Ironman Fever - 10/10/10

Today is the 10th of October 2010. Yesterday was the 2010 Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. Having developed a recent heightened interest in triathlon, I followed the race coverage with great interest. Technology allowed me to watch the race, live, for as long as I liked (or could deal with having an American voice in my apartment). :)

Biggest shock when I read that Chrissie Wellington, reigning triple world champion and my biggest hero, had pulled out of the race due to illness. Chrissie is, without a shadow of doubt, the best female triathlete at long distances, in the world today. The woman is a tough cookie, who does not think that merely winning a race is good enough. She is out there to push all boundaries, to challenge contemporary belief that men are stronger than women.

And yet, she did not race yesterday. So a new World Champion was crowned today (because I live in the wrong time zone). Similarly, on the men's race, 37 year old Chris McCormack beat the odds to win his 2nd World Champion title, not bad for someone scientists dismissed as "you'll never be World Champion".

All this brings me to an interesting observation. That really, anything could happen, in this wonderful sport I race called triathlon. So many ways a race could go right or wrong, anything is possible really.

Against some strange and wonderful odds, I have ended up here today. 3rd in my age group category in the European championships duathlon. 2nd in my age group in the Danish long triathlon. Top 10 finish in the world championship duathlon for the run segments. And in one month's time, I will see where I place in the world, in half Ironman.

Which brings me to the point of this whole entry. I think the time has come for things to get serious in triathlon for me. "For fun" was a good philosophy for the last 4 years, but I think I want more. And what better day than the 10/10/10 to make a decision like this.

I solemnly declare, today, on the 10th of October 2010, that I will try my utmost best, to return to Hawaii. Not to do a half Ironman as I did in June this year, but to participate in The Real Thing, the Ironman world championship. A long road lies ahead of me.... but Game On! Let The Challenge begin.

I am 30, and it is 10/10/10, by any calendar convention. A good sign.

Life as an amateur coached athlete FAQs

I've been doing triathlon for more than 3 years now, and I often get asked questions by well meaning friends. Some questions amuse me very much, as some people have an impression that I'm some sort of "super pro", which is no where near the truth. So for a laugh, I thought I would write this FAQ. In no particular order other than what occurs to me....

Q: What is triathlon? Is Ironman related to the movie?

A: Triathlon involves swimming, cycling and running. "Ironman" refers to a standard race distance for a triathlon, i.e. 3.8k swim, 180k cycle, 42.2k run (marathon).

Q: Are you an "Ironwoman"?

A: There is no such thing as an Ironwoman, but I do half Ironmans (half the distance above).

Q: So does that mean you are not allowed to eat junk food or drink alcohol?

A: No, it means I maintain a balanced diet, eating what my body needs to train and recover. As for alcohol, in the words of my coach, "What, you want me to not have a life?!". :)

Q: Do you have to train for hours and hours every day e.g. cycle 5 hours after work?

A: No, I train 6-7 times a week, with a mix of easy sessions (20 mins) up to harder sessions (3+ hours), all sensibly planned by my coach. Although this swim in a cold lake on a rainy day was not planned by my coach... ;)

Q: You say you are coached, does this mean you are a pro?

A: No, I am an amateur athlete, i.e. it is not my job and I don't get paid for it. I have a full time job and life, and triathlon is merely "for fun".

Q: Are you sponsored?

A: Not many amateur athletes are sponsored. As I said, we are in it "for fun". I buy all my equipment, pay for race entrance fees, travel expenses, etc. It is just a very expensive hobby!

Q: We don't see you so often anymore. Why?

I now have a specific program that is tailored to my abilities and weaknesses, with a particular focus on my next race, the Ironman 70.3 (half Ironman) World Championships in November. :)

Q: Does that mean you won't train with us at all?

A: I will as and when I can, and my coach tries to plan sessions that allow me to enjoy the social aspects of training with the club every now and then.

Q: Does your coach also dictate how much time you train, what you eat, and how much you sleep?

