore, when the race is organize at small town, in remote area etc. Lack of planning skill is the main factor that does contribute to this issue. Most of race in Malaysia organize at tourist spot such as Port Dickson, Manjung, Desaru, Kenyir Lake, Kuantan etc. Main constrain is the racer or competitor with low budget. They can't afford a cost for accommodation that race organizer recognize as main hotel sponsor with discount prize for race competitor. It's still RM200++ per night.

As a racers who will competing the next day after long way travel from their home (another factor racers travel the day before race day is BUDGET!), need adequate place to rest, sleep and maybe have a good time with their friends..

For student competitors, in various high cost races in Malaysia such as triathlon, duathlon, mountaineering, road races (marathon, etc) they don't have a lot of budget from their own pocket. Universities also don't have a budget for this kind of sport. Universities prefer to splash their yearly budget for the sake of football, netball, rugby and other team sports and a week’s training camp for those athletes who're competing in MASUM.

My idea is why didn't we as racers, bring along our camping equipment, and set a proper campsite area within the race site! It is interesting when we see many of racers will do that perhaps nearly in future. Then the racers (perhaps organizer starting to thinkabout it) themselves create an extraordinary, interesting, and happening atmosphere. Later the racers can start finding a new friends, new bf, new gf, sharing their stories, sharing the meals, or maybe sharing their space!

If possible jemput Nabil utk buat lawak pada malam sebelum race, bagi menghilangkan tekanan race day.

Could you imagine this will be happen?

Tepuk dada tanya selera. Jangan tanya Nabil, nanti dia jawab "Lu pikir la sendiri!"

MUDS 2009 Path: Reaching the Closer Part

Since now I will started to update my preparation towards MUDS 2009. Sharing the sports science knowledge, declaring what I did, and peeling some issues..

This year event actually doesn't widely highlighted in main stream mass media (hopefully until now). Unpredictably, the guys a.k.a Mahasiswa and Mahasiswi studying at the races venue mostly didn't knew, know or will knowing what will happen at their universities on 19th, 25th July and 1st August.

Secondly, most of the newbie on 19th July the first series in UPM didn't got the ideas how the race will be going on race day.

Thirdly, most of the IPTA or IPTS sports unit/department/centre didn't knew about this event actually offering University categories both for men and women. Additionally they simply said "..this event is not in our yearly calendar", "..this event is not a high performance sports" event worst "..the organizer creates this event for their benefits and business".

Lastly, this event wants our money, but no prize money after got first place(s)..

Hello Malaysian Students in all Higher Learning Institute in Malaysia!

Please come out from your 'kepompong', sniff a breezy summer out of your 'tempurung kelapa', see the light and sunshine above your head during this season (semester for 'mahasiswa'). Lets try something new, the event that universities can't simply organize, the race that you can compete shoulder to shoulder perhaps head to head with the elite guys, with the strong veteren duathlete, maybe just run with your 'pakwe' or 'makwe' together-gether..

No other organizer provide a FREE CLINICs for their participants in Malaysia..no speakers will tell what is duathlon, how to training, what to do before and during race, what to eat prior, during and post races, etc.. Furthermore most of the speakers will compete with 'mahasiswa' on the next day..

Every minutes seems like taken too long, every strides like floating on air, every pedal stroke like maneuver a F16 fighter jet. MUDS this year will be a very fast race, high intensity, your heart will pumping more amount of blood than your hostel pump the water in one hour, consume much more calories, and finally only FIVE participants will receive their medal.



For more details for what will be happen,
Find out at www.duathlonseries.com.my
maybe you can email me if you want ask a question that the speakers doesn't told or miss during the clinic at, miha5123@gmail.com

Taper

On my last post for Base Training part 1 and 2, I have mentioned that the base fitness is the core to get another step in training principle toward the race day. Now, the topic Taper will tell you about what actually goes when you entering last week or maybe 2-3 last week of your training period.

By race day you should be so bored with sitting around that you are bursting at the seams to get out there and be with 500 other people racing!

The final touches to any training program come during the taper. This is the period of your season leading up to a key race when you allow your body to absorb all of the hard work you did during your base building and your speed phases. Doing the right kind of taper is an art unto itself.

A taper is tricky because of what is happening internally when our bodies try to recover. When athletes start to give themselves rest, the system in the body that responds to stress (which is the system that allows you to get up for big workouts) starts to shut down. It is like working on the engine of your car. You cannot have the engine running at the same time that you are giving it an overhaul. You have to shut the engine off.

The same is true for our bodies. You have to shut the "engine" off for it to recover and charge up in the way that it needs to be ready for the big race. And when you do this, you will probably feel like you are out of energy, sluggish, and getting out of shape. THIS IS NORMAL.

Give yourself the luxury of this less-than-stellar feeling. It is just a signal that your body is repairing itself and getting ready for a big effort in a few weeks. We do this naturally each night when we sleep. We get a mini-taper. You sleep and you recover. You are not working out when you are sleeping.

But during the taper, a lot of the recovery is going to happen in the day when you are used to working out. This will require a readjustment of mindset. Allow yourself to feel lousy, out of energy, and sluggish. This is what a taper is for. Resist the temptation to go out and test your fitness just to make sure you are not losing it. As best as you can stick to the planned reduction in volume and overall intensity. This is the toughest part of a taper - the rest.

What to Expect During a Taper

In week one of the taper you will start to feel good. The energy system that raises your energy up for peak workouts will still be working but you will be building up some reserves because of the reduced volume of training. The result is that you will start to feel supercharged.

Then during the second week, all systems start to shut down that are normally active during high training. This is what happens when you start to go into hyper-recovery mode. You will begin to feel absolutely terrible. Your legs will feel heavy, you won't feel motivated, and you will feel like you are losing all of your fitness. This is the worst you will feel. But have faith!

In week three of the taper, your energy will start to come back up and you will start to feel the spark come back. Remember that this is still not the time to test yourself. That will come in the race just over a week away.

In week four, all of the rest pays off. If you thought week three felt good, this will blow your socks off. You will hardly be able to contain yourself. This is exactly what you want. You are now ready for your best race.

All the best in MUDS!

MUDS 2009: The Heat is Hot!

So enroll, training and burn the route!

July is Coming!

Now we are entering a July..half of the year may passed..another half waiting us to fulfill..

As myself, Jan-Jun 2009, feel like a freight train..one semester completed, two months of semester holiday, two training camps attended, two major races (KL Towerthon and JB City Eco Challenge), two motorbike convoys (escorting a convoy on March and May)..

My first half of 2009 seems like nothing extraordinary when looking at sports aspect..in one week I only can did maximum 6 hours of quality training hours..can't dream to be in great shape through this season..

Malakoff University Duathlon Series is around the corner. On 19th July, first leg of MUDS will be held in my university, UPM, Serdang..I will use my advantage as UPM's student to compete in University Category for this year MUDS..so watch out buddies! Heh..I lost so many time to feel adrenaline burst from my hypothalamus: because for last 24 months I only race to be finisher, or pacer for my girlfriend who was a serious competitor in her category. This year MUDS will see my wake up call, such as saber-toothed tiger wake from its long long sleep..

Two weeks, pejam celik will come a D Day..struggle for maximize my quality training hours, stay healthy, free from injuries, and see what will happened on 19th July..

p/s: Kakithon will make their appearance more furious and more attracted from last year MUDS, because Ong as defending champion, Lim come as silent killer, Kecik as Kecil-kecil Cili Api, and their Tuan Penasihat as..