Vicious Lifecycle.

MountainTorq - via ferrata mount kk - kinabalu

Time to climb some more granite step up on cold steel rails....and non-Teflon coated cables. Gonna try the air up there. May 28. "Must be cleansing"

"Climb the mountain and get their good tidings . Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The wind will blow their own Freshness into you and the storms their energy , while care will drop off like autumn leaves. " John Muir.



Minor Update:


Just got back from it.Not bad at all. can be pretty scary/repetitive for some.Pounding headache. Freezing nuts and finger..busted knees on the climb down to timpohan. 16 hours of sex-like euphoria and depleted energy.

Meanwhile check these guys out they were "here" just last month . Borneo Big wall check video 6# @ 1.10 ... gnarly

Major update comes next :

We climb from mesilau, mesilau resort is nice enough to give us guys the suite. ( includes a room heater ) unlike the ladies whom got the bunker. however it goes vice verse in laban rata we guys will get the bunker. :) Steam boat dinner was excellent.

We had scramble up from mesilau to laban rate in sub5 hours..Everyone got in by 2 pm. Free flow of coffee and tea is highly sought after. On to Mountain Torq briefing and training. Safety and procedural technique is attended to. No drama there , except some ladies whom isn't to sure about the equipments.

Dinner is served @ 5.30 . the food there ain't that bad.

Everyone started to disperse after dinner to get some much needed rest after the hike up.

Assault to Summit starts at 2 am.. (too early for people like us ). the climb in the dark is therapeutic , only glimmer of headlights forming daisy chain as far as it glows forms the route. Some rested the summit too early and some just in time. but most of all ( the fast ones ) suffered the cold from the storm up there for 2 hours.

No sunrise, sunshine. (our luck)

On to via ferrata, looks pretty normal..untill one comes to the edge. the the fear factor starts creeping in. i myself can feel fear creep. Being a climber before, maybe its the cold magnifiying it.

Safety factor is 3 level. cant think of what can happen there unless it gets really slippery.

And slippery it was when it started raining on the way down @ 40%. Ferrata abort was called.

Had to climb back up. morale was on a all time low. Suggestion was taken for consideration for waiting on this passing rain. Fear of water fall occuring is in most of our mind.Mountain gods is smiling. Weather is clear with no rain. we proceeded. Its nice. reommended to go with a team you know. you will be more patient and forgivin instead of people whom can or will slow you down.

climbing up from mesilau , assault to summit , doing the via ferrata and going back down to timpuhan within 36 hour can be daunting. ur warned.

i felt its tougher than ironman. 3 ironman agreed.

well depending on how fast you climb. ;)

at Monday, May 04, 2009 0 comments  

Labels: Event, Mind Body Soul

Sport Psycho Part 2: Peak Moment

Another way that exercise can add to the quality of life is by offering opportunities to experience peak moments.Peak moments provide a base for vivid, fulfilling, often reviewed memories that help define individuals’ lives and give them meaning. The feeling dimension ranges from one extreme of misery to the opposite extreme of ecstasy The performance dimension ranges from an extreme of total failure to personal best. The center of the figure is neutral and typifies many everyday experiences consisting of average performance and neutral feelings. The entire top right quadrant of the feeling and performance model depicted in the picture above contains diverse yet somewhat similar peak moments that tend to occur in physical activity.

A peak performance is spontaneous, represents superior functioning, reflects a high standard of accomplishment, and can result from a wide variety of activities.

at Wednesday, February 04, 2009 0 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul

Sport Psycho Part 1 : Staleness

Overtraining and Staleness

Overtraining is “a process involving progressively increased training to a high absolute level that is in excess of more routine training undertaken to maintain performance”.The purpose of overtraining is to enhance physical performance, and it may be incorporated into the training process. Research on over-training has been conducted primarily with athletes, but the findings from these investigations may generalize to individuals who exercise at extreme levels. For both athletes and exercisers who over-train, knowing the optimal amount of training or exercise is often difficult but crucial for their level of performance and for quality of life. Too much training can detract from the quality of life Although various moderating factors may influence a person’s response to overtraining usually occurs when there is an imbalance between training and recovery.

