12th StanChart Marathon?

Going for my 12th? StanChart Marathon in a few hours time.

Did my first back in 2002 when my hall mates asked me to join them for the run and never looked back since then.

Guess having done this run 11x really takes away the excitement usually associated with important sporting events to me. And I'm no longer going after any PBs anymore, so this will be something more of a fun run which I'm committed to doing every year.

Perhaps ironman effect is taking away the lustre of marathons.
I got much more excited for the Taiwan 70.3 than SC marathon.
Perhaps the KL 70.3 will give me the adrenaline rush again like what SCMS did for me 10 years ago.

Keep moving #IronDaddy

First proper family overseas vacation

I had previously brought Ryan and Dear to Bangkok for holiday back in August, but it wasn't a proper holiday as I was still working 70% of the time.

Brought Ryan and Dear to Taiwan for a nice week of family retreat last month.
It is so different traveling with Ryan in Taiwan, having been there so many times with Dear in the past.

Major differences between traveling with and without a kid in tow:

1. Heavy luggage! Ryan's stuff easily took up most of the luggage space and allowance (apart from my race tools) Diapers, clothes, cooking utensils can be bulky!
2. Flight timing - Extremely early/late flight schedules are out. Midday/late noon flights preferred so that we have more time to prepare and get to the airport, and we do not reach our destination too late at night, beyond proper sleeping time for Ryan
3. Travel period - Include an extra day of rest after returning from the trip. Ryan will probably need the extra time to sleep in.
4. Travel itinerary - Keep the schedule relaxed with plenty of buffer time. Hot/wet/inconvenient locations are out. Plan meal and meal time outside of crowded places/timing. Also plan for nap times for Ryan.
5. Strollers - Double edged sword. It can be a hassle to bring this around especially at places with lots of stairs to climb, but this is also acts as a privilege express pass to many places with long Qs (though hugely dependent on the country u r going to. Family friendly countries like Taiwan, Japan will be good, but probably bad idea to bring it to Thailand, Malaysia, China)
6. No more scooters! Took the taxi more often in this trip than my previous 28 day holiday (unfair comparison though... I took it like 1 or 2 times then :p) 
7. Driving - Nice pseudo road trip with Dear and Ryan when we drove from Kaoshiung to Kenting and back. Pit stops at 7-11 and Family Mart are nice

In all, I think it was a good idea to bring Ryan to Taiwan for his first proper overseas vacation. 

Pretty comfortable since we were very familiar with the place and Taiwan is very child-friendly.

Looking forward to the next holiday trip with Ryan and Dear!

Next coming up, Full family retreat to Malacca!

Oh I'm 32 already?

Didn't quite realize it until I saw a friend post on FB that he is turning 32, then I realize I'm 32 now.

My mind's probably too occupied with Ironman race on the day itself that I forgot that it was my birthday then.

Old man...

Well, I'm placing a long term target to complete a Full Ironman within the next 3 years.
Before I turn 35.

Be an #IronDaddy

Taiwan Half Ironman Race report

Finally completed the long awaited 70.3 race in Taiwan last weekend.
Results weren't ideal, but given the circumstances, I will consider it to be quite decent.
Learnt quite a few stuff along the way.

Pre-race Day
Arrived at the resort at around 2.15pm. Picked up the race pack, rental bike and started to setup everything for a orientation ride. Took me longer than expected, and had to go for the race brief at 4pm which lasted till 4.40pm.
Continued to adjust the bike as seat post was slightly low. Went out for the test ride and rush cycled to the TA as dusk fell by 5.15pm.

Bad mistake 1: Arriving too late and not assigning enough time for bike setup. Bike fit was really bad. The bike was too long and I had to lean far too forward for my comfort, and I chose to go for the orientation ride instead of getting the correct bike fit as I did not have enough time to refit the bike before it was too dark to ride.

Bad mistake 2: Rented bike tyre thread was close to bare. Means it could be dangerous/ slippery for high speed and turns.

Bad mistake 3: Arriving too late and not assigning enough time to bring Ryan and Dear out for proper meals. They had to take the same food as me at the welcome dinner which was crappy for them. Supporters deserve better treatment!

