Thursday, June 15, 2006

Adventure Races...

It has been some good months since I update my blog. Life has been pretty good, I can’t complain about my new job at the “Nazi” Company. 99% of the colleagues are helpful and friendly, I hope I can know the shy 1% later.

I have been busy with issues after the Rinjani trip. After Indonesia, I helped Joanne with the organization of Ace Adventure Race III, Dusk to Dawn. I am not sure if this is the first adventure race conduct after the night fall, but it is definitely one of the most interesting races Joanne planned.

The race was initiated months before the commencement. However, the some issues were overlooked during planning phase. Water festival at Marina is a great boost for publicity. However, good publicity also work against the planning.

Singapore is indeed a well-organized country. I never know one has to go through some many departments before initiating the race. If an adventure involve public road, Traffic police must know. If the racers bypass a park, NPark must be informed. State owned land would be Singapore Land Authority Department, the railing along the road belong to LTA and there are many other departments taking care of the water, grass, stone and sand on the little island.

I was in charge of a little sector at Marina South. The racers would bypass Marina Park, soon to be Integrated Resort and Sheares Bridge. I enjoy helping Joanne for races as I got a good share of fun during the organization of the race.

Human like to have fun. I would prefer everyone around be can have fun with their daily task too. I always see everyday as a new personal challenge or new fun. During the organization of the race, I see the racers as customers. Not all customers are reasonable, there bound to be a few ignorance customers. It is much up to the management of the race to educate and retain these people.

I would say Ace Adventure Challenge III is not a well-execute race. Unlike AAC I or II, I see a different hiccups. It is very difficult for top person in an organization to micro manage his or her staff. Like and UN-like many "Private Limited", funding is and is NOT always the main issue. The management needs to be skilled with some outdoor activities. No organizations can get the dedicated and proficient people with money alone. There need to be more dynamics like inter-relationship of a management to make the organization a better one. It is important to have everyone valued. An uneasy task….

I would be going for an adventure race at Malaysia with Karen and Ivy on the coming weekend... I am very green with such race. There is too much room for improvements, my team and me would need more training sessions should we attempt another race.

Monday, June 05, 2006

Training Advice Part 2

Training Advice is never completed without understanding Ur diet. I am writing a mail in continuation of my first mail on training advice… Here are some basic facts on diets.

The measurement of food intake is in calorie. Calorie (cal) refers to the amount of energy need to raise the temperature of 1g of water by 1c. 1 kilocalories (kcals) will raise the temperature of one litre of water by one degree C, equal to 4.2 kilojoules.

The amount of food one should eat daily is very much dependent on the body mass and physical activity level. For a rough gauge within 24 hours period, for

1. Very sedentary people (restricted movement, such as patient confine to a house), 13 kcals is expended for every pound of body weight.

2. Sedentary people (Office Job with little exercise), 14 kcals is expended for every pound of body weight.

3. Moderate Activities (Students doing regular exercise), 15 kcals is expended for every pound of body weight.

4. Very physical active (vigorous activity at least 3-4 times a week), 16 kcals is expended for every pound of body weight.

5. Competitive athlete (daily activity in high energy sports), 17 to 18 kcals is expended for every pound of body weight.

For example, a 70kg soldier is considered “Very physically active”, he would need

(70kg x 2.2) pounds x 16kcals = 2464kcals of food intake daily.

We take in carbohydrates, protein and fats in our daily diet. The energy contribution components shd be as such.

60% carbohydrates (CHO), Energy contribution for CHO is at 4 kcals per gram

10% protein, Energy contribution for protein is at 4 kcals per gram

30% or less fats (Ideally less than 10% Saturated fats or fats remain solid at room temperature aka animal fats and 20% Unsaturated fats or oil that is in liquid form at room temperature aka plant fats), Energy contribution for fats are at 9 kcals per gram

The implication? For the 70kg soldier,

1478.4kcals or 369.6 grams of food should be CHO

246.4kcals or 61.6 grams of food should be protein

739.2kcals or 82.2 grams of food should be fats

After a conversion in term of food mass intake…

72% or more should be CHO

12% or more should be protein

16% or less should be fats (5.3% animal fats and 10.7% plant fats)

Therefore it is always safer to less fatty food since fats are present even in plants like peanut and corns.

However, fats are needed in our daily diet for absorption of Vitamin A, D, E and K. It is the primary source of energy for body at rest. Fat is the primary fuel and acts as insulation between skin and vital body organs during cold weather. Now U understand why fat people are less afraid of cold weather? Haha…

Nobody can live without taking fats.

There is something interesting about the carbohydrate (CHO) we take. We always hear whole-meal bread is healthier than white bread, and brown rice is better than white rice. Why is this so???

Low fiber processed starches (White bread, White rice, Pasta) and simple sugars digest quickly. This lead to

1. Glucose entering the blood at a rapid rate

2. Increase of blood glucose and insulin (VERY BAD for diabetic patients)

3. Increase glucose conversion to fat by the liver

Rate of digestion and entrance into the blood is governed by another measurement call “Glycemic Index” or GI. Glucose is the only free form of food that can be digested immediately by body without much processing. It is of 100 GI and used as a gauge for GI.

Glycemic level (GI) of some of the food are as follows…

Glucose 100
Carrot 92
Corn Flake 80
White Rice / White Bread 72
Brown Rice 66
Rasins 64
Banana 62
Potato Chips 51
Orange 40
Peanut 13

For exercise – Avoid high GI food 15 to 45 min prior to exercise. As high GI food may lead to early fatigue. That is probably why Rasins bread is preferred over white bread before exercising. After exercising, blood glucose decrease and food of higher GI would be prefer for rapid recovery.

