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

A little something about dangers, safety, and my life being saved

It all began on a day like any other. A morning weekend long ride with the team up and around hills.

This time though, I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Random chuck of  road missing

It was a Sunday morning just a day after our second round of Malakoff University Duathlon Series, a short, fast and exciting event. I say that, but the bike loop of the race consisted of two loops of pain inducing steep hills and technical descents. That was something I favoured though. With my weight I had the advantage on the climbs over the rest, saving much more energy, putting less watts in and producing less lactic. It all made the difference in the final 3km run, where I was able to put a good distance on the field to finish first.. Great event as always!

Back to the story, the team and I had a good ride up Hulu Langat, doing our hill sessions while enjoying the "interesting" sightings.

As we finished our final repetition on the hills, it was time for a descent back before a good lunch and home.

That is, until ME happened.

As I was descending (the rest were ahead of me and out of sight as I had a short stop to clean off some vines wedged in my rear brake), I came to this corner where a massive sign board was placed in the middle of my side of the road, leaving only the right lane to be free. Knowing the dangers in the tight, blind spot, I slowed down a little and tried staying as close to the board as I could to avoid incoming vehicles or other ascending cyclists.

This sign board

But as I approached it, a large group of motorbikers (in their fancy sports bikes and full biking kits) flew up. It was a large group of about ten or more, roaring up fiercely (or rather recklessly) and took up the entire lane. As if that wasn't enough, some idiot even tried overtaking the leaders in rows of three through a tight spot to their right (my left)..
That was what they had been doing just as I approached, and did not even care to give any space for me to pass through at all. I was already at that position when the motorists came so I did not have a chance to spot to let them pass, or ride through before they approached.
Knowing I was facing grave danger of colliding head on with the motorists speeding at 80kph or so, I leaned as far left as I could, when I notice another rider from the back making a wider turn, about to ride into me.
I only had a split second to react.
I immediately jerked my handlebars further to the left, smashing myself into the pole supporting the sign post, barely escaping the motorist, and was sent hurling off my bike to kiss the tarmac road.
Obviously I wasn't feeling rather found of giving the road a peck at 40kph so I tucked my head in in an attempt to roll through the fall.
The side of my head and shoulder took most of the impact (Shattering my few months old great helmet) before doing a barrel roll for another few meters.

Yes my leg did that... Ouch?

I must have been exploding with adrenaline for I immediately jumped to my feet in (what I think) was my body's way if saying it didn't like being on the tarmac very much.

What really did me head in was seeing that group continue to ride off and out of sight.
So much for road safety...

Surprisingly the injuries were minor, other than road rashes and bruises, as well as a swelling left leg from smacking into the support bar (which was what caused my crashed).

I made a decision to take a fall, rather than a risk of being hit by a speeding vehicle head on. I basically made a life and death choice...

As well as that, there's one HUGE lesson to be learnt from here, for everyone.
Casual cyclists, professional, whatever- ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET (Preferably a quality one that guaranties safety).

When I fell, I took majority of the impact on the helmet, completely smash my beautiful Rudy Project Windmax. The force was large enough it compressed my head (where the impact was), and caused blood to swell beneath the helmet line. A big lump across my right eyebrow. I was lucky to have tucked my head in too or I'd be in a neck brace right now, probably in a hospital bed.
So just imagine, I had no helmet on, or if my helmet weren't designed to withstand that impact.
Imagine the impact directly on your forehead (or a helmet that just wasn't use at absorbing the shock.

As cheesy as this may be, or a cliche (truth though), my Windmax saved my life.

-Time to pick a new helmet as well!

Subic Bay ASTC Triathlon Asian Championships

Since coming back from Palembang, I had a good few weeks to put in a bit of solid training before the Asian Championships came up. It was a great timing to have Radka Vodičková stop by for a few days in KL (before heading off to Vietnam and San Diego). Definitely a quality few days of training for me.
Not long after, it was packing time and off to Subic Bay. We would've preferred flying some nights earlier, but Friday morning flight seemed much better than a Thursday night flight (plus it arrived on Friday midnight anyway).

It was definitely a very rushed and tiring day. Delayed flight and time costing immigration meant arriving late for kit check - rushing through the bike set up - quick lunch - bike test - little swim - shower - briefing - dinner - water/food shopping - change of rooms due to broken aircond - race kit packing - sleep. (Try not to sing through that with the "Friday" song..)
So our original structured day plan was trashed..
Come to think of it that was one hell of a day!!

