Blog
24/09/2017 21:36
On Thursday evening my watch broke. It started to vibrate constantly and the screen went fuzzy while I was swimming my last easy session before the race. This was not ideal timing. I packed it up and sent it back to the manufacturers in the hope that it could be repaired or replaced.
I mentioned...
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12/08/2017 22:19
A couple of weeks ago, I woke up at 3am to a violent storm. I stayed in bed for a while longer and tried to sleep again.... unsuccessfully. I got up just after 4am, had breakfast and got dressed.
Before 5 am, just as the worst of the storm was subsiding, 91 other triathletes and I...
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22/05/2017 21:07
My Coached training program began seven weeks before the London Marathon. Ten days after that we packed our things into a campervan and went away.
It was not too difficult to find a small hill for some repeats near to where we slept for the last time in England. It was all done under...
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30/12/2016 21:36
I went for a little ride on my own.
It was lovely weather, just warm with a light breeze. I left home at about 5:30am so I would be back at home in time for our guests landing at 7:15am.
On the way out it was dark, but the sounds of the sea were nice as I cycled along the beach...
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05/12/2016 13:26
We took the children to run the Kids Dash the evening before the race. We were a bit delayed in starting and it was very, very crowded, but the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. My eldest son asked to borrow my watch to time himself over the distance - he ran hard the whole way and finished third or...
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23/11/2016 20:18
My newly repaired, spick and span Neurogen was ready for some fun on the winding, narrow course at East Coast Park
I am still about 8kg over "race weight" but otherwise I've been feeling strong lately. Despite my less than ideal fitness, I was armed with my previous experience of duathlon racing...
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29/09/2016 13:36
I saw the Aspire Channel Swim Challenge a few months ago. We had just watched a film about a quadriplegic man with a spinal cord injury (and cried) and I realised how important funding for help must be for people who suddenly find themselves much less able, due to spinal cord damage. I also have...
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22/08/2016 10:25
We were all ready to go when we saw the wind getting up and the sky darkening. Then the rain came, then the lightning and thunder.
We waited, trying to contact friends who were already at the race start and watching the social media for any updates. The storm was category one and the trifactor...
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20/08/2016 09:38
It's 3:26am and I am sitting in semi-darkness in my grandmother's old rocking chair with my baby's soft, warm, little body hugged closely to mine.
He's doing well, a good sleeper, this is the first time he's woken up for a night feed since 6:45pm, but it's still the middle of the night. He has no...
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18/05/2016 17:17
A few weeks ago we went to the beach to practise swimming in the sea. My eldest son and I swam about 500 metres - he enjoyed it but as we felt a cold patch he asked me if the drop in temperature meant that there were crocodiles in the water. I reassured him that it did not!
We practised rolling...
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05/05/2016 20:57
For 11 days the National Stadium hosted four athletics events consecutively: The Singapore Open, the Schools National Track and Field Championships, the ActiveSG Athletics Fiesta and the Asia Masters Athletics Championship.
Both of the boys were signed up to the Athletics Fiesta, the eldest in...
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18/04/2016 20:23
This weekend was a busy one! After the Parkrun on Saturday morning, son #1 went to his athletics club, I took son #2 to a birthday party, then son #1 went to watch the Rugby Sevens with Daddy and friends. After dinner and a bath, the boys went to bed and hubby and I headed out on bikes to...
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20/03/2016 21:06
Now I'm well into the third trimester, I thought I'd sum up how the second trimester went (from a "training" point of view).
This is how it as been...
- I think calling it "training" is not really appropriate. Exercise, moving, puffing, sweating or something like that would be more...
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08/03/2016 21:33
Started off steady, but fairly near to the front. A lot of people overtook me in the first kilometre. A little while later several of the volunteers and marshalls were telling me that I was third female - this was not a timed race, there were no prizes and no placings, so I just kept running...
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02/03/2016 20:32
Recently we were in Thailand. There was a “The Story of Buddha” (The holy book/ book of teachings for Buddhists) in the drawer of the bedside cabinet. My sons wanted me to read it to them for a bedtime story, so I did. We read just the first part, up to where Lord Siddhartha found enlightenment...
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27/02/2016 21:13
A few weeks ago I saw an advert for the ActiveSG Athletics Fiesta. The boys have been really enjoying athletics lately and my eldest has wanted to run with me more and more, so I signed him up. Unfortunately the youngest was too young for this event. I deliberately didn't make a big deal about...
