26th May 2013 Cycling

With a grand plan in place, I joined FOTR for their Ride.
Unlike last week, today's group is truly small.
Probably the Vesak Day Ride and Saturday's Ride is enough for the chiongsters. ;)

Going into Neo Tiew Road led by Tze Wee, the pace is fast and the group is extremely compact.
Finally understood why the ladies ask me to steer clear of SC.
Whenever there is wheel overlapping, SC will tends to drift towards the middle.
There are a few moments which is really hair raising where handlebars almost touched.

Once again, I lose them at the last Neo Tiew slope.

The only consolation is that I managed to see the tail lights of the group till the last 2km of Lim Chu Kang Road.

After a short breather, we proceed to Tuas.
Led by Tze Wee, we completed the Hockey Stick on double quick time.

After a stop over at SPC Jalan Buroh, we proceed to West Coast Highway.
Not able to keep up at Clementi Flyover, I lost sight of the group at Keppel Viaduct.

Was surprised to see Stephen mid way.
Stopped to check on him and he show me his phone. OUCH!!!
His phone was crushed till the screen was popped.
The phone has dislodged from the handlebar bracket and got ran over by trucks and trailers on an unusually busy Sunday.

Rode with the group to River Valley before proceeding home.

23rd May 2013 Musings

So worried about the Standby Duty that I decided to forego this morning's Ride.

I am worried about this years' guys who are attempting IMWA.

A few are getting injured now.
A few are going very hard during training.
It is probably too early to pack high-intensity or high-volume training for the race.
Not too sure how to break it to them.
I am sure some of the other folks noticed it too.

22nd May 2013 Cycling

Reaching Mandai Shell, the train has not pull off yet.
Decided to wait with Joyce for the Newbies to pull in and join them.
As I need to be in office early, I had to skip Newton Drink Stall.

The pace was surprisingly smooth.
There were a lot of ang-mohs in the group today and they were controlling the pace awesomely.
I had a wonderful ride to Newton where I peeled off for home.

The ride feel extra silky today.
Not too sure if it is because of the loads of training I had been doing recently or the fact that I took a long time to clean the chain over the weekend. Lol.
Could be a combination of both? Should be doing both tasks more often in order to enjoy my ride more. :)

21st May 2013 Running

Dark clouds are looming.

Everyone is certain that it is going to rain.

NEA is telling me that there are scattered clouds/showers in Singapore.

I took my chances and had a hot sweaty 6.5km run. :)

Happy! :)

20th May 2013 Cycling

Out of the house at 4:47am, it is too late to make it to LH.
Went to Mandai Shell, hoping to catch the train there.
There was an Indian walking in the middle of the road talking to trees.
I decided to do loops and skip Mandai Shell.
When the train did not arrive at 5:40, I decided to do Old Mandai Road loops till the traffic seems too heavy at 6:30.
Turn right home after completing 35km. :)

19th May 2013 Cycling

Received a message from Rynn on Saturday.

We decided to meet at LH for the 5am FOTR Ride.

Lol... Looking at the FB postings, you would have thought there will be 5 riders, but 20+ riders turned up.

Tze Wee led the group with Ek Guan and Greg breaking the pace once in a while.

Overall, I must said that Tze Wee lead a very steady pace throughout the entire ride.

I managed to hang on during Prata Hill but lost them up Sembawang.

Managed to reach Mandai Shell just seconds behind Stephen and his friend. =p

Ek Guan led the pace through Neo Tiew and I lost the group again at the last slope.

I felt a lot better today as I was able to see the tail lights all the way to Jalan Bahar. ;)

Pulling into SPC Jalan Buroh, I told Ek Guan that I will wait for the riders to ride in before going for a break.

Turned out all of them are not stopping for a break, so back goes the helmet and on with the ride.

It got dropped along the way all the way to town but somehow managed to re-join the group. =p

We bid the others farewell at FujiXerox Towers and I rode with Rynn home.

18th May 2013 Cycling

Realisng that I won't make it in time to LH or Causurina, I decided to wait outside Yishun Camp for the train.
5:20 past and there were nowhere in sight.
Hmm... there cannot be that late leh....
Was about to do my own ride when the train came at 4:22.
Hopped onto the train towards Gambas and Admiralty.
Along Seletar West Link, I tagged behind Sean for quite a while.
Gosh, another sandbagger. The titanium man has not lost any of his speed too.
When Sean slowed, I try to catch the passing Joseph.
Joe's speed is just too fast for me to hang on to.
After Punggol, I proceed towards Jalan Kayu to have prata and tea, with the intention of joining ASG for their morning ride.
After waiting till 7:40 and not a single rider turning up, I peel off for home.

