2016 Time Trial 2 - Aquathon

Sonic Time Trial - dashing to the turning point

The 2nd Time Trial is a training race design for the best of both swimming and running! It will be an aquathon format start with 4 laps swimming in around 1.2k and then 3.9k run!

• Date? 17 July
• Meeting Time? 06:30am
• Starting Time? 07:00am
• Format? 1200m swim, 3.9k run 
• Categories? We have two categories: Female Open and Men Open. 
• Only member of Sonic will be scored at each time trial. (see Member List on Sonic website) 
• Participation without completing the entire course will earn 1 point (DNF) 
• Relay Team is welcome! More the merrier!! 
• What to do? Your full Sonic race kits 
• How to join? Simply raise your hand in our Whatsapp group OR message to Kenneth and Charles letting us know! Hope to see many of you out there

Swim

This time we will start right in front of the water for a quick dive-in to begin the swim. We swim around the left most three platforms, back to the shore for a short sand-run and then swim for another lap, 4 laps in total.

Swim Course - 4 laps around 3 platforms

Run

The run course is just simply start from Shek O carpark and run all the way along Shek O golf course to Big Wave Bay carpark and return. 

Run Course - 1 lap to BWB and return

Inclement Weather Condition

Our usual condition apply: 
If Typhoon Signal No.8 or above is hoisted at any time from 12:00 noon on the day before training, the brick training & transport arrangement will be cancel. If the Typhoon Signal No.3 / Amber Rainstorm/ Red Rainstorm/ Black Rainstorm/ Thunderstorm/ Landslide warning be hoisted at any time after 05:30 on brick training morning, the brick training & transport arrangement will be cancelled.

If the Typhoon Signal No.3 / Amber Rainstorm/ Red Rainstorm/ Black Rainstorm/ Thunderstorm warning be hoisted on 18:00 or after on Monday and Wednesday, weather call will be made at 18:00, training will be cancel.

Time Trial 1 Result

Result of Time Trial 1

Result is out! Male Open remains dominated by Edwin Wong who showing his performance of consistence elite training. Brain and Eric kept working together on swim and bike until Eric pull a tow due to his injury.
Our junior Chris Kwan is stepping up to join the men to complete the course at 3rd overall. Osamu and Mark also not doing too bad given the lack of training in the past months. Paul was trying hard to recover his lost from the swim...
On the girls side, none of them completed the entire course since Hidy and the junior girl Chole are still a triathlon newbies, Peggy got an injury on her feet so only done the swim and bike. So all of them got 1 point and we are still very please to see every happy faces at the end and come out to support Sonic events in the early morning.

Next game will be in July in Aquathon format with 1.2k swim (4 laps) and 4k run in Shek O.
Hope to see more members coming to the game! 

Sonic Time Trial 2016 Stage 1 - Shek O Sprint Triathlon

Hope to see this kind of condition!

Hi everyone we will kick off the Time Trial series this Sunday with the sprint triathlon format in Shek O!
It will be part of the training race of the season, each participant can score point from each stage, we will organize 4 Time Trial in this season, overall Top 3 men and ladies will be awarded in the Sonic End of Season Party in December! We hope to keep everyone motivate and stay in good form while the race season this year is a bit quiet.

• Date? 19 June
• Meeting Time? 06:30am
• Starting Time? 07:00am
• Format? 600m swim, 25k bike, 3.9k run
• Categories? We have two categories: Female Open and Men Open. 
• Member without bicycle but would like take part can do 600m swim and 3.9k run Aquathon
• Only member of Sonic will be scored at each time trial. (see Member List on Sonic website)
• Participation without finishing the race will earn 1 point (DNF)
• Relay Team is welcome! More the merrier!!
• What to do? Your full Sonic race kit and helmet mandatory
• How to join? Simply raise your hand in our Whatsapp group OR message to Kenneth & Charles letting us know! Hope to see many of you out there this Sunday!!

Swim
This time we will start right in front of the water for a quick dive-in to begin the swim. We swim around the left most three plaforms, back to the shore for a short sand-run and then swim for another lap one more time.

Swim Course - 2 laps around 3 platforms

Bike
Bike course will be along the Shek O Road, we will start with 3k climb up to Shek O Road and ride all the way until the small round-about after the Correctional Centre then ride back and turn right up to Cape D'Aguilar round-about for 10k loop, we do it for twice before riding back to Shek O carpark. (we don't need to go up to Cape D'Aguilar in the 2nd lap)

Bike Course - 2 laps on Shek O Road (flat segment)

Run
The run course is just simply start from Shek O carpark and run all the way along Shek O golf course to Big Wave Bay carpark and return.

