New year, old goals

Here's my first post of 2014…

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!!

Singapore ITU Triathlon/ Lantau ITU Triathlon & Winter time (sort of...)

Coming back to KL wasn't exactly "easy".

With the -7:00ish time zone difference +having said it was the furthest I'd ever travelled so far ment craving food at 3am and drooling throughout the day. I've learnt the joys of jetlag!

Well, it wouldn't of been so bad if I hadn't caught what seemed like Steve's flu on the way back, on the flight. It dragged on for a week and a half, which was quite the worry to be, with Singapore ITU Triathlon up next the following week. I could feel the weekend crawling in and did whatever I could to speed up my recovery, as well as regain my fitness. It was expected to be my first "proper" Olympic Distance race in the Elites.

However, a "not so favourable" swim lead me out of a small group of 4-5. I felt so fatigued to the bones from the start to the end of the swim, as well as the run into transition. I felt frozen in the 35°C heat blasts. A good transition gave me a good lead out onto the bike, but before half of the first bike loop, I found myself dropped off of the group and cruising (which still felt endlessly fatiguing) back for a DNF (sadly, yes another). Instead, I watched from behind the barriers and cheered as my teammates flew by.

The outcome probably had to do with a combination of exhaustion from the racing, travelling, but most probably with the flu.

I think Steve and I did an amazing job spreading the virus.

It took a while, but things started falling back into place and I was able to resume with my training.

A few good weeks passed and Lantau ITU Triathlon (Hong Kong) was up next. Another Elite (OD distance) and finale to my 2013 year.

Things flowed a little smoother, at least compared to Singapore, and I was out of the swim with 2 behind me, but the lead group too far to chase throughout the 870m run into transition. Yes! Blimming 870m! The tendons in my feet grew sore and stung, running through hard surface with nothing but a carpet between my feet and tarmac.

Scenic 870m run at least!

It wasn't long before I was caught on the bike by the 2, and reeled in another ahead to have a group of 4. We worked together throughout the loops consisted of a climb, descent, u-turn, back up the climb and down to repeat 7 times. Absolutely leg crushing. It was all teeth gritting the entire way through just to hang on to them. I pat myself on the back for managing to put out such a workload.

Off the bike, we were into a flat but 30%+ soft grass/dirt surfaced 10km run.

The legs were shattered from the all-out ride and the ache in the foot tendons jumped right back. For the first 1k I thought I would have needed to pull up, but fortunately enough it faded away by the end of the first lap. Getting some feet strengthening work in the future wouldn't kill!

At the end, I'm please with being able to give it my all in this race, especially win the run after smashing the bike! Much has been learnt. More yet still to learn.

Time spent now is on resting hard with the difficult task of putting my leg up, before getting back to start the 2014 season! Hoping for a good, strong "winter" training..

Thank you all for such a great support this year! It's been a wonderful season with many opportunities. I (and my team) are a very lucky bunch, especially thanks to TIME dotcom for such an amazing support!
Huge thanks also to:
-FHL/CEEPO for such an amazing weapon, plus the great services!
-AirasiaX for flights! (need I say more?)
-Rudy Project Malaysia for you know, epic sunglasses and comfy/aero helmets
-K-swiss for all the sweet kits
-DSA for the great support with training facilities as well as support in racing abroad
-Powerbar for powerbars
-TIME dotcom again, for the debt-owing support!!
-Of course, Mr. Lumley for putting it all together :-)

London World Championships / Eton European Junior ITU

 Just thought I'd start with;

I finished my first Junior World Championships!!

 On the 21^st of August, a blurry Wednesday afternoon, I woke up from a nap to an email buzzing on my phone. Taking a look at it, I couldn’t tell what was going on with words such as “good news” and “move athlete ** to start list…”

As I the words began to make sense as they structured in my head, I still spent about 10mins just sitting on my bed and looking around, confused.

Now my reaction would have been different at any other time, but obviously my system was still “booting up”, so I honestly had a very hard time deciding if I was still asleep or not. Pinching myself hurt, so I ran down stairs to my mum watching telly and danced about in front of it. She thought I was going a bit mental for a moment…

I originally had planned to join my team to fly to Bangkok for the Hua Hin Triathlon Queen’s Cup the exact weekend, but the plan changed drastically. I immediately had to inform my team members of the unexpected but exciting news, and chucked all the travel/race management over to them (sorry about that guys!). That very evening was just so happened to be Time Internet’s Open House (Our title sponsor), which men’t I had the great opportunity to spread the great news too all that support us. Afzal (Our boss) was definitely just as excited as I was! That evening upon arriving home, I got onto my laptop and immediately booked myself a ticket to Birmingham in less than a week.

