I went to the Doctor Friday morning and downed a load of pills. Then went to bed at lunchtime. Work up for a couple of hours and then slept through to six and woke up feeling good. Then had hot and cold showers and picked up Jens as agreed on the basis that I'd at least go up and spectate.

Got to the Island and felt good (despite a dodgy belly from lunch and swam over to the race briefing. 600m felt really good so after the briefing I swam back on a slightly longer route 1km. I'd pretty much decided by this point that I was going to swim and balanced the longer swim with the psychological benefits of putting the illness, travel, holiday and fatness behind me. That it did and I had a good supper and a couple of beers.

I bumped into Ezer at the start. And never saw him or anyone else again. Not quite true but it felt like it. I waited for a couple of minuytes after the mass start for the water to clear and to get an idea of which way to go. It retrospect the pack split immediately into two groups. A lareg one going to the left and a smaller one to the right with about 45 degrees of difference. I headed with the larger group towards the first marker about a k out. The swim there was pretty easy and I did it in about 26 minutes. That was the last marker I saw. I couldn't see any landmarks that I'd noticed from the beach and so picked a large conical hill and swam towards that. The swell slowly picked up so I was unable to sight regularly and when I did I found that I was heading off at up to 90 degrees from the intended heading. So I swam breast stroke for most of the next hour and was able to sight about every 4th of 5th stroke.

At about the 1 1/2 hour mark a canoeist pointed out an orange balloon that hadn't been mentioned in the briefing. So I headed towards it feeling pretty good as I figured I was well over half way. I figured that I had about 40 minutes left and would probably land in about 2:18. Pretty good feeling :)

I did about another 1/2 hour of breast stroke and then slowly switched over to freestyle as the swell subsided and the sky clouded over (I used the clouds to sight with for 20 - 30 strokes and then a land sight). I stayed in the same spot and slowly drifted down the coast! For over an hour I didn't seem to go anywhere at all and it was a hard slog just keeping going. The 5km sets were a really good basis here because I was able to relate to them and be comnfortable with the way I was feeling.

About 300m from the shore I almost gave up. I was tired, mostly mentally, from the constant effort of believing that I was moving forward and not feeling it. Then I put my head down and pushed. I was starting to feel too uncomfortably warm now and kept up a steady pace pushing for the closest shore that I could reach. I got my feet under me and was immediately knocked over and tumbled by a wave. I was able to stand but it was a stagger up the beach to the finish.

Usually when I come off a swim I'm pretty good at running along the beach and picking up places in T1. Not this time. I almost started crying when I couldn't get my speed suit off my shoulders as I staggered along. Still I got there in the end and killed a can of redbull in 2 paces once I got to the finish. It was blissful. My tongue was swollen and my mouth was crusted with salt. Yuck.

7 cans of 100+, 1 litre of water, 5 oranges and 2 shores later I felt much better. I don't think I've felt so exhausted after so short a time racing. It took me quite a while to gather my wits - probably 15 - 20 minutes before I could have much of a conversation though I was able to have a shower during that time and keep drinking. Physically i was comfortable enough to walk back into Marang 90 minutes later in the mid day sun chatting happily. Pain wise the race wasn't particularly intense - no where near marathon intensities though I did cave continous pain in the neck from the chaffing and in my right bicep - as well as dead arms for a long time :) - well really what did I expect?

Sand to sand - 3:15. Start to finish 3:21

Pleased with the result especially given the number of swims I'd missed leading up to it and the effects of holiday, illness and jetlag.

Lessons learned -

• speed suit chafes in salt water and glide wasn't effective.
• 4 gels rather than 2 would have been good for the time that I was in the water.
• need to improve sighting skills - particularly being able to site from the tops of waves
• course knowledge - i knew there was current but didn't know enough - there's probably 30 - 50 minutes from that talking to other people after the race.
• Practice breaststroke as right bicep started cramping
• Accepting pain signals as a sign that everything is going right was really useful
• The long 5km swims were great

Jens finished 5th in his category in 1:48 which was great as it paid for the petrol and tolls (and he also made the driving so much easier and gave me lots of tips on how to get to Kona next year).

Ezer finished in 2:50 ish (which was really cool) and I guess Yip finished but I didn't talk to him on the mainland.

My Kuantan fans also finished but again I was too stoned to ask for times.

