Malaya Adventure Challenge

There were some activities that I still cannot have a time to completed since I was undergraduate student.. here it is:

1st : To trekking around Tioman Island. Starting from the northside of Tioman (kg Salang) down to Tekek, cross the hill to eastside to Kg Juara, trekking back to westside and follow west-coast heading to the southside finishing at Kg Semukut

2nd : To hiking Mount Tahan in 3 days 2 night duration. Need to be fit, lightweight backpacking and long hours of trekking everyday.

3rd : Cycling again around Peninsular of Malaysia with roadbike. Last 2001 I did by rode a mountain bike and carried backpack on my shoulder.

"Will you join me?"

Triple Treat Triathlon in Three Consecutive Days

Started on last Friday, I decided to complete three sprint triathlon in three consecutive day. My main purpose to did this intensive workout because to release my pressure. Secondly to saw the minimum recovery time that my body need. Finally to improve my swim-bike-run ability in one shot workout.

My pain was felt on Friday evening when I did 500m swim, followed 10km hilly route cycling, and 3 km hill run. I can stay comfortable on my time trial position during cycling leg. But finally I manage to walk when running to reach hill top finishing.

On Saturday evening I completed my fastest splits in all events distance. It was because I already entered my base of endurance and comfortable workout intensity.

But on Sunday morning, the triathlon started at 10 am, a little bit slower on my pace happened when running's leg appears. The sunshine, heat and also lack of recovery time that I can felt during 3 km run to the hill top finish. But the most important thing was I not allowed my leg to stop and walking as my first day before.

Sometime I need to stay out from my comfortable zone, and do something outstanding that normal people can't.

JB City Eco-Challenge 2009

Event : JB City Eco-Challenge 2009 (1st Eco-Challenge in JB Town)
Organizer : MBJB
Race : Creative Emotions - 'Team Activation Programs'
Date : 31st May 2009
Venue : Start/Finish - Dataran Bandaraya
Time : 8am - 11am
Participants : 2pax in a team (Men's Team and Mixed Team)
Category : Elite & Novice
Race : Elite (Mt Bike - Road & Trail, Sea Kayak, Run) 25km range
Novice (Run & 3 checkpoints mystery games) 12 km range
Entry : Limited entries (1st come 1st serve basis)
RM 120 - Elite (Men's = 15 teams, Mixed = 10 teams)
RM 100 - Novice (Men's = 30 teams, Mixed = 20 teams)
(Inclusive - Finisher medal, exclusive t-shirt, light dinner, certs)
Prizes : RM 20,000 Cash Prize
Closing : 15th May 2009
Contact : All entry submission go through CREATIVE EMOTIONS
(email your request to - creativeemotions.events@gmail.com)
*Events detail & registration forms
or call 'Dale' @ 012-7088173 to reserve your slots

JOERIE VANSTEELANT 2009 AGENDA

10/01-28/01: Trainingsstage Lanzarote (ESP)
24/01: Duatlon “Club La Santa” (ESP): 5-20-2.5
16/02 - 02/03: Trainingsstage Monte Gordo (POR)
08/03: Winterduatlon Geel-Bel: 4-20-2
21/03: Bruggenloop Wijnendale: 12
05/04: Grand Prix Jard sur mer (FRA): 5-30-5
06/04 - 16/04: Trainingsstage Saint-Raphaël (FRA)
19/04: Powerman Horst (NED): 15-60-7.5
03/05: Powerman Bastendorf (LUX): 10-60-10
04/05 - 22/05: Trainingsstage Font-Romeu (FRA)
24/05: Europees kampioenschap Budapest (HUN): 10-40-5
20/06: Grand Prix Cuincy (FRA): 5-30-5
05/07: Grand Prix Chaumont (FRA): 5-30-5
12/07: Duatlon Kortrijk: 9.5-40-7
13/07 - 30/07: Trainingsstage Font-Romeu (FRA)
09/08: Powerman Geel: 10-60-10
23/08: Powerman Weyer: 15-76-7
10/08 - 03/09: Trainingsstage Font-Romeu (FRA)
06/09: Wereldkampioenschap Powerman Zofingen (SUI): 10-150-30
05/10: “Coupe de France des Clubs” Gruissan: 5-20-2.5
08/11: Powerman Seri Manjung (MAL): 10-60-10

The Adventures of Kakithoners

April 3rd and 4th there were a gruelling moment for 4 of Kakithoners. They were completed to conquer two summits in less than two days. The summit located about 150 km apart. There was a Gunung Dato in Negeri Sembilan and Gunung Nuang in Selangor.

As a part of training to be a challenger team in adventure races in near the future, they must do the training effectively. Furthermore, with a support from sports science knowledge they were gained day after day, they actually fully equiped by knowledge and of course physical abilities.

Now, Kakithoners must gaining as much experience as they can. Experience is a most valuable beside the knowledge and physical abilities. Plus they also must attend a outdoor skills course such as navigation, kayaking, high element (rope skills) and basic survival skills.

Two summits, 150km apart in two consecutive days was not easy for beginners or entry level athletes. It demand your determination, big effort, high motivation and of course top physical condition.

Finally may this effort will getting paid in the future..

Cycling Climber

Before this I have wrote a post about domestique riders in road cycling race. Another role in the cycling team is the climber. Climber can be like domestique, lieutenant, or maybe team captain. Did you remember the US Postal Service Cycling Team back in 1999 to 2004. This team is the great example too see a lot of climber in on team. Their objectives was to make sure their team captain, Lance Armstrong to won Tour de France every year. Lance as Captain, Roberto Heras as Lieutenant, Jose Azevedo, Manuel Beltran, Victor Hugo Pena, Tyler Hamilton, Viatcheslav Ekimov, Christian Vandevelde, Dave Zabriskie, Levi Leipheimer were working as domestic when the Tour came.

Climbers tend to have a lot of endurance and specifically developed muscles for long hard climbs. They also tend to have a slim, lightweight physique, but some can become good climbers through concerted training. Ironically, many climbers are not very good descenders and many see their large time advantage diminished by the time they reach the bottom of a descent.

Many types of climber can be categorized. Firstly is climber can only climb a hill and sprinting at the top of hill.They have a small physiques but more power may specialize in short but steep climbs, also dubbed "sprinters hills". Examples include Paolo Bettini and Danilo Di Luca, who are able to sprint their way up the shorter climbs to win a stage or a single-day race.

Second type of climber is the breakaway specialist who can ride aggressively with many attacks and sustain their lead over ascents, descents, and flats. Famous examples include Laurent Jalabert and Richard Virenque.

Sports physiologists have attributed the advantage that small stature holds in cycling up steep ascents to the way in which body mass and body surface area scale according to height. As a hypothetical cyclist’s height increases, the surface areas of his body increase according to the square of his height whereas the mass of his body increases according to the cube of his height. The surface area relation applies not only to the total surface area of the body, but also to the surface areas of the lungs and blood vessels, which are primary factors in determining aerobic power. Thus, an equally-proportioned cyclist who has 50% more body mass (i.e. is 50% heavier) will generate only about 30% more aerobic power. On a steep climb most of the cyclist’s energy goes into lifting his own weight, so the heavier cyclist will be at a competitive disadvantage. There is, of course, a lower limit to the benefit of small stature because, among other factors, the cyclist must also lift the weight of his bicycle.

Scaling factors also account for the relative disadvantage of the small cyclist in descending, although more as a result of physics than physiology. A larger rider will experience a more powerful gravitational force because of his greater body mass, but he will not have as great an increase in the frontal area that creates aerodynamic drag. The downward force is proportional to the cube of height whereas the frontal area is proportional to the square of height. Descending exclusively under the force of gravity--i.e. not applying power through pedaling--the heavier rider will be faster.

Although these factors might seem to cancel each other out, the climber still has an advantage on a course with long ascents and long descents: adding several miles per hour on a slow, time-consuming climb is much more valuable than the same increase on a fast and brief descent. Any rider, of course, can improve his climbing speed by increasing his aerobic power and reducing his body weight and can increase his descending speed through better bike handling and the willingness to accept an increased risk of crashing.

Wall Climbing Course

Back in 2001, I was in this course as youngest participant. Less than 20 participants at that time. I learnt to be competent in this area of expertise. So need to practice, and practice and apply my knowledge into several high element activity through 2001-2008.

Then early March 2009 I received a phone call from JBS Johor to be a coach for this course. I accepted and need to do my homework before the beginning of the course.




So I spent my time since last Thursday until Sunday at Kompleks Belia dan Sukan Johor in Larkin. This course organized by JBS Johor and Way Out Adventure and named as Kursus Asas Mendaki Tembok Tiruan, especially for beginner climbers or future climbing instructor (I hope so).

There were 24 participants came from around Johor, included 3 students of mine from UTM, my gf, and my boss son.

This course successful handled by me and the organizer. All parties satisfied with the course.

Below I attached a few of pictures from the course.

KURSUS PEMIMPIN REKREASI LUAR KEBANGSAAN TAHAP III 2009 SIRI 49

Yesterday I received an offer from Jabatan Belia dan Sukan Negeri Johor to attend a course named Kursus Pemimpin Rekreasi Luar Kebangsaan 2009 siri 49. Only 2 participants from each states in Malaysia can be there.

The course will be held on 9-18 April 2009 in Binsulok Nature Resort, Beufort, Sabah.

It is 9 days of outdoor adventure and expedition experience.

Content of this course including:
- First Aid
- Program Management
- Recreation Safety
- Orienteering
- Leadership
- Coach's Roles
- High Element Course
- Expedition Management
- Navigation
- Teaching Method
- Water Element
- Land Expedition (2days 1 night)
- Outdoor Survival
- Public Speaking
and lastly of course the Final Exam!

Hope this course can give a lot of benefits and advantages for me to serve my country!

Periodization

Many athletes and coaches in Malaysia always didn't see a periodization in clear way. They keep training at maximum level, and aspect too much from their athletes in each competition around the year.

What is this Periodization we keep talking about? How do I use it if I can’t even spell it? Why is it important? I’m glad you asked.

You want to get fast, right? If you wanted to, you could go out and do the same workouts day in and day out for the whole season. If you did, you’d get very good at that workout and would be fast for that specific distance and course. You would, however, most likely get burned out, get injured, and would not improve overall race fitness. Or you could just do longer workouts as the season progresses, but then you’d be good at going long but not at being fast. These don’t make a whole lot of sense if you want to race. Or you could train like we used to—the “what do I want to do this morning?” plan. Even with goals of losing weight the best option is to train smartly rather than just train.

Periodization is the organizing of your season into specific phases, each with its own goals and its own workouts. You may have heard the terms before; base phase, build phase, race or Peak phase, and rest or transition phase. These terms are universal now in the training and coaching vocabulary. And they lead to smart training. Whether your goal is to win the world, beat your local rival, or lose a few pounds, periodization is the key to longevity in the sport, injury prevention, and burnout avoidance.

Let’s go through the phases:

Preparation phase is that phase in which you are preparing your body for the rigors of training. You ease into the training to allow for proper Adaptation and decreased injury once you begin. You start with easy weight and Aerobic training in this phase.

The base phase is where you build the foundation of your aerobic fitness. Start at your current fitness level and slowly work up to your largest volume of your season. The vast majority of this phase is conversational paced aerobic work, with heart rates 20-30 beats below Lactate Threshold. The purpose here is to increase Endurance through the building of Power producing mitochondria in your muscles, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the blood’s oxygen carrying capacity to the muscles, to build lung capacity, and to build muscle in the primary movers and the supporting structures. There are several mini-phases in the base phase, when more intense work is introduced, but the primary work is aerobic exercise. Weight training is primarily high repetition and low weight.

During the build phase, more intense work is brought in to build muscular power, Muscular Endurance, and Force, all allowing for a more powerful run or pedal stroke. This is done primarily through Interval and repetition training, or repeated shorter duration efforts with recovery in between. Aerobic endurance work is continued and you will continue to gain endurance, although overall training volume is decreased. This is also the phase in which you will train more specifically toward your goal race course—hills, flats, etc. Weight training is generally more powerful with fewer repetitions, and fewer times per week than previous.

The peak phase is only a week or two long, and leads up to your primary goal race. In this phase, volume is decreased further, endurance work is limited, and short duration power and strength work is maintained to “fine-tune” you for your race. Work is done at or near goal race pace to mimic racing conditions, and on terrain similar to your race course.

After your priority race, a rest period is important to recover from the months of abuse you just put your body through, both mentally and physically. Take a break from following a training schedule and hang up the bike and running shoes for a period of 1-2 weeks midseason or 3-6 weeks post-season. This isn’t the time to simply get cozy on the couch; stay active in non-triathlon related activities such as hiking, rock climbing, or mountain biking.

With proper season setup, the proper training at the right time, and rest when needed, you’ll have the best season yet!