TriTwins

Malaysia's First Astronaut

2012-01-30T16:44:00.000+08:00

Look who came to visit Sid and Seb's school last week...Malaysia's first astronaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. How cool was this for the boys?!!

So You Wanna Be a Triathlete?

2012-01-26T14:20:00.001+08:00

(By Nick Clark • Clark Endurance Training and courtesy of Active.com)

Fact: You will not become efficient at swimming, biking or running overnight. This is NOT an easy sport.

Check your ego at the door because chances are someone fifty pounds heavier than you will lap you in the pool. Not to mention she will be ten or fifteen years older than you, too.

You will be passed on the bike many times, and you will never be the fastest runner in your town.

You will have early morning workouts. Really early.

You will plan your weekends around your swim, bike and run.

You will be up while others are sleeping.

You will be training while others are sitting.

You will discover others who also follow this blood, sweat and tears cult.

You will eventually get a flat tyre...and have to change it all by yourself.

No matter what you hear, triathlon is NOT an inexpensive sport.

Warning, it is extremely addictive, hence the impulse spending on wetsuits, bikes, running shoes, aero bars, aero helmets, speed suits, power meters, GPS heart-rate monitors and many other “gotta have” items.

You will hate swimming more times than you like it for the first year.

You will suffer through road trips with whiny fellow triathletes.

You will suffer setbacks.

You may experience an injury.

You will develop a love/hate relationship with a foam roller and ice baths.

You will at some point realize you need a coach.

You will hate swimming for the first year.

You will wear tight clothing.

You will not like how this tight clothing fits or looks.

Your age will take on a whole new meaning.

You will discover a whole new meaning for tan lines.

Food will become an extremely important part of your life.

You will learn new words such as GU, cadence and brick.

You will hate swimming for the first year.

You will spend more time on your bike than on your couch.

You may lose a friend or two because you spend too much time swimming, biking and running, and they could care less about your heart rate training, foam rolling pain or 200km bike ride.

You will learn patience.

You will be humbled.

You will start to realize you are paying money to put yourself through pain and suffering, but for some odd reason, you LOVE it.

This sport called triathlon becomes a part of you. You start to plan your entire year around sprint, international, half iron- or full iron-distance races. Your vacations become racing, and you start to realize that this could become a life-long adventure.

Many people settle for things in life. They settle for a crappy job, marriage, friends, food, place to live and overall fitness and health. Those who desire more or those who want more out of life than a drive-thru window and boring sitcom, will choose triathlon or an activity that makes them happy—an activity that will change their life.

Triathlon will change your outlook on life, your career, your marriage, your goals, your friends and many other things you thought you had figured out. It’s not just crossing a finish line or going home with a boring finisher medal. It’s the countless hours that got you to that point—a moment in time that you will NEVER forget, a moment that you will discuss with your family and friends for hours if not days after the event. These discussions will most likely be about how you could have done better. At what point could you have swum faster, biked harder or ran more efficient? This is what will go through your head every day until you get the opportunity to suffer again.

So you wanna be a triathlete? Enjoy the ride and train hard!

Sign up for your first event or your 100th, just sign up.

Inner Peace

2012-01-17T14:22:00.002+08:00

(Another corker from Disco Dave's Mum)

I'm passing this on because it worked forme today.

A Dr. on TV said to have inner peace we should always finishthings we start & we all could use more calm in our lives.

I looked around my house to find things I'd started & hadn't finished,so I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Chardonnay, a bodle ofBaileys, a butle of wum, tha mainder of Valiuminun scriptins, an a box achocletz. Yu haf no idr how fablus I feel rite now. Sned this to all whoneed inner piss. An telum u luvum!

Fight for Kisses

2012-01-06T10:36:00.004+08:00

Brilliantly funny advert

Vinnie Jones gives CPR instruction - MUST WATCH

2012-01-06T10:33:00.002+08:00

The Top 20 Rules for Faster Triathlon Swimming

2012-01-06T07:15:00.001+08:00

(By Joel Filliol courtesy of oveindergaard)

The most popular post on this blog is a 2007 post on swimming, which is mainly a link to another blog post from The Triathlon Book. Over on ST there has been a lot of chatter about swimming for triathletes. And Rappstar, Paulo and Coach Daz amongst others have weighed in on the topic.

Without further ado:

The Top 20 Rules for Faster Triathlon Swimming

1. Conditioning trumps drills. Technique matters, but the way most athletes try to improve technique doesn't work. Get fitter, and your ability to hold good technique improves. It takes a lot of work to develop aerobic conditioning in your upper body. If you think you are already swimming a lot but are not improving, swim more and keep at it. There are no shortcuts.

2. Traditional drills don't work. The type of drills and the way that most triathletes do them don't actually have any material effect on swimming technique.

3. Swim more often. Frequency is the best way to improve your swimming. Also see rule #4

4. Do longer main sets. You can't expect to swim fast and be fresh on the bike if you rarely do main sets with the same or higher volume and pace than you expect in the race. For short course these should be at least 2km, for IM 4km, or more. And that looks like 20-50x100, not many short broken sets adding up to 2-5km.

5. Don't over think it. Don't under think it. Be engaged with what you are doing in the water, and use tools to help get a better feel for the water. But don't over think every stroke, and suffer from paralysis by analysis. Swimming fast is about rhythm and flow, when good technique becomes automatic.

6. Increased swim fitness translates to the bike and run. Being able to swim harder, starting the bike both fresher and with faster riders is how that works.

7. Deep swim fitness allows you to swim on the rivet. See rule #6. Most triathletes don't know how to really swim hard for the duration.

8. Include some quality in every swim. If you are swimming less than 5x per week, having easy swims is a waste of time. Always include quality, from band, to paddles, to sprints, in every swim.

9. Don't count strokes. See rule #2. The objective is to get faster, not take fewer strokes.

10. Learn now to use your kick but don't spend a lot of time with kick sets. Kicking is about stroke control and body position, not propulsion for triathlon. Kick fitness doesn't matter.

11. Use a band frequently. The best swimming drill there is. Do short reps with lots of rest at first. Both propulsion and body position will improve.

12. Use paddles with awareness of engaging lats. Paddles are primarily a technical tool to take more strokes with better mechanics, the result of which is learning how to use your prime swimming movers: your lats.

13. Keep head low on breathing and in open water. Head down, feet up. It's a common body position error.

14. Do many short repetitions for stroke quality. It takes fitness to swim with good technique for long durations. Start shorter, and swim faster. 50x50 works wonders. Don't have time to do a 2500m main set? Drop the warm up and warm down.

15. Learn to swim with a higher stroke rate. This takes conditioning. It will pay off on race day, and particularly anytime swimming in a group and in rough conditions.

16. If you need to write your swim session down on the white board or paper, it's too complicated. Keep it simple.

17. Find a good masters programme. Long main sets is a good sign. Swim with others to challenge yourself. These are the exception rather than the norm, unfortunately.

18. Don't use swim tools as a crutch. Paddles and bull buoys are tools with specific uses. Don't reach for them out of simple laziness, because the set is hard.

19. Do use swim tools when you are very fatigued, and will otherwise swim with poor quality. See Rule #18.

20. Dry land and gym can help swimming for some via improved neuromuscular recruitment. Use body weight and tubing not machines.

Bonus: Love swimming if you want to get faster. Embrace the process of getting faster in the water. Chlorine sweat is a good thing.

Follow the rules above to swim faster, and ultimately to be a faster triathlete. Enjoy.

Swim technique...PAH!! Gimme the toys

2012-01-05T12:57:00.002+08:00

(By Brett Sutton courtesy of www.urban-ninja.co.za)

Simon says: - An interesting article...basically what I take away from this is don't over think it, just put in the work.

Of late I have been fielding a barrage of questions by age groupers, who have improved their triathlon swim by using the old put all the swim gear on Sutto principle, but also from coaches asking when do we then transition into more full swimming with out all the swim ‘toys’. Yet, the more I point out to the athletes and coaches that open water swimming is different than pool swimming the more I point out swimming 3.8 km in a wetsuit is different to pool swimming the more I point out that technique is not the major concern the more doubters I seem to create. Most of the enquiries are good nature and just trying to come to grips with getting faster. In addition, most of them, no all of them have said yes they have seen good improvement in their triathlon swims. So, why the wish to change what works?

It’s a tough gig going against the mob or peer group in any thing, and even I fall victim to it myself. As a coach, you always doubt and ask yourself is there a better way. For the coaches, I say the hardest thing in coaching is to find a method that is not recognized by the hordes and stick with it. If I fall prey to the pressure when I invented the method and am an Olympic level swim coach, I acknowledge how tough it is for almost all others.

But the strength of my swim program was rammed home to me while on camp with a few of our true believers, who have improved their swim immensely since ditching the technique method for the toys method. First, Bella and Stephen Bayliss were back in England after the birth of their pride and joy Charlie and were caught in a situation of no pool facilities. The Baylisses took up a plan of attack as they could only swim for 1 hour every 2nd day. In the highlands of Scotland, not a swim hub, only swimming every other day each session would be dive in and go hard. Now this is not very scientific, but sessions might be: one hour of sometimes non-stop swimming or 100s short rest or 4x 1km and all workouts done with gear on for the swim and all these with virtually no warm-up or swim down. Bella’s idea of swimming is starting all out with pull buoy wedged in tight. Don’t try and take it off her! So the Baylisses’ turn up at camp and both are flying versus the other professional triathletes in camp. In the water, Steve was looking like a whirling devil, and Bella bitch slapping the water with her paddles with every stroke showing it and everyone else who’s boss. Their times were as fast as ever, and Bella has just delivered Charlie only three months ago. Meanwhile another 47 min non-wetsuit IM swimmer joined the fray in the form of Mathias Hecht. Now Mathias’ stroke makes Stephen look like Michael Phelps, it is off balance, breathes on the wrong side, gets nearly as many strokes in as Stephen. He is self-taught without a swimming background and has trained on his own for most of his career. But another interesting thing, I think Mathias sleeps with a pull bouy between his legs just as with Stephen and Bella he puts it in before he dives into the pool and it doesn’t come out the whole workout. While on camp, the Spanish coach approached me and remarked to me one day (while theses sluggers were going after it with a Swiss kid called Andreas who lets it fly too),“ coach , they don’t look that good but I been timing them and they been lapping in at 1:10 per 100m.” I said. “yes, not so fast. But he come back with “But, they been doing it straight for near over 1 hour now.“ And there is the rub. While it might not look pretty or fast, over an hour it is deadly effective. Yes, the idealist will say but wouldn’t they go faster with that perfect swimming technique. But the realist in me says, THEY DONT NEED TO GO ANY FASTER in an Ironman triathlon.

Swinging into short course ITU races, well yes then they will need super technique. But actually No that also is a misnomer. Most rave about the Brownlees swim, but again anyone who takes the time to see them swim or train will realize that they are not that fast over 50 meters. Yes, I would bet good money that 40% of the men they beat out the water every race would smash them over 50 meters. But these Yorkshire boys are happy to get into the melee and fight to the front and do swim workouts that mean they keep their stroke-rating the whole 1500. It is about swimming 1500 meters in open water fast not 50m in a pool. The contentious Harry Wiltshire, who also was one of the slowest 50 men in my squad, in open water took every race out on the feet of the leader around the first buoy. It didn’t matter who was at the front whether Ben Sansom, Richard Stanard, Craig Walton, or whoever, Harry would get creamed over 50meters but by the first buoy there he was all over them. Sorry Harry, but I reckon even if Grant Hacket was leading Harry would be all over his arse like glue the whole way. Just ask Gomez, in openwater Harry was and is unstoppable. He too could just put that pull buoy in at the start and I would say, “Harry,1hr strait or 5000 m whichever comes first.” Harry would hit 5km before the hour everytime.

People, I can only tell you the way it is. You race in a wetsuit most of the time. Get the paddles on, pull buoy between your legs and just get after it. As Bella says, “I used to spend an hour and a half fussing about trying to do all the perfect technique contortionist things in the water gliding and stretching. But once I just got in, got on with it, stopped thinking about technique, and just thought about nothing more than putting on the gear and giving it to myself. I improved by 15 minutes over 3.8K.” I try to educate and tell people, but they just don’t listen. So, I say to all the doubters that have done this and improved their swim, hold the line. I say to all the coaches out there stop looking for clues: if they are improving then it is working. If it ain’t broke, don’t try and fix it!

Malaysia Boleh!

2011-12-19T14:49:00.001+08:00

(Pictures courtesy of TriStupe from Incoherent Ramblings)

My buddy Bryan in Canada thinks that we're all paupers here in Malaysia, I have no doubt that there are more luxury cars per head in Malaysia than Canada and with them costing 4 times as much here that's a lot of cash. However, as this recent pictures just goes to show, a little more spent on flood control might be nice haha.

As for this picture, it's of my home town here in Malaysia, Kajang. No need to worry about all the rabid dogs, the alligators ate all the dogs. Not sure whether this is true or photoshop but you gotta smile, sort of.

Just loved the irony of this picture :)

Then take a 1 minute ride with these guys. You've got to give them credit for being brave if not daft as brushes.

How deep is her thumb?

2011-12-16T16:14:00.001+08:00

Post Phuket 70.3 massage

Now this is what massage is supposed to be about. Her thumbs have disappeared into my ribcage and clearly I am expressing my relaxed pleasure.

Two pairs of Zipp 404s for sale

2011-12-15T18:06:00.001+08:00

A pair of brand new Zipp 404 clinchers. No tyres with shimano body hub (cassettes not included) Selling at $4300 nett.

A pair of used (almost like new, very low mileage) Zipp 404 clinchers with tyres & campy body hub (cassettes not included). Selling at $3800 nett.

Contact: marianamohd78@yahoo.com

You gotta love this ad

2011-12-15T13:27:00.001+08:00

Watch this - it could save your life

2011-12-15T12:19:00.001+08:00

How strange is this? Yesterday I got the test results of my biopsy on a sore on my chest, it was diagnosed as Superficial Basal Cell Carcinoma, a type of skin cancer. Not aggressive and not too dangerous if removed. It's coming off next week once the stitches from the biopsy have properly healed.

So the coincidence, I was watching a series of most watched videos on YouTube and this one came up. I don't have a melanoma which is a far more aggressive and deadly kind of skin cancer but it could have easily been that. I've never believed for a second I'd get skin cancer, never been too worried about sunblock or sunburn, I've never checked carefully for moles or sores - needless to say I am now a huge convert and will be religious about these issues and urge you to consider them carefully too. Skin cancer is not selective, it doesn't care who it gets, just make sure it's not you or a loved one.

I implore you to watch this short video from start to finish, I have no doubt it has saved and will save many people's lives, watch and learn.

Brilliant Christmas Present Idea

2011-12-14T15:01:00.000+08:00

This is a brilliant site for Christmas gifts (or any other time for that matter). Basically they take a photo that you send them and transform it into a caricature in a style that you choose. Currently they're doing a Christmas discount promo too so I thought I'd share. http://www.caricaturetoons.com/

Getting started: Just upload your image(s), describe your vision, pick an artist and tell us how many people you want in your Toon.

We′ll notify you the minute your Toon is ready and place it in the My Toons section. From there you′ll be able to view your proofs and communicate with the Artist directly.

Once your 100% satisfied, you can download your Royalty Free Toon and check out the Buy Products section to see the cool ways you can display your Toon. They make Great Gifts and we ship worldwide.

Order Now.

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Phuket 70.3 Half Ironman 2011

2011-12-09T14:55:00.001+08:00

I had high hopes for the Phuket 70.3, I'd been training hard since September following the Mark Allen Online coaching plan. The volumes weren't as big as I was used to but the intensity greater and two gym sessions a week really knocked me about.

I was very much above my racing weight at 78kg when I began but even by the end of the training I'd only lost 2kg. I pretty much gave up trying to lose weight in the end and focused on staying healthy and sticking to the plan. If I'd forced the weight loss issue I'd have been sick every other week I reckon as my immune system was already struggling.

I turned up quietly confident that I had at least an outside shot at a Kona qualifying place and felt that it would really come down to the run (as it usually does). I'd had an amazing two runs in the Miri races 5 weeks before but a confidence bashing breakdown on the run at Powerman 3 weeks before. However, I had rested well and was hoping for the legs to respond come race day.

I started the swim confidently on the right hand side of the course by the marker buoys. If I got beaten up too much I still had room to move right and come back in line when it all settled down. The swim in this race is unique in half Ironmans, you do 2/3 of the race in the ocean and then run across the beach and do the last 1/3 in the freshwater lagoon. The saltwater part went well but I felt I lost my way a little in the fresh water.

Swim Time 36:14 - pretty disappointing considering the amount of swim training I've been doing. I've clearly got to make some radical changes in how I'm approaching this aspect of the sport.

A good transition and onto Gladys. Time to start pulling people in. The roads were still wet from the downpour the day before but I didn't think much of it until a guy 15m ahead of me sat up to take a corner and at the merest hint of the brake his front wheel slide from under him on the mossy wet road. We were doing a little over 40kph on the flat; the guy behind him sits up to avoid the crash and immediately goes down too. So now I'm doing more than 40kph, I have a narrow, slippery, wet road with two bodies and two bikes sliding down it directly in my path and no place to go. I think quick, there's only one sensible thing to do in the circumstances CLOSE MY EYES AND HOPE haha. It's true but first I aimed at a gap that was starting to open between the bikes and the bodies and then shut my eyes. I got away with it but then I was upon the corner; I cant tell you how much self control it took not to touch the brakes, if I had I was a gonner, as it was I wasn't sure I could get round without the wheels going from under me. Luckily I survived.

That was within the first 5km. I had 85km to go. At least it wasn't raining...no the rain wouldn't join us until half way and then it was a downpour of biblical proportions. In the meantime, I caught Steve Lumley who'd come out the water at the same time as me in both Miri races but had gained a 4 minute lead in the swim today. We hit the first massive hills at about 43km. I had a 27 chain ring on the back but even so I was worried that I couldn't get over the hills they were so steep and slippery. If you went to the side of the road the back wheel would slip on the slime. If you were in the dryer middle and stood on the pedals the back wheel would still slip and lose traction. It was almost impossible. I somehow managed but then had to descend. Certainly the most scared I've been on a road bike. People were sliding off and crashing left, right and centre. Even the great Chris Lieto crashed for example.

Again I survived but then the heavens opened up for a tropical, torrential downpour that didn't abate until the end of the bike. At this point I said to myself that all bets were off and it was just a case of survive. But quite honestly from the first crash I'd narrowly escaped a lot of my usual advantage was wiped away as I was being cautious from that point onwards. I rode the rest of the bike in the same vicinity as Steve. At about 75k we hit the next set of debilitating hills. You had to stand to get over them but if you stood the back wheel just spun out underneath you. I created some weird pulsing leg and body movement to try to keep the pedals turning while staying on the saddle to keep the weight on the back wheel. I made it but now I had to descend, it was crazy madness.

There was a max speed limit of 20kph where you would have massively exceeded 100kph had it been straight and you'd freewheeled. The road were severely twisting, the torrential rain was possibly worse and my brakes were starting to cook themselves. All you could smell was burning carbon. I heard Steve behind me shouting to give him room on the inside. "NO" I thought, he had to overtake on the right, this was a yellow flag zone so no overtaking anyway and if I tried to get out of the way I'd probably crash in the wet. Then I heard "NO BRAKES, NO BRAKES". At which point I thought "OH F@&K". Closing my eyes was not an option this time and somehow he managed to get some traction and I lived to tell the story.

Bike time 2:36:51 Compare that to my Singapore 70.3 of 2:13:54 and you'll get some idea of the challenges of this course and weather conditions. The picture above is me finishing the bike - the picture doesn't lie, I was not a happy bunny.

So a reasonably fast transition and onto the run. I was going well from the off and pulling people in. After about 4k though we hit a muddy section on the golf course with some little rises and dips. I felt the heart rate soar and the legs falter. I pushed on still catching everyone in front and only being taken by the relay runners. The second of two laps started pretty well, I caught a buddy from KL, Damian and cracked on. Then I hit the golf course section again. Uh-ho, I had to walk, I needed to walk, I must walk...NO NO NO NO NO NO... I was blowing up big time. I told myself that the next 2k were going to define my race, I reminded myself that I've been telling Sid that he'll make a superb sportsman but he must get stronger in the mind, how could I tell him that and walk.

I made it through what was the lowest point of the race but I was running with the crowd now, no more pulling past my competitors and I saw a couple of guys in my age-group go past. I now had to walk through the aid stations, I just wanted to get to the end. Kona? Bo!!ox to Kona (for today anyway).
Run time 1:40:41 Not a bad time but not what I should have been capable of.

Total time 4:58:01 and 15th place (the Pros started 6 minutes ahead of our wave). I can't complain, I didn't deliver and it's clear to me how much more I need to do to elevate myself to to next level. I'm not disheartened nor disappointed, the field was total class and quality. I turned up with my A- game when nothing less than an A++ would have done. I just need to make that happen on March 25th for Ironman Melbourne.

On a more successful note, Sam scored a second place in his category for the second year in a row. (Only one slot for Kona but he wasn't chasing that anyway). Brilliant job and as I often say "I want to be like him when I grow up", he's an amazing athlete and an icon of our sport.

A big shout out has to go to team Malaysia, they all finished and peaked when it counted...At the awards banquet. The after race party in Phuket is second to none. There is nothing like it anywhere that I have ever experienced. It's so much fun and my fellow Malaysian's didn't let the side down.

And finally I found my A++ game by midway through the evening and discovered pole dancing skills that I never knew I had. Lesley suggests that I look really gay and I think she's right, I was indeed very "happy" haha.

A brilliant weekend that I then extended and went on to have a three day alcohol fuelled bender in Phuket before limping home and trying to shake the inevitable hangover.

BRING ON MELBOURNE

Best Christmas Advert

2011-12-02T14:21:00.001+08:00

Skytrex with Sid and Seb

2011-11-23T12:36:00.001+08:00

We recently took the boys to Skytrex which is canopy walking by another name. We did the kids version which was still scary enough. A very cool day for sure.

Gladys loves watching this - yeah baby!

2011-11-23T12:09:00.001+08:00

Best Parents of the Year Awards

2011-11-23T11:42:00.001+08:00

(Courtesy of Ian Hay)

Killer Whale takes a guy off the beach

2011-11-22T18:49:00.001+08:00

(Courtesy of Ian Hay)

I read that this was a fake but blimey it looks real to me and quite upset me.

