Sundays Stingy Tri - as reported by Patricia Weismantel (Trinerds)
It was an early 7 a.m. start to the Laem Mae Pim Olympic Triathlon on Sunday. Conditions looked perfect - the water was calm, the sun shining and it wasn't windy. After an informal briefing the swim was off with 60 some competitors taking the plunge into the Gulf of Thailand. It was two laps of a rectangle swim, and it didn't take long for the racers to realize the calm surface of the sea was deceptive as the danger lurked just below the surface in the form of jellyfish. There were diferent kinds, some spongy, some with long tentacles, but they all stung and burnt. Poor Pablo had one wrapped around his throat and had great difficulty breathing. He had to pull out of the race and today says he looks like "Freddie Krueger munching on a tennis ball." The rest carried on, whinging about their stings (at least I did) , to the 2 loops of the relatively flat bike ride alongside the sea.
Highlights included a sprinter riding a small wheeled bike, another on a rental complete with a ba sket and one rider having his own support truck following him. The run, also two in-and-out loops, was luckily primarily in the shade but had the challenge of inhaling smoke from the numerous food stalls grilling squid and meat. The water stop, when it appeared, was self-service at one stop and handed out by the winner of the sprint competition at the other (thanks!). A very casual race overall, a doctor on site would have been reassuring to Pablo, but it was a good warm up to Phuket.
Results from the Thai Triathlong Chamionships published http://www.thaitriathlon.org/event/detail/trr.htm Photos available at http://www.thaitriathlon.org/webboard/on/post1075.htm
Monday, November 27, 2006
Never Stop Exploring…..The Bangkok Challenge Adventure Race...
For those that are familiar with Bangkok, the thought that there might be something more than concrete, traffic noise and pollution within an hours drive of the city centre might come as quite a shock. It certainly surprised me when I arrived at a large and tranquil lake situated at the Minsiri Resort, Nong Chok, just to the North East of the ‘City of Angels’ which marked the start of the 2006 North Face Bangkok Challenge.
Things seem to on the up within the adventure racing scene in Thailand, with attendance slowly growing with every event. This event lured some 110 racers of all shapes, sizes and possible levels of experience to the start line. There was an air of apprehensive eagerness as various lotions were applied, equipment was adjusted and competitors took the last chance to guzzle some Gatorade and stock up with whatever fuel they could find before the big event.
The first moment of truth for many came with the pre race briefing, as Serge the race director quickly dropped into conversation that he expected the average team to be in around 7 hours.
7 hours!!! Perhaps we had all misheard through the confusion of conducting a briefing in 2 languages…but no there it was again - 7 hours or so for an ‘average’ team. I looked up at the sun now fully established in the sky and quickly downed an extra litre of water….Before we had a chance to feign a plausible injury and extract ourselves to the safety of the medical tent, we were penned in on our bikes for the start, 55 teams of 2, with the naive innocence of young children before Christmas…
In a scene reminiscent of the film ‘Max Max’ we were off in a cloud of dust with the spectators grabbing a fleeting glimpse of strange machines and bare limbs. True to form the race started at the pace of a much shorter event, did these people know something we didn’t?
Time quickly confirmed that they were in fact as clueless as we were; the course was a fascinating combination of shoe-eating muddy tracks, banks of rivers, rice paddies, planks of wood and a few traffic free roads passing through villages that looked trapped in time. These were scenes of a real rural Thailand, where subsistence faming is still the main way of life, despite being a mere stones throw from Bangkok.
Even with the inevitable couple of slow motion spills on the bike, the scenery and a degree of competitive camaraderie meant the 30K ride was a fairly pleasant experience.
Next onto a run section, after a very short road section, the trail disappeared into the rice paddies and remained firmly on small tracks and paths throughout its 8 km duration. The scenery was lovely, the locals friendly and the air was fresh, however the legs were now distinctly unimpressed and the mild autumn temperature that Thailand enjoys was reaching 33 degrees in the shade.. We were 2 hours into the race and still exploring..
