Just returned from a 4D3N holiday at Bali with Ryan, Dear and MIL.
It was a fantastic holiday especially for Ryan. He was super happy throughout the entire trip (except during the flight back home)
Thinking back of my previous trip to Bali, which was done about 5 years ago, for my wedding shoot, when Dear and I still had the time to go for white water rafting and surfing, this time it was more subdued and relaxed, with a focus to go much slower than what we did years ago.
I guess MIL was the 2nd most happy person for this trip (after Ryan boy). She was so fascinated and happy with all the foodstuff and clothings that she could buy from the local markets at extreme low prices. It was after a while then I started to understand that nice & expensive stuff is not what makes her happy. It is the joy of getting extreme value for money (read: ULTRA CHEAP buys aka SUPER BIG DISCOUNTS) that makes her happy. My mum does the same too. Probably our mothers' generation are too used to scrimping and saving for their whole life, that is why they derive so much joy from amazingly low priced discovery. So I just played along and kept emphasizing to her on how cheap the food is at the restaurants that we ate at, compared to the price that we will pay for the same thing back in SG.
$4.70 for a chicken Ravioli, $10 for a Risotto, $10 for a huge chilli crab with fries, $9 for a medium sized red snapper, $2 for gelato, etc.
Obviously the small boy is the happiest one in the group. From the moment he stepped into the villa, he just kept running around, in and out of each room, laughing all the time. And he continued doing that for all 4 days that we stayed there. He was very cooperative and well behaved (except during meal time) for the entire trip.
Best part of the trip for me was when I left Dear and MIL at the foot massage centre for a 1 hour massage, and I brought Ryan together with me back to Legian beach for a walk. After carrying him on the hip seat for most part of the day (and he didn't complain much), I thought it will be nice for him to be able to walk on the sandy beach after seeing other older kids running around freely where he wasn't allowed to. So after telling him that he had to hold on to my hand after I placed him on the ground, he got extremely excited and elated, and started to pull me along to run on the beach.
It was a genuine moment of bliss.
We ran and ran and ran, and Ryan just pulled me along, looking back at me at times and giving me his most sunshine, boyish and happy smile. Ryan melted daddy's heart just like that.
Although I did not get to do any of the water sports stuff which I'd have loved to do on Bali's famed beaches, the run with Ryan was rewarding enough for me for this entire trip.
Of course Dear will have enjoyed the trip much as well. It is a long awaited break away from work, and an even longer wait to return to the much anticipated Ultimo Italian restaurant that we dined at 5 years ago. The only downside is that we walked a little too much for her. Carrying a heavy tummy ain't easy.
Next holiday: Cebu Philippines in July/Aug 2015.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Freestyle Mastery Discovery Level 1 pool classes completed
Finally completed all the pool sessions for Level 1 today.
It has been a good 2 months of classes and I had definitely learnt a lot about efficient freestyle swimming.
Will just need to do more self practice in the pool and I'll probably be able to clock <40 70.3="" cebu.="" for="" in="" leg="" mins="" p="" swim="" the="">
Signed up for a few workshops on swimming and cycling by two gurus invited to Singapore.
Hopefully I'll be able to benefit much from these upcoming sessions to make my future training sessions more effective.
My old mentality of mashing my way through will probably cost me more time and mileage in the lead up to my goal of completing a full Ironman. Getting quality help along the way is always welcome.
It is always good to be able to train smart, gain more.
~~~
Just weighed myself moments ago and came to realize that I had lost about 2kg over the last few months. Hadn't been taking my weight regularly so it came as a pleasant surprise. I had been stuck at 70kg for a couple of years and low carb diets/trainings didn't really make any substantial weight loss.
Probably the regular swims helped a lot.
~~~
Finally going for a short getaway holiday (that has nothing to do with ironman) with Ryan & Dear in another 9 hours.
It has been a long awaited break for dear, and it should be fun for Ryan as well.
He is getting more and more interactive and fun nowadays; really a joy to be with.
Happy holidays!
It has been a good 2 months of classes and I had definitely learnt a lot about efficient freestyle swimming.
Will just need to do more self practice in the pool and I'll probably be able to clock <40 70.3="" cebu.="" for="" in="" leg="" mins="" p="" swim="" the="">
Signed up for a few workshops on swimming and cycling by two gurus invited to Singapore.
Hopefully I'll be able to benefit much from these upcoming sessions to make my future training sessions more effective.
My old mentality of mashing my way through will probably cost me more time and mileage in the lead up to my goal of completing a full Ironman. Getting quality help along the way is always welcome.
