I just got back from my very last meeting in Hanoi of this busy buiness trip, arrived at this beautiful Moven Pick 5 star hotel in Hanoi, and now sitting in Posch writting table to check my email and started working again. Work again? Wait a minute; let me takes break to blog, relax, go for a jog and do some work out at the gym and get some fat burn after this.....
What a week of Business trip? Very tired, one meeting after another, one flight after another, late night sleep to clear email. If I can recall this is the only business-trip within a week that I have taken a total of 6 flights: (1) 8th Mar late night-Sing/Seoul Korea arriving Seoul in the early morning 9th Mar, and then proceed (2)-Seoul/Busan Korea then back from (3)Busan to Seoul in the evening on the same day, (4) 10th Mar evening from Seoul to HCM City/Vietnam, (5)13th Mar 6am flight to Hai Phong and then on road to Hanoi City ( 135km) to catch my 1.30pm flight to (6) Singapore tomorow, total of 10 meetings. Crazy week! and there will be a further couple of crazy and very busy weeks in the office as there will be alot of work to follow up, more revised proposal dateline to meet after all these meeting and also business trip report. But it was a good week; I must say; to see all my customers to work on potential deal amid this gloomy economy situation and also rekindle relation with my oversea customers. Ya, stressful week, I must admit but with all those endurance training it does help to keep me going with this "executive run",
I missed my fruits usually taken after each meal at "home" and also missed all my the regular training and YF swim. Next week is my Aviva 70.3 attempt, and have always thought it was good to stay "home", avoid travelling if all possible when any event is near, but as much as training is my priority so is my work. Anyway, I think I am quite ready for it and also looking forward to this Sunday YF sea swim.
Hmmm, I can't wait to catch my flight back tomorrow at 1.30pm. Now I want to take this opportunity to work out in the gym.... hope this 5 star's gym will not disappoint me.
.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
3rd Mar 2009, Tuesday, 7 loops MF Hill Run (Approx. 11.2Km)
I was not too sure if I would do MF hill training today, since it was raining the whole of afternoon, made hill run unsuitable due to slippery road. I was thinking of doing another brick training; 1.5KM Pool swim followed by a 10km run just like last Tuesday and Thursday which I enjoyed a lot. But my left arm was still experiencing some strain and slight pain due to the last week swims and Sunday sea swim, so I decided to run. Anyway I will be going for the YF swim training this Friday so I thought it is better to rest my arm more, hopefully no more pain by then.
I remembered the last time I did MF Hill 7 loops was 63 min, so I was determined to clock anything below 63 min. Alas, disappointingly I only managed 63min and 44sec, very very dissatisfied. I thought if I could have continued to pace Julie after she overtook me in the 2nd or 3rd loop (could not remember exactly) I could have run below 63 or even 62 min, but difficult lah, as she was fast on her up slope with her petite-light-body-weight "mass" hahaha. I managed to catch up with her in the down slope after she overtook me and pace with her just for a while. These days Julie, our bride-to-be (soon to be Mrs Teng) is very very fast and consistent.
After the run, I made sure I had a good warm down, proper stretch especially my back in order to stay injury free. Cannot afford to injure now, Aviva is just 3 weeks aways.
I will still train hard this week, then taper down while on Business Trip next week.
.
I remembered the last time I did MF Hill 7 loops was 63 min, so I was determined to clock anything below 63 min. Alas, disappointingly I only managed 63min and 44sec, very very dissatisfied. I thought if I could have continued to pace Julie after she overtook me in the 2nd or 3rd loop (could not remember exactly) I could have run below 63 or even 62 min, but difficult lah, as she was fast on her up slope with her petite-light-body-weight "mass" hahaha. I managed to catch up with her in the down slope after she overtook me and pace with her just for a while. These days Julie, our bride-to-be (soon to be Mrs Teng) is very very fast and consistent.
After the run, I made sure I had a good warm down, proper stretch especially my back in order to stay injury free. Cannot afford to injure now, Aviva is just 3 weeks aways.
I will still train hard this week, then taper down while on Business Trip next week.
.
