Am reviewing the NEW Reebok ZigTech shoes which claims to reduce wear and tear in key leg muscles.

When I first picked up the shoes, first thoughts were “Wow, I’m loving the colour!”. I’m quite tired of the usual white runners with small highlights of colours. I was ready for something unusual. The second thought was, “Mel would love these purple shoes!”. True enough when I tweeted about it, Mel was the first few to @reply.

Reebok has been bubbling under other major sport shoe brands, and I sometimes wonder if it’s really because of the quality or just brand perception. I’m quite brand loyal, but it’s good to see what’s out there too.

The Shoe:

So these ZigTech shoes are Reebok’s most advance running and training show to date. It’s designed to “conserve and return energy back to the runner”. .

The unique zig-zag shaped sole absorbs the impact of heel strike. The technology results in up to 20% less wear and tear on key leg muscles, shins and hamstrings

I’m a perfect candidate for shoe tests and reviews, because I currently have 2 bad knees. With Chondromalacia patella and Tendonitis caused by either over-pronation of the feet and impact sports like running. So I’m always on the look out for shoes that support my arches or in this case reduces impact on the knees.

Verdict:

To be honest, I was unconvinced. Again, perception. If it’s not a adidas, Nike or Asics, it can’t be good for me right? Well…I’ve been wearing it to the gym lately and skeptical as I was at first, it seemed pretty good on my knees so far. The only thing that I would have liked is more support for my arches.

But it’s definitely got a 10/10 in the looks department. I like the combination of the faux leather and polkadots on the shoe. It’s a multi-purpose shoe for gym, court or track, so not just a running shoe.

Been loving the splashes of colours I’ve been adding to my wardrobe lately, and this shoe has been a great addition.

Regular retail price: S$149
Available at Stadium, Royal Sporting House stores, Sports Station and selected authorised dealers.

Did a little Googling to find some additional multimedia on the shoe.

ZigTech microsite <– microsite is pretty cool I must say. Wasn’t expecting it to be so interactive and fun! Try the game

Fashion, Sports & Wellbeing Gym, Reebok ZigTech, Running, shoes, ZigTech

Another post which was lost in the drafts. Bear in mind this was written in 2008 when I was still with Wayne and still DH-ing! Both not the case anymore.

Everyone knows there aren’t any mountains to climb in Singapore, all we’ve got is Bukit Timah Hill, just 164m above sea water! sadface.

Not that I don’t enjoy it, I do, but sometimes you need to throw something different into the mix. To get that fix, Wayne, Leon, Lai, Ian and I headed up to Kiara KL, again.

This is the most we’ve ever travelled for mountain biking, think it has been four trips.

This time round, we brought up the Turner RFX for me to use, because I should start getting used to the bike if I was going to go slightly harder.

After this trip, I have to confess I have a problem. I’m scared.

Ever since I endovered the last time at Kiara, it’s never been the same. I’m constantly filled with apprehension and anxiety. All of which spells disaster if you’re carrying that fear.

The thing about doing drops and berms, you’ve got to be mentally prepped, unfortunately I’m having a lot of trouble conquering that mental block.

It’s been months since I last did any downhill riding, and I fear I’ve lost the “Gung-Ho-ness” after that spill.

Is this the end?

The two crazy boys Ian and Ben make everything look damn easy.

Leon’s first trip to Kiara.

At Angel drop, Kiara.

My best shot of Wayne, taken with the Canon SLR.

Note: If you’re going to Kiara, wear something you bought in Singapore. Possibility of wearing same shirt as your friend from Kiara: HIGH.

Half way through the afternoon, I was so ready to sleep.

Sports & Wellbeing, Travel Mount Kiara, Mt Kiara, MTB

Great to be cycling again after the back sprain and knee pains. Am slowly easing back into my exercise routine.

Went on a Vesak day ride with Andrew and Janice in the afternoon just to find our legs again. Ja hasn’t ridden in awhile too, so we both felt completely n00b and uncertain. After a couple of climbs and downhills, we definitely got back into the groove. Had a great time chatting and reminiscing our old-er cycling days.

