Sleeping now..

It is 9:20 pm and I am heading to bed. I rarely sleep this early. Tomorrow morning run at 5:30. I want to do my long run before work so I can go to my church's prayer meeting at night.

Thanks for all the encouragement...all I can say is that the next few years it will be a wild ride..these few days have been herectic (as usual). Last week I miss a few swim drills. This week i want them back.

They predict tomorrow morning will feel like -4* F. Nuts :)...I am going to make sure I carry my gel inside my jacket. I hope it doesn't freeze :D. Then again, it would be quite hilarious to have my tongue stuck in the gel flask :D

At the fork of the road...

Last week, my training has gone up and down. Looking back, I missed my bike drills and need to hit the pool more often. Yesterday, I had a chat with my sis and we discuss about my training and my career.

Basically it came down to this...I only have time and effort to focus on one thing.

Either my work career or my "tri" career (if u can call it that).
Could I have done both at the same time? Probably. But what is one thing I want to do if I can do it everyday for the rest of my life? (in another words, what is my purpose..what is God created me to do).

The answer became very clear.

Looking back the month of Feb, I haven't really push myself into making the transition. I haven't find a job that just pay the bills so I can focus on my training.

I told my sis that if I want to become a coach in the future, I have to start training now. I need to do it myself before I can help others along the way. That just make sense to me. Besides training and racing is fun anyways ;). She was very supportive. We set a date to go back to Hong Kong next year and visit relatives.

My future is a blur. I have no idea where I will end up with. But I know I will be landing into doing something that has to do with endurance sports. Be it racing, coaching, or in the industry (more business sided). For now there is only one focus...train train train...IMUSA 2007. Everytime I feel discourage during my run, swim or bike, I remind myself the struggles I will face in Lake Placid. Either I pay up front right now with my training, or I pay later in LP.

It was chilly outside (about 0* F) but I didn't care. The mp3 player died 15 min into the run but I didn't care. I had 6 hours of sleep but I didn't care. I just want to go out and do my run. Climb those hills and become stronger. I focused on my form. Making sure I am running tall. It felt great. It felt exceptionally great when I know my sis is supportive.

I selected a valley to do my hill training. From one end to another is about 500 m. I ran 5 laps. That's about 5 km. I have no idea the grade level. One side of the valley is steeper than the other side. I focus on my HR and my form. My HR ranged from 150-170.

Not too bad. The left knee was feeling uncomfortable at the tend. My left ankle didn't have that lagging pain from Wed's long run. I also notice in the past few days, my left hamstring was a bit sore. Could the hamstring soreness has to do with my left knee and left ankle problem? Today is much better. I ain't doing any running by Wed. It should be fine by then.

This morning woke up early and hit the pool. Spent the first 20-30 min doing leg drills and IT drills. Spent the rest of the time doing 250 with 1 min rest. I did 4 sets before I call it a day. I enjoy swimming in the morning better. There are less people to contend the lanes with.

Will be doing some weights and yoga tonight.

...One long day.

Woke up at 9:30 am
Plow driveway at 10 am
Bike for 3.5 hr (from 11 am till 3:30 pm) [explain the difference at the bottom]
Change, eat lunch, do dishes, do laundry from 4 till 5 pm
Go to work at 5:30 pm
Network with a slight frustration till 6:45 pm
Drive to see Toronto Mass Choir (starts at 7:30 pm till 10 pm)
Dinner (beer!! 11 pm - 12:50 am)
Home (1:30 am)

I don't know about you but when I bike, my digiestive system just wants to clean itself. I had to go to washroom (#2) twice and well, I guess I have to figure out how to clear my system before I go on long rides when spring comes (any suggestions will be greatly appreciated).

I really didn't want to get on the bike. It was boring and mentally i wasn't focus. Not only after an hour and start watching Band of Brothers I really got into the groove. Once in a while I will increase my cadence to 100-110. I couldn't hold it for long.

I have to play with my nutrition plan.

Base on the HRM, I burned about 1800 calories for 3.5 hours.
I was taking 2 gels an hour (every 30 min).
Each gel has 100 calories.
Assume I burn 600 calories an hour and I take in two gels (= 200 calories).
This means 400 calories are from my fat and carbs.
One more useful fact, my HR hovers from 125 - 145. This means I am still in zone 1 and 2 (aerobic mode).

What does all this number means?
It looks like I am ingesting more calories than I need. Next time I will take 1.5 gel an hour and see how i feel afterwards. I don't want to consume too much gel. When it goes to the intestine, it will draw water from my body.

Today is a very long day. To say the least, it wasn't the best day. I tried putting salt into my recovery drink and it tasted nasty. There was a lot more house chores than expected. The networking, I got an wireless access point but the computer cannot see the network. Negative talks hover over me like a fog. The negativity tries its way to explain how come I have to go to work during off hours and not get appreciated and expected to work HARDER. It was a lot of things.

