In this post, I will like to try to put into perspective of the below point:
Why are we increasing stroke rate now? YOU KEEP ASKING US TO INCREASE GLIDING.. NOW YOU ARE SAYING THE OPPOSITE?
Yes, and No.
As you all would have known, I do things especially in sports, with a Lot of planning. And as I share with you, I improvise stuffs as I gain new knowledge and change as time goes by. So when you combine those two ideas together, you'd get what we call an unconventional way to train.
Below explains what we're trying to achieve and what we're actually looking at as improvement as of now.
----------------------- To start off: the formula for speed of swim in water ------------------
Velocity (Speed you move through the water) =
Stroke Length (Distance moved with EACH PULL) X Stroke Rate (No. of pulls over a period of time)
Example:
50m swim.
If I were to do a 1min 50m swim..
Velocity = 50meters / 1 min
Lets say my Stroke Length is 2.5m EACH PULL.
So in order to travel 50m I will need 20 pulls.
In order to travel 50m in 30 seconds, I will need to pull 20pulls in 30 seconds, i.e the STROKE RATE is 20pulls/1 min.
-------------------------------------
Now, to improve TIMING, I can have 3 general options.
Option 1) Keep Stroke Length Constant, INCREASE STROKE RATE
Option 2) Keep Stroke Rate Constant, INCREASE STROKE LENGTH
Option 3) INCREASE BOTH Stroke Rate AND Stroke Length
Explanation:
Option 1:
When you increase stroke rate, it means you finish the number of pulls in a shorter period of time.
And with the stroke length constant, you finish the distance in shorter period of time.
Option 2:
When you increase stroke length, it means you
i) REDUCE DRAG, by streamlining
ii) PULL HARDER and thus achieve a greater distance per pull
And when the stroke rate stays the same, you finish the lap with lesser amount of strokes and of course, Shorter time.
Option 3:
When you increase Both stroke rate and stroke length, you do all the above and thus reaches the destination in the shortest time out of the three.
----------------------------------------------
So now that we understand how things work.. we'll get to the training part.
When I started this team, in all honesty, all I knew was to increase stroke length and thus that will result in a lesser amount of pulls per lap and in comparison to a higher number of pulls, that should become a more "efficient" and energy saving stroke.
But as I trained harder and read more and got educated more by my coaches in life.. I realised that the "efficiency" part isn't exactly true just because of the drop of number of pulls per lap.
The good news is my logic got us started at a good starting point.
My logic is that we're all born with this body of ours, and we have a base line of fitness that we currently possess.
However, to do a skill to perfection, it does not take into account how much fitness you have but how much muscular and bodily control you have to execute a movement.
I.E, no matter how fit you are, that is not a good indicator to how good you are at doing a certain thing.
And thus I started the training by teaching you guys how to MAXIMIZE the stroke length with your then-current fitness that you possess when you started training with me.
I.E I polish your technique to streamline your body and reduce drag AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE (skill training) and pull in the correct manner (to maximize leverage in water and move your body forward).
------------------------AND right now, I feel that we have all come to a common understanding on your swim techniques and also reach a point in time whereby all of you are able to more than amaturely execute the swim in a streamlined position that constitutes of the lowest drag relative to your body shape and movements in water ----------
*********THAT IS WHY I AM ASKING YOU TO INCREASE YOUR STROKE RATE********
Take note that since your stroke technique has reached a certain level whereby you know how you should reduce drag and do that consistently over laps of 50m swims (all of you were doing 24 to 28 strokes with exaggerated gliding which are really impressive)... the next step (look at ii) of Option 2 above.. is to PULL HARDER.
Any attempt right now to increase your stroke length even further, you will be resorting to pulling harder more than to inch out an extra cm from an even more streamlined position. That is because for most of you, if we want to achieve streamlining to another level, we will need proper video equipment and laser beams and EVEN MORE MENTAL FOCUS.
And taking the last point (MENTAL FOCUS) into consideration, I doubt you guys have enough of that.. and thus your body will definitely CHEAT and start to pull harder to go faster.
NOW THAT - is what I don't like to see in your swim right now. WHY?????? --- CONTINUE at ***
I've always emphasized aerobic training being 80% of your training volume and 20% anaerobic at max. When we pull harder, it is easy for us to cross that line and go into anaerobic mode.
In all long distance sports including Triathlon, we try our best not to go deeply anaerobic throughout the whole race unless we're racing for a very strong purpose or the race is less than an 1hr long.
For reason on why train aerobically...
1) Lower intensity = lower risk of injury due to
i) Lower effort = more ability to focus on right joint movement / techniques
ii) Lower effort = lesser impact on joints and muscles
2) Aerobic system is the system that provide us LONG LASTING ENERGY and thus to be successful, we must train that aerobic capacity to as high as we can because most of our races last longer than an hour and we will be working aerobically 90% of the race except when we over take people or race to the end line or when the gun goes off!
----------------------------------------------------------
CONTINUED --- ***
When you pull harder, you tend to go anaerobic. I.E High intensity.
In a nut shell, that is complete opposite of the reasons on why we train aerobically or what we're trying to achieve to have a well trained body and have a successful racing "career"/lifestyle.
On the other hand we can also explain it this way:
RACE PACE = The pace that you trained yourself to stay inside, i.e a comfortably uncomfortable state whereby your body is pushing at a state somewhere just below its limit of breaking.
When you go anaerobic completely, you will drain yourself out sooner than when the race will end. I.E That is HIGHER THAN RACE PACE.
------------------------------------------------------
SO, now I'm introducing to you to INCREASE STROKE RATE while Stroke Length is maintained to be constant.
I.E we're aiming for No harder pulls.
Taking the example from above, each pull still move you through 2.5m of distance in water. So you will still need 20pulls to cover 50m.
The ultimate goal is for the amount of forced applied to stay nearly the same.
However, what changes now is that you complete the 20pull at a higher speed.
----------------------------------------------------------
It looks really easy on paper/screen.. however it will be tough.. This is due to the increase of frontal resistance from water as we move through the water at a higher velocity.
The amount of effort per pull will definitely have to increase in order to keep the distance travelled per pull the same as when you do a slow swim that allow you to travel 2.5m per pull.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digress:
Now, you ask, why do this? Why not stick with pulling harder?
From our example above, we take 20pulls to reach 50m in 30seconds if we travel 2.5m per pull...
so if we pull harder and increase stroke length to 5meters per pull and keep the stroke rate the same (speed of pulling = 20pulls/30seconds).
That way we reach other side in shorter time because we will only need 10 pulls (10 x 5meters) and so we will reach in 15seconds!
Right. But the REAL QUESTION is... HOW MUCH HARDER?
When you swim slowly (maybe 1min 5secs per lap or around 55 seconds per lap) and try to pull harder while streamlining yourself, you notice that the amount of swim time decreases a lot, maybe by 5 to 10 seconds. That is good.
However, when you do a swim at a higher speed (around 43seconds and below) it becomes SO MUCH harder to increase stroke length.
Reason: Water Resistance DO NOT INCREASE in LINEAR fashion.
I.E The faster you want to swim, the MORE FORCE YOU NEED to travel a MUCH longer distance per stroke.
So, by choosing Option 2, increasing stroke length, when you have already maxed out your current skill level to reduce drag, you will have to INCREASE YOUR STRENGTH BY A LOT.
You will now take slower pulls compared to Option 1, but each pull is going to have to be so powerful that it is pure anaerobic stuff.
SO....................
I choose Option 1, increasing stroke rate. Because given your current stroke skill level, you will have to just increase your strength per pull minimally to maintain the stroke length at 2.5m per pull instead of increasing the effort per pull by a whole lot just to ensure increase in stroke length even though you can pull slowly.
