Nature's fury

I had an easy week of training last week. Well, easier week anyway. I still had over 13 hours of training but at lower intensity and with little to no hills on my rides and runs. That ended pretty quickly and Monday soon came and it was back into a full week of training.

It was a public holiday on Monday - WA Labour Day. I had 4.5 hours ride on the program, in the Perth Hills. I slept in that morning, and by the time I started my ride from UWA, it was nearly 8am. The sun was already out and the temperature was rising quickly. There was quite a bit of shade in the hills, so it wasn't that bad. I went through the climbs alright and stopped by IGA in Kalamunda to fill up, bought 2 litres of apple juice and topped up my bottles, while I sat down in the shade and finish the remaining litre!

As I got back to the city, my cycle computer showed over 40 degrees and I was running on empty. There was nothing left in my legs and I found myself spinning lightly. As I got back to UWA, I had 4 hours 10 minutes and 110km on the clock and decided to end my ride.

That's Mother Nature for you, sometimes you just have make a judgement call as to whether to keep fighting or give in. In the grand scheme of things, the 20 minutes that I missed probably won't have a significant impact on my overall training plan but would have probably adversely affected my health if I continued.

Mother Nature also showed it's fury at Lake Taupo for Ironman Zealand last weekend. There was severe gale and winds were blowing over 120kph. I'm sure many felt frustrated and disappointed when organizers decided to call off the event on Saturday, replacing it with a half Ironman on Sunday. But participants' safety and well being is paramount and should not be compromised. Well done to those who persevered with the revised race distance in still very tough conditions.

Herne Hill 40km bike time trial

I always feel a bit anxious when it comes to bike time trials. Simply because cycling had always been my weakest leg in a triathlon. But lately with the added bike mileage, I'm slowly gaining some confidence in my cycling ability.

With the time trial on Sunday, I skipped the hills ride on Saturday and rode 4 hours on Freeway South instead. It's always nice to greet fellow triathletes ploughing through the path on both directions. I had two big dinners on Friday and Saturday (thanks Jasmine and Michael for having us at your place!), which probably gave me more than enough carbs for this race.

I met up with Bill and Shao at East Perth in the morning, had a quick coffee stop at MilkD Maylands and then we rode to Herne Hill. Riding for over 50 minutes before my time trial got me even more nervous as to whether I would have any energy left, but the boys were great, they towed me for most of the ride.

Got to Herne Hill primary school for the registration, a quick toilet break and soon it was time to start. Shao then went home. Despite the name of the venue, the course is pretty flat - rectangular shape with four 90 degree turns and we go through it 4 times. The wind was pretty calm when we started but it soon picked up towards the last couple of laps.

I was aiming for 70 minutes, which is just over 34kph. But I was averaging just over 35kph, which made me quite happy. I even passed two of the cyclists who started just before me, which rarely happens. I'm beginning to enjoy riding with the big crank, I rode with it throughout the course. At the end of the last lap, I moved to an even bigger gear and tried to hammer towards the finish, in hope of clocking a higher average speed.

In the end, I clocked 1:07:37 - an average pace of 35.5kph, really happy with the result! One area which I need to continuously improve on is taking the tight corners with more speed and confidence. Although, after the race, while we were chatting with one of the marshals, we saw a girl took a corner, skidded and fell. Luckily she wasn't hurt too badly.

With tired legs, I rode with Bill (actually behind Bill for most of it) back to East Perth. I'm beginning to enjoy these bike time trials. So much so, that I have another one in Wandi in two weeks, see you then!

John Forrest Cross Country... plus a bit

Something fun and different... was the description for this race in my program this week. I have never ran off road or trails before. I've done nature hikes but all at a walking pace. With my poor eyesight and motor coordination, I get too worried of tripping, twisting an ankle, rolling down the hill etc.

So I was pretty nervous as to how this would turn out. In the morning, my legs still felt a bit like jelly from the long ride in the hills with the BYL group a.k.a. the epic Wusa hills ride. One good thing was the trails in Perth are pretty dry, compared to the muddy, yucky ones in Malaysia. Although, some might prefer the latter...

I met up with Shao, Sandy and Bill at Bilgoman Aquatic Centre, had a quick warm up and then walked across the Great Eastern Highway for our race start. The race director briefly explained the course and told us to follow the pink ribbons - basically, the onus is on us (no pun intended!) to run the right course! Here's the course map taken off the WA Marathon Club website.

From the start, Bill and Shao took off with the front pack. Myself and Sandy stayed in a group of our own just a bit further back. I was actually enjoying the run, though I made a mistake of wearing my Saucony Fastwitch racing flats. I could feel the pebbles and twigs poking through my feet. I wore our Louis Garneau BYL running singlet for the first time, which felt really comfortable and light - and it dries really quickly too. Going through the ascends and the descends of John Forrest National Park, I surprised myself more than anyone else at the pace I was going. Agility was never my strong point and there were moments when I was leading our group for quite a fair bit. Running up the boulders was quite an exhilarating experience.

It was just after then, around 2/3 into the course, I was a bit further ahead of our group and chasing a girl in red just a bit further in front. She soon disappeared into the horizon and I kept going, not knowing that I have taken the wrong route! I knew something was amiss, I was running alone and there were no more pink ribbons! But I decided to keep going, even if I have gone off course, at least find my way back to the finish. It wasn't long until I met up with Bill who was walking back from the opposite direction, he too took the wrong route. And very soon the group from behind caught up with us. So we all back tracked and finally found the intersection, where we took the wrong turn. We continued running... back on the right course this time! And we came to the infamous Faithful Hill. Boy, did it live up to its expectations! It just kept going up, and up, and up!