I was really glad I went to Toronto Mass Choir. Gospel music...is really uplifting. We sing, we dance, we clap hands, we raise our arms. I got a Chinese Church and we are generally the conservative crowd. I really ejoy the openess. It really lifted me up.

Usually at work, I don't ask Jesus for help. Yup..pride at work...but recently with the networking, I really pray about Him giving me the knowledge to get it in gear. And is true, He always provide.

Best of all, afterwards, I had dinner. This ain't a dinner. Oh no. This is a feast. I orderd calamari, nachos and chicken wings. I share that with a friend..and yes of course there is beer to wash it down.

Lo and behold, I asked my friend tonight....and he know his networking stuff. He gave me a simple solution to the network problem i was struggling..... :)

The day has its ups and downs...still train.and still keep my faith.

Quick blurb...

Not much going on. I went to the gym this morning. It was still a blur. I was struggling getting up or staying in bed. I am suppose to do weights on Thurs. I bail and put it on Fri. Today is also my run drills. I ain't going to bail on that. I want to get a swim in as well. I haven't swim in the middle of the week. The drills that my coach told me to do I haven't done them at all.

I figure I will do the weight in the morning. Then do the run and swim at night. This way, my body has about 8 hrs to recover from weights before I do my run. The swim, I will cut it short and spend 15 min in the hot tub to stretch more. So by Sat rolls around, I am ready to do my long bike.

For the past two nights I didn't got much sleep. I stayed in the office till 1:30 am on Wed to set up the network. Yesterday I didn't do any exercise. Legs were still tired from Wed's run. I did went to the hot tub to stretch for 15 min. Hot water and stretch is a perfect mix.

I told dad I would drop him off the station in the morning. Then I would drive to the gym. Do weights, go home and pick up mom and head to work.

I did that today. Legs was a bit stiff. My first exercise was the leg press. That was a tough set. I was pressing 230 lbs. That is not a lot. I am going to increase it to 280 lbs. I think I have done 300 lbs back in University.

On the job front...I just got the networking to work. One network can see the other network over the internet..woohoo...it feels great....feel like I just give birth :D....more like twins.

I am really looking foward to tomorrow. In the afternoon, I will finish setting up the network once and for all. My friend is part of the Toronto Mass Choir and they are performing tomorrow night. After that, I am going to bump into some old friends for beer and wings. YES that's right. I am on a 95/5 diet. 95% of what I eat is diet and 5% I can eat anything I want. On a weekly basis, 5% amounts to about one meal. And I am saving this meal for tomorrow night. :D

Enjoy the weekend....if u are training..push hard...if u are relaxing..rest easy. :)

Running at 10:17 min/mile!

Woohoo...last night I had one of the best runs ever. Instead of running with a HR of 140, I run with 150. Oh it feels much better. Along the whole run, I could feel I am moving faster. I always run the same route. Places where I normally take an hour to get to, it took me 50 min. In fact, I had to increase the route by cirling around the block b/c I am running faster than normal.

My mp3 player died half way. My gel once again got stuck in the flask. My left ankle was hurting. It doesn't matter. I was flying along. My plan was to run to 2 hr 10 min. I stopped at 2 hr 8 min. My left ankle was hurting too much. Gotta make sure I had good form when I am tired.

The night was amazing. I would look up from time to time and felt the vastness. The feeling is incredible. It is like I am in my own world.

Now for the exciting part...number crunching :)

Looking back at my 10 k race last Nov. I did 10 km in 50 min. That's translate to 8:02 min/mile. My HR was averging about 180. My LT is around 175. So I am in anaerobic mode.

For the past 3-4 weeks, my long runs were 12 min/mile. My HR was 140. I am in Zone 1.
Last night, I ran a 10:17 min/mile with a HR of 150. I should be in Zone 2.

So what does all this mean? Well, first I am using this as a baseline for my future long runs. The data I collected last year is not very accurate as I did not stop the HRM when I hit red lights. This time around I am trying to be as accurate as possible.

If I can run 12 min/mile with 140 and 10 min/mile with 150, how fast can I run with a HR of 160? 170? 175 (my LT)?

I have before ran a much faster pace than 10 min/mile. I am happy b/c I have ran this with a much lower HR. Preceived effort is about a 6. With no data to back up, I still feel my economy has been increasing :).

Well that's that. Going to do some hill training this Friday. My left knee experienced some sharp pain. I don't know when or where but at times there is a sharp pain below the knee cap. It happened three times last night out of the blue. I figure this is due to:

- bad form at the end of my run (I was focusing on my cadence and must have drop my form [dragging my feet])
- worn shoes

I don't think it is a big problem. Probably by tomorrow or Sat it will get well.

