A Crash

This week was tough personally for  me. I had a tough week at work with paperwork and surgeries. my training quite literally took a back seat. i struggled in my pool class on thursday with YF and could barely keep up. My strokes were frankly horrid and i was trailing the whole class the entire time.

On saturday was our usual FITR ride. I had looked forward to this ride which would include another mount faber sojourn this time of the "k2" side. we started off at my place at 4 amd rode steadily through NUS and then west coast.we looped around at Jurong Island and then rode up the Keppel Viaduat. While the first part was pretty leisurely and we were all chit chatting, the pace picked up noticeably when we turned around. The front pack was riding at 43- 45 km/h  and i was struggling to keep up. I rode on my drops to improve aerodynamics and was barely holding on. The steady group was about 30 m behind so i pretty much was riding along. At that point a long trailer pulled up next to me. I could feel the air turbulence adn it unseated me momentarily. I got off my drops and placed my hands on the tops. That's when i saw it. a jagged pothole looming ride in front of me. It wasn't the largest but it spanned the space between the left barrier wall of the viaduct and the wheel of the trailer. I had nowhere to go . i braked so that i could allow the trailer to pass me. I did not particularly relish the idea of hitting the pothole and ending up in the underbelly of the long trailer. I hit the pothole at speed and steadied myself. Its funny we always imagine theis entities to be a hole and that's that/ Ton that day i realised when i landed in it that there was a hole within a hole. I felt it in my bones when i hit the second one. I was thrown forwards and could feel myself separting from the bike but not before i kicked it. i landed heavily on my right. and sprung up immediately. CH was right behind me and came to my assistance. ALl my stuff was on the road, my mobile phone, spare wheel, bidons and a rear wheel. My chain had also come lose, my glasses were off and i had left a lot of skin on the road; contributed namely by right shoulder, right flank, right hip( gosh the fabric was torn andtattered), right knee and ankle. Amzaingly i did not feel much pain; most likely to the adrenaline rush. I continued after we got the bike righted. amazingly it was still in a ride-able condition and we finished the 70 km.I had felt ok after that. We stopped at Evans for breakfast and that's where it all hit home. my hip was sore,i could not weight bear and my abrasions hurt like hell.

bathing was difficult and the pain sharp, but it reminded me i was alive and was fortunate in thatr espect. I will be out for a bit. The wounds have gotten a bit infected and I have to wait the wounds epithelialize before i restart my training.

Understandably my mood was a tad darker in the antecedent few days but i feel better now. Lesson learnt? Yes, ostensibly. Riding safe means knowing your limits and capabilities.

This Week

Monday   Run10 km    1 hour( was hoping for a tempo run but ended up spraining left ankle and rolling around at Ulu Pandan road for a good 15 minutes be4 hobbling for another few minutes.

Tuesday   YF Swim 2.4 km   1 hour 45 minutes

Wed    Ride 20 km( hills) 50 minutes( nice ride thru Clementi-NUS-North Buona Vista- Commonwealth- Queensway-2 loops 2nd Avenue- 6th Avenue)

           Turbo ride 50 minutes( on my new Kinetic trainer: awesome)

Thursday   Turbo Ride 1 hour followed by 20 minutes( really slow run up 6th Avenue with WL) 2.4 km

Friday        Rest

Saturday   Hills 56 km. 2 hours Kaki Bukit( to Maris Stella)- Jln Bukit Merah- Mt Faber x 2- Tiong Bahru Hill- Labrador Park- Pepys Hill- South Buona Vista-NUS-Ulu Pandan

Sunday  70 km( 3 hours) followed by Brick run 1:15

Total: 11:10

Fab week!

Swim Class- bane or boon?

When I first started training for triathlons, I devoured some books on the subject and thought I could do decently just going to the pool and do the laps and then watch youtube videos to try and perfect my swim strokes. I had come off a running background and gone into multi-sports for variation, to break the monotony of pounding on the streets and mainly because I had started to get niggling knee and back pain and I was losing a lot of weight. Triathlon training would put a bit of upper body muscle from swimming and cycling would build leg strength and endurance and all the while, cardio workouts will not be compromised.

I had experienced improvements in my riding since training with the FOTR riders and picked up a lot of valuable tips from the gang. Sometime after the Aviva 70.3 where i clocked a dismal 50 minute swim, I thought I would benefit from proper swim classes. I was focused on stroke correction and wanted to get out of the water feeling better than more rested than all the races I had been in.

A colleague introduced me to YF. Mind you, i had started with another group but motivation was a real problem. I ended up going only for had of my signed up classes last year. Well, YF classes last 1 hour 45 minutes and it was heart poundingly tough. I learnt certainly more than stroke correction. I learnt that training at a consistently higher intensity was something I never did. Pushing the limits constantly was tough for me and I was literally panting after each set. Mind you I am still the slowest in the class but I have increased my distance and have gone faster( albiet only slightly). Above all it has made me fresher when i come out of the water and can get in some decent bike and run splits. Oh, and it has done wonders for my running as well