Monday, March 2, 2009
1st Mar 2009, Sunday, My 1st Yellow Fish Sea Swim Training
I have decided to join Yellow Fish after the trial on 20th Feb. I have always wanted to improve front crawl, but without proper coaching and doing appropriate swim drill, I will never improve in it. More so since I am planning to attempt a full Ironman in the very near future, then good and efficient swimming skill is a must.
The package that I signed was 10 pool swims +2 sea swims and today was one of these 2 sea swims. It was held near to the Jetty/F2, same place as the S'pore Biathlon. The swim started at 8am but I was 10min late because I mixed up the meeting point and parked at the wrong car park. If I had not met George (met him at the Jan Pengarang 100km ride), I would have disappointingly missed today sea swim.
When I got to the beach, Coach had already divided the trainees into 3 groups, (grp 3 being the slowest), started briefing them on the training. There were approx 30 to 40 trainees and I was glad to see a lot of familiar faces, most of them I met in the Pengarang 100km ride in Jan 09. I also met Scott Patterson Lucille’s colleague in MS and a seasoned Triathlete.
The swim route was a square letter P marked by five buoys. The training started with a relax warm-up swim. Grp 1 and 2 did 1 loop swim and as for me in grp 3, 3 of us, we were told to swim from shore straight ahead to the second buoy and back, and the distance was approx. 200m. 
The complete “P”route was approx. 500m and was swam in clockwise direction. Grp 3 was always made to swim half the distance of grp 1 and 2 which I later got to understand that Coach Lim wanted to ensure grp 3 would end up with the grp 1 amd 2 roughly the same time in each set of swim. After the warm-up swim, we went on with the 2nd set; grp 1 and 2 swam 2 loops and grp 3 swam 1 loop (approx. 500m). We swam a total of 4 sets in different distance around the loop P in different formation:-
Group 3's sets were as follows, and group 1 and 2 double the distance.
1st set Warm up -200m (approx timing- 7min)
2nd set -500m (approx timing – 16min)
3rd set -700m ( 1-1/2 loop) (approx timing – 23min)
4th set -500m clockwise (approx 15min)
4th set was supposed to be part of the YF mini biathlon, that was approx 900m swim ( 2 loops) plus a 6 km run. We were made to swim counter clockwise in 4th set because Coach wanted us to familiarize next week S'pore Biathlon route.
By the time we finished the sea swim it was approx. 9.40am. Wow, this is the first time I swam front crawl for more than an hours in the sea despite swimming slowly as instructed by coach so as to focus on the correct strokes rather than speed. During the 1st and 2nd set swim, I noticed that I would always swim off course, and I shared this problem with George who advised me to check course after every 4th stroke. I took his advice and practiced in the 3rd and 4th set and somehow got use to it.
Every time I began my set I would stood for quite awhile on the shore to adjust my goggle to be 100% sure water wouldn't get into my goggle so that I would not need to re-adjust it again because I did not like the feeling of stepping on the soft, swampy and dirty sea bed due to low tide; and I would hear the coach calling me with his loudspeaker:-"Henry, start swimming, or every one will be waiting for you”. From this, one could guessed how slow was I...!
The package that I signed was 10 pool swims +2 sea swims and today was one of these 2 sea swims. It was held near to the Jetty/F2, same place as the S'pore Biathlon. The swim started at 8am but I was 10min late because I mixed up the meeting point and parked at the wrong car park. If I had not met George (met him at the Jan Pengarang 100km ride), I would have disappointingly missed today sea swim.
When I got to the beach, Coach had already divided the trainees into 3 groups, (grp 3 being the slowest), started briefing them on the training. There were approx 30 to 40 trainees and I was glad to see a lot of familiar faces, most of them I met in the Pengarang 100km ride in Jan 09. I also met Scott Patterson Lucille’s colleague in MS and a seasoned Triathlete.
The swim route was a square letter P marked by five buoys. The training started with a relax warm-up swim. Grp 1 and 2 did 1 loop swim and as for me in grp 3, 3 of us, we were told to swim from shore straight ahead to the second buoy and back, and the distance was approx. 200m. The complete “P”route was approx. 500m and was swam in clockwise direction. Grp 3 was always made to swim half the distance of grp 1 and 2 which I later got to understand that Coach Lim wanted to ensure grp 3 would end up with the grp 1 amd 2 roughly the same time in each set of swim. After the warm-up swim, we went on with the 2nd set; grp 1 and 2 swam 2 loops and grp 3 swam 1 loop (approx. 500m). We swam a total of 4 sets in different distance around the loop P in different formation:-Group 3's sets were as follows, and group 1 and 2 double the distance.
