My TRAINING SECRETS

PD Triathlon 2010 was my best result since 2002, also at PD. Ever since I broke my arm and got the heel pain (in 2002), I regularly finished last or second last in my category. Who cares I thought, I'm doing what I love most.

PDIT 2010 was different though, my name was actually on the winners' Board instead of propping up the results' table. So I want to share with all and sundry my training secrets, it sort of worked for me, it might work for you too.

The Diet. After so so many years of trying, I have finally managed to loose some weight. I got many compliments on this, thank you. The secret is, I am eating Granola Bars that my wife makes. I eat about four pieces a day for snacks and lunch. There are no preservatives and the ingredients (granola, banana, raisins, almonds etc) are all super healthy . The recipe was provided by Emma. My wife sells them (details on the right bar, at the top. Your support has made my wife very happy, thank you). Everyone thats tried them, loves them.

I treat myself to rice during the weekend. No more oily food. I'm lucky here, as my wife makes all my food, now without any oil or just use olive oil.

Swim. I only swim two hours a week in my odd shaped apartment pool which is hardly 10m long. I also have a broken arm. But I got out the water second.

The secret is to have a good start when the horn goes and ....... wait for it ..... swim the Total Immersion way. Please have an open mind.

Swimming is a technical sport just like say tennis. That means you spend your training working on your technique and not on your fitness.

70% of how well you will do is due to your body position. The remaining 30% is due to your fitness and arm movement, Yes believe me.

What is the correct body position?

1. A balanced body. Everyone has a problem with legs and bums that drop. So swim downhill, which actually means push your chest down a bit. The legs automatically comes up without any effort. Keep the head down too.
2. A long body. Froude has scientifically proven that a longer body will always swim faster. Thus always try to keep one hand out in front as long as possible. Stretch the arm out fully. Hold the stretch and glide. The fewer strokes the better. Gliding is unfortunately quite hard to master.
3. Swim on your side. Please tell me how fishes swim, and does it require them much effort. So, we should roll from the hip all the time. Don't turn the head to breath, but roll the hip. Otherwise the body won't be balanced. Really.

BIKE. I can't remember the last time I cycled on the road. All my cycling is done on the trainer six mornings a week. I'm up by 4 a.m. Its great for reducing weight and for my running believe it or not.

RUN. I had high hopes for my run, but at PD it didn't happen. The pain in the thighs were still there. So this is something I have to work on.

Get a good start. Cowboy (in red) came out first. I was second.

The Sarong brought a cheer to many many faces, which is what its all about. Even Jens Wilkens has now bought one, ha ha. Thus I might do this again. I still have to work on my run though.

Paul Lee graciously provided an escort (in memory)

Gosh, my name is on the winners' Board

Juliana Ali goofing

1,200 participants and hardly anything went wrong. Incredible Mr Chan, just incredible. Even getting the accommodation was only a one minute phone call to Mr Chan. The benefit of being on good terms for more than twenty years.

TRAINING FOR IMWA 5 Dec 2010:

I am basically going to do what I have been doing the last 3 months. I am going to assume it doesn't matter whether the distance is OD or IM. I think doing a little bit everyday is the way to go rather than doing say 200km on Sunday.

CYCLING: Its going to be all on the trainer. Starting at 4.25 a.m. to 6.25 a.m. every Monday to Saturday. Its lovely to cycle at that time of the morning. I close all the windows to sweat more. Very easy spinning. Its important to check that the bicycle is actually road worthy just before the race. ha ha. Total about 12 hours per week.

SWIM: One hour on saturday and another hour on Sunday after breakfast in my apartment pool. Its quite a mental effort to not give up before the hour is up, but so far so good. Its form that counts, not splits. Total 2 hours per week.

RUN: Will be the 20 km from Bukit Aman every sunday morning. Might do 28 km instead. Total 2 hours per week. Doesn't seem much.

Weekly total will be about 16 hours. It will do I think.

IM Langkawi Latest

pics are rolling in

I was reliably informed at PD that IM Langkawi and the 70.3 might be on. There is a legal tussle going on betwen two parties. An announcement will be made in August. The dates of the events have still to be worked out.

MIRI Tri is confirmed for the weekend of 30 & 31 Oct 2010. The forms were distributed at PD. Lots of prize money.
PD Tri had 1,200 participants, the largest ever Tri event in Malaysia. It was actually well done. Mr Chan's race briefing was the best I have ever heard anywhere in the world.

The highlight of the race was hundreds of cows dashing across the road whilst on the bike out and again on the return. We had to stop, the cows didn't.

The categories were all very very strong. Many strong IM were poorly placed or even not in the top ten. Which makes Simon's feat of winning his age group even more incredible. Macau have a depth of talent. Their top woman was even faster than our Simon, I understand.