Will have to cycle this route more often these few months. Soon I’ll be moving out of the hood, ,and Bukit Timah won’t be as close as it is now.

Am looking forward to another ride this Sunday! Who’s in?

Lizard count is back below. Did see another baby snake on the trail, but a dead one. Black body with a red/orange head. Anyone know what species that is?

Sports & Wellbeing Bukit Timah, Cycling, mountain biking, MTB

Late last year, I decided to take part in another Adventure Race. The memory of pain from the previous race in Penang had diminished, so I signed myself up for another round of torture in January earlier this year.

The SAFRA AVventura is an adventure race consisting of multiple disciplines ranging from trail biking, running, kayaking, rope ascend, abseiling, navigation and mystery tests all rolled into one exhilarating race to fully challenge those with a passion for adventure.
Taken from the SAFRA website

This year, my race buddy was Andrew (ickle’s hubby), who is an adventure racing veteran and possibly 10X fitter than me. And without his help and motivation, I probably wouldn’t have completed it. Again, I jumped into another race without training and survived. Was stoked that I finished it, although we had to miss the abseil because there were just too many people in the queue. Nonetheless, chuffed.

I love my mummy. She left this message in the kitchen table so I’d see it in the morning on race day.

For this year’s SAFRA AVventura, Some 274 adventure racers took part, which was a larger group than I had expected. We were told that the total distance would be approximately 51km. In hopes to keep things competitive, we weren’t given information on the combination of activities. We had no idea how far we had to run or how long we had to ride.

Post event reports say we had run 17km, cycled 26km, kayaked 4km and finished off with a biathlon of 4km. And besides physical endurance, they also threw in few mental challenges at several points in the race.

If I remember correctly, we had to solve a word puzzle after a bike leg, thank goodness it wasn’t Sudoku. Second obstacle after another bike leg was to inflate and deflate bike tyres. Andrew was pro at that and got us in and out of that challenge in good time. And the last one was to move a potato across 20 metres by striking it using another potato hung by a string tied around your waist.

Other obstacles included crossing a swinging bridge, monkey bars, Jacob’s ladder and army crawls. All this in unbearable morning and mid-afternoon sun, heat exhaustion would have definitely been the #1 cause of casualties.

On the last run leg of the race, our race support crew Janice and Chris were waiting by the road with ice lollies from 7-11!!! When you’ve been racing for 8hours, anything and everything tastes so good.

It’s really a test of your mental and physical endurance. By the end of the race I was broken, and so were my adidas trail shoes. Looking forward to doing another adventure race soon.

Sports & Wellbeing Adidas, adventure race, Adventure Racing, MTB, Safra AVventura, SAFRA AVventura 2010

Still loads of past blog posts which are now starting to resurface. Realise I have lots from Hong Kong still sitting in drafts! And after clicking through a few pages, I found this one back from early 2009 at the Eneloop Mountain Bike Carnival.

The Bike Carnival was held on 28 February 2009 at the Tampines Mountain Bike trail organised by DirTraction. The highlight of the carnival was the inaugural 100km night race. Besides the main event, there were additional categories such as Super Downhill and Dirty Duathlon.

I put down my name for the Super Downhill only to find out that I was the only girl who signed up?! So no category for girls

After looking at the Super Downhill track conditions, I’m kinda glad I wasn’t taking part. Right at the bottom of the route was a massive pool of mud which was almost impossible to avoid. Look at the photo above to see what I mean!

The main race was the 100km inaugural night race, aimed at pushing body to its limits, cycling 10 laps of the 10km loop of the Tampines trail…at NIGHT!

You can either go solo or as a team of 4, and with my fitness at a all time low then, I opted to join Ming, Josh and Ben as a 3 person team.

Overall the race was Okay. Transition areas were chaotic with lanes being narrow and many mud clogged bikes taking up space at team tents. In the end, no one finished the 100km because we got rained out really bad at around 10pm. Race officials made the call because the lightning posed too much of a danger for the riders.

