the funnest 600 calories you ever burnt!

soon end of 2007 will come around.. and 2008 will be begin.

to mark the begining of a new year, and accelerate our year end goal of losing weight (who in the developed and parts of developing world is not actively or hoping to lose weight) i am organising a fun but calorie burning event.

29th dec 5pm
botanic gardens

one of my fav run

transition... post race... looking ahead

this is the end of season for me...
what does one do when there is nothing to look forward or train for?

1. sign up for another race! especially if the last big race was a disappointment.
2. review the past performance and evaluate the long term goals and plan how to get there. goals like racing till you are 70 needs more long term perspective.
3. do all the things that you never get to do when training, meet up with loved ones, sleep in a little, read more, clean up your house or workstation that you have be procasinating not to!
4. eat!!! all the junk food that you have promnised to reward yourself with. (in which you might regret later ;( )

there are many things to do.. and you might want to do many other things like even trying a new sport but the most important thing to remember is that you should plan and plan with achievable goals.
if your long term goal is to run till 70 then you might want to plan strengthening exercises for the coming season or this transtion period instead of being the best frisbee player for the coming season.

things to think about;
1. what are your long term goals
2. what would you have done differently for this season that you could do for this coming season
3. what are your areas of weakness, strength and interest? and areas of personal growth, can this plan accomodate or take note of all of these
4. do you have the resources to achieve them for the coming season or in the next few years
5. are you having fun or should you do something really different or have a more fun goal

just some thoughts ....

Taper week for 70.3 or any other big races

This is really a time of anxiety and rest.
You are supposed to rest and allow your body to recharge and be ready for the big day.

Yet

You feel so anxious about it, and you start to worry about things especially training that you could have done and started to wonder whether you can sneak in the one last training that will help your big day.

What should you do?
1. Reduce distance in your training. It is really tough as your body is so used to training, the reduced stress seems surreal and unfilled. You can do more but you need to hold back! Depending on the distance of the event, you should reduce 50% or more from the usual workload. BUT maintain intensity, in another word, do the reduced distance at race pace. You want your body to get use the pace and not slack.
2. Do not eat too much! Most of us tend to overeat in anticipation of the big day. Your body can only process so much. With the reduced workload, the extra that you stored from eating will just be converted to fats. And this is the least preferred fuel that your body would like to use for race day.
3. Write up your race plan. You should always have a plan or strategy on how you want to race the course. If there are hills, what sort of gear ratio you would be using or how would you be running it etc. include in your plan; pre-race meals, warm up, hydration and nutrition strategy, pace that you would want to do and even cool down. Have a plan when things don’t go the way you planned, what adjustments would you be making for it.
4. Check and tune up your equipment. Never use anything on race day that you have used before; bike, goggles and attire. Clean your bike and if you have the time and money, send to bike shop for tuning before the race. The bike needs more love and care before it. You want to be sure of your equipment and DNF (did not finish) because of some mechanical fault that could be prevented.
5. Stretch and do all you can to prevent injuries just before race. You won’t want to toe on the starting line knowing that you have pain or nor there. Use heat and ice treatment. See a therapist or go for a relaxing massage. You can even beg your team mates or friends to give you one. But do it 3 days before the race to allow your body enough time to recover from all the kneading of your sore muscles.
6. Check out the race course. Visualize and make the changes you need for your race like a longer run from the swim to T1 or transition 1 area. Check all the drinks points and what they serving and make sure you have no problem with them. It would be imperative that you go for race briefing especially for the races that you have not taken part in before.
7. make plans for post race like transport etc. you won’t want your experience to be marred by being miserable and tired at the finishing line waiting to get home to wash up and refuel.
8. Thank all who have helped you to come this far! They deserve it!

osim tri last weekend.. another way to look at it ...

Last weekend was the Osim International Triathlon race.

It was raining cats and dogs for the 2 days but at least the sat’s race went on smoothly except for the rain started at the tail end of the bike segment.

Sunday’s race was a wash out for the age groupers as all of them did not get to do the whole distance of the race (1.5km swim/40km bike/10km run)

The organizers had to stopped the race midway due to thunder and lighting. The race was then modified to a dualthlon of bike and run after the weather has cleared.

It was a heart breaking moments for a lot of the first timers and also for many who has trained hard for the race.

Next time then…

But this is not the first time that a race has been cancelled or changed due to weather.

Last year’s ironman in New Zealand and Korea has to be modified to a shorten bike and run of 90km bike and 21km run instead of the 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run. It was really frustrating for many who had trained and spent all these money to do the race (US$300 at least for entry fees and excluding all the travel expensese and accomodation) and yet unable to call themselves ironman despite of all that they have done.

Well, this is life.

There are things you can prepared and there are things that we can’t.

But we certainly can change the way we see it.

For some of my students, they were happy to have it shorten so that they can race it a lot harder.

For some of them, it was like a second chance that they can train harder to do a better one next year with their own bike rather than borrowed equipement.

And some, it was just great that it was not hot!

there is a bright spot to all things but the question is can you see it?

it is fun as long as you do all you can to prepare for it

The Port Dickson triathlon race 2007 was marred by a very sad incident. It was reported that there was a 55 year-old cyclist from KL who drowned during the race on Sunday 22nd july. It is just one accident too many. The sea was calm and it was just before the rain. He was at the last wave of the start where there will be no one swimming over him if he has started from the end of the pack.

I saying this especially from the position as a coach; in the sea when you render unconscious, the chances of survive is 1:1, on land your chances go up to 100:1. you need to and have to do all you can to prepare you to swim in the sea. The confidence to be splashing around with 500 other anxious athletes pumped full of anxious energy at the start, the ability not to panic when the sea is choppy and after a few mouthful of sea water and technical ability to swim straight and read the waves. In the bike leg, the most that could have happened to you is to accident, and the run leg, dehydration.

I would like for everyone who wants to swim in open sea for whatever reasons, to do all that they can before they do it in race or alone.

You can be gung-ho for bike leg, at most you get into situations and come out with some scrapes and bruises. worse case hit by vehicle.

Or run with some leg injury and long term damage to your body.

But swim, it is matter of minutes when you drink too much and started to struggle and sink. when you start to sink and stop breathing, you could be unconscious and all maybe over.

Triathlon is very safe and fun, like diving, you just need to be prepared and trained for it.

please take lessons, swim in pairs or groups, have an experienced coach or mentor to work with you. if there is any money or time you should invest into triathlon, it is safety and comfort.

see you at the next race!

Not all massages are beneficial

When was the last time you feel tired and achy?
And what came into your mind?
Maybe a massage can help to rejuvenate those tired achy muscles?

I was thinking along those lines too.
Has been increasing my intensity and volume in my training in preparation for 70.3 Half ironman race in September.
And my body was protesting a little.
So I booked for a massage to accelerate recovery.

The massage was a basic deep tissue whole body massage.
The session was ok but at the end of the session I felt slight headache coming on.
For the next 1 hour it just got worse!
My head was tightening and tightening. It makes walking around uncomfortable.
Tried to remedy the situation with some hot honey ginger tea but to no avail.

Had to go home on my off day and cancelled my swim coaching.
Slopped in front of the television but even watching telly was a pain.
Had a simple dinner of soup and bread but a cocktail of vitamins and garlic pill before I went to bed at 8pm.

The headache did not let up and tossed around like salad before falling asleep.

Got up at 8am and felt great!

I think the flu virus was incubating in me for a while (hope I did not get it from anyone …) and the massage just created a super highway for them to travel to the rest of my body. The virus that will take a few days to act it, did it in an hour.

So the moral of the story, if you are feeling under the weather, rest but no massge!