On a easier way of saying things:
1) Moving your arm slow at a HIGH effort = anaerobic (picture squatting 150kg)
2) Moving your arm faster with a lower effort = aerobic (picture squating 15kg 10x)
Total volume of work done is the same but you can last much longer on the aerobic state. That is GOOD for triathlon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Another comparison for the brain dead people.
You set your bicycle gear to big chain ring in front and 5th cog at the back as you feel moderate effort when pedalling at that gear.
So for example, 1 revolution of the crank will bring you forward 5meters.
And thus to travel 50m, you need to pedal 10 revolutions.
If you want to travel 50m in the shortest amount of time, you can either
1) Finish the 10 revolutions in very quick fashion (note: resistance didn't increase as gear maintain the same).
Or you can
2) Set the rear to 10th cog and travel a further distance per revolution. However, as you increase the distance travelled, you also increased the resistance due to the gear used. And that means you are pushing a very heavy weight with you legs to move through the 50m and that is anaerobic.
CLEAR?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, you ask me, what about Option 3? I want to be REALLY FAST so I want to increase both my stroke length and stroke rate!
Note that moving your arms quickly in a form that is specific to the demand of the technique is a SKILL.
That's why we do speed skill training.
Once you master this skill of moving quickly without increasing much force, you can train to swim very quickly and efficiently at an aerobic state and thus maintain that speed for a long time.
WHAT HAPPEN WHEN YOU DON'T TRAIN THIS SPEED SKILL?
Then you will be churning your arms in the water and not catching any water with good technique in your arm pull and recovery and entry because you just never teach your body to move quickly while conforming to that stroke technique!
No offence but Vincent can be a testimony to this because you heard him said it himself that the effort was so high that he can't even think about what he is doing.. let alone maintaining proper stroke technique.
Okay, so lets fast forward 1 yr later.. you hit the plateau for this level, you will have to increase your strength per pull by doing RESISTANCE TRAINING. I.E Gym and paddle work and zoomer fin work.
By doing that, you'll increase your general strength and your "normal" pulls at aerobic state will become stronger.
Thus stroke length will then increase because of your increased strength and not because of an increased effort to apply more force.
That, is your option 3 lor. :)
Understand?
If no, please comment here.
Cheers
KK
ps: you can do the strength training side by side with what you're doing now.
ps ps: JSUT HOW THE HELL DO I DO IT?
Do a moderate swim and count your number of strokes per lap. Divide the 50m by the strokes per lap and you get stroke length.
Then try to swim faster.
The key is to keep your chionging nature in control and, try to apply same if not just minimally increased effort to maintain the stroke length achieved in your moderate swim now in your fast swim..
i.e swim faster by increasing the speed of your pulls while keeping stroke length constant.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
20/10/10 swim squad video analysis
ADD ME IN FACEBOOK AT rukawa_koh@hotmail.com
Delacroix Kaede is my onscreen name. :)
See my facebook for your VIDEOS.... EXCEPT..........
LAWRENCE, MR AND MRS TAKE!! I LOST YOUR VIDEO.. :( DUNNO WHY CANNOT FIND.. but here goes nothing!
----------------------------------
Mr Take:
The only complain I have is your head is lifted too high. Mrs Take saw that. Focus on changing that first. :)
You got really strong core muscles which I must say helps alot in your body position. That is why your swim is so strong. We can see that strong core in work too from your butterfly kicks and swims. :) Keep up the good work!
-----------------------
Mrs Take:
Your swim looks and feels very very relaxed! Very textbook like.
However on sunday when I saw you swim again, I saw that your recovery is done with a wide arm. Why not elbow leading?
I'll show you on wednesday if you remind me.
At slow swim, the technique looks really good! We'll see how when things get tougher in more speedy swim to come. :)
--------------------------------
Vincent:
Left side breathing head very high. not smooth, jerk up to breathe then drop into the water.. not in control.
Arms unable to close to the side? need to check latissimus dorsi range of motion on wednesday.. maybe due to improper lat pulldown or pullup training.
Recovery is hand leading... ie the fingers are in front of the elbow.
It should be elbow leaving water, followed by wrist and then fingers.. then bringing the elbow to the front to allow the forearm and wrist to follow the entry of the fingertips at the front end of the stroke.
Arms unable to stay at side RELAX-LY for a prolong period of time.. this shows a lack of control over his body.. which means there is no mastery of bodily movements yet.
If you can't slow it down, you can't control it enough to wield it to its greatest potential when torrential forces is unleashed.
------------------------
Sam:
As a fellow coach of yours I felt that you've done well to upkeep your stroke technique.
As a chiller (almost slacker status like calvin).. its easy for you to relax and that helps alot in reducing frontward drag caused by the newton's law of action-reaction.
However, do take note that at higher effort, your stroke tend to crumple due to the lack of stabilizer muscle strength to overcome the amount of force you generate at higher speed swim.
As speed increases, the amount of drag increases too and as you rotate your torso side to side, you need to have a fair share of torso stability to keep that position streamlined.
For now in this video, the only few things that is of an issue is the head rising a little too high to breathe and the right hand tend to cross center-line after breathing.
Lastly, you're not applying any constant pressure on your chest. That explains the bobbing up and down from your torso and your head.
Also to note is you're not recovering with a high elbow, its a hand leading recovery.
-------------------------------
KH:
Right arm pull too short, left arm pull too far behind (full extension of arm). To make things worst, left arm pull is done with the "flick" to push the water upwards and out towards surface.. that caused zero propulsion and then some drag.
Legs tend to open up after breathing. Must consciously keep the legs "kicking within a small tunnel" or point big toes inwards a little to cause a inward and small kick.
Left hand recovery tend to over reach to the front. This caused the forearm to drop and touch the surface instead of following the wrist and slide in the water into its extended arm position.
Plantar flexion of feet is not very good yet.
AFTER CORRECTION:
Streamlining is tip top good.
Rotation of hip to the right is slow and thus the right arm pull is not using your core muscle to pull. Resulting in overall deceleration on the right arm pull + breathing.
Legs issue resolved but still worth using the mental cue described above.
left arm still over reaching.
left arm pulling still not in the right direction and the flick of the forearm upwards to surface is a pain to watch. ;p
---------------------------------
Ebnu:
Right arm extension streamline position is perfect. However, both arm pulls is not right (look below for your pull's mistake) and that diminished the streamline position's advantage. When there is no propulsion, there will be no forward movements.
Plantar flexion of feet is not too good.
Streamlining when breathing is a problem as you tend to crunch up your body when you're breathing. Imagine doing a side ab crunch. This is a sign that you need to lift your body high to breathe.
The relaxation at the end of pulls are exaggerated just like vincent. The art of doing nothing has yet to be mastered (but of course this is just one lesson).
Left arm recovery is overreaching to the Front AND the center. The forearm is contacting the water surface before entry causing an upward lift instead of reducing drag with a fingertip entry.
The sudden jerk of recovery into the water signifies a sudden tension followed by a sudden try to relieve that tension. It should be tensionless ALL THE WAY.
The Pull:
First of all, You're pulling with just one speed all the way. There should be a deceleration in arm speed then followed by a progressive acceleration through the pull. The scale of acceleration and deceleration is amplified or minimized by the speed and effort your swim.
There is a catch phase where you bring your forearm-wrist-palm-fingertips in a straight vertical line. The elbow is flexed and beside the forehead or further out (as "early" in the pull as possible try to get into this state).
This position allows you to hold onto the water with the early vertical forearm before you progressive up the speed of pushing the vertical forearm-wrist-palm-fingertips towards the rear.
There is little to no force used here to get to this forearm position.
