Review of past years

Everything started around the time I was about 6 years old, when I took swimming lessons. Nothing competitive about it, just those lessons that was supposed to get you comfortable with the water. The only problem was that one of my instructor enjoyed forcing our heads into the water, and that didn't help much with water confidence. Stopped taking lessons soon after when I roughly knew enough to survive in the water.

Fast forward to 2008. Motivated by my father to run regularly. At that time running once every 2 weeks was the norm. Gradually it progressed to twice and 3 times a week. Took part in my first race, Singapore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon 10k. After 61 minutes of pavement pounding around the city area, I crossed the finish line, tired but thrilled. Back then I wasn't yet a racer, more of a finisher.

The focus from then till 2009 was to see how far I could go. Took part in Passion Run 09, and completed the 15km in 1h24min. September 09 saw me taking part in SBR&AHM again, this time in the half marathon category. Crossing the line in 2:04, while 4 minutes shy of my original goal, made me feel accomplised and in control of my body.

It was also in early 2009 when I got my first proper bike, the cheapest road bike one could ever find. At that time I wasn't set on taking part in triathlons, just wanted to a bicycle I could call my own. The brand of my ride was Raleigh, and my first impressions were that the bike looked race ready (all road bikes look the same, right?) and it was super hard to control! Spent the rest of the year mostly learning about cycling and improving my handling skills, as well as seeing marked improvements in the average speed from ride to ride.

I also decided to take part in triathlons in the later part of 2009, and swimming became regular once again. I signed up for the 2010 OSIM Triathlon, sprint category and eagerly anticipated its arrival.

2010 arrived and along with it was a new Scott road bike. With some sort of structured training, I managed to survive the sprint tri (although the swim was cancelled due to bad weather) and placed 9th in the 16-19 AG. I got hooked, and really wanted to improve my timings as well as placing. Took training much more seriously, with plenty of reading on all things triathlon related. I also joined a few Joyriders ride, and my ego got beat up pretty bad every time I got dropped by the supposedly slow pack.

Run training was pretty inconsistent, due to the random injuries that propped up from time to time. However, I was able to run a 22:30 5k in the OSIM Triathlon, and did 21:38 in the MR25 December 5k TT. In December a "fall" on the bike caused an injury which affected my right ankle and disrupted my training for a good 4 weeks. Even after that, the ankle is still not fully healed and seems like it will never be.

At the end of 2010 I was in pretty good shape; swim was mediocre, bike was steadily improving, and running was going well (until the injury, of course).

This year, 2011, the Scott went away and a Argon 18 Mercury took its place. I figured since triathlons were the focus, why not just get a tri bike? There are 3 main races on my calendar. First was the Singapore Biathlon in February, where I posted a 29:XX 1.5k swim and a 49:XX 10k run. Considering the lack of run training, I was fairly surprised with my run time. However, the swim was quite disappointing as the trainings did not seem to have any significant impact.

The next race will be happening in 2 days time, the Singapore Sprint Series triathlon. Following that would be the OSIM Tri in late July, where I have "upgraded" to the olympic distance since last year.

So that's the gist of my triathlon training thus far!

New beginnings

This blog is to track my training for triathlons. The next race is in 3 days, and the next A race would be an Olympic Distance triathlon in late July.

Some background:
Picked up running in 2008, and cycling in 2009. Been swimming since young but only on and off. Started taking training more seriously in 2010, and hoping for a podium spot this year!

What's going to happen after July? I'm not too sure too, but the real As will be happening in November and study will take priority for sure! After As? We'll see!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]