Desaru 116 triathlon - my first DNF

*Picture courtesy of Paul Lee*

I haven't had a lot of luck with Desaru. Two years ago, I suffered bad cramps when I started the run and I walked/jogged to a 2:11 half marathon split to finish in 5:33 overall. This year, just after 30km on the bike, the rear brakes were rubbing against my wheel. I got off, had it re-aligned and got back on with the ride. I lost two minutes.

At the 50km mark, it happened again. Never mind, I'll just re-align it again. Another 2 minutes lost. It seemed that my efforts were futile, as just 10 minutes later, I heard the same screeching sound of brakes rubbing against the wheel and I could barely pedal. I was devastated. I'm sure nearly half of the competitors cycling that day could hear my screams and swears from the roadside, and I nearly did a Normann Stadler by chucking my bike onto the dirt in despair.

It's always a difficult decision to pull out from a race. Especially so when you have travelled from far, it seemed like the trip was a total waste. More heartaching was that I have literally squandered an opportunity to be amongst the prize winners in my age group, after looking at the results the next day.

However, this is, after all, a test race for my preparations for Ironman Western Australia in 10 weeks time. And I will treat it as such, and take away as much as possible, from this learning experience.

A few things indicated that my preparations were in the right direction. I felt strong riding on the undulating hills on the course. My average speed was well above what I expected. No doubt I had about another 37km to go, but I reckon I should be able to maintain that pace for another hour or so. The hill workouts that Bill prescribed did a lot more than just develop more mass on my very flat bum (per Li-Ann's observation haha). I paced a few friends on the run and I felt really comfortable with the rhythm. Sure I had a reasonably fresh pair of legs after having a free ride on the ambulance for about 30 minutes. But I also think the brick workouts are working well.

One thing to work on. I need to improve my sighting in the open water. I was swimming with the lead pack, and when I felt comfortable, I upped the pace and actually took the lead, swimming on my own. But just after the first lap, I got totally lost and went way of course, losing my lead altogether.

One thing to keep in mind. I must take time to assemble my bike and test ride it... PROPERLY. This story would have been very different if I didn't assemble my bike hastily, in a tired state (from travelling) outside the hotel reception while waiting for my room mates to arrive. I could have used that time to rest and assemble my bike in the comfort of our hotel room. Also, since I have rested, I would have been able to do more than just a short spin around the hotel carpark.

I'm sure there are lots more to be taken away from this experience. And there's no point ruminating about what could have been. I did after all, have a good time with friends in my home country. Now, I need to re-focus my thoughts and energy on Ironman Western Australia, which is the main goal of all the training in the past few months, and months to come anyway.

Having said that, I'm pretty keen to return next year.

I have some unfinished business with the Desaru demons that I want to settle.

The Fat Boy Challenge: A race report of a different kind

It's no secret that I'll be racing the Desaru 116 triathlon in about a week's time. It would be a good test of my Ironman preparations so far, just 10 weeks before Ironman Western Australia. Taking on the Fat Boy Challenge is probably one of the most foolish things I have ever done, especially just a week out from this race.

If you recall from my post a couple of months ago about Novembar, a quaint lunch bar, operated by a creative (and borderline maniac) proprietor Minh Van. Li-Ann's friends organized a dinner get-together on Thursday night, with one of them taking up the Fat Boy Challenge. I've been wanting to give this challenge a shot anyway, so I decided to join in too.

The Fat Boy Challenge is a 1.3kg burger consisting of 2 burger buns, 7 beef patties, 3 slices of cheese, 1 egg, 1 bacon and cooked onions. Normally priced at $28.50 on the menu, but if you take up the challenge, you only pay $1 for every minute you take to complete the burger. With the condition that you MUST finish the burger.

Because we had a large group and there was only one chef (Minh himself), it took a while before our burgers were served. As the others were getting their burgers brought to their table, I was beginning to feel nervous. Even the triple cheeseburger (3 beef patties, 3 slices of cheese) looked enormous, I wasn't sure if I could finish my Fat Boy!

I did a mistake by starting too quickly, both from the hunger and also the eagerness to set a good time. As it was physically impossible to eat the burger as a whole, I attacked it patty by patty. The patties are actually made from scratch, so they were stuffed with fillings, not your typical frozen thin ones.

I was averaging about 1 minute per patty up until the 4th patty, when I started experiencing some heart burn. And then, it got harder to down the patties once my stomach began to fill up. By the 6th patty, I think I hit the wall. So, I drank some water to wash it down before taking the last patty. It took me nearly 3 minutes to finish the last patty with the bun. My total time was 15 minutes and 15 seconds, hence I needed to pay $15.25. And to think the quickest time on the leaderboard to date is 6:21!

Surprisingly, my stomach held up quite well that night. The 70 minute run session I had the next morning though, wasn't a pretty sight! But I recovered well the next morning, posting my first ride in the hills under 3 hours with a 2 minute PB on the Mundaring Weir climb.

I'll be leaving for Desaru this coming Thursday night and arriving in Singapore on Friday morning. Next post shall be my Desaru race report!

A few places...