Run Course - 1 lap to BWB and return

Inclement Weather Condition
Our usual condition apply:
If Typhoon Signal No.8 or above is hoisted at any time from 12:00 noon on the day before training, the brick training & transport arrangement will be cancell. If the Typhoon Signal No.3 / Amber Rainstorm/ Red Rainstorm/ Black Rainstorm/ Thunderstorm/ Landslide warning be hoisted at any time after 05:30 on brick training morning, the brick training & transport arrangement will be cancelled.

If the Typhoon Signal No.3 / Amber Rainstorm/ Red Rainstorm/ Black Rainstorm/ Thunderstorm warning be hoisted on 18:00 or after on Monday and Wednesday, weather call will be made at 18:00, training will be cancel.

June to December

All Sonic boys and girls, we have been training all year round in 2015.
After the successful first half of the year, we took a few easy training week in June, then we continued our hard work along the summer, merging the training back into our lifestyle, persistence on a hard day in the office, then off for a 8pm run at Happy Valley every Monday, 8pm swim at Wan Chai, and a few hours of swim bike run on Sunday just because we love this sports!

CROSS-TRAINING

Is it a yoga pose?

We always want to do something difference to cross train on top of our cross-trained-sports. In the middle of the season we joint SUP Yoga Hong Kong for special session at Stanley, it was a real fun yoga experience with the mix of stand up paddling despite the fact that we may only attempt a few yoga pose on the board! Thanks Gigi for organizing this!


RACING

Coach Kenneth and his Sonic angels

We like Repulse Bay Aquathon. It's in the scenic location with calm water and flat run course, it's close to home and we could enjoy a nice coffee and breakfast after that, so we did it! With a lot of happy faces and podium finishers!

Nice breakfast to follow

MORE RACING AND CHANGING VENUE
Organizing a triathlon race is not easy, you need a venue with a proper service road for bike and run where also adjacent to the water as a baseline. Support from the government and local community is especially important in organizing long distance triathlon. READ THIS STORY FROM THE IM703TW crew. Hence the Ironman 70.3 Taiwan became the last edition of Ironman 70.3 Taiwan at Kenting. Team of 11 went there to chase for the PB! It The south peninsula of Taiwan is very sunny, laid back and remains very windy. The swim course was changed to a new venue that lead to some adjustment on the bike and run course from the original plan. The wind bring us a better swim split and a shorter 77km bike course. And the real race is still on the run. We congratulated to the 11 tough souls who spent 4 months of hard training towards the finish line. Namely Marc Geddes and Paul Tam for their first Ironman 70.3 experience! In our oversea race, it's all about the post-race! In Kenting, we enjoyed a very warm hospitality and post-race BBQ hosted by the B&B owner!
The venue of 2016 Ironman 70.3 Taiwan will be changed to TaiTung on 29 March. Marc and Paul definitely need another proper distance 70.3 to claim for a real record. However we are more looking forward if they could move the race back to Kenting?!

BBQ in the street

Back to HK, we also took New World International Triathlon to tapering down to off season. The race become another signature race in the recent years featuring swim bike run just next to our beautiful Victoria harbor. In this urban triathlon you could keep IFC and North Point in your sight, you could ride and run in front of the luxury 5 days hotels in TST or smile with the people who are just half-awake in the bus. However the swim portion will be suspended due to the rapid development at the water front, race format will change to duathlon in 2016.

Yingho running in front of the 5 stars hotel

New Wan Chai Swimming Pool

Speaking of rapid development in Hong Kong, another noticeable work is the Shatin-Central MTR link that bring us the new Wan Chai Training Pool. Since November, our swim training held in the new all season in-door pool. We miss those date when we see the laser show, or onsen-alike pool at the winter time. We look forward to develop more PB at the new pool! At the time we say goodbye to the outdoor Wan Chai pool, we also farewell to our good friend Frederic Beaujean!

Frederic last swim session

Michael Lam in elite junior

Development work of new Disney Hotel also began, altogether with the construction site for Hong Kong - Zhuhai link, the annual Hong Kong ITU Triathlon was being scale down to Hong Kong ASTC Sprint Triathlon at Sunny Bay. The limitation of venue is not stopping us. The race was in the same weekend of IM703TW so for the Team Sonic in Hong Kong to test what they've trained for. 