Mind Control.

This won't be any new profound idea in life. It started from reading T-Metz's post.

If you can't visualize yourself on that podium, you'll never get there, no matter how incredible of an athlete you are.

I have invest a great deal of time, effort and resources to train. I have changed my diet and my living habits. Why not do the same for the way I think?

I have a tendency to poke fun of my slowness. Swimming for example. Is this helping me in becoming training better and harder? Nope. If what I am thinking is not helping me toward my goal, why just not think about it?

I recall when I was taking a driving class, the teacher said wherever you look, you will be heading there. Hmm..this also applied to snowboarding. Where I look is where I will head to. And it works just the same when it comes to mentality.

I stop poking at myself (ok except that rock bit :D). In my head, I am thinking of myself as a triathlete. There is no more of that "this is hard" "this is grueling" "I can't do this". That's not good for me and my soul.

I remember back in November when I started to train, I have a lot of doubt. In fact, they were screaming at me (yes there is more than one voice in my head :) ). Now they become quieter. More like a whimper.

Last night at the swimming pool, I bumped into another triathlete. His name is Stuart and he is a regular in the pool on Tues night. He has also done a IMUSA. He is now training for IM Canada. I resisted on talking about how boring the trainer was or how hard the training is getting. Instead, I focused on the positive. I was telling him about the hill that I saw last Sunday and how I would go train once spring hits.

It wasn't easy. But it was managable.

---

My friend sent me this article yesterday. It is about the similarity between a Christian and training for a marathon.

Dave and others had asked me about the potential job interview. I turned it down on Mon. It was quick. Hello this is Cliff. Oh it is there. Nahh I am not interested. Thank you and Good luck on your search.

I thank God for getting the VPN to work. I really have no idea what is going on. I also give thanks to Will for his help. I am understanding the networking aspect. Yeah I am a geek :).

There is something I want to write..but no time..I rather talk about the situation I have been going through lately...once this networking project is done and over with, we shall see.

Have you ever seen a swimming rock?

When I am busy, my appetite goes out the window. This morning I didn't eat breakfast and only had two Clif shot before my workout. It is now 1:30 pm before I am eating. No good.

Busy with work..really need to get this networking done. The worst part being in IT is that a lot of time u can only do upgrades during off hours. :) Need prayer here.

I did my long swim last night. It was good. I could really feel the glide. The coach told me to swim in set of 200s. I swim 200 and take a break. My break last from 45-55 seconds. I get back in the water once my breathing drops back down. By the last sixth set, I felt a muscle pull on my left foot. Never happened before. I waited until the pain died down and beared out the last set.

When I go faster, I don't have to kick as much. So I stroke, stroke, stroke, breath + kick. An improvement compare to two weeks ago.

Last Fri, the Coach took some pic of me swimming for his website. Well, he sent me one of them. Now...here is the pic of a swimming rock...enjoy :)

Weekend summary

Fri night, I went to my free swim lesson with my coach. It is amazing how when I am in the pool with the coach, I feel stronger, move longer and faster. Anyway, I need to work on is getting my flick. Coach say I can flick 2-3 inches more. As we know in swimming, kicking is not a big thing. But i have to make sure my kick ain't handicapping my speed.

Then we work on more drills. Fish, zipper switch, under hand. My left shoulder needs to stop arching too far back when I roll my hand over. Glide on railways. I can feel the glide when i was at the pool on Fri. But now I think i lost it. Nuts :). Coach was taking some pic of me doing drills b/c he needed them for his website....sweet now i am going to be famous :D.

Need to get back to the swim drills. Get back to the fundamentals. I need to achieve that gliding feeling again. Now I understand what it means to push the water instead of pulling it.

Sat, did 3 hr bike hour. Nothing biggie. Just the end, it was getting boring and started turning to one gear over to work harder on the legs. At night I went to a friend's b-day dinner and bowling. It was fun. I haven't done anything normal for a long long time.

This morning, went for a run. It was -21* C (-4* F) with windchill. You guys must have prayed hard b/c I DID NOT FEEL the wind as the one I want on Fri morning :). (Note: I ran 8.1 min/mile at 94% to my LT [zone 3]. Need more tempo runs.)

I listened to Simply stu's podcast. Geez this guy is so positive. I am swear he is smoking something b/c he is so high all the time :). I am going to start listening to him from now on.
And Kahuna and IronWil has another podcast up on Friday. This one is great. Great interview with Mad Mel (good advices) and good way to look at life from IronWil. They did an interview with Simply Stu as well.

This will be a stupid question but how do u subscribe to those podcast on itune?...If you can help me with that one...I will be greatly appreicated.

Lastly, I have a phone call from BMG Colubmia House. They have 4 business analyst position available and interested in interviewing me. Sweet...all I can say is this is God's work b/c I haven't apply for any jobs.