The run exited out of the fields next to a small river or ‘Klong’ in Thai, where 2 man Kayaks were waiting for us. I thought what a lovely day for messing around on the river... My partner Chai thought lets catch up some time… we set off downstream agreeing to disagree on team tactics. The Kayak course keep the rural theme of the event, we scraped under numerous rickety wooden bridges and were cheered on by locals fishing from the banks and young children dive bombing from the side as we battled our way down the 2.5 Km course. Being much happier on dry land than water, I was glad to get out and get on with the course. Looking at my watch I registered a sinking feeling, we had been going for 2 ½ hours, perhaps not even half way yet!
Onto another run – having lived in Bangkok for a number of years I am used to the hamster wheel that is circuits around a city park. The cross country, multi terrain muddy trial running that I was experiencing on this race was, dare I say it, really enjoyable. One of the key elements of this sort of adventure race is that you never really know how far it is to the next stage; this lack of facts seems to even the field up as no one wants to risk racing off to find themselves with many hours still to go and the tanks on empty. Slow and steady are the watch words for every stage.
It was some time well into the 3rd hour of racing when we first mentioned the soon to become immortal words “are we nearly there yet?.” Time quickly provided the answer to this question and it was a firm NO.
32 minutes on this run section felt a lot longer but and we found our way back to our long abandoned bikes and just to be sure that we didn’t slow down to admire the scenery we were told we were now in first place.. a mere few minutes in front of the much experienced Team Kalae. Our only hope was that we should now be closer to the finish than the start... We pushed on with the next mountain biking section and after asking every marshal we passed for some clue on the location of the finish, the wide range of, some times amusing, answers that we received lead me to the conclusion that perhaps no one knew where the finish and we were perhaps the victims of some large scale practical joke or scientific experiment!
We passed through the 4th hour of racing with the heat, dehydration and length of the exertion starting to take its toll, Chai my team mate started to suffer legs cramps and my bike (or was it my knee?) started to make some worrying grinding noises. “ Are we nearly there yet?” an oft repeated phrase as we scanned the horizon for signs of the resort we had left many hours again.. nothing to be seen but rice paddies, fields and trees. We were ready to stop exploring now. Just as things couldn’t get much worse, we were passed by the chasing Team Kalae. Luckily for us they looking like they were re-enacting the retreat from Moscow rather than participating in an adventure race. After 4 ½ hours we rode over a hill to find the huge lake that we had left that morning stretching out in front of us, what a sight for sore legs..
With the mind partly recovered we rode hard around the lakeside track and back to the start/finish area, but Race Director, Serge had another surprise up his sleeve. Dumping the bike amongst the spectators and support crews we were directed down to the lakeside to don life jackets for 250 m swim across the lake to a waiting check point. The lead that had been so hard fought for on the mountain bikes quickly disappeared as we all splashed and clawed our way across the lake using a variety of styles unfamiliar to those with any experience of swimming. Team Kalae lead sunk somewhere in the middle of the lake and we exited back in the lead. All that remained was a 2.5 Km run back to the finish, those enjoying a quiet stroll by the river were surprised to find 2 muddy, bedraggled, sunburnt and fatigued individuals weaving down the road towards them on a final lunge towards the finish. Our final time 4hrs 50mins, although we often felt like it…we never stopped exploring!! What a great day.
The next race is the North Face River Kwai Trophy- March 20 2007 - http://www.riverkwaitrophy.com/
Things seem to on the up within the adventure racing scene in Thailand, with attendance slowly growing with every event. This event lured some 110 racers of all shapes, sizes and possible levels of experience to the start line. There was an air of apprehensive eagerness as various lotions were applied, equipment was adjusted and competitors took the last chance to guzzle some Gatorade and stock up with whatever fuel they could find before the big event.
The first moment of truth for many came with the pre race briefing, as Serge the race director quickly dropped into conversation that he expected the average team to be in around 7 hours.
