Motivation

It seems I've been starting my blog posts with pictures of food lately. These were taken from Basement on Broadway, the local pub located near UWA. We have always wanted to try it out while we were staying in that area, but never got the chance to.

A hearty meal after my bike ride yesterday. We got there early and had to wait for the kitchen to be set up. Coming to the end of May now, gee where has the year gone! Another reason for dining out more frequently recently is to use up the discounts in our Entertainment book. We just got the new one, as we do every year, which starts in June.

I have been feeling really motivated lately in my training, which is a good thing. But at the same time, there is a slightly uneasy feeling if I can maintain this motivation until end of the year for Ironman Western Australia. All my 13km runs for the past two weeks were averaged between 4:10 to 4:14 per km. With the slowest one being this morning, when I took it easy in the middle as the headwinds got a bit too strong and I couldn't be bothered pushing through it.

I started doing my own swims at Balga Leisurepark. Without a swim squad or a given program, I had to use my own creative mind (or rather, lack of it hehe) to come up with my own sets. My usual warm ups are 10 x 100m on 1:35. Main set is usually a 2km set, consisting of reps of 100m to 400m. Finishing with some sprints of 10 x 50m, adding in some butterfly and backstroke for variety. All in all, 3.5km in 1 hour for each sessions. This afternoon, I'll be joining Sam for a swim, following his program.

The morning rides are beginning to feel really cold. I've been donning long sleeves and gloves, but still find myself shivering. The winds have calmed down a bit though. Have been able to clock above 29.5kph for the past couple of 80km rides. After a solid weekend workout, I'm looking forward to an easy day tomorrow and start cranking it up again middle of the week.

Some balance

This was taken the previous weekend but I didn't get around posting it up. It was from V Burger Bar in Victoria Park. The burgers were really fresh and you could see the kitchen staff tenderizing the meat patties in front of you. Worth a try!

We had friends over for the weekend, two couples. An episode on How I Met Your Mother depicted that couples need couple friends. It was nice having them around, as we rarely have guests over. The bulk of our conversation mainly consists of us poking fun at our own partners, highlighting their eccentricities.

Today, after my 80km ride, we went to watch Li-Ann's friend perform. Her band, OWLS was the opening act for WA Music Industry Festival in Northbridge. Their band was only put together for a few months, they performed all original songs, impressive stuff.

It's nice to have something else other than swim, bike or run during the weekend. Good to have some balance, something which many triathletes, including myself struggle to do most of the time. But I'll try to get better.

Buckeyeoutdoors, my online training log is finally up. But I had to create a new account, which means all my previous data since mid 2007 are all gone! Well, nothing I can do about it, except to start fresh. Also, I'm having troubles getting the training log html scripts onto my blog sidebar. Anyone else having this problem or have solved this problem, care to share?

Training updates

It seemed quite a while since I last posted anything on my training. I came down with a cold the previous weekend but I'm glad I recovered pretty quickly. I'm fine and healthy now. All but one of the last 5 runs I did were under 55 minutes for my 13km route, averaging 4:10 - 4:14 per km. Getting pretty close to where I was mid last year, when I was in my peak of running fitness.

Yesterday, I did my first ride on the Freeway South past Mount Henry bridge. So many years of cycling in Perth, but I have always stuck to the same route. Sam Goh was my training company for the ride, it was nice riding with someone for a change. We rode on the path until somewhere past Baldivis and back. We did 110km in total, it was cruisy on the way out, but the 20kph headwinds on the return trip were pretty challenging. Still, we averaged just over 30kph, a solid ride nonetheless.

I'm near finishing my multi passes for the swim squad at UWA and considering doing my own swims at the pools nearer to home, like Balga Leisurepark or Terry Tyzack Aquatic Centre. Swimming on my own also gives me more flexibility and I wouldn't have to wait for my sessions to start at 7pm as I did previously. However, the camaraderie of squad members will be missed.

The recent news of the cancellation of Ironman China brought a lot of angst and frustration for those who were meant to be racing it in 2 weeks' time. But, at the same time the additional 25 Kona spots allocated to Ironman Korea created a bit of excitement to those dreaming of qualifying for the world championships, including myself. But after having the weekend to think clearly, I decided against jumping on the bandwagon of signing up. 6 weeks is not enough to prepare for an Ironman and even then, I'm not up to the mark to challenge for the qualifying spots.

I'll just continue with my training and stick to my plan to prepare for Ironman Western Australia at the end of the year.

Triathlon portal

Move over Slowtwitch and Everymantri, there's a new kid on the block! BeyondTransition.com recently launched a few days ago, is your one-stop-shop for everything you need to know about triathlon, recent and upcoming races.

Designed by triathletes, for triathletes. Hence, you can be sure that every single detail is taken into account from a triathlete's perspective when it comes to planning your next race. The blog features some interesting articles, mostly written by Emma Bishop, a kick-ass triathlete herself, residing in Malaysia. Do have a read and you'll find some really inspiring stories and interviews.

What I especially like is the Races page, which gives you a snapshot summary of information for your next race without having to go through the novel of pages of the athletes guide usually given by the race organizers.

BeyondTransition.com is the brainchild of Denis Oakley, also a passionate triathlete, known for his loud humour, impressive gadgets and overall nice guy. Do have a look and I promise, soon it'll be one of your regular sites to visit!

*pictures courtesy of BeyondTransition.com*

Triple celebration

My two younger siblings' birthdays this month... little brother's yesterday and little sister's this coming Wednesday. Keith is now just one year away from becoming 18, the legal age for drinking hehe. And well, Karen will be turning a quarter century old haha. One so grown up and the other... erm growing old, haha.

Okay, jokes aside, here's to wishing you both very happy birthdays! Looking forward to seeing both of you end of the year.

Today is Mother's Day. I have spent the last 8 years away from mom on this day, where we give thanks for bringing us to this world, and all the lovely things our mothers have done for us throughout our lives.

Happy mother's day, mom! Nothing can repay the love and kindness you have showered me, I love you!

Oh, one more thing deserving a mention. It was the Busselton Ironman 70.3 yesterday, and there were some great performances from Team BYL. Great job, guys!

Pump it up!

I've been a regular gym go-er during my college and uni days. Even during my teens, I did quite a bit of weight training, perhaps mainly due to vanity and body image consciousness. I actually think I could have been a bit taller now, if I left the weights until I was a bit older.

And then, I started getting into long distance triathlon more than 3 years ago, and I could barely find the time to make my gym membership worthwhile. Still, I devote a once a week 45 minute session to strength training as I realize how important it is to endurance athletes.

Li-Ann has been hassling me to get a set of weights as I have been using my own body weight for my weekly strength training sessions all these while. Maybe because I'm starting to look less macho with all the muscle catabolism from the endurance training hehe, perhaps it is time to bulk up a bit.

After searching for quite a while, we finally found something suitable and reasonably priced - a 20kg Spalding bodypump weight set. I used it for my strength training session on Friday and I have been feeling sore since... in a good way. So I guess it must be pretty effective. Hopefully this will make stronger and faster, as after all, isn't that our ultimate goal?

On another note but still related, Buckeyeoutdoors, my online training journal has been down for nearly a week due to a server crash caused by storm damage. The site administrator promised it would be up by next weekend, but there is no assurance that any data stored before this could be recovered. I've started using Buckeyeoutdoors since my preparations for my first marathon in 2007. Losing all that data will be like losing a significant portion of my memories. Let's hope for the best.