Essential Children's Reading

WARNING! This post contains an image of drugs being prepared for use, homophobia, a helpful policeman and a reference to sex...




For non-UK folks, an ASBO is an Anti-Social Behaviour Order issued to naughty kids (and adults) who annoy their neighbours and do all sorts of bad things.

Decision

I'm going to PD on Sunday. The Fakawi TT is under 8km and even if I cycle there and back, about 50km, I reckon an S-B-R session is more worthwhile.

My legs should be ok by then. After the Tuesday night ride Karen said that it must have been the steep downhill running in Sunday's Hash that has strained my legs - severely!

I think she's right, despite literally struggling to walk, my cycling muscles were ok for a very slow ride on Tuesday night. However even today, I'm still struggling with going down slopes or stairs - it is that bad!!

Hope to be ok by Sunday for running. I missed last nights swim and might only do a turbo session tonight whilst watching Vino climb Mont Ventoux in Stage 4 of the Dauphine Libere.

So not much training this week. I feel bad - withdrawal symptoms.

Decisions Decisions!

Not enough weekends to fit in all the events I want to join!!!!

This Sunday - Batu 14 Uphill TT or Port Dickson Swim-Bike-Run???

I'm inclined towards going to PD...

Legbreaker

I found myself in a highly unusual situation for a Sunday yesterday morning - I was still in bed at 8.50am. By that time the previous Sunday morning I had already cycled almost 70km and was heading into Bentong.

So I had a nice lie-in and later in the morning took Lucas out to ride his bike (he's getting better every time now - and I am becoming less nervous about him falling off) and then we had a quick go on his (and my) new favourite game - Super Mario 64. We've got 16 Gold Stars now!! Hooray!


I then realised that time was running out for me to pack and head off to Ulu Yam for the 10th Annual KL Full Moon "Ballbreaker" Hash.

Ballbreaker

We set-off just after 1pm. The first check took a long time to break and had a false trail. The subsequent checks also took some time to break, and I was a bit annoyed that hardly anyone was calling or answering my calls (calling is shouting out to ascertain if people are still on the paper trail or not).

An early river crossing filled my shoes with gravel that made the rest of the run rather uncomfortable but luckily my feet bore up quite well. I stopped once to "de-gravel" my shoes once. The shoe soles that I had glued back on the night before only lasted about 20 minutes before they came off again!

The first sector included a 300m high climb and took over 2 hours. The second sector was less strenuous but had some pretty steep trails - and great views. Due to the delays in the first sector I finished sector 2 at about 1710hrs, 25mins after the supposed cut-off time. The third sector was the easiest and fastest and I actually managed to do some running!

The rain made some of the trails pretty slippery, especially in the oil palm plantations. By this time I could sense that my much used and bleached socks, combined with gravel and water sloshing around in them for 4 hours, were beginning to disintegrate, and indeed I was correct as you can now see for yourself..........

Mmmmmmmm...nice socks! They used to be white!

I finished the 25km in 5:24:57, some 45 minutes behind the front runner. There was over 1000' of climbing on this hash.

Hashers - 240
Distance - 25km
Ascent - >1000'
Checks - 15
Leeches - 0 (for me anyway)
Red Ant Bites - 1
2cm dia. bite on my arm from unknown creature - 1
Sliding down hill on bum - 1
Nearly Head over Heels - 3
Scratches on legs, especially inside heels - lots!
Totally ruined pairs of socks - 1
Beer after the run - 0
PowerGel - @ 1h44m and 2h15m

I didn't stretch properly afterwards so today I'm struggling to walk properly!

Sporting Success

On the sporting front, although I missed all the action as ASTRO was on the blink AGAIN due to evening rain, 'twas a good weekend for me. Bradley Wiggins won the Dauphine Libere prologue, Casey and his Ducati beat Rossi to win the MotoGP and Hammo won the Canadian GP. The only downer was that I wanted Federer to win the French Open...never mind!

Lovelianavic

My new favourite tennis star is in action tonight. She hasn't had the same effect on me that Gabriela Sabatini did when I was 14, but she makes pleasurable viewing nonetheless. I hope she beats Justine Henin, who I suspect is actually a small blonde man.

I don't think my missus reads this blog, and my Dad used to refer to Joanna "Lovely" Lumley, so I think I'm fairly safe with a post like this!!!

More Top Tips

I have always found Viz's "Top Tips" absolutely hilarious - here's some more gems from their website. If anyone "doesn't get them" I can explain - it's something to do with British humour and the wonderful thing that is sarcasm...

STATELY home owners. Sprinkle pepper into the helmets of suits of armour so as any intruders who hide in them when being chased will give themselves away by sneezing just after you walk past.

BOOKSHOP owners. Annoy Christians by putting the Bible in the 'Fiction' section of your shop where, joking aside, it actually belongs.

