Drunk on a day off

Took a day off to recover and had half a bottle of red wine ... can't believe it but I'm pissed drunk already.  So much for "quit drinking."

Saving it up for This Sunday

Paddled with Mark on Wednesday, just paddled around Sunny Island and then stopped at the beach to chat.  Boy, he is fast.  More to the point, he seems to know what he is doing.  I look forward to seeing the NZ vid with him, and maybe BS a bit about trip prep and gears afterward. 

Rested on Thursday.

KAT with Cho Kau and Fan Goh etc Friday ... it's gonna be brutally hot (up to 35.7C at Shatin Thursday)  

HKO can't seem to make up its mind about the weather for this Sunday.  It went from BF2/sunny to BF2/rainy to BF6/rainy + gusty.   Why  oh why?  WHY?  Why is it that every time I have a long journey ahead, the wind decides to pick up?  (And the tide works against me to and fro ...)

Not sure if I'm going to join Paul and Yuki this Saturday.  I need all the reserves for Sunday.  And I'm going to bring my sleeping bag, just in case...

Finally finished JLPT

4th of July -- no celebration for me, just last minute cramming and studying.  My only excuse is: you can cram information into your head; you can't cram training and daylight.

Dad asked me, "why aren't you paddling today?  It's nice and cloudy."  Seriously, I never thought I would live to see the day when daddy told me off for not playing outside due to an immanent exam.  

5th of July -- Wrote JLPT, then went to Stanley SMB to attend the KPG lecture/ trip briefing with Siu Ming.

Exam went okay; as expected, I find vocab, listening and reading comprehension quite easy.  But I might as well just bring a dice or two for the grammar section.  

I sort of stayed up late to study (I had the audiobooks on while I tried to sleep anyway, and I stayed up till 0300) so I was tired when I got home.  Decided not to train.

Today (as in the 6th) ... well, there was no excuse.  Except my back/ neck really really hurts, probably because I haven't sat still in front of a desk for so long to study.  

So I finally dragged myself down to the gym with a book in hand.  

Cycled for 2 hrs at Level 4 (random hills) -- according to the machine, that's 68km.  Whatever, I stayed where I was the whole time, in front of the picture window, so stupid.

Then I decided to just go through each equipment available in the gym.  Turns out there is a proper inclining bench for situps afterall.  And there is a set for working the back muscle that simulates pull ups -- so I no longer have to dangle myself precariously off the bars.

Siu Ming said I should still show up in Shatin now and then to work with the program.  Ho hum.  I wish Fan goh would let me paddle there, it's so criminally stupid to have to bus for 5 hrs just for 3 hrs of paddling.

My bum hurts from the cycling, better get some sleep now.  Don't want to miss paddling tomorrow. (It's gonna be a HOT day!)

Getting Lazy

Mom and dad fought over something stupid, like bank loans and investments.  So mom "ran away" and ended up parking with me...

So I slept naked, big deal.  She decided to come into my bedroom at 0500 and turned on the light.  I hastily -- and groggily -- covered myself, and asked "what the hell" as politely as humanly possible.  Turns out she couldn't find her bottle of perfume.  Frog!  She knows I hate perfume.  Why would she bring a bottle of perfume into MY room?

Told her to turn off the light when she was done, wanted to express my displeasure but decided not to.  Ended up being so pissed off though, I couldn't go back to sleep.

Proceeded to get in and out of bed all day, no training, nada.  Mucked around online, then got back to feel sorry for myself, and felt very personally wronged by all the perfumes in the world.  Suddenly remembered how I used to wear mom's highheels and kept a close account of all her bottles of exotic perfumes when I was a kindergartner.   Then one day, I notice a new bottle of perfume on her dressing table, shaped more or less like a hand grande.  I took it, played with it, and conveniently put it away into my toy-chest before mom got home.

I got a beating of my life for it.  The beating was so bad, my school principal and day care headmistress both called to find out what did I do to deserve that kind of beating.

I think, the lesson she tried to teach me, was not to play with her things without permission.  Somehow though, I am stuck with the impression that wearing highheels and perfume leads to a lot of pain and tears.

I still hate high heels and perfume to this day.

Spend all day feeling very grumpy, ready to yell at my mom any moment, but managed to get by with a very deep frown.  When she asked me questions and I answered, I was surprised to find my voice calm.

Anyway, that's how I spend my day.  Fitting though, because part of the issues I need to deal with is psychological -- what do I do to get back on schedule when I am bored, when I am angry, when I am lonely ...

Right now, I feel like loneliness is better than having to deal with my mom, but I also know I inherited her hot temper and so I should be more compassionate.  No matter, now is as good a time to iron out my mental kinks as it's going to get.

Was still hopeful that I could launch Martlet at 5pm, but as the sun sets, the task was getting less and less appealing.  So I dragged my feet until 6, then 7, then I convinced myself that it's too late.  

Decided to make myself run up the stairs of my parent's building for "discipline."  I thought, if I don't paddle 21km, I should have to jog up a flight of stairs.  Ha!  What a joke, it took me 4 minutes.  I think, my body would trade 21k for stairs-climbing any time.

Also did 90sec wall-sitting =_=  Brings back fond memories of karate torments...

My left foot hurts again, not sure what it is; doc says it's flat foot but I don't think so.  

Butt also sore from my previous SK trip -- need to get another piece of sponge to sit on.  I've got skin lesion from the hard seat again.