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22/02/2016 20:16
When I told people I was participating in the Aquathlon in the run up to the race, the responses ranged massively from, “That’s great! Brilliant - good for you!” to something along the lines of, “Are you nuts? Surely that’s dangerous?”
Coach Ben picked me up just as it is was getting light and very...
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28/12/2015 20:00
At first, I felt just like my usual self, running every day, no food aversions, no symptoms at all, the only indication that I had a “passenger” was this plastic stick with two lines on it... and then...
Shortness of breath
During the first few weeks, I felt like I was puffing a bit more, having to...
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10/12/2015 12:21
I was still going to my usual “Tough-Power-so-intense-I-tremble-and-sweat-Yoga” kind of classes (which are a fantastic complement to triathlon training) at Gym n Tonic before I found out I was pregnant… in fact, until about week 6 or 7 of my pregnancy. I soon changed classes as soon as I...
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28/11/2015 21:35
The Singapore Duathlon, one of my best races last year, was supposed to be at the beginning of October, but the air was so bad due to the forest fires in Indonesia that it was postponed. A few weeks after the original date, I found out I was pregnant and when the organisers announced the new...
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04/10/2015 11:59
“You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone”
I have had a very fortunate life so far. I’ve not had a really devastating loss yet – temporary or permanent.
The closest I got was when my sister snapped her Achilles tendon. I saw how difficult it was for her losing the use of her leg for a...
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05/09/2015 15:20
I swallowed a lot of sea water during this race. I thought I might see it again at some point in the run, but it never came back up.
It was hard to get into a rhythm and relax during the swim – there were a lot of men from the tail end of the earlier waves to fight through, the sea was a little bit...
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13/08/2015 15:49
Most of the hard work in preparation for a race is not done in the last few weeks, days and hours before the start. The hard work is done in the months and years of consistent training that has come before. You don’t want to waste all your training efforts by doing something silly just before the...
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02/07/2015 22:06
This year the Trifactor Bike race was a bit stricter about what type of bikes were allowed, which was comforting. No TT bikes, no aerobars and only standard road bikes allowed for the longer distance races. Much more sensible that last year!
The route too, was better than last year. Instead of...
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17/06/2015 12:19
Not me. Jacqui – she was the first person over the finish line, before all of the men. It was fantastic!
My day was a little different.
Thursday evening we packed. Friday evening I went straight from the office to meet my husband, the kids and my bike at the ferry terminal. We arrived at the hotel...
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30/05/2015 20:55
The ISCA Run is organised by the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants. The goals of the race include building camaraderie among members, family bonding, healthy living and giving back to the wider community. This year the race was run supporting two local charities: Movement for the...
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18/05/2015 12:33
This weekend I amazed myself.
I was genuinely concerned I might get into real trouble during this race. I think I’ve only ridden that kind of distance once (with the “Boardman Boys”)since the Kuala Lumpur - Singapore Ride for Sight in 2013. and even that was a long time ago! The race...
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29/04/2015 13:21
I’ve been really enjoying swimming lately. I used to get quite bored, but now I am beginning to find it quite meditative.
I had signed up for the 3km sea swim as part of the Trifactor series of races this year. Usually, Yellowfish (David and the group I train with once a week) send two swimmers for...
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28/04/2015 19:08
I didn’t sign up for this race this year because I didn’t enjoy it much last year. Last year we stood in full sun waiting for the start for about 45 minutes, so I was a bit hot, tired, dehydrated and generally fed up by the time the starting horn went. Then, during the race I had to stop twice,...
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21/04/2015 21:12
Instead of doing any training the day before the race, we had a really great day out with the kids. Thanks to a thoughtful, generous friend, we visited the affordable art fair as well as trampolining, water fights and running around and around in the garden!
As usual I prepared my kit the night...
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17/03/2015 12:35
The weekend didn't exactly unfold how I had planned.
When I realised that our Saturday morning “bonus brick” was not scheduled for this weekend, some of my triathlon friends decided to get together for a long, steady ride around the island instead. I was hesitant because that would mean...
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11/03/2015 17:06
After gently and slowly getting back to ‘normal’ this week the weekend started on Saturday morning with a brick session joined by colleagues, friends and coach Ben – a bit of cycling in the park, a jog around the lagoon and a short swim in the sea, interspersed with a lot of...
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25/02/2015 14:16
This race report is not like the others on this blog, partly because I was pregnant but mainly because now I am not.
My husband and I have discussed at length whether I should write about this personal event. We decided I should because it seems to be so common, yet so infrequently talked about; it...