We were absolutely drenched.

Was good to see familiar faces, including my cousin Eureka who came down from KL Malaysia for this race.

Here are two videos with footage from the actual race I found on YouTube (done by someone else) to give you an idea of what went down.

Sports & Wellbeing mountain biking, MTB, Race

I’ve been eyeing this bike online, and when I saw it at Nik & PLing’s house a few months back, I had to take it for a spin.

2 things that I love about cruisers: Coolness and Comfort factor.

A new bike shop opened down the road from work called Fabscycle. And I’ve gone back twice just to look see. Itching to get myself one!! ArGH!

Now on to fixies, there’s just something about the simplicity which I love.

The wonderful people at Urban outfitters are now allowing users to customise their fixies online for just US$399! That’s a bargain! Have a go at their website HERE. Sweeeeet!

Cruiser or Fixie? Let’s take a poll

I Likey, Sports & Wellbeing Bicycle, Bike, Poll, shopping

D was fashionably late, so Chris, Kim, Joel and I entertained ourselves by playing cherry-pip-trajectory by the berth. Also, it was only then did I realise how tall I was, towering over Kimbles.

Then we headed out for a pretty awesome day of wakeboarding at the islands.

Check out these fancy-schmancy sequence shots I put together on photoshop!

Friends & Family, Snaps & Clips, Sports & Wellbeing Photography, Wakeboarding

I have a habit of not finishing what I started. Been sitting on my arse on the PC examination for ages because I just haven’t got round to calling my Golf Pro Vincent to get me tested. This year, I hope to play more golf which means more time at the driving range.

Went to the range with Chris a couple of weeks to go, thinking I would embarrass myself by missing the ball completely. Thank goodness I still had my swing (even if its awful, at least the balls are going just short of 100m on a 7-iron). Goal this year is to hit 100 consistently on the 7.

Golf gloves from Stella McCartney by adidas.

Sports & Wellbeing Chris, Golf, Marina Bay, Marina Bay Driving Range

Been wakeboarding a fair bit these past few months, and instead of just pictures, here’s a video montage of the thrills and spills….in reverse!

*update
Just realised the video is 5mins long! Perhaps I should cut it down. Will do that tonight.

*update update
Darn it, got a notification on the use of music track on my video. Anyone know how to get around it? Mix-up the tracks a bit?

Snaps & Clips, Sports & Wellbeing video, Wakeboarding

From left: Janice & Grace.

It’s wonderful to see familiar faces at the finishing line cheering you on! Pain and suffering replaced with joy, gladness and sense of accomplishment.

Friends & Family, Sports & Wellbeing Friendship, Mountain Bike, mountain biking, MTB, Penang Jamboree

Waking up the next morning for surf school was a challenge. We dragged our sluggish selves out of bed and fed our bellies with some breakfast before packing ourselves into the van.

One of Amanda’s old friend Dedik has a surf school on Kuta beach called Double D surf school Bali. So Tony, Duncan, Chris, Marisa, Bella and I decided to give it a go!

It’s definitely not as easy as it looks, be prepared to fall off the board 100000 times before you finally ride a wave.

Look at us! We’re surfin I reckon we did pretty well for first-timers.

This is what they offer with their courses:
1. Free pick up & drop off
2. Quality surfboards & equipment
3. Sun protecting rashguards
4. Drinks
5. Showers, clean towels, & lockers
6. Insurance

For more info & bookings
website: www.surfschoolbali.com
e-mail: info@surfschoolbali.com
Phone: +62 81 7067 0046 or +62 361 780 6124

Sports & Wellbeing, Travel Bali, Holiday, Indonesia, Surfing, Travel

My boardies, Kimmy’s pink toenails, Duncan’s boardies. I swear it wasn’t planned.

Fashion, Sports & Wellbeing Photos, Pink, Wakeboarding

It’s that time of the year where we make our yearly pilgrimage up Penang Hill for the Kayuh Lasak Penang Jamboree. Last year, the organisers took a break. So we were all pretty psyched when we heard it’d be back this year.

