Links to more info..

As you know theres stacks of stuff out there to point you in the right direction, heres some of my favourites:


http://www.gordoworld.com/
http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/2005/12/choose-wisely.html

http://www.slowtwitch.com

http://www.xtri.com/isection.asp?id=ray

http://www.triathlontraining.net/


If you want details of events in and around Thailand, running, triathlon or multisports drop me a line - sith at patana.ac.th

What helps..

Now let me start by saying that I am not an expert, there is reams of material about training written - this is just the somewhat obvious things that I have found helpful..

Find a good training partner - this I think is critical, for me anyway, try and look for someone that shares the same ambitions and is COMMITTED, an added bonus is that they will want to complete the same events as you. It is not necessary for you both to be the same standard. For me just knowing there is someone waiting at the pool is enough to get me out of bed some mornings. If you have some one who is not reliable and cannot keep to the agreed schedule you will find that their actions start to give you excuses for missing sessions.

Set a schedule that is easily repeatable - consistency is what I have learnt as one of the golden rules, there is loads written out there about this by people that are much more credible than me. However from my brief experience this is true. No point making a schedule that you cannot keep to. For me getting fit is similar to building a house of of bricks, just slowly building the layers up until the house is complete. Consistency is the key - no point doing 5 hard days and then having 5 days off..

Set some goals - Very important, set goals on every level, for me my goal started as trying to reduce my weight as I had parked up during my office years and I had previous experience is keeping a reasonable level of fitness. This goal was quickly surpassed by virtue of just tackling training and now my goals are event based, the main one for 2006 is to complete an Ironman triathlon and 2007 to qualify for the Ironman championships in Hawaii. Anything else I can do along the way is a bonus.. I try and enter at least one competitive event a month, not only does this break up the repetitive nature of training but it gives you a good gauge of how you are improving - very helpful in Bangkok when the same people do all the events..

Have confidence in yourself - first place or last place, at least you are giving it a go, nothing better than looking around the office and knowing that you attempted events that others could not dream of. Its too easy these days not to be bothered to give anything a go. Anyone that tries something is going in the right direction in my book.

and finally go to bed early and grant yourself some off days..

On training..

This is the basic outline of my schedule at the moment, dont get me wrong I have worked up to this over a couple of months and this is really the maximum I can fit into my life without dropping something else, I seem to be able to keep this up without much problem and without feeling permanently tired, this year I might look to stretch the turbo sessions out a little.

Monday: AM Swim (5:00 - 6:45) PM Run Interval (5:00 - 6:10)
Tuesday: AM Swim (5:00 - 6:45) PM Cycle - Turbo trainer (5:00 - 6:10)
Wednesday:AM Swim (5:00 - 6:45) PM Cycle - Run Endurance(5:00 - 6:10)
Thursday:AM Swim (5:00 - 6:45) PM Cycle - Turbo trainer (5:00 - 6:10)
Friday:AM Swim (5:00 - 6:45) PM Run Interval (5:00 - 6:10)
Saturday:AM Cycle - Rama 9 (7:00 - 10:00)
Sunday: AM Race if there is one in Bangkok, usually 10K

The main problem here in Bangkok is there is nowhere to cycle - this programme would look very different if I could get out on the bike more. The best thing about Bangkok is that apart from being hot all the time you dont have to worry about the weather pretty consistant all year..

Exact swim sessions are available online - see link in another blog entry, I hope to put up exact sessions that I am completing in by late January - watch this space.

Swim Training Plans Available Online

I have started getting into the routine of swimming every morning - I cant say that I am getting any faster but I am getting fitter. Anyone that has done any swimming for a reasonable amount of time will appreciate that it can get very boring. Swimming as part of a defined session, with other people (preferably bettet than you) and continually mixing up the strokes will hel. I am lucky enough to have access to the school swim coach, Peter Howes, not only does he put together pretty good daily practices, he is prepared to get out of bed at 4:30am almost everyday and he makes a great training aid as he is like a dolphin (he could also probably balance a beach ball on his nose) in the water.

