Wednesday, 20 January 2010

  • Fav photos

    Some of my favourite shots...

    This was at Fullerton Hotel.  I was moving around the figure, trying to find the right light, and suddenly, I saw it!



    I thought this was a nice picture of the cat.  It was either this, or a side profile shot... in the end, I chose this instead.



    I thought I did pretty well, considering I was using a 35mm prime lens which translate to about 50mm focal length, and still managed to take this giant in total.


    I'm not sure why I like this.  I just do..
    It's from a wide-angle from Panasonic G system


    Nice wooden horse from Penang


    Choosing one of two pictures... in the end, I chose this because it shows the vast expanse of sea and fisherman is a good size comparison for everything else.

    The other picture focuses just on fisherman..




  • Sunrise @ Esplanade

    Great morning shoot with the "Relax shoot" guys at Esplanade.  In fact, my second shoot with them.  My first shoot was kinda messed up.  Not sure why but I think my G1 with the 7-14mm wide angle lens were not focused properly (maybe).  But this time, I came with an exact idea of what I was going to do.

    I was going to park myself at one spot and just take pictures of multiple exposures of the same spot.  By the time I got set up it was still okay - darkish at 6.37am... took a few test shots, then started shoot at 6.38am.  Every minute after that, I will take a few more shots of different shutter speeds.  First time doing this... now I know, every 2 mins, the shutter speed needs to be moved up.  Also, as the sky got clearer, I need to not let the shutter increase too fast, as it is supposed to be brighter with sun going up.  In the end I took 350 photos... till 7.52am.  Quite enjoyed what I learnt, it's amazing.  In fact, out the the 350, I think there's only three photos that are "there", each from a different scene.
    1.  Dark, with lights from the building
    2.  Sky turning from blue to red, half half
    3.  Sun is on the way up, or fully up - yellow.

    My fav is two.  It only happens between 7.01am and 7.02am, with only the right shutter speed to bring out the full colours.  Undoubtedly, a lot of shots, and different setting, all to get "the" picture.

    Now I understand.



Tuesday, 15 December 2009

  • Tired but keeping the HR

    It's a lower level of HR now and getting more difficult to push the HR up, but surprised that I still managed OK.  This morning (15 Dec), HR finally dropped drastically and very very difficult to push both power and HR.  Most likely due to a very good interval ride last Fri (3 days ago)







    Three consecutive days of workout, followed by two days of rest.  Which is totally the opposite of what I do for base (continuous consecutive days with many many workouts per day).



    This one I kept going at higher and higher pace as the body warmed up.


    I was feeling very tired at first and didn't plan on pushing but midway, felt good enough to start pushing it.  Went for hard intervals and hard recoveries.  Generated a lot of power.




Wednesday, 09 December 2009

Saturday, 05 December 2009

  • Normality

    These two graphs are from one of my last few rides before my crash.  A Thursday morning ride (same ride that Serene Lee crashed) while about four of us including Lost Boy Keiser were trying to pull away from the group.  I remember being a little impatient because no one was working much while Lost Boy was ... a little lost.  Finally getting into a rhythm, we hit a bump on the road while heading down Clementi Road area (the section that links into the highway) and we actually passed the area already when we heard the distinct sound of a crash behind so we slowed and some of us stopped while Serene was tended to.  I can't believe it was only 24 Sept when this happened; it seemed so much longer before even prior to my crash on Oct 3.

    http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/longhouse5am/message/16356


    It has been a bad year for me..  between April to June, I thought I was never going to be able to ride at a decent pace again.  My heart was giving me scares I've not experienced before, and everything I did (and boy, did I try a lot of things - recovery, more base rides, different diets) didn't help.  I attributed the problem to be work-related.  I destroyed my body the second half of 2008 while working on a project, drinking loads of caffeine related products, having inhumane working hours, many days lasting 6am till 12am and using Coke and other stuffs to keep pushing myself to complete projects.  Over and over and over again.  It was possibly a withdrawal syndrome but boy, was I glad when things started getting better in July.  I could at least start getting back to riding normally (albeit slowly).  So July was a lot of base training and finally getting in shape in Sept.  And then the Oct crash.

    I remember I was having a good time at the ride, mostly because I was drafting the first part of the ride.  As usual Changi was harder.  But enough to still sprint for the end.  Was riding back with Kit when the freak accident happened.  Almost two months later, I am back trying to train for 2010.



    It is not easy for me to sustain or go above 160bpm normally.  Am hoping to tweak some more of my training this year but it looks like more of the same; the super high heart rate I had for the first two trainings are already going down.

