Meaning of Success

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
Thomas Jefferson

Keep steadily before you the fact that all true success depends at last upon yourself.
Theodore T. Hunger

Blast From The Past

Here’s a photo I dug up from four years ago!  I had just gotten silver in the keirin World Cup in Manchester.  It was a dream to be up on the podium with two of my childhood idols.  Florian Rousseau (right) is now the head coach of the successful French team.  Shane Kelly (center)  will be going to his 5th Olympics.  I will be going to my 2nd Olympics.  Wish us all good luck…but of course wish me the most good luck!  

Jittery Jojo

This morning I had a cup of coffee to get me going on my road ride. Thing is I don’t usually drink coffee. I was brought up in a very health conscious background. My father is a health doctor and my mother is a registered dietitian. In fact, I was raised as a vegetarian and only started eating meat in 2006. I decided to go carnivore because I was prone to getting sick during my tough training cycles. As a result, I got a blood test and it revealed that I was low in Iron, creatine, and a few other things that are found in meat so I decided to give it a go. I do love the vegetarian diet though but I think that it’s pretty tough to be a sprinter type athlete fueled by tofu. My mom of course begs to differ.

Anyway, back to the coffee. I drank it because someone bought it for me and I thought eh what the heck I’ll give it a go to see what all the buzz is all about. And buzz I did….all day! I felt like I wasn’t even in my own body as I was shaking. It didn’t feel right even though I had a decent track session in the afternoon. I’ve finally come off my caffeine buzz 8 hours later and I’m relieved to be back to normal again. I think its because my body is just not used to the caffeine or that was one strong cup of coffee. Regardless, I think I’ll just stick to my regular hot chocolate or orange juice at the cafe from now on thankuverymuch!

Age is only a number!

I’m just generalizing here but for the most part, sprinters love to sleep in and train a bit later than endurance based cyclists. We love training on the track, and even in the gym but doing a road ride is a bit of a choir. I usually do a one and a half to two hour recovery ride on Wednesdays and for the most part, I try to put it off as long as possible but this morning, I told Jeff, a sixty-something year old I’d meet him at 8am sharp at cafe racer. I woke up at 7:45 and gave him a call to see if he was still up for it. He told me he was already there drinking his coffee. So in five minutes flat, I got dressed and out the door I went. Luckily for me, cafe racer is only about 5 blocks down from where I live and off we went for our jaunt of a ride. Isn’t it funny how I have to have someone to meet up to make sure I do my road rides. I guess it’s just because riding on the road by myself is no fun. I need someone to converse with to really make the time go by faster. Jeff is a great guy and very interesting. He’s not like most sixty year olds. In fact, he looks and acts 20-30 years younger than he is. He told me of his travels to Europe to race when he was younger. We talked about fast cars, and even hot women! He’s got a lot of toys too, including a Harley and a Ducati! It was quite a site to see him proudly tell me how he gets it cranking from 0-100km/h in about 3 seconds. I hope to be as fit and as passionate about life when I get to his age.

My new Giro Ionos

My helmet sponsor Giro just recently came out with a new helmet.  I’m like a kid in a toy store when it comes to new gear and was really excited to try on my new helmet.  I pulled out the new Ionos helmet out of it’s box and tried it on in front of a mirror.  It was a perfect fit and looked absolutely cool!   With it’s enormous 21 vents, I don’t ever have to worry about my head heating up.

At first I didn’t really see how they have made it better than the Atmos but after using it for two weeks, I have to say I do like it a bit better.
It’s a few grams heavier than the older Atmos model.  The two models look quite similar but one difference is the Ionos fits a bit more snug.  Other than the fit, I think the quality of the padding has improved over the older model.

The Ionos comes in three sizes and costs about $225 usd.  My size small weight in at 296 grams.

Pardon my procrastination

It has been quite awhile since my last journal entry. Sorry for my lack of motivation to write and tell you my thoughts.  The last part of the season has been challenging for me. I have always had a strong first part of the season but weaker second half. The last two world cups have been mediocre at best as I have been just a bit short on form. I have been training at full pace pretty much since June so it’s been a long season and I’m fighting myself to be at my best for the upcoming world championships.  I had a very good track session yesterday so that has helped me mentally to get back on track. I need to have a productive World Championships in order for me to approach the Olympics in the right frame of mind. I have three weeks left to before we leave for Manchester, England and I’ll try my best to keep you all up to date on my progress.

Josiah believes sprint team have earned berth in Beijing Olympics

By LIM TEIK HUAT

PETALING JAYA: The men’s cycling sprint team are virtually certain to see action for the first time in the Beijing Olympics in August.

The national men’s sprint trio are ranked 10th in the latest UCI world rankings.

Only the top 10 ranked countries in the team sprint after the World Championships in Manchester next month will qualify for Beijing.