It is always good to be able to train smart, gain more.
~~~
Just weighed myself moments ago and came to realize that I had lost about 2kg over the last few months. Hadn't been taking my weight regularly so it came as a pleasant surprise. I had been stuck at 70kg for a couple of years and low carb diets/trainings didn't really make any substantial weight loss.
Probably the regular swims helped a lot.
~~~
Finally going for a short getaway holiday (that has nothing to do with ironman) with Ryan & Dear in another 9 hours.
It has been a long awaited break for dear, and it should be fun for Ryan as well.
He is getting more and more interactive and fun nowadays; really a joy to be with.
Happy holidays!
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
ICT is over, back to office for the daily grind
Finally concluded the 2 weeks high key ICT yesterday.
Somehow time passed rather quickly.
Kinda enjoyed this ICT though.
Getting all the free time to chat with people outside of my usual circle and industry is always refreshing.
Back to work today and looking forward to the long awaited holiday break to Bali next week!
This will be my next challenge.
To complete 5 events in 1 day, a total of 8.35km swim
Technically speaking, after learning the TI technique, swimming any distance shouldn't be a difficult task if timing isn't a consideration.
At around 50% effort, I'll expect to finish the 3.8km in about 1.5hours. (assuming that I'll be able to avoid swimming offcourse)
Hadn't been running regularly for quite some time, partly due to the haze, and partly because I wanted to spend more time with Ryan and Dear on weekend mornings.
So I was pleasantly surprised with my regular distance run last night.
Went at a much faster pace than my last run, though I wasn't planning go fast. Not exactly a good thing if I had been training regularly, but it was a nice reminder that my legs could still hold up after such a long break. The extremely frequent swims in recent days probably helped a fair bit in keeping up the heart rate and endurance levels.
Will need to do more controlled runs in the next 2 months to prepare for StanChart
Somehow time passed rather quickly.
Kinda enjoyed this ICT though.
Getting all the free time to chat with people outside of my usual circle and industry is always refreshing.
Back to work today and looking forward to the long awaited holiday break to Bali next week!
This will be my next challenge.
To complete 5 events in 1 day, a total of 8.35km swim
Technically speaking, after learning the TI technique, swimming any distance shouldn't be a difficult task if timing isn't a consideration.
At around 50% effort, I'll expect to finish the 3.8km in about 1.5hours. (assuming that I'll be able to avoid swimming offcourse)
Hadn't been running regularly for quite some time, partly due to the haze, and partly because I wanted to spend more time with Ryan and Dear on weekend mornings.
So I was pleasantly surprised with my regular distance run last night.
Went at a much faster pace than my last run, though I wasn't planning go fast. Not exactly a good thing if I had been training regularly, but it was a nice reminder that my legs could still hold up after such a long break. The extremely frequent swims in recent days probably helped a fair bit in keeping up the heart rate and endurance levels.
Will need to do more controlled runs in the next 2 months to prepare for StanChart
Thursday, October 09, 2014
Swimming milestone achieved!!
It had always been a long standing milestone that I had been trying to achieve ever since I had started working on my swim for Triathlons.
I still remember the time when I used to pant heavily even after finishing 1 lap of freestyle in the pool, to being able to complete the 750m swim for my first Tri at Port Dickson in 2011.
After that it was a continued effort of self improvement through self study on a diet of YouTube videos and Triathlon books, which I managed to improve significantly till a plateau of around 2.10min/100m at an all out effort which is not sustainable for long distance swims.
After attending the TI swim classes, I had found significant improvements in streamlining my body position in the water for the swims, which made it a lot easier to swim with less efforts, but it only allowed me to achieve roughly the same speed as what I used to clock with the "power-your-way-through" swim technique.
Through lots of experimentation and YouTube videos on how the TI Masters swim, and trying to replicate their technique, I finally managed to make a breakthrough today on my swim, and finally clocked slightly below 2min/100m for numerous laps without overly exerting myself. Finally a major milestone has been breached!
This just confirms my belief that TI is really helping me to make significant improvements in my swim.
I'll need to continue to improve my technique further, to make the 2min/100m pace become an easy effort for me, then I'll subsequently target to break 1.45min/100m.
Once I get my swim techniques polished enough by end of 2014, I'll start to work on my bike techniques and endurance come 2015. Hopefully I'll be able to clock below 6.30hr for my next 70.3 challenge, so that it will give me a good foundation and confidence to tackle the Full Iron in 2016
I still remember the time when I used to pant heavily even after finishing 1 lap of freestyle in the pool, to being able to complete the 750m swim for my first Tri at Port Dickson in 2011.
