.... the jackal rides and run....

Been running a lot lately since the maid is not around (more convenient, just slip on the shoes and go!) I need to be at home early....bike rides > 2 hrs is a no-no at the moment. I will only afford one 2hr ride on one of the weekends until this is resolved. On to running.....I've been doing 5km and 10km recently. I first broke the 30mins barrier earlier this month for 5km and since then have been consistently doing ~27-28mins for the same distance. My ultimate goal running for next year is to be able to complete 10km under an hour...I think this can be achieved. Ryo told me that he completed that in 55mins! I ran with him the other day and I only managed 1hr 3mins....I was beat just trying to keep up with his lower pace! Anyway, I figured I should do a 10km run over the weekend and another 5km run over the weekday, every week. Another 2 days will be solely dedicated to cycling. Something like this (until the maid issue is resolved). My main goal is to lose weight. All other goa...

I've not done any changes to the bike except that I've lowered the stem by 5mm. I had mine right a the top and apparently thats a no-no according to some articles I read regarding carbon stems. The bike great and just makes me feel like going fast....to the point now I'm a little intimidated that it will give me a heart attack! Some recent shots (last month) of the Z3. This is a great riding bike! Deep Section wheels would be nice.....but this is ok too!

What a past 2 weeks it was...I fell sick with fever about 2 weeks ago, that wasn't bad but the super sore throat that followed nearly ruined my holidays. Maid went on home leave since last week so I had the whole week off from work where I went for my Phuket trip with my wife, 2 sons and an infant daughter. The antibiotics did the trip and I was on my way tom yum heaven upon taking the flight to Phuket. We never had to take care of 3 kids without the maid so it was pretty challenging at first but then I realize if one hangs loose a bit....things kinda fall into place by themselves so stop being uptight! Only drawback was that I lost my cycling and running time. The kids wake up really early while my wife is not an early riser so I have entertain them when the wake up between 6-7am. Only managed a ride in the last 10 days I think! Well, its only a week more before the maid is back so, that will get back into full swing pretty soon....besides I think I need to take a break from cycli...

Been doing both. I'm trying to run at least twice a week covering 16-20km total these days and maybe cycle 3 times a week. My running seems to be improving....the pace is now about 6.30min/km for 9km distance. Ultimately, my goal will be to get to 6min/km and do 10km in under an hour.....Ryo has helped a lot as he really push up the pace and still hardly sweating. I feel bad for slowing him down during runs so I prefer to train alone until my pace is ok with him! He managed to push me to 6.20min/km over 8.3km last week. I did 6.40min/km over 9.5km this weekend and this morning, with the help of some amino acid, managed 6.30min/km over 8.8km. Not bad at all and I hope I can continue to improve. I bought a tub of Purple Wrath amino acid powder. I tried it first time on Sunday for the 80km ride with Ryo and I must say it worked somewhat to allow me to still push hard even towards the end of the ride. I was doing 41-44km/h over 2km+ at west coast highway during this ride. We hit averag...

Been so called riding a lot namely with Ryo, he's really very fit guy and I'm struggling to cope everytime we are out on the bike or run (yes run!). I guess its good for me (if it doesn't kill me first!). So last weekend, we had a quick ECP-Loyang ride followed by a 4km run. Wow the run destroyed me....I was so tired and although he was not running that fast, I couldn't catch up. All in all, still a very good exercise day. On Hari Raya Haji Wednesday, we went to try interval at Old Upper Thomson road....we did a pursuit race...2.5 loops. This involved 2-3 slopes that hit 12% gradient on at least one of them and the idea was who'd get from the secure hill top area to the gates and back. The first round he killed me after the 2 slopes....he was in sight at all. The 2nd loop I did a lot better but only because he was better so he finished maybe 15 seconds faster and I was always in sight. Geez I really need to lose 10kg at least to be on par with this guy! Still, very ...

