Sunday, October 31, 2010
Bay2Bay 2km
I was pretty bummed out with my swim performance on 10/24. Since I only have around 2 training weeks left to train for my 1/2 Ironman; I needed some uplifting news on how I can swim 1.9km without getting a DNF. With a speed of 50minutes on a 1.5km swim, I would be cutting it within 5 minutes of DNF.
Well, Sunday race was 2km and it would be a stamp of what to expect. The morning had a certain chill in the air. At times underneath the shade and definately when I tested the water, my hair stuck straight out. I was even shivering at times... Everyone migrated to the end of the pier and we all waited like penguins. As the time reached 8:28, I figured it was time to jump in. Thankfully, the water was much warmer than the air; and so, after treading water for around 3 minutes, the siren went off.
I think I started too fast - my speed raced to 3.4mph and gradually slowed down to 2.2mph. I keep a metronome inside my swimming cap (among other things). But, I unfortunately never really pay attention to it... but I should.
Throughout the race, I felt like there was a pack of 3-4 of us swimming together. Once in a while, my arm would thrash someone's leg! Of course, it was a breast stroker :( After doing the video, I was reminded of how many times I was thrashed by other swimmers.. Even very close to the end! I guess this is a good thing~
I'm not sure if there was a current to help me go faster. After 10 minutes, I did seem to get into a rhythm. But as I was nearing the finish line, I apparently did a lot of zig-zagging. I need to work on the following:
1. Spit in goggles before race. Lots of fogging!
2. Keep popping Magnesium/Vitamin B/Banana/Salt before the race to prevent cramping
3. Stop going off course; look up on ever 6th stroke.
4. Relax and don't turn head every right stroke (really slows me down)
Overall: 207
Category - 4th from the bottom :(
Overall - 16th from the bottom :(
Winner: Fred Clatworthy (35-39) - 24:05 (what stuff was he on?)
Sunday, October 24, 2010
The K-Swiss ITU Triathlon HK
After my first olympic distance triathlon race.. I have to say: "I'm keeping my day job". Granted in this sport/hobby, it takes a lot of effort to be above average. One thing I love about triathlon is the fact that even though I won't ever be great, it is very challenging and there is a lot of room for improvement when you suck at one, two, or even all three of the 3 disciplines.
My #1 sucky discipline is swimming. Just to give you an idea about this..
* I failed swimming class in grade school at the local Y.
* I almost drowed in a river after a workout in college.
* My splashes were so high that sometimes it would hit the ceiling of an indoor pool.
* I never swam more than 100m prior 2010
* Swim #1 - 750m swim duathlon but cut it short to 500m [29:00]
* Swim #2 - 500m run 500m [16:37], [20:01]
* Swim #3 - 750m swim (sprint tri) [28:43]
With four month of swimming consistently, this 1500m swim took me a little around 50 minutes. I know - I know, that time really sucks! But, in terms of improving - I would say I'm overall happy with the time. Just to give you a ratio my first swim took around 5:40 per 100m, I've trimmed it down to 3:30 per 100m. I will be thrilled if I can get it down to 2:30 per 100m by next year.
I had a major cramp in both of my legs with around 200m left on the swim. First it was my right leg, then my left. And this cramp is the type that is so painful, HELP! I'm drowing and have no usable legs! Have no mercy Poseidon? I hurt so much that I was shaking the living daylights out of my left leg and hoping to just clear the deck. Another issue I have is going off course. I look up but obviously not enough... I also seem to lose bearing and swim away from the line of swimmers (not good) to a point where I was stopped by a kayaker official. No need to blog about my mediocre bike/run... Ok, I'm done complaining. T1 seems to be my only chance to make up time!
Ok, so the result for my swim was a pathetic 90/92 :( [0:50:07] Boo hoo! - Yo #89, #91, #92 - how about getting some swimming lessons? Really... you suck! lol
---
So, here is the scorecard. Well, watch out Phuket Thailand - I'm after you on the hills DannyBoy...