And my knees are a little stiff.  I regularly sit on my knees and never had any problem before.  Today, I noticed my knees were very stiff and I walked a lil bowl-legged for a few seconds when I get up.

Second day off!

Did not train at all yesterday; then I went to CLG practice today during the day (mostly I did rolling and re-entry), came back to Tai Tan just in time to realize it's new moon and the tide is going all out.

Which means either I don't launch tonight, or I launch in the dark.

I opted not to launch.  Dare devil is one thing, but I'm still feeling down from trailwalker practice.  I don't trust myself to fight for my life right now if I need to.  

It feels as though it has been ages since I last paddled 21km, even though I just paddled Shek Mun two days ago.  It means my body is getting used to a 21k+ routine, it means I'm craving it, but it also means I'm really starting to slack off.

Going to sleep now.  Sinus hurts from rolling in fresh water.  Got a headache too.

Shek Mun training Day 3: only 8km!!

My performance is definitely going down!

Went to Shek Mun today, worked out in the gym then went down to the water.  I actually did better in the gym -- toiled on the stepping machine for the first time (20mins), managed to finish 3 sets of 20 dips (ballistic), and 3 sets of 20 sit ups.  Couldn't finish the pushups (did 3 sets of 10) and the pull ups (20/20/15) though.   

Only paddled one round, finished the 7km in exactly one hour, easy arithmetic, so I don't think I made a calculation error -- my speed has dropped!

And I only did 8 km today.  I could get down to the water to paddle now (I'm at Fred's), but it's like pulling teeth.  I'm really too tired to go on.  I don't think I can quite follow Fan Goh's program.  So I'll have to talk to him tomorrow.

And I might end up trying to follow Siu Ming's: i.e. 40% land workouts, 60% water works, with study/research time in between.  21k+ a day is fine, but not if I didn't spend as much time working on cardiovascular and strength.  More to the point, I get to take a break once or twice a week to let my paddling muscle recover.

Dreading the KAT tomorrow, I know I won't be able to perform normally; the DB->SMBWSC -> DB trip had me whipped.

recovery from 60k

Paddled 60k yesterday: DB - SMB, then trained KA skills with Man Sir (bow-rudder, hang-draw, rolling, swimming-in-canoe, cross bow-rudder), then paddled back to DB.  Squally thunder followed me all the way to SMB from Ap Lei Chau (actually they were thumping down on Ding-Ling Islands when I was along Ap Lei Chau.) Took a bit of a detour while crossing channel cos I was trying to avoid collision, and ended up on the wrong side of Kau Yi Chau.

I was cold all night after the 60k trip yesterday... so typical.  And finally I got blisters, I've been wondering what's happening to my old friends (blisters), I haven't seen them since Japan.  But they are back =_=

Mostly my right forearm hurts, I blame Richard's paddle, which hasn't got a feathering angle (in fact, it's slightly offset to the left, so it's actually a left-control paddle.)  I knew I was in trouble before I even reached Kau Yi Chau, but decided not to let excuses get in the way of training.  Turns out it wasn't a training day, it was a punishment day.

Got really scared in East Lamma Channel, but it's about time I finally meet my nemesis.  I was so busy watching out for all the passing vessels that I hardly had time for reminiscence.  Have to admit though, even though I didn't consciously go through the nightmare in 2007, crossing the channel was still intensely stressful.

The entire journey back was a punishment, I knew I was going very slow but all I cared was to go home and shower.  I wasn't even sure I had enough willpower or strength to bring myself  back to DB, but I was surprised when Round Island drifted towards me, then Ap Lei Pai, then Magazine Island, CyberPort, Green Island ... I was just too busy dealing with the pain, and started zoning out, and then before I know it, I was home.

Crossing the channel was again, nerve whacking.  But I'm dealing with the irrational fear one step at a time, and progress is progress.

Palms and fingers thoroughly abused by the time I landed on DB, but I think, if I give myself a week's time to rest (and work on other strength training), eventually I can get used to a 60k day.  

Very tired today, woke up at 0600 but mucked around at home till now.  Am going to do some mild jogging, push ups, etc, and launch Martlet for 22k, (see below) and then rest.  No more over-training for the next week or so.

edited to say: just finished my 23k (after a few half-ass sets of sit ups and burpees), took martlet out with the heavy paddle (Neville's), my fingers started tingling before I even left Tai Pak.  I'm pretty sure it has something to do with that particular paddle.

Felt an intense pang of hunger before I even made it to Kau Yi, only then did I realize all I had was a bottle of water -- no sport drinks, no candies.  So typical u_u  Paddled on anyway, am still very exhausted from yesterday, started taking breaks by the time I rounded Sunny Island, I wonder if it's just from over training yesterday, or if it is because of the unbelievably heavy paddle.  (Seriously, it's like paddling with a set of free weights.)   

When I got back, I decided I wanted to practice rolling -- and did a few half rolls with the heavy paddles, but then the water really is too disgusting, so I finally left.

Foody time now.  Good to know I'm getting back to normal -- that is to say, feeling intensely hungry, rather than tired, after a mild day trip.

DB 1:39 (head wind)

Kau Yi 2:29

(at the pt where I can see the gap between HLC and Sunny Is) 3:14 

Rounded the corner of HLC at 3:38 (following sea)

The bend of the Dam at HLC 3:55

Hei Ling Chau NW Pier 4:13

Tai Lei 4:52

"pincher" of DB5:12