AISM Triathlon - My proudest triathlon moment

2011-11-21T14:34:00.001+08:00

Sid and Seb entered their first ever triathlon, (Seb had done an aquathlon before) the race was at the Australian International School and organised by Damian Baynes and his colleagues.

There were categories from Open all the way through the age-groups to the blue-ribbon event, the Under 6s.

There were 18 under 6 boys entered in the event including Sid and Seb. We were surprised at how many there were and some of the bikes the little tykes had were amazing, some were also on training wheels too which was really cute.

We'd done a fair bit of training in the build up to the race, in particular focusing on the transitions where so much time can be gained or lost especially in such a short race. It was 25m swim, 500m bike and 300m run.

Seb in Lane 4 and Sid in Lane 7

We registered and then spent the whole morning waiting for all the other waves to go and then at last it was Sid and Seb's turn. I have never been so nervous before a race, I mean really really nervous, on edge and totally stressed. I did my best to hide it, Shilpa was the same.

Seb heading to T1

The Under 6 boys and girls swam together so the pool was a bit cramped but both our boys got away well. Seb was second or third boy out of the water and Sid was not far behind albeit a few places down.

Sid in close pursuit

They moved so rapidly to T1 it was hard to keep up. Seb struggled a bit with his second shoe (they're a bit small for him now so difficult to get on). I helped him get it sorted and then turned round to help Sid...Sid was gone already...AWESOME.

I raced out of the transition entry gate to see the boys come flying past. Sid doesn't seem to commit himself on the bike so a bit of "verbal support" got his head down a bit. Seb was after him like a man possessed, he was giving it everything.

Again in what seemed like a flash they were coming back to T2, OMG, Seb had got himself into first position, Sid came in about 5th just a few seconds behind. Their transitions would have made a pro-triathlete beam with pride.

Then disaster struck, Rowan, probably the strongest boy in the field took a right turn too early and having just overtaken Seb, Seb followed him. OH NOOOOOOOOOOO! I'd been heading back to the finish and as I turned round I saw Sid ahead of both Seb and Rowan as they came back from their detour and back onto the race course.

Sid coming to the finish line in 2nd place

I shot through the school to the playing field for the finish, there was Sid zooming round the track with a real focused look in his face, SECOND PLACE! WOW.

Seb still giving it everything

Seb was no where to be seen, then there he was, still running hard but looking dejected, Shilpa was there shouting encouragement and then she told me his shoe came off in a huge mud puddle that they had to run through, Rowan's too. It had taken Seb ages to get it back on again and by the time he finished he'd slid down to 6th place (one place outside the trophies). That was so harsh considering he'd been in first place out of T2.

Shilpa and I are so proud of them both, they both tried their best and despite Seb's problems they seemed to really enjoy themselves. Shilpa and I are both heartbroken about Seb missing out but I guess these are life's lessons that mould us and make us stronger.

As Ezer commented on Facebook "The TriTwins Saga begins"...

Night Mountain Biking - Belly laugh funny

2011-11-18T10:24:00.001+08:00

(Courtesy of Hsing Ling)

The great Danny MacAskill's at it again - brilliant

2011-11-16T16:29:00.001+08:00

A picture says a thousand words - haha

2011-11-16T15:32:00.001+08:00

(Photo courtesy of Moey WS)

This pretty much reflected what I thought of my performance - haha

Powerman - a very unsatisfactory day

2011-11-14T10:31:00.001+08:00

(Thanks to everyone for the photos, greatly appreciated)

Great start picture (I'm on the extreme left)

I was bitterly disappointed about two aspects of this year's Powerman. One was about the race itself, not only bitterly disappointed but furious and angry in fact, but I'll come on to that. The second thing was about myself and how I reacted internally to the first point. So what were the issues?

As anyone that was there will testify, the extent of drafting in this non-drafting race was unprecedented. It's the worst I have ever seen at Powerman. It appeared to be condoned by the marshalls and positively encouraged by many of the so called "competitors". Or should I call them cheats? Nay, I shall refer to them in the correct technical term that they duly earned..."CHEATING BASTARDS".

The packs were enormous and blatant and those that chose to draft are a disgrace to themselves, their country, their sport, their parents, their children and anyone that knows them.

As you're reading this, if you think that perhaps I'm referring to you and singling you out then by the fact that you've even had this thought should tell you that YES I PROBABLY AM.

So many chose to cheat, some didn't care and others justified their actions with "because everyone was doing it". People that had trained hard and knocked themselves out to get a lead on the run were unfairly losing out to huge packs swarming past them on the bike. Surely it was justified to tag along? Sorry no, this is CHEATING AS WELL!

If we all have this attitude then you might argue that we have a level playing field and we have a drafting race by default. BUT, the rules state that it's a non-drafting race and so long as there's one person that abides by this rule then everyone else that doesn't is a CHEAT!

So what should anyone have done in such a situation? Firstly, confront every single person in the pack and make it clear to them that they are cheating (including the Pro Women assuming it was true that they were in a pack too - they should know better). There were marshalls and they were taking down numbers, they were just spineless and didn't DSQ anyone. It then becomes easy, try to remember as many numbers as you can and protest them after the race. The marshall's clipboards will corroborate your claim. I can tell you from past experience at doing just this in Powerman, your protest will be upheld.

Other than that I have to say that the race was, as usual, magnificently organised. Additionally, credit to Melody, the race organiser, when I congratulated her on putting on a great race the first things she acknowledged was the drafting problem before I even said anything on the subject.

For what it's worth, I have a solution for future years, I have spent a lot of time (too much time) over the last 24 hours mapping it out in my head. It mainly revolves around managing the competitors perceptions prior to the race. Yes, it will lead to the most hardened and blatant cheats being disqualified, it may lead to some of these cheats being very upset and refusing to ever race Powerman again - AND HOW BAD IS THAT? Melody, Adele, if you're interested in hearing my thoughts I'd be happy to share, let me know if you're interested?

I'll come onto the second point of later, it was brought on by the drafting issue above but the anger an the blame lies solely with myself. But first the race: -

RUN ONE, 11k, 43mins ??Secs

I hadn't slept well the night before nor the previous few nights. I could have done but I didn't focus on early nights and only have myself to blame. I'd also trained heavily the week before which was part of the plan as this race was just to be a tune up for Phuket 70.3 in 3 weeks. However, when I started warming up for the race I realised that I was having trouble breathing, my heart rate was elevated super high and something wasn't quite right. Not to worry I thought, the body will respond, I just have to make sure I'm properly warmed up. Things got better and I lined up at the front for the start.

It was a two loop run and I got in quite nicely with a fast group of locals and expats. I was testing the red line all the way through which is where I wanted to be. In a race this long I don't believe in holding back or "saving yourself" but equally it's essential not to spend more than a few seconds anaerobic (in the red zone) every now and again.

Last time I did this race 2 years ago, over the exact same course, I ran 41:05 and expected something very similar this time (if not a little better). I was shocked to see my time approaching 44 minutes at transition. Mmm, never mind I thought, I'm united with Gladys (my trusty stead), this is where we tear up the road.

BIKE 64K, 1hr, ??mins

I started reeling people in immediately and few were fast enough to even think about drafting...until...one guy jumped straight onto my wheel. "NO...!" I shouted and swerved to the right. He backed off. I looked behind ten seconds later and there he was again. "NO...!" I screamed a little louder, if that were possible, and again he backed off. Ten seconds later he was back. I seldom lose my temper but the anger that welled up inside of me was unstoppable, a primeval, guttural "F@CK OFF...!" emanated from somewhere deep within the chasms of my body which immediately saw him drop back 50m in a flash and to be quite honest with you, I even shocked myself. The viciousness and clear threat of imminent violence actually scared me, so I can only imagine what effect it had on him. CHEATING BASTARD he deserved it.

I reeled in Uncle Don and did a wonderful impression of a police siren as I went past him, it made me chuckle anyway. I reeled in Richard Tang, going past him at a speed that assured me that I wouldn't be seeing him for the rest of the day (oh how wrong I was). I went past Chris Williams, at quite an impressive pace I thought (later that evening he said, "Yeah, when you went past me you didn't look very good", haha, seems he knew what he was talking about and I didn't!). At the first turnaround I started seeing the packs forming, being an out and back course you can see the packs ahead and behind. I started getting angry again, I started painting pictures in my mind in terms of who was in the packs ahead (as it happens, considering how my second run turned out, I should have been more worried about the ones behind).

This is the issue that angered and upset me most about the race, not the drafting but rather the way I let it negatively impact my mind. Normally I'm very good at channeling adversity into opportunity or at least in channeling anger into effort. Today for some reason I didn't do this, I simply let it get to me. It's totally contradictory to my personality and my default way of thinking, I can only put it down to tiredness and a lack of sleep. I'm just so disappointed with myself, I really let this mindset spoil my day. I must not ever let that happen again.

The bike continued and Damian came past me, I've never been passed before on the bike in Powerman, so that didn't help my mindset either. Not only that but a guy I was slowly catching sat on Damian's wheel and that's the last I saw of him. I was even more pissed off!

Heading back on the second loop of two I caught a pack of five guys blatantly drafting each other and shared my thoughts with each one of them. It made not a jot of difference and they continued cheating. Then one of them made the mistake of jumping on my back wheel!!! Talking of thick skinned or what! I screamed at him, and told him if he didn't get off my wheel I'd protest him. He immediately obliged and came up alongside. He clearly realised I was pissed off and in an effort to appease me he explained that he hadn't intended to cheat at my expense but that we could cheat together "We take turns, OK?". That was pretty much the final straw for me. I shared a few choice words with him regarding it being a non-drafting race and I think the term CHEATING BASTARD was used more than once. Strangely that's the last I saw of him.

I got to T2 and considering that I'd managed to persuade myself that there were at least half a dozen people in my age-group in the packs ahead you can imagine my surprise to see the entire bike rack empty. I was in first place. BUT...I was in trouble BIG TIME.

RUN TW0, 10K, 55mins ??secs

I started running and felt my left Achilles tighten all the way from the heel to deep into the calf. It was strained, it felt like it was going to pop at any second. I was running but actually trying not to use my left ankle at all. Thinking about the forthcoming Phuket 70.3 I almost stopped, not wanting to cause any serious damage. I continued on gingerly though, I have had dodgy Achilles for many years and I know that sometimes they can loosen up when you start running, especially on the flat, provided that you're uber-careful. The key is for that to happen (or to stop) before the sinews start tearing. (I didn't get that balance right in Bintang last year, OUCH!).

As I continued running they got slowly better over the next k. The next problem was soon apparent, my heart rate was going through the roof. It was already 10 beats higher than the red zone that I'd played with on the first run. This was going to get ugly. However, in Powerman the second run is always ugly, the temperature was going through the roof, the heart rate was out of control I was getting dizzy but hey, isn't this normal?

Then Richard Tang came flying past me. I couldn't have taken out more than 2 minutes on him on the bike, a reflection that Richard obviously had a great bike and also that Chris Williams was indeed right, I really wasn't looking good!!!

1k into the second lap the wheels fell off. My legs were gone, my heart rate was unsustainable and I did something I have never done before in a duathlon, I walked. OMFG!!! The scary thing was that my heart rate barely came down, I'd start to run again and it was through the roof. I then came across my next door neighbour Nizz who was doing her first duathlon and only her second multi-sport race. DAMN! Now I couldn't even walk until I was at least around the corner haha. She is great, had a big smile on her face and was enjoying herself despite the tough conditions.

Last effort to the finish

Goodness knows how many people passed me. With about a k to go the expat guy in the blue with white sunnies (see the second photo above) came past me during one of my walk breaks. No Ferking Way I thought, he could well be in my age-group and I'm not having it. I took off, ran the last k hard and finished in what turned out to be 13 minutes slower than two years ago, 2nd in my age-group with a time of 2:24:48.

RM1000 (USD330) richer but not happy with myself

If I'd have raced well I have been happy with 2nd, hell I'd have been happy with 10th but with the poor sleeping habits leading up to the race and especially the negativity during the race I only have myself to blame.

I expressed this on Twitter and Facebook and I really appreciate the words of support from friends but I'm not sulking, I'm not looking for pity, I'm definitely not making excuses and I'm absolutely NOT being too hard on myself. I've reviewed the aspects that went wrong, I've evaluated them, dismissed what I couldn't have affected and hopefully learned from my mistakes.

Blame is good but only when it is accompanied by learning and then most importantly executing solutions. Good sleep in the days leading up to the race I could have ensured and channeling the anger in the race positively rather than negatively may have made me faster but it certainly would have led to a more enjoyable experience.

I'm looking forward to next year's race already and be warned I'm gonna ride with a mini video camera for all you CHEATING BASTARDS.

Disclaimer: - I'd like to apologise to anyone that was drafting that I have NOT offended. It was not my intent to be politically correct, increase readers to this blog or make any any new friends with anyone that thinks cheating is justified. I just thought it imortant to make that clear and to hopefully upset the last few thick-skinned drafting cheats that may have read this far without being thoroughy upset with me.

PS Be upset with yourselves and do us all a favour go do another sport.

PSS The facial growth is only temporary and is in conjunction with Movember (Google it if you don't know what Movember is).

Miri Olympic Distance Triathlon

2011-11-11T13:54:00.001+08:00

Having had a good night's sleep I was quite optimistic about the race but still not believing my run was going to amount to much. My bike is always sorted and the work I've been putting into the swim is paying dividends no only in time but confidence too. If you know you're getting better then you're inclined to push more. This is certainly the case for me anyway.

The swim looked like it would be quite short, two loops and the sea was fairly calm again. I came out for the beach turnaround with Stephanie Chok. She's always been one of my swimming heroes so you can image how stoked I was about that. I came out after the second lap with Steve Lumley again, spooky! Again the long run to transition and we were off on my favourite leg, the bike, my territory.

I picked up another strong rider fairly early on and we set off in pursuit of the packs. I was looking in particular for Razani and the Czech guy who beat me last year. Slowly but surely we collected riders although few did much work. Then at about 10-13k we came up to the target pack.

I knew exactly how it was going to pan out and I knew the drill. No point in me nailing myself to the wall here as there was only myself, Razani and the guy that came with me capable of pushing the pace so I forced myself to hang back and wait for an opportunity. I can't tell you what willpower that takes. At the 20k turnaround we saw a massive pack with Wong At Thiam and Shahrom steaming along like a high speed train and probably catching us at a rapid rate. Every time the Czech guy found himself at the front he actually used his brakes, haha, I made sure I was behind him ready to pounce but as he braked so did I. An even bigger HAHA.

It was madness, we'd be around 45-50kph and then when he was at the front he'd brake and we'd be down to 26-27kph in 30m. I didn't care, I knew I wasn't going to be able to drop the pack unless the dynamics changed. And then it happened, there was a flash of green and one of Malaysia's national junior riders whizzed past. He was doing the relay and with fresh legs looked awesome. So I did the only thing that made sense, I let him go...going...going...oh my goodness...can I wait any longer...and then BOOM, I chased him down with the hope that I hadn't let the gap get too big and that I could drop the rest of the pack.

NOW I was nailing myself against the wall, big time. It was a huge effort, I'd hoped we'd got away but alas the pack was just about hanging on my wheel...or were they? A 30 strong pack was now about 10 and the Czech guy was blown out the back. Credit to Razani, he's hard as nails and no doubt anticipated the break, he was still there looking as strong as ever.

My work was done so I did my share of the work (or maybe a little less, certainly not more). I hung on up the hill, had a fabulously fast decent and created a decent gap between me and Razani going into T2.

A quick transition and I was off, no time to find running legs I needed to get away quick and try to win this from the front. Haha, who was I kidding, after about 2k I heard the inevitable quick stride of my rival closing in on me fast. He cruised by me and eased ahead. I didn't panic, I knew I was running well and I knew there was a lot of running left in this race. I felt that trying to stay on his shoulder would have been suicidal and intuitively I felt that running within myself, at least for now, was the answer.

He was about 50m ahead at the 2.5k turnaround. My next worry was where were the Czech guy, Steve Lumley, Rob Harries (not to forget Tony Harvey and Don Khor, not my age-group but I didn't want them chirping at me after the race. haha). Everyone was in check and I was having a ball, I haven't run so smoothly for probably 18 months. I was keen to encourage everyone else on, I just love the camaraderie in triathlon, the fact that yes we're racing each other but all suffering together too, brothers-in-arms so to speak. Cheering the others guys coming the other way also took my mind off the pain and seemed to help me gain energy too. Not only that but Razani heard me and started looking behind. Now I was 40m behind him, then 30m, then 20m, blimey I thought I'd better make a pass and make it stick.

I felt brilliant, I didn't surge but just kept the pace going. No need for silliness just yet there was still another lap to do and about 7k to mop up. I didn't look behind and kept cheering all the other guys and girls. Through T2 again, systems all still feeling brilliant.

This was a test race for Phuket 70.3 in a few weeks and the training plan said to take it easy. I wasn't about to give up on this race but I did promise myself an easy last k if I had a lead. As it happened no one was in sight and I literally jogged the last k and won by 3 minutes.

My time was a 2:01:54 which is credible but not forgetting that the swim was short.

A super weekends racing. In the end I won my age-group (RM1500) and even came in 3rd overall (RM300) a nice additional USD600, shared between the wife, Sid & Seb and the maids that leaves me with...nothing and an hotel bill to pay. Haha.

Finally I can't leave without mentioning that both the Sprint yesterday and the OD race today were both won outright by a girl! Radka Vodickova, she's a Czech pro and flipping awesome. I'm not even the slightest bit embarrassed about being chicked by her, she's amazing and a lovely person too. Very humble and amazingly fast.

Miri Sprint Distance Triathlon 2011

2011-11-11T13:53:00.001+08:00

As always Miri hosted a fabulous weekend of Triathlons. The atmosphere was brilliant and I got to meet many old friends again and make many new ones.

I turned up not expecting much, my fitness has been slowly improving but I felt a long way from my best and am still 7-10kg over race weight and seemingly unable to drop any despite regular 20 hour training weeks.

I met my buddy Razani who has been dominating Triathlons in the region for probably the last 20 years. He's my age and consequently has been someone I've looked up to and respected ever since I entered the sport. I shared with him my lack of race readiness which was probably a mistake considering the outcome, I wouldn't blame him for thinking I was talking BS and playing games with him (I wasn't, honestly).

So to the races. Saturday was the Sprint distance, 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run. I have been working quite hard on my swim, it's still rubbish but less rubbish which is especially important in a drafting race format like this. The gun went and the waves weren't really a factor unlike last year. I felt I had a great swim and was very pleased to come out with Steve Lumley.

A long run up the beach, through the hotel grounds and onto Gladys, my trusty stead. Within a couple of k we'd caught a few riders and in particular Razani. I assumed that he'd be faster on the run so conspired with Steve to try to drop him on the steep hill about 3k into the race...shhhh..."OK Steve, let's go, GO GO GO..." I got 3/4 of the way up the hill and saw someone hanging on to my back wheel. It must be Steve I thought but checked anyway. Ooooooooo Nooooooo it was Razani. We'd dropped everyone else by miles.

I instantly backed off and dropped behind him. I needed to do something and fast, he was blowing hard but the top of the hill was coming so I knew my window of opportunity was small. I slipped Gladys into the big chain ring (loving my Di2, changing gears like that on a hill is a dream). Paused a couple more seconds and then BANG, I sprinted to the top of the hill, across the flat top and then accelerated down before looking behind. I even impressed myself with the gap I'd created, I was free.

Now all I had to do is stay ahead of the pack that was invariably reforming behind me. At the turnaround I caught Barrie Lee and another guy. I took one look at them and knew they weren't going to be able to help. I towed them all the way back to the hill and then the buggers dropped me haha. I caught them again before transition but then big respect to them they just ran away from me.

The run didn't feel good to start with, I felt sluggish and lumpy. After about 500m all was good and I was into my stride.

At the turnaround I saw that I was 5th overall and first in the over 40s category. I was far enough ahead of Razani to ensure the win provided I didn't break down or fall over.

Job done, pleased that the new boy Steve didn't kick my butt and as surprised as much as pleased with the outcome. Tomorrow however is the real race.

The spoils for the win was RM500 (USD165), sweet, that's the flight paid for.

Total time 1:01:06

It's a Man's World

2011-11-09T16:58:00.001+08:00

(Courtesy of John Preston)

A woman was out golfing one day when she hit the ball deep into the woods.

She went to look for it and found a frog in a trap.

The frog said to her, "If you release me from this trap, I will grant you three wishes."

The woman freed the frog, and the frog said, "Thank you, but I failed to mention that there was a condition to your wishes.

Whatever you wish for, your husband will get times ten!"

The woman said, "That's okay."

For her first wish, she wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the world.

The frog warned her, "You do realize that this wish will also make your husband the most handsome man in the world, a real Adonis whom women will tend to flock to".

The woman replied, "That's okay, because I will be the most beautiful woman and he will have eyes only for me."

So, KAZAM!!! - she's the most beautiful woman in the world!

For her second wish, she wanted to be the richest woman in the world.

The frog said, "That will make your husband by far the richest man in the world. Plus he will be ten times richer than you."

The woman said, "That's okay, because what's mine is his and what's his is mine."

So, KAZAM!!! - she's the richest woman in the world!

The frog then inquired about her third wish, and she answered, "I'd like a mild heart attack."

Moral of the story: Women are too clever. Men, don't mess with them.

Attention female readers: This is the end of the joke for you. Stop here and simply enjoy the good feeling.

Male readers: Please scroll down.
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The man had a heart attack ten times milder than his wife...

LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It

2011-11-03T18:05:00.001+08:00

(Courtesy of Frances Proc)This is soooo funny.

Impressive (I hate him)

2011-11-03T17:48:00.001+08:00

(Courtesy of John Preston)

About Steve Lumley

2011-11-01T18:16:00.001+08:00

Simon says: -

I had the pleasure of meeting Steve a few months ago in Kuala Lumpur, he has become a firm friend whose training advice I embrace and value highly. I firmly believe that anyone who has the desire and drive to improve their athletic performance with the aid of a coach need look no further than Steve.

I have added an overview of Steve's background below, not because he asked me to, quite the contrary, I asked him. In my experience, Steve is unassuming, humble and highly knowledgeable, by spending ten minutes chatting to him about what he can do for you, an immediate trust and confidence will likely be established.

Of course I might be wrong, so engage him in a conversation (he's very approachable) and make up your own mind

Steve's website can be found at http://www.steve-lumley.com

Steve has been a triathlete since 1989, an ‘Ironman’ since 1991 and a coach since 1994 during which time he has coached national youth, junior, student, elite and age group medal winners. He is the UK’s most experienced and knowledgeable ‘Ironman’ triathlon coach having competed in 32 outings over the distance himself (with four trips to Hawaii) and coached athletes to over 300 IM finishes, ranging from novice to elite and including several Hawaii world championship qualifications.