Race Day
H-3
Woke up at 2.50am for the breakfast at 3am. Breakfast was on the light side. Could have done a bit more with some extra bread and cereals.

H-2
Took the shuttle bus to TA and it started to rain heavily. Good decision to wear slippers to the TA as usual, otherwise the running shoes will be wet before the race.

H-1
Officials announced cancellation of swim and replaced it with 6km run. Started to setup everything.
Good tip which I eventually found useful: Tape the energy gels to the bike. Makes it easy to tear off for consumption with one hand while still riding. Don't have to fumble through the bags.

Race Starts. Run 1
Started behind the mid pack and had to spend quite a bit of time overtaking the rest. Perhaps I should have started in front of mid pack instead. Lots of water puddles and mad runners stomping on them, splashing water around. Had to be careful to avoid those.
Went a bit faster than planned but managed to ease back on the pace at 4km to avoid letting the HR go too high before the Bike leg.

T1
Realised that I should had run with my bike gloves on so that I don't have to spend the extra 30s to put them on at T1. My crappy bike shoes took a bit longer to wear but paying the 20sec price for being cheapo instead of another $150 for new shoes? I'll choose to be cheapo.

Bike
Started off nice and slow with a gradual long climb out of TA area. Managed to maintain a good speed and kept up with most people, even overtaking some. 1st climb up Mt Guan was ok. Cautious on the downhill ride and turns due to the bare tyre threads, wet roads and strong cross winds. Maintained the refueling strategy of 1 salt stick at every hour+50min mark, and 1 gel at every hour mark. Fared pretty decent for the 1st loop for 46km. Things started to go bad as I started to tire at 50km and could not maintain speeds at 28-30kmh. Had to take risks and went up to 60kmh at steep downhill rides to take maximum advantage of the terrain. Good thing my handling skills was ok. But long flat roads really sapped the energy out of me as my speed dropped to around 21-23kmh. Managed to go back up to around 26kmh on the final 20km. Cramps came in and went off after I continued with the salt stick. It actually worked pretty well!

T2
Had been feeling a bit of pain in the left knee during the ride, but after hopping off the bike, then I realised that it could be more than just a simple discomfort that I could shrug off easily. Took my time to refuel a bit at the TA. HR was at an ok level since I wasn't exerting too much for the final bike stretch. Muscles were ok, no cramps.
Another good decision: Extra socks to change into in case of wet socks after the bike. Extra towel for wiping the face instead of just 1 for the feet after swim.

Run 2
Walked out from TA and tried to start jogging then my left knee started to snatch up. Sharp pain on the inside of the knee whenever I tried to lift my left knee to jog. Tried to restart jogging numerous times but the sharp pain wouldn't go away. After walking to the 3km mark, then I concluded that the pain will be there throughout Run 2 and I had to find a faster way to complete the remaining distance instead of hoping to restart jogging again. Started to call on my 11 years of StanChart marathon fast walk experience and put up a relatively decent fast walk speed.
The pace initially hovered around 9min/km, which was too slow and I will finish the race at around 8 hr mark. No good.
Change of strategy again. Walk as fast as possible. Skip hop jog a little until the knee hurts and walk it off again. Couldn't sustain this for beyond 10km.
Change of strategy again. Increase walking pace. Managed to increase the average speed up to 8.15min/km.
So I just maintained the faster walking speed through, with a little skip hop jog whenever it is feasible on a downslope.
At one point I checked my pace reached 6.50min/km, which was pretty incredible.
Finally finished the 21km walk within 2:58. Pretty respectable timing for a walk!
And I managed to walk faster than some of the slower joggers!

Timing Breakdown:
Run1: 32:46
T1: 3:26
Bike: 3:31:51
T2: 4:26
Run2: 2:58:02
Total Chip Time: 7:10:32

The GOOD

1. Pre race preparations: Extra socks, extra shoes, extra race clothes, slippers.
2. Refueling strategy: In general, the gel + salt stick worked pretty well. No major cramps like what I used to experience in 42km or ODs.
3. Improvisation: Fast walk was good
4. Early race pace control: Good to not go all out too early. Be patient and maintain transport mode speed when it doesn't pay to go all out
5. Bike handling. Hitting a high of 60km/h! It gets scary after that though, but I'm still pretty confident of my bike handling skills so it turns out that downhill rides became my strong advantage.