Time Trial 2015 - Shek O Sprint Triathlon
Something we never change, it's our Sonic Time Trial. The calendar has been filled by training and racing. We only can do one Time Trial in Shek O in short distance triathlon format. We picked the date with strong East wind that pick up a lot of waves that made the swim very challenging, well done to all members finishing the time trial especially the top 3 men and ladies!
Top 3 men: Edwin Wong, Eric Chan and Paul Tam
Top 3 ladies:  Janice Lee, Gigi Wong and Gloria Poon

Chris finishing the swim

Garden Sisisic Triathlon Challenge is by far the only long course triathlon in Hong Kong, many of us took this as warm up race before IM703TW. Happy to see some new members Johnson Kong, Chris Lee, Paul Tam and Lydia Tsui achieved their goal and congratulations to our podium finishers namely Triathlon Queen Janice Lee for Champion, Sonic No.1 veteran Eric Chan for 2nd and Sonic swimmer Idy Chiu for Champion on sprint distance! Marc Geddes's DNF with the damage bike parts provided a very sweet reason for a brand new Cervelo P5 upgrade. 

Race season of 2015 closed by EAST Aquathon, the race for the people who love mountain and swimming! They started with 1.5k swim in South Bay and 7km trail running plus another 7km road run finishing at Taikoo Place where beer, wine and ice-cream waiting to serve! You won't be surprised to see some pretty Sonic faces and a few selfies by our cool man Johnson. 

Johnson and Party twins

George and Teresa new addition
We all know George and Teresa as a good friends and triathlete couple for long. In May, the couple have a new addition of their family, the couple have been training and racing with Sonic since 2005, may their new chapter with little Ethan fill with joy and happiness!

George, Ethan and Teresa

Ivan and Stephanie second addition
Second addition of Yeung family Anika also arrived before the Christmas time, Stephanie has quickly recovered and very soon they might schedule a family trip to visit our training in Shek O!

 

Looking forward 2016
Now we can enjoy a bit of break! Please follow #teamsonictriathlete Look for 'Team Sonic' at Strava. Let's expect new trisuit new website new PB to come in the year of 2016!
 
For the first half of 2016, there are few races close to home that already in our calendar, some of us signed up 70.3 Taiwan on 27 March, some aim at 2nd edition of 70.3 Vietnam on 8th May, some also signed up Challenge Taiwan half in Taiwan on 8th May(Taitung), or 70.3 Hawaii, those staying in town will aim at Festival of Sports Triathlon at Plover Cove in May, certainly including Duathlon 1 and 2 by Tri-HK as training race. 

That's enough for keeping our life back to the discipline!
Sonic training will resume on 3th January Sunday!

Don't forget to sign up our End of Season 'S' Party on 8th January Friday night!
Thank you for being part of the fantastic year of Sonic!

The Secretary

See you soon Frederic!!

We are saying goodbye to our long term member, our close friend Frederic Beaujean who joint us since 2007! What a great 8 years he shares with a lot of laughs and fun, tears and sweats, pain and safistaction, lot of races and parties and many more quality time with many of our Sonic veterans and freshmen! All the best in Norway! We will miss you heap and we will see each other again!!

Time Trial 2015 - The one and only!

We usually plan the Sonic Time Trial in September and October when the Shek O traffic became more reasonable. Ideally we should do one time trial in short version and another weekend for longer version. However, we have a few racing weekends got filled up by SportSoho or TriHK, so 4th October is the best weekend we could do one time trial for 2015 season! We hope to see many of our members show up for this sprint triathlon time trial and we are sorry if this is not fitting your schedule.

Here is the detail!

It will be a sprint triathlon in Shek O beach. (600m swim/28k bike/4k run)

Registration: 7:30am
Briefing: 8:00am 

Distance & format:

Swim: 2 laps in Shek O Beach;
Start from lifeguard tower,  to swim around 3 platforms, back to beach and head for 2nd and 3rd lap.

Bike: 2 laps on Shek O Road;
Start from T1 > Big Roundabout > Tai Tam roundabout > Big Roundabout > Tai Tam roundabout > T2

Run: 1 lap Shek O >  Big Wave Bay Carpark > Shek O carpark

So What is Sonic Time Trial all about?!
Sonic Time Trial is an internal race, members of Sonic can score point from each Time Trial and overall Top 3 men and ladies will be awarded in the Sonic End of Season Party in December! It's a chance for Sonic members to meet and social especially whose don't normally see in our regular training! And you can also see these Time Trial as your pre-race preparation!!

• We have three categories: Junior, Female Open and Men Open.
• Junior category for all male age under 20.
• Female Open category for all female at all age.
• Men Open category for all male at age 20 or above.
• Only member of Sonic will be scored at each time trial. (see Member List on Sonic website)
• Participation without finishing the race will earn 1 point (DNF)
• Relay Team is welcome! More the merrier!!

Now, save the date, get your Sonic Trisuit prepare! See you this Sunday!

