Fast?

I just noticed that KC (the 2nd Penguin) has posted the photo of me, Eugene and Chen on his blog with the caption "Three of the fast participants"!

"fast" - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KC - I am truly honoured!

2007 Finale - Chin Woo Biathlon

A rare swim photo!

Looking quite happy on the run.

Final push up the steep uphill finish.

(L-R) Panjang, tengah and pendik finishers
(pls excuse any bahasa errors!)

Swim (800m) - 0:15:18 (1:55/100m)
T1 - 0:00:41
Run (6.9km) - 0:40:50 (5:55/km)
TOTAL - 0:56:49

(21/1/2008) - Official Result


Swim - 3rd/18,
Run - 11th/18,
Overall - 16:20-40:20 = 56:40, 8th/18.

All Quiet

Not much to report recently. My end-of week training plan was disrupted by 2 punctures, but I still managed to go out with PCC on Sunday for a ride to Puncak Alam. Just 70km and I was home well before lunch. Jackie wasn't feeling great so I spent much of the day indoors doing some long overdue chores (building shelves, tidying cables, fixing Lucas' scooter). In the evening I went to KLCC pick up some shirts for work, then went home and watched Middlesborough beat Arsenal quite soundly.

My planned Monday and Tuesday a.m. runs were both lost to lie-in's, but I made up for it this morning with a 7.8km run around a short version of the Double Hill route.

On Monday night I found myself in the now unusual position of being in a pub after work, nursing a few pints of Kilkenny with colleague James, while watching England struggle to take any Sri-Lankan wickets.

Last night I planned a dinner out with Jackie to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary, but she was still crook so that's off until Friday.

My social life will continue to disrupt my training as tonight I'm off to the wonderful Kamimura Japanese restaruant in Menara Weld with big boss Matsui San, so no swimming for me! Yesterday he told me that we (Shimizu Corp) had pre-qualified for the (RM2 billion?) tunnel portion of the Pahang-Selangor Water Transfer project.

In other news...I bought a new pair of shoes last week, to replace my tired and very smelly 755's...New Balance 1061's...


My final event of the year - the Chin Woo biathlon - is this weekend. It's a short 750 or 800m swim and a 7km run. I'm seriously thinking of running there and back to give me a 23km run for the day. I need to catch up with run training.

Bukit Merah Biathlon

I met Ah Fook in Ipoh and we drove up to Bukit Merah for the biathlon. We were running behind time as I'd arrived in Ipoh late having gone to the Doc in the morning to try to solve my aching stomach problem. Having been closely monitoring the 25mins fast clock in Ah Fook's car I was worried we'd be too late to report, but we got there just in time to change, set up at transition (first 2 photos) and have a bit of a swim warm-up.



When the swim started the pontoon was pushed backwards so much by the force of those in front of me diving in that my plan of doing a nice dive too was ruined - instead i ended up doing a half jump half dive. If anybody caught it on video they could put it on youtube so everyone can have a good laugh! Here's a photo - click for a big one - I am the tall lean muscly one with 101 on my arm...

I tried front crawl for about 200m then gave up. I reverted to a relaxed breaststroke and only did a bit more crawl when I felt like it or if my knees began to ache. The swim seemed to drag on for a while but i eventually finished in about 25 mins. Here I am just out of the water...

I jogged to transition - shoes on sunnies on hat on - off we go - oh no i forgot to put on my t-shirt - run back - t-shirt on - off we go again!!!

As usual the first 10mins of the run was pretty horrible - uncooperative legs+heat+long flat straight road. I saw fellow swimming students Ah Wei (leading the way) and Shahrom (close behind). Shortly Ah Fook caught me up to provide some well needed peer pressure. Here we are near the end - with me doing my best to look like I'm running quickly...ha ha!...

I finished the run in about 35mins.

Swim (1000m) - 24:59
Transition - 2:37
Run (5km) - 35:11
TOTAL - 1:02:47

After the race I met Karen Miss Met. College PowerBar Athlete and she took this photo of me with Eugene and Ah Fook...

Once again, PowerBar well represented in this photo...

Carbo-loading dinner...I ate lots!!

Another medal, an hour of fun and activity, and an enjoyable dinner afterwards - but a bit annoyed at myself for not trying harder at doing front crawl!

We headed back to Ipoh in the evening to get set for the big ride the following day!

Thanks to Karen, Fook's brother Lee and Arif for the photos!

Big Swim-Run-Bike Weekender!

This weekend will include plenty of cycling and driving, some swimming and running, and hopefully enough sleep to suit!

I'll be driving up to Ipoh on Saturday morning to check-in for Sunday's 160km Century Ride (see route map below). I'll leave my bike at my Aunt Malar's house and then it's off up a bit further North to Bukit Merah for a late afternoon Biathlon (1km swim and 6km run). Carbo-loading dinner afterwards then back to Ipoh for the night.

My plan for the biathlon is just to do as much front crawl as poss, get some experience of sighting properly, and enjoy battling in the water with the others. I'm not too bothered about speed. For the run I'll be taking is easy - my only desire is to test if I can run without socks and still avoid blisters and chafing.

A nice target for me is...

Swim 30:30
Transition 1:00
Run 36:00
TOTAL 1:07:30

I'm saving myself for the big one on Sunday, 160km around Ipoh. It's not a race but I really want to finish in less than 7 hours. If I'm feeling super-fit, or if there's any paceline action , it'd be good to do it in 6h24m at an average speed of 25kph.

Chin Woo Biathlon 2006 Race Report

No stopwatch or HRM for this event as it is being serviced! According to the timekeeper at the finish I finished in 1:06:03, about 4 minutes inside my target. Considering that I verified the run distance as being exactly correct (7km) by driving the course the day before, and that I didn't seem to run particularly fast, I am a wee bit surprised that I managed to finish so far inside my 1:10:00 target. My time was actually calculated as 2:06:03 minus 1 hour according to the timekeeper. I guess this is because the competitors were spilt in to 3 groups with staggered starts, so they will have been recording cumulative times. I must have started exactly 1 hour after the first group.

Assuming a 22min swim and a 1min transition, I did 7km in 43 mins - that is 1:01:00 pace for 10km!

Subang 10km run on Sunday morning!

More to follow...

Chin Woo Biathlon 2006

I have signed up for the Chin Woo Biathlon on 29th October. It's a 800m swim followed by a 7k run and will nicely help fill in the gap between the Triathlon I did yesterday and the Powerman Duathlon in Lumut on 11 November. It will also serve as incentive for me to continue to go swimming on a Thursday night. It's worth it as it's good exercise and I can still be home by 8pm. Without an event to train for I'd probably be at home watching TV!