Singapore Triathlon Experience

This is not really a race report but rather what I took away from the race.

I swam the 1.8 swim solo, got lapped on the 36km bike and bonked on the run. I felt quite good on the swim and bike even though the leaders Wille and Clement caught me. I was eating their draft for 3 out of the 6 laps. At the end of the bike leg I felt like I could have gone for a few more rounds and it didnt hurt at all.

But the problems began on the run. As usual the jelly legs came even when running through transition. Jelly legs often go away as you ease into the run. At first, my run was pretty strong, I also felt comfortable and thought to myself I could actually hold this 4:05 pace for the 10k. I held it only until 5k and thats where the fatigue really set in.

I only drank just a tiny sip of water and the stomach cramps started to come. Not fun stuff. My pace dropped due to the fatigue and the stitch. It was 7k and I already felt like collapsing if I do cross the finish line. So 4:15s became 4:40s and 4:50s, I was really in survival mode.

Thankfully Danny stayed back and kept me company for the whole run. I kept saying just go ahead but he stayed with me. What a hero. That was so nice, never really experienced anything like that before.

Upon some reflection on why that happened during the race, I came up with a few conclusions.

It was only my 2nd OD triathlon and perhaps I’m just “new” to it. But I was still definitely under trained for the race. Especially running off the bike, which I have never practiced in training. I was running 10k tempo at 4mins on the treadmill easily but that was when I was fresh.

That 10k tempo training really showed during the race: I felt real comfortable doing 4:05 pace at the start. But I wasn’t used to running at that pace off the bike.

One thing I gotta change if I want to survive Ironman 70.3 Danang next May is to build more bricks into my training program. I hear pros do brick 2x a week, maybe I can start with one. I think it would be a good idea to do a longer run(10-14k) at race pace off the bike, especially for a 70.3. And to practice eating and drinking while running intensely. That’s something I’m really not used to yet.

How I’m planning to change my training schedule is for another time, I have to go back to the drawing board to start thinking about it again.

Danny keeping me alive

Trifactor Duathlon Belitung 2019

Felt really good coming into this one and recently got my 5k pb and best bike FTP. Although I was the fittest I had ever been, I was still no where close to even being on the feet of the 36min 10k runners like gen, wai kit, danny and ben.

So realistically, if those athletes had an okay race, I would simply be the last Singaporean. My only chance I had of getting a Sea Games spot was if they had cramps, flat or some unfortunate event during the race.

But I was determined and felt extremely confident to race my heart out and perhaps make time on the bike.

The race flagged off a little bit after 12noon. I know right. 12 NOON! Thankfully there was a slight cloud cover which made the heat slightly bearable.

There was no start line. We lined up in one row to take pictures and then flagged off from there. Everyone was stunned. That could have been clearer to the athletes.

The first 5k for me was easy. Picked up cadence on the uphills and kind of let gravity do its thing on the downhills. The race leaders were still in sight and I thought catching them was manageable but also I didnt want to burn that match. So I kept the same effort and watched them disappear into the corners and hills. Ziq was with them until the 4k mark and started to drop back.

I thought I could catch ziq, but I was slowing too. The hills really zapped life out of my legs and I was already thinking of just surviving the race. Mok caught me at 7k and I didnt have the legs to even hang on to her. She was flying. She eventually caught ziq around the 8k mark and entered T1 together with him.

I came into T1 almost a minute behind Mok and Ziq with an indo lady. I thought wow i must have dropped my pace too much. But I was determined to catch Mok on the bike.

That did not happen.

Hamstrings and glutes were burning due to the 10k and it was just quad power to bridge that ziq mok pack. They were always on the horizon of the next hill. I almost bridged that gap to around 10s but never caught them.

The indo lady who was drafting me a bit for about 9k on the bike got dropped and it was a 100% solo painful bike for me.

The headwind and hills combi wasnt fun at all. Doing 20+ kmh uphill felt so slow and wasnt gaining time on anyone.

At the turn around point I could finally see how the race pan out. Johari first, waikit and gen together, then ben, danny then ziq with mok.

I never saw ziq and mok until i entered T2. Ziq had just gone out while mok was still wearing her shoes.

The hills only ended like 30k into the bike and luckily there was a flat tailwind section of the course where I went into the aero position and rode about 41-43kmh effortlessly.

