Onwards to Week 20 Ironman Malaysia Training

Recapping the past 19weeks of training. Hardly believable. This week mark my 20th week of training consistently in my quest to my 4th Ironman race. Of course, this training serves as a basis for me to work on a better fitness level apart from tackling the Ironman 70.3 Putrajaya, Sabah Adventure Challenge Ultra Trail (multi-days) and the Xterra Malaysia World Championship Qualifier. These are my A-list races. Many has asked me why am i putting myself through this endless training. Some predict a superb finishing time ahead as I've "trained this hard".

Week 19

19 weeks and a total of 3400km covered. I've spent no less than 127hours training and that works out to an average of 1hour per day. This 1-hour represent 4% of my daily time. Many of us spent this 1-hour in the toilet per day. You can't blame me if i felt under trained. The bulk of my training comes during the weekend where I will have more time and opportunity. It is at time at the expense of family time. Balancing sports and family is tough, as if having a 9-to-5 job is already a chore to begin with.
Week 19 Weekend

Bigger mileage over weekends

Last weekend was no difference. Trying to put in more training. It started with a quick 20km ride on the trainer - as a tribute to the Ultegra 6500 that was given to me by a friend to encourage me when I got my first roadbike in 2007. It powered me through 3-Ironman and it was time for me to re-flash it and give the bike a new leash of life.

The 6500

I sent the bike over to Edwin (Joo Ngan Son) for the work - the crank, the chain and the 10-speed cassette will go into the training wheels. The rest of the groupset (i got a complete 5700 105 groupset from Chris, at a good price) will be used as I slowly build a steel frame I have in store, which I inherit from another friend Kok Aik (he sold it to me so cheap it's obscene). This is how the bike drive-system looked like with the new crank, cassette and chain.

Woohoo!

12-25 setup. Great for climbs. Beyond 21 cogs now!

This upgrade gets me excited as I remember back in 2009, I was envying those with the newer, lighter and stiffer cranks. Those of you that ride on older version of bottom bracket and cranks will know how they flexes under fast acceleration and you will literally feel the bottom bracket moving slightly under hard pedalling. The 9speed to 10speed doesn't bother me more as the additional is just on the climbing gears. It is "good to have" as at least I may be able to ride up hills easier. 
I did a few other tweaking - having ridden my Orbea Ordu the past 19 weeks for training, I am very comfortable riding in the aero TT position. I decided to drop the bar a bit lower to achieve a better position. Yes, it is all about comfort and efficiency. So, work to stay in aero position if you intent to use a TT bike in your race.

Setup since I restarted training to "ease" into Aero again

Drop 1 full inch

My next project is to replace the 90mm stem with a 32mm stem. That would bring the cockpit closer to me and allow a steeper seating position favourable for TT bike; that is if my fitness and body allow me to sit in that position at 90% of the 6hours I will be cycling. For the record, I got the bike back the next day, eventhough Edwin say he got it done by the end of the day - I was looking for excuse NOT to spin in the evening as a mean to allow my body to rest. 
Immediately after the spin session, I sent the kids to skating classes. Wifey had her earlier 15km run with Pat Ee and Between 9am (when the daughter has class) to 10am (so I can rush back to get my son for his class at 11am), I went into Kiara. I love trail running! I was lucky that day as Charles (Frew) were heading in as well. Nothing beats having someone to run with especially if he or she is faster than you! On my way in, I bumped into Razman and Kimbeley. :D

Awesomely fast

The GoRunUltra was put to it's pace that day without insole (making it a 4mm drop) and in the trail fully. Wait up for the part 2 review of the shoe.

Faster!

We ran the usual loop around Bukit Kiara and bumped into more friends along the way. This time, into Winston and Mike Phoon as they make their way up Kiara for some Mountainbiking training.

Super fast on the bike

Charles and myself decided to take Bar-A-Kuda and then continued to Sungai Trail, which JLN renamed into some name that doesn't reflect what the trail name is.

Trailing Charles now

The additional 2km gave me a good workout and I had to say goodbye while Charles continue to run the 2K and 4K loop by himself. Here is a short video of us running down T'n'T - a fast technical downhill sections with a few twitchy switchbacks that even when running down, requires fast leg work. Enjoy.

View in HD if you have the bandwidth

Saturday continue with attending Kak June's daughter wedding and the kids back to their skate classes in the afternoon. As the bike wasn't there, I had no excuse to cycle in the evening. :) Much has been accomplished as well, apart from sports and family. My daily commute motorbike get a service in between those hours! Talk about time management and collaboration of timing with wifey!
MountainBiking Sunday
I am bad at mountain biking and this is compounded by me wearing clip shoes. With the feet stuck to the pedal, reflexes required to put feet down or move feet about for balance is taken away. 

Much Improvement needed!

For the 12km effort of riding Bukit Kiara, it took me no less than 90minutes. I officially run faster than I bike in Kiara! Enjoy part of the ride below in HD. You can see why Kiara is a favourite among many MTBikers with the single track and technical trails.

View in HD if you have the bandwidth