Speedy days

why is this post call "speedy days"?

reason number 1:

I'VE PASSED MY DRIVING TEST!!!!!

hahaha.. finally!! after 3 failed attempts..

Most importantly, i passed. yes now i am one step closer to my F1 Ferrari dream. watch out u F1 skunks. i'm gonna burn the road right in front of u!

the feeling is so good. like a heavy 100 tonnes rock lifted from my heart. i would say it really was a perfect drive for me today. Every thing was silky smooth. All the elements of driving were there (as what my previous instructor mentioned). haha. lemme recall them...

they are:
1) wind
2) water
3) fire
4) earth
5) sun

and captain Planet!!... ok oops.. that was lame.. (pardon me, i'm in a state of euphoria!)

no la.. they are actually:
1) weather - clear sky plus bright sun!
2) road conditions - perfect time as it was after lunch break time and no construction works
3) luck - guess lady luck FINALLY smiles on me
4) other on-road drivers - well there was this annoying guy who horned at me. but hey, it didn't affect me because i wasn't in the wrong!
5) the tester - ironically, he is the instructor that took me on my first test! haha. he was ok la
6) you yourself - i had more confidence after my new instructor assure me i will do just fine!

YES baby! vroom~!

haha. alright now.. to 2nd half of my speedy post

reason number 2:

Yellowfish group had a brick training at East Coast Park on sunday. It was a costal ride of varying 60 - 70km (depending on ur speed) and a run which is about 9 - 10km.

Training in a group is very different from training alone or with one or two friends (which i've experienced with Team Runfanatics and Yellowfish group). It's so much more fun and everyone has high spirit. It also provides u with more challenges when u meet up against people who is much more experienced and stronger (crucial for amateurs like me). They teach u new things, tell u more and it's just like an interact session. i wish i can have more of these sessions!

well about the training now. the cycling was pretty good. costal is a flat and straight road where u can go aero for very long. i was up in the lead pack for a while and i start to feel very bored. haha. and they were starting to get too fast for me. so i wondered off to Changi for a while before heading back. and guess who i met up with!? May-e (Mr Nate's mum~!!) and Jacq (the girl who ran with me in the last half of my Sundown Marathon). We just talked and cruised our way slowly back to carpark F2. however, along the way, Jacq's front wheel rubbed my back wheel and she fell. she had some pretty bad road rash but being the tough girl she is, she pushed on back to the carpark and later, even ran so fast!



pretty bad huh?

JACQ, recover soon! hope to see u burn the roads again soon!

afterall, this is part and parcel of being a triathlete. we train, we fall, we suffer, all for the sake of doing something we love.

alright. time to share some photos. not much.. just some random ones =)


May-e leading plus Jacq at the back! smiles!


Jacq all bandaged up and still smiling!


Jane and the very tired look!


told coach that he's a bit "niang" and he always torture me in the pool when i say that!
NIANG FISH! dun call yellowfish anymore.


(left to right) Alvin, me, my Felt bumblebee, Don and May-e!

that's all for now folks!

Mr Nate

Nathanael is the latest craze among Yellowfish's swim group triathletes. He's cute and absolutely charming! so much so that he even got onto the front page of Strait's Times.

before u think i'm gay...

here's Nate =)



i so want to meet him soon! hahaha.

Zihao, stop thinking what i know u will be thinking!

Training

o gosh! i actually forgot to post my training for a while alr. haha i think necessary for me to keep pushing myself. especially with my races upcoming. Run trg is formulated by Sham (Team Runfanatics coach)

monday - easy run 6.5km

tuesday - speed/track training: 6 x 400m with 2 minutes jog interval

wednesday - long run for 40 minutes@ 60 - 70% effort (zone 2)

thursday - gym session following Mark Allen's workout

friday - morning: swim drills
- evening: 1 hour ride + 30 minutes run

saturday - Team Runfanatics weekly track/gym training

sunday - Yellowfish Brick session of 2.5 hr bike + 40 minutes run

it seems like the mileage is fairly short but intensity of the runs are very high. Sham say it's time to do speedwork to increase my capacity to "kick" towards the last half of the race.

my training is geared towards more running because i am training for it to be my strongest discipline out of the three. i will gradually try to put in 2 swim and 2 bike sessions to keep my other 2 disciplines up. when school starts, i would have to slot in gym session for core muscles trg and all. Calvin was kind enough to send me a copy of Mark Allen's gym workout which i think, works well. =)

school gonna start on 18th August!

Rejoice for Mr Z and Miss J

in life, there are always hiccups. Things don't just always go your way. What actually defines you is how you handle it. Different people do it in different ways. At the end of the day, what matters is your future.

in particular, i've 2 good friends who literally dropped into a wormhole a few years back. For confidentiality, i shall name them Mr Z and Miss J.