Ending the bike ride

I had never felt anything worse than the first few steps out of transition. Everywhere ached like crazy. My run was brought to a mere shuffle and trying to place one foot in front of the other. It was torturing. Even had chest pain which eventually went away after 1k. But felt the tummy cramps from drinking lots of water.

I was jogging like 5mins pace and thought I was gonna get passed by many people including the females. But only one lady passed me. She was running slow, if only I had legs I could definetly catch her.

It was pure survival mode for me. I told myself youre all the way here in belitung, might as well give it all you got, and dont walk. Thats my motivation for the last 2k of the race. I passed ben about a mile to go, he was walking due to foot pain.

I saw phoebe walking too, I thought perhaps everyone else was also dying. Well, except Mok and Ziq, they looked pretty fresh and still could smile and cheer me at the turn around.

In the end I managed to drag myself to the finish line. It was a big effort but not a fast race. I was pretty happy I came out of a dark spot and conquered a real mental battle. To me, I was feeling proud of myself for that, not the race timing.

We spent the next 2 hours chilling in the pool and splashing water at the beach, finally it was over.

Back to the drawing board for me. I asked ben and gen how long they took to become 35-36min runners. They said around 2 years. So thats a realistic target for me. I feel in a perfect 10k I could squeeze a 38min now so 36mins should be manageable within 1 year +. I just gotta keep consistently running with Ben and Gen on the track! I know I’m on the right path, I just need to keep going.

Post race chilling at the beach

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaroiseverything/

Metasprint Triathlon 2019

Elite wave start line

Looking at the start list I didnt see any names that I knew could beat me for my age category. Plus I got moved up to the elite wave meaning I should be the fastest in my age cat.

I pressured myself to get first because I was the only elite in my age cat and that I wanted to race in the national suit.

So I had to win. And fortunately thats what I did.

To me metasprint isnt really an important race. Important races are like overseas races, ironman, itu races.

Having raced at there before, race morning was nothing new to me. Given the start time, I knew when to wake up, leave the house and exactly what to do when I get there.

Racked my bike, prepared transition, bag dropped and body marked. Then exchanged my red swim cap for the elite swim cap. They didnt have any so they gave me a white cap with “elite” written on it.

And yes I took the all important dump before the race.

For the elite wave, the emcee called out every athlete and their country one by one as we entered the start pen. Every name followed by a little cheer in the background. Felt pretty cool to be honest. Picked my spot at the start line standing shoulder to shoulder with the elites was really thrilling.

Gun went off and that was the last time I saw some of the elites. I got into a good draft in the swim and took my turn in front for some of it. I got kicked in the face and water went into my left goggle but I carried on.

When I came out of the water I couldnt see the front pack of swimmers already. They had swam 2 to 3 minutes ahead of me and probably on their bikes by then.

But it was a good swim for me. Arms felt good and for once didnt feel like I was fighting the water.

I had a quick transition with a smooth flying mount and started peddling away hard.

The first (out of 3) bike loop was horrible for me. I drank my electrolyte and gave me a bad stomach ache. I was going slow, around 34-36kmh. I struggled to keep the power on during the first lap.

Onto the 2nd and last lap, there were 2 guys on their TT bikes overtook me and I took a 12m draft off of them. Took a bit of effort to catch up to them but that was the best decision of the race.

Drafting even 12m behind them got me into a comfortable pace and my stomache ache slowly went away. We were doing upwards of 37kmh. Felt real good. I kept up with those 2 crazy fast riders until T2.

My run was horrible. An improvement from last year by 10s per km, but still slower than what I hoped for. Many athletes over took me on the run, even Gen who started about 2 mins back, passed me and cheered me on. I was holding 4:05 pace for most of the run but dropped pace in the end. Overall effort for the 5k was about 9/10.

I completed my sprint distance triathlon in 1:05:32, a personal best and a 2 min improvement from last year. I won my 20-24 age group and overall metasprint series champion because of the 2nd in aquathlon and duathlon.

I’m really happy with my achievement but I also know I have loads to improve on my swim and run. 

 

On one of the bike loops

Sg Duathlon 2019

The why:

In an attempt to try and qualify for Triathlon/ Duathlon Sea Games in December 2019. And to finally earn my stars. I mean the sgp suit. Also, since swimming isnt my strong point, Im likely to perform better in a duathlon.

