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

A truly rare occasion. Gary, BP, Ben, Sam, Francis were all in this ride as well. Nice weapons display too and managed to see Gary's Pink SpeedVagen in action and later on Mark dropped by to unveil his SV. IMO, 2 of the most beautiful and unique road bikes to ever grace Singapore roads in recent history (!). We met up at SAFRA had our few quick hellos and off we went. Ben took the lead initially on a 30km/h 1km warm up at coastal. I took over after than and pushed the pace bit by bit until 40km/h and led till mid-coastal. The intention was to set the 'tone' for the ride to come and get everyone to dump reserves early :) Like a good movie, you need to have a good in-your-face music and cool opening right from the start. I backed off midway, truthfully I wasn't used to night riding and experienced unusually high HR. Even leading at 40km/h I was pushing towards 180bpm....maybe its the excitement of actually riding in a group larger than 2! Everyone took their turn to...

2 days of solids 80km rides with the FRZs and so far so good. Speedwise, for my application, I guess they do not lose out to the HEDs (though I do believe that going 40+km/h and into headwind is probably the HED's biggest advantage but I'm not that 'pro' to take full adv of that!) but bling-wise the deep section carbon look melds better with the entire bike. So as with everything else, there are compromises and since the speed is ok, I've no complaints since I'm getting alloy braking as opposed to crummy carbon braking. Saturday : 80km West Loop with KL. Met KL at 5.45am at AML, as usual and I think we took it rather relaxed. I started to push after Mandai into Neo Tiew, averaging 33-34km/h and there was some headwind..pretty much spent after that but we managed to hit ave 30km/h prior to LCK. Picked up speed at Jalan Buroh and into West Coast highway but it started to rain very heavily as we got into the viaduct. A huge truck was in front of us doing like...

Saturday : 112km Ride I was tad under-confident for this one. 112km Singapore Clockwise non-stop is no easy loop though I've done more than 14 times (most of it solo) and the last time I did this was with Ryo, one of our last rides prior to TDB2011. I had not been riding much since Bike Rally last month....just put in 30km on my SS since then. The cycling legs have degraded a bit! But I'm much lighter than before though. Started out at 9am and was quietly trying my best to do a "back by nine ride" which was a last year favourite whenever I did this route. Started off quite well....hitting 29km/h average speed upon entering the West Coast viaduct. Reached my top 31km/h average speed after Jalan Buroh. This promptly became increasingly difficult to keep at Boon Lay but managed to get back to form at LCK straight which is really a slight downslope. Legs still good at 50km after Kranji but quickly deteriorated from then on. Did respectably at Mandai (did not lose spee...

CNY has come and gone! Lots of great food and high calorie intake over the short period. Fortunately, I was committed to exercise during this period! I only had one rest day, which was Monday. I needed the energy to move the family here and there for visiting so I refrained from any further energy sapping activity in the morning. Woke up early instead and took the kids to KFC AM....always a treat and the waffles are to die for. Monday : REST for BIKE and RUN Woke up early took the kids to KFC AM for breakfast, went out visiting until evening dinner time. Thats at least 1500 calories I think! Tuesday : 80km Ride to Tuas and Back, SOLO Nice ride solo ride. There was little traffic being the 2nd day of CNY. Surprisingly some activity still at Tuas area but right at end : completely empty wide road. It was very pleasant indeed so I took a 4km round around Tuas industrial area. Speedwise, I went for it from Keppel onwards and managed to hit 30km/h ave prior to descending the viadu...

A satisfying weekend of workouts albeit announcement from a dear friend that he won't be cycling with me for a while! Saturday Met up with KL and JM for an extended Eastern Loop. A good 78km or so. Started off pretty slow we pumped up the pace eventually. We managed to hit 30+km/h average speed around Pasir Ris prior to dropping JM off. KL was not at his usual pace that day after having missed a weekend of cycling. This ride also marks the return of my HED Stinger 6. All trued and mounted with Evo CX 25C tubulars. This time, I got it glued at TEF. Boy, that tubular loving feeling that I missed is back. I chose 25C in the hope that this will be more puncture resistant than its smaller counterpart. No tape this time, GLUE is the best. The Evos are some of the best tires I ever rode on.....sure the tape and conti gatorskins were bulletproof and convenient but I was missing that great ride when I first got the wheels : glued with evos 23C. The roll was excellent. Weight increase ...