January to May 2015

Hi all Sonic boys and girls! Are you ready for the summer? Let's quickly recap what we've achieved in the past few months!

Challenge Taiwan
Three months of training leading to our race in TaiTung, the season opener of 2015, Challenge Taiwan half iron distance and Tri-Asia standard Olympic distance on 25 April. Team of 15 Sonic living and having fun together for 5 days!
Many congratulations once again to our podium finishers and first time triathletes! Your consistent training and dedication in the winter paid off!

We are Ready!

Half distance:
Janice Lee on AG champion
Eric Chan on AG champion
Adelyn Cheong on AG 2nd

Olympic distance:
Gloria Poon on AG 2nd
Josie Ling on AG 3rd

All podium finishers with Coach and B&B owner

Festival of Sports Triathlon

Since many of us raced Challenge Taiwan and Ironman 70.3 Vietnam the week after. Festival of Sports Triathlon in Plover Cove, which traditionally a season opener, had fewer participation from Team Sonic. 

Nevertheless our representative did race well with impressive result. Andy Lai and Gabriel Lau raced at 2:27:36 (AG 5th) and 2:56:16 at Olympic distance; whiles Tsoi Ka Cheuk and Tam Nga Man both crowned their junior AG champion, Lai Chun Ming also won 1st runner up at male elite junior at Sprint distance.

Ironman 70.3 Vietnam
In the first weekend of May, we have Alex Marly, Andrew Li, Ian Ngai and Idy Chiu went to Da Nang for the first Ironman 70.3 in Vietnam. Per their report, the swim was calm and great, pancake flat bike course could bring you a faster bike split, the run always the most challenging under the heat and high humidity. It was a tough day in the office we hat off to Andrew, Ian and Idy for their debut Ironman 70.3 despite the ankle twist on Alex before the race.

Idy approaching finish line

Ian jump over the finish line

Aquawiz Eco Charity Triathlon

It's definitely a place to make ironman! It's a steel mill where you see all the steel and heavy duty machine like in the movie of Transformer! Few of us from Sonic entered the 'turbo' distance consists of a sprint triathlon plus a super sprint triathlon in the enduro format! It could be similar to what we did at Shek O brick training, however you pushed more than that in the race mode. 

It's the great race organization we can see Aquawiz had been putting a lot of effort to setup themselves as a boutique race organizer to bring us the alternative race format, they even offer coffee, coconut water and popcorn after race! Their next signature race is on end of November, Duathlon at TST, yes you will able to run and ride next to our famous Victoria Harbour!

Well done to our junior Chris Kwan finish his first Tri! he is now officially a triathlete!

Wan Chai Training Pool emergency mainteance

Due to the under water side mirror leakage, the pool is closed until further notices.

We have considered an options such as swimming in public lanes at other LCSD pool however we have developed a proper swim etiquette, the swim at public lane will be very unpleasant...

Dryland and circuit training at Happy Valley is the best alternative, for this short-term arrangement, we move the training to THURSDAY because of the horse racing on Wednesday evening at Happy Valley (HV).

Mon 8:00pm - 10:00pm: Run at HV

Thur 8:00pm -10:00pm: Run/Dryland/circuit training at HV

Sun 7:30-10:30am: full triathlon brick Shek O

You may also import the Team Sonic Training Schedule (Adult & Junior) into your calendar by clicking this

New Technique Swim session
Additionally, we launch the weekly technique swim integrate with junior swim training every Saturday 5:00pm - 6:00pm at Sun Yat Sun pool at $500 per calendar month or $150/session.
Please email sonicsports@gmail.com for inquiry.

Your next goal
It's important to set your goal so you may keep yourself in sharp and push yourself to the next level! After your successful first half of the 2015, what's next? It's the season of Open Water Swim and Aquathon in Hong Kong, week after another. Be wise to plan ahead so you have adaptive race and training in your schedule. Certainly our Shek O training on Sunday if it's not a weekend for Tri-HK race.
See the upcoming race later this page. Well... looks like your only Triathlon race is HK Triathlon, it could be just a sprint distance race at Sunny Bay per the talk of our bike ride..., otherwise we need to go oversea...

Ironman 70.3 Taiwan

70.3 Taiwan is one of our flavors race that close to home and challenging race course! Some said its like "our own version of Ironman World Champion at Kona" since we all train very hard for this race in the summer, Kenting could be sunny and windy as well! 

Some of us already signed up this race, we will also organized accommodation and transport only for Sonic members. Please let us know if you also want to join!

Training for Ironman 70.3

Long course triathlon is very well established and popular in Asia nowadays. It's also very tempting for newbies triathlete to sign up when all the people around you are going. We'd suggest do reality check on your commitment before you take out the credit card and click the button.

