Genting Conquered

Ride profile, from McD's up to Genting via Gohtong.

Part 2 of my hilly weekend was a ride from Genting Sempah R&R to Genting Highlands. Arif, Adeline & I rode a couple of km's up the hill (that took 13 mins!) and waited for another 6 riders, including Sofian, who'd started at HOA.

My main concern was that my HR would exceed my self-imposed max of 90%, or that my elderly bottom bracket would fail under the strain of me pushing a 39x23 gear up 1:10 slopes for 2 hours. As it turned out, my HR stayed under 90% and my BB was OK. (lots of abbreviations there!)

Pitstopped at Gohtong and then the final push - about 8-9km. I was looking forward (?) to the infamous 4.4km to go - a wall-like left-hand switchback corner, followed by unrelenting 10-12% gradients to the top.

I got past 4.4 ok but my front tyre was suspiciously flat and I stopped shortly therafter. My tyre had lost a lot of pressure, but after 3 attempts at remounting I was on my way again and managed to get to 2.2km to go before having to change it.

The wall-like corner at 4.4km to go (4.4 = Die.Die in Chinese - how appropriate!)

After 2hours (at less than 10kph!) we made it to the top and had a short rest before Arif & I began the descent. The first 5 minutes was in thick cloud and I was so freezing that my whole arms were trembling. Halfway down my tyre deflated again so we stopped to top it up with CO2. This was 10th (slight exaggeration) suspected internal puncture in the last few months - definitely something wrong with my tyres, rims or rim tape. My rims were almost too hot to touch from braking continuously!

Luckily for me Arif had another CO2 canister so I made it all the way to the top of the "McD's hill". Then my tire began to come off the rim, so my ride promptly turned into a brick session - I ran the last 1km downhill with bike in one hand - shoes in the other. Running over stones on the road is damn painful!

The end result was a very satisfying ride. I finally made it right to the top, 11 years after falling 3km short due to time constraints, and only 2 weeks before I leave the country (I've been targetting that ride for the last 3 years!).

My proof! - the tastefully painted First World Hotel, shrouded in cotton wool clouds.

This ride got me so excited about cycling up mountains that I've entered it on www.climbbybike.com - a must view site for cycling fans. Hopefully the climb will be on the site in 2 weeks once the webmasters have okay'd the details (profile, photos, description and Google Earth links).

Phuket Bike Course Profile

Here's the profile of the hilly bit of the Phuket Triathlon bike course. The only hills worthy of note are these ones from km6.5 to km13....


1. km6.6:- 1.1km @ ave 1:12, max 1:8
2. km9.4:- 200m @ 1:13
3. km10.4:- 330m @ ave 1:14, max 1:8
4. km 12.6:- 640m @ ave 1:12, max 1:10

PD Triathlon Race Report

Did I take part even though I was still ill? Of course I did!!! (sorry Mum!)...here's the story...

I woke-up at 0330 but managed to get back to sleep for an hour. I met Gunter at the Sungai Besi toll and off we went to PD, where we added to organiser Samantha's stress levels by pestering her for our numbers.

I forgot my camera and tape to attached powergels to my bike - must remember next time!

After meticulously setting-up in transition (one of many exciting aspects of triathlon!) I went for a swim warm-up. I was not looking forward to the swim due to my tiredness, but this feeling was masked by the usual pre-race excitement, which for this one was greater than usual as there were hundred's of participants including overseas Elite's - and almost everyone I knew was there, including a few Olympic-distance first timers.

Swim

The Elite's started first followed a few mins later by the under 29's. The wave start meant that we'd be spread out on the course according to age/category rather than ability. The swim was quite chaotic, with lots of swimmers and I was clashing with people until at least halfway! I actually really enjoy battling with others in the water! However I didn't suffer any damage nor dish any out really. My 750m time was about 16mins. Shortly thereafter someone kicked my HRM and stopped it - lucky I checked and restarted it. I reached the shore in under 32mins (PB), at the same time as Simon Cross and Don Khor. I managed crawl all the way except a few seconds of breaststroke for navigating or when obstructed.

T1

All OK except the exit that I had been told was "Bike Out" was clearly not in use yet and it took me a few secs to work out where the bike exit actually was. Time for my favourite bit - the bike ride...

Bike

I wasn't feeling my illness at all and felt quite good all the way. I overtook a fair few folk and seemed to be passed only by the leaders of the waves behind me. I was pleased to overtake and drop a guy with an unusual 'V' shaped aero frame and a rear disc! I 'cheated' a bit by drafting but only for a few minutes and was chuffed to reach the u-turn in well under 40mins. I'd seen Gunter and Bernard pass me just before I got to the 20km point, but at this point I didn't know where Arif or May Senn were. I was expecting Karen to catch me at some point but so far so good.

