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

170km covered for the event, giving a total of 188km for the day, taking into account to and fro rides to the F1 Pit. This ride was tough. Despite all the stops every 18-20km or so, its still tough! It was hot as hell too! Starting out, I was not feeling as great as I did last year due to the fact that I have massively scaled down on my cycling (only twice a week now). The initial pace was not very fast but it soon pick up speed after the West Coast Part rest stop. Reached the next few rest stops in the front pack. JM was doing well tailing right behind me. Scary moment at Tuas. I was together with a group right behind the safety car. Some guy had this event singlet tied to this seatpost. I noticed this early on and I thought it was a bit dangerous as it could just come off its poorly tied know and get stuck in the wheel or something. And then it happened! His rear wheel locked and being right behind him I hit him from the side....I was going "oh dear I'm gonna fall" bu...

Saturday Started off early at 5.15am on Saturday as the usual hardcore early birds were the only ones available for rides. Ryo, kl and me did the usual Singapore round island covering 112km. Average speed for the ride was 31.2km/h....and we did not draft any groups during the entire ride. Everyone did their part in pulling with some short attacks thrown in as well. Notable section was the coastal straight where Ryo and me could not overtake and lead a solo rider. We were trying to lead the 3 man group (KL was dropped at this stage) but he just refused to allow us to lead. It was all in friendly mood but this guy is impressive! Sunday For Sunday, Ryo and me went for Mt. Faber. We did 6 loops and boy was I drained. As expected, he was quick to leave me behind on the climb. Seems so effortless for him! Best time up Kg.Bahru was 5mins 10secs...still at least a minute slower than my best time achieved early in the year. I attribute this to lack of climb training! Also perhaps th...

Haven't ran since JMFR so decided to go back to the usual 2 x 5km routine for weekdays and 2 bike rides over the weekend. The 2 running activities were not good at all. Pace was 6min/km but I did a new route which is 5.5km iso 5km. These are more as filler activities for cycling. Weekday cycling is too much for me most of the time....waking damn early and take a while to get setup. So on election day Saturday, I went yet again on a round island solo ride (112km). I changed my saddle tilt a bit (flat) and consciously try not to put too much weight on my hands, esp the right one as I'm developing some sort of Tennis Elbow due to cycling. Kicked off around 5.05am and was trying to complete by 9am. Unfortunately, I came in 2-mins after 9am...exhausted. Normally, I will have 1/2 to 1/4 bottle of liquids left but this time around completely finished. It was ok up till around Mandai (30.7km/h average) until the sun came up. It became hot really fast and it was a real struggle maintain...

On Saturday, I repeated the same ride from last weekend and hope that this time it won't rain. Well the heavens heard me. It didn't. However, it did not make me any faster....fatigue perhaps or the bad headwinds from Pasir Ris onwards? Anyway, it was tough enough for me just to try to attain >30km/h doing this route solo. At Changi coastal/CV, I cooperated with 2 rather strong malay rider (in Zipp uniform), they were kind enough to allow me to. They were training or some sort I think...going 37-38km/h into direct headwind. Together, we did well in maintaining the speed above 38km/h. I was spent upon reaching home. Luckily this time I did not have a post-cyclocross situation with my bike. Ah yes guess what? Front tire puncture at ECP! It did not give way but gradually when I felt the front wheel was making some weird noises (later to find out its the rim hitting the road when the tire bottomed out, though it was not completely out of air). I managed to get home safely, no iss...

I did not get to cycle long distance last weekend due to my return home to Ipoh for Ching Ming so this ride was more like 'make up for lost time' ride. I was looking forward to this all week and knew no one would come with me and I did not bother to ask.... Had an early start around 5.10am and the skies looked grey (even at night!) but I said hey, maybe it would rain but likely only for a while or in certain stretches...still good to go and so I did. All was good until I hit the Esplanade when it suddenly started to pour...I could see a blanket of rain approaching me at the opposite direction. Got hit a bit and found shelter at the bus stop right outside the Esplanade...waited for about 10mins before it look subsided and I went off again in the 'medium' drizzle. As soon as I hit the via duct at West Coast Highway, it again poured! I just told myself to go on, no point to stop now, just need to be more careful. After about 10mins in the rain, somewhere along Jalan Buroh,...

I wanted to target solo 30km/h average for the 115km loop on Saturday. I reckon this would be quite tough to do solo, without drafting. All was going to plan...was hitting 30km/h ave speed upon reaching completing Jalan Buroh but after the roundabout on the road towards NTU...headwind! A fast group of ang-mos, on nice tri-bikes and deep profile wheels (all of em' except one) passed me there. I decided to follow them right at the back. Man, those guys were fast. On that stretch until Neo Tiew (>5km), ave speed was something like 43km/h non-stop. Being at the back was ok, but still HR was already hitting 175bpm so pretty much on the edge of my presumed lactate threshold. They were friendly enough not to signal 'back off' to me (if they did, I would) and I followed until Punggol (managed to go mid-group as well as some of the rear guys were dropping off like flies after Mandai) where they turned off to another route. I went on my usual 32-35km/h pace until Pasir Ris, where ...

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....