Ok, so it's actually almost mid-year but it counts as something right?
I'll just jump right into and play this through at 4x speed:
Winter training went well until my peroneal tendon (a tended that pulls the foot outwards at the ankle) on my right leg gave way after I stumbled on the wrong part of the uneven surface during a run. It took me off my running shoes for 3 weeks but I managed.
Metasprint Aquathlon (750m/5km) in February was first up and I finished in 2nd place, after a cock-up and running off course. Should've studied the race course a little more! I also started working for Xterra Malaysia as an intern, helping to liaise with the competing pro's and all their logistics.
The following month, Metasprint Duathlon was scheduled up next but a last minute call up by ASTC rescheduled me and I hopped on a flight to Chiangmai together with Tyler and Jia Wen (Team TIME youth team members) for an ASTC Development camp. Taipei, Thailand, Philippines, and Malaysia came for this camp with a head count of 11 athletes. We were all closely monitored and coached by Luc Morin as well as Mr. Ki during or 5-day camp, and learned plentiful! I was pretty chuffed as well to have managed a 1500m run PB by about 20secs, and a 3000m run PB by 7secs despite little experience with pacing (in other words, I'm basically saying I'm pretty confident I could have gone a whole lot quicker!).
March is where things started piling up, so the pace slows here; I raced in the Metasprint Triathlon (April 16) to finish 3rd with 2nd place in Overall Series. the following weekend (April 23) was a long 5hr drive up to Kapas, Terengganu for a 6.5km island-to-land Swimathon which I finished 2nd place in. I was surprised I even finished it! Not scrappy for a first-timer eh?
On Wednesday the same week (April 26), Barry, Kim & I took a flight up to Shanghai and arrived at 1am. A little delay dragged us on and we only got to bed at 3am, staying the night at a hotel nearby the airport. The next morning we had a nice breakfast and lunch at the hotel, relaxed a bit in between and then hopped on the bus for a 5hr trip to Zhenjiang. Can't say it wasn't exhausting! We finally arrived at 10pm and had our bikes sorted before going to bed at 11ish..
The next day was very relaxed, with only swim/bike/run race course familiarisation all done before noon, and lots of sleeping!
Race day on Saturday morning went… Well, underachieved? They water was chilly but nothing uncomfortable, but I had a poor swim, which wasn't ideal in a field of only 30 fast guys (well it's not ideal in any situation anyway!), and ended up coming out of the 2x750m swim in the backend with only a Serbian to ride with. Needless to say, we got lapped on the 5th loop of 6x6.6km bike and the day came to a quick and gutting end. Putting a paperclip on that note…
Returning back to KL, I was planned for yet another busy weekend.. that makes 4 weeks of long travels back to back! Not a big deal for some but sure is for me…
I had a great swim for a relay with an amazing group of people- Tri-ing to Help Cerebral Palsy (please to check out their Facebook page and "like" them!! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tri-ing-To-Help-Cerebral-Palsy/1458736217676678?ref=br_tf) as an effort to raise funds for this cause.
I swam 18min, which I still don't believe despite others claiming it was accurate, and gave a great lead out for our team. Lloyd had a great ride and Jason finished off the run to claim us a 3rd place! Hats down to the team, both the relay and individuals. Amazing effort guys and privileged to be part of it!
I mentioned earlier that I worked with the pro's and was glad to finally meet them and had good chats. Great experience in both the work side of it as well as getting to know the pro's. Many thanks to Dave Spence for arranging everything from assigning me into this relay team to making Xterra Malaysia such an amazing event.
There very next morning, I boarded a plane for Perth, and now I am sat at the house of the Davis as I speak! Basically, I'm hear on a 10-day swim camp to work on my swim with a close guidance by Paul Newsome and his team that is the well renowned SwimSmooth. I am certain they will be able to fix my No.1 problem which has always been my swim, especially in open water. Of course, I'll also be riding, running, and enjoying myself in this beautiful country. As usual, goals are to be a better swimmer, a better, biker, a better runner and a better triathlete..
Everything start tomorrow. How exciting!!
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