If there is too much force used to get to the early vertical forearm, it will cause a sudden and forceful deceleration due to the amount of surface area exposed to the front.
I like to describe it as sneak into that position fast without disrupting the water too much.. As the molecules have been disturbed by your movement, you then pause it there for a 0.3second or so.. so the water molecules to go back into its undisturbed bonded together form before pushing it backwards to gain more feel of a solid push just like against the wall.
That is the correct way to pull.
----------------------------------------
Moo:
Your mind obviously shut off during this lap of swim. It is only expected of you to shut off as you're only a child and there is way too much to concentrate on.
First of all there is No glide. What happened to staying on the side in a streamlined position?
I believe keeping the head dow helps a lot in your swim thats why you remembered that into your skin and kept your head really deep. It helped your buttock to float very well but thats about all. Your legs are sinking without your conscious effort of pulling your body long and straight from fingertips to toes.
Your left hand pull is crossing all the way to the centerline.
Pulling is not right, I doubt your swim team coach taught you anything like that. So read up on what I typed for your dad above. Come to me if you need help.
Right arm entry after breathing went too deep into the water. The deeper you go, the higher you have to climb to get back up, so why not just stay on the surface???
The only thing I am gonna add to this bunch of nagging is to swim with a disciplined mind to put technique first before anything else. Power included.
Because the resistance is exponentially increasing as you apply more fast. I.E the faster you get, the more resistance you get. Momentum helps but only that much.
------------------------------
Mari:
Two things caused you swim with not much improvement. The push phase after your catch is not right as you jerked and pitched the palm wrongly after you got into that early vertical forearm position.
Your pull are solely from your arms and not using your core at all. That disconnection between your core and your arms caused the pull to be very very low in propulsion.
-------------------------------
Lawrence:
There is an improvement in the crossing center pull for your right arm but not in your left arm.
The crossing center started when you breathe and the START of your left arm pull. When you finished breathign and look backdown to the water the pull is already half way done and thus it looked like you did not cross the center.
--------------------------------
In a nut shell, resistance wins force in water. No matter how strong you are, can be, water always win because it is 1000x denser than air.
We see easily if we're stripped down to our bare minimal force (slow swim with exaggerated glide), KH emerges as the fastest swimmer of the group despite only picking up swimming 6 months back.
If we think about this as a controlled experiment. The amount of force can vary according to individual but as the amount of force increases, the resistance increases exponentially. So the only factor that has increasing benefits and advantage is stroke techniques as it reduces drag instead of increasing force (and drag).
At the end of the day, you can use sheer force will get you a 30seconds 50m, I've been there done that to achieve a 29seconds swim with a sub-par stroke.. but you won't be able to get through that barrier if not for a technique change or a huge progress in your gym training (i was squatting 145kg and benching 120kg at that time of when i do 29sec).
Final Verdict: Technique :1 Force :0
Cheers
KK
ps-
ADD ME IN FACEBOOK AT rukawa_koh@hotmail.com
Delacroix Kaede is my onscreen name. :)
Delacroix Kaede is my onscreen name. :)
See my facebook for your VIDEOS.... EXCEPT..........
LAWRENCE, MR AND MRS TAKE!! I LOST YOUR VIDEO.. :( DUNNO WHY CANNOT FIND.. but here goes nothing!
----------------------------------
Mr Take:
The only complain I have is your head is lifted too high. Mrs Take saw that. Focus on changing that first. :)
You got really strong core muscles which I must say helps alot in your body position. That is why your swim is so strong. We can see that strong core in work too from your butterfly kicks and swims. :) Keep up the good work!
-----------------------
Mrs Take:
Your swim looks and feels very very relaxed! Very textbook like.
However on sunday when I saw you swim again, I saw that your recovery is done with a wide arm. Why not elbow leading?
I'll show you on wednesday if you remind me.
At slow swim, the technique looks really good! We'll see how when things get tougher in more speedy swim to come. :)
--------------------------------
Vincent:
Left side breathing head very high. not smooth, jerk up to breathe then drop into the water.. not in control.
Arms unable to close to the side? need to check latissimus dorsi range of motion on wednesday.. maybe due to improper lat pulldown or pullup training.
Recovery is hand leading... ie the fingers are in front of the elbow.
It should be elbow leaving water, followed by wrist and then fingers.. then bringing the elbow to the front to allow the forearm and wrist to follow the entry of the fingertips at the front end of the stroke.
Arms unable to stay at side RELAX-LY for a prolong period of time.. this shows a lack of control over his body.. which means there is no mastery of bodily movements yet.
If you can't slow it down, you can't control it enough to wield it to its greatest potential when torrential forces is unleashed.
------------------------
Sam:
As a fellow coach of yours I felt that you've done well to upkeep your stroke technique.
As a chiller (almost slacker status like calvin).. its easy for you to relax and that helps alot in reducing frontward drag caused by the newton's law of action-reaction.
However, do take note that at higher effort, your stroke tend to crumple due to the lack of stabilizer muscle strength to overcome the amount of force you generate at higher speed swim.
As speed increases, the amount of drag increases too and as you rotate your torso side to side, you need to have a fair share of torso stability to keep that position streamlined.
For now in this video, the only few things that is of an issue is the head rising a little too high to breathe and the right hand tend to cross center-line after breathing.
Lastly, you're not applying any constant pressure on your chest. That explains the bobbing up and down from your torso and your head.
Also to note is you're not recovering with a high elbow, its a hand leading recovery.
-------------------------------
KH:
Right arm pull too short, left arm pull too far behind (full extension of arm). To make things worst, left arm pull is done with the "flick" to push the water upwards and out towards surface.. that caused zero propulsion and then some drag.
Legs tend to open up after breathing. Must consciously keep the legs "kicking within a small tunnel" or point big toes inwards a little to cause a inward and small kick.
Left hand recovery tend to over reach to the front. This caused the forearm to drop and touch the surface instead of following the wrist and slide in the water into its extended arm position.
Plantar flexion of feet is not very good yet.
AFTER CORRECTION:
Streamlining is tip top good.
Rotation of hip to the right is slow and thus the right arm pull is not using your core muscle to pull. Resulting in overall deceleration on the right arm pull + breathing.
Legs issue resolved but still worth using the mental cue described above.
left arm still over reaching.
left arm pulling still not in the right direction and the flick of the forearm upwards to surface is a pain to watch. ;p
---------------------------------
Ebnu:
Right arm extension streamline position is perfect. However, both arm pulls is not right (look below for your pull's mistake) and that diminished the streamline position's advantage. When there is no propulsion, there will be no forward movements.
Plantar flexion of feet is not too good.
Streamlining when breathing is a problem as you tend to crunch up your body when you're breathing. Imagine doing a side ab crunch. This is a sign that you need to lift your body high to breathe.
The relaxation at the end of pulls are exaggerated just like vincent. The art of doing nothing has yet to be mastered (but of course this is just one lesson).
Left arm recovery is overreaching to the Front AND the center. The forearm is contacting the water surface before entry causing an upward lift instead of reducing drag with a fingertip entry.
The sudden jerk of recovery into the water signifies a sudden tension followed by a sudden try to relieve that tension. It should be tensionless ALL THE WAY.
The Pull:
First of all, You're pulling with just one speed all the way. There should be a deceleration in arm speed then followed by a progressive acceleration through the pull. The scale of acceleration and deceleration is amplified or minimized by the speed and effort your swim.
There is a catch phase where you bring your forearm-wrist-palm-fingertips in a straight vertical line. The elbow is flexed and beside the forehead or further out (as "early" in the pull as possible try to get into this state).
This position allows you to hold onto the water with the early vertical forearm before you progressive up the speed of pushing the vertical forearm-wrist-palm-fingertips towards the rear.
