Rob Cheng’s Blog

Water

My time on my first 1/2 marathon was 2:39 minutes which is basically a horrible time. The reason that my time was so bad was because I walked somewhere around 3 kilometers of the race. It was my goal to run the entire race, and I failed in that goal. I wanted to finish and not walk.

The reason is that I developed cramps and I started walking. Worse yet, after about 2 kilometers, both my legs cramped incredibly and I fell to the ground in pain. I was so mad at myself. People were yelling at me to get up and keep on stretching so I did. I started walking and finally I decided to finish the race running no matter what. I stopped again and started stretching like a mad man until I felt that I stretched out all the cramps. I finished the last 4 kilometers running and those are the photos taken by the photographers.

I had no idea, but I need to rehydrate. Cramps are a function of fatigue and hydration. I sweat a lot when I run. In fact, it is one of the reasons that I enjoy running but if I want to run for long distances, I have to hydrate during the run or I will cramp. My wife also ran and she did not hydrate much and she did not cramp. The difference is she barely perspires.

I decided to run a test and yesterday (4 days after the 1/2 marathon), I weighed myself before I ran my normal 7500 meter run. I weighed 69.1 kg which is 152 pounds. Aftewards, slightly less than an hour later, I weighed 67.4 kg or 148 pounds. So in less than an hour, I lost 4 pounds and to be honest, I was still sweating madly when I weighed myself.

The most important lesson that I have learned is that I have to learn to hydrate. I mean this literally because it is a skill to drink liquids while running.

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July 23rd, 2011 | Category: Brazil, Health, Rio de Janeiro | Leave a comment

Although so many people want to be successful, very few people are. Quite often, we end up rationalizing the success of others and inventing reasons why we are not successful. I have always believed different. It is not easy to be successful, but if one tries to achieve the following principles, ultimately successful will follow.

1. Tell the Truth

Or better put, don’t lie. If you tell the truth over the a long period of time, you earn something that is key in life, trust. Once people trust you, then it is easier to achieve more difficult tasks.

There is also a more important reason to strive to tell the truth. Do you remember when you were a kid, and you could tell when someone was lying to you? Over time, we adults lose this instinct. I believe it is because as we learn to lie, and our ability to detect lies declines. So the less you lie, the easier it is to see the truth. More »

July 25th, 2009 | Category: Health | Comments (3)

Only recently have I come to the conclusion that I was an alcoholic. When I worked at Gateway, I drank a minimum of 5 beers every night. Then on the weekend, I would let loose, and get really pounded. I estimate that I was drinking about 50 beers a week. I was a totally functional alcoholic. I was at work every day at 8 o’clock sharp, and I worked late most nights, plus weekends. The alcoholism had little to no effect on my job at all. The only exception was that I would talk too much when I was drunk, and to this day, I still regret some of the stupid things I said while I was drunk. But that is minor. I think we all regret stupid things we say. More »

June 29th, 2008 | Category: Health, Politics | Comments (1)

It all began way back in 1996 when I moved to Dublin Ireland to become Managing Director of Gateway’s European facility. My job required that I travel frequently back and forth between our Ireland and South Dakota. At a minimum, I was making two round trips a month between Sioux City, IA and Dublin, Ireland. Although I was not a rookie traveler, all the travel made me experience jet lag like never before. More »

December 18th, 2007 | Category: Health | Comments (2)

This is both Solange and my first child, so we have really no expectations for our kid. I think that is a good thing. Solange brought Teddy to the doctor for cradle cap, and the doctor also exclaimed that Teddy looked big for his age. This does not make sense since Solange is petite, and no one in my family is above average in size. I found a chart on the internet, and Teddy is OFF the charts! More »

September 11th, 2007 | Category: Health, Teddy | Comments (1)

Two nights ago, August 29, and 5 days before my 48th birthday, we went to the local TGI Friday’s, and the waitress carded me when I ordered a drink. I ask her how old one had to be to be carded. She responded a little defensively, “You have to look like you are over 30.” I started laughing and handed my driver’s license. She was embarrassed but it sure made my day! Man it made my month!

September 1st, 2007 | Category: Health | Comments (2)

I’ve answered the question and told the story so many times. What happened in São Paulo? I finally broke down and decided to write a photo blog of perhaps one of the strangest adventures of my life. It all started with my bachelor party, which in Portuguese, translates to Goodbye to Singleness. After 46 years of being single, I sure went out with a bang. I was really touched by all the people that visited me in the hospital. Here’s the photo blog link. More »

August 28th, 2007 | Category: Brazil, Health, Photos | Leave a comment

I made this video in celebration of Solange being pregnant. In Brazil (unlike the United States), sonograms are the standard of care. They take multiple photos of the fetus and place it all in a nice folder along with all the crucial measurements of the fetus. More importantly, you have an option to get a DVD of the sonogram. The entire procedure costs about $10, and the DVD costs another $10.

I then ripped the DVD and put it into Windows Movie Maker along with scans from her prior sonograms. Then put it to Paul Anka’s Having My Baby. I think it turned out great! More »

August 22nd, 2007 | Category: Health, Teddy, Videos | Comments (1)

As much as we had already been through with the Woman’s Wellness Clinic, the story just kept getting weirder. Solange had one more visit with the Woman’s Wellness Clinic for her post natal examination. The date was set shortly after we left the hospital. A week before the scheduled date, we received a phone call to delay the examination for one week. Then, another call to cancel the examination all together. I asked to reschedule and they informed me that someone else would be calling to reschedule. A couple of weeks go by, and no one called, and Solange was getting a little upset. More »

August 19th, 2007 | Category: Health, Politics | Comments (3)