Flying to Birmingham via KLM was great! (KL-Singapore-Paris-Birmingham), until I arrived to learn that they’d managed to leave my obvious, massive bike box and luggage at Singapore. I thought I did the smart thing of splitting things up between the luggages, but nope! I spent a day and a half without clothes (other than the ones I wore, obviously…). I got it all back the following afternoon, so I was able to rest easy.

I was fortunate enough to be provided a place to stay at Steve’s mum’s house in Redditch. It was a very warm and pleasant stay and I enjoyed every second of it. Thanks Joan and Jo Lumley!

Perfect long roads with scenic fields of green, sheep and cows occupied me throughout bike rides and runs.

Jess, Abby and Emily (Steve’s three nieces) were my favourite parts of the stay (other than stuffing myself to great food Joan cooked daily). It wasn’t long before I became Emily’s football coach (the youngest niece, and future football star), and played plenty during my off-times, in the back garden. She kicked my butt countless times.

George Goodwin took me down to Eton Lake on Friday for the race course familiarisation and race briefing for my very first European ITU Junior Cup. The next day Paul and George took me down for the race. George did great in his race, finishing in 7^th place (well done!) and then it was me turn to race.

Suddenly turning into a non-wetsuit swim, I struggled in the cold lake and swam out with a gap behind the chase group. Sprint hard out of the water and into a very quick transition managed to bridge the gap, but upon mounting, I found myself far behind the group with the legs just not responding. Another chase pack behind me caught up so I stuck to the back of it. Within half a lap, I was dropped by them again, with legs irresponsive. I rode on solo for another lap before Steve pulled me off, knowing that I was just absolutely shattered. That was the end of that.

The long travels and jet lag probably had a lot to do with how that race went, aside from the unfamiliar (but not new) experience of cold waters.

I was very glad to have raced it nevertheless, getting my system started and into the game, especially as I had been so relaxed before I knew I would be traveling this far...

That was race no.1 done.

As I continued to train using the facilities of Birmingham Uni, I felt myself get back into speed gradually. Running felt amazing (probably with such an amazing weather that lasted two weeks) as I felt a different gear driving me through the track. Swimming went better than I hoped as well, which was great.

I also joined BRAT Triathlon Club and took part in their small Aquathlon races, which was great fun. I think Malaysia could do with more of these small £4, “Race-&-BBQ” events!

On the weekend Steve took the challenge to compete in Ironman Wales, I trained together with Phil Wolfe. It was great and I was glad to have done so, as I’m sure it benefited both of us with the company.

“The Big Week” (London World, Sept 11^th – 14^th)”

We headed down to London on Wednesday and I gave the Serpentine Lake and had the race briefing later that day.

There had been some issues with trisuit design legitimacy, as my NF could not submit my current trisuit design.

I could not order any approved trisuits from my NF, as they only informed me of it the same time as my notice about the participation, so time was not a luxury I had. It was a relief that ITU had accepted my current trisuit as I had informed them of the issue in advance. Cheers for that TRIAM.

The word is cold. Utterly, Britishly cold. I had hoped too much for a wetsuit swim, thinking it would suit me better. The rain poured before my race which cooled things down even more just to play with the tropical kid a bit more. As we all lined up at the "Olympics Transition set-up", it all felt surreal. Watching it on television was one thing but seeing it all from the athlete's view was completely different! Then my name was called, and I jogged across the perfectly laid out blue carpet, and onto the pontoon start.

About 100m into the swim after the horn blast, I could immediately see a gap growing between the mass of splashes and I, but was hopeless with arms that felt like I had taken on 15kg weights each. It was the worst feeling I had ever experienced. It could have just been not being used to the wetsuit, the lack of movement with an additional compression top underneath, or the icy waters. I don’t know, but it was a bad time for that.

Coming out of the water 2^nd to last, I knew that my immediate goal would be to work hard to keep from being lapped. And I did, with good legs for once and a good ride time (considering I was alone..). The bike route was totally flat, designed for high speed. The tarmac was wet and slippery, putting more danger to the technical corners. There were some very bad crashes! I noticed a Japanese by the side picking his bike up from the side of the road, so I carried on not realising he would fly be me without giving me the chance to stick to his wheel for someone to work with (he never finished… Smart!). A different response could have had a different outcome.

I jumped of the bike and managed a 17:31min 5km run, which I was very pleased with (especially after riding all by myself the entire way!). It was good enough to step me up a placing, while others behind me called it quits. The roars from the crowd and cheers of support were nothing I had experienced before. It was spectacular. 