CONVINCE neighbours that you own an old fashioned typewriter by wearing metal thimbles and drumming your fingers on a plastic tray. Every ten seconds ting a wine glass with a pencil and run a butter knife along the teeth of a comb before continuing drumming your fingers.

OLD people. If you feel cold indoors this winter, simply pop outside for ten minutes without a coat. When you go back inside you will really feel the benefit.

OIL companies. Avoid having the general public pointing the global warming finger at you by putting some pictures of trees and flowers on your websites and adverts.

FED EX. Instead of the slogan you have painted on the sides of your lorries - "Your reputation in a box? We guarantee it...every time!" why not use the wording of clause 4.5 of your Standard Trading Conditions - "Whilst the Company shall use its reasonable endeavours to comply with any estimate given by the Company to the Customer, any delivery time (including date) given by or on behalf of the Company shall be an estimate only, time shall not be of the essence and shall not be binding upon the Company which shall be under no liability whatsoever, except as provided for in Clause 17, for failure to secure delivery of any Goods by any date or time howsoever caused," which more accurately reflects your approach to the punctual delivery of urgent packages.

BASEBALL cap manufacturers. Save the wearer the bother of turning your caps round by putting the peak on the other side.

Kids

The Scene: Lucas & I watching a scene from Tweenies about people being of different sizes.

Me - "You know Lucas, I think that one day you'll be bigger than me"
Lucas - "How can you say that? You'll be dead!"

Thanks Lucas!!!!!!!!

Dream Dream Dream

Sigh! - I'm in love with a dark, slim, hard-bodied beauty from the UK (with some Japanese blood)...

...the wedding will have to wait due to lack of funds, but hopefully we can tie the knot before the Singapore Half-Ironman.

Vital Stats:

Bust: Shimano Dura-Ace groupset
Waist: Planet X Carbon 50mm wheels
Hips: Planet X Stealth Carbon frame & forks

Something Fishy

The cult of Paris has been built around the whole World knowing everything about her private life - and she doesn't seem to mind this - but the details of the medical condition that led to her release from prison after just 3 full days aren't being disclosed for "privacy reasons".

I'm confused!

Swim Lesson #9

I was back at Bukit Jalil pool last night after a 2 week absence caused by (1) post-Duathlon lack of motivation and (2) Post-Kenyir illness last week.

My first 100m was truly awful and I thought I'd lost my technique, but it came back as I warmed up.

700m solo warm-up

25m right arm only 25m normal

25m left arm only 25 m normal

6 strokes right 6 left then normal (50m x 2)

Although I thought I did the drills very badly, they worked as intended by encouraging me to rotate my shoulders more.

Main Set

16 x 100m with increasing effort

1-4: average 2:20/100m, on 3:00.

5-8: average 2:15/100m, on 2:50.

9-12: average 2:10/100m, on 2:50.

13-16: average 2:05/100m, on 2:50. Last 2 x 100m were my fastest - 2:05 and 2:03.

200m cool-down.

Homework - same 16 x 100m as above.

Lessons from tonight:

Rotate shoulder more so that at full arm extension, opposite shoulder is out of the water. Reach forward fully. Stroke should feel fuller and more continuous with this rotation.

Keep shoulders down - face does not have to look down vertically to do this.

TOTAL DISTANCE = 2700m.

And finally I met a certain Mr Simon Cross tonight. As with everyone I've met so far in this Malaysian Triathlon Family, he seems like a nice friendly chap.

Bloody Moaning Minnies

Here we go again! Once again the Great British public and media are at it again, indulging lavishly in the National Pastime that is unabandoned criticism and complaining about one establishment or organisation or another, no doubt led by the press in their efforts to make a circulation-swelling mountain out of a molehill.

It's either the Health Service or Education (which most of the rest of the World envies) or the Government or the England football manager or the Millennium Dome or this or that or the next thing...

This time it's the 2012 London Olympics logo that is being savaged, probably because of the seemingly high cost and the fact that it has jagged edges instead of nice curves and straight lines that is all the fashion in current car design.

I for one think that the logo is fine and I give my full support to Lord Coe and his chums who are working to make the event a success. I'll proudly wave a flag with the logo on it when I'm in the velodrome in 2012 watching the GB cycling team crush all opposition in the track cycling!

Consider this fellow Brits - in many other countries around the World the real cost to the taxpayers of producing such an image might be, say, 200 grand, but nobody will tell you that the ad agency only got 20 grand and the rest was wasted due to incompetence or went into politicians pockets. You should be thankful that this sort of thing is disclosed to you by the Government.

Where is your patriotism and support????????????????????????? Come on! - stop moaning all the time!!

B 2 B (Back To Bentong)

In my efforts to become a Half-Ironman Hero in a couple of months I’m upping my biking mileage this year, so I had to leave my comfy bed at the ridiculously early hour of 5.40am to make it to Genting Sempah by 8am to join the Bentong ice-cream pilgrimage.