There is little to no force used here to get to this forearm position.
If there is too much force used to get to the early vertical forearm, it will cause a sudden and forceful deceleration due to the amount of surface area exposed to the front.
I like to describe it as sneak into that position fast without disrupting the water too much.. As the molecules have been disturbed by your movement, you then pause it there for a 0.3second or so.. so the water molecules to go back into its undisturbed bonded together form before pushing it backwards to gain more feel of a solid push just like against the wall.
That is the correct way to pull.
----------------------------------------
Moo:
Your mind obviously shut off during this lap of swim. It is only expected of you to shut off as you're only a child and there is way too much to concentrate on.
First of all there is No glide. What happened to staying on the side in a streamlined position?
I believe keeping the head dow helps a lot in your swim thats why you remembered that into your skin and kept your head really deep. It helped your buttock to float very well but thats about all. Your legs are sinking without your conscious effort of pulling your body long and straight from fingertips to toes.
Your left hand pull is crossing all the way to the centerline.
Pulling is not right, I doubt your swim team coach taught you anything like that. So read up on what I typed for your dad above. Come to me if you need help.
Right arm entry after breathing went too deep into the water. The deeper you go, the higher you have to climb to get back up, so why not just stay on the surface???
The only thing I am gonna add to this bunch of nagging is to swim with a disciplined mind to put technique first before anything else. Power included.
Because the resistance is exponentially increasing as you apply more fast. I.E the faster you get, the more resistance you get. Momentum helps but only that much.
------------------------------
Mari:
Two things caused you swim with not much improvement. The push phase after your catch is not right as you jerked and pitched the palm wrongly after you got into that early vertical forearm position.
Your pull are solely from your arms and not using your core at all. That disconnection between your core and your arms caused the pull to be very very low in propulsion.
-------------------------------
Lawrence:
There is an improvement in the crossing center pull for your right arm but not in your left arm.
The crossing center started when you breathe and the START of your left arm pull. When you finished breathign and look backdown to the water the pull is already half way done and thus it looked like you did not cross the center.
--------------------------------
In a nut shell, resistance wins force in water. No matter how strong you are, can be, water always win because it is 1000x denser than air.
We see easily if we're stripped down to our bare minimal force (slow swim with exaggerated glide), KH emerges as the fastest swimmer of the group despite only picking up swimming 6 months back.
If we think about this as a controlled experiment. The amount of force can vary according to individual but as the amount of force increases, the resistance increases exponentially. So the only factor that has increasing benefits and advantage is stroke techniques as it reduces drag instead of increasing force (and drag).
At the end of the day, you can use sheer force will get you a 30seconds 50m, I've been there done that to achieve a 29seconds swim with a sub-par stroke.. but you won't be able to get through that barrier if not for a technique change or a huge progress in your gym training (i was squatting 145kg and benching 120kg at that time of when i do 29sec).
Final Verdict: Technique :1 Force :0
Cheers
KK
ps-
ADD ME IN FACEBOOK AT rukawa_koh@hotmail.com
Delacroix Kaede is my onscreen name. :)
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Training on Wednesday
Dear Team,
Sam, KH and I will be away, bringing my mum to genting.. so this wednesday we will not be there. Nonetheless, I hope you guys can continue the practice still. I have written the following training program for you. All off-season stuff.. Technique first... :)
Can somebody please write down the training and then lead? Teck Beng? Lawrence?
Ok, First of all, I hope to see Significant improvement in the following areas when I'm back...
1) Hip Flexibility
2) Shoulder Flexibility
3) Less splash to no splash in the B.Fly-Kicks
4) Better coordination in B.Fly movements
Wednesday is Butterfly day---------
---------------------------------------------------------
300m warm up freestyle easy
5sets:{
1) 50m butterfly kick with arms extended, 3kick to one breast stroke breathe.
Plus
50m freestyle easy
2) 50m butterfly kick with arms by your side. 3kick to one breathe without arm pull(using the up momentum of butterfly kick)
Plus
50m freestyle easy
}
2 minutes rest.
6x50
one arm freestyle with butterfly kick (kick on arm entry)
10sec r between each 50m, during the swim, stand up to reset stroke when in doubt
Note: breathing to the front with NO hip rotation
6x50
Alternate arm freestyle with butterfly kick
10sec rest between each
4x50
L-R-L-R-Fly swim
How:
Left arm pull --> left arm entry + 1 butterfly kick --> right arm pull --> right arm entry + 1 butterfly kick --> ONE FULL BUTTERFLY Stroke (both arm pull --> both arm entry + 1 butterfly kick)--> REPEAT.
Cooldown:
300m alternating 50m freestyle and breaststroke
Total: 1.9km.
Please note you'll probably need more than 1 hr to finish the 1.9km if you didn't put some urgency and conscious effort in getting them right.
GETTING THEM DONE CORRECTLY IS TOP PRIORITY.
Cheers
KK
Sam, KH and I will be away, bringing my mum to genting.. so this wednesday we will not be there. Nonetheless, I hope you guys can continue the practice still. I have written the following training program for you. All off-season stuff.. Technique first... :)
Can somebody please write down the training and then lead? Teck Beng? Lawrence?
Ok, First of all, I hope to see Significant improvement in the following areas when I'm back...
1) Hip Flexibility
2) Shoulder Flexibility
3) Less splash to no splash in the B.Fly-Kicks
4) Better coordination in B.Fly movements
Wednesday is Butterfly day---------
---------------------------------------------------------
300m warm up freestyle easy
5sets:{
1) 50m butterfly kick with arms extended, 3kick to one breast stroke breathe.
Plus
50m freestyle easy
2) 50m butterfly kick with arms by your side. 3kick to one breathe without arm pull(using the up momentum of butterfly kick)
Plus
50m freestyle easy
}
2 minutes rest.
6x50
one arm freestyle with butterfly kick (kick on arm entry)
10sec r between each 50m, during the swim, stand up to reset stroke when in doubt
Note: breathing to the front with NO hip rotation
6x50
Alternate arm freestyle with butterfly kick
10sec rest between each
4x50
L-R-L-R-Fly swim
How:
Left arm pull --> left arm entry + 1 butterfly kick --> right arm pull --> right arm entry + 1 butterfly kick --> ONE FULL BUTTERFLY Stroke (both arm pull --> both arm entry + 1 butterfly kick)--> REPEAT.
Cooldown:
300m alternating 50m freestyle and breaststroke
Total: 1.9km.
Please note you'll probably need more than 1 hr to finish the 1.9km if you didn't put some urgency and conscious effort in getting them right.
GETTING THEM DONE CORRECTLY IS TOP PRIORITY.
Cheers
KK
under water (and some above water) video of KK, Vincent and TB
Time/ date Stamp: 10/10/10, 8pm
KK's under water frontal
Vincent's underwater frontal
TB's underwater frontal
KK's top side view
Vincent's top side view
TB's top side view
KK's under water frontal
Vincent's underwater frontal
TB's underwater frontal
KK's top side view
Vincent's top side view
TB's top side view
Monday, October 4, 2010
My First Half IM. + Everything in Desaru Race :)
This entry documents my TRUE personal feelings in the trip to Desaru. Its way too long to be read as entertainment but I need to write them down because its one of the biggest happening in my life. The sprint category stuffs are also generally noted as I ran through stations to stations to support them.
Race: Desaru Half IM
Timing: 6hrs 10mins
Crashes: 1
Bodily bruises: 8+
Ego hurt: none.
Lessons learnt: Many.
