Thursday, August 25, 2011

earthquakes and hurricanes...and training, oh my!

Tuesday afternoon we had what seems like the first earthquake in the history of Delaware, or heck, the East Coast. As a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, I pretty much suspected immediately that it was an earthquake...but was completely confused because everyone here told me we didn't get earthquakes here. Clearly the world is ending.

And now there's a hurricane headed towards us...


We are in the hot pink "EXTREME" zone. My boss put a "hurricane supplies list" in each of our mailboxes today, which tells you to stock up on things like batteries, flashlights, cash...and diapers. (Obviously the diapers are if your power goes out and the toilets can't flush any more.) Me and the Sherpa already have a big stockpile of liquor (including Haamonii Shochu of course!) for special events like natural disasters.

In triathlon training news, my banged-up knee is practically brand new now! The irony (iron-knee? ahaha) though is that now that I can train at pretty much full capacity, the last few days I've been so busy moving out of my apartment that it's squandered my training. Ah well, as Coach Beck says, sometimes life just gets in the way, and once the move is complete I can focus back on training again! Looks like I'll be ready to have a go at the whole ironman racing thing again next month at ChesapeakeMan.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Relationship Building at Ikea

Some of my more popular blogs in the past have been the dating blogs as it was always fun to write about really awful or strange first date encounters. It's been a while since I've gone on first dates, as I managed to snag my sherpa and trick him into putting up with me.

It is not really a good idea to blog about boys you are dating until you know they want to keep you, so I had instituted a provisional anti-blogging period. It is like when teeny boppers get a driver's license: they first get a provisional one until they are deemed fit to drive with all the other crazies (like Asian women, ahaha). You don't want to scare off a potential sherpa by blogging about him, it is not Kosher.

Well, I figured the provisional period is over now since we are in the process of moving in together. WHOAAAAA, yes!

some of my favorite things: the sherpa, chocolate cake, and meatballs

So this weekend we underwent the Ikea Relationship Test. The Sherpa thinks the Ikea Test is the ability to build something together without yelling at each other. He didn't realize I was also testing our ability to pick furniture together, and of course there is also the Meatball Test.

He passed the Meatball Test with flying colors, which is that you can't take a girl to Ikea and not eat Swedish meatballs with her, unless you don't really like her. On that same note, he also passed the Chocolate Cake Test.

Then he also passed my Furniture Picking Test. We both needed new dressers, and I picked one I really liked pretty quickly. He liked a few other ones but in the end decided on the one that matched mine. Because when building a future together, the boy should always go with what the girl wants.


ta-da! One finished!

When we got home, I passed his Furniture Building Test. This one was easy for me because I have mad MacGyver skills and build things for a living. We both like Legos so that helps because Ikea is like Legos for grown-ups. And I know better than to show off my building skills too much because you don't want your sherpa to feel less manly or anything.

He also passed the Wongstar Pun Test. If you noticed, our dressers are named "Hopen." Here is our little exchange we had before we started building...

Wongstar: "I'm HOPEN that we can build this together properly!"
Sherpa: "I'm HOPEN that you don't make any more jokes like that!"

Yes, we get along quite well.

Friday, August 12, 2011

It doesn't feel like summer.


It doesn't feel like summer.

Which could be the title of a poem or song, if I were feeling poetic.

So it's nearly mid-August and super hot outside. But it doesn't feel like summer because I'm not racing. I'm not yet training at full capacity or at peak fitness. No, really I feel pretty out of shape right now.

Since I was 18 years old, summer has always meant triathlon season to me. Sure, since turning pro there were a couple years when the racing season started as early as February or March and spanned until November.

But since discovering the sport as a bright-eyed busy-tailed teenager, summer always meant one thing: triathlon races! Summer break in So Cal as a college student, in Atlanta as a grad student. The summers in between college and grad school and residency. 2000, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 2010.

11 summers in a row where I did at least a couple triathlon races.

May 21, 2011. Ironman Texas. That was the last triathlon I finished and before summer began. Ironman Korea was on July 3rd, but I didn't finish it and so I feel like I didn't really race it despite putting in a good 6.5 hours on the race course. If recovery continues to go well, I plan to toe the line at ChespeakeMan on September 24th.

I just realized I'm going to go the whole summer without racing a triathlon.

Is this a rant? I'm not sure. I feel like I'm caught in this metaphorical Limbo where I'm not allowed to complain because I was in this crazy car accident which could've been so much worse. I may have very well died, or became paralyzed, or had brain or spinal cord damage.