Unfortunately Ah Fook and I arrived 5 minutes late and so had to fly down the hill towards Bentong in the hope of catching the PCC peloton.

Despite a swift descent, to my surprise there was no sign of the speeding PCC boys and girls until we spotted Ah Fatt acting suspiciously at the Hot Springs. What was he up to I asked myself? Short-cutting by starting at the hot springs? Packing up after a 20min cruise down the hill? Going for a quick dip?

Alas there was a job to be done so Fook and I continued courageously but never did manage to catch the pack. I won’t mention that Fook fell off his bike upon arrival (forgot about feet being clipped to the pedals) as I don’t want to embarrass the poor lad!

After the usual ice cream and cendol for me, and fish balls for some, back we all headed towards Sempah. Now I’m getting to know the standard post-Bentong routine:

We all amble slowly to the traffic lights, talking about how nice the ice cream was.

A pack gradually forms on the slight hill just out of town.

Bernard “Nijdam” Tan breaks away on his own, never to be seen again!

We form a nice fast paceline in which I do a good but ultimately unsustainable stint at the front (until the road starts to rise) at which point…

I change back into 3^rd gear and get massively dropped by almost the entire bunch.

I overtake Mac about halfway up the hill. (This is a repeat of a recent Frasers ride)

However on this ride a certain Ivan ‘Basso” Chan threw the rule book away by attempting a stunning solo breakaway!! I’m not sure what happened to him though! I swear I have never seen him move soooooooo fast!!!

Stats for my own benefit:

140km in 5:59:58 @ slow kph.
Weight 77kg.
Heart rate surprisingly low today. I did almost the entire climb to Sempah at <145bpm.>

Astonishing

No school run today so I squeezed in a 6.5km run in KLCC park before work. Nothing too astonishing about that but...

The radio call-in subject this morning was why some women cannot leave their house without make-up. One woman called in to say that she has to wear make-up outside "in case I am mistaken for being a maid" - !!!!!!!!!!! I am stunned by this, but not surprised. I get the impression that maids are generally looked-upon as third-class citizens, if they are lucky enough to be treated as human.

It's World Environment Day today and although I can't confess to doing much to help today in particular, I do think it's a bit funny that a local actress is quoted by the press as saying that she will make "the ultimate sacrifice" by switching-off her Blackberry PDA for the day! Wow - what a contribution!

Enstek

Sorry but I really need to get this off my chest. It's Monday and I can't take it any more! It's been on my mind for about a year but the final straw came today when I travelled to work by LRT and once again had to face adverts for @Enstek.

@Enstek is another one of those property developments like those that starts with "i" or "e" to make you think that you are getting something amazingly modern and super high-tech when in actual fact it's the same bricks and mortar as 20-years ago, but with a broadband or wireless Internet connection.

The thing about @Enstek that gets to me more than most is the advertising. @Enstek is not just a house with some neighbours (if anyone chooses to live in the "suburb" of an airport) - it is, according to the ads, an "innovative lifestyle solution", offering a "new culture of living" and...wait for it...it is "the first knowledge-based planned community".

What the H*ll is a "knowledge-based" community??

From now on when people ask me what I do I won't say I'm a Civil Engineer - I'll say I'm a Dynamic and Innovative Knowledge-based Tech-savvy Construction Management Solutions Provider.

A 2-day Weekend - What's That?

I had 2 days off work at the weekend!!! Oh how I wish it was like that every weekend. With some luck I will soon be able to rejoin the normal World and only work 5 days a week.

Saturday

Lucas did his normal trick of waking up super-early even though he didn't have to go to school, and of course Daddy had to get up also to provide entertainment. Later in the a.m. we went off to Pasar Rakyat to plan our posh coach trip to Singapore for the OSIM tri at the end of July. We were too early to book yet but at least we know the prices and schedules now - and that they do have space for my bike in it's bag. I always plan well in advance - that's why my race number are normally very low or end with ..01 or ...02.

We then drove off to Joo Ngan Son in Damansara via the SMART tunnel (to show Lucas the tunnel). On the way Lucas declared that he wanted his favourite chicken rice for lunch and luckily enough we found a nice old Chinese food court place opposite the bike shop serving exactly what he wanted. Then it was time to visit Daddy's toy shop, where my accidentally credit card fell out of my wallet and I bought a new helmet...


It's a MET Stradivarius 199 and unlike my 9-year old Rudy Project number, it fits properly, is very light, isn't covered with messy sticky left over bits of race numbers, and is the same colour as my jersey.

