Sport: Swim

Just finished my slow n easy swim sesh with Tn Zul. It was not the best of training, and I ended up simply swimming 300 lengths (meters - correction). Tn Zul did a whopping 2k into the swim... Now that is something... Oh well... it is motivation for me to keep pushing...

That seems too short. I need to put more determination into my training. Tomorrow there is a planned group cycle, we will see my performance then...


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Location:National Stadium Swimming Pool

Sport: Run

Afternoon run today, to end my course in Penanjong. What a sad end to the course. Three weeks in Penanjong and I only managed to train (kinda) once with Tn Fakhrul. It was a swim training.

So I had the idea to run the Sg Buaya route, but running without a partner I eventually turned back at Gren2 entrance. I wanted to keep a steady pace, but it seems Tn Fakhrul is right, I am having a sort of depressing week in my training, with everything seems to be on the low end of training. From my swims, my runs and my cycle rides. Everything seems to be dropping below expectations. I hope that this is only momentary and I will improve the coming weeks to come.

On to the stats shall we?

Run: 06 May 2011

Start Time: 1650 hrs (4:50 pm)

Run Distance: 5.46km

Run Time: 30mins 02secs

Average Run Pace: 5mins 30secs per km

Calories burnt: 492 cal

Seems okay, but I felt like I was breathing out of another hole. Hah! Exhausted. Moderate effort, still a long way before I could "complete" an olympic distance triathlon. We will have to see in the following days.

Panaga: Results

Here are the results of the Panaga Triathlon. I agree with Tn Fakhrul, it is to complete rather than compete.

Pics: Panaga Triathlon

Here are several pictures of the recent Panaga Triathlon. Quite unpleased as I only have 1 picture among the hundred pictures... and its a wide shot as well... must get into the spot light next time... Haha... The Full album can be found here.

As you can see, it is a wide shot... of me taking off my shoes prior entering T2. Hmph... No other pictures as of yet... :S

Sport: Run

Closing training for today, I finalized on going for a run. It was a tough choice between cycling and running. I really wanted to go cycling but there was no one around to bring along.

My run started from the back entrance of the Officer's Mess. Slowly working my way around the front of IL HQ, MRS and headed towards the primary school. Feeling winded, I slowed down to catch my breath. Then, it was a return trip back to the mess.

I ran an approximate distance of 5.02k, at an average pace of 5'30". Calories burnt at 452.

My run training is in a phase where I try to keep my cadence up for a longer distance. Once I can achieve a high cadence run of a minimum 8k, I will move on to the striding and endurance phase.

My stride is awful. I can not produce a nice lengthy stride. Probably due to flexibility issues. Hope to remedy it soon. I have less than two months now.

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Location:All around Penanjong

Sport: Training

Went for my first swim after the Panaga Mini Tri, in fact, it is my first training session after the tri.

Tn Fakhrul invited me for a swim at 1230-ish, but had to cancel due to work commitments. So I went by myself. I consider todays swim to be short. Well, I felt damn tired after the swim and I did not do my usual lengths.

Here is a break down of my training today:

Started with 15 bubbles,

2 widths free style,

10 bubbles,

5 lengths unassisted with 7-8 bubbles between each length,

2 lengths with paddles,

15 bubbles (exhausted!),

4x25m sprint (deep end to middle of the pool) with 30-45sec floating in between.

As I said, not my usual lengths, but I hope to increase my sprints to atleast 20 or better 40 half-lengths. That is what Tn Moza (Pak Richard) taught me...

Looking forward to my afternoon session.

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Location:Swimming Pool, Penanjong

Sport: Panaga

Could not get my mind off the event this morning so I will relive it in words, starting with when I arrived at Panaga Recreational Club.

I met Tn Farhan and he was talking about how modest he was in attempting the triathlon. I received a phone call from Tn Fakhrul, wondering whether I was awake or not. I mentioned that I was at Panaga already and he told me that they (Tn Fakhrul, Tn Masmun, Tn Amirul, Tn Airul) were on the way there. I went into the clubhouse and asked where to register. The organizer said that it would be another 10 minutes, so I went and set up my bike and transition area.

