Moving into adult life and a more challenging career as a serving Navy Officer, Jun Shen has brought "Fighting Fit" to another level. Challenges of not having regular hours and duty bound to protect the soverignity of the country, his training works around his limitations. This multiple Ironman Triathlon finishers do not let these stand in his way; not when he has set his eyes on this year's Ironman Malaysia to take place in less than 6-months time.
We salute you. Congrats on a good race in Kenyir.
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Kenyir Triathlon Race Report 2014
Maintaining fitness as a student cadet when I was pursuing my degree in Defence University was much easier than now. My schedule is cramped with lots of workload, basically I work from 8am to 5pm, and continue with my work after dinner till lights off. Too bad the Navy don’t pay me overtime. Ship has become my home. I eat, sleep, work and live on board. To keep myself on track for my Ironman dreams, I have to sign up for races to keep me reminded. Like it or not, it is the race pressure that pushes me to pump in more mileage in my training despite my hectic routine. So, I signed up for Kenyir Triathlon.
We salute you. Congrats on a good race in Kenyir.
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Kenyir Triathlon Race Report 2014
Maintaining fitness as a student cadet when I was pursuing my degree in Defence University was much easier than now. My schedule is cramped with lots of workload, basically I work from 8am to 5pm, and continue with my work after dinner till lights off. Too bad the Navy don’t pay me overtime. Ship has become my home. I eat, sleep, work and live on board. To keep myself on track for my Ironman dreams, I have to sign up for races to keep me reminded. Like it or not, it is the race pressure that pushes me to pump in more mileage in my training despite my hectic routine. So, I signed up for Kenyir Triathlon.
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| Me.Myself. And Boat House. |
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| Once a Navy, always a Navy. |
After we settled down and set up our
bikes, I found out that my rear derailleur misaligned. My cheapskate fixie
tyre was also in a very horrible condition. Shit happens every day, but in a
different shape. =p No big deal, I’m
gonna get it settled. Basic bike servicing knowledge is important for
triathletes, if you don’t wanna save others also you have to at least be able
to save yourself. At Lake Kenyir, no bike shop nearby to rescue you. I got my
rear derailleur tuned by twisting the H and L screws then some minor adjustment
on my brake caliper, changed my racing tyre and lubed my chain before parking
my bike at the veranda. After race briefing, I dozed off very quickly.
Race morning I had a piece of bread
and a Hammer Perpetuem solid. Race start was delayed for quite some time due to
heavy rain, race organizer was concern on safety issue. The rain cloud was
thick and dark, we’ve been getting rain every single hour since we arrived
Kenyir, no thunder storm though. So I went to transition area to release my
tyre pressure. I pumped in 110psi, I dropped it to 90psi, hoping to get a
better traction in a wet race. Suprisingly, none of the pre race jitters
bothers me this time. Partly because I’m not gonna win anyway, I just come here
to do my best and test my limits. I started my swim with kicking people before
people kick me, got kicked like no less than 10 times on my face till once side
of my goggles sucked into my eye socket. Karma is a bitch. =p 3 months of no
swimming, my strokes were flimsy and powerless like a pregnant turtle carrying
hundred eggs. I was never a good swimmer anyway. Normally I’d score 29 mins for
the swim, but this time around I came out of the water 42 mins, dare not even
look back if anybody was behind me.
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| Among the many uses of a cloth hanger |
Mentally ready for the bike course,
ever ready for a massive sufferfest. Behind me there was no body, I rode hard
for 15km pulling an uncle who kept yelling “come on young man!”, he was like a
cow boy yelling “yeeha!” and I was his horse. In this situation, either I ride
hard to catch group in front or wait for the peloton from behind to catch me.
Tucking myself in and riding on my new aero position, I felt really really
smooth. My new bike position is actually inspired by Levi Leipheimer, both
extensions are tilted 15 degrees upwards with an aero bottle in between to
channel the airflow down instead of smacking my chest. I kept hammering the
pedal at an average effort, saving some power for the killer climb at the final
4km. Without realising, I had a train of riders behind me. We worked together
in a team time trial formation, managed to catch 3 big groups. Drafting in
rainy weather is super dangerous. Firstly I don’t trust the rider in front of
me because they were swaying left and right, secondly I don’t wanna damage my
bike when crashing in a big bunch, thirdly I’m not good in drafting. Riding at
the outer lane gives me lesser slipstream, but more safety and more training
for Ironman. I felt that Hammer Anti-Fatigue Caps worked really well for me, my
quads were never sore as if I could delay the lactic acid building up. Strongly
recommended for athletes aiming for PB without increasing training mileage.
Hahaha. I took a last sip of Hammer Endurolytes Fizz before dismounting, light
tasting electrolytes that fuelled me all the way. No fly dismount like what I’d
normally do due to the steep final climb before entering transition. Safety
comes first, style comes second.
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| Team 2ndSkin represented |
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