First X'mas with baby Ryan

It is my first X'mas celebration with Baby Ryan.
Feels so different that now I'm a father of a son.

Will be on annual leave till 2nd Jan 2013.

Gotta spend more time with dear and boy boy before going back to the rat race life.

It brings me back to the sad reality that both me and lishan will be spending significantly less time with Ryan once dear's maternity leave/annual leave runs out and she returns to work.

An average Singaporean couple will most probably be dual-income, that is, both dad and mom are working. So who's gonna take care of the baby while dad and mom are working?

1) Grandparents

2) Infant/ Child care

3) Nanny

Sad to say that most parents will not be able to spend more time with their babies during their waking hours. The kid's closest/ most familiar person will be the caregiver, whom is usually not either of the parents.

I will always wonder if the trade-off of dual income is always better than the parent not being the primary care giver.

Yes I know, we all have a choice.

But taking into consideration of the risk of relying on a single income (not counting passive income), especially when there is always a risk of retrenchment (not that I have not been through that before), common sense dictates that dual income will be a safer bet for making sure of our own survivability in this pragmatic society.

Ahhhh, why am I thinking of such stuff at this hour?

Perhaps procrastination becomes extra pronounced at night (I was drafting a work email... yes yes, still working when I'm on leave, yes yes money to be made)

Incoherent thoughts at this hour.

Gotta go sleep now and wake up at 7 to do my brick training

Anyway, Merry X'mas to whomever is reading this.

On leave or not??

Supposed to be on Childcare leave and annual leave, all the way till 2013.
Still have to work at this hour......

Typical Chinese...
有钱还是要赚
奶粉钱难赚

Anyway, signed up for the MegaTri Olympic Distance race on 20 Jan.
I'm supposed to follow my planned training schedule, at least while I'm on leave.

Missed today's session.
Gotta make sure I make up tomorrow.

Eventful day...

The Good
Ryan finally managed to flip from lying his back to lying on his tummy all by himself this morning!
So happy to see him learn new skills.
I'm proud of my son!

Though now it becomes a slight problem, that he keeps trying to flip every time he lies on his back. Even during diaper changing time.
Now he even fall asleep in a half flip position.
Maybe he will make a good athlete with such dedication to training :)

Next I'll have to try to teach him to roll back to lie on his back from the tummy position.
Then teach him how to sit up without assistance.

Loving my boy more and more each day!


Very Very Close shave - Falling down with my baby
It all happened in a flash.

Was walking up a flight of steps while carrying sleeping Ryan in front of me, and my slipper caught the last step and threw me off balance, falling forward with Ryan in my arms.

The first natural reaction was to break fall by putting my hands out.
But I immediately saw Ryan flying out of my arms.

Daddy instinct kicked in and I did a double pull in mid air to pull Ryan back into my arms.
Managed to twist around and cushion Ryan on my chest before we hit the ground.

Ryan got startled and cried immediately, but we were very very lucky that he wasn't hurt.
I think I probably rolled on Ryan's left foot a little bit when I hit the floor but there wasn't any damage as well.

I just got a small scrape on my knee and elbow.

Feeling damned guilty after the incident, so this small bruise is probably a punitive punishment for my negligence.

Conclusion:

1. I SWEAR OFF WEARING THE GOD DAMNED SLIPPERS AGAIN IF I'M GOING TO CARRY RYAN. Only secure sandals or shoes will do.
2. Be EXTRA EXTRA careful when carrying baby Ryan.
3. Thanks to the 4-faced Brahma at Erawan Shrine for protecting Ryan. I promise I will offer prayers every time I visit Thailand, without fail.
4. Similar to the last time I saved my own skin from the fall off the scooter in Taiwan, cultivated lightning response from sports has probably saved Ryan from any hurt this time. Daddy now has the responsibility to keep himself fit to be able to protect baby Ryan under any circumstances.

Post SCMS

Did my 10th installation of the SC marathon last Sunday, clocked a relatively ok timing at 4:53
Got some new insights and breakthrough though this isn't my best possible timing.