Buuuuut, I didn't. And since I didn't, I keep struggling to think of it as an accident of any significant magnitude. I've been in bike crashes before and just bounced right back, so why should this be any different?

I guess I just expected things to go back to normal a week or two after the crash, when the bruising and swelling came down. I constantly have to remind myself that my knee smashed whatever it smashed into (the bike frame? the car? the ground?) at pretty much the same force it took for my face to break a window. Only, there was no window for my knee to break.

So it's taking a while to get my body up to speed while managing this knee injury. But I'm not allowed to complain because I'm lucky to be alive. I'm lucky my injuries were minor. And I'll be back to racing Ironman someday.

Patience and gratitude are wearing thin. Can you tell?

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Wongstar: THE DOCUMENTARY!!!

the most exciting video you have been waiting for ever ever for seriously!

It's WONGSTAR: THE DOCUMENTARY! Featuring yours truly!!!


Wongstar- the Documentary from Felix Cervantes on Vimeo.

Huge thanks to my friend Felix Cervantes for filming this project and editing it and all that crazy awesomeness.


First my own movie, now I need my own reality TV show. They used to have one called "The Superstars" but it got cancelled before I was famous enough to be invited on it.

Enjoy! and yes, I smile a lot.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

my first business cards!!!


I'm planning to write a blog called "How to work full-time and still train & race like a triathlon superstar."

Only, this isn't the blog, as I've yet to figure it out.

It really shouldn't be too hard. Get up before 6am, work out, shower/get dressed/scarf down breakfast, get into work by 8:15am...work til 5-5:30pm, get your second training session in, make dinner, get into bed by 10:30pm. You age groupers do it all the time. I just need to get back into the routine.

The secret seems to be in making and packing your breakfast and lunch the night before, along with tomorrow's work outfit.

But here it is, 10:15pm already and I haven't done all that yet.

Oh yeah, and I'm supposed to have time to blog too???

On the bright side, I took White Tiger out for his first outdoor ride in almost 6 weeks. We were a little apprehensive with the traffic but made out ok. It felt good being outside again!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

running update! and the NEW TRACK!

So after nearly 4 weeks of not running at all--and honestly it's been YEARS and YEARS since I've gone that long without running...you might even say it was before this photo was taken:

freshman year of track in high school! Back in 1996! Over 15 years ago!
Right, where was I...ok after nearly 4 weeks of not running at all, I've been able to slowly start running again. Only 5mins at a time, and then I walk for 1min, and then run 5mins, etc, rinse repeat, etc. It's a bit maddening that I can't just ramp up right away, but I'm trying to be patient, grateful, patient, positive, and more patient. At this point I have written off doing Louisville--I really need to update that race schedule of mine--but on the upside I've realized that I am able to run again, and that I will be able to get back to Ironman racing.

It's like I have to be reborn again as a triathlete, so it only made sense that I went back to where it all began...my high school track. Here I am in one of my very first track meets, from the family scrapbook:



I was in middle school, and we had 2 track meets each year at the local high school which I would later be attending. Westmoor High of Daly City, CA! Ask any Filipino anywhere in the world and they will be able to tell you where Daly City is (just south of San Francisco, with a huge Filipino population, obviously).

Senior year: see how the bleachers say '99?

I would end up falling head over heels in love with running and ran cross country & track all 4 years of high school. Specialized in the two-mile and the mile...we had a dirt track that was 440 yards, or if we went to the fancier high schools in our league, they had rubber tracks that were a metric 400m, and so I'd do the 3200m and the 1600m.

freshman XC: and you think my arms are scrawny NOW...

I was totally scrawny, as you can see...my best friend called me "Beanpole" and I didn't know why. Then I hit puberty pretty late, and Coach DiMaggio moved me up to the 800m as a junior and senior! The dirt track stuck around long after I graduated in 1999. I think it wasn't until 2006, I remember my mom going door-to-door asking people to help vote for a local bond measure that would update our school sports facilities. Because Mom knows how to get things done!

Well...in April, my old high school got a brand new rubber track! I finally got to see it AND run on it for the very first time last week! Soooo soooo exciting. It's freakin' GORGEOUS! and super bouncy!






They got rid of the old crappy bleachers that the seniors would paint new numbers on every year during "Senior Paint Out" night. I didn't actually get to go. Mom wouldn't let me. But she helped us get a new rubber track, so she's forgiven. ;)