Steve was the University of Birmingham’s Triathlon Head Coach from 2000 to 2011. In this time he has overseen huge growth in the club and sustained success in the British University and College Sport (BUCS) Championships, helping Birmingham reach 2nd in the BUCS rankings in 2010-11. Recognised by the University as Coach of the Year in 2005, Steve has shown that he is equally adept at turning complete beginners into triathlon regulars or helping talented athletes reach their potential and light up the world stage as he has with the likes of GBR athletes Jodie Stimpson and Non Stanford.

Steve’s set up a regional ‘World Class’ talent ID and development programme and satellite centre in the Midlands in 2001, helping to establish elite, youth, junior, and student athletes, many of whom have made national team selection. He has a focus on athletes’ long term development pathways. This ethos of long-term athlete development and understanding that the successful coaching of athletes is based on building lasting relationships, hard work and attention to detail has been the reason for Steve’s considerable success over his career to date.

After more than two decades of competing and coaching in triathlon Steve has recently left the UK to put down new roots in Malaysia. Steve travels to South East Asia hoping to replicate his considerable success in developing and improving both age group and elite triathletes. The triathlon community in South East Asia is still very much in its infancy presenting Steve an opportunity to bring his talent for athlete development to a new and enthusiastic market. Steve’s portfolio will continue to include individual coaching and warm weather training camps in Majorca and Asia.Please feel free to contact Steve at tricoach.lum@gmail.com

My 10 cents worth!

2011-11-01T16:57:00.012+08:00

Simon says: -
I saw this quote by Chrissie Wellington on Twitter a few days ago. What she says is nothing new to me nor many others I suspect. I've been saying it for years but it's nice to know that someone so gifted suffers too, indeed she reaffirms that suffering is an essential part of success.

I had a great couple of races this past weekend (write-ups to come), I didn't expect much as my training has been rubbish, especially my long runs - I've been suffering with no apparent benefits.

BUT... As it turned out I didn't suffer in either of the races, I won my age-group in both of them and had two of the easiest and fastest runs of my life. It just goes to show that not only can tough and frustrating training days really help you deal with tough phases of a race but they can also deliver you the perfect day (and even eliminate any tough periods)!

Suffer on friends - it's all worth it. If you do it often enough, consistently enough then there is only one inevitable result - SUCCESS. (And this holds true for every aspect of life not just sports!)

“It’s important to hurt in training and to learn to suffer a bit. Embrace fatigue and pain—welcome it and develop strategies to embrace it. If it doesn’t hurt, you’re not working hard enough. You’re not always going to have easy days in training—you’re going to be frustrated and have a bad day and it’s important to learn to endure those in training. When you experience it in a race, you’ve already encountered it and can have that peace of mind.”
~ Chrissie Wellington

SWIM, BIKE, RUN ..... IN PARADISE

2011-10-21T18:36:00.003+08:00

Challenge Cairns is the latest international event added to the Challenge Family of global iron distance events. Set in Cairns, Australia's gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, Challenge Cairns will take place on Sunday, 3rd June 2012.

The course features a memorable 3.8km swim in the warm waters off Cairns, a 180km bike leg that travels up arguably the most scenic coastal roads in Australia towards Port Douglas and a 42.3km run that finishes in the heart of Cairns.

Register for the full distance event by 31st December 2011 and you will be in the running to win the "Challenge Cairns Great Reward" for you & 3 of your friends worth RM 60,000 !

Tourism Queensland has tied-up with Qantas Holidays to offer a package to Cairns from S$1,399 per person, ex-Singapore. For more information, visit www.queensland.com.sg.

"Challenge Cairns was one of the highlights for me and my family this year. It's just such a spectacular place and race. One of the lasting memories was the Reef trip I got to experience with my daughter - breathtaking. " Chris McCormack, World Ironman Champion, Challenge Cairns 2011 winner.

Simon says: -A group of Malaysians made the journey to Cairns for the race last year and spoke very highly of it as a race and as a holiday destination not to mention the organisers being very athlete focused (rather than Ironman being very dollar focused).

The organisers have suggested that any Malaysians going might consider using their package via Singapore if it makes financial sense, so I have attached their flyer.

This is certainly a race I will do one year soon but I've already signed up for Challenge Roth and Melbourne Ironman for 2012 so maybe 2013?

So long Mad Dog - I'd like to say it was fun (but I can't)

2011-10-21T15:49:00.000+08:00

One of the last "Mad Dogs" of the world of dictators left us today. I can't say that I'm "happy" that he was killed but I have to be honest and say I'm not sad either.

The list of Mad Men dictating their whims and fancies to their suppressed, indoctrinated or simply ignorant people has diminished in recent times but sadly at the cost of tens if not hundreds of thousands of people.

Remove the dictators of North Korea, Syria and the collective Mad Men of Iran next please.

On a lighter note: In looking at the YouTube updates I came across this amusing snippet - the thing that made me chuckle the most is that Mad Dog Gaddafi came across as being saner than Charlie Sheen - Enjoy.

Armstrong on XTERRA

2011-10-19T11:01:00.004+08:00

(Courtesy of www.slowtwitch.com)

The 7-time Tour de France champion is back where he started. Triathlon. Well, almost back where he started. Now it's off-road triathlon for him. After debuting in this iteration of triathlon with a 5th place finish at XTERRA Nationals in Ogden, Utah last month, he's expected to queue up to the start in Maui this weekend for XTERRA Worlds.

Because Lance is not coming to swimming and running late in life—as was the case with Udo Bolts, Laurent Jalabert and other retired cycling standouts who moved to triathlon—he's not thinking age-group or survival. He's been in a tear in the pool, swimming sets with the likes of former pro triathlete and standout swimmer Rip Esselstyn, as he reengages with his root sport.

Lance has been working behind the scenes on a project of particular import to Slowtwitch: bicycle safety legislation. He took a few moments to talk to us about the upcoming race in Maui, and about bicycle safety.

SLOWTWITCH: When was the last time you had this much enthusiasm for training and racing? Were you this eager in your Tour de France comeback? Or, is this better?

LANCE ARMSTRONG: They are very different. Coming back to the Tour was a lot of pressure. Even if I tried to ignore it, it was there in spades. That inevitably leads to having less fun. And I came back to a sport that had become bitter and toxic in a sense. Everyone pointing fingers and trying to cover their rears all at the same time. It was a total free-for-all, and the cycling media—if we can call them media—just fed on the fuel. I'm glad it's behind me.

Coming back to tri, even sporadically, has been fun. It's what I feel like doing for now, so we'll see how it goes. And honestly, the best part for me is the training and the sense of satisfaction I get from that. I'm 40, I'm busy, I have 5 kids, and a foundation to lead, as well as business ventures, travel and so forth. But I still love getting out there and breaking a sweat. It's cheap therapy, if you know what I mean. Wait, yes you do know what I mean. We all know what I mean.

SLOWTWITCH: What's your strongest event now, relative to the other XTERRA racers you'll face? That might seem a joke question to our readers, but, I'm wondering whether your swim finish place in this race might be on a par with where you'll slot in during the MTB leg?

LANCE ARMSTRONG: Good question. I learned a lot in Ogden and have made some adjustments to my training. I secretly knew my bike leg would suffer in Utah. Too much travel, not enough time spent at altitude, and not enough intensity in my training. I have tried—and tried is the operative word—to correct this. I feel better—stronger—and I'll leave it at that.

This is why you should wear a helmet

2011-10-13T12:17:00.000+08:00

(Courtesy of Chris Wayman and many others and www.grindtv.com)

It does make you think that this wasn't an accident though. Maybe you should wear a helmet and stop eating antelope? Haha

The bump on BryBaby's Head - The real Story

2011-10-11T12:24:00.000+08:00

There is a rumour going around that Bryan Payne passed out while having a pee and banged his head. Fortunately I can expose the truth and dispel the smoke screen being laid down (probably by Bryan himself), I have exclusive video footage of what actually happened. ENJOY!

Chrissie Wellington wins fourth Ironman world title

2011-10-11T11:44:00.000+08:00

(Courtesy of the BBC)

Chrissie Wellington made a winning return to the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.

The Colorado-based Briton lifted her fourth title in a time of eight hours, 55 minutes and eight seconds, to beat Mirinda Carfrae and GB's Leanda Cave.

The 34-year-old from Feltwell, Norfolk suffered heavy bruising in a training accident, preparing for the race.

"It's the hardest-fought victory of my career and definitely the one I'm most proud of," she told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"The grazes on my leg and elbow were the least of my worries, the internal bruising to my upper chest and hip caused the most pain.

"That's why I feel so proud. The mind is an amazing thing. The body may scream in agony but you can overcome that."

World record holder Wellington, unbeaten over the 140-mile distance - which comprise a 2.4 mile swim, 112-mile cycle and full marathon - finished just under three minutes ahead of Australia's reigning champion Carfrae in Kona.

"I'd have preferred a bigger cushion," she said. "But it was a true race. Normally, I lead from the front but I had to dig to the very depths of myself emotionally and physically.

"I came off the bike in sixth and had to run my way to victory, so it was a very different event this year, a phenomenal race."

Wellington, who missed the event in 2010 due to illness, was particularly pleased to claim back her title.

"To be crowned four-times world champion means everything," she said. "I'm so proud to hold that title and wear that crown.

"To be the figurehead and representative of our amazing sport is a dream come true," she added.

Fellow Britons Cave and Rachel Joyce finished third and fourth respectively, making it the nation's best-ever World Championships.

In the men's race, Australia's 2008 and 2009 champion Craig Alexander secured a third title with fellow Australian Pete Jacobs second and Germany's Andreas Raelert third.

In September, GB's Alistair Brownlee was crowned tritahlon world champion after pipping his brother Jonathan in the season-ending Grand Final in Beijing.

New Garmin 910XT - looks promising

2011-10-07T17:51:00.003+08:00

Mmm, me thinks I have one of those.

Here's a really really great review of the new Garmin 910XT at DC Rainmaker

Offended? - well deal with it!

2011-10-06T14:31:00.001+08:00

(Courtesy of Allan Malcolm)

I wrote a sarcastic email recently rebuking a friend of a friend for sending me a generic mass email trying to drum up business. It purported to be a personal follow up but he doesn't know me from a bar of soap and it contained a couple of white lies. This is the second time I've asked him to take me off his mailing list. I was annoyed but had the foresight to run it past my business partner first in case I offended anyone.This isn't too rude is it?" I asked"Not for you!" he replied!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Oops, that told me, I sent it anyway hahaThe I saw this clip today, ha!

LG Advertising - WOW, pretty amazing

2011-10-04T15:18:00.000+08:00

(Courtesy of Ian Hay)

Chrissie Wellington takes a tumble 10 days before Kona

2011-09-30T18:17:00.001+08:00

Simon says: -

As far as I understand it, Chrissie got a flat front tyre as she was cornering and the rest I'll leave to your imagination and the pictures. She says she'll be racing which is great news and showing her true British Dunkirk Spirit. Looks like she won't be doing much swimming in the build up though.

My money is still on her cleaning up in emphatic style. One might say that she's a real good sport, leveling the playing field and giving the other girls a chance. On the other hand how humiliated will they be when she nukes them days after a bike crash?

She's an awesome lady whichever way you look at it - Go Chrissie Go

World Road Cycling: Mark Cavendish and Britain win road race title

2011-09-28T15:03:00.000+08:00

(Courtesy of the BBC)

Mark Cavendish has become Britain's first male world road race champion for 46 years as his team rode a near-perfect race in Denmark.

The eight-man GB line-up ignored all breakaways to control the peloton over the 266km course, delivering Cavendish to the finish in ideal fashion.Cavendish exploded across the line in a bunch sprint, ahead of Australia's Matt Goss and German Andre Greipel.

"It was incredible, we took it on from start to finish," said Cavendish.

"I can't believe it. We knew three years ago when this course was announced - we put a plan together to put these best guys together.

"It's been three years in the making and you just saw they rode incredibly. I'm just so proud.

"The biggest goal next year [is the Olympics] and I hope we can make it a world and Olympic double."

The 26-year-old's victory is the first world road race success for a British man since Tom Simpson won gold in 1965.

Cavendish is also the first rider since Belgium's Freddy Maertens, 30 years ago, to win both this race and the Tour de France green jersey in the same year.

His team, guided strategically by David Millar in the absence of radio communication, spent much of the race playing a restrained waiting game as all kinds of attacks developed around them.

An early seven-man break settled into an advantage of around seven minutes around the flat Copenhagen course in the opening 100km, with Britain, chiefly Chris Froome, leading the chasing bunch.

Belgium's Johan van Summeren led a separate five-man group clear of the peloton at the 150km mark as the race kicked to life earlier than many had expected.

A crash in a narrow portion of the course involving France's Blel Kadri caused further havoc, leaving some 20 riders - among them Frank Schleck and defending world champion Thor Hushovd - temporarily trapped as service cars and mechanics struggled to reach them.

As the race progressed at a fierce pace, Britain's tactics became clear: a reluctance to get riders into the moves being made off the fractured front of the group, in favour of an ambition to control proceedings throughout.

Few other nations saw fit to help their watching brief, and GB found themselves policing the peloton - hauling it forward and keeping it together - for almost the entire race.

The breakaway evaporated inside two laps from the finish while Froome, Steve Cummings and Jeremy Hunt fell away from the British train after expending vast sums of energy earlier in the race.

Bradley Wiggins, the world time trial silver medallist earlier this week, produced a superb stint at the front before handing to Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas for the very closing stages.

Thomas threw a panicked look behind him as Cavendish looked in danger of becoming boxed-in as they reached the finishing straight.But the Manxman accelerated away in trademark style on the right-hand edge of the pack to secure victory.

"At the start of the season I said I had two goals: the green jersey and the rainbow stripes," said Cavendish. "Now I get to wear the rainbow bands for the next year.

"The team all rode out of their skins today. It's a shame they can't wear the world champion's jersey as well. I've won the jersey, but I just put the finishing touches to the mission."The Olympics is different, because you've only got five riders and the course next year will be more difficult than here."But I'm going to prepare as best as I can for it."

USA Reform Bill - FUNNY but some good suggestions

2011-09-27T18:51:00.002+08:00

(Courtesy of Nick Flynn)

How to Qualify for Kona – A Plan for the "Realist"

2011-09-23T19:10:00.003+08:00

(by Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science) courtesy of www.endurancecorner.com via http://www.urban-ninja.co.za/)

Last week I talked about the different improvement curves that I’ve observed for different types of athletes. I identified three basic athlete types: the natural, the realist and the worker.

As part of our new “How to Qualify for Kona” section that recently kicked off, I’m going to put some of those observations into the context of what it means to different types of athletes looking to qualify for Kona.

In a previous article for the Training Peaks site I conveyed some of the typical chronic training load ranges that I tend to see for athletes of different types and ability levels. The table from that article is reproduced below.

The times that qualify an athlete for Kona are getting faster by the year. The 2010 ranges for flat (Florida, Arizona, Brazil) and hilly courses (Lake Placid, CdA, St. George) for differing age-groups and genders is shown below.

So, comparing the two tables, if you’re a young(ish) male, you’ll likely need the fitness level represented by a VO2max/VO2 score of 60-67ml/kg/min* corresponding to a Chronic Training Load somewhere in the 75-150 TSS/d range. If you’re a young(ish) female, you’ll need the fitness level represented by a VO2max/score of 57-60 ml/kg/min* corresponding to a CTL somewhere in the 70-130 range.

*I am using VO2max here as a general indicator of fitness here, but in reality the components of ironman fitness necessary to qualify are more complex and multi-faceted. I elaborate on some of these factors here.

As I conceded in the training load piece, these are some pretty big ranges! In hours per week terms, we could be talking about an average training week as low as 10 hours or as high as 25 hours per week! This is where last week’s article on different athlete types comes in. There will be a fortunate 15% who can sign up for one of those “Get to Kona on 10 hours a week” plans and actually get to Kona on 10 hours a week! If you’re one of those athletes, you can close your browser; this piece isn’t for you. But for the vast majority of us, Kona level fitness is going to be take more – a lot more! If we convert these CTL numbers to hours: a chronic load of 18-20 hours week of easy-steady training for five or more months prior to the event.

Think about this, two-and-a-half to three hours a day of training, eight to 10 hours of work/commute, eight to 10 hours of (necessary) sleep, eating, bathing, etc., is going to lead to five or more months of very structured living and not doing much else. It is no coincidence that those who qualify typically have atypical work or family situations. Kona qualifiers have different fitness levels to the rest of us generally because they have different lives to the rest of us.

According to VO2max data from the Cooper institute, Kona qualifiers are in the top 0.5%-.0025% of the population when it comes to fitness. In other words, if you’re a young (college age guy) and we randomly sampled 200 folks from your dorm, you would consistently be the fittest. Taking this a little further, if you’re a 40-something guy living in a pretty good-sized town of 40,000 people, you’re the fittest guy in town! This kind of stat doesn’t happen without living a little differently to those 39,999 folks who have more “normal” fitness.

Faced with such stats, it is tempting to pull the genetics card, but based on what I’ve seen, genetics isn’t the limiter, at least when it comes to getting to Kona level fitness. The vast majority of folks respond to training load quite similarly and most of us have the potential to reach a very high level of fitness. As I suggested in the previous article on athletic types, for 70% of folks, if they do the work, Kona is within reach but setting up your life to do the work is another matter and for many it is far easier to attribute the limiter to genetics than to make the required change.

Merely setting up your life to have the space to fit in five months’ worth of 18 to 20 hour weeks of training in your Kona build isn’t enough. The realist knows that even with the life space to fit the training and sufficient attention given to recovery, you can’t just get up off the couch and throw down one 18 to 20 hour training week after another. You also need a fitness “base” to pull this off. So you’ll want to factor in a period of preparatory “training to train” weeks, progressively building up the fitness to tolerate the back to back big weeks that will comprise your Kona build.

Based on my experience, most folks coming in from normal active fitness levels are going to need to both be generally fresh and healthy (that is, come into the hard training unloaded), and have a base fitness of five to six months of preparatory training in the 12 to 15 hour range to tolerate those 18 to 20 hour weeks of your “get to Kona” push. If you’re coming from below normal fitness (less than 45 VO2) you’ll probably need another five to six months of preparatory “get in shape” work before even beginning the “train to train” period.

Additionally, we both know that your chances of putting together 20 or more back to back weeks in the 18 to 20 hour range without recovery isn’t good. You’re going to get tired and need some recovery weeks sprinkled in to your Kona build. In fact, if you manage a ratio of 3:1 loading to recovery weeks in the context of a 9-5 job and family life without getting sick or injured you’ll be doing very well! So that five months of specific training, more realistically becomes six or seven months.

Adding it all up, the realist should be planning for:

Six to 12 months of uninterrupted, consistent “basic training” to get ready to train for the event.
Six to seven months of focused “specific training” directed specifically towards your (first) Kona push.

This is harder than it sounds. Think about how many ways life can get in the way over a 12 to 18 month period…

You start a new job/your work commitments increase beyond the 9-5.
You start a relationship/end a relationship/have relationship issues
Your family commitments increase
You get sick/a family member gets sick.
You get injured.
You move
You go on vacation
You race too frequently (and have too much time for each devoted to taper and recovery)
You/your significant other plans a home improvement project!

It only takes two weeks of disrupted training (or disrupted recovery) to lose a significant amount of fitness. Any of the above could lead to that. Any more than one of these interruptions over the course of a six month period and maintaining fitness will be a best case scenario. The realist doesn’t fight this, is aware of a certain level of unpredictability in life and is committed to “as long as it takes.”
That said, the realist is also going to be inherently aware of the consequences of inconsistency and is going to control the controllable and whatever they can to avoid the above and put together at least a couple of relatively uninterrupted seasons where their training load is limited by their level of fitness not by life circumstance. Gordo wrote about some of the proactive ways to enhance life stability in the intro article to the "How to Qualify" section.

Also, the realist is going to realize that there are no guarantees. While a VO2max of 60-67, a threshold of 85% and metabolic fitness of 4-5kcal/fat/min are all likely going to be necessary to qualify, they are not in themselves sufficient. You need both the fitness and a good day on an appropriate course to pull it off. In other words, you may need to put together more than one of these builds before high fitness and a good day coincide!

In my way of thinking, it is the combination of these factors (physiological, life and race) necessary for ironman success that make up the beauty of ironman racing. We’ll go into some of these additional factors that maximize your chances of qualifying in coming articles.

Until then…

Simon says: -
An interesting read for us aspiring Kona qualifiers. Takes a lot doesn't it?

Talking Australian Clock'

2011-09-23T15:36:00.000+08:00

(Courtesy of Ian Hay)

Proudly showing off his newly-leased downtown apartment to a couple of friends late one night, a drunk Manuel led the way to his bedroom where there was a big brass gong hanging on the wall.

'What's that big brass gong for?' one of the friends asked.

'Issss nod a gong. Issss a talking Australian clock' Manuel replied drunkenly.

'A talking Australian clock - seriously?'

'Yup.' 'Hmmm (hic).

'How's it work?' the second friend asked, squinting at it.

'Just watch' he said.

He picked up a hammer, gave the gong an 'ear-shattering bash' and stepped back.

His two mates stood looking at one another for a moment in astounded silence.

Suddenly, an Australian voice from the other side of the wall screamed, 'For f*#k's sake, you stupid pri*#. It's ten past three in the f*#king morning!!!'

Felonious Munk Presents: Stop It B! OBAMA PAY YOUR &*%$#% BILLS

2011-09-20T17:47:00.001+08:00

(Courtesy of Ian Hay)

Simon says: - oh yeah baby! Say it the way it is.

A glorious weekend in Beijing

2011-09-20T16:43:00.002+08:00

(Courtesy of the BBC online)

A glorious weekend in Beijing has ensured Britain enters its home Olympic Games with both the male and female world champion triathletes.

The news gets better. Not only do Alistair Brownlee and Helen Jenkins now hold the world titles, Alistair's younger brother, Jonny, came second in the men's event.

Meanwhile, Britain's U23 men raced to a one-two-three as the 2011 season reached its climax at the sport's grand final in China.

But for the unwitting intervention of a stray dog, the team's results could have been yet more impressive.

When I ask the man in charge of Britain's triathletes why his team have become such a dominant force, it transpires the stray dog is an analogy for the entire sport.