Original Objectives set out:
1) Test the High cadence short stride
2) Continuous run with little/no stops
3) Finish Strong with no injuries
4) Clock sub-5

Good:
1) Finished the run strong. I had always stumbled through the last 10km for the last 9 installations. This is the first time that I did not get any immediate cramps after passing the finish line, and still feeling that I have some gas left in my tank.
2) Continuous running with little stopping except for Water station with less than 10s downtime, and the Sheares bridge where it was not worth it to attack the slopes and risk serious cramps which will screw up the remaining 4km run. Better to err on the safe side.
3) Finally managed to break through the much-feared "Wall" at 32km. When I reached 30km at 3:20 feeling fatigued, I was starting to worry if the new strategy is going to back fire on me. The usual cramps indeed started to set in at 32km again. But I persisted with the high-short and actually managed to make the cramps "disappear" after the initial struggle.
4) Minimized damage to knees and reasonable soreness on the calves and quads. (can walk around with ease, up and down the stairs without much issues. No limping or awkwardness)

Bad:
1) Abrasions - It wasn't my thighs brushing against each other, but rather the sweat-soaked wet running shorts causing abrasion on my left thigh.
2) Abrasions - trim body hair at spots where movement is expected. Nuff said
3) Abrasions - nipple bled this time. Felt some abrasion at around 25km, but nothing afterwards. Realized the bleeding after 36km but no feeling at all. Post-run till date still no signs of pain. Not sure if I became super man and gained immunity to pain...

Conclusion:
High-cadence short-stride is definitely working, though I might had been overly cautious in this run not to over extend myself in case I couldn't beat the Wall.
Since I was able to clock 3hr flat for the last 31.5km run with High-short, I believe this could probably help me to clock 4.30 for a 42km run with proper prep

Actions:
1) Wear the 2xu full length tights for long runs next time to minimize abrasions. Will probably help with recovery as well.
2) Extend the High-short strategy. Clock up to 35km when training for future marathons. This shouldn't be an issue anymore since this has helped to reduce injuries and downtime.
3) Adapt the High-short for IPPT 2.4km run to regain my $400 incentive again.

Next Up:
I'll most probably sign up for the Olympic Distance Tri Race on 20 Jan.
The experience gained from this run is going to help me avoid the quad cramps on the run leg of the tri.

Ryan is 1 month old!

Time has passed quickly with Ryan boy around at home.
Just held his baby shower over the weekend with lots of blessings from visiting friends and relatives.

Now I really understand the joys of parenting, though it can be quite tiring and frustrating at times.
Tough feeds, dirty diapers, uncontrollable and inexplicable cries in the wee hours, crap in his pants and on my t-shirt... all these are just fleeting moments of labor and fatigue, but at the same time, these are the building blocks of sweet memories that I'll cherish for a long time to come. (and as with "bad decisions make good stories", soiled diapers make good stories too!)

I'm really fortunate to have an understanding and strong wife. I'm very sure Shan will make a very good mummy!

The "ooo it's papa" look from Ryan's eyes make it all worthwhile :)
____

TriFactor Olympic Distance Triathlon on 26 Aug 2012
Finally did my first ever full distance triathlon last Sunday.
Completed the event in 3:15hr, faster than my expected range of 3:30 - 4:00
Guess I had seriously overcompensated for my cycling leg, which in the end turned out to be the best of the 3 legs.
Swim: 00:48:58 (Rank: 284/396)
T1: 00:02:38
Bike: 01:14:35 (Rank: 223)
T2: 00:02:47
Run: 01:06:29 (Rank: 254)
Total: 03:15:36 (Rank: 260, Standard Distance Open-Male)

Take-away notes from this race:
1) Lots of room for improvement in swimming. Strong undercurrent in this race but I should still target to complete open water swims within 40min.
2) No complains on both T1 and T2. Executed well to plan
3) Plus: Did not get wobbly legs this time in the run after bike due to change in running strategy of low stride-high cadence.
4) Minus: Cramps settled in harder than expected in later part of the run - same problems for my 3 hour wall limit. Must schedule more brick training for a full run after a full bike workout to stimulate actual race conditions (did not manage to fulfill this requirement in training for this race)
5) Did not apply any refuelling strategies in this race. Probably good to explore nutrition aspect to improve performance next time.