After that we were heading home when Lucas noticed that we were near BSC, so he excitedly asked if he could go to the Kiz Sports. So with little else to do off we went. After a couple of rounds on the Scalextric track (I won Round 1, Lucas beat 3 other boys in Round 2) and a trip to the book shop for a mag for me, Lucas spent 1hr+ running around and playing while I read the mag. Then off home.

Didn't do much in the evening apart from prepare for a round-trip ride to Bentong. Couldn't even watch the Giro TT as Astro was on the blink.

Sunday

Up at 5.40am and met Ah Fook at the gates. Off we rode to meet the PCC guys at Genting Sempah at 8am. We were 5 mins late and didn't manage to catch the speeding pack, so we only met them in Bentong. As usual I never fail to enjoy my Sunday rides, although the last hour on my own was a bit boring - my lower back was aching and my legs were quite tired. Distance - 140km (Mum - that's 87 miles) in a fraction under 6 hours - 7 minutes slower than in January. I've now cycled 1,750km this year - that's already 200km more than the whole of 2006!

In the afternoon I gave Lucas a bike-riding lesson and for the first time he put some real effort in - no doubt in the knowledge that his reward would be 30mins playing Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo emulator I've got on our PC. Twice he managed to get both feet up and pedalling from a standstill without any assistance and he did 3 quite long rides on his own with a bit of help to get going.

Crash Count - 0.
Crashes prevented by protective Daddy running behind Lucas - 1.
No. of times Daddy stood on Lucas' leg by running too close - 1.
Tears -0.
Sweat - yes.
Blood - not this time!

I'm already thinking that in Nov '08 he'll be 7 and can start doing Triathlons! (if he wants to)

I lazed the rest of the day away and slept early. I missed the MotoGP, Giro Finale, a good movie and Judge John Deed due to the continuous evening rain.

Monday

Tired legs today, but already thinking about the upcoming events. 25km Ballbreaker Hash on Sunday. My main concern is to avoid mosquitoes.

I'm also going to sign up for the risque-sounding Fak-Up TT's. I love the Indemnity statement on the application form. It starts "If I die..." !!!

Selamat Hari Jadi!

Selamat Hari Jadi to Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin (The King of Malaysia) and to Mrs Patricia Lillian Dobbie-Holman (my Mum!). Here's a pressie for Mum...latest photos of young Lucas...here showing off the 2-tooth gap he's now got, with one adult tooth poking through...

...and here's a dodgy photo of his recent school photo...real one will be in the post to you soon Mum! He's looking a bit more like his Mummy now I suspect....

Mixed Bag

Kenyir Tri results are out. I was 21st out of 39 in my category and my position in each leg was more or less the same (20-something'th) - suggesting some consistency, which is good I suppose. For the PD tri maybe I'll try a bit harder in the swim.

The KL 10km run planned for Sunday has been postponed so I'm going 144km to Bentong & back with Ah Fook and the PCC gang.

My illness came back yesterday, which rather annoyed me, but it's receded again today. An early night tonight and I should be ok for my long ride.

KRI have posted a load of photos from the Century Ride - they're not that great so I won't be buying the real ones...



At the finish...

Oops!

Oops I did it again! - my 2 days off-work gave me time to think about other things and I ended up accidentally-on-purpose signing up for the Laguna Phuket Triathlon on 2 Dec 2007. It's a longer-than-Olympic affair (1.8km/55km/12km) with a super-hilly bike course!


My relationship with training has entered a new phase. Last night I felt so guilty about doing no training for 2 whole days, and being to lazy too leave the comforts of home to travel all the way to a cold Bukit Jalil pool, I moved the sofa and set up my newly-aquired turbo trainer in front of the TV, so that I could take inspiration from the Giro peloton and the tifosi on Monte Zoncolan, and do some interval training. And so I did, an extended 15min warm up followed by a 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 minute pyramid set @ 85% HRmax. Until recently I would have just watched TV and felt bad - now I actually do something - maybe it's addictive!

The Giro stage was great - check out how many people there were at the top of a mountain in the Italian Dolomites!....

Kenyir Aftermath

The Bad

Two weekends of activity, hours spent tavelling and disrupted sleep finally took it's toll and I've come down with a cold. A runny nose on Sunday, swollen throat on Monday, same but worse yesterday. The days when I would go to work whilst ill are over so I stayed at home yesterday and today, although I'm much better today and will be back up and running tomorrow. I'm tempted to go for a swim tonight but we'll see how I feel later.

The Good

Now that I've proved to myself that I can swim 1500m front-crawl in a race situation, and having felt the benefits of saving my legs for the run, I am much more confident about doing well in the Desaru and Singapore long-distance races later this year. At least I have a good chance of actually enjoying the last run, which is not how I could describe my recent efforts at A'Famosa and Singapore!

The Dilemma

I was already seriously considering not going to Miri for the triathlon on 24 June. Now that I learned so much from the Kenyir Tri, I'm even less inclined to go now. On top of that the cost and hassle of travelling at weekends does build up and I don't think I can be bothered going. I'll still have the PD and OSIM Singapore Tri's as practice before Desaru.