Pre race:

Tuesday – 10x1k at 14.5kmh on the treadmill. Felt good. Could do 4-5reps more.

Thurs – 6x sprints on the road both bike and run.

Hours spent training: 6h not including race.

Day before race: slept for 2h in the afternoon, packed the bike in the car, drank lots of water and slept at 10pm. Weight at night was 61.0kg.

Race day:

Up before my alarm at 4.45am. Reached event site at 5.30am (60mins before flag off). Went to bike check in, which was a new thing for me, and set up transition. Needed to make a decision to take a dump or warm up. It was the dump in the shady potable toilet. Dropped my bag off and went straight to the start line. No warm up: mistake? or maybe not?

Gun goes off. Saw ced sprint off to catch the phi athletes. I was like no way, can he actually sustain that? Or it was just a start line syndrome. I got into my rhythm quick with wei quan, torres, zac, yi heng and ewin. Our first km was 3:52mins. And by that time we couldnt see the leaders already. At the first turn around, there went the phi athletes, ariffs group and then way back was ced. Dropped but still running hard.

Run felt good. Around an 8/10 effort. Always keeping in mind there is still a race after this 10k. There were parts of the run i fell back behind wq and torres and needed a little kick to keep with them again. Held on until T1.

T1 was quick. Helmet on and shoes off at the same time. I think i didnt manage to lift both feet off the ground to mount the bike. *need to practice flying mount more* Yi zhong said ” ced is 30s in front, work with him for the bike ah”

I sprinted out of the first corner and sat back down as quickly as i got up. My left hamstring and both calves were almost cramping. The first 2mins on the bike was painful. Every pedal stroke hurt. Thankfully the pain went away and caught ced 3mins into the bike. He was drafting me and i thought he could hang on at that pace. He got dropped and i waited for him. I was pedalling lightly hoping he would catch up.

By the 2nd lap, yi heng, ewin and zac caught up to me because i slowed down for Cedric. We had a neat pack of 5 and could work nicely together. By the 3rd lap, zac dropped, ced dropped soon after. They were not in best shape because of army.

For me, the bike felt easy. Ewin, yi heng and i took turns in the pace line. However, i had to frequently massage my calves and punch my thighs in worry of the 5k run after that.

Ewin got into T2 first. I saw him put his leg over the bike getting ready to dismount so i did too. But it was too far from the dismount line. Bryce shouted: “eh too far from the line bro” haha yep small mistake. But i came out of T2 first because of another good transition.

Oh yes, i couldnt mount my bike on the rack because of the other bikes. So my bike was sandwiched between 2 other bikes. Opps. As i ran out i hoped that didnt cost me any points haha.

The 5k run was the best that i could do. I just wanted to finish the race by the first km. It wasnt fun anymore. I was running at 4.30pace and felt like 9/10 effort. And also i couldnt push harder because i felt like cramping. There were no electroyltes going in me during the bike at all. Another mistake haha. I thought i could do without lol.

Anyway I told myself not to let ewin, yi heng, torres catch me. After the turn around, i could see them on the opposite side very near to me. That gave me more motivation to push on. I did it. Maintained my position for the rest of the race. Not a good run split but the rest were also suffering as much as me. Thanks ced for cheering me on during the run too.

Awesome first experience in my first standard duathlon and elite wave. Total time: 2 hours 47 sec.

Best part is that i met a whole lot of new friends (: And also thank you to the guys at clubbreakaway and smuaquathlon and of course my mum to take pictures and support me! The short glimpses of familiar faces made a world of difference 😁

Excited to see if I made the Duathlon program or not! Yay

Personal Best in Half Marathon! AHM 2018

1h 29mins 43s was the official time. 62nd out of 10077 participants. 😊 Enjoyed the run and achieved a personal best!

The army half marathon flagged off at 4:30am by the chief of army. Rui yong was coming from the back and making his way forward to the start line. I joked maybe today I can beat Rui Yong? MX replied let’s be realistic here. Hahaha.

But actually I was super calm before the race. I felt I trusted my body more and I’m not as scared as I once were seeing 21km more to go. My mind was thinking how I could make this as fun as possible. No race tactic, no time goal, just go and run!

And what a plan it was, when the gun went off, rui and the others took off at my sprinting pace and pulling along many over zealous runners. I was running about 4:20-4:30 pace for the first 4k with Yi Wen. It felt easy. Breathing not hard at all. Effort level about 6/10.