...we went to for the past couple of weekends.

The Rosemount Hotel in North Perth, great food (especially the rump steak!), reasonable prices. Every main meal on the menu was under $25. Our only gripe was you could only eat outdoors, which is not smoke free.

Saigon Cafe in Northbridge, we normally have our Vietnamese at Dao Vien, next to my local tri shop Runners World. But as it was closed, we reluctantly went to Saigon, as the last time we were there, the food wasn't quite to our liking. But I'm glad we visited them again, as we enjoyed our meal very much this time. I guess sometimes, we need to give second chances.

Oh, and I've FINALLY got my car back. After patiently (yes, I think I have been pretty patient) waiting for 8 weeks. But you can be very sure I won't be renewing my insurance with AAMI next time!

Lake Gwelup 10km run

This run was not on my program originally. I swapped it with the Freo Fun Run the following week, as it is much closer and the entry fees were much cheaper too. Also, I didn't fancy running through the railway lines in Fremantle. So I thought I chose the softer option.

I was wrong.

When I started my warmup at the foot paths at Lake Gwelup, the race marshalls have already lined up the course with the orange cones. I noticed the course went off the paths and into the grass and gravel. Not my preference, but we can't always stick to things we're comfortable with.

I actually felt pretty good in the warmup. The 4.5 hour ride in the hills the day before didn't seem to affect my legs that much when I did the short 30 second bursts of sprints. And because the place was only 10 minutes away, I had plenty of time to stretch, relax and get myself ready. I thought to myself, I might do a good run after all.

I was wrong again.

I probably only felt good for the first 10 minutes of the race. After that, there some twists and turns in the course, and we also came to a short climb of about 500m. The run was a 2 lap course, so I took a mental note to prepare myself when we return to that climb on the 2nd lap.

Mitch Cleasby, who pipped me at the finish line at Perth Half Marathon 4 weeks ago, overtook me just after the 4km mark. It was then where it felt like my body surrendered whatever strength it has left, leaving me to run in survival mode for the rest of the run. When I passed the halfway point, the finish clock was showing 20:30 something. I'm already 45 seconds slower than I was at the halfway point at Lake Joondalup where I did my 10km PB.

My pace slowed down even more after that, probably about 10 seconds per km. I've already taken this to be a training run. A couple more runners overtook me, then an older participant stayed with me until the last km. With the finishing in sight, suddenly my legs felt a sudden surge of energy and I picked up my pace, finishing with a bit of a sprint. I crossed the finish line in 41:53, more than 2 minutes slower than Lake Joondalup run, and with an average pace of 2-3 seconds slower per km than Perth Half Marathon.

Slightly disappointed that I wasn't able to give my best. But I guess we can't be at our best all the time. So I just have to be contented with another good hard running session in the bag.

Follow the herd

I had a good week of training, felt strong for most of the sessions. I finished the week with a back to back ride weekend - 4.5 hour ride on Saturday, starting at the eastern hills which took me about 3 hours, and I made up the remaining 1.5 with a ride along the river. On Sunday, while the most of Perth community were out running the City to Surf, over 42,000 runners to be exact, I did a 2 hour ride on Freeway South. The weather was calm and cool, with slight overcast. I truly enjoyed my ride and I'm sure those who ran this morning did some pretty fast times. Well done to all those who competed, and congratulations to those who achieved their PBs!

Entries opened today for the inaugural Ironman Asia Pacific Championship to be held at Melbourne in late March next year, offering 75 qualifying slots for Kona, more than 25 from the usual Ironman events. The event was sold out in a record time of just over 5 minutes! It seems like it is the norm now, with Ironman events selling out on the same day and interested participants have to commit themselves a year in advance. With more and more people taking up this sport, the natural laws of supply and demand dictate increasing entry fees. This particular race is more than 20% dearer than Ironman Western Australia.

Congratulations to those who managed to secure a spot and having the courage to make the commitment, especially for those entering their first Ironman event. I didn't join the bandwagon, in contrast to the title of this post. A couple of reasons, as I think 3.5 months will probably be not enough for me to recover from Ironman Western Australia to be at my racing best. Another reason as I'm pretty keen to try Challenge Cairns, an Iron distance event outside the Ironman series. The timing will be perfect, a few weeks before our wedding and it will be a good race to do before I take a break from endurance events and start looking at other things in life (but I make no promises, so don't hold me onto anything! Haha)

The odd thing is... despite offering the same distance and similar experience, the entries for Challenge Cairns are really trickling. The race would not offer any qualifying spots for the Ironman World Championship but I'm sure the event organization is top notch and the satisfaction of completing the race is just as great. Anyone keen to join me?

On the lighter side, I have relatives over for the week. My cousin, his wife, his daughter, my aunty and uncle are here to visit. We went to Fremantle today, which was nice as it's been a while since Li-Ann and I have been there. And even a longer time since we did the touristy stuff like visiting the markets and having fish and chips by the harbour.

Confessions of a shopaholic

Well not quite... but in the past few weeks, I have made quite a few purchases off the internet, which somehow always make me go on guilt trips whenever these purchases are triathlon related. Nevertheless, I take comfort in convincing myself that these few items are essentials for the average triathlete.