So there you go; furthest I had ever traveled, first European Cup, first wetsuit race, first World Championships, and first Malaysian Man to compete and complete a World Championships. Not a bad achievement in just one month, with only a week of notice in advance!

Thank you everyone for the great support that you have given, especially my friends, family, coach and all team sponsors as well as individual sponsors. 

These include Rudy Project Malaysia, CEEPO Bikes, Powerbar, Airasia X, FHL Sports, Kenanga, DSA, and our biggest support coming from TIME dotCom. Thanks Steve for the arrangement of everything! I’d have a full essay if I talked about it (It’s long enough as it is…).

I’ve now got FHL Circuit Cycling race next weekend, then Singapore ITU Triathlon Asian Cup (my first “proper” Elite category for full distance). The following month I will be racing around Hong Kong Disneyland (Lantau ITU Asian Cup), and hopefully Laguna Phuket Triathlon! Phuket would be a great place to just race for the joy and soak up the beach salt, sun, and everything amazing about Phuket.

Osaka ITU Sprint Triathlon Asian Cup

 Osaka was lovely place, especially the fact that our hotel was just right in front of the Universal Studios Japan. There were restaurants nearby with pasta and pizza, which was a real thumbs up.
The race was an Elite Sprint Distance event, meaning that everyone would be giving it a full on race and it would be a fight right from the start to the end.
78 athletes were on the start list; by far the largest and most competitive environment I have ever competed in. All athletes lined up for the dive into the start and as my number was called out much later (No.70), I dove into the cool sea and went for an inner spot hoping that I would have a better advantage if I got in a quick start. But before I could really prepare (It was hard to tell what was going with no one posing in a straight line), a very fast "Take you marks-GO" horn was sounded and I only began sprinting after realising the rest around me had already started. I cost me the chance of getting out of the field, meaning I had all 70 or so guys swimming into me. It was a tough fit with lots of hitting about, and losing the front group, I ended up leading the chase group out of the water.

I sprinted into transition and popped on my helmet before sprinted back out, hoping I could catch back up to them, but I was out of luck with a gap size too large. Instead, our group worked together to try to chase the riders ahead. There was little to no rests throughout the bike course, working up the bridge, flying downhill before a 180° U-turn and back up and across the bridge again. Down that side would be a 90° turn, and another 90° turn again. At the end of this was another U-turn to repeat the loop another 3 times. It was basically a "hook-shaped" course, with a climb on the long stretch.
Working hard, our group finally caught a large pack ahead on the last hill of the last lap. It almost completely restless, with not much help drafting up the hills, speeding down the hills and 4 accelerations after corners u-turns. At the end of the first loop, there was a crash directly in front of me right after the u-turn to start the 2nd loop. Luckily though, I was well aware that something wasn't right when the man in front had started to lose control. Managing to manoeuvre around the fallen cyclist, I was able to stay with the group for the rest of the ride.  The amount of effort put in throughout the bike men't that we would soon pay a immense debt to the legs, and would be running 5km after that with legs practically gone.

By the dismount I had already realised that I had over-exerted myself on the bike, so I had to really pace myself well to avoid burning up with a DNF (at this point it felt like finishing was the primary goal). The 1.6km run loop consisted of a gradual incline up till the turn before running back down. More climbing, wonderful! It was mainly open paths as well, meaning we were exposed to the scorching sun of about 35°C and a clear blue sky.
I kept my head down and continued to push as hard as possible, keeping the pace up no matter what.
On the final loop I had a good sprint finishing, which in turn helped put me up a few positions as well. I would have had it in me to push past the others without the sprint.
In the end I finished in 41st place.
Mixed feelings I'd say. I expected a different outcome, but sort of had this coming as well. The fact that I pushed like never before was a good thing as well, and most importantly it was a great experience and learning curve. Arrows pointing slightly closer to "Pleased" than "Disappointed".

June Happenings

Sorry for not having blogged up anything "proper" in awhile. Haven't really got much of an excuse other than sitting on my butt and flickering through the telly (when I'm not training regularly, obviously). At least I'm doing something right.

Btw you must be wondering, "why on earth is Riki's blog all pink and stuff??"
Before you go all ewww on me, let me explain that this is because our Team has just endorsed a new sponsor, and extremely proud of it.
With the generous amount of support coming from Time Internet (Time.com.my), they have taken over us to be officially now known as Team Time. Thus, we are immensely proud to wear their corporate colour "Magenta".
So huge thank you Time for the support, especially with the recent event Port Dickson International Triathlon, as well as plenty of press interviews and such!
With their support, the team is able to travel more to race, have more support in training, and altogether be able to achieve greater goals and soar beyond the stars.

-Pink is manly.

