Last Post Before The Race

In our personal journeys this Sunday, may we have:

• Equanimity 
  
• Patience
  
• Focus
  
• Tenacity 
  
• Affirmation
  

May all our fears, self doubts and inner demons be exorcised and regardless of the time we take to cross the line, may we come away enriched, stronger and inspired. Best of luck to everyone!

How Carboman Stacks Up Against P. Diddy

I'll Definitely Look Ridiculous In A Hazmat Suit

"Sit as little as possible. Give no credence to any thought that was not born outdoors, while one moved about freely - in which the muscles are not celebrating a feast too." Nietzsche

It all started with Carbokid 2's throat infection a couple of weeks back. He was also coughing and sporting a runny nose. It then spread to my Mom, who had a bit of sore throat - she's very resilient. Then C1 got a bit of a cough but thankfully nothing serious. That was when I got paranoid and started sanitizing all the door knobs, toilet fittings and anything else short of a person with antibacterial spray. I went so far as changing my sleeping T-Shirt everyday! Crazy right?



Luckily I've already been whacking close to 2,000mg of Vit C a day (spread out, of course) a month ago. Plus calcium, ACE, Fish Oil. Then my wife got it 2 days ago spewing millions of infectious microbes into the air. That suddenly raised the alert level to Severity 1 - Maximum Alert. I don't know whether it's psychosomatic or what but I feel a little lethargic. Hopefully that's all due to the very reduced running I've been doing during the tapering. My nose does get a little clogged in the early morning but mornings have been quite cold (we have the air-cond on throughout the night) and there've been an odd cough or two. I hope it doesn't get any worse than this or I'll be running like a mad yak (is there such a thing as a mad yak?) around the house! Do I need to walk around in a Hazmat suit?

Please, can Sunday come sooner?

Hazmat suits - NOT a fashion statement

 

I'm A Posting Beast..Today

After 2 years of service, the Triax 100 (pictured below) was finally lost. I don't know where it's gone - probably dropped out of the pocket of my backpack. Since taking ownership of my Garmin 205, I've relegated the poor watch to "wear to work, wear to sleep, wear to anywhere" service. The 205 is a Rolls compared to the what the Triax can do. The sad thing is that I will not miss it. After just 6 months of purchase, the PU material around the bezel started to peel. I pre-empted further peeling by tearing the whole darn thing off and super-glueing the hinges and joints. Another down side is the mineral glass face while scratch proof is to reflective, making it hard to read the display. Read my first impression report here. If you like to get the Triax, Isetan is selling them from RM149 onwards.

 

In Die Hard 4.0, the villain said to John McClaine that he's as outdated as a "Timex in the digital age". Granted there are the Garmins, Polars and Suuntos out there but I've always favoured Timex as an everyday watch (I wear a chrono to work! Save the dress watches for functions!), not only because they're are light, possessing a user interface that's intuitive and logical. My Timex Sleek 50 is still working sans its Indiglo nightlight and straps (gave up replacing it after twice breaking off). It remains one of the best chronos I've ever worn. So despite the fantastic clearance by Isetan KLCC on the Triax, I still settled for the Timex, this time around the RM200 30-lap Ironman. It has nearly all the Sleek's features and tactile buttons - only difference being the 30-lap memory compared to the 50 of the Sleek.

Of Today's Youngsters And Sleep Conditioning

Now that my youngest brother is down in KL and spends his weekends at my place, I get the opportunity to observe close-up the typical behaviour of a mid-20s male. The result of my observation?

• Sleeps too late - past midnight
• And as a result, wakes up too late - past 10am. Hits noon if not prompted to get his butt off the bed
• Spends too much time online. Much info can be obtained on the Internet (case in question, his search for rooms for rent) but he gets too easily sidetracked with online chat and other frivolous distractions
• Takes too much things for granted. Not much self initiative and independence on display. Despite my advice, my Mom still irons his clothes for him.

Maybe I'm just generalizing the youths of today or me being old-fashioned. I just can't buy that kind of lifestyle. Too much time is wasted sleeping, rendering the person unproductive the next day. If sleeping late is due to the nature of work or an occasional "decadence", then I've no arguments but not because of online escapades. Sleep when it matters, get up early and get the day going. Be a productive person.

