CHINA TRAINING 15 APRIL ¨C 5 JUNE Monday, April 15 2001: QH found a hotel for us...already one of the better budgeted ones but still crappy. Let's mention that there's no use for the phone since we can't call out or use it for the internet, there's no cleaning services at all since we paid at a 'discounted' rate. Then, the TV is blur, no kettle etc...some of the plugs don't work so i can't boil water initially. I resorted to buying a scrub and scrubbing clean the bathroom...and tried clearing the remnants (cigarette butts, stuck hair, dirt etc) of the previous guest. It proved to be futile so we bought cheap slippers to wear in the room. We went out this morning and came back with pails for every room, washing powder, clothes hangers, china slippers etc...I spent all my free time cleaning the room and arranging/airing furniture. I feel like I'm a chambermaid now. But crappy hotels do have its positives...they let us leave our equipment at the entrance and we rigged up at the hotel compound this morning. Then we carried the sail/board and walked about 200m to the training site, having to watch out for 'horny' vehicles along the way. It was quite exciting. I never tried walking so far with my board & sail b4 in typical china traffic... Monday Afternoon: We set sail this afternoon after settling many matters in the morn...we were about the only ones out on water today. All the other elite sailors were resting and engaged in land training later since the wind was considered 'too light'. We sailed with several Shandong Junior sailors, very young kids...it was about 5-7 knots and the waves were already knee high and more. At times, I could only see Andrew's mop of hair...My first upwind was a mess because I can't quite point with such big waves. You also do not want to fall into water since the no. of jellyfish there is, trust me, much more than what Penang has to offer. They are also HUGE jellyfish which you don't want to mess with. Downwind legs are really thrilling as the rollers can get very high and sometimes nothing at all. When the wind is about 20-30+ knots, the sailors say the waves are more than mast high...and very cold. Yup, the water is cold...about 17 degrees i think. I can't wait to try the more-than-mast-high waves & 30 over knots wind... The China Olympics is postponed to 21 April. Guess what? Chujun and the rest who were training on shortboard have all switched to Formula racing. They are into NP sails and Starboard. Wow!! What are we waiting for...Oh yes, when we came back to shore, the sailors were all into their land training. Wow...As usual, i felt that we looked like blobs of walking fat when i saw their lean, muscled bodies. In fact, andrew was rite when he said we look more like coaches since we r 'fat'. ahaha...The girls were using weights which our strongest guys used and their guys were using weights which our strongest guys never used before. I think QH is being ambitious when he said we can share their weights etc...they are simply of weight-lifting standards. We are set to start on the 'pumping machine' tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. :) Tuesday 16 April 2001: We had our first proper training today. 3 parts to our training today. we started at 6:30 a.m. & found the whole place infested with sailors running. we did a 3-4 km run for warm-up and proceeded to do 3 sets x 3 min of pumping on the pumping machine. wow...my first time and it was a good trial. There, QH pointed out our mistakes & etc...i FINALLY totally understood it. we intend to go back s'pore & get some welder to craft it out...it really helps a lot. then we proceeded to breakfast at 7+ a.m. we rested for an hr b4 we r out at 9 a.m. for part 2. we ran again for warm up...the same distance. then we did 4 sets of painful ex. 1) the hanging grip 4 x 2 min. all 3 of us drop down from the thick, rusty bar abt the same no. of times. very tough. ahahaha...the chinese sailors really hv forearms as big as my biceps. 