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I received this pleasant note from an m2 alum, Chang Min Chew from Malaysia, who I coached
for IM Malaysia '04.  Chang enjoyed great success in that race as reported earlier in this
space.

More recently, Chang took training and racing to another level yet--less training (indoors 
exclusively) for reasons he explains below, and much faster racing at IM Germany.

I think Chang's experience  represents yet another thought provoking example of the need for many
athletes and coaches to rethink the basis of their training concepts.

***********
Hi Michael,
 
Don't know whether you received my e-mail yesterday. Anyway, I completed IM Germany
over the recent weekend and it was a good race.  My time was 1 hr 7 mins faster than 
IM Langkawi which I completed in February this year. I finished IM Germany in 11 hrs 
48 mins. My Langkawi time was 12 hrs 55 mins. No doubt the cooler weather helped with 
the time but the second half of the bike in Germany was also very windy.
 
My training for Germany was based on the program you gave me for Langkawi but I did 
about 30% less for 3 reasons. Time constraints, throat infection and cough in June and 
poor air quality here caused by smoke from open burning in Indonesia carried by the winds.
 
The poor weather forced me to train exclusively indoors and no swimming at all. I could 
not do any long rides and I made up for it with 3 "long" CT sessions. 2 were for 2.5 hrs 
and the 3rd was 3hrs. I broke up the CT sessions into 2 and it made things easier but it 
was challenging.
 
I only had 4 outdoor rides and they were in the 4 hr range. Longest ride was 4 hrs 45 mins. 
Hardly anywhere near what I did previously, and which itself was much less than what is 
considered essential training fare.
 
The diet for this race was just EA's, ST's and PS for the bike and DT's and FT's for the run 
on the treadmill. I only had 2 runs in the 2 hr range too.
 
I never expected the "reduced" training volume to yield such a good return. If you recall, 
I improved 33 mins in Langkawi after 4 months on your program. 4 months later, the time 
dropped by another 1 hr 7 mins in Germany.
 
Do you think the results in Germany is also due to the fitness "carried over" from the 
Langkawi training I did ? I did notice that this time round, my CT sessions were higher 
in quality, ie, better spinscan, wattage and gearing.  
 
Anyway, thanks for your program and let us know where you will be racing next year.
 
Chang Min