Cycling is like life. Cycling with no goal is meaningless. What meaning is there cycling in circles? Or living aimlessly? Meaning comes from direction and destination. Join me in my life's journey on a mountain bike :)

Blogging since 2003. Thank you for reading :))

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Highlander

Nov distance: 368 km


To Cameron Highlands, 168 km. Cameron Highlands isn't as steep as Genting, but it's 60 km uphill, punctuated with a few flat stretches. I'd tried to train for it, but work meant I was "cross-training" in the form of thinking, typing and writing. This one of my worst rides ever: last among the guys and just about overall last among the seven of us. My mind and my butt go numb as I climb. I eat all my Powergels and stuff the packets into an empty bottle to distract myself. Once, I even stop to walk. Going downhill at 40 km/h on day 3, two dogs a wheel length away lunge at me as I pass. I'm almost last again, as I brake round the hairpin bends. Perhaps I'm cautious as HC had offered me her jacket (so heartwarming!) to stave off the cold. Then, it's another 600 km car ride back to Singapore. With this ride, does it mean I've been up every major hill (Cameron, Fraser, Genting, Mt Ophir, Penang, with the exception of the highest - Gunung Tahan) in West Malaysia?

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Too much of a good thing is bad

To Old Upper Thomson Road, 28 km. I'm back on slicks again, with a new Panaracer Pasela tyre. Having cycled with heavy fat tyres for months, today's ride feels so different. With less effort, acceleration and speed is faster. But I reckon that if I hadn't trained with my fat tyres and heavier shoes, I wouldn't be as speedy. Maybe that's what the saying means: "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger". And maybe I shouldn't complain so much about life as a working stiff ...

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Two is good, three is better

To Mandai Road, 38 km. I barely want to get out of bed today, but I do. However, instead of going off-road, I coast on the road. Until a roadie on a Lightspeed passes me. I hang on for a while but he drops me eventually. At least, I get my speed and heart rate up. Then a couple pass me by, with the guy on a carbon Kuota. I coast along until I feel I can do better, and blast past uphill at 44 km/h, then reach 46 km/h as I catch the draft from a truck. It's hard to train alone. Training - and living - is better with a friend. If no friends are available, helpful strangers will have to do.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Two weeks, two weak

To Tampines Trail, 53 km. What a difference two weeks makes. The first time I was here, the trail was a fairly smooth ride. Now, it's churned up in places, with mud and muddy water drowning my rims. Up to five cyclists are on the trail even in the noonday sun. The only people I overtake are two girls; everyone else passes me. I want to pass out after the third lap, but keep going non-stop until I finish my quota of five. I head for my favourite coffeeshop but alas, they're not playing Cantopop or anything this time.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Freedom fighter

To Old Upper Thomson Road, 24 km. Just 24 hours ago, I was in another world - Delhi, the land of freedom fighter Mahatma Ghandi. Back in Singapore, it's my off day. I think of going offroad but working day and night (and putting up with the nightly din from the hotel kitchen) over there makes me tired over here. So I snooze, then get back to office to sort out urgent business (and find more urgent business awaiting). It's only in the night that I tear up and down the road. Freedom.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Happiness is ...

To Tampines Trail, 57 km. Happiness is sitting in the shade, in the breeze, on a verandah in a little known part of Tampines, eating a big $2 meal, in a coffee shop, to the nostalgic sound of Hui cantopop. After going five laps non-stop round four new hills (with a dozen or so hairpin bends going up and downslope) in Tampines without a scratch on me (though I scratch my pedals a few times going over bumps). Knowing that I improve with each lap, from having to dismount in the first two laps to clocking 18 min 30 s in lap #4. Wearing a helmet liner and a thick pair of gloves, all gifts. I have work problems, family problems. I can't control all that happens to me, but I have choice over what I think and feel. And today is one of the happiest days of my life.