Have a look at the morning sets based around the schools Gold group of swimmers:


http://www.patana.ac.th/TigerSharks/sharkPage.asp?MainPageID=9&PageID=37

Review of the year..2005
Last year was a good year for me, I started training like I meant it in late September and I saw quite good gains in only a few months.

This year my highlighted events have been:

1) Mt Kinabalu Climbathon, Borneo Malaysia - do events get any harder than this one? - see report in this blog - painful or what. Manged to beat a very challenging cut off time - I will be back to tackle this one again in 2006. See the race report later in this blog.

2) Desaru half ironman, Malaysia - Another pain fest for me, but one that left no lasting damage, dsuffered a lot through not drinking enough and forgetting that simple rules that my mother taught me like wear a hat!! Lesson no 1 for Malaysian Ironman next year - drink like you mean it..
3) 24 hr race, Bangkok -
How far is it possble to run in 24hrs - we have all read the stories about people in dire sitautions covering large amount of distances on foot in limited times but how far could you make it? I managed 109 KM. Would have been better if i hadnt decided to have a quick nap in the middle of the night that turned into a full blown sleep - too much running earlier in the day. Overtaken by many whilst I was snoring away. Lesson no 2 - the tortise often catches the hare..





4) Adventure Race - Kanchanaburi, Thailand - An event that proves that exercise can be great fun - kayaking, running, mountain biking in one event along with some great views. Along with my team mate Chai managed a second place finish in one piece.


























5) Laguna Phuket Triathlon, Phuket, Thailand - As opposed to 2004 this was a completly pleasurable experience for me this year and I managed to shave 59 mins off my time from 2003 without the aid of the medical tent. Very well organised and great level of competition in a laid back atmosphere. I just wish I did not have to wait until December 2006 for the next one..

Thai Triathlon Championships - December 2005

Completed the Thai Triatholon championships in Rayong yesterday. Managed to finish 2nd in the 30 - 34 Age category in the Olympic triathlon (1.5 k swim, 40 K bike and 10 K run) in a time according to my watch of 2:22. Ross my current training partner picked up 1st in this category and also manged to put 12 minutes on me...

Although this is low key event with only 40 or so people taking part, the standard this year was good with visting althetes from Hong Kong uping the pace. A good event but still only a very small uptake for this sport here in Thailand, a similar event in Singapore, Hong Kong or Malaysia would be sold out..