On the return leg Arif whizzed by me in a big pack. My objective then was to not give Arif too much of an advantage before the run (I am pleased to announce that Arif is my official triathlon target-man as he's a very similar standard as me!!). I managed to spot Adeline, May Senn, Karen and Kate in my last 20km. Arif & co. slowly gained 500m or so on me but similarly to the May tri clinic, I managed a late burst of speed in the last few km and thought that my target couldn't be too far ahead! As I approached T2 I saw Shazly on the start of his run. He was having a good race as I overtook him on the bike in Kenyir, but this one was a different story.

T2

Mmmmmm...wet shoes and socks! (It had rained) but no probs and into the run.

Run

I didn't feel great for the first 10minutes and I was hampered slightly by the threat of a stitch. I also needed a "natural break" but really didn't want to stop! As always my running legs came around after 10mins or so and I caught sight of Arif after a few km! Still no sign of Karen - either I was fast or she started waaaaaaaaay behind me.

The run was good fun as it was an out-n-back course all on the same side of the road so it was one-handed high-5's with all my Tri buddies! At the u-turn I'd just poured a cup of water into my lungs (not a good idea) and as my body vigorously attempted to eject the water, the u-tun marshall must have thought I was going to vomit all over him. Fortunately I got over it and plodded on. Shortly after the u-turn the inevitable happened and Karen cruised past me.

The u-turn was further away than at the Tri clinic so I suspected it was a full 10k run, but my time of 53mins+ is a bit too fast for that , so maybe it was 9km+.

Aftermath

A very enjoyable event. The rain in the first half of the run cooled things down nicely, and I'm well pleased with my 2:45+ time. For once I remembered to eat and drink soon after the finish to feed my muscles so come Monday my legs felt fine.

Swim - 31:27
T1 - 2:18
Bike - 1:16:05 (40km PB! - out 38:00, in 38:05) - mr consistent!
T2 - 1:52
Run - 53:33 (out 26:28, in 27:05)
TOTAL - 2:45:15

Here's a few snaps (thanks to Tey and Gunter)...

Must remember to look up next time!

Happy, with another medal!

With Gunter, Karen & Bernard

Nice event t-shirt too!

Finally, a big shout-out to this man...

...who put in an incredible effort to finish the Olympic Tri. He put in so much effort in his finally sprint to the line that he almost collapsed and needed some help for a while to stay upright. Well done to you!

Seremban Half Marathon

My prayers were answered last night, and live coverage of the Tour returned to ch80 just as the race hit the Alps! However that meant that I was up until midnight, when I should have getting beauty sleep to prepare for a 5am departure - for the Seremban Half.

Armed with a new pair of skintight shorts to prevent myself from skinning the inside of my thighs, and with a left knee support tube thingy, we were underway at 6.42am. The first 5-10minutes were ok but once onto the open road my legs and arms, particularly the latter, felt like lead, possibly due to tiredness. Lucky it was a dead flat route. I soldiered on, confident that after 20-30 mins I'd feel better.

Passing the masses of school kids in the last km.

Inside the final 500m.

The heaviness disappeared as predicted after 30mins or so but my left knee was threatening to cause me problems, and I was being overtaken regularly, which I didn't like much. Usually after 30 mins I'm the one doing the overtaking. The possibility of a DNF entered my mind. Some Pacemakers, and Raymond, all passed me.

After 45mins I was really starting to feel good and my knee wasn't getting any worse. My perceived effort dropped and I began to catch those in front. I even caught one of the Africans who was walking/running at about the 9km mark. At 11km I was just over a minute behind my target time.

km11 to 15 was pretty hilly, but I kept running and was cruising past a good few runners and walkers up the hills. After 16km I had caught back a few seconds and was only 52s behind target. But then it got tough - I was tiring and it was hilly. At 17km or so we joined thousands of school kids and lots of traffic. Some of the kids had their handbags with them, and one was reading a newspaper as he walked! From 16km to 20km I dropped over 90s and was 2m26 behind schedule with 1km to go!

A push to the line brought me home in 2:07:55, a mere 10s faster than the Ipoh run 2 weeks ago. I was glad to finish with little effect on my dodgy left knee. I'll cut down on running this week as I need to be good for 10km efforts in 2 consecutive weekends of Triathlons.

My season is hotting up now! I've got 2 Olympic and 2 long-distance Tri's and possibly 2 Half-Marathons in the next 6-7 weeks!

Ipoh Century Ride

I did the Ipoh 160km Century Ride last Sunday. It was organised (very well I must say) by the Kelab Ipoh Road Runners. Here's the route profile. Click on it for a big one...


