3 days till ironman

quick update:
Once again I skipped swimming in the Ok Lake this morning.

Registration began at 10am which involved standing in line for about an hour. There was a booth for Centurion cycling (http://www.centurioncycling.com/) which was manned by Ryann Fraser. For those who don't know (I didn't know until this morning), she was the youngest competitor in the 2009 Kona Ironman at the age of 20. here's a link to her blog. http://ryannfraser.wordpress.com/

I spent about $200 buying Ironman Canada gear. I got a visor, mug, cowbells, biking jersey, running jacket, water bottles and a few other things.

The afternoon was spent eating 2 lunches again and watching 'date night'. I then read a few chapters of a book, sorted through the goodie bag....time kind of disappeared cuz now it's 9:30pm and i'm ready to sleep!

Things are starting to pick up and the activity in Penticton is starting to heat up, despite the dropping temperatures. There was a good 20 minute period of rain today.

4 days till Ironman

very interesting.......i just moderated my comments and found that my review of the Ironman Phillipines 70.3 was mentioned on a GoTriathlete.com link. It's nice to be in the same paragraph as Terenzo Bozzone. http://www.gotriathlete.com/races_details.aspx?rid=12

quick summary of the day.

I woke up the same time as the rest of the guys in the house but decided not to swim this morning. I still had yellow phlegm and want to give myself the best chance to recovery before Sunday. The house plans on swimming tomorrow morning again. I'll head down to see the race venue but will end up reading a book by the beach for an hour or talk to some other athletes in the area.

9am we went for a 1 hour ride along the run course. From looking at the elevation profile I assumed that it was a Pancake Flat course! I'm glad to have biked the course because there are at least 2 'bigger' hills which would have played mental games with me. now that I know they're there and can expected them I won't feel defeated when I see them on Sunday. The first climb is about 30m gain. The pace we rode was decent..but I could feel the sickness in my lungs. The throat was dry and it was hard to push past aerobic.

After eating lunch at 10am, we headed out searching for CHEAP Peaches!! In addition to the 21.5 pounds (for $20) of MASSIVE, JUICY peaches, I bought 4 bottles of wine for La Frenz Winery in the Naramata Region. We pulled up to a regular looking house (which had a U-Pick plum sign), and was greeted by the sweetest old man. we went to the side of his property adjacent to a road and picked 10lbs of plums for $5!

After eating a 2nd lunch it was time to hit the pool and hot tub.....yes, even in 31C weather I was in the 103F hot tub trying to sweat out the sickness. It ended up being a cold/hot session to lighten the legs. I went for a 25 minute jog afterwards trying to maintain my IM Marathon pace of 5:45min/km. It felt painfully slow for the first 10 minutes, but then the heat caught up to me....and 5:45min/km suddenly felt comfortable.

We rented a house from a super great family. I'm glad we got to meet them before they took off to Revelstoke and Calgary for the week. I'm in a jr high students room and my feet dangle off the end of the bed! The walls are lime green! As i'm sitting here in bed my throat feels dry, but the cough is gone (for now). I'm a little nervous about race day and should do some research on racing post-cold. From obsessively reading triathletes blogs, I know they tend to decline starting vs racing post-sickness. I wonder if it's for health and medical reasons, or if it's to avoid a bad time to their record.

Anyways...it's almost 10pm which is my bed time!

5 days till Ironman

Today was a day of Travel! I had to get from Firebag to Calgary, then drive out to Penticton. I was hoping for a good night of sleep but it was interrupted by a fire alarm at 3am. My flight to Calgary arrived at 9am and we drove 9 hours out to Penticton. We arrived at our 5 bedroom house by 5:30pm and met the family who's renting their house to us. we have 6 people in our house and it's a mixture of people from Alberta and BC. 2 from Calgary 1 from Edmonton and 3 from Victoria. 3 are Ironmen virgins.

I had a lazy dinner of roasted chicken, romaine lettuce, naan bread and hummus.

I'm pretty sleepy and tired from the long day of travel. I still have a dry cough but the running nose is a bit better. I popped a tylenol for the headache halfway through the car drive.

We're watching a bit of Family guy now and it's time to hit the sack.

Ironman week is coming!

Work was tough and challenging this week. It started off rough because I had a 6am flight to catch and was up at 4:45am. Not a very good start to the week sleep wise. Work was insanely busy for the first part of the week which burned me out. My weakened immune system, plus the stress of work plus the drop in temperatures caused me to get sick. Right now I have a runny nose, sore throat and a bit of a headache. Anyone believe in the power of prayer and healing?? I've asked some close friends and family to keep me in prayer specifically with the sickness that I'm experiencing.

I did a lot of reminiscing this week about where I've come from athletically. It's been a 13 year journey since I started in athletics. Up until jr high I was the typical Chinese kid who played piano, went to speech arts, Kumon, Chinese school etc etc. Everything BUT sports! Finally in grade 7 I had the chance to try out for vball. I was hesitant to try out for a sport that I'd never tried but Scott K said it'd be easy! over 24 people tried out (50% of our class), and so they made no cuts....I was on the 'A Team". If it wasn't for that experience I may never have joined basketball which i absolutely loved for a period of 6 years. My coach at the time (Ken Miller) was a no nonsense-let's beat them with hardwork-a strong defence is the best offence kind of guy. He was also my track coach and this fall I may have the opportunity to coach with him. This is a critical time in my life when kids may have lower self esteems for whatever reason and through sports I felt ALIVE and found something I was GOOD at.

midway through university I challenged myself with a 5km race on Mother's day and I've been hooked ever since! My first 10km race was the Terry Fox run at Firebag and I continued to train at site and ran the Calgary 1/2 Marathon. Vancouver 2008 was my first Marathon and was also a BIG lesson in patience, pacing and humility.

I almost missed out on triathlon because I didn't know how to swim! I ran into a girl, Catherine (who i didn't know at the time), just outside our house. she was walking home from swim practice and I was finishing up a run. I started talking to her because I saw her UCTC (University of Calgary Triathlon Club) Jacket. She gave me the final push and convinced me that I could do a triathlon. The first year was still a struggle and I ended up breastroking most of my first sprint distance race. Eventually things clicked and i raced my first half ironman in Calgary. It was HOT during the run but was good prep for the Philippines where it reached 35C plus HIGH humidity on the run!

This year I focused more on the bike was able to put together a solid race which qualified me for Ironman Canada! It was a tough decision whether to take the spot this year or not. My plans were to race in 2011 so I could have more support from family and friends. I signing up for 2010 because I was feeling healthy and trained strong since January.

Most Ironmen need a 'drive' of some sort to complete the 140.6mile course. Some are chasing a spot in the World Championship and some just want to Finish. Others are battling weight loss or suffered a recent divorce. MY drive has been my #1 fan, My Grandma. When she was still living at home she always asked me where I was going when I was leaving the house. I always made her guess. So she'd guess swimming.....then biking....then running...usually it'd be one of the 3 but every so often she'd be wrong because I was going to school or work. She always said that I needed to find a girl who was just as active :). I think about her alot during my long bike rides and sometimes my runs intentionally go through the Confed graveyard so that I can stop by to visit. This was a big reason as to why i decided to race this year. Although it makes me sad to think that she's no longer here I'm assured that I will see her again since she came to know Jesus while she was in Calgary:)

This post came from an e-mail which had 4 versions. The versions were for coworkers, friends, family and people who would be in penticton. I seriously tear up every time I edit which has been about 20 times now.

This is a special weekend for me because it's the biggest physical challenge I've ever faced, but also special because it will bring some closure to a tough year.



Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Heb 12:1-3