m-dot bike tour

Over the past two weekends (oh jeezz has it really been that long, I really should update more often), some friends and I rode the IMC bike course to get a feel for what some of us signed up for. In short, the course was do-able-ish (yeah right, minus the drafting we did!). And man oh man I'm not too sure about this idea of running a little marathon afterwards...I guess I still have a little bit over a month to figure it out. I definitely should consider consulting more you-tube IM videos for motivation, since they have more deepful meaning after doing this trip.

I still haven't been swimming and taking it easy with rides and runs. This was the perfect getaway from the city - we also enjoyed a wine festival afterwards in Kelowna. A wine and cheeze adventure for shures.

I was quite fortunate to have only the handle bar tape torn a little bit (and minor scratch to the pendal) from the crash in the Vancouver Tri. It goes to show, my bike has a pretty mean streak as well (no pun intended). ;) 

Maybe my bike's mean streak had scared poor Ogopogo the sea monster in Okanogan Lake away...that's pretty bad-ass you know?

You never want to anticipate for a flat, but in the back of my mind, I knew I could use a break to get a slushie. Next thing you know it, the cycling and slurpee gods answered!! They must had formed a joint 2-member panel to hit us right near the town of Osoyoos, where there was a 7-11 nearby and right before Richter Pass! Can you say perfect timing? Awesome.

While biking around the town of Keremeos, we saw this very familiar minivan. Scott and I was riding along, stopped to the side to take a closer look (of course our legs weren't desperately craving for a break by this point ;)).



WHOA no way, it's really Mr. Wight!! This is quite fitting, since originally it was Scott, Andrew and I that formed the original 3-man pack to do IMC 2012, 30 year anniversary of the race.

That was before Kim and Kory threw in a monkey wrench to the original 3-man pack plans and seems like 10 of us are doing IMC 2011 this year. Hopefully the 2012 3-man pack still stands. I know I'll be keeping my end of the promise.
Less than 37 more days to go... and counting. =)

Evil but Awesome

 200 Days until IM Canada!

Every little motivation helps for the epic road to Penticton. Lately I sure have been getting in my long rides, thanks in large part of my new evil plan. THE FORCE.

The people at Voltswagon sure know their target audience during this past weekend’s superbowl. No words spoken required. 'Nuff said.





My evil but awesome long rides plan can be pretty much summarized in 3 easy steps.

• Do a pre-ride and after-ride to the ride itself (must be at least 15 to 20 km each way).
• Slowly build your case to your friends for what an 'awesome' idea it is to join you on the extra milages during the off-season (dazzle them how much fun it would be).
• Guilt less afterwards by crashing at a burger joint¹  and gorge on the well deserved calories!

Johnson was kind enough to join me in the rain two weeks ago, and this past week Brendan came along. Who will be next?

¹credit goes to Brendan for the suggestion we go to Splitz Grill Burgers this past weekend. =)

The German model to Work-Life Balance

I had my three-month “review” this week. I think it went well...my company wants to keep me employed, which is an exciting feeling. My official title can be struggling Jr. Engineer turned less-struggling Jr. Engineer with benefits! Just awesome, every little bit helps. I was surviving the last three months grasping the reality of no more student perks and tag team along those super expensive real-world prices. What a roller coaster ride from only four months back.

Now that my work life is a little more secured, I can focus on my new work-life balance philosophy. I will blog on it. About training with a new approach.

I just read Eddy’s blog and appreciate that we share many of the same real-world experiences in regards to training (and he’s only been working a few weeks into an intern job!). ;)

I’ve also noticed a shift from my previous training. Not only are my numbers in training significantly down during this time of the year, but my pace times are slower and my heart rates are in the low 190s whereas the same time last year was more in the 170s. I can blame the constant supplies of ice cream and doughnuts in the office it seems...

Okay, enough with the excuses. I did came across this interesting article from The Globe and Mail that was published in early November last year as part of a week series on work-life balance, titled “Part 4 Harder worker? No life? Just act more like the Germans.” I sit here reading it on a late Friday evening, at both curious and open to new ideas.

