Tuska Tri Update

Meant to post after I did Tuska just never got round to it.  First of all I have to say that my theory that Tuska wasn’t much more than in the Aquathlon were sadly proved wrong.  Swimming in the sea at a time when the tide was dragging me backwards on the first third, the second third had waves trying to roll me over and the final third was straight back at the waves it was so much harder than a nice flat pool.

I’ve never thought about quitting a race part way through before but when less than 200 meters in someone is already rolling over for the rescue boat and it feels like I’m making no progress at all I must admit that I considered it.  At various points it was the cost, the shame and the sheer bloody-mindedness that kept me going.  At one point I told myself that I’d at least finish the swim and then my head woke up to the realization that once I’d done that bit I might as well carry on.

I finally rose from the sea like some sort of startled sea monster and staggered up the slipway and onto terra firma.  My slowest transition ever, and by my standards that is slow, but I was out on the bike and so pleased to be on my way.  I’d reccied the bike route the day before and knew there were very few flat bits on the course and some big old climbs so I tried to keep my energy but was still able to go along at a decent speed.  Being almost last out of the water meant there were very few behind me so I could mainly focus on catching people in front.  Was impressed with myself on the long drag up the A48 as I hauled in several competitors and it was very apparent that the weight I’ve lost training is definitely making a difference.

Finished the bike and onto the run where I hit a good speed early and managed to overtake 7 or 8 people on the way round – my localized hill training paying off here – and in the end I came home in a good (for me) time.

The swim was so hard though and although I’m pleased I got through it it’s made me realize that if I’m going to progress in Tri I need to learn to swim properly or at least better than I currently do.

Counting to 5. 1…2…3…3…4…5…

Or at least that’s what the marshals at the Cardiff International Pool Aquathlon managed to do.  When attempting a daunting, never before done by yourself 500m swim in a wetsuit you’ve never worn before you’d like to think that at least you wouldn’t have to do anymore than planned.

Marshal had other ideas when he called out 3 laps done twice as we went around the large triangular course they’d laid out.  It wasn’t just me but everyone in my wave who was affected.  I managed to do it mind and I guess in theory Tuska is now only a little bit more rather than 50% more.

Got out of the pool and into T1 – is it just T for a aquathlon or duathlon? – and managed to get the wetsuit off easy enough,  Took a while faffing with socks which I wouldn’t have done in a big race an set off on the run aiming at a run time of about 32 minutes.  Problem was I couldn’t settle into a rhythm at a fast enough speed and kept falling off the pace.  Managed to overtake several of the faster swimmers in my wavebut still only came in on 34 minutes.  Not really happy with that and the 32 minute target would have seen me jumping about 8 places in the field.

A good event though and less wary about Tuska’s swim now – although I do need to add a 22K bike in between with some killer hills.  Why do I do it?  To see if I can I guess.

Off to Maindy cycle track in the week for a couple of hours of leg spinning – must try and work on getting my cadence up to something respectable and a track is about the easiest way to do it I guess.

Sporting Life

It’s all been going on in the last few weeks.    Been training well and also been doing quite a few different events – started with the Gower Bike Ride on the 5th July which was 29 miles of undulating roads starting and ending in Swansea and taking in a good section of the Gower – wasn’t easy but I did pretty well (Ian beat me though) considering it was the first time I’d even sat on my bike since doing the Duathlon in March.  Weather was lovely for it too but I must admit there was a climb at the end where I had to get off for a 100 yards  as my legs wouldn’t go round any more.

On the 11th July I took part in my first Parkrun –  a free 5KM time trial around Blackweir Park (22:51) a very well organised event and I’m sure I’ll do more.  14th July was the next of the Rose Inn series and Chris pulled out due to his illness so I was doing it solo.   I set the previous Rose Inn race as a virtual partner on my Garmin and effectively raced myself around the course, I was well up on the first lap and kept it going well giving myself a chance at sub 30 minutes.  A big effort in the last 400 metres got me home in 29:49– a time I wouldn’t have thought possible a few months ago.  Shame I’m not going to be able to get the 3rd one done to qualify for the series competition as we’re on holiday but I don’t think I’d have won anyway!

19th July was the Hereford Triathlon – 400M swim (freezing outdoor pool), 16K bike, 5K run.  A nice early drive up there to Chris’ in-laws and a nice ride over to the venue we were due to go off just before 10am.  I started off a minute behind Chris and this lead grew to about 3 minutes after the swim.  I made up a minute on him on the bike and then caught him about half way round the run.  We stayed together from there ending up a minute apart on the final times.

25th July was the Cardiff Triples event held at Maindy Pool/Velodrome.  A crazy event which involves teams of four completing 3 short triathlons one after the other with only 5 minutes break in between each.  Chris, Ian myself and Gareth McNamee (an old friend of Chris’) comprised team Fat Chance and considering that 2 of them had never done a Tri before I think we did pretty well.  In our wave we were among the best on the bike stages  (legal drafting) but let down on the Swim (mainly me) and the Run legs.  Official results show us dead last but our final leg time was wrong and we did 11 laps on one of the cycles so we’re hoping the results get amended (moving us from last to second, but not, last).