"The Olympics are 11 months away and we're in a strong position," says Malcolm Brown, British Triathlon's Olympic performance manager, who is in China with his victorious squad as they celebrate.

"But think of it like this. Lucy Hall, one of our junior women, was leading her race here when a dog ran into her path and knocked her off her bike.

"The life of an athlete is full of stray dogs and you have to know how to deal with them when - and if - you see them."

Two world champions and a conveyor belt of younger talent implies those metaphorical dogs are safely on the leash for now.

Brown boils Britain's success down to three things: triathletes using their brains on the course, the governing body using its brain off it, and ensuring that developing athletes get the right coaching at the right time.

He has form with the latter. In 2002, the former endurance running coach for UK Athletics was dabbling in a little part-time coaching at the track when a father turned up with his two teenage sons.
As Brown remembers it, the man pointed to the taller boy and said: "This one is a good cross-country racer but after 200m he's always at the back. Can you make him faster?"

Gesturing to the shorter boy, the man added: "Don't worry about him. He's a footballer."
Alistair Brownlee would have been around 14, and Jonny two years younger. Brown enlisted the help of his colleague and triathlon coach Jack Maitland and, over the next decade, the pair not only made Alistair a bit quicker, they turned Jonny's head from football (if not Football Manager) and transformed them into the two finest male triathletes on the planet.

Brown looked at running and conditioning for the brothers while Maitland, who won the Everest Marathon in 1999 and remains the only non-Nepalese man in the list of its fastest times, concentrated on swimming and cycling. With time, the pair added physios, strength and conditioning coaches and so forth to reach the current staff of seven or eight, including a full-time manager, who prepare the Brownlees for races.

This is important because the Brownlees, alongside Jenkins, have set a precedent which has become the template for Britain's top triathletes.

Rather than basing themselves in a single centralised venue, like British Cycling's Manchester velodrome, the very best British triathletes are allowed to form their own staff and training bases. The Brownlees use Yorkshire and Jenkins uses Bridgend.

Triathletes in the UK earn the right to do that by finishing in the world's top eight, establishing themselves as a "podium athlete". But the system is flexible and, if athletes outside the top eight are prepared to accept a funding cut, they too are allowed to opt out of the sport's centralised programme. The likes of Tim Don and Will Clarke have done this and are known as "affiliate athletes", who can train elsewhere but still use British Triathlon's facilities as they see fit.

This leaves the centralised portion of British Triathlon - based in four centres, primarily Loughborough - free to focus on nurturing younger talent. A team of coaches with visiting specialists helps to prepare the next generation, such as the trio of U23 men who swept the Beijing podium, to follow in the footsteps of the Brownlees and Jenkins.

Matt Sharp, for example, overcame several years of injury trouble with the Loughborough centre's help, particularly its medical and sports science capabilities. He is now the newly crowned U23 world champion after leading home team-mates David McNamee and Tom Bishop in Beijing.

Yet with serious money to be made for high-profile senior triathlon victories, if Sharp goes on to establish himself in the world's top eight he may look to follow the Brownlees and strike out away from Loughborough. It is not a perfect system and some triathletes believe they have been unfairly treated by it, but it is more fluid than many others and seems to work for the sport.

"If you take the Brownlees, they're born and bred in Yorkshire, went to Bradford Grammar, used to cycle to school along the towpath, do cross-country at school, and swim at Leeds swimming club in the morning," says Brown.

"That whole environment has supported them. They've got great running trails there, an excellent physio, good coaching and good education opportunities in the city - they're both Leeds and Leeds Met university graduates.

"If you say to them: 'Right, now we want you to move to some central venue,' the amount they have to give up - which makes them happy where they are - is huge. It's a huge risk. Why would you take that risk?

"The success of Helen and the two Brownlees enabled British Triathlon to feel confident that they could invest in and around talented athletes training with high-quality coaches in different places. You need individual arrangements for individual athletes within an overall framework of support, direction and stability."

That support gets the athlete to the race. Then, during the event, intelligence becomes the ultimate cog in the machine.

Brown sees triathlon as the most complicated of sports and wants athletes capable of thinking for themselves during the race, because making the correct decisions in the heat of the moment accounts for a large degree of the difference between, say, the Brownlees and the rest.

"Triathlon demands a substantial number of judgement calls: whether to follow a bike break or not, who are those guys up the road, will I go alone or will people come with me? In the run, what are my strengths and weaknesses and what do my rivals think they are? A lot of it is knowing yourself as an athlete," he says.

"If you're trying to create a world or Olympic champion, you have to create an environment where the individual athlete weighs up the circumstances, makes calls, and more often than not gets them right. That is what we have tried to do, and you can only do that by seeing them fail occasionally, or stepping back as a coach when you could provide the answer. It comes down to trusting the athlete."

Triathlon in Britain is healthy at all levels. Beyond the Olympics, Chrissie Wellington has become a legend of the sport with back-to-back-to-back world titles over the punishing Ironman distance.

Amateur membership in the UK has more than doubled in five years, the sport's own figures show, with race starts - numbers taking part in recognised races - up 10% in the last year alone to more than 130,000.

Brown, however, is not convinced this increased pool from which to draw can only mean more British success in future.

"The sport's burgeoning internationally," he counters. "The Germans have got a great set of juniors at the moment on the men's side, while the Aussies have some fantastic female athletes.

"We really have to raise our game. But we've got a platform to do that. If we can keep stray dogs off the path, we'll be OK."

Too old to run, think again, just don't tell the wife!

2011-09-14T15:56:00.000+08:00

(Courtesy of Marathon Talk and Mail Online)

A 90-year-old man who has been sneaking out and running half-marathons has been caught out - after a neighbour told his wife they'd seen him on TV.

Wilf Cooper has secretly raced in six events - after telling wife Sylvia he was just going to stand on the sidelines.

Mr Cooper has run half-marathons throughout most of his 80s - and is still planning one final race, even though his wife has learned his secret.

The former Special Boat Service man was 83 when he ran his first half-marathon.After telling Sylvia, his wife of 67 years, that he was going along to help as a steward, he laced up his trainers and completed the race in a respectable three hours, 11 minutes and 36 seconds - and hasn't rested on his laurels yet.

But Mrs Cooper, who also celebrates her 90th birthday later this year, learned of her husband's double life after a neighbour tipped her off.

She said: 'He told me he was going along to put up barriers and help with the race.'I only found out he ran it because the neighbour told me they'd seen him on the television. He was in the doghouse that day, I can tell you.'

Mr Cooper once sneaked out to race even after dislocating his shoulder and breaking his ribs in a fall on the stairs.His wife added: 'I do worry about him. He had a heart attack about 20 years ago - but it doesn't stop him.'

Mr Cooper, from Lockleaze, Bristol, said: 'I always like the feeling you get from exercise. I stay fit to stay healthy. I've got a static bike and a rowing machine and a few weights.'I also go up and down the stairs 10 times and I do that three times a day.

'I like to run for a local charity, St Peter's Hospice, because I had a friend that had cancer who received a great deal of care from them.'I raised £1,200 last year from my secret jaunts and the most I ever raised was £1,690. I'd like to beat that this year.'Even though the wife now knows my secret and will be less than impressed, I want to race one last time as I think my bones are ready to creak.'

The couple, who have seven daughters, 14 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren, met at St Johns Parish Church, in Bedminster, when they were both 14.

Danial Nainan - Racism at its best

2011-09-12T16:24:00.000+08:00

(Courtesy of CK Chew)

Simon says: -

This is a must watch, funny as hell. It had me belly laughing out loud in the office.

Slots for Melbourne Ironman

2011-09-09T12:17:00.002+08:00

Simon says: -

I received this email today. If you missed out on entering Melbourne (it was sold out in 5 minutes and 5 seconds!!!! Wow who'd have thought that?) Anyway, you can still get in by the looks of it via goadventureasia.com

"Entry slots for Ironman Melbourne are now available fromGo Adventure Asia.

All general entries for the Ironman Melbourne event weresold out in five minutes and five seconds, making it the fastest-sellingIronman race in the history of the sport!

As part of the Ironman Asia-Pacific Travel network wehave limited slots available for Ironman Melbourne in combination with hotelpackage.

Please see the link below.

http://www.goadventureasia.com/IMM/imm.htm

Kind Regards,

Go Adventure Asia"

Xterra World Championship Course Preview

2011-09-08T18:02:00.001+08:00

Simon says: -

Oh dear, it looks like I'd better get Baby out and learn how to ride her. She hasn't seen any off-road since I qualified. NERVOUS? I should be!!! DENIAL? Probably for the best haha

Stomach Shutdown

2011-09-07T19:21:00.000+08:00

(Courtesy of Joe Friel's blog http://www.joefrielsblog.com)

Simon Says: -
Mmm, this sounds familiar!

One of the common problems of triathletes in long-course races and runners in marathons is “stomach shutdown.” This commonly happens starting around half way into the bike leg or sometimes as the run starts in a triathlon. Marathoners may also experience it about half way into the race.

When the stomach shuts down the feeling athletes experience is that nothing they take in passes through the gut. It just sits there causing a bloated and sometimes nauseous feeling. The most common method for dealing with this is to slow down and quit taking in anything until the bloating and nausea subside. Vomiting sometimes helps. When the bloated feeling begins to let up athletes will usually try plain water to see how that is processed. If that works then they gradually increase the effort as more substantial food sources are reintroduced. But by this time race goals are usually too far gone and motivation begins to subside.

Why me?

So what is “stomach shutdown” and what causes it? Assuming the cause is not medical—such as irritable bowel syndrome or vagus nerve damage—the cause more than likely is related to a mismatch between effort and fuel volume or the variability of intensity throughout the early portion of the bike or run. Also generally involved in both of these possible reasons for stomach shutdown is taking in fluids based on some sort of contrived “hydration” schedule. Learning to drink when you are thirsty will resolve this and make such schedules pointless. (I have athletes treat fluids and calories as two separate items in the race, but that’s a whole other discussion I’ll do another day.)

Another common confounding element is the type of food consumed during the race. Fiber-rich foods are slow to digest. Some athletes even have trouble using protein in a sports drink since it slows digestion. As more stuff is put in your gut (water, sugar, protein, fat, electrolytes, fiber, vitamins, minerals, etc) your digestive system is challenged to process it. You will eventually reach the tipping point if you keep taking in what you are told is “necessary” by brand marketers or what seems to work for other athletes and the stomach will shutdown. For long endurance events, the only things that are truly necessary and have been shown to be effective are water and sugar.

Possible Solutions

The best way to deal with this problem is to prevent it. Prevention starts long before race day. In the last 12 weeks prior to the race you should have been doing some racelike workouts in which your planned race-day nutrition was tried. To be “racelike” the workout has to be about half the duration of the race and done at the planned race intensity. Race intensity is the key element here. Rehearsing a nutrition plan at less than race effort is of little value. Try your eating plan in a C-priority race, especially one that’s about half as long as the A-priority race. A racelike workout or actual race should give you a good indication of what may or may not work on the day of your A-priority race.

Even this doesn’t always prevent bloating, however, due to other factors such as a nervous stomach or even swallowing too much ocean water during the swim. So the solution is to use only what you need while staying on the conservative side. If in doubt, eat and drink somewhat less. Plan to take in the lower end of the amount of food you think will be needed—not the most amount. And don’t try anything on race day if you haven’t done it successfully many times before.

Pre-race nutrition can set you up for a stomach shutdown, also. Have breakfast no less than 2 hours prior to the race start. Three hours is better. Eat only what has worked in the past. This also should have been rehearsed at least twice in the last 12 weeks. In the last hour before the race take in nothing but water. Ten minutes before the start use a sports drink or gel with water that you carried to the start line.

Here’s the most important part: If you have a tendency for stomach shutdown start the race slower than you feel like you could go. Much slower. Hold back. Be patient. Do not start the race anaerobically or even close to it no matter how great you feel. I’ve seen athletes anaerobic in the second mile of the bike leg of an Ironman. And they still have 110 miles to go. I’ve heard marathoners gasping for air at the mile 1 marker. What are they thinking?

Let’s look at it this way: If you were walking a marathon very slowly you could eat a Big Mac, French fries, and a milkshake. No problems. But if you were running a one-mile race as fast as you could go it would difficult for your stomach to process a sip of water. So effort is closely tied to digestion. They must match. If you go faster than rehearsed in the early portion of the race but take in fuel and fluids at the rate that worked at a lower effort in training then you have set yourself up for a stomach shutdown. Fuel volume and effort must match.

In a related cause, the athlete may start at an appropriate effort but frequently throughout the race he or she surges as other athletes pass or hills are “attacked.” Success in long-distance events generally requires very little intensity variability. Using WKO+ software we can now measure variability when racing with a power meter or GPS device. What I look for is a variability index (VI) of less than 1.06. I once viewed a triathlete’s Ironman file and saw that he had a VI of 1.25. That’s what I would expect to see in a bicycle criterium with lots of surges out of corners. This not only causes the stomach to shut down, it also wastes energy. He DNF’ed.

Bottom Line

So if you are prone to stomach shutdown some possible solutions are:

•Determine a pacing plan for the race, rehearse it, and then follow it—especially at the start of the race.

•Match the pacing plan with a nutrition plan which you have also rehearsed at race effort.

•Have a pre-race meal several hours prior to the race and take in nothing but water in the last hour—until 10 minutes before the start. And do not over drink at this time. You aren’t a camel. Drink only to satisfy thirst (it works, regardless of what marketers have told you).

•Use only foods and drinks that you have rehearsed at a racelike effort for a long duration many times. These foods should be low in fiber, known to not significantly delay your digestion, and are proven to work for you even if you go slightly too fast at first—because, unfortunately, you are likely to do that even though you know it’s wrong.

•Do not surge in the race. Ride or run at steady effort with only gradual and slight increases for hills.

Indians and slavery

2011-08-28T11:22:00.002+08:00

(Courtesy of BryBaby)

Funny

Garmin Vector arriving in March

2011-08-24T13:21:00.004+08:00

(Courtesy of www.slowtwitch and ritten by: Dan Empfield)

Garmin announced today the fruition of a project ardently anticipated by Slowtwitchers. The culmination of Garmin's acquisition, a year ago, of MetriGear has born fruit in the form of a pedal-based power meter called Garmin Vector.

The Vector was MetriGear's product prior to its sale to Garmin. Clark Foy, MetiGear's CEO, stayed with the project and has been its husbander since his company's acquisition by Garmin. (Pics and videos of the Vector are available on the Garmin blog.)

The Vector is a pedal-based power measuring system, similar in concept to the Keo Power Pedal joint project between Look Cycle and Polar Electro.

There are sensors inside the Garmin Vector pedal that measure power transferred to the pedal axle. The left pedal sends a signal to the right, which transmits all data to the head unit. Any Ant+ head unit, including Garmin's Edge 500 and 800, will pick up the signal and display power.

The system will sell for $1500, on par with Quarq's power measuring system. The Quarq company, and its crank-based power measuring system, was acquired by SRAM in May, 2011.

The Garmin Vector announcement—timed to coincide with the upcoming trade shows in Europe and Las Vegas—does not mean the product is ready to ship. Garmin's target date for in-store availability is March, 2012.

This creates a sprint to market for both Garmin and Polar. Each has a pedal-based power measuring system, both have been announced, but neither has shipped.

While Garmin has been stellar in its brand performance, the Vector is afield of its traditional niche. The Vector is less GPS, less microelectronic, and more bike component, than anything Garmin has yet made (though there certainly are electronics in the pedal).

Further, while you get an actual Look Keo pedal with Polar's system, you get a Keo-compatible pedal with the Vector. Garmin chose Exustar as its pedal vendor for this project and, while the Taiwanese cycling shoe and pedal maker has no marks against it, 68 percent of Slowtwitchers prefer either a Look or a Speedplay pedal on their bikes. Another 22 percent choose Shimano. Time Iclic rates 5 percent and all the others—Exustar included—total 6 percent.

Accordingly, Garmin has two sales to make: that of its power meter, and of its carbon fiber, Keo-compatible, Exustar-made pedal.

We have yet more questions. Does the term "factory calibrated" mean that no other calibration is necessary or available? And, what about the placement of one or two 1mm spacers to achieve a wider Q (for those who desire it)? Will this impact the accuracy of the unit? (Our technical gurus say no, that the strain elements—piezo devices—are calibrated against the deflection of the pedal spindle from the spindle flange out.)

For all that, a power meter system that is easily moved from bike to bike is of great interest to triathletes. Further, and speaking of polls, Garmin is by an obscene margin the leading GPS brand among Slowtwitchers, who not only overwhelmingly have a GPS on their bike, 7 out of 10 are sufficiently GPS-enamored to wear a GPS during their runs as well.

Lee Evans Bohemian Rhapsody - Bloody funny

2011-08-19T16:19:00.000+08:00

(Courtesy of Sian Atherton)

In the Fall - Bloody brilliant

2011-08-19T15:46:00.001+08:00

(Courtesy of Nick Flynn)

Bloody brilliant

Host Families for The Fresh Air Fund

2011-08-05T02:45:00.006+08:00

Simon says: -

The Fresh Air Fund has now managed to find 650 host families out of the 850 families that are needed to fulfil the needs of the inner city and underprivileged children for summer placements with host families. Please take a moment to look at the link below and consider whether you can help.

Sara Wilson from The Fresh Air Fund writes below: -

"Hi again Simon

I wanted to reach out to thank you again for helping to spread the word over the past few months about the Fresh Air Fund's need for host families. With your help, we've been able to find 650 of the 850 host families we need. Right now there is just one week left for us to place the remaining 200 children with a loving host family for a Fresh Air experience that can change lives. I was hoping you could post on Tritwins to keep the issue alive in the minds of your readers and followers. Even a Tweet or Facebook post could help.

Please feel free to use any of the images, graphics, banners, or copy from our microsite - or just share the link:

http://freshairfundhost.org

If you are able to help, please let me know so I can share it with the team.

Thank you again,

Sara
--
Sara Wilson,
www.freshair.org
facebook.com/freshairfund
Twitter @freshairfund"

Chavs Prayer

2011-08-02T08:18:00.002+08:00

(Courtesy of Ian Hay)

Our Father,
Who art in prison,
Even Mum knows not his name,
Thy chavdom come,
You'll read The Sun,
In Plymouth which is in Devon,

Give us this day,
Our Welfare bread,
And forgive us our ASBO's,
As we happy slap those who got ASBO's against us,

Lead us not into employment,
But deliver us free housing,
For thine is the Chavdom,
The Burberry and the Buckfast,
Forever and ever...... Innit

Catching up, Ottawa & Gatineau Park

2011-08-02T06:46:00.022+08:00

(Photos and ride write up courtesy of Lindy)

Simon says: -

This post comes after my Ironman Lake Placid adventure, partly because it was already written by Lindy and secondly because I'm struggling to catch up with everything that has gone on, not only since we left Malaysia for the USA but quite honestly since I completed Ironman Korea just a few weeks ago.

Just a quick update for you. We arrived in New York, a 33 hour journey door to door. We were tired but happy. We spent a few days in New York with Shilpa's cousin Niku, his wife Shweta and their daughter Annya. They were fabulous hosts and we had a wonderful time. While there we took the Staten Island Ferry to show the boys the statue of Liberty, went to see the Broadway show, The Lion King and rode copious times on the subway (much to the delight of the boys).

After a few days we drove to Lake Placid, by which time I had a fully fledged cold which moved to a fully fledged chest infection a couple of days before the race.

I shall do a full Ironman Lake Placid report in a day or so but suffice to say it was great fun, chest infection aside. Post race party was a hoot and then we drove to Ottawa for a party that our good friends Rueban (from Malaysia) and his wife Lindy had thrown in our honour (me, Bryan Payne and our respective families).

(The monster BBQ actually arrived the day of the party but too late to set up. It's a beauty though so I had to include these pictures that were taken subsequently).

The party was awesome, Bryan had to leave about midnight so I tapped him out again. He drank more than me again but just doesn't have the staying power. Rueban and I then moved on to the single malt whisky, NICE!

Bryan kindly took Shilpa and the boys home while Rueban, Lindy and I chatted away until the early hours of the morning (yes I do like the sound of my own voice too much sometimes. Although I have to say that it was very stimulating listening to their plans and ideas. It really got the entrepreneurial juices flowing). They very kindly dropped me back to the hotel at gone 4:30am. Huge hosts!!

Just a few hours later we were back together to go for what turned out to be one of the most wonderful rides of my life. Lindy has done a write-up of the ride under the pseudonym "Joy". She hits the nail on the head so I have copied her post below. And for the record, when Lindy takes the triathlon plunge she is going to be awesome - you heard it here first so be warned ladies.

Joy here...On Sunday, July 24th two of our friends - Simon and Bryan - competed in the Ironman Lake Placid Triathlon. Lake Placid is in New York State and is only a few hours' drive away from our home in Ottawa, so we planned a post-race party for them at our house, and invited all our friends.

That was Tuesday night.

It was awesome.

Simon ended up leaving our house at 4:30am.

Then on Wednesday, Simon, The Man (Rueban), and I all headed out to the park to do a loop. I mean, we figured that Simon is our very first friend from Malaysia to come to our Canadian stomping grounds, and we weren't going to let the opportunity to show off our regular ride circuit pass us up. I just hadn't necessarily planned on riding in the company of someone who has finished NINETEEN IRONMANS!!! Needless to say, he and the Man rode ahead of me, and were kind enough to wait at certain intervals.

The day was hot and clear, and the afternoon summer sun was high overhead. We were all tired after a late night with too much booze, but I have to admit that it was one of the most enjoyable loops that I've done in the park.

Pink Lake Lookout

Champlain Lookout

We rode up to the Pink Lake lookout and enjoyed the view (and took in some much needed hydration) before carrying on up to the Champlain lookout (more view and more hydration).

A happy triathlete out for a ride Ottawa-style!

Most importantly, Simon has said that our Wednesday afternoon ride was "one of the most amazing bike rides...one of best ever!" How awesome is that? How awesome is it that we can lure a friend from Malaysia who has done Ironman races all over the world - Ironman Korea, Ironman Langkawi, Ironman Kentucky, Ironman Lake Placid, Ironman China (just to name some of the ones he's completed) - and he was able to say that our regular Sunday morning ride in the local park is one of the best rides that he's ever done? It really doesn't get much better than that as an endorsement for home, sweet home, does it?

