mojojojo is a supervillian. but mojojoey is a superhero.

I am improving ridiculous amounts.

Coach is really happy with how the swim is going, I've been smashing the run to pieces, and well, ironically the bike isn't going as well as he wants. Even though a year ago he said I would have to become a killer biker because my swim and my run were both shit.

In fact I am going so fast that he said people are going to start wanting to give me their own bullshit two cents. And I have to plug my ears if I want to keep getting faster. And the next thing that is going to happen is that they are going to think I'm on drugs.

ROFLMAO!!!!!

Seriously? That'll be the day. I guess that makes the list of "when you know you've made it."

So this is how I spend my last week of August...

In another lifetime I was going to do a mini training camp in another country with a guy I really liked.

In another lifetime I was T-2 weeks from doing another ironman in Korea.

Instead plane tickets were changed, and I'm here in Switzerland for 5 more days of just whacking the crap out of myself in training. Most of my teammates have left, and even Coach is taking off tomorrow to get to Korea camp earlier. My roommates have left me to clean out the apartment, and clean it out by Swiss standards--the rental people are SO going to charge me for cleaning...!

I'm pretty much over the disappointment of the guy I really liked, but I'm trying to get over the disappointment of not doing the race in 2 weeks. I'm the fittest I've ever been and maybe even close to hitting and breaking the 10-hour mark. Which is crazy if you think about how many years I worked to get under 5 hours in a half ironman...I just did that for the first time about 13 months ago. I never could fathom breaking 5 hours back-to-back, i.e. going under 10 in an ironman, so soon. Of course, it hasn't happened yet, but I smell it's getting closer.

THe excuse for race cancellation was swine flu, but everyone is pretty sure there just wasn't enough interest, and therefore not enough money. Maybe 100 participants registered? It was supposed to be the first race where I got paid an appearance fee/travel expenses ($800!!!) so I'm kind of smacking myself in the head for counting on that. According to Bella I probably won't get paid for Embrunman for "a few months." And we still haven't gotten our team paychecks for August yet...

I am trying not to let the financial woes get to me either, but it is pretty damn hard when the only credit card you brought (as you are trying to keep the debt under control) is damn near maxed out. Luckily I still have some Korean cash from winning the race in Jeju, which should cover my September training camp rent and groceries--I can budget $80/week for the 4 weeks I'm there, and the food there is cheaper, so I think I'll be ok.

Such is the life of a pro triathlete...

I guess I can't be TOO disappointed though, because in the original plan from when I left home in July--I didn't even know about this other Korean ironman. I only learned about it after I won the race in Korea. And I didn't even expect to be racing in Europe. So I'm really glad I volunteered to race at Embrunman: the experience, the result, and of course the MONEY, was completely unexpected. So I didn't even think I was going to be racing at all in August and September.

But still I can't help it. Tomorrow is my first track marathon here, I haven't done one since April in the Philippines. So let's see if I can break the 3:39 track PR, or even better, the 3:33 Embrun PR. Sub 3:30 would be nice. :)

You know what though...now I'm thinking back to my last week of August 2008. I was about to head to my very first training camp--I think I arrived in the Philippines very early September 2008. I had just finished my prosthetics residency, and that damn research paper. I was partying like crazy because it was my way of saying goodbye to life as I knew it...

I look back at life as I knew it, and how much has changed and happened in the past 12 months. It's been an incredible journey and it just keeps on getting better. Ok. There will be more races to do, more PR's to be made and more...more everything. Life really is not so bad. :)

 wow.  so I haven't posted in LJ since I left the States and went off to win my first Ironman in Korea and then came to Switzerland camp and then got 5th place at Embrunman, one of the toughest IM courses in the world?

ok well most of my "official" blogging is over at blogs.teamtbb.com/jocelynwong.

but here I can still be a bit of a dork.

because OMG OMG OMG I ran a 3:33 marathon off the craziest hilliest 190k bike (almost took 7.5 hours).  after a 1:05 swim!  I can't believe I ran my way from 15th to 5th!!!  WTF where is the world coming to?

a little bit of the glory, the shock, the excitement in these two photos:

 so I was shopping at Target this afternoon and asked one of the red-shirted workers where to find something.  She looked at me and said "wow, you've lost a lot of weight."

I was like WHOA...does she remember me from shopping here before?!

"You don't remember me do you...?  I ran track for Westmoor..."

it didn't click until I wandered away that she was one of the kids I coached when I was assistant coach during the 2004 track season.

