“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.” Shaquille O’Neal
We all have good habits and bad habits. Step-by-step we can introduce healthier habits into our lives with positive health outcomes and increased happiness as a direct result.
Here are 5 simple ones for us to start, continue with, or improve upon.
Continue reading 5 Simple Habits for a Healthier Mind and Body
With the 38th Milo Marathon this Sunday the 27th of July 2014 I wanted to share the many lessons I have learned in my previous 13 marathons. This will be my 4th Milo Marathon and I am glad to support the race knowing that it has been such a well respected race in the Philippines.
One day I hope to have run 65 marathons like my friend Willy Yao and I am sure I will still be learning valuable lessons then too.
13 Marathons – 13 Lessons
Marathon 1. You Have To Be Well Nourished Before and During the Marathon
I went into my first marathon with total ignorance and paid a heavy price. The Subic International Marathon 2009 (4 hours 31 minutes) was a lesson in nutrition for me as I did not eat a proper lunch before the 4pm start. I was top 30 after 32km and then I hit the wall. I did not even have any food or cash on me that day but I always do now.
Marathon 2. It Is More Fun and Rewarding to Share the Journey
I ran the Great Wall of China Marathon in 2010 in 4:49:39. We joined a Filipino contingent and made some excellent friends and had the time of our lives. Realizing how great it was to be part of a large group helped sway us to join the Melbourne Ironman 2014.
“Begin with the end in mind.” Stephen R. Covey
Our birth certificates do not have an expiration date so we actually have a saying in to how well and how long we live. Of course outside forces may affect this but what we do today will have an impact on our tomorrow.
What is the key to longevity? There is not one perfect answer but many things that you can do to give yourself a better quality and quantity of life. See what is the Primed Lifestyle.
From the facebook page of Overfed and Undernourished.
Continue reading What Do You Want To Do When You Are 90 Years Old?
The Run – The Reason I Swam and Biked
Wow, what a blast it was to be finally off the bike. I did a quick stock take of my body and I was feeling good. I had no cramps, was very happy with my bike nutrition and drinks consumption.
It was a great relief to have on my trusty K-Swiss mens running shoes and I felt I was ready to rock the run course.
I was initially thinking of maintaining a 5 minute per kilometer pace but decided to go with the flow and run at whatever pace I was comfortable doing. Well, for the first 10km that pace was at a quick 4:31/km average. I was flying past many triathletes with many a spectator commenting on my pace, my easy running style and encouraging me to keep going. Indeed, the most memorable guy was standing outside a hotel with a beer in hand. He told me if I maintained my pace that I would overtake 500 people. I must have done a double take and looked at him with apprehension as he then repeated it and told me to keep it going. I kept his comments in my mind the whole run as I did indeed want to overtake 500 people.
It turns out that I actually ran past 472 people with not one person over-taking me. So, of the 360 that took me on the bike it turns out that I got them back on the run with interest. I got to overtake another 100+ who were already running even if I was still many kilometers out on my bike.
I loved the run. I will never forget it as I got my personal best time of 3:28:27 (beating my previous best by almost 2 minutes). It is very empowering to know you can run so strongly after a hard bike ride.
Continue reading MELBOURNE IRONMAN Part 4
The Days Before the Ironman
One of the highlights of the whole trip was our breakfast with most of the 80 strong Filipino contingent. Thanks to Fred Uytengsu and Princess of Sunrise Events we had an excellent breakfast together and discussed our excitement for the pending event. Fred even arranged for the eventual female winner, Caroline Steffen from Switzerland, to give some words of inspiration to us all. She also won Melbourne Ironman 2012.
After putting our transition bags into Frankston we simply ate well and rested.
We had a very big late lunch of smoked salmon with avocado, scramble eggs, ham, mushroom, tomato, spinach, chicken, green tea and even a glass of red for me! We were in bed by 6pm and had a restful sleep knowing we had trained well, tapered appropriately and had done all we could to be ready for the grueling task ahead of us.