After 4k Yi Wen dropped back slightly but I was putting out the same perceived effort. My kilometer paces were hovering around the 4:20 range and surprisingly legs felt good!

At 7k I was by myself now. Oh man that’s only 1/3 of the race. Could I complete it at the current pace I’m running now? Well, at this effort level, if my body doesn’t shut down, YEAH! So I continued to maintain the same pace. It felt so easy.

14,15,16k was down the east coast road. I could open my stride a bit with little extra effort and my splits came down to 4:15 pace. Now with 1/3 of the race left, finishing strong is a real possibility for me.

18k left. I told myself to just push it a little. I was running fast. Over taking some guys. And pace kept climbing from there.

I was feeling better and better, I was able to open my stride and push the pace more. The last 3k was down to 4:05 pace and the last k was 3:44pace.

Caught Wille in the last 300m and heard the commentator ” 30s to 1:30h” I knew got this. I sprinted the last 200m to catch ming xuan with a finish just a stride in front of him.

That last sprint was worth it. So happy with my performance today. Averaged 4:16pace which was something I never thought I could do. Numbers are faster than ever and I’m more excited to what other pbs I may get soon!😁 Most of all I was proud to race along side the best in Singapore and my fellow runners in 9 div!

Ironman 70.3 Danang – First 70.3

5h27mins was the time of my whole ironman 70.3 race. Cant say i was disappointed but it could have been much quicker. Hopefully 5h27mins was the slowest ill ever go.

Swim- We had a 10mins delay and I began at 6.26am. The age groupers were flagged off by a rolling start. Every 5s, 2 people in each lane would be flagged off. It was a long beach run into the waters, the beach was shallow until 100m into the sea. The waves were unforgiving; it would push us back 2m every 3m swam. The swim out was pretty slow as we were battling those waves. Until 200m into the water, the waves subsided and we could swim smoother. I had no idea what pace i was swimming at but it was a nice and comfortable pace. Perhaps it felt like 1.45-1.50 per 100m effort. It wasn’t that quick but managed to overtake lots of people and kept in mind theres over a hundred kilometres of racing left to do. The course was simple and navigation was looking at people in front of me to swim while making sure the bright yellow lane rope was on my right. Came out of the water in 34mins, an average pace of 1.50min. It was pretty slow, maybe due to the waves.

T1- From the swim exit, we had to run up the red carpet 300m towards transition. It was a very long transition run and I’m glad my bike was easy to find. Number 101 was at the end of the bike rack and was closest to the relay tent. Popped on my helmet, spectacles, threw the swim cap and goggles on the floor and away i went with my bike. I was thankful I had listened to the race briefing the day before, a bib wasn’t required on the bike leg! Yes.

Bike- The first 10km stretch of road i was comfortably sitting in a tailwind rolling at 36-37kmh. It felt really effortless. I took my bottle of pocari sweat and began to have tummy pain. It was horrible I endured it throughout the first 40k on the bike. I had thoughts of stopping by the side of the road to take a poop. I took plain water at the aid stations to ease the acidity and after a long excruciating wait and burps and farts, the pain thankfully went away. I was rolling around 32-33kmh when I was in pain. Still, the legs felt real good and effortless. After the pain subsided, I took my first gel. Afraid if i took it during the episode of stomach ache, it may get worse.  50 to 70k was smooth and easy, brought the rolling speed up to 35-36kmh. Then I started having hamstring cramps. I slowed down and had to massage and stretch on the bike. The rest of the bike leg was controlled and reserved as I didnt want to cramp worse. However, at the point of removing my feet from shoes, my hamstrings gave way again and had to stretch them. Then the Quads cramped too. Oh dear I was gonna have a horrible run. Eventually i managed to get both feet out of my shoes and into transition I went.

T2- Racked my bike, put down the helmet, on the bib, socks, shoes and cap. The total transition time took 3mins. As I ran out of transition, my mum shouted at me I was 4th place. I had a half marathon ahead of me.

