Zaha has been one resourceful ride organizer and since he’s out of range this week, the schedule was slightly a mess. Everybody was wondering what’s the ride plan. It’s even tougher especially during school breaks due to “domestic responsibilities”.

The guessing game is counter productive and I believe nobody likes to wait. So lets make it a rule that starting next week, all ride plan will be posted on the blog’s chat-box every Friday. We only save the text message for last minute changes.

This morning was my 2nd ride since the last hiatus. I felt better during the climbs even though my left thigh was strained. It was fun playing the attack game with Syamsul during the climbs. I’ve lost count how many warning beeps from the Sigma HRM every time the session reached the power zone.

There were only four of us at the 1st RV point, Najib, Zam Besar, Syamsul and me. Other than Zaha, the rest fell below the radar except for Saipol who seemed to retire from road cycling this year.

Its June now and we are halfway through the year in a blink of an eye, literally.  I have to admit that my cycling calendar isn't looking very good. To many "short stint hiatus" in between the days and the things happening around the office is not helping at all.  Advice? Well, I've heard it all. Striking balance and yada yada yada are easier said than done.  Balance finds its own way, the more natural it is, the more sustainable it will be for a period of time until your boss comes out with more new "bright ideas".

Sunny Saturday Morning

Congratulations to Razi on his wedding last Sunday, May 8th 2011. Wishing you a wonderful journey as you build your new life together.  It was a wonderful wedding ceremony. Even though the weather was super bright and hot but the event