Post Mortem: Panaga Triathlon

Having done my first triathlon, albeit the mini triathlon, I have a good grasp of what had gone wrong and where I am weak in. Swim, cycle and run. Three disciplines. Interconnecting.

I woke up at 0500 in the morning and went to Panaga to register. I set up my bike and kit for transition as I wait for the officials to get ready. I participated in the Mini Triathlon, while Tn Fakhrul participated in the Sprint (Full) Triathlon. Team Cocodile was there as well, consisting of Tn Amirul, Tn Masmun and Tn Airul.

I was registered to no 64 and had to wait for my turn to swim. Once I got into the pool, I was extremely nervous. This was because I could not imagine how far or fast I could swim. My fear turned true and I could not maintain a freestyle stroke for the whole 300m. Embarrassing as it was, I had a mixture of strokes during the swim.

Next came the cycle. I had a 3 to 4 minutes transition, where I was struggling with my top. I guess I will need to get a tri top. The miniature fatigue in my body caused me to be unable to push my cadence to its peak performance. I ended up with spinning on 28 to 30km/hr.

Completing my cycle, I went into T2 and got to my run in under 1 minute. I did the run. It was horrendous. I could not maintain my running pace and felt horrible. I knew it was almost over and I needed to push on. Once finished, I could not help but smile with my achievement.

Then came the lucky draw and the prize presentation. See what I won. :)

I need to focus on training now. I have 2 months to work my way up to ABDB Triathlon... I hope I will be ready for that... :)

Updates: Telbru Cycling Expedition & Race

It is time for my post-mortem report on the recent cycle expedition that I had participated in. The Telbru Race 2011. I participated in the 51k expedition with several of my senior officers and it was quite fun to participate.

We started of at Telbru HQ in Old Airport, moving through the Tungku Link road. We turned towards Muara and had u turned right after the SVNR. Then we headed back to the Telbru.

There we waited for the "Lucky draw" event. I did not seem to have enough luck though, and did not get anything.

The ride was fun and I would not mind doing it again. Haha :)

Rant: My Objective

Some would say it is a new year's resolution. Some would say it is turning over a new leaf. I can not regard what I am currently undertaking as anything that I have just typed out. I am currently into my regime of fitness training started on 1 January 2011, and hopefully will be on-going for quite some time.

Why I placed this post under a rant, is probably the fact that I need to have a place to keep my objectives seen. So I will not forget the reason of WHY I am doing these things.

The year 2010 was a very sad year for myself. I was unfit and more often than not, in a bad situation with my career. I was going no where.

I believe that I have Ashady to thank for the "shove" in the right direction. We had a cycling expedition on 1 January 2011. It was from Tutong Camp to Serasa Watermanship. I seriously doubted my ability in being able to cycle that far a distance. I proved myself wrong and it was amazing.

Cycling was my introduction back into the world of getting fit and healthy. I was bitten by the cycling bug, bitten bad. I started to cycle almost everyday and I found that one and a half months later, I was showing progress in losing kilos off my weight.

Another person I would like to thank would be The Boss. With every time we would have a ride, the encouragement to keep going and excel in my fitness training was excellent. I enjoy fitness, a surprise to who I was the previous year.

My cycling improved, and I thought I might even give triathlon a try. Here comes several influential people into the foray. First and foremost would be my wife. Her undivided support for my training is something I could never repay. I love her to bits. Then are the training group. This consist of Tn Fakhrul, Tn Amirul, Tn Alimin, Iron Coach Jay, Tn Pak Richard, and several others. It is an overwhelming feeling when you have the unlimited support from people.

So I started to train my swimming. It was awful. I can swim, but I am barely able to swim freestyle for a short distance. I believe the following person has been a great impact on my life as well. Tn Zul is definitely someone I look up to. He has been swimming for some time now, and has been getting me to go to the pool to swim as well as getting me to accompany him on runs.

I doubt that I am any faster than I used to be, but that is not my main aim. My aim is Operation Sven T-5. If read, I guess the meaning explains itself. I aim to be 75 kilos by the end of the year. With that goal I hope to be a fitter person than I was the same time last year or two years ago.