1st set Warm up -200m (approx timing- 7min)
2nd set -500m (approx timing – 16min)
3rd set -700m ( 1-1/2 loop) (approx timing – 23min)
4th set -500m clockwise (approx 15min)
4th set was supposed to be part of the YF mini biathlon, that was approx 900m swim ( 2 loops) plus a 6 km run. We were made to swim counter clockwise in 4th set because Coach wanted us to familiarize next week S'pore Biathlon route.
By the time we finished the sea swim it was approx. 9.40am. Wow, this is the first time I swam front crawl for more than an hours in the sea despite swimming slowly as instructed by coach so as to focus on the correct strokes rather than speed. During the 1st and 2nd set swim, I noticed that I would always swim off course, and I shared this problem with George who advised me to check course after every 4th stroke. I took his advice and practiced in the 3rd and 4th set and somehow got use to it.
Every time I began my set I would stood for quite awhile on the shore to adjust my goggle to be 100% sure water wouldn't get into my goggle so that I would not need to re-adjust it again because I did not like the feeling of stepping on the soft, swampy and dirty sea bed due to low tide; and I would hear the coach calling me with his loudspeaker:-"Henry, start swimming, or every one will be waiting for you”. From this, one could guessed how slow was I...!
After the 4th set, I proceeded to my 6 km run. As usual in the first 2 km of the run, I would always feel my legs were heavy. We started to run toward the Lagoon, past the chalets and U turn at the second toilet on our right after the chalets. I maintained at 10km/hr or slightly more checked by my foot pod. I completed the 6km run at 33 min, which I think the total distance was less than 6km. At U turn I did 17 min and my return run was faster and thus I estimated 5.5km.
After the training I chatted with Lynn Ng and Lee Wung Yew (both met at the Pengarang ride )whom I did not know they were actually related, till I saw their loving picture in the Sunday Time’s sport section during my lunch, reporting their passion in this the endurance sport and their attempt in the Busselton IM end of the year, and also then did I know that Wung Yew was our national shooter participated in last year Beijing Olympic. No wonder he looked so familiar to me.
I enjoyed today training very much, though I found it tough because this was my first long sea swim since my Port Dickson Triathlon in July last year. It was also a very good preparation for the next week Biathlon. I also felt great that it was my first long front crawl swim in the sea. I have never felt ready to use it in any sea swim despite having trained on it these couple of months. I am impressed with Coach Lim who is very committed in his training and I could feel a sense of spirit in him wanting to see his trainees improve.
I look forward to coming to the 2nd sea swim on 15th Mar, but I will be back from Korea and Vietnam Business trip on the day before so I hope I will not be too tired to enjoy the training again. This 15th Mar sea swim will also help preparing me for the Aviva on 22nd Mar.
More photo of the day event could be viewed at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/yellowwfish/SeaSwimRunMarch012009#
.
After the training I chatted with Lynn Ng and Lee Wung Yew (both met at the Pengarang ride )whom I did not know they were actually related, till I saw their loving picture in the Sunday Time’s sport section during my lunch, reporting their passion in this the endurance sport and their attempt in the Busselton IM end of the year, and also then did I know that Wung Yew was our national shooter participated in last year Beijing Olympic. No wonder he looked so familiar to me.
I enjoyed today training very much, though I found it tough because this was my first long sea swim since my Port Dickson Triathlon in July last year. It was also a very good preparation for the next week Biathlon. I also felt great that it was my first long front crawl swim in the sea. I have never felt ready to use it in any sea swim despite having trained on it these couple of months. I am impressed with Coach Lim who is very committed in his training and I could feel a sense of spirit in him wanting to see his trainees improve.
I look forward to coming to the 2nd sea swim on 15th Mar, but I will be back from Korea and Vietnam Business trip on the day before so I hope I will not be too tired to enjoy the training again. This 15th Mar sea swim will also help preparing me for the Aviva on 22nd Mar.