We were up very early (most of us would consider it as midnight) at 3am for a little bit of food and dropping off our shoes and T2 equipment at our allocated spots along a massive stretch. T1 and T2 areas were 10km apart.

Had a good warm up spin to Dungaree Beach swim start, and a bigger swim warm up this time (to avoid Geelong all over again!). I definitely felt a little drained from all the travelling and stress from the rush, with literally no time to settle in. Felt good though so that's alright.

49 Junior Elites on the start list. That's a record breaker for me! Unfortunately for me I had to take the inner start, knowing I would have everyone swimming into me. Lacked a strong start in the first 100m of the swim, meaning I was absolutely battered with 40 or so guys squeezing in.

It was a full-on war, people swimming over me, pushing me into the lane ropes, pulling, kicking and one-eyeing the swim after a kick leaked water into my left goggle. By the time it had settled, I was in a
smaller group of 5 about 50sec down the leaders, somewhere in the 20th placings. I would say my start dictated my race outcome. Not a bad swim, but could've been better.. Though a 9:30 swim is definitely reassuring especially after Geelong!

Onto the bike, there wasn't much of sitting around with all of us sharing the load throughout the 10km +8km rough, sandy loop, shorter than the usual 20km (the 200m long stretch to transition makes up for it though!). Legs felt strong from the start to the end so I put in a bit of work as well to keep to pace going. A large pack tried to chase us down but we managed to hold them off all the way to the end. Nearly lost my group twice. Once riding through a large patch of sand, and another after missing the U-Turn point. Other than that the we stayed together the whole way, picking up some other bikers we caught up to. Putting in those Watts was sure to do some damage on the run. At this point I knew I didn't have the legs to run with most of these guys, but I did what I could, saving as much as I can before the dismount.

Immediately off the bike the group took off to leave me solo, running at a more reasonable and manageable pace. A stitch came on early and never went away, but I kept the pace going the first lap, and gritted my teeth as I pushed harder, speeding up on the second lap and managed to narrow the gap to my group but not enough to finish with them. Probably the smartest thing I did, knowing I would have blown up if I went off too fast too early, proven when I caught back and also overtook some competitors in the end to finish in 21st positioning.

Mixed feelings with this race. Glad that my race went pretty well, but not what I had expected in the field and ranking.. To know that a better starting could of potentially made a significant difference to my placing. Initially really disappointed with how it went until the results and splits came out, which proved otherwise. Something to learn from, but never to dwell on!
No thanks to Matt Denby, Leon Knight and Benjamin Ross Proud for distracting me with endless Candy Crush requests.. (Just kidding, but NO I don't want to play!)

So now I'm back in KL and ready to take on a good solid block of training, entering myself into some good races here in KL. I know what's missing now after a great experience in the competitive field, where the gaps need filling and to continue building blocks. Glad to be back home after a fast paced weekend! Looking forward to the Malakoff Duathlon Series this May and some more ITU racing after!

Once again huge thanks to Team MET sponsors, Rudy Project, CEEPO, K-Swiss for their wonderful support as always.

South Sumatra ITU Triathlon "Premium" Asian Cup

First off, before I begin going into any detail with my race report, here's a bit of feedback on the event; This race (which I did not expect much of) was about a hundred feet below my expectations. To be fair, it was a truly, utterly and disappointingly terrible organisation. Don't take me for wrong, the Triathlon Association of Indonesia did and wonderful job with their support, with very attractive prize money and actually running the event. It's not an easy job handling athlete's from around the world and getting traffic control. The crowd of supporters on the streets during the event was unexpectedly pleasant (school boys and girls were all spread out all over as if instructed!) and they greeted us gracefully with well organised transport, accommodation and food.

The race organisation was hell.

I'm talking unclear briefing schedules, confusing and non-informative race briefings, on-the-day changes in race routes (without official announcement, or any at all!), not well briefed volunteers (can't blame them, they did the best they could), water stations, spare wheels not delivered to wheel stops, route hazards gone unnoticed, and some others which I'll go into detail later.
Basically, the organisers didn't know what they were doing (well not all, some of them were actually doing a great job at trying to hold all of this together. Kudos to them).

It was very disappointing, especially to be considered ITU standard...

I'm really sorry for such harsh words to begin with, but it wasn't something that be gone ignored.


On the day we arrived at Palembang airport, we had a fairly slow immigration but immediately after, we were greeted with warmth and had a speedy procedure with the luggages and quickly up on the event bus to Jakabaring Sports City, the venue of SEA Games.
Upon arrival, we had our rooms sorted fairly quickly and dinner had already been prepared before hand. Cold spaghetti and chicken weren't exactly the first class selections, but we all got by (was still edible!).