Will be looking for another Full D Tri event to join.
Hopefully I'll be able to make it to a 70.3 IM event in 2013.

Verdict out

Quota effectively got increased by about another 5%.
Warped logic used by boss doesn't help.
I get rewarded by additional quota increase for outperforming last year.

Take that I was on a $100 quota and I did $120, this year he asks me to do $112, while telling me that my quota "went down by $8".

His reason being last year the whole team's quota was at $300, but achieved only $260 only.
So this year the team quota stands at $306 that means an "increase of 18%".

The non performing guy did $31 out of a $62 quota, and he got a huge "94% quota increase" to do $60.

WOW. MIND BLOWN


When I asked about increasing our pay to commensurate with the increased workload and responsibilities, he had to cheek to remind me that he told me that I had a supposed promotion.
Then when I asked where is the pay increment, he then responded that he only received a promotion confirmation letter from HR that states nothing else, and since the new rank pay range bench mark has not been finalized by HR, so there is no pay increment mentioned.

Well, in this case should I reserve a huge THANKS for giving me the promotion with a huge quota increment?

Time to do window shopping.
If the company is not giving me the appropriate compensation for the extra orders that I bring in, maybe the competition will.

Time to job search again...

Getting the bad end of the stick in the new work year, and seems to be taking a turn for the worst.

Met my quota for the first month of the year and tell me now that my quota needs to go up by 8%?
It effectively wipes out what I did for last month.

Cancel an old order from my side and rebooking it with another guy?
That adds another month of quota to my load.

All out of a sudden I have to clock a 14 month worth of orders for this new financial year, on top of the 50% increase in workload and at least 20% increase in quota, but no increase in pay.
And still get finger pointing at me say quota decrease 15% (via unfair & incorrect calculation)

SRSLY WTF

It is the worst possible time to be job hopping, but if the final arrangements is unfair, then I better be moving
I rarely openly post issues at work but this is getting ridiculous...

Today is Ah Di's 15th birthday

Happy birthday Ah Di!

Still miss you lots

Ryan is born today!!

Happy!

Almost there

It's week 36.

We are almost there!

Almost everything has been prepared to welcome the arrival of Ryan.

I just have to clean up the home again this weekend to make sure that boy boy gets a dust-free environment.

Gotta start spending more time reading up baby care rather than work related stuff.

I know it's bad timing to still be traveling for biz now, but I just have to get this trip done to avoid any later complications at work, especially since I had been hands off since May. 

If I clock 4 consecutive months away from biz, it speaks bad no matter what the reason is.

Have to go for IPPT again next week.

Not sure if I can claim the $400 incentive once again. 

Chin ups should be ok since I can consistently clock 8x minimum.

Always have this feeling of not spending enough time on speed training. The only good thing is that I'm getting an extra 15s for reaching CAT Y1.

Probably will clock a speed workout sometime early next week and book an ippt session in late week

31.5km run

Been too busy these few days to write down a review for this race done on last Sunday.
It was pretty interesting as I managed to figure out some new stuff.


Official results from the TriFactor page states that I have completed the 31.5km run in exactly 3 hours, so that works out to be about 10.5km/h pace on average. Not too shabby considering the minimal amount of long D training that I had put in over the last couple of months, just 3 x ~12km runs on 3 weekends, and I was targeting an optimistic timing of 3.15hr at my current fitness level. 3hr flat just surprised me.


Key difference in this race was the rain and the strict discipline on following through on a high cadence short stride combination.


Had tried the high cadence short stride combi in training a few times and ended up making my heart rate ramp up much faster than my traditional low cadence long stride combi.
However the books and techniques that I had read up states that long strides will cause a braking effect and will waste more energy and place unnecessary stress on the knees.