photos available at http://www.thaitriathlon.org/webboard/on/post1006.htm

Mt Kinabalu - Climbathon Oct 2005

Nothing makes the hearts of runners sink than the sight of a looming hill up ahead. To a recreational athlete such as me, a hill means possible painful extra exertion on the lungs and legs.
Unfortunately, as most people know, Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia is no ordinary "hill". At 4095.2m (13435ft), it is stated as "the highest mountain between the Himalayas and the Mountains of New Guinea Island"
About 30,000 walkers a year make the journey to the summit of this world heritage site. Typically they will stay overnight at the Park HQ, then walk up to 11,000 ft and stay overnight in huts at the Laban Rata rest house for further altitude acclimatisation. Then very early on the second or third day they set out with torches to reach the summit for a beautiful sunrise.
I first heard about a race up this famous mountain when I arrived in Thailand, it sounded interesting! In fact this ‘climbathon’ forms part of the World Mountain Running Championships and involves both running up and down Mt. Kinabalu, a total distance of just over 21 KM. Runners were expected to reach the summit (Low's Peak) within the 2h30m cut off time and the finish line within 4h30m. The record for the 21 km Climbathon which most normal people do in 2 days (8.7 km up and down, with an additional 4.5 km on the road at the end) is an unbelievable 2 hrs 45 mins set by UK runner Ian Holmes.
Well it is said that curisosity killed the cat and it nearly finished me off too. I climbed Mt Kinabalu along with my wife during the last songkran holidays over the course of a few days and suffered such a bad bout of altitude-induced nausea and dizziness that I thought the title of “The World’s Toughest Mountain Race” was probably justified and knew the event would be pretty challenging.
There is little you can do to prepare for such an event in Bangkok, a city notable for its complete lack of gradients and my mountain running training was limited to abandoning the use of the lift at my apartment block for a couple of weeks!
Now I’m no super athlete, a middle of the pack runner who for reasons not yet fully understood likes to attempt any activity that presents a challenge. My main goal for this event was to meet the qualifying time of 2h30m at Low's Peak summit. After achieving that nothing else really mattered.
At the start line surrounded by professional mountain runners from all over the world; the nerves were building, would I finish? Is the 2hr 30min cut off even possible?
As you'd expect, I started full of the joys of spring, running the less steep sections passing a few bewildered tourists, but the track just goes up and up, without a respite, and the main way of getting up the mountain is…stairs ... big stairs up to knee height in fact between the start and the Laban Rata rest house at 11,000 feet (3353 m) there are literally thousands of them ... The steps are randomly made from tree roots, planks and in places cut into the rock and as the mountain is shrouded in mist much of the time, the surface is not one that would be called ideal.
By about 8,000 ft there was not much running, and by 10,000 ft with my pulse flat out pounding in my head some sort of shuffling jog was all that was possible.
The section after the rest house is very challenging. It rises about 1000 feet (300 m) in about 700 metres of travel, with much of it up fixed ladder-type steps which at times are at an angle of 60-70 degrees from the horizontal. Just under 12,000 feet (around 3600 m), you leave the trees behind and the mountain stretches out across a huge granite rock face. Park wardens have laid a rope from this point to the top,In some cases this is needed to pull yourself up on steeper sections, but it's main purpose is to show the way and to serve as a marker in thick cloud. It also provides a sense of security when you realise you are traversing a couple of kms of sloping rock face with nothing much between you and the trees a thousand or so feet below.
Low's Peak, the highest point, rises sharply for the last several hundred feet from the summit plateau, and this proved quite a challenge with my wobbly legs and thin air, - so near yet so far. Eventually 2 hrs and 24 mins after leaving the foot of the mountain I reached the summit. After just plugging away for hours running up the mountain looking at your feet, you get to the summit and have a brief opportunity to take in the blue skies and perfect panoramic views for miles. The top itself can hold about 10 people with not much elbow room to spare and looking down the other side you can see the sharp drop of some 1800 metres into Low's Gully where 10 British soldiers got stuck for 3 weeks in 1994 on a training exercise.

Whilst the descent is much quicker than the ascent, it is much harder because muscles are under serious abuse, as you constantly have to use all your strength to brake. Normally on rough ground down hill, my feet seem to find a good spot to land without me thinking about it. But I was having great difficulty making this happen on the steep slopes at 13,000 feet.

Halfway down I became aware that I was running faster than was advisable, and I attempted to slow the pace. However, my quads had had enough and did not respond to my command. I saw a big rock coming up, and decided to land on it, as that would normally slow my descent. However in this case, my legs gave up the ghost and before I knew it I was on the way down the mountain a little faster than I was happy with. After coming to an abrupt stop on a rock, a quick examination found a few rips in the clothing and a particularly heroic looking cut on the leg, which seemed to bleed disproportionately to its actual size had me descending the mountain looking like I had been attacked by wild animals!

I finished the 21km race in a little over 4 hours 40 mins. Arriving at the finish; I was cold, bruised and tired but strangely content. This is what it is all about to me.Physically this was one of the hardest events I've ever done ... harder than the couple of marathons I have attempted and harder than the few long triathlons I have struggled through. After reflection my verdict still stands, and at almost 5 hours to cover 21 kms and after losing my ability to walk or sit down properly for almost a week there's ample justification for this opinion. Will I have a go at it again next year? …....Probably!