1. Can you commit at least 12-15hrs weekly training volume in the next 4-5 months consistently?

2. Would you able to organize your life to cope with that training load?

3. Do you love riding on your bike for 3-4hours?

4. Would you able to support the traveling costs? 

5. Your motivation and passion to this sports.

Read this: 8 things to consider before signing up Ironman

If you tick all the boxes, then we'd suggest you to start setting the training plan that works for you. 

Meanwhile, we'd share this article from TrainingPeaks one more 10 things endurance athlethe need to stop doing

Our coach Kenneth does offer training plan that could tailor for you, he charges additional costs but he would assist you to prepare the race progressively and finish strong!

Ironman Tri-Club program
Ironman is launching the program in Asia. This community based program has been quite successful in North America. I've registered Sonic Sports Associations as the part of the affiliated club, let's see how it roll, maybe we may attracted a few more Ironman triathletes drop in our sessions when they travelled in HK?
"

Your next step is to help us get to know who your club members are. Please ask your members to go onto IRONMAN.com and create their athlete profiles. Your members can select their TriClub by clicking on the “My Athlete Profile” tab and entering the name of your club in the drop down menu.

 

Once your athletes are registered as members of your club in our athlete data base, any time they race an IRONMAN or IRONMAN 70.3 anywhere in the world they will generate points that will go towards your TriClub Ranking.

 

Read full details on the IRONMAN TriClub Program and the Ranking System online, spread the word amongst your club members and start earning TriClub Ranking Points, to determine who will be ranked the number one TriClub in the Asia Pacific Region and the World!!

"

Junior Summer Training Camp
We are organizing a Summer Training Camp for Sonic juniors. It would be a swim and run focus training in the south part of Taiwan. It would take place in August, more detail to announce when we ready! Stay tuned!

Junior Training Camp venue at Kaohsiung

Junior Summer Training Schedule
To make our junior ready for the summer race season, we will expand the junior training session on Monday. It will become two sessions a week effective from 1st June.
Mon: 6:00pm-7:30pm Run at Happy Valley
Sat: 4:00pm - 6:00pm Run and Swim at Sun Yat Sun Memorial Park & Swimming Pool
Import into your calendar by

Sonic Time Trial Series
Last, we are also planning the Time Trial series for 2nd half of the season. It is the Sonic internal race practice, we will organize 3 races from Aquathon, Triathlon and the Mixed-Relay to end the season. Each member will score point according to their ranking at each race, point will be accumulated to determine the Top 3 male and female. Awards will be presented at the end of the season party!

Thank you for reading!

Upcoming Race
June 7: TriHK Aquathon Challenge - Science Park
July 12: TriHK Aquathon 2 - Repulse Bay Beach
August 16: TriHK Aquathon 3 - Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park Swimming Pool
August 23: Aquawiz Open Water Swim Science Park
September 13: TriHK Aquathon 4 - Tseung Kwan O Waterfront Promenade
September 19-20: Beijing International Triathlon (SOLD OUT)
October 4: TriHK Aquathon 5 - Golden Beach
November 1: TriHK Hong Kong Triathlon Asian Cup
November 1: Ironman 70.3 Taiwan
November 8: Aquawiz New World Duathlon
TBC: Sonic Time Trial Series
TBC: Ocean Swim Serie
TBC: EAST Aquathon 16.3
TBC: Sports Soho Triathlon Challenge

December 2014

Hi everyone, it's the off season now but the secretary office is still running at full swing!

Sonic End of Season Party - OCCUPY JUNGLE
Item number one is definitely promoting and reminding all of us to join annual Sonic party on 16 Jan Friday night! Sonic Party Crew is calling you to the party of the year!

The following awards will be presented during the Party, awardee will soon receive invitation!

• Sonic Time Trial Awards for Top 3 Men and Women
• Sonic Improvement Awards
• Sonic Triathlete of the Year

Facebook event is UP and you can buy your ticket in advanced at https://regonline.activeglobal.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1656498

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT BEFORE 31 DEC!!!

New Club Kits

We are very exciting to announce two new items will be added to our Club Kit in 2015!

Team Training bag will become the new gift for all register member in 2015, the mesh training bag will be ideal for carrying our wetsuit or smelly running shoes to training!

Sonic Hoodie is something essential in the early winter morning, thank you Josie Ling for designing this,  we are working with the vendor and expected delivery around late-Jan or early February. It will be an order-able item.

Sonic Hoodie

2015 Membership Registration and Renewal

The new membership form for 2015 will push online at https://regonline.activeglobal.com/ssamembership2015 for all members to renew on 1st Jan. The annual membership fee will adjust to $350 for adult and $250 for junior members whereas national and regional squad triathletes will be discounted. 