Friday, 04 December 2009

  • A new look for Xanga

    Makes it easier to read.  I pretty much designed the entire theme from scratch.  Haven't put any pictures yet but even so, it will be in background; out of the way.  I also have www.cyphercat.com registered for 5 years for a nominal fee, redirected to here.  I guess when the time comes, I should be able to easily redirect it away somewhere else.
  • Slowing a bit

    After the first two days of setting new MaxHR, wondering how much longer I can keep it up.  I can generate power now, but sustaining is a bit more difficult.  Without going out to ride outside, it is quite difficult to do base training, be it at higher or lower HR.  Classes are pretty limited to one hours.  The only way is doing multiple classes in a day during the weekends.  With a busy schedule, that may not be possible also.

    Easily going above 160bpm and sustaining high HR, but not exceeding 180bpm already.


    Trying to generate sustained power by remaining seated throughout the ride.  One of the keys of base training.  There are seven of them.  I can't remember all of them at the moment; when the time comes, I will.  There are also personally developed methods of achieving them.  HR is much lower but I am cranking more power.  Too fast, too soon?


    Currently
    Honto No Kimochi
    By Takako Matsu
    see related

Saturday, 28 November 2009

  • Off to a new start

    No more nicely scaled Tudor Bompa Periodization, at least to start off.  There will still be turtle rides, when I need to start chalking up the miles.  But for these two days, I found that I can really ramp it up and discover my true MaxHR.  I wish I really had the measuring tools, to check my VO2Max and lactate thresholds especially at new Max.  Ah well.  Can't have it all.

    I definitely am not generating anything near lactate threshold yet, nor VO2Max either.  It's just Max HR.  That's quite easily achievable from not training for a while, but I was surprised by the quickness I managed to get this.  I didn't start out that way either; I really thought I was going to push 85% if I could, because there's no point starting at base 70% (my usual 130bpm turtle rides) so as to get a jump start on my training.  When I saw my HR reaching 93%, I was going... Okay, maybe I am pushing a bit too hard.  When I reached my MaxHR and still not feeling my heart bursting, I decided to go for a standing run later on.  Beyond 180bpm (my previous MaxHR) I did feel a bit lightheaded and careful not to black out (especially since I am riding with only one hand).  At 184bpm, I decided to back out.  Yeah, it was a bit tiring but I think I slowed more from fear, and yet excited at the same time.



    The next day, I was more willing to push my Max.  In fact, can see from the graph that I went up to 85% right within 30secs already.  Didn't bother with the niceties.



    Side effects include feeling sleepy and eating more.  Due to non-riding, I have been eating less and my stomach is not prepared to take in more food yet.



Sunday, 27 September 2009

  • The end of Facebook?

    Too many times I'm getting

    "You have exceeded the number of invalid login attempts that we allow for your account."


    I am setting up my friend's list on Twitter already... planning to move soon maybe.  Photos and stuffs will probably still make me stick to FB but I tell you, I'm getting really pissed with it.  Plus I already have Picasa set up as the better version of Photos; the only thing is the tagging of people.  Soon... soon...

Saturday, 11 April 2009

  • Ride to Changi

    haven't been back here for a while.  Maybe just switch back to logging training stuffs.  Saw Ben Wee back on the bike today.
    Today was a nice n relatively easy ride, except it was tough on the crotch especially after yesterday's chaffing with the old USPS shorts.

    Rode out to Ghim Moh to pick someone up, 11.32km @ 23.7kmh, avg HR 105bpm
    Rode back to Longhouse, 9.51km @ 25.1kmh, avg HR 93bpm (it's faster but lower HR because I was drafting)
    Longhouse to Longhouse via Ghim Moh, 37.68km @ 26.9kmh, avg HR 104bpm
    Longhouse to Changi, 48.46km @ 34.7kmh, avg HR 144bpm
    Changi to East Coast Hawker, 4.35km @ 25.1kmh, avg HR 125bpm
    ECH to home, 15.59km @ 25.7khm, avg HR 128bpm.

    Total 126.9km covered with an avg speed of 28.6kmh and 120bpm HR over 4hrs 25mins 48secs.

Friday, 31 October 2008

  • Sony still the best

    After going through a couple of expensive earphones, here I am, back again to Sony branding and yes, in my opinion still one of the best earphones around.

    Just got the MDR-EX500SL.  New enough that I can't find it on S'pore Sony website yet.  The sound is fantastic, and I have tried some funky earphones including Ultimate Ears, Creative, Denon...

    They even got the sizing and weight corrected (i.e. an extension cord is still required but it's so much more lightweight and they've got this wrapper that allows the shortening of the cord - things which have gotten me miffed with some previous earphones that were dragging down on my ears, not to mention Sony design their wiring to go behind the neck, instead of in front, where the weight issue compounds the problem).

  • Visit cyphercat's Xanga Site
    • Name: Bernard
    • Country: Singapore
    • Metro: Singapore
    • Gender: Male
    • Member Since: 5/8/2003
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