Source: http://www.deshow.net/travel/germany-travel-landscape-605.html

Anyway, here are some key findings:

On the work-life balance dilemma:

“Work matters, Prof. Hurka says, much more than its life-loving critics care to acknowledge. “If you ask what are the things that make life worthwhile, one of them is pleasure, satisfaction, feeling good. But another one is achievement. If you have work that is challenging and calls on your abilities, and then you succeed at it, that’s worthwhile in itself. So it’s a mistake to talk about work versus your life – work is a valuable element in your life.””

The article covers itself by limiting this statement true for only the good kind of work that requires you to challenge yourself:

“... Bad work is more problematic for the way it degrades life, and no one should have to submit to cruel bosses, unhealthy conditions or the assembly-line mindlessness critiqued by Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times.”



One approach to rectifying the problem during a long day:

“It’s not our employer’s job to find work-life balance for us, it’s our job – we have to carve out moments of self-nourishment in an incredibly busy day. These can be tiny things: Instead of sitting at a desk, glued to the computer, eating yogurt, force yourself to get out, go for a walk or to a gallery, if only for 45 minutes.”

Shall defenitely try to make it a priority to not miss my workouts after work.

On the German model:

“...Notoriously productive and efficient, Germans nonetheless spend many fewer hours in the workplace than do North Americans...”


“...[Germans] accept the collective understanding that the workplace is designed for actual work. They don’t share our compulsion to drag out the day with the distractions many Canadians consider the redeeming side of office servitude: chattering with cubicle mates, surfing the Web, moaning about how late we get home to the kids after a hard day’s labour.”

I concur with the German model approach. I guess the model starts with investing less with more. I can champion the task at hand and work harder to get it done efficiently. Similarly every workout and every week should have a meaningful gradual progress to peak for that key race, whether a build/speed/tapering week or intervals/recovery/tempo workout, all should be taken into consideration.

Bottom line, it’s efficiency on both accounts:

“In life, as on the job, hard work can be a pleasure – if only we’d start admitting it.”


Now when I train, just gotta put the German model to work. =)

Two Hundred Ninety Nine

To celebrate my last race in the 20-24 age group, I figured I can break the only PB I have yet to achieve this year and that is running the half marathon. It’s been an awesome 2010 year for me, and 2010 reasons to celebrate for sure. I've been busy mooching candy off little kids lately. =)

Source: http://rlv.zcache.com/personal_best_poster-p228634564171146027trma_400.jpg


I have already achieved quad-digits of running mileage in kilometres during training and racing this calendar year. But hey, I am still nowhere close to Marathon Maniac status...just yet. That’s beyond the scope for 2010.


My current PB in the half marathon is 1:28:32 and my latest marathon in Victoria halfway split was just 26 seconds shy from matching it! So with little convincing from Liam Harrap, I decided to join him for the UBC Fall Classic in only 19 days.

See? I believe good things are in stored. Just can’t lose, unless I don’t try.

Just another baby step to keep me distracted from that next big challenge coming up (299 days until Ironman Canada 2011!).

That T-word.

Week 9/10 to Marathon

When I run, I feel like I am unstoppable (as per Newton’s first law of motion).

So you can imagine trying to stop or slow me down at the very least.

But, it’s time to take a step back and recharge those little batteries. How to become one step closer to global domination, STEP No. 22: Chillax.

So ‘chilled’ and ‘relaxed’, I can omit some letters for the sake of chillaxing.

This is probably by far the least exciting part of my 10 week training regime. Sleep for 8 hours, nap midday, and run less often. Yep. Boring stuff. ZzzzZZZZzzz. I'm dozing off just blogging about it.



We do like numbers to back us up when faced with a challenge. Here is the training breakdown during the past nine weeks.



Exhibit A is for those silly people thinking I’m just a madman on runners (usually they’re right).

Exhibit A: See proof, I do TAPER!

Exhibit B reveals the “proposed long run” of the week & actual “long run” kilometres.

Exhibit B: So far so good-ish! =D

Tapering also involves the mental aspect. Selecting race gear and nutrition as well as focusing and becoming familiar with the race details, etc. I think I am ready as one can be.