Nap now...need to get back to the office and set up a VPN...(computer stuff)...

No Limits Training - 11 days left and What do you do with your 5%??

Just been looking back the training this week. When I drop, I really drop my training. Mon and Tues I spent the most of my time recouperating from my snowboard expedition. Wed did my long run. Yesterday, did one leg bike drill before going to Fellowship. This morning, spent 45 min at the gym. Tonight, I will meet with my swim coach and get my free session in. Tomorrow I am doing a 3 hr bike ride. If I am feeling well, I might hit the pool afterwards.

I get pay on the 1st and the 15th. When I got my pay check on Wednesday, I know I have half a month left until CMS' No Limit Challenge. Looking back, I almost double my training hours (15 hours) compare to my marathon training last summer (8 hrs). I was talking to Will that 15 hours is not unmanageable. This ain't to say that I will be doing 15 hour every week. I just need to make sure I take care of other life stuff along the way before spending that week on training.

Based on weather channel, today's gust is at 57 miles/hr. I wish the weather stay like this until Sun when I go do my running drill. I know it sounds crazy. But I need harsh weather to train in. The harsher the better. Ever since I started training, I haven't really feel I have push myself. I have train longer, yes. But mentally I haven't have this "man this is crazy, let's do it attitude". I have instead the "man this is crazy, I hope it ain't like this when I train" attitude. I can train easy on the distance and the intensity. But the weather, oh, I have to make sure I face the most dreadful weather out there. This way, when IMUSA rolls around, it ain't so bad :)
So yeah.pray the wind stays strong. I want cross wind, head wind..wind that blow me away...
----

From the book, Paleo Diet, Joe Friel suggested a 95/5 diet. Pretty much 5% u can eat anything and 95% of what you eat to your diet. Compare to last year's 80/20 diet. This seems a bit extreme. If tri and training is more of a recreational and a lifestyle than competition, 80/20 works very well. So far, I do enjoy the healthier eating of things. Mostly the family factor helped a lot. Friends still think I am crazy but I guess I enjoy getting that kind of attention :D.

5% of what I eat is pretty much one meal a week. I make sure that this free meal is not before or after a long swim, a long run or a long bike. Last night at fellowship, we played Cranium and had cakes. I had 2 slices of black forest cake and 1 slice of custard cake. They are big slices too. Yup. That's my 5% for the week. Cranium is a great game. It is a mix of pictionary, charades, word games and trivial persuit. There is one part where you have to hum a song and your team has to guess what it is. The song I picked was "Who let the dogs out" by Ba Ha Man. It was hilarious. There were three team and each of us were humming the same thing.

I still miss beer and wings, beer and nacho chips, beer and beer :)...I guess I will leave that 5% until next week.

Mind over matter...

Athletes Don't Have a Lock on "The Zone", from LA Times. I was lazy and was asking Steve, from ChristianRunner.com, to summarize it for me. In his own way, he told me to "stop being so lazy, get off your butt and go read that article". Well I unlazy myself, registered and read the article.

In short, it talked about the importance of training the mind when for athletes. I remembered listening to Gordo's interview on enduranceradio.com. He mentioned that the Top 10 people were within two minutes in the Escape To Alcatraz. What does this mean? Well, in a tri race, 2 minutes is not a lot. This means that the physical aspect of the top 10 triathletes are very close to each other. Then the competitive advantage lies in mental strength.

My first interest in the mind aspect started when I read a bit about Anthony Robbin's work a few years ago. Here is a motivation speaker who started from nowhere, became famous. Then went broke and build it all again. What he was really good at is his ability to control his thoughts, especially the bad ones.

To be honest, I am not very well at this. I have days where I let the negative thoughts overwhelm me. This morning would be a good example. On the way to the pool, I thought about all the problems at work. The result can be seen when I hit the chlorine bath. My stroke was off. I felt like I was not grabbing air. I felt like I want to quit. I also start leaning the soreness from snowboarding as an excuse (realistically is about 1/2 reason 1/2 excuse but i felt the whiney side too).

The only thing holding me back is that I need to put money in the bank. Invest now and withdraw it on race day. I am meeting my swim coach this Friday. There is no way I want to see him with no improvement. I also tell myself that I didn't went to the pool this early for nothing. If I left, it would be a waste of time. Lastly, on morning swim, my mom would drive the car to her work place and I picked it up. It was a short walk and if I don't swim, I would waste all the time sitting around doing nothing. Oh, forget it. Sitting around is more painful than swimming poorly. I went to my change room, grabbed my fins. Did some drills. Went in the hot tub and stretch.

I am going to write another post..probably tomorrow. There is more I want to talk about. I really like this topic b/c it is so powerful. Once you can control your mind and emotions, instead of having it control you, you can do anything....(even registering LA times and read their article :D)

...