Same as last year, member of Sonic are encourage to also join the annual membership of Hong Kong Triathlon Association (TriHK) for the benefit of great discount in race entry organized by TriHK.
TriHK will email to individual member regarding the online renewal form, it would be similar process on Active Online platform as Sonic. Just don't forget to select Sonic Sports Association as your affiliated club.

Goal Setting

Goal Setting is important for life and also in our sports. Getting goals for the coming season will put us on track for motivation, achievement and build confident. In our sports, without a specific race goal you may lose focus at training, or you may not willing to push yourself to the next threshold at the hard sets. Set your goals be Specific, Measurable, Actionable,  Realistic and Time-based.
I am not the expert in sports psychology but I'd recommend you to Google Triathlon goal setting.

In Sonic, within the group of members we train together every week, we have set our goal for the first half of 2015. Team of 16 will race Challenge-Taiwan half-ironman distance or Short OD distance.

Then how?
We'd recommend you to prepare yourself to training in the gloomy and wet weather. TriHK will also organize Duathlon series in February and March, that would be a good lead to our target race.

New Year New Fee

In 2015, we will slightly adjust the training fee payment scheme after 6 years of freezing.
The 6 months prepayment of training will be replaced by new 'Quarter Pass' at $2000 for three months (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun....etc);
Training fee for the following payment scheme will also be adjusted:
$1400 - Bi-monthly Pass (Jan-Feb, Mar-Apr, May-Jun...etc)
$800 - Monthly Pass
$1100 - 10 Days Flexi Pass
Meanwhile, Run Pass, Swim Pass and Casual Rate will be remained.

2015 Sonic Training Fee

Please read the detail on our website: http://sites.sonicsports.org.hk/Home/sonic-training and Anson will help to remain everyone at training.

January Training arrangement
Our training in 2015 will be kicked off in 4th January Sunday in Shek O! Monday run training will remain in Happy Valley, Wednesday swim training will move to Sun Yat Sun Swimming Pool in January due to the annual maintenance of Wan Chai Training Pool.
Please feel free to try importing our Calendar with this link:
https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/sonicsports%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics

Stay fit and healthy, have a great time with your friends and family during the festive seasons.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

 

Thank you for reading.
The Secretary

TriHK Newsletter featuring Team Sonic Junior Triathletes

Two Team Sonic Junior Triathletes were featured in recent newsletter of Hong Kong Triathlon Association. They shared the experience at Youth Olympic Game in the past summer. Read on!

Hi everyone! I am Chelsea Hung, one of the members of the National Team and a representative of 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games.I am very glad that TriHK gave me an opportunity to share my experience at these game. Since this is my first time participate in a world class international competition, I was impressed by their professional setting of the venue, I also valued the opportunity to gain experience and knowledge throughout the competition.The activities and the life inside the Youth Olympic Village (YOV) are the most memorable. As all of the athletes were living together and eating in the same dining hall, I met my competitors everyday, allowing us to engage in activities together. This allowed me to share my triathlon experiences and chat easily with the overseas athletes.  Within the Youth Olympic Games concept, the Nanjing 2014 Culture and Education Programme (CEP) was designed to be a unique and impactful experience to inspire young participants. A rich and diverse choice of activities provided sports and life skills learning to athletes and other young participants, enabling them to grow in their sporting career and to promote a healthy lifestyle.  Activities were organised both inside and outside the YOV venue. YOG truly inspires young people to become part of the Olympic Movement, embrace Olympic values and carry forward the Olympic spirit, so it is really a memorable experience.

November 2014

Welcome new member!

In the year of 2014, Sonic kept growing and developing triathletes, Coach Kenneth and our members trained hard and kept the morale up even during the quieter times! We also welcomed a lot of new faces into our family. We hope everyone enjoyed this year so far, stay healthy and injury free, and stay fit in the coming festive season!

Before we all hang up our trisuits for the year, let's recap our race season.

TriHK Aquathon series started in June. A number of members raced as part of their training and saw the races as opportunities to gain experience. These races took place at Siu Sai Wan, Repulse Bay and Golden Beach.  Our own Peggy Lai  rose to be Sonic's Aquathon Queen! She was crowned champion at multiple races in her age-group. Her hard work paid off!

Junior team Kelly Law at Siu Sai Wan Aquathon

New Aquathon Queen Peggy Lai

A number of Sonic members also took part at Aquawiz Aquathon series in order to qualify for the New World International Triathlon taking place at TST in December.