Overall Male 35-39
[00:50:07] Swim 90/91
[00:07:30] T1 34/92
[01:19:09] Bike 75/92
[00:04:38] T2 87/92
[00:47:11] Run 44/92
[03:08:33] Tot 78/92
Overall Male
[00:50:07] Swim 388/409
[00:07:30] T1 139/410
[01:19:09] Bike 287/410
[00:04:38] T2 363/410
[00:47:11] Run 165/410
[03:08:33] Tot 309/410
Overall Male/Female
[00:50:07] Swim 444/471
[00:07:30] T1 153/472
[01:19:09] Bike 317/472
[00:04:38] T2 409/472
[00:47:11] Run 182/472
[03:08:33] Tot 350/472
Fear not JoggerJoel fans! I will improve~
Friday, October 15, 2010
Moontrekker
Moontrekker is a charity endurance competition race at night to complete against the minds, hearts, and legs of Hong Kong adventurers through the sleepy Po Lam Zen Monastery in Tai Tong Tsai and leads hikers up Hong Kong second highest peak on Lantau (934m)
Somehow I lost time at home and had only 15 minutes to catch the ferry at 7:30. When I called my friend he said the ferry was already undocking. OMG! Luckily, there was a special ferry 5 minutes later to bring most of the runners to Mui Wo.
Once I arrived, we waited for about an hour for the start of the race 9:20pm. Usually, I like to be close to the front, but for fun.. I thought I would try the back and video the crowd before it became pitch dark.
Unfortunately, my Garmin watch acted up in the race around 3km and I lost a 5km of history. Adding insult to injury, my light became dim 30 minutes into the race which gave me a very very low lumin (I'd say around 5-10). I tripped over a rock, did a barrel roll and hit my head on a small rock giving me a lump on right parietal ridge area. I think the light issue really became a significant crutch on my trail run. Well, that's part of the race! Unexpectedly, I came too close to the edge and actually fell again and my camelpack hose came off. Remind you my stinking light was on 'dim' mode and the spout became very difficult to find in the overgrown bush. I would say I easily spent 3-5 minutes searching for it. Ok, Chi Ma Wan pensisular was very friendly to this trailrunner that night.
Once out of the peninsular, the hike began. It was a relief to see the first checkpoint and refill water. I forgot to mention that the missing spout cause around 200ml of lost water :(. I had an extra battery, so I popped it in.. giving me another 30 minutes of bright light.
Once I arrived at Tung Chung Road (checkpoint 4), I felt pretty good and there was substainial incline for the next 5km. I was able to pass around a half dozen runners going up to Lantau Peak. I really felt I was cruising up the steep 400 incline at a decent rate. It took me around 23 minutes whereas when I first did Lantau back in April, it took me more than twice as long: 43 minutes. Once I arrived at the top, I somehow went down the wrong way and found myself slidding down from one ledge to another. Luckily, I criss-crossed to the left and was able to get back on the footpath.
While decending, the wind was quite strong and the rocks quite slippery. Given the fact that I had around 3km left to go, I took it real easy and slow. It took longer to go down the Lantau Peak than it did to go up.
My time was 6:21, Here is a video of the run from the starting point into Chi Ma Wan peninsular:
Somehow I lost time at home and had only 15 minutes to catch the ferry at 7:30. When I called my friend he said the ferry was already undocking. OMG! Luckily, there was a special ferry 5 minutes later to bring most of the runners to Mui Wo.
Once I arrived, we waited for about an hour for the start of the race 9:20pm. Usually, I like to be close to the front, but for fun.. I thought I would try the back and video the crowd before it became pitch dark.
Unfortunately, my Garmin watch acted up in the race around 3km and I lost a 5km of history. Adding insult to injury, my light became dim 30 minutes into the race which gave me a very very low lumin (I'd say around 5-10). I tripped over a rock, did a barrel roll and hit my head on a small rock giving me a lump on right parietal ridge area. I think the light issue really became a significant crutch on my trail run. Well, that's part of the race! Unexpectedly, I came too close to the edge and actually fell again and my camelpack hose came off. Remind you my stinking light was on 'dim' mode and the spout became very difficult to find in the overgrown bush. I would say I easily spent 3-5 minutes searching for it. Ok, Chi Ma Wan pensisular was very friendly to this trailrunner that night.
