Catch Up

Phew, so lots has happened in the last 48 hours or so.

My intention to get a post written yesterday ended up getting consumed by faffing while I was preparing to fly and so as such I just didn't quite get there. Then once I was in Putrajaya it really was too late to do it then, so now is really the first chance I have had to sit down with a keyboard.

So, catching up. I am now in Putrajaya in Malaysia. The trip yesterday went quite smoothly, although I was in bed later than I would have liked. The flight yesterday was an example of good plans not quite transferring to reality. My plane was supposed to land at 10:00. Putrjaya is about 25 minutes from the airport. I figured I should be in bed by 11:00 or 11:30 at the latest. But the evening just ended up being an accumulation of little things. The plane was 20 minutes late, KL airport is massive and so took a while to get through, the luggage took 10 minutes to come out etc. The upshot was that I wasn't in bed until 12:30. I am just glad that my pickup from the airport hang around, even though I was an hour later than I had estimated.

My late night also meant that I am a little bit sleep deprived. I was hoping to have a chance to have a nap today, but I just plain haven't had a chance. Today has just been solidly busy.

Doing what I hear you ask?

Well this morning it was breakfest and then straight into bike building so I could head out for my ride. I was on the bike by just before 10:00 for a bit of a spin. The ride went fine, but I got more than a little bit lost finding transition and so I spent quite a bit more time out in the heat than I would have liked. The ride was meant to be 70 minutes, my Garmin records it as only being an hour, but in reality I was out for over 90 minutes. By that stage I felt I had seen enough of the heat and headed back.

I did manage to find the course in the end though and rode a good chunk of it. More on that in a minute.

The downside to the ride was that halfway through my Garmin Vectors gave it up. A large part of today has been spent fiddling with them and so far I have got nowhere. I am fairly sure I have identified the problem and it will require a new transmitter pod to sort out. I am going to ask down at the expo tomorrow whether anyone stocks them, but to be honest I am not all that hopefull. Sstill it is worth asking. Without the Vectors I will be back to racing by speed and heart rate, which should be more than enough. So at the moment it is a pain, but it is far from a deal breaker.  So that has been an annoying distraction today and is one of the reasons that today has been a bit busy, since I have spent a fair bit of the day fiddling with Vectors.

Other than getting lost and breaking equipment the day has also included registration, doing a bit of shopping etc.

With registration done I now have my first black (pro) arm band. It was a bit of a special moment for me getting this put on. I certainly had a bit of a smile to myself.

So moving on from my day, how is Putrajaya? Certainly an impressive place. Full of grand buildings and imposing structures. It seems like when they were planning it they took the approach of deciding that if they are going to build something then they might as well make it highly ornate and dominating. It makes for a city full of sights.

View from the room

It is a big place, well developed. If I had to sum it up in a word I would say planned. A bit like Canberrra but on a bigger scale. Great public spaces. There are these massive roads everywhere, three lane type things, with great surfaces and often almost no traffic. Even better we get to race on some of them. From the bit of the bike course I have seen, and talking to Tim Green, it looks like the whole bike course is like that. The bike course does have a lot of rolling hills, but really all indications are that it should be a fast ride.

It will be hot though, no doubts about that. I spent enough time out and about in it today to see that heat will be a real factor on Sunday, particularly for the run. Definitely enough to ruin a day if you aren't careful. It will have to be taken into account in the race plans.

Now that is enough for me. Heading out for a swim on the course tomorrow, but before that time for a stretch and to try and catch up on some sleep.