A: No, I tell my coach when I am willing to train, and he plans my program around it. He has no involvement in my life out of my training program. If I have a birthday party, he probably won't give me a hard session the next day. ;)

Q: What do you eat before and during a race?

A: I always have the same breakfast before a race. Peanut butter on toast and coffee. I take some sweets (Jelly Babies) on the bike and if I remember to eat it, a cereal bar. I drink energy drink on the bike, and finish the half marathon off on Coke and water. No gels!!

Q: What country do you represent, and why?

A: My first choice would always be to represent my own country, Malaysia. But some times it is not so simple to get the right support. This year I represented Great Britain in World and European championship duathlons. But I always race as Malaysia in half Ironman races. :)

And finally, why do I do it? Because I love it. I love this life of training and racing all over the world. I am no where near anything spectacular, but I love going out there and giving it my all in a race. Some races I do well, others not so well, but that is all part of the fun! Yes it is tiring, yes it is a big commitment, but this works for me. :)

Ironman 70.3 Hawaii - My 30th Birthday Race

It was my idea of a birthday present to myself... Go to Hawaii to do a half Ironman, to celebrate my 30th birthday. As fate would have it, the race was scheduled for the 5th of June, the day after my birthday. How convenient!

I signed up for the race at the beginning of March, and embarked on a mad 3 months of unconventional training. "The worst winter in decades" in Esbjerg meant that I never got to do the long cycles I should have done. Weekends were spent gallivanting around Denmark and Europe, racing with/for my club (www.multiatleterne.dk). This is how bad winter in Denmark was (Danish Championship Cross Run):

Brick sessions were replaced by the Scottish, European and Danish championship duathlon races. I pretended to be a Brit at the European championships, as part of the Great Britain contingent:

Long, slow runs were replaced by a half marathon completed in 1:27. I did a grand total of ONE cycle at race distance of 90k. It was a lovely cycle along the west coast of Jutland:

As the Big Race loomed closer, I was worried. I had pondered on dropping out of the last duathlon I did (Danish championship, the week after I came third in the European championship), and I actually dropped out of the last triathlon I did due to a puncture. Would I actually complete my 5th half Ironman?

In typical me fashion, and to distract myself from the fact that I was doing a half Ironman in just over a week, I decided to have a birthday party at the last minute, and ended up cooking for 12 people the weekend before my departure. We had a fantastic time, and went through 12 bottles of champagne and wine:

And then it was really too late, no time for apprehensions, I was off to Hawaii! With all the publicity I had received thanks to my club (Senna), I departed with more well wishes than I have had in my entire life put together.

I arrived in Big Island more than 50 hours after leaving my home in Esbjerg. Thankfully my bike survived the 4 flights with me:

I worked out that the weather might be a problem. I was testing out equipment the day before the race, as per Kurt's recommendations, and was sweating before I even left the car park:

I was glad I did the test, because I found problems with my gears and discovered that I had left my Velcro fastener for my drink bottle at home (oops!).

Race morning is always a serious affair. I *always* have my traditional race breakfast of peanut butter on toast, and coffee:

Hapuna beach, voted one of the world's most beautiful beaches by Conde Nast did not disappoint. But the famous Big Island wind was billowing!

It was to be a mass start swim, which never really works for me:

I was clawed and dragged under by the masses, and spent a lot of time floating about and swimming around people. I did not have a very fast swim! I am quite sure I swam further than 1.9k due to the fact that I was trying to avoid vicious people trying to drown me. I exited the swim 525th out of 1324.

The cycle was a bit better, but we battled with the wind on the way out and up the famous Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway, part of the Ironman World Championship course. Scary gusty winds aside, I survived the cycle and moved up to 413th place, proving I am a better cyclist than a swimmer!

And then came my best discipline, running! I prepared for this by adjusting my hair at the start of the run leg:

It was a difficult run. Close to high noon, the temperature was beyond 30 degC. The course was "undulating" at best. It was a golf course with stupid mounds. I was convinced I was running very slowly. The lap times I reviewed on my Garmin suggested I was running very slowly. I braced myself for a bad run time, circa 1:42 hrs. I decided to pick it up...

