whispering the loudest and talking at the top of your lungs

Yesterday my favorite Hungarian/Canadian/Jewish fan (you know who you are) sent me a message saying, "we runners used to say that race walking is like seeing who can whisper the loudest."

Well, I told him that we Chinese people are well known for talking at the top of our lungs, but it's not considered screaming. (Just go into any Chinatown tea house. You just step in and there's this ROAR all around you.)

No coincidence, the best racewalkers in the world hail from Russia and CHINA. That's what Wikipedia tells me anyway, and everyone knows that Wikipedia is like the Magic Eight Ball and has all the answers to life's biggest questions. (42!)

And check it out, the fastest two Chinese are Wang's. That's a close cousin to Wong, of course.

Clearly this is my destiny.

Even trippier, 3+ years ago, after Brett watched me run for the first time at teamTBB training camp in fall of 2008, he promptly instructed me to go on YouTube and watch racewalkers. I was supposed to run like a racewalker who was cheating. (They aren't allowed to have both feet off the ground at the same time.) The emphasis was on the heel strike, and high cadence.

Another year later, we were at the training camp in Jeju, South Korea, where it seems many significant events in my life have taken place (spooky?), and we trained on the same track as the national team's racewalking unit. I actually blogged about it in my little spoof "Making the Grade at Sutto's Triathlon Academy." They were really quite amazing to watch, one guy was walking circles around some of our guys!

This was the first time I really did my racewalking "homework," and learned through my Google research that Chinese girls can indeed have six-pack abs. The Abzilla pictured above is the 3rd fastest girl on the all-time list, Liu Hongyu, who took 4th in the last Olympics and got 2nd last year at the world championships. (If you watched the video I posted up on Monday, you will recognize her as 2nd across the line. But yeah, I know, we all look the same, eh?)

Back then (2+ years ago), I believed that if I ate "right" (inadvertently starving myself) and kept up the ridiculous hours of Ironman training, those six-pack abs would be mine. Wrong! I will have to racewalk like a maniac to get them!

Anyway, other than getting distracted once again by the awesomeness that is racewalkers' abdominal muscles, I think I meant to say that Chinese people are really good at two things:

1. racewalking.
2. talking super loud (but below the scream threshold), which is like being able to whisper the loudest, which is like racewalking.

Therefore: because I'm full-blooded Chinese, then: I should be really good at this new sport too. Right.

In similar news, I had Lesson #2 today and it went well! I am holding my form even when increasing speed. This first month is all about getting the technique down. Details next time!

ninja rubber duckies and Chinese Christmas tree angels

random Tuesday ramblings:

1. Glee has gone downhill. Tonight's Christmas special...whew.

2. I just ordered some art! From art.com, where else.

3. I heard a rumor there is a 10-day super cold going around.

4. I found two more ninja rubber ducks today!

Last weekend, the Sherpa hid a bunch of ninja rubber duckies all around the house while I was out practicing my new sport. He did not warn me and the sneaky ninjas started launching their stealth attack on me. Next to my shampoo in the shower, buried in my underwear drawer, beside the K-cup's in the coffee drawer, chillin' in the refrigerator, and hiding deep in my SHOE!!!

The most hilarious part is that the Chinese Christmas angel tree topper I ordered had come in. I was pretty excited, because it's our first Christmas living together. We just had an ugly sparkly silver star, but I wanted an angel, and it was NOT going to be some blonde-haired blue-eyed white girl angel. Not in this household!

Isn't she adorable?? I got her from this website that Google magically found for me when I googled "Chinese Christmas angel": www.mandysmoon.com. They even have Korean and Vietnamese ones!

Ok that part wasn't the hilarious part yet. The hilarious part is that I put the angel up over the weekend and the ninja duck was staring right at me. I didn't notice him there until just now, when I went to take a picture of the tree with the angel on top. Can you see him masquerading as a Christmas ornament? Crazy ninja rubber duckies!

Momma Wongstar presents the best of SF Chinatown

where to find ingredients for magic Chinese soup


So I'm back in California for several days, originally to race the Full Vineman on Saturday, but accidents happen and plane tickets were already booked, so here I am for a little R&R with the family! I totally just ate way too much, so much that my stomach hurts (damn this excellent Chinese food and fresh California strawberries!!)...and thus I'll postpone my swim and write a blog about this morning's Chinatown adventure with Mom instead.

First she was very proud to demonstrate that she now knows how to use an ATM:



Mom got a debit card! I saw a pig fly too!

Yes, she is one of those ladies that always holds up the line at the supermarket because she still writes checks to pay for groceries. Actually today, we got some groceries that were so cheap, we filled up two huge bags for under $5. No check needed:


Mom taught me how to pick a good lotus

Anyway, we have been coming to Chinatown in San Francisco since I was a wee little girl, but I guess I never really appreciated how awesome it is until I've lived in other countries and other parts of the USA. You always grow up assuming that things like Chinatowns are the same as Chinatowns everywhere. Not so! The one in SF is like the oldest and largest one in North America.


Mom swears they were still alive but
how come they weren't hopping around?

After living and racing all over Asia, I came to realize that when you are in SF Chinatown, it really is like being in Asia. The price tags and street signs are in both Chinese and English, all the store owners speak Chinese, and you can find all sorts of weird Chinese cuisine and magic herbs.

We had a few missions today. Mission #1: I wanted some roast duck (Peking duck!) but Mom said there was now also roast GOOSE...whoa. The best place to go in Chinatown is on Grant Ave. between Broadway and Pacific:

Geese on the left, ducks on the right

below the geese are goose kidneys. We got some to try.
Yeah, I thought they looked like testicles too.

After watching Kung Fu Panda 2 and calling myself an Asian Triathlon Superstar the last 4 years, it was important for me to be more in touch with my Chinese roots. So I requested that Mom teach me to make some magic Chinese soup. She boils a pot every day and always told us when we were little that drinking it would make us faster and stronger! So Mission #2: gather ingredients for magic Chinese soup!

Location: the Great China Herb Co. (the sign is the first photo up top), on Washington, between Grant & Stockton. I remember coming here as a kid...there are jars of dried seahorses, bumblebees, and all kinds of deliciousness.

Our stash includes some dried goji berries, Korean gingseng, dried logan fruits, and other things I don't remember how to pronounce.

But they are all good for your immune system and chi! We also got some special stinky Chinese ointments...all great stuff to help me on my road to recovery from that stupid crash and become better than ever!

Mission #3: stock up on super delicious Chinese (and ok, Vietnamese) food that you just can't get the same of in Delaware!

The best fried chicken is from a place on Stockton, between Jackson & Washington, called "Phoenix" something. All you have to do is look for an autographed photo of Yan Can Cook on the window:

Inside, there is a bunch of dried lard hanging on the wall next to the Buddha shrine.

Then for the best Vietnamese, we went to a place called "Little Paris" on Stockton, between Washington & Clay. Mom got a bunch of those Vietnamese sandwiches that come on French baguettes but I was much more interested in the dessert...

My favorite one is sometimes called the "Tri color dessert" since it has red beans, yellow beans, and green worm looking jelly things mixed with coconut milk.

Guinness was totally jealous. And so are you!

Anyway, all those trips to Chinatown as a kid, and I thought this was all normal. Frogs and dried seahorses for sale, lard hanging on the wall, stinky medicine, wormy desserts...great, isn't it???