We were just thinking of what to have for dinner yesterday and my wife chanced upon an add for Microsoft's KINECT road show at Plaza Singapura. 'Just to have look' turned out to be a buy decision within few minutes. It was SGD229 for the KINECT unit + 1 game. Wife bought another 2 games (Joyride and Dance Central). Setting up was easy enough, lots of easy to follow instruction on-screen as the unit calibrates etc etc. My kids loved it....though Josh was still a little small for it, he loved it as well, mimicking Keith as they jumped and leaned for the Kinect Adventures game. I slugged it out with my wife on Dance Central which was very very cool and fun. The camera sensing it not perfect IMO (hopefully yet) but holds lots of promise. Its not as accurate as I would like it to be but an Engineer, I'm just fussing about it.....make no mistake...I'm impressed and remain very positive what this little tech can do in the very near future!

So the season of rain is upon us and its giving my Parlee a hell of a wet time. Well, basically it rained or drizzled everytime I took it out for a ride. Did some pretty tough rides with Ryo....last week we pushed an interval on Thursday morning and on Friday (Deepavali), we went on a 70km ride, also pushed at Mandai but otherwise rather relaxing ride. We explored Old Upper Thomson Road area. There were a couple of short slopes with gradients hitting 10% so it was quite fun riding on those roads (which do not have street lights btw). The Parlee really seem to climb quite well and feel very good standing up on the climbs. I think perhaps the power transfer is very good compared to the steel bike... Had a 6km run on Saturday and it was refreshing, and it rained then also. Weather is shit and while rain don't bother me much, the wet roads do. I swapped the SS stem with a shorter 100mm one making the setup pretty similar to the Parlee but about 1cm lower on the handlebars. Well, this l...

Arranged to meet up with Ryo at 5.45am and do a loop of Coastal before meeting up with Ben and the rest. It rained cats and dogs on the straight and we were forced to take refuge at one of those rain shelters along the park connector. I think we must have waited for like 45 minutes or so! So there it was, my first longer ride and the Parlee was christened with rain. On Sunday, arranged to do 80km with Ryo (his idea) and I was game. Set out at 5.45am and did a rather quick, non-stop ride....we reached Geylang kopitiam around 8.20am (after about 75km). My Garmin registered an average of 31.1km/h and thats with tons of red lights along the way....could have easily be 32+km/h I think. The overhead stretch along west coast, we did 40+ km/h all the way which to me was like wtf??? So I dare conclude now that the Parlee is a better bike than the Colnago, and by that I mean a better road racing bike. I would rate the following... 1. Ride Quality - Parlee Z3 rides like a steel bike! Its smooth b...

I was initially going to build it over 2 or 3 days. Started after the kids went to bed at 9.30am and had everything removed from the Haze, cleaned and mounted on the Parlee by 11pm. I lie down on the bed for awhile and decided..heck..just finish the damn thing. So finished up the cable cutting, alignment, adjustment etc etc by 1am. Was still fiddling with the seat post as even at 4nm, the post was slipping (I used talcum powder, but now I know I can go up to 8nm max). I was so excited that I went for a short test ride at 5.30am......wow.....this bike is quite light and it felt really nimble and responsive. Most importantly, the ride quality; it is amazing. It really feels like a steel bike (my Colnago & Ciocc have this same feel) when rolling. Its not 'dead' or 'muted' at all. Its comfortable too, yet responsive (I guess stiff where it matters). The handling is pretty sharp and instantaneous (some may call it twitchy!). Not sure if it'll help me in faster speeds...

Sent from the Netherlands on the 20th, arrived Singapore on the 26th. Total shipping cost : 34Euros. I swear that a good deal for postage from TNT priority airmail. The frame arrive in good condition, no visible cracks (fingers crossed) and the lacquer look to be in good condition as well. Frame (with headset & seat clamp) weighs in at 1211g and the fork is at a ridiculous 367g. Total frame + fork = 1.578kg not that light compared to a Cervelo R3. I'm so excited and can't wait to build it up myself!