Psychological Responses to Overtraining

During periods of light training, athletes and exercisers tend to report the desirable iceberg profile.However, research examining mood state responses to long duration overtraining (e.g., several months) in swimmers have found that progressive increases in training volume were associated with greater mood disturbance,and decreases in training volume were associated with an improvement in mood.The dose response relationship between mood states and changes in training levels has been reported with shorter periods of overtraining (e.g., 6 weeks or less) and in other sport settings with different overtraining regimens.If the imbalance between training and recovery persists for a lengthy period of time, staleness may occur. Staleness is a severe negative response to overtraining characterized by longterm decrement in performance capacity and dys-regulation of psychological and physiological states Individuals suffering from staleness have a decreased quality of life and may also be clinically depressed. The only proven treatment for staleness is rest.

at Tuesday, February 03, 2009 0 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul, Training

Continuous Improvement

You dont lower your goals so that your ability can reach it.

You improve your ability so you reach your goals.


Compartmentalize. Make sure everything that you need to attend to before, during and immediately after the race is taken care of. family friends , relationships , work , bills , etc etc.


Manage your worries effectively. Committing to your race plan is the best way to do this. Now is not the time to make any major changes.

Focus on process not outcome goals.
"Outcome goals have their place, but the closer an athlete gets to a big event, the more outcome thoughts can create stress, anxiety, and distractions." Task goals, also known as process goals -- how to win -- are the best object of your attention during the last days before a big event.

Practice staying in "The Present." From here on in it's all about "The Now." Time to practice staying out of the past and not getting lost in the future. There are many techniques to do this, from focusing on your breathing, to setting the timer on your watch or cell phone to beep every so often to remind you to refocus on The Present (just in case you drifted off!). Remember, this is all about practice. No one (well maybe the Dali Lama) does this perfectly. So now is the time to get used to being present.


"Simplify. Simplify. Simplify." By the time you leave for your big event it's too late to to make any major changes in your life -- and probably too late to make many minor ones. So why stress out over something you can't control? Time to start cutting out anything that might be a distraction and keep it simple and focus on one thing at a time -- no multitasking.
While multi-tasking may feel like the right thing to do in today's complicated world, it is a recipe for mediocrity."

at Tuesday, December 16, 2008 0 comments  

Labels: Deep Thoughts, Mind Body Soul, Thoughts, Training

Food for cycling thought

A Zen Teacher saw five of his students return from the market, riding their bicycles. When they had dismounted, the teacher asked the students, "Why are you riding your bicycles?" The first student replied, "The bicycle is carrying this sack of potatoes. I am glad that I do not have to carry them on my back!" The teacher praised the student, saying, "You are a smart boy. When you grow old, you will not walk hunched over, as I do." The second student replied, "I love to watch the trees and fields pass by as I roll down the path." The teacher commended the student, "Your eyes are open and you see the world." The third student replied, "When I ride my bicycle, I am content to chant, nam myoho renge kyo." The teacher gave praise to the third student, "Your mind will roll with the ease of a newly trued wheel." The fourth student answered, "Riding my bicycle, I live in harmony with all beings." The teacher was pleased and said, "You are riding on the golden path of non-harming." The fifth student replied, "I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle." The teacher went and sat at the feet of the fifth student, and said, "I am your disciple."

Makes me wonder....

at Thursday, August 02, 2007 0 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul

Deciding between the BLUE pill and the RED PILL

The choice of doing Broga or any long endurance based distance is like taking the BLUE PILL or the RED PILL. Blue Pill takes back to the comfort zone, back to the life"cycle" you'd always have , and erase the glimpse of the future potential you can taste or The Red Pill will allow yourself to see the "truth", to quell the urge of inquisitivity.

We all decide to take the RED PILL....

29kmh+- avg for 110 km.