Mr Z

He didn't perform particularly well in his A levels. From my knowledge, he just wasn't motivated and concentrating at that point of time. He had too many distractions that seems of more interest to him. to name a few, GIRLS, FOOD and CCA.

Well, the results were not able to get him anywhere higher up. We talked through it a bit and he will actually go to NS and made his decision from there. 2 years of NS flew past and he decided to go to Ngee Ann Polytechnic to do mass communication. He had excellent 'O' levels results previously so it was no problem for him to get through to this course, even if it was one of the most sought after course around.

and that was where he started to fly again.

It has been a few months since he started on his diploma course and he definitely is doing very well. topping his class and getting As for his modules. He is so much more focused and motivated now after the previous "failure". I am really proud of him and i bet a lot of friends and his family is too. We believe in him that he will definitely do very well for his course if he continue his good work.

All the way Mr Z... u know who u are =)

Miss J

She is one of my 'on and off' friend. well, what do i mean by that? We are not friends that contact each other regularly like.. every few days. we don't talk much for weeks. but we maintain a close friendship. whenever anyone of us needs help or need someone to just be around, we will always be around for each other. We both lead very different life now and that's why i guess.. soon that is about to change.

Same for her. she did not do very well in her 'A' levels. When i went into NS, she went out to the working world. found a stable job and stayed there till now. the job was rather high paying for an A level grad and the boss was pretty good to her.

but what actually made me smile yesterday was that she told me she is going back to study. a while back, it actually worries me that she will never go back to study. i was really happy for her. and we made a deal to be studying partners when both of us start school in August.

AND we are both gonna get the same laptop!

These 2 good friends of mine actually came out of the pit, fresher and stronger than they were. much more focused after they think through about what they really want. still, we are too young to actually know what we REALLY want. but it's a good start for all of us. Cheers to you peeps if u all are reading this

i am real proud of u 2!

The decision

After much consideration, the choice is out

Pulau Dayang Diving Trip

Yoohoo! finally did something that i have been wanting to do for so long! in case u dunno, i went diving at Pulau Dayang, Malaysia last weekend with Wei yang, weeling and some of wei yang's friends.

i went with this diving company call Mako and they are under NAUI. at first i didn't know that there were different "gangs" for diving qualifications. They have PADI, SSI and NAUI. haha but i guess it doesn't make much difference since i'm learning from only one and i won't know what's good and no good. but i'm really glad that i took up my course with them because they are a bunch of nice peeps and instructors.

so, well, before the fun stuff, it's the boring stuff. it's lecture and pool lessons. lectures are ok. not as boring as i tot it would be. everything was about pressure, volume, density, equipment and learning how not to die while diving. haha. pretty cool.

pool lessons were a bit more intimidating because i never really dive before. so all that equipment and techniques did scare me a little at first. but it was ok after i got used to it. in fact it was pretty fun learning all the stuff. well, since we were good, the original plan of 2 pool lessons were cut to only 1~! haha. or they slack. i dunno.

righto~! so on friday the 13th, we assemble at Mako and prepare to head to Dayang. there were 5 vans!! i think there's almost 30 plus of us going. gosh. there were leisure divers and learner divers like us going for basic and advance. we were suppose to hit the Causeway, then Kota Tingi for a short break, before heading to Mersing for the ferry ride. actually on that day, i wasn't feeling very good, had better days. kinda having some GI problem. feels like puking but can't and stomach always gave me the weird feeling. no appetite. but well, i still went for the trip, hopefully this will resolve.

we started off at around 10 and reach mersing around 4. ferry ride is a gruelling 3 hours. the sea was EXCEPTIONALLY choppy that day and it was rocking like a earthquake of magnitude 10 on ground (ok i dunno how serious is that.. but u get the picture). the whole ship was dark and the fumes were a killer. there was this lady in front of me who keep throwing up. and this kinda induce others to throw up too but surprisingly, my body held up and i didn't have any problem throughout the ferry.


at mersing! shag face..

reach the island about 7am. very nice and cosy place with some huts and a central "cafeteria". checked into the rooms and zonked out~!! gotta wake up at 8.30 to go for our very first open water dive.

