Spring Queen

It is the long weekend... Queen's birthday, which somehow is coincidentally the AFL Grand Final weekend. After 6 years of being here in Australia, I STILL do not understand, let alone follow this game.

Yes, yes... I know we only get ONE day, while those back home in Malaysia get the WHOLE WEEK off! Selamat Hari Raya to all my Muslim friends and happy holidays to the non-Muslim ones!

It was also the last few days for spring wildflowers to bloom (spring wildflowers only, spring itself ends by end of October). Now after 6 years of being here in Perth, this is my FIRST time seeing the wildflowers in Kings Park and going on the suspension bridge, despite it being only 5kms away from my house.

On the Ironman training note... I did 80.90km in 2:47.54 today... average 28.91kph - my fastest training speed ever! But I have to work on improving on my running legs after doing a bike ride... clocked 26:47 for 6km (average 4:28 per km), have to reduce it to below 26:30 (average 4:25 per km)!

A friendly reminder...

Good thing the drivers here are pretty courteous to cyclists. Although, occasionally we do get some nutcases behind the wheel.

*****

I'm bidding farewell to my car, which has served me reliably for over 3 years now. Was only thinking of getting a new car next year... but Eric and Renee gave me an offer on their car which I couldn't resist!

So here's an ad of my own...

1996 Ford Festiva 1.3L Auto FOR SALE AUD 2,450 O.N.O.
(or nearest offer)

Very fuel economical - Under AUD 40 for full tank!

Good condition - recently serviced!

Rego until October 2009!

Car located near UWA Nedlands campus.

Contact Kevin 0412178619 or kskh@hotmail.com

A trip to the podiatrist

Yes, I've FINALLY visited a podiatrist yesterday. With my PANCAKE flat feet, one can only wonder what sort of severe damage all my running (or even walking) have done to my ankles, shins, knees, hips, posture etc. without any orthotics or shoe insoles.

My appointment was with Vivian Oldfield at Peak Podiatry. The guy (yes, he ACTUALLY IS a guy!) is very knowledgeable... I was lucky that he deals a lot with a triathletes (perhaps a triathlete himself? I should have asked)...

He did a video assessment of my gait. I was placed on a treadmill, running at 9kph for just over 2 minutes, with a video camera each on my front, back and side.

He was pretty amazed that although with my flat feet, I don't pronate that much and I actually land almost perfectly straight. However, the lower half of my legs swing inwardly, causing a bit of a strain on my gluts and hips. He reckons is because my gluts lack strength (haiya, need to pad up my butt more!)... could be due to training too much in aero position during my bike rides. As the aero position is meant to conserve energy for the run, so if I keep on training in that position, those muscles are not worked as much. MAKES SO MUCH SENSE! How do you like that? A podiatrist who gives you triathlon training tips...

I wished I could get a copy of the video assessment, but he was pretty reluctant. Maybe due to copyright issues.

I was told to change a pair of shoes every 600 to 800kms (with my weekly average running of 30km, that's only about 25 weeks!) I'm so glad he didn't prescribe me any heavyweight motion control shoes. Just as long as they have dual density. Good thing the Saucony shoes I'm looking for have those.

I got my feet taped again, to give them an artificial arch for me to try out. The results were AWESOME! I was pretty tired during my run yesterday evening, so I slowed down my pace quite significantly... but was still able to clock some good times! So this is how people with NORMAL arches feel like... I'll definitely consider getting custom made orthotics... something worth investing in!

Take a BRICK

The last time I did a BRICK session was before the Busselton Half Ironman. Thought I should also try doing it with the Orca tri suit, as the two times that I raced in this suit, I had cramps in the run leg.

The bike ride was pretty good... 80.67km in 2:50.30 (average 28.39kph), slightly slower than the ride I did two weeks ago but the head winds were stronger today.

When it came to the run, it was about 11.15am... the sun was out, getting pretty hot. I thought I could do the 6km in 26.5 minutes (average 4:25 per km) but fatigue got to me and I could only manage 27 minutes (average 4:30 per km). Oh well, need more BRICK practising then...

Somehow I STILL felt the tightness around my quads when I ran. Maybe I should stop wearing this tri suit. But that would be so wasteful...

*****

On a different note, Li-Ann and myself had afternoon tea at this wonderful cake shop in Subiaco called Sonny's. It has been a while since just the two of us spend some time together and do something apart from grocery shopping (although we did go to Subi to do our groceries).

The cakes were really attractive... and the honeycomb bee sting we ordered tasted as good as as it looked. The service was very fast. My only critique was presentation of the cake when it was brought to our table. It looked so good behind the counter, but it was placed lopsided on our plate. Yes, I'm spoilt... I'm used to having my cake served standing high with whipped cream or ice cream :)