So while the three of us were enjoying the scenery, sweating out the excess booze, and getting energized to make up for the lack of sleep while out for a 3 hour bike ride, I was also building my confidence by realizing that I was able to ride with the guys and not make it a painful ride for them. Sure - Simon's post-Ironman, and jetlagged, and lacking sleep etc. etc., but he didn't complain about having to wait and wait and wait for the slow girl to catch up. That was a real boost to my confidence.

Such a boost to my confidence, in fact, that I'm starting to think that I should set my sights on triathlon. Who knows? Maybe I've got an Ironman in me too!

So I'm going to continue riding on Sundays with my "sisterhood" and enjoying the improvement with my cycling. And then maybe instead of setting my sights on a marathon, I should start thinking about a triathlon. Or maybe a marathon and THEN a triathlon. The sky's the limit!

Over and out,
Joy (a.k.a. Lindy)

Ironman Korea - A few choice piccies

2011-07-15T22:07:00.008+08:00

(Photos courtesy of Karoline and Steve - great support guys - thanks it really meant a lot)

Ironman Korea - Race report

2011-07-13T16:11:00.028+08:00

Ironman Korea

The build up to Ironman China was somewhat bizarre. Somehow I’d begun 2011 horribly overweight, out of shape and chronically burnt out. When I eventually turned things around I did so pretty quickly, shedding the kgs and in the process qualifying for the Xterra Worlds (off-road triathlon) and 70.3 Half Ironman Worlds. The plan was to go for the hat-trick in China and qualify for the Ironman Worlds.

Three weeks before China I was a long way from my peek fitness of a year before... but then they announced the cancelation of the Ironman China swim. Even though swimming is my weakest discipline I was not very happy about it, I did not want to qualify in a duathlon rather than a triathlon. They must have heard me because one week later they cancelled the whole event and added half the qualification slots to Ironman Korea.

On the face of it the odds had swung in my favour. However, just about the entire China field entered Korea (certainly the majority of the most competitive athletes) and as the number of slots had only increased by 50% the odds had probably swung against me! Additionally, with IMMY and IMJapan cancelled for 2011 this was now the ONLY Ironman in Asia.

However, working on my tried and trusted approach of DENIAL, I was still quietly confident, I’d been gifted an extra (and much needed) five weeks of training. As soon as I heard, I switched my bike training from a rolling 185k course to an extremely hilly 195k course. I upped my brick bike/runs in distance and hills and increased the hills on my 32k long runs .

I lost a couple of weeks training to a chest infection and had a last minute scare with injured glutes (bum muscles due to the increased hill training); nonetheless I was happy as I lined up at the swim start the morning of the race.

I’m not the greatest swimmer in the world and there’s been so much talk about panic attacks in recent weeks that I was a little paranoid that I was going to have a bit of an episode myself. To counter that I’d decided to do a 4k wetsuit swim in a 40m pool on the Monday before the race and was blown away how well it went (even if I had poached myself a little in the Malaysian heat haha). The day before the race I did a 1k swim at the race start and again felt brilliant.

So, back to the race start, the pros were lined up at the water’s edge, a thousand age-groupers 10m further back. I decided that there was only one thing for it. I was here to qualify and starting the day off with a mass fight in the middle of the mêlée wasn’t part of the plan, so I went right to the front and on the side by the buoys/rope marking the course (yes that's me waving). BOOM, we were off.

A bit of bumping, the odd flailing arm, a bit of being swum over and of course a few deep breaths of water but then it all settled down. 30minutes and 30 seconds later, one lap completed. 1hr2mins32sec and a new PB for an Ironman swim HOOHA!

A solid transition and I’m on the bike, hello Gladys, Daddy’s here! (My bike is called Gladys just in case you didn’t know). The bike course wasn’t too bad, somewhere between my usual rolling course and new hilly training course with a total of 1,400m ascending. There was the added difficulty of the wind though, it wasn’t too bad but basically turned the flat part of the course into resistance work too.

I spent the time on the bike really trying to ride in a disciplined manner, watching my power meter, heart rate, cadence, nutrition and hydration. I thought I did pretty well although on reflection I would have liked to have seen the early power numbers to have been a little lower.

The briefing had been a joke, the worst EVER. There had been some mention of yellow flag areas - no overtaking. One at the finish and one on the course but no mention of where on the course. You can imagine my surprise when we were riding down a perfectly straight, wide, safe dual carriageway and some little Korean man jumped out at me as I was tootling along at 60kpm screaming and waving a red card. I certainly hadn’t been drafting (quite the contrary, at least one guy got red carded for drafting off me and another bloke came up after the race and thanked me for the tow!!!! I didn’t know whether to tell him to stop being a cheating b*stard in future or what...in fact all I said was “You’re welcome” haha how lame was I?!) I assumed I must have been red carded for overtaking, either way I was paranoid that another infringement would result in my first ever DSQ!

As it turned out I finished the bike in good form, was VERY careful in the yellow flag zone at the finish and went straight to the penalty tent. All the penalty numbers were chalked up and mine wasn’t one of them! Even so, I wasn’t taking any chances, this was my chance to qualify and I wasn’t going to let 4 minutes ruin it. I registered and sat out the 4 minutes while Alex kindly passed me my run bag and said “You can’t get changed in the penalty area but there is nothing to say you can’t get organised”. COOL, thanks Alex. In the process of getting “organised” I was ready to run bar one shoe when an official wagged his finger at me, counted down the last 30secs and said “GO”.

This however, is where I made my first real mistake of the day, in the penalty tent I’d necked a 500ml bottle of water and as I started the run there was a severe downhill for about a kilometre and I had chronic stitch immediately. I eased off and within a couple of K the pain relented.

Once again I was in control and making decisions to get me to the finish and qualify. I’d measure the liquid volume of the cups pre race and knew I could no6Ilore than 2 cups per aid station to avoid overstressing my stomach (the body can’t absorb more than 1.5ltr of fluid an hour so there’s no point in taking more). I was alternating between coke and Gatorade for energy (no more than 250cals per hour as the body cannot absorb more) and water.

My pace felt easy an as a DVD I’d been watching on race management (thanks Richard) stated, “Everyone leaves T2 too fast, so make sure you’re going so easy you can still talk”. So to test my pace I regularly had little conversations with myself out loud. All seemed good and at what seemed an eternity I reached the first turnaround at 10.5k at 55mins30secs. This was a little faster than projected race pace so once again I look back and wonder whether I should and could have gone slower???

The hills were relentless on the run but also my body was starting to find it harder now. I got to the 21k turnaround in about 1hr51 which was right on target time. BUT....... as I turned for the 1 kilometre of extremely steep downhill running the stitch came back BIG TIME. Painfest or what (note my face matched my shirt haha). I knew I had to work and walk it off but however much I tried to get going again the pain was unbearable. My heart rate went through the roof, I started hyperventilating, sweating profusely and got close to blacking out a couple of times. Was this hypernatraemia, dehydration, over-heating, bonking or simply bad pacing? I have no idea. I have suffered these symptoms at similar times in almost every Ironman that I’ve done, it’s really frustrating and I’m at a loss to fix it. The stomach cramp/stitch is the deliberating aspect of it.

So that was that, a long walk with bits of very painful runs thrown in and a finish time of 11hrs 35mins 10secs. As it turns out the 45-49 age-group was ridiculous in terms of quality. The top 7 were Japanese and all did under 10 hours on one of the hardest Ironman courses!

To qualify I’d have to have taken 15minutes of my Ironman Marathon PB. However, at the 21k I was on track. So another Ironman full of “could have, should haves” but let’s face it, I wasn’t as fit and lean as I had been for IMMY 2010, so no excuses, I failed but I have a second bite of the cherry at Ironman Lake Placid 3 weeks after this one. So...?

On that note, I'm under no illusion, the first attempt is always the best chance so there is little chance of qualifying this year. However, I shall give it my best shot; I shall DENY any ill effects of IMKorea and wait for my overdue miracle to kick in. I shall follow the same pacing regimens that I did for IMKorea, drink a little less towards the end of the bike and take in a few more calories and we shall see.

One thing I have realised, I am fit enough, I can be smart enough but I need to unravel this stomach/stitch issue. Then there will be no stopping me.

TIMES
Swim: 1:02:32
Bike: 5:19:11
Run: 5:04:51
T1+T2+4min Penalty 8:36
TOTAL 11:35:10

AND FINALLY
I just wanted to say a big thank you to my fellow "Malaysians" Bee (Team Manager), Hoo, Jason, Chris and particularly Richard (who continues to inspire me with his attitude and preparation, not to forget that he well and truly beat me too!). Ironman Korea was huge fun, the disappointment of not qualifying faded the second I got across the line to be met by Richard who'd waited until I finished to place my medal around my neck and show such great support.

It was so much more rewarding to be part of "Team Malaysia" rather than "Team Nigel_No_Friends", partuclarly as the next day we went hiking up volcano's, freezing our butts off through lava tunnels and getting absolutely smashed together until the early hours of the following morning - I've no idea how I made my plane and even less idea how Richard managed a recovery run that morning too.

POSTSCRIPT
A first for me, I pee’d on the bike (while in motion I mean). In the past I rarely have needed to and when I have I’ve stopped to pee. I was always concerned about subsequent chaffing once the bacteria built up later in the race.

I also pee’d as I ran (again on the move). Both bike and run pees where Gatorade colour so hydration was obviously good. However, it seems that I was right to be concerned about the chaffing, Oo arrgh, ouch, after sitting down at the end of the race I could barely walk due to the chaffing between my legs. Not nice!

I’m told I should have sloshed my nether regions with loads of water but I was a)too pleased with myself having pee'd for the first time on the go and b)too focused on the race to think about it. I’ll know next time haha

LOVE

2011-07-11T12:24:00.003+08:00

(Courtesy of Steve Dennison)

A man was sipping on a glass of wine, while sitting on the patio with his wife, and he says, "I love you so much, I don't know how I could ever live without you.

His wife asks, "Is that you, or the wine talking?"

He replies, "It's me ............. talking to the wine."..

The day is almost upon us

2011-07-02T18:00:00.007+08:00

IRONMAN KOREA

Left arm

It's 7pm, I'm off to bed. Ironman Korea kicks off at 7am in the morning. Alarm set for 3:30am and I get to taste coffee again, yippee!

I have four cans of Guiness draft and four cans of Hoegarden in the fridge for post race recovery. I hope it will be post race celebration too.

Team Malaysia have all dialled in their target times and all have committed to be drinking in a bar by the beach post race (we shall see).

My race number is 591 and can be tracked on www.ironmanlive.com throughout the race if anyone is interested. (From 7am Korean time).

I'm roughly aiming for times of: -

Swim - 1hr5min to 1hr10min
T1 - 2min30sec to 3min30sec
Bike - 5hr10min to 5hr20min
T2 - 2min30sec to 3min30sec
Run - 3hr40mins to 3hrs50mins

So best case scenario is 10hrs and hopefully worst case is 10hrs27mins.

Mmm! The concensus amongst team Malaysia is that a 9hr45min will guarantee a Kona slot but a sub 10hr is essential to even have a shot! As I said...Mmm!

We shall see, the projections are all so subjective and race day can throw so many unknowns. I'm determined to win or lose my slot on the run and not by over cooking the bike.

It looks like it's going to be hotter than the previously forecast temperature but hey-ho hot weather follows me wherever I go, I expect it.

Whatever will be will be, I'll give it my best and you can be assured that I'll lay everything down on that race course - there will be nothing left as I cross that line.

Nighty night all.

Right arm

Amazing

2011-06-27T13:50:00.001+08:00

(Coutesy of CK Chew)

So you think you can skate? Check this girl out, she is truly amazing.

New Words for 2011

2011-06-22T18:37:00.007+08:00

(Courtesy of Ian)

Simon says: - Some of these phrases are sexist, others are offensive, some are even sexist and offensive. Please don't shoot the messenger and if you think it's gonna be an issue then don't be a NUMPTY, just click close. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

* TESTICULATING
Waving your arms around and talking bollocks.

* BLAMESTORMING
Sitting round in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible.

* SEAGULL MANAGER
A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything and then leaves.

* SALMON DAY
The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die.

* CUBE FARM
An office filled with cubicles.

* PRAIRIE DOGGING
When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on. (This also applies to applause for a promotion because there may be cake.)

* SALAD DODGER
An excellent phrase for an overweight person.

* SWAMP DONKEY
A deeply unattractive person..

* AEROPLANE BLONDE
One who has bleached/dyed her hair but still has a 'black box'.

* PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE
The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

* OH-NO SECOND
That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. (e.g. You've hit 'reply all').

* GREYHOUND
A very short skirt, only an inch from the hare.

* MILLENNIUM DOMES
The contents of a Wonder bra, I..e. Extremely impressive when viewed from the outside but there's actually naught in there worth seeing.

* MONKEY BATH
A bath so hot, that when lowering yourself in, you go: 'Oo! Oo! Oo! Aa! Aa! Aa!'.

* MYSTERY BUS
The bus that arrives at the pub on Friday night while you're in the toilet after your 10th pint and whisks away all the unattractive people so the pub is suddenly packed with stunners when you come back in.

* TART FUEL
Bottled premixed spirits, regularly consumed by young women.

* TRAMP STAMP
Tattoo on a female.

* PICASSO BUM
A woman whose knickers are too small for her, so she looks like she's got 4 buttocks.

How to become a strong cyclist

2011-06-21T17:20:00.011+08:00

(Photos courtesy of Tey)

I've often been asked how do I pull off such good bike splits in an Ironman and half Ironman.

But first, going off on a tangent, my buddy Richard Tang recently gave me a video about Ironman preparation. Of course "I knew it all" BUT as is often the case I don't always practise and execute it all! One of the points they made on the video was that "There is no such thing as a good Ironman bike split if you're walking on the run" Oh Lordy, how true is that? AM I LISTENING? I hope so.

So, leaving my poor Ironman race management to one side for a moment, how do I regularly pull off sub 5hr 180k rides? I believe the answers are simple enough: -

1) Ride a lot. And I mean a lot. I average over 200k a week each year, with illness, burnout, holidays, family commitments and work etc that means many many weeks of 300 and 400k riding to get an average of over 200k per week.

2) Embrace the pain. If you're not able to find some love for the pain then the guy that has done the same mileage as you is going to leave you behind every time.

It that it?...ALMOST!

I believe the secret then is three specific sessions: -

Workout A) The weekend long ride. How long? Depends on your reference points but I consider "long" to be anything over 140k but to be honest for Ironman training 180K+ is my number. No breakfast stops (eat on the go), no hanging around, no chatting, no resting, just refill your bottles and go. It takes long enough as it is and quite honestly you should be running straight afterwards if you're training for an Ironman. So just get on with it.

Workout B) The midweek moderate distance, higher intensity, brick ride/run. How long? Again it depends upon your reference points but based on the numbers above I'd say between 50k and 90k followed by between 8k and 21k run.

Workout C) This workout is a major motivation to writing this article. The article has been inspired by many people asking me what are the secrets and me telling them of points 1) and 2) and the specific workouts of A) and B) above which most people get (and then don't do! haha) but Workout C) most people don't get, choose not to get and quite honestly phase it out of their mind as soon as they start thinking about the reality of it. To be be fair though, some people have actually tried Workout C)...once and sometimes even twice haha. I don't personally know anyone that does it regularly, except me.

The problem is that this workout needs to be done every week as a standard "bread and butter" session, year round. But when training for Ironman, it needs to be done twice a week. Difficult when you consider that Workouts A) and B) above also need to be completed.

So here it is, the workout is a combination of distance(time), resistance and a lot of mind numbing pain, THE HIGH RESISTANCE INTERVAL session. I do these sessions on a turbo trainer in order to correctly manage what I'm trying to achieve. I do it while watching "shoot em up" movies or American TV comedies, basically "rubbish" that you don't need to concentrate on. Trust me you can't concentrate on the TV if you're doing these sessions right, they're designed to hurt body, mind and soul.

Sound like fun? You're right, they're not, but what doesn't kill body, mind and soul, makes the body, mind and sole stronger, MUCH STRONGER.

Generally on Mondays (two days after my long bike/run brick and one day after my long run) I do a 20 minute warm up with moderate resistance followed by 31x1 minute reps of FULL RESISTANCE. (By full resistance I mean the magneto resistance on max and the heaviest gear). The cadence should be ~50. Each 1 minute rep is followed by 1 minute easy to moderate with the last easy one being a 10 minute warm down. That should be 1 hour 31 minutes of pure misery - I LOVE IT (in a twisted sort of a way). After 5 reps I'm usually close to tears but somehow I pull the full workout off every time.

Friday (Day before my long bike/run brick) I do 10 minutes warm up, 10 minutes moderate/hard resistance (cadence of about ~70), 10 minutes maximum resistance, heaviest gear (cadence ~50), 10 minutes easy. Followed by 5 reps of: - 6 minutes max resistance, heaviest gear, (cadence ~50) each 6 minute rep is followed by 3 minutes of easy to moderate with the last easy one being a 10 minute warm down. That should be 1 hour 32 minutes of more sexy, addictive, misery.

These workouts should and do leave me with rubbery legs struggling to get up the stairs. I swear by them, they're not singularly the secret to my strong cycling, but combine points 1 and 2, Workouts A), B) and C) and if it needs pointing out - YOU MUST DO THEM CONSISTENCY, then you have it. Follow this routine week in week out and you are going to be unstoppable.

The only danger then, as I have found out, is that it becomes tempting to crush the bike leg in an Ironman. Hence my new race strategy follows all of the points above, combined with a power meter to ensure that my ride is consistent from start to finish (efficiency) and then smart race management (the number one item on the agenda of smart race management is to stick to what the power meter says and ignore Mr. Ego).

[As we get older we don't necessarily get smarter...BUT to get faster that's all that we really have to work with, so hopefully I'll milk that reservoir of knowledge for a few years and then maybe go back to golf haha]

I truly hope that this post helps anyone aiming to become stronger on the bike. It works believe me but you've got to spend the time and embrace the pain. There are no short cuts.

But remember "There is no such thing as a good Ironman bike split if you're walking on the run" [I wrote this again as much for my own benefit as anyone else's haha]

Father's Day

2011-06-20T17:19:00.002+08:00

I got home from my run on Sunday to be presented with two beautiful handmade cards, two beautiful neck ties, an Ipod Shuffle and a new RoadID by most most awesomely beautiful boys. How cool was that?

Not only that, we then went and met a bunch of friends from Alice Smith school and had a wonderful buffet lunch with all the kids, clowns, bouncy castles etc at the Shangri-La in Kuala Lumpur.

Sid and Seb then insisted on buying me something personal from money in their wallets. So I got some pumpernickel bread (my favourite) and a naval orange (my most favouritest fruit in the whole world).

I have no doubt I am the luckiest dad alive.

I love you so much Sid and Seb.

Mom & Pop's 40th Wedding Anniversary

2011-06-20T17:11:00.004+08:00

Recently it was Shilp's Mom and Dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary. The "kids", that's Shilpa, Meenu and Kapil (and there respective other halves, me, Ranjan and Ritu) organised 40 red roses for them (with the help of Ashley). Just a tiny token to acknowledge their amazing time together and the love and care that they shower on us daily.

Britain's Alistair Brownlee earns second Kitzbuhel win

2011-06-20T16:16:00.002+08:00

(Courtesy of the BBC)

Alistair Brownlee led from start to finish to win the Kitzbuhel triathlon for the second time and move clear of Javier Gomez in the World Championship Series.

With his brother Jonathan and Gomez both absent, Brownlee, 23, was fastest in the swim and the run, and joint-fastest in the cycling.

Russia's Alexander Brukhankov was second and Swiss Sven Riederer third.

Brownlee was in dominant form following his win in Madrid two weeks ago.

He was first out of the water and tied for the lead at the end of the cycling leg after breaking away from the pack with compatriot Stuart Hayes, winner in Kitzbuhel in 2010, and Brazil's Reinaldo Colucci.

The trio were 30 seconds in front of the chasing pack at the start of the run, but Brownlee had forged ahead by the end of the first lap and stayed there to win in Kitzbuhel for the second time in his career.

Brukhankov split from the trailing bunch with five kilometres to run and hung on for silver.

Riederer left it until the final lap to make his bid for bronze, his second of the Series after coming third in Sydney.

In what is Olympic selection year, Brownlee leads the Championship with 1,690 points. Brukhankov is second on 1,663 points, with Gomez third (1,485) and Jonathan Brownlee (1480) fourth.

Panic Attacks (in a triathlon swim)

2011-06-20T14:43:00.007+08:00

A friend of mine raced in an Olympic distance triathlon on Saturday and had a panic attack the second he hit the water at the start. He's not your typical triathlete though, he has been doing tris for the last two decades, has done numerous Ironmans and qualified for the Ironman worlds in Kona last year and the 70.3 Worlds in Clearwater the year before. Strangely this is the second panic attack he has had in two races.

I gave him my "take on it" in the hope that it will help somehow but then I thought I'd adapt my thoughts for anyone else that has experienced this sickening feeling. For the record I had my own panic attack/near death experience at the Alpe d'Huez triathlon a couple of years ago, so I'm not immune and I know what they're like.

So here's my take on it for what it's worth: -

My buddy freely admits he was under prepared and hadn't swam for 3 weeks. He's strong though and very fit. In my opinion the lack of swimming shouldn't have done more than taken a minute or two off his time at worst. I think his biggest mistake was not warming up by doing 500 metres swim/drills (or a full ten minutes of swimming). The fact that the water was undoubtedly colder than the pool and he didn't use a wetsuit probably magnified the problem.

A proper swim warm up in ANY distance tri is the difference between me being in the top half and the bottom half of the swim, so panic attacks aside, I reckon anyone that doesn't do a full and intensive warm up are giving away heaps of time and potentially spoiling their day because of a panic attack.

Don't forget we are not meant to be swimmers, we are land animals and probably one of the least adapted land animals to water. So suddenly going from a near resting heart rate to potentially anaerobic at the start of a triathlon is going to give the body, heart and mind a bit of a shock to say the least. Throw into the mix cold water and I'm sure many would experience some degree of shock.

(Cold water is something we don't have to worry about in Malaysia but when we travel elsewhere it can be an even bigger shock for us softie warm weather types).

So why did I have a panic attack at Alpe d'Huez? That's easy: -

1) I was under prepared
2) The reservoir we were swimming in didn't allow us into the water until 2 minutes before the start there was no warm up (it was a hydroelectric dam & French bureaucrats running it)
3) The water was pretty darn cold
4) I hadn't swam in a wetsuit for months if not a couple of years

The combination was a recipe for disaster. Having said that, I'm fairly sure that a 10 minute brisk warm up would have eliminated all my problems. (If I did this race again I'd go for a jog first in my wetsuit and be first in the water once we were allowed to go in).