7 hours!!! Perhaps we had all misheard through the confusion of conducting a briefing in 2 languages…but no there it was again - 7 hours or so for an ‘average’ team. I looked up at the sun now fully established in the sky and quickly downed an extra litre of water….Before we had a chance to feign a plausible injury and extract ourselves to the safety of the medical tent, we were penned in on our bikes for the start, 55 teams of 2, with the naive innocence of young children before Christmas…
In a scene reminiscent of the film ‘Max Max’ we were off in a cloud of dust with the spectators grabbing a fleeting glimpse of strange machines and bare limbs. True to form the race started at the pace of a much shorter event, did these people know something we didn’t?
Time quickly confirmed that they were in fact as clueless as we were; the course was a fascinating combination of shoe-eating muddy tracks, banks of rivers, rice paddies, planks of wood and a few traffic free roads passing through villages that looked trapped in time. These were scenes of a real rural Thailand, where subsistence faming is still the main way of life, despite being a mere stones throw from Bangkok.
Even with the inevitable couple of slow motion spills on the bike, the scenery and a degree of competitive camaraderie meant the 30K ride was a fairly pleasant experience.
Next onto a run section, after a very short road section, the trail disappeared into the rice paddies and remained firmly on small tracks and paths throughout its 8 km duration. The scenery was lovely, the locals friendly and the air was fresh, however the legs were now distinctly unimpressed and the mild autumn temperature that Thailand enjoys was reaching 33 degrees in the shade.. We were 2 hours into the race and still exploring..
The run exited out of the fields next to a small river or ‘Klong’ in Thai, where 2 man Kayaks were waiting for us. I thought what a lovely day for messing around on the river... My partner Chai thought lets catch up some time… we set off downstream agreeing to disagree on team tactics. The Kayak course keep the rural theme of the event, we scraped under numerous rickety wooden bridges and were cheered on by locals fishing from the banks and young children dive bombing from the side as we battled our way down the 2.5 Km course. Being much happier on dry land than water, I was glad to get out and get on with the course. Looking at my watch I registered a sinking feeling, we had been going for 2 ½ hours, perhaps not even half way yet!
Onto another run – having lived in Bangkok for a number of years I am used to the hamster wheel that is circuits around a city park. The cross country, multi terrain muddy trial running that I was experiencing on this race was, dare I say it, really enjoyable. One of the key elements of this sort of adventure race is that you never really know how far it is to the next stage; this lack of facts seems to even the field up as no one wants to risk racing off to find themselves with many hours still to go and the tanks on empty. Slow and steady are the watch words for every stage.
It was some time well into the 3rd hour of racing when we first mentioned the soon to become immortal words “are we nearly there yet?.” Time quickly provided the answer to this question and it was a firm NO.
32 minutes on this run section felt a lot longer but and we found our way back to our long abandoned bikes and just to be sure that we didn’t slow down to admire the scenery we were told we were now in first place.. a mere few minutes in front of the much experienced Team Kalae. Our only hope was that we should now be closer to the finish than the start... We pushed on with the next mountain biking section and after asking every marshal we passed for some clue on the location of the finish, the wide range of, some times amusing, answers that we received lead me to the conclusion that perhaps no one knew where the finish and we were perhaps the victims of some large scale practical joke or scientific experiment!
We passed through the 4th hour of racing with the heat, dehydration and length of the exertion starting to take its toll, Chai my team mate started to suffer legs cramps and my bike (or was it my knee?) started to make some worrying grinding noises. “ Are we nearly there yet?” an oft repeated phrase as we scanned the horizon for signs of the resort we had left many hours again.. nothing to be seen but rice paddies, fields and trees. We were ready to stop exploring now. Just as things couldn’t get much worse, we were passed by the chasing Team Kalae. Luckily for us they looking like they were re-enacting the retreat from Moscow rather than participating in an adventure race. After 4 ½ hours we rode over a hill to find the huge lake that we had left that morning stretching out in front of us, what a sight for sore legs..With the mind partly recovered we rode hard around the lakeside track and back to the start/finish area, but Race Director, Serge had another surprise up his sleeve. Dumping the bike amongst the spectators and support crews we were directed down to the lakeside to don life jackets for 250 m swim across the lake to a waiting check point. The lead that had been so hard fought for on the mountain bikes quickly disappeared as we all splashed and clawed our way across the lake using a variety of styles unfamiliar to those with any experience of swimming. Team Kalae lead sunk somewhere in the middle of the lake and we exited back in the lead. All that remained was a 2.5 Km run back to the finish, those enjoying a quiet stroll by the river were surprised to find 2 muddy, bedraggled, sunburnt and fatigued individuals weaving down the road towards them on a final lunge towards the finish. Our final time 4hrs 50mins, although we often felt like it…we never stopped exploring!! What a great day.
