Tribob Aquathlon 2011 for Kids

2nd race for the kids for 2011 this morning. 150m swim at Siloso Beach and a 1.5km run. Well, they didnt get off to a great start coz they forgot their goggles. I had to walk to Palawan Beach to buy their goggles while they went to bodymark. They still have much to learn. I am to be blamed of course, because I didnt prep them for the race. Anyway, they completed the race safe and sound. Thats going to matter more than anything else. First sea swim too!

***

After hammering in 55km of hard bike yesterday, I rested my legs for a few hours more and only started on my run at 4pm. 32km run with 22km rolling was a tough run. Started out quite comfortable but by the time I hit 22km, I was beginning to feel the fatigue setting in but pressed on. As the sun set, the heat dissipated but the body was still not cooling down fast enough. Had to douse myself with water. Good thing that I used a different route so that I have access to the petrol kiosks toilet this time. If I had gone into Mandai. it would be a long stretch without fluids and plus more rolling terrain, it would have completely dehydrated me.


Coach put me on 5:50 pace and I managed just that. Finished the run in 3:06:22. Not in pain when I got home. So that was a very good sign. Now I need to get to my roller and massage the legs or suffer the consequences (and the wrath of my Coach!).

Strawberries Anyone?

Caught a term on TV, Strawberry Generation, probably synonymous to the current Generation Y people? Essentially, it served as a description of the youths born in 1980 to 1990. Nice looking on the surface, but fragile and cannot withstand stress. The programme went on to discuss about how this generation came about: that they were very well taken care of while they were young, and also, how the schools pamper them and always praising them for all that they did. And how some whom they had interviewed switched 5 jobs within a year, due to poor pay, poor benefits, long working hours. Apparently there was also a study with some corporates and discovered that most of those who joined within a year had already left. While those who were left behind, were in the midst of preparing to leave.


I was looking for an online video of the telecast, but I cant seem to find it. Its with the intention of showing it to my students and hopefully recognise that they may not always get what they want in life. If only life were so easy.

***

Wednesday caught a lazy bug. Coach prescribed a spin session of 30km but it rained in the evening. So instead of riding, I went home. Thereafter, the bug took over the order of things.


Thursday was a 6km in 4:45 pace. Usually for such runs, I would do it at the track. That pace was suppose to be 1min 54s per 400m and I stuck to that timing. Not many people that evening because it was drizzling. Empty track, cool weather, the run felt good. Thought could have gone on for another 2km. This meant that last week's 8km tempo could have been done at this pace too. Probably felt tired from the 100km bike perhaps then.


Today's bike was with my running mate, Andrew. Coach put me on 2 sets of 20km sustained HR in high zone 3. But the moment we started, Andrew was pushing really hard. In the end, it was a full 55km of zone 5. The return loop felt like the ENR speed session. Checked my polar data and I was riding above 42kph for that last 7km. Absolutely crazy! There was no way I would be able to sustain this pace in a race! Did a 4km run in 22min but it felt sustainable for a while. How long? I cant say for sure. Felt alright nonetheless.


Now I am all tired. Wonder how I am going to do a 32km run at 5:50 pace tomorrow. Have to start early as the kids have their kids aquathlon (or just biathlon) by Tribob. Oh well, I just have to make do somehow. And crash out at home after their race. Or maybe run in the mid afternoon. I think I may have to do that instead. Rest my legs more.


What a weekend its going to be (and had been so far)!

Abandon The Forests!

Just read from local papers, that from 85% of Indonesia covered by forestry in the 1950s, this percentage is now reduced to 47%. Prediction is a total wipeout in 35 years. That will be during my lifetime, or at least my children's lifetime.


I am not a big fan of looking at the forest from afar, after spending my fittest years in the army, running up and down hills, bashing through thorny branches, I have lost affection for the green - just the colour. Which is the same reason I didnt enjoy Milford Sound in New Zealand, while it is a huge tourism spot.


However, that doesnt mean I dont appreciate the nature, the scent the forests bring out. The serene, peace and quiet broken only by the the birds' chirps. The breeze that enters an open canopy and rustles the leaves. The crackling of the dew damp logs and trunks heated by the morning sun. Buzzing of insects, cicadas that signaled the start of a brand new day. It is not everyday that we get to enjoy such natural sounds.