Training venue

Over the past summer, from July-October we temporarily moved our Monday run training venue to Tarma waterfront due to the construction works at the Happy Valley running track. Whilst it may not have been the best running track, there is hardly anything to complain about when running along Hong Kong's signature skyline .

Swim training continued at Wan Chai training pool every Wednesday from 8pm to 10pm. With 1 lane at the first hour for warm up and drill set, and 2 lanes at second hour for speed set.

From 10th November onwards, our Monday run training sessions resume at Happy Valley for better quality training.

New Sonic Trisuit

This year we modified our trisuit slightly in terms of design and material. We teamed up with Champion System again in order to take advantage of the fabric they use which is also used by the world's best triathletes. The one-piece trisuit conforms with ITU uniform standard whilst the two-piece trisuit is suitable for longer courses. Our trisuit seemed to have caught a fair few photographers' attention this season and sooner or later, we might even see a few members sporting it on a Saturday night down Lan Kwai Fong! Order now if you still haven't got this latest piece of fashion item.

Ironman Japan

We all know Jing Banaag is another hardcore triathlete for some time. He raced Ironman Japan at Hokkaido in August after 7 months training with us, great effort to cross that finish line as that was one of the most scenic and difficult bike course in Ironman races. He described the bike course as 10 times longer climb of Shek O Road, "1km before the finish line, I saw a line of volunteers and thought, oh dear, have I reached the cutoff time and they are all here to stop me? I was relieved when they were there to remind me to smile at the finish line!"  If that's easy you would do it right?

Jing on 180km bike leg

Jing with head to toe Sonic kit

Finished with a smile!

Ironman Malaysia

Juan Delgado is another man who like to challenge himself. In Asia, if Ironman Japan is about the mountainous bike course, Ironman Malaysia is about the heat. This busy businessman and a father of 3 raced Ironman Malaysia in Langkawi under the searing temperature of 37C and finished in 14:53hrs!! Really well done!!

Juan Delgado approaching the finish line after a long day in the heat!

Sonic Time Trial

Sonic Time Trial kicked off in September and as always, starts with a sprint triathlon and then progressing to longer distances triathlon in Shek O, which has traditionally been a good lead up for those competing the Olympic distance at the HK International Triathlon in October, and the series usually end with a 40k cycling time trial in Tung Chung to close the season.

However, sometimes things do not quite go as planned. On 28 September early morning, a good number of Sonic triathletes with squeaky clean club kits got stuck at the entrance of Shek O Road. The entire road was closed by the police because of the tragic traffic accident which had happened early that morning.

We then quickly changed the game plan and moved to South Bay for a few quality brick sessions which was probably harder than a sprint triathlon, which ended with a very competitive tri relay.The full English breakfast and coconut water at the beach side cafe after was very welcomed.

Time Trial 2 on 7 October was a longer distance tri of about 1.2k swim 27k bike and 8k run. However, the bike course was changed to 20k back and forth Shek O and Big Wave Bay due to the road work. It was still a great way to stimulate everyone's race condition and show what we've got in our tanks! 

Let's the fun begin!

Fung Yat To was the only junior and fastest overall back to the finish line. Brian won first, Osamu second and Charles placed third at Male Adult category; On Female Open, Gloria first, Gigi second and Josie placed third.

Splash n Dash!

And big thanks to our club photographer Ryan Tan for all great photos! I am sure everyone loves it! 

New Sonic cover photos to showcase our new trisuit

Time Trial 3 on 16 November will be the new Mixed Relay format to replace the 40k cycling due to the constant road work at Tung Chung.

EAST Aquathon is a new aquathon concept brought to us by Revolution-Asia featuring swim, trail running and urban running. The race was well organized with a number of major sponsors that attracted a few hundred of keen triathletes to take part. The race started from Chung Hom Kok beach, athletes swam one big 1.5k loop outside of the shark's net, then transit to 7.5k trail run across Ma Kong Shan (Twins) and 7.5k road run from Tai Tam Reservoir towards the finish line at Taikoo Place. We have a group of Sonic athletes competing at this race and conquered the twins (and more). We were all very impressed by the organizers who invited a lot of photographers to standby along the trails for scenic shots as well as the carnival like finish line set-up. What a great way to finish the race with a few beers and a couple of glasses of wine!

Getting Ready! Johnson, Charles Gabriel, Janice, Marc, Gigi, Josie

Marc on the climb

Haka dance!

