Monday, April 16, 2007

Tri talk

I am 80% recover from my stomach flu. Whenever I eat anything unhealthy, the stomach will complain. At least it will keep me in my diet.

Training is slowly ramping up. Following the plan that my coach gave me, this week I am only doing 7 hours. This should be no problem considering that I am unemploy (I just got an interview tomorrow..so that should be good).

Going to Hong Kong for four weeks is not the best way to prepare for an Ironman. Swim wise, I am off. Bike wise, I haven't done any long bike. I ain't sure if my stomach can tolerate all the water and gatorade. Run wise, I have been feeling pretty good. On Sun, I ran an hour and a half in IM pace. It took a lot of discipline to keep my Heart Rate below 150. I felt so slow. I did 10:1. Jog for 10 min and walk for 1. I walked up all the hills to keep my HR down.

I just re-ordered from Infinit Nutrition. This time around I tweaked my nutrition and make it more conservative.

Here is my formula:

Sodium - 291 mg
Potassium - 84 mg
Total Carb - 76
Sugars - 15
Calories - 302

Calorie wise, this is just a bit less than 2 Carb-boom gel plus one bottle of gatorade (750 ml) per hour. I hope this sits well in my stomach. My last formula, the sodium was too high and I was having stomach issues.

Part of me still lingers Hong Kong. I miss the atmosphere. The fact I don't have to drive and and within 5 min walking distance I can get anything I need. Most of all, I miss my relatives. Cousins that I met them once or twice.

A number of people have been asking me to go back to Hong Kong and work. I told them that I can't b/c there is no place to bike on an island. If I actually live in Hong Kong, I would find a way to train. Hong Kong has a lot of mountains. I would love to ride on those. There is a matter of smog though. But there are still a large number of runners and cyclists on the road.

I was able to find a 50 m outdoor pool to swim in. In my city, there are no outdoor pool. I love it. There is nothing like knowing that you had a good swim by seeing your own tan lines.

What I am trying to say is that at times we wish we can live in an more ideal place to train. Like right now I wish I can be out riding in shorts and spandex. I can't b/c we are having winter temperature.

We just have to make the best of what we can in our enviornment.

My little cousin William and me. He is so funny.

My dad, my uncle, Glad and me. We hiked for 3 hours.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you're feeling better. Love the pics!

Habeela said...

Glad the flu is on it's way out the door. The training aspect of life definitely poses it's problems, doesn't it? I periodically ponder what I'm going to do about my training if I move to the Middle East - it's a whole new can of worms.

Hilda said...

Sounds like you really felt comfortable at your country living with the same people as you really are. Nice you think about your training when thinking of moving, then Toronto should have lovely places to train, you are lucky.

ShirleyPerly said...

I think no matter where you live, the grass will seem greener elsewhere. Even having a home in two "ideal" places to train (FL & HI), I wish for more.

Glad to hear you're feeling better!

Heather said...

Glad you're back and on the mend from your flu. I'm looking forward to hearing more about your trip. Your cousin is a cute little boy with a great smile. :) Good luck blending the training back into your days, and good luck with your interview, too.

jennybchu said...

Well, first thing.. welcome back!
Sorry to hear about your stomach flu though. I actually got sick when I went to Asia last year... hopefully this time going my immune system will be stronger :P

Oh... aren't those younger cousins so cute? I had my share meeting up with my cousins last summer.

ok.. get more rest, hope you're feeling much better.And can't wait to read about your more indepth HK trip blog.

Rachel said...

7 hrs is still a lot for a week! I can understand the difficulty in keeping the cals down on long rides. I do normally. Hope your stomach feels better soon!

TRI Vortex said...

I love gaterade, but found that now that I've started training, my stomach can't handle all that sweet stuff. Good luck on your interview, I'm sure you'll do fine. Just remember to scan the room and find something in common with the interviewer.

brendaj said...

I hope you enjoy your relatively light 7 hour week! I sometimes wish I was unemployed so I could optimize the training schedule.

Brent Buckner said...

Glad you're on the mend.

It seems to me that Gordo managed to get by with the stationary trainer when he lived in HK....

Tri-Dummy said...

Glad you're back and the flu is on it's way out!