In order to beat my 1997 record of 179km in one day (Kelana Jaya - Ulu Yam - Genting Pagoda & back again) I decided to cycle to the start from my Aunt's house, about 13km. I arrived at the start point in Tambun at 6.20am and soon bumped into a big crowd of PCC riders. There was Bernard, Ashley, PK and family, James, William, Dennis, Wong C C, Ivan & Annie, Laif, Jeffrey, Wong Wai Lam, the Bike Pro mechanics and more. Here's Ashley & Bernard looking cheerful at the start...

Me looking cheerful at the start...

And they're off!...

In the first hour I did my usual of going at my own pace, not at all bothered at being overtaken by almost everyone. The main PCC group went off ahead into the distance. Still my 1st hour average was 28kph.

km30(ish) - an action shot of my ear, with Ah Fook on my shoulder...

km52 - we stopped for a few minutes at first station to refill our water bottles and I had my 1st powergel. Was pleased to get off the rather uninspiring Ipoh-Lumut highway at this point!

km65 - we turned right at a junction with "95km to go" sprayed on the road. Soon after this point the road became quite hilly and we started to come across riders suffering from cramps. From here on Ah Fook and I slowly began overtaking people and were hardly passed by anyone except when we stopped.

km83 - 2nd water station. Refilled again, wolfed down an apple and a pear and was interviewed by the KRI media lady.

km90 - we stopped again for a few minutes for Ah Fook to tighten his loose shoe cleat.

km109 - just after Kuala Kangsar, I swallowed my 2nd PowerGel and then we stopped at this roadside stall for a well earned cold 100+ drink. 4h05m of riding so far...

This is our second crossing of the river a few km later...

km124 - This was the 2nd last stop. PK and William were there - I had been wondering where all the orange PCC jerseys were as I had expected to catch them by now - and then some of them arrived here just behind us - ?!?!?!?

km134 - We stopped in a well placed rest stop under the shade of oil palm trees, just after a rather exposed and hot stretch of road. More refilling, 100+ and a banana! This guy was having a lie-down!...


Ah Fook with a good view of the best legs I saw all day...

In the last 25km I cycled alone but close to Wendy and a couple drafting behind their yellow support car. After 5h51m my HRM told me "MEMORY FULL" - sh*t!! Never mind. In the last 5km I managed to shake off the guy who'd been enjoying my draft for the previous 5-10km and even managed to overtake another rider in the last 500m.

I finished the 160km in 6:09:06 @ 26kph. This was 15 minutes faster that what I'd imagined so I was pretty chuffed. I did too little drafting to mention. Here's my seat post number, with all the checkpoint stickers in place...


After the race I immediately downed a Red Bull and a Soya milk drink and went around congratulating a few friends on their achievements. I then went to look at a couple of bikes that a small group were admiring intently. Both had US$3,000 Campag Bora Ultra wheels. One was William's Time bike and the other was a Limited Edition Colnago President LDV (Leonardo Da Vinci) frame, with a Record groupset and an integrated bar/stem. Check out the fantastic paint-job - you can see Leo's head beside the head tube...

This bike even had a Campagnolo computer and a Garmin GPS system. I estimate this bike to be worth over US$10,000 (RM34,500) without the electronics. The frame is worth US$4,600 (almost RM16,000). Here's a shot of the Colnago bar/stem and the gadgets...

Apart from ridiculously expensive new bikes, there were a few nice oldies too. I was admiring an nice old aluminium Alan frame from the '80's, which had nice big polished chrome lugs and a fluted Campag seat post. It also had an old Campag Record chainset - the best looking chainset ever if you ask me - here it is...

I didn't want to get back to KL too late so I made my way back to my Aunt Malar's house - another 12km!

My total mileage for the day was 185.6km (13.1+160+12.5), beating my 1997 record of 179km by 6.6km. I suppose now I have to do a double metric century = 200km!

I thought I'd record how red, sweaty and grimy I looked after all those kilometres...

The sun-cream did a good job today - only my nose was a bit red.

Hard Labour Day

This post is doubling-up as the PCC weekly newsletter write-up...

Labour Day - a single day out of 365 when us hard-working employees can relax, have a lie-in, be a couch potato etc... OR - wake up at 5.15am to drive to KKB and then embark upon a 2.5hour bike ride up a 1100m climb into the clouds! Naturally, around 20 or so PCC Tar 'N Grimers rose early and met at KKB stadium to do just that.

And we had our very own mini Bike Show to titillate everyone before the ride. May Senn pulled her nice new Orbea Diva from her car, Bernard was showing-off his new Token carbon deep-section wheels and William was looking sharp in a full BMC outfit to match his bike. Ah Fook had new purple Look pedals and shoes.

As we headed off towards the dam, the pack slowly disappeared into the distance (my legs take at least 30 minutes to get going). At the dam we bumped into PK and family, and the day of climbing really began.