Many of us who start our weekend long runs at 5am get home by 9:30am having covered 30K, and upon reaching home vacuum and mop the home and showered, ready for the day - be it taking the kids out, etc... By 11am, the sleepy head is just stirring. All that talk about strengthening his body via exercise following his back surgery last year is plain crap. Excuses upon excuses of not going out there for his walks, eating more than he should, not showing enough independence and gall, and generally displaying too much lazing around.

 

I'm sorry to blog about this but when I take my rant offline to my brother and Mom, they don't see my point. So you readers now have to bear with me. My Mom overdotes on this fella. I say put him through the fire. Youth today have gone too sappy (as a result of too much spoon-feeding) and when they're not, they use their energies on unproductive activities. When I came down 15 years ago, I was a typical wide-eyed boy from a small town. To familiarize myself with the city, I'd get out of the rented room (the first few months were spent at my relatives') every weekend by 8:30am, take the mini bus no.14 and later 35 down to Central Market and started walking the roads right up to where The Mall is. Once I covered that direction and taking note of the buses that ply that route, I'd set off in another - towards the commercial areas around the Sultan Ismail-Bukit Bintang district. That was how I learned the streets. I was lucky in that I was only mugged twice but that was in my late 20s after getting off work late. Of course I became quite streetwise and alert following the incidences! Situational awareness is definitely helpful in today's world.

 

That part of my story pales in comparison with the experiences and hardships of other youths of my age at that time. I'm not saying that everyone should have to go through what other more hardened youths did, but if a person wants to be productive, it has to start right - by inculcating certain habits and getting the priorities right. I'm very sure that the "good animal" that Dr George Sheehan mentioned does not refer to a sleeping one. Read a good take on that philosophy here.

 

Still on sleeping matters, I plan to sleep earlier these few days leading to the race. I figured that I'd need to wake up at 2am on race morning to wash up, fuel, gear up and so on. To get the body clock right, I'm planning to sleep early from tonight onwards. Whether or not I'll be able to sleep right off, I'll still get on the bed before 9:30pm. Then I'll set the alarm for 4:45am for easy runs on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. No running planned for Friday and Saturday. I've been doing a bit of core strengthening the last few days and should be able to continue for another few days.

Watched

Went through 2 depressing movies over the weekend.



1. Hotel Rwanda

On the genocide in Rwanda involving the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic conflict. An understated Nick Nolte and an unrecognizable Joachin Phoenix with a strong cast of African actors complement Don Cheadle's Academy Award nominated performance. I don't want to pretend that I understand the conflict enough as all I remembered was during the Hutu's ethnic cleansing of the Tutsis was covered substantially in the press. I remembered wondering to what level humanity had sunk to. Over a million people lost their lives. Only downside is the movie sanitized the violence part. Though very disturbing - the primary weapon used was the machete - I feel that the directors should not glean over the grisly part. Excellent soundtrack. 4/5

2. The Mist

Not as depressing as Hotel Rwanda but contains an ending that's tragic. I'm a fan of Frank Darabont, Stephen King's favourite director. Having enjoyed Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Majestic, I was looking forward to another adaptation of the horror master's novella collection. With themes of organized religion, military experiments gone awry, I was surprised at the amount of blood and gore this movie has. Certainly a different path taken by Darabont this round. Containing some deadpan humour, the director thankfully also retained his trademark character driven storyline. All the performances were strong and you're drawn into the plight of the townsfolk which was undersieged by some unseen creatures. When the creatures are revealed, wow, what a revelation. I'll only reveal the following clues - Alien, The Thing, Half-Life. I've to credit the director for bravely sticking to the tragic ending and not sugarcoating the cataclysmic event Hollywood style. 4/5

I'm A Sea Monkey

A peek into the weather forecast shows that it's going to be wet in the days leading to the race. Lows of 23C with 60% chance of rain. Indeed the weather has been gloomy in the evenings the past 3 weeks. At this juncture I won't take any risks running the rain but if there's going to be a downpour on race day, I'll say "BRING IT ON!" Just like sea monkeys, I come alive when I come into contact with rainwater during a race - Heh heh! Bad analogy.

