Yesterday, Easter Sunday, was the first time that I felt reasonably well while training. I ran an easy 8 km from home down Grange Rd to the Botanic Gardens, along Cluny Drive, to Burkit Timah Rd and back down along Cluny Park Rd and eventually onto Holland Rd, from there back to my starting point. This is a really nice run through some very typical tropical city vegetation that borders the botanic gardens. The course also has some nice undulations. There are few real hills in Singapore. Sunday was hot and steamy, it having rained just after lunch and I went for my run around 3:00 pm.
Given that I felt almost back to normal during this run I have decided that I should get myself back to full training. So Monday morning I was back in the pool under the supervision of coach Louise Tang. It was my work colleague, Tony, who told me the secretes of triathlon. For a good bike leg, you need a good bike, for a good run, you need natural running ability and plenty of fitness, but for a good swim leg, you need a good coach.
I started training with Louise at the end of 2011 and it has made a very big difference to my swim leg. Tony was absolutely right. I have read all the books about "swimming down hill" and streamlining and converting rotational energy into forward movement, but water is just a tricky substance. It is very viscous and provides a lot of drag. Small deficenies in swimming technique are massively amplified and cause a huge loss of efficiency. You can try all you like to correct these deficiencies on your own, following the guidebooks slogging up and down the pool lap after lap, but you need some one to guide you along the way, point out your weaknesses and help you to build up your strength in the right areas.
So now I will refocus my training goal. I have planned for a number of years to get myself up to a level at which I can finish an Olympic distance triathlon in 2 hours and 40 minutes. I had broken that down into the individual legs as follows:
- 1500 m swim in 30 minutes
- 40 km cycle in 1 hour 20 minutes and
- 10 km run in 50 minutes
So now is a good time to reassess my progress.
The bike is good. I did the 90 km in the half iron man at an average speed of 30.5 km/hr. This is right on target.
The run is OK. In the past 6 months, I have done several 5 km runs at well under 25 minutes, my fastest in the Terry Fox run in January was under 22 minutes. The challenge with the run is to have enough fitness to finish the 10 km at 5 min/km pace. I will need to continue to work on overall fitness to achieve this.
Swim leg is still the biggest challenge. About 10 years ago I was able to swim 1000 m in 19 min 48 in the pool. I need to be able to improve my time considerably to be able to swim 1500 m in the open water in under 30 minutes. So this will need to be my focus over the next 6 months. I figure to swim 1500 m in the open water in under 30 minutes, I will need to be able to swim 1500 min the pool in abound 27 minutes. So this will be my training focus. This will determine whether I achieve my goal. With some dedicated training, the assistance of my coach and just a touch of courage, I will make my target time in the Triathlon Association of Singapore triathlon in September. (http://www.triathlonsingapore.org/)
In the meantime, I will prepare for the TriBob Sprint Triathlon on the 6th of May. (metasprintseries.com) I will set my goal of completing this even in 1 hour 20 minutes. If I can do this, I am well on track to meet my goal for the Olympic Distance event.
Now all there is for it is to hit the pool!
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