So what to do on 24 June?? Penang 22km or even 42km - not sure if I want to do 42km and not sure of its worth travelling that far for a 21km when I've got a few Half-marathons around that time already (Ipoh, PJ, Seremban). I could take Lucas to the Japan GT again, or I could do nothing. Wow - there's an idea - I could have a lie-in!!

Kenyir Lake Tri Race Report

The Long Road to Kenyir

I couldn't face hours behind the wheel so I decided to get the overnight bus. I met Gunter at the bus station and at 11pm+ on Friday night we headed off East. After a reasonably uncomfortable 7 hours we arrived at a cool early morning Kenyir and had a quick Milo and nasi lemak brekkie. I met Raymond, another person I was aquainted with through blogs, but had never actually met.

1 Day To Go

We checked-in and after struggling to sleep for a while I managed to get a few hours rest before lunchtime.

The view from the Resort lobby.

Gunter and I registered and had lunch with Patsy. Soon Bernard arrived. The three of us went for a 10min swim, cycled a few km around the resort roads and went for a 15min jog too. I practised sighting and looked for navigation landmarks for the next mornings swim. I couldn't seem to swim in a straight line very well! The course seemed quite hilly so I decided against using aero-bars.

Gunter and I bought ourselves a new 'toy' - elastic laces to save a few more precious seconds!

My new toy - elastic "Lock Laces" (RM29 to reduce T2 time by 10 secs!)

After thrashing Gunter at pool (revenge for AC Milan beating Liverpool recently) and enjoying one quick glass of beer we headed off to the carbo-loading dinner...

Bernard, Me and Patsy at the carbo-dinner.

...and again (photo by Jaja)...

The Big Day

The bad nights sleep goes without saying although this time it was mainly due to the apartment toilet cistern sounding like someone with a drum kit (and playing it!).

The usual ceremony followed - brekkie - suncream - toilet - recheck transition bag - cycle to start. Here's the start. We had to swim 2 clockwise loops of a triangle.

After setting up I went for a dip and started fretting about my goggles fogging up after a few secs and being blinded by the low sun on the return leg of the triangle. I met Shazly, the proud owner a lovely new Orbea Ordu TT bike.

This is me after my warm-up.

Swim:

We started on time and as planned I made a real effort to relax and go at whatever pace my front crawl allowed me to. This worked well and I soon got into a steady rhythm. I swam front-crawl all the way except for a few seconds when colliding with others or at the turns. Amazingly my goggles didn't fog. My navigation recce the day before worked wonders as I knew where to go even with waves and bobbing heads in front of me. My time was 16mins+ at the end of the first loop. So far so good. At the final turn with 300m to go I glanced behind and didn't see too many swimmers but didn't mind - I was going according to plan. I went a bit wide on the last leg of the second loop and finished in just under 37mins.

T1:

Jaja snapped me on the way up to transition...

Out of the swim, heading off up the hill to T1.

It was this 150m run that first showed me the benefits of front crawl. I could actually run in a straight line and my legs felt fresh!

Bike:

Plan - save legs for the run. The hills started immediately but at least one of the bad ones was right at the start when legs are still fresh. After 2km and just out of the resort I caught my buddy Arif and I thought that he and another 1 or 2 guys picked up my tail.

The road thereon was like a rollercoaster but with no big hills until 3km short of the turn. I watched the leaders pass in the opposite direction - one guy on a red Cannondale on his own 1 or 2 mins ahead of the pack of usual top finishers. Later I managed to pick out Gunter and Bernard - both ahead of me but not by too far. In this outward leg I was passed by a handful of riders but caught a few too so maintained my position whilst still not really pushing hard.

After a long 2.5km climb there was one final downhill blast to the u-turn. I was on my own for the entire return leg but the time was nicely broken by passing another 1 or 2 riders before I thought I could see Shazly ahead in the distance.

Back into the resort for one final climb which I just about managed without falling off. On the way up I passed a couple of guys walking their bikes up! Down into transition I broke the rule of never trying something new in a race by taking my feet out of my cycling shoes before dismounting (so I could run faster in transition and save shoe removal time!). It worked ok but it took me longer to get off my bike! 2 seconds saved though! A slow-ish 1h27m on the bike this time.

T2:

My socks did not co-operate much but my new elastic laces were wonderful as I slipped my runners on in no time at all.

Run:

Now the benefits of a front-crawl swim and an easy bike ride kicked-in. Right from the start I had "running" legs. No sign of cramp at all and no uncomfortable bike-run feeling. Although running pretty slowly my legs felt good and I didn't feel the need to stop...until the first hill back up to the resort entrance after about 1-1.5km. At this point I decided my strategy for the rest of the run - walk up the steep bits!