The senseless logging by both the legal and illegal companies will rob us of the natural beauty. And possibly permanently. Besides accelerating the green house effect, we are losing a huge chunk of what God had given us in the natural form. Reforestation may be able to bring back these millennium old foresteries, but will it bring back the lost flora and fauna that started out with them originally?


And yet, we are more concerned with growth of economies, advancement of technologies. If we do not put a stop to destruction, no great economy nor technology may be able to jump start nature again. Bearing in mind, that the sun is a huge hydrogen ball, highly unstable, it is also the giver of life on earth. Read about how recently it had shown more activity compared to the past years. Has it occurred to anyone, what if the sun, being like any other stars out there, one day, stops burning? What next then?

***

Coach has ordered to do an easy bike session today, instead of the planned 100km bike and 6km run and rest well for the upcoming sessions for the rest of the week. This was a result of the bad session from last night at the track. Programme was 200m run, 100m recovery, 300m run, 200m recovery. This was 1 set. We did 8 sets of that.


Sadly, I was trailing Uncle Lim, the 60 year old. By a huge margin - 3 to 4s for the 200m, as huge as 7 to 8s for the 300m. My legs just felt jelly and lungs were breathing heavily. Maybe it was the weekend's heavy sessions, or maybe it was just my weak mind. Likely a combination of both. But was a devastating session, nonetheless.


Monday night was also a hard hitting session, trying to follow Jerry and Julian during the main programme of 200m, 300m, 300m, 200m sets with filppers. But still felt good at the end of it. I suppose the Monday swims dont tire me out as easily as last time. In fact, my lone pool sessions are a much more tiring hit in comparisom, despite it being a lower intensity.


I am so tempted to continue with the 100km ride and 6km run. But I am afraid that it would be a wasted session because I may not be able to do the prescribed sets. I know it is not going to be an easy session today. Perhaps a rest will do me good.

Fast and Furious at Desaru

135km ride to Desaru. Rolling up and down the numerous slopes. No where else in Singapore do we get such long slopes. It sure is a good training ground.


18 bikers met at Mandai Shell and set off for Causeway to get across to Malaysia at 6am. After regrouping at the petrol kiosk, we headed to the start of the ride. Tee and Tomoya went off first and a new lady was with them. She was one fast lady. Small and fast. Completed threw me off guard because she didnt seem like it. But I suppose she had huge advantage in a terrain like Desaru - climbed very well due to her lightweight. Still, I have to give it to her, she was still a strong rider nonetheless. She was on a podium before in a race a while back!


Along the way, it got too dark for comfort. Pulled back on the speed and rode with Matthew and rejoined Tee and gang further up as they had stopped due to the lighting problem as well. Initially, front pack constituted 6 of us, but the lady fell back for a short while before rejoining when we paused for 5min.


And this went on for the rest of the journey before the 90km mark where we stopped for a refuel. Tee commented that we were riding at a speed of 5.5hr timing for 180km ride. But I know that I wont be able to do the marathon thereafter! Pace was incredible and I never expected the front pack to ride at such a pace only at the initial part. Towards the end, the last 10km, I was so drained that at every bit of the wind, my speed dropped and the stepping power faded. Cadence could not even be maintained. I only had this comfort - Tee was with suffering with me! Tomoya and another roadie had gone off probably 10 - 20min ahead of us?


All in, assuming we started at about 0630 after the immigration point, Tee and myself reached the jetty at 1115. Taking away the 15min break at 90km point, about 10min at the 2 regrouping points, we would have taken about 4hrs20min to do the ride. Considering that this is undulating, I think I would have to agree with Tee, that this would be the fastest 135km ride to Desaru ever - not that I have done many of this ride, anyway. But the effort was really quite considerable.


Will wait for the next long ride. I suspect that it should be hitting 200km by then. And that will have to go further up north to Sedili. We had done it before. I like that coz I think everybody will hold back.


I hope...

What Is Meaning of Life?

Its only an advertisement. But I liked it. Its a timely one to ask ourselves what we are doing with our short lives. Whether the story was true or not, it was heartwarming for me.

***

Did a 27km run early in the morning. Took 55:54 for 1st 10km, 55:39 for 2nd 10km and about 42min for the last 7km. Total time taken was 2:33:08. Started out at 6am because I wanted to have sufficient rest for tomorrow's 155km ride at Desaru. The last 2km was sheer will power. Had to chide myself to bring myself home. Coach wanted me to do a 5:40 pace for the whole run and I made it, missed by sheer 8seconds. Cool!

