On the race day, we were greeted with an earlier morning light rain which made the weather cool, sea water cold and very choppy. Good that I had my wet suite on. We arrived race site at 7.15am, had our body-marking and some photo taking. Race started at 8am after another round of briefing. There were 5 waves, and I was in the 3rd wave. My goal for this 2nd attempt was to accomplish any timing lower than my maiden PD timing 3hr 21min, but sub consciously I was aiming < 3hr 1omin.
Swim leg (1.5km)
Initially, I thought I have swam badly and quite disappointed that I took 44min to finish the swim. Last year with breath stroke I did 40min, but this year, with FC and after all the training with YF, did a miserable 44 min. Further more, it was unusual that my "visual navigation system" was malfunctioning; I swam zig zac in my return lap, totally could not get my direction correct, I believe I have swam longer distance than any other. However after the race, learnt from most of our guys that they did not do better either, most swam 5 to 10 min longer than their last year swim timing; and many lamented and blamed the choppy water.
Bike leg (40km)
I enjoyed the bike leg, did push myself quite a bit, I thought. My timing was 1hr 22min, 11 min better than last year. I have aimed to complete the 40km by 1hr 20min, that was ave speed of 30km/hr. The bike's rolling hill route was the same as last year. Felt that my training at Mandai Rd -Yishun Rd loop did help in preparing this race.
Run leg (10km)
The run route was different from last year; where we ran on the flat high way with the blazing hot sun above our head, an initial part of the bike route. But yesterday's route was actually the old route which was hilly, more cooling with a lot of shade even if the weather was hot. Thankfully the weather in the morning was good and overcast right thru my run leg. Clocked 55min as compared to last year 70min, though felt that the distance was not exactly 1okm.
Timing:-
swim 44min,
T1 6 min
Bike 1hr 22min
T2
3 min
Run 55min
Total = 3hr 1omin (last year 3hr 21 min)
Initially, I thought I have swam badly and quite disappointed that I took 44min to finish the swim. Last year with breath stroke I did 40min, but this year, with FC and after all the training with YF, did a miserable 44 min. Further more, it was unusual that my "visual navigation system" was malfunctioning; I swam zig zac in my return lap, totally could not get my direction correct, I believe I have swam longer distance than any other. However after the race, learnt from most of our guys that they did not do better either, most swam 5 to 10 min longer than their last year swim timing; and many lamented and blamed the choppy water.
Bike leg (40km)
I enjoyed the bike leg, did push myself quite a bit, I thought. My timing was 1hr 22min, 11 min better than last year. I have aimed to complete the 40km by 1hr 20min, that was ave speed of 30km/hr. The bike's rolling hill route was the same as last year. Felt that my training at Mandai Rd -Yishun Rd loop did help in preparing this race.
Run leg (10km)
The run route was different from last year; where we ran on the flat high way with the blazing hot sun above our head, an initial part of the bike route. But yesterday's route was actually the old route which was hilly, more cooling with a lot of shade even if the weather was hot. Thankfully the weather in the morning was good and overcast right thru my run leg. Clocked 55min as compared to last year 70min, though felt that the distance was not exactly 1okm.
Timing:-
swim 44min,
T1 6 min
Bike 1hr 22min
T2
3 min
Run 55min
Total = 3hr 1omin (last year 3hr 21 min)
Wow, shaved off 11 min, I wonder if I could do the same next year; another 10min with a goal of 3hrs, perhaps, perhaps, an achievable goal ......?
I had a good race and accomplished what I came for. However strangely; somehow felt that I did not push as hard as I should have, since there was no cramp during the race and the muscle was not as tired as it should be after the race. It must be due to the phobia of having possible bad cramp after the bike run transition that I did not really pushed hard enough. I will try 70min/40km ( 1hr 10min, ave 35km/hr) next time. I also felt that I could shave off a couple of minutes from the T1and T2; will work on it. Glad that most of us have improved our timing from the previous time. 
We had buffet lunch in the resort and left for home at 3 pm after loading up our bike; yes back home to prepare and looking forward to my next tougher race Desaru HIM (2 time of this OD race) on 1st Aug with the a goal of 6hrs 20min (2x 3hr 10min)????.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment