L.O.V.E.

L is for the way you look at me....

O is for the only one I see....

V is very very extraodinary...

E is even more than anyone that you adore...

Have been really missing song for a while...Sinatra, Nat King Cole...Joss Stone....

Chinese New Year Goodies Vs Ironman Traininig

This is the time of the year when everyone will be guilt-free and indulge in the Chinese New Year Goodies, Bak Kwa, Pineapple Tarts, Almond Cookies, and all the scrumptious food at the reunion dinner table. Its a tough position for me this year as I am exactly one month away for the Ironman Langkawi. I will have to be really careful with my junk food intake for once.

The training must go on. No matter what. I will still have to train to bring my power to weight ratio to the highest possible. So here is my plan:



Chinese New Year Eve (Sunday): 60km bike ride in the morning before reunion dinner (Steam Boat) at night

Chinese New Year Day 1 (Monday): Slot in a 30mins run in the morning and a 1hour spin on the bike in the evening

Chinese New Year Day 2 (Tuesday): Rest (Control the junk food day)

Chinese New Year Day 3 (Wednesday): 160km Bike Ride

Chinese New Year Day 4 (Thursday): Bike/Run Brick with Girlfriend

Chinese New Year Day 5 (Friday): Bike to work and back (est. 100km)

Chinese New Year Day 6 (Saturday): Swim/Run Brick

Chinese New Year Day 7 (Sunday): Team Bandung Ride

Chinese New Year Day 8 (Monday): Resume Synergy Swim Class

Chinese New Year Day 9 (Tuesday): Rest

Chinese New Year Day 10 (Wednesday): Swim Class With Synergy

Chinese New Year Day 11 (Thursday): Rest

Chinese New Year Day 12 (Friday): Rest

Chinese New Year Day 13 (Saturday): 25km run

Chinese New Year Day 14 (Sunday): Team Bandung Ride

Chinese New Year Day 15 (Monday): Aquathlon Training with Synergy

Training Updates

Well,

Last week supposed to be a hard hard week to build up for the Chinese New Year week of torture where everything will be super duper long (like 220km bike ride....4 hrs run and the tonnes of brick training).

Of course, with all the ambitious plans, the body will response differently. While typing this I am nursing a sore left shoulder and neck. But I am still optimistic about the weeks ahead...anyway, I did not went out as hard as the previous week but I did complete majority of my training. Pool work is ok....managed t complete most of it. The only thing is I missed my thursday 10km run, so I have to make it up on Saturday with a run at MacRichite Trail which I has looking forward too as I am more of a offroader (Mountain Biking and Trail Running) and then finished off with a Sunday Ride with Team Bandung....

And of course, I am very happy about the fact that my weight is coming down and I need to get my power to weight ratio as high as possible. Well, one new week and more training ahead.

I will be Here.

This has been my favourite song from Steve Curtis Chapman.....it really a challenge to every man who is preparing for the wedding...why?

Are you ready to take care of her truly, faithfully and without any condition? Will you be there for the rest of her life? In Weakness, in Poverty, in Sickness?????

Must I like Everyone????

Must I like people.....

.....Who steal quality time away from me?

.......Who comes out of idea that to me is not absolutely productive?

..........Who spend a great deal of time.....organizing social gathering than training for a race?

............Who are taking away quality time from my family and love one?

-------------------------------------------I seriously Dunno that Answer.....But I am not absolutely please with the situation right now---------------------------------------------------------------------

Moving On....

More often than not there are times when you struggle to carry yourself through life circumstances emotionally, its painful at time to even move a step a day in your life. You reach a point in life asking God, asking yourself why you have to go through that.

Very simple, questions....
...1) Am I holding on to something or some situation so tightly that its choking others or myself?

.....2) What do I benefit by holding on to it?

........3) Is it better to let go of it so that it won't choke others and gets in your way?

..........4) Is it better to live with or without the circumstances?

.............5) Is God in control of the situation? Or are you the one trying to control the situation?

.................6) Are you hurting others by doing what you are doing?

.....................7) Is it time for you to let go and Let God that control and start moving?

...........Moving on in life is a part and parcel of a life journey and more often than not many of us are so bored down with life situation like relationship, work, career, family, studies.....finding your real calling in life and real destiny in life is pretty much the essence of life. Is God in the picture of all these is the next question....no one knows the real calling of their life until they actively search and that may require some letting go and moving on.....same goes to the search for life's destiny....its about letting go of some important things and moving on to a new pasture in life. May not be an easy one but it would always turn out better....especially when it has other people involve like relationships.

.....over the last few weeks, I have been going through some struggles too, things that I have held fast to, but as days goes by, I realised that I need to let go of it or else I will never find peace. So, I am pretty certain that I want to move on and I want peace in the Lord. Moving on....Moving on...in life.

Week One heading to Week Two

After a Lovely dinner with Love One on friday at El Toro Paradiso and a nice chilling walk by the beach, its time to kick in the hard brick weekend. Saturday was a swim at Katong Swimming Complex with the Team Bandung guys...not bad, just that I am the slowest one in terms of freestyle, told myself to hang in there and then after 3 x 500m swim and a 3 x 200m swim, I zipped off towards Suntec and Singapore Flyer for a 10km run. Managed to clock in a really hard and fast 50plus minutes 10km. Felt that I will probably subject myself to blood blister on my feet and true enough it happens...arghhh...not again...silly me trying to run without sock.

Anyway, I was supposed to do a 120km bike on sunday and guess what, I body decided to boycott with a indigestion by sending me a heartburn....darned! oh well, so today is monday, decided to try another brick with a bike and then attending the swim class with Synergy and then bike home....totally satisfying.

Phat Tyre Weekend

While I will be away in Langkawi attempting my first Ironman....

....Singapore has another celebration and party....

Training...Updates....

Its been 3 days since I embarked on the training to prepare for the Ironman Training. Well, its not absolutely a smooth training phase because beside following the training plan, I have to realize the physiological part of me. I am not made of Iron though I am trying my hands on the Ironman for the first time.

Day 1: 2km pool swim (complete 50min - feeling fresh after the swim)

Day 2: Synergy Training (completed 1 x 500m warm up swim, 1 x 500m base swim)
(Uncompleted 1 x 400m - 6 beat kick swimming, only finished 3oom)

Day 3: 10km run (complete in 1hr Flat)

Day 4: Rest (dinner with love one)

Relationship???

Has anyone ever wonder what it takes for a relationship to actually work???

1) Time

2) Commitment

3) Emotions

4) Unconditional Love

Anyway, some would say why I asked about this question and comes out of the attributes and definition is heavily due to the fact my recent involvement in a relationship seems to draw me to all these words and issues. Time, how is time spent together is right or how much time spent is enough? It is selfish of us to expect our other half to devote more time with us? What is the real essence behind this? What is considered quality time??? How about our time with our friends??? Do we have to put aside time with friends to make time for our love ones???

With that comes the part about commitment, how much of effort, time and devotion are we willing to commit ourselves into? There is always a question about this "what if he/she is not committed and I am committing so much???" Should I measure it with that or should I question commitment using that Benchmark??? Does time, effort and devotion equates to Commitment???

Emotions has a heavy part in relationships too. We are all human being and psychologically and physiologically, our emotions plays a part. Its Emotional and Spiritual. I throw our tantrums to show our unhappiness, that's emotion. We show our concerns to our Love One and that's emotion. We cry with our Love One and for our Love One and that's emotion.

Unconditional Love, the big word in this whole thing. Unconditional Love at any point in time is not selfish, its not impatience, its not attention seeking. It's Absolutely Unconditional. So the rest of the earlier expectation does not fit in here. If you are willing to walk down this path to be loving someone Unconditionally, then don't set expectation, because it will hurt even more and the sense of betrayal will get the better of you. So what is my point??? If you want to get into a relationship, be prepare to self out all your efforts of commitment, time, emotions and most important of all, unconditional love for that person. Don't expect anything in return but just remember that God is in control of everything.

You know you're a triathlete when....

Got this from a friend in Facebook...Thanks MK....really reflect us....

You know you're a triathlete when....

When asked, how old you are you answer 20-24.

When asked how long your training was today you answer: three to four hours.

Your traning is more limited by available time then how far you can run.

Your first thought when you wake up is how high your rest HR is.

You go for a run eventhough there's a thunderstorm and you enjoy being wet and dirty.

You think it's natural to do your 'business' behind a tree in the woods.

You take part in the corporate challenge to improve your base speed.

You go for a 5 km cooldown run after a 5 km race just so that you can call it a training session.

You consider work, regeneration time between training sessions.

That something hard between your legs is usually a pull buoy

You have a water bottle when you drive your car.

You've forgotten how to drink out of cups.

You spend your 2 weeks annual vacation at a training camp.

You know inside out how much Protein each energy bar has.

You seriously consider applying for citizenship in Tonga, Jemen or Tschad so that you can participate in the olympic games.

When people praising you for being able to run 15 miles you're feeling insulted.

In the summer your legs are smoother than your girlfriend's.

In the winter your legs are still smoother than your girlfriend’s

You need a picture for a job application and you only have race pictures.

You use running T-shirts to clean your bike.

That charming "cologne" you wear to work is chlorine

You take more showers in a locker room than at home

6:30 am is sleeping in

the dog runs and hides when you get the leash!

You think there are only two seasons during the year, racing and off.

You shave way too many body parts for a guy.

You can't change the oil in your car but you can completly rebuild your bike in 45 mins

You spend more £ on training and racing clothes then work clothes

You spend 7 days going to 8 stores in 4 towns before buying a pair of running shoes but you take 1 afternoon to go to 1 car dealership and walk out with a new car 4 hours later.

when you see some lady watering her flowers and ask her if you can borrow the hose for a minute so you can fill up your water bottles.

You clean your bike more often than your car

You've been stung be a wasp or bee in your mouth but carried on running or cycling because "your split times won’t go down by themselves"

Your car smells like a locker room.

You have everything needed in your car to be Swimming, Biking or Running with 5 minutes notice.

When asked to mow the lawn in 90 degree heat, you say that its too hot to do that (and you mean it) and then an hour later you go on a century ride because its so nice out.

You tell your co-workers that you are going to "do a long brick" on saturday and just expect that they know what you are talking about.

When a co-worker asks if you are racing this weekend, you say "yeah, but I'm just running a 10k, so that is not REALLY a race".

You consider you bike saddle your "couch"

You consider Clif Bars as one of the four food groups

you are sick to your stomach at 2:00 in the morning and check the back of the Pepto Bismol bottle for caloric content and grams of carbohydrates, fat and protein.

you have plenty of water bottles, safety pins, and t-shirts.

You like going swimming the day after a race with the permenant penned number still visible on your legs and arms because the feel like a medal.

you have trouble keeping lunch under 2000 calories.

you usually wake up at 4:00 in the morning but do not get to work until way after 9:00.

you have a £4000 bike strapped on top of your £2000 car.

you have no trouble pushing a day's caloric intake to over 8000 calories.

you're always wet! Either sweat water, pool water, sea water, shower water, bath water or its p*****g down outside!

Instead of Marie Clare, People and Cosmo, you have piles of Runner's World in your bathroom.

your car has at least one Power Bar wrapper and two sets of work out clothes!
your kids idea of playing is a bike and run race followed by power bars, water bottles and awards ceremony.

your laundry continually smells like someone locked the cat in overnight...

you leave your apartment or house in the morning with your swim bag on one arm, bike on one shoulder, a change of clothes in another bag, and your running stuff in another bag in case you can get away at lunch for a workout.

you wave at other cyclists, because all triathletes are friendly and if they are not, they are probably purist cyclists trying to get into triathlons and they do not know that triathletes are friendly.

You have not one, not two, but three permanent chain ring scars on your right calf.

You are walking along a street and you signal left.

you can't decide what tee shirt to wear to your next race.

you have far more pairs of shoes in your closet than your non-tri wife does in hers

the one "suit" you own has orca written on the chest.

You wear your heart rate monitor during sex....


...and you keep within the right HR zone

you hear T2 and don't think of the film....

when "foreplay" is 15 minutes on a turbo trainer

your living room has the "swim pile" and the "bike pile" and the "run pile" and the "weight room pile" and you pick and choose kind of like a cafeteria on your way out the door.

your kitchen cupboards are organized into "protein", "carbs" and "etc"

you bring bottled water to a party so that you're properly hydrated for the next morning's long run, everyone else at the party also brought their own bottled water because you don't have a social life outside of triathlon. Oh yeah, and they all showed up by 7pm and left by 10pm.

your company announces mandatory unpaid shutdown days - every other Friday thoughout the summer - in order to cut costs and stay in business, and your response is "Great - now I can do two long workouts on the weekends and still have an easy day."

......but you dont!

your 8 year old comes home with the school record for the mile and says, he took it out in a nice pace he could hold.....everyone else died.

you fill your kids' water bottles with Cytomax instead of blue gatorade.

you can ask your mom and your sister and all other girlfriends for shaving advice.

no wait, they ask you for advice!

you say that you went to a race last weekend...and somebody responds "running or biking" and you are again forced to explain....


you wear your bathing suit under your work clothes to make a fast transition from work to swim on your lunch hour.

you show up at the neighborhood pool on your bike in a speedo and embarrass your teenage daughters.

Your idea of fast food is a power bar and SIS Go

somebody hands you a cup of water and you have to restrain yourself from pouring it on your head.

You catch yourself about to blow a snot rocket while walking around the office.

you forget that talking about daily LSD [Long Slow Distance] and speed weirds some people out.

you have no FRIGGIN idea what to do with yourself on your off day.

You feel like you took the day off because all you did was swim 3000 meters then go for a short run.

At any given moment you know exactly where your heart rate monitor and your swim googles are, but cannot remember where you left you car keys. (turns out 90% of the time they are in your bike bag)

Ice baths!

When non-racer friends tell you they ran/rode you automatically calculate their pace to see if you're still in better shape.

Cars pass you on the road when you're driving and you either drop back to get out of draft zone or speed up to attack!

You have no trouble converting mph into kmph

You've stopped buying high-heels because your feet are too swollen from long runs to fit in them anyways.

While your less athletically-inclined girlfriends are gorging themselves on plates of lettuce, you're occupying yourself with a plate of pasta and chicken (white meat, of course.)

Having a period has become less of a nuisance since menstrual cramps don't feel that bad when you're hunched over a bike.

You've stopped wearing dangly earrings because they just get in the way when you're ripping off your clothes to squeeze "just one more" workout into your already cramped schedule.

Your girlfriends are insanely jealous of your tan legs. Until they realize that the tan stops at your bike shorts.

You've given up trying to go on training runs/rides with your boyfriends because they don't take it too well when you kick their butt.

Your best girl friend gets a new bike and tells you that it's a really pretty shade of blue. You get a new bike and can tell her the chain ring ratios.

When checking out guys on the street/at the mall your friends notice eyes, hair, build. You notice if they have shaved legs, if they have runners/bikers legs, and if they're wearing a race t-shirt.

Road To IM Langkawi

For the last 2 months or so I was really in my Slacker, Lazy-bone mode though I told everyone that I need to train hard for the Ironman Langkawi. What a joke it was and it takes someone who is very very important to me to tell me of my attitude towards training. I used to be so focus in my training, I remembered the time when I quit my job, unplucked myself from my comfort zone and head out to Sabah for one solid month, just to train hard for the Ironman 70.3. And now, I am easing myself into my unforgiving Slacker attitude hoping that by doing less I will still get good results. It is definitely not the time to do that mate!

Of course, something needs to be down to address this situation, so I was up the other and came out with my Training Plan, give it to my dearest and beloved. Did my first regime and guess what I completed my regime without a problem and here I am now on my computer in a coffee place in Anchorpoint writing this and preparing to go for the second day of my training. Woohoo!!! I am beginning to get the drive, the hunger, the momentum.

I am pretty much re-aligning to Peter Reid training philosophy again. You need to be hungry and motivated to do the Ironman and I am just doing that.

Stepping Up! Training

Training for 2008 is over and of course with the coming races in 2009, I realised that its time to step up the training plan.

So this is how it will look like in January:

6th Jan (Tuesday – 7pm to 9pm) - Light swim (mileage 2km)

7th Jan (Wednesday – 7pm to 9.30pm) - Pool Session with Synergy

8th Jan (Thursday – 7pm to 8.30pm) - 1hr Run

9th Jan (Friday) - Rest

10th Jan (Saturday – 9am to 2pm) - Bike and Run Brick

11th Jan (Sunday – 4am to 12nn) - Bandung Ride

12th Jan (Monday – 7pm to 9.30pm) - Pool Session with Synergy

13th Jan (Tuesday) - Rest

14th Jan (Wednesday – 7pm to 9.30pm) - Pool Session with Synergy

15th Jan (Thursday – 7pm to 9pm) - Run

16th Jan (Friday) - Rest

17th Jan (Saturday – 9am to 2pm) - Swim and Bike Brick

18th Jan (Sunday – 4pm to 7pm) - Speedwork (if no Bandung ride)

19th Jan (Monday) - Rest

20th Jan (Tuesday – 7pm to 8.30pm) - Run

21st Jan (Wednesday – 7pm to 9.30pm) - swim with Synergy

22nd Jan (Thursday) - Rest

23rd Jan (Friday) - Run

24th Jan ( Saturday) - Bike and Run Brick (Short)

25th Jan (Sunday) - CNY Eve