Waiting for my sports massage. It was a desperate last minute arrangement - I dont plan to get dropped in the ride tomorrow...

My Dear Watson

No, I am not referring to Sherlock Holmes and his detective buddy.


Remember Deep Blue II? The computer that defeated Gary Kasparov, former chess champion? Now here comes Watson, a computer that is able to play the American gameshow Jeopardy and is better than the human participants. It is able to listen, decipher human language, process the question and answer it correctly.


This might be the closest to Artificial Intelligence we have come to I think? So, the infamous "I'll be back" Terminator robots, nanny robots from iRobot, may just be not too distant a future for us. Robots that can think and work on its own. It sure is going to be uncanny. As if the human race had not be destructive towards each other by having a mind of their own, to think we add in one more race. Perhaps influenced by the movies, but I have always believed that what the human mind can conceive, can happen in reality. It will only be a matter of time.


Just take space travel for example - Richard Branson is working on space holiday, supposedly to be ready in a few years time. And we thought it would be near impossible? The billionaire may just succeed and make it a reality. Star wars programme in the US was a reality and still on going today. Is it really that unrealistic?


What will be the cause and effect of A.I.? We cant tell can we? Sophistication will find its way into technology and reality might be painful bullet for all to bite into. Perhaps, somebody will have to read into the future and make a study on scenario planning soon. It may just come sooner than we all anticipate.

***

Shoulders still had a tinge of ache today. Still did my swim routine nonetheless. Swam in the rain and despite it being heavy, none of us were hauled out of the pool. But I did shorten my 400m kicks warm up to 200m because I was worried that I might not be able to finish my main sets. Completed 4x200m (all under 3:12, best times so far), 4x100m (all under 1:32, best times so far too), 12x50m on the 55s and 2x500m time trial (both in 8:48, not too fast times I think,compared to previous sessions, but good enough for me).


And now its time for yoga! Soothing for the soul.

Books and Its Evolution

How many of us remember Times The Bookstore and MPH in Singapore? They were my childhood bookstores. I told the story to my kids before: when I was 10 or so, I use to take this tiny (probably less than 30 seater) blue City Shuttle Service bus to Orchard Road, Centrepoint, where Times actually occupied the half the level, while MPH occupied the other half. It was books galore and being not well to do, I had to plough through the books there and then. I remembered I finished the whole series of The Adventures of Tin Tin. Remember Snowy and Captain Haddock's "Blistering barnacles"? Those were the times!

The bad news of closure and bankruptcy and filing for bankruptcy of books supermarket Borders reminded me of how Times and MPH is now a distant memory of itself now. Both bookstores were a huge force in Singapore back in the 80s but are now a few stores strong in Singapore, overshadowed by Borders and Kinokunia in the turn of the millennium. Paperbacks and hardbacks do not seem to be popular anymore. I suppose physical books will be a thing of the past, with the online books available.

Frankly, I am one for physical books than digital. Not that I do not want to change with the times, but what defines a book is the ability to grasp the thick volume in the hands and be able to physically flip the pages and not with a touch of a button on the iPad. What constitutes to shopping? Going into a store and walk to browse, or walking into a digital mall, where you cant hold the item in your hands and feel the weight? On a side note, if everything were to be done online, are we not going to deprive ourselves of the social interaction with another human being, not necessarily with just the cashier, but the simple gesture of meandering out of a squeezy lane with other shoppers? Emails, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, brings about new frontiers, breaking global barriers, and new era of global citizens. But at what cost? Or will there be a cost?

***

Last night I did an even faster 8km run. 20 laps on the track at under 2min per lap. Worked out to be just a tad fast than 5min/km. Last Thursday I was working on 2:06 per 400m, this week had been reduced by Coach. In fact Coach prescribed a 4:50 pace, which worked out to be a 1:56 per 400m lap. But I was hesitant and diffident of my stamina and legs - after having done 100km ride the day before. It was good and managed under 40min for the whole run. Pace was not too breathless. Had wanted to push up the pace but the legs just refuse to move faster and stride further. So I was pretty much stuck at 2min per lap. Next week, perhaps? The thought in itself is very very daunting already.

Suppressed Immunity

The flu bug had been going around. Have heard of so many of my friends who were down. I am just so glad I am not a victim. Yet. I believe my body had been fighting many of the possible germs going around. When my kids fall ill, I didnt get anything. When my wife fell ill with stomach flu, it didnt come to me either.