After that it was a continued effort of self improvement through self study on a diet of YouTube videos and Triathlon books, which I managed to improve significantly till a plateau of around 2.10min/100m at an all out effort which is not sustainable for long distance swims.
After attending the TI swim classes, I had found significant improvements in streamlining my body position in the water for the swims, which made it a lot easier to swim with less efforts, but it only allowed me to achieve roughly the same speed as what I used to clock with the "power-your-way-through" swim technique.
Through lots of experimentation and YouTube videos on how the TI Masters swim, and trying to replicate their technique, I finally managed to make a breakthrough today on my swim, and finally clocked slightly below 2min/100m for numerous laps without overly exerting myself. Finally a major milestone has been breached!
This just confirms my belief that TI is really helping me to make significant improvements in my swim.
I'll need to continue to improve my technique further, to make the 2min/100m pace become an easy effort for me, then I'll subsequently target to break 1.45min/100m.
Once I get my swim techniques polished enough by end of 2014, I'll start to work on my bike techniques and endurance come 2015. Hopefully I'll be able to clock below 6.30hr for my next 70.3 challenge, so that it will give me a good foundation and confidence to tackle the Full Iron in 2016
Tuesday, October 07, 2014
Back for ICT high key
Originally thought that I could use the 2 weeks of ICT to get some proper rest, as it was a perfectly legitimate reason to get away from work and not respond to emails or calls, and probably spend a bit of time to do some physical training.
This ICT for me is basically stepping away from managing businesses for channel partners for a while and step into managing 20+ adults.
Well, issues kept me busy and I got more busy instead of getting the the rest I wanted
However, the upside of this job is that the more time I spend in the camp, the more time I spend talking to my men, and the good old stuff of NS comes seeping back in.
What do you do to kill time in camp?
Talk to each other to find out more about what they do for a living.
Many times we get insights into different industries or lives which we will never be able to see from our own daily lives. It is always interesting to see how diverse the outside world can be.
Part of my work involves getting to know my men better to foresee and nip issues in the bud before they manifest into potentially big/bad problems, so it is work + fun mixed into one.
It has been interesting so far.
I had came across a professional security body guard, an optical shop owner, an animation profession. I'll probably take classes from the body guard for self defense next year when some of my current classes end.
Probably will get to learn more about the rest of the platoon over the remaining 1 week.
Making the best out of my time!
This ICT for me is basically stepping away from managing businesses for channel partners for a while and step into managing 20+ adults.
Well, issues kept me busy and I got more busy instead of getting the the rest I wanted
However, the upside of this job is that the more time I spend in the camp, the more time I spend talking to my men, and the good old stuff of NS comes seeping back in.
What do you do to kill time in camp?
Talk to each other to find out more about what they do for a living.
Many times we get insights into different industries or lives which we will never be able to see from our own daily lives. It is always interesting to see how diverse the outside world can be.
Part of my work involves getting to know my men better to foresee and nip issues in the bud before they manifest into potentially big/bad problems, so it is work + fun mixed into one.
It has been interesting so far.
I had came across a professional security body guard, an optical shop owner, an animation profession. I'll probably take classes from the body guard for self defense next year when some of my current classes end.
Probably will get to learn more about the rest of the platoon over the remaining 1 week.
Making the best out of my time!
Thursday, October 02, 2014
Final 70.3 challenge before the ultimate upsize to full Ironman
Signed up for this yesterday when registration opened and *BOOMZ* all slots were grabbed up within 3 hours.
Typically I will race a fixed distance for a minimum of 3 times to gain enough experience before deciding to upgrade to the next longer distance.
So this will be my third and last 70.3 test before I deem myself ready to move up to a full Ironman race.
Doesn't mean that I'll not do 70.3 in the future anymore though. Taiwan still remains as an unfinished challenge without completing the swim. I feel that the timing of Taiwan 70.3 is in the wrong season, so the weather is unstable and the odds of swim cancellation again is on the high side. Will need to check this year's edition to see if it will be worth the trouble to do Taiwan 70.3 again.
My #2 baby will be 6 months old by then.
Not sure if it will be a good idea to bring #2 along for the race, or just leave her in SG and bring Ryan along.
Good to get a defined sporting goal to work towards again.
I'll probably clock another couple of ODs next year before Cebu 70.3
Full Ironman will most probably happen in 2016