The BAD

1. Bike Fit: Extremely horrible. It is probably the biggest cause of a poor bike leg timing. Caused my back to snatch up by the 40km mark, and I had to keep on taking breaks to stretch my back through the ride. Winston noticed this when he passed me on the 2nd climb at Mt Guan. This probably caused me much speed and stamina. Even as I type this, my back is still aching. Next time if I have to choose proper Bike fit or Orientation ride on rented bike, Bike Fit is the way to go.
2. Not setting aside enough preparation time. I should arrive much earlier next time for long events like this. 2 hours is NOT enough to setup everything nicely and bring the family out for dinner.
3. Race Expo. I missed out on buying any merchandise at this expo as I arrived too late on pre race day, and didn't have enough time to go through the booths after the race as I had to pick up the gears quickly and bring my poor starving family out for proper meals. MUST allocate time for race expo next time.
4. Orientation ride. Should have done it much earlier so that any issues could have been identified and ironed out before race day. Also to test the road conditions to find out where are the tricky/ dangerous parts of the route so that appropriate safety counter-measures can be applied.
5. Bike stamina. Enough said. I got to improve my bike stamina and speed if I want to improve my timing by any measure
6. Race day breakfast. Bring my own food...
7. Old injury on left knee. Probably overloaded my left knee with bad posture during the bike that caused the sharp pain. This never happened before on my practice rides. Need to figure out what is the exact cause and rectify my cycling form to prevent this from happening again.

So what's next???
Hmmmmmmmmm

Taiwan trip!

Will be bringing Ryan and Dear to Taiwan for a 1 week holiday in about 10 hours time.
Been waiting for this trip for a long long time.
First time on a full holiday with the family (previous trip to BKK doesn't count, I was spending too much time working)

Hopefully Ryan will enjoy it.
I know dear will.


As for the HIM, I have probably done whatever is possible to prepare for it within this month.
It is the first time since I had bought my RCX5 training watch, that I see so many red blots on my training calendar in one single month. (each red blot represents training done on that day)
There were a few mid distance trainings that were not captured as the watch battery went flat.

Nutrition and replenishment will be a key factor for this race.
First time that I had bought so many gels, bars and trying the recommended salt stick.

Since I was going to use the rental tri bike, I thought my luggage will not be too big. I'm sorely wrong...
My regular clothes will just take up a small part. The race equipment that I'm bringing along forced me to change to a much larger suitcase so that I can bring everything necessary.

Probably need to look into more effective travel packing plans if I'm ever going to do overseas races again.

2 weeks to TwHIM

Time passes so quickly when you are not looking.
It seems like only yesterday when I registered for the TwHIM with plenty of time to train.
In the blink of an eye, and I'm now 16  days away from the most challenging race to date in my life.

Been doing a lot of last minute training for the last 2 weeks, trying to avoid all unnecessary biz trips during this period, even forgoing the training opportunities to Korea and France. Well, part of it is really to spend more time with family. It really feels so blissful to see Ryan and Dear everyday.

Anyway, setting my targets for the TwHIM as below:

Stretch Target: 7:00h
Achievable Target: 7:15h
Low Target: Just complete within 8:15h

Based on the Stretch Goal, the timing to beat for each leg will be as below:
Swim: 0:50
T1: 0:05
Bike: 3:30
T2: 0.05
Run: 2:30

If the swim goes smoothly, 50 mins should be achievable.
Bike will determine if I can reach the stretch target. It will be tough, especially since the route changed to incorporate 2 steep climbs up the hill. Still not sure if I will be able to manage the bike well. Gotta train more in this 2 weeks.
Provided that I don't blow up on the bike, a patient slow run should be on my cards, and 2:30 should be achievable even when fatigued.

Whatever the results of the race, the key objective is just to enjoy the experience (and pain) of the long race, and not be too bothered by the timing.

Milestone achieved for BabyRyan!

Brought Ryan along to Liang wei's shop last saturday when both me and dear were going to have new glasses made.
Ryan was pleasantly amused by the swiveling bar stools and promptly started to play around with them, and started to unknowingly take more and more unassisted steps (he could only manage 2 or 3 steps previously).
By the time he realised what he was doing, he started to get more adventurous and tried to walk around without going after the bar stools. Ryan was learning fast!