Once out of the peninsular, the hike began. It was a relief to see the first checkpoint and refill water. I forgot to mention that the missing spout cause around 200ml of lost water :(. I had an extra battery, so I popped it in.. giving me another 30 minutes of bright light.
Once I arrived at Tung Chung Road (checkpoint 4), I felt pretty good and there was substainial incline for the next 5km. I was able to pass around a half dozen runners going up to Lantau Peak. I really felt I was cruising up the steep 400 incline at a decent rate. It took me around 23 minutes whereas when I first did Lantau back in April, it took me more than twice as long: 43 minutes. Once I arrived at the top, I somehow went down the wrong way and found myself slidding down from one ledge to another. Luckily, I criss-crossed to the left and was able to get back on the footpath.
While decending, the wind was quite strong and the rocks quite slippery. Given the fact that I had around 3km left to go, I took it real easy and slow. It took longer to go down the Lantau Peak than it did to go up.
My time was 6:21, Here is a video of the run from the starting point into Chi Ma Wan peninsular:
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Lantau2Peaks 21.1km
To end my 4th running event with ActionAsiaEvents for 2010, this run was super hard on the quadriceps. Todays race was very slippery and hilly with a cool blustery wind with low visibility at the top of Lantau and Sunset Peak in Hong Kong. I saw, including myself, people having a few slips. We came in 5th out of 12 team-of-4
Note to self: Rock + Knee = MAJOR HURT. This race was a way for our team to prepare for the Oxfam Trailwalker 100km death march in November. We finished the race as 'planned' before 4:00. Actually 3:57. I hope that we will be more strong on race day. A big thanks to the race coordinator for another successful event.
Ok, Here is a really 'quick-edit' compilation video of the race:
Note to self: Rock + Knee = MAJOR HURT. This race was a way for our team to prepare for the Oxfam Trailwalker 100km death march in November. We finished the race as 'planned' before 4:00. Actually 3:57. I hope that we will be more strong on race day. A big thanks to the race coordinator for another successful event.
Ok, Here is a really 'quick-edit' compilation video of the race:
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Laos 100k 3-days
On September 26th, 2010, I completed my 2nd 100km staged race. This time it was in Laos. Mostly running down dirt roads from one local village to another around 80km outside the city of Luang Prabang. In other news, unknown to most everyone, Mick Jagger was in the area.. meditating...
The night before the race, we travelled 2-3 hours by bus on a rocky bumpy-dirty roads.
I think we finally arrived around 1AM in the morning. We all quickly headed to bed for a 5:30AM wake up call. Each night we would end up in a new village and sleep. The first night had electricity, the second night had none, and the last night also had electricity. The shower area was either from a small hose that had no pressure. Luckily, all the places had a squat toilet versus digging/squatting in the 'field'. I would say that in the conditions we had, it was overall pleasant.
Unlike Vietnam which was in July, the weather was less hot, humid, and rainy. During the night, we actually had to use a blanket because the temperature went down below 75 degrees. Overall, the terrain was long drawn out up hill compared to a quick up and down hilly. I'll go into details on that next...
Day 1 - 41 km
Somewhere during the race after 15km, my arch started to hurt really badly. Silly me.. I kept on walking. My mistake was to 'NOT' remove the theraputic insoles. I thought the insoles would be helpful, but it became a big thorn and eventually slowed my time (in my honest opinion). I will never use them again: P.O.S. Clincally speaking, I believe my feet are actually fine without them. I did have some leg spasms after 37km; I constantly drank salt pills which would calm down a few km later. I believe it is probably good to drink potassium and magnesium pill the night before which I failed to do.
After running day 1, the village we stayed is really 'outback'. I believe I had Anterior Talofibular Ligament Sprain. I had a few repeatedly sprains on MacLehose and it is possible that I didn't really recover. Whatever the technical term was or how it happened; my ankles were very damaged, so I didn't care as I just had one thing on my mind - sleep! Of course I took a shower, we'll communal shower with very little water pressure. One constant morning event is the 5 o'clock wakeup call by some god damn rooster.
