Prep Begins Now - Building Base

While i am still trying to get my buddy to sign up for Ironman NZ in March next year, i think its about time that my training begins. Latest news is that he is keen to do the event with me, i'll just KIV.

This is going to be my event plan leading up the the A-race.

12 Jul 09: Port Dickson OD
1 Aug 09: Desaru HIM
16 Aug 09: AHM
11 Oct 09: Safra Quadthlon
Dec 09: Standchart marathon
Jan 10: ??
Feb 10: ??
Mar 10: Ironman NZ

My first pit stop will be Desaru and i have slightly over 60 days to train for it.

my plan will be as follows:
-first 35 days build base (build up till 2km swim, 90km bike & 21km run)
-next 21days will be speedworks, bricks, longer distances, test nutrition.
-last 7days will be tapering

ok that's all i can think of so far, will refine the plan and share later.

10 MUST DO ADVENTURES

I'm sure everyone has their own dreams to pursue and desires to satisfy. If you google the similar, you will find a host of people sharing their wishlist or dreams. And now i have my top 10 here to share. If you have you own list, perhaps you can share them in the comments. If you have anything similar to mine and have yet to accomplish them and will like to make a proposal for adventure, email me.

1. Scuba diving at the great barrier reef
   
2. Do norseman
   
3. Rock climbing at ramanagaram rocks, karnataka in india
   
4. Do xterra malaysia
   
5. Bungee jumping off contra dam, ticino in switzerland
   
6. Climb mt kilimanjaro
   
7. See the northen lights in Alaska or Norway
   
8. White water rafting through grand canyon along colorado river
   
9. Sail across a great ocean, north & south pacific, north & south atlantic, artic or Indian
   
10. Do tiberias marathon

I Can Dive!

Finally after so so long i get to check off my one of the item on my "Top 10 Must Do List". I will share the list later in another post.

Over the last weekend i went up north with a bunch of friends & new friends to get ourselves on a weekend get away in Tioman Island. During the stay there together with A*, we got ourselves PADI certified as open water divers. The experience was superb and the atmosphere was mostly fun.

We did a pool session followed by 2 dives on saturday where we practiced some basic drills. Then another 2 dives on the next day. The last dive was a leisure one at a dive site called Labas where the marine life was more brilliant. Now i am planning to do my advance open water dive so i can dive deeper to 30m. Then will i be able to explore more dive sites to see the beauty of nature deep below.

Chased By Strays

Above photo is just an illustration of a dog, not the strays that gave chase on me.

It was my first ride out on my B12 out in my territory on my usual 32km route in the late evening: Seng Kang-Jalan Kayu-Seletar Camp-Yishun-Mandai-Zoo-and back. The ride was nice and relaxing as usual until i had my first dog chase encounter at the seletar damp whilst on my way back at the 26km mark.

I was going moderately hard on my pedals and were doing like 30kmh on the way back when i heard a few barks from afar which i instantly recognised the presence of dogs. In a matter of seconds i saw 3 adult brown furred strays dashing straight towards me from about 80m away. I could still hear the barks of the 3 dogs making a dash at me and the nail scratching sounds made by fast moving crawls coming in contact with tarmac.

My natural instinct is to speed up and out ride the buggers but they were making a direct run ito my path which means i could over run one of them and i crash in great pain and end up being bitten and attacked by the 3 dogs. Or i could slow down and hoping that they slow down their chase too. Unfortunately, they did not cut any slack in their pursuit, i was like a magnet to them. In the split second after assessing the situation i decided i go for the break and started mashing hard on the FSA Gossamer cranks & my half broken time pedals.

The dogs came near and found i was really fast and made a turn for its life from being knocked down by my front Felt's in house TTR3 40mm aero wheels. Somehow i managed to swerve my way out of them, and at that moment i held my breath and though i was gong to crash and damage my brand new full carbon body. But once i had a clear path ahead i hammered down like mad and all i could think of was to outride the 3 dogs which were now by my side of my Ultegra SL rear derailluers.

Due to the nervousness, fear and adrenalin rush, my left cavle crammed up and was as hard as stone. By this time i thought i have broken free from the hounds but i was wrong. One of them gave chase and was determined to bring me down for the pack. But i knew it was my life and i had to go on peddaling despite the pain from the crams.

That one dog gave chase for a brief 5 seconds as i could see it running next to my side and started to catch up with me speed. I gritted my teeth and managed to drop that bugger and got out alive to tell this story. What a safe escape and relieve i told my self with the pain in my cavle.

Conclusion Felt B12 2008 is a superbly fast machine under the right condition. lol

Next Step Accessorize

First you get the bike, then you get the rest of the accessories to make it your very own. Above i have mapped out what needs to be in place for my next race. I thought pink is quite nice to make the bike highly visible from afar in the crowded transition area. Don't laugh! hahahahahahaha

This Should Be My Last Bike Until I Turn Pro.

After much deliberation i have made this (Felt B12 '08) my ride for my 2009 season. Got some well taken photos from ST forum to post here first as a prequel. Very aero, very slick and very inviting to ride. Will share more.

My Other Interest

Besides doing tri to keep myself active in physical activities i also have a couple of other interests. One of them is photography which i kind of started to pick up recently. I totally enjoyed it especially when i can capture nice photos and keep them as memories. I began to toy with the idea of taking nice photos for local tri events and created a simple website to share them with ou fellow local tri community.

You can visit my site here = http://shawntayphoto.webs.com/apps/photos/

Here are a few that i like.

Botanic Gardens Run

Did the botanical garden route today with A*. Total distance covered was 5km. The terrain was mostly flat except in the middle 2.5km point there was a gentle climb. Overall it was a good route to train on. I did it in 25mins with an average heart rate of 90%. Next aim is to do sub 24min. BTW, A* completed the whole 5km run own her own in under 43min which is remarkable improvement. Yay.