(Photos courtesy of Jens)

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First of all that's me in the speed suit shortly after receiving it. It took 6 days door to door - California to Malaysia. 

When I first took it out of the box the first feeling was that it was all a bit big - it felt like a cast off snake skin in black rubber. The outside is more rubbery  the inside more fabricky.

Putting it on was pretty easy - took about 3 - 4 minutes as opposed to the 5 I'd expected. It was a little bit of effort getting it over my heels and then moving the material up my legs. I tried it with both tri shorts and bare skin underneath. Not a lot of difference in either comfort or ease of getting on or apparent fit.

The zip is small and doesn't have a cord so its very hard if not impossible to do up yourself (I have very flexible arms for a bloke and I can't do it.) Getting it undone is possible but I'll have to add a rip cord to enable this to be done easily.

It comes up over the shoulders ok and feels snug - but not too compressive on dry land.

I headed into the pool after work - lots of traffic and then a thunderstorm meant I didn't get into the pool until after 8. Grrrr.

The most obvious thing that I noticed was that wearing the suit brought my legs up to the surface of the water. I generally swim using upper body alone - or using legs for balancing. Keeping the body a LOT more horizontal will really help with the drag.

The first length I swam was an easy length but I felt that I was going a lot faster than usual. By the end of the 50m length I was somewhat out of breath. I'm not sure if this was due to the change in pace wearing it or the compressive effect on the chest. Instead of doing 1 x 400 easy as a warm up I split into 4 x 100m just to get used to it. By the end of the 400m I felt pretty comfortable - I guess the breathlessness was very much to do with the new feeling of the suit rather than anything else.

The next set was 12 x 50m with 50m hard/50m easy. For the first 50m I went all out and time myself at 36s which is about 10s faster than my previous best. That was with a couple more months training than last time I tested. Stroke quality was poor and there was a lot of kicking - quads were aching by the end of the length!

The next length I focused on a quality powerful stroke and timed it at 43s and was happy with that. I then stopped timing and probably did something similar for the remaining hard efforts. It felt fast and comfortable. 

I then did 1200m with paddle and pull buoy as 400 easy, 400 moderate, 400 hard. As ever this did kill my arms. There was an awareness of the tightness of the suit straps over my shoulders but no rubbing. The session was only 2.2km, no salt water and no sun so I'm not sure what this will mean for longer races.  On just this one sample I'd be happy to take it out for up to 1/2 ironman distance. To go further I do need more tests.

Overall I'm please with the buoyancy and speed aspects. I feel good in it and that will provide a psychological boost. The big questions for racing are; how much chaffing will there be and how to avoid that; and, can I add a cord that will allow me to get it off faster than then time improvement it gives me.

At RM542 (including shipping) its significantly cheaper than the speed suits in Bike Boutique which are RM800+. Good value on the cost front given the current discount level. At the full price of  RM1350 I'd be a lot more dubious.

In many ways I think that a speed suit is a bit like aerobars and zipp wheels. You have to be a certain level before it's worth purchasing. Unless you have a swim background it's not a purchase to make in your first 3 triathlon seasons.My last Ironman time was about 1 1/2 hours. The next one I'm hoping will be close to the 1 1/4 hours and I think at this level you will start to see most of the gains coming through.

For me the purchase is worthwhile because this year I am focused on longer swim races and so the 5% 'theoretical improvement' turns into quite a lot of minutes in the water. 

The suit can be worn regularly and has a 3 year warranty - so it's good for a fair number of races if you take care of it. Basically rinse with cold water by hand and dry out inside (not in the sun). 

Finally thoughts are to do with training and how much I should train with it - and how much with my belly hanging down from above my swim trunks :)

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In some ways this is an easy session because it is short. It is also over quickly. 6 x50's with the 50's split as 25 fast and 25 very easy. These are followed by 100m all out with paddles and pull buoy; then 100m easy with PB. Repeated.

I think that the intention here is to use the sprints to really work the arms and tire them out. Then the 100m with paddles and PB is really meant to kill them and thus simulate what it is like in the last km or so of a hard swum iron man.

I can go totally aerobic on a 25m sprint. I breath every 8th stroke or so and have a very high cadence. In contrast when I put on the paddles there is no way that I can maintain that cadence and the speed comes from developing strength through the pull. At the moment I can make 50m before my arms die. The back 50m is absolute agony as you keep telling the arms what to do and they grudgingly, very grudgingly obey.