17th May 2013 Cycling

Riding to Mandai, the thighs were feeling extremely sore.
Must have been the standing pedalling...

While riding to Mandai, Train JRT lead by Stefano overtook me.
These guys are just getting faster and faster.

When the first train overtook me, I was surprised to see Rynn in the pack.
Wow, not only has pregnancy not rob her of her speed, she seems to be getting better.

Reached Mandai and waited for the Newbies to ride in before following them to Newton.
Spencer won't be stopping at Newton, thus I decided to give it a miss too.

Was glad that Spencer was feeling tired today.
It was a relaxed ride for the both of us behind I peeled off at Yishun.

15th May 2013 Cycling

Meet the train at LH. The first train past by at 5:23. 5:23? What pace r they doing? Or they left LH early?

Second and third train rolled in. A lot of FOTR among the riders. :)
Was about to rolled off with the third train when someone behind me said "Newbies"
It is Spencer, my company home.
We waited for the newbies and rolled off.
Lights were turning amber after KJE and the train rode through.
As u all know, I had this 3 second rule and there is no way I can pass the junction within the 3 seconds.

A rider behind me rode through 5 seconds after the lights turn red, in between 2 vehicles!!! 

I did had a word with the ride leader, Spencer later.

Did a sprint at Bukit Timah. It was shiok. =p

After brekkie at Newton, we proceed to home.

While riding in OUTR, I rode a whole row of broken bottles.

As it was clear glass, I din notice it till I rode through.

Hissing sound came but I was still able to ride normally...

Decided to stop and check. I was horrified to see how deep the cut is.

There is no way I can repair this. I decided to push my bike 1.5km to the main road and try to flag down a cab.

After 10 minutes, Spencer rode back looking for me.

He has reached the main road and waited 4 minutes for me.

Knowing that there is no way I can be that slow he rode back.

When he saw my tire, he mentioned "$2".

Oh yeah, why din I think of that!!!

He was surprised how fast I was able to remove the tire.

Haha, my tire training for IMWA helps! ;)

After inserting the $2, I proceed to pump up the tire. Can see the tube popping through the gap.

The hole is too big for a $2. In went another $2. ;) 

It was 4km standing pedalling home as I can bear to know what will happen if I rest my weight on the injured tire.

My thighs were throbbing for 10 minutes after I reached home. Haha, what an experience. 

Expensive ride. Lol... 

You can still see the thread in the middle of the tire.

11th May 2013 Cycling

While riding towards Mandai, met John and family U-turning at Mandai Hill Camp.
Waited for 2 mins and the group rolled in.
I was unable to maintain the pace up Woodlands Road and enter Neo Tiew at the back of the pack.
I was literally hanging on by a thread even though the pace does not seems that bad.
The major disadvantage of being in the back of the pack is that you regularly need to surge to get back into the group after any major turn.

Managed to hang on till the last climb which I literally gave up.

Calvin is there to sweep me.

Turning out onto Old Lim Chu Kang Road, he still refuse to join the group, insistent on sweeping me.

Onto Lim Chu Kang, I am running out of breath, so I told Calvin that I am going to catch his draft.

What happened next was unexpected.

Calvin went down onto his dropbars and sped up.

I can only hang on...

Looking up once in a while, I can see that we are closing in on two riders.

Kelvin hopped onto the 'broom' train and we completed LCK in Strava PR timing.

Oh... did I mentioned that I did Neo Tiew in Strava PR timing too?

If someone say that today's pace is blistering to prepare for Sean's return, facts dun lie.

Got triple confirmation that we are not stopping at SPC Jalan Buroh.

Surprisingly, I have more water left this time and it isn't even isotonic!

Pace was extremely gentle all the way to SBV.

Once on SBV, I could not see the group within a minute.

Ride my own pace, somehow SBV felt good.

Not seeing the guys in Kent Ridge, I went exploring and got lost.
Haha.... Thomas's name will probably will come to mind. ;p
Managed to get out onto Pasir Panjang Road and was lost again.
Kelvin shouted out to me. After disucussion, I realised that the actual route is to exit Clementi Road and wait at 7-Eleven. Oh no, that meant I have only half a bottle of water to Tiong Bahru.
(Haha, I need to use Google Maps to locate where the 7-Eleven they are referring to right now. Speaking of which, I would have missed them even if I were to exit Clementi Road)

While the group took Keppel Highway, I told them I would meet them at Tiong Bahru Market.
I went back to SBV and I must say that I am enjoying myself.
Hitting North Buona Vista Road, I am totally lost.
Turn right to CommonWealth Ave, I rode and took my time to figure out how to reach TBM.
Managed to reach TBM about the same time they guys reached. :)

The guys took a long time to chow. It was only later that I realised that they were waiting for the video shoot.
After the video shoot, I followed Kelvin and Mike to Marymount Road before I bid them farewell and continue on my way home via Thomson Road.

9th May 2013 Running

Missed today's Ride but make it up with a run.

Stamina is a lot better and it felt nice to feel the perspiration on the skin.
Three of us manage to stick together for the whole run.
Thanks, guys. :)
Chat a lot about all our different views of running.

Tested out Runkeeper on Pebble and must admit that both Pebble and Runkeeper did a good job of integrating the application to the watch.

Once the Pebble is connected to the phone, Runkeeper will start showing the Actual Time | Actual Distance | Average Pace when you click 'Start Activity'
The details will disappear once you end your Runkeeper activity.
I had wish that it will keep the screen on for a while longer but I guess the common sense is that users will wanna view the finer details on the phone rather than the watch.

Overall it is a wonderful piece of technology. :)

7th May 2013 Running

A simple run where 80% of the run, a colleague insisted on tagging along the plodder.
Thanks, mate!

Love the feel of heat and sweat on my skin.
Hope the momentum will last

7th May 2013 Cycling

Woke up at 4:30am and try to find reasons not to cycle.
Found none and in fact found a few reasons why I should cycle and out the door I went.
Reached Mandai Shell at 5:33am but the group was long gone.
Spend the time to clear my head.
Reached Newton at 6:10am, the group was almost done with brekkie and I joined them on the ride home. =)
Feeling stronger. Kuantan Century Ride has some hope. =P

4th May 2013 Cycling

You will never regret running / cycling

I waited till the last possible moment to make sure that the rain is headed west before I headed towards Mandai Shell.

Reaching Mandai Shell at 0532, I am glad that I rode. The roads were dry except for Mandai Shell which has seen a drizzle.

Waited 5 minutes and I can feel the rain coming down. Started to make a U-turn only to see the train arriving.

Turned back and joined the ride towards West.
Along a short stretch of Neo Tiew Road, it was raining.
Was glad that I managed to hang onto the group till end of Neo Tiew Road.
Pulled the group till start of LCK.
I simply do not have the fitness nor the stamina to sprint with the folks.
Re-group at end of LCK before proceeding to SPC Jalan Buroh.
Only Garry and I made it thru the Boon Lay traffic junction, so we stopped at SPC and got the guys 6 1.5L of isotonic drinks.
10 mins past and no sight of the guys.
We got really worried.
Both of us tried calling a few guys but none of them pick up the calls.
It was a good 40mins later when YP responded.
Only then did we realised that the group has passed the station without stopping.
Gave away the unopened bottles to some lucky Indian workers before proceeding on our way.
Over-hydrated, I decided to cut my ride short and return home via Clementi.
Reached home before 9.
While washing the bike, I realised I was extremely lucky today.

Could have a blowout but Conti GP4000S is really badass tire.
Survived the trip with the glass deeply embedded into the tire.

2nd May 2013 Running

2013 is a year for sporting hiatus.

Long term events such as Ipoh Century Ride, Bike and Blade and Singapore Biathlon are all taking a break this year.

*****

Will probably start tweeting more. Not serious enough to make it to Facebook, but reason enough to tweet.
Hehe... 17 tweets since 2008 tells you a lot about my tweeting prowess. =D

*****

With the photo from 2 decades ago flashing back ever so often, it is high time I did a change.
Picked up the running shoes and went for a noon run.
Completed 7.4km and feeling good. =)

1st May 2013 Cycling

Posting the dated photos took a lot of friends by surprise and also served for a nice conversation during cycling. ;)

*****

Reached Mandai Shell early and did two mini loops before the group arrived.
I was surprised that I could tag along the entire Neo Tiew distance again.
Lost them along Lim Chu Kang Road, but the numerous red lights along Jalan Bahar helped me join back with the group.
Had wanted to chicken out of the Hockey Stick but I am glad I went along.
In fact, most of us are there for the first time. The stretch looks never ending.

After a rest at Jalan Buroh SPC, the group sped off.
I lost them at the first climb and was never able to make up the distance.

By the time we hit Mercs, it was just me and Chris.
Chris was also peeling off before brekkie.
He was planning to go back via Alexandra and when we realised that we are fellow Yishunians, he decided to follow me back via Clementi.
It was very nice of Chris to keep waiting for me after the numerous climbs. Thanks, Chris.

Meet Kah Han, Winnie, Kam Meng and Benjamin Seetoh (Fellow Victorian) who I had difficulty recognising in helmet and shades.
Bid Chris farewell at Yishun Ave 2 before proceeding home.
Reached home at 9am sharp to bring the kids out for brekkie