Ironman 70.3 Singapore 2011

Today is one of those days where making it back to the finish line was good enough for me......it was plain suffering out there!:( My legs felt like cramping the moment I got out of bike transition and it took a while for me to shake off that wanting-to-cramp kind of feeling in my hamstrings. Initially, my quads (vmo area) also felt like someone was stabbing a knife into it with every footstrike that I took, but that subsided after a while. I spent a lot of time walking today. In fact, I dun think I ran more than 100m at a time after I hit lap 2 of the run! After a while, I kind of just gave up trying anymore and just walked. Normally, if I see people cheering, I would force myself to run, but I was so totally out of it today I just could not be bothered anymore. Mentally, I was not really into the race. In fact, I told Des that I was thinking of withdrawing from the race a few days before, but that would have been a waste of the entry fees. On hindsight, I think that it is a very bad idea to do a half-ironman distance race for the first tri race of the year. Ideally, it would be good to do the shorter races first, and sort out all the problems before moving to a longer and more difficult one.

On a happier note, I am quite happy with the bike time and an ave. speed of 39.1kph for the first 30k. Hey, maybe I can break 1 hour for a 40k time trial! That has  been a longtime goal of mine! My cycling has seen a breakthrough this year, and I feel that the main reason for it is consistency. Every Saturday morning, I am busting my guts out trying to keep up with the faster riders from Anza, and that has made me a stronger rider. Those sessions where I ride off the back of the fast Changi or Kranji rides, yet still keep up with them for the entire ride also gave me the confidence that I can ride well.

For the last couple of days, I have been thinking about not racing triathlons for a while. Save for a short period between 2001 and 2003, where I din race much, I have been pretty active in the local tri scene since 1997. I dun know why.....maybe it is the troubles in my personal life that is draining me, or maybe I am just getting old:( I just feel that I dun have the desire to put in the dedicated training anymore. I still want to be fit, and fast, but I just dun feel like racing. Maybe this is just a passing phase, and will get better in time to come. Maybe I should join a trg group; it would be easier to motivate oneself when there are other people around. Maybe, i just need a break. Maybe, I should try something new, like focussing on running fast for a 5/10k, or maybe take part in my first cycling race.

So that others may live

Yesterday, I watched "Armageddon" again. It is a movie that I have watched many times, but I can never get bored by it. Since young, I have always been inspired by stories of courage and self sacrifice, and these two themes are brought out very nicely in the movie.

The movie also reminds me of the employees of the failed nuclear plant in Fukushima dubbed the "Fukushima 50". Many of them have volunteered to stay behind and are being exposed to radiation many times greater than the legal limit. They know the ill-effects that they will probably suffer in time to come, but they have stayed on, so that others may live.

Fukushima 50, whoever you are.....you are already heroes in my eyes!!

My PX Stealth v2.0:)

what the wind sees

A couple of weeks ago, I overhauled the px stealth; swopped out all the cables, added new brakes and rd, and gave it a new cockpit!:) Now the px is really a true time trial machine! Just look at the front end.......compared to what I had previously, this is one aerodynamic thing of beauty!:)

One week to go........

racing at the Tribob Duathlon 2008

It's only slightly more than one week to 70.3 Singapore and everything is not well. I have been feeling sick most of the week, so have not really been training much at all. I must have caught it during the NCC Camp last week. So basically, I missed my crucial long workout last weekend; something that will give me the confidence that I can finish strong. Well, I may have to go into the race without that crucial long workout. Or I can still do a long workout this weekend, but with just a short run and have to bike at an easier pace, so that I can recover for the race. I will also try to squeeze in a sea swim during next week's break:), my first for the year!

I have been doing some thinking lately. Often when I am down, I will start questioning why I do certain things. One of the things I have been asking myself is why have I been devoting so much energy to triathlon? I know the answer to this.....well, it keeps me happy and makes me fit! But I was just wondering, what if one day I decide to stop racing? Honestly, I enjoy training more than racing!:) Racing is painful! and I got to sacrifice a lot just to try to make everything work on one single day; I got to periodize my training, make sure my equipment is tip-top, get my nutrition dialed in and the race fees!!.... it is so expensive to race and there is this desire to want to turn in a good result, otherwise why bother signing up?? I know I can complete the distances anytime, it's only a matter of how fast I am going to do it! All these race prep is really a bit stressful, and that is added stress that I do not need right now, especially when there are other more important areas of my life that require my attention. Right now, I just want to get this race out of the way, and carry on with my training:)

Right now, I am experiencing what my students feel when they realize that they have not revised their work before their exams. They start to panic and will try to cram in everything in the last couple of days, and often, this leads to facts getting all mixed up and less than ideal results. Well, I have been pretty consistent in my trg since the beginning of the year. I have been swimming, biking and running well; in fact, speedwise, I am faster now than at the same time last year. The question is whether I can put everything together and last the distance. My race will hopefully take around 5 hours. My longest workout this year was only a 120k easy bike ride. My longest run has only been up to 17k, so that is a big question mark for me. Plus, the transition runs off the bike have not been longer than 4k, so to expect myself to run well for 21k is really stretching it a bit. But on the other hand, I am also drawing confidence from some of the workouts that I have done. Hopefully, that will do the trick. Just got to remember not to do anything stupid in the last week!!:)