Jinxed Asian Ironman Races

First it was the mad cow disease that got Japan's ironman race cancelled last June - yes, the one I missed despite having trained for it. Just heard that China's ironman race, scheduled in 2 weeks time, just had its swim leg cancelled because of renovation works at the reservoir where the swim was to be held?! I suspect that the June's non MDot sanctioned race was also cancelled because of the Japanese tsunami and nuclear leakage incident - this I havent confirmed but just a thought.


My Coach and a few other friends had signed up for the race. Coach was gunning for a slot at Kona 2011 but seemed like some may be changing their minds about racing in China. I already know that Angeline had pulled out of the race. Maybe Kin Kok may pull out too. He asked me when Cairns was...


Looks like there wont be any more of Asian ironman races by MDot. They may just get so pissed off that they will drop Asia completely. This is absolutely not good for Asians who want to do nearby races. This means that we will only have Australia and New Zealand races left.

***

Who turned on the heater for the pool?


Yes, the water was so warm last night that swimming in it didnt make me cooler. In fact, it was uncomfortably warm.


However, the warm water definitely had nothing to do with my slow swimming speed. Had Nick and Teryn scratching my feet and I gave up the position and stayed to the back instead. Last thing I want to do is to hold people back. And I have yet to swim a full 3.8km since reservist. Still trying to get the grip of the stroke and get back the efficiency before by doing set swims. Still wondering when I will get it back.


5 x 1km intervals was the dish today. Pace of 4:35. Completed the sets in 4:23, 4:25, 4:27, 4:23 and 4:20. With about 3:15 rest in between sets. Coach said to have a 400m jog to recover but I only walked/jogged 200m to recover before continuing. I suspect that if I had done this with Andrew and the MR25 runners, it could have been a 5:30 or 6:00 per set - meaning about 1 - 1:30 rest in between. But it would have been very very painful and may not have been able to keep up with the pace. What I had done was more manageable and less painful. Prefer that anytime.