After I had my crash, I was basically missing swim sessions for about a week and off the roads for nearly a month, meaning I had to skip the final leg of Malakoff Duathlon Series, which I was so anticipating. With a flat first 3km run (before a technical 12km bike and another 3km run), I was really keen on testing my legs to see where I was at. *guts thrown down the pipes*..

Aside from that, I was unable to do any running or cycling on the roads. This men't painfully boring 3hr turbo sessions, and 30min water running sessions that feels like a day. Swimming itself was great fun too, with chlorinated water rubbing around my 50cent-deep bruises and scabs tearing apart. Mark Cheong named it "50cent, rotten crater" just to make sure people were given a good visualisation. 

It wasn't all that bad though, as this gave me the opportunity to really focus on the use of core muscles for running (in water), striding, strengthening of glute flexes and keeping the arms compact together.

More time spent in the water also men't working on better swim technique (and pain tolerance!).

Hitting the roads again definitely felt awkward after having gotten use to moving your legs around water, floating, tied to a band, and looking like a complete fool to others.

I began to regain confidence as the end of the month creeped in, during which I would be racing in Port Dickson.
I was a going through a bit of the Gollum, saying "You're not ready! You crashed and haven't been running at all". "Yes I am! I've been training well", "No, you can't handle the roads yet", and so on.
Of course, the first few days back was awful, but it all came back surprising quick.

16th June was when the first event of Sentul Race Series was held. A 2x10.25km looped Individual TT (Time Trial). The results would be used to group use in the respective categories A, B, C, D, based on performance (Timings).
Being my first proper time trial race, it was really exciting. Completely different way to how we would usually race. No energy saving for the run, just hammering the paddles all the way through, correct pacing, not to mention the fact that we aren't getting on the bikes wet after a battle in the open waters!
I finished in 22nd Place with an average of 36km/hr. It may not sound fast (and most likely isn't), but the route was fairly punishing, with constant hills and that one section where it was a crazy headwind on an uphill.
I loved it. Not the painful parts.. The experience of it all, trying out a bike race like that.
This race I think helped kick myself back up as well after the crash.

Port Dickson triathlon was definitely tougher than it was last year, with a bigger age category (16-29), but mainly with the majority of the junior HK squad flying over. The race was a fast 750m (or more..) swim, 20km cycling through the open rolling hills, before a gruelling 5km run, including about 2.5km worth of sand/beach running. Yes, plenty of toes bled that morning.
The swim went smoothly, coming out comfortably with the leading group.
The moment we got on our bikes there were already some break away attempts, but it was resolved smoothly too. Not much to say except it was a fairly good paced ride, sitting comfortably at 38km/hr.
The run was all about pacing and technique. Watching the boys take off right off the bike, I held back making sure to keep myself in control and not get too carried away. Throughout the run I gradually ate back some ground from back in 6th, still saving a little bit in the tank. We ran by Dave Spence, sat in the wheelchair out under the scorching sun just to give us that support and guidance of direction. He made a huge difference, encouraging us to push on till the end. So thank you Dave, for always being so over supportive.
Though it was only a 5km, I knew that some energy needed to be reserved so I could hammer through the most agonising parts which were the sands. By then I had secured myself a solid 3rd placing and held it all the way through to the finish shoot. Though I had a good race, it definitely could have been better. As Dave said to me later that day: "Never look back", that's where I realised that if there was any mistake made in that race, that was it.
Never look back to at who's behind you. It shows you're concerned of failing, wanting to stay where you are and afraid of going back. Look forward. Strive for more. Ask yourself: who's next.

Post race was my favourite. Big tent set up by Time Internet for us, with goodie bags, lockers, drinks, seats, constantly active camera crews, and physiotherapists! It was absolutely amazing and I can't thank them enough for it.

All the water running definitely made some improvements!

The next day our Team Time had 3 teams entered in the relay. The mixed team, junior mixed team, and men's relay team (which I ran for). I had to run 1km on the beach after the swimmer swam his 1600m, before passing onto the cyclist for his 40km ride. I would then run another 9km on the extended version of the 5km run loop. I think I did very well. No, the team did very well. We all (Hendrik, Danny Feng, Me) did all our best, relying on each other to push harder and managed to put in a solid performance to take 2nd place (overall in relay too).

So yeah, that rounds up late August and June. A great 2 months flew by and now I am in the midst of packing for my next major trip- Osaka ITU Sprint Triathlon Asian Cup.
A full start list of 70 men.
I'd say the race down at PD gave me a good confidence boost and some race preparation for it. What better race prep then to actually have a race?
I will be flying of this Thursday midnight, so wish me luck!

Riki