Saturday, January 9, 2010

Delightful Conversations

Last night, John Cooke and I had dinner with Deca-Ironman Kua Harn Wei. I had the pleasure of interviewing him to months ago. We chatted, at great lengths, about how to train for longer distances, including the infamous, incredible '10 X Ironman triathlons'.

On closer inspection, we discovered that the finisher of these unsettling endurance races has a very settled mine. We learnt that it takes a clear mind to complete such races, as well as prepare for them. He shared that he has trained in the evenings in his office - when the air-conditioner was off - peddling on his indoor-trainer for up to three hours. His training regime is so unique that Ironman Hall of Fame inductee, Mark Allen could not commit to training Harn Wei for this year's assault on the deca-Ironman.

I just returned from a morning swim at the Sentosa lagoon. The turnout has stayed strong, with a consistent community of sea-worthy swimmers led by swim-organiser, Matthew. South-African, Neil and I zipped up into our new wetsuits and swam the warm six laps (about 380-400 metres each way) of the mildly temperamental water. We wanted to find out the areas of our wetsuit that would cause abrasions on our skin. When you swim 3.8km in a race, you do not want to emerge from the wake with persistent and painful reminders on our skin. Abrasions are physical burdens that we do not want to carry for the remainder of the 222km. Our conversation at lunch revolved about which wetsuit-friendly lubricants could be used: then top-four listed were petroleum jelly, Body Glide, silicon-based lubricants, and WD40 (which one tri-buddy claimed was safe for the skin and worked like a charm!). Such is the fodder of post-training meal talk.

We finished off with a fast 4km run; Harn Wei shared that Mark Allen strongly believes that it is beneficial to run off the bike, for a fast 3-4km. The idea is to accustom the body to work at a higher threshold, especially when the legs are relatively fatigued from cycling.

The last 16 hours have been useful, as good conversations and friends make the effort relevant and delightful. I am looking forward to riding - alone and with another group - tomorrow morning.

No comments: