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Thursday, December 24, 2015

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