And he achieved a greater achievement last night. 23 unassisted steps in the playground!
So he was learning quickly now, and tries to walk unassisted at any opportunity that he could get.

Today was a bit of a painful learning day for him.
Saw red twice.

The first case happened at mum's place, when he slipped together with the bath tub during bath time with mum, and cut his lips. Feels so painful to see my precious baby in pain and bleeding.

2nd case was during his unassisted walk at the playground. Probably he has walked a bit too much for the day and got tired so he did not manage to put out his hands on time to break a forward fall, and ended up with a face plant onto the concrete floor as we were walking home. Some cuts on his nose and a small cut to his finger.

Daddy so 心疼可怜的宝宝。。。
But this is part and parcel of growing up, so BabyRyan gotta be strong and grow stronger!

Busy busy period

Just saw that my last update was just over a month ago, during which I had did lots of stuff, and didn't have the time to properly sit down to consolidate my thoughts.

SingTel TriFactor Triathlon on 18 August
Poor performance in this OD race, clocked in at around 3:31 if I remember correctly.

Swim: So so performance.
Even though I had identified my key weakness in the pool, somehow the improvement in technique did not fully translate into better performance in the open water. Realise that I'm more affected by the current compared to other swimmers. Still lots of room to improve in reducing drag to improve my swim time.

Bike: Poor performance
Only managed to clock around 28kmh for most of the bike leg. Was holding back a bit to conserve my legs for the run. Need to work on increasing my speed to above 30kmh during training.

Run: Bad performance
Walk stop run. Very poor by my standards. Got into cramps early in the run and didn't manage to shake it off. Did not push through on mental strength.

Conclusion:
Lots of excuses for coming in much slower than last year. Poor training frequency, too much travel before race, poor equipment due to drowned watch. The only good point to draw from this race was that it is a timely reminder to me that TwHIM is not too far away, and if I don't buck up now, I'll really suffer in TwHIM.

US Trip 25 Aug - 3 Sep
Went for the annual sales training at DC again, this time extending my trip by 3.5 days for a short stayover at NYC, skipping the usual outlet shopping since I just did that slightly over a month ago.

NYC was pretty fun. Finally visited so many landmarks that I had seen countless times on the silver screen, and the finally seeing them in person.

It was a pure sightseeing trip, very different compared to the usual shopping trips that I used to do when visiting US. Pretty much enjoyed myself.

Statue of Liberty, Wall Street with the charging bull, Times Square, Central Park, Madison Avenue, Avenue 5, Empire State Building, Rockefeller Building, Flatiron Building, Broadway, Wax Museum.

Caught 2 plays on Broadway, one was the anticipated The Lion King, which absolutely took my breath away with their spectacular setup and impressive rendition. Then caught Chicago on the next day with a discounted ticket. Not too shabby with the singing and dancing, but I will probably have enjoyed a lighter storyline.

One thing about this trip was that I did a lot of thinking and reflection, and wrote lots of stuff and questions for myself to answer myself truthfully. This exercise helped me to review and reflect on my goals and priorities in life, and what I should be doing. Helped me to get more focused on my work and life in general.

Sometimes it's pretty neat to travel alone on a short vacation trip so that I can have the time and space to clear my mind to do some critical thinking about my life. *though I miss my family lots then.

ICT
Just did a 5 days low key ICT.
This was my 3rd ICT, having clocked 1 high key and 1 low key previously.
I have to say that this was probably the most fun ICT so far.
OC spent a lot of time with me, teaching me a lot of useful stuff which are actually applicable in my daily work. Also opened my eyes on how to look at things differently.
Pretty impressed with him, whom is just 3 years my elder.
It has been a long time since I last captured that kind of camaraderie feeling. The last 2 times that I felt it was during OCS and then with the Year 1 Titans team.
Having a key event where it breaks the ice and gets everyone working towards a common goal, was definitely a good way to get the men to gel together.
And it was also been a long time, since CPT Chew left our platoon in OCS, that someone placed so much faith in my leadership skills.
Overall a pretty good ICT for me to have picked up quite a number of useful stuff.
Strange for me to say it but this actually makes me look forward to the next ICT.