A lil blur but that's a snake caught hold of a frog.We saw this after our KOM climb during a rest stop. This frog is so determined to survive he grabbed a stem from one of the roots so the snake cant drag him futher...

at Sunday, July 29, 2007 1 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul

Even though..

Even though you don't know someone or people personally, you feel a bond -- connected to them because you were both out there trying to achieve the same goal.
Even if its the 100th tri's. Your 10,000th kilometer....

Your still out there doing the same thing.

at Wednesday, July 25, 2007 1 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul

No Port Dickson Triathlon Race Report for the next 24 hours.

For the respect to a fellow PCC Rider whom also loved to be remembered as a ERian
(ELITE RUSH - a small cycling/workout group that Zoob and some others
setup.)Zubir who passed away during the PD Triathlon 07.I am speechless and i do not want to say anything on that except that he is a Kick-Ass Cyclist and also a Triathlete.

" The day we stop having risk is the day we stop living"

-- Author unknown --

I believe he did just that

230707 4.00 pm :

...Remembered the words coming from him before the race.. "Its all for fun,good luck to you too"

Rest in peace , May you always have the sun in your face and a tailwind at your back.

at Sunday, July 22, 2007 2 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul

The Harder You Train, The Harder You Fall

Adrenal Fatigue: what it is and what to do!

Seiji Ishii
2007-06-07

Ahh, springtime. The snow begins to melt, the air begins to warm and cyclists everywhere fall into the same age-old pattern: with spirits buoyed by nicer weather and eager to test the base they’ve built up during the winter they begin riding harder, longer and more often.

A few of these cyclists will allow themselves proper recovery. Far more of them will wind up skimping on recovery time to meet family commitments or to make up work. Their fatigue levels will remain constantly high and the gains they make in training will be negligible. Drawn in by the seductive “more is better” school of training thought, these tired cyclists will try to do all the same things they did before the rise in training volume or intensity. In the process, they will fail to take into account the many types of stress placed upon them and possibly subject their bodies to what is known clinically as adrenal failure or adrenal burnout.

Adrenal what?

So, just what is adrenal failure? To fully appreciate how devastating it can be if your adrenal glands fail or burn out, you must first understand how much these glands do when they are functioning properly.

Your adrenal glands are each roughly the size of a walnut and are perched on top of your kidneys. These tiny glands are charged with the monumental task of responding to stress through the secretion of hormones. The wide-ranging effects of the adrenal hormones cannot be overstated: they affect carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism, blood sugar regulation, fat storage, and cardiovascular and gastrointestinal function. They also play a part in the secretion of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant hormones. Last, but certainly not least, they also serve as a source of sex hormones.

When they are functioning properly, your adrenal glands secrete tiny amounts of the steroidal hormones called cortisol and DHEA in response to stress—from any source. These hormones affect several physiological responses, including: blood sugar balance, blood pressure regulation and fluid balance, and anti-inflammatory and immunological responses. Under normal conditions, these responses to progressively increasing loads are how an athlete makes physical gains.

However, it is important to bear in mind that to your adrenals, stress is a zero-sum game. In other words, they can only handle so much. Nobody can say for certain how much stress is too much stress, but always remember that there is a limit for everyone and that your adrenal glands respond to stress from your job or other sources in the same way they respond to stress from a long ride. If your glands are continually bombarded by stress from a myriad of sources and proper recovery is not achieved, they will reach their limit and no longer be able to respond normally. You will begin to suffer from the classic symptoms of overtraining and your season will screech, lurch, or sputter to a halt.


Yikes! What to do?

So what can you do to avoid adrenal burnout and its many negative consequences? Though often overlooked, the solution is miraculously simple: balance recovery against all forms of stress.

By now, most of us know that the basic structure of a progressive training program is stress, followed by recovery and a resulting gain in the amount of stress the body can tolerate. Yet despite the fact that many athletes acknowledge this pattern with respect to physical stress, far too many athletes overlook it with respect to the other types of stress that exist in their lives – emotional, mental, dietary and immunological stresses, to name a few. These other types of stress must be met with recovery time just as you would do for physical stress.