More photo of the day event could be viewed at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/yellowwfish/SeaSwimRunMarch012009#
.
Monday, February 23, 2009
20th Febuary 2009, Friday, Yellow Fish Trial in Bouna Vista Pool
I went for the Yellow Fish trial recommended by PS. It started at 7 pm in Buona Vista Swimming Pool and ended 8.50pm. While waiting for PS at the pool, the coach had already started the training by instructing the trainees to do some drills.
I think this was the kind of training that I needed if I want to do well OD tri and long course tri. Generally I can swim; my breast stroke is stronger and more confident, but as for front crawl, unfortunately I am weak. Understandably, if I want to have good timing in the swim then learning to swim front crawl correctly is a must. I gathered that of the 3 disciplines, swimming is the one that need technique and skill compared to cycle and run.
YF has 2 offers; one was 10 pool swim and 2 sea swims. Meanwhile sea swim is what I need now to tackle the Singapore Biathlon and Aviva 70.3 in the coming weeks.
Coach started by asking me to swim a 100m front crawl, he assessed my swim and commented that I was swimming too fast, rushing and full of drag (strangely I felt I was swimming too slow). Yes, drag was the "culprit"; you swim hard but move a little. He said I needed a lot of drills and long swims. Friday class concentrate 70% drill and 30% swim. Seem I have to put a lot of hard work....!
My next drill was; right hand pull and push, recover; and left hand would start to pull and push only after right palm touched the left hand and vice versa. Gosh! this was tough for as I tend to sink before I started to execute the next stroke, and so I straggled to stay afloat than to swim. Coach advised not to worry because I was not use to this drill yet, but he reiterated that was the most fundamental thing that I must know how to do and it determined if I was swimming correctly. After some other drills and explanation on kicking rhythm and strokes, we did some long swims before coach called it a day. Wow, these long swim tired out my whole body especially my arm. Ouch! now arm aching bad....!!
The swim was fun and good. I decided to join YF. Coach reminded us about the sea swim with a mini biathlon on 1st Mar. Ironically, I have to start this course with the sea swim. Unfortunately, I still would not be able to start pool training 27th Feb next Friday.
I look forward to the coming sea swim and definitely more pool swims.
.
I think this was the kind of training that I needed if I want to do well OD tri and long course tri. Generally I can swim; my breast stroke is stronger and more confident, but as for front crawl, unfortunately I am weak. Understandably, if I want to have good timing in the swim then learning to swim front crawl correctly is a must. I gathered that of the 3 disciplines, swimming is the one that need technique and skill compared to cycle and run.
YF has 2 offers; one was 10 pool swim and 2 sea swims. Meanwhile sea swim is what I need now to tackle the Singapore Biathlon and Aviva 70.3 in the coming weeks.
Coach started by asking me to swim a 100m front crawl, he assessed my swim and commented that I was swimming too fast, rushing and full of drag (strangely I felt I was swimming too slow). Yes, drag was the "culprit"; you swim hard but move a little. He said I needed a lot of drills and long swims. Friday class concentrate 70% drill and 30% swim. Seem I have to put a lot of hard work....!
My next drill was; right hand pull and push, recover; and left hand would start to pull and push only after right palm touched the left hand and vice versa. Gosh! this was tough for as I tend to sink before I started to execute the next stroke, and so I straggled to stay afloat than to swim. Coach advised not to worry because I was not use to this drill yet, but he reiterated that was the most fundamental thing that I must know how to do and it determined if I was swimming correctly. After some other drills and explanation on kicking rhythm and strokes, we did some long swims before coach called it a day. Wow, these long swim tired out my whole body especially my arm. Ouch! now arm aching bad....!!
The swim was fun and good. I decided to join YF. Coach reminded us about the sea swim with a mini biathlon on 1st Mar. Ironically, I have to start this course with the sea swim. Unfortunately, I still would not be able to start pool training 27th Feb next Friday.
I look forward to the coming sea swim and definitely more pool swims.
.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
4th Feb 09, Wednesday, Lazy 40 laps(2km) swim w/o buoy
It has been more than a week since I last swam so I thought I better go back to swimming training.
