Marathon training season is here again.

I have signed up for the Sundown Marathon which will happen on the last Saturday of May. I have not done any long run for 4 months since the last marathon in December. For my first long run of 2008, I managed to maintained a 5:23 min/km pace for a 20.5km route to the Upper Seletar Reservior in 1:50

Not bad since I have laid off from runs for awhile. Comparing bike to run, I find that for bike, my heart rate is slightly higher than run as on bike, I usually push myself to maintained a steady pace.

More long runs coming up.

New events

Since I didn't managed to pass the swim trial and didnt compete in the Singapore Biathlon owing to not enough time for swimming or just plain lazy, I have new goals.

For my bike, I have improved and I can time-trial 120km with an average speed of 30km/hr. My bike timings are quite good, however I have been slacking in my run and swim.

For this 2nd quarter, I will focused more on swimming and running as I have some unfinished business to do. That is run a sub 4 hour marathon and complete a sprint triathlon for me to gain entry to compete in an Ironman event.

First is the Singapore Sundown Marathon. I checked my schedule and this didnt conflict with my degree project deadline. So off I go for my third marathon.

And I signed up for a Sprint Triathlon too which is a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. Objective of this is to get familiar with open water swim and complete it.

So here goes, a marathon in sub 4 and complete a Sprint triathlon.

I have came up with a training program with 2 swims, 2 bike and 2 runs each week with Monday a rest day. I will stick to this plan and I am sure I can do a sub 4 marathon and improve on my swim timing.

Dawn Rider's

Some Dawn Rider's pics, a group whom I ride regularly with. We've fast rider's like Kelvin who can average 50km/hr on Changi Coastal Road to the climb master Zahid, too many to list.

Some pics

2008-02-02 Sat ride with Joyriders

Weekly training

I really must put in more swim training for if I want to compete in the Singapore Biathlon, 70.3 or Ironman this year. My swim is my weakest part.

So this shall be my weekly training, with work and my studies squeeze in. Workload is getting heavier as a few of my colleagues have left but still manageable. Modules for this semester ain't that tough so with this, I shall be able to squeeze in more training

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 1.5km Swim after work.
Wed: early morning 30km easy bike with Dawn Riders
Thur: 10-15km run in the morning before work
Fri: Stroke correction with Alvin or lap sessions
Sat: Swim day
Sun: Dawn Rider's bike ride. Alternate weekly distance of 97km(Sungei Kadut) or 120km (Jurong East)

Bike and run is ok, swim cannot make it. If I can't pass the swim trial for the Singapore Biathlon, I will reconsider my options for the Ironman this year. Most probably I will postponed it to next year.

Sunday Dawn Rider's Ride Field report.

Sunday 20th Jan 08

The usual group met up at Jurong East met up at Jurong East and Dave being the lazy chap decided to skip the additional 34km to and from Woodlands and instead met at Sundei Kadut instead.

Dave joined the group at Sungei Kadut and the first to arrived were Damian and the rest arrived about 1 min later.

We regroup and started off for LCK. Not much attacks as Kyne and Dave took the lead and took turns to draft each other until Neo Tiew.

We took Neo Tiew at a cruising speed of around 34km/hr with not much attacksI was admiring the sun rise across the horizon after the satellite farm.

Kyne and Dave hit LCK and were crusing at about 34km/hr thereabouts. We were cruising at a steady pace and it looks like a recovery ride to me. I was admiring the sun-rise and the cool crisp air. The stretch along LCK and Neo tiew was with an average speed of 31km/hr. We overtook a guy wearing an Aero helmet cruising at around 20km/hr and Kyne slowed down to check out the girl. :D sshhhh....
The group re-group at Jurong West shell and Grace's friend, Chin who's an Ironman joined us. A quick intro and off we go with Weiheng breaking off for home. We cruise along Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim and I didnt pulled away as I felt there was too much traffic. As we turned into the Tuas South Ave 1, I pulled away at a speed of 40km/hr and soon slowe d down to 36km/hr.

I especially like the stretch along Tuas South. The sun will be shining on your left and you could see the sea on your right. The sun would cast a shadow on your riding position and I used this to see how aero I am when I am down on my aerobars. haha. :) Actually quite aero.

I pulled away from the group as I wanted a high intensity ride today. We soon turned right into Pionner Road and Damian and Jon drafted trucks. There were attacks along the way with Jon drafting the truck to overtake the group. Soon Damian joined in and the two of them lead the ride.

