Eventless Weekend followed by Desaru Punishment

-
Caught the flu, fever, sore throat bug on Friday and had to give all cycling activities over the weekend a miss. It was miserable but on the flip side, I got up early and took my kids out the KFC for breakfast....they absolutely loved it. Not possible if I cycled! Felt better on Sunday so I went for a short morning run. Intended to do 5km but at the 4.5km point, high tide! I had to detour to take a leak at Macs. Such a shame...I was doing like 5.53min/km average before the tide!

Anyway, all that rest over the weekend was really to get myself in ok condition to ride Desaru with JM. Monday morning, felt much better at 5am. It was raining. Not too heavy. I rode to the jetty in the rain....was pretty much determined, rain or shine. Good thing was : JM was also game. I believe most would have chickened out at the sight of rain but not this guy. He's mad. Just like me.

I could feel that my legs were not 100% and sore throat still bugging me (had strepsils with me! contains sugar for energy) but good to go. I know I won't be doing great time anyway....just to spend more time on the saddle and ride 'in a foreign land'. We kicked off at 8.30am. As usual JM could keep the pace well with his jogging shoes. He had his first hand experience of the rolling hills of Desaru.....a rude awakening I suppose! We did well and reached Petronas (non stop from Jetty) where we rested a while. On the route back using the coastal road.....the headwinds were terrible (18km/h it seems). I tried to block the wind but only managed to do so at a crawling speed of 24-25km/h for the longest time. This went on pretty much all way to the Jetty!! Did the loop in pretty decent time actually, reached the Jetty at 12.30pm. Only with 2 stops short stops in between (on at Petronas, another at the coastal stretch)

All in all, I'm happy. Riding in Malaysia always makes me happy. Plus being able to bring a friend over for a ride (first with a road bike on this loop) is always an honour. Suffering details as below. Total distance covered today : 135km



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tecnotrat 'Saronni' and 'Others'

-
Image
Here are a few Tecnotrat 'Saronni' and 'Others' still hard at work. Tecnotrat shipped a lot of these frames during the 1985-1989 period, badging them as Saronnis, Ferraris, Europa, a whole lot more! Tecnotrat Saronni This one's in Japan . Original paintwork intact! Same chromed fork as mine. Well maintained! Love those cages..... ( www.campyonly.com/ retrobikes/gallery.html ) Some pics of Saronni frame alone Tecnotrat 'Others' 'Europa' badged Tecnotrat, brought into Australia for Europa Cycles. She is in not too good condition but as a steel, it will be easily refurbished by its new owner. Another Europa, in better condition, serving as a dog-cage as well A well used and neglected Europa in Sydney.... Tecnotrat 'De Benardi' Probably one of the last incarnations made by Tecnotrat.... Same frame for Track Bike build....notice the rear facing drooputs Another track build... Road bike circa 2001....same steel design, campy dropouts...
Read more

2011 NTU Bike Rally - Completed!

-
Image
First 'official' ride of the year. This is the first time I participated in this event and boy, no regrets. It's a real mixed bag and I opted to try to chase the fast ones and managed to keep up. Good thing there were a lot of stop points (every 20km or so..) Garmin data as below....only tracked 140km...lost 8km of data as I forgot to switch it on upon leaving NTU rest point. 2011 NTU Bike Rally by boostbutt at Garmin Connect - Details This year, KL, Ben and I participated. We rode from our homes, met up at the usual Nicoll H'way stop and went to the F1 pit. About 1000 people signed up for the event...I think perhaps 800-900 turned up. We were mostly together during the rides until after NTU where we kinda split a bit but still meet up at the rest points. I managed to complete the last 4 stages with the fastest group (arriving at rest stops which were empty!) with the Coastal one being the most brutal as cramps started to creep in. There, I took turns with the lead guy
Read more

A Bad Week in Life, an OK Weekend for Cycling

-
Well what can I say? Bad week indeed.....my 7-month old son was hospitalized, diagnosed with Kawasaki's disease. Yes I know, wtf is that??? Well its not common but not rare as well. Its cause is still not known and there is no direct way to diagnose it....just by the prolonged fever and a couple of other symptoms. Read it up if you have kids!!! He's ok now but we are worried sick right now on that the long term effect (aftermath) of this disease will leave on his health; his heart in particular. We are going for a first scan to tomorrow (2D Echogram). Pray for us and our little boy.... Back to cycling...did a quick ride on Sat...managed to complete the usual course (about 29km) in about 64 minutes. Was really struggling to get up to speed along Changi Coast Road and tried really hard to keep at 30km/h....the aim was to do it in less that an hour! Well I failed. Only managed an average of 27.5km/h for the entire ride. Prior to the ride I had a niggling stiff neck and weird nerve
Read more