Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Swim Bike Run? I want.

While going through the Pacesetters events calendar, I saw the Chin Woo Biathlon. To be honest I was really interested but have no idea how the event goes, no idea what to expect or no idea how I would fare with the others. I googled and read race reports.

I felt weird reading them, like some sort of a nervous regret.

I am interested to try to do a triathlon. I have no idea why the thought suddenly appeared but I realized that I've always have some sort of fascination over triathlons. I like the commitment put, the effort and hours and dedication a person needs in order to compete in one. Best of all, I like the fact that most of the time, it's not really a competition about speed, but strength. The strength to finish whatever you started. The strength to overcome barriers and mental blocks.

I'm about to go on a running hiatus soon, where I will not be running until April. 17 weeks of not a single running activity to be exact. As always my mind has started to become restless and I caught myself going to the website beginnertriathlete.com. I already love to swim, especially long slow swimming (not speed) and well, I like to bike but never had the privilege to own one currently. I'm thinking, while waiting for my knees (and most importantly, my plantar fasciitis) to recover I might as well add biking to my swimming - which I plan to do a whole lot of in the coming months.

The only gripe I have about triathlons is that there is not a lot of resource in Malaysia for people who are interested to do this but have no idea how/what. Triathelete virgins. Like me. They have many triathlons clinics overseas or even small workshops for triathletes but I don't know whether they have those in Malaysia. The only thing that came close to it when I googled was the Trikidz thingy, and I believe I have reached waaaaay past the age to be a participant. I always wished I was a kid again so I could benefit from all these programs starting to dot in Malaysian sporting industry.

Here's what I need to have:
1) A bike. I'm going to ask my cousins whether their shoddy bikes are still available so I could borrow and start to put some 'oil in the gears' (both gears, mine and the bike's)
2) Swim!
3) Find out more about this event, which includes...
4) finding out friends or a a gang that I could do all these activities with. I have no idea where I could have a decent bike mileage and I bet if I were to be serious in this thing I really would need a training buddy or buddies.

Anyone here that could shed some light to this matter?

To finish this off, here's a funny, humorous article from a triathlete detailing out his first ever triathlon... with only 32 days of training. Here's another of my favorites.

5 comments:

  1. Good idea to start cycling first, since you are on a running hiatus. I have a few tri buddies which u can get to know once you start cycling with them. Most of us train on the bike together as long rides (70KM+) and do a brick (ride-run) just a few weeks before a tri race.

    I am thinking of riding Putrajaya next weekend as a start to tri training. I have not ride for 6 mths! If you have a bike, welcome to join.

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  2. Nadia, if you are free, why not volunteer to help out at trikidz and meet other triathletes as well. I'll be there on both days. Come lah. Nik pun ada.

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  3. kash: would love to! have to check with the parents (they might com for the weekens) but give me your contact or email so we could comminucate. mine's nadianizam@gmail.com

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  4. Nadia,
    I just want to suggest as what Kash's suggested. Trikidz clinic will be held this Saturday from 8am to 12pm, and the race itself is on Sunday. I highly recommend if u can come on Saturday as there will be triathlon coaches (or at least, amateur triathletes like me) sharing their knowledge about the swim, the bike, the run, the transition and about how to tackle the race itself as a whole. U boleh datang tengok2 and listen to what these coaches are sharing with the kids. I've been to two Trikidz events as volunteers before, and i myself learnt something from each of them. I'll be there once again to volunteer by the swimming pool on Saturday. It's a good chance to make new friends too.

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  5. nik and kash: see you there tomorrow.

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