PD Pics

A Nice Race Venue

Juliana Ali
Very Nice Hotel Room
Yip had a good race

Nik, an incredible person

Sam, Simon & Dave

Sarong all the way (run only)

Paul, slowed down and ran with me the last 3km (thank you buddy)

Ralph, Sam & Jens

For you Brother

Miss, you can get the Sarong at any Seven Eleven

Sexy and Lovely Chris and Ben

9th Placing. RM200 heh heh

Simon won the Sprint and OD. Absolutely incredible

Jens (3rd) and Cort (2nd)

Challenge Roth and Sunday's Run

Ironman Roth is now known as Challenge Roth. It was held on 18 July 2010. Its well known for very fast times and awesome spectators.

Our Sam Pritchard was there finishing in 13 hrs 19 mins (the breakdown).

The first man came in at 7 hrs 52 mins, which is "only" the fourth fastest time ever. The world's best time (7 hrs 50 mins) was done by Luc Van Lierde at the same course in 1997.

Chrissie Wellington though blew away her own world's best time, coming in at a whopping 8 hrs 19 mins. Craig Alexander's winning time at Hawaii in 2009 was only 8hrs 20 mins.

2nd and 3rd were TBB's Rebekah Keat and Tereza Marcel. I don't know why Chrissie doesn't race under the TBB banner as I was told she was actually discovered during TBB's training camp at Krabi. IM MY champion, the gracious Belinda Granger was 56 mins behind.

All the best to everyone for the PD Triathlon this weekend. One thousand participants. If you are not well, make the right call on whether to race. Welcome to Kevin from Perth. I will probably only get there around 5 p.m. on Saturday.

SUNDAY'S RUN (20 KM)

Bumped into the Siemens runners whilst doing my 20 km. John Tan pulled me so well that I knocked off the previous week's PB by a whopping 6 mins. So the PB is now 2 hrs 2 mins (I was doing 2 hr 25 mins without the loop not too long ago) to Petronas Loop and back. I am so indebted (almost to tears) to John Tan, he has whipped up my running into shape no end.

Thank you Julie and Nik for the pic. Julie, are you crazy about me? You are praising me no end on your blog. HA HA HA. Oh I know, you say that to all the guys you meet. HA HA.

One week later

I suppose its been a good week. KL Marathon was of course a very nice day, Denis mentioned my name on the radio (HA HA), friendships evolved to a higher level, Tip was happy all week with her 5km effort on KLM day etc.

Lee and John Tan, my running buddies on Sunday

I'm very happy to be able to run with my former running buddies, whom I have not ran with for more than ten years. Hopefully this will be a regular Sunday thing. Thank you very much Lee and John Tan for waiting for me a few hundred times.

BAKED GOODIES

It was an interesting week. My wife and I did a little kind deed and we got promised HOME BAKED GOODIES to be delivered to Bukit Aman. I know from Tip that baking takes hours. Sure enough, our donor made a special trip to Bukit Aman just to deliver a whole carrot cake. I don't think we do little deeds for our good friends or loved ones for something in return. Now I'm lost for words. Luckily I didn't get emotional.

Our donor shared with us her training methods, specifically what she did on Saturday morning. It wasn't just 3 hours on the turbo. It was 3 hours of pure pain. I think I will just stick to doing little deeds for her and continue to finish at the back of every event that I enter.

SIMON CROSS
Simon did a 27 km run at Bukit Aman to prepare for the ITU Long Distance World Championships on 1 Aug 2010. The distance this year is 4km swim, 130km bike and 30km run.
When I did the same event in Perth on 25 Oct 2009, the distance was only 3km + 80km + 20km. Lucky me I suppose. What he did on KL Marathon Day was so incredible. I would have just kept on sleeping. Thats why he is an outstanding Ironman and I am not. We wish Simon all the best for the Worlds.

DENIS ON THE RADIO

A few days ago Denis Oakley, our local Ironman buddy went on BFM to talk about his new business, GoTriathelete.com. It was nice to listen to someone talking our language. It was also an interesting insight into Denis as a person and also into his new business. I didn't understand it when he started using big words about his internet business model.

The radio DJ was very impressed, "so Denis, can anyone do Triathlons?". "Well a 120kg , 5ft 4in woman just did the Escape from Alcatraz Tri. So anyone could do it. Also, my buddy sofian whose average time for his last 8 Marathons was almost 8 hours, was even able to complete the KL Marathon a few days ago." I couldn't stop laughing. It doesn't matter I got recognised for being slow... hee hee

GoTriathlete.com will definitely be very good for all of us Triathletes. It will be a web-site like no other. Existing web-sites use technology developed in the nineties. GoTriathelete.com will be heavily integrated with Facebook (I think). Well done Denis and Thank you.

Have a good week ahead.