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Month: April 2019

The DWB 2019 – the race day

The DWB 2019 – the race day

On the weekend of Easter, I was so anxious because 3 consecutive days of thunderstorm weathered out my training plan, which I intended to push my endurance limit to see if I was ready for marathon swimming, as I had signed up for a marathon swimming race in July. The anxiety was gone after I knew that I could do 11 km in 2 consecutive days, with 1 of the days in high intensity, which means I could reasonably complete…

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The DWB 2019 – prologue and training

The DWB 2019 – prologue and training

I have just finished my longest open water swimming competition in my life today – the DWB. The race was organised by the VRC (Victoria Recreation Club – known for paddling and open water swimming) and this was the 3rd year of the race (the first was in 2017). It was stated as a 5 km race by the organiser. 2 years ago, in 2017, when I saw that the cut-off time was 1 hour and 45 minutes, I thought…

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Easter special

Easter special

Easter in Hong Kong means 4 days of holidays. I would originally like to use these holidays to push my endurance limit before my final week leading to the DWB race. However, 3 consecutive days of thunderstorm (the day before the holidays, and also the first 2 days of holidays) weathered out my plan so that I could only swim on the last 2 days of holidays. As an Easter tradition, Olivier Baillet invited Edie Hu and some other swimmers…

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Starting off my journey towards marathon swimming: part 3

Starting off my journey towards marathon swimming: part 3

5 April was a holiday in Hong Kong, and the Sunday group did an extraordinary swim which I joined. The group started off at Stanley Main Beach together, swam to the buoy near To Tei Wan, and split into two. The longer group went round the peninsula and did 9.5 km, while the remaining returned to the beach and did 4 km. However, I couldn’t catch up with the longer group (as they swam at sub 1’40” / 100 m…

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Starting off my journey towards marathon swimming: part 2

Starting off my journey towards marathon swimming: part 2

The new year of 2019 began. I became a member of Tritons Triathlon Club, which is associated with the triathlon programme at HKU with membership running per calendar year, and increased my training amount. Since January I regularly swim about 12 – 15 km per week, including normally 2 squad sessions, an open water group swim on the weekend, and a few sessions on my own. I originally wanted to increase the training amount further in February then April but…

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Starting off my journey towards marathon swimming: part 1

Starting off my journey towards marathon swimming: part 1

I love the sea and love open water swimming. By the end of 2014, I discovered that there was a Sunday open water swimming group in Hong Kong, led by Ian Polson. I tried to join but couldn’t catch up with anyone in the group. I then got embarrassed and disappeared. In 2015, I found out that there was a Saturday open water swimming group led by Lloyd Mc Bean (now by Olivier Courret) as well, but I couldn’t catch…

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