I kept plugging away and there were plenty of flat or downhill sections to recover on. After putting it off for a few km I answered the call of nature after 5km or so and felt better after that. I felt good all the rest of the run and only walked on the steepest hills. This was my first run where I actually overtook a few people! I saw Bernard, still not too far ahead, which spurred me on a bit. With 2km to go I got a bit worried about dehydration as I didn't seem to sweating that much anymore, so I had a bit extra water and 100+ at the penultimate aid station.

One more killer hill to go and I targetted overtaking Canadian Steve as my final piece of personal glory. It was not to be though as he started running earlier than I did as the final rise levelled out near the top. Over the top I let gravity take control all the way to the finish line and I crossed in a very pleasing 3:10:43.

Just finished!

With Jeffrey in transition after the race.

Another medal and number for my growing collection.

The route profile (solid red). The bits before and after the blue line (bike speed) are the swim and run respectively. Note the big hill halfway into the bike! Ignore the swim altitude - the water plays havoc with the barometer.

Swim - 36:46
T1 - 1:48
Bike - 1:27:43
T2 - 1:27
Run - 1:02:59
TOTAL - 3:10:43

Stats: (I love my stats I do!)

Max speed: 75kph
Transition Hill (out): 26m over 300m @ 1:12
Transition Hill (in): 45m over 800m @ 1:18
Bike U-turn Hill: 110m over 2600m @ 1:24
Bike Ascent: 511m (same as HOA to Genting Sempah!)
Run Ascent: 220m!

Nutrition:

Brekkie: Banana + Triple Threat + Coffee @ 6.30am
Bike: The usual 300ml water + 500ml ORS on the bike. PowerGel @ 1:00:00 and 2:00:00
Run: Water at 2km and every 1-2km thereafter. 100+ & water @ 8km.

Thanks to Jaja for the action photos. I am so tempted to call her Jaja Binks but that would be cruel!

Kenyir Lake Tri

I'll be off to Lake Kenyir by bus tomorrow night, for Malaysia's "toughest" triathlon. My goals for this race are a bit different following my disappointing non-crawl swim in the Bukit Merah biathlon. My plan is as follows:

Swim - as long as it takes using front crawl. If that means 45 minutes, so be it!
Bike - enjoy my favourite bit as much as poss, and save legs for a good 10k run. Time under 1:30:00.
Run - run the 10km in a decent time (say 1:05:00) and only stop for drinks.
Overall - allow 4 mins for T1+T2 = finish inside 3:24:00.

I'm off for a 5k KLCC run tonight and plan on some leisurely exercise on Saturday.

Oakley City Duathlon Race Report

Pre-race:

After a fairly poor nights sleep (as usual before a race) i woke at 5.45am. My two main tasks were to...eat and drink a bit of brekkie and plaster myself with suncream. I did also put on some clothes, and headed out complete with bike and rucksack at 6.05am. 50 minutes and 20km later I arrived at the start with an hour to spare.

It was a clear and warm morning. This is the transition area, with the Singapore Flyer (to the left) and an amazing field of cranes and piling rigs at the site of the soon-to-be Sands Casino (on the right). I have never seen a site like that before!

I spent some time setting up my transition spot...

.. and studying the rather complicated in/out routes...

I made sure I knew where my bike was and taped a couple of Hammer Gels to my top tube. All sorted. I bumped into Shahrom and Ah Wei, and saw Cort Prois (2nd in recent PCC Time Trial) and his wife Sandy. The queue for the toilets was long...

...so I decided not to bother and went for a 5-10min easy jog warm up. Was feeling quite relaxed and raring to go!

10km Run:

The first thing to report is that my HRM went crazy after only a few minutes and kept automatically stopping - this was extremely annoying so I began to lose track of my time for the run. Eventually I gave up re-starting it. The first 15mins of the run were great - quite fast - and I was feeling pretty good. We had to do 2 x 5km loops across Esplanade bridge, along the river, then back across along Boat Quay. When I finished the first loop the timer at the finish line was on 31mins+ so I was already 1min behing schedule. After another 10 minutes I began to feel a pain in my upper abdomen, under my ribs. Not a stitch, but possibly my diaphragm. Anyway it became quite bad and I had to stop and walk for a while. This might have been due to my fast start. I started running again but quite slowly to keep the pain at bay. I was sure that it would go away for the bike ride. As I finished the ride I was pleasantly surprised that the finish timer was only on 1h02m+, so I was only 2 mins down.

T1:

1 x gulp of water, 1 x gulp of H2O energy drink. I jogged out with my bike but lots of others were walking. Abdomen pain gone - I always stop for a few secs in transition to concentrate on breathing and tell myself to relax.

