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

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!

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

Busy September

It has been a hectic month till date, but I'm enjoying it though.

Commenced on my swimming class and just completed my stock trading class last saturday.

The stock trading class has been pretty intense and useful.

I had been buying stocks since 2012 but had no idea of how to properly evaluate a stock to make sure it is good, and no idea of how to take profit, when to enter and exit etc. I had made profits and losses over the last few years without knowing why.
As the common saying goes: "What you don't pay in school fees, you will pay a bigger amount through losses"
Since the biggest paper loss that I had made was more than the course fees itself, I thought that I might as well go learn how to do trading and investments properly instead of continuing to deceive myself that I'll do enough self study on the various free online resources and I'll be one day become a God of Stocks.
Time to grow up and face the reality.

Sure, I had took Biz Minors in NTU, and went through classes on understanding the stock markets, but back then, it was all theoretical stuff without solid hands on and quantitative analysis done, so it was all talk in the air without working on any examples.
It was akin to finishing my 1sr read on "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and then declaring that I'll reach Financial Freedom by 40 years old, without the know how or plans on how to do that.

Burnt a few weekday nights and 2 saturdays for this short and intense course, and I'm pretty satisfied with what I had picked up so far, and signed up for the advanced class without hesitation to extend my knowledge further.
The only downside is that I have to sacrifice time with Ryan & Dear to attend these classes, but it is temporary and I know that the future payoff will be much bigger than the small sacrifice now.


Also commenced on my swimming classes this month.
Actually I started the 1st unofficial class last month, before the OD race, where I picked up some tips on the optimal swimming technique, but was insufficient to make a significant way to my existing technique.
After attending a few classes, I can tell that my technique is gradually improving, and I'm starting to be able to swim faster with less energy expended.
Of course I did my own homework and watched lots of training videos to improve my understanding as well, to accelerate my progress.
Swimming has now become more of a relaxing exercise than a strength training session like what I used to do in the past.
It seems that I am doing more swimming than running these days!


Picking up new knowledge has always been enjoyable for me, and it continues to do so with the swim and stock classes. Free online education materials and videos really make it much easier to learn, absorb and reinforce new knowledge.

I guess these courses can fulfill my goal for this year for learning new stuff, since I'm going to continue with the stock class, and probably with the swim class as well, so I won't have time to go for martial arts and will have to delay this till next year.

Learning new stuff is always good!

Race Report TriFactor OD 7 Sept 2014

Went into this race without heavy preparations nor expectations, since I was just looking to complete the race as a check for my fitness levels and to experiment with some of the newer stuff that I had learnt.

Of course there is always a comparison against my past timings on the same course, but beating that timing wasn’t top priority.

Pre race

Just my usual food the day before race, and my usual McD Fillet O Fish meal when I drove to the venue.

Used a bigger gym bag to carry all my race equipment rather than the smaller water proof bag which I had problems trying to fit everything in. Good decision.

Bike checked-in around 45 min before race, and remembered a tip from Winston on putting the bike shoes on the bike. Didn’t bring along any rubber bands, so I made do with a piece of plastic bag. Made sure that the knot is just strong enough to hold the shoes in place without dragging across the floor when I ran out of T1 bare footed, and loose enough for it to break loose automatically after I start pedaling.

Swim

Took it easy at the start and swam to the side rather than in the midst of the washing machine, as I wanted to test if the TI method will be really useful in the open water.

Swam the 1^st round mostly with the TI method, except for a couple of times when other swimmers came too close for comfort and I had to accelerate ahead to get out of the mess.

2^nd round was more of a 50-50 mix between TI and my old hard pedaling style.

Took me around 42 mins to complete 1.5km swim. About 5 mins more than what I’d have clocked with just the old hard pedaling. However, it was refreshing to get out of the water still feeling fresh in the legs.

T1

Lane markings was much better this time. With the lanes and numbers clearly marked out so there is no chance of missing my bike.

Nothing unusual this time, just that I noticed that I’m the only one who chose to wear my bike shoes on after mounting, rather than wearing the shoes first then running out with the bike.