This morning I weighed in at 138 lbs on Amy's scale.  Ok it was post-ride and I was probably a tad dehydrated, but my pee was pretty clear.  It was the first time since before college (that would be 1999) that I've been in the 130's.

It didn't hit me until Target girl's comment that I weighed 30 lbs more 5 years ago.  THIRTY FREAKIN' POUNDS.  That's kind of a lot.  I'm not sure I ever hit 170 because at that point I stopped weighing myself.  But I do recall seeing "168."

Life is CRAZY.
Life is good.

:)

Somehow it seems busier this time around...versus when I came home from that first rookie camp.  I'm not sure what it is...I hardly even have time to BLOG.  speaking of which, my teamTBB blog's URL has been moved.  it's now at http://blogs.teamtbb.com/jocelynwong...in case you didn't know already.  So be sure to update your bookmarks :)  The latest post has pics of my little hobbits jumping up and down on my back.

So what is it...?  I think I am actually training more, squeezed into working my part-time hours.  I'm also more focused and disciplined after training with the big shots in Subic and having some great results in the early season.  I am more focused on eating well, and getting enough sleep.  8 hours minimum, 9 hours is my ideal.

Most days I work 10-4 and squeeze in some training before and after work.  I'm essentially working two jobs, because as Boss Coach says, I have to think about this triathlon thing as a job if I want to succeed.  There's always 2 or 3 workouts every day.  As you can imagine, with the ideal hours of sleep, this doesn't leave much time for seeing friends, family, or the dog.  Since I live at home, seeing the immediate family is a default, and I try to play chase with Guinness in the backyard when I'm not too pooped coming home at night.  We try to go to the beach together once a week, usually on the weekend.  The only time I ever watch TV is on Monday mornings when I'm doing my trainer workout in the bike in living room.

I do feel bad hardly ever seeing my friends, and the extended family.  Everyone lives so close and I'm actually in the same time zone.  You'd think I would have more time on the weekend, but that's when I can hit even more big training hours.  I know, I'm only home in this country half the year now, and when I am home, I'm even busier than when I am at training camp, having to work the "real" job and all.  The weeks do actually go by really quick when you are so busy, suddenly I've been home 2 months already and there are some people I haven't even seen!

Today I'm going to bike to Nori's house in the Santa Cruz mountains, to drop off the baby present I got in Florida before he outgrows it!!!  I haven't even seen the little guy yet...  this is how I squeeze in my social life.  A couple weekends ago I went "wine tasting" with my coworker.  Which really meant we drove up to a wine-tasting area, and I rode my bike for 3 hours while she went wine tasting.  We had a yummy dinner together following that.  again, this is how I squeeze in my social life.  Last weekend was the housewarming at Soda's, which I slept over at, so we could then wake up, go on a bike ride together, and then I could get in a big swim at the pool she lifeguards at, as she started her work shift.

...this is how I squeeze in my social life.

 WHOA...."last updated 6 weeks ago" says my LJ homepage.  Well obviously I have been doing most of my blogging on my teamTBB blog, because that's the sponsored blog and part of my job as a sponsored athlete!  what I don't like about it is that comments are disabled, you have to join the team forum and post responses on the forum.  Which encourages people to participate in our forum discussions, so everyone is always welcome.

anyway I am excited to post about my new jeans today.  I got tired of all my jeans hanging off my butt (even the size 4's, WTF) so I finally took my Gap giftcards I got for Christmas and bought TWO pairs of the jeans I have been wanting to get..."The Essential" jeans.  They were even on sale, so I only ended up paying $9.39 for 2 pairs of jeans!  Regular price is almost $60 a pair...which is 2-3x more than my previous jeans of choice....the Mossimo "Black" jeans at Target, which I have like 4 or 5 pairs of.

What tickles me the most is that, well, I am a size 2 now.  !!!!!!!



I know, WTF right?!  I remember sometime within the last 2 years fitting into size 6 jeans at Target and getting REALLY excited...because size 6--now that must surely be skinny for a tall girl like me.  And after being in size 10's between college and grad school....(just 5 years ago, WTF) size 6 is so much smaller!  You know, I never felt like size 10 was really huge when I was a 10.  I wasn't fat or anything, or I didn't think I was...but looking back I was 20-25lbs heavier than I am now.  No wonder I had trouble going faster.