I was determined to chase down every girl I saw in the last 2km. And chase them down I did. In the last km I overtook at least 2 girls, flying past them at over 15 km/h.

To my delight, I ended up running my fastest half marathon in a half Ironman ever, in 1:36:11. I earned a spot in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships by a mere 50 seconds. Turns out one of the girls I overtook in the last km was in my category. Had it not been for good run interval sessions and a strong mind, I wouldn't be going to the World Champs in November. :)

At 5:14:32, I finished 207 out of 1324, overtaking more than 200 people in the run. 6th in my category out of 78, this is officially my best half Ironman yet. :)

Certainly a story of Fate, Fame and Fortune in my little world.... :)

Who says you can't do it all!

When I decided to blog this entry, the first title that came to mind was something to the effect of "How not to prepare for the European Championship Duathlon". But then I realised that I had already used that line (see previous post about my first Half Ironman). Damn, why am I so predictable?! So I settled for this instead....

I competed in the European Championships for duathlon in Nancy, France just this weekend (2nd May 2010). It was my first big duathlon, a just-for-fun race for me really (more on that later). For lack of better ideas, I raced as part of the British team. Here is a photo from the team photo shoot. Spot the odd one out!!

But this entry will start a month before the race. Many people would see this race as a big race for the year. After all, it is the European championships. Right? Wrong. For me anyway.

First weekend of April was a long weekend. What better way to spend a long weekend than to go away for it. So away I went, to Milan! No bike in tow this time, just a nice weekend break for a change of scenery. Here is a picture on Day 1 of the weekend, on the square in front of the Duomo.

It was a nice weekend, with some uncharacteristic behaviour on my part such as shopping!!



It was also Easter weekend so we got some goodies from the hotel...



I then felt compelled to make up for the lack of training that weekend by doing 10.5 hours of training the following week (close to 200 km total mileage). This was followed by a 11.5 hour training week, which ended with me winning the Bramming half marathon in 1:27 hours (the benchmark for a "good" athlete is under 1.5 hours).

I did another race the following weekend, cycling 48km as part of a 2 person team. My first time trial start...

Which I obviously did not take very seriously!!



But resulted in a podium finish nonetheless. ;)

At this point in time, I was now one week away from the European champs. Which obviously did not worry me enough to deter me from cycling 150k with the guys from my club. It got to Wednesday when it occurred to me, "You are doing a big race this weekend!!". Oh! Uh oh.

I did an emergency bike session on Thursday to practice bike handling, followed by a half hearted attempt at an interval session. I was knackered. I had cycled 200k in a week, and completed over 10 hours of training, not quite the traditional way of preparing for a big race!!

Friday and Saturday were spent travelling. First class seats from Paris to Nancy, which are surprisingly cheap if you book early!

The elites raced on Saturday and it worried me very much. These were serious fast people racing! What was I doing here?! I made a deal with myself, "Just don't come last".

Taking a walk along the bike course, we passed a lovely garden. Nervousness did not stop me from admiring the pretty flowers!

It was France, and the food was great! Pre-race dessert (ok, so it wasn't mine)...

The beautiful Place Stanilas was the venue for the race:

Picture was taken after an evening of trying to dodge fellow Brits who would have been horrified at the fact that I was enjoying beer and wine the night before the important race! ;)

Race morning. Wake up after a surprisingly good night's sleep. Despite some weird nightmares. Time to hit the road. How many people get to jog around the Place Stanislas in a GB trisuit?!





What amazed me the most was how many Brits were around!! I had many team mates, apparently!!!





