Last Group Riding In Melbourne

Today was my last group ride with my cousins and also Josiah & Liam. We head out to the usual Beach Road but today was a good day to ride and there were more riders out there. We just cruise along the way till a group of cyclists which include two pro grand tour riders went passed us. And all of a sudden, they decided to follow the 'train'. We were going like 36-40km/h, but it was good to tail behind. The pro riders were from Team Columbia-HTC and the other from Cervelo Test Team (Simon Gerrans. He is first Australian to calim a stage in all three Grand Tours). At least my last ride here, I got to ride with Grand Tour riders eh? How often will this happen? Maybe never, but it happened today.

We didn't tail them the whole way but made an earlier u-turn back to the city, as we don't want to burn Josiah out, just before his World Cup Track race this coming week. LOL! Actually they did couple of sprints but each time I was the only one with no answers to it. On the way back, there's this funny conversation by the guys. I was actually behind having a conversation with an Aussie white guy. Conversation goes like this (something like this), and they are talking out loud at a traffic light stop:

Den: Liam wants a white girl

Jo: Liam wants white girl? Oh, my mama warns me against white girl. My mama says, "Never get married to a white girl, they'll divorce you"

Then I was like, "Oh shit, what is the white guy going to say about this?" i just pretend he didn't hear that.

White guy actually spoke, "He wants a white girl? My son is in Bangkok looking for an Asian girl!"

We stopped for a while at a cafe on the way back to the city. Thought of going for the Christmas Parade in the CBD area but when I got back it's already past 11.15am. It starts at 11am but takes me 50 mins to walk to CBD.

Tonight Den and Andrew made pizzas at Jo's place. It was going to be another Wii night. Jo just got DJ Hero and by the look of it, it''s a fun game to have. I got to go get one of this when I go back. As I got to get up early tomorrow for a final run with the Cool Running Group, Ieft earlier.

East Burwood Cup

The horses have their race around a 3200m track in the prestigious Melbourne Cup, while the Masters runners have theirs on the track as well, albeit a synthetic one. I'd only knew about this race when I was browsing through some of the event sites in Melbourne. The track is about 4km away from my cousin, Elvin's house in Burwood. So decided to bike over my cousin's house on Wed night and stay here for couple of days.

Earlier, I went out to get lubricant to clean up my bike chains. Had to walk for miles to get to Bunning Warehouse, then to Coles supermarket. Add in the sweltering heat. Came back home at around 4pm, I was already exhausted and felt more like sleeping than participating in a race. The race only starts at 7:45pm but I had to be at the track at 7pm to register. I ran to the track as warm up but my legs already felt tight and tired. Anyways, it was just a fun run and it will be good to test out how fast I can run a 3200m at my current fitness. At least I can know where my weaknesses are.

Reached the track just before 7pm and registered myself. The race won't start till 7:45pm. Most guys and ladies who turned up are in their 40s and over. However, Victoria Masters Athletics are for men and women aged 30 and over, so I am well qualified. Some of the odd distances (60m, 600m, 200m, 1km walk event) started earlier and the East Burwood Cup was the highlight of the evening.

The race started in a fast pace led by the fast guy & lady. Both came to the track together so I guess they must be training for something. Both looked like lean and mean machines. The guy probably cycles too since he has got the tan lines on his muscular legs. After a lap and a half, I took over the 2nd place from the lady. As I sense the pace was slowing down by the guy in about the 3rd lap, I gladly went into the lead and led for a while but I knew I won't be able to hold on to the pace for too long, as I was already feeling tired. Pretty bad move but winning here wasn't my priority as I want to test out how fast I could run, so I wasn't going to let the pace slow down.

Well the thing about shorter distance, is that you have little time to come out with a strategy. Once you made your move, you'll either make or break it. For this case, I broke it. Soon, there was another guy, who went out fast passing us and he really pushed the pace hard. That was the point where I lost contact with both of them and my strides were no longer smooth. I can hear the lady breathing down my neck from behind. Soon enough, she was in front of me. We got about 3 laps to go and the two guys were way out in front. Then I saw the guy who broke up the field apart was standing beside of the ground, just after the start/finish line, cheering. It's official that I'm in 3rd, but I wanted hang on to the lady's butt (well she is quite fit. Haha) and see if I could outrun her in a sprint finish. With about 1 & half laps to go, she accelerates and I was left for dust. All I could do was to guide myself to the finishing line. I'm a little disappointed that I could't go any faster but glad that at least I broke the 12 min mark. Just barely.... 11:59.