I hope that those that have panic attacks don't consider this article too presumptive. I've addressed my take on panic attacks that occur at the beginning of a swim start as I have had personal experience of this.

However, another of my close Ironman friends has swim panic attacks mid swim. He says these are due simply to being out in the middle of nowhere in the ocean or a large lake. That's a different trigger I guess and I don't feel qualified to comment on that one. I'm sure he'll be interested if anyone has experienced that sort of panic attack and found ways to combat it. I'll forward any comments onto him, so please do share.

Additional Feedback: -
One of the comments left on this post by Ann, was that she used to have panic attacks. However, subsequently she realised they weren't actually panic attacks but rather she'd gone out to fast and I assume she'd gone anaerobic.

Pretty scary in a race let me tell you, YES I'VE BEEN DAFT ENOUGH TO DO THAT TOO. In fact that was the closest I ever came to dying. I shot out from the start, went anaerobic in a big way and then got swam over by the chasing field. I literally could move my arms and could barely keep my head above the water. I got to the first turn buoy and hung on. Once I recovered I swam the course gingerly and finished the race, scared, embarrassed AND EDUCATED.

The great SWEAT dilemma

2011-06-14T09:51:00.023+08:00

I had a short debate on Twitter yesterday with some buddies. They (and many others) are always incredulous when I state that I suffer more than most in the heat. I've lived in South East Asia for about 20 years and as I'm sure you will be aware it is very hot and very humid 24/7 365.

Yes you do acclimatise to some degree but genetics play a major role. The simple fact is that being of Anglo-Saxon heritage not to mention relatively short and compact I heat up very quickly and start sweating at the slightest excuse.

There are three main types of body classification Ectomorph, Mesomorph or Endomorph. Guess which one I am?

(Courtesy of muscleandstrength.com)
ECTOMORPH

An ectomorph is a typical skinny guy. Ecto’s have a light build with small joints and lean muscle. Usually ectomorph’s have long thin limbs with stringy muscles. Shoulders tend to be thin with little width.

Typical traits of an ectomorph:
•Small “delicate” frame and bone structure
•Classic “hardgainer”
•Flat chest
•Small shoulders
•Thin
•Lean muscle mass
•Finds it hard to gain weight
•Fast metabolism

Ectomorphs find it very hard to gain weight. They have a fast metabolism which burns up calories very quickly. Ecto’s need a huge amount of calories in order to gain weight.

MESOMORPH

A mesomorph has a large bone structure, large muscles and a naturally athletic physique. They find it quite easy to gain and lose weight. They are naturally strong which is the perfect platform for building muscle.

Typical traits on a Mesomorph:
•Athletic
•Hard body with well defined muscles
•Rectangular shaped body
•Strong
•Gains muscle easily
•Gains fat more easily than ectomorphs

The mesomorph body type gains muscle easily and very quickly. The downside to mesomorphs is they gain fat more easily than ectomorphs. This means they must watch their calorie intake. Usually a combination of weight training and cardio works best for mesomorphs.

ENDOMORPH

The endomorph body type is solid and generally soft. Endomorphs gain fat very easily. Endo’s are usually of a shorter build with thick arms and legs. Muscles are strong, especially the upper legs. Endomorphs find they are naturally strong in leg exercises like the squat.

Typical traits of an Endomorph:
•Soft and round body
•Gains muscle and fat very easily
•Is generally short and “stocky”
•Round physique
•Finds it hard to lose fat
•Slow metabolism

When it comes to training endomorphs find it very easy to gain weight. Unfortunately, a large portion of this weight is fat not muscle. To keep fat gain to a minimum, endomorphs must focus on cardio.

Yes I'm a 100% endomorph and an additional trait of us short, stocky, round types is that our stocky muscles generate heat more quickly than the other body types AND find it more difficult to eliminate due to our body shape. There is less surface area for the heat to escape, plus the naturally higher fat content of our bodies acts as additional insulation keeping the heat in.

The body deals with excess heat by sweating and in the case of endomorph's the higher levels of heat increase the amount of sweat. Add to that a trained triathlete's sweat glands are highly tuned and very efficient at their job, hence the sweat pours out.

The body sweats in order for the liquid to evaporate from the skin i.e. changing liquid to gas. To convert a liquid to a gas takes energy and the energy used is taken from the heat of your body, thus cooling it.

However, this method of cooling all breaks down in climates with extremely high humidity. The simple fact is that very little evaporation takes place due to the saturated state of the humid air and the sweat simply rolls off the body. It does of course take away some heat but only a fraction as much compared to the process of evaporation.

In my debate I stated that I sweat at a rate of 3 litres an hour - there was "doubt" cast by one or two of the debaters, so here is an extract from Active.com on the subject.

"Average and Champion Sweat Rates

How much do we sweat? An average person sweats between 0.8 to 1.4 liters (roughly 27.4 to 47.3 oz.) per hour during exercise. To help you with a visual, the smaller bike water bottles typically hold 0.6 liters (20 oz.) of fluid and the larger bottles hold 0.7 liters (24 oz.) of fluid.

The highest recorded sweat rate for an athlete in an exercise situation is 3.7 liters (125 oz.) per hour, recorded by Alberto Salazar while preparing for the 1984 Summer Olympics. The highest human sweat rate recorded is 5 liters (169 oz.) per hour measured on a resting body exposed to a hot environment. At rest, the skin blood flow was maximum and not competing with exercising muscles.

How do you know if you are an average sweaty person or a champion sweater? You need to do some testing.

Your Sweat Rate Test

The easiest way to measure your sweat rate is to weigh yourself without clothes on before exercising for one hour. After an hour of exercise, return home, strip down and weigh yourself again. Assuming you did not use the toilet or consume any fluids during exercise, your weight loss is your sweat rate. For each kilogram of lost weight, you lost one liter of fluid. (For each pound lost, you lost 15.4 oz. of fluid.)

If you drink any fluids or use the rest room between the two weight samples, you'll need to include both of these estimated weights in your calculations. Add fluid consumed to the amount of weight lost. Subtract estimated bodily void weight from the total weight lost."

The whole article can be found here.

Most sources I've read state that during exercise a human can absorb between 1 and 1.5ltrs of fluid an hour. Working on the higher level of 1.5ltrs that means that we endomorphs will likely be in a huge deficit in an typical hot/humid Ironman race. I have often lost 10kg in an Ironman and needless to say the second half of the run is pretty ugly.

Again most sources I've read state that performance begins to be negatively affected with just 1-2% of fluid loss. You can start to see how much fun Ironmans become for me at over 13% loss of fluid body weight. See the graph below.

Adapted from Wilmore & Costill (1999) ‘Physiology of Sport & Exercise’. Human Kinetics.

So what to do?

As best as I can work out entering more races in cooler climates is a good call. Sadly though the heat follows me EVERYWHERE. At Ironman China last year I was positively freezing 3 days before the race but come race day it was close to 40C.

Certainly a really disciplined drinking strategy is called for. Especially on the bike where it's easier to ingest. Making sure that there is never a moment when my stomach doesn't have at least some fluid being absorbed. As mentioned earlier though, there is only so much that can be absorbed and if it is below the sweat rate then there's going to be some serious payback, usually somewhere on the run.

So the solution is...? Lose some weight you fat bast*rd...haha That is my solution. Reduce the stress on the body for the hills and the run, reduce the insulation and thus have more of the blood closer to the skin's surface to promote as much cooling as possible. Easier said than done, I'm and endomorph don't forget and I like to party and love food. Add to that, as soon as I start losing weight it goes from my face first and everyone starts telling me I look ill and drawn.

I'll get over the criticism and I'll do my best to HTFU on the diet front. It's been interesting writing this and researching stuff on the net. This is my last hard week of training before a two week taper for Ironman Korea. I'm far from my best but these three weeks can get me close to where I need to be and hopefully a shot at a qualifying spot for Kona. Failing that it'll be all about recovery and then try again three weeks later at Ironman Lake Placid.

Interesting times. I'm just hoping that the heat gods don't follow me to these two races. Needless to say, I check the projected weather forecast for Jeju, Korea ALOT haha.

Zipp Firecrest 404s are the new 808s

2011-06-08T17:58:00.009+08:00

(Courtesy of www.slowtwitch.com)

At the end of the 3rd stage of the 2007 Tour de France, Fabian Cancellara famously attacked the field from 1km out and managed to hold off a charging swarm of sprinters to win the stage. On that day he was riding a Cervelo Soloist shod with Zipp model 808 wheels. Afterwards, he excitedly told Zipp's Chief Engineer Josh Poertner "808 is the new 404 for me!" Jens Voigt had been riding Zipp's 808 wheels in flat stages and seeing this, Cancellara had decided to try them as well. As he related to Poertner later, "I just felt like when I went, I knew I was riding a TT bike compared to what these other guys were on." Obviously, the potential of aerodynamics (especially of the wheels) to have a decisive effect in a bike race was not lost on Mr. Cancellara.

Let's fast forward to 2010-2011. In May of 2010, Zipp announced a reworking of their 404 wheels with a completely new shape for that wheel's depth of 58mm. These wheels appear to turn Spartacus' 2007 quote on it's head. In many ways these new wheels equal or outperform the 808s that Fabian rode to victory in 2007. Now then, I'm no Fabian Cancellara (I'd be lucky if I'm equivalent to just ONE of his legs), however, after recently riding a set of the new Zipp Firecrest 404 carbon clincher wheels and digging through the data produced by Zipp and comparing it to my own observations, I'm beginning to think that a new quote is appropriate: "Firecrest 404 is the new 808!"

Firecrest Shape Development

During the development of the Firecrest 404 wheels, Zipp engineers decided to take a slightly different approach than has typically been used in thinking about and designing the rim shape. In the past, they general approach has been to think about the tire as the leading edge of an aerodynamic foil and then designing the rim shape with that as the foremost assumption. Doing so works fairly well, but the trade-off in that decision is that this shape may not work particularly well in the rear part of the wheel, where the shape is "reversed" to the air flow. In other words, the approach was to design for the front half of the wheel to be as good as possible, and then the rear "is what it is". In some cases, the rim designers don't even go to that extent, and this is evidenced by the "V" shaped rims still being produced. Those shapes aren't even particularly good for the front half of the wheel.

With their previous generation of rim shapes (what they called "hybrid toroidal"), the Zipp engineers had done a fairly good job of coming up with a shape that works really well on the front half of the wheel across a wide range of yaws, and is also relatively insensitive to tire width. Even so, this shape, when "reversed" on the trailing half of the wheel, didn't perform anywhere near as well as it did on the leading half of the wheel. So, the new thought process used in designing the Firecrest wheels was to see if tweaks could be made to the rim shape to get the rear half of the wheel to perform closer to the front half of the wheel, without adversely affecting the front half performance. This sounds like a great engineering challenge. Accomplishing this task would eek just a bit more performance out of the wheels, especially in a cross-wind situation.

Well…they did it…and it took taking the typical wheel design approach described above and basically "turning it on it's head". If you take a look at the new Firecrest shape that the Zipp engineers came up with and concentrate on a cross-section through the trailing half of the wheel, you can see that it looks as though the shape was designed with the thought of the tire being the trailing edge of the "wing section"…in almost a "Kamm" style of foil design. The Kamm concept is, simply put, the concept that a truncated airfoil section can have nearly the same drag as the entire foil would have, as long as the truncation is placed in the right spot. Kamm foils have received a lot of attention lately due to their use in the Trek Speed Concept frame tubing, but Zipp actually started using the concept on their wheels around three years ago in the pinch nuts of the 88/188 hubs. Using the Kamm shape on those pinch nuts actually allowed them to have that portion of a 17mm diameter axle have the same drag as the equivalent portion of 12mm round axle section, so obviously the advantages are understood.

According to Josh Poertner, the new shape dramatically improves the drag of the rear half of the 404 wheels, and they were actually able to make tweaks so that the front half of the wheel performance is as good as the old shapes. That's quite an impressive accomplishment.

One side benefit (pun intended) of improving the drag performance of the rear half of the wheels is that the location of the center of effort of the side force acting on the wheels is moved slightly rearward, which aligns it better with the steering axis of the bike. Side force in deep section wheels can be both a blessing and a curse…a blessing because it's the deep sections of the rims creating "lift" through air flow that results in that side force, but it also can be a curse if the effective center of that side force (i.e. if you replaced the overall side force with a single force at a point) is significantly offset from the bike steering axis. This then creates a torque about the steering axis depending on wind strength and direction and is what can make a wheel a handful in windy, gusty situations. However, moving the center of effort closer to the steering axis reduces these torques, and thus reduces the wheel's "twitchy-ness" in sidewinds.

This is actually what the Zipp engineering team was able to accomplish; lower drag AND lower side force induced torque abut the steering axis.

So, what's the bottom line? How well did the engineers do? Take a look at the drag plot released by Zipp, and in particular how the new Firecrest 404 shape compares to the previous 404 and 808 Zipp wheels.

From 0 to 10 degrees of yaw, the old 808 and the Firecrest 404 are nearly tied, with the 808 "beating" it by less than 10 grams of drag, or the equivalent of approximately 1 watt of power at race speeds (or, probably within the margin of error of the measurements.) Above 10 degrees of yaw however, the new 58mm deep Firecrest 404 shape is significantly faster than the older non-Firecrest 808 (the wheel Cancellara rode to victory as described above). Another "nifty" accomplishment by the Zipp engineering team was the fact that the drag performance for both the clincher and tubular versions of the wheel are identical. This hasn't always been the case for particular wheel designs.

For full article click here

Simon says: - This sounds very exciting (except the price) although I've gone one better (I hope) and have bought the Firecrest 808 tubular (Zedtech) front wheel. So I've got all the Firecrest technology/shape in the bigger cross-section of the 808 and with ceramic bearings of the Zedtech. Will it make me faster? A little I hope but most importantly it will now match my Zipp Sub 9 disc. I've got matching decals for both wheels too. I was always a little unhappy with the lack of match up between my Zipp disc and Hed 3 tri spoke. Let's be honest 95% of triathlon is all about the look! :)
Haha

Specialized - blowing up the competition

2011-06-06T16:44:00.002+08:00

(Courtesy of Richard Tang)

Cool video

www.simonwhitfield.com - "Yeah but can Cavendish do this?" (@markcavendish) from swhitfield on Vimeo.

Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee 1st & 2nd in Madrid

2011-06-05T20:01:00.005+08:00

(Courtesy of the BBC)

Alistair Brownlee beat younger brother Jonathan by two seconds to win Madrid's World Championship Series race.

A third successive victory in the Spanish capital for Alistair, 23, piled the pressure on title rival Javier Gomez, who finished 44 seconds behind.

It was the Yorkshire brothers' first time together on the podium.

They were so far ahead that Alistair could even wait to celebrate with his brother before crossing the finish line in one hour 51 minutes, seven seconds.

Alistair said: "It had to happen some time and why not have it happen in Madrid, a race where I have done really well and such a fantastic course."

Jonathan added: "It was really good, we train hard together and it's a bit strange because we've done it in small races but never in a world series.

"It's a bit of a strange feeling but really nice that he waited for me - it was really a special moment."

Gomez said: "The Brownlees were just on a different level on the run, so I couldn't do too much.

"I tried on the first lap, I tried to follow them but I know that was not my pace. I was waiting to see if they would slow down but they didn't, they went faster and they smashed me."

After a fast swim, 12 athletes broke away early on the bike and opened up a 90 second gap by the second transition before the Brownlees dominated the run.

The decisive moment came when Alistair broke away with two kilometres to go - a move that the rest of the field had no answer to.

Reigning Olympic champion Jan Frodeno was sixth with Britons Will Clarke and Stuart Hayes finishing 24th and 35th, respectively.

The win puts both Brownlees in poll position for the Olympic qualification races in London in August and Beijing in September.

Danny MacAskill Plays Capetown

2011-06-01T15:28:00.007+08:00

(Courtesy of Urban Ninja)

Simon says: - This guy really ROCKS. If I had 1% of his skill on my mountain bike I'd be a happy man!

Cheerful Tunes

2011-05-27T09:03:00.003+08:00

(Courtesy of MattyO)

Something just clicked with this song and video, I thought I was hilarious - hope it puts a smile on your face too.

Shimano electronic shifting for tri

2011-05-26T17:01:00.033+08:00

(Courtresy of Dan Empfield and slowtwitch.com)

There is a misunderstanding held by some that Di2—Shimano's revolutionary electronic shifting system—is wireless. It's not. It's only cableless. Were it wireless, it would require a lot more on-board power and your bike would need a bigger battery than the remarkably small and light one that the Di2 system requires.

So, one thing I hear sometimes from folks is, "If it's not wireless, then what's the point?" What's the big deal if you're just substituting a cable with an electronic wire?

Fair question. The answer, when it comes to triathlon in particular, is, often: Because you can shift from either the pursuit position or the bar ends.

Yes, that's true, and yes, that's nice, but, that's not in my opinion the primary benefit of Shimano's Di2 electronic shifting. The prime benefits are these: Shifting is perfect, every time and—yet more important—the front derailleur never misses a shift and trims itself automatically to normalize for the chain's placement on the rear cluster.

Now, a lot of naysayers might comment that index shifting—introduced by Shimano as a Dura Ace 6-speed product in 1984—by itself makes each shift by definition perfect. As opposed to "friction" shifting, index shifting is like (if you will) frets on a guitar. There is no necessity to know where a note is on a stringed instrument, the fret establishes exactly where the note is. You just have to place your fingers in the general vicinity of the note, just upstream from the fret.

But, if any of you are guitar, banjo, or mandolin players, you know that it's not quite that easy and, in fact, it is possible to mis-shift with an index system.

However, I'll grant you that practice (shifting a bike or playing a guitar, but in this case, let's keep it to shifting) makes perfect or, at least, nearer to perfect.

In the rear of the bike.

It's in the front of the drive train—the front derailleur—that mistakes happen, and if Shimano's electronic shifting simply functioned on the rear of the bike, that shift system would be all hat and no cattle. It's how Di2 functions around that crank that makes it special.

The Build
There are two ways to install Di2 onto a tri/TT bike, as on a road race bike: with the wires internal or external (just as with cabled bikes). But—just as with cabled bikes—there are frames built for internal Di2 wiring. This requires a different wiring harness, and a different battery mount, so, make sure you specify the bike this is going to go on before you make a purchase of a Di2 groupkit.

I installed mine on a Trek Speed Concept 9.9. Trek did an expert job of building a bike that accepts with exceptional ease Di2, and you can follow that link to read about the process of installation.

There are certain bikes in addition to the Speed Concept—Felt's DA as one example—that are built with the idea of an internally-wired Di2 kit. If the bike is not designed, from the ground up, with Di2 in mind, you might have a hard time with an internal route. Specifically, there are wiring junctions and harnesses that would require a pretty large aperture in the frame, and if the frame's not built with this in mind, one ponders whether drilling and cutting ad hoc apertures is indicated.

Otherwise, the wiring runs externally, and Shimano provides tape-like stuff to cover up the wires adjacent to the frame, to smooth the look, enhance the aerodynamics, and keep wires hidden. The advantage to having an external route is that it's easier, I would think, to troubleshoot and fix any wiring problem that might happen in the future.

That said, this is a closed system, completely waterproof, and if you use the "shrink tubes" that encompass and "hug" each wiring connection, connectivity problems will be very rare.

If you install a Di2 group, well, this is no longer bike building. Not in the traditional sense. It's helpful to have associated man skills. Like, if you were an electrician, or an appliance repair person, or a general handyman, I think you'd benefit from the interdisciplinary nature of your work. This is by no means a requirement, just, I'm used to floating through bike builds half-paying attention, on auto pilot. No can do here.

The Battery
It's just like the battery in your cordless drill. You have a charging station for recharging, plugged into a 110v outlet, and when the battery is low you take out off the bike, stick it into the charging station. Ninety minutes later you're charged and ready. There is a junction on the bike with LED lights (next picture just below, which I affixed with 2-sided tape to the Speed Concept's top tube) that tell you if the battery's low. [Simon says: - I don't like this fudge and keep my junction inside the frame. It's a bit fiddly to get out, you can't adjust it as you ride and can't easily see the battery level without making a point of checking but I prefer the clean lines of having it tucked away - guess it's a compromise either way]

The battery life is admirably long—many, many rides—and the shift system doesn't just stop cold if you run your battery entirely down. The front derailleur ceases to shift, but you still have the rear. It should never get to that, because it's easy to check for a battery that has less than 25 percent power. As long as you have more than 25 percent remaining, you have nothing to worry about as long as you're not immediately commencing RAAM.

Adjustments
The basic functions of the two derailleurs are unchanged. There are stlll hi/low limit screws, and the rear derailleur still needs to be adjusted to match the placement of the cluster on the wheel. On a typical cabled bike, you do this by adjusting the cable tension on a barrel adjuster, located at spot on the derailleur where the cable enters.

On a Di2 bike, you have one wiring junction that serves as a master control. You push a button (it's this same junction, pic adjacent, that you use to check battery life), a red light turns on, and this signals you're ready to adjust the rear derailleur. You then press the shift buttons just as you would to shift gears up or down, but the shifters are now programmed to move the derailleur in tiny increments. Move the derailleur up or down until the gnashing noise between the chain and cog disappears. Hit that junction button again, the red light goes off, presto, derailleur is now adjusted.

This is so easy, you can—and I did—perform a derailleur adjustment on the bike, while riding.

Modularity
If there ever was a Shimano group that deserved to enjoy "gruppo integrity" by its customers, this is the one. And, the Di2 group I hung was entirely Di2/Dura Ace. Retaining integrity means the group is by no means inexpensive. An entire group will cost you between $4500 and $5000 complete. Keep in mind many bikes today—like the Speed Concept—come with their own brakes, so you don't need the brake calipers that come with this Di2 kit. That'll save you some coin.

Di2's absolute necessities are the front and rear derailleurs and shifters (both bar-end and pursuit), wiring kits, battery and charger. The chain, cassette and chainrings, while engineered with Di2 in mind, are not absolute Di2 requirements. None of these appear on Felt's B10, and the Di2 on that bike by all accounts functions fine.

This isn't to say you can slap anything on a Di2-shifted bike and it'll work. As with any bike, bad chainrings are bad chainrings, and the bike won't shift well. Felt made sure, when it spec'd Vision's TriMax crank on its B10, that it also spec'd Vision's best chainrings, so that the shifting was crisp and clean.