Chin and I were behind checking out the action. Soon, I heard gear changing. The slope beside the Pionner Road Esso was approaching. Chin attacked the group flying past me. The rest of us got up and started pedaling furiously. I was behind and I shouted, "OUTSTANDING". I responded and attacked, passing Chin. :D Great attack. This slope along Pionner Road shall be our attack point. We should have a scoring system to see who leads after this stretch.

Along Jalan Buroh, we were cruising with Steriod Grace drafting Kyne. Kyne is a great guy who can pull. After the first flyover, I saw a pack of 10 riders who were supposed to be the faster pack of the Joyrider's Sunday ride approaching. My adrealine was pumping as I saw them approaching. Shifted my gears, and pedalled furiously and my heart rate shot up. I was cruising at around 40km/hr before the slope of the flyover. One of the pack leader flew past me with about 10 drafting him. How can I dont response to an attack? On the downslope, I gained speed and reached about 55km/hr and overtook the pack who past me before the flyover. But they were too strong and past me again and I was left smelling their smoke. I was left panting with my tongue sticking out.

Great breakfast and more Ironman stories.

After breakfast, we break off and went for home. I cruise aloned LCK and Neo Tiew with very strong crosswind. It was so strong that my bike swayed to the right and it felt like climbing a hill. Speed was about 30km/hr and the sun was blazing down on me.

Reached home 97km richer with an average speed of 30.5km/hr for the whole ride.

Riders Present:
Kyne
Dave
Grace
Daimen
Jon
Chin
Weiheng
Herman

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

It seems like yesterday was just the 1st of Jan 2007, now it's coming to an end. 2007 has been a blast for me.

2007 was a year which had me furthering myself in terms of brains and brawns. haha. I started my degree course in 2007 and also this was my 2nd year into endurance events like marathon and triathlon.

Pursing a degree while holding down a full-time job and finding time to train for marathon and triathlon was tough. Your social life takes a hit and it seems like I was busy for the whole year.

Weekdays was spent burying myself in work and going for classes at night. If I have the energy in the morning, I will go for an early morning run. Saturdays usually consists of early morning swim and run and followed by catching up on my full-time job work and my study workload.

Sunday is when I usually do my long distance running/biking. I will run more than 25km or bike at least 100km and will spent the rest of the Sunday afternoon napping.

These are the highlights of 2007:

Getting a tri-bike (biking those miles away on the bike makes me feel like I am 10 again. :)

Achieved a personal best for my marathon runtime about 8 mins faster.

Good results and news for career wise and my degree.

Now for 2008

Pass the freaking Biathlon swim trial for 1.5km in under 40 mins.
Run a sub-4 marathon.
Complete the Singapore Ironman 70.3
Complete the Western Australia Ironman
Graduate from my degree program with outstanding results. :)

So anyone wanna be my support crew for Ironman Western Australia 2008?

Dawn Riders

I have been joining this Dawn Riders for group rides. Their usual weekend ride is about 60km but coming from Woodlands add another 40km to me.

This group has pretty strong riders like Kyne, Reave, Weiheng, Damian, Zahid, WK. Averaging cruising speed was 38km/hr-40km/hr Scary!!! I have a hard time keeping up with them if I was not drafting. Nearly got dropped.

Average speed for a 100km ride on my cateye was 31km/hr which usually makes out to a speed of at least 38km/hr when cruising.

Good fun ride. But riding in a group make me realised that tri-bikes are not really for group riding and they're not good for hill climbs. It's good for courses that are flat and rolling hills. But if you were to attack a hill with a tri-bike, I may need more training.

Triathlon Training Videos

Some videos for triathlon training.

I admit that I have the following faults for my freestyle.

Over stretching, low elbow and dropped elbow.



Efficient Swimming



And riding on a triathlon bike.



ActiveDotcom on youtube has lotsa Dave Scott Ironman training videos
Check it out

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?p=r&user=ACTIVEdotCOM&page=2

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2007 Pics

SCSM 2007 (a new personal best)

hours before race

Alarm clocks rings and off I jump outta my bed. I was feeling good as I did catch some sleep unlike previous races. Made myself 3 slices of peanut butter bread, a banana, and a cup of coffee for my marathon day breakfast. I did some light stretches at home to loosen the muscles. Round up my breakfast with a bottle of 100plus.