Bike

Made a mistake in the settings after I had just replaced the battery for the bike computer the previous night. Wheel size was wrongly set, so it wasn’t before long then I realized that the bike computer was showing speeds that was definitely off the scale. So I had to ignore it and just refer to my watch.

Didn’t really thought much on how to pace the bike leg, so I just went at a pace that I was comfortable with. Hands on aero bars most of the time. Managed to clock around 31km/h on average, which given the winding race course, I should be reaching around 33km/h most of the time. Not too bad.

My quads only started to tire towards the end of the bike session, and I knew that it will affect my run..

T2

Dismounted shoeless. Ran in to transition, mounted my bike, ate a salt stick and ran out with just 1 packet of gel.

Run

Pace during the first 2km was still ok, but as cramps gradually set in on my right quad, my pace slowed to 7.48 min/km.

I had expected this to happen, and was going to experiment my school of thought that it might be possible to run off the cramps, so I persisted in slow jog without stopping (less @ water points) to see if this theory will work.

The cramps in my right quads persisted for quite some time before it gradually started to fade away at around the 6km mark when the left quads start to act up as well. Persisted with the slow jog and I gradually got faster and eventually ended the run without any cramps

Conclusion

Racing with my new Garmin Forerunner 910-XT gave me new insights into my swim leg which was not available on my old Polar RCX5.

Since I had split my swims into 100% TI method for the 1^st lap, and 50-50 for the 2^nd lap, it was possible for me to compare the swim data and see which was more efficient.

Barring the poor sighting in this swim (mostly my fault as I was too lazy to sight properly even though I could do it easily), the data was pretty evident that I had did pretty well in Lap 1 compared to lap 2.

The tips that I had picked up during the 1 hour session with TI and my subsequent 30 min of self training actually resulted in a much easier swim at roughly the same timing that I would have clocked with my old style. I can only imagine that I’ll get much faster and better when I’m able to fully absorb and integrate the TI method.

Played relatively safe on the bike this time. Wanted to lower the handle bars a bit before the race but eventually decided against doing so since I didn’t have the time to test it in training. Always stick to the mantra – Don’t try new things in a race!

The rubber band tip on tying the pedals and shoes is useful. I'll implement this properly for my next race.

Since I don’t have any more Tri races for the year, I’ll have all the time to optimize my bike.

Run timing wasn’t exactly stellar this time but it didn’t matter since that wasn’t my objective. However the an important breakthrough on outpowering the level 4 cramps (w/o using salt sticks) that I always experience in long D runs was worth it.

Lactic acid would have built up over the bike leg, and manifested in the 2^nd km of my run. Didn’t want to take the extra salt stick as it may build up my reliance on this placebo, so I persisted with the theory that if I run slow enough, my muscles will be able to flush away the built up lactic acid much more quickly than it will build up over a slow run. Pretty much similar to doing a recovery run on the day following race day. It worked!

Took quite a fair bit of will power and patience to do it though.

It will have been much easier to just adopt the same walk-run method that I had been doing in the SCMS for the last 10+ years, but I’d just walk away from this race without taking away anything.

On the same course, my timing for the last few years. Definitely much improved over the poor race last year, but I reckon that with proper prep, it should be easy for me to breach the 3 hour mark.

2012:     3:15:35

2013:     3:31:46

2014:     3:06:00

Bike distance is wrong... should be 36km instead

I perform better when there is no pressure to do so.
Best for me to do future races in a "I don't really care attitude"...

8-bit Matrix - SFSU BECAfest 2013 Winner: Best Sound Design

Simply Awesome music!!!

Shifting priorities

Plans to do another 70.3 has been shelved, so my remaining races for the year will be TriFactor OD next month and StanChart 42k in Dec.

I had never worried excessively about my finances until Ryan was born.
Becoming a dad and husband means the extra responsibility of making sure that I provide enough for my family, which will become increasingly challenging as the kids grow up.

Though I have started to invest a bit in the last 2 years, but it has been more of simple buying for dividend payouts rather than fully understanding what I invested it. To put it in simple terms, it is almost equivalent to gambling but on a much lesser level.

Attended a short free class a couple of weeks ago, and decided to invest in getting myself educated and signed up for a short course to learn how to trade and invest better. It may save me lots of headache and heartache that may result from bad investments in the future.

