k r i s a n d r o

I have been a Citibank customer since 2004 and in fact, my first credit card is from the bank!

Citibank recently updated their mobile banking application on the iPhone and made quite a few significant updates. Being an obsessive iPhone user, I always look for apps that are fun, cool or useful. I have always primarily used Citi Mobile banking app to login to my accounts and check for balances and transaction details on my cards and this new update caught my attention on quite a number of interesting features!

Location based searches

It is always useful to search for things you need based on your current location using the GPS and the Citi Mobile app is able to search for nearby ATMs, Gourmet Pleasures dining deals, shopping privileges and Citi Rebate outlets in your vicinity. The app is also able to base your search from nearby MRT stations in the event that you are planning in advance to shop or eat at a place with a good Citi deal, or in areas with bad GPS connection.

If there are too little or too many results from your search, you can always adjust the distance of your search in 1km increments to a maximum of 5km in the settings.

Mobile Treats

This is probably something that is interesting to folks who loves discount coupons/vouchers. The Citi Mobile app is able to download e-coupons and e-vouchers for great deals right from the app!

For now, there are only 2 Mobile Treats available for use but I’m sure they will be adding more to the list as time passes.

I hope to see more from the location based searches in the future releases for the Citi Mobile app. More listings and the ability to show all the search results on a map will be nice. I find it easier to choose where I want to go visually.

I have inside news from the Citi folks that they already have immediate plans for the app and are also looking for feedback to improve on it. So do tell them what you will like to see!

[Disclaimer] Citibank is a client of my company. The purpose of this post is to share on the features that I like and the views expressed are of my own.

Training has been great from the start of the year ever since I threw my shoes away for Vibram Five Fingers although I was probably overly enthusiastic with the momentum that I faced injury at the end of April. After 4 months of inactivity, I finally started training again at the start of September and the result is even more rewarding when looking at my data and my form.

“What doesn’t kills you, makes you stronger” – Friedrich Neitzche

Of course I don’t train to kill myself  but I definitely can see myself getting stronger after each setback.

Of course I can’t say that I ran as much as the Jan-Apr period since this is only the 2nd month into my current cycle of training but the difference is that I am running further per run on average and taking my slow runs even slower – to the point of finally calling it a jog. I am also running harder for my fast runs and tweaking it here and there to better suit it for long distance training.

I used to think that in order to run fast, one has to train fast but after reading about Japanese marathoners, they really emphasize on clocking mileage and they are extremely fast in the marathon – If I dare say, the fastest group of marathoners one can find in Asia. Some of the Japanese run as much as over 1,200-1,300km per month. That is 300-325km per week and 42.9-46.3km per day even if you ran everyday. A f**king marathon everyday! Crazy much? Haha!

Interestingly, most of their mileage is done at a “slow” 5min/km. Seeing that they race 42.195km at 3min/km, 5min/km is definitely slow for them.

As an Asian, I shall look up to their training (instead of the Americans) and hope that one day, my “slow”  jogs will be as fast as their “slow” ones.

Last year, I finish the Singapore Bay Run/Army Half Marathon in 2hrs 43mins 32secs. I shall aim high and say it here…

I’ll finish the half marathon at Standard Chartered Marathon in under 2hrs on 5th Dec 2010!