That sums up July events but this coming weekend I’m debating doing another Parkrun and am entered in the Cardiff International Pool Aquathlon.  Unique for a pool swim wetsuits are allowed (chance for me to debut mine) and rather than swimming lengths we will be swimming around a triangular shaped course – 5 laps of 100m.  I must admit to being a bit worried but we’ll see how it goes.  The run after is 6.5K around the bay back and forth over the flyover a couple of times and then up and down the river.

All good prep for the upcoming Tuska Triathlon where I’ll have to do a 750m sea swim in Porthcawl followed by a 22K hilly bike ride and then a 5K run.  Going to be a tough one.

Last two event of the season (apart from maybe more free Parkruns) are the Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest event, see the link and watch the video to do it justice, and then the Cardiff Half Marathon.  These are both in October so September looks fairly quiet unless Kathryn decides we should do the Cardiff 10K too.

RIAT 2009

Red Arrows Between all the sporting activities I’ve been doing Kathryn and I went with Ian, Charlie and Aled to the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford.  It was a good day and considering the bad forecast the weather ended up being pretty good.  So much so K got a bit of a sunburn.  I took plenty of photos and have uplaoded a selection onto our Flickr page.

Specs-appeal

sculpt60Ok so the title pun has been done 1000 times before.  Following my eye test I’ve needed to get glasses and today Kathryn and I went into town nice and early to see what we could get.

Turned out Vision Express had a special Oakley day on which meant that, unusually for Oakley glasses, they were available at a discount.

straightjacket_lsI ended up going for two pairs – one pair of normal spectacles which will be for everyday use and a second pair of sunglasses which also have my prescription in.  They’re the Lance Armstrong Livestrong brand so I think I’ve probably donated some money to charity too – they may even help my cycling!

I’ve got to wait for the sunglasses as Oakley make them up themselves but the normal frames were available on a one hour service so I have them now.  Putting them on was very strange as everything went into a sort of tunnel vision but in the centre of the glasses it was like changing from Standard to Hi-def TV.  I’m trying to keep them on now so I can get used to them.

Rose Inn 4 Race Series Race 2

On Tuesday Chris and I entered this 4 mile race around the village of Redwick.   I’d set myself a target of 33 minutes with 32 minutes being an optimistic bonus and I ended up coming in in 31:27 which was, for me, a great time and about the fastest pace I’ve run any sort of distance in a good while.  Chris and I went round the first of the 2 laps together and then I pushed on for the second lap and finished just under a minute ahead but most of that was probably down to Chris’ ongoing asthma issues.

We missed the first race of the 4 race series but you only need to do 3 of the 4 to get an overall ranking so I’ll try to do that although one of them clashes with cricket.

We’ve actually been doing quite a lot of running recently including some off road, on Friday after work for example we got lost and ran the wrong way a few times before completing a respectable 10.5K in just over an hour.  To aid my running I went along today for a foot assessment (my first since the op) at the excellent Run and Become in Cardiff and after much searching and testing it turns out that my current Asics Gel Cumulus are actually about the best for me even though my two feet are now markedly different.

Must throw in a thanks to Kathryn for driving us both down and supporting and roll on the 14th July when we get to do it all again!

Wanna buy a house?

1 careful owner (Kathryn), one slightly less careful owner (Me).  Have a look here.  For those two lazy to click the link this is what Darlows have to say about it.

Offered for sale is this stylish 3 bedroom dormer style semi in Rumney, well presented throughout this property would be ideal for those families looking to upsize, an attractive price completes the package!.

Singapore

The last 2 days have been spent in Singapore.  Once we departed the ship we went on a quick tour of the island before checking into our hotel which is excellent.

We’ve done the hop-on hop-off tour for a day and a half and have seen loads.  A nice feature is many of the hotels and malls are all interlinked so you can get around without leaving the comforts of aircon.

We’ve eaten well too and last night went to a fancy restaurant where you get served your steak (or in K’s case tuna) and they give you a hot stone for you to cook the meat yourself.  It was very good and the starters and desserts were excellent.

Singapore is probably our favourite place on the whole trip and a place we’d certainly consider returning too – Kathryn’s even looked up the Singapore Marathon as a good excuse to come back.  Incidentally our hotel is smack bang in the middle of the F1 track – the track goes past the front and back of the hotel and we’re about a 3 minute walk to the pit buildings.

We’ll be leaving the room soon to checkout but we’ve still got 6 hours till the airport transfer so we’re going to continue to enjoy.  Ciao!

All Thai-ed up

This is the last of our at sea blogs as we depart Cambodia for our final destination of Singapore.