2) squats 4 x 50 reps. 3) 4 x 3 min of pumping on the machine. it was very tiring. we went for lunch. rested for a while and at 12+ p.m., rigged up and went out to sea. My upwind & downwind improved by leaps & bounds indeed coz i now got my pumping technique correct after trying it out so intensively on the pumping machine. soon, abt 40 over sailors joined us so now, it's like a mini china open. 20 April 2001, Friday For some reason, I juz could not use the GRIC in shanwei. QH asked one of his zhejiang gals to bring me to the Internet caf¨¦ in a town nearby. So I resorted to saving all my emails in a disk & copy/paste on the emails to send out. So, I¡¯ll be saving all my emails in Word doc & pasting on emails. Sorry the emails I sent were all messy & everything. We went there abt 9 p.m. & the shop was closing at 10 p.m. Plus, I didn¡¯t want to go back too late as I was alone. I asked Weiyuan (the ZJ gal to go back first coz their bed-time is 9:30 p.m.). I was done at 10 odd and caught a ¡®beep beep¡¯ motorbike only abt 10 min later & it was almost a ghost town. Then I saw a ¡®beep beep¡¯ (the local small motor ¡®taxi¡¯) but he initially didn¡¯t want to take me as he was sending 2 of his children home. But I was desperate and it was pitch black liao¡­hehe, he took me & I sat beside his kid and the other younger one was under my feet. Ahahaha¡­it was really funny!! I put my arm across the kid beside me as he looked like he was flying off already. I felt worried for him. Only abt 1 year plus¡­and the bike ride was rough. I tipped the driver oso. I felt exceptionally grateful when I reached our hotel; I looked around at the quiet dark streets and imagined some Chinese pontianaks jumping out from the bushes; some mad men looking for rape victims or wild dogs devouring me for supper. Ahaha¡­Nah, I wasn¡¯t scared lah¡­juz can¡¯t help keeping my imagination from running wild. I muz tell myself NOT to think too much; my classic flaw. We are done with Part 1 trg 2day and we are pardoned from the Part 2 as there is no wind. Hot air is building up & unlike S¡¯pore, the weather works differently. We did our warm-up run and then 3 sets of 3 min pumping. I was punctured right from Set 1; simply too worn out from y¡¯day¡¯s long training. This morning, Andrew went ¡°GOOD!!! No wind¡­aching sia!!¡± I¡¯m glad I¡¯m not the only one¡­but they were not as bad as me on the pumping machine. QH said we had persevered for quite some days already so we deserve the rest this morning. We¡¯ll sail only this afternoon. You don¡¯t know how RELIEVED I am¡­I had my DIY facial mask on now, might as well, I saw 2 pimples threatening to manifest on my face. Finally, I have time to sit down and have coffee. This is my first cup of coffee since I reached here as we always have 3 trgs a day. Phew!! ³ÔÁË¿àÖп࣬·½ÉÏÁ콱̨¡£ 27 April 2001, Friday San San has just won the China Olympics Selections. She crossed the finish line about 15 min ago at 4+ p.m. 27 April. I was on the boat watching the races. She was phenomenal!! I have definitely found my favourite sailor and ¡®idol¡¯ now¡­no doubt about it. Ahhaa¡­she beat Huang Ying to it and I can¡¯t wait to know the final results in October. That will be really exciting. 2 months and 16 days into my full-time training since 8 Feb, I think I¡¯ve changed a great deal as a sailor. We¡¯ve had winds ranging from Force 1 to Force 5, flat water to waves as big as ¾ mast high since we came. It¡¯s really exciting¡­I¡¯ve not seen anything like this. San San is superb in strong strong winds and she¡¯s really pulled back into fifth gear in today¡¯s 3rd race (1st) after getting 5th in the first 2 races today. She was lagging behind Huang Ying by one point with a last race to go¡­She¡¯s definitely won it and delivered yet again. Watching it was inspiring and energizing while the men¡¯s races were superhuman. They raced like there was no tomorrow! Ahaha¡­The wind ranged from 8-12 knots, measured by your SWF wind gauge. Yesterday we¡¯ve had winds 18-22 kts in the 3rd race and lighter winds in the first 2 races. The sailors can rest now¡­finally! It was as competitive as the Olympics, changing leaders every single day in every race. QH made me so tired yesterday¡­I was aching so badly and so tired that I slept from 8:30 p.m. till 7 a.m. this morning. Guess wat?? QH fell sick today¡­he¡¯s paralysed in bed the whole day today while we were on the Zhejiang boat watching the last races. He had apparently caught a cold when he went out on Andrew¡¯s equipment y¡¯day in the Force 5 winds¡­hehe, I told Zhou Zihou & Shi Dong that we made him so angry he fell sick. Hehe¡­these 2 Hainan coaches are the funniest characters I¡¯ve seen here. They would always survive mast-high waves in their tiny rubber dinghy. They¡¯re the best! Ahaha¡­the Zhejiang coach would also like to speed on his old, tattered powerboat and shooting right up to shore with a swoosh! Ahaha¡­ Was pooped out y¡¯day. Never felt so tired in my life, not even during Singapore Open, not on my normal trgs¡­slept at 8:30 p.m. till 7 a.m. this morning. Totally aching