Conversely, on the rear it doesn't appear that the cassette even needs to be Shimano. Reports from the field say that SRAM cassettes shift admirably well on a Di2 bike.

The stuff you absolutely, positively need to make a Di2 bike—shifters, both derailleurs, wiring, battery and charger—will cost you between $2500 and $3000. How much of the rest of the bike you want Dura Ace determines how much of the $2000 difference between the bare essentials and complete Dura Ace you want to spend.

Please allow me a backward and sideways digression. What I do not know yet is whether you could leave off the Di2 pursuit position shifters/levers and have the system still function. You'd have an open circuit there—a plug that expects a shifter, but, no shifter for it to plug into.

Not that I think this is a wise idea, but, this shifter is $500 at retail, so, if you really wanted to do Di2 on the cheap, this is one possible omission. Of course, shifting at the pursuit position is supposed to be the big deal for triathletes—this is what makes Di2 so cool for us. Honestly, I rarely use this function, because I'm always in the aero position. I can see where time trialists might use it more often: accelerating out of the saddle from the start, and again after rounding a corner.

But, as a triathlete I don't do that, and I climb almost always while remaining in the aero position. So, I guess this feature is technique-specific. If you climb with hands on the pursuits, then the ability to shift while in the pursuits becomes a more valuable feature.

Di2's Downside?
I don't know what its downside is yet. I don't know what sort of failure rate has been experienced and, by "failure rate", I mean you're just riding along and you push the button and the bike won't shift.

Anecdotally, I haven't heard of a single failure while riding. Not one. And I've asked. I can imagine, thought, that failures can be somewhat problematic on internally routed bikes. You should expect to pay more for a bum wire—both in labor and parts—than a shift cable that went bum on your traditionally shifted bike. There are three wiring kits that makes up the Di2 gruppo and none cost less than $150. I don't know if there's a lifespan and, if so, what it is. (It's certainly longer than the lifespan of a shift cable.)

My mind ran to everything that might happen to a Di2 bike. I'm recharging my battery, I throw my bike in my car and head to my race, forgetting to take the battery out of the charger and replace it on my bike. That would be unfortunate. Just know that you should never leave your battery off the bike except for the brief 90 minutes of charging, because, as noted, this is a closed and waterproof system—but only when everything (battery included) is on the bike. Once you remove the battery, now you've opened this system to the elements.

Also of concern to me is the specter of what might happen during transport to an event, putting the bike in a box for an airplane ride. A wiring junction coming undone. Is this a logical concern? Why am I afraid of this? I don't know. Maybe I'll get over it.

Look, I'm sounding a little panicky, even just listening to myself, and I know it's because Di2 is a paradigm shift (pardon the pun) in how a bike functions. Like anyone who's got two feet firmly planted in tradition, I'm suspicious of new; I'm afraid of new.

As examples...

I remember vividly, in 1984, dismissing the very idea of index shifting. "If you don't know how to shift your bike," I said, "You've got bigger problems than Shimano can ever solve for you."

I said something similar when STI shifting debuted. Likewise the idea of 6 speeds on a cassette—I was perfectly happy with 5 speeds and did not see the need for a 6th. Same when Shimano moved to offer cassettes with 7 speeds. 8 speeds. And so on.

I'm slowly learning my lesson. While Shimano doesn't always recognize other companies' improvements (threadless headsets, and we can argue about chain quicklinks), the fact remains that Shimano's improvements are, always, improvements.

The Future
Ultegra Di2 will at some point debut, though it will not be compatible with Dura Ace Di2—no mixing and matching. But, you can see the trend. Pretty soon we'll have 105 electronic shifting, and some day maybe mechanical shifting will be a thing of the past.

I'm not going to get caught on the wrong side of history this time. Count me in. No more front derailleur trimming, no more chain suck, no more mis-shifts. If the art of shifting will now devolve into simply the art of pushing a button, I'm okay with that.

Di2 is one of Shimano's current strongholds in triathlon; this, and a current hegemony over the mid-price point in cabled systems (Ultegra). SRAM, however, seems to be gaining a strong position in high-end cabled (RED) and they're poised to take some of Shimano's Ultegra biz if and when they get traction on their narrative about Force (a very nice, but still rather anonymous, gruppo positioned to complete with Ultegra).

SRAM does well in tri because it did what Shimano should have, but failed, to do for one decade and maybe two: make a tri-dedicated bar-end shifter and plug-in brake lever. Ironically, Shimano now makes both, and they're both expertly engineered and executed, but, they're both a part of its electronic group.

SRAM will probably continue to eat into Shimano's market share in cabled tri bikes unless Shimano either addresses its lack of an up-to-date cabled bar-end shifter, or unless it brings electronic shifting downstream—and down-priced—so fast that can sidestep a need to make a new cabled bar-end shifter.

Electronic shifting has not ruined cabled shifting for me. I can very happily move from one to the other, just as in my garage are both a stick-shift diesel pick-up and an automatic transmission touring sedan—I drive each, I like each, each has its place.

Still, the way the front derailleur shifts and self-trims is the unexpected surprise and delight of Shimano's Di2. Front derailleur performance is what places this system ahead of any shift system now on the market.

Simon says: -
A usual and excellent article by Dan and he nailed it in most respects. I have to say though that I don't stand up in the pedals anymore and I stay in aero position up the climbs - that's is when I can. I'm pretty strong on the bike but there is always a last steep bit of a climb where you need to sit up and sometimes even stand up to get enough power going through the drive train - sometimes it just makes more sense; and on those rare occasions shifting buttons on the pursuit bars are invaluable and worth every cent.

As for switching between using a Di2 system and regular cable shifts I did agree with Dan that there's a place for both and switching between the two is seemless and harmonious. BUT... that was before I'd put about 5000km into my new Speed Concept and now when I get back on my cable shifting road bike half the time I forget what to push and when and wonder what I'm doing with such ridiculous prehistoric kit. Yes it does make you a bit of a bike snob but honestly when your Di2 becomes part of you then you'll NEVER EVER want to go back to the old block and tackle system.

What starts out as a novelty ends up being an essential bit of kit. The cost is the only real issue but as Dan says, once the Utegra and then 105 Di2s are on the market these systems will become as commonplace as electric windows on cars - weren't they just a luxurious novelty once?

Oh yes, I almost forgot, If you do a lot of gear changing then you're not going to get the 1000 miles out of each battery charge that is promised. I'm a bit anal about keeping my power and cadence constant so I change gear a lot (and the Di2 makes it so easy) but it's rather amusing when everything suddenly stops working!!! Haha, luckily I was only 15km from home and heading back at the time so I ground my way back and was grateful for the lesson. Now I have a recurring monthly reminder on my computer and phone to recharge it.

There's apparently no battery charge "memory" and it can be charged 500 times - that's a lot of riding and great value for money if you ask me.

Nursing Man-Flu

2011-05-25T21:24:00.005+08:00

I'm nursing man-flu (a heavy cold). No training this week and off work. I'll be back in a day or two with a vengeance. I needed a break from training anyway. Haha

I avoided the antibiotics so far but not sure that's going to last as it's threatening to move to my lungs. We shall see.

Later Taterz

Simon

PS Watched "The Last King of Scotland" from my sick bed yesterday. Great movie (although complete nonsense from a historical point view - they only got one fact right - Idi Amin was the nasty evil dictator of Uganda). Forest Whitaker was a scary mofo as Idi Amin. Forest usually plays cuddly, snuggly teddy bear characters - he was brilliant in this movie, really scary and the real deal.

The Aquathlon - in video

2011-05-20T09:53:00.001+08:00

The start

Return leg of the swim

The run

The medal and the proud daddy

Ironman (Mt) Korea Course Profile

2011-05-19T15:03:00.004+08:00

This just in from Richard Tang, the Ironman Korea (or should I say the Ironman Mt Korea) course profiles. Whahahahahahahahahaha is all I can say, it's gonna be a hillfest from hell. I wouldn't be surprised if the swim wasn't uphill too!

This makes you wonder not only what wheels to take but what bike to take - road or TT??? As for the run it looks like grappling irons may be a prerequisite straight out of T2.

Oh well ay, it's the same for everyone I guess, glad I changed my biking route to the hilly Broga loop last week and from now on my 32k long run will incorporate double hill too.

It's all gonna hurt, even more than usual. *sob sob*

CLICK TO ENLARGE

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Seb's first multisport event - Aquathlon

2011-05-16T13:18:00.010+08:00

Yesterday Seb did his first multi sport event, the Alice Smith Aquathlon. Sid said a while ago that he didn't want to do it and when Sid makes up his mind there's pretty much no changing it. Having said that, when Sid decides he'll try something then he becomes very proficient, very quickly, I've no doubt we'll see his inaugural appearance in the not too distant future.

Seb was totally unfazed by the whole thing, he was amazingly totally cool and calm, no sign of any nerves, unlike Mummy and Daddy! It was a 50m swim and 750m run. The youngest age-group was under 8's so he was competing against mainly 6 and 7 year olds and two of his friends from his year.

The briefing.

Totally relaxed a few minutes before the start.

The whistle went and he was off, no hesitation, he just flew. He didn't swim that straight (a bit like his dad) and neither did the other kids, so there was loads of bumping and crashing (just like a mass Ironman start). It didn't phase him one little bit, he never missed a stroke, kept correcting his line and kept going at a beautifully consistent pace. He was back in no time, changed into his shoes (I was the official shoelace tier-upper, I may have to get him elastic laces if he gets into it).

His running was equally amazing, he's a bit of a surger i.e. goes easy and then surges forward. I was convinced he'd need to walk at some point but he was so focused and just kept on pushing. If any kid came from behind he'd surge forward and even caught some of the older kids that started walking. He never looked like he'd stop once, I was choked up, I don't think I've ever been prouder of him.

Here he is with his well earned finisher's medal. Once again he was totally chilled about what he'd just accomplished - really something to see, did I mention how proud I was?

Here's Seb and Sid together, as predicted Sid felt very left out with all the focus on Seb (deservedly so), I think next time Sid might just think about doing it too, I hope so, Seb had so much fun and so did Mummy and Daddy.

Seb took his medal to school today and told his teacher. She was very impressed and very sweet about it, she even gave him a house point!!!

Things happen for a reason - No they don't!

2011-05-16T10:57:00.021+08:00

Some people have said to me that Ironman China being cancelled happened for a reason (I disagree) and then shared their thoughts on some of the positives that have come out of it (of which I greatly appreciate).

I am not a fatalist, nor do I place my faith in some imaginary "super being", I believe that your destiny is in your own hands and you create your own fate. With that said, I feel that good things usually happen to me and that's probably due to the fact that I always think positively and always look for opportunity in every aspect of life even (especially) adversity.

So what good will come out of the cancellation of Ironman China? Below is my list so far (and no doubt I'll quietly add to it).

Firstly though, I was doing my long ride on Saturday, I'd changed it from my fast, flowing, rolling hill Port Dickson course (186k), which was perfect for IMChina, to the hillfest monster of the Broga Loop (195k). I'm assuming Korea will be hilly as it has been in previous years.

As I was reflecting on IMChina, I was already accepting of the cancellation and all the plus points that were going to come out of it. But then it struck me, I wasn't as fit or down to weight for IMChina as I had been for IMMY last year, I'm in pretty good shape but not where I should be or where I'd promised myself I would be.

I thought to myself, I would have paid a lot of money for 5 extra weeks training, in fact if you'd have asked me exactly how many more weeks I need I would have said 4 if everything went well but 5 weeks as there are inevitable setbacks. Eureka, WTC, the local organisers or the Chinese government had just gifted me a dream scenario - now all I have to do is deliver on the training and race day will take care of itself.

So, to the list: -

5 extra weeks to train (seriously needed)

5 extra weeks to get to, or at least close to, my target weight (super important now it's likely to be hilly, this also helps me for IMLP as that is hilly too)

There will be an extra 25 Kona qualifying slots awarded to IMKorea (now 75 instead of 50).

I get my IMChina entry fee back in full (easily offsetting my no-refundable flight & visa costs)

I hadn't paid anything yet for the hotel in China

I get a free entry to IMKorea

Hotels are cheaper at IMKorea than IMChina

I've never been to Korea

China had cancelled the swim, I'd have gone but it just wouldn't have been the same

My goal is to qualify for Kona, if I'd done it in China without the swim there would have always been a question mark (in my own mind at least)

I have an important business EGM that I was going to miss in Singapore - now I can go.

I'm doing IMLake Placid - it was 8 weeks after IMChina, I had no idea how to handle the training for that, now it is just 3 weeks after IMKorea so it's rest, no long stuff and training just to maintain fitness - EASY!

My performance is drastically compromised when a race is longer than 3 hours and the temperature gets over 30C - IMChina's weather is extremely unpredictable, it may have been cool but it may have been super hot also. IMKorea looks far more stable and is likely to be high 20's. I'll take the predictability any day.

I can drink coffee again (until the start of June at least haha).

My inevitable return to drinking, eating pizzas and ice-cream is delayed at least another 5 weeks - I'm taking this as a positive as it means I'll be in better shape for IMLP.

I'm feeling really good about things again; I felt I'd let myself down in the build up to China - too many broken promises to myself.

So as you can see I'm really psyched about this.

I do feel for the people that were just starting their taper and were 100% ready for China though (except those in my age-group - sorry people, now you're screwed - Bring it on! haha)

IRONMAN CHINA CANCELLED

2011-05-13T07:32:00.001+08:00

World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) announced today that the 2011 Ironman China and Ironman 70.3 China races, set to take place on May 29 in Jixian, Tianjin, have been cancelled. After the cancellation of the swim portion of the race earlier in the week and the resulting change to a bike-run format, WTC was informed that Tianjin Sports Bureau (TSB) could not obtain the required sanctions from the China Triathlon Sports Association (CTSA) to conduct the event.

"Events in China require an appropriate sports body to act as the co-organizer," said Murphy Reinschreiber, managing director of the Asia Pacific region for WTC. "While we have had nothing but positive experiences in working with China's sports authorities in the past, TSB simply failed to provide all of the documentation necessary for CTSA to process the sanction."

WTC is offering a full refund of entry fees to all athletes who were scheduled to compete at Ironman China and Ironman 70.3 China. Additionally, all athletes will be offered a complimentary race entry into any of the 2011 Ironman and Ironman 70.3 races listed below.

PowerBar Ironman 70.3 Switzerland
Ironman 70.3 Boise
Ironman 70.3 Italy
K-Swiss Ironman 70.3 Kansas
Ironman France
Ironman 70.3 Korea Jeju
Ironman Korea Jeju
Ironman 70.3 Muncie
Ironman Switzerland
Amica Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island
Ironman 70.3 Racine
Ironman Regensburg
Finanzgruppe/Naspa Ironman 70.3 Wiesbaden European Championship
Whirlpool Ironman 70.3 Steelhead
Ford Ironman Louisville  

"We were shocked by the news today that Ironman China and Ironman 70.3 China would need to be cancelled, especially since we were unaware that this might be the result when we decided to cancel the swim earlier this week," said Steve Meckfessel, chief operations officer for WTC. "We want all athletes who committed the time and training to participate in these events to still get their chance to compete later this season."

To ensure that Asia-Pacific athletes are represented at the 2011 World Championship events, WTC is allocating the age group qualifying slots from Ironman China and Ironman 70.3 China to other races in the region. Ironman Korea Jeju, scheduled for July 3, 2011, is receiving 25 Ford Ironman World Championship slots, giving it a total of 75, and Ironman 70.3 Korea Jeju is receiving 10 slots for the Ironman World Championship 70.3. Additionally, the 2011 Cobra Energy Drink Ironman 70.3 Philippines, set to take place on August 14 in Camarines Sur, Philippines, will receive 30 slots for the Ford Ironman World Championship.

Athletes will receive their entry fee refund within three to four weeks and an e-mail on May 16, 2011 with information regarding race registration for one of the complimentary events. In the coming days, athletes will also receive information on cancelled hotel and travel arrangements. In the meantime, all questions may be directed to china@ironman.com.

The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Endurance Athletes

2011-05-12T10:50:00.000+08:00

(By Urban Ninja - check out his website here. Simon says: he's a coach and judging by this he seems to know what he's talking about and communicates it well too).

Over the years, I have tried to learn as fast as possible what it takes to get to the top while working a normal day and dealing with normal stress like the amateur guy I am. I want to race among the middle pro’s and beat all the other guys with jobs. So what does it take? How do you get there?

Study:
Go out and read what the best guys are doing. Doc Gowans taught me how to do that – that man absorbed more knowledge on Ironman racing in the time he was a serious age grouper than most of you will in your lifetime and it worked. I learned so much from him and read all the books he read, all the forums and websites. Be studious… like the 8th dwarf.

1. Consistency:
Doing the work every day. I have found that my body and my mind work best with an average of two hours of training per day. I make sure my workout time is treated as high priority for every day, twice a day in heavy load periods. Essentially, its a meeting with yourself to better yourself. Make sure you arrive on time.

2. Be a Geek:
Work on your aero position, your running form, your swim style. Try different shoes, saddles, socks, creams and eye wear. Make sure you have what works best for you. The most expensive might not be the best for your riding style, your foot strike or your body type. Make sure you are geeky about saving seconds. When you add all those seconds up, over the years, it becomes more than just a few minutes.

3. Recovery:
If you analyze your hours in a day, a very small percentage is for actual training. Your primary focus should be on what you can do to recover stronger, better and faster. Eat like it’s your job. Sleep like it is your religion and find the little things that give you an edge on recovery: hot tub, ART, massage, compression, ice baths, mongolian rugby midgets running back and forth over your quads, etc.

4. Eat like a Champion:
When I look at the diets of the guys and girls around me at races, those at the front are eating for their wins. They cut out the processed stuff when it counts and sure, they indulge, but not like you do. Real food only: veggies, nuts, meats, etc. James Cunnama taught me to never take my body to depletion and this especially counts with what you eat. You are what you eat. Your body is your vehicle, feed it the best quality fuel.

5. Compromise a little each day for gains in the long run:
Could you add 30min a day and keep your weekend rides to 5 hours instead of 7, risking injury and illness? I try and forgo a bit of time every day to not have to ride ALL day on the weekend and run for 3h30, risking injury. Find the biggest volume you can do in the week and reduce the weekend “cramming of miles” as a starting point.

6. Hire the best:
Buy your idol a beer and pick his mind. Find a professor in applied movement online in a forum and hound them for the right answers. Having a training plan from a guy is great but you will need to do more than that. I make the effort to hang with the pro guys because I learn from them far more than they will allude to. I am not a threat to them and neither are you. They are the pinnacle. When it comes to a coach, choose someone who works within these 7 habits.

7. Push that envelope:
From time to time, you need to throw it all out the window and go big. I prefer bike camps, as they limit the risk of injury, but you need to go way beyond for a week to get through the ordeal. We learn from ordeal because our central governor is broken and keeps us in the comfort zone. Get out that comfort zone and push that envelope. DO IT, but in limited quantities that leave you exhausted but not depleted, fatigued but not injured.

+++

Super simple, right?

What a ferkin disgrace - Ironman China cancels the swim

2011-05-10T09:28:00.012+08:00

Ironman China announced today that the swim portion of the event, set to take place on May 29 in Jixian, Tianjin, has been cancelled. The decision affects both the Ironman 70.3 and Ironman races, scheduled to debut in and around the Yu Bridge Reservoir. Both races will be conducted as bike-run duathlons, as would occur if the cancellation was due to weather or other natural causes.

The freshwater reservoir where the swim was scheduled to take place has been closed due to the impact of a major water works program implemented by city government. Ironman’s local operating partner, the Tianjin Sports Bureau, was only recently informed of this closure. Jixian was vetted as an Ironman venue a year ago by Ironman, the Tianjin Triathlon Association and the Tianjin Sports Bureau, and all necessary approvals were obtained at the time.

Ironman is offering a full refund of entry fees to athletes wishing to withdraw from the event. For the athletes who remain committed to race, Ironman is bulking up their chances of qualifying for the 2011 Ford Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, on Oct. 8, by adding 10 more qualifying slots to the original 50. The same amount of qualifying slots has also been added for the 2011 Ironman World Championship 70.3 in Lake Las Vegas, Nevada, in Sept.

“Event planning was proceeding normally until 10 days ago,” said Murphy Reinschreiber, World Triathlon Corporation’s managing director for the Asia-Pacific region. “While we did everything possible to maintain access to the reservoir and look for alternative swim venues, we ran out of options and appeals and have had to accept the city’s decision. Despite this setback, we remain committed to providing a high-quality race and travel experience.”

The races will be conducted with athletes starting time-trial style on their bikes at five second intervals. The start and transition area will be moved to a conveniently located park in Jixian. The Ironman finish line will close 14:30 after the last starter or at midnight—whichever is comes first. The Ironman70.3 finish line closure and bike cut-offs for both races will also be adjusted. Athletes will still get to experience racing in beautiful rural China. Modified maps and rules will be posted on the event website as soon as they are available.

Simon says: -
Obviously I'm torn between being "bought off" with 10 extra slots, not losing time on the swim to help qualifying for Kona and the fact that I won't feel great if I do make it by qualifying in a duathlon. Not only that, it's just not cricket! I'm better at duathlons than triathlons but I'm sorry du's just don't have the romance of tri's. I feel cheated and let down.

They say they'll give full refunds but will they refund our hotels and flights? I doubt it. What about all the pain sweat and tears that we've shed over the last few months? Will they refund those?

I certainly don't blame Ironman (for a change in this particular instance). If a country and more particularly a province/city was looking to sabotage its reputation and credibility on the International stage then this is the perfect example. What a complete bunch of bureaucratic dooshbags! Well done China, Jixian and Tianjin Province, what a spectacular fail!

One Liner from Ezer

2011-05-09T17:30:00.005+08:00

Here's a one liner for u:

q: What's scarier than to find blood in your urine?
a: Simon Cross' training plan!

Ezer

Simon says: - Haha, I thought that this was very funny although my training plan is usually blown out of proportion, honestly it's not that crazy.

Ironman China Training

2011-05-09T15:20:00.009+08:00

I generally don't do training posts...because...well...quite honestly they're usually as boring as [CHOOSE ONE] school, politicians, preachers(of any religion), going for a walk, watching paint dry or piano lessons. With one exception and only one exception, that's Bryan Payne who even seems to make putting his compression gear on interesting (he has a gift, drinks watered down beer but has a gift).

So what's different about this post? Well, it was an epic weekend's work out (Saturday - 186k/21k bike/run brick, Sunday 32k run), it was super hot and I was peeing blood like no tomorrow. If it had only been two out of three of these factors I wouldn't have bothered but it seems worth it under the circumstances with IMChina so close.