As for the transformation from size 6 to size 4 to size 2, holy crap.  When I got to the Philippines last September, I went to the Gap with galiwaw, and that was when I discovered the "Essential" cut of jeans.  Yes, it fits girls with big cycling quads--described as mid rise, straight leg, and wide leg opening.  With the requisite 2% spandex stretch for the quads.  And I fit a size 6.  And I think I was still kind of excited to be a size 6, and not an 8 or 10.  I think the 4's were a bit tight.  I didn't buy any because a little bit of weight loss was anticipated.  Then over the course of rookie camp, I had a pair of size 4 Target jeans that were my skinny jeans, and one day I put them on (it was usually too hot to wear jeans) and WHOA!  they were kind of loose.  WHOA.

At the end of that camp, Boss Coach said no buying new jeans yet, he wasn't done with shrinking me.  He said to invest in a new belt.  Ok fine!  I think I went to a Gap over Christmas and fit into the size 4 Essential jeans.  How exciting!  But they were too expensive to buy if I continued to shrink my butt down.  So I listened to Boss Coach, and got a new belt.

I hate wearing belts.  And the last boot camp it became ridiculous how much my jeans were falling off my butt.  We traveled a lot to races so I was always traveling in my jeans (otherwise too hot to wear jeans, like I said).  So yes by now I was tired of loose saggy jeans.  Now I have new jeans.  Yipee.

Ok I will stop bragging about my size 2 ass now.  HEHEHEHE

Mojo:  on what planet does the Wongstar get the 3rd fastest marathon split?  I am still surprised.

Boss Coach:  Who in my squad has done the amount of long work you did?
None
How many have done the amount of marathons you have in training?
None
This shit works
Its all pretty watching others skip around the track in fast times for little distances but
When it comes to 8 hr day it means shit .
Remember that .

I had the fastest run split on all of teamTBB, both girls AND boys.  :D  mighty chuffed about that!!
not too shabby for the one on the team who skipped around the track the slowest, eh!!

My race report and all my China blogs leading up to the big day, and afterwards, like my finish videos, are on the team blog:
www.teamtbb.com/jocelynwong

Now I'm home and it's cold.  I wore double tights on my run with G-dog at the beach today.  At camp everyone kept telling me how skinny my arms were getting.  Now I come home and the damn arm warmers won't stay on my arms.  They weren't kidding!  maybe if I grow swimming muscles they'll stay on??

Starting work a week early, i.e. on Monday.
Mojo:  won't I be jetlagged?
Work Boss:  Yeah, but you'll be all right.  The sooner you start, the better.

Am sad about having to re-dye my hair back to a normal color.  How boring!  Work Boss didn't say that I had to, but we both know it is sometimes hard enough getting patients to take my authority seriously.  I'm not going to give them another reason not to.  so Sunday night will be bye-bye cool red/pink hair.  For 3 days anyway...I'm gonna try to preserve it somehow and bring back the pink for WILDFLOWER!!

also excited that I may be doing:
Ironman Coeur d'Alene.  Switzerland camp in July.  Ironman Wisconsin.  Asian camp in September/October.  and Ironman Cozumel!!  or Arizona.  but hopefully Cozumel!  everyone says if I can stomp out a sub-4 marathon without feeling the heat (113 F with a heat index of 122 F) and a huge smile all the way to the finish, then Mexico is the place to go...  que fantastico!!

most of the preparation for Ironman China is over and done with and now in my body.  I'm pretty stoked for this race, it's the most I've ever trained for this distance, both physically and mentally.  Coach and I both know I am about to have the best race of my life.

Singapore was more of a test race for me, and I had done the 42k marathon around the track just 5 days before...I was in denial about it affecting my race then, but now that I stop and think about it, duh!  maybe I didn't get a PR because I still had a marathon in my legs?!  Well, since then we've done another track marathon and I improved by another 5 minutes and unofficially "qualified for Boston" with it.  3:39:57.  that's kind of hilarious actually.  Despite wanting to throw in the towel with 7k to go... yes, I walked 200m and stopped to talk to Coach because somehow I thought it would feel "easier" than the first time...HA!  He made me finish and said "you'll thank me later."  Thank you, Coach!

On the mental side, I believe in myself now more than ever.  I belong here, and I will get there.

Tuesday we leave for Singapore, Wednesday we land in China.

It's been a long journey to get here, and it's only the beginning.

 so not long after the my latest post on my TBB blog about "Heat Camp #5", well, the day after, which was yesterday, we had a long bike ride in the middle of the day.