41km Ride:

I soon got into my stride on the bike and managed to keep pushing on the big ring in 11th gear, a pace that I felt I could maintain for 4 x 10km laps. My legs were spinning nicely and I thought my speed was good, perhaps a shade over 30kph. Early on in the ride I wolfed down a Banana Hammer Gel - a truly disgusting experience I must say! The taste was awful!

The course was as flat as a pancake with a couple of tiny bumps. This was great as it meant that I only needed to change gear once a lap and for the first time ever I managed to stay in the aero position for almost the entire leg. My bar position was fine and my legs were good.

This was a great ride. Apart from a few leading men lapping me, hardly anyone passed me and I was cruising past people continuously - a great feeling! That feeling is even better when passing people with expensive carbon aero frames and aero wheels!

There were some tight corners towards the end of each lap and it was a good buzz whizzing around them with other riders around me - like being in a proper bike race! On one corner the guy in front of me took the inside line but swept very wide on the exit and I had to slow down. I instinctively tutted in annoyance and he said "Sorry!" - I also said sorry as losing 0.2sec of time shouldn't really bother me.

In the 2nd or 3rd lap Shahrom overtook me and shouted some words of support - at that time I thought he was in the top few places, possibly behind Dan Plews.

I managed to keep up my pace into the 4th lap but took it a bit easy in the last 1km to prepare for the final 5km run. I was beginning to feel my quads tire a bit by then. Time for another horrible-tasting Gel.


Having lovingly studied the HRM readings for the ride I've worked out my lap times as...

Lap 1 - 10.7km in 20:15
Lap 2 - 10.0km in 18:30
Lap 3 - 10.0km in 18:40
Lap 4 - 10.7km in 20:50
TOTAL - 41.4km in 1:18:15 @ 31.44kph - WOW!

T2:

Shoes off, helmet off, other shoes on, turn race number to front, hat on. Legs feeling OK jogging out of transition. Thats it!

5km Run:

As I left transition the finish timer showed 2h28m so I knew I'd gained a fair bit of time on the bike and had 32minutes to do 5km - no problem on its own but a bit more difficult on top of 2.5hrs of racing!

By the time I'd done 500m I'd passed about 3 guys who'd stopped due to leg cramps. My legs felt odd as they always do at this stage, with my quads threatening to cramp-up. However I'm beginning to know my legs better now in these conditions and as I hoped, they'd settled down into run-mode after 5-10mins.

But now I was tired, and it was hot. After only 1.5km I really struggled to keep going and ended up walking a few times. I was sure I'd miss my target, but still managed to run the last 1km. As I crossed the line the timer showed 3:04:20.

I was a bit disappointed to miss my 3h target but as it was partly due to my 10k run pains I'm not too sad! Also, the day after the race I realised that the finish timer only shows one time - and we started in waves. I was in the 2nd wave, 5 minutes after the first, in which case my time could be 5 minutes less (2:59:20). I'll have to wait for the official results to see if I'm correct.

STOP PRESS! - Results are out!

• 59:16 - 1:24:51 - 36:24 = 3:00:29.
• 87th out of 277 in Mens 30-39 category
  
  

So I was right about my time being less than what the timer showed - I still missed by target but only by 29 secs! The bike time includes the transitions I think.

Aftermath:

As soon as I crossed the line I headed for the barrier for some support for my almost-cramping legs. The medal could wait a few seconds! Then I got my medal and slowly wandered off to get some water. Once I'd recovered a bit I sat down on the podium and talked to a few of the guys I knew from KL.

By now it was very hot - here's Ah Wei sheltering from the sun...

This is the Mens Under-6 category winner...

Malaysians Shahrom Abdullah and Kimbeley Yap won the mens and womens races respectively. Marianna Mohammed was 2nd in the womens race. Here's Shahrom & Marianna...

Me and Shahrom...

Mens Awards Ceremony #1 - no 3rd place, 2nd place to Mr Singh, 1st place to Dan Plews. Hold on! Shahrom walked over to the MC and said "but I was 1st!". They swiftly moved on the the following categories while they checked the results.

Mens Awards #2 - they got it right this time! 3rd - Singh, 2nd - Plews, 1st - Shahrom

Kimbeley and Marianna...

The finish line: Look! - people finishing 45mins after me!

My medal and number...

Nutrition:

1 x Triple Threat + 1 x banana at 6am
1 x Triple Threat + 200ml energy drink 7.45am
T1 & T2 - gulp of water and energy drink
PowerGel at start of bike ride and after 30km of bike.
Drank bib bottle of ORS and small bottle water on the bike.
Gulps of water at most water stations.

Weight next day - 76kg.

Fakawi Uphill Race Series

Click on the image to go to the event website. Please pass word around regarding this event series. I have posted links to this post on the way2ride and swimbikerunmalaysia forums.