Favorite part of the race: Feeling the Love from Team Sapphire. :)
----------------------------
Woke up at 7 with a queasy stomach.. fell back to sleep and decided to skip breakfast. I was hoping that it is just pre race nerves and i could just to sleep it off.. but it did not go away, I still diarhea at the last toilet break before race starts. I knew I had gastro problem and almost a gastro-flu before I made my trip to Desaru.. I was trying very hard to rest it off and eating medicine( 3 days before I was asking around for quick fix - thanks to Yikang, Banyang, Buddy Peilin and also Samsam).. and I was thinking "com'on.. not today..".. nonetheless, i switched my plan to just caloric drinks and no solid food.. The Race Must Go On. I will not let what happened to Aviva this year to happen to me again even if I DNF in the race, I'm gonna start it.
So, very quickly, I set up the transition area with the help of samsam and guess what? MR GU is right beside me! The thoughts of friends around (Lawrence, 42 yr old is doing his First Half IM with me too, and he picked up swimming seriously just last november.. YOU, YOU AND YOU.. DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE TOO OLD ANYMORE TO START EXERCISING.) calms me down a little bit, but just for a while.
I stepped onto the beach and my mind was split between visualizing the race plan and thoughts like following, switching every 2 seconds interval.
- Swim easy at start
- Shit the buoy look so FAR AWAY!
- Build into swim
- Gawd look at the 470 participants!
- Just focused on long strokes and ignore the washing machine
- 2KM of swim, 2 X WASHING MACHINE?! WTF?!
Ok, so that went on for a while.. went to warm up and the sun starting beating down.. its 10AM.. Then I started worrying about drinking too much salt water and getting dehydrated with a cramp.. I got a cramp at OSIM's second lap of swim.. and that didn't feel good. So I came up with a plan to build my kick up to the shore on the first lap to get some blood to the legs when I run across the shore to the second lap.
Just as I got the plan and felt confident, I saw lawrence.. which calms me down even more.. But..Without much warning, uncle chan (race organizer cum MC cum EVERYTHING) spouted a quick "THREE TWO ONE GO!" + *LONG Start Horning sound*.. RACE STARTS! gosh.. it just doesn't let my nerves rest a little bit more eh.
I've done 3km swims many times, I know I'm gonna do sub 40 if I go strong at it no matter the waves, its just a matter of 1 or 3 minutes below 40.. So my plan was to build into the swim and just finish strongly. However, as I continued swimming, I noticed some sort of panic setting in. I think it was too long since my last group swim in open water.. but that was easy to brush aside after all the training i've gone through to back me up. And then I noticed that if I push real hard here, I may be heading to a DNF quicker than I thought since I only had about 600Calories of liquid breakfast without a gel at the start due to the stupid queasy stomach... change of plan, I went at aout 70% of what I had in my tank for the entire swim.. saving much for the run later (u have to think far. its a 6 hrs affair).
Coming out of the first lap, the build of kicks worked and I didn't get a cramp. I'm happy about it but the choppy water just keep eating us up when we swim out.. having 400 participants swimming together really really doesn't help at all. Nonetheless, finished the swim very relaxed and easy almost like an overly long warmup. 43minutes was the time.. hack, I didn't even start my watch.. samsam told me the timing.
Vince and Samsam cheered me on the exit like i'm a superstar.. so thankful for that.jogged to the transition area.. Got to my bike, everything went smoothly as I've ran through them 10times at home and 100 times in my head.
This bike course is so hilly that even in the hotel, once you turn out of the Transition, you get 1 upslope.
Go easy on the first 10 minutes, build it up.. I've done this many times.. no problemO. First round went real good. Easy does it at 58minutes. Passing by TEAM SAPPHIRE PIT STOP was REALLY motivating.. Saw the cardboard and all the kids and vincent videoing and smiling and cheering.. That's the ultimate joy of doing this whole thing to me.
Anyway, I knew that I have more than enough to finish a sub 3 bike leg given that the first lap was done at like 75% of my bike ability for long rides.. The peaking went really well.. confidence starts building up.. the hills looks so small now and I'm always looking forward to conquering the next one and seeing the ego eats most of the riders up as they refuse to change to a smaller chain ring/cog at the rear to spin up.. I enjoy very much the scene of those 120mm wheels zoom right pass me and get stuck at a grindy stop in the middle of the hills and I just happily spun at 85cad pass them at an effort I could still smirk and talk crap to myself even at the steepest of them all hills.
Everything was really cool, and I saw MR GU was kind of giving me a run for my money since he is just about -5minutes behind me (despite coming up slower in the swim?) thus I picked up speed a little.. I did not let competitiveness take over me at this point though.. my plan was to race smart, if emotions were to take over, it has to be the last 4km of the entire race.
And right at 40km mark, where there is this U turn.. Once I finish the u turn, I saw this plumb fair chinese guy in front of me standing up to pump and thus I looked down for a couple of seconds as I stand up to pump cervie to speed too and guess what? I saw my front wheel 30cm away from that guy's downtube and he was static!
Jam braked, cervie did a cartwheel, I did a bad fall. I saw my water bottles flew over the other side of the road, my mind went stunned..
Then that guy went "EH.. sorry.. cramp ar.. sorry.. eH.. I go first ok. bye." and he rode off..
I briefly acknowledged.. as my mind went swirling for a bit.. is this how its gonna end? NO WAY! My wheels. My frameset. My body.. Did a body and health check, lots of blood on left elbow and palm.. deep deep cuts. Grazes on both knees under my tights and cuts on my right palm and a sprained right palm..
I can bear with that for 50km more ride and 21km run.. no problem... The pressing on the handle bars and aerobars would act as direct pressure on the wounds to stop bleeding I think (I was a little wrong on this later as I found out the blood soaked through. :P)..
The bike wheels a little untrue and calipers went off aligned.. One bottle cage broken so I had to abandon my almost empty bottle.
Then MR GU passed me. Great.
The first aid ladies were kind enough to pick up my bottles for me and I was lucky that I had a bottle of electrolytes left. So after fiddling with the bike, I got it ready to roll again in about 10 minutes. The ladies casually (it actually is ANYHOW. really.) wrapped up my wounds and I rode on with blood and iodine filled gauze and tapes on my left arm.
NOW I LOOK TRULY LIKE AN IRON MAN GOING TO WAR.
Firstly, i'm gonna catch that bastard.. secondly, I'm gonna catch MR GU.
I rode HARD. I let go of all my worries and ride at the best of my ability (still within plan) to make up for lost time.. I caught up with that guy in 2 hills as he stopped for stretching again and I caught up with MR GU at the beginning of my last lap of bike when we both stopped and refill. He went off first but I caught up shortly and overtook him for good.
When i pass Team Sapphire pit stop I gave them a firm thumbs up to ease any worries seeing my wrapped arm and palm.
About 8km into the third lap, I noticed its time to eat the last gel. Shockingly, I couldn't find them in my rear pockets! Morale dropped really low.. I must have lost them at the crash site when I flew over the bike. :(
I've trained riding and running with empty stomachs a few times before and I'm pretty sure I can complete the last lap at a zone 2 effort but that'll be really slow.
Barely made it back within 3hrs of riding feeling very low on glucose and nearly bonking. T2 was smooth too and I quickly downed a gel and started my run..
Ran up the hill and pass Team sapphire pit stop again.. superstardom treatment at its best.. bro handed me drink.. sam poured water on me.. i passed my hr monitor belt to them to keep as i forgot to remove. Off i go again..
12x8 minutes run alternating easy and hard was the plan.
However, 5km into the run, i realized that the damage was already done at the bike leg due to lack of fuel. Bonked out.. reduced to walk-a-run with the small bananas and 2 gels I had with me.. The problem with me is that once I hit bonking, I can't get it back and my body won't quite seem to react to whatever more i'm eating after that. Happened in training rides and runs..
The heat was UNFORGIVING...