Here is my proud finish picture:





Even prouder post-finish picture (guess what the best part of this picture is):





And finally, Brits going mad at the closing ceremony in the Hotel de Ville.... :)





And now, for my geeky triathlete friends, some fun facts and figures. Non geeky triathlete friends, if you have read this far and stop now, I don't blame you. In fact, if you have read this far I am impressed. :P


Month training volume in the run up to the race: 42 hours
Week training volume before the race: 10.5 hours


Run 1 split: 3:59 min per km over 9.4k
Bike split: 31 kmh over 38 k
Run 2 split: 4:01 min per km over 4.6k


I finished Run 1 2nd in my category, but promptly got overtaken in T1, leaving me in 3rd place. I held 3rd place until half way through (4 out of 8 laps) when I got overtaken by a someone who finished 2 minutes after me on Run 1. Yes, that makes me a crap cyclist.


By lap 6 I realised that she was not that far ahead of me and decided to give it my all.


I earned my 3rd place the hard way. I ran flat out for the last run, recording progressively faster splits as each km went by. I finished with the 2nd fastest Run 2 split for the entire women's race, with the last 2km splits at 3:55. I overtook my competitor at the last 1km. Victory was sweet.

Thank you Kurt for making me cycle with the big boys, and for those long intervals that made me that much tougher.


I am pleased. :) Beautiful finish....

Ironman 70.3 World Championships & 2008 in Retrospect

It's the start of April 2009....  a bit too late for previous year's musings one might argue. However, if I don't write this now, I never will, and certainly no one else will write it for me.  :) Ah, the day when someone else write's my year's musings for me...!

It was certainly not a year for "plans".  I'm repeating myself if you've read my previous 2 posts, but I feel that a complete picture is necessary for an annual retrospect.  :)  It all started with a a job I didn't want in the south of France, Pau.  It all went a bit mental from there! L'Etape du Tour, Alpine Raid, Ironman 70.3 Monaco, and the crowning glory of Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, Florida!

I am humbled by the opportunities that life has presented me with, and 2008 was no different.  Having accepted that I was stuck in Pau (not a bad place to start with, see pic below of Boulevard des Pyrenees in Pau), I decided to make the most out of it.  And make the most of it I did.

It all started with that fateful (completely unprepared!) cycle up to Gourette, the ski resort closest to Pau.  The 50k cycle that would change my life forever....

Having nearly completely died on that first attempt up a French Pyrenean mountain, I then decided to take on L'Etape du Tour.  Why not, I was living in Pau, the start village to the race after all.  And so it began.  Months of cycling up Cols (mountain passes) in preparation for the big race.  Weekend cycles became 8 hours cycles across multiple mountains, the best memory of which involved cycling over the Pyrenees, into Spain, across Spain, and back over the Pyrenees into France (2 weeks before the race!).  :)

By the time I did L'Etape du Tour, I had done many "big"Tour de France mountains that most cyclists can only dream of.  Marie Blanque, Tourmalet, Hautacam, Pierre St Martin were nicely under my belt to name a few...

L'Etape du Tour was a blur, a very long 8 hour blur!!  Nothing like finishing ahead of 5,000 men in a serious race.  :)  

Having completed the challenge I was bored, and decided to go on a cycling holiday.  One that involved 800km of cycling, with 18k of uphill, no less!  That led to Ironman Monaco 70.3, where I qualified for the World Championships in Florida, the real reason I started this post (oh no).

Where do I begin.  To start with, my parents flew 30+ hours across the planet to support me in this race.  They came armed with Malaysian flags as instructed, and there was definitely a patriotic feel to the whole thing from the start.

On race day, I found that every country represented had their flag flown.  Which meant that the Malaysian flag was being flown, for me!!  I was the sole representative for Malaysia, it was an emotional moment...

The race was very American, very rah-rah, very feel good.  A very grand occassion that had a beginning marked by the Colours Ceremony (probably spelt Colors in America)....

The race was set in the beautiful Clearwater, where the water, was clear!

Being well organised, the event came complete with wetsuit strippers!!

I love how everyone looked soooo serious at the race (maybe even me)!!

But what can I say, I had the opportunity to race with the world's fittest and fastest people, and even managed to not come last.  I am proud (5 hours, 5 minutes, 39 seconds later)!!

This was certainly not how I planned my year to be, but it was great.  Absolutely fantastic.  It taught me that you can plan life to the nth degree, but you can't control it.  C'est la vie.  :)