Sinful Reminiscence

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Revival!

Well well well, shit have been happening at home, in my life and everywhere else as well! I always take pride in my very own readiness to take on whatever is coming, expected or unexpected..

Quote Police Academy Mentor "DOM" - "Expect the Unexpected!"

However, things get quite irritating and frustrating when it steps into the training that i need to do.

Anyway, lets put that far behind.. this post is about my FIRST OLYMPIC DISTANCE TRIATHLON! =D

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So, it has to be trifactor, couldn't be OSIM. I just needed that extra 2 to 3 weeks to get myself mentally ready for my very own Maiden OD Tri. :)

Went to bed at 11pm the night before and found myself tossing and turning til about 3.30AM.

GREAT! i have 2 hrs left to slp.. and then i close my eyes..

and then.. "RINNNNGGGG"...

Hey.. I thought I just closed my eyes?

Anxiety overridden me and I thought 2.5 Hrs of sleep didn't feel too bad. I prepped everything and packed everything 6 times or more the day before and thus I just need to get changed, body marked, grab my food, call the cab and off i can leave with my transition Box and bike. :)

On the cab, I listened to soothing music, I felt OK, to be honest, I know that the music's gonna boost me up and I was NEVER so confident about my swim BEFORE. I knew I can make it sub 30 this time!

"The sleep's not going to get me!" or so, I thought.

So I reached there on time, 1hr before everything... Chatted with my transition area neighbours a little and went on to do my warmup swim. It still felt good. Wave condition checked, HR up, i'm ready to go.

So, I was at the starting line, at the front row waiting for the gun shot/horn... The swim start was a 3meters wide entry i think? haha.. really small and the groups are like in 100s only. So it really eases off the anxiety quite abit.

I looked ahead at the first buoy, and then the other and then the way back.. I told myself i'm gonna go at it 2x. Race pace. I can do it.

And then The Horn sounded and I did the entry just like practice. I porpoised just like how Evan taught me. Goggles was abit loose but it is ok... for the first 50 strokes, I felt strong.

But half way to the buoy... I FELT MY ENERGY SLIPPING AWAY! my arms are churning at a shockingly turnover rate.. and I FELT SLEEPY.

WTF?

still, the 2.5 hrs of sleep got me in the swim.. I relaxed and jsut tried to focus on gliding and getting the techniques right. One lap down, 16minutes. As I ran along the shore to the second lap entry, I told myself "its ok. Second lap WILL BE BETTER.".. So I went in, and suddenly, I was so alone.. I don't know why. haha.. and my morale dropped. I asked myself "I really don't feel good at all... I fucked up this race.. shit.. fuck it.." I turned around and look at the shore, its just 100m away..

And then I shaked myself up with a few more hard strokes. I asked myself these..

Why did you come?
What the fuck was those 4km of swim per week for?
You trained under Evan til you almost vomited but you still pulled through the last 6x50s and now you're giving up because you don't feel good in the 16th lap?
All your lovely boys and girls who're supporting you.. your own students in their first freshman distance and sprint distance.. Do I want them to see me telling me I gave up?

HELL NO.

I will myself up once I passed the first buoy and I finally went into race pace condition.
I build my kick in the last couple of hundreds as per practice. I ran up the shore line telling myself "Coach Nicole will be proud of this. So will Sam. AND EVERYBODY ELSE. I'M HERE TO RACE!!!! And my opponent? MYSELF."

I went into the transition knowing I'm beaten myself once in the swim.
Took my time in the transition to wear my shoes and helmet and get my bike out. I started the bike in a moderate spin gear... and then build into an average 95cad race pace that I held on for the whole of the bike leg.

I went into the run feeling great! Looking at the time, I did some math and figured I averaged abt 30kph.. goal achieved! :)

Once into the run, the searing heat was almost unbearable. A lot of people overheated.. I told myself I just have to continue going. Nic advised I may not be able to hold my race pace for 5km so I just have to BE PATIENT and do it just below threshold RPE until the last 1/3.

My goal time is below 1hr.

On the way, I met this guy named Kenny. And we striked a conversation and actually found that he's aiming for 1hr too and so I thought why not we pace each other.

We did just that and at times he pushed the pace harder, at times, I did that and dropped him a little but I looked back and cheered him on, he caught up again.

Judging from the first lap's heat condition, I doubt I could hold 3.5km of race pace as planned before hand so I decided to do it on the last lap back. When I'm there, I told myself "this is it. Race pace baby."