On Saturday I did my usually ride of 186k rolling hills, two short drinks stops and the rest of the time in the aero position giving it heaps. Richard Tang joined me which was great, it's always nice to have someone else along to suffer too.

The ride was fairly uneventful other than the fact that when the sun came up it was a little scary. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the usual haze that keeps the sun abated for the first couple of hours wasn't there. It was gonna be SUPER HOT unless we got lucky.

We didn't get lucky and I was wearing my race tri top exposing my shoulders and part of my back (I usually wear a bike Jersey). I was gonna end up in hospital at this rate as I'd forgotten to put block on. But then I did get lucky. At drink stop one, as luck would have it, Carmen turned up and had a bottle of sunblock. Disaster averted. THANKS CARMEN.

By the time we got back it was 40.3 Celsius, probably the hottest Saturday this year and almost no clouds. Unsurprisingly, my heart rate was much higher at 121bpm compared to last week's 107bpm for the same ride and we were 11 minutes slower.

We piled into some ice water, took a bit of a breather and then headed out for our brick run with the sun still beating down relentlessly. I convinced Richard to run bigger loops than last week but by 12.5k he'd had enough (trust me, this guy is tough as nails and a fantastic runner but he's also smart). I continued and knocked out 21k at a pace of 5:20mpk including 3 drink stops. Totally stoked by that and this was my second brick ride/run of the week where I'd knocked out a half marathon after the bike. Not to mention the crazy temperature.

But then the trouble started. I peed on the last loop of the run and noticed some blood in my urine. I've never had that before. After I'd loaded up on water and cooled down a bit I peed again and this time it looked like mostly blood and not much urine - oo ere! I wondered whether to worry Shilpa with it but I knew she'd be rightfully upset if I didn't. She was cool but then went and Googled it and came back and asked me if there was any pain when I peed.

No pain, "Oh!" she said..."Pain and you've probably got a urinary infection"..."No pain and it might be cancer"! NICE!!!

That was reassuring! In fact there are other explanations such as Kidney Disease or simply Runners Hematuria. The latter being irritation of the bladder caused by the constant jarring of the running action and dehydration.

By the end of the day my urine was clear and all was good. I decided to do my run in the morning and although 32k was scheduled I decided to run 11k and then check my urine and bail if there was any blood.

It was clear and I was relieved (haha pun intended). I was running with Sam, Julie, Richard (he was having his revenge for the day before and running circles round me) and Emer (not sure about spelling). Emer is a doctor and a sport addict by the sounds of it, she's super chatty and super nice, I hope she joins us again.

I was proudly telling the group of my previous day's problem when she suggested that it could be quite serious and end up in Renal Failure. NICE ONE! That stopped me in my tracks, literally for a moment or two. I was then scared enough to visit the hospital for a check up this morning.

We had a good steady run back but I was hurting bad by 18k and with the urine issue and the long brick run the day before I was full of excuses to call it a day at 21k. BUT...I had forgotten Richard who'd zoomed off ahead. He was sitting by my car quietly waiting for me to get back to start the last 11k!!! BUGGER!

So off we set, pain, misery, dark moments, regret, more pain, more misery, probably a bit of sobbing...blah blah blah and less than an hour later we were back. 32k in the bag and off home quick as you like for Mother's Day.

I went for a pee, with not just a little trepidation and apprehension... sure enough more blood, albeit less than the day before. Once again all was clear by the afternoon.

POSTSCRIPT
I went to get my Chinese Visa today. I had to apply in person on Friday and go for an "interview" today. The interview lasted 30 seconds and could have easily been done when I first applied. Now I have go back on Wednesday to collect my passport and visa. How bureaucratically stupid is this? I don't know if they think everyone going to China haven't got better things to do but come on guys, you want people to do business with you? You want people to come and spend money with you? This annoyance will certainly add weight to future decisions on business and touristy visits to China.

PISSCRIPT
After the Embassy visit I went to the hospital to get checked up. Three hours later I'd had my urine tested and there was not even a trace of blood cells which was encouraging. I'd also had a CT Scan of my kidney's and bladder. The doctor seemed pretty convinced that I had Kidney Stones somewhere in my system. The CT scan gave me the all clear too. I have an appointment with a Urologist tomorrow for a second opinion and hopefully we'll eliminate the Kidney Disease and Bladder Cancer too.

(Both Shilpa and my business partner Ian were a little more concerned than they should be when I told them I'd been referred to a Neurologist, as it turns out I'm just a little illiterate rather than needing my brain looked at haha)

Some wicked one-liners

2011-05-06T14:13:00.003+08:00

(Courtesy of Nick Flynn)

A mate of mine recently admitted to being addicted to brake fluid.
When I quizzed him on it he reckoned he could stop any time.

I went to the cemetery yesterday to lay some flowers on a grave. As I was standing there I noticed four pall-bearers walking about with a coffin. Three hours later and they're still walking about with it.
I thought to myself, these blokes have lost the plot!!

I was at a cash-point yesterday when a little old lady asked if I could check her balance.
Not being one to disappoint I pushed the old dear over.

A new middle east crisis erupted last night as Dubai Television was refused permission to broadcast 'The Flintstones'.
A spokesman for the channel said....'A claim was made that people in Dubai would not
understand the humour, but we know for a fact that people in Abu Dhabi Do.'

My son's been asking me for a pet spider for his birthday, so I went to our local pet shop and they were £70!!!
Blow that, I thought, I can get one cheaper off the web.

Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs are not happy.

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.
She said, 'I want something waterproof and shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.'
I bought her bathroom scales.

Saw my mate outside the Doctor's today looking really worried. "What's the matter?" I asked. "I've got the big C,"he said. "What, cancer?"
"No, dyslexia."

I start a new job in Seoul next week. I thought it was a good Korea move.

I got some new aftershave today that smells like breadcrumbs.
The birds love it!

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has announced that he intends to make it more difficult to claim benefits.
From next week, all the forms will be printed only in English.

I was driving this morning when I saw an RAC van parked up. The driver was sobbing uncontrollably and looked very miserable.
I thought to myself 'that guy's heading for a breakdown'.

On holiday recently in Spain I saw a sign that said 'English speaking Doctor'
I thought, 'What a good idea, why don't we have them in our country?'

Ironman China - the story continued...

2011-05-03T18:16:00.009+08:00

I haven't blogged for a while but I do intend to start posting stuff more regularly, even if they're just funnies. Also I've added a couple of self-indulgent pictures to try to help motivate myself. The bike is from IMMY last year and the run from the Malakoff Duathlon series in 2006. No reason other than I like both of them.

Anyways, I haven't been terribly motivated to blog, train consistently or do anything else really. I'm still in a bit of a funk. To try to get myself out of it I had a look at the competitor list for Ironman China. I thought I'd better check to see if the two Japanese guys that beat me in 70.3 Singapore were going.

The good news is they're not registered but then I made a terrible mistake, I checked out everyone else. I did the same thing for Ironman Langkawi last year and then a bunch of Frenchies turned up at the last minute and whooped me.

A couple of hours later I'd established that eleven competitors registered for China in the 45-49 category had qualified for Kona last year!!!! ELEVEN! That's flippin insane. I'm telling you those over-achieving 1962-1966 baby boomers are a pain in the a$$.

So rather than spurring me on and enthusing me, it really gave me a kick in the teeth. Don't get me wrong I haven't given up but with my start/stop training and my start/stop mojo (or lack thereof) I just didn't need to see that.

HOWEVER, the fact is I usually pull great races out of the bag more times than not. My training may be far from perfect but certainly in Olympic Distance and 70.3's I almost always overachieve. Add that to the fact that an Ironman is an Ironman and much can go wrong for many people plus my secret weapon DENIAL then I shall be toeing the start line with my overinflated ego and confidence in tact. I'll always bet on myself, regardless of the odds.

But then I believe it was me that said "YOU CAN'T BLUFF AN IRONMAN LIKE YOU CAN AN OLYMPIC DISTANCE RACE". Time has pretty much run out now, I have 4 weeks left, 2 of hardcore training and 2 of quality tapering. The 2 weeks of the hardcore stuff is where I can mix the potions for the magic to happen but the stressful 2 weeks of tapering are the most dangerous where self-sabotage driven by stress can scuttle even the best laid plans.

I guess you have to know the murky depths of the inner me to truly understand what I'm on about here but I suspect that any PFG Ironmen (previous fat guys) will get a hint of what I'm wittering on about.

So there you go, an update, no longer a cry for help, no need for positive comments or kicks up the butt. What is there, is there and I'll make the magic happen and keep the self-sabotage at bay OR I won't. Either way it's down to me and there ain't no place or time to hide anymore.

So to the facts: -

My swimming is a little better, somewhere closer to my best than to my worst!!! I'm not sure what that really means but I think it means that in a nice buoyant wetsuit I shouldn't lose that much time.

My bike is unbelievable, I'm knocking out 180+k rides in 30-40C heat at a faster pace than I have ever done before without even trying. Averaging 35-36kph and heart rate down to under 110. It must be the bike.

My run is really not looking pretty though, I'm overweight and no sign of being able to drop anymore (stress = eating too much for me, "Then, don't eat you idiot" I hear you say but believe me it's difficult to control. At least being off pizzas, ice-cream and alcohol is helping to keep it stable. BUT...to run a descent marathon after the swim and the bike you have to be down to weight...AND I'M NOT!...Mmmmm!

To qualify for Kona I'm expecting to have to hit a time of sub 10hrs. That's what I shall aim for and if I can conjure up the magic over the next four weeks then there's an outside shot.

After China, there's IMLP. That was always my fall back position but I know well that the first Ironman of the year is almost always the strongest. BUT...? If it doesn't happen in China then...? Well, that's another soul searching blog or two... and it would take a monumental change of attitude. So let's do China first.

One thing's for sure, the next 12 weeks are going to be interesting, I'm going to be going to shadowy places deep inside myself that are scary, dark and miserable but somehow that's starting to excite me, getting reacquainted with one's own frailties, weaknesses and inner limits exposes your soul. The beauty of it is that no one else will see the full extent of it but myself, the journey will make me stronger, it will make me faster and if the usual pattern is followed it will make me appreciate the true brilliance of life even more.

Could a marathon ever be run in under two hours?

2011-04-12T10:57:00.007+08:00

(Courtesy of Chantal and the BBC)

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE)

As thousands prepare for the London Marathon, the world's best face perhaps the most awe-inspiring barrier in sporting endeavour - the sub two-hour marathon. But can anyone break it, asks Chris Dennis.

A marathon of 26.2 miles (42.2km) in 120 minutes - the very thought takes my breath away.

Expert opinion on whether it is possible is intriguingly divided.

For some it is the next great sporting barrier to be broken, for others it will always remain beyond the limit of endurance. Could it happen at the 2012 Olympics?

The current world record holder, Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, who ran the 2008 Berlin Marathon in 2:03:59, has no doubt it could be done, but not in the next few years, ruling out the next Games.

The 38-year-old tells me: "No question. The first sub two-hour marathon will need 20 to 25 years, but it will definitely happen."

Britain's top woman runner and world women's record holder Paula Radcliffe agrees.

"Records are there to be broken and people are going to be shooting for it, but someone is going to have to run really hard to beat this one. That's the kind of mindset it will take."

Even the thought that it could be broken within a generation causes excitement.

"I'm 60. If I've got my figures right, I'll live at least 20 years, so I believe in the next 20 years we will see the first sub two-hour marathon," London Marathon race director Dave Bedford says.

But the reigning Olympic men's champion, 24-year-old Kenyan Sammy Wanjiru, who ran the distance in 2:06:32 in Beijing, believes it is beyond his own abilities.

"For me it's impossible to run two hours, but two hours two minutes, it's possible. Maybe the new generation... you could get strong people. But in this generation, you cannot talk about two hours."

Another sceptic is Glenn Latimer, one of the leading authorities on marathon running in the US. He doesn't believe it can happen in his lifetime. "Maybe that's because I'm old, but I don't see it happening in a long, long time.

"You watch these great athletes up close, an athlete as great as Haile Gebrselassie... and you could see the strain, he looks magnificent through 20, 21, 22 miles and then it starts, and then the body starts to break itself down and maintaining pace is hard enough," he said.

They both believe the record will come down to two hours and two minutes, at which point it will plateau.

Then again, 60 years ago people were saying the same thing about the four-minute mile, before Roger Bannister came along.

The science of endurance running is highly complex, but physiologically, there are three main factors which determine how quickly someone can run:

- their maximal rate of oxygen consumption, known as VO2 max
- their running efficiency - how quickly they can cover the ground
- their endurance capability - what percentage of their VO2 max they can sustain

Opinion among sports scientists varies on exactly where the limit of human endeavour lies. For some, Haile Gebrselassie's current record is already pretty close, for others, there is still a way to go.

Looking at the progression of the marathon world record is fascinating.

Reducing it from 2:16 to 2:12 took seven years, 2:12 to 2:08 took 19 years, and cutting it from 2:08 to the current mark of 2:03:59 took 24 years.

By analysing actual performances and extrapolating, Francois Peronnet, a professor at the University of Montreal, calculates that the first sub two-hour marathon will be run in the year 2028.

Whenever it happens, it would mean running each mile at a four minute 35 second pace. By comparison, a decent club runner might run at a seven-minute mile pace, and a casual runner at nine or 10 minutes.

I have experienced first-hand what it would feel like to run at sub two-hour marathon pace. For just a fraction of the marathon distance.

Hooked up to a state of the art treadmill at the English Institute for Sport at Loughborough University, Leicestershire, under the guidance of two of the country's top physiologists, I ran at a 4:35 pace for 10 seconds.

It was tough - and the thought of doing it over 26.2 miles for up to 120 minutes was simply mind-boggling.

'Perfect mix'

Where most experts agree is that the first sub two-hour marathon will need several factors to come together on one day in the perfect mix.

"If on the day of competition you miss one thing, you miss everything," Gebrselassie says.

First, it will need an elite athlete in tip-top condition, probably one from east Africa.

Second, it will need to be on a fast, flat course such as Berlin, London or Rotterdam. Berlin is known as one of the quickest and has produced four world records in the last 10 years.

Third, perfect weather conditions. No wind and temperatures of around 10-15C.

Fourth, decent pace-makers to lead the race and take the elite round at the right speed.

Finally, money.

As the marathon gets closer to the magic mark, race directors will dangle huge financial carrots to incentivise runners to break it. The first person to dip under two hours will run into the record books a very rich person.

Radcliffe knows what it feels like to experience a perfect mix. Back in London in 2003 she blew the women's world record (which she had set the year previously) out of the water by setting a new mark of 2:15:25.

"The fact that you feel like everything was flowing. It wasn't forced. Nothing hurt. You're not even thinking - you're just running. It's just second nature, you've trained so hard for it and race day feels easier than the training that you've done," she explains, describing the feeling of being "in the zone".

By common consent in running circles, the first two-hour marathon will be run by someone from Ethiopia, Eritrea or Kenya. But why?

I spent a few days in Ethiopia with some of the country's top runners and coaches.

Ethiopia may be one of the poorest countries in the world, but it has a formidable track record.

The likes of Abebe Bikila, Mamo Wolde, Miruts Yifter, Kenenisa Bekele, and the man they call the Little Emperor, Haile Gebrselassie, have all rolled off the country's running conveyor belt over the years.

Most of them started running soon after they could walk. Those born in the countryside, such as Gebrselassie, would run 10km (6.2 miles) or more to school and back every day. There was no other way of getting there.

Add to that the altitude (capital Addis Ababa is 2500m (8202ft) above sea level), a simple diet of mainly organic food, good weather and an extraordinary work ethic, and you see why the country's runners are so successful.

Training with Ethiopia's elite youth runners proved they had the determination and dedication needed For Ethiopia's elite athletes life is almost monastic - run, eat, sleep. Then run, eat, sleep. There is very little time for anything else.

I was lucky enough to join one group for a training session at sunrise on the outskirts of Addis. Just one 5km (3.1 mile) loop at moderate pace left me gulping for air, but for the elite runners, that was merely a warm-up.

I also met youngsters from Ethiopia's next generation of marathon runners - could one of them be the next Haile Gebrselassie and possibly the world's first sub two-hour marathon runner?

Their dedication and self-discipline are both humbling and awe-inspiring. Many of them feel it is their national duty to maintain Ethiopia's position as the top distance-running country in the world.

If in 20 years the marathon record is reset at 1:59:59, do not be surprised if it is done by an Ethiopian.

Simon Says: -
Of course 2 hours will be broken but it will take a freak of nature along the lines of a Lance Armstrong in cycling, or a male Paula Radcliffe or Chrissie Wellington.

I doubt it will be me! Haha

Where I am, warts and all - Kick me up the A$$

2011-04-07T09:48:00.012+08:00

OK, let's get this straight, after reading this I want, no messages of support, disbelief or generally well meaning comments. Only kicks up the A$$ will be accepted.

Large doses of reality, firm kicks up the backside and anything along the lines of reminding me that I'd promised myself that I'd turn up at Ironman China with no regrets, down to race weight (not just near to it) and fully fit knowing that nothing would stop me qualifying for the Ironman World Championships, are all gratefully welcomed.

Yes, I came out of a huge slump from the end of last year, I've got my MOJO back but to be frank, it's not fully back and I've got motivational problems.

Yes I qualified for the Xterra Worlds, yes I've qualified for the 70.3 Half Ironman Worlds but I've qualified for those before and to be honest it's easy to qualify for these compared to Ironman.

No disrespect meant to anyone else but I've raced Xterra twice and qualified twice and I've raced 70.3 twice and qualified twice. I've raced Ironman 17 times, came close only once and have never qualified. I cannot adequately express the magnitude of difficulty it is in qualifying for Ironman (for me at least).

However, I have been close enough to know what it takes. I know the depth of misery that I must go to in training, week in, week out, for months on end. The level of fitness and endurance necessary to compete rather than complete, is unprecedented.

I know that the swim cannot be written off as unimportant, especially when missing qualification by a handful of minutes in 2010. I know that the race always comes down to the run and usually the second half of the run.

I know that if I have a chance then I will have to be at the absolute top of my game, nothing left behind, weight, fitness and mind will all have to be the best they have ever been to succeed. Anything less and I will not qualify, I have bluffed good results in many races but you don't bluff your way onto an Ironman podium.

So what's the problem? Mmm! Where to begin? First of all, just to let you know, this post isn't to inform, entertain or educate but it is a last desperate attempt to get myself ready for Ironman China. Only I can put things right and time is almost up.

Is anything on track? Oh yeah baby, the bike - duh! Not a difficult one, I love the training and I love the pain on the bike, I don't feel it's a damaging pain like the run or an unpleasant uncoordinated feeling like the swim, it's kind of pleasant, fulfilling and soothing in a way.

On the bike I understand what I have to do, how hard to push, how to pace and what to expect. I'm not at optimum Ironman biking endurance yet but another half a dozen 180+k rides will have that bagged.

So what are the problem areas?

Swim, Run, Weight, Mind.

The truth is that the MIND is the big problem, I'm still suffering from last year's burnout and although things were back on track I've hit some bumps in the road, I shan't list them, I knew they'd turn up and I promised myself I'd work them out. Fortunately I'm not sick so that's a bump dodged so far.

But there is precious little time left. I feel that this post will be do or die. Today will be a shed water, it will be the day I realised I blew it for China or the day I gave myself a fighting chance. Naturally I'm betting on the latter, hey, that's why I'm writing it.

So to document the stuff that can be affected assuming I can fix my mind. Weight, I'm over 73kg again and NEED to be 67kg. Please don't argue, I need to be 67kg to be competitive, not only for the extra speed that better "power/weight" ratios bring but more importantly to help to keep my core temperature down.

I sweat at a rate of 3 ltr/hr at full bore and as far as I understand the body can only ingest 1.5 ltr/hr of fluid. You don't need to be a mathematician to work that out over 10 hours. Lower body fat will put less stress on my system and more specifically lessen the insulation.

This is probably by far the biggest issue I have. Losing 6kg more while in this last phase of training is going to be a difficult ask especially while avoiding injury and sickness.

My second biggest issue is my run. I just haven't done enough, I can knock out a fast 10k or a reasonable 21k but to run a consistent Ironman marathon comes only with hundreds of kilometres of training and lots of long runs. I have an Achilles injury on my left foot and a long standing ankle tendon injury on my right foot. Running scares me at the moment because of my lack of training and consequently I find excuses not to do it. THIS MUST CHANGE.

Last year at IMMY, for the first time ever in an Ironman I was actually LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING ONTO THE RUN. I knew I was ready and I knew my run was going to be awesome. Dehydration slowed me down in the end but I still ran under 4 hours which was a huge breakthrough for me. I need to get that confidence back. Time is not on my side.

Lastly is the swim. In fact this is the one thing that I have done the least of in recent weeks. I started off the year doing almost 80k in just four weeks but since then I've lost the motivation. I just can't get in the pool in the mornings. THIS MUST CHANGE.

I've always said to people who fall off the wagon, (whatever wagon it might be, booze, fitness, smoking etc), never mind, don't mope, don't beat yourself up too much (a little self beating-up is good) but most importantly "Don't get back on the wagon at the beginning off the month or even on Monday morning. GET BACK ON THE WAGON NOW! Consequently, less damage is done, there is more likelihood for you to get back too it and you're far more likely to stick to it long term"

So don't feel sorry for me but equally don't think I'm worrying about nothing (PFG's [Previous Fat Guys] like me were fat for a reason, lack of discipline, self esteem/lack of belief, focus, consistency or they just loved being lazy). Do feel free to kick me up the A$$, in fact please kick me up the A$$, I need it.

WHAT CONFUCIUS DIDN'T SAY

2011-04-06T16:54:00.002+08:00

(Courtesy of Ian)

Man who wants pretty nurse, must be patient.

Passionate kiss, like spider web, leads to undoing of fly.

Better to be pissed off than pissed on. Lady who goes camping must beware of evil intent.

Squirrel who runs up woman’s' leg will not find nuts.

Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.

Man who runs in front of car gets tired, man who runs behind car gets exhausted.

Man who eats many prunes get good run for money.

War does not determine who is right, it determines who is left.

Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night.

It takes many nails to build a crib, but only one screw to fill it.

Man who drives like hell is bound to get there.

Man who stands on toilet is high on pot.

Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.

Man who fish in other man's well often catch crabs.

Finally CONFUCIUS SAY. . .

"A lion will not cheat on his wife, but a Tiger Wood!"