Wife's birthday

Our first time celebrating Li-Ann's birthday as a married couple.

Thursday night dinner at Blue Waters Cafe, Cottesloe. Food was good, prawns were nice and fresh, pork belly was tender and crispy. Portions were a bit small for my triathlete stomach, unfortunately hehe.

As always, Li-Ann bakes her own birthday cake. Don't look at me, she likes doing it! Chocolate brownie cake, yummz...

Sunday brunch at Little Caesar's Hillary's Boat Harbour. Post 2 hour ride and 30 minute brick run for me.

Wandi 40km bike time trial

Two weeks on and I have another bike time trial. The weather in the past few days have been absolutely hot! I started my 4.5 hour ride yesterday just before 6am, went down the Freeway South bike path. It was pretty cool at first - just under 20 degrees, but soon after I made the turnaround, the temperature must have rose about 15 degrees and another 5 an hour later. It didn't help that there was a slight headwind on the way back. My legs were pretty empty towards the end of the ride, the return journey took me 5 minutes longer.

So come this morning, race day, I wasn't sure how well my legs have recovered. I had a late seeded start time of 8.32am. I planned to drop Li-Ann off at UWA on the way, but the roads were closed for the BRW Corporate Triathlon, so I took a detour to South Perth instead, where she could work on her laptop at the cafe while I had my ride.

I got to the race start with about 20 minutes to spare, quickly collected my number bib and timing chip from the registration. Luckily the rubber band for the timing chip was more flexible today, otherwise it always takes me ages to fit them on! It was also the State 40km ITT Championships, so many were in their skin tight time trial gear and disc wheels. I avoided using my aero helmet and disc wheel as I didn't want to attract unnecessary attention, quite often I end up in the bottom half of the results list!

A quick warm up and soon, it was time to go. The course is just under 10.2km and we go through it 4 times, making it a total of 40.9km. The winds were blowing from a North East direction, not very strong, but enough to pose a challenge. Plus there is a slight incline in that section of the course, which breaks the rhythm a bit. But that section is only about 3kms, and soon we'll be back in the tailwinds again.

The thing with time trials, is I always use the first lap as a gauge of what times to target for each lap. I did the first one in 17 minutes and I tried to keep it under 17 minutes from thereon. A pleasant surprise was the average speed kept above 36kph throughout, which exceeds my 35.5kph at Herne Hill two weeks ago. Coming into the last lap, I grit my teeth and just mashed the big gears, and passed the finish line in 1:07:48, an average speed of 36.2kph - a new PB for me!

Totally stoked with my results and can't wait to do another race. I'll be down for the Hillary's Sprint tri in two weeks. It's short races like these, all between 1 to 2 hours, that go a long way in keeping my progress and confidence in check, without smashing your body too much and leaving it ready to get back into training quickly.

P/S - Someone I met passed away during the week after a long battle with cancer. Her name is Yeoh, I met her at Ironman Malaysia 2010. She was there to support us, a nice and bubbly lady. Very sad news. Yeoh, may you rest in peace.

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.