Run- It was the most painful half marathon I ever ran. I started at a comfortable 4:40 pace and was overtaking a few people. It felt like i could run faster for the last 10k. However, due to the heat and fatigue, it dropped slowly and by the 7k mark i knew my last 10k wasn’t gonna be faster. I could feel both my quads. At first they were bearable, a little lactic acid but slowly the pain got worse and by the last 6k there were unbearable. I could feel all my muscles in my quads screaming for recovery. Every step was painful. The runners I saw when running back after the turn around were catching up and over taking me. Every aid station I took ice sponges and drank whatever they gave me. If I had the opportunity, I would douse myself with ice cold water. It was the best feeling during the intense heat. After a long half marathon, I made it to the red carpet once again filled with excitement. I was happy but my legs couldn’t go any faster. I was going to finish!

Post race- Crossing the finish line was the signal for my body to finally rest. I was just glad I managed to complete it, I had not thought about my position at all. They gave me a cold finishers towel immediately and I was so thankful for that. I received my finishers medal and drank electrolytes and water. I sat in the ice bath for a while and cramped trying to get out from it. Same story with the post race massage. First time my legs relaxed after the race, the massage was GOOD. But cramped when I tried to get up. Couldn’t even stand up without some support. Walked over to the finisher t-shirt booth and got my finishers tee. I was so proud of getting my first finisher tee which says ironman on it! Maybe next time I will try doing a full ironman. They had free post race meal, sandwich, fruits, vietnam beef noodles and ice lemon tea. My mum and I ate them by the poolside benches at the hyatt hotel. A proud sense of achievement stayed with me till the end of the trip. Part of me still can’t believe I did it.

Duathlon nutrition failure

11 Mar 2018

I  would have never guessed i would ever hit the wall in a sub 1 hour sprint race. I guess better now than in longer races and in the sprint triathlon next month!

This was a race I would describe as racing myself. I knew I would get 4th because the top 3 ( cedric, zac, ben ) would out run me. It was my job to keep my 4th spot. The race was how close I could go to those 3 guys. So I’m glad to have kept my preliminary expectations! However, this was a huge stepping stone (especially in the nutrition department) as I have never raced a sprint duathlon before!

The race started off well. As soon as the gun went off, Ben immediately sprinted to the front and I decided to keep a visual mark on him. The pace was around 3:30 and slowed down to a comfortably hard 3:45 for the rest of 3k. To me, I felt the pace was fast enough, but not sure if I could last another 45mins of racing. Heart rate was uncomfortably high, breathing was heavy going into transition. I actually ran past my bike as there were so many bikes on the rack, I had to run back and find my bike haha. Other than that, it was a smooth transition and had no trouble with slipping on the shoes (which I had no practice during training).

The bike was mental. I removed my garmin for the fear of having it stolen by someone in transition so I had no idea what Watts or speed I’m going. But the first lap was the weirdest feeling on the bike Ive ever had. Heart beating so fast, legs semi fatigued from the run but still have to push hard. Usually I start my rides from a resting heart rate and push watts when the muscles are ready to fire after a warm up. But this was a huge shock to my legs, my average heart rate for the bike was 170+bpm and ave 37kmh for the  18km bike leg. Not too bad but I wished my heart rate was more controlled and it could have felt easier to push the same effort. Also I managed to catch ben on the last lap of the bike.

Removed shoes, flying dismount and transition 2 was like BOOM done, Im out. This was where it got really bad. Both my calves were cramping, and my pace was dropping! Its not even 100m into the run and Ben had already overtaken me at a staggering fast pace. He was even telling me “Im also cramping, you just gotta run it off”. I was too out of breath to reply him as he passed by me. He was fast. I was just falling apart. It was the most horrible feeling I’ve had during any run. Usually my heart rate maybe high but my legs still could turnover. But not this time, my whole body just shut down and it took so so much to tell my muscles how to run again. I averaged 4:21pace, 188bpm for the 3k and I felt dizzy and wanted to collapse at the end of the race. (2 days later I see Ben’s instagram story of him jumping across the finish line) Yeah I would never have beaten Ben that day. Hes a brilliant runner.

Actually the first thoughts of my poor run off the bike was if I pushed the bike too hard? Was I still carrying on residual fatigue from the week? Did I do enough brick sessions? But it finally came to mind that it could have been my nutrition strategy. I realised the gel I put in my tri suit was never eaten, I was really too focused on pushing my body without realising it needed more fuel. So now Im searching for what I can put in my bottles on my bike. I need something more than the isotonic drinks, It needs carbs as well. Ive seen others use ribena or apple juice, I could have a go at that one day.