Day off

Currently reading: you are an ironman

It's Monday and it's my day off. Not by design, but I'm forced to be inactive today because I'm so SORE!!!
Sore from the speed work on saturday, the fitness tests that morning (which included steps, push ups, sit ups, etc), and also the 6 miles run yesterday.
I'm probably fine from the long run, it's the sprints, sit ups and push ups that's kill me. That tell you how much I'm out of shape.
Therefore, instead of training physically, I'm training for the half marathon/ ironman mentally, and this is what I'm doing now.

Sunday run

It's one of those days that you can sleep until naturally wake up, how often can you do that?
After I was awake, I was laying on bed and debating if I wanna wake up, or try to fall asleep again. Given the dry weather this morning, I told myself I need to get my butt out there, either run or bike.
Finally, I ended up heading to lake union for a 6 miles run.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/120891531
It was such a beautiful morning for the run, it was a bit chilly, but not cold at all so perfect for running.
I was concerning my feet cause it was scratched up from yesterday run, surprisingly it was ok, not giving me any problem at all.

I have only about 6 weeks until the Seattle half marathon, running volume will increase, hopefully I can run faster and pray for no injury and sickness.

I been 'wanting' to start swimming, but obviously I haven't started. And I am thinking I may end up starting after the half marathon, I'll see.

Speed work out

My speed work out with john at the greenlake track, it's my first this season, actually, first time ever!
It's fun, late fall sunny day, very nice to be outside. But the work out need to cut short because the stupid shoes scratched my feet! Or maybe my feet that's stupid
Anyway, it's all good, work out was fun, weather was good, I'm happy, no complain.

Wow... it's been a long time

so I haven't been writing anything for more than 3 months now. The last blog was about my bike crash and that happened before I went back to HK in April, so it's been more than three months since I blogged.
I don't know, I just got lazy and never come up with anything to talk about, or when I have something to talk about I am not in front of the computer.
Anyway... I don't really have anything specific to talk about today neither, it's just that my friend stephen showed me his new blog, then i started playing with my own blog, put picture up, change some settings and decided to write one as well.

So I was cleaning up my desktop a little bit and saw this picture from last year Hawaii guys trip. Man.. it seems like a long time ago and I still remember it was crazy that we had so much fun. I miss the sunshine, I miss the beaches and I miss surfing. Water in the northwest is just way too cold to even think about surfing. In fact, I just got a new surf shorts two days ago from Bellevue Square, they were having a sale of 60 bucks for two shorts, while one short is like 50 something. Gosh... it took me a long time to realize that I should take advantage of this deal =)

So when is the next guys trip going to happen, I wonder??

First bike crash

So, it was Monday afternoon, my day off work and a sunny day, what's else is better than going out for a bike ride? So I did, went riding at the Burke Gilman trial which is close to my house.
What happened is I crashed!
I never had a crash before, or haven't seen one in person, so I don't know how bad is consider "bad" for a bike crash, but I guess it was pretty bad, lol.... look at the pictures below.
This is my elbow, had some scratches, but it wasn't bleeding, so that was good. Lucky that I was wearing a long sleeve jacket, but too bad that my jacket is ripped.






And then my left knee. Before the crash, i always think that wearing my leg warmer is good, because it keeps me warm and I feel more safe and comfortable with the warmer, and I was right. Without that leg warmer, my left leg probably had more scratch than this.




Also my left hand, the whole thing just happened too fast that I don't remember how it exactly happened, and what exactly happened. After the fact that it happened, I just checked myself out, see where's the damages are, then figure out how it happened. From the pictures, you can see that besides the jacket, my left glove is ripped too.











Thinking about it, it was kinna funny because right after I crashed, first thing I was worrying about wasn't my leg, or arm, or hand, or anything, but my bike!! I was like "oh shit, my bike!!!!!" sigh.... look at my poor bike, the right shifter is bent, and the tape is all messed up, but I guess those are easy fixes, and hopefully that's it.

Surprise surprise

oh wow, after photography class today, which was pretty late because we got off around 9:15pm, instead of going home to eat and watch TV, which I usually do week after week, i actually went home, get changed and went to the gym. I am so proud of myself, pat pat on my back. What a surprise...

Another surprise was I ran 3 miles today no problem, not only that, I ran it in less than 26 minutes, that's like less than 9 min/mile. I am not saying I run fast or anything, but I was running "faster" than normal. I don't remember I have ever ran at that pace before, i may have run that fast for 1 mile, but never 3 miles.

So, that's what I did tonight and I am satisfied. Maybe I should feel guilty for doing nothing yesterday, exercise wise, but I guess I can call today a make up session.

Tomorrow will be basketball night, so no need to have extra activities. The next challenge for me is Thursday, am I gonna make it to the gym?? Good question, only time will tell...

So, the St Patrick run is in two weeks, I am not worrying at all, i am sure i can finish it, the question is, how fast?? Well, i know that I won't be the last person passing the finish line, of course I won't be the first one neither. So, i should set myself a goal. I should feel happy if I can finish it in 30 minutes, that comes down to ~8.57 minutes per mile, that's a very fast pace for me. Maybe I should set that goal for myself for now, I would also see my running sessions goes these two weeks. If things go well, i will raise my bar even higher.

Sunny Sunday

After reading the triathlon book yesterday, i really learn a lot of things about the sports, and also got really motivated. I am telling myself that I want to be a triathlete.
My goal is not big at all, i am not thinking about being a world class triathlete and compete in olympic or anything like that, my target for this year is to do my first triathlon, my goal is just to finish it, maybe a sprint event.
I don't know how hard it is, maybe it's really easy becasue each of those legs (swim, cycling and run), i can do it easily individually. However, that's not triathelon, and doing it seperately is just a different animal. Maybe i can do it now without training, or maybe I won't be able to finish it at all, i will never know until i actually try it.
So, i am aiming at the Kirkland triathlon which will happen in september, that gives me a long long time to train. But that's not the hard part. Being known myself for 27 years, the hard part gonna be consistently hitting the gym, training consistently will be my biggest challenge.
For example, I have already skipped gym two times the past three days, haha.... yes, you read it right. I was gonna go friday night and last night, but ended up not going both times, but I did managed to go ride earlier this afternoon, which was nice becasue it was sunny, and I was riding a new route - green river trial.
The question I need to ask myself is, am I trying to do too much in my life? Obviously I have work, that's like a fixed event, then there's school, photography, basketball, family, girlfriend, etc, I am feeling that I am even spending less and less time with my friends these days. So the question is, can I fit triathlon training in my schedule? can I exercise 5 times a week at least?
Man, before knowing the answer, i already know this will be tough for me, but I really want to do it!
After reading the triathlon book, one thing I really remember is all triathlete doesn't watch TV. Think about it, I do think that I am watching too much TV each week, consider each NBA game is 2 ~ 3 hours at least, and i think i am watching more than 1 game per week at least, then there's sports center every night, and there's also these other shows that I watch now and then, i could be watching TV ~10 hours a week easily. If you do the math, i can easily have 10 hours per week to exercise if I don't watch TV. 10 hours a week, that translate to 5 times a week, and 2 hours each. 2 hours seems enough for each work out session.
Now, it all comes to execution, it's doable, but can I do it?
Am I giving myself excuses already by thinking that class and work will prevent me hitting the gym? Am I setting myself up for failure?
I don't know....... Only time can tell me the answer.