Thoughts of giving up was creeping in quickly.
I switch to desperate resort.. playing mind and number games..
"com'on.. walk 5 minutes, run 5 minutes. u can do it. you've done two half marathons before coming here!"..
I only managed 5 minutes walk + 3 minutes run.. a few times.. and then I brisk/power walked.. stopped at every station to cool down and drink.
Passing by the team sapphire pit stop was like a place where I wanna raise my white flag.. but I shrug it off immediately and tell myself, "you've done 5 hours of racing and its just walk-a-run for 1 more hr and u wanna give it up?! they've been in the heat supporting you for 5 freaking hot hours and you raise the flag?!"
I plowed on.. I dug deeper into myself and I managed a 3km run (golden beach resort).. then reduced to walk again.. I talked to people who are walking.. I tried to follow ppl's jogging pace but I kept going faster.. the heat has taken a toll on my mind and body that I can no longer deduce pace of my run versus distance..
I tried eating more and drinking more... doesn't help..
BUT I WANT IT.
I WANT IT SO BAD.
I dragged myself up the slope and saw the shelter outside the hotel, that's another 2 to 3 km more!
"OH MY GAWD ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"
I smiled and picked up my tired legs that suddenly seems lighter.. I jogged pass team sapphire pit stop and my bro jogged along with me..
"REMEMBER ALL THE TRAINING YOU'VE DONE?! WHAT IS THIS? YOU CAN DO IT!"
"Yes.. yes I can.. but I almost can't walk anymore... YES I CAN.. YES!"
The short convo shot me sky high in morale only to bring me down with the super steep hill on the left turn.. Walked up tht hill and I finally found my legs to run my only race pace stretch back to hotel.
Turning into the hotel was SADISTIC as they place one more hill at the last 200m... :(
Jogged up that hill and gladly ran down the last stretch... People were clapping.. Vincent was videoing.. Christine and Sam and my bro was cheering.. Wilson was cheering.. Mari was upstairs.. :P.. AND I SPRINT PASS THAT FINISHING LINE PUMPING MY FISTS INTO THE AIR VICTORIOUS OF MYSELF.
I know I am now stronger. By the help of my friends and team mates and my brother and my love ones. Also by the way I dug so deep.. I've never wanted something SO BADLY since so long already.
I almost teared.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
However, I know the race is not over yet.. I gave some speech to videoman vincent and his camera and made my way back to my bike.. sam helped me up and down.. carrying some loads for me.. then when I met up with the rest Christine and JoJo congratulated me... I gave the most sincere acknowledgement with the shagged smile I could put up.. then I quickly walked and jogged to find lawrence..
I said I won't leave him behind. I won't.
My left arm and palm was trembling.. the cuts were deep and adrenaline has worn off from the race.. my vision was blurry and my heart has never slowed from the 6 hrs of torture. My knees are giving and my quads are in semi cramp state. But my mind was determined on being there for lawrence in his grueling trial of his first Half IM.
I limped and jogged together with Lexus to the downslope.. we waited for a while because I was afraid I can't get back up if I went down.. but still, after some waiting, I went down and up the slope out of the hotel. I asked Lexus to wait for me outside the hotel exit and I will fetch his daddy back. So onwards I marched and I saw lawrence coming back~! I tried to give chase towards the steep left turn but I just couldn't pick up enough speed. I dash across the road however to give him one final shout out to let him know he's not alone and then dashed back to the hotel side and walk upwards to meet him and get ready for another 400m jog back with him..
Inwards he comes and with leadership aura glowing around him, he was leading a pack of 4 to finish together. When we meet up, we made the move and advanced forward.. Accompanied him til the last 50meter and shouted and rooted for him til he crossed the finishing line.
Honestly, I had never felt such strong sense of achievement(helping somebody with his first Half IM dream) and inspirations(seeing someone who's never a super athlete ever before in his life achieve such a goal in such a short time) ever.. Tears flowed in my throat as I limped towards him at the finishing line and gave him the most barbaric hug two men can give to each other. What a day.
Still, the race is not over until my brother stands up to the trial of his first mass sea swim and first triathlon and of course my trusty supporters cum team mate finish their race gracefully. I held back my relief and raced back to get rested so I can give them as much tips and info on the race route as possible.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So on that night, I gave some sort of map-hack briefing to them.. prepared them to visualize the course and the number of hills and what gears to use.. last minute prep of transition stuffs and also bike maintenance. Then watched some tortoise mating with the mouth wide open.. And then we go to slp..I however, spent the night sleepless due to fatigue and also some worries for my brother. Afterall, he is my only brother and the next most important person in my life other than sam.
The morning came really soon. It was raining! Gosh, brother is really "suay" man.. but I kept holding back my worries for him and I know I need to appear confident.. because if the coach is shaky, you can't expect your athlete to feel otherwise. I also kept telling myself that I have to let go and let him learn.. its for the better.. just like a trial for him being officially water safe and race ready from now on.
Off they go at 8.30am as the rain pelts down. In 12 minutes, Wilson, Sam and Mari came back.. my worries grew more than a little bit of panic as I saw the few people who are swimming in totally opposite directions and some are threading water waiting to be towed back.. I was straining my eyes to recognize his strokes.. I couldn't..
16 Minutes in and I was almost giving up.. I search around the beach with my eyes eagerly for him to walk to me and said he couldn't make up.. but when I look back to the exit, THERE HE IS.. HE RAN OUT STRONGLY.. AS PRO LOOKING AS EVER.
I gave him that thumbs up and mega watt smile and went to pick up the 5 kgs worth of orange bag of H-TWO-O and water.. ran to transition area.. ran to the exit and found Nuno.. I ran up and down with the 6 mega big towels in my arms and my wounds of my palm splitting up.. sorry for bleeding on the towel through the triangle bandage.
Took photos of them.. cheered for them.. my knees were so painful and my muscles cramping.. so fatigued.. I did all I could to muster that strength to cheer for them as they pass by and I chat with my new portugese friend to keep myself widely awake.
I clapped through my soaked bandaged as hard as I could as they bike and ran pass me. My brother look so pro I didn't recognize him when he ran pass me. LOL.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When all is said and done.. I was so very relieved and happy for them.. I had never felt so proud before in my life than at the moment we took that Team Sapphire group photo.. Right there, are all my team mates.. one of them being my real brother just made the moment sweeter than ever. I could merely smile and laugh together with them because I was just so .. so.. fatigued.. I could sense it overwhelming in my half-pass-six smiles and laughter as they chat.. For once in two tough days.. I gave up and suggested to return to room first to rest up a little.. And guess what.. I forgot the key...
oh well....
Thank God for keeping all of us safe and all the blessing and fun that we all had. Thank God for Chang Jie and Teck Beng's Personal Best, Thank God for YY's completion of first OD Tri.
Thank God for all the 5 kids who I've trained to complete their first Triathlon. Thank God for keeping them safe too.
Thank God for every love we've all felt in the race and all the things we've learnt.. That one cannot stand strong alone by himself, no IronMan can do it without the crowd and no Half IM for me if not for Team Sapphire. There was a lot of first in this trip.. and all are so lovely. :)
Amen to that. :)
Cheers
KK
NOTES:
YY's first Tri/OD Tri
KH's first Tri/Sprint Tri
Lawrence and KK's first H-IM
Sam, Wilson, Mari, KH, KK, Lawrence's first oversea race
Vincent's first oversea driving trip with family
Chloe, Vincent Wong, Hong Jun, Saori and Jasmine's First triathlon!
Race: Desaru Half IM
Timing: 6hrs 10mins
Crashes: 1
Bodily bruises: 8+
Ego hurt: none.
Lessons learnt: Many.