We let loose and I dropped him for a bit.. I carried on and pass the finishing line strong with him following closely in about couple of minutes behind.

It was Kenny's first too! :)

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It was a very very remarkable first time for me albeit a shorter bike lap but anyway, I felt like I finished the 6 laps feeling I could have gone maybe 1to 2kph faster so I think the pace is good.

Swim was disappointing but it was where I beat myself in the main struggle to continue and have a good race. That was what it was supposed to be all about isn't it?

Run was OK.. 56mins is acceptable.. Met coach after the race and since she said it was good timing for me then I shall accept it as a good timing for now! hehe.. ambitious me! :D

She had a "Training race" according to her and her timing is 2hr 33minutes..
(-_-")...

haha..

So my swim was actually 32minutes+, bike avg 30kph, and ran 56 minutes.. Plus transition of 7 minutes (time really flies here! gotta make it faster!).. 2 hr 48mins!

If bike is 4 km more, i'd be doing 2hr 56mins! hehe.. still under 3!

YAY YAY YAY

HIP HIP HURRAY FOR MY FIRST TRI!

NEXT UP: AVIVA HALF IRON MAN!!!!!! 21ST MARCH 2010!

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SAM BABY did a sub 2 hr sprint tri!!! she ran continuously this time for her 5km!!! her swim was 16minutes for 750! haha.. some guys can't even do that.:Pp so proud of her!!!!

We shall do this til old together~ :D

Love,
Sinner~

Thursday, July 9, 2009

the little things.

Finally, today's rest day! Gonna teach James how to gym in 30 minutes time though..

Later in the afternoon gonna train sam in the track....

Tired!

Anyway, was sharing with sam regarding refining the littlest of things and seeing heaps of improvements to come.

It started with me telling sam that she is much stronger this time and thus an improvement.. then she went like "no... yadayadayada... the curly hair lady's stroke is smoother than me!..."

Then I told her.. I thought I was frustrated when no matter which ang mor it was who came to training in the same lane as i do.. i seem to always, yes i meant ALWAYS, lose to them by 1 lap!
Then Nicole's words kicked in.. "You're training for yourself!".. even though those words were meant for Marcus on track session but it rang a bell quite deep inside the competitive me.

Then sam realize that yeah she's been comparing herself too often than not to the people around her instead of looking at how exactly has she improve in the simplest way - aerobic fitness.

Which ultimately boils down to why I brought her to do tri..
Reason no.1 is simple: Lifelong fitness goals!
no.2: A hotter bod!
no.3: better self confidence!
no.4: something to do together!
no.5: A reason that should be in no.1 but I shall stop being a boring man... but here goes.

We often neglect the smallest of things in life to see the so called BIG picture. And then for most of the time when we look at the BIG picture, we'll see SMALL missing pieces scattered all over the place. It may just be 1 piece, it may be 20. But the key thing is that it is often that smaller pieces in the BIG picture that will make it complete.

Triathlons and endurance sports teaches that. Especially swimming and anything that is 80% technique focus. It is the most minor of the details/technique parts that when you improved, will help you gain free race time from the entire leg of that sport! ]

And if you're able to apply that to your life, I believe if you're serious in living your life as a person as serious as you ALREADY ARE in triathlon (assuming you're serious in tri), then probably you're another a person like me who live life to 150% because we get the FULLEST and MOST completed out of life compared to those who just walk the big picture and talk the big picture and moving on to next one never finding what is missing because they're too small and couldn't be bothered abt it.

Another good teaching that triathlon has...
How often than not do we compare to the rest around us needlessly? Like yesterday's training, we were looking at people around us who're chasing each other's asses down like crazy and then we go like "damn..we're damn lousy compared to them.." even if there're only 2 who's chasing each other in the whole group of 20... and we neglected the other 18 who're swimming as well as we normal human beings do..

In the first place, we joined triathlons for our own fitness endeavours and to add on to our own lovely things to do other than sex and movie and dinner and... coaching?.. If we look back at that very reason, why are we comparing and stressing ourselves out? Being competitive is good. Especially good for improvements in aerobic and anaerobic stuffs.. but definitely bad in ways that involves techniques of ours which are not exactly mature yet.

Thats why i told her.. to work on the smaller stuffs.. we don't chase people down the water by splashing more water.. hone your swim strokes techniques and before you know it, you'll be right up there with her. I've already proven technique wins at training more than 2k and above.
Most people's technique falter and their hips went right down and so did their legs.. thus they can't swim no matter how fit they are!

