A wut? incident happened at the pool today

Had a wut? moment at the swimming pool today.
(WTF wouldn't be appropriate to describe it)

Hadn't done any workout the whole of last week due to biz travel, and only managed to do a short run on Sunday morning, so I needed a quick session at the pool for a small workout and a refresher on what I had learnt during the 6km swim 2 weeks ago.

Was playing around with the new tempo trainer that I had bought.
It works by beeping at defined time intervals, so that I can synchronize my strokes to a fixed timing.
Another way to look at it is that it is sort of like a speed control device since my swim speed will be pretty much limited by how fast the tempo is set.

The pool was pretty crowded, so I had to do a bit of dodging while I swam, and slowly increase the speed of the tempo to test for my breaking point, so I stopped at the end of every lap to tune the tempo trainer.

During one of my laps I realized that there was a lot of splashing on my left, and a swimmer just frantically overtook me at a very high stroke rate.
Minding my own business, I just continued to the tempo that I had set and ignored the swimmer.

At one of my breaks when I stopped to adjust my tempo trainer, the same swimmer talked to me.
He was an old man, probably about 60 years old, telling me "Continue swimming and don't stop. Train your stamina! If you stop at the end of every lap your stamina will not improve"

I was like "WUT?"

And the old man went on to tell me that he trains a lot on his stamina, and does 30 laps continuously before ending with a butterfly lap as a gauge of his stamina, and how his strokes were slow and steady, and asked me if I'm training for any specific event, and said that I should swim non-stop to build on my stamina. And also told me to stick to my lane and not dodge other swimmers so that I can stake my claim on the lane. (Hello, I'm the late comer who is joining others that were already using the lane. It is just basic courtesy that I should dodge them if collision is imminent. If it was someone joining my lane, then its a different story)

At first I thought he was going to get technical, so I just told him that I'm on a tempo trainer (pointed to my tempo trainer) and am working on my Stroke per length then he immediately went "Huh? I don't understand"

Tried explaining the details to him but he couldn't understand anything.
Told him that I just did a 6km swim 2 weeks ago and I'm preparing for a 8km swim this weekend, and had clocked a few ironmans, so I have specific training goals.
Then he just went quiet.

I hate to come off as snobbish fart in telling him my endurance training stuff, but this was really too WUT?

I saw him barely overtake me on one of my laps with extremely high stroke rate and lots of water thrashing, while I'm following a strict cadence rate with minimal splashes. It was akin to overtaking me on his 100m sprint while I'm doing a 10km run.

If his technique was good, I'd have noticed it before he approached me.

Generally I don't offer unsolicited training advice to strangers unless they approach and ask me nicely.
But to offer unsolicited training advice when one does not even know his stuff well, is just plain rude.


Saw this youtube video a couple of days ago, and realize that I'm guilty of unknowingly spewing some of the crap stuff that triathletes say, especially those doing ironman and 70.3
To those whom are in the sport, the lingo seems normal.
But to those who have no idea what is Ironman/Triathlon, it definitely comes off as snobbish.

Gotta to watch my manners next time when I talk about the sport to non-Tri folks

Final 70.3 challenge before the ultimate upsize to full Ironman

 

Signed up for this yesterday when registration opened and *BOOMZ* all slots were grabbed up within 3 hours.

Typically I will race a fixed distance for a minimum of 3 times to gain enough experience before deciding to upgrade to the next longer distance.

So this will be my third and last 70.3 test before I deem myself ready to move up to a full Ironman race. 

Doesn't mean that I'll not do 70.3 in the future anymore though. Taiwan still remains as an unfinished challenge without completing the swim. I feel that the timing of Taiwan 70.3 is in the wrong season, so the weather is unstable and the odds of swim cancellation again is on the high side. Will need to check this year's edition to see if it will be worth the trouble to do Taiwan 70.3 again.

My #2 baby will be 6 months old by then.

Not sure if it will be a good idea to bring #2 along for the race, or just leave her in SG and bring Ryan along.

Good to get a defined sporting goal to work towards again.

I'll probably clock another couple of ODs next year before Cebu 70.3

Full Ironman will most probably happen in 2016

Race Report TriFactor OD 7 Sept 2014

Went into this race without heavy preparations nor expectations, since I was just looking to complete the race as a check for my fitness levels and to experiment with some of the newer stuff that I had learnt.

Of course there is always a comparison against my past timings on the same course, but beating that timing wasn’t top priority.

Pre race

Just my usual food the day before race, and my usual McD Fillet O Fish meal when I drove to the venue.

Used a bigger gym bag to carry all my race equipment rather than the smaller water proof bag which I had problems trying to fit everything in. Good decision.