Day 2 - 47 km
In the morning, we travel 40km by road and headed over a ridge. The cloud hugging view with its crisp fresh air was fantastic before the sun melted them away. Once we arrived, we did a little sightseeing which started at the Pha Tok Caves. These are enormous multi-levelled caves set in
limestone cliffs, where villagers hid out during the Second Indochina War. There is a rickety ladder going in which everyone was stopped by a chain and gate preventing us to access the caves before the race. Well, we did get to see a millipede.
I won't bore you with the splits.. The damage of the insoles and my ankle impingment problems were done. I finally decided to get rid of the soles at 18km. One great aspect of running in Lao is the when the school children lined up and gave synchronous clapping as we past by. I even I was passed by 3 other runners. Luckily, there was big downhill on the other side of the ridge. It's not the fact that I am good at going downhill, but more uphill (when it is steep). This is near Phia San, a village which was remote and very quiet people. I heard more roosters than I heard people. Kids would just stand and stare. Well, going up the hill, I was able to pass 2 of the runners and pass another runner after 38km. It felt good and I did less walking...
Day 3 - 7+km
My ankles by now have inflamed especially my left foot. I could hardly even walk.. but, I wouldn't let the talus area of my foot prevent me from finishing. Today was water and rice patty field run day. It was really trail running here. This was very technical and one slip would put you right into harms way of some blood leaching leaches. Some of the runners had blood running down their calves from them grabbing onto their leg and having a blood fest. Fortunately, I was so slow that I didn't fall.. well, wait. I did fall and it happened to be in a river. I lost my footing when crossing a 3 log bridge and bam! I fell sideways and back into the river. Luckily, it was deep enough not to hurt except my camera :(. Thanks Joseph Osha~ You saved my life by helping me out of the trenches. It was good fun~~ really.
My final thoughts as 'pretraining for the Maclehose Trailwalker':
1. Tape up your feet, it did wonders and I only had a very small blister which didn't really form.
2. Bring plenty of salt and magnesium/potassium and start consuming them the day before the race.
3. Don't stop your activities after a race like this. Keep moving~
The night before the race, we travelled 2-3 hours by bus on a rocky bumpy-dirty roads.
I think we finally arrived around 1AM in the morning. We all quickly headed to bed for a 5:30AM wake up call. Each night we would end up in a new village and sleep. The first night had electricity, the second night had none, and the last night also had electricity. The shower area was either from a small hose that had no pressure. Luckily, all the places had a squat toilet versus digging/squatting in the 'field'. I would say that in the conditions we had, it was overall pleasant.
Unlike Vietnam which was in July, the weather was less hot, humid, and rainy. During the night, we actually had to use a blanket because the temperature went down below 75 degrees. Overall, the terrain was long drawn out up hill compared to a quick up and down hilly. I'll go into details on that next...