My trusty climbing partner Ah Fook and I steadily made our way up the lower slopes and we eventually caught the yellow jersey group (Mac). Before the ride Mac had reminded me that the yellow jersey should not lead up mountains. That job is for the polka-dot jersey. The yellow jersey should be "protected". So we protected the man in yellow for a while before moving on to catch our next rider - Big Ron. We caught a glimpse of him at one point but then didn't see him for another 10 minutes - I thought perhaps I was hallucinating due to the seemily never-ending winding road. At last we found him, and shortly afterwards we arrived at the Gap resthouse. End of Part 1!

We regrouped at the Gap, with Kim-possible Yap making an appearance to boost everyone's morale - if this hill is a workout worthy of Triathlon champions then there's hope for all of us! This was my first time up to Fraser's and I was apprehensive about the "difficult climbing" after the Gap. I was first back on the road (to get a head start!). And boy did I need it! 1km later we faced a piece of road that looked more like a wall - a 1:7 slope to get the legs warmed again. Althought it was only 200m long, my head start vanished as Arif, Bernard, Azmar, Gunter, Laif and Kenny powered up the hills.

The increased gradient was eased by a few flats and downhills, but the things that really made this part of the ride enjoyable despite the toughness was the view down into clouds, the cool cool breeze and the occasional silence, broken only by the sound of large birds cruising from tree to tree. These things really give one a sense of achievement - climbing so high - and getting away from the pace of city-life.

Finally we reached the Clocktower - Bert from The Netherlands and Richard from Holland (there is a difference folks!) were there - Richard having done 2 loop of the one-way system as he loves the technical descent so much! After much drinking, and consumption of nasi lemak and roti canai, it was time for the neck-stiffening descent. Just before we left, Ironlady May Senn arrived on her Diva, by now with no feeling whatsoever in her bum and legs - I must admit her new saddle doesn't look very lady-like! Nice bike but some comfort-adjustments needed I think!

The next hill to tick on my list of completed climbs is Genting - anyone care to join me??

And the menu for today says...

Bernard's Giant sporting new Token wheels

The Maillot Jaune prepares...

Mac's S-Works...

The gang - all set to conquer Fraser's...

Me pointing in the direction of travel about 15km into the ride...

At the Gap - safe n sound...

Gunter Pantani deep in thought...

Mac, Chin Hoe and PK staring at Kimbeley’s legs Chin Hoe's bike...

The road to the left starts with a 165m long 1:7 climb - reminded me of the Lake District in England...

Makan time at Fraser's - I recommend the nasi lemak!...

Ah Fook, Kenny + friend descending...

The reservoir on the way down...

Stats/Info:

Start 8.15am

Up - 42.4km in 2:35:23 @ 16.4kph
Down - 42.4km in 1:07:00 @ 38kph
TOTAL 84.8km (KKB-Gap = 31km, Gap-Frasers = 11.4km)

Ascent 1200m+

Climbs: Dam to Gap is 19.6km @ 1:34, then 9km @ 1:25

Nutrition/Weight: PowerBar @ 6.15am, 1/2 Triple Threat @ 7.30am, Nasi Lemak+banana @ top of Frasers. Weighed 77kg in afternoon.

Power Run 2007

I managed the 10.8km (or possibly 10.9km) in 1:01:31. This was 3 minutes outside my target. However as my targets are always to go faster than ever before - I am not contemplating suicide, especially as I did run 18 minutes (!) faster than last year. On that day Joel finished in about 1 hour and I wondered how long it would take me to improve to become as fast as him.

Here's some photos - a million thanks as always to Tey, and Jason Lee - photos are better than medals or certs.

Here I come (just after start)

The compulsory victory salute!

I bump into this guy regularly - he cannot talk (not sure of the reason) but he's a cheerful-chappie and it's always nice to see him.

Patsy Yap - The Queen Mother of Malaysian Multi-sports!

This is my Port Dickson passenger Bee Hoon...

This is Shahrom, Malaysian Duathlete-supreme and fellow Wednesday-night Bukit Jalil swimmer - he'll be at the S'pore Duathlon too so at least I'll know somebody there.

This one of me looking super-dynamic and determined, taken by Jason Lee. Note silly tan due to cycling!

The end is nigh!...

My target time passed as I entered Dataran Merdeka so I took it easy the last 500m...

Hello Tey!...

With Nezz and der Pacemakers after the run!

And now for statistics! HR at the top. Course profile at the bottom. From L to R, the lines that end early are 2007. I ran 23% faster than 2006 but with a mere 2.5% increase in HR.

From now on I'll only do 10k runs if there's no other event on and if I feel that I can miss out a long bike ride. Subang is a good one so I might do that.