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Author: michael

Cold Half 2020 – race report

Cold Half 2020 – race report

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I have completed Cold Half on Sunday, which has become my second marathon swimming race. Here’s the race report. Race information Name: Cold Half Date: 2020-01-19 Place: Hong Kong (Stanley ➡️ Deep Water Bay, via To Tei Wan, around Stanley Peninsula, round Round Island and Middle Island) Distance: 15 km as claimed by the organiser (13.8 km as measured on Google satellite image) Website: http://results.racetimingsolutions.com/results.aspx?CId=16387&RId=6325&EId=1 Live tracking: http://live.dottrack.asia/coldhalf2020/ Result: 05:14:26 Rank: 6/6 in category, 11/13 in non-wetsuit, 15/17 overall (1…

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Cold Half 2020 – pre-race

Cold Half 2020 – pre-race

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It is only 4 days to my next race, Cold Half, which will be my 2nd marathon swimming race in my life. This has been my goal race from the very beginning when I started swimming seriously at the end of 2018. At that time I set up my goal to become a marathon swimmer by March 2020, which I planned to do this as my 1st race. However I did the Lake Geneva Classic in July 2019 which became…

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Year review of 2019 and goals of 2020

Year review of 2019 and goals of 2020

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Today is the end of 2019 and my life has drastically changed in this year as I have become an endurance athlete when compared to previous years. It’s time to have a review what I have done this year, referencing what I have written last year to see if I have achieved them. In orienteering, Remain in the elite class in local sprint ranking in 2020 Become a Hong Kong team member for the 1st Asian Trail Orienteering Championships, and…

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Garmin Tai Po Half Marathon

Garmin Tai Po Half Marathon

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Race information What? Garmin Tai Po Half Marathon When? 2019-12-08 How far? 21.0975 km Website? https://www.garmintphm.com/ Time? 1:41:50 Place? 13 / 71 in male 25 – 29 Goals Goal Description Completed? A under 1:40 No B under 1:45 Yes C complete my first half marathon Yes Splits Kilometer Time 1 4:43.5 2 4:20.5 3 4:33.7 4 4:39.7 5 4:50.2 6 4:40.5 7 4:49.5 8 5:00.9 9 5:03.8 10 4:30.1 11 4:48.2 12 4:41.5 13 5:01.6 14 4:52.9 15 4:55.7 16 5:12.1 17 4:50.8 18 4:41.3 19…

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It finally gets “cold”

It finally gets “cold”

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As winter comes, the unheated university pool that I regularly swim in has now cooled down to my target temperature 16°C for my “cold” water training. (channel swimmers, please don’t laugh at me – 16°C is considered cold in subtropical Hong Kong, people put on their wetsuit here even in 22°C water) I consider temperature below 16°C as cold water swimming (which I don’t feel warm even when I’m swimming at race intensity, and can’t have long breaks in it),…

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Why have I changed so much after becoming an endurance athlete?

Why have I changed so much after becoming an endurance athlete?

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I have notice that, this year, I am now becoming more and more like an endurance athlete as opposed to having a “normal” lifestyle. Before 2018, apart from work and study, my life was prosperous and all-rounded. I did a lot of sports, mostly sailing and orienteering, and also running, swimming, and mind sports such as competitive programming, mahjong and bridge as well as long as they didn’t become too physically demanding. Among them, I achieved a high level in…

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Alex Fong’s round Hong Kong swim

Alex Fong’s round Hong Kong swim

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Today is the big day of Alex Fong’s round Hong Kong circumnavigation swim, a 45 km charity swim for A Drop Of Life which set up infrastructure to give clean water in under-developed places. The first recorded round Hong Kong swim was in 1976 by Linda McGill, an Australian female swimmer, from Repulse Bay rounding the island anti-clockwise in 17:06:00 (that swim was sponsored by Cathay Pacific, and she was notable by swimming topless most of the way). In recent…

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MMIC 2019

MMIC 2019

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Today I did the MMIC, a 3.8 km open water swimming race in Deep Water Bay around Middle Island. This race last year was my first proper open water swimming race since I started training seriously, in the first week I joined a swim squad, and I completed in 1:25:45, which was my longest swimming race in my life at that time, establishing the starting point for my adventure in open water swimming. In the year afterwards, I trained a…

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Innothon 10 km

Innothon 10 km

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Innothon 10 km was held on 2019-10-26 at Hong Kong Science Park, which was my first running race after my 1-year break in running. I did it as part of my plan to run a half marathon in November. I started serious training 3 weeks before the race, running about 2 – 3 times per week, most commonly including a long run and an interval run, and another format if I ran 3 times in that week, with weekly mileage…

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I’m going to run a half marathon in 6 weeks.

I’m going to run a half marathon in 6 weeks.

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I started swimming because in the past I didn’t want to run too much but want to maintain my fitness, and I’ve got addicted since last year I joined the OW swimming groups regularly. As in the past, I believed that my swimming was not as good as my running (judging by 1:4 ratio for distance covered by swimming:running for the same time), so I trained intensively in swimming last year and earlier this year, and I have become a…

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