HK International Triathlon Asia Cup

This race is the signature race for local triathletes. This year, the race was co-organized by TriHK and MetaSports who brought us new routes for the swim and run legs. Some of us saw this as their race of the year, some of us took this as their tapering race in preparation for Ironman 70.3 Taiwan which was exactly one week after. Great results were displayed by Sonic, for the Olympic distance, young man Sam Fok took this race as a warm up leading to Ironman 70.3 Taiwan and ranked 5th at 20-24 AG; Sonic veteran Lee Yingho ranked 10th in 50-54 AG; New member Alex Marly also completed his first triathlon before attempting Challenge Phuket Half Iron distance in December; Jing Banaag took a different approach and raced the Olympic distance as a recovery race after his full Ironman in August. Gabriel Lau and Osamu Yamagata also finished the race after EAST Aquathon one week ago.

Alex Marly on bike leg

More great result from sprint distance triathlon, junior member Fung Yat To took a time off from national squad and won 2nd runner-up in 16-19 AG; Derek Kuk ranked 7th and our Club Secretary Charles Hui and Leung Hin Long also ranked 6th at their respective AG; Johnson Chan and his wife Peggy Lai also ranked 7th and 6th respectively; Peggy had made significant improvement since joining our swim training. Former national team member Eddy Poon also made his come back to this sports and ranked 12nd at his AG;

Eddy Poon back to Tri

On junior categories, Tam Nga Man ranked 4th and Kelly Law ranked 8th at Girls Youth Open; 

Fantastic result by Josie Ling who won 2nd runner up at her age-group. The graphic designer transformed herself from a trail-runner into a triathlete and dedicated herself to our training sesesions in 2014, this was also her first sprint triathlon race.

Josie Ling - First Tri and Podium finish

 

Great photos from Ryan Tan was uploaded to our album.  Also big thanks to Gloria for some photos and Gigi Wong to man the booth and provide refreshments at the Sonic tent.

Ironman 70.3 Taiwan

Fantastic Five!

Coach Kenneth and a few Sonic veterans namely Kent, Charles, Eric, Brian and Sacha travelled away to race at the Ironman 70.3 Taiwan at Kenting on 2nd November. We had the perfect race condition, crystal clear water, mild wind and it was not too hot at some point. We all came home with good results other than Brian who was the unlucky one who DNF due to a mechanical issue with the bike. He was forced to keep calm and Tri-on!

Congratulations to Eric coming 5th in his age group!

Sacha on the run

Leading to the off season

November is the time of winding down the triathlon season in all part of the world except for Australia and New Zealand. Let's take time to review the past season, sit back a little bit at training. Look for a new goal in 2015, and don't forget to spend some quality time with family and friends. 

Farewell to Michal Bucek

Bucek aka Fabio has been with Sonic when he first moved to Hong Kong in 2006, with the ambition to race as a professional to represent his country in ITU circuits. After a lot of trial and error, he found his joy at longer courses, crowned age-group champion in Ironman China in 2010 and qualified for a slot at Kona as his career highlight. His style (pink with a ponytail) and character (well, pink with a ponytail) quickly became an icon in triathlon scene, his dedication and performance secured him a permanent place on the podium and he quickly became the talk of the town. He is the one who would overtake you on the bike at 45kmph whilst leaving a trail of Hugo Boss aroma which lingers for a good while, he is the one who would shave his legs for Sonic Time Trials, and he is also the one who raced PRO but fell off (in front of a camera) during T2 at an Ironman race! 

Now this sports talent is going to back to Slovakia for a new chapter. We wish him all the best in his new venture and we will always remember the joy and pain he shared with all triathletes!

Bucek debut in Asia - 2006 Macau ITU

Bucek in underpants run at Kona 2010.

Bucek and Gigi in Ironman 70.3 Philippines 2011

Sonic Mixed Relay Gigi, Bucek, Andy, Kent in Sanshui ITU 2011

New chapter, new hairdo, same Bucek

Aquawiz International Triathlon
On 30 November, the signature race by Aquawiz will take place in TST for their 2nd edition of urban triathlon in Hong Kong. The transition and finish line will be close to the coffee shop area along TST's water front, it will be very exiting to watch triathletes doing what they do best with the beautiful Victoria habour as a backdrop, some of our members will also be racing, go to give support with a cup of coffee in case you had missed the entry!

Challenge Phuket

Our up and coming triathlete Alex Marly will be racing at Challenge Phuket for half iron distance in December, it will be his first attempt at long distance! Good luck and enjoy the process! Don't miss the post race party!

Ironman Western Australia

Our very own Tri-God Sacha Cheong will also racing his third full Ironman distance at Western Australia in December, off season may not be applicable to this busy triathlete!

Sonic 11th End of Season Party

We are also looking for a date and venue in this busy festive season! It will be food, drinks, awards, lucky draw and more drinks! All party girls and party boys, stay tuned!!

Thank you for reading.

From the Secretary Office