Though there are obvious challenges when running in the rain - from chafing to soggy socks and shoes to impaired vision - I personally find that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Look at it this way - you can manage chafing by lubing, and vision impediment by wearing a cap. All those variables you can control, but not the weather and soggy shoes. So instead of fearing it, why not embrace it? It's not like you can turn the tap off or something like that. That's my take. Then consider this: you sweat less in the rain, obviously! Sweating is a cooling mechanism of the body and when the air and body are kept cooled by the rain, your body's core temperature doesn't jump off the charts. If you're not overly bothered or distracted by the soggy shoes, you may actually find that it takes less effort to run compared to when it's warm.

I predict with almost certainty that it will be a wet 29th especially in the early evenings. How cool race morning is depends on how long the rain persists the night before. Chances are it will be a dry but cool race morning. The past 4 Sundays saw varied weather conditions after 8am - from cool and cloudy to very sunny and warm. That means those aiming for a finishing time of 3:30 or longer may expect a bit of a challenge in the form of the sun, more so with a tough 35K - 41K section.

Today's workout was the Yasso 800s. (read about it here | here). Since this was the first time I was doing this - have previously done a couple of 1K repeats - I decided to go with 6 reps targeting 4:00 per 800m with 1:15 recovery in between. The 1:15 recovery in hindsight is too little as the prescribed recovery time is the same as the target set time. So I had much much lesser rest than recommended! The workout started after a short 800m warmup and the pre-programmed 205 took over.

Rep 1 - 5:11 (6:30 pace) = too slow

Rec 1 - 1:15

Rep 2 - 3:46 (4:44 pace) = "What the...?"

Rec 2 - 1:15

Rep 3 - 3:48 (4:45 pace) = hmmm pretty consistent

Rec 3 - 1:15

Rep 4 - 3:42 (4:38 pace) = Thinking, "Can I last the workout???"

Rec 4 - 1:15

Rep 5 - 3:39 (4:35 pace) = Thinking, "Am I running too fast?"

Rec 5 - 1:15

Rep 6 - 3:42 (4:38 pace) = Still relatively consistent

Rec 6 - 2K warmdown

Total distance = approx 8K including warmup, recovery walk/jog and warmdown.

Tapering Begins! Phew!

2 more weeks to the race and finally tapering can begin!



It's not unusual for marathoners to commit mistakes in this phase. For starters, mistake of trying to cram too much in the final weeks be it carbs, mileage, speedwork. Just like preparing for exams, preparing for a marathon needs to be approached on a consistent manner. A last-minute-burning-the-midnight-oil approach won't work and in fact can screw things up bad. Most will be well aware of injury and illness risks what with the wet weather these past weeks. The body needs to recover from all the tearing up and rebuilding of the body as a result of all the months of training. On the flip side, don't rest too much! Check out the link below for some suggested workouts.



Whacking too much carbs will only result in fluid retention - you know the feeling of bloatedness. Nancy Clark, R.D., a sports nutritionist in Boston, recommends taking in 55 to 65 percent of your calories from carbohydrates, 10 to 15 percent from protein, and 20 to 30 percent from fat. Ensure the proteins are low in fat, such as chicken, fish, lean meats, beans, and legumes. Some advocate a carb depletion phase in the final week up to 3 days of race day. This school of thought seeks to bring down the level of glycogen stored in the muscles with hard running like tempos and mile repeats. Then start loading up again from Thursday right up to Sunday race day. The boost in glycogen is apparently obvious enough to see some spectacular results. Personally I wouldn't risk this preferring a more consistent approach of loading.



Of course, there's the confidence level that needs some attention. One may feel imaginary twinges in the muscles, creaky joints - everything tend to be amplified during this period of relative quietness. Don't let that get into your psyche. You may still feel a little tiredness at the beginning of your taper but by end of the week, lethargy will have disappeared to be replaced by a feeling of raring to go - like a restrained greyhound at the start of a race. OK, bad analogy. Do a greyhound and you'll likely hit the wall hard. Think instead smooth and powerful.



There may also be some doubts on whether one can hold a goal pace. My personal experience is not to think or dwell on it. There can never be an absolute confidence for folks our level, so why waste precious resources worrying about it? Just go into the race and run according to feel - I had no expectations (in fact I had a little dread) at the start of GE but somehow managed to crank out a better than expected race. Go with the flow, monitor the body and not be limited by the pace factor.



