Easy days...and cotton island swim

After pushing my heart rate through the roof for days, I took it easy yesterday. Imagine going to swim, and doing it for 1 hour non stop while pushing it (around 3k). Then going for a lung busting ride for 40 plus km.

These days, I am joining Abu's group for night ride every wednesday and fridays. And these guys really do push it for each interval. We are talking about speeds hovering around 40km/h here when going fast.

I opted to ride in the Argon TT bike. The reason is pretty simple. You can't train on a roadie, and expect to be doing the same performance on a TT, because the muscles used are different. I had rode it for a couple of rides only, which is not really enough to see the true potential of it. Nowadays, every time I ride, my thinking mode goes into hammering it. I just want to see how fast and how long I could push it.

Now, could someone tell me how to do average 45km/h?

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Ah, kapas island swim, the getaway holiday, or that's how I think about it to escape from the busy lifestyle of KL. First timers, I am pretty sure you'll have some butterflies before the swim. It's normal. But once you conquered it, you'll resigned to the fact, that it's pretty doable.

There's a few tips.

First, try to spot the big red balloon on the landing spot. You'll notice a small triangle shape mountain. Memorize that background. It'll be handy when you are out in the ocean and the next buoy is not visible. In fact, once you've set your land target, water target are pretty non essential. For example, last year we had a marine patrol boat which is supposed to be the third target after 2 buoys. However, later I found out during the swim, the boat was a moving target. If you were to zoom in your direction towards the marine boat, you'll be pretty much frustrated.

Second, find out the direction of the current. You could ask the locals, or test it yourself by floating in deep water (without kicking or paddling) and see the direction which you are moving. Last year direction was southwards, so we had to compensate by swimming a few degrees north. Experience swimmers will always compensate for current because if not, you'll find yourself swimming more than 6.5km.

Third, don't panic and enjoy the swim...