When I wrote about my Year 2021 Resolution, in particular to the sports resolution, here what I wrote:

• Finish Real Triathlon
• 5K run under 30 mins
• 10K run under 1 hour
• Maintain/improve active days in Strava

Out of those 4 resolutions, I managed to achieve all of them, except the first one: Finish Real Triathlon. I registered for Real Triathlon in Palembang. But due to COVID pandemic peak in July-August, the event was cancelled. Too bad. But I still managed to join the Golf Triathlon, and improved my rank as well. Read on.

As in last year, I now changed the Annual Golf Review to Annual Sports Review. Started to run and intensive cycling last year, I continued the same pattern in 2021. And the best to evaluate how I performed in these sports is through Strava’s excellent Year in Sport Review.

My Annual Sports Review, as told by Strava

Active Days

In 2021, my active days is 184 days. This means I spent half of last year days to do sports, Which is great. And it also improved from previous year which was 160.

The most days active was in July. And this was during the height of pandemic. Where we were, once again, forced to stay at home. This gave many people, including me, plenty of opportunities to exercise. Almost every day I think. Not sure if I can keep this pattern should our life return to normal (read: WFO). Hopefully.

This is then correspond with the Total Time and Total Distance covered in 2021. Which I improved on both stats. I have Total Time of 241 hours in 2021, improved from 211 hours in 2020. Whereas for Total Distance is 3.951 km for 2021, increased from 3.399 km in 2020.

Top Sports

I spent most of my exercise in cycling. This accounts for 48% in 2021. 28% on running, 10% on swimming, and 14% on other, which I believe mostly is golf. It’s kind of strange to see how my favorite sports of pastime – golf, now take a back seat. Anyway…

Pace

Obviously I improved my pace from last year. For cycling, I’m now aiming for above 30 kph average speed. Which is normal for road biking. The fastest pace recorded last year was 35 kph – and I can only did this because I was drafting to the pelotons. While I think I improved my pace and endurance, but it was not 100% my effort.

Meanwhile for running, it was purely my effort. I managed to achieve 2 of my resolutions on pace. I managed to run 5K below 30 minutes, and 10K below 1 hour. I still have homework to reduce my HR rate though….

Longest and Hilliest Activity

The longest activity was when I completed my first Grand Fondo with T4 Cycling Club colleagues. One one day ride to Bogor and back. While for the Hilliest activity, I just recently completed a cycling trip to Kintamani, climbing 1.650 meters in Bali. Both were great rides.

So there you go… my sports annual review as told by Strava. Now let’s look at the other aspects of my sports.

Annual Golf Review

Ok, now let’s discus about my golf game.

As you might guess, I didn’t play a lot of golf this year. I only played 10 rounds. But somehow, albeit lack of practice, I can say I played one of my better golf this year. It helped me for my 2 achievements this year (read on… later in this post)

If I dissect my golf stats this year, I didn’t improve, but I didn’t regress either. Yes, my Handicap down a little bit. It’s now around 11. But it’s not changed much since 2-3 years ago. I’m always hovering around 10-11 (it’s so hard to be single handicapper!)

But judging from how I feel of my swing, I have better confidence on my iron shots. Which helped me to put respectable 33% GIR rate. Combine that with less than average of 2 putts in GIR, you could see why I was pretty happy with my golf game.

Can I improve? Of course. But nothing is guaranteed in golf. It is a fickle game. The amount of hours in practice might not significantly correlate with the improvement of my score. But one thing that I might need to practice is my short game. Particularly on my chipping and pitching whenever I missed the greens. Improving on this part, I believe, will lower my golf score next year. Should I put this on 2022’s resolution?

Annual Swimming Review

As you know, I do regular swimming to strengthen my back. Since I had bad back few years ago, I have to regularly swim to enable me to play other sports, i.e. golf and cycling. I used to swim in breast stroke and free style, alternately. But for the past 1.5 years, with the aim of joining triathlon, I practice to swim in free style, in longer rep. I aimed to swim at least 1,500 meters every time I practiced.

Apparently with continuous practice, I managed to increase my swimming pace as well. And I learned one great stat of this is what they call as “Swolf”. It is an abbreviation of “Swim Golf”. The Swolf score is obtained by adding together the swimming strokes per length, and the time for the length. e.g. 25 yards swim at 30 seconds in 20 strokes is a SWOLF score of 50. So, the less the Swolf score, the better swimmer you are.

I currently average around 37-39 Swolf score. And from what I read in swimming websites, any score less than 40 is a good Swolf score. So apparently I’m a “good” swimmer, but not good enough if I compared my stats with my other friends who are triathlon veterans. So increasing my Swolf is my next year’s resolution as well.

New Sporting Gears

So now come to the exciting section! What gears did I add in 2021? Here are some of them:

• Cannondale SupersixEvo HiMod – I didn’t buy a new bike. Almost. But I bought a new frame for Cannondale SupersixEvo HiMod. It’s basically the same geometry of my previous bike (the Black Panther) – but with much better, stiffer carbon frame. The stiffer carbon frame allows me for more efficient power transfer. Hence, a faster ride. The first time I rode it, I instantly felt the difference. Great purchase.
• Wahoo Kick Gen 5 – During the height of pandemic – circa June-July 2021, cycling outside is not advisable. It’s too dangerous, and I wasn’t even got full vaccination. Hence, to satisfy my need for physical exercise, I bought Wahoo Kickr for cycling simulation. Coupled with Zwift and Rouvy AR subscription, it helped me to exercise at home in fun way. The stats, the routes and the training modes attracted you to it. Admittedly, I didn’t use it as much as before, as nothing beats cycling outdoor. But I’m glad I have the option at home.
• Nike Airzoom Next% – I was content with my Brooks Ghost 12. Until I browsed for alternative shoes for race, and decided to buy this. It is a really great shoes for race, as the sole push you forward hence you save and produce more energy in every step. Love it!

Achievements

Finally – achievements! Well improving all of those stats have been quite of achievements for me. But for the real competition achievements, I could say there are two:

• Seal Top 10 position in last GOTTONG (Golf Triathlon) – for the third time running, I participated in GOTTONG event. This year the event took place in Karawaci. While I didn’t particularly post good time in cycling and running, this time my golf game bailed me out. I played my best golf round of the year, and the score enough to put me in Top 10 overall position for GOTTONG. Not bad really.
• Won Best Net prize in Prasetiya Mulya Monthly Tournament – the other achievement also came from golf. For the first time, I won the Best Net prize in Prasetiya Mulya Monthly Tournament. This golf club of my MBA University is among the most competitive one. There are many good golfers. I have participated in number of their Monthly Tournaments, but this is the first time I can win here, hence it is quite something.

So that’s all my Annual Sports Review for 2021. So what’s next for 2022? Here I recap my resolutions:

Year 2022 Sports Resolution

1. Perform more regular exercise, despite life returns to a more “normalcy” (i.e. WFO). At least I need to do running and cycling more often during weekdays.
2. Improve Sporting Stats – how about:
   • Total Distance more than 4.000 km
   • Total Active days more than 200 days
   • Run Half Marathon distance
   • Improve average pace on cycling and running
   • Improve Swolf
   • Lower golf score (by practicing short game)
3. Participate/compete in real triathlon and running event.
4. Win another golf tournament.

And with that, let me end my annual sports review here. Here wishing me and everybody a healthy 2022!