Alright so the question remains, have I tapered enough for my marathon? Even bigger question, will I qualify for Boston? Or will I have overtrained and dug myself my own grave site?



Stay tuned to this weekend in Victoria for my killer second crack at the marathon distance.



Boston Boston Boston! Maybe the more times I mention Boston, the more likelihood of my chances for qualifying! Eh? =)



Tempo Runs - a creative touch

Week 8/10 to Marathon

Having conquered the peak load stages of my 10 week marathon training program, I feel like my legs can eat 10k for breakfast, 20k for lunch, and still have room for dessert without much discomfort. It’s a wonderful feeling, really! Two weeks ‘til the marathon, I feel confident about getting my main course meal - my Boston Qualifier time (3:10:59)!

All this running mileage building however is not without its obstacles. My body is handling the extra mileage beautifully, though the same cannot be said about the in taking the large icy-syrupy beverages. Lately I have restrained myself from going anywhere within 50 meters of any gas stations or 7-11s to resist the urge of getting a slushie.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Katy_Perry_Hot_N_Cold.jpg

The hot N cold just doesn’t mix well, especially eating yummy shanghainese rice cake noodles after a slushie. It upsets the enzymes apparently - I learned that the hard way while making many visits to the bathroom during the night. =/

To the running and triathlon worlds, it shouldn’t take a great stroke of insight to realize that throwing in a weekly tempo run is the answer to racing your best.

How to become one step closer to global domination, STEP No. 16: Be creative. The Kenyans may get upset at me for using their tempo race secret, but don’t worry, I have a clever idea to add!

We all know the benefits of tempo running. It’s basically a way to teach the body to use the oxygen more efficiently by increasing the lactate threshold. This involves running at a constant speed at a 'comfortably hard' pace that should hover around 85 to 90% of your maximum heart rate.

They also say you should have a warm up and cool down stage before and after the tempo stage.

The problem.

Some friends wanted to do a 10k tempo at 40-42 minutes on this past Saturday after the bike ride. That’s a long tempo run - usually they’re only up to 20 minutes long. Plus, I also live 20k from campus, which means I also have to do the friendly commute. Taking public transit with my Cervelo P2 just wouldn’t be cool.

The solution.

Use the cycling stuff as warm-up and cool-down. Hey presto, kills two birds with one stone (I know that sounds environmentally wrong, but it works). I got in a decent bike workout in. The commute to and back campus was flawless. Lastly I also got in a solid tempo run in. I ran with some friends just under 41 minutes. It felt comfortably hard (avg heart rate 172 bpm).

The 10k tempo Run route

Progression Runs

Week 7/10 to Marathon

Let’s be honest, marathon training can be a bit of a drag even for the most disciplined superhero-runners sometimes.

Interested in getting oodles more fun with less recovery time than the work of normal long steady runs? Then I present to you my recently learned and adapted training secret!

How to become one step closer to achieving global domination, STEP No. 5: Carry yourself like a winner. Or in the words of Jens Voigt, “Shut Up Legs!”

Well actually after doing a little more research, I learned that the secret already exists in structured formats and is well-known to the running world, officially known as ‘progression runs’. More on this later.

The 28km run I did last Sunday started innocently unstructured enough. My original plan was to get some easy feel-good mileages in along the most continuous route, since my marathon was coming up in less than 3 weeks. I started on the Central Valley Greenway and slowly ran to the Olympic Village False creek area and eventually connecting up to the Stanley Park Seawall.

I was holding between 4:30 and 4:55 per km pace for the most part. Alas, that quickly changed halfway on route along the Seawall. I heard these monstrous footsteps behind me slowly bridging the gap. Normally it's a little kid trying to chase me down on his/her bike.

For the next 4 kilometres, this became a friendly wordless-exchanged battle between David and Goliath.

I instinctively ran slightly faster (about 4:15s) to reduce the noise pollution of these monstrous footsteps; however no luck. The footsteps followed, so I tried slowing down (to about 4:25s). The middle aged man ran ahead, and I wasn’t just going let him go that easily, so I was inspired to keep his pace at 4:15s.