Our MET team headed to the registration lounge the afternoon after, and had ourselves registered and race kits checked before the race briefing commenced. When our trisuits were displayed to the official in charge of ITU uniform check, we were all "given a final warning" as our logo placements weren't ITU legal. Specifically, the area below name and country code. We were told only a total of ONE sponsor logo was allowed in the space "according to the rules". I then proceeded to talk back to him saying that wasn't true, as I had just read the ITU rules few days ago, and plenty of times. Steve was there to back me up.
Despite that, the official held his ground until it was when I urged him to re-read the rules (right infront of him!) that he fell silent and let us proceed.
Not very good image already...

Into the briefing room we went, where we were "briefed". There was a lot of jumping about in category distances and laps. Changes in schedules were properly addressed. Heck I could barely understand what the man was trying to say! It seemed he wasn't sure about the usage of a Powerpoint, jumping about screens, and ending up using a completely different map (kids route) to inform us of our 2x5km run loop. There was no information on the direction of entry and exit of the T1 or T2. I felt sorry for the age groupers and duathlete's, as they were all told the briefing was at the same time as the Elite briefing, but not a single word of their routes and rules were told. It was only after the briefing, that the age groupers were told that their briefing was before ours! And that the duathlete's briefing was after.

So that was a fairly useless briefing.

On Saturday morning, the duathletes raced. There were three from Malaysia: Shahrom, Krisha & Hafiz. It was great to watch them race and show some support.
This is where it gets odd..
At the blow of the whistle, the Elites were sent off for their first 10km run (starting from an awkward "imaginary line"), and within 12min or so the leaders were back, lead into a dog leg (that was only ment for the final lap) and led out back the the transition already! Lucky enough they realised it and turned back to continue their second loop. Of course, everyone else got confused and did the dog leg loop as well. After a while, the leaders returned from their second and final loop, where they were then sent for their THIRD loop. There was a huge confusion between all the athletes as well as the crowds who knew that the initial route was ment to be only 2 loops. You could see the huge frustration in all their faces. They ended up doing 12-13km.
Aside from that, there weren't any other issues and the race went on smoothly.
Shahrom finished with a shiny silver placing while Hafiz finish 7th and Krishna finished 8th. Congrats to them! (Note Hafiz was by far the youngest, and was his very first Elite Duathlon international race)

The races ended quickly and we had finished our jog and swim, so we headed back to our dorms and rested up.
Not that I had anything against it, but the dorm seriously looked like a jail. It rained heavily so there were groups running loops on the top floor and guys spinning on turbos, which added to the feeling! Absolutely nothing to do with no shops or cafe's or anything nearby. On the bright side, we got plenty of rest and saved much money! (Although some of us were starting to go a little insane from the boredom..)

Day 3: Elite and Junior Elite Triathlon

You don't want to be belly flopping at this height!

The race was pretty early (would've been 6am if it had not been delayed by half an hour) and so we were up and about with our usual morning routines. Got out to the race site, set our bikes up, and hopped on a bus that took us all the the swim start. On the way an official stood up and asked all of us Elites "So, is 15-20min warm up enough? Shall we start at 6:30 if it is OK with you guys?". Very reassuring knowing the organisers have a planned schedule...
We got to te pontoon and just before we were about to dive in for a warm up, another official came up and told us athletes about a change in the run route, that an additional section was added so it's be more accurate to 10km. Of course, a load of athletes had a go at him for saying last minute with no official announcement.. So at this point we were seriously doubting the organisation of this race.
Either ways, we all lined up after the warm up, and the horn blasted, and we dived off the high pontoon.
Within the first 300m I could see the groups had already begun to rearrange itself, with the top swimming taking off. I knew I would have much of a chance keeping with them, knowing my current fitness and decided to stick as close as I could to 2 Australians who were swimming at a pace much more manageable for me. Some of you may have seen the video of what happened in our swim. Fot those who haven't, basically, after swimming out and back, we were supposed to turn right at an orange buoy that would lead us straight to the transition. The leaders were swimming towards it when a canoe completely blocked the path, redirecting them to continue straight on. 2 at the front went off, while the others still made the turn after the canoe. These 2 guys had gone from leading to not even near the pack. About a minute after, me and the 2 Australians got the the buoy, where we were also misdirected. I presume that the guys saw 2 other guys far infront, and thinking that was the correct way (and with the canoe blocking) the also went on straight. I stuck behind them.
It was ridiculous. We'd gone from a minute down to 3min down all because of the official's misdirections. I knew something was wrong when we were still swimming straight, with the exit visible to my right, but I knew it would be better to stick to them anyway (better someone to work with than solo!).
Video Clip of our swim here:
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=548884081823322" width="568" height="320" frameborder="0"></iframe>