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17/02/2015 18:01
It's possible that the conditions in Putrajaya, Malaysia will be similar for the Ironman 70.3 race in April 2015 as they were in 2014. I raced this last year (2014 race report) and won my age group. Based on that experience, here is my advice in case it's hot as hell again this...
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09/12/2014 14:12
I joined the group of 4:15 marathon pacers for a long run of 33km the day after the Bull Charge. That was really the only serious bit of training I did for this marathon. Work, children and a few other things had taken priority over training for a good few weeks, so despite having a perfect...
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24/11/2014 22:31
The Singapore Duathlon was the first duathlon race since I injured myself pretty badly at the last one in July. I was a little bit apprehensive about the bike course for this one - it's mainly in the park and comprises 6 laps of a 6-and-a-bit km loop which has some tight, narrow turns. If it's...
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23/11/2014 16:03
This race report is a bit late. I was waiting for some of the race photos to be published, but there don't seem to have been any! So here goes...
I left the office a little bit early last Friday to go to the start of the SGX Bull Charge Charity race. The boys and my husband were waiting on the...
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11/11/2014 15:31
The first thing that happened when I woke up was thunder and lightning… and not metaphorically.
I went downstairs, ate some kiwi fruit, half an energy bar, a glass of orange juice and cup of coffee. Not quite your typical pre-race breakfast, but I felt like it was enough. I got dressed, put on my...
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21/10/2014 22:35
Since his first proper, organised running race in December last year, my eldest son has been desperate to do another “wayce” and loves to do “twayning” with his big plastic “running watch”. Most races only cater for children from the age of seven years, so mine have been waiting quite some time! We...
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30/09/2014 14:21
The Tuesday before the race it was a mad panic after arriving home from work to make it to the other side of town to get the race pack before they packed up at 8pm. We made it with about 5 minutes to spare. It was quite odd that the organisers made race pack collection only for one day, and that...
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25/09/2014 21:26
Since my trip to Canada two weeks ago, I have played a lot with train tracks, lego, sand, paint and various super heroes, we have organised two birthday parties - one for my husband and me, one for our eldest son, we have spent an evening watching Formula One racing, I have spent hours and hours...
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16/09/2014 22:36
At the beginning of April this year I asked my Dad, “If I ever qualified for the World Championships, would you come to support me?”
“Of course we would, darling, of course.”
So, two weeks later when I called them and told them I had won in Putrajaya and qualified for the Ironman 70.3 World...
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28/08/2014 17:43
Most of us train or exercise, at least in part, to stay healthy. If we do it in such a way that it significantly increases our chances of getting hit by a car, being mugged or injured in any other way, it sort of defeats the purpose, right?
Fortunately, there are lots of things that we can do to...
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16/08/2014 21:32
For most of the last week I have been feeling very tired, not very motivated and even thought that I might have caught a bug or be anaemic. A champagne fuelled dinner with friends last night after a week like that was probably not the best preparation for the Singapore International Triathlon the...
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10/08/2014 21:56
Last weekend was a busy one.
About six months ago I had signed up for the Tri-Factor 31.5km running race on the Sunday then a few weeks ago Bastian from Athlete Lab suggested I also participated in an individual time trial cycling race which was taking place on the Saturday. Of course,...
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06/08/2014 13:30
I like this advert. I think it is thought provoking and worth a watch. However, as I watched it for a second time, I realised why it didn’t really hit home. It felt alien to me and I felt pity rather than anger and certainly no resentment or even indignation.
When I was 11 years old I told my Dad...
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20/07/2014 20:55
We had a great team of colleagues and friends ready to run and bike the inaugural KM Duathlon - Tristan, Rob, Mark, Mark, John, Guy, Greg, Glen, Francois and me. Many of us even had fancy new kit from our triathlon club at work. New kit and an impressive start from the organisers including a...
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18/07/2014 11:19
On September 7th 2014 I will be competing in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada... and raising money for Seeing is Believing at the same time.
The race involves a 1.9km swim in a mountain lake, followed by a 90.1km cycle around the mountain and...
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16/06/2014 10:12
I didn't write this. I borrowed it from Ben Greenfield, who wrote it for Lava Magazine (which has lots and lots of other fab articles in it too). I am convert and a huge supporter of his way of thinking about carbs. I do enjoy eating carbs, but mainly as wholefoods, in root vegetables, seeds etc...
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13/06/2014 15:17
This was my first bike race, so I was already a little anxious. A few days before the race, I read the information and rules and saw “aerobars allowed” and “drafting allowed” – sounded like a dangerous combination which made me even more nervous!
I decided to take the road bike which I use...
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02/06/2014 17:43
Most parents have some ambition for their children, something they’d like them to be, or something they’d like them to be good at. Many of us consciously encourage them to learn new things and get better at the skills they have already. Some of us, some of the time might push our children to learn...
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19/05/2014 17:33
What a weekend! Three days away with the boys at the beach - lovely weather, great food, lots of sleep... and there just happened to be a race happening the same weekend!
Friday morning we were up early, bike and bags into a taxi to the ferry terminal. The boys were excited to see the boats and...
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15/05/2014 16:03
On a beautiful morning, we made our way to Tanjong Beach, Sentosa. When we arrived, the music was already playing, lots of people were getting ready for the race and warming up, many people had their friends and family with them – it made for a great atmosphere!
We found some shade not too far...
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15/04/2014 16:23
After weeks (or months?) of being told to "not do anything stupid" by Ben, the A race finally rolled around.
A few weeks before the race I got quite tired from some really big training weeks coupled with a busy time at work. My motivation to train went out of the window and...
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08/04/2014 19:29
I am sure I am not the only one to notice that life goes by too fast! My theory is that the longer we stay on ‘autopilot’, keeping the same routine each day and not mindfully being ‘in the moment’, the faster time flies!
Especially living in Singapore, where there are not really noticeably...
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30/03/2014 14:38
Over the last year or so of consistent swim, bike and run training, my flexibility has deteriorated and I have become as stiff as the proverbial British upper lip. Being inflexible has a myriad of possible consequences, including not being able to hold an aero position on the bike for as long (or...
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25/03/2014 16:37
Obvious Health Benefits
Lots of companies pay for corporate gyms, membership to other gyms, yoga lessons and other healthy
activities for their staff. They usually say it’s because they know that “healthy employees are happier, work better and take fewer days off due to illness,” or...
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17/03/2014 18:45
As the haze sneaked back in to Singapore last week I found it difficult to get outside training. The boys both got a cough but the adults in the house managed to escape any real effects.
Saturday morning we had an easy session with Ben, a bit of open water swimming and a lot of gossiping. The air...
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10/03/2014 10:38
Finding time to train for triathlon, hold down a full time job and spend enough quality time with my children and husband is a challenge, so taking advantage of all of the time saving tricks I can is very important to me. I usually get home in time for bath time, story time and a cuddle before bed,...
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02/03/2014 15:06
"Just don't do anything stupid. This isn't your A race," said Ben after our run-bike brick session on Saturday morning.
It's really, really hard run in a race but not race. I have never managed it before. I am competitive and I always want to catch the next person, see how much faster I can go or...
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26/02/2014 15:22
The kids woke up this morning at 5:20am; the eldest wanted to announce that he had done a wee in the pottie and the youngest had done a wee in his bed. After offering sincere congratulations for the pottie-wee, changing the sheets of the bed-wee and strongly encouraging both of them to go back to...
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16/02/2014 16:04
I was feeling nervous for the few days before the race. So many people had said lovely, positive things to me that I was really beginning to feel the weight of high expectations. I was also a little bit anxious for my husband and my mum, who will be sixty years old in a few months, both doing...
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14/02/2014 22:42
For any triathlete worth their 70.3 miles, Las Vegas would likely mean something...
This post is not about the Ironman 70.3 world championship at Lake Las Vegas. Sorry... It's about making fancy dress costumes, multi-tasking and getting up early the day after a party.
A couple of weeks ago...
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29/01/2014 13:32
A good friend of mine, who is also a runner asked me three questions recently. It got me thinking. Here are the questions and my thoughts. I will caveat my responses by saying that I don't think there is one single right answer. Lots of different opinions and lots of different methods have proven...
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28/01/2014 14:37
I often cheer on complete strangers when I see them out running… I especially cheer on the people who look like they’re having a really hard time, or trying so hard they’re grimacing, or the ones who are not running that fast but really puffing hard. But I only ever cheer them on in my head.
I want...
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19/01/2014 21:16
In my humble opinion, these are the most awesome songs to run and workout to! In no particular order...
1. Foot loose - Kenny Loggins
I can’t help but quicken my steps when this one comes one. It’s feel good, fun… I also have this urge to waggle my fingers in a...
