Remember awhile ago I mentioned that I wanted to train for a triathlon? Well, I had been putting it off for quite sometime now due to my inability to swim.
Today I finally took the first step to face my fear (swim). I found myself a swimming coach for FREE! (He works in my office :))
In case if you are wondering, he is a 2 times Lake Placid Ironman Triathlon finisher and he use to teach swimming, so he couldn’t be more perfect.
Why I suck at swimming? Well I drowned in open water once when I was very little. Also, every year throughout elementary school, my mom would force me to take swimming lessons at a public pool in Hong Kong (wearing those ridiculous looking canvas swim cap). I hated every second of it. Then when Form 1, (7th grade) came around swimming was part of gym class, I still remember my insane gym teacher would make us swim freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly at the 1st class without giving us any proper instructions. He claimed that was his method to determine the good swimmers and the bad swimmers. So from all of those horrible experiences I pretty much hate/suck at swimming for most part of my life.
To be really honest if it weren’t for the triathlon, I don’t think I would ever go near water unless I desperately have the need to. Oh, did I also mention that I also have a fear of being attack by a shark.
Dave and I went bouldering at the Red Barn after work today. Frustration and weak were the two things that were constantly going through my mind during each of my problems. But the good thing is it gives me a new perspective in terms of physical strength and endurance. Unlike weight lifting where your body is set in a certain way to maximize the performance of a muscle group. Bouldering requires you to haul your own bodyweight on a slanted wall or even upside down using a limited amount of rocks. It requires so much strength, techniques, balance and thinking. At the moment right now I’m just happy that if I can stay on the wall for more than a 45 seconds.
Due to my running schedule, it is going to be hard for me to devote too much time into climbing, but I will try to climb at least once a week. Overall I like the concept of bouldering because it is like running. The objective of both sports is to move your body from point A to point B using your own strength. It is pure and raw.
Going forward I really need to make some local climbing friends so I can learn some climbing techniques.
Dan maybe you should join us next week to do some climbing. And you can also show me some shooting technique with the SLR in a low light area
First I would like to apologize for the lack of update over the pass few days.
My schedule had been getting a little crazy lately, between my 3 jobs, running, lifting and climbing (starting today). It just seems 24 hours a day is not enough for me.
The good thing is that my body and my endurance are getting better and better every week. I just love the feeling of being in shape.
The Truth
As you all can see from the screen cap below, as of right now I have not smoke for 1y 4d 14h 57m
Because of not smoking I was able to complete a 10k, 20k, and a full marathon all within one year.
And the amount of money that I would of burned if I were still a smoker is over 1000 US dollars.
That is almost an entire year worth of gas.
Don’t be jealous smokers. I know you all can do it too.
Nicotine withdrawal is just a message from you body saying “Stop killing me”
Ways to teach your mind to quit
Go burn a 5-dollar bill every time when you go buy a pack.
Look at the big picture; it is truly a pleasure to be able to live without smoking.
Try to name 1 good thing about smoking.
Try to name 10 bad things about smoking.
Due to the high price in gas, quit smoking is like having free gas every week.
You don’t want to set a bad example for the young generation.
I was at the gym few days ago and I noticed the RIT Red Barn is open Monday Wednesday and Friday for open climbing. So next Monday my buddy Dave and I will be doing some climbing.
I actually do own a pair of climbing shoe and a chalk bag, but sadly it’s been almost 3 years since the last time I used it.
Ahdont perhaps you can give me some tips and pointers, any help will be greatly appericated.
My running has been getting better every week. I’m averaging about 20-25 miles a week now. I’m down to 191lbs when I weighted myself on Sunday, hopefully I can get down to the below 180 range by May.
My diet/exercise plan are pretty simple:
I don’t have time is not an excuse.
I don’t eat any candy or any types of sweets.
I don’t drink soda.
I replaced pretty much 50% of my weekly red meat consumption with fish instead.
I get a full 8 hours of sleep every night.
I run 3-4 days a week anywhere from 5-8 miles each session.
My non running day I will either be weight lifting or doing some kind of cross training.
REST! I will make sure I have 1 day where I would lay on my couch and do absolutely nothing other than exercising my thumb on my TV remote controlHair film
I had been working at the Old Toad as a doorman for almost 4 years. It is a pretty easy job for the most part, since all I really do is just sit there and check IDs.
And if the night is slow I often get a lot of reading done. Oh I also get all my drinks at half price. Not a bad gig eh?
Normally I’m a pretty friendly person, but after years of dealing with drunks and stupid customers. I reached to a point that I have zero sense of humor as soon as I clock in. The part I hate the most about that job are dealing with bums and panhandlers.
They usually try to give my customers that sad puppy look when they ask for money. And of course as part of my job I have to ask them to leave. They can get pretty nasty when they don’t get what they want. Let’s use this pass Saturday as an example; I said to a bum “Hey get moving, you are bothering my customers!†then he just went off on me “You f*&king Chinese people…f*&king this f*&king that…†It’s like the moment you interrupted them, they automatically have all the rights to pull out the racist comments and say we don’t want to help them because they are black. You know what that is just bull shit.
Second most annoying part of that job is female. Yes I said Female. Whenever I ask girls for their ID, they always give me this “God don’t I look old enough†attitude while rolling their eyes at me. And then when I don’t ask women who are in the 40s for their ID, they will often said “You are not going to card me? Gee am I really that old?†I just cannot win. Oh another annoying female thing is their handbag! I often seen girls spent up to 5 minutes digging through their handbag trying to locate their ID. Please have your ID ready before you walk in.
And last but not least if I have a book in my hand, please don’t ask me what am I reading. It is just annoying to have to tell every other person that walks in and out of the bar of what I am reading.
I loved it; it is a very well done dark comedy film.
The movie is basically about Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) a very slick, head spoken person for a tobacco company.
His job is to search new ways to put a positive spin on a product that kills 4,900,000 people worldwide every year.
The film really put things in an interesting perspective.