Start Line to 10km - Time taken 54:15 10km= 54:15

I got myself into the sub-4 pen. I was really hoping to break the sub-4 barrier as I have been thinking about it since last year. The weather was cool and windy and it felt like 23C. The horn went off and I was caught behind runners doing 6.5min/km pace. Took me about 2km to get out of them. I felt strong in the first 10km although my left knee felt a little sore.

Overtook some animiles runners but .......

10km to 20km mark - Time taken 50:50 20km = 1:45:05

I saw the trifam 3:45 pacers and run behind them for a good 10km. I felt that they were going a little too fast and their pace was a fast 5:10min/km and maybe they were running based on the gun-time. Felt strong and since my intention is to break sub-4, might as well follow their pace. Followed them till ECP before I lose them.

I saw a group of Japanese runners at the 14km stretch. They were doing a good 4:50min/km pace and I noticed someone leading the pack, it was a man running BAREFOOT! Yes you heard it, BAREFOOT! He overtook me with a 4:50min/km pace BAREFOOT! Those soles must on his feet must be like rubber. OUCH the thought of running barefoot give me the chills. It must have hurt.

I was running a little fast now as you can see my pace was a fast 5min/km. It took me about 1:50 to reach the half marathon mark.

20km to 30km mark - time taken 56:45 30km = 2:41:51

In the 20km to 30km, I was finding it hard to find someone to pace. Most of them were too fast and overtaking me. Proofs that I was losing steam and I will hit the wall soon. I had some power gel at the 30km mark to give myself some motivation and refuel the depleted glycogen.

I was still doing good at the 30km mark, but as always, the marathon only begins after 34km.

30km to 40km - time taken 1:11 40km = 3:53:37

I hit the wall at Mountbatten Road at the 34km mark. I knew I will hit the wall soon as I was running too fast for the first 30km. Each aid station seem like too far apart from each other. By now, the sun was out in full force and was blazing down on me. I splash more water on me at each aid station to cool off the heat.

I cramped after 36km, HIT the wall. Now, I knew that for the next 6km, it will be hell. I struggled to run and walked 50% of the time. Reenactment of last year scenario.

I really struggled at this part and in my heart, I was still hoping to break the sub-4 barrier. Along Kallang Road, it proved too much for me and I stopped to stretch my calf. It was really a torture with the heat blazing down on me and my body keep on saying no. There was a part when my body was telling my mind, hey stop hey stop! I wanna sleep. But I pushed on.

40km to finish = time taken 19:51

From the 40km mark, I was jumping for and not running. You know why? The cramped was out in full force and any movement of my knee will caused my muscles to pull. Fact of, I was limping. As you can see the 2km took me close to 20mins. a slow 10min/km pace.

At the last aid station, I joked to the volunteers, my hair messy? Going to finish and need a nice photo to wrap the day off.

Finally, the cramp was too much for me to bear and just before the esplande bridge, about 500m from the finishing line, I cramped and lie flat on the ground, hands covering my face. Grimacing in pain. Both legs were im-mobilise, cant move them at all.

A guy and lady rushed over to me. Gave me some words of encouragement. They were shouting, are you OK, are you OK?

After about 2 minutes of lying on the floor, and some light stretchingI got up with the guy's help and continued running. Thanks, mate!!! You made my day. After 42km of running, your body will do crazy things. Like cramping both of your legs up at the same time.

At the final stretch, I was high-fiving all the supporters along the finish line. I got the crowd crazy by dancing to the song played out over the speakers!! That has got to be the highlight of the race. haha.

Round up
Finish my second marathon in 4:13:25 chip time, an 8 minute improvement from last year. A new personal best but the sub-4 timing is still eluding me.

Guess it will be next year before I can break the magical 4 hour barrier and join the elite sub-4 club. :)

Pre-Race Day

Finally, after 4 months of long weekend runs, it is 1 day to the Standard Chartered Marathon 2007. Looking back I have clocked 520km in training runs in 3 months.

Much lesser than last year, but I am feeling good. I feel so good that I can conquer the 42.195km in 3:45 hours.

Colleagues and friends have been asking me, why do I want to do such endurance activities. Like marathon and ironman. My answer has always been, it seems like such a difficult task to complete and I want to challenge myself. I have never sought to compete against anyone except myself. I better myself in everything I do. And also, doing activities like this helps one to learn how to cope with stress in life.

