Am.Not.So.Wise

Plover Cove again

was359 — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:25:21 +0000

Last run here was 6 months ago. The weather was the same, i.e. about to rain cloudy with high humidity. We were lucky to have set off pretty early in the morning a race was just started when we returned to our starting point.

It’s still a beautiful place even without sunshine, no len effect was used

This isn’t a black/white photo

Very calm early in the morning

It’s like painting of the Chinese style

A rare photo, not just because 4 of us were there, we ran together!

My Garmin 410 is dead

was359 — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:58:43 +0000

This watch is 370 days old. It failed to charge after my Taipei half marathon on 18th December. It took about 10 minustes from 0% to 100% charged but when it’s removed from charger it keeps rebooting itself until the battery is completely drained.

I’ll have to take it to local agent for service.

BT Sports headset

was359 — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:01:10 +0000

This is crap!

I have been using Philips cheap wired sports headset for 16 months now and I’m still happy with it. Too bad the buds have done during a recent trip to Taiwan. During the X’mas break I decided on this present for myself.

To my disappointment this expensive one failed completely on these counts

even the smallest buds don’t fit my canal
sound volume insufficient even if buds are forced into my canal
sound quality is terrible

The replacement buds for the old headset are the most expensive ones ever!

2011 Workout account

was359 — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:50:11 +0000

2011 is behind us, let me have a look at how I did during the year. A friend of mine told me how long he took from couch to 10k, half marathon then full marathon. I then plotted below to have a look at how I did it.

Annual total
2008: 81k (2 months)
2009: 451k
2010: 559k
2011: 1,104k

The total from Garmin (run only, walk/hike excluded)

Some statistics from RunKeeper for 2011

At first I focused at my progress in reaching heights in the chart, i.e. longer distances, later I found it interesting at the low end of the trend, i.e. I haven’t done much shorter distances. I would say I was getting very lazy, i.e. unless I could spare an hour or so I didn’t bother to go out for a 30 minutes workout. Since I like this beautiful route so much the journey in a car there requires 30 minutes I just wouldn’t workout for 30 minutes and drive back.

From X’mas day to 2nd January I ran every other day and have done 64.5k I find first 3k to be the hardest, once I got over that I wouldn’t feel the tiredness and could at least do 10k.

Can I run a full marathon, it’s hard to predict!

PS: rewind back a year I started 2011 as my Happy Half Marathon Year!

Idiots again

was359 — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 08:58:19 +0000

Went to this movie again during X’mas holiday with my son. I booked tickets online 3 days in advance to my surprise it was a full house.

There was a row in front of us completely filled by one single family.

I certainly have missed a few frames with some delicate details of the movie the first time, it’s still worth going the second time!

Tsing Yi Island

was359 — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:48:57 +0000

At last we found a route to Tsing Yi via the North Bridge during the X’mas holiday. Under normal circumstances it would be impossible for anyone to stop a car in the middle of the bridge to shoot a photo, you can if you run or walk on the bridge.

From the highest point of the bridge

Got off the bridge it wasn’t easy to find our way to the Promenade

The look of the Promenade is somewhat similar to other places in Hong Kong, we decided to explore both ends of it.

Ting Kau Bridge in a distance

This is the end, the very few remaining shipyards on the Island

we used to run on the other side of the water

第一次比賽(下)

was359 — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 07:09:42 +0000

跑步樂趣之一是聴音樂，耳機和手提電話 (也是相机，跑步 App) 缺一不可, 這次比賽有個小意外就是我帶去的耳机 buds 不見了，那當然不能用。

這意外其實也有好效果, 就是我聽不到跑步app 給我的心跳率訊息, 我就是沒什麼要擔心，以平時練習時的策略及速度進行便是了。

賽後檢討發覺前 3km 是太快了，我當時是知道的, 雖然其他跑手比我更快，我在 5km 後便慢了下來, 因我知道考驗於我是在 15km 之後。我一定要堅持自己的策略，有自知之明, 其他人跑得多快不能影響我。我的第一次慢三數分鐘不是問題，不能完成一定是缺憾。事實上地圖上看不到的挑戰 (當地人當然知道) 就在最後的四份之一出現, 因要跑上天僑及入隧道再跑回路面。

狹窄的隧道內我有幸和正在最前的全馬好手並跑兩秒，他身後的車正顯示時間為2:01:xx, 他還有約 3km 完成全馬，我還有同樣路程完成我第一個半馬。從這新聞看他一定是那位埃塞俄比亞跑手。

第一次美滿完成了。

第一次比賽(中)

was359 — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:38:08 +0000

拿了資料當然要做點功課，半馬路程似一大正方，沒有重複，好！

這是我的裝置, 手套是到埗後買的

從 101 上望下來這座天台上有直升机坪的就是市政府大樓

早上五時起床，天色漸亮便在大會台前

這是起步點前，有經驗的朋友說要早點 “上線”, 因我們站得比較前, 到起跑前數分鐘有工作人員帶著又黑又高又痩的高手刷過我們身邊走去最前排

右邊是個大屏幕, 左邊是拿著起步鎗的主禮貴賓,
倒數時間 20 分鐘

不用說明

完了，安然到達，陽光及手上獎牌是意料之外

大會賽後給的，送回計時晶片可拿NT100

GARMIN 21.11km, 記錄十分準確

第一次

待續 …

第一次比賽(上)

was359 — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:56:25 +0000

跑步三年多身邊的跑友們都有比賽經驗，說到比賽我給自己的解釋是比賽沒有樂趣, 只因從不習慣人多，行人道上或商場內，都不喜歡。況且跑步賽有多少人有實力拿獎呢? 不是說為了健康, 挑戰自己能力及和時間比賽嗎？

說到底未經歷過只是空談，今年踏出了我的第一次，也是第一次出外比賽，有點可笑因第一次不在香港。台灣這個交通成本低, 參加只要NT700, 星期日比賽前一天短週可以甚至可不用請假。再者有五位朋友也同時參加，還找到理由不去嗎？

到了機場，在巴士站找車去酒店，天氣比想象中冷

下車後用 Google map 引導下經過巿政府大樓，看到這麼大的 banner，這就是了，起跑和終點都在這前面

出發前做了功課知道主辦單位離這處不遠，微雨寒風下決定一石二鳥到那處拿號碼布才到酒店, 就在這裡拿到要拿的，人不多，奇怪的是這裡沒有記念品賣

酒店，我們希望住是近起步點及不太舊

我們相當滿意酒店，它設計意念是藝術，正合我意

酒店附近的聖誕氣氛不錯

去台灣不能不試的小吃

這也是必到之處

待續 …

Heritage

was359 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:32:23 +0000

I didn’t graduate from here. I picked a shortcut in my school life and stayed only for 2 weeks.

We had a guided tour to the heritage of the school recently.

Wondered what could have happened to my life if I had stayed 2 full years there. I hope my son will enjoy his school life there later.