In an ideal world, if you want to travel by train from A to B to C back to A, you can buy a ticket from A to B, then B to C, then C to A. However, by doing so in Great Britain, more often than not you will pay much more than people doing return journeys, A-B-A-C-A despite that the distance is much shorter. This is because of a historical artifact which effectively penalising off-peak single journeys. In…
It has been a while since I last blogged due to the race off-season. I did my first triathlon this year last weekend (8 June) in Weymouth, the WMD Classic, organised by Bustinskin Events. This is my 4th standard distance triathlon I have done. The race is in Weymouth, with a sea swim, hilly open-road bike ride and a flat run. I don’t fancy a hilly bike ride (I always avoid hills when cycling) however there aren’t any other better…
This is the 4th new year since I moved to the UK. I made some significant achievements in my career, but few things else. Achievements in the year Career At my job at Jnction, I introduced real-time National Rail train data into Aubin using GTFS-RT and OpenTripPlanner as the underlying technology, and made a lot of contributions into the real-time processing of OpenTripPlanner. Aubin has now grown into a separate business and is now in public beta in the UK,…
On 14 September, I did my longest swimming event this year in London, the Dock2Dock 15 km event. Last year I did the 10 km event but it happened just 2 days after I swam the English Channel so I was extremely tired and the result did not have a reference value of my actual ability, although it qualified me for the 15 km this year. My swimming ability was far behind most people I knew, and I believed that…
Last month, I went on a trip to Hel to do orienteering. Hel is a Baltic seaside resort in Poland at the tip of a peninsula, with convenient public transport links, which attracted me to go. The event The event was called Grand Prix Pomerania, which consisted of FootO and TrailO races. There were a FootO and a TrailO race on each of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The FootO races were middle, long and middle races, and the TrailO races…
On 1 September I completed my 3rd standard distance triathlon, Brighton & Hove Triathlon (referral link) at the best possible location, good beach weather, completely flat course by a quality organiser. Motivation I’d like to do a triathlon with open sea swim, flat bike and flat run, as I believe this combination can get me the best result. Brighton & Hove Triathlon perfectly fits all three criteria, and I registered as soon as the registration opened last year at the…
Well done Ingrid Chow, the 4th Hongkonger to swim the English Channel. It was a pleasure for me and Claire to support you and helped you through your tough times. Ingrid started her English Channel swim from Shakespeare Beach at 18:41, 16 August 2024, and landed Le Cran d’Escalles at 11:50 BST the next day after 17 hours and 9 minutes of overnight swimming. She has become the 4th Hongkonger to swim the English Channel, after Chun Kong Mak (2020),…
On 27 and 28 July, I raced in the England Nationals the first time after getting qualified for the Age Group Championships through the regional qualifier. I raced in the 7.5 km Age Group, 5 km Masters and 3 km Masters over the weekend. Location and travel The races were held in Rother Valley Country Park, South Yorkshire. It is not an easy place to get to, with the best public transport option being the express bus 30 from Sheffield…
This year is my third year in competitive swimming, and I am still seeking improvement. However, I spent half of my last winter training in short distance stuff (ice swimming), and after returning from my holiday, I found out that I lost a lot of speed, and it was too tiring to go to the pool after my full-time work, so I nearly stopped swimming until Parliament Hill Lido returned to the summer timetable with evening sessions. My result last…
After Eastbourne Triathlon was weathered out, I wanted to do another one to see where my ability was. I looked at my calendar and 29 / 30 June was the only weekend when I was available to race, and I looked at British Triathlon website to find a race on this weekend, with a flat bike course and a flat run course. I eventually narrowed myself into choosing between Cardiff and Torquay. I eventually signed up for Torquay because it…