Favorite part of the race: Feeling the Love from Team Sapphire. :)
----------------------------
Woke up at 7 with a queasy stomach.. fell back to sleep and decided to skip breakfast. I was hoping that it is just pre race nerves and i could just to sleep it off.. but it did not go away, I still diarhea at the last toilet break before race starts. I knew I had gastro problem and almost a gastro-flu before I made my trip to Desaru.. I was trying very hard to rest it off and eating medicine( 3 days before I was asking around for quick fix - thanks to Yikang, Banyang, Buddy Peilin and also Samsam).. and I was thinking "com'on.. not today..".. nonetheless, i switched my plan to just caloric drinks and no solid food.. The Race Must Go On. I will not let what happened to Aviva this year to happen to me again even if I DNF in the race, I'm gonna start it.
So, very quickly, I set up the transition area with the help of samsam and guess what? MR GU is right beside me! The thoughts of friends around (Lawrence, 42 yr old is doing his First Half IM with me too, and he picked up swimming seriously just last november.. YOU, YOU AND YOU.. DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE TOO OLD ANYMORE TO START EXERCISING.) calms me down a little bit, but just for a while.
I stepped onto the beach and my mind was split between visualizing the race plan and thoughts like following, switching every 2 seconds interval.
- Swim easy at start
- Shit the buoy look so FAR AWAY!
- Build into swim
- Gawd look at the 470 participants!
- Just focused on long strokes and ignore the washing machine
- 2KM of swim, 2 X WASHING MACHINE?! WTF?!
Ok, so that went on for a while.. went to warm up and the sun starting beating down.. its 10AM.. Then I started worrying about drinking too much salt water and getting dehydrated with a cramp.. I got a cramp at OSIM's second lap of swim.. and that didn't feel good. So I came up with a plan to build my kick up to the shore on the first lap to get some blood to the legs when I run across the shore to the second lap.
Just as I got the plan and felt confident, I saw lawrence.. which calms me down even more.. But..Without much warning, uncle chan (race organizer cum MC cum EVERYTHING) spouted a quick "THREE TWO ONE GO!" + *LONG Start Horning sound*.. RACE STARTS! gosh.. it just doesn't let my nerves rest a little bit more eh.
I've done 3km swims many times, I know I'm gonna do sub 40 if I go strong at it no matter the waves, its just a matter of 1 or 3 minutes below 40.. So my plan was to build into the swim and just finish strongly. However, as I continued swimming, I noticed some sort of panic setting in. I think it was too long since my last group swim in open water.. but that was easy to brush aside after all the training i've gone through to back me up. And then I noticed that if I push real hard here, I may be heading to a DNF quicker than I thought since I only had about 600Calories of liquid breakfast without a gel at the start due to the stupid queasy stomach... change of plan, I went at aout 70% of what I had in my tank for the entire swim.. saving much for the run later (u have to think far. its a 6 hrs affair).
Coming out of the first lap, the build of kicks worked and I didn't get a cramp. I'm happy about it but the choppy water just keep eating us up when we swim out.. having 400 participants swimming together really really doesn't help at all. Nonetheless, finished the swim very relaxed and easy almost like an overly long warmup. 43minutes was the time.. hack, I didn't even start my watch.. samsam told me the timing.
Vince and Samsam cheered me on the exit like i'm a superstar.. so thankful for that.jogged to the transition area.. Got to my bike, everything went smoothly as I've ran through them 10times at home and 100 times in my head.
This bike course is so hilly that even in the hotel, once you turn out of the Transition, you get 1 upslope.
Go easy on the first 10 minutes, build it up.. I've done this many times.. no problemO. First round went real good. Easy does it at 58minutes. Passing by TEAM SAPPHIRE PIT STOP was REALLY motivating.. Saw the cardboard and all the kids and vincent videoing and smiling and cheering.. That's the ultimate joy of doing this whole thing to me.
Anyway, I knew that I have more than enough to finish a sub 3 bike leg given that the first lap was done at like 75% of my bike ability for long rides.. The peaking went really well.. confidence starts building up.. the hills looks so small now and I'm always looking forward to conquering the next one and seeing the ego eats most of the riders up as they refuse to change to a smaller chain ring/cog at the rear to spin up.. I enjoy very much the scene of those 120mm wheels zoom right pass me and get stuck at a grindy stop in the middle of the hills and I just happily spun at 85cad pass them at an effort I could still smirk and talk crap to myself even at the steepest of them all hills.
Everything was really cool, and I saw MR GU was kind of giving me a run for my money since he is just about -5minutes behind me (despite coming up slower in the swim?) thus I picked up speed a little.. I did not let competitiveness take over me at this point though.. my plan was to race smart, if emotions were to take over, it has to be the last 4km of the entire race.
And right at 40km mark, where there is this U turn.. Once I finish the u turn, I saw this plumb fair chinese guy in front of me standing up to pump and thus I looked down for a couple of seconds as I stand up to pump cervie to speed too and guess what? I saw my front wheel 30cm away from that guy's downtube and he was static!
Jam braked, cervie did a cartwheel, I did a bad fall. I saw my water bottles flew over the other side of the road, my mind went stunned..
Then that guy went "EH.. sorry.. cramp ar.. sorry.. eH.. I go first ok. bye." and he rode off..
I briefly acknowledged.. as my mind went swirling for a bit.. is this how its gonna end? NO WAY! My wheels. My frameset. My body.. Did a body and health check, lots of blood on left elbow and palm.. deep deep cuts. Grazes on both knees under my tights and cuts on my right palm and a sprained right palm..
I can bear with that for 50km more ride and 21km run.. no problem... The pressing on the handle bars and aerobars would act as direct pressure on the wounds to stop bleeding I think (I was a little wrong on this later as I found out the blood soaked through. :P)..
The bike wheels a little untrue and calipers went off aligned.. One bottle cage broken so I had to abandon my almost empty bottle.
Then MR GU passed me. Great.
The first aid ladies were kind enough to pick up my bottles for me and I was lucky that I had a bottle of electrolytes left. So after fiddling with the bike, I got it ready to roll again in about 10 minutes. The ladies casually (it actually is ANYHOW. really.) wrapped up my wounds and I rode on with blood and iodine filled gauze and tapes on my left arm.
NOW I LOOK TRULY LIKE AN IRON MAN GOING TO WAR.
Firstly, i'm gonna catch that bastard.. secondly, I'm gonna catch MR GU.
I rode HARD. I let go of all my worries and ride at the best of my ability (still within plan) to make up for lost time.. I caught up with that guy in 2 hills as he stopped for stretching again and I caught up with MR GU at the beginning of my last lap of bike when we both stopped and refill. He went off first but I caught up shortly and overtook him for good.
When i pass Team Sapphire pit stop I gave them a firm thumbs up to ease any worries seeing my wrapped arm and palm.
About 8km into the third lap, I noticed its time to eat the last gel. Shockingly, I couldn't find them in my rear pockets! Morale dropped really low.. I must have lost them at the crash site when I flew over the bike. :(
I've trained riding and running with empty stomachs a few times before and I'm pretty sure I can complete the last lap at a zone 2 effort but that'll be really slow.
Barely made it back within 3hrs of riding feeling very low on glucose and nearly bonking. T2 was smooth too and I quickly downed a gel and started my run..
Ran up the hill and pass Team sapphire pit stop again.. superstardom treatment at its best.. bro handed me drink.. sam poured water on me.. i passed my hr monitor belt to them to keep as i forgot to remove. Off i go again..
12x8 minutes run alternating easy and hard was the plan.
However, 5km into the run, i realized that the damage was already done at the bike leg due to lack of fuel. Bonked out.. reduced to walk-a-run with the small bananas and 2 gels I had with me.. The problem with me is that once I hit bonking, I can't get it back and my body won't quite seem to react to whatever more i'm eating after that. Happened in training rides and runs..