Day 1 was spent doing the necessary such as race registration, breakfast shopping and preparing for the big ride on Sunday. It was Jo & Grace’s first time to Penang, so we made sure to cover the famous makan spots around town on Saturday too. That is a separate blog post all together.

Day 2 – Race Day!
5:45am: Wake up, shower, wiggle into cycling shorts, get water bag out of freezer, breakfast, pump tyres, check bike, spray lube, check I have all supplies in bag: spare tubes, tool kit, hand pump, energy gels, happy food.

And we’re all set to go!

We stayed quite close to race central, so it was a 15min warm up cycle to the start point. Met up with the rest of the crew and before you knew it, start horn begun our several hours of torture.

This is the first year I was doing the Penang Jamboree without Wayne, and I did feel anxious knowing there was no one but myself to rely on. For the past couple of Jamborees, it was always comforting to know that he was just a phone call away. This year, I spent most of the ride solo.

It was Me Vs Penang Hill.

As usual, if you don’t manage to get in the front pack, you quickly get bottle-necked at the climbs. What you will see are hundreds of people pushing their bike up 30 degree tarmac climbs with the hope that every hairpin turn would reveal a flatter gradient or downhill section.

Here’s an elevation map from Ming’s bike computer.

At every checkpoint, marshals will give you a little sticker on your race plate to indicate completion of that section. And only if you complete the whole route do you get to be entitled for the grand lucky draw.

A few picturesque highlights of the ride would be at the top of Tiger Hill. There was one point of the ride I just stopped and watched the fog roll in between the hill peaks, nature’s air-con at work.

I finished the race broken and humbled. Clearly my inactivity was showing at my poor performance especially on the climbs. As usual, the hill claimed many victims; riders with cramped legs were sprawled in pools of mud, scattered on the side of the trails like litter. And every now and then, you can hear screams of pain and agony in the distance. Ah, another cramper!

For me, I went home with chaffed inner thighs – friction from my cycling shorts. It’s not pretty and definitely not comfortable especially in the shower when water touches the raw skin.

Again, as I say every year, I’ll be back Penang!

Food & Travel, Friends & Family, Sports & Wellbeing Cycling, mountain biking, MTB, Penang, Penang Jamboree, Travel

I’m about to post a Penang Jamboree 2009 entry, and realised….. I HAVEN’T POSTED THE ONE I WROTE IN 2007!!!!

Here it goes…please remember this was written in 2007
It’s been one year since the last Penang Jamboree, and I don’t know what possessed me to do it again!
Read more…

Food & Travel, Friends & Family, Sports & Wellbeing Biking, Cycling, mountain biking, MTB, Penang, Penang Jamboree, Travel

I’m actually slightly acrophobic, but not extreme to the point I’d get a panic attack. But I do get nervous especially when I’m looking down from apartment blocks or even when I’m standing on the Takashimaya escalator.

But… there is one exception. I can overcome it if I’m fuelled by adrenaline, or if it’s something fun or sporty.

I’ve done para sailing, abseiling down waterfalls, jumping off a boulder in a quarry and now… the trapeze at ClubMed Bintan. Wheeeeee……………

Sports & Wellbeing Acrophobic, Fun, Trapeze

Morning of the PCC Ride, I woke up with butterflies in my tummy. Nervous because it’s been awhile since my last epic ride, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to survive this ride.

Woke up groggy from the lack of sleep, but it helped that we had a pre-ride routine:
- Get changed, fill hydration pack with bottled water, pack our toolkit, spare tubes, happy food, power gels, hydration salts, grab bike, helmut, gloves and we’re good to go.

We loaded the cars, had a quick carbo-loading breakfast at a near by coffee shop, then proceeded towards the University of Nottingham KL campus assembly point. Once we reached the school grounds, we unloaded and cable tied our ride passports to our bikes.

All registered participants are given a ride passport to collect stickers at every checkpoint.My goal was to get all 4 stickers!