Finalizing your race day strategies and gear would also take your mind off needless mental anguish. What to wear, what to eat etc... If it was too early to think about that last week, doing it this week would be timely.



For more tips on tapering, visit this fellow pia kaki's website.

Misc Stories

What happened over the week? Plenty. Well, in the running sense, not much. Not wanting to risk illness I took several days off due to the wet weather. Add those days to my rest days on Monday and Tuesday, my runs were only on Wednesday and this morning. Total mileage = 35K or so. Not good but luckily we're already in the final weeks of preps.

C2 came down with a bad throat infection. With it fever, runny nose, the whining, crying - the whole works. Add to that his teething (I counted 4 popping up from his gums), we have one very irritated and unhappy child and 3 stressed adults. The doctor told us to resist giving him the antibiotics but with the household tethering on exhaustion, we caved in on Saturday. I made the decision based on the fact that we will be returning to work on Monday and if he continues to be a handful, it'll be a problem for her. With 2 courses taken, C2 seemed much better. And I was also able to go for my final long run this morning.

I'm in the midst of migrating my data over to the Mac. A couple more applications remain. In fact I'm already operating mostly from the Mac. Unlike others who run both the Mac OS and Windows on the same machine, I intend to make a clean cut from Windows based platform. Enough is enough. Make the change (sounds familiar? heh heh!) Anyway I'm having loads of fun with the Mac. It just  promotes the creative juices in me.

That Windows machine will be donated to charity once the migration completes

This Week's Plans

“I believe it’s jogging or yogging. It might be a soft ‘J.’ I’m not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It’s supposed to be wild.” 
Ron Burgundy (played by Will Ferrell) in Anchorman.

I had a good night's sleep last night. Woke up late but still got in to work early, thanks to the free-flowing school holiday traffic. Speaking of school holiday, I'll be on leave this Friday. The clan will make a day trip to Genting so that the kids can have a run-around. This break will be good for all and will provide a refreshing change of scenery for the family since I've been spending the weekends hitting the roads the last month. Hope the weather will be cool, if not chilly, up there.

I plan to scale back this Saturday's mileage to just the Double Hill (instead of the 20Ks the last 2 weeks) so that I don't over-extend myself. After that I need to rush off to service the car. Time permitting in the evening, I'm going to bring C1 to watch "Dr Seuss' Horton Hears A Who". We both love Dr Seuss! Sunday will be the final round of 30ish. The legs are feeling good but this week will probably see a slight reduction of overall mileage.

I rested yesterday, so I'll be doing an easy 8-10K this evening.

Major Cleanup In Selangor

Rivalling the Enron fiasco, the outgoing Selangor state administration was reported to be hunkered in their offices putting their shredder to malicious use. P&C documents including minutes of meeting and other files labelled Confidential were reportedly destroyed. We all know what happened to Enron and Arthur Andersen but will there be a persecution of the clear as day guilty parties? Even if they're allowed to get away scot-free in this life, they will answer to a higher power when they expire.

Which brings us to another kind of cleanup - the morbid kind. The much maligned personality who hogged headlines with his various misdeeds and palatial home finally met his maker early this morning. After countless of sticks of satay and no serving of oats, while exploiting his position for personal and family gains, he died of heart attack. He's so unliked outside his own circle that I won't even corrupt this blog by mentioning his name. You can read about the news here.  

Perfect Weekend, Almost

It's 7 days to tapering. Wow! The weeks are simply flying. OK, it's not 7 days to race day but still, I'm very much looking forward to tapering.  Mileage will be reduced but not drastically. I'm approaching this tapering slightly differently, so I'll see what level this gets me to. 

I'm not there yet in terms of race readiness and neither do I want to be just yet. I'm a little tired from the last 4 weeks of training and some self doubts pop up now and then on whether all these training will be sufficient come race day. Having said that, I don't have any race goals and I don't think at this point I'd even want to consider pacing strategies. I'm assuring myself that I'd be primed once I'm rested. I want to start the race fully rested, focused and confident. 

Other than the tiredness, my training has been well. I'm ensuring that I take my supplements and extra protein (a couple of times a week) on top of Endurox.