After that, we got onto the main road and it was about 2-3kms left to the finish. It was main road all the way until about 200m from the finish line. And then, guess what? We took the wrong turn again! Quickly back tracked and got onto the right one - myself, Bill and Sandy were all running together and each of us got into a sprint, finally finishing within seconds of each other.

According to Bill's Garmin, we did 17.6km - 5kms more than the race course. I had a time of 1 hour 22 minutes. Taking off that 5kms should give me a sub 1 hour race but I guess we'll never know... until next year. Although it was a pity not to have a true official time, it was still great fun. Hey, it's not everyday you get to finish a race with your coach right? Shao (the only one among us who ran the correct route) met up with us after that. And my post race nutrition was well taken care of - Bill brought lovely florentines baked by his wife, and Shao made these delicious chocolate tarts. Thanks guys!

Happy birthday Dad!

My dad will celebrate his 57th birthday tomorrow. He taught me everything I knew and has provided me with all that I needed to be who I am today. Dad has always been health conscious and loves running. And since I've started this triathlon madness, he has been really supportive all the way.

I love you, dad. Here's to wishing you a very happy birthday!

A very early Valentine's day celebration

In an attempt to avoid the crowd and overpriced meals, Li-Ann and I decided to have our Valentine's Day dinner about 10 days early - last night. We initially wanted to celebrate it on Chap Goh Meh (15th night of the Chinese New Year), which is the Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day. But most restaurants close on Monday.

We went to Chimes, which is the flagship restaurant of Hotel Northbridge. I'm surprised we didn't come to this place sooner! It was pretty quiet but in a nice way. The place is located at the corner of Brisbane and Lake Streets, so a bit further from the busy spots of Northbridge. First things that won me over were the complimentary bread rolls... yes, the accountant in me was impressed! No need for entrees then ;)

We ordered the sirloin steak and chicken breast. The portions were pretty large and both dishes were cooked perfectly. Li-Ann really enjoyed her chicken, normally I always have her leftovers but there weren't much this time! Most of the mains are under $30, which is very rare in Perth restaurants nowadays. We would definitely be making another trip here again!

Speaking of Northbridge, my go-to triathlon shop, Runner's World would be closing down at the end of this month. It would indeed be a real loss to the Perth triathlon community. Having been in operation for over 30 years, as they say, it is truly the end of an era. I dropped in sometime last week to have a chat with Phil and bid farewell and best wishes. Now, I need to find someone else to bug with my bike mechanical queries, with the hope that I would charged nearly as reasonable as Phil did.

This weekend

It was forecasted to be a real scorcher. So much so that my wife asked me to skip the ride in the hills on Saturday or at least have it swapped, in fear of potential bush fire risk. I was disobedient, but I woke up at 4am to have an early start. The heat turned out to be not that bad and there was even a slight drizzle.

Because of the ride, I missed the TV coverage of Ironman WA 2011, it was at 6am. The repeats are all at inconvenient times - Friday 10.30am, Thursday 9am when I'm at work and Sunday 3am! I know that Ironman isn't exactly mainstream sport but some of these times are ridiculous! Good thing Dennis offered to have it taped and to give me a copy. Thanks Dennis!

I did re-watch the coverage of Kona though. I've watched it a couple of times already and still, I get goosebumps watching the finishers crossing the finish line.

Sunday was a really windy day. There were times when I was nearly blown off my bike with the aerobars. The City of Perth tri was on, and it must have been tough for those competing especially with the strong easterly winds on Mounts Bay road. A special mention to Steve and Adele from Team BYL who won their age groups respectively - congratulations! What a power couple!

Four weeks into the year 2012... four weeks into my training program for Challenge Cairns!

A few days of fun

The week started with a social ride with Sal and Nat on Monday morning. Then in the evening, I received an invite from Kiez - she had a mini Chinese New Year open house. Lots of great home cooked food - felt like I was in Malaysia again! After dinner, we played a few rounds of black jack... you can't celebrate Chinese New Year without gambling right? But the stakes were pretty small starting with 50c and I ended up with a loss of A$1 haha. Thanks Kiez and family for the invite!

Tuesday morning, instead of the usual BYL interval runs, I did the ATTA Time Trial in King's Park. The distance was 17km - 5 laps up and down Lovekin Drive, so it was a rolling hills course. I'm getting used to using the big crank while going at high speed now. I was aiming for 34 minutes (average 30kph) but I pleasantly surprised myself with a 31:33 (average 32.1kph) I guess I prefer a hillier course than a flat, open course exposed to the winds. Although I still have to improve on my bike handling skills around the U-turns.

Wednesday I joined a group for a ride led by Jason, a fellow team BYL member. It was like going into the unknown - the moment the ride started, these guns were clocking above 45kph! I got dropped less than 15 minutes into the ride, luckily one of them stayed back with me for the rest of the ride. Thanks mate and sorry for holding you back!

Thursday is Australia Day, and what do triathletes get up to on a public holiday? Extra training! It wasn't on my program, but I decided to join in a fun and unofficial triathlon of 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run at Sorrento Beach organized by my good friend and IMWA cycling buddy, Dennis. It was not meant to be a race too, but as usual, sometimes the competitive side takes over. I kept to my pace though, without getting to the red line and paced the run with a guy named Ray, who was doing his first triathlon that day. Thanks Dennis for organizing, we all had a fun day out!

*Pictures from Dennis' Facebook page*

The mercury has risen to an average of 40 degrees maximum for the past few days and looks like it will stay that way for at least until mid next week. Staying hydrated and avoiding overheating will be key for my rides this weekend.