Did not do much in the 2 weeks (5/2/07 – 18/2/07) except the followings:-
SATURDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 2007 – SHORT RIDE WITH DON & CECIL
14th – 18th – Peres Climb – Titi – Reverse Peres Climb – 18th – 14th (104km)
Needed this ride to have a go at the hills enroute Titi. Started my ride from 14th while Don & Cecil started from home. Took things EZ in the 14th - Peres Junction segment - none of us did anything silly & chatted most of the way. Cecil & I dropped an unfit Don Khor right from the start of the Peres Climb. Didn't really push too hard & chatted with Cecil all the way to the top. Felt a little dizzy at summit – perhaps talked a little too much but Cecil looked more composed than I.
Re-grouped b4 descent and rode mostly together from Peres Summit to Titi. Had a good long break at Titi. With all the hard work behind me, I had the luxury to indulge myself with some noodles and half-boiled eggs during the break.
As usual, the return leg provided another opportunity for some serious hill work on the reversed Peres Climb. It was very sunny and hot by the time we got to the base of the climb. Too bad Cecil had some problems digesting his noodles and dropped off at the very start of the climb. Don looked rejuvenated right from the start and charged to the front. I'm glad he recovered or else riding up those hill under the late morning sun alone would be terribly BORING.
Hence it was Don Vs CKM again. I hv lost to him many times climbing these hills but today was not to be. On previous occasions, I attacked too early but he was simply to strong to be shaken. This time around, I stuck to his wheels for as long as possible and let him set the tempo.
How do you break someone on a climb like this? You bloody attack when the hill got steeper. That was what he did - on at least 3 occasions. He jumped off his saddle & attacked. I had a tough time responding. On one occasion, I momentarily lost focus and a gap almost developed. Luckily he did not see it & I managed to pull myself together and got behind his wheels again.
About 2/3rd up the summit, there were several declines followed by some steep inclines. It was shortly b4 we reached that stage that I launched an attack of my own. It wasn't planned - I just felt good & I jumped off my saddle and pushed ahead of Don. Saw in the corner of my eyes that Don did not respond. So I paddled hard for a few more seconds and opened up a gap b4 the 1st decline. I wanted to beat him so much, I shifted to heavy gears & charged down the 1st decline to build up sufficient momentum for the oncoming incline.
At the top of the 1st incline, I looked back and saw nothing - I have dropped the Great Don Khor. I didn't allow myself to slow down until I reached the last corner b4 the summit. He came in not too far behind followed by Cecil shortly.
Don is undoubtedly in a different class (he is a champion in the veteran category) and to be able to get one back on him was truly unforgetable. And I didn't mind that he was not at his best that day.
SATURDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 2007 – SHORT RIDE WITH DON & CECIL
14th – 18th – Peres Climb – Titi – Reverse Peres Climb – 18th – 14th (104km)
Needed this ride to have a go at the hills enroute Titi. Started my ride from 14th while Don & Cecil started from home. Took things EZ in the 14th - Peres Junction segment - none of us did anything silly & chatted most of the way. Cecil & I dropped an unfit Don Khor right from the start of the Peres Climb. Didn't really push too hard & chatted with Cecil all the way to the top. Felt a little dizzy at summit – perhaps talked a little too much but Cecil looked more composed than I.
Re-grouped b4 descent and rode mostly together from Peres Summit to Titi. Had a good long break at Titi. With all the hard work behind me, I had the luxury to indulge myself with some noodles and half-boiled eggs during the break.
As usual, the return leg provided another opportunity for some serious hill work on the reversed Peres Climb. It was very sunny and hot by the time we got to the base of the climb. Too bad Cecil had some problems digesting his noodles and dropped off at the very start of the climb. Don looked rejuvenated right from the start and charged to the front. I'm glad he recovered or else riding up those hill under the late morning sun alone would be terribly BORING.
Hence it was Don Vs CKM again. I hv lost to him many times climbing these hills but today was not to be. On previous occasions, I attacked too early but he was simply to strong to be shaken. This time around, I stuck to his wheels for as long as possible and let him set the tempo.
How do you break someone on a climb like this? You bloody attack when the hill got steeper. That was what he did - on at least 3 occasions. He jumped off his saddle & attacked. I had a tough time responding. On one occasion, I momentarily lost focus and a gap almost developed. Luckily he did not see it & I managed to pull myself together and got behind his wheels again.