The other good thing is that I've finally changed to the Mac after umpteen years of PC-bound. The Mac is definitely more expensive at nearly twice the price of a PC. But I've just had it with the Windows platform what with the endless risks from malware, trojans, viruses and what have you. Don't get me started on the tedious and painful maintenance work such running defrag, registry cleanup, long setup and installation and tons of crapware out there in the market. The Mac comes fully loaded - really there's no need to add any software should you choose (contrast that to the PC where it not only comes with confusing OS versions, you can't run productivity tools out of the box). Once the owner and user preferences are setup (5 minutes total), I was ready to go. Another 5 minutes later, my Palm TX and SE750i were connected via Bluetooth to the Mac. Then my Wi-Fi (the Mac is connected wirelessly - no need for a USB dongle) was setup as was the email client. Same goes for my Forerunner 205 and iPod. Very easy. I'm now in the process of migrating my docs, photos and music collection. Am also exploring some ways to move my mail messages from my Dell's Outlook and synching my Palm TX's data and contact list. Only last night, I had a whale of a time playing with the remote control viewing an automatically created slideshow of photos. Once everything's completed, C1 shall inherit the battered Dell notebook for his educational games while the cloned desktop shall be donated to a charity home. I can then devote my time to the Mac to come up with some movie or photo projects. 

So, running's been good, I migrated to Mac, the people finally unite and made their presence felt, so what went wrong? MUFC lost. One can't have it all, I guess!

Some Fellas Got Their Asses Whooped!

Unlike the mainstream media who unashamedly bandied pro-government lies to whomever still cared to buy their newspapers or watch their TV news, the Opposition relied on non-traditional channels to spread awareness. The Internet and Mobile technology certainly came to the fore this time around. Not only were the costs lower but the virulent nature of the Internet is such that news - be it legit or otherwise - can be easily spread to the masses. The stone-age government types have no idea what hit them. They ought to have seen the warning signs on what the Internet can do. It's capable of bringing crooks like Lingam's cohorts to public knowledge. There are also new legions of loyal fans of political blogs. Urbanites are more aware these days - heed the power of communication (done the right way) at your peril. The government did everything wrong with regards to communication, from the cheesy election songs to the outwardly display of sympathizers in the form of the Communications Minister and newscasters. Need I remind you that the Internet brought down Edison Chen and his past screws?! The dinosaurs simply had no clue - with persistence and resourcefulness the Opposition rode the Denial of Service attacks on their websites.

In the end, the pillaging pirates lost and the hopes of the people now rest with the "new breed" of thinkers. Power corrupts as they say and the Opposition winners are only human. It remains to be seen if the same shit we've seen will continue but rest assured, if the new fellas slack, we the people who put them there in the first place can also kick their asses back to stone age!

WTF???!!!

"What matters is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog"
Dwight D. Eisenhower

I love this quote! Especially after reading all the cooked up rubbish about the compromised indelible ink which will be used during this weekend's elections. I was so upset I wanted to scream "WTF?!" These idiots think we're fools. If I'm the saboteur, my aim would either be to wreck the votes by registering phantom voters, gerrymandering, stopping the oppositions' buses from travelling to the voting stations, buying votes - all low-down dirty tactics already employed. Why would I get these ink and go the difficult way? This tactic is pre-meditated. No such ink had been ordered from India. Probably the reported costs from the "purchased" ink had been used for other elections "activities".

The incumbent candidates (regardless of which parties they're from) who have performed well, worked honestly hard in their constituencies should not associate themselves with these plain rigging. They should defect to the Opposition or stand as an Independent. If they've been a performer, what have they to fear as the public will still support them? They should continue serving the people.

I take comfort in the Thomas Jefferson's wisdom. I've not read his biography but just see how powerful and relevant his words are. May they be a call to action for all of us to do the right thing.

 

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."

 

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

 

"If God is just, I tremble for my country."

 

"Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state. "

"Every generation needs a new revolution."

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories."

 

And to all those who don't give two hoots about the events in this country, let me bluntly tell you not to complain and don't blame others if you choose to continue being apathetic and fearful. Your kids and love ones will suffer for your fallacies if you keep accepting things as they are and not fight the good fight.