However, there was a bacteria in my body that my body couldnt overcome - inflammation of the hair follicles in my scalp, also known as folliculitis. And what I noticed was that ever since I started training harder than the year before, that the inflammation came and never went off. It was pretty peculiar and my doctor told me the possible reason: the body's immune system had been suppressed that even though I did not fall ill, this bacteria just cannot be overcome.


I had thought it was my shampoo problem and changed a couple of times. Had it for about 8 months and was wondering why washing my scalp with bactericidal soap still did not relief myself of it. There was no itch, simply an outbreak. Can get embarrassing. Finally, went back to the doctor and he gave me a 10 days course of antibiotics. Since then, it had dissipated.


The body works in strange ways. You win some and you lose some battles. In this case, it was a simple bacteria. But now that things are back to normal, a haircut is no longer a conscious ordeal anymore. Felt great!

***

Shoulder felt sore during Monday's swim. I could feel the fatigue and could not do an 80% effort throughout the hour. With the shoulder nagging away, it didnt make things any easier.


Tuesday track session was cancelled. So I took the opportunity to do the speed bike with the ENR blokes. Only 4 of us turned up, Tee, Julian, Andrew (new guy, not my running mate) and myself. We were all contemplating over SMS whether to go or not. Had though that the rain would have washed out the floor. As it turned out, the rain clouds were in the central of the island and not in the east. Good speed session. Julian timed it to be a 46min ride for the almost 30km ride. Almost a 40kph average. Nice!


Believe my track sessions have helped with my anaerobic stamina. Use to feel the lungs heaving really hard during such Tuesday rides but was not so bad that night.


Wednesday went for a 100km ride followed by a 4km run. Wind was so strong at Coastal. It was amazing how the wind could affect my cadence. And the amount of effort used to step on the crank, didnt translate to a good speed. However, the tailwind just blew my uturn speed up really high. I was cruising without drafting above 37kph and some stretches at 40kph. So that made up for all the lost time for 2/3 of the loop due to the wind. 4.5loops in all. To add on, I was unable to crank up my HR for the last 2 sets of 15km. The HR just could not go up and my legs were beginning to feel tired. Somehow, my biking legs had been affected recently. Think it must be due to the harder runs I had been doing for the past few weeks.


This worries me. Sunday is a 160km Desaru ride and am suppose to do another harder than normal 27km run on Saturday. Not sure if my legs would work well on Sunday.


Crossing my fingers...

Dropping The HRM

Coach has put me off the HRM on my recovery run on weekdays and long run over the weekend. It is now constant pace. The short ones last Thursday was at 5:15 pace. Yesterday, I was suppose to do a 5:45 paced 24km run. The whole idea was to get my body use to doing the runs at specific speeds so that I would be able to do the same during the race in June. This was a tough thing for me to do, without the HRM. I have been following my HR for the past 2 years and it was difficult to gauge my running speed.


I did the 24km in 2:15 in the heat of the mid afternoon sun. 33-34 degrees at half past 3. I had to take a shower before heading out because I know I was going to get scorched by the uncomfortable heat. First 10km in 56ish, 2nd in 55ish and last 4km in 22ish. The last 4km was really difficult.


I had stopped using my footpod for the past few months because the battery died on me and it was difficult to find a replacement. I tried it yesterday and found that my cadence had gone up to 90-92. Last year, I was still prodding around at about 85. I have read that shorter turnover is safe because the amount of time spent on each stride is reduced and thus reducing risks of injury. In fact, Coach had encouraged me to do so as well. It was unknowing that I have amped it up. A nice surprise.


Some guys I knew took part in the SAFRA biathlon on Saturday. I had chosen not to take part and was I glad because I spent the day riding a 160km followed by a 3km run. I think I needed to spend more time on the bike in preparation for the Cairns race. I passed the race site at about 10am, and again at about 12pm when the event had stopped. Massive manpower was needed to get the event going, as I noticed the number of soldiers required to pack up and clean up the whole area.

***

There had been many changes in the world - the people of Egypt successfully forced the President to resign and the fate of the country is still unknown, as there are major revamps to be done. China just took over Japan as world's 2nd biggest economy. I suppose the latter had been in discussion for a while already. It will be a matter of time before China takes over US as the world's biggest economy?