About 2/3rd up the summit, there were several declines followed by some steep inclines. It was shortly b4 we reached that stage that I launched an attack of my own. It wasn't planned - I just felt good & I jumped off my saddle and pushed ahead of Don. Saw in the corner of my eyes that Don did not respond. So I paddled hard for a few more seconds and opened up a gap b4 the 1st decline. I wanted to beat him so much, I shifted to heavy gears & charged down the 1st decline to build up sufficient momentum for the oncoming incline.
At the top of the 1st incline, I looked back and saw nothing - I have dropped the Great Don Khor. I didn't allow myself to slow down until I reached the last corner b4 the summit. He came in not too far behind followed by Cecil shortly.
Don is undoubtedly in a different class (he is a champion in the veteran category) and to be able to get one back on him was truly unforgetable. And I didn't mind that he was not at his best that day.
In case you do not know him, he is one of the Powerbar trio heading for Langkawi.
Picture taken from www.pipot.com. (From Left - Don Khor, Wong Ah Thiam & Hairul Azwar Hashim)
We re-grouped at the summit and rode down to Peres Junction together. On the way down, we bumped into 2 Ironmen in the making - Azwar and Azim riding up Peres. Don later had a puncture near Sg Gabai and he got his wife (who happened to be nearby) to pick him up. Cecil & I rode back to 14th together and had a short sugar cane break at 18th.
Much later that day, the LTdL passed by the very hills at Peres but I did not linger to watch the race. I had to rush home to attend to more pressing family matters.
WEDNESDAY, 14 FEBRUARY 2007 - LAST LONG SWIM
Lap Time
| ||
500
|
0:09:46
|
0:09:46
|
1000
|
0:10:01
|
0:19:47
|
1500
|
0:10:14
|
0:30:01
|
2050
|
0:11:24
|
0:41:25
|
2600
|
0:11:40
|
0:53:05
|
3150
|
0:11:42
|
1:04:47
|
3650
|
0:10:46
|
1:15:33
|
4150
|
0:10:47
|
1:26:20
|
Finally, my last long swim. Had planned to do this during taper since it is the easiest to recover from compared to bike or run. Was to do it last Wednesday when Don prescribed a 1x4000 swim (Don is also my swimming coach at Chin Woo). But I missed that session due to family matters. Today, I swam the 1x4150 alone while the rest of the Chin Woo Gang did the usual interval stuff.
Again, I aimed for 1x4000 but lost count of laps in between 500s and ended up with 4150. Am very pleased with overall timing and 500 splits. But pacing was all wrong - gone a little too hard in 1st 1000. Overall swim did not feel like forever but arms were very tired towards the end. I was last to leave to pool. By the time I finished, everyone has already gone home. Must be the positive effects from the taper, my overall time was some 3 minutes faster than a 1x4100 I did on 24/1/07.
With that I was done with my long swim and my overall IM training programme. I managed to do all I set out to do since October 2006 except for the long bike/ run brick of 150km + 20km.
Longest swim todate 1x4150 (14/2/07), longest ride 202km (28/1/07), longest run 42km (4/2/07) and longest bike/run brick 134km + 14km (18/11/06). Total IM mileage (since early October 2006) – Swim 100400 metres, Bike 3106km and Run 616km. All these numbers are meaningless unless I can pull off another finish on Race Day.
Again, I aimed for 1x4000 but lost count of laps in between 500s and ended up with 4150. Am very pleased with overall timing and 500 splits. But pacing was all wrong - gone a little too hard in 1st 1000. Overall swim did not feel like forever but arms were very tired towards the end. I was last to leave to pool. By the time I finished, everyone has already gone home. Must be the positive effects from the taper, my overall time was some 3 minutes faster than a 1x4100 I did on 24/1/07.
With that I was done with my long swim and my overall IM training programme. I managed to do all I set out to do since October 2006 except for the long bike/ run brick of 150km + 20km.
Longest swim todate 1x4150 (14/2/07), longest ride 202km (28/1/07), longest run 42km (4/2/07) and longest bike/run brick 134km + 14km (18/11/06). Total IM mileage (since early October 2006) – Swim 100400 metres, Bike 3106km and Run 616km. All these numbers are meaningless unless I can pull off another finish on Race Day.
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