The only hurdle in my training is dieting. I have a huge problem because I can be considered as a semi-glutton. Food in Brunei is extremely delicious and I seem to be having problems in staying away from it. Haha. I guess I need more self control soon.

I am putting words here, so I can remind myself. I hope this post will help me further in the days ahead. :)

Sport: Run

I did a spontaneous run this afternoon. K named it spontaneous due to the fact that I was planning to go cycling. Never the less, I ended up running for a bit, and the feeling was great.

I went for the usual spin of a 9k run, running at an average pace of 5'35" per km. I finished my run a little over 53 minutes with a calorie burn of 857 calories. The weather was dreary with rain drizzling in the late afternoon. It felt great to run in such conditions as the air smelled fresh.

The only bad effect (if I were to even call it a bad effect) is that I feel sleepy. Piling on from yesterdays training session, I know that I am heading down the one way street towards total body exhaustion. It does not really matter, as I have a target to achieve. I might have been wayward in the past couple of days, but no more. I will achieve what I have set out to do. :)

Post-mortem: MIPR Charity Ride

I participated in the MIPR "Kayuhan Takziah" Charity Ride last Sunday. It was a 20k cycle around bandar. Here is a break down of what I did for the event.

I started my ride from my parent's home in Lambak and cycled to the start point. The start point was located in the parking area of MIPR. The ride started at around 0730 in the morning. The average speed of the ride was around 15k/hr. It was a pace that I did not truly appreciate but considering that some of the people participating were new riders, kids, mtbs, aged and women, I think it would be a correct pace. Once finishing the ride, I cycled back home. All in all, I did a 30 k ride on that day.

I witnessed a bike crash on the ride back to MIPR. The bike got caught in a hole and its rims was bent awkwardly. A rider behind him crashed into him. It was really horrific, but luckily we were only going 13k/hr at that time. That means that the riders sustained light injuries.

I am quite glad that I used my Tricon rims for this ride. I love riding for charity. It keeps in line that we try to stay healthy while donating for a good cause.

Sometimes we need to slow down and think of the hardships that other people are going through, and I certainly had time to think while on the expedition.

Not really a thorough report, but I think that should be enough to give the readers a good idea of what happened during the ride.

Sports: Full Day

I had a full day of slow intensity training today. What I meant with low intensity is that eventhough I pushed myself on each training session, I did not push to my limits. I made sure to "reserve" enough energy to be used for the next training.

Early in the morning, I went for a run. I felt like I wanted to go for a 5 k run but I told myself that I wanted to do swimming and cycling later, so I ended up running 2.66 k. I burnt roughly 300 calories and paced well to be within my training range. My average pace is still 5'30" ish. I feel that should be a good wake up for this week. I will work on going further (endurance) then work on the speed (speed endurance).

Midday, Tn Zul invited me for a swim. I had already planned to swim that noon, so I went. Tn Zul went for his usual 20 lap swim while I trained to be able to swim further. I am to the point that I can safely swim 150m with slight effort. I am having the trouble in the last 30 m where I seem to be sinking further from the surface of the water each time I take a breath. I wonder what is wrong with my technique? After swimming for an hour or so, it was time to get back to work.

After the afternoon meeting, I looked at the watch and felt that I had enough time to spin around Lumut. When I typed "spin", I really meant that I went spinning. I did not attempt to push myself to see if I can increase my speed endurance, but rather, I went for the weight-loss routine. I can still recall Iron Coach Jay once said that "If you are aiming to lose weight, spinning is best, just go for an average of 25k/hr but stay on your bike for at least an hour". Not that I could stay 25 k/hr if I wanted to, my legs seem to be programmed differently, so eventually I ended up spinning a 23km route with an average of 28k/hr. My average cadence during this ride was 110 cycles. This was because I had to free-wheel at some point due to my speed going into the "speed training" zone.

Overall, today was a good day of training for me. I am going to work on my self discipline and not let all that training go to waste. In other words, I will try not to have a heavy dinner tonight. Even now I feel tired and seems like I will fall asleep early tonight.