After the 4 kilometres I eased up and had a quick water break at the aid station. I noticed that the middle aged guy also eased up, perhaps waiting for me to cling back on his pace. Anyways for the next 2 kilometres, I ran ahead of him and averaged 4:17s. Not too shabby for what was already 26 kilometres in. It was still a controlled pace, yet at a race pace intensity (in other words, it wasn’t my all-out pace).

I finally broke the silence and said, “great pace there buddy!” I learned that he was training for New York Marathon and he had 16 more kilometres to go. At this point as if I wasn't listening, my legs were screaming STOP STOP STOP!

When we separated off, I quickly realized that I had to slow down to 5:30 pace as there was no more help with the sound of footsteps.

So to recap, the last 6km was slightly faster than race pace for about 20% of the 28km run. Did a cool down afterwards and enjoyed a slushie.



There’s a great article on structured Progression Runs at McMillan Running. http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/progressionruns.htm

The article classifies three different types and ironically I ended doing something very similar to DUSA. I did an 8.5 km recovery run the next day with UBCTC and my legs still felt moderately fresh. It was a great experience; I have to start simulating my own progression runs in the future now. =)

Running is cheaper than therapy!

You know that reaction, patting your loose pockets to make sure your wallet is still hanging there? Well, reality really hits hard when you pat again, only realizing it’s not hanging there anymore.

Aw dangit. Not cool Winstorm! Instantly, I knew my helpless wallet was stranded on the 135 bus while heading westbound towards the sketchiest part of town – the downtown eastside. Like a true roadrunner, I was calculating the pace of the bus and even flirted with the idea of chasing the bus down.

Instead my better judgement took over; I tried asking every bus driver heading in the opposite direction if they had seen anything, but nothing. Eventually a kind lady bus driver helped me to get the message out to dispatch. I spent most of the remaining Friday making frantic phone calls and creating new duplicates and unfortunately having to bail on a run with Eddy.

Yep, let bygones be bygones. I try to remind myself that I can still do amazing things without my wallet.

No ID, no money, no problem! How to become one step closer to global domination, STEP No. 12: Stay humble.

That doesn’t necessary mean no fun. No need to dwell on the pain of my own stupidity!

So, running is cheaper than my therapy. Having no wallet, my decision was a no brainer. I accepted Scott’s invitation to do some late afternoon track intervals. We held 3 by mile + recovery lap @ 90sec rest at under 4 min/km pace in the heat. It ended up being a solid 11km run, surely a good way to let off some steam.

EPIC therapy session No. 1 - Friday 11k interval run

I didn’t stop there. Due to a combination of convenience and perfect timing, I got in an equivalent Ironman distance in 4 days.

EPIC therapy session No. 2 – Saturday 3.9k swim

Next morning, we hit up Allouette Lake at Golden Ears park for our traditional Guo family big bbq boating trip. The seven of us had to share 26 lbs of bbq meat. If you mix the summer heat with the weekend, the lake was infested with all sorts of boating vessels making it somewhat sketchy to swim in. Nevertheless, I swam across with the constant fear of getting run over by a sea-doo (canoes, I can handle) to the other shore near the earth-dam 3 times. Scott’s Garmin said it was about 650m-700m each way.

EPIC therapy session No.3 – Sunday 184k ride

Next morning, I had trouble getting up 6am for the 8am ride as originally organized by Vince. Truth be told, the thing that allured me to this ride was the thought of seeing Matt’s brand new Argon 18 E-112 TT bike. It ended being a pretty fun, chilled ride; we explored a lot of new territory in Delta and Richmond.

GoogleEarth was delighted with giddiness.

EPIC therapy session No. 4 – Monday 32k long run

It’s week 2 to my 10 week marathon program. That means I must run 25k. Realizing the inconveniences of not having a credit card and bus pass, I started from home. I took it easy at 5:30ish pace for the first 25k. Had a chilled break, and then sluggishly survived the remaining 7k home.

GoogleEarth realizing what a nut job I was.

EPIC therapy session No. 5 – Tuesday 11k recovery run

I enjoyed my long run so much, I felt the need to go for a recovery run. Maybe my better judgement would have consulted my training log first, but I didn’t. Ekk, I’ve done 97km of running in the past 14 days! Crazy, miles sure fly by when you're enjoying so much therapy!