How do you go about this? At a minimum, you should be aware of the many different sources of stress in your life and attempt to compensate with some form of recovery. Renowned coach Rick Crawford created a Stress Score system to account for various forms of stress and recovery and the relative stress vs. recovery balance the athlete is carrying. Crawford has coached such notables as Lance Armstrong and has used this type of stress logging on current superstars like Tom Danielson, Levi Leipheimer and Chann McRae with excellent results. (see example at the end of this article)

Crawford divides stress into three broad categories: Physical, Mental, and Emotional. Each type of stress is given points and is logged just like time in heart rate zones. Crawford then assigns recovery points to these categories: Sleep, Rest, and Therapy.. These scores for stress and recovery range from one to ten, with ten being the most stress or the most recovery. .At the end of the day, you “balance” your Stress Score by totaling the stress points and recovery points and notating the resulting stress or recovery point balance. As the training days wear on, you keep a running total of the stress vs. recovery balance so that you are armed with a “real time” Stress Score. Your goal is at the end of each mesocycle you “reconcile” your Stress Score account by zeroing your running total. This is usually aided by a rest week at the end of the mesocycle to help you “deposit” recovery points. Whether you actually log these stress points and recovery points or whether you simply make a mental note of them, the key is to remember that your adrenal glands make no distinction between the various forms of stress. You must therefore do the same.

The bottom line

We have certainly all dreamed of doing nothing but training. Of days filled with wonderful miles in the saddle followed by great food and luxurious lounging to recover. We all know how great it would be to worry only about that one form of stress. But, alas, most of us live in a place called reality, where jobs, families, and checkbooks can all inundate our systems with stress to which the adrenals must respond. Be kind to the little guys and allow for proper recovery from all the forms of stress placed upon them. Your adrenals can then keep functioning normally and repay you with the proper physical responses to training which will ultimately result in a healthier, happier, and faster you.



-Joe Friel is the author of the newly revised Cyclist’s Training Bible. Seiji Ishii is a cycling and multisport coach operating out of Austin, TX and is a member of Friel’s Ultrafit. For more information on this article contact Seiji at seiji@coachseiji.com or go to www.coachseiji.com. Rick Crawford can be contacted at champcamp@frontier.net.



Example of Athlete Daily Stress Score Log


STRESS


Physical (P) 7 Hard intervals in the wind (better than working though)


Mental (M) 2 Easy day at the office, skipped out after lunch!


Emotional (E) 7 Got all wound up at my coworkers for ratting me out!


Stress Total: 16


RECVOERY


Sleep (S) 9 Slept like a log, dreamt about winning the Giro.


Rest (R) 5 Not much at work but busy at home with errands until chow time


Therapy (T) 1 Not much, got to watch a little of the Giro on the tube


Recovery Total: 15


Daily Total: Stress 1

Running Total (add daily stress and recovery totals for a running “balance”): Stress 4


The athlete’s goal is to zero the running total by the end of each mesocycle.


-Coach Seiji Ishii

at Tuesday, July 10, 2007 0 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul

Passion = Attraction

According to the dictionary,definition of attraction is as follows:

“A force acting mutually between particles of matter to
draw them together and to resist their separation.”

There is a negative force and positive force that counter each other every time, like a balance scale.

Having external factors influencing the outcome of the moment by this ex- force being stronger , it goes and if the attraction is stronger, it stays.

Its just the way it is. Always has and always have been.

Just a thought on balancing this attraction.

at Tuesday, July 03, 2007 0 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul

The Zen of Running.

Its a flow in harmony.accepting whats is there.no mental conditioning.no distraction.Just yourself.close to yourself, believe and knowing what should be done.no sadness.No dissapointment.no ego. no time. its here and whats in front now.

at Wednesday, June 27, 2007 0 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul

The Seabiscuit inside..

