31st December 2011

It has been an awesome and eventful year!!!

Looking back, it has been a year well spent.

Shannon enjoying her first year in Primary School.
Stella and Sean getting naughtier by the day...
It is a wonderful sight to see kids growing up.
It aches when kids laments why you are hardly home on Saturday.

It amazes me to recall that I bonk after 30m of freestyle just 6 years ago. =p
The journey to IMWA pushes me to swim 3.2km using freestyle.

Only a year ago, I was wondering how to conquer century rides.
My longest ride was NTU Bike Rally where I suffered madly after 124km...
With SE, Eugene and the FOTR gang, I was convinced to start and completed a 135km Desaru Ride.
With Eugene literally pushing me up the slopes were I able to complete the ride.
Again the ride breaks my resolve. I was dying out there.

The monthly Desaru Rides made riding the slopes a lot easier.
But there are good days and there are bad days.
During one of those rides, all the IMWA bound guys were doing 150km except for hopeless me who completed 90-100km? that day.
I attributed it to a bad day and pray that it do not happen to me on race day.

The months leading up to IMWA were truly crucial.

Bike and Blade gave me some hope. Day 1, I skived. Completed 100km instead of the 140km.
Day 2 saw me completed 155km in 6.5hrs.
My longest ride to date. At the 125km mark, where I was feeling awesome is something that I was hoping to achieve during race day.

MegaTri...
Longer than IM70.3 but nowhere near the full IM distance.
I do not know how to play the game.
Completing the race in 9hrs, doing the maths, I figure I can complete the race in 16++hrs.

Newton 30km
The one and only LSD for the year.
4:45h gave me hope.

Ultimately, the race boils down to tons of luck for me.
I played all the cards right for the entire race day, right down to the very last card.
One thousand and one things can go down and you are hoping that the person is not you.
The race also tells me something.
That there is much to be done.
If you put in time and effort, your timing will improve.
You will be better guarded in case of any contingencies that may surface.

I probably need to focus for 2012.
But fun rides beckon and I am easily tempt... Argh....
Life is so tough as a triathlete... Decisions Decisions Decisions...

This blog has been dedicated to Ironman Western Australia 2011.
I will leave all the memories of 2011 here.
Will be reverting back to my old blog.
Do catch me at TrainingStartsNow. =)