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Philippines recap 2012

I’m typing this the day after we arrived back from the Philippines. I woke up today at 4am, and couldn’t get back to bed. I will probably take a short nap after I clean up and polish off the chinese food that we ordered (diet will automagically commence directly after).

14 hour flight there, was ok. Had mom and dad there to help, slept a good portion of the way. Feel guilty that I did. Cher did most of the work with the kids (sorry babe). 19 hours total trip door to door, including the 2 hour flight delay from PAL. Nice flight attendants, plane was nice too.

12 hour flight back. Horrible, just had dad and we were all separated except for Cheryl and the kids. Made an effort to help with the kids more. Cher said flight back seemed smoother for her (good, mission accomplished). No rest for me though. Walking back and forth between the seats, and coddling Emcee to sleep, etc left me a zombie when we got home.

Trip was good. Lots of food. Kids met Lola Nana (main purpose of the trip). Travelling with my parents isn’t something that I do too often because it’s too hard. They have their own schedule and things to do. People that they’d like to see and people they don’t understand why I’d like to see. Overall good trip.

Didn’t buy much stuff, except for sports glasses for biking and jeans. Most stuff were cheaper in Canada (I know surprising eh?).

My First Triathlon

So there you have it. A year and a half in training finally completed in 1 hour 7 minutes and 58 seconds. 4th place overall and first in the mens (even if I was 1 of 2 men), yes I got chicked 3 times. Not really, since they all swam better than I did. It isn’t chicked if you were never ahead of them right?

The review?

Family and I made our way down to Edmonton the evening of Tuesday July 3rd. I was sick, a bit flu-ish. My plan? Lots of sleep, lots of water and lots of Nyquil (later, I’d add 1000mg of Vitamin C - thanks Manang Malou). Started feeling better on Thursday and immediately started stressing out. Bike course has two hills, one very steep and another longer but more gradual. Zero practice on hills, serves me right for practicing in Richmond, BC flattest terrain of all time. Run didn’t worry me, and swimming is a measly 200m.

Took the bike out to Hawrelak park and ran the hill twice. Painful, but doable. Stress out more, didn’t get too much sleep in the next few days. The mind plays tricks on you, had to drive around the course a few times to calm the nerves. Still ignoring the swim and the run.

Fast forward to the day off the tri.

Got to the even early as they were closing roads. Set up my transition area: towel, bike shoes, running shoes, heart rate monitor, bike helmet, water erm… where is my shirt?! Didn’t have a shirt for the bike and the run, had to buy one. Ugh! At least it’s a tritop.

Stress out from 9am to 11pm. Met a few of the people I’d be sharing the painful hour with. They kept asking what I felt my weakest was, I kept saying the bike. They all kept saying the swim. Oh yea! I didn’t really think of the swim and it was around that island, and it was 350m not 200m as they had in the website. Funsies! 

Bag pipe death march to the start line.

So the swim? There is a reason why every single blog / magazine out there says don’t make an open water swim your first triathlon. I must’ve swam 450m because of all the weaving I did trying to find the stupid buoy. I was one of the last people out of the swim. Some kid (from the Kids of Steel) almost kicked my goggles off.

Transition 1. It was good practicing this at least once. (Wish I put in  some food in there, next time.)

Off to the bike, first hill painful. Had to walk up the last few meters otherwise I would’ve fallen off my bike. Completely lost momentum, legs wouldn’t fire. Walked and got some energy back. Big fast downhill, glad to see that I got over my fear of speed. 40km / hour isn’t bad. 2nd hill, started over taking people. Poor kid on a mountain bike didn’t have a chance.

Transition 2 was quick. Incredibly graceful movements by yours truly except for the part where I started running and forgot to take off my helmet. Had to run back and throw it. 

Run vs Heat vs Ritchie. Guess who won? The Heat! I should’ve come up with a plan to deal with the 31 degree heat that day. Should’ve taken some food. Lessons learned for next time I suppose. Almost bonked on the run due to the heat! Doubled my usual run time, biggest disappointment. I should’ve planned this leg better.

Me crossing the finish line! :)

Vancouver Spartan Race 2012

Ok seriously. That was freaking hard! It’s the next day, and I’m still sore.

Team AiJJAlRi was in full effect (Aileen, JJ, Alan, and Ritchie). 3 of us just came off the 2012 Sun Run and Alan has been training for Tough Mudder. Which I’ve learned that most Spartan Race participants are usually Tough Mudder participants too.

So, the race started hard going through a steep uphill from the get go. At the top of the hill, FIRE! So you jump, and we hear Aileen yell out, “I JUST JUMPED THROUGH FIRE!! YEA!” Soon after, crawl through barbed wire. 

