It’s A Small World After All

In Hong Kong, it is not uncommon to run into someone you know sometime during the day. There’s no doubt many of my friends work in the same “Central” area and therefore also dine in the same area, but still, in such a populous city, it’s fascinating that we so often encounter a friend at the same time and place. D and I would always joke about how our day is only complete once we have checked off the box of running into someone we knew.

In New York, with everything more spread out, one would expect that the likelihood of a close encounter would be much smaller. Well, barely a week into New York and I can completely overturn that assumption. My coworker today just told the story of how she landed in New York yesterday from London and within hours had run into high school friends she hadn’t seen since graduation and who happened to be on vacation in the city. This evening, I met up with some college friends for dinner at a midtown restaurant and lo and behold, standing at the bar right next to my friend was a guy that I had only met this past Friday night (who was the friend of a friend from Hong Kong). That is so astounding. What are the odds? Reminds me of the time I was in London a few years ago for a mere 4 days and in a single day, had bumped into 3 high school friends at different locations and points in time. The world is a strange strange place indeed and even science can’t answer such a phenomenon…

Another favourite GoT scene from this season:

“Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail, and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but refuse. They cling to the realm, or love, or the gods…illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is. But they’ll never know this. Not until it’s too late.” - Littlefinger

Duck Tales

Before the rush off to New York for a long work-training trip, I wanted to get a real life glimpse of the giant floating rubber ducky in the HK harbour which has been clogging up my fb newsfeed with cuteness overload photos and comments since its arrival.

I knew that going on the weekend wasn’t going to be a good idea but I didn’t really have a choice. On Saturday, I took the ferry across to TST only to find the pier completely bursting at the seams with people (mostly mainland tourists), all the way up into ocean terminal. Yikes!! There was no way I was going to able to wrestle my way through for a good photo without getting frustrated, so in my lightbulb moment, I told D we should go to the carpark of the Hong Kong Marco Polo Hotel, where the annual bierfest takes place for a better view. There were a few others who had the same idea but it wasn’t too bad. I snapped the one photo I really needed. That of the “duck v. the people”. Rub-a-dub-dub!

Why is this duck so popular? The media has been all over the Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman in featuring his unconventional piece. Is it our love for bright, yellow bathtoys? A hark back to our happy childhood? Ernie certainly sums it up in the Sesame Street classic “Rubber ducky you’re the one” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh85R-S-dh8 . But as D mentioned when he had to queue up in the shop with tons of others who were buying little rubber ducky memorabilia – it’s all about commercialism in Hong Kong…

 

FACING THE BRICK

Triathletes have a training regime called the “Brick”, which basically means training on two disciplines in a single workout. It’s especially important in their case since triathlons are a combination of basically three disciplines done back to back. By incorporating brick training into a workout session allows the body to learn how to most efficiently and effectively recover as it transitions into the next exercise. It’s intense and is usually a mix of two of the following: cycling, swimming and running.

I gave this brick concept a trial run by heading to the gym for a consecutive workout of TRX + Spin. Except, it wasn’t just the standard classes, it was TRX Super Circuit and Turbo Spin, which meant they were the hardest and most dynamic classes in the range. After 2 hours of a full body endurance workout my muscles were sore but not as bad as I thought they would be. Maybe I’m fitter now and recovery is generally faster, but I didn’t get hit the next morning or even the morning after that the way I would have been back in the day.

My view is that incorporating a brick during the week is definitely not a bad idea because it pushes the boundaries just a little bit more than usual as the body learns to sustain speed and power. I guess TRX + Spin may not be the typical brick combo, but hey, I think any alternative form of bricking it has its benefits.  After all, it’s ultimately about going the distance and achieving your goals.  

SWIM, SWAM, SWUM.

Apparently I saw the video of the shark circling around Hong Kong waters a little too late http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRYjj8aGP6g when I made my open water swimming debut with the Open Water Swimmers of Hong Kong group. Sounds hardcore? Well I’m not but they definitely are!

Since I’m still taking my April off-running break to ease my lower pack pain and let my legs and feet recover, I thought some swimming would be a good alternative form of exercise. Unfortunately, it’s been a fairly miserable April so far and the cold rain has kept me away from the tiny apartment pool downstairs. However, the last Saturday, we were greeted with an unexpected sunny HK morning. The first word that came to my mind was – BEACH.

I met up with PF just as it started to rain again and we could not believe our bad luck. We ended up arriving at a rather empty Deep Water Bay as a result of the sudden downpour, but miraculously, the rain cleared up just as quickly as it had come. As a further bonus for our commitment of heading to the beach anyways, the sun re-emerged, brighter than ever!

It was still only half one at this time and I hadn’t quite decided on whether I wanted to join the open water swimmers yet when this guy walked past us and said to me “hey I know you, you’re Hana’s friend!” It happened to be AF, whom I haven’t seen for quite a while. I was wondering why he had come to the beach by himself when he mentioned that he was checking out the open water swimmers for the first time too. How could that be such a coincidence? The stars had it all lined up for me already.

As we caught up and chatted, I was eventually persuaded to try out a swim with the group. What’s the worse that could happen? Sharks? Drowning? Jellyfish? So off I go in my fancy new 2XU tri suit (I love the almost weightless feel of the material and that it’s a zipless one-piece) to join the “B” group for newbies. Honestly, I was fairly intimidated by the fit looking crowd that regularly did this. Most of them were training for some sort of triathlon or aquathon race. On the other hand, I just wanted to challenge myself and maybe maybe try out a “Splash n Dash” race.

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So it WAS TOUGH! The toughest swimming I have ever done in my life and possibly the furthest without being allowed to stop. The whole time we were either treading water or doing some sort of training exercise. It was quite the eye opener for me. I was critiqued on my form (my head was too far up in the water and I kicked too hard, therefore wasting more energy than required), instructed on how to do proper strokes, what to do when I got tired, how to draft and most of all, how to just keep going. I was the slowest in the group and I’m not exactly a poor swimmer. In fact, I had always thought I was a pretty strong swimmer. But the difference is whether you do any formal training. All the little tips improved my efficiency in swimming and that is what boosts endurance and speed. At the end of the class I was completely spent but also rather proud that I made it through. Some people are born to run, some are born to cycle, but I love the water and I love to swim. I’m glad AF came along and convinced me to go beyond my comfort zone that day because now I’m looking forward to pushing further and improving my swimming technique so I can easily compete in open water (sans shark). After all, there’s no point having awesome race gear if you don’t actually use it in a race, right?? =P Potentially looking at http://www.revolution-asia.com/Events/Compressport_Splash__n_Dash_Aquathon_Series/Compressport_Splash__n_Dash_Aquathon_Race_3.htm on June 23rd?