and in pain¡­every inch of my body cries out in protest and suffering. It has been blowing the last few days we¡¯ve been sent out to the slaugher. Yesterday we skipped the 6:30 a.m. trg coz QH wanted us to reserve energy for the 9 a.m. & afternoon trg. And I thought he was being merciful¡­yikes!! We sailed in 13-15 kts wind from 9:00 a.m. till 12:30 p.m. The waves were big, already about half-3/4 mast high (1.5 metres) in this considerably light wind condition. Hence, it was tiring having to control and fly through waves etc¡­and I finally discovered what is ¡®planing¡¯. I¡¯m definitely planning faster than ever¡­discovering a grace I never felt b4. The feeling is so amazingly fulfilling. Planing has never felt so streamlined, beautiful¡­riding waves has never been so thrilling and fun¡­ I must have eaten 5-6 bowls of rice during lunch¡­NO JOKE¡­I really ate so much! Then after we went back to the hotel, I juz can¡¯t help but fall asleep, even if it was for half an hour b4 I went out again at 3 p.m. This time, I dragged myself to the beach. Whitecaps everywhere and I was cold from the cold wind blowing right into my nostrils. My wetsuit did not feel thick enough¡­it was blowing Force 5¡­18-22 kts wif nice big waves. I was still VERY VERY tired¡­I was numb to the point that I didn¡¯t have the strength to tell Coach if I can skip the afternoon. Sighz¡­but I started laughing when I couldn¡¯t push in my batten coz I started trembling in fatigue. Ahaha¡­he helped me rig up and there I went¡­into the torture chambers. I didn¡¯t get slammed and I did enjoy flying thru¡¯ the waves and planning at high speeds on the reach¡­upwind was painful as I¡¯m juz not so adept at it yet. I hope VERY SOON, I can sail in winds up to 30 kts in ease. If Huang Ying & Masako can do it, why not me? Today QH let us rest for the morning. Juz came back from tim-sum breakfast. I¡¯m too tired to do anything anyway¡­juz feel like sleeping thru¡¯¡­I dunno if I can tahan the afternoon session. Actually, I really quite miss home. It¡¯s my 13th day here and I cannot quite imagine another 37 days here, knowing trg load will intensify daily. I don¡¯t want to think abt the pain and fear, gotta take one day as it comes!! Fear will drive out all my energy. Our return flight is on 5 June. And we are not done with April yet, oh man¡­help!! Li Ke (QH¡¯s wife, also ex Asian Games champ & 4th in 1996 Olympics) said a good athlete will do more than what the Coach set out¡­but I can¡¯t even say I can cruise thru¡¯ what was planned out, how can I do more¡­ Well, now that I¡¯ve been thru¡¯ this, there¡¯s nothing else I cannot endure! Really¡­I can tahan all the ¡®ku¡¯ anyone can throw my way. It¡¯s 9: 12 a.m. now¡­so tired¡­gonna sleep again! All the daily trgs in S¡¯pore (while I was full-time) added together are still not enough to tire me as the trgs here could for one day. Saturday, 28 April Ker wan has been playing golf over the weekends at Shanghai while he was here for work. I was jealous. Ahaha¡­.China tv here is showing lotsa Beijing 2008 Olympics¡­wow¡­they are really serious about it and I¡¯m already feeling inspired. I spent the aftn today in Huang Ying¡¯s room. She was the 1998 Asian Games medallist (lost to san san) plus Huang Ying was telling me about her races wif san san and when I hear the same story from diff sailors, I tend to learn a lot. But I¡¯ll always ask QH to comment on anything I learn as I don¡¯t want to contradict his teaching. Even Li Ke¡¯s comments are good. However I¡¯m not confident of the fotos I took out at sea as the boat shakes A LOT¡­coz of the big waves¡­I bet most of them would be blur¡­can¡¯t help it. But I hope some of them will turn out nice nonetheless. Now that we¡¯ve rested for 2 days in a row, I hope we¡¯ll train tomorrow actually. With every new thing I learn everyday, I can¡¯t wait to go out to sea to practise or to manifest in spirit during land training. I also hope to challenge my endurance & determination everyday in training; be it in pushing through higher limits or doing an extra rep or doing the last rep stronger than b4. I told Li Ke that at this moment, we can¡¯t dream of doing 6 sets when coach orders 4 sets coz I would be struggling with the 4th set. Ahaha..but I said I¡¯ll try when I¡¯ve reached a comfortable fitness level. Ahaha¡­but most importantly, I¡¯m learning the athlete¡¯s attitude¡­which is to really be mechanic about training and do w/o complaints, to push through despite feeling that I¡¯m about to die. 30 April, Monday It¡¯s 11 