Carbohydrate loading is a method used by sportsmen for races. There are a couple of methods for loading. Personally, I have tried one of the methods during my last year marathon. It is achieved by proper planning a week before the race day (Sunday).

I take low CHO food from Mon to Wed with my normal exercise regime. This depicts the CHO in my body. I took high CHO food with little training from Thu to Sat . My body stores more CHO than it normally does and it does not want to fall short of CHO again. Thus, I benefited with higher CHO storage on my race day on Sunday.

Protein is a primarily used for repairing of body. It is also expended when the CHO level in body is too low.

Apart from Fats, Carbohydrate, and Protein, our body needs Water, Vitamin, Minerals (E.g. Calcium, Iron, Sodium, Potassium, Chloride) and many other components to maintain the system.

Vitamin can be found in most fruits and vegetables (except Vitamin D which is rich is sunlight). Vitamins degrading start when the fruit or vegetable is picked. The process can be reduced by chilling. Degradation of vitamin can be reduced by

1. Avoid cutting and trimmed of fruits and vegetables. It is because oxygen will break down Vitamin, increase exposed surface area equal to faster break down. It is therefore important to cut the vegetable only when you want to cook it.

2. Microwave cooking, steaming or shallow frying with very little amount of water and a tight-fitting lid.

3. Minimise the reheating of food.

Iron is needed for endurance training. There is about 3-5g of iron in the body. Iron is important for formation of hemoglobin in Red Blood Cells. Ladies need slightly more iron than men since they have important dates to keep track every month.

Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the body (about 40% of total minerals). Most of them at stored in bones. We only absorbed 20-40% of calcium in the food we ingested. Calcium is the key participant for muscle contraction. Low Calcium will lead to low bone mass, thus increase the chances of fracture.

Having a balance diet is very important, never binge if U want to reduce your body mass. It is unhealthy to lose more than 1kg a week. Watching Ur diet and exercising will ensure Ur healthy… A friend of mine just wrote in her MSN recently, there is no sure thing as dieting; only changing of life style. I think that is probably the most truthful statement.

Stay healthy and never stop exploring!

Kia-Ora!

Chee Meng

6th March 2005

Training Advice Part 1

Below is a mail I wrote previously when I was free while studying at Brisbane.


Dear mates....

I always want to write something with regard to one of the courses I took during the previous semester, Human Movement Studies. The subject has a lot of interesting facts and important matter on how U can train more efficiently. I ve extracted some of the interesting knowledge to share.


Do U know why U should not do exercise after having a meal?

There are roughly 5-6 litres of blood in a human body. When resting, 5 litres of blood circulate around ur body within a min. Up to 50% or 2.5 litres of the blood goes to Ur liver and stomach during the process... Only 1 litre of blood goes to the muscles.
When U exercise, ESP for cardio exercise the blood circulation can increase up to 5 folds easily. However, most of the blood or up to 21 litres goes to the muscle now. The blood to heart also increases from 200ml to 1 litre. During this process, the blood to liver and kidney drops to 750ml or less than 4% of 25litres of blood.

Do U know why we need cool down after exercise?

Since the blood circulation can be up to 24litres per min when one is training with majority of the blood flowing to muscles. Cool down is necessary to return the excess blood the heart so that blood can be redistributed again efficiently. This help to reduce muscle soreness and reduce body temperature too.

So how much exercise is enough?

For Health benefits, adults should accumulate 30min or more of MODERATELY-intensity physical activity on most, preferably all, days of the week. That is equivalent to 3km brisk walking. This can be done with break in between. For HIGHER Intensity training, it can be done at 3-5 times per week at 50-85% of VO2 max or Ur Max heart rate.

Max heart rate can be calculated by 220 minus age. Eg. I m 28 now. My Max heart rate will be 220 - 28 = 192.

How shd training in gym be conducted??

It is only logical to start a work out with the larger muscles group. i.e. Chest, thigh and abdominal. It is because the largest muscle group are normal the strongest and can substain fatigue for a longer period of time. U need your chest and abdominal muscle even when U are training your bicep with dumbbell.

How many sets should be done?

For maximum benefit, it is advisable to complete three sets of exercise.

What is the weight one should carry?

The weights one carried is very dependent on his or her mass... It is normally measure with respect to 1RM and your mass. 1RM refer to One Repetition at Maximum weight. For example...

For male,

Bench Press, it is 100%-110% of body mass to be consider average

Bicep Curl, it is 41%-54% of your body mass to be consider average

Shoulder Press, it is 51%-67% of your body mass to be consider average

Leg Press, it is 200%-210% of your body mass to be consider average

For Female

Bench Press, it is 70%-74% of your body mass to be consider average

Bicep Curl, it is 35%-39% of your body mass to be consider average

Shoulder Press, it is 47%-54% of your body mass to be consider average

Leg Press, it is 175%-189% of your body mass to be consider average

If U want to improve your muscular power (ability to carry heavier weight) do 80% of your 1RM at 6 reps for 3 sets.

To improve your muscular endurance (ability to carry weight for longer period) do 60% of your 1RM at 15-20 rep for 3 sets.

Do U know?

The absolute work done (energy burned) for walking 10km and running 10km at the same? But running 10km is a more high intensity exercise and Ur heart get to work harder and become stronger.

There is 20% oxygen at sea level and on Mount Everest? But the partial pressure is different. At high altitude, the distance between air molecules increase.

Our body make up of 70% water. Divers only need to equalize the 30% pressure in the lungs, ear, nose and throat region when diving.

Think I shall stop here now... Leaving for KL later tonight at 2359. Will talk a little on Nutrition for the next mail.

Life is good, enjoy it!

Kia-Ora!

Chee Meng

23rd Jan 05