So no thanks to Ben, who got his Archon 'Ruler' (wat a shitty name! he'll tell you no thanks to me as well as I was the one who sent him that ebay link) made me think a lot about a new frame. Initially I was looking for the likes of Cervelo R3 or RS.....I'm interested in Italian carbons (yes, carbon!). Those of you who may not know I was the guy who said a lot of bad things about carbon and I still will but truth is, you have to really sit on one to be able to judge. Cervelo has good reviews and a long string of pro-approvals to support their products. For the life of me, I've not ridden one! But then I stumbled upon some post saying that "nothing beats a Parlee".....and I went "what's that?"...that was the beginning of the end. I scoured the internet to find that Parlee is really a 'boutique' level shop offering low volume, highly hand-built carbon frames, using high quality tubesets and proprietary layups. They are really made by ha...

Finally....fever, cough, loss of voice, flu etc etc is gone (well mostly!) and the 115km loop cleared up the airways quite a fair bit too. We had a nice ride (Mark, Ryo & Francis) and took a slight detour by going pass Sands Resort....wow...I've not been there yet but the place looks huge! Quite impressive I must say! The ride was mostly on a moderate pace but we did some high speed one at LCK and end of ECP straight...my right knee was hurting a bit after LCK but recovered towards the end. Well, finally I whipped out my phone camera and took some shots! First long ride since BnB2010! You can't miss those shoes! A Brilliant Cyclist and A Masher Relaxing @ Yishun at end ECP straight....

Got sick over the weekend....sore throat, fever, etc etc and some shoulder ache. Guess its my body telling me to get enough sleep! So sleep I did! both days I slept in, no 4am wake up calls, no getting ready to hit the road. It was nice to be 'normal' again and I think it did my ailments good. I recovered mostly by Monday. I did a short 4km run on Sunday afternoon....boy it was tough! Hadn't run in at least half a year so .... I kinda miss its simpleness and toughness now! I'm planning to do 2 runs a week of similar distance....sacrifice one or even 2 of the morning rides that I do. This morning I got up for a ride on the haze...was coughing and clearing as much phlegm as I can prior to the ride. Guess I'm not 100% yet. I went anyway.....as soon as I got to the ground floor I was dismayed to see wet grounds though the rain has stopped. Oh well, I thought, just do it! Managed an ok 31km/h or so averaged over 30km so was pretty pleased with that. Will a Cervelo help m...

Got the Nitto Dynamic II 120mm stem installed last night. Luckily I had the Dura Ace Brake cable set still! Had that all changed as well. - Reach is effectively increased due to stem, saddle moved slightly less than 1cm forward. Total reach is still slightly longer than previous setup. - Saddle height increased by 1cm Took it for a quick 10km spin this morning just to get a feel do some tweaks. Feels ok for now at least. Its now quite a similar setup to the SS but with a slightly more relaxed saddle position (further back). Good thing is now, I can raise the bars if I needed to and have some flexibility in the setup to address different rides. I've always liked the feel of a longer stem especially when riding out of the saddle of climbing. The downside if of course, the reach can be a problem for long rides but I think I can get used to it. I actually had a very aggressive setup of the Saronni! Looks ok.....but a bit on the weird side! I've given up hope in the flat from bar to...

After TOP and BnB, some tweaks to take note... The SS - saddle height needs to be slightly higher....on high speed solo runs, feels like the knee is a little bit sore. The Haze - saddle height needs to be slightly higher, and maybe move the saddle a bit forward (0.5-1cm) - install Nitto Dynamic II stem (yes, I got another one, so I have some flexibility to adjust the height) With the new Nitto stem the bars are a 10-15cm further but its also 10-20cm higher (with more room to play). The aim is to make the Haze less laid back but not as 'aggressive' as the SS in terms of position. Can't wait to finish up and try the new setup on the Haze. The current SS setup is probably very good for long distance (lower saddle height, allows for spinning) but is not really that good when pushing hard. So a 0.5-1cm max saddle height rise should suffice.