The next race is the North Face River Kwai Trophy- March 20 2007 - http://www.riverkwaitrophy.com/
Monday, August 07, 2006
For Sale - The best touring bike in Thailand - My Cannondale Road Warrior
CAAD3 Aluminium Cyclocross Frame
Complete Pannier Set Arkel XM-40 Rear panniers, 2450 cu. in. (pair) Arkel Handlebar bag
The toughest, most reliable components..
Rims - Mavic T519, 36 hole
Hubs - Shimano 105 Ultergra
Spokes DT Champion Stainless Steel
Tires - Continental Top Touring 700 x 32c (with Mr. Tuffy's)
Rear Cogs - Shimano XTR 8 speed12-32 cassette
Shimano XT Rear Derailleur
Profile Design Bar Ends
Blackburn Expedition Rear pannier rack
Already to go and already knows its way around Northern Thailand!!! New baby forces sale of all my toys in spare room to make room for his....I'm not bitter.. honest
25,000 THB
Friday, March 10, 2006
Trophy hunting down the River Kwai
Kanachanaburi a small town around 3 hours from Bangkok is a part of the world worth visiting for its natural beauty and historical world war II sites..
This is what the travel brochures will tell you and most people wanting to explore this neck of woods usually do so from the comfort of an aircon bus. However this option was not me or the 70 other brave souls that elected to have a go at the inaugural North Face River Kwai Trophy, held at the Pung Wan Resort, Sai Yok. This is the second adventure race to be held in Thailand in the last 6 months and just went to prove that Thailand has some of the best potential for this fast growing sport in Asia.
Teams of two were given the option of either the ‘Adventure’ or man-sized ‘Extreme’ category. I suspect many of the all male teams suffered the testosterone-impaired decision-making influenced by pretty girls on the registration desk and were at this stage, like us, committed to the Extreme category!
An air of naïve, friendly amateurism pervaded over the start line early on Saturday morning as the motley crew of weekend warriors and the odd semi professional assembled to see what Serge and Dave, the organisers had up their sleeves for us.
We did not have long to wait and with a beep of our Champion timing chips we were off on mountain bikes following rural tracks, trails and roads and passing through country villages and farms with not a car in sight. After about 10 km we came to a Jungle clearing and on to the next stage, the Jungle run, its anyone’s guess how long this painful stage was. I know I thought it would never end and our team stumbled out of back to the bike a little worse for wear after almost 2 hours of ‘adventure’, other teams were not so lucky taking over 3 hrs to tackle the hilly, challenging jungle course.
The organisers then enforced a dunk in a paddling pool for all competitors to try and cool down before hopping back on the bikes for another pleasant tour around the countryside eventually ending up at the banks of the famous River Kwai and our next mode of transport – A kayak. Luckily for us, no experience is necessary for this section and we soon grasped the fundamentals of steering and forward propulsion. At last my high school Geography came in handy and we guided ourselves to the fastest part of the river, which thankfully was going along a quite a rate of knots. 5k later we hauled our kayak onto the shore and started a run back along the bank of the river. What would be next? The mystery is a fundamental part of what makes this an adventure race and we were not disappointed when after 7k of pleasant cross-country running, the marker arrows disappeared into the river! Just what the doctor ordered after over 3 hours in the sun, we dived straight in and proceeded to follow the arrows downstream, drifting on the current through the jungle and mountains for a couple of KMs. This experience in itself was worth doing this event for!