Bike checked-in around 45 min before race, and remembered a tip from Winston on putting the bike shoes on the bike. Didn’t bring along any rubber bands, so I made do with a piece of plastic bag. Made sure that the knot is just strong enough to hold the shoes in place without dragging across the floor when I ran out of T1 bare footed, and loose enough for it to break loose automatically after I start pedaling.

Swim

Took it easy at the start and swam to the side rather than in the midst of the washing machine, as I wanted to test if the TI method will be really useful in the open water.

Swam the 1^st round mostly with the TI method, except for a couple of times when other swimmers came too close for comfort and I had to accelerate ahead to get out of the mess.

2^nd round was more of a 50-50 mix between TI and my old hard pedaling style.

Took me around 42 mins to complete 1.5km swim. About 5 mins more than what I’d have clocked with just the old hard pedaling. However, it was refreshing to get out of the water still feeling fresh in the legs.

T1

Lane markings was much better this time. With the lanes and numbers clearly marked out so there is no chance of missing my bike.

Nothing unusual this time, just that I noticed that I’m the only one who chose to wear my bike shoes on after mounting, rather than wearing the shoes first then running out with the bike.

Bike

Made a mistake in the settings after I had just replaced the battery for the bike computer the previous night. Wheel size was wrongly set, so it wasn’t before long then I realized that the bike computer was showing speeds that was definitely off the scale. So I had to ignore it and just refer to my watch.

Didn’t really thought much on how to pace the bike leg, so I just went at a pace that I was comfortable with. Hands on aero bars most of the time. Managed to clock around 31km/h on average, which given the winding race course, I should be reaching around 33km/h most of the time. Not too bad.

My quads only started to tire towards the end of the bike session, and I knew that it will affect my run..

T2

Dismounted shoeless. Ran in to transition, mounted my bike, ate a salt stick and ran out with just 1 packet of gel.

Run

Pace during the first 2km was still ok, but as cramps gradually set in on my right quad, my pace slowed to 7.48 min/km.

I had expected this to happen, and was going to experiment my school of thought that it might be possible to run off the cramps, so I persisted in slow jog without stopping (less @ water points) to see if this theory will work.

The cramps in my right quads persisted for quite some time before it gradually started to fade away at around the 6km mark when the left quads start to act up as well. Persisted with the slow jog and I gradually got faster and eventually ended the run without any cramps

Conclusion

Racing with my new Garmin Forerunner 910-XT gave me new insights into my swim leg which was not available on my old Polar RCX5.

Since I had split my swims into 100% TI method for the 1^st lap, and 50-50 for the 2^nd lap, it was possible for me to compare the swim data and see which was more efficient.

Barring the poor sighting in this swim (mostly my fault as I was too lazy to sight properly even though I could do it easily), the data was pretty evident that I had did pretty well in Lap 1 compared to lap 2.

The tips that I had picked up during the 1 hour session with TI and my subsequent 30 min of self training actually resulted in a much easier swim at roughly the same timing that I would have clocked with my old style. I can only imagine that I’ll get much faster and better when I’m able to fully absorb and integrate the TI method.

Played relatively safe on the bike this time. Wanted to lower the handle bars a bit before the race but eventually decided against doing so since I didn’t have the time to test it in training. Always stick to the mantra – Don’t try new things in a race!

The rubber band tip on tying the pedals and shoes is useful. I'll implement this properly for my next race.

Since I don’t have any more Tri races for the year, I’ll have all the time to optimize my bike.

Run timing wasn’t exactly stellar this time but it didn’t matter since that wasn’t my objective. However the an important breakthrough on outpowering the level 4 cramps (w/o using salt sticks) that I always experience in long D runs was worth it.

Lactic acid would have built up over the bike leg, and manifested in the 2^nd km of my run. Didn’t want to take the extra salt stick as it may build up my reliance on this placebo, so I persisted with the theory that if I run slow enough, my muscles will be able to flush away the built up lactic acid much more quickly than it will build up over a slow run. Pretty much similar to doing a recovery run on the day following race day. It worked!

Took quite a fair bit of will power and patience to do it though.

It will have been much easier to just adopt the same walk-run method that I had been doing in the SCMS for the last 10+ years, but I’d just walk away from this race without taking away anything.

On the same course, my timing for the last few years. Definitely much improved over the poor race last year, but I reckon that with proper prep, it should be easy for me to breach the 3 hour mark.

2012:     3:15:35

2013:     3:31:46

2014:     3:06:00

Bike distance is wrong... should be 36km instead

I perform better when there is no pressure to do so.
Best for me to do future races in a "I don't really care attitude"...

