Live Free and Ride Hard

2.5hours
Mountain biking
McFarm -> (Hill track) -> Asma hotel -> Empire roundabout -> (Bush track) -> McFarm

2 good reasons why you should NOT do it;
i. if you just want to trim off excessive weight, there are certainly far easier way
ii. if you place a place a high value on your bones.

2 good reasons why you SHOULD do it;
i. The route offers a demanding, punishing but satisfying uphill ride
ii. The often long downhill run is both exhilarating and dangerous.

To hell with reasons. A let it ripped weekend! What better way for my first ride of 2007.

The Will to Prepare

To achieve my dream, I need to focus on baby steps and small tangible goals.

That means I first have to gain a decent level of proficiency in my weakest sport of the three: swimming.

For the first half of this year, I will learn to swim, from a coach if I can find one or by myself if need be. For the latter, I need to ensure I don't pick up any bad swimming habits. Hopefully by Q3 or Q4 of 2007, I will enter my first triathlon, a sprint or olympic triathlon.

And if I shall fail, I will still gain experience .. and evolve. I don't lose either way. I like that.

Easy Does It

I seemed to have picked up a slight injury after the Brunei marathon. I couldn't run more than 5km without feeling discomfort behind my left knee. My battered body way of telling me to take it easy for a while.

So I haven't done any long runs lately. To compensate, I've taken to trail-running in Bukit Shahbandar. The 9 hills run may be short (and sweet!), but the incredible feeling as I finished yet another sweaty run is very satisfying ... and addictive.

Yesterday I set out to try and do a long run. After 7km, I felt stronger and realised my injury seemed to have healed. What a relief!

Pain is temporary ... but the memory of completing my second Brunei Marathon, and at a new personal best, will stay with me forever.

Triathlon Primer

Note to self ...

In contemporary usage, a triathlon is an athletic event made up of three contests;- swimming, cycling and running. These events are placed back-to-back in immediate sequence and a competitor's official time includes the time required to "transition" between the individual legs of the race, including any time necessary for changing clothes and shoes.

There are a number of standard triathlon race distances, including;-

* Sprint Distance Triathlon: 750 meter swim / 20 km bike / 5 km run.
* Olympic Distance Triathlon: 1.5 km (0.9 mi) swim / 40 km (24.9 mi) bike / 10 km (6.2 mi) run.
* Half-Ironman Triathlon: 1.9 km (1.2 mi) swim / 90 km (56 mi) bike / 21 km (13.1 mi) run. Also called a "70.3".
* Ironman, Iron Distance and Long Distance Triathlon: 3.8 km (2.4 mile) swim / 180 km (112 mile) bike / 42 km (26.2 mile) run, i.e. a marathon.

The Dream

Challenge: Finishing an Ironman triathlon
Reward: Completing a Dream ...

The IRONMAN course are generally closed 17 hours after the start of the race. In the 2006 Ironman Korea, the oldest finisher, 79-year-old Korean Hong-Gyu Kim crossed the finish line just before midnight. He started the race around 8am.

Imagine 17 hours of committed suffering.

I did ...

Now I haven't quite figured out why I want to do it yet. I have no prior swimming or biking experience and I've only been running for 3 years, but triathlon seemed an exciting challenge, and the Ironman triathlon a dream.

A dream I'm determined to chase ...