The route was split into 4 stages combined to give you 65km of riding. Here’s the trail explained on the PCC website.

Stage 1 is a fast and flowing pure cross-country route with very few technical sections. It could be considered an easy ‘warm up’ even though it’s 21km! 70% canopied and no big hills.

Riders are advised to pace themselves well for Stage 2 (19km) where you’ll put your ‘warmed up’ muscles to good use. Again, very few technical sections, 1 river crossing and 70% canopied trails. Get prepared for the big-ish hill climb. The rest of the stage has rolling hills.

The best part about check point 2 was the chilled watermelon the organisers had arranged for riders. That was very much welcomed and appreciated! When your body is that exhausted and dehydrated, whatever you eat just tastes so much better. At that moment, you’re going “OMG this is the BEST watermelon in the world, the bananas taste so good!”. But I bet at any other given time, it would just taste blah.

Oh and forget about hygiene, because by that point, you don’t really care. You’d grab the watermelon with your glove, proceed to chomp it down, dripping juices all over yourself and when you’re done, wipe the excess bits off your face with your dirty sweaty cycling shirt.

Stage 3 is short at only 10km but that’s because there are not that many flat sections so it includes some short hill climbs and fun technical descents.

Stage 4 is the best with 16km of estate tracks, plantations, single tracks, flats, climbs and more climbs and a grand finale descent back to the Finish.

This year’s ride was especially taxing for me, but I’m glad to have finished it. I was absolutely spent, and was just looking forward to a nice hot shower and a big lunch.

In summary: Fantastic cross country trails, although I would have preferred more flowy downhills. Race was well organised as usual, but a shame it started to rain before the lucky draw started, we all left to avoid getting totally drenched.

On a side note, it was lovely to meet some Malaysian riders who have been following this blog *waves*.
From left to right: Nik, Max, Eric, Yew Weng, Chee Han, Wayne, Chi, Ling, Angela, Leon

After a wanton mee and chee cheong fun, we were all set for what seemed to be, a very long drive home.

Thanks to the PCC guys for organising the ride.

Next epic ride: Penang Jamboree 2009… Who’s going?

Friends & Family, Sports & Wellbeing Malaysia, mountain biking, MTB, PCC Presidential Ride

First big ride for 2009 was the PCC Presidential Ride in Kajang Kuala Lumpur. Judging from the number of mountain biking posts this year, you can tell how LITTLE I’ve hit the trails. I guess it was the culmination of the break up, lack of motivation and no partner to cycle with. So the PCC ride this year was a little tough mentally and physically.

We all drove up on Saturday morning for the Sunday ride. Thanks to Nik for carpooling and giving me and my bike a ride up to KL. The convoy of 4 cars took about 4 hours from Singapore to KL.

We reached the hotel early afternoon, which meant we had the rest of the day to kill. Hmmm… what to do, what to do…. We went into KL Central, and decided to get a massage! OMG, that massage was the worse massage I’ve had in my entire life! It was rubbish. The masseuse clearly had no idea what she was doing, i felt completely physically abused. Let’s just say there was a lot of hair tugging and back slapping!

We ended the night with a seafood/zhi char dinner before heading home for an early night. I know it’s not terribly exciting, but I just needed to pen this down, so I’d remember what we did.

Read more about the ride in the next post.

Friends & Family, Sports & Wellbeing Biking, KL, Malaysia, mountain biking, MTB, PCC

Feels good to be cycling again… Time to train up for the PCC ride in 2 weeks.

Lizard count is back too…

Sports & Wellbeing mountain biking, MTB

Chope

Feet

Not a great finish, but it’s a great picture.

Sports & Wellbeing Adidas, Golf, Sports

Filmed for the ESPN Star Sports hitsquad team.

Was just after our ride at Bukit Timah Mountain Bike trail on a Sunday. Was hot, sweaty and out of breath, GREAT for TV :/ oh dear…

Snaps & Clips, Sports & Wellbeing mountain biking, MTB, video, wayne, youtube