Day 1 - 41 km
| 1 | 0:04:25 | ||
| 2 | 0:04:59 | ||
| 3 | 0:05:07 | ||
| 4 | 0:05:12 | ||
| 5 | 0:05:40 | ||
| 6 | 0:05:37 | ||
| 7 | 0:05:44 | ||
| 8 | 0:05:38 | ||
| 9 | 0:05:38 | ||
| 10 | 0:05:53 | Very fast 10k, I did this actually intentionally since my walking speed is terrible. As I figured, all the fast individuals past me at 13k.. This is the start of when the altitude went straight to the roof. | |
| 11 | 0:07:15 | ||
| 12 | 0:06:05 | ||
| 13 | 0:06:48 | ||
| 14 | 0:13:39 | The beginning of my second race - walking up a long long hill (20km) | |
| 15 | 0:12:42 | ||
| 16 | 0:10:12 | ||
| 17 | 0:12:08 | ||
| 18 | 0:12:52 | ||
| 19 | 0:11:02 | ||
| 20 | 0:12:45 | ||
| 21 | 0:08:42 | ||
| 22 | 0:07:53 | ||
| 23 | 0:10:00 | ||
| 24 | 0:09:54 | ||
| 25 | 0:11:34 | ||
| 26 | 0:11:06 | ||
| 27 | 0:09:45 | ||
| 28 | 0:09:42 |
| 29 | 0:07:52 |
| 30 | 0:13:28 | ||
| 31 | 0:12:20 | ||
| 32 | 0:09:45 | ||
| 33 | 0:09:22 | ||
| 34 | 0:06:06 | ||
| 35 | 0:08:57 | ||
| 36 | 0:08:13 | ||
| 37 | 0:08:21 | ||
| 38 | 0:12:02 | ||
| 39 | 0:12:48 | ||
| 40 | 0:10:31 | ||
| 41 | 0:08:32 | ||
| 42 | 0:02:32 |
Somewhere during the race after 15km, my arch started to hurt really badly. Silly me.. I kept on walking. My mistake was to 'NOT' remove the theraputic insoles. I thought the insoles would be helpful, but it became a big thorn and eventually slowed my time (in my honest opinion). I will never use them again: P.O.S. Clincally speaking, I believe my feet are actually fine without them. I did have some leg spasms after 37km; I constantly drank salt pills which would calm down a few km later. I believe it is probably good to drink potassium and magnesium pill the night before which I failed to do.
After running day 1, the village we stayed is really 'outback'. I believe I had Anterior Talofibular Ligament Sprain. I had a few repeatedly sprains on MacLehose and it is possible that I didn't really recover. Whatever the technical term was or how it happened; my ankles were very damaged, so I didn't care as I just had one thing on my mind - sleep! Of course I took a shower, we'll communal shower with very little water pressure. One constant morning event is the 5 o'clock wakeup call by some god damn rooster.
Day 2 - 47 km
In the morning, we travel 40km by road and headed over a ridge. The cloud hugging view with its crisp fresh air was fantastic before the sun melted them away. Once we arrived, we did a little sightseeing which started at the Pha Tok Caves. These are enormous multi-levelled caves set in
limestone cliffs, where villagers hid out during the Second Indochina War. There is a rickety ladder going in which everyone was stopped by a chain and gate preventing us to access the caves before the race. Well, we did get to see a millipede.
I won't bore you with the splits.. The damage of the insoles and my ankle impingment problems were done. I finally decided to get rid of the soles at 18km. One great aspect of running in Lao is the when the school children lined up and gave synchronous clapping as we past by. I even I was passed by 3 other runners. Luckily, there was big downhill on the other side of the ridge. It's not the fact that I am good at going downhill, but more uphill (when it is steep). This is near Phia San, a village which was remote and very quiet people. I heard more roosters than I heard people. Kids would just stand and stare. Well, going up the hill, I was able to pass 2 of the runners and pass another runner after 38km. It felt good and I did less walking...
Day 3 - 7+km
My ankles by now have inflamed especially my left foot. I could hardly even walk.. but, I wouldn't let the talus area of my foot prevent me from finishing. Today was water and rice patty field run day. It was really trail running here. This was very technical and one slip would put you right into harms way of some blood leaching leaches. Some of the runners had blood running down their calves from them grabbing onto their leg and having a blood fest. Fortunately, I was so slow that I didn't fall.. well, wait. I did fall and it happened to be in a river. I lost my footing when crossing a 3 log bridge and bam! I fell sideways and back into the river. Luckily, it was deep enough not to hurt except my camera :(. Thanks Joseph Osha~ You saved my life by helping me out of the trenches. It was good fun~~ really.
My final thoughts as 'pretraining for the Maclehose Trailwalker':
1. Tape up your feet, it did wonders and I only had a very small blister which didn't really form.
2. Bring plenty of salt and magnesium/potassium and start consuming them the day before the race.
3. Don't stop your activities after a race like this. Keep moving~
Total Time: 14:30:47
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Maclehose Oxfam Trailwalker Training Stage 1-2 (Early and Rainy)
I went out on a training run very early. I would say I woke up at 3AM. Here is the highlights of my run. I was overall happy with the run since I didn't twist my ankle or fall down a stream
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