So here's the breakdown for tommorrow's race.

10km: 53 min
20km: 1:46 hours
30km: 2:39 hours
40km: 3:33
42km: 3:45

Should be "do-able" I am very SURE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never ending swim..........

This is the Ironman Western Australia swim leg picture I got from trifam. Beautiful isn't it? Clear blue water and a straight 1.8km out into the sea along the jetty and u-turn back. Total swim distance is 3.8km

The jetty looks like it can reach Indonesia. One of the must do things for 2008!!!

second longest run of the year.

This morning, I went for a 34km run around the Upper Seletar Reservior and Mandai Road. This run was originally scheduled for Saturday morning but the heavy thunderstorm washed it away.

The goal for this solo training session is not to hit the wall at all. The route today was very quiet with very few runners. Thus it was just me myself and the road.. My first lap to the Mandai Zoo at 17km took me 1:35 a good 5:30 pace but the return lap took a while longer at 1:43 a 6.0min/km pace.

Good thing was I did not hit the wall for this 34km run. The 2 powergel and 100plus helped me to replenish my depleted glycogen.

Off to meet my classmates for school work. Now, time to taper and the remaining LSD runs for me will be 19 and 13km. I hope that I can do a 3:45 marathon on 2nd Dec.

http://www.mapmytri.com/run/singapore/woodlands/962762991

One more long run before the taper

Let's recap my training for the SCSM 2007. The whole idea for this SCSM was to run a 3:45 marathon in a 5:19min/km pace.

I have only done 1 30km LSD run, 3 25km run and numerous 20km runs. All with pace ranging from 4:54 to 5:30min/km

I will do one final LSD this sat with a race pace of 5:19min/km pace for 30-35km this week to test my race fitness. After that, I will taper to 19km and 13km the following week.

I hope I meet my goal of finishing a sub-4 marathon this year.

New Balance Real Run

Hot hot New Balance Real Run. I was taking it slow for this race as first, I wasn't really in the mood to push myself to push myself. I slept at 2am the night before waking up at 4.30am for this run. Furthermore, I slept only 4 hours the on fri night before and my body was really not geared for a race. And for the whole week, I was too busy with work and school and didnt sleep much. Add to it, on Sat morning, I just ran 30km to the Zoo.

Decided to take this race at a slow 6.5min/km pace and paced Peifen for the first half of the run. For the first 8km of the run, I was doing a 7.5min/km pace.

I was running pretty slow enjoying the scenery. The planes taking off, the sun shining through the canopy of the Changi Coast Road, the early morning bikers, the sight of a few thousand runners who got nothing better to do just like me. :D

At the halfway mark. gestured to Peifen that she's on pace to finish a 1:40 min run for the 15km. But she was very quiet and didnt talked much. Guess she was very serious in her running. :D dont wanan karjiao her also. So I picked up my pace and left her behind. :D

As I crossed the 9km mark, I decided to quicken my pace. Got to a 5.8min/km pace for the beach and as I ran along the soft sand at Changi Beach for 1km, I thought to myself. Machiam Rocky on his training runs. haha. Rest of the runners were running on the grass whereas only stupid me tackling the soft sand.

As I exit the beach, along the 2km stretch of the runway, I decided to picked up my pace as the sun was blazing down at me. Thank god for my Rudy Project.

Crossed the finish line in 1:40:06 in a 6:34min/km pace. Nothing impressive. Great run, great 100plus, great place to catch the sunrise. First time I saw a blazing orange sunrise in Singapore.

Another hidden gem in Singapore.

Finally, it's here!!!

After a month's wait for the aerobars to come in, 2 hours and 30 mins of bike fitting, the bike is finally here. Just paid for her and cost me quite a fortune. Really a neat setup, there's even a speedometer and odometer to tell me how fast I am and how far have I bike!

The bike is a Cervelo P2-SL (pronounced as Sir Ve Lo).

Here're some pictures. I have taken her out for a ride yet and most probably this weekend when the time permits. Now that the bike is here, time to work on the engine.

Now let's take a tour around the bike.

Here's a look at the cockpit of my bike. This is where I will be shifting my gears and taking a look at the speed I am going. Note that the bars are straight as these are triathlon/time trial bikes and not your road bikes.


And these are the pro saddles that my butt will sit on. Doesnt look that impressive right? But the price is kinda. hehe. More expensive than my desk chair.


Thats all for now! Now to work on my V6 engine.