Ranked top in the current team sprint standings are France, followed by Australia, China, Germany, Holland, Britain, Greece, Russia and Japan.

Another factor in Malaysia’s favour is the fact that France have qualified automatically as the winners of the World Cup circuit, which concluded with the fourth leg in Denmark last week.

A second automatic slot will also be awarded to the winners of the event in the World Championships (in Manchester) and Josiah Ng believes it will be hard for the other nations to dislodge Malaysia from their current position.

Malaysia have accumulated 738.5 points while nearest rivals – the Czech Republic and the United States – are a distant 11th (493.5) and 12th (424.5) respectively.

“There is just the World Championships remaining but we are 100% sure of securing that Olympic spot for the team sprint as long as we stay inside the top 12 (in the world rankings).

“The countries chasing us are too far behind at this point,” said Josiah in a telephone interview from Melbourne, where he is based with the sprint cyclists, yesterday.

Securing qualification for the coveted team sprint has been the main objective as it would mean one extra spot for the individual sprint and keirin respectively.

Josiah is also in line for automatic qualification as he is currently ranked 13th in the individual keirin.

Besides Josiah, the other sprint cyclists based in Melbourne are Asian Championships gold medallist Azizul Hasni Awang, Junaidi Nasir, Mohd Edrus Yunos and Rizal Tisin.

All the four gold medals won in the Korat SEA Games last December came from the current line-up and, with Beijing beckoning, all four can be expected to go the extra mile in training.

“It’s indeed a big deal for Malaysia to qualify for the team sprint because not more than one cyclist has qualified for the Olympics so far.

“I hope the other cyclists will work harder towards doing well in the Olympics,” said Josiah.

M. Kumaresan represented Malaysia in the road competition in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and there was no representative after that until Josiah appeared on the scene a decade later.

He not only made history as the first Malaysian to qualify for the track competition in Athens in 2004 but he also went on to qualify for the final, a feat which saw him winning the Sportsman of the Year award.

Source: www.thestar.com.my

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a blessed new year 2008 ahead of you. My goal is to qualify for Beijing Olympics 2008 and do well in it.

ALL THE BEST!

Gold This Xmas

I dedicate this gold as a Christmas present to my family members, sponsors and friends. Thank you all who have supported me. This one’s for you.

This Christmas, I wish for more golds in the year 2008.

Q & A for Me

What was your background as an athlete?Surprisingly enough, I had no background in sports.  I was only a kid with too much energy.  None of my family members were into sports.   What do you like about racing, training?I love to push my body to its limits.  The feeling of adrenaline I get just before a competition and the rush I get when I do well.   What are your goals and what motivates you?I’m always pushing myself to reach a higher level.  Success motivates me.  I want to set up a good future for myself.  My competition also motivates me.   Who did you look up to as a young athlete?  What other books or people influenced you?I looked up to Florian Rousseau who was France’s top track cyclist in the mid nineties.  He had such intensity when he raced and you could see it in his eyes.   On your blog on your website you said that we are all surrounded by negative people and influences and that it’s important to never believe the negative people around you.  When did you make this discovery and how has it helped you?I’ve come to realize this over the last few years that a lot of people try to discourage dreams because they don’t believe in themselves and those around them.  Those are the people who live life just going through the paces with no passion.  I use that negative energy as motivation to push harder to live my dream.   Did you really have to sneak out of the house at 3 AM to train, until your parents kicked you out?When I first started cycling I had to do that a few times.  After awhile, my parents relented.  I even got grounded once for going on a 16 mile bike ride with my best friend.  My father was angry with me because I went for that bike ride instead of going to church.   Describe what kind of excitement you feel in important races.  Usually in big races like the World Championships or Olympics, there are a lot of build-up and hype in the media.  Those hype and expectations make me nervous and stressed out sometimes.  It is tough to cope with but I like that feeling of intensity.   How much risk have you taken in your career in life?  How often have you failed and faced serious setbacks?  How important has taking these risks been?Oh man, my failures lists a lot longer than my success.  I think that in order to succeed, you have to have failure.  It also gives success a lot more meaning.  The same is with risk.  If you take a risk and it pays off, the feeling of success is heightened.  I took a risk by choosing sport over the more traditional and safe bet which would have been getting a degree.  But now I get a lot of my parent’s friends having an admiration for me because I stand out with my accomplishments and what I’ve done with my life.   How do you handle the daily grind of intense training?I take care of my body by eating well and having good recovery.  I do a lot of ice bath hydro -(hot/cold) therapy.   I also get weekly sports massage.  All of this is vital for recovery, not only physically but also mentally.   How often do you visualize and focus on your goals?Not enough!   I have been distracted lately with things outside of sport and I need to refocus for next week’s world cup!