It was then a matter of reluctantly climbing out of river and back on the bikes for a 30min ride to the finish over a rather rickety bridge that looked and felt like it had been constructed by blind Cub Scout pack. Final time for team Champion chip Simon and Chai - 5 and a half hours and a third place spot..
What a day – running, biking and swimming through some of the best countryside Thailand has to offer, with the sort of comradeship borne out of tackling common adversity and drinking too much free beer at the end of race feast and awards ceremony. What a great way to spend a weekend..we all look forward to the next one!
Kanachanaburi a small town around 3 hours from Bangkok is a part of the world worth visiting for its natural beauty and historical world war II sites..
This is what the travel brochures will tell you and most people wanting to explore this neck of woods usually do so from the comfort of an aircon bus. However this option was not me or the 70 other brave souls that elected to have a go at the inaugural North Face River Kwai Trophy, held at the Pung Wan Resort, Sai Yok. This is the second adventure race to be held in Thailand in the last 6 months and just went to prove that Thailand has some of the best potential for this fast growing sport in Asia.
Teams of two were given the option of either the ‘Adventure’ or man-sized ‘Extreme’ category. I suspect many of the all male teams suffered the testosterone-impaired decision-making influenced by pretty girls on the registration desk and were at this stage, like us, committed to the Extreme category!
An air of naïve, friendly amateurism pervaded over the start line early on Saturday morning as the motley crew of weekend warriors and the odd semi professional assembled to see what Serge and Dave, the organisers had up their sleeves for us.
We did not have long to wait and with a beep of our Champion timing chips we were off on mountain bikes following rural tracks, trails and roads and passing through country villages and farms with not a car in sight. After about 10 km we came to a Jungle clearing and on to the next stage, the Jungle run, its anyone’s guess how long this painful stage was. I know I thought it would never end and our team stumbled out of back to the bike a little worse for wear after almost 2 hours of ‘adventure’, other teams were not so lucky taking over 3 hrs to tackle the hilly, challenging jungle course.
The organisers then enforced a dunk in a paddling pool for all competitors to try and cool down before hopping back on the bikes for another pleasant tour around the countryside eventually ending up at the banks of the famous River Kwai and our next mode of transport – A kayak. Luckily for us, no experience is necessary for this section and we soon grasped the fundamentals of steering and forward propulsion. At last my high school Geography came in handy and we guided ourselves to the fastest part of the river, which thankfully was going along a quite a rate of knots. 5k later we hauled our kayak onto the shore and started a run back along the bank of the river. What would be next? The mystery is a fundamental part of what makes this an adventure race and we were not disappointed when after 7k of pleasant cross-country running, the marker arrows disappeared into the river! Just what the doctor ordered after over 3 hours in the sun, we dived straight in and proceeded to follow the arrows downstream, drifting on the current through the jungle and mountains for a couple of KMs. This experience in itself was worth doing this event for!
It was then a matter of reluctantly climbing out of river and back on the bikes for a 30min ride to the finish over a rather rickety bridge that looked and felt like it had been constructed by blind Cub Scout pack. Final time for team Champion chip Simon and Chai - 5 and a half hours and a third place spot..
What a day – running, biking and swimming through some of the best countryside Thailand has to offer, with the sort of comradeship borne out of tackling common adversity and drinking too much free beer at the end of race feast and awards ceremony. What a great way to spend a weekend..we all look forward to the next one!
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Results..
Phuket Marathon and Thai Temple Run results published at http://www.championchip-thailand.com/raceresults.html
Sun 20 August - (Siam City Bank) Mini Marathon- Ministry of Public Health - 10K - 43:28
Phuket Marathon and Thai Temple Run results published at http://www.championchip-thailand.com/raceresults.html
Sun 20 August - (Siam City Bank) Mini Marathon- Ministry of Public Health - 10K - 43:28
Monday, December 12, 2005
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
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..
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.
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
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..
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
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!
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