I was planning a fast 100km+ ride for Saturday but me mate Ryo needed to be back early so we went through the relatively flattish 80km East West route (Tuas and back). Even though it was shorted than the initially 100km plan, I found it to be a thoroughly satisfying ride as 1) we attacked every slope we encountered 2) we attacked the flats, more so if there was headwind! 3) I had thigh burn from every attack. Although the ride average for was only 30.3km/h, its not reflective of the intensity of the ride. A quick look using Sportracks shows that we started very slow and only picked up speed after Nicoll...we slowed as well due to traffic at Tuas and also Raffles Marina, just spinning and sightseeing there. Average speed from Nicoll - Tuas - Nicoll (about 70+km) was about 32km/h. The ride back from Tuas - Nicoll was 33km/h ave. Average speed at Viaduct was impressive, probably about 42.5km/h for the full length. I managed to pull up to 45-47km/h at some stage. Pretty good for 2 guys...

Did my last ride of the year this morning with KL and Ben. Just a friendly 65km of Eastern Loop followed by a sell deserved milo-ping at Siglap kopitiam. It was good also to see Mark and Stefan there (with the PC group). 2011 career-wise was an up and down for me. Very numbing experience from the start till end and it continues! Well, I have plans for 2012, just you wait and see. Let's get on with the interesting stuff : Cycling AND Running. This of course is the year where I completed quite a lot of cycling events....starting off with the NTU Bike Rally, JMFR2011, Cameron's + Ipoh Century and finally TdB2011. I did a lot of solo rides kicking off at 5am and doing many of these in excess of 110km per ride. Its also the year where I managed to keep an average speed of 30km/h+ for distances above 100km....solo! It was tough but it was all worth it, just for the experience and the torture :) Completing the century ride under 5hrs was also quite a feat for me. TdB 2011 was pure...

Kinda feel bad as this new toy has made me neglect running. I will start running again this week! Promise. I did a solo 115km on Saturday to test out the Di2 setup. Started at 5am and things looked very promising....hitting ride average of 31km/h at Jalan Buroh, on my own. As usual, going up Jalan Boon Lay slowed me down. Still managed a respectable 30.5km/h ride average after the hilly Mandai sections. Jousted a little with another group at Mandai. Basically I broke up the 8 man group by going into the gaps that were forming between their 'fast 3' and the rest. Went at it with their leading young rider on one of the slopes and took the lead, with the intention to lead them through. Apparently they did not like this and promptly started a sprint fest. No problem, I just tailed, went side by side to a Tri Bike and the guy promptly looked at my relaxed posture and said "don just suck on our wheels! take the lead!". I was thinking OK, so I took the lead and they start...

Started out at 5.50am from my place with Ben and met with KL at usual AML meetup ard 6am. It was leisurely pace up till amk ave 1 where I kicked up the pace a little bit. Both followed suit very well and we kept a good pace till right before the hills (from AML, >30km/h average speed). It is great to the distance with a few buddies and of course, really nice to have someone to draft once in a while. At Jalan Buroh, I had a short duel with a TREK bike. He overtook us after the 2nd flyover at 40km/h and I gave chase. I pushed at 40km/h and he drafted me all the way till the last flyover....by then we were only about 35km/h as there were some headwinds at that point. At the base, he attacked and overtook me, I just kicked the pace up to stick to his tail. As expected, halfway through the short slope, he ran out of juice and I sprinted pass him. He did not give chase. I stopped at the traffic lights turn-off into west coast highway to wait for the guys and as TREK guys passed we both ex...

