WELCOME to the SE Asia BT forum! Introduce yourself! (Page 4)

Hmmm....The only Guam BT'er I know is Blanda, and she's never posted on the SE Asia forum. We do have people from the Philippines and even the occasional poster from Japan or India, so "SE Asia" is pretty liberally defined. You're certainly welcome to post here if you want advice and commiseration about issues like ramen as a pre-race food, setting your bike up to carry tons of hydration, or training in 100% humidity! I suggest that for Guam-specific stuff you PM Blanda--she could probably put you in touch with local clubs/groups. I'm sure they exist. Long ago I trained with a woman who ran the marathon for Guam's Olympic team and even back then, there was some kind of running scene there; Blanda does MTB and X-Terra there so there's surely a cycle/tri scene as well.

Hey all, my name's Mark, from the UK and recently moved to Singapore from Aus.

Looking to get into the world of Tri, entered some beginner sessions in April and May (Bintan). Any advice on stores etc in Singapore that I may use for any equipment once I get into things would be great.

I'm going to try and start the 12 week couch potato to Sprint training schedule I found on the site. Any thoughts on this?

Cheers,
Mark

Hi Mark! This forum has not been very active in the past few years, so I haven't been checking it as regularly as I used to. Welcome to SE Asia! I'm based in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City) but do a lot of my racing in Singapore. The Metasprint series (aquathlon, duathlon, and tri) each spring is very beginner-friendly. Bintan is a pretty brutal race due to the hilly bike and run course, heat, and humidity. I would not recommend the Olympic distance as your first Oly--it starts mid-day and the heat is incredible. Beautiful swim course, though.

As for stores, don't expect any great bargains. I'm not familiar with prices in Australia, but Singapore prices for tri stuff seem to be about 150% of what is charged in the US, with a rather limited selection, especially in larger sizes. Running Room in Funan Center has a lot of useful things not only for running but also for tri, including some tri shorts/suits, electrolyte tabs, etc. Prices are high, though, and I wouldn't trust their advice on running shoes at all. (They like to have you run on their treadmill and give you a free "gait analysis", then steer you to high-priced shoes. The ones they recommended were a total disaster for me and caused far more serious problems than the so-called "weak ankles" they told me I had.) Just don't listen to those people--pick out your own shoes! Most of the general sporting goods stores (forget name but there is a chain with a name like Sports World with shops in most malls) have a decent selection. It can be hard to find the lower-end models of some brands of shoes--people seem to want the latest fancy shoes as a status symbol. Ditto for lower-end anything. (I had an epic struggle trying to find a plain old Timex Ironman running watch. Everything seemed to have pulse rate, GPS, etc.!) Motion Sports in the Paragon Shopping Center (Orchard Road) has better deals on some things (electrolyte tabs, gu, hydration belts, swim goggles) but you really have to dig through a lot of stuff in a small, cluttered shop. Very friendly owner, though.

Can't help you with the training plan. I have a big run and swim background since childhood, so have only been a beginner in the sense of taking up triathlon and doing bike training. I have used a couple of the Olympic and half-ironman distance programs on the site and I think they are quite well-designed. You do need to be ready to tweak the plans as needed to fit your lifestyle, strengths, and weaknesses.