La bicyclette

My wonderful piece of art

Walnut Creek Meet

Here's one of my favorite girl swimmers of Tsunami, Marieke Kruidering, a PhD from UCSF ! Originally from Holland, she swims fast and her determination is quite remarkable. While I always sandbag my time so I don't have to be too nervous on the starting block, Marieke always pushes herself ;-) !

Walnut Creek Short-course Meters

So guys, I'm a bit embarrassed to post my pics from this past week, since I'm so skinny-looking compared to the animals that I swam against. There's a great picture of Adrienne, on of our swim coaches (Mondays evenings and Fridays mornings) that is posted below - but you see what I mean? But oh well. This picture was taken right after I finished my 50 back and Adrienne also finishing her 50 back. It was such a gorgeous weekend, it hardly felt like October! The weather was so beautiful, albeit being on the colder side in the early morning- but on both Saturday and Sundays, the weather turned so warm - actually, hot - that my team mates Lou and Jason had to take refuge under the shades. You know me with protective tanned skin... I was ok ;-)

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

We look much much better.. except... CiCi, Mike and Renee's dog was looking the wrong way ;-)

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

Mike just arrived finishing his biking leg and I'm all relaxed and already ready for a nap. Mike is still panting from his bike run.

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

In these modern races, the way they track our time is by using timing chips that we strap on our ankles. I swam with it and it must have felt wet and mushy for Mike. He took it from me and is putting the velcro timing chip on his ankle. This gets transitioned to the runner after he's done.

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

I look dorky again, but this triathlon required that the swimming run from the lake to the bike racks where Mike was waiting...

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

I'm not sure if you can see me, but I'm in the middle of the picture, trying to find the gang on shore... I look so dorky in the yellow swimming cap...

Great day ;-)

So I had a great day today. Worked hard, long meetings but fruitful, and had a chance to go to swim practice at our beautiful Hamilton Pool near Japan town. Tonight's sets were coached by Adrienne, my favorite coach, and it included lots of IM work. The workout was the following:

Warm up:
5 x 100 free descending 2 x 1:55, 2 X 1:50 and 1 x 1:45
33 choice

Main set:
9 x 100 IM work as follows:
3 x (33 Fly + 66 Back)
3 x (33 Back + 66 Breast)
3 x (33 Breast + 66 Free)

100 free strech

16 x 66 Free as follows:
4 x 66 at 1:15
4 x 66 at 1:10
4 x 66 at 1:05
4 x 66 at 1:10

Warm down:
3 x 200 on the 3:45

We cheated the last warm down... I only did a 200 back plus 100 free.. but oh well. It was just yet another great workout, and I had a great lane mate, Mike. See you guys again on Saturday!

More Tri pictures -photo credits to Renee, Mike's wife!

Another Team GAMBARO pic

So you must be wondering... what GAMBARO means...

So GAMBARO is a Japanese word. The word comes from an infinitive, GAMBARU, meaning to "try your hardest." For instance, if you see your boyfriend swimming really really hard, you'd say "GAMBARE!" which is an imperative form of the verb. GAMBARO is the third person plural form, or in English, it would be LET'S "try our hardest." This team name, being the Japanese that I am, sounds if it came from me. However, it wasn't. To my surprise, it came as a combined suggestion from Mike AND Patrick. You'd wonder WHY THEM? I assumed wrong. Both of them have good Japanese friends (Mike through the sport of Curling, and Patrick from college) and they have both learned the words from those contacts. You should have seen them email each other (copying me) arguing if the team name should be Gambaro or Gambare or Gambaru (let's do our best, Do your best, or Do best). It was really heart warming...

His Tri - TEAM GAMBARO!

Here's me and two other greatest relay teammates, Patrick (on the left) and Mike (on the right). We found each other through someone that Mike knew at the Dolphin Club. I swim at the Dolphin Club - aquatic park - and one of other members (Mike's friend) posted a "swimmer wanted" ad about a month ago. I thought - hmmm... my knees are bad, I can't run or bike, but why not do a swimming leg of a triathlon! I'd get a kick out of swimming for the two other guys, and at the same time enjoy a team sport (swimming tends to be a loner sport like running and cycling). So we've cautiously signed up for the triathlon together, not really sure about the compatibility of each other, but after doing this mini-triathlon (for me, it was only a 1/2 mile swim), we realized how compatible we were with each other. We aren't hyper competitive, only competitive about ourselves but without pressuring each other too much. I really enjoyed every minute of being a part of a team of such great guys, and I look forward to it. By the way, I'm quite impressed by my own time of 11 minutes for the 1/2 mile, as it is pretty fast for me. I'm glad that I didn't let the other two down ;-) Thanks guys for the greatest teamwork!