There you have it, the M-Dot challenge in 4 days and in sequence (guess that officially makes me an Ironman wannabee),

“Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life,”

claims the now registered trademark of Ironman.



I made an effort to check the lost and found today. After a short wait, the guy at the counter asked for my middle name, and I figured it had to be good news! Just like my “bolt” moment in Victoria on race morning!

Found! Guess all that therapy paid off.

Massive sigh of relief!! Despite a missing twenty dollar bill which I will gladly give up, all my personal items, including three (two expired) TriBC cards, were still there. I was impressed, the person whom found my wallet must had handled it with great care to not drop any of the loose change inside (a buck fifty worth in coins). I wasn’t expecting any of these items back! But thanks world, I really appreciated it. =)

Iona Park – Bald Eagle sighting on the Jetty

Panorama at the tip of the Jetty

Last Friday, a few friends (Brian, Maca, Lional) was just starting to pick up running again and so what better way to (secretly) break them in than by exploring the scenic ocean view on the Jetty at Iona for an afternoon run. The goal of the run was to figure out their long run paces with the assistance of the distance markers on the jetty (because not everyone has GPS watches, which is simply wrong!). Conditions were hot and strong headwinds on the way out.

Q: What's the difference between 'see' and 'sea'?
A: I can see the sea but the sea doesn’t see me.

My left eye had been a little foggy of late so I figured after 8 years I should book an appointment with the optometrist to do a regular check-up earlier in the morning.

As expected, my optometrist confirmed that my left eye was inflamed and I was given the choice to go on antibiotics or let it heal itself in two weeks. I choose the latter greener option; however I’m now banned from wearing contact lenses until I fully recover.


This is not exactly good news if you have global domination on your agenda. Regardless, How to become one step closer to global domination with very keen sightedness, STEP No. 4: have eagle-eye vision.


Unfortunately for me, recently being banned from the use of contacts, I couldn't wear both my prescription glasses and polarized sunglasses (without some clever engineering as recommended by Scott - duct tape).

Source: http://www.jaggededge.com.au/site/polarised.html

Apparently from what I learned after the visit with the optometrist, an unscientific explanation on the polarized lenses is that they can filter out polarized rays, unwanted glare, (rays that have been reflected from the ground) so that your brain do not need to delete them afterwards if absorbed, thereby allowing you to see more. NEAT-O!!

So the trade-off is do I want squinty vision limited by unwanted bright glare and sunlight, or polarized vision with blurry far peripheral vision? I went with the latter.


Honestly, the first thought that came to mind was “Andrew will beat me in Sooke!” I’m just a competitor by nature; these thoughts just kick in by instinct. The optometrist was very understanding and offered me a couple pairs of daily contacts for Sooke. Sorry Andrew!


Running back on the jetty with my blurry left eye vision and holding onto my camera like a quarterback, I managed to see this big brown fluffy thing sitting on the rock just 3 metres away.

I halted to a grinding stop from my blistering 4:30 min/km pace (with tail wind) and shot these sweet pictures.

Ironically, I don’t need eagle-eyes to see a bald eagle.

My sister screams CUTE!! Not sure I would agree.

Not bad for an ordinary day of training.

Road Adventures

Funny story while riding home yesterday during epic ride no. 4 of this week!

I was going up a steady inclined on the way back home from UBC near the Macdonald area and out from nowhere I heard this persistent trickling noise behind me for a good 100m. I was curious to see what it was, but resisted not to look back in fear that I would show signs of weakness. The trickling noise continued, and I was thinking to myself, “Man, this person can sure keep pace.” I eased off my pace and pulled slightly to the side to let this noise pass by. This old lady on an electric assisted powered bike goes by me, and the old lady said to me in a high pitchy voice, “I was counting on your streamlines”. It gets better.

At a later stop, I asked her if she modified the bike herself. She answered in a funny sarcastic voice, while holding a cigarette in her left hand, as she accelerated away “You bet... Do I look Chinese to you? ...It’s made in China!” I thought she was hilarious.