Given the non-optimal fitness condition with a bad left knee, and the tested and proven heavy taxation on the body from the low long combi, it was perhaps a stroke of genius or act of desperation that I did the unconventional by trying a new technique during a race.
Somehow I had managed to pull this high short combi off (the rain has definitely helped), and maintained it for the full 31.5km without any real stops (excluding short drink breaks) and kept the heart rate consistent at 162~168 bpm for about 80% of the run. 
This is in my zone 3, also my lactate threshold grey zone (since I have never managed to clearly define my Max HR to get a clear set of numbers), so technically speaking I could continue running at the same pace for the full 42.195km with enough LSD endurance training.


However, I could feel that I was starting to tire towards the end of the run (also incidentally my traditional break down point at 3hr), so this means that I will need more LSD endurance training to make this pace last through the final 10.5km.


My rough estimate is that if I could put in more training for the high short combi, achieving another sub 4.30 for my final SC 42k will not be a far fetched target.
With another ~4 months to SCMS, time is on my side now to make a difference.
Hope I can make my 10th anniversary run a good one.

Time really flies

A quick glance at my last entry and it is about my Tri early in the year.
In the blink of an eye, we are now heading into the end of June.

Till now, this year has been pretty eventful, or rather full of events for me.

SPORTS
Almost having a race every month, but ain't really performing as I'm not training properly.
Part lazy, part due to knee issues.
Perhaps I had been doing heel strikes unknowingly for a long time, and am now due to take up new running methods as recommended by Colin

TRAVEL
Did a trip to Beijing together with YQ, JS, HQ and HS.
Pretty fun and funny, but I ain't expecting to make any return trips to Beijing in the foreseeable future.
Scaled the Great Wall and visited the Forbidden Palace.
Tasted 2 different styles of Peking Duck and tried their Mala Hotpot.
Pretty much done a lot of stuff and ticked a few items off my bucket list.
Did a quick trip to BKK 2 weeks ago with Dear. Finally experienced the feel of being a tourist in BKK, but being too familiar still doesn't help... hahahaha

COMING UP
July: 3/4 marathon with SingTel Tri Factor series.
I'm srsly going to suck at this one. 3 more weeks to the race and I have only clocked like 10km at most.
Need to buck up!

August:
Very important Life changing moment !!! Welcoming of Ryan Wang!!!
Full D Tri with SingTel Tri Factor

September:
Contemplating when to join a Long D Tri with Roy at Desaru. This is going to kill if I'm going.
Super hot weather and hilly terrain will make this minimum 6 hour race unbearable..

December:
StanChart 42km again! This will be my 10th anniversary, and probably my last shot at 42k SCSM.


Side notes:
On my last trip to BKK, a Chinese physician mentioned that I have some liver problems, which is no good for people of my age. Think I better book a health screening fast...

My 2nd Sprint Tri

It was a last minute decision to join today's Sprint Tri by TriFam.
Only saw the article on Straits Times on Tuesday and immediately registered the next day, which was the closing.

It was a good warm up to start the Tri Season.
$30 for a no frills, simple and well organized race, was definitely worth it.

Did a lot faster relative to my 1st Sprint in Port Dickson.
I remember clocking about 1:44 then, but it was a totally different terrain and killer for the bike leg.

1:22 is a fairly good result, which surprised myself as well.
Take away for today's race:
1) Swim: Remember to wet the goggles before the swim. Fogged up halfway through and I couldn't make out where's the end point for the swim
2) Bike: more training to increase target speed to 32km/h for fast flat roads. Current 30km/h is not fast enough and I keep getting overtaken.
3) Running: Pretty decent performance towards the end to hit 5:10 min/km pace when I'm really flat, but still took a bit too long to adjust after T2. More brick training to required.
4) Failed to get the heart rate monitor to work in seawater. Double check if it is supposed to work in the sea.
5) Unable to check if GPS sensor was connected to the watch while riding which caused me to lose some data. Figure out if it is possible to safely bring the GPS from the swim.