Almost finished setting up, I met several army boys (god, how I wish I could remember their names) and we talked about the event. After a little bantering, I went and registered. I got my right arm written 64 and proceeded with putting the race numbers on my shirt. I saw the Sirs arriving and greeted them. Well, Tn Airul was the first to greet me, but I greeted them generally. Haha.

We went in and waited for our turn to get in the pool. Tn Amirul was going on about whether I could beat another contestant. Boy, was I nervous. I seriously do not know how I will perform in the water. I saw Tn Fakhrul started off, quite strongly I might add. Then, Tn Masmun. In the midst of it all, I could not help but smile at the effort given by the participants. My number was mentioned and I went into the pool. I started with freestyle but on my second length I could feel that I was losing it. Halfway through length three or four, I was mixing and matching several strokes. I ended up with breast stroke for the rest of my swim. How humiliating. :S

I got out of the pool, and somebody congratulated me. being slightly disoriented, I just smiled, high fived and started running to the transition area. Got on my towel, cracked open a waterbottle, proceeded to rinse my feet and put on my socks, then shoes. Here came the slowest part of the transition. My shirt. I did not dry my body off well, so My shirt was stuck halfway up my back. This is the time I realize that I should probably get a tri-top. Put of my sunglasses, gloves, lastly helmet. During that time, I noticed Tn Fakhrul was in the transition area as well. He started cycling a good 6 seconds ahead of me, and I know that I will not be able to catch to him on the cycle.

I started spinning out of Panaga and turned right. I looked down to my down-tube and was horrified, I did not have a bottle. Stupid! I was going to try and finish my cycle leg with out fluids. Hmmm... so I ended up spinning at 28 to 31 km/hr. My thighs felt like lead at that time. I had a good 3 people overtaking me on the cycle. An italian dude, a female participant and a full triathlon participant (I knew that because he had 14 on his arm). I got into the transition area and turned around, and saw participant number 51. Female participant, vaguely familiar but I could not place her face at that time. So we started the run, and I kept thinking to myself, keep the normal pace, breathe normally, come what may... haha... sadly, by the time I got to the beach part of the run, I was seriously tired. I did not have my heart monitor with me so it was difficult to calculate my heart rate. deciding that not pushing it is better, I walked to catch my breath. Bad choice, because once you stop, there is a tendency to stop again. I saw the white tents and trudged along in a slow jog.

The triathlon is done with, now I want to know how well I did. hmmm....

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... :)

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.

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. :)

Bike: Charity Expedition and Challenge

To share some information with you guys. There are several cycling expeditions in the next couple of weeks. First of all, there is the Japan Charity Bicycle expedition that is organized by MIPR. This is going to be held on the 10 April 2011.

The second expedition is the Telbru Expedition and Race 2011. It is going to be held on the 17 April 2011. There are several categories, including a race and an expedition.

Any comments please post them up, thanks.

Sport: Triathlon Logo

What do you think? Cool eh? Should I put this up as a display picture on Facebook? Probably not...

Sport: Jog in the Afternoon

Not to be outdone, I needed to carefully strategies my training schedule. Since today is a running day, I decided to fend off swimming (ohh, the gravity of this situation) and go jogging in the afternoon.

I did a short 5.33k jog in 29 minutes 42 seconds. My average pace was at 5 minutes 34 seconds a kilometer. 481 calories burnt, and feeling fatigued after the jog. My leg muscles were scrunched up like as if on the verge of a major cramp, and my lower right chest felt like it was going to burst. Not a good sign eh?

As you probably know by now, I am logging my runs on Nike+ and this recent run made me wonder. I had a stable jog, but the last 100 meters or so my pace drop drastically. I wonder why.

It does not matter much, as long as my running mileage increases and I get comfortable with running. With the expected comfort, I hope to go further and faster in the near future... :)

Sport: Run

I had a run this morning, having finally learning how to set up the nike sports band. It was not that great but it is a means to the end. To me it is not about one end result but to progressively move towards a greater end than I can ever imagine.