Seems like everything in cycling has gone meaningless all of a sudden....after months of preparation for TOP and then BnB, suddenly nothing is on the horizon! Well, to fill that void, I aim to use my time and energy to help/accompany buddies who are going for the Tour of Bintan next month (Ryo & Mark). I've done quite a few crazy early rides last week on Tues, Thurs and Friday, about an hour each covering pretty high speeds for 30-35km. This weekend hopefully will get to do the 115km with Mark. So it should be short distance higher speed runs (>30km/h) twice on weekdays with Ryo and one long distance endurance ride during the weekends with Ryo & Mark. I'm kinda liking my SS A LOT. The Colnago just do not feel as good as the SS....I'm not quite sure why but likely its to do with the setup. To try to solve the mystery, I've gotten the same stem from Velosolo that I'm using for the SS....should be arriving sometime soon. The 120mm 90 degree stem should in pr...

Ben almost fell asleep while waiting for my SS BB to get fixed! Thanks buddy! Masher gang cresting a slow (with veteran BnB'er Alan) Among the 'peloton' ? Moments before the break-up... 2nd Day before leaving the hotel Mark with Peg! KL on his first double century Gary the Breakaway-Kid Jack on SS BnB2010 - Everyone Why so serious? Relek la..... Ben Solo More to come......

Did quite well this year so far. Below are some stats.... Some notable things... - elevation gain increase, leading up to TOP2010 end of June - recorded highest distance covered in a month (June) - currently a lot of flat ground work, to increase average speed - trying to also address low cadence, some improvement seen since using the SS - April had the highest ave HR - no thanks to JMFR2010! - Average HR is also on the rise.... - 1000+km covered on SS/FG, 4000+km covered on The Haze

BnB 2010 - Day 1 : Kota Tinggi - Kuala Rompin On Sat morning, KL and me rode together to West Coast Macs to board the bus for this event. We woke up at crazy early hours and made it there at 5.30am....a bit of dilly and dallying later, we were on our way to Kota Tinggi! Met up with the rest of the Masher gang; Mark, Ben, Gary & Francis who drove down the previous night. Day one kicked off right about 9.20am from Jalan Niaga. The first 70km were tough as we immediately went into rolling territory. I wanted to keep as a group with the rest but as soon as the slopes started we broke up. I had to mash fast up the slope as I do not have the liberty of shifting down......the best way to tackle slopes and minimize the plain is to maintain as far as possible, the cadence on the SS. Soon after doing a few slope, I found myself in a small fast group doing anything between 33-40km/h. The gel helped a lot and I popped in one every hour and coupled with my energy drink and electrolytes and bana...

Ok lets not forget that I have a mammoth 320km to cover over the weekend. But until then....look at these awesome HDR pics! All from my USA Highway 1 Collection....

So I've been toying around with HDR. Pretty interesting, and I have tons of old shots I could use and experiment. Below are 2 works....the HDR version and the original file. Here's Petronas Twin Tower 'bronze' look. The 3 files created were varied in contrast brightness and HDR-ed. The original photo was taken in 2005 from a nearby hotel. This one amazed the hell out of me....a shot from the famed 17 mile Drive off highway 1 in the USA taken in 2005 I just created 3 identical files of the original and changed the EV settings on the HDR option boxes. Scary...just to sum the potential of HDR! More time later, more pics to come. This is fun!

