Just Keep TRI-ing

Oh, Langkawi. I thought 2018 was hard. 2019 was brutal. Again I was lucky I did not sign up for the full distance. SWIM Another horrible swim. Well, that was expected with just one month of swim training. Somehow I lost my swim balancing. My legs were sinking like as soon as I dived into the murky water at Pantai Kok. This surely the end result of one month swim with pool buoy only. I dragged my legs until 1000m like a  'bot pukat tunda'  and only found my rhythm after the second buoy.  (Swim: 47:58  🙄 ). (Always my favorite part of the swim leg, the swim exit. Photo by Fiz Said) BIKE I always bike conservatively and pace my effort at around 145bpm. This time tested strategy always allowed me to use my run strength later. But this time i was prepared to throw the dice and gamble. My average hr was around 165 bpm. I felt good up until 70km before I bonked spectacularly. There were many spikes on my effort especially when I had to overtake this p

I did not plan to do 70.3 Langkawi, but I glad I did, because I would not survive the Ironman distance with my current fitness and the tougher conditions in Langkawi this year. I registered for Ironman Malaysia as soon as the registration opened early this year. I was so motivated and excited to go back to the ‘Big Island’ and challenge for a top 10 Malaysian finisher (top 11 if you include our fastest female, Mei See). However, it was not meant to be. I moved back to Kuala Lumpur from Qatar mid-June. I under estimated the challenges of repatriating back to home country and starting a new life in Malaysia after 10 years of comfortable life in Qatar. It was hard to settle down with a new job, new environment and many other challenges. I struggled to keep up with my training and I was no near ready for a 140.6 race. Luckily the organizer  accepted my request to downgrade to the 70.3 race. A side show or an opening act for the main event, the glamorous , the best Long-Distance Race

14-15 July 2018 The homecoming race Port Dickson International Triathlon is THE race to go to in Malaysia's triathlon calendar. It is the biggest and one of the oldest triathlons in the country. There is something for everyone. The sprint and kids races were held on Saturday, while the main event, the Olympic Distance was held on Sunday in this multi-sport festival. It was a perfect family beach race-cation for us where my kids and I got the cheer Hani who did the sprint and the role for babysitting reverse when I raced the Olympic distance the following day. We were not all that keen to race since both of us did almost 0 training since we moved back to Malaysia in June. Since this was our first race in Malaysia since we came back, we took the opportunity to meet our local triathlon friends. We were also joined by our close friends, Najib and Shambeng with their families from Doha.   The Swim The water was choppy but it didn't look all that bad from the beach, but once