January Training Update.

Lately, I have been feeling great and training as much as I possibly can without hurting myself. This must be a positive hang over effect from last month. So far in January, my training hours have totalled double digits in both the swim and run. It’s a feat that I have not officially accomplished in any given calendar month ever, oddly enough. I know, I’m as shocked as you are. Of course, I was also pretty close a few times in 2009 but ultimately fell short. You can see from the figure below that the hours are reasonably uniformly distributed for swims and runs.

My Training Hours in January 2010

I probably shouldn’t feverishly focus too much on the numbers and worst, bore you with them. Beyond the numbers, I have also been ripping it up with the Ab Ripper X after our club’s Wednesdays evenings runs. You should check it out if you haven’t already. I’m only hardcore enough to do it once a week, unlike some  who do it rather religiously. I hate it, but I love it!!

Alas I don’t run on rainbows and sunshine all the time, training in February will definitely be hard-hit. I will be working thirteen shifts, a total of nearly 110 hours. I also will not be at school as often and swimming will definitely take a greater hit. Hopefully my banked time in January will help keep my momentum in the pool.

My venue training is tomorrow, so I guess this is the beginning of my volunteering journey for the Vancouver Winter Olympics. I’ll promise to keep you guys and gals updated.

Winter Holidays 2009

(...the blog post I probably should have made about a month ago...opps!)

With the very first UBCTC Fall Classic Race Series all wrapped up, it’s finally nice to have some time off from racing. And by time off from racing, I really mean more time spent towards training. I’ll clue you in later why this is the case.

Coming into this race series, I would have no doubt chuckled if someone were to consider me as a ‘big gun’, let alone a podium finisher in the male division. This petite-figured Asian guy, often underestimated, surely wouldn’t attract the attention that other pre-series favourites would have, especially since there were many to choose from, trust me. You may go as far as to compare this analogy to the Team Canada Men’s Hockey team selection for the Olympics and I will probably be one of the guys that are good, but not good enough to make the team. Nevertheless this friendly scoring system of the race series became my best of friends, when it rewards bonus participation points for showing up and does a uniform distribution of points spread among the first to last finisher, meaning the system levelled the playing field for everybody. All of a sudden, winning the race series really came down to attendance to all the events, consistency to place well (not necessary well in terms of time as I have learned in the 500m swim test set), and malleability to the often challenging and sometimes unfamiliar events (like tire-changing and underwater distance swim).

I think I’ve poked fun at Nathaniel Janzen enough times during this race series, and by now he probably realizes this and doesn’t want to admit it on the record, but I think my level of competitive spirited smacktalk must had (yes must had!) inspired him to do wonderful things in the pool and the run courses, which he can tell you all about.

One thing memorable about the race series was Vincent Lavallee’s continued commentary throughout the series events and perhaps he may be most famous, if he isn't already, for his long-winded (21 minutes?) speech at the awards presentation. I don’t think I’ve heard anything longer and vividly delivered speech by a more-sober person. When stacked on paper against Matt Reeve, the eventual winner of the Vincent Lavallee’s Cup and race series overall leader, the numbers don’t look quite so impressive for my camp. To Matt Reeve's credit, he did beat me in all of the 12 events possible. I was not shutout though, the one competition he did not beat me in was the swim relay (since he was on my team, and hence it was not possible). Also, ahem...that famous bi-annual beer mile event.

After all this racing and training and yes school, I noticed my training log had significantly more hours than it did last year. In fact I was very close to the centennial markers for each of swim, bike, and run which I had not achieved in any previous years. Here’s a look at what I had.

Now flashback back to today.

I’m glad to officially announce that I have achieved this feat for 2009! I’ve also noticed an improvement in the swim department, which likely means for 2010 I’ll need to hit the pool at least 3 times a week to reap the gains. Maybe my numbers are still relatively miniscule compared to any professional tri-athlete, but hey it’s the personal success that counts.

It’s nice to reflect upon what I have done this year. Here’s a final look at my totals from 2008 and 2009 years.

Thanks for reading, I wish you a happy and prosperous new year!