The pool was quite crowed as they were many swimmers who were taking swim trial for the Singapore Biathlon. I felt so fortunate and relief that I was exempted from this trial because of my completion of the Port Dickson OD triathlon.
I did a 40 laps swim this evening. Alternate stroke ( front crawl then breast stroke) laps. After the 29th front crawl lap, felt tweaking cramp at the bottom of my feet arch, so the 4th set of 10 laps was all the way breast stroke; a style that I was most comfortable with. It was supposed to be a continuous swim without stopping at every 10 laps but tonight I was not too strong mentally and physically lazy to push myself hard enough and stopped for 1 min every 10 laps. Total timing was 62min (include 3 min rest). Nevertheless I felt a sense of satisfaction since the cut off time for Aviva first leg swim is 70 min for 1.9km swim, 38 laps instead of 40 laps.
During my swim, I noticed a guy who was taking the trial, swam breast stroke with legs flipping. How strange! I thought, swam with mixed style, I think he was not bothered what style as long as he passed the trial.
I got up from the pool, took my rest while watching those poor swimmers going thru the time trial. It seemed that most of them made it below 40min for 30 laps except one lady finished last with the timing of 42 min I think she breast stroked all the way. The tester spoke to her, I wonder he has passed her, personally I felt that she should have been passed if she used breast stroke thru out the 30laps which was quite an achievement. After all, the exceeded 2 min time limit would not make her less confident in the sea water, how judgmental I was.... hahaha. Anyway rules are rules.
Tonight was the first time I did 40 laps swim completely without buoy, well it gave me some confidence though!!! But this was the 2nd time I had cramp at the bottom my feet arch...., hmmm, what happened I wonder!!!
.
The pool was quite crowed as they were many swimmers who were taking swim trial for the Singapore Biathlon. I felt so fortunate and relief that I was exempted from this trial because of my completion of the Port Dickson OD triathlon.
I did a 40 laps swim this evening. Alternate stroke ( front crawl then breast stroke) laps. After the 29th front crawl lap, felt tweaking cramp at the bottom of my feet arch, so the 4th set of 10 laps was all the way breast stroke; a style that I was most comfortable with. It was supposed to be a continuous swim without stopping at every 10 laps but tonight I was not too strong mentally and physically lazy to push myself hard enough and stopped for 1 min every 10 laps. Total timing was 62min (include 3 min rest). Nevertheless I felt a sense of satisfaction since the cut off time for Aviva first leg swim is 70 min for 1.9km swim, 38 laps instead of 40 laps.
During my swim, I noticed a guy who was taking the trial, swam breast stroke with legs flipping. How strange! I thought, swam with mixed style, I think he was not bothered what style as long as he passed the trial.
I got up from the pool, took my rest while watching those poor swimmers going thru the time trial. It seemed that most of them made it below 40min for 30 laps except one lady finished last with the timing of 42 min I think she breast stroked all the way. The tester spoke to her, I wonder he has passed her, personally I felt that she should have been passed if she used breast stroke thru out the 30laps which was quite an achievement. After all, the exceeded 2 min time limit would not make her less confident in the sea water, how judgmental I was.... hahaha. Anyway rules are rules.
Tonight was the first time I did 40 laps swim completely without buoy, well it gave me some confidence though!!! But this was the 2nd time I had cramp at the bottom my feet arch...., hmmm, what happened I wonder!!!
.
Monday, February 2, 2009
1st Feb 09 Sunday, only (8+55)km Bike and 10km run w/o speed box
After a good lunch and impressive lion dance performance at PS house, I got home at 3pm and did a brick; bike and run in the evening started at approx 4.40 pm, ended 8.25pm.
I have originally intended to do a full brick; OD swim, bike and run at Yishun Safra in the morning, but due to late night out and late sleep, could not wake up on time for it. Felt guilty and desperate as I have left with only next 7 Sundays to do a full brick training but not all Sundays are available because HK marathon on 8th Feb, OCBC S'pore 40km cycling on 22nd Feb, and 8th Mar will be a rest day as 7th Mar is a S'pore biathlon and 15th Mar will be a taper down Sunday. It looks like either on 15th Feb or 1st Mar is THE DAY for a solid brick training. Ya, I must see to it that I will do a full brick. I must.........., I told myself determinely!