Couldn't get anyone to go with me so yet again, a solo ride. Got about 5+hrs sleep last night so it wasn't soooo bad. Started with good speed but headwinds started right about west coast area. Did not gain speed at LCK as I was hit with headwind there as well. Along the way got to chase down couple of small groups and lone caucasian rders but promptly lost them as they ran through a couple of red lights! I'd rather limit on such risks. I was really tired at coastal road and it was a real challenge to keep above 30kmh. Relieved as I reached the underpass! Managed to complete with ave speed of 29.4km/h and crazy ave hr of 162bpmm The front lights worked really well (buggers are BRIGHT!) and the additional bottle mount is a good investment for those longer lonely rides on the SS. Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9

Uncharted territory but no worries, I saw some Youtube videos on this I'm thinking 'no problem'. Here's a brief step by step of that I did and what I used. Ingredients :- 1 pcs tubular tire one tireless rim (carbon) small plastic bag 1 tube Zefal Tubasti glue (can use other types of course!) steady hands newspaper Directions :- its a good idea that before you start out, place some newspaper to cover that nice floor of yours you will need to apply the glue using your finger (more control), to do so, its prudent to use the plastic bag as a finger condom! :) apply glue on the rim bed uniformly, a thin layer will do! I made a big mistake by applying too liberally!! make sure the sides of the bed have glue as well as this is the critical contact point with the tire once that is done, start on the tire...apply glue with your protected finger, again a thin layer will do on the fabric part of the tubulars this is the most important part - waiting for it to dry out till its just...

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,...

What a great weekend with the 2 monkeys back in Ipoh (for Ching Ming). Had my healthy dose of fried noodles, roti goyang and whole bunch of performance defeating but soul enhancing food! The kids loved it there....from the visits to the ancestor burial sites (always an adventure in Malaysia as it entails some minor walking and visiting to outskirts of Ipoh.....to eating and helping out my parents at home. It was quite a challenge to bring them over and back in the bus but after Genting, these are peanut affairs. Ok was trying to first restart my engine on Tuesday morning for a run. Didn't feel 100%....sporting a slight fever and sore throat (not surprising with only 4hrs of sleep in the bus and working the whole day after that) but the first half was actually pretty good but after the 2.5km point....wow....everything started to go downhill. The legs were the first to go but surprisingly breathing (cardio) was ok. Only managed to complete the 5km in 30 minutes flat....the worse time...

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 ...

I was physically terrible last week...basically caught a mild flu, had bout of fever and sore throat. MC on Thurs and Friday (but I took only half days on both occasions and worked from home still). Ignored the antibiotics given for my sore throat on Friday. I did not think it was necessary and thankfully I was right...the throat is much much better now. Did 80km West Loop with KL on Saturday. I left home at about 5.20am....meeting point at AML 5.30am. We did the route in pretty good time and I believe it to be one of his fastest if not the fastest. Still shy from my huge solo effort last week though! It was a nice ride as I got to rest a bit more and also pushed a bit more. Stretches at West Coast and Jalan Buroh I was pushing 40+km/h mostly. On Sunday, I did a short 1.5hr 130bpm HR ride. So called base training ride....and I'm pretty much confused about this. Do we only do this is we do not have the 'base'? how can I tell if my base is 'ok'? Does it make sense for...

Did quite a fair bit of riding. Had holiday stretched from Wed - Sun... On Wed, did a short 30km (and did my personal best for ECP-Coastal-ECP) before coming home and settle stuff at home and prepared for the CNY holiday. Gave myself a treat by not exercising on Thursday but on Friday, managed to catch up with Ryo on a short 30+km ride....it was obvious that he has not been cycling much! Saturday....did a solo 80km West Loop and made ave speed ~31.3km/h. It was a good ride as not much cars on the road and great weather to boot. I drafted a really fast group doing about 40+km/h at Jln. Buroh (with headwind!) but got dropped soon after the turn into West Coast Road when they immediately picked up pace to 48+km/h! Did good speed doing solo up the elevated section (~40km/h). Sunday....SS day out with KL for 80km West Loop but in the clockwise direction. This way I find to be harder...Mandai is tough in this direction as its basically going upslope. We came back via Jalan Kayu - Eunos Rd di...

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...

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....