On the job front..today I got a call from a head hunter. She saw my resume on workopolis. Woah, I can't believe posting your resume online worked :D. Anyways, we talked a bit and during the conversation I asked her the location and it turned out to be an hour drive one way. I was quite interested in the position. I will be working on a company that turned IPO. The IT team is small so there is a lot of chance to grow. But after finding out the lcoation of the work place, I lost concentration. While the lady continued to talk about the job description, my thought was that it would take too much time to commute (and less time to train). I went back to the reason why I need a change of job. 1) Close to Home 2) Time to train (no OT) and 3) Average Pay. This job only fits the average pay.

So I turned it down. I asked her that if there is any position around my city, let me know. That phone call changed my mood throughout the day. I realized that my resume is quite good and not as bad as I thought. :)...

Soreness all over.

I didn't do anything last night. I got home and slept at 6. I woke up at 3:30 am this morning. Body is aching all over. Snowboarding is quite a workout.

Went to the pool this morning and planned to do some endurance swimming. I am way too tired. I had trouble breathing. It felt like everytime I took a breathe, I am taking in nothing instead of air.

Did some TI drills. Now at work. See how my body is..today my schedule is to do a bike drill and some yoga. If I am still too tired, I will just do yoga and rest some more.

Snowboarding to train for tri? Or tri to train for snowboarding?

Going to do a quick blog before heading to bed.

Someone once said that it is not what you do, but the people that you do with that's important. I am never a people person. I get very irritated by people that are cheap, or whiny or picky. If there is one thing I learn ever since being Christian is to accept others as who they are.

Then there are friends that you just click. You don't have to know them long. And best of all, you can just be yourself. Well, today, I've spent time with two people that I will always have a lasting friendship forever. I met them both in university days. For me to spend 40,000 for school is not about degree or the paper. It is more just finding people like that just click. I guess that's $20,000 a head. Friends sure are expensive.

Anyway, away with this friendship fuzzy feeling stuff. Tonight was a blast. I am starting to control the snowboard better when I picked up speed. And boy was I zooming by everyone. There is this trail call Happy Valley. It is long and gentle. Perfect for newbies. Also perfect for fast speed.

There was also one slope call Dr. Doug. It dropped a bit and then it was for about 500 m before another drop. If you are on board, you gotta make sure you are going down the flat with some speed. If you fall, you have to dig yourself up the flat because you can't build any speed (whereas skiiers can use the poles to get themselves up). Lo and behold, I fell, head first in front of spectators. So I spent my time humiliately climbing up.

I wasn't satisfy. The slope was not steep. It was only a green. Well, second time around, it was time to redeeming myself. It was good. I was cutting left and right. Turns are tight and going down fast.

I really should have brought my camera. Next time I will. There ain't too much tree hugging incidence. Except one ride where me and my friend discovered a side route that goes along the trees. We took it. He tried to come down and went into a pole. Quite funny. They have to get someone to go and help him out. We also got warn :)....

I also have some friends that were starting out. They were in the baby hills and one girl was having a hard time learning how to lean. I spent a few rides teaching her to lean. Afterwards, a few other friends came and asked about her progress. The questions were as follow "well, did she learn how to do toe-edge?" "No" "Did you learn how to do heel edge?" "Nope" "well, is she a lost cause??"

Interesting..I thought about how i started snowboarding. I fell and I fell alot. But it doesn't matter. I had fun falling. I had fun learning how to lean. I had fun learning how to turn. I had fun going down moguls head first and making myself like a fool (that was really funny....even I have to stop b/c I was laughing at myself so hard). The point is I had fun no matter about my results.

Does this sound familiar to training, triathlons or races? I start to think about this in a broader term. What about in life? If we all base our satisfaction on results....well...no one walks without first falling..no one bikes without scrapping their knees....no one swim first without choking some water...hmmm...we won't be learning any of those things b/c if we first try, for sure we would fail. I just thought it is funny how some people think like that.

It is way pass my bedtime(2 am) :). Oh last night's friend has an open house party. There was a girl that just got a roadie (Specialized Ali) and thinking of doing triathlon. And there was a guy that had done triathlon for 5 years. Yeah, there was a lot of tri talk. :). Will is going all crazy saying "oh is this girl single..." and what not...ha too funny.

Lastly, on the way to Blue Mountain today, I drove up a hill that is 800 m in length and is quiet steep (not sure about the grade). It turned out that hill was part of last year's Canadian Triathlon Championship course. I can't wait until spring/summer when I can go and climb this hill. I want to climb it until my legs fall off (probably should get a spare set off ebay).