The heat was UNFORGIVING...
Thoughts of giving up was creeping in quickly.
I switch to desperate resort.. playing mind and number games..
"com'on.. walk 5 minutes, run 5 minutes. u can do it. you've done two half marathons before coming here!"..
I only managed 5 minutes walk + 3 minutes run.. a few times.. and then I brisk/power walked.. stopped at every station to cool down and drink.
Passing by the team sapphire pit stop was like a place where I wanna raise my white flag.. but I shrug it off immediately and tell myself, "you've done 5 hours of racing and its just walk-a-run for 1 more hr and u wanna give it up?! they've been in the heat supporting you for 5 freaking hot hours and you raise the flag?!"
I plowed on.. I dug deeper into myself and I managed a 3km run (golden beach resort).. then reduced to walk again.. I talked to people who are walking.. I tried to follow ppl's jogging pace but I kept going faster.. the heat has taken a toll on my mind and body that I can no longer deduce pace of my run versus distance..
I tried eating more and drinking more... doesn't help..
BUT I WANT IT.
I WANT IT SO BAD.
I dragged myself up the slope and saw the shelter outside the hotel, that's another 2 to 3 km more!
"OH MY GAWD ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"
I smiled and picked up my tired legs that suddenly seems lighter.. I jogged pass team sapphire pit stop and my bro jogged along with me..
"REMEMBER ALL THE TRAINING YOU'VE DONE?! WHAT IS THIS? YOU CAN DO IT!"
"Yes.. yes I can.. but I almost can't walk anymore... YES I CAN.. YES!"
The short convo shot me sky high in morale only to bring me down with the super steep hill on the left turn.. Walked up tht hill and I finally found my legs to run my only race pace stretch back to hotel.
Turning into the hotel was SADISTIC as they place one more hill at the last 200m... :(
Jogged up that hill and gladly ran down the last stretch... People were clapping.. Vincent was videoing.. Christine and Sam and my bro was cheering.. Wilson was cheering.. Mari was upstairs.. :P.. AND I SPRINT PASS THAT FINISHING LINE PUMPING MY FISTS INTO THE AIR VICTORIOUS OF MYSELF.
I know I am now stronger. By the help of my friends and team mates and my brother and my love ones. Also by the way I dug so deep.. I've never wanted something SO BADLY since so long already.
I almost teared.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
However, I know the race is not over yet.. I gave some speech to videoman vincent and his camera and made my way back to my bike.. sam helped me up and down.. carrying some loads for me.. then when I met up with the rest Christine and JoJo congratulated me... I gave the most sincere acknowledgement with the shagged smile I could put up.. then I quickly walked and jogged to find lawrence..
I said I won't leave him behind. I won't.
My left arm and palm was trembling.. the cuts were deep and adrenaline has worn off from the race.. my vision was blurry and my heart has never slowed from the 6 hrs of torture. My knees are giving and my quads are in semi cramp state. But my mind was determined on being there for lawrence in his grueling trial of his first Half IM.
I limped and jogged together with Lexus to the downslope.. we waited for a while because I was afraid I can't get back up if I went down.. but still, after some waiting, I went down and up the slope out of the hotel. I asked Lexus to wait for me outside the hotel exit and I will fetch his daddy back. So onwards I marched and I saw lawrence coming back~! I tried to give chase towards the steep left turn but I just couldn't pick up enough speed. I dash across the road however to give him one final shout out to let him know he's not alone and then dashed back to the hotel side and walk upwards to meet him and get ready for another 400m jog back with him..
Inwards he comes and with leadership aura glowing around him, he was leading a pack of 4 to finish together. When we meet up, we made the move and advanced forward.. Accompanied him til the last 50meter and shouted and rooted for him til he crossed the finishing line.
Honestly, I had never felt such strong sense of achievement(helping somebody with his first Half IM dream) and inspirations(seeing someone who's never a super athlete ever before in his life achieve such a goal in such a short time) ever.. Tears flowed in my throat as I limped towards him at the finishing line and gave him the most barbaric hug two men can give to each other. What a day.
Still, the race is not over until my brother stands up to the trial of his first mass sea swim and first triathlon and of course my trusty supporters cum team mate finish their race gracefully. I held back my relief and raced back to get rested so I can give them as much tips and info on the race route as possible.
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So on that night, I gave some sort of map-hack briefing to them.. prepared them to visualize the course and the number of hills and what gears to use.. last minute prep of transition stuffs and also bike maintenance. Then watched some tortoise mating with the mouth wide open.. And then we go to slp..I however, spent the night sleepless due to fatigue and also some worries for my brother. Afterall, he is my only brother and the next most important person in my life other than sam.
The morning came really soon. It was raining! Gosh, brother is really "suay" man.. but I kept holding back my worries for him and I know I need to appear confident.. because if the coach is shaky, you can't expect your athlete to feel otherwise. I also kept telling myself that I have to let go and let him learn.. its for the better.. just like a trial for him being officially water safe and race ready from now on.
Off they go at 8.30am as the rain pelts down. In 12 minutes, Wilson, Sam and Mari came back.. my worries grew more than a little bit of panic as I saw the few people who are swimming in totally opposite directions and some are threading water waiting to be towed back.. I was straining my eyes to recognize his strokes.. I couldn't..
16 Minutes in and I was almost giving up.. I search around the beach with my eyes eagerly for him to walk to me and said he couldn't make up.. but when I look back to the exit, THERE HE IS.. HE RAN OUT STRONGLY.. AS PRO LOOKING AS EVER.
I gave him that thumbs up and mega watt smile and went to pick up the 5 kgs worth of orange bag of H-TWO-O and water.. ran to transition area.. ran to the exit and found Nuno.. I ran up and down with the 6 mega big towels in my arms and my wounds of my palm splitting up.. sorry for bleeding on the towel through the triangle bandage.
Took photos of them.. cheered for them.. my knees were so painful and my muscles cramping.. so fatigued.. I did all I could to muster that strength to cheer for them as they pass by and I chat with my new portugese friend to keep myself widely awake.
I clapped through my soaked bandaged as hard as I could as they bike and ran pass me. My brother look so pro I didn't recognize him when he ran pass me. LOL.
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When all is said and done.. I was so very relieved and happy for them.. I had never felt so proud before in my life than at the moment we took that Team Sapphire group photo.. Right there, are all my team mates.. one of them being my real brother just made the moment sweeter than ever. I could merely smile and laugh together with them because I was just so .. so.. fatigued.. I could sense it overwhelming in my half-pass-six smiles and laughter as they chat.. For once in two tough days.. I gave up and suggested to return to room first to rest up a little.. And guess what.. I forgot the key...
oh well....
Thank God for keeping all of us safe and all the blessing and fun that we all had. Thank God for Chang Jie and Teck Beng's Personal Best, Thank God for YY's completion of first OD Tri.
Thank God for all the 5 kids who I've trained to complete their first Triathlon. Thank God for keeping them safe too.
Thank God for every love we've all felt in the race and all the things we've learnt.. That one cannot stand strong alone by himself, no IronMan can do it without the crowd and no Half IM for me if not for Team Sapphire. There was a lot of first in this trip.. and all are so lovely. :)
Amen to that. :)
Cheers
KK
NOTES:
YY's first Tri/OD Tri
KH's first Tri/Sprint Tri
Lawrence and KK's first H-IM
Sam, Wilson, Mari, KH, KK, Lawrence's first oversea race
Vincent's first oversea driving trip with family
Chloe, Vincent Wong, Hong Jun, Saori and Jasmine's First triathlon!
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