Definitely no carbo-loading occurred this time. Luckily we had Tri-United 1 as our triathlon warm up before Melbourne as Natasha learned a very valuable lesson. Despite not eating much bread, pasta, rice, noodles etc. for at least a month before Tri-United 1 Natasha decided to “carbo load” a little the night before the race. She ate a simple Japanese Udon Noodle dish that reacted very badly with her stomach so that she was quite ill several hours before that race and up to gun start. That lesson was well and truly learned from and neither of us would make that mistake again here! We stuck to our regular nutrition of quality meat, vegetables and fruit.
Continue reading MELBOURNE IRONMAN Part 3
You are an Ironman! These are the 4 words a lot of triathletes aspire to hear one day.
It is not just receiving the medal, or wearing the Ironman shirt afterwards, that makes those words so special, but the knowledge that you have achieved something significant that you can look back on with pride. It means that you were able to master the 3 distinct disciplines of the Ironman event (swim 3.8km, bike 180km and then run 42.2km).
This 5 part post will discuss these 3 disciplines as well as the most important and neglected 4th discipline of nutrition. Nutrition relates to your eating lifestyle months prior to the event and not just the supposed carbo-loading fallacy most athletes do the days prior to their event.
I hope you can learn from what I did right (as well as wrong) so your first Ironman will be a success.
Continue reading MELBOURNE IRONMAN Part 1
(1) The scenery. If you love to run then what better than getting to see the beautiful sights that rural Philippines has to offer? It is fun running through local villages and talk to the friendly locals, if only politely to ask for directions;
(2) The fresh air. Well, if you have ever run along Edsa then you know what I mean. Besides the great scenery you get to breathe fresh, clean air;
Tri Friendly Rivalries
Our motivation to race in triathlons is because we enjoy competing, having fun and meeting great new friends. Sometimes those friends started as rivals: friendly rivals, but rivals non-the-less. It is fun to be a little competitive as we would all rather finish one spot higher if we could (unless you came first).
One of my friendly rivals is Jualyn. We have been friends since our running days and have run many races together such as Quezon City Marathon, Condura Marathon and a few Milo Marathons.
I had not beaten Jualyn in triathlons since he did his very first triathlon at Tri-United 1 way back on March 10th, 2013. He had beaten me in at least 4 triathlons since then and was getting a bit cocky. One of our last races was Tri-United 1 in March 2014, and he beat me then by 1 minute and 52 seconds.
I recently beat Jualyn by 1 minute and 14 seconds at SubiT triathlon on April 27th, 2014. My time was 2:31:03 and Jualyn’s 2:32:17.
Facebook Posts to Inflame the Rivalry
• Chad Davis – Hey Jualyn, How are you mate? Having sleepless nights thinking about how I beat you by 1 minute and 14 seconds? It is nice to get you back after you beat me in every triathlon we did together since Tri-U 1 in March 2013. Haha. I am enjoying this very much. See you for some training soon my friend.
• Jualyn – you got me Chad Davis, but no worries in Tu2 prepare for new battle hehe
• Criselle (Jualyn’s wife) – Haha, he’s having a hard time to believe it Chad , congratulations!
One of our next races together after Tri-United 2 on July 6th will be a 21km trail run on October 12 in the beautiful Sierra Madre mountainous region of Tanay Rizal. To join us visit http://www.pimcosportingevents.net/ or https://www.facebook.com/PimcoSportsEvents.
Another Friendly Rival, RJ Lorenzo
My other friendly rival is RJ Lorenzo. I still remember the 23rd of June, 2013 when I beat him at the 5150 standard distance triathlon and he was telling me that he couldn’t believe it! At first I did not know who he was but when I saw the RJ on his race bib I knew it was the RJ who had always previously beaten me!
Since April 2013 RJ and I have raced 6 times with us winning 3 times each and a difference of just 17 seconds combined after almost 20 hours of racing! Who is the better triathlete? RJ was 17 seconds faster over the 6 triathlons but I won the last race in March 2014 so I am the better triathlete in my humble opinion. For now!
Amazing Co-incidence
Here is a cool and amazing co-incidence. In 2 triathlon races (Tri-United 1 and Melbourne Ironman) Natasha and Weng have raced over 277km for a combined time of exactly 18:33:21 each. Great racing ladies!
So, who is your friendly rival? Do they motivate you to keep training and inspire you to do your best. Competition is healthy and should be fun. Good luck to Jualyn and RJ Lorenzo, but not too much.
Primed for Your Life 