And the numbers please...and some random thoughts


I manage to grab this off the crosstrainer program. If there is one thing lacking about this program, it is the lack of graphs or summary. It feels like a blackhole. You put in the data but it is not user friendly to grab them out. If you look at the two bolded numbers, you will see that as of this week I have trained 15 hours. Woohoo. This is an all time high for Cliffy here. I wish I have a beer to celebrate but Wylee drink them all :).

Here are some random thoughts that have been floating in my head today:

- I was planning to go for a swim today but tomorrow I am going snowboarding so I thought I should give my legs some rest. I will do my run drill and swim drill tomorrow morning, Church then head off to carve the mountain (..it is more like a hill).
- You know you are training for an Ironman when you consider sleeping till 9 am as sleeping late. This is a very foriegn concept for any common man out there.
- Last week I bought a big jug of V8 and I thought it was healthy. I didn't realize there is so much sodium in it. 8 onze of V8 has 590 mg of Sodium. Yikes. My blood pressure is 120/88 and I am told to keep the salt down. The last thing I want is taking medication for that.
- I got one free swim session with my coach :). It turned one some lady paid for a session and can't make it. So he gave it to me. Sweet. Meeting him this Friday at 7 pm.
- talked to an AG triathlete and he told me I need to put at least 10% of my training close to LT. The rationale is so my fast twitch muscle will not fall asleep. Make sense to me.

That's about it....next week I am dropping back my training. I may bring my camera to Blue Mountain tomorrow. But I am sure pics of me running into a tree will bore everyone here :D

A run under the moonlight.

Thanks for the encouragement and tips from the previous posts guys. Very appreciated. I am going to keep training by myself. By spring/summer I will look for someone to train with.

Last night, I ran 17 km in 2 hr 15 min. This translates to 12 min/mile. Woah..slow.. :). I kept my HR at 141. I look over my past record and if I run with 150 HR, my pace will be 10 min/mile. That's not too bad. I know slowly my pace will speed up. I am more excited at keeping my HR low. When I see it hovers around 137, I am happy.

There was no wind. The moon was out. I wished there is less street light so I could see the moon. I had a gel flask with me. Because of the cold weather, I had a lot of trouble getting the gel out of the flask. Imagine seeing a guy with his head up and a flask over his mouth, walking and sticking his tongue in the flask to get the gel out. Yeah I was doing that for at least 3-4 minutes. I have to figure out how to keep it warm in the long runs.

It was colder than I thought. By the end of the run, the water in my water bottle become ice. Never happened before.

Rant post..

This was supposed to be a rant post. But after writing paragraphs and paragraphs about my personal struggles, I've decided to erase them. Things happen and things happen. All I can say is that i am looking for my long run tonight. It will be a great stress reliever.

I was reading from Sheila's post about training 14 hour ain't hard. It reminded me back last summer when I started to train. Back then 7-8 hours seemed like a lot. This week I am hitting 14 hours. I can't say I am super everyday. But so far, my body is feeling strong and ready to go for the next exercise.

Reading Shelley's post, yeah this ain't the time for stressing out. I am in seven weeks for my training. There is at least 4 months (16 weeks) to go. Even more depending on where do I consider as training and non training. I found it funny how 16 weeks seem a lot but for us trainers here, there ain't ENOUGH time.

I didn't mention it but on Monday I swam 1 km, TWICE. Last week, I swam 1 km in 40 min. This week I swam each km in 30 min. I am moving my arms faster. Last night, I used the pull buoy for 10 min to practice my strokes. When I was hammering, I was going really fast (faster than before). I swam so fast I bumped my hand into the leg of the person in front. Sweet :D. (not sweet for the person in front).

I am not the person that watch TV. But last night I saw the part where they were nominating the best collaboration. It turned out Jay-Z and Linkin Park that won the award. I love LP. I can't believe they won. They were against a lot of big artists like destiny child or Gwen Stefani. Amazing. And later they performed. Even though their music are on either end, they am able to blended it into a very good mix.

...Number Crunching...

There is one thing I dislike living up here in the north..well other than being chase by polar bears in winter and chase by beavers in the summer is the fact that most of the stuff I buy from the internet is ship from the states. When it crosses the border, I have to pay 5 dollar customs PLUS tax. I thought there was free trade. Lastly, some of the good deals like shipping free from amazon.com, they won't ship it up here. We ain't that far away. I ain't. Well what can I do?

I don't enjoy hunting for deals and what not. I do, however, do it b/c of necessities. I realize buying from performancebike.com, they don't charge me custom nor tax. Up here, we pay 15% tax. That's a lot (we must be using that money to raise an army of beavers or something).

When I got my Clif Bars, I didn't got charge customs or tax. After converting the cost, breaking down the shipping and what not, it comes to $1.20 (CDN) total for each bar. This is compare to some stores here that sell $1.80 before tax (so after 15%, it is about $2.00). That's saves about 80 cents for a bar.