Just as a reminder for myself, I will write a post-mortem report on the "Kayuhan Takziah" Charity Ride hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources (MIPR) later. Just a reminder.

Updates: HSBC Charity Ride

I am late at promoting this, but I believe that I should put this event on the blog. Here are the following requirements that they stated in their brochure.

General Rules and Regulations

1. Participants must confirm their participation by returning the donation collection card and donations collected to any HSBC Branch in the week between 09 May 2011 and 14 May 2011. Only confirmed participants are eligible for the lucky draw.

2. The event may be cancelled, rerouted or stopped due to bad weather or safety reasons. The final decision will be made by the event organizer.

3. Entry fees which are 100% donated to Pusat Ehsan, KACA and SMARTER are not refundable or transferable.

4. Participants must follow road rules as well as the direction of police, traffic management and event officials during the course of the event. The organiser reserves the right to remove any participants who refuse to adhere to the safety guideline or instructions.

5. It is the responsibility of every participant to ensure that they are fit and healthy enough to participate in the event.

6. Participants participate at his / her own risk and accept that the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Brunei and its employees / sponsors / partners will not be liable for any loss, damage, action, claim, costs or expenses, which may arise in consequences of their participation in the event.

7. Participant also permits the organiser to use his /her name, quotes and photographic likeness for marketing and promotional purposes.

8. Children under the age of 12 must be accompanied by their parent or legal guardian.

Additional Rules and Regulations for the 45km route

1. All participants in the 45 km cycling route must be aged at least on 22 May 2010. Participants under the age of 16 are not allowed on the 45 km route.

2. Unicycles, tandem bicycles are strictly forbidden.

3. Cycle safety helmets must be worn at all times during the event.

4. Every participant must ensure that their bike is roadworthy prior to the start.

5. Children will not be permitted to ride in a child seat or trail bike with their parent or guardian in the event.

6. Participant are expected to be capable of maintaining an average speed of 25 km/hr. Slow riders will be stopped and request to board the support vehicle. This is for the safety of all riders.

7. Participants are required to remain behind the lead vehicle and in front of the support vehicles, at the very rear.

Sport: Training so far

Been focusing too much on swimming lately, and losing my cycling finesse. Not that I mind much, but I guess I need to go back to cycling. This is because I need to get back to weight loss training.

I have come to facts that I lose more weight through cycling compared to the other sports that I am pursuing. My weight has been static since I halted my cycling training. I know this is true. Therefore, I need to work on it.

Here is new information. With the upcoming 50 year anniversary of ABDB, we will be organizing and participating in a triathlon. This triathlon is based on the olympic distance triathlon. This would be 1.5k swim, 40k cycle and 10k run. Date of event is on 01 july 2011. Long road ahead...


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Sport: Swim

Went for swim training in the morning. I realize it now. I have to keep training and maintain a good eating habit in order for my main aim to be accomplished. I set a goal to lose 10 kilos in the first half of the year, and atleast another 5 to 8 kilos by the end of this year.

Swimming. I know how to swim, but I do not know how to swim efficiently or go for a distance. The stroke in mention is the freestyle. *sigh* Sometimes, it needs effort and practice to something that we want to achieve. As i said in a previous post, I am able to swim 100 meters safely now.

I do not think I want to mix and match freestyle and breast stroke for a triathlon, and I do think that doing so will only burn me out sooner than later.

Keeping in mind with my aims. Lose around 15 to 18 kilos this year, and be able to participate in a triathlon. Seems realistic does it not? Well, we will have to see soon enough. :)

Updates: Last week of March

Okay, it is the last week of march and the beginning of April. What did I do for this week? Pretty much had several sporting activities, said goodbye to something and now preparing for Standby month.

Sporting activities. It's quite difficult to explain in more detail (since i missed out in putting them in the blog). I am focusing more on my swimming this week rather than the other aspects (i.e. running and cycling). I am quite happy that I can now safe say that I am able to swim 100m freestyle. A lot more effort needs to be placed in my swimming sessions in order for me to be able to reach the benchmark of 1000 meters.

What else am I to jot down? I need some time to think... I will be filling out another post after this... maybe. :)