Packed weekend

Pretty jam packed weekend.

Baby Ryan and Daddy got their new ride on Saturday morning
A Fisher Price Jumperoo for the young boy and a Toyota ISIS for the old man.
Point in common? Both are 2nd hand.

Ryan has been jumping around quite a lot, and he seems to like the jumperoo on his first try.
Hopefully this will be a fun respite for him when he is at Grandma's place. Otherwise he will be lying there watching TV with Grandma... No good for the eyes or his development.
Bought this 2nd hand at $80.
Buying brand new unit locally would had knocked us back by over $200.
Shipping new unit from Amazon will cost at least $180.
This will probably turn out to be a good buy, with good resale value.

Got my 2nd hand Toyota ISIS after picking up the jumperoo.
Cerato has been serving me well for the last 5 years, but it wasn't big enough to accommodate Ryan and Lishan comfortably.
With recent record breaking COE price of 92k for CAT A and 96k for CAT B, it doesn't seem that the prices will abate even in 2015/16.
There is too much pent up demand for cars, even the ramp up in car deregistration will probably not see the prices fall by too much.
If it does fall in 2015/16, then maybe I can consider changing to another new ride again then.
At least this new ride will give me plenty of time till 2019 to see whether I can get another ride when the time is right.
Bottomline is that mummy and baby can ride on the car comfortably, and that's pretty much all that matters.

MegaTri Olympic Distance
Did my 2nd ever OD race on Sunday morning.
Wasn't really in the best condition to race since I had not been clocking enough mileage on the swim and bike.
The rainy weather for the weekend made it a freaking cold start, but ultimately it turned out to be much easier since it drizzled throughout the event, so temperature was never an issue.

Swim: 42m13s
Bike: 1h26m
Run: 1h5m

Swim was pretty much expected. Did not really do too well or too badly. Held on to a relatively ok speed without hyperventilating. Just need to improve on my sighting skills.
Goggles needs to go. Keep getting seawater seeping in, causing multiple stops to clear the goggles.

Bike was pretty bad. Tried to keep a constant pace at 30km/h, but the first loop was at 28.5km/h, second loop 27.4km/h, and I dropped to about 26km/h for the last loop.
I couldn't summon enough energy to spin any faster for the last loop.
Probably bad stamina for long flat straight roads. Need more training for constant exertion over long period of time.
Consider investing in a Bike Trainer.

Run
Not sure if my watch data is correct, but I will have to take the nearest approximate.
Had very bad stitches between 2km - 3km mark and dropped to 7.12min/km.
The usual quad muscle strain set in, but with the new found confidence in holding off the wall from the recent SCMS, I managed to hold off the cramps all the way till the finish line.

This is the first time that I managed to do a negative split in a race.
It was strange, but somehow keeping a constant pounding between 6m15s to 6m30s pace between 4km to 7km mark had actually allowed me to run even faster towards the end of the run.

Taking away the bad stitch at the start, I'm actually quite happy with the run especially with the strong finish.

1km: 6m49s
2km: 6m51s
3km: 7m12s
4km: 6m21s
5km: 6m33s
6km: 6m32s
7km: 6m18s
8km: 5m58s
9km: 6m2s
10km: 5m34s

I should

5th year since Ah Di left us

Ah Di has left us exactly 5 years ago on this day.

I still vividly remember how excited he was when he saw me at the Animal hospital the day before, getting worked up from a lethargic stage and frantically wagging his tail at me, saying his final good bye to me before finally leaving for a better place the following morning.

I still miss him lots and still carry his tag with me wherever I go.

Best. Dog. Ever

Pray thee be watching over your little master Ryan from above.
Love you lots.

Another year passed

2012 just passed so quickly.

Quick recap of notable events in 2012:
Jan - 1st Sprint Tri with TriFam
Feb - Aquathlon (MetaSprint)
Apr - Duathlon (MetaSprint), Beijing Trip with the Unkers
May - Sprint Tri (MetaSprint), 3km OW Swim (TriFactor)
June - Bangkok holiday with Dear
Jul - 30km Run (TriFactor). ARRIVAL OF BABY RYAN!
Aug - OD Tri (TriFactor)
Nov - Staycation (Equarius Hotel, RWS, Sentosa)
Dec - 42km (SCMS)

Now with Baby Ryan still so young, it will be quite some time before dear and I will have the chance to do some vacation traveling. So I guess my 2013 will probably look similar to 2012, packed full of sport races.

Well, the races are fun and it gives me good motivation to have constant training. I ain't in the best of shape, but it could have been worse without the races.

Maybe 2013 will be the year that I'll improve on my sporting endeavors.
I still hold the hope of going for a half iron man some time later in the year just for the kick of it.

= = = = =
Day 1 for the family:
Me
Had been dropping off the pace for the last quarter, mainly due to me choosing to spend more time at home with Ryan and dear, and not pro actively chasing for numbers.
Now I'll be back to work with full focus, it will be plenty of biz trips again to the usual places. At least before CNY. I need the moola...
Dear
Been on maternity/childcare/annual leave/time off for the last 5.5 months. First day back at work and she is now down with flu
Ryan
First full day at Grandma Infantcare.
We had to wake him up at 6.50 am to bring him to grandma's place. It was quite sad to wake him up when he is sleeping so soundly, and to leave him with grandma for the day, then pick him up at 5+. 舍不得...
Gotta figure out a more time friendly routine that isn't so taxing on Ryan and gives him more time to sleep.
Really gonna miss the good times of waking up to Ryan's sunshine smile.