I am thinking a way around this customs and tax bit. If the package is ship as a gift, then it is not taxed. I have an aunt that works down in Texas. I figured I can buy from amazon.com, ship it to her for free and have her USPS up here as a gift. I will pay for the shipping. Ship with USPS it shouldn't be too expensive. I need to get another pair of runners (Asics Gel-1100). Amazon.com sells them for $59.99 US (about $71.98 Canadian with a 1.20 conversion). At a runner room store, it sells for $129.99 + 15% = $149.49 CDN. I could get two pairs for the same price.

Even if I ship it straight up from amazon.com, i am sure one pair will be cheaper after customs, taxes and shipping fee. This is probably the only one reason I want to live down the states (and of course the warm weather).

This morning I woke up 30 min late and didn't have time to do my long run. I will do it tomorrow morning. I woke up and start data entry all my food intake and my exercise for the week. I am enjoying how much I have consume everyday. :) Tonight after work, bike drills and swim drills before I hit the church for a prayer meeting.

Choices choices...group training or stick with solo??

Hey all, I have a dilenma. Being that I am a newbie into the sports, I figure it would be a great idea to go train with a group and gain experience. The problem is the lack of time.

I have contacted a tri club called Blast. They are located about 40 min away from where I live. Their training schedule varies. If I train with them, it will add about an hour and a half to drive on top of what I am doing everyday. This is my third week in my Base 1 period. This means that I am training the most amount of time for this period before I drop back down next week. With this amount of training, I am already sensing the stress of training and living life.

If I train with the group, this will probably mean that I will less time to train. Does gaining the knowledge in a group atmosphere outweight the time spent on training??

I am considering training solo right now until spring/summer hits when I can go on group rides with them. By spring, I will be into my Build period. From Joe Friel's Triathlete Bible, the Build period is focus on building aneraobic skills. I might continue with the Base period since I am specifically training for Ironman next year and invest all my effort in building my aerobic base.

The packages are here....

I am in Clif Bar Heaven!

Note: No Clif Bar and Clif Bar products are harmed, abused or damaged (except for the one that I err Hommer ate).

They ain't all for me. I orderd five boxes of Chocoate Chips and a big shot Mocha bottle. The rest belongs to my friends. Now I am asking myself...diet?..oh right the Clif Bar diet. :)

On another news, there is a14th Annual Competitor Endurance Sports Awards dubbed as "The Academy Awards of Endurance Sports", take a look at the pics here. I have no idea the people who in the pics are but boy do they look nice :D.

A quick week review.

Today is an interesting day. I do not enjoy cleaning or doing any house chores. This morning though, I woke up and I spent the first 15 minutes cleaning up my room. For me, once I start doing it, it is not hard. Just starting is the hard part. It would be nice to find that switch in my head and shut off the brain once in a while and just do.

I want to write a few articles about training, motivation, diet and all. Tonight I am feeling tired and want to snooze.

However, here is some interesting facts for the week:

- I just got a free palm from my friend (thanks Dan) and will be adding my training schedule to it
- I am right now trying this software call cross train (http://www.crosstrainer.ca). It keeps track of your diet and training. It also have this add on for Palm Pilots (perfect). I will start plugging my numbers in and give it a try. It has a 30 day trial.
- diet, yes I have finish reading the Paleo Diet book and I will give a review on it.
- training has been great. Ever since No Limit Challenge from CMS. I start to train before and after work. I am still working at keeping it consistent. As Gordo say we need a plan that is consistent. Consistency is the key.
- last week, I log in 12 hours. I know I miss a few yoga and swim sessions. Body feels great. I am starting to handle this.
- lastly, I received a phone call from the hospital on Friday night before I did my run. They have a phone system call Easy Call. Basically the doctor leave msg there for patients. For a brief momment, I thought they find something wrong with the ultrasound on Thrusday. What if I can't train? What if I have to go back to the hospital for more tests? Turns out everything is ok and they just want me to do a blood work this week. WOOHOO..I praise the Lord for that.
- expect to see more Homer, I got more stuff coming in tomorrow ;D Xmas all over again.

Have a great week. Going to do some yoga and had to bed.

How come the Kenyans run so fast??

I just finish a documentary to explain how come the Kenyans run so fast? There were a lot of ideas that tried to explain how come the Kenyans run so fast. Some suspect of their diet. Some suspect of the high altitude they live in (2,000 m above sea level).

The scientists disproved those theories. They did a comparison to Swedish runners. What they found that compare to the Swedes, the Kenyans are not genetically better in everyway. The number of slow muscles and enzymes are the same in both group of runners. They ran a 12 week training session for both groups and found that the Kenyans are more 10% more efficient than the Swedes.