Then more uphill running. Thank God for hill repeats, it wasn’t soo bad for me. More uphill through some cemetery and the start of trails.

I’m not a technical trail runner by any stretch. So I’m a bit out of my element, but I make do. I pace behind two ladies who decide that they’re so very fit that they could start gossiping and figuring out travel plans. I’m panting in the background trying not to twist my ankle.

New obstacle: Over and under. Basically 3 walls the height of my chest. The first wall, you had to crawl under, 2nd wall had a middle opening and 3rd wall you had to jump over. 

Then came the steepest part of the trail run. Slowed down, cause I was scared out of my mind at the thought of rolling head over ass down the hill.

At this point, I’m thinking, “Hey, if this is mostly running I’m going to get through this in good shape.” Eventually make it out of the trails. Yay! Or so I thought, since this is where the real obstacles start.

Obstacle: Fill 2 buckets half way with rocks and carry it up this really steep hill and back down. Lifesaver here was the gloves that Alan obsessed over. Rocks went in, carried it up. It was really hot, felt like stopping at the top to throw up (but didn’t) and somehow made it down in one piece.

Directly after was another obstacle: 8 foot wall that you had to scale! Erm, I’m 5’8 and I would say, minimal upper body strength. Needless to say, I was nervous. Plus there was a crowd that was gathering from the line-up. Alan was in the line first. Going through my head, “If Alan falls, I’m just going to drop and do my 25 burpees”. So Alan runs, jumps, grabs on to the top, struggles (crowd starts cheering), and somehow pulls himself up and over. Shit! My turn comes, I launch myself off the support of the wall, grab on to the top and almost fall over. Crowd starts cheering, and I somehow swing my legs over and scale the wall. No one more surprised than I.

We wait for Aileen and JJ, we help Aileen over the wall (not that she really needed help).

Short run up a really steep hill, and over to a new obstacle: balance beams. My sense of balance is horrible. I knew I was going to fall over. First set of 25 burpees for me. 

Start running again. Up and down some short trails. At this point, I knew the end was close because of the music. Alan and I pass a guy he yells out, “So what time did you two start?”, we say “10:30, you?” He mumbled something. I guess he was an earlier heat. Oh well.

New obstacle: barbed wire and mud. This time, spectators all around. Crawling through mud was all well and good, until around the middle part where the mud got deeper and everything kinda sank. The mud practically reached my shoulders. We somehow got lapped by some guy trying to make good time. Screw him!

Around the corner, military rope climb! Side note: I was waiting around in the beginning and saw this obstacle and was intimidated by this particular one. At this point though, I just wanted it over so grit the teeth (and the mud caught in between them), then up and over.

Around the next corner, javelin throw. The goal was to throw the javelin and have it stick on to a dummy about 15 meters away. Yea, mine didn’t stick. 25 burpees. If you don’t know what a burpee is? Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYfNA_lmkHM

Next is the wall. The objective? Move across the wall sideways. If you fall down, 25 burpees. My arms and legs were too tired and I fell. The last 25 burpees. 

Alan and I waited for JJ and Aileen, but I have to say that Aileen almost got through the wall! Almost.

Total burpees? 75! But we’re spartan finishers!

Road bike virgin no longer

What an awkward title?! Oh well, there is a reason for it.

So I bought a road bike last week. You know, the ones with the really super thin wheels. I never thought that I’d own one of these bikes but I suppose it was just an eventuality. Especially since I’ve been attempting to turn myself into a triathlete.

I bought it last week and have been aching to give it a shot in my neighbourhood.

Today was day 1. It wasn’t good. Less than 10 minutes on it, I quickly realized that I was really confused with how the gears worked. Eep, not good when you decide to tackle a really steep hill. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/173457866

I rode back home, dropped the bike on the stationary trainer and tinkered with the gears a bit.

Attempt number 2 exponentially better. Within the first 2 minutes, the gears felt better and was 10 times more confident. Tackled the steepest hill in the area, no problem. Well, with as much problems that you could expect. Legs are burning still.

Oh well, gotta start somewhere.

Test run to Mom and Dad’s

I tried to run to mom and dad’s condo today. It’s not too far actually, but I didn’t anticipate the traffic lights and the non-sidewalks. It was an interesting experience.

I didn’t quite get into my rhythm because of the street crossing and traffic light waiting.

Now I’m pretty sore, I guess the start and stops use different muscles or maybe skipping a day was a bad idea and my body was inflicting some Catholic guilt on me.

If anyone is curious: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/170281754

Oh yea! I did actually ring mom and dad’s buzzer but no answer. Those two galavanting a lot.