Ironman 70.3 Putrajaya Race Report

Finally managed to finish a complete 70.3 race (Taiwan wasn't a complete race since the swim was replaced by run)

It was extremely hot, probably around 34 degrees at its peak, and with minimal vegetation cover and no cloud cover.
It made me appreciate how the rain helped during TW 703
Every part of the race was better than my earlier benchmark except for the run, but I'm contented with the results given the extremely hot conditions.
Learnt some new tricks during this trip


Day - 2
Reached Putrajaya 2 days earlier to avoid the same rush during the TW 703. It was more relaxing to just stay around and explore the place a little bit, spend some time going through the merchandise at the expo (which were damned $$$) and generally lazing around.

Day - 1
Joined the morning trial swim organized by the 703 organizers. Good to have a feel of the water before the race. The water was murky with zero visibility with some dead leaves floating at dead corners. Good thing was that the water was warm with no undercurrents, plenty of buildings around for easy sighting, and it is not salty!
Went for bike racking around 4pm (1 hour to TA closure), then back to the mall for dinner.
Poor choice of dinner location at Dome cafe, with extremely slow service and poor availability of pasta that we needed.
Another group of Ang Mohs even brought their own pasta and sauce and passed it to the kitchen to cook when the kitchen ran out of it. One of them even volunteered to cook in the kitchen when the pasta took too long to be served.
Amazingly I managed to clear my bowels 4x in one day. Not Diarrhea. Maybe my body automatically cleanses itself in preparation for important races without deliberate changes in my diet.
Went to sleep around 10pm


RACE DAY

H-2
Woke up at 0445 for breakfast
Surprised that the hotel breakfast started at 5, so I skipped my own prepared bread/bananas/Milo for a proper breakfast
2 x hardboiled eggs, 4 x sliced bread as the minimum intake.
Skipped powerbar to avoid stomach upset, but on hindsight, I should have ate the powerbar since I had already broken in.
Slathered on the sunscreen.
Cleared the bowels 1 last time.

H-1
Arrived at TA 45 mins before closure to allow ample time for setup

Swim
Deep water start with close to 60 pax.
Not a good idea to go into the water too early and get surrounded by other people. Wasting energy and quite dangerous when there isn't ample space to tread water and start kicking each other.
Surprisingly the swim off was pretty smooth. Not that much of jostling like what we have in SG races. And I managed to kick into a comfortable pace that I stuck with for the whole race.

Completed the swim at 49.04
Not too bad.

T1
Managed to keep my composure and ran to my bike without any hiccups.
Helmet on, gloves on, shades on, shoes on.
Clocked 3.44
Good

Bike
Waited till I was on the bike before I turned on the GPS, which meant I could have missed a few hundred metres to a few km on the GPS but it doesn't really matter too much. Data is just data and I mostly use it for post analysis. Immediate data which was more important was on the bike computer.
Oh wait, I forgot to reset the computer before the race, so the Distance travelled could be wrong...
Oh well, just read the speedometer and go by feel.
First 2km into the ride and I started to feel my quads. Not a good thing.
I probably went too aggressive on my kicks during the swim and my quads were a bit fatigued.
Took the gels and salt and started to feel better to start pedaling at my normal speeds.
The course was more hilly than expected and my climbs were gradually reduced to turtle speeds as my quads tired through the 2nd lap. Had to rely on my superior handing skills to catch up on the speed on the downhills. The numerous spin training sessions I had imposed on myself in the aero position helped, and my handling in the aero position on the descents improved greatly. No more wobbling and top speed increased to around 50kmh with less energy expended. Still, my quads were tired so I had to rely more on strategy than endurance to finish the bike leg and not completely screw up my run later.


Clocked 3.25.40
Not too bad

T2
Dismounted the bike on bare foot and ran into TA.
Not sure if it was a good idea but the tarmac was blazing hot so it was really a fast run to the rack and a quick jump into the running shoes without sitting down.
Clocked 3.24
Good

Run
Immediately after I ran out of TA, I started to feel my quads again, and could only manage to do an extremely slow jog pace at around 8.30min/km while I took gels and salts to sort out the quads. Pressed on with slow pace and gradually started to pick up a bit of speed after a few more km.
It was getting really hot and cramps were about to set in.
I realized that my cramps will not go away if I continued with my usual mid foot strike and that will draw power from my quads. Decided to ditch the mid foot and ran with heel strikes (since my shoes was able to support it) to place the stress more on the calves than the quads. It worked nicely!
My quads were tiring and showing signs of impending muscle cramps (shutdowns) early in the run.
Experience and a good understanding of how my body will react was essential, as I had to adjust my running form to achieve the fastest possible pace that I could manage, while keeping the quads working marginally below before the muscle shutdown level.
It worked nicely and I managed to run continuously (less ~100m walk at every water station) till around 14km where the water station ran out of water and it was getting too hot to run without water to cool off. I was getting a bit dizzy when I ran without the water.
Decided that it was not worthwhile to risk a heat stroke on the run so I reverted back to brisk walking for the rest of the run.
Subsequent water stations were stocked with water but the shut down had occurred once I started walking.
Salt stick consumption is to be capped at 8 pcs per day, and I couldn't remember how many I had took so I just dropped the idea of taking the salt stick to clear the cramp and restart the run. Better to finish safe.