a.m. now & Juz done with Parts 1 & 2 of trg 2day. Oh man¡­it¡¯s painful! For the early morning ex, I went thru¡¯ it still feeling the hangover fr last nite¡¯s drinking. Last night, I struggled back to hotel & puked my entire dinner out in the toilet. They juz like to ¡®gan bei¡¯ everything & I had kenna a few drinks incl one cup of red wine concoction which was lighter than the normal beer. So I was KO last nite but woken up by the darn mosquitoes several times. Oh yes, it was in the midst of drinking that I called home to say ¡®hi¡¯. J For part 2 trg, I saw the entire comet family, incl the many stars, sun & moon. Ahaha¡­we had 3 days¡¯ rest & now we are paying for it. We did 4 sets at the 9 a.m. part 2 trg of 3 ex, not incl a warm-up run, (many times) sprints while weaving in/out of unruly traffic & minimizing inhalation of carbon monoxide. Then we had the pumping ex, abs & frog jump. I even conversed with the stars, counting how many there were in broad daylight. Many times I juz want to crumble onto the grass but get scolded by QH to stand up. I oso ate lotsa tidbits so I¡¯m paying for it now. There¡¯s not much wind now but I figure we¡¯ll definitely go out & do a few hrs of hard pumping. It seems that we are forever struggling with each day¡¯s trg coz I realized that QH is adding an extra set to each day¡¯s program, hence pushing us. I think to be positive, my fitness is definitely improving coz I can do every ex properly, reducing rest time & doing each ex harder. QH is out to make us so fatigued that when we rest b4 a race, we can spring to a higher dimension of fitness. I was juz commenting to QH that zhejiang girls¡¯ forearms r very big; I think same size as Andrew¡¯s¡­juz look very thick. All of them are about 60+ kgs, tall oso. This morning, we saw them do 100 pull-ups¡­they can do as many sets as they want as long as they finish 100 reps. Wow¡­power! We still hv not kenna 100 pull-ups in our trg YET. Oh, this morn, QH was saying he muz train our tummies till ¡®mei mei¡¯, meaning lean & only abs, not blobs of fat. Ahaha¡­I was very happy to hear that. Coz all his athletes got nice 8 abs (guys). I think he¡¯s very determined¡­ I¡¯m feeling excited about training¡­coz the race is over & we can now focus on training, training, training¡­moreover, I went to Shanwei town y¡¯day. Bought a lot of tidbits for relatives as well as other stuff. Plus, I bought a regular XIAO DING DANG soft-toy for only RMB35. I¡¯m SO HAPPY to have xiao ding dang sleeping wif me every nite. Hehe¡­in Cantonese, he¡¯s called xiao ding dong! Hehe, like a mad guy. He¡¯s so fat & cute!! & he can fly when he puts up his aero-wings on his head!! It¡¯s 1 p.m. now¡­juz back from lunch. QH was saying that his hope is for me to get the breakthru¡¯, to get the GOLD¡­and for the boys to come back wif medals. They¡¯re too distant from the Thais & Indo guys¡­hence can only hope for a medal. QH urged me to have the confidence that I can get the gold as light wind conditions certainly favours me, my weight & height etc¡­ I¡¯m so excited!!!! I¡¯m growing to love training & pushing, knowing that EVERYDAY, I¡¯m pushing myself to a higher dimension; bettering myself; strengthening my character; trusting in God a little more & feeling His tangible grace day by day. I certainly miss church a great deal¡­I certainly miss the wonderful presence of God which I cannot get in such intensity here tho¡¯ I do have it when I worship Him. I¡¯m beginning to understand wat San San said abt me beginning to start LIVING when I start pro windsurfing. Coz all the time, we r pushing thru¡¯ limits & climbing to higher ones¡­it¡¯s up to me how much I want to suffer now & reap the rewards later. It¡¯s satisfying knowing that I¡¯m fully responsible for my own results, yet at the same time, scary. A good sailor will not give excuses for poor performance. If he didn¡¯t train hard, he won¡¯t get good results. Oh, did I tell u wat San San said to me juz b4 she left¡­On the prize-giving night, san san came up to me & talked to me¡­wow!!! Guess what she told me?? She told me to email her the SEA Games results & she says that she knows I can do it¡­get the gold & let her know I did it. I laughed in amazement at what she was saying & she juz nodded her head & said ¡®yes, I know u can¡­¡¯ & ¡®I saw u running hard that day¡¯ & then shook my hand. U can¡¯t imagine the encouragement I felt from that few sentences. Enough to pull me through the toughest times!! She¡¯s trained harder than anyone else to get the results she deserved!