When i first saw this movie.I watched it due to the fact that it was to pass time( this was a while back ) . And to be honest, I still don't why i bought the dvd. But as I continue to watch on it it didnt really hit me until recently where i find a lil dot that link to some pretty interesting things.


What are some of the things that make horse racing interesting? How about:

- the amount of care the horses receive and need

- the team of people (owners, trainers, jockeys, doctors, etc, etc) that are working to make one athlete their best

- the complete determination that these animals display when they race.

The amount of spirit that the horses display while they race is an example that moves me each time I see a horse gallop away at kiara.. I like to think that there is something very pure about their desire to race.

The idea of racing with pure motivation is one of the things that I've been trying to get my mind wrapped around. I guess one way to put it is - to develop a level of satisfaction from racing that is derived from an internal place opposed to external rewards. Ironically, when an athlete can move to this "place" the performances likely become more consistent and quicker. At least that is my hypothesis.

at Thursday, June 21, 2007 0 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul

How to pass the "suck threshold" in triathlon. ( or anything )

I was working on a methodology in the IT industry on capability and maturing.

"The only thing standing between repeating-again and again & improving constantly is dedication."

At first this quote kind of pushed my thinking in the wrong direction. Why? Because while I consider myself dedicated to triathlon, I don't consider myself an expert. I especially don't consider myself an "expert" athlete. So I got this feeling that they might be (indirectly) suggesting that I wasn't dedicated enough. (We'll look at how much dedication is needed later.)

Before I mention anything more about the methodolgy. It is really interesting to see the three different paths or choices they offer on time vs. ability. The choices are:

a. "give up" - but if you can get past the frustrastion you may be able to make it past the "suck threshold"

b. "I'm ok, so I'll continue this way" - in which you remain an amateur as time passes on, never passing the "kicking ass threshold"

c. "push myself, because there is always a better way" - you may finally pass the "kicking ass threshold" and become an expert.

There were a few things that stood out to me about those who make the choice to continue working towards being an expert. Those people tend to do these things:

1. They find new ways to get better. There is always some way to get that little edge.

2. They work on their weaknesses, even if it isn't fun.

3. They are willing to pay the cost, whatever that cost might be in order to not suck.

So what does it take to pass the "suck threshold" in triathlon?

This is a very good question that I ask myself on a daily basis. This half year I made the decision to focus on Ironman. This decision has meant that I have been running a lot more than normal (I am trying actually swimmingmore too) and getting ready to bike a lot. So maybe I'm on my way to passing the suck threshold by working on my weaknesses, but what about passing the kicking ass threshold.

one of the characteristics of those that don't suck was dedication. It is hard to extrapolate what amount of dedication someone has by seeing a finishing time.

I'll share a couple things that point out the amount of committment or dedication that might be involved:

1. You need to train more! The average training volume for a 25-29 year old male was approximately 800 annual hours. It was around 840 annual hours across all age groups. (As a comparison, last year I trained 678 hours...

2. You need to be consistent! The training was consistent throughout the prior year, even during the off season they would have their volumes at 20-40% of peak volumes. At six months out, their volumes were at 60% (bike) to 80% (swim and run) of peak volume.

A few training ideas came from this data that shows what those-that-don't-suck do for their training. The biggest one is that they have big bike volumes, especially within the 19 weeks leading up to the race. The second variable that correlated to race performance was run volume over the year. Even as these triathletes biked and ran a lot, guess what - they still swam! In other words, if you want to be a good triathlete that passes the suck threshold you need to bike a lot (especially the last 6 months), run a lot and don't forget to swim regularly.

at Wednesday, June 20, 2007 0 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul

Under Performing Syndrome

or

swollen lymph glands (under the jaw and above your neck),

early symptoms of a cold,

unusual signs like acne or mouth ulcers.

enough said. feel any of this? Take the que to call to chill and recover.

at Sunday, May 13, 2007 1 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul

Stronger , Faster , Smarter ?

I knew it...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17887419/site/newsweek/

at Sunday, May 13, 2007 0 comments  

Labels: Mind Body Soul