RM30 entry (per 'stage' I think), individual riders set-off at 1 min intervals. Max. distance is 20km. There are off-road and on-road stages - these are the on-road stages:

17 June - Batu 14 Ulu Langat (possibly the Tekali hill)
1 July - Genting Sempah (HOA - Sempah I presume)
5 August - Batang Kali (Ulu Yam towards Genting perhaps?)


This series nicely fills in the 2 remaining gaps in my event calendar, which now has something on every Sunday from now until 9 September!

Top Tips

WHEN cooking spaghetti, tie all the ends together. That way you can eat it in one long suck, eliminating the drudgery of washing up knives and forks.

ESTATE agents. Please look up the words luxurious, stunning and spacious in a dictionary so as I don't have to spend my weekends being shown around badly-built shoeboxes.

HOSPITAL patients. Arrive for your appointment two hours after the assigned arrival time. That way, you will only have to wait an hour for your doctor to see you.


EXPERIENCE the thrills of a skiing holiday without the expense. Simply sellotape two planks of wood to your feet, sit in your freezer for three hours, then run into a tree as fast as you can.

BASEBALL cap manufacturers. Save the wearer the bother of turning your caps round by putting the peak on the other side.


MOTORISTS Always have a hot curry puff in your hands in heavy traffic. Each time the traffic grinds to a halt, just reach for the puff. The instant you place it to your lips the traffic begins to move. This also works well with the molten lava apple pies from McDonalds.


BOILED EGGS cut in half vertically, and with the yolk removed, make ideal miniature porcelain-style urinals for hamsters and guinea pigs.

LADY drivers. Draw a little diagram on a Post-it note showing the position of the handbrake and gearstick, and stick it to your dashboard. This will save you having to look for them when the lights go green.

SUPERMARKETS. Help promote healthy living by putting your cakes, ice creams, pies etc. in aisles that are too narrow for fat people to fit through.

JAMES BOND. Never show any pain when receiving the beating of a lifetime, but wince when having your wounds tended by a woman.

TEENAGERS. Stop your trousers from falling halfway down your arse by wearing a strip of perforated leather with a buckle around your waist.

TEENAGERS. When buying trousers, choose a pair which stop around about your ankles as opposed to some point about 10 inches further on.

Super Swim, Lesson #8

A big swim session at Bukit Jalil last night. I arrived quite early and didn't rest so much so managed to clock up a World record 2800m!

1. Warm-up 400m.
2. 4 x 50m, 10s rest.
3. 2 x 100m, 10s rest.
4. 1 x 200m.
5. 10 x 100m, 10s rest. (Total 28:50, started at 2:30/100m, increasing to best of 2:15.)
   
6. 6 x 50m hard, 90s rest. (Best 50s - fastest ever, others 53-55s)
   
7. 1 x 100m easy.
8. 1 x 400m. (10:17)

TOTAL 2.8km !

I was mighty pleased with this session, especially following my dismal efforts in the Bukit Merah Biathlon, where my desire to swim at my usual pace over-rode my desire to attempt front crawl - which annoyed me very much. Last night I was relaxed and went at my own sustainable pace, which turned out to be quite an improvement. I managed 1000m with strict 10s rests every 100 to finish in 28:50. That's 43:15 pace for 1500m - my aim is to improve this to 35mins.

My body position is still not quite right. Still need to concentrate on keeping the "T" down and not hunching my shoulders.

UK Police condemn 'target culture'

Frontline police officers are calling for an end to the "target-driven culture" they say is forcing them to make arrests for petty offences.

The Police Federation of England and Wales says government targets lead to "ludicrous" decisions such as arresting a child for throwing a cucumber slice.

The federation has published a dossier of "ludicrous" cases it claims are the result of Home Office targets.

The cases include:

A man from Cheshire who was cautioned for being "found in possession of an egg with intent to throw"

A child in Kent who was arrested after removing a slice of cucumber from a sandwich and throwing it at another youngster

A West Midlands woman arrested on her wedding day for criminal damage after her foot slipped on her accelerator pedal and her vehicle damaged a car park barrier

A child from Kent who was arrested for throwing cream buns at a bus

A 70-year-old Cheshire pensioner who was arrested for criminal damage after cutting back a neighbour's conifer trees

An officer in the West Midlands who was told to caution a man for throwing a glass of water over his girlfriend

Two children from Manchester who were arrested for being in possession of a plastic toy pistol

Duathlon Target

My target for the Duathlon this Sunday is to finish in under 3 hours.

Run 10km - 1:00:00
Transition 1 - 02:00
Bike 40km - 1:26:00
Transition 2 - 02:00
Run 5km - 0:30:00
TOTAL - 3:00:00

Century Ride Results

Click here to read a good review of the ride by the organisers, with full results.

Here's the results of everyone I know (only if I recognise your name from the lists - sorry if i missed you!)

Here's another photo of me that I just found...