Talking about development, whilst the economy progresses, I wonder if anything else progresses? In the likes of social graces, consideration, empathy? My colleague commented that Singapore is not socially developed when I said that I just flipped up the seat of the toilet bowl laced with pee. Yup, and I totally agree. We have so much to grow. It was no wonder our public toilets do not seem to be improving in terms of cleanliness. It is not so much of the lack of cleaner because it should never be a cleaner issue. It is about the user.


The emphasis on economic progress is important, but at what cost? Being in the education industry, it is an uphill struggle against the focus on academic excellence. How are we to strike a balance in all of it?


Maybe I am just being myopic. I see things from the layman's perspective and perhaps microsopic. But if things are not seen from the ground level, how can any leader be able to identify with the people under them? I heard with intrigue that former President of Egypt, Mubarak, calling upon the citizens "my sons, my children". And when BBC interviewed the citizens, they wanted the end of the paternalistic era, and to be treated like citizens, stakeholders of the country.

1st 8km Tempo Run

The rain had been back since yesterday evening. As I started out on my run at the track, which was located at the top of the hill, I could see the dark clouds looming. The wind was blowing pretty hard and I was hoping to complete my 20 loops of 400m before the rain set in. But my speed was too slow. When I hit my 12th loop, the lightning was lighting up the skies and the safety guy working there, in a futile attempt to chase me and my running mate away, until I could see the lightning got really close and left the stadium after the 14th loop and made our way to the 1.6km loop around the campus.


Coach had put me on 5:15/km pace for 8km. I calculated it to be 2:06min per 400m and was able to maintain the pace throughout the 14laps. On the 1.6km loop, I clocked just under 8min and that worked out to be 5min/km pace. Short of 400m but I was quite confident I would be able to clear that within 2min anyway. Like I told Coach, the effort was about 60-70%. I could still hold a decent conversation with my running mate.


As I started to run with Andrew and the MR25 guys for the past 2 months, I had found that my own expectation of my run times kept decreasing. Looking back on my blog, I had been happy with running at 6min/km pace, 5:45/km and a good speed would have been 5:30/km. But now Coach is looking for even faster pace. His target was a 3:45 marathon at the ironman.  I would love to do that timing but I have my reservations. To me, it will be tough trying to run a marathon at 5:30/km or even faster pace after a 180km bike. Not impossible probably, but probably not so soon?


The Tuesday track sessions do come with a price. My legs had been feeling more retarded, even gentle climbing up the stairs at work made the legs felt tired. I suppose this would be a good sign that things should improve over the next few months. Pushing the legs to work harder at track, the tempo runs on Thursdays and the long session on Sundays, they should get stronger.


Today was a pseudo sports day in school. Got off work early and managed to do my swim just before the rain came. Usual warm ups followed by 3x200m, 2x500m time trial, 4x50m on the 50s, 100m recovery followed by another 4x50m on the 50s. 200m were done in under 3:18, 3:17 and 3:23 while 1st 500m done in 8:39 while 2nd 500m done in 8:52.


I was trying to push my 200m to be under 3:20 and only managed 2 sets under that target. Keeping track of the times are good for me to recall and try to match or get better the next session.  The 500m time trial I was keeping them in good pace. All of the 100m were done under 1:45 except for last 100m I did in 1:54. Have no idea what happened, but it could be simply bad strokes.


The 50m was not that well done. I was hitting the wall every 50s. Last week I was still able to clear under 48s, but this was gone today. Oh well, every dog has its days. This was probably one of those days.


Overall, it had been a good week. No sessions were missed. And I hope it would not happen over the weekend.

In Fitter or Fatter...

It was interesting that Enrico raised up that he had known triathletes whose marriages were broken up by the sport and at the same time, Joe Friel shared an article from Wall Street, about how spouses take to their husbands crazy training routines on weekdays and the long sessions on weekends and public holidays.


I share the same sentiment of the crazy spouses. I find myself riding and running long on weekends, take opportunities of holidays to do a long session. For the past 2 years, my wife had been pretty tolerant. At times she does give me the dirty look, "Again? you are going out and leaving me to look after the kids? Again?" but most of the time she had been very supportive. I am really thankful for that. The only session that she had stopped me was the 80km climb up Cameron Highlands with Tee and Don, the 2 Norseman tri guys. Grudgingly, no doubt about it, I adhered to her command. After all, there was a limit to her patience and I think I would want to have the peace at home.