I didn't win anything for 3rd place. Only the first male and female gets prizes. The MC even joked about how slow the time was. In Melbourne Cup the horses were probably doing at about 3 mins or so for the same distance. Haha, hey, we don't have horses legs. Anyway, when it came for the spot prizes (lucky draw as we called it) for the EB Cup participants, I was so surprised that the first number that they pulled out was No. 3, and that was me. I won a AUD200 worth of weekend spa package to Hotel Bruce County or Gateway on Monash which nearby. Too bad this weekend will be last, so am giving it to cousin, Elvin.

The fast guy

The fast lady

Results (time only):

1. 11:25 (The fast guy)

2. 11:50 (The fast lady)

3. 11:59 (Me)

4. 12:13

5. 12:27

My lap time - split time (Avg, Heart Rate)
Come to think of it, spending too much time pressing my watch buttons to get the splits, instead of concentrating in race, but I need to know my weaknesses.

1. 1:24 - 1:24 (155)
2. 1:29 - 2:53 (168)
3. 1:31 - 4:24 (169)
4. 1:28 - 5:53 (169)
5. 1:34 - 7:27 (170) - this should be the part where the lady caught up
6. 1:30 - 8:58 (170)
7. 1:30 - 10:29 (170)
8. 1:30 - 11:59 (168) - I think I gave up on this lap, explains why my Avg HR dropped.

Time for 3000m was 11:15, so I think my fitness is ok, except I need to work on my speed and threshold training. Doing too much long slow runs are not helping. Once upon a time, I could do a sub-10mins for this, well that is once upon a time story. Haha. Time for me to get back to basics in speed/threshold training!

The Eve of Melbourne Marathon

I've already picked up my bib on Wed morning, the first day of bib collection for international entrants, last min registrations/changes. Anyways, I thought I drop by to see what's the buzz about the marathon expo, which was launched on Fri. Oh, also to pick up my gift bag. Well, you don't get t-shirt or vest like ones we get in Malaysia or Singapore. For event's apparels, you will need to buy it, but kind of pricey to get one. However, you do get gifts. Marathon runners will get a towel (photo below). Inside the gift bag is a can of tuna, a bottle of sports drink and a pack of Salonplas (probably need it after the run). Oh and some brochures. That's basically it.

Quite a lot of booths set up for both organiser and sponsors, pretty much similiar to KL Marathon, but no bib collection hiccups like we had in KL on the first day. Maybe because most of the bibs have already been mailed out to local competitors. Only thing wasn't sent out was the gift bag. All you need to do is to bring along your bib to exchange it. A hole will be punched on your bib once you collected.

Take a look at this. They are even have refreshment drop off for marathon runners only based on the certain distance markers, i.e. 9km, 16km, 25km and 35km.

Asics, being one of their main sponsors besides St. George Bank.


Merchandise booth, nice but a little pricey.






Collection of gift bags




Some of the other booths at the expo.

One good thing that I got out from this expo is, I've collected a lot of free Salonplas patches. Haha. Kidding. I was at this Timex booth browsing through their watches and I thought just asked them about my Heart Rate Monitor which wasn't working. Just wanted to find out whether it's the problem with my HRM or my watch. Since my GPS pod is working fine, I don't think it was the watch. I was hoping they will be more professional answering it than those back in KL. You asked them about it, first thing they tell you is, "Oh, I think you need to bring it to the HQ". Probably because my watch wasn't bought from their shop. It was a gift from my sister in US.

So the lady there, explain it that could be the battery in my HRM. I told them that I've already got it changed. They suggested to me maybe I can try out using their HRM on my watch. Damm, I wasn't wearing it. So I told them I'll come back later with the watch. Before I left, I asked whether they sell the HRM seperately. They answered something but I didn't hear it properly, so I left. Went back home to have lunch and rode back again with my watch. I went straight to the booth, the lady remembered me and said "Ah, you came back." So, we tried using their HRM and it worked! So, I asked them again if they sell it seperately (just want to find out the price just in case I want to buy it). The lady just told me, "You can have it." That took me by surprise, I asked, "Are you sure?". And she said it again, "Don't worry about it, you can have it." Wow, I was in cloud 9 hearing that. What's the use of a HR watch without a HRM, right? Haha. so I went back with my pricey 'new' HRM. I am so glad that I went to the expo now!

Here's my bib number for tomorrow. Which reminds me, I need to go to sleep now.