I had a great ride, and felt like the weather was actually a little cooler than usual.  Thinking about my blog about heat adaptation, I laughed to myself, saying "this is probably how hot it was when I got here in February, and I bet back then I thought this was torturously hot!!  Now it's not so bad at all."

When my roommates came back from their ride too, I was commenting to Scott, "yeah, so it wasn't as hot today, huh?"

He looked like he wanted to shoot me.  "Are you being sarcastic?!"

uhhhhh....oh.

Apparently it was one of the hottest days we've ever had here and everyone else was dying.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I LOVE THIS SONG!!!

 Thank you, your transaction is confirmed and you are registered for the event listed below.

Registration/ confirmation ID: 1102086
Name: Jocelyn Sui-Yee Wong 
Event: Ironman China 2009
Category: PRO Ironman
Start Date: 19/04/2009 - 00:00

What Country will you be representing?: United States
On which country's passport will you be traveling?: United States


I was debating on whether to represent the USA or China.  Sure I am born and raised American but I'm undoubtedly also Chinese despite only stepping on Chinese soil to race an Ironman here and again.  :P  Think of all the media attention I would get!!  Maybe I would even get invited to the press conference??

Alas I decided to represent the USA.  I'm not sure the Chinese government would want me.  They already have like over half a billion women to make into Ironman champions.


in other news I saw Macca's race report on Xtri, where he calls Singapore "a very hot, humid race."  AHA!  is that why everyone melted on the run and I was able to run really close to all the other pro chicks' run splits?  Boss Coach said to get a run PR in those conditions was really good...and to think I didn't find it so hot or humid.  PROGRESS :D

 is on my official team website.  with zillions of pictures.   enjoy!

http://www.teamtbb.com/jocelynwong

 LJ was acting weird so I couldn't really add text to my photos.  oh well.  new post!

I wanted to say something like...

hot pink hair?  check!

new Blue Seventy speedsuit?  check!

new Cervelo P2C?  check!

new Avia running shoes?  check!

finishing strong?  CHECK!!!



At first I wasn't that happy with my race because I was frustrated that the times didn't reflect how much I've improved.  The non-wetsuit swim in jellyfish infested waters (I got stung pretty bad 5+ times) where I swam completely by myself as I was dropped by the pro pack (as expected) resulted in my slowest half iron swim time in YEARS.....42 minutes OUCH!
the bike was not as flat and fast as advertised (or I'm just weak?!).  it was pretty windy being up on the freeway.  wah wah.

the good stuff:
my run ended up being a PR!  even after I ran a PR marathon on the track 5 days before the race (3:44 with the last 200m walking with Boss Coach).  HA!  the best part of my run split was that it was only 3-5 minutes behind all the other pro women (except the winner).  WHAT?!?!  and my bike split was within 5 minutes of 6th and 7th.  Just the swim was shockingly bad then.

it's hard to compare different courses and conditions.  Boss Coach says it was the best race of my life by a large margin.  So despite missing my 70.3 PR by 12 minutes I'm very pleased after looking at all the other times on the results page.  And the girl that won (who is kinda fat, for real) said it was really hot and humid.  I didn't think it was very hot and humid personally but that probably played a role in why my times were slow too.  That's what Boss Coach says...when I get home I'll be "slicing and dicing" my times!!

 






  

I ended up going into more detail on the Mulan reference in my teamTBB blog.

for those of you who don't follow that (but you totally should so I can keep having the team's #1 blog...it's nice to be #1 in SOMEthing on that crazy fast team...) I'll paste it here too.  After going over the movie synopsis (it's been ages since I've watched Disney's Mulan), I realized that I have more in common with her that I thought!  how could I forget that a good chunk of the movie is Mulan going to training camp and being the shittiest recruit??

Mulan is a legendary Chinese warrior heroine who joined the all-male army in place of her father, cutting off all her hair and disguising herself as a boy to help fight the Huns who have invaded China. In the movie she goes to training camp (!!!) which has a very grueling training schedule for the soldiers. At this camp, Mulan is pretty pathetic, in fact, she is the absolute worst of all the new recruits and they even ask her to leave as she is so bad. so weak and SLOW and uncoordinated! She probably can’t even do 100 push-ups (certainly not the manly way) and I bet her swim stroke was awful. But she ultimately learns to HTFU and impresses the captain with her determination and consistent hard work, eventually earning the respect and friendship of her fellow soldiers. She becomes one of China’s greatest warriors and returns home a big heroine.

Sound familiar? I came into this grueling training camp as one of the weakest (if not THE weakest) recruits athletically. Coincidentally enough I even cut off all my hair before coming this time.  I was even afraid Coach would send me home during the first week… well now I have my new horse and the two of us are working our BUTTS off here at training camp to also prove ourselves to Coach and my fellow “soldiers.” We are learning to HTFU and training hard with the goal of defeating the enemy in China…Ironman China!



I too vow to return home a big heroine.

breaking up is not so hard to do, when you have someone way sexier, faster...and 3 years younger waiting in the wings.

sorry Blue Steel, it was not meant to be.  we had some good times...our first (and second!) trip overseas, our first ironman in the pro division, our first sub-5 half ironman, our first pro training camp.  We even made it past the one year mark.  Now how many men in my life can claim that...?  Memories I'll always cherish but I had to move on.



 so the new guy.  his name is Khan the Warrior Horse.  I am totally madly in love with him.



in case you were wondering, Khan is the name of Mulan's horse in the Disney movie.



and OMG I even get the BIG GIRL time trial bars.  we totally smashed up the fucking hills today.  (that is what I told him each time we did a hill repeat..."we are going to smash up this fucking hill....we are going to smash up this fucking hill...."  ha and Angela doesn't think I ever use swear words...!!)

I even ended up getting my rock star hair updated to match the new bike!

      


THE END.

 

Dear Jocelyn SuiYee Wong

Thank you. You have registered for Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore 2009 successfully. The Confirmation Slip below is for your reference. Please kindly print it out for your race pack collection.

AVIVA IRONMAN 70.3 SINGAPORE 2009

Name to appear in certificate Gender NRIC/Passport No Jocelyn SuiYee Wong Female xxxxxxxxxx   Race ID Race Category IM09-EliteF400924 Elite Elite - Female

 well I got through week 2 ok, and Coach continues to build up my workload.  My fitness is returning and I'm feeling so much better than I did the first week...the interesting thing is that some of the new rookies are starting to complain of twinges and cramps and that sort of thing, but my own body is holding up great!!  Starting to realize that one of my physical advantages may be that my body can handle large volumes of training.  I think some of the new ones are still trying to impress Coach and have ego issues, so then they sort of overdo it and then are sent to Lane 6 so they don't permanently injure themselves...

Meanwhile, me having nearly no ego here, I've just been going my own pace, not questioning Coach or bugging him too much:  just shut up and don't complain and do your workout and don't show off.  It's been working out well for the two of us, we are continuing to work on my bomb-proof running style (because the secret is to have a run form that falls apart the least after 5 hours of racing, even if you aren't so fast to begin with).  Last Wednesday night after our mega track session, he was very happy with how I did and said in 2-3 weeks time, I won't even recognize myself.  Today he said he is completely confident I'll have a great race in China.  Then he said I could even do the Singapore 70.3 if I want, even though the swim doesn't suit my swim ineptitude (no wetsuits in an open harbour).

Do I want?  At first I thought it was a trick question and said I'm ok with not racing til China.  but then I thought, no wait!  do I want???  HELL YEAH!  bring it, Singapore!!  right now there are 4 big names on the start list for the women, so no pressure on me at all....haven't raced since Vineman 70.3 in July so it'd be great just to get back into the racing mindset...and it's 4 weeks before China, perfect.

I am feeling really great here now, the workouts are hard but do-able, we've got a full fridge and complete kitchen and I've gotten back into the cooking thing...even figured out how to make my beef ma-sarap! as they say here.  Who knew marinating beef in oyster sauce, cinnamon and coconut powder would be sooooo yummy?  I continue to get leaner and my superhero six-pack will for sure make its appearance by the start line at Singapore.  March 22nd!

it only took half a year after this...but.....

        Jocelyn is now friends with Jan Frodeno. 4:41pm - Comment - Like

       Jocelyn likes Jan Frodeno's photo. 8:36pm



extra incentive to become a real bad ass Ironman champion.  ;)  
we do already have 8 mutual friends.

 little nuggets of Coach's wisdom...

One of the first emails he ever sent to me back in July of 2007:
(edited for his fabulous spelling & grammar)

"this next year is not a holding pattern, but a chance for you to do your end year of your professional choice [last year of residency]
and get your focus on what is necessary to be a 10hr ironman,
it just don't happen by training ,

like I said...hard work closes the gap to the more talented.