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14/01/2014 12:52
… and anything else that might possibly be lurking in the sea, whether I could see it or not.
Fear of putting my feet on the floor if I couldn’t see the bottom.
Panic if anything touched me in the water that I couldn’t see.
Complete freak out if I swam into a lump of seaweed.
During my life before...
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03/01/2014 16:25
My good friend, Liz, had a list of very cool stuff to do before she was 30. It went right down to the line, but I think she managed to do her 30th “thing” on the day of her 30th birthday!
I thought that her list was such a good idea that a few months ago I decided to make my own list. Some of the...
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30/12/2013 16:26
Usually fitting training around family and work is a challenge. Over Christmas, with all the drinking, eating and merriment it is even more so!
I have an excellent, structured training program for the Ironman 70.3 Putrajaya from Ben and Jon at Journey Fitness which works in cycles. My weekly...
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23/12/2013 11:30
Almost a year since my first triathlon, my kids have grown up so much, I have lost almost a stone (about 7kg), changed jobs, moved house, bought a carbon TT bike and now it’s time to start planning for a new year.
The main event for the first half of 2014 will be the Ironman 70.3 Putrajaya,...
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20/12/2013 16:17
If you could replace your body or body parts as often as you liked, how would you live differently?
I like “Act like you own the place”, not with the usual connotations of arrogance and swagger, but with a more positive slant, investing, taking responsibility and acting with a long term...
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19/12/2013 09:32
… and why does he get all the presents?
A few weeks ago my husband bought some small boxes of Lego. My son saw him buy the Lego and asked, “Daddy, can I play with the Lego, please?”
“Not now. If you’re a good boy it can be for Christmas.”
“But why? Why can’t I have it?”
“Because it’s for...
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29/11/2013 00:00
After having been told to stop, rest and let my leg heal properly or risk permanent damage, I was looking forward to having a few weeks rising a little later in the mornings. No such luck! Yesterday, my three year old son had other ideas. The first thing he said when he woke up at 6:30am, half an...
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13/11/2013 12:01
$800 donated to the Disaster Relief Fund for victims of Typhoon Haiyan.
Our Netball Club won every match and emerged as champions, winning a cash prize of $800 at the 2013 Temasek Challenge Tournament last Saturday!
We beat SembCorp 11-3 in the semi-finals and won 9-6...
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10/11/2013 16:02
"How do you manage to fit it all in?"
This blog entry has nothing to do with Triathlon, but it does have to do with women leading full and fulfilling lives. People sometimes ask me, "How do you manage to fit it all in?" My first reaction to this is to consider if I were a man, would they ask me the...
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08/11/2013 00:00
A disaster from beginning to end! My worst race ever!
We flew to Taipei, and stayed for two nights before getting the high speed rail to Zuoying and then a car to Kenting. The first few days were very windy – the cross winds on the ride out to test the bike course the morning before the race was...
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29/10/2013 00:00
On the Monday morning after the 500km ride, I could not cycle to work and limped around the office. On the Tuesday, I (stupidly) joined in a 5- a side football (soccer) tournament that we had organised through work. Of course, this did not improve the state of my leg. I was icing every day and...
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29/09/2013 00:00
During the last weekend in September, 40 riders went from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur by coach and ‘plane, then cycled back to Singapore over the weekend, taking a small detour over some hills on the way.
The first day included several good hills, the longest being a climb of approximately 9km,...
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18/08/2013 00:00
Saturday evening after putting the boys in bed, I check over my bike, pumped the tires up and prepared my back for the race. The kids slept well so that meant I did too!
I got up just after 6am on Sunday, ate some hot oatmeal, drank some water, got dressed in my tri-suit and cycled to the race...
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04/08/2013 00:00
I qualified for the World Championships! Boom! My first Ironman branded race was awesome! I have been inspired!
After checking my bike and gear into transition on Saturday afternoon it started to rain, not just a little bit, but pouring, deafening, tropical rain and it didn’t ease off until very...
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31/01/2013 00:00
After having my second son, I decided that I wanted to try triathlons. I had always been a runner, I had cycled a lot, mainly as a form of cheap (free!) transport, and I had done a bit more swimming than usual during my pregnancy… so, about 3 months after giving birth I bought a bike. There were...
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01/01/2013 00:00
I grew up in rural Essex in England; my parents were always full of enthusiastic encouragement for whatever sport I wanted to try. When I was about ten years old, I decided that I wanted to beat the boys at school in the 3 mile race around the village, my dad did his very best to help me get there....
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