When will and skill combine to make great

At the 4 min mark of this video, it shows the last hour before the 17th hour cut-off timing for the Ironman Worldchampionship in Kona, Hawaii. Very inspirational. This part shows the trimpuh of the participants.

May I quote the commentator:

Sports is at its best, when it’s transcended. When a player’s joy tell you it was more than a game, like a movie only real .That the dream connected the heart to the soul, and the participant’s were make better for it, for all their private and spoken reasons. When will and skill combine to make great, that final hour here, it happens almost every second.

Now, for this Ironman Worldchampionship at Kona Hawaii, you can search for youtube on Ironman Hawai 2006 and there's 10 parts to it. Enjoy. :)

October Training

Oh my god! I only managed to clock in only 2 runs for the whole October. And the marathon is less than 6 weeks away. My target timing is still below 3:45. Need to do more training!!!!!!

For this whole week, I have been pretty busy with work and school. So today, decided to wake up at 4am for a 29.5km run to the Zoo. Only 4 hours of sleep, my body felt tired during the first 10km. But the first lap to the Zoo of 14.5 km took me 1:21.

It was a cool morning with not much runners along the Mandai Road route. Didnt not see the animiles cheetahs this time around so guess they've headed to ECP. The whole route of 29.5km took me 2:46, a slow 5:37 min/km.

My target pace is 5min/km which should set me in good pace to finish the marathon in under 3:45.

I drop by BikeBoutique during lunch on Friday to check out how my new bike is doing. Saw the Ironman Worldchampionship winner Chrissie Wellington in person. She looks just as human as you and me although she can do a 3.8km swim in 52 mins. And run a sub-3 marathon after 180km on the bike.

Here're some pics of my incomplete bike. I am still waiting for the stem and aerobars to be in. Damn, it's a long wait. Oh yeah, I told them to change the ugly blue wheels to red. It's a good wait as the frames were on offer and cost $420 cheaper. So a wait for 3 weeks and it saved me $420. I can use this money to buy better wheels.

Can someone get me a pair of Hed or Zipp Carbon wheelsets for Xmas? :D



And here's the Cervelo P3 Carbon. Love the sexy wheels. Chrisse Wellington rode this bike and won the Ironman Worldchampionship at Kona. Think the frame will cost $8k alone. Chio bike.

And some chio Planet-X Bike.

September Training

I clocked in quite a number of LSD for September. The distance range from 20km to 26km. Let's see.

21km Home to Upper Seletar Reservoir 01:50:00 pace at 5.17km/min
26km Home to Lower Pierce reservoir 02:21:00 pace at 5.24km/min
21km 21km Home to Upper Seletar Reservoir01:41:46 pace at 4:54km/min

Today's morning Long Slow run was particularly good even though I was having a sore throat. The air was fresh and cool and the mist covering the Upper Seletar Reservoir was a sigh to behold. I should take my HP next time with me and capture the sunrise over Upper Seletar Reservoir. This is my favourite spot in Singapore other than Old Upper Thomson Road.

Lower Seletar Reservoir pales in comparision due to the various litters left by those fishing overnight and lovebirds.

My pace is increasing getting to be consistently to sub 5 km/min and this should set me in good pace for a sub 3 hr 50 min marathon later this year.

I signed up for the 15km Real Run too but there's a part of 1km running on beach sand. Not really my type of run as I hate the feeling of sand getting into my shoes. But for this 15km Real Run, I am targeting a finish time of 1 hr: 15 mins with a pace of 5 min/km.

Real Run 15km will be hot especially the part on the Runway and the Changi Coastal Road.

Oh and clock in some swimming too. Practicing my strokes with interval training now. Not really going for distance. Wanna get my frontcrawl strokes correct first. :)

World's Greatest Dad

Documentary about Dick and Ricky Hoyt. This is an amazing story about how a Dad wanted his son to live as normally as anyone else, including graduating from university, competing in marathons and ironman.



And some touching music videos. :)





The world's greatest dad. This Dad swam 3.8km pulling his son on an inflated boat, cycled 180km with him on the bike and wheeled him 42.195km all at the age of 65. And completed an Ironman!!!!!

They are a father and son team named Team Hoyt.

Rick's birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development. But the couple brought their son home determined to raise him as "normally" as possible.

Amazing. A Dad's love for his son and wanting him to live a normal life and compete and face each day's challenge.