Learning to better manage my finances will be important.
Apart from trying to increase my income, the other aspect of controlling expenses and money outflow will be critical.
After exhausting the child tax relief within 2 years and racking up high income tax again, I have started to take tax reduction planning more seriously.
Been reading up a bit on voluntary contributions to CPF and depositing into SRS, which are good means to reduce/defer taxation.

Despite the fact that I may not fully support or agree with some of the CPF policies, there is no escaping from the fact that everyone has to meet the Minimum Sum. So instead of grousing against the policy, it will be better to make it work for me.

CPF SA cash contribution
Benefits:

• Up to $7000 tax relief can be derived from cash contribution
• Good 5% interest rate on the first $40,000 in SA, and 4% for sums above $40,000
• Counts towards Minimum Sum

Disadvantages:

Locked up till retirement and become annuity (uncontrollable factor so no point fighting against this)

Coming to think of it, this is a really good scheme for retirement planning.
Now I kick myself for not looking into this years ago when I broke the higher income tax bracket and paid so much tax to the gov for a "Thank you for your contribution towards Nation building"
I'll make sure that I won't make the same mistake again this year come Dec when it is time to make the final changes towards my income tax relief.

CPF SRS 
Benefits:

• Tax deferment up to $12750 per year
• Can be used for investment purposes (except for property)
• Only 50% is taxable on withdrawal
• Enforced savings in a sense since I won't be able to spend this pool of money
• Flexible contribution compared to an endowment fund where I have to contribute at a fixed rate

Disadvantages:

• Early withdrawal penalty of 5% (except Death, Medical or bankruptcy issues)
• Locked in till retirement
• Possibly of higher taxation rates if my income falls in a higher tax bracket (not a big issue since I don't expect to work forever so my active income at 62 is probably much lower than compared to my prime)
• Possibility of higher tax rates than current levels when I'm 62 (uncontrollable factor and there is no certainty that this will happen so no point worrying about this)
• Investing is necessary. Cash deposit interest rate at 0.05% PA is horrendous and one will just be losing money to inflation this way.

A combination of these 2 will be able to help to substantially reduce the tax that I have to pay every year.
At least the money is still mine even though I can't touch it for the next 30 years.
Better than letting the government squander it away on Brompton bikes (that is more expensive than my racing bike!)


Instead of hoarding lots of cash through worrying about not having enough capital on hand when I eventually start my own business, it will be better to put these cash to good use instead of just wasting them away in cash savings accounts with extremely poor returns.

My 2014 To Do list included 2 sets of 70.3 races.
Since I'm not going to do another 70.3 this year, learning to better manage my finances will be a good replacement.
Anyway it is best to start proper finance management and investments early, so that compounding over time will works it's magic.

I had been procrastinating for years on better managing my finances. It is high time I look seriously into this.
Another good case of facing up to my fears (or rather short-comings in this case) rather than just running away or pretending not to see them :)

Happy weekend and Ryan is 2 years old!

Celebrated Ryan's 2th birthday with a simple home buffet party at MIL's place during the previous Sunday.
Kept it relatively simple and low key this time with just relatives.
Ryan was still recovering from his fever so he probably didn't enjoy it as much as he should.

Celebrations in his child care center was done on Tuesday afternoon.
Pretty nice to see Ryan do the handing out of the goodie bags to his classmates, even though he didn't really look too excited when doing so.

Guess his behaviour takes after me when I was at his age; not that excited or super sociable when with huge crowds.

Ryan subsequently recovered and we managed to bring him out for some quality family time after a month-long disruption with him, dear and me taking turns to fall sick.

He was significantly happier when we brought him out to visit Marina Sq, Suntec, Marina barrage. It was a long time since he was smiling throughout the day and being super cooperative.

Sunday was a simple cycling affair at ECP but guess he didn't enjoy it as much as dear could not cycle with us. Ryan prefers to have daddy and mummy spending time together with him!

More happy weekends for Ryan ahead!



And, I still miss my Ah Di.
He will have turned 17 years old last Friday.
I know he will be watching over the family spiritually.