Pulau Dayang actually consists of 3 islands (pulau lang, pulau aur and pulau pinang). they are very scenic and the water is quite clear (much much more if u wanna compare with spore's). visibility was close to 4-5m underwater. quite rich in marine life although i can't really appreciate it at this point of time.


wearing the wetsuit~


weeling with her borrowed shades


The Island


just enjoying the view~


the other folks donning the wetsuit


alright. shows on!


last check of equipment. don't wanna run out of air underwater eh


The Island@sunset


looking at bikini girls.. i mean..gills.. fish's gills


The Island.. shoreline


bridge from ferry to the huts. that's sara, one of our instructors =)


on the bridge~


the folks


weiyang and me.showing off his 6 "islands"


sit down, sing song, talk crap


i wasn't yawning. just trying to get my ears popped to equalise!


the place we were staying at. pretty decent =)


cheers to us for another dive!


time to gear up. take some time off to pose first


alright. 1st grp pic


and weeling's the cameraman here


the gang of divers!


the graduates from basic scuba class!!

in total, we dive 5 times over 2 days and had a lot of fun. not just the dive, but it's a good break from what we have been doing in our daily lives. and when u're in the water, everything u worry about is all at the back of the mind. what lies ahead is what you see.

looking forward to going for my advance course. and i just told weiyang that end of year, we can go to Sabah and dive at Sipadan and conquer Mt Kinabalu at one trip! of course with some rest day in between! will update if there's news!

hitting the rock bottom

after climbing up for sometime, i'm hitting all time low


1) turned 21 and i realise i'm still unaccomplished in so many things.

2) my boss rejected my request for 2 months break to settle down on my uni and asked me to "re-apply" when i am ready. but well, we know what is going on

3) was SUPER off form today in the Saucony Passion Run. clocked the worst 10km TT run for 2008. probably due to lack of sleep the night before. a freaking 56 minutes. WTH!

4) afraid that i cannot juggle school and training

5) worrying about how to earn money in the coming months

well. rock bottom. and maybe more...

fulfilling a tag

Hello, my name is:
Eugene

When I'm nervous:
i'd feel like shitting

The last song I listened to was:
Love will come through by Travis (because of Grey's Anatomy)

If I were to get married right now the best person would be:
Felicia Chin



By this time next year I'll be:
a Sundown marathon finisher x 2

My middle name is:
kinky =)

what was i doing this Morning:
woke up at 10 and have to run to mrt so that i won't be late for work.must log in trg log

Last night I was talking to:
Felicia Chin on my bed

If I was an animal I'd be:
a cheetah with ultimate stamina =)

Next monday night I'll be:
back from my diving trip in M'sia

My heart is:
stone cold

Do you have low self-esteem?
haha. i think i've too much self esteem instead.

Do you get depressed about things
i just get compressed

Are you comfortable with the way you look
braces and lasik would perfect it

Describe your hair:
wait. let me count how many i have first

Were you a strange child?
no. but i am a strange adult

Are you scared of growing up old?
growing up old? people started calling me oldboy alr

Own any pets?
a rabbit call oozy who is permanent staying with my ex. dig that. haha

Do you have a license?
failed driving test 3 times.

Ever been thrown out of a bar?
willingly walk out because my friend was a disgrace.

Do you prefer indoors or outdoors?
indoors with felicia chin and outdoors with jessica alba

favorite season?
race season!

Do you like walking in the rain?
no. i prefer running

Do you like thunderstorms?
sleeping yes. training, they're fuckers.

Are you a vegetarian?
yong tau foo counted?

What can you eat forever?
humble pie

What is your favorite dessert?
yogurt,fruits and chocolate!

What is your relation with the last person who gave you a comment?
swimmates =)

What happened at 1:00 am today?
watching Lance Armstrong's magnificence

Sundown Marathon race report

here's my race report for Adidas Sundown Marathon 31st May:

Pre Race:
met up with Sham who is our Team Runfanatics (consisting of sstaff from running lab and some common friends) coach. he led us for a short warm up run and we begin our stretching. he gave us a brief race briefing and also individual motivation. ended it with what he wants for us to be written on our arm! mine was " Focus! 4:15".. haha.. feeling good and inspired, we headed to the start line and discovered we were like... a few hundred metres away from the start gantry. haha

let's go Team!



During race:
evan and i decided on a 6 min pace per km. start was bad. we are stuck with the group and couldn't go our intended pace. so we did some "sliding" in and out of the "peleton". haha we managed to reach a "clearing". saw some chaps! like smallcircle (andy) and Jerry (on ENR who was cycling to support us). haha.

after a while, i lost Evan. can't see where he is. and that moment, when i turned back to look for him, i realise something. something freaking bad. my race tag actually broke from my race belt!! the hole broke! so the tag was like dangling with one hole attached. it was like such a stupid mishap. i tried to slide it into my tights at the back but i am afraid of the abrasion the sharp edges will give me. so...i tear out the whole piece and use my race belt as a belt. slided the tag in and continue running. i was thinking "o man, it's like less than 10km and something so shitty has to happen". however i told myself :"aiya fuck it. i'm not gonna let this stupid incident affect my performance for a race i've trained so hard for!"