Clocked 2.43.40
Bad by my usual running standards, but I'll not risk health for results, so ultimately this is still acceptable.

Timing Breakdown:
Swim: 49:04
T1: 3:44
Bike: 3:25:40
T2: 3:24
Run: 2:43:40
Total Chip Time: 7:05:32

Post Race
Steamboat dinner coupled with a power packed fruit slushie for good recovery.
Stayed for 1 more night before driving back to SG on Monday morning.
Take it easy. Remember that it is a holiday trip for the family too.


The Good

1. Bring along bike covers and masking tapes to cover the bike for overnight racking in case of rain (which in our case, it really rained)
2. Use unique landmarks or lamp posts to recall where my bike is racked instead of relying on number checks during Transitions which may get confusing
3. Extra plastic bags and packing bike and run gears into 2 separate packs. Gear will remain dry in case of rain, and I'll not miss any gear during transition
4. Wore slippers to TA and kept it inside for immediate wear on bike check out
5. Sighting at around every 10 strokes to ensure correct direction. Maintained focus on correct technique to minimize drag (always missed this in previous races). Sighting improved along the swim and buoy turns executed smoothly with double one sided strokes.
6. Running cap is a live-saver. Must bring it for every 70.3 race. Saw many runners with visors putting a towel under their visors to avoid the heat. They might as well get a proper cap
7. Disposable water bottle is a live-saver. Must bring it for every 70.3 race.

The Bad

1. Safety issues for deep water start. Be the last to enter and move to the side/rear for safety
2. Numbness during bike leg - the saddle must be changed
3. Trusting the water stations. Throwing the water bottle away after taking confidence in the water points to have sufficient supply after lap 1 is stupid. I could have ran the full 21km and clocked at least 10 minutes faster if I had enough water to continue the run.

Perhaps

• Skip the long Q at the loo before the race. Just pee in the water :p
• Keep a Stage 3 power bar with Dear for immediate post race recovery meal. Maybe keep it in the fridge-to-go to prevent it from melting.

New Tricks

• Rack the bike on the gear shifters rather than on the saddle. Better stability in case of strong winds toppling the bikes.
• Bring along our own pasta and sauce and cook in hotel for carbo-loading dinner. (and order room service dinner for supporters) - learnt from the Ang Mohs at the dinner place!

Doing relatively ok in training so far

Runs have been relatively easy since I did the 42k last month so I didn't really have to clock a lot of distance for this race, just a simple maintenance routine run once every few days is good enough

Clocked my long swim earlier this week. 2km in about 46 minutes.
Comparing that to my prep for Tw 70.3 which I clocked around 50 mins, it is a good improvement.

Been spending a lot more time on the bike trainer compared to my preparations for the TW 70.3
Setting up the training system into a much more easily accessible configuration really contributed to me spending more time on the trainer.
Now I even manage to read while I spin on the trainer. Good use of time
And added an extra simple weights training after the spin session since I will have warmed up and sweating like hell by the end of the spin session. Really killing 2 birds with 1 stone since I had always been too lazy to maintain a proper weights routine as I had never liked to finish exercise sessions with my shirt still dry. It just feels weird to me.

Comparing this to my previous concern about carrying the trainer out to the corridor to train and then back into the apartment again after use, and a 100% clean up on the bike after every single session, which made me lazy for spin sessions.
I guess being "lazy" in another way by forgoing the 100% clean up on the bike really helped :p


Invested in a stationary swimming gear which I could use for long swim training sessions in small hotel pools when I go on business trips. No more excuses to skip training sessions when I travel.
Apart from swims, I've started to clock at least 30 min spin sessions in the hotel gyms so that I can refine my technique and build up better cycling endurance.


Going by my current condition, my targets for the KL 70.3 will be:

Benchmark (I shouldn't be slower than this)
Swim - 50 mins
T1 - 5 mins
Bike - 3h 30 mins
T2 - 5 mins
Run - 2h 30mins
Total: 7 hours

Stretch Goal
Swim - 48 mins
T1 - 4 mins
Bike - 3h 20 mins
T2 - 3 mins
Run - 2h 15mins
Total: 6h 30 min

I'll be very happy if I can come near to this, but this is really a long shot with my current level. I can hit the targets for each leg in separate sessions but stringing them together in 1 sitting is a different story, that's the beauty of Triathlons!