So after a long swim we were out of the water, and I had a good transition, exiting second. I tried chasing the person infront, but he was too far infront and stronger than me so I held back and waited a little for Ben Hammond (who was behind me) before working our way through the wet bike course together.
I felt pretty flat the entire way, but still did my best to share the work out between us. He worked much more than I did, but I did what I could to at least keep the pace up even if it ment shorter intervals. He didn't seem to mind the ratio of the work (better than no one to work with) and so we kept on.
That was, until I had a flat just before finished our second loop of 3... I had in mind that I was only 200m from the wheel station so if i could change it, I'd still had plenty of time till the pack behind me caught up, and we could work together.

Finally changing my wheels after 6mins of havoc

I got to the fountain, where an official shout at me to go to the fountain. Nothing there. Then the other side. nothing again. I was then directed to cycle down another 100m to a yellow tent that was the official wheel station. It was empty. Out of frustration I screamed at the guy demanding for why wheels, to which he responded with a "oops" in his face. I waited about 2min before he came running back running 2 sets of wheels and asked me what country I was from. How could he have not seen my trisuit spelling MAS in a bold white font.. He had brought 2 completely different country wheel sets and at this point I was screaming (I was losing way too much time). Barry and his group past by. That was my backup group and my only chance of getting back into the race. I decided to cycle back to where ever it is they had left the wheels and search for myself. Turns out it was placed behind a guardhouse, in the Penalty Box area and no one had bothered to transport it to the wheel station. I quickly got my rear wheel change and got back on. At this point I had lost so much time that the Elite Womens were just 500m behind me. I'd lost motivation and interest in this race (yep, they passed me) and all I cared about was finishing the race. Again, not the volunteers fault. He did his best to help.

Upon getting off the bike, I steadily jogged my way through the 10km loop in 45min. I was very disappointed  Not with myself. If anything I am real proud to have finished my first Elite Opens standard distance, swimming well, and crossing the line despite all that bullshit.
I was disappointed with how the race had been organised. How much of a fail it was. It was honestly terrible, and our local events were definitely held much better than this was.
Darn it, they even left the plastic coverings on the water bottles in the water stations.
It's incredibly frustrating when you know you were doing so well, but when something goes so terribly wrong and it has nothing to do with you, and in fact the lack of effort of others to keep the race together. (Flat tires happen. Nothing can be done).

I was getting worried that my wheels would never return back to my (By now trust was more of a fantasy). Luckily I did getting back, with Melody Tan handing them back to us personally. Huge thanks to her. She was one of them who actually put her whole head into doing what she can and holding it together. Huge thanks to those who did what they could. It must've been extremely hard taking all these problems in.

I still finished the race, so that's a win.

Race sum up: Real chuffed with how I raced. Real disappointed with how the event was held.

Back into training now, putting a few good blocks in before taking off for my next and pretty important race is Subic Bay ASTC Triathlon Asian Championships, just 4 weeks from now. It's been great being able to travel and race more (majorly because of the support we are getting from the sponsors of our team MET). So huge thanks to them! Definitely a great big thanks to my new recent sponsor as well, Rudy Project Malaysia.

Team with our new fab trisuits

Butt shot 

The road goes on...

Hey everyone,

I just want to thank you all who have been reading my posts and keeping up to date. it has been a great pleasure and I truly appreciate your support. It has been wonderful.

After what has happened in the past few weeks, it's made me think harder about what I want to do in the future, and made me plan it differently.

I've made up my mind, and decided that I will be taking a different path down the road.
It has been a great experience, training, travelling, making new friends and learning so much. It was the best I could have ever asked for.
Having not studied for so long now, I think I need to resume my educational side, catch up on what I had missed, and go on to strive for a bigger and brighter future.
The support has been great, and I want to thank all the supporters and sponsors that have guided me all the way and brought me up to where I stand now.

This sport has widened my eyes and I've seen so much, though there is still a whole lot more that I have yet to explore.

I will try my best to continue keeping this blog up with what I am doing and what not.

Once again and for the final time, huge thanks to everyone!





>>>>>>>>


(Read more below)



.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
April Fools!

No way Imma be quitting this sport. I love it with my soul!
Working on my South Sumatra race report which I'll be posting up shortly.

Maybe a rating? :-)