After I last posted we went to watch the magicians escape act and in my eagerness to get a front row seat I ended up being dragged up front to help with the chaining and checking of the padlocks.  They were definitely proper padlocks and the chain was very heavy.  Having seen him get our of a straight jacket though I don’t think it was any more difficult except perhaps that he was at the bottom of a 6 foot deep pool.  He escaped after 2 and a half minutes underwater but in all honesty I think he was out within the first 90 seconds and staying down for effect.

The next day we got to Thailand near the beach town of Pattaya and from there we got a bus ride to Bangkok where we decided to do the city on foot.  Bad call on my part that as by the time we got to the Emerald Temple and Giant Buddha everything was closed up to tourists – we were even given a friendly warning by a tourist policeman that we shouldn’t hang around that area too long.  We had managed to see one of the main temples though and went back to the shopping!

Many people were staying overnight in Bangkok but we headed back on the bus and the next day stayed more local to the port and visited the Tiger Zoo.  The Tiger Zoo is home to hundreds of tigers, over 100K crocodiles, elephants and a mix of other animals.  There were some demonstrations of the animals, Kathryn wasn’t keen on the guy who spent most of his time trying to get bitten by crocodiles, I was quite impressed by the elephant who could play darts!  The tigers were the stars though and I even got to hold and feed a tiger cub.  Special mention should go to Kathryn’s favourite animal – the flag waving pig.

That afternoon we had a relax by the pool which was rudely interrupted when Kathryn wrenched my book from my hands and entered me into the “Mr Legend” competition.  Despite 2 Welsh girls on the judging panel I still didn’t win – I can only assume it was down to my reluctance to be there. That and the fact I can’t dance or do press-ups!  I will have my revenge on Kathryn for that one!

In Cambodia we visited a beach town and had a mill around the local market – think Splott Market but with twice as many stalls crammed in and add numerous sewing machines and scorpions on sticks.  From there we hopped on a Tuk Tuk to one of the many beaches and spent a couple of hours just walking in the surf and sitting back watching the world go by.

Tomorrow we’re at sea before we arrive in SIngapore.  Straight off the ship we’re having a tour of the place which should help us we’ll get to know the place before exploring solo and we’d probably be too early for check in anyway.

Good Morning Vietnam!

Long overdue blog this one but we’ve just been so busy the last few days – breakfast, pick up trip ticket, get off ship, get on bus, drive, race around city, take photos, back on bus and repeat. back on bus, drive back to ship. get ready for evening, watch show, eat dinner, bed – and then do it all again on the next day in a whole other city!

Since we left Hong Kong we sailed to the Chinese town of Sanya where our activity for the day was to the hot spa resort – a park full of loads of hot water pools.  Highlight of the day for me was the Fish therapy pools , otherwise known as the nibble fish ponds.  You sit in a big pool of water filled with various fish from 2-4 inches long and they proceed to eat your dead skin until it’s all gone or you decide you can’t stay in any longer!  I submerged myself almost totally but drew the line when my ear was getting nibbled.  It was such a strange experience.

Sanya was our last Chinese location and we then travelled to Vietnam where we’ve been for the last 3 days.  First day was in the town of Hoi An where we went on a walking tour of the old historical town and browsed the markets.  Next was Nah Trang which is the most popular beach resort in Vietnam and finally yesterday we visited Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon).  It’s such a sprawling and busy city that we were constantly on the move and barely getting a chance to think before we were onto the next location – any slower though and we wouldn’t have seen half of what we did.  In fact the only thing slowing us up was the dozens of street traders trying to sell us postcards, caps, T-shirts etc as you got on and off the bus.  They weren’t too pushy though and would never try to stop you if you weren’t interested.  In Vietnam the temperatures have been consistently around 90 degrees with very high humidity.

On the ship we’ve been keeping busy too eating some excellent meals alongside our table-mates from South Africa and enjoying some banter with our Head Waiter Nilesh.  I’ve had a couple of excellent Lamb meals and Kathryn’s just enjoying the chance to have 3 courses every night.

I’ve been running round on deck (or in the gym) most days and the humidity really makes you feel you’ve burnt a few calories.  It’s even like an obstacle course at times trying to avoid people wandering aimlessly around the designated running track.

Also I’m apparently now a genuine stalker – we saw the magician show one night and he sat next to us at breakfast the next day and I had the cheek to say hello and tell him how much I enjoyed the show.  SInce then we keep bumping into him around the ship and Kathryn’s convinced I’m stalking him – he’s doing an escape act from chains in the pool today which should be good to watch.

Kathryn’s looking forward to the formal night tonight as we missed the previous one on the night where the sea was particularly choppy – the first time we’ve had actually designated “rough” waves on a cruise meant that many people missed dinner that evening.  Neither of us felt particularly good that night but it’s been fine since.

Tomorrow is Bangkok for 2 days, followed by Cambodia and then on to Singapore!