What they found was the way the Kenyans were built. Specfically their small and light feet structure. The research showed that a mere 50 grams is added to the ankle, it increases oxygem consumption by 1%. As the weight move higher up, the consumption increases as well. They found that overall, the Kenyans are 5 cm shorter in height than the Swedes. But the Kenyan's legs are 2 cm taller. Their body structure (skinny legs and a light, short, body structure) makes them more economical in running.

The conlusion also indicates that this is not only applicable to Kenyans, as long as one's structure is similar to the research, he/she can be trained to run as effectively (or efficiently) as well.

It was a good documentary to watch. I am surprise as how little amount of weight can affect oxygen consumption. This morning, I rode 3 hr 15 min on the trainer. It is always the last 10 minutes that was the struggle. Watching every seconds tick by is like an eternality. I watched The Professional and last half of Black Hawk Down. Unlike last week, my stomach have no issues with bloating. I believed last time I must have been mixing too much stuff for my stomach to handle. This time I only took a bottle of gatorade in the beginning and switch to gel and water. I will need to experiment to find a way to replenish my electrolytes.

Going to do laundry and take a nap. Depending how i feel, tonight I might go for a quick swim.

Where in the world is my gall bladder??

Oh what a day yesterday was. My appointment was at 2:30 pm. First I waited outside for an hour. Then they brought me to a waiting room where we have to change into a gown and wait for another hour. By the time I was done, it was 5:30 pm. 10 hours of no eating. Oh the humanity.

I finished reading the Paleo Diet (review is on its way) during the wait time and at the end Joe was saying u should follow a 95-5 diet. 95% u can eat base on the diet and 5% u can eat anything you want. Well after the ultrasound, there was much celebration. I ordered a chicken burger, fries and orange soda. It taste good. My stomach nag me for feeding it so much grease. But my brain thank me for giving it some junk food.

Yesterday I realize I am gall bladderless. I was talking to the person doing the ultrasound and saying how they suspect i have gall bladder stone. He said "what you have no gall bladder". I didn't realize that. They must have taken it out when I had my operation 15 years ago.

What does this mean? Well, all the people trying to make their bike as light as possible should have remove non-important organs. Appendix, gall bladders, we don't need those and can save us bundles of grams (grasp!).

Holy crap. I just did a search on the net and find a pic of a gall stone. Ohh. Thank God I have no gall bladder.

One more note: The transplant coordinator told me there is nothing I can do in terms of diet that can make my liver number change. Hmm...will look into that.

You humble me Lord...

you humble me Lord... I am down on my knees empty... you humble me Lord.

This is from a song from Norah Jones. This morning my mom told me that she is going to get another part time job doing quinting. She say there is not enough money coming in to pay the bills.

My parents are in their 50s. It is hard to see them spending all the years working and getting me and my sis through university. Now after we graduate, the situation is still the same.

Deep down there is a lot of certainty. Part of me wants to scream out why is this going on. However, there is a major part of me that is in calm and steady.

I know if I find another job that pays much more than the one I have right now (a job that at least compensate me for my skills compare to the market), things would be a easier.

Right now I am just thinking, the things God give us. I just keep thinking about Dave when he is hiding in the caves and knowing God told him he would be the King. Or when he is in his ending days and his sons are fighting for the throne. Compare to him, my problem is miniscule.

Sometimes I believe I need problems like these. It keeps me grounded to the earth and keep me humble. When I am humble, there is more comfort in myself than going out or other "fun" things. I found that very fascinating. Peace is not out there (job, fame, money etc.) but what is within our hearts. And this peace, brings me closer to God.

...I am not sacrficing my training for finding more money (find a part time job etc.). These past two days I have been training very hard. Before work and after work. Today I have an ultrasound at 2:30 pm. That means no eating 7 hours before...oh the torment :)

Excuses or reasons?

One of the delinma of self coaching is that I don't know what is hard and what is easy. Is swimming everyday is too tiring? How about every other day?

Or workout. How much of a load can I handle? Can I run after a workout?

There is only so many days a week and so many hours. It is a bit frustrating to aim high to push oneself and at the same time aim low to prevent burn out.

What I have notice in a few occurences is my mind will use the reason "don't train too hard to avoid burn out" as an excuse. I don't know if you have sense it. But I know I do.

For me, I do not enjoy a light workout (when it is not suppose to be light). There is no joy in giving 75% when you can give 110%. There is no satisfaction in climbing a ant hill when you know you can climb a mountain.

Being self coach, there is an easy tendency to give 75% and call it a day. I have a rough day. Things are not going well. I am not getting enough sleep. All these reasons can be reasons for taking reducing training. At the same time, these reasons can also be use as excuses.

The key is to distinguish which is which. No one can help us to do that. Only ourselves. As the Greek say "Know Thyself".