Applying it to real life..
When sam coach, when I coach.. how often than not, do we compare our kids swimming to those out there in the same pool as us but under another coach? Or compare my PT client's performance compared to the rest in the gym? I always believe to find out what is correct in the books/internet/researches/people and then teach them in DETAIL to your clients... be it small boys and girls or hot babes and sporty hunks. Once they hone the techniques and feel them in their blood and skin.. they'll swim like a fish.. and they'll gym better than 95% of the gym goers in Singapore other than Mr chan and I (yes, call me arrogant but I think I do better than the 95% out there too..)

Lovely post.. gotta rush for PT!

Cheers,
Sinner

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Tips for running, swimming, biking, triathlon....

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Song of Hatred...

长恨歌

自古多情空遗恨，此恨绵绵无绝期。
多情反被无情恼，人笑我痴我偏痴。
此处难觅同道人，可怜东家太孤零。
云起天边残阳血，一声惨笑一把泪。

自古多情伤离别，一别永世无归期。
多情总被寡情伤，东家忍将利刃刺。
不念廿载追随义，同气连根相煎急。
日破云涛万里红，威猛不复长太息。

FINALLY FOUND IT! AHAHA... Just trying to find the whole wen zhang to learn.. think its damn emo.. i like!

Emo,
Sinner

Sunday, June 21, 2009

20.5KM + 38KM

haha..rode from baby's place to my place with her for 20.5KM.. then went out for a ride with fu.. 38KM of sprints and hills at mandai.. just finished 30 minutes worth of stretching..

We decided to go explore the whole stretch of Mandai.. and that we did.. when we went.. the climbs kinda caught us by surprised.. but at the end of the stretch, the two downhills were the worst worries because we thought we'd be killed when we finally on our way back..

Again, we got caught by surprised.. the way back was much easier than going there! haha.. but then again, maybe the going part was kinda spoilt by our double cheese burgers n fries.. wat to do.. nothing to eat.. zzz..

Was really happy i could sprint pretty ok because during the sprint tri practice with dear on friday my bike was COMPLETE BULLSHIT... :( glad i got it back with me again!

Fu did an excellent job too! But noticed his pedal strokes a bit on the smashing side thus the bike was surging forward again and again instead of going smoothly.. gotta focus more on perfect circles.. next time then tell him ba.. gotta go slp.. tired... me too gotta work on that.. and dear gotta work on the plantar flexion!

zzzz,
Sinner

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Scott Speedster S40 + Soul 4.0 Clincher

My little bro just got his first ROAD BIKE~~

Introducing Scott Speedster S40~

Tiagra 9 Speed parts with Scott own stock parts including its brake calipers. Very pleased with the braking performance.. maybe its because i changed the wheels to Soul S4.0... fantastic 41mm clincher to pair with this lovely bike in my opinion.

Its Bumble bee color... And it chooses its owner just like the one in Transformer too.. haha.. took it out for a spin and the setup's too comfortable for me until i found it quite uncomfortable. lol...

Equipped it with graphite look sprint pedals and it definitely live up to its name -

I.E. Speedster.

Very "Beng" in my opinion.. but it sure is a Speed Demon once it adorn the S4.0... spins like forever and slices through the wind better than my fully loaded Argon. haha..

Sounds abit jealous, yes indeed, I am. :D But I'm more happy than not for my little bro who is one more step into a healthy lifestyle!

Cheers
Sinner

Monday, June 1, 2009

Trg notes.

My training has been going on for 4 weeks.. swim trg is starting to experience some downward progress curve..

I'm guessing it is the normal drop in performance after accumulated fatigue kick in.. it means suffering for 1 to 3 more weeks.. but it also mean a peak in performance after that! exhausted.. yet excited!

Well, on the other hand.. sweets and i noticed my right pull seem to be gliding a little lesser than my left pull which is an odd thing since right is my master side. It'd only mean a flaw in my technique since the strength part is not an issue.

After making sweets watch endless short swims.. she noticed the problem bcomes more obvious when i breathe.. but it is reduce (still exist though..) in my swim when i cut out the breathing part.

I am making a guess that from my top view, my body is long from my finger tip to my toe tips.. but on the frontal view.. my left arm may be digging slightly too deep at that extended position.. i don't know.. gonna get it checked out in tomorrow nite's swim.

My legs are suffering from fatigue too.. can't kick well.. looks like i have to add some kick torture training into my swims...

Horny,
Sinner