Chew On This

Spotted this on one section of the wall at the Nike Sales Malaysia office. That's the bottom line folks! Like it or not, you'd better get busy living or get busy dying. Have a great week!

Shoe Review: Nike Zoom Elite 3

My only experience with the Elite was the previous Elite 1 and 2, both of which were not only lighter that the 3 but featured less forefoot cushioning. The first and second versions, while widely liked, had durability issues.

To solve it, Nike increased the outsole thickness and as a result the weight went up by half and ounce. Naturally you can’t please everyone but the opinions are quite evenly distributed in the online forums. There were many who panned the increased weight of the shoe, but many liked the upgrade too. The Elite 3 were worn in training by Nike elites like Dathan Ritzenhein and Adam Goucher.

Having retired 2 pairs of Pegasus 2005, I was on the lookout for a lighter pair of go-fast training shoes that will double up as my marathon racing shoes. Choices were limited if you’re in the market for a lightweight yet stable (with a small medial post) shoe that’s cushioned enough for the longer distances. I found the asics DS Trainer too firm and flat for the marathon while I didn’t quite adapt to my Brooks Axiom 2. I found the Elite 3 on a big discount and since then it has become my favorite racing shoe for longer distances of 30K and above.

To read the rest of the review, hit this link.

Secret Buddy

Our business group staff committee put up a mini staff appreciation campaign where colleagues within a department exchange tokens of appreciation without the recipient knowing who gave it. Names are drawn and you secretly deliver whatever gifts, messages or cards to that person. The recipient will then guess who their Secret Buddy is.



You have the typical coffee or juice gift vouchers, chocolates and mints but among the notable gifts found on the tables were 2 pink wrapped condoms complete with Beyonce's "Baby Boy" lyrics, a flask of herbal soup, teddy bear clutch bag, actual teddy bear, banana bread, another box of expired (!) condoms, a bunch of bananas (for a potassium deficient manager), 2 cans of Red Bull and Livita. I bought a colleague a slice of banana chocolate cake.



I received a 300ml box of fresh milk and 2 mini boxes of imported cereal in a large recycled envelope with the message: "You must be the only person I know that is so passionate about his run. So much so that you are willing to give up on precious sleep hours to run in the wee hours of the morning. Here's something healthy for you to start your day!". When I got back from lunch just now, a second envelope awaited me, this time 2 bars of Snickers with a note "Keep this with... in case you're feeling hungry but don't want to break the momentum". I thought, this person certainly knows a thing about staying fuelled for the long run!



The clincher came in the 3rd envelope with a note attached to a bottle of shower gel that read "Last but not least... BO is totally unacceptable! So, wash up clean before you come to work." This person has a sense of humour too. I'm taken care off not only before a run but after too!



I'll eat half of the Snickers bar before my 25K tomorrow. Must run slow because I won't be getting enough sleep. I'm still at work...

Don't Con Us!

The Story About "Subsidy"

A man called Razak owns a farm which can produce 10 apples every day. He has 5 workers to operate the farm. Each of them eats 1 apple daily and it is enough to keep them operating the farm normally. The remaining 4 apples, the landlord sells them at RM10 each and he earns RM40. He uses the RM25 to improve the farm operation and facilities. He gives RM2.00 to each of his workers and he keeps the remaining RM5.00 as profit. Day by day, the farm is well developed and all of the 5 workers are happy with the money they can save.

When Razak passed away and there is a new landlord, PokLeh comes to continue the farm operation. He says to the workers: "We need to improve the farm quality and redefine our way of thinking. From now on all of you only need to pay RM1.00 for each apple you eat. It is very cheap as the price is RM10 each outside the farm."

The workers have no choice but to pay RM1.00 for the apple they eat daily. Their earning decrease from RM2.00 to RM1.00 per person. As usual, PokLeh sells the 4 apples and he gets RM40. He uses RM25 for farm improvement and pays RM10 to his 5 workers. He gets RM5.00 as profit. On top of that, he gets another RM5.00 from the apples that he sells to his workers. In total, he gets RM10 as profit every day.

Soon, the apple price increases to RM20 each. The new landlord gets a higher profit as he gets RM80 for the 4 apples he sells daily. Then, he decides to give the farming improvement contract to one of his close friend, Samy.. Samy says:"Apple cost naik, improvement cost also misti naik." So, the farm improvement cost increases from RM25 to RM50. In actual, the improvement only cost RM30. The remaining RM20, PokLeh and Samy share evenly among themselves.

Let's calculate how much PokLeh gets daily:

RM10 (from farm improvement cost)
RM20 (Net profit by selling 4 apples: [Gross profit, RM80] ?
[Improvement cost, RM50] ? [Wages RM10] = RM20)
RM5 (from selling apples to his workers)

In total, PokLeh gets RM35 daily compare to RM10 initially when he takes over the farm from Razak. His profit increases RM25 and the workers are still getting RM1.00 daily per person.

The greedy PokLeh does not want to stop there. One day, he says to his fellow workers:" You see ah, the current market price for one apple is RM20 and you are only paying RM1. See how lucky you are! I have to SUBSIDY RM19.00 for each of the apple you buy and total I need to SUBSIDY RM95.00. This will greatly burden the farm and we might get bankrupt if we continue like this. In order to avoid bankruptcy, I need to increase the apple price that you buy from RM1.00 to RM1.50 and I will bare the remaining RM18.50 per apple as my subsidy to you all. "

So, greedy PokLeh adds RM2.50 to his current profit and the number becomes RM37.50.

After you have read the story, I am sure you have already understood the meaning of a 'SUBSIDY' given by the BN government. The RM95 subsidy never existed in the first place and so was the RM52 billion fuel subsidy generously 'given' by the BN government..

Cutting fuel subsidy is actually just a reason to steal money from your pocket. Are you gonna stand there and let them rob you???

The Other Blog

I've not updated this blog much, but only because my focus is directed at getting ready to start my training for New York. It appears that I won't be getting my 1 month break from running anymore after checking the calendar. Some light jogging 4 days the last week was all I did. Total mileage was less than 20K, but it's all about keeping it low-key now. The time will come soon for the hard work to begin.

You can follow the progress of my training over at the Road To The New York City Marathon. That blog will certainly see more updates going forward but it's far from the end for the Carboman blog!

adidas Sundown Marathon Race Report

At the agreed time of 9am a day before the race, the group of us (Choi, Frank, Shine, Cheang, Guna, Runwitme and I) were there. I believe, including Uncle Sonny's party, there were at least 14 of us in the same bus. It almost felt like we were on the Pacesetters bus heading to the Singapore Marathon. Shine and Tey were penned down to run the ridiculously insane 84K ultra marathon, while the rest of us "just" the usual 42K.

This marathon was to be my 9th marathon, the 2nd for 2008. By year end, I'd hopefully knocked off 3 marathons. The last time I completed a trio of marathons were way back in 2004, I think. Even after completing 9, I can attest that it never gets any easier. Having trained for the 2008 KLIM in November last year, Sundown was to be my winding down race before my 1 month break from any structured running. I'm just tired and despite the 5 PRs set for the races done this year - GE30K (2:56), KLIM (4:16), Orange Run (sub 49 minutes), NB15K (1:18) and RMAF (1:48) - I've not felt comfortable nor relaxed doing the last 2. It was time for a break before the periodization-base phase in July for my November marathon.

To read the rest of the report (a little too lengthy for this blog), hit this link!