Finished!

Jason and I just finished both 1 and 2 mile swims. I must say that this lake is clearly my favorite lake to swim in.. The water's nice and crisp, weather's balmy 80 degrees and 2 beautiful California pines all around providing a intoxicating fragrance. Can't wait to come back next year!

1 mile down

Two more to go. Photo credits go to Jason!

Before the race

Jason

Jason's relaxing and reading before the race. Unlike our usual selves, we got here early so we have plenty of time to relax.

Taken by Jason

At the lake beach

At the lake

It doesn't look that big, but it would probably take 1 hour to drive around. Or maybe 45 mins.

Race

The 1 mile swim goes out and back in the water you see here. The 2 mile swim which follows goes around the little island you see in the center of the picture.

Openwater race

This morning, Jason and I are doing a 1 and 2 mile swim at Whiskeytown Lake near the Shasta mountains. Beautiful and warm 75 degree weather at 9 am. Water temperature I guess is about 68 today, which is perfect for the swim!

At the surfrider

Having appetizer with Stuart before meeting a couple other friends for lunch...

Back

In my hotel room. Relaxing before we head out to dinner.

At the beach

Relaxing

On the beach

I've arrived in Hawaii! Weather perfect, water perfect... What can one ask for more?

Himi

Smiling

At the park

Himi and I came to the park together

Don

At the Korean restaurant on 32nd street

Subway

49th street station from midtown to 32nd street station to meet Don for dinner.

Times Square

I'm here until tomorrow night to give a presentation to my clients on recent trends in accounting and auditing. Times Square is as busy and dirty as usual. I really enjoyed Chicago this time again, and wish to spend more time...

A bug

This little caterpilles scared the heck out of me since Josh suddenly noticed it on my pant!

Hanging from a sculpture

In the Millenium Park

Beautiful

Weather and Michigan Avenue deflected off the bean.

Cooling

From the warm sun under the bean

Water fountain

The water fountains are on two sides of this area, and in between are 1 inch deep water to cool ourselves from the summer heat. Josh and I

Heaven on Seven

This is Jason's favorite breakfast place in Chicago.

On the Chicago River

Josh and I on the river on our way back from shopping. What a perfect weather!

Leaving Tokyo

I'm always saddened by leaving Japan. It's a bit different from really missing Japan, but more nostalgic... The weather during this visit was great. Vi was also great to see my cousin getting married. It really was a great visit.

The second gate at night

The first gate in Asakusa

I've returned back from the dinner and walked through the temple to get back to the hotel I'm staying at. This is the first gate to the temple at night lit up.

All of us

It's been so long since all four of us have gotten together. This dinner was scheduled so that we can all spend time together as we used to as children... Was a very good, relaxing dinner together.

Daisuke and his girlfriend

They live in a different prefecture, about 100km away from Chiba, on the other side of Tokyo. They came from Yamanashi today and they've also just arrived.

my sis and Katsu

It's Katsu's wedding this weekend. He just returned home from running errands.

Uncle

After playing the piano a bit for him, we started dinner as my counsins were late for dinner. He's his usual friendly, warm, and talkative self, and as you'll see in my other posts, the food ranged from stew, sashimi (toro + others), tofu, edamame..... my favorites!

At my cousins' house - the doggies

Riko is the mommy dog (the dark colored one) and the lighter colored one is the daughter, Sachi. They were so excited when I arrived, they peed all over the front porch! They watched us eat dinner...

A street

Still walking towards my cousin's from the train station.

A view

Of the same garden from bother angle. It's serene, isn't it?

A front yard

I am walking to my cousin's gourd and came to the front yard of one of their neighbors. You can see a little stream running in front of the house. I used to catch tadpoles and frogs in the stream.

Another view

Of the rural feel...

My home town

This shows a better feel for what it was growing up. We used to run around the rice fields to catch snakes and frogs...

My home town

It used to be much more rural... But all there new houses are going up. It's actually pretty sad, although it's good for my town itself to have the wealth move in...

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