Back to the topic, I had a 9.18k run, done in 53 minutes 14 seconds. The pace that I did that in was a 5 minute 48 second pace, calorie burn of 828 calories.

Not a bad run, but could be improved. As I finally found out (with a good blow to my ego), swimming is the worst of the three disciplines in a triathlon. This is closely matched with running and then cycling. I would not say that I am good at cycling, I am just saying that I am better at it.

Having done all three disciplines this week, I can now safely say that I will not be doing any brick training any time soon. More effort is needed to improve on my disciplines, and it is a long mountainous road in front of me. But, then again, I remember the saying "Only one man, bleary eyed, will pick himself up and plow forward"

I am not doing this because I am competitive, hell no. I am not doing this because some one told me so, definitely not. I am doing this to prove to myself that I can do this, and I will.

Sport: Run in the Morning...

... and a sprint ride in the afternoon. That is how I could sum up the day.

I woke up pretty early today. Probably due to the fact that I had to get to Lumut before morning parade, which is at 0700, and the fact that I could not be in Lumut last night due to bad weather.

Once parade was over, I felt it would do disservice if I were to do egyptian pt instead of exercizing. So I went to the track and started ru-err.. jogging. I am quite amazed with the endurance that has built up in me and I went for the full 3.2k. I did not really time myself but I am just as pleased with my conditioning.

First, I lost 8 kilos in 3 months, now I can run further. This is a good start to my year. Sadly, I am not happy with the exhaustion that came after my run. Where was the Runner's High that everyone was talking about? I have tasted and now crave for the Cycler's High, and soon I would like to taste the Runner's High as well as the Swimmer's Rush.

To cut my day short, I was stuck in a meeting until 1740, and I knew that I would not be able to take a proper ride today. I figured that I should just go to the gym and do some muscle endurance training, especially for my triceps (stronger triceps will help in swimming).

Just then, Faizin called me and planned a ride. Since the sky was grey and we did not have a lot of light to ride with, we went for a sprint. Pleased with my speed and tenacity. I remember Tn Moza once said, "getting up to and above 35km/hr is easy, maintaining it is a b*tch" Word. I agree with him entirely, my legs felt like they were going to fall off, and this was me riding at 38 km/hr for 6 mins. Oh well, I will definitely improve. no, correction. I MUST improve... Hehe

To end it in a jiff, I would like to point out that I am extremely happy with my fitness currently. A 3 month old cyclist with my level of ride... I just need to pedal more and chase after the benchmark. What benchmark? The benchmark that was set by my friend, JJ Samid.

Sport: Cycling

Had a ride in the morning. This morning ride covered a distance of 31.1 k and the average speed of the ride was 29.5 km/hr. That is quite good considering that I spent quite a bit of time waiting for the other riders to catch up.

People who were part of the ride were Tn Amirul, Tn Gaz, Faiq, Faizin, Rushdi and myself. Simple route actually... JP -Tutong Muara Highway - Rimba - Muara Tutong Highway - JP

Sport: Cycling

Just finished a night ride with the CLF (The Boss). People involved were CLF, IU LF, Tn Gaz, Tn Erawan, Tn Pg Zaid and yours truly. Distance covered was 45 k, done in 1hr 47mins. I forgot to used my Heart Rate Monitor band and so I just went with my gut instincts... and usually it is not that far off.

Night ride, with rain. Those are new things for me. Even with those conditions, it was an excellent ride. I am having a problem with my rear braking system (the right shifter). It is feeling too stiff. I may need to bring the bike to the shop. *sigh* I just hope that it would not be much of a problem. Next to get would be some aero bars... but that can come later when I get the other two regimes up to date. My aero position is getting better, -ish. Haha, but we will have to see in the months to come. :)

Definitely a ride to test out the rims. Uphill, Downhill and Flats, it was superb. The only thing that caused hindrance to it was actually me. Seems like I need to train more.

Overall, the ride was great. Sara Lee was awesome.

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Location:Tutong to Berakas