Here's how you should do it



In contrast the 100m recovery is beautiful. With the pressure taken off you swim, plonk, plonk, plonk, plonk. Effortless and lovely.

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Another big catchup blog. Life is a bit busy at the moment and the blog has suffered.

Genting Sempah - Saturday

Saturday morning I headed out to Genting for my first bike ride in a year. I drove up and up and up towards the Orang Asli hospital but couldn't find it. Thinking that I might have driven past it and not wanting to miss out on the climbing I stopped and got everything together. 200m after starting to cycle I came round the corner and there was the hospital. :)

I was aiming to go up in as big a gear as possible and for most of the time I was on the 3 hardest gear of my 52-42. It was only after the bridge on one of the last tough corners that I shifted down. I spent most of the climb with a chap called Nizam from Taman Melawati  chatting away which was nice and I think kept both of us going faster than otherwise.

It was a good ride and I reached the road junction after 51 minutes  which was pleasing. Slow on the way down though as I wasn't comfortable with cornering and a bit shaky with my controls. I got used to it after a while.

Fallout 3 - Sunday

Well I'd intended to go running on Sunday morning but I'd started playing fallout 3 on Saturday afternoon. Senay and Maya were away and I had no other plans. as midnight on Sunday approached I realised that the run probably wasn't going to happen. I'd reached level 14 though :)

Work - Monday

Monday was a shit day at work. Lots of things went wrong; I was desperate for my swim by the time I headed off at 1500 for it. So my card didn't work in the car park and the attendant wasn't around. Trapped I went back upstairs to sort it out and got caught with more fire fighting. Leaving work just before 7 I was in 2 minds as to whether to go or not. Feeling guilty; not wanting to do it; needing to do it. So it started raining heavily. I went home.

TTDI Trail Running - Tuesday

I got up and couldn't face doing one of my usual routes. Boring - I'd done them all too many times  before. So I headed down to TTDI to do circuits there. The first one of the little park took 7 minutes. Running round another 8 times seemed miserable so I took a detour and headed up onto the mountain bike trails used for the Saloman Xtrail run.  Mondays are moderate uphill efforts and fast downhills. I followed the same route of the Salomon Xtrail run along the side of the jungle so I didn't get lost. I'd forgottent how long that initial climb was. Hard work - It must have certainly seperated out the racers during the run. I remember lungs burning by the time I reached the half way point.

Today it was easier. Lots of fallen trees and I wasn't  going at race pace. I was wearing my VFF's and was having to pay a lot of care and attention to where I was placing my feet. I got to where the first drinks stand had been and stopped for 30s before heading back downhill.

My coach has been telling me to run fast with a very high cadence downhill. On this trail and with my VFFs it really worked. It gave me lots of flexibility and control and I flew down. Landed on my ass and scraped my legs and arms. Whoops. Really good fun running - but actually hard to push myself to run at a hard pace over rough ground like that. I need to do lots more trail running.

Balcony Bike - Wednesday

Onto the 55-42 on the turbo. First thought was this was heavy. After a while though it wasn't so bad. A bit like swimming with paddles. Did my 50 minutes and really worked my legs and also my lungs every 3 rep. Pleased. Started dreaming of a power meter.

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Minor hangover after night out in Bangsar meant that I didn't head to th pool real early - but it's a Sunday :)

250m warm up. 1200m main set and a 25m cool down. I had a shoulder massage in Bangsar en route home which hurt - but I was stiffness free this morning which I was truly glad about. My biceps and triceps still hurt and refused to do much work for the first third of the swim. The remainder I got into a good rhythm and cncentrated on finishing. Lap 34 was good as it was at that point I got over the psychological doubts and realised I'd do it. :)

There was one other guy in the pool doing breaststroke - I went to Metropolitan Square for the swim - and I was swimming about 3 lengths to his one. The stroke made a difference but the really obvious thing was that his feet were almost touching the floor of the pool giving him the hydrodynamics of a brick and making him work too hard. I could feel my butt just about breaking sruface and my feet fluttered through every bnow and then.

I think I maintained my form fairly well - though it fell off towards the end. Mty right pull was travelling a bit far into the centre line of my body and my pace had picked up so that I was almost on the verge of oxyfen debt. Always a question - is it improved speed or just poor technique limiting me . . .

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