Another pair of Asics GT-2150s. I'm currently already using a pair as my trainers. These have served me well and provided great arch support. I normally change my trainers once a year but with the increased weekly mileage, my current pair are wearing out soon. I would have loved to upgrade to the newer 2160 model, but these were going at a clearance price on Start Fitness, which also prompted the pre-emptive purchase. The red colour is less striking than my current lime green ones though.

Shimano TR51 triathlon bike shoes. Got them pre-used at a steal price from the TriWa forum. My current and only pair of bike shoes, the TR30s have been through thick and thin throughout my triathlon journey. But it is time to let them go. Also, these blue babies match the colour of my bike haha.

Nothing extra exciting have been happening since the Perth Half Marathon, hence the one week lapse in my blog posting. Li-Ann and I watched the final instalment of the Harry Potter mini series in the cinemas today. We have been playing catch up with the previous three episodes by watching them on DVD. I've watched all the Harry Potter movies, but mainly for entertainment value. I find myself asking Li-Ann, who has read all the books, a lot of questions after each movie.

We ended the weekend with dinner at Mille Cafe, $9.95 pizza specials! We had to take away most of the pizza and I have to say, when it comes to pizza, we pledge our loyalty to Little Caesars! Although, the apple cake we had for dessert was pretty good.

Perth Half Marathon 2011

Somehow, this race wasn't included in my original preparations for Ironman Western Australia at the end of the year. However, when I signed up with Bill's coaching, I had a guess that he would have me racing this event. If I had known earlier, I would have signed up before the early bird entry ends and save myself $5! Haha, yes I am an accountant after all, every penny counts!

I have been feeling pretty good with my running sessions lately. And by clocking a 4:10 per km average at my most recent 1.5 hour long run, I set myself a challenge to try to run sub 87 minutes at this race, which is 4:07 per km. My previous best was at the same race last year, 1:28:33. Last year, I did an 80km ride the day before. Whereas this year, I did a 4 hour ride (which ended up being 4:12 because of the nasty northerly winds on the way back!) on the eve of the race. So it will be interesting to see how my legs hold up.

I slept like a log the night before, after a hearty meal at Catalano's Cafe. Didn't have too much sweet stuff this year for dessert, as they gave both myself and Li-Ann stomach upsets towards the end of last year's run.

Race morning, I got to the WA Marathon clubrooms at 7.30am, but all the parking spots were already taken up. This year's turnout was over 740 runners for the half marathon event alone. Parked a bit further, no worries, I did a warm up jog to the club rooms. Caught up with the guys from Break Your Limits, it's nice meeting up with people you know before the race to calm your nerves. Other people I met were Dennis Tan and John Cooke from North Coast Tri Club. We left it to the last minute before doing a warm up jog, after which Sam, my riding partner appeared, catching me by surprise. Sam and I then walked to the starting line, making it just in time, less than 1 minute before the 8.00am start! Yes, you can tell I'm much more relaxed this year!

The start was a bit crowded, I got a bit worried that my pace will be affected but I crossed the 1st km marker in 4:03, and the 2nd in 3:59 so I was doing well ahead of target. I was pacing with whom I thought was Nera Jerab, WA's state champion for the Perth Marathon, and as I soon dropped her off, I tought to myself that I was doing pretty alright! Later, I found out at the turnaround point at the Narrows Bridge, that Nera was away ahead of me and would eventually be the women's champion in a blitzing 1:23:38 (no surprises here!), and the girl I dropped off was her sister Visnja, who actually finished 17 seconds after me.

The km markers were a bit inconsistent, but overall I was averaging just under 4:07 per km pace. I got to the 10km mark at 41:02 and were beginning to overtake some of the runners in front of me. Our BYL Man of Mystery, Shao (Wuzza) Wu was taking pictures at the South Perth foreshore, cheering us on, so I was feeling pretty good.

But it soon came undone from 12km onwards. I was beginning to feel some minor side stitches and it didn't help that despite the weather being generally calm, any slight headwind will tend to affect your mind and body when you're starting to suffer. Also, the absence of km markers from the 13th km onwards made it a bit difficult to estimate if I was on track. Plus, on this part of the course, we had to to go through some short, but pretty steep hills at the East Perth foreshore, which will throw off your leg cadence out of whack. Here's where I constantly needed to tell myself, to just keep the momentum going!

The last few kms, I was inching closer and closer to veteran runner, Mitch Cleasby. We got the finishing chute together and I started sprinting. But, the crafty Mitch wasn't going to let me overtake him, so he picked up his cadence and left me in his wake. I finished a second behind him in 1:27:32, a minute off last year's PB, in 58th place overall, as Mr BYL himself, Ray Lampard, one of the race emcees, commentated my finish. I guess, despite being a bit off target, I really can't complain as it is still a new PB.

Caught up with the other guys after the race, most of them did their PBs that day, indicating a combination of great racing conditions and effective training programs, which are really paying off. A good day out.

*Pictures courtesy of Lena Inkson and Dash Photography*