Did a nice 70km ride today. Made some good intervals along the way and managed to escape the rain. Headwind along coastal was extremely strong and it seemed to be for both ways. Or maybe I was tired?
Anyways, I will be getting arm warmers tomorrow for my perth trip. I wonder whether I should get leg warmers too. Opinions?
Map of my ride
I’ve been dreaming of doing a long ride for some time now and once my exam ended, Justin and Alex responded.
We met up on Thursday at Marsiling MRT station at 6am to be ready to move off. To prepare the the long ride, I whipped an extra double patty burger the night before so that I would have a power breakfast for the long ride. It didn’t look all the appetizing but certainly tasted darn good still. How could you not enjoy 300gm of beef + cheddar cheese + onions?
Refridgerator and reheated in the morning. Explains the lettuce all withered.
Bike Waiting at Marsiling. Where's Justin?
Initial plan was to head to Kota Tinggi waterfall and turn back, which would be a rather easy peasy 120km maximum. However, over breakfast at Tmn. Sentosa, Alex suggested that we try a longer loop which goes through Kulai and Senai. As I was always up for a challenge, I was happy to explore a different route.
So here’s how it looked like on the map.
Map of our ride.
We cleared the cleared customs pretty early, and was still a fairly dark. We stopped to have some breakfast and drinks. Alex and Justin had their tasty Wanton Mee.
Wanton Mee.
Once the sun rose, we were out and away. Traffic was pretty light and smooth. We reached waterfall pretty quickly (ave 35km/h) and stopped to refill at a small village before heading westward. (Distance completed 67km)
Alex Enjoying his snacks
Justin still all smiles.
Coffee Shop we refueled. 3RM for a 1 ltr of 100 plus. Nice!
Once the refill was done, we headed westwards. We headed along 91 into the rolling hills. The sun was also starting to beat down slightly harder on us but good thing we had clouds to shade us a little. We did about 40km before stopping at a Shell station to have drinks. By then we completed about 98km and Justin was starting to feel a wee bit of hurt after not being in the saddle for a month or so.
We then headed towards Kulai for lunch. Again, more rolling hills along 93 and 94 till we reached Kulai. I had a bottle of sprite which I bought after the Waterfall rest stop and it was doing me well. I do enjoy the sugar intake on long rides as it really helps to keep my body fueled. Alex was happy munching on his little tidbits too. And constantly offering Justin and myself some. =)
Uphills.. Endless
Alex and Justin
Trust me the pictures doesn’t do justice to the endless amount of roads and uphills we had to conquer.
Anyway, after 140+km, we reached Kulai had a sumptuous lunch. Justin didn’t quite finish his bowl of Prawn Noodles but I sure enjoyed my Wanton Mee. 4RM for a big plate of noodles + a bowl of wanton and tofu. You just can’t find that sort of value in SG.
Lunch at Kulai
After gobbling down our lunch, we rode through Senai and then back to JB through Highway 1. Total distance covered? 180km in Malaysia. I have to admit that it wasn’t easy, and the last 10km was starting to feel very very long, but certainly was an enjoyable ride. When you get on the saddle for 6 hrs, having great company really makes it a lot easier. Justin put up a really gutsy effort after not being on the bike for some time and Alex looked as fresh as ever. He could even tell me the road was 40 degrees. Gahz.
Now that 180km is in the bag, I should be doing a few more of these pretty soon. Alex says he wants to bring me to Gunang Pulai and climb some crazy accents. I shall looking forward to that. =)
This morning I was planning to do a couple of laps of BT and possibly KR. However when I arrived at the trail head, it was sealed off due to maintenance. Think the past few days of heavy showers must have caused a few deadfall along the trails.
Since I was out on the Carver, I decided to do some climbing. Did hill repeats for about an hour and chilled off.
Legs didn’t feel all that strong. Kinda sore still after the Tri.
Lets hope thursday will be good heading to Kota Tinggi.
Official Race Timings.
And so my first Triathlon happened on Sunday. I woke up Sunday morning not feeling too settled. Didn’t manage very much sleep through the night. Everything was pretty much packed the night before so things were pretty smooth in the morning.
Transition was set up pretty quickly as well as getting my body marked. Bakjiu who nice enough to came down and support was on hand to give me the little added support!
Transition Set up
Was I nervous? Obviously. I haven’t done an open water sea swim for years and swimming was my achilles heel. How would I fair with all the pushing and shoving?
While waiting for my wave to push off, Gerald Tan spotted me and came over to say hi! It was certainly welcoming to see another contestant on the ground since Pan wasn’t able to come. Pan’s place was given to SH’s bro instead, and I managed to have a quick word with SH before the start. Gerald was also doing his first Tri but he’s been doing Bi’s and Aquathlons for some time now. So massive swim starts were pretty natural to him.
Anyway, 9am came and we set off. I placed myself somewhere 3/4 from the front as I didn’t want to be pushed down by the faster swimmers and get kicked in the face either. As expected, it was quite a chaotic start especially with Team relays also starting at the same time. I got kicked and pushed a side a couple of times. Somewhere about 200m into the swim, everyone seemed to be squeezing closer the to rope and I was already on the edge. To give myself some space, I swam breast stroke for about 80-100m just to fend off a few people and not get pushed under. Some bugger was tugging my legs. Urgh.
Start
Got out of the water in 16:29. Which was faster than I had expected. I thought a 20mins was about the time I could manage. I found the transition area a little too grassy and prickly. I got poked by quite a bit of mimosas and some of the thorns were irritating me through the rest of the race. By the way the thorns are so fine that up till now, I haven’t gotten some out.
Then came the bike. I was pretty happy that I was managing a 37-39km/h on the outlap and on the return about 35 with headwind. I was obviously pushing hard to make up time and to capitalize on my strongest leg. Did a 32:52 for 20km. Pretty pleased. I thought I could go faster as well. Oh well…
Running. That was pretty painful. My legs were starting to tire after the bike leg and thorns + fatigue was starting to take its toll. Trudged at a rather steady pace for most of the race. Finished the run leg in 28:24. Not too shabby. Oh did I mentioned I saw a Zhenyu (Pan) screaming by on the run. Damn.
In total I came in 25th for my category and 10th for my bike leg. Happy? Yeap. Pretty pleased with my first Tri. Will I do it again? You bet. =)
** pics courtesy of Justin Chua or better known as Bakjiu. ** – More pics to come.
Its just 3 days away! Nervous….
Pray that it goes well. =)
Map
Breakfast – Lunch – Dinner
Cafe 21 cofee + Crabtree Cookies
KAP Lunch
black ink fettuccine with Prawn and Squid. La Braceria Pizza and Grill 5 Greendale Avenue
And so I finished all my NTU papers today. Had dinner with friends at Irodori and came home feeling really sluggish. Possibly too much food. Anyways, managed to force myself out for a 50km ride. Averaged 35km/h.
Turns out, after the evening rain, the roads were dirty as heck. When I hit Neow Tiew, gosh, the roads were sandy and muddy.
This was my bike after 50km. Eeeks. Gotta wash it now.
Dirty fork and Frame
Dirty Seat Post
Tomorrow will be a nice swim, buy a Tri Top and have dinner with my Father. Nice.
This time tomorrow, I will say good bye to a lifestyle I’ve been used to, and herald in a new beginning.
Its kinda surreal. Its a bit like ORD. You dream of the day, and when the day comes, you kinda feel sad that its all going to change.