10km mark, time check : 54mins. and coach say check time only every 10km and so i did

good pace for me because i remember coach's instruction was for us to run faster for the first 10km. as a race strategy, we should too because the course only starts to get difficult at the second half. first half was rather flat along Changi costal and ECP. so if we want to catch up on the timing at the back, we have to run faster in the flatter course of the first half. "Visualise the route" he always said.

about the 15km mark, coach appeared and gave me a bottle of Powerbar Endurace drink! that really helps man! he ran a short while with me and keep encouraging me. it helped a lot. at 15km, it's not easy nor hard. just... starting to suffer a bit. so with that encouragement, i spurred on. meeting several friends along the way really helps. along the way, i saw a lot of friends and i keep doing hi 5 to them that i become quite high. approaching the "runner's high", let the adrendaline pump!

20km mark, time check: 1 hr 46 mins. was rather worried i was doing too fast so i decided to slow down a little.

all the while, from 20km mark to 32km, this guy was pacing with me. i can't see his face because it was so dark. all i see was his singlet with "Raffles Canoeing" at the back. then i tot to myself "this guy must be some kid who is either in sec school or JC. man, i'm not gonna get dropped by him! NEVER!" there were times when i pulled him and vice versa. we never talked. i just dun wanna lose to him! his pace was strong. going on a 5 min ++ (or at least i think so. haha) pace. along the way, he greeted some friends and i come to know that his name is Gu (or Goo) haha. sounds like brand Gu Gel man. well, we "fought" each other all the way till 32km. reached the aid station. drank the 100 plus. poured the water onto my face. poured the water over my buring calves.

suddenly, i feel light. i feel good. so as what coach advised, last 10km onwards is when u decide whether u wanna break or bail.i took the break and pick up my pace. i dropped Gu.

and then, Jacqueline (call her Jacq, who happens to be my swim classmate from Yellowfish) caught up with me. man, she's a strong runner. from then onwards, we were pacing each other. kept each other strong on our strides. so good ah. i got different pacers for almost my whole race.

34km time check (because i forgot to check at 30km!): 3hr 17min. i was thinking, yeah well on pace, 4:15 is within reach!

at 34km, Jacq was telling me that she dunno where she is running. i was telling her "come on! almost there, reaching downtown east at the right turn" actually i have no idea. i am not familiar with this area but i believe it would keep her going. "what is 8km to you after u come so far! let's do it. don't think of the distance!"

we kept going. strong, i believe, was the phrase for our stride. along the way, both of us did our very best to pull people along with us. there was this guy wearing the Aviva Ironman top and he was walking. so i patted on his back and asked him to come with us. didn't really know what happened to him. he was running and stopping. then this guy whom i met at Pasir Ris ( just before the first slope) was walking. once again, i patted on his back and said "come on! i'll pull u. follow up!" so it was down to the three of us. me, jacq and the guy whose name is Andrew. he was suffering bad. heavy steps, heavy breathing but he was trying very hard to keep up with our pace. admirable chap indeed!

well, never underestimate slopes. they can break u. literally. it was one after the other after Pasir Ris, then came Loyang, then Changi and more. at this point, i was so glad that i attended coach's training every week. he trained us hard for slopes. did lotsa slopes training. breathing technique, correct striding and tempo were important when you attack a slope. still, no matter how prepared, i still suffered. everyone does. just how much. "hang on man. my mind and body is strong. go on Eugene!" i tot to myself.

i didn't look at the time anymore after that. last slope was the steepest. up from Hendon camp side to the Changi Chalets. last sprint. when i reach the top and run down, i was thinking to myself "damn, before the race, we were still walking down this road saying how much we are suffering when we get here later." u betcha man. haha. last 400m mark appear.

Jacq started to break away from me. i tried to chase her but she was really going very fast. i think her break was here. she disappeared into her turn. i still chase although i know i am not gonna catch her. i'm not gonna let myself down at the end of the day. once again, coach said that we must exhibit our power at the last stretch. CHIONG AH!

the finish is in sight. up the gantry and there it's over.

42km time check: 4 hours 4 minutes.

Andrew came up to me and shook my hand real hard. he said "thanks man, without for you, i would have give up running way back at Pasir Ris. really thank u". actually my proudest moment was this. on top of attaining my target, i helped a fellow athlete. we may not know each other. but we suffered together for that hour. that was the moment and i hope i can help more people next time.

i wanna thank everyone who supported and encouraged me. pre, during and post race. thank you guys!

next target: break the 4 hours barrier. wish me luck =)

signing off
Eugene
Team Runfanatics