So I just got myself a spanking new HTC Desire last week and am really diggin' it. While I'm not a real fan of Google but choosing between an Iphone and an Android phone was getting to choose between the lesser evil. Right now, apple is the evil empire, in my books anyway! Google, well let's see if their plan for total world domination will ever come to fruition (I believe it will, its just a matter of time). The phone comes equipped with Android 2.1 (2.2 has been release in EU so I'm eagerly anticipating its release to APAC). Looks and feels good so far. The screen looks vibrant but not quite as sharp and bright as the Apple Iphone 4's so called 'Retina' display. Ok, battery life sucks (I hope this will improve in the coming days and with 2.2) but not really a problem for me since I'm mostly desk-bound these days and a charger is always somewhere to be found. Build quality is good....but the Iphone really has much better build that one can 'feel...

After glancing through some of me buddy Darren's well taken shots here , I was very impressed with the post processing done on the pics. They were out of this world. Apparently this was done using HDR (High Dynamic Range) post processing. Then it clicked.....ever had that problem of a nice pic with great background but so bright that the foreground subject(s) becomes underexposed? sure! With HDR, this can be a thing of the past.....It basically takes 3 pictures of different exposures (braketing will do it) and combines them to give a near-perfect exposed picture, regardless of whether its a sunny day or gloomy area or even at night. Now this post processing is done on the computer and requires at least 3 multiple exposures for best effect but I can imagine as camera tech becomes more advanced (super fast CPU) this feature can be a real-time post processing feature on cameras in the near future as well! Well I did a bit toying with the trial version of Photomatix upon recommendation...

Received my White Industries ENO Freewheel on a Thursday and immediately got it installed that night itself! I initially had problems getting the fixed 18T cog off as my chain whip is a 10speed version (I think) and no matter what I did the chain did not get a good grip on the cog. I remember about a method called Rotafix....basically no tools required. It involved removing the chain from the chain ring, allowing quite a bit of slack and with the slack you somehow wrap the chain onto itself at the cog and then turn the wheel. Wow, it was next to effortless and safe! Tightening the freewheel was a non-issue. Verdict : Man, the freewheel is LOUD.....and there appears to be some drag when coasting (even pulls on the crank!) but does not seem to affect much the riding experience esp when coasting down hills and stuff. It was a great buy. Immediate engagement, just like a road bike. Did 2 rounds of long distance 80km on Saturday (my first ride with the SS) and 105km on Sunday. I managed to ...

Managed to install the Nitto Dynamic Stem II purchased from Velosolo (fast shipping btw!) onto the Fixed. Previously the 120mm Shimano 600 + 42cm Traditional Bend Drop Bar proved to be too far forward and a tad too low. I was first a little bit adamant on the Nitto 90-degree stem but after installation, it didn't look bad at all. I installed the Oval Concepts R701 Traditional Bend Drop Bar (44cm) as well. The setup needed new brake wires, housing and that was solved for 14 bucks at the LBS. Installation was easy but laborious; basically had to reinstall at the brake cables again due to the length issue. The position of the bar is now just a tad higher than the haze. The stretch to the hoods, bars and drops are pretty comfortable though I think a 110mm stem would be just heaven (the current one is 120mm) as it still feels a little too far. I took her out for a spin this morning, semi-TT style and tried out the various positions. All I can say is its now more comfortable than the pre...

Ryo, KL, Ben and me did this route on Saturday morning (thank god we decided on Saturday as Sunday was raining cats and dogs all day long!). We left at 5am (Ben made a gargantuan effort to join this ride!) and met up with Ryo & KL at Nicoll highway. It was quite a cooling day! The ride through West Coast Highway - Jalan Buroh was particularly smooth although there were pockets of traffic consisting of huge trucks which were a little worrying to us but fortunately the roads were wide and well lit. In fact, I felt that route completed quite fast as before we knew it, we were turning towards Jalan Bahar and heading north. Funny that the same route, different direction really feels like a whole new route! We did well maintaining average speed of 32-35km/h whilst moving throughout the ride. Had a short 10-15 minute break at Yishun Dam before turning left into Seletar North Link which connects into the new and upcoming Punggol Timur/Barat islands...nice road...problem was towards the end...