But Enrico's encounters with people whom he knew, was not just due to the time spent on the sport and away from the family, but also because of the new social circle of like minded triathletes. It should not be of any surprise, after all, the time spent together on a long session in body hugging lycra will take a toll on emotions and raging hormones.


Fortunately, I ride on my own or with male triathletes. And I run on my own, or with male MR25 runners on the track. And certainly, I have no interest in men. So my marriage is safe. In any case, I love my family too much to be bothered with anything else. Yes, "in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad" and "in fitter or fatter".

***

Usual swim session on Monday but a washed out Tuesday track work. In the end, we ran around the campus of the polytechnic, instead of their track. I did a total of 9 loops of about 1.2km while monster Andrew did 10. 3 loops of easy warm up, followed by 2 hard loops, 1.5 loop easy and 1.5 slightly harder loops (but easier than the 1st 2 hard loops) and 1 loop warm down. It was suppose to be 2 loops warm down but I called it a day.


The 1st 2 hard loops were really really fast. I think I probably hit HR of above 160 for the 2.4km. And my max is only 163? From next week onwards I had better put on my HRM to find out really how my heart fared during these track runs. I kind of think I may be pushing harder than I ever will on my own. It was so hard that my mind was weak and wanted to give it up. But with the guys running, I pushed myself through it. Didnt get to take the time, but I was pretty sure it was quickest I have even done so far.


Today did a 100km bike with a 2km run off. My biking legs were really off. The hard time trial on Sunday, the run on Tuesday, the legs just felt heavy and absent. I could not get the cadence up to the usual 90-95 but managed only about 85. In fact, it felt better when I started to mesh in the region of 72-78 towards the end, which was something that Coach prescribed. Mesh a harder gear with lower cadence. But HR went beyond prescribed. Of course, with the meshing at 72-78, the speed also picked up. Funny I could mesh but I could not spin.


Run of 2km was done in 10:15. And that was measured with GPS. Should be pretty accurate but seemed kind of fast compared to the pace I was doing. That was a 5:02min/km. I think it was wrong, but whatever, I am just too tired now to think about it now.

Exclusivity!

Alright. Its cheap thrill. But I am now a member of one of Singapore's oldest running club, MR25. To become a member of the club, one have to run 5km time trial through the trail of Macritchie under 25min. I did it in 23:09 just now. That is a 4:37 pace thereabouts.


Its funny how I had the jitters before the time trial. I was telling Enrico and Andrew, that this was even more stressful than the ironman race. The ironman races have a cut off of 17 hours and frankly, that is quite a long time. But to do a 5km in 25min, that would require serious heart thumping pace. And I was getting into very unfamiliar territory. This was some serious pain.


I suspected that I would be able to clear the 25min but it would take a lot out of me to get there. 1st 2.5km I took 11:35 and the 2nd was 11:34. So that was a pretty consistent pace for the whole run. Not much of a negative split to talk about. I thought I slowed down a great deal on the 2nd lap but I had new found strength for the last 300m, when I saw the forest open up to the reservoir again. A great motivator indeed!


I knew I had some reserves because I wasnt sure of how much I had to run. So I squeezed out the remnants for a harder 100m run to the end point. Managed to overtake a bloke by 3s coz he was on my radar at the end. Andrew who was pacing me for the return leg, pointing at the bloke telling me to overtake him. And so I did.


So thats another target achieved. For what? Well, just for the fun of it and just a gauge of how far I have come with all the training sessions Coach put me through as well as what Andrew had been getting me to do with his track sessions.


Really, something plucked off Martin Yan's "Yan Can Cook", if I can do it, I bet my life, so can anybody else.

Chased By Monkey!

Yes, damn close encounter this time round. And I was riding! Cant imagine if I were running?


The island is just full of these macaques. 1st time a smallish one tried to scratch me 2 years back while I was cycling and avoiding crashing into it. And today was a much bigger alpha-male. It actually chased me for about 50m before giving up. I shouted very loudly - and when I am loud, it must really be loud - in my attempt to scare it off when it started to chase. But it didnt slow him down. Was riding about 24kph up a slope into the zoo and I didnt try to ride off faster than that coz over the crest the primate stopped.


I have written to AVA about it before and apparently they claim that they try to cull and catch these primates which can get aggressive to human. Thanks to the idiots who feed them. And the population is just flourishing.