 

Somehow I think the ruling party is pushing their luck by insulting the intelligence of the common folk and by getting more blatant in their actions. All signs of desperation by those clinging to power no doubt. Will it come down to the title of Daniel Day Lewis's award winning film?

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Thomas Jefferson

RIP 2120!

After 742K of service, I'm retiring my loyal 2120 from active duty. Honorably Discharged! The soles are worn but still OK - it hasn't eaten into the midsole - but the support and cushioning are gone. I made the mistake of wearing them for a run last week and felt like I was wearing a pair of clogs. It certainly wasn't love at first wear for me and it took about 70K for me to break them in. I'm a lightweight you see, so it takes a bit longer to break in new shoes. Same for the current pair of Kayano.



Do I need new rubbers? Yes! But since I'm already at the tail-end of the KLIM training, I'll put on hold any purchases and wait for the next round of mid-year discounts. I don't buy shoes that are on less than 30% discounts. Meanwhile I'll rely on my Kayano and Elite for rotation. In the event both pairs are wet from a wet run, I'll have to bring out the still serviceable Supernova and Axiom.



I'm eyeing the Cumulus 9, Nimbus 9, 2130 or Kayano 13. All asics of course! It's gonna be difficult choosing one from these 4 models!

Cumulus 9

Nimbus 9

GT-2130

Kayano 13

Satisfying Weekend

My attention was focused on having enough energy for the crucial 30K on Sunday. So when it rain cats and dogs after the 7K mark of Saturday's 21K, I was delighted. The rain brings out the kid in me. It has been ages since it rained during my runs, so it was welcomed. However it wasn't ideal for Lee and DK who were both unwell and Geraldine. It meant that I could run at 6 minute pace without feeling it. My wet black tights looked like a seal's skin, glistening in the rain.

Woke up this morning with slightly sore legs - typically the pink lady drink aka Endurox wouldn't taken care of any aches but I think the cold and wet weather had something to do with it. Thanks to Geraldine, I didn't have any temptations to sleep in. After the usual prepping, we started our run at 5:30am. Early signs already pointed to a dry and hot day and we felt it from 8am onwards. To ensure we covered 30K or more, we did a total of 3 loops around Petronas and took the Matrade detour. Hydration was a can of Gatorade, a can of Red Bull and a can of Root Beer! Pre-race fueling included a small cup of black coffee (staying away from dairy produce) and 3/4 of a Clif Bar. No gels were taken to maximize their effect on race day. Aim was to run a conservative workout with the last 5-6K on marathon pace to simulate race days conditions.

There were so many runners out there today including many recently anointed Ironmen. Even the fast runners were out there. To cut a long story short, it was a good weekend - total logged for Sat and Sun are 52K. Next week beckons.

Lack Of Sleep (Retrospective Post)

Not from romping between the sheets. Nor from surfing the Internet for the latest juicy news on the elections. Not from planning my runs either. But watching Run Fatboy Run, a mildly funny (well, maybe I was too sleepy) comedy featuring a roundish Simon Pegg, who besides chasing after shoplifters of bra and panties are having some major problems with commitments. He ditched his pregnant girlfriend at the altar, is a bad role model for his son among other things. I've been a fan of Pegg since his days as a slacker in the zombie comedy Shaun of The Dead and as an overachieving copper in Hot Fuzz. To prove that he deserves some respect and to regain some semblence of personal dignity, he enters himself into the Nike River Marathon.

Some moments are funny enough but most are cliched - the token Indian migrant, the kid who's torn between 2 male role models, a slacker, Brits hooked on gambling, a best friend who's not fond of wearing pants and underwear.

The funny scenes include the usage of a spatula as a motivational tool, popping of a gargantuan blister and the overzealous usage of dusting powder in the crotch region.

Of course as runners you'd be interested how running is portrayed. Well, everything we can relate to the sport such as waking up early to run, the craziness of marathoners, carbo loading, spinning as cross-training, running for charity, chafing and hitting the wall (literally!). There are also gratituous Nike product placement right from the event banners, vests, gym apparels, shoes, shoes and shoes. That's too much I think. You don't need that many scenes to popularize a brand. Take Back To The Future 2 for example. Every kid wanted that high cut Nike shoes which Marty McFly wore and yet there was only a scene that featured it.

This movie is directed by David Schwimmer of Friends fame. And am I so sleepy today.