Did a warm up ride of 8 km to the Mandai ave/Yishun ave 1 - loop ( 26km per loop). Surprisingly today the wind was strong and mostly head wind in most part of the loop. Strangely also, the side wind on the bridge between the Lower Seletar Reservoir and the South China Sea was also ghastly strong unlike other days of my training, I needed to control my bike from swaying, today's conditions were unlike other days. This reminded me of the Pengerang/Desaru ride I had a week ago with the "Fish", which was much more challenging and tough, and so proudly I thought to myself, "these were nothing, I had worst in Desaru, hahaha!!
I did 10km run from home to Civic Centre-Woodland stadium-home. I ran w/o my speed box which I damaged it 2 days ago, so could not check my speed. I used the heart rate monitor maintaining at 150- 155bpm to gauge speed, and walla I managed 63min from 10km which I have ensured the 10 km familiarised-measured-route was absolutely accurate. The speed box would not be ready for this HK run, so training myself with HRM to gauge speed was timely and important. I felt very strong in my run and that prompted me to think I should have rode longer distance, more than 70km instead of 55km if I did not started the training so late.
S0(8km) Warm up ride, approx. 23min
S1 24min
S2 20min
S3 24min
S4 22min
S5 23 min
S6(5km) 12min. Effective cycling time = 2hr 5 min (55km)
Transition from home 10 min
Run 10km 1hr 3 min (6.3min/km)
The training was good, felt I have at the same time, burned off some fat from those CNY junk food. But on the other hand felt real bad to have Lucille waited so late to have dinner with me. By the time we had our hearty dinner at the nearby coffee shop, it was already passed 9 pm, hmm that reminded me of her continuous support given to me in my pursuit to accomplish Half Iron Man race.
.
I have originally intended to do a full brick; OD swim, bike and run at Yishun Safra in the morning, but due to late night out and late sleep, could not wake up on time for it. Felt guilty and desperate as I have left with only next 7 Sundays to do a full brick training but not all Sundays are available because HK marathon on 8th Feb, OCBC S'pore 40km cycling on 22nd Feb, and 8th Mar will be a rest day as 7th Mar is a S'pore biathlon and 15th Mar will be a taper down Sunday. It looks like either on 15th Feb or 1st Mar is THE DAY for a solid brick training. Ya, I must see to it that I will do a full brick. I must.........., I told myself determinely!
Did a warm up ride of 8 km to the Mandai ave/Yishun ave 1 - loop ( 26km per loop). Surprisingly today the wind was strong and mostly head wind in most part of the loop. Strangely also, the side wind on the bridge between the Lower Seletar Reservoir and the South China Sea was also ghastly strong unlike other days of my training, I needed to control my bike from swaying, today's conditions were unlike other days. This reminded me of the Pengerang/Desaru ride I had a week ago with the "Fish", which was much more challenging and tough, and so proudly I thought to myself, "these were nothing, I had worst in Desaru, hahaha!!
I did 10km run from home to Civic Centre-Woodland stadium-home. I ran w/o my speed box which I damaged it 2 days ago, so could not check my speed. I used the heart rate monitor maintaining at 150- 155bpm to gauge speed, and walla I managed 63min from 10km which I have ensured the 10 km familiarised-measured-route was absolutely accurate. The speed box would not be ready for this HK run, so training myself with HRM to gauge speed was timely and important. I felt very strong in my run and that prompted me to think I should have rode longer distance, more than 70km instead of 55km if I did not started the training so late.
S0(8km) Warm up ride, approx. 23min
S1 24min
S2 20min
S3 24min
S4 22min
S5 23 min
S6(5km) 12min. Effective cycling time = 2hr 5 min (55km)
Transition from home 10 min
Run 10km 1hr 3 min (6.3min/km)
The training was good, felt I have at the same time, burned off some fat from those CNY junk food. But on the other hand felt real bad to have Lucille waited so late to have dinner with me. By the time we had our hearty dinner at the nearby coffee shop, it was already passed 9 pm, hmm that reminded me of her continuous support given to me in my pursuit to accomplish Half Iron Man race.
.
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