Its the 3rd day of the lunar new year. In the blink of an eye, the long holiday is almost over. Sadly. It was good break for me, spending time with my relatives and my family. And the laziness of the festive season got into me quite a fair bit.


Thursday was suppose to be a 12km run with an hour of trainer. Only managed 8km run and NO trainer. Friday was not too bad. Managed my swim. 400m warm up, 4x200m (3:20 for all sets), 8x100m (under 1:38 for all sets) and 12x50m (under 48s for all sets). Today I did 5 complete loops of the Mandai route including the zoo section. In fact, the swim workout was the best of the 3 days coz at least there was more effort put in. Almost didnt make the ride today as the temptation to sleep in was so high. But the iron-mind got the better of me and sent me ploughing the loops. Had planned to do at least 6-7 times but settled for 5 instead. Total distance of 120km only. Things should get better next week.


Tomorrow I should be going for MR25 5km time trial. Suppose to do it in 25min. Lets see how things go.

Lunar New Year Holiday!

Lunar new year is special to Chinese. It probably is synonymous of Thanksgiving whereby family come together. A joyous occasion for the renewal and rekindling of relationships and ties. And not to forget, a time of feasting! I particularly like the family gatherings. The laughter, the sharing of stories, flopping on the sofa and just let the mind go blank in front of the goggle box, the continuous eating of the unending streams of food.

But I had a young colleague who commented, "I hate the visiting." Just what had happened to this festive season. Somehow the meaning had been lost somewhere. I would liken this loss to the meaning of red packets where relatives and friends expect a huge amount of money in the red packet, when it was meant to be a blessing only in the past. And that visiting had become a way to collect more red packets so that we can "break even" with the amount that had gone out. I agree that it can be tiring but the rewards are intangible. How often do we get to work and can say that we can let our hair down and just be ourselves? Without having to take precautions of our actions and words that could be taken against us? Think for many of us, this is a lifestyle.

Maybe the busy worklife had turned the whole festive mood topsy turvy. I admit, I had been so busy that many observances have been overlooked. Spring cleaning for one. I dont have a domestic helper. And of late my part time domestic aid had to stop temporarily because of family matters. The culture seemed to have been lost and sadly so.

Nonetheless, it still will be a nice gathering of people we love and perhaps, all else can be overlooked. Perhaps, one day, it will evolve into something that is simpler, so that all can enjoy the season.

***

The rain throughout the whole weekend was amazing. And Monday evening there was a window for the swim to happen, some drills, and 200+300+300+200. Seemed all too familiar. Didnt Coach just gave me something similar last week? Just that I had greater mileage? Yeah, caught my breadth pretty quick. Nice!

Tuesday track was a new mileage:10x400m in 2.5min sets. This meant continuous running on every 2.5min - the longer I take to run the 400m, the shorter break I have. I did decent 1st 7 sets, mostly 88-89s with the first at conservative 90s. I basically followed the 60 year old Uncle Lim but push for a strong 100m finish to cross the line 1s earlier than him. But only managed that for 7 times. Thereafter I crossed the line together with him, one in 92, one in 93 and the final one in 90, thereabouts. But according to Andrew, this was alright because the body was used to the mileage up till the 7th set only and anything thereafter was extra stress. He is the running guru after all and I suppose it made sense. Or maybe it was just consoling words. He did his 400m in 62s thereabouts. Darn! He is sure going to outrun me in AVIVA this year despite going into this race for the 1st time.

Today was day off from work. Rode with Andrew 5 loops at Mandai, including the short section heading into the zoo. Each loop turned out to be 19km. I only managed to keep up with him for 1st loop, thereafter I just left him to ride on his own. His hill climbing was just way beyond me. His average on the undulating terrain was over 31kph while mine was the high 28s. I had to shorten my last loop so that I could return for the run at the same time. We did a 5km run together. I took 26.5min, while he took just 21min, with a negative split. We were having a conversation for about just over 1km when we started before he tore through the tarmac.

It was a whole new riding experience for me. When I go on the 200km bike in the past, I get to rest on the flats. But with Mandai, it was continous climbing. The only rest I got were the downhills before I hit the next slope. And it had been a long time since my thighs actually ached from a ride. I hope this change will help to get me stronger on the bike. I had wanted to use fixed gear for the whole ride. I had better shelf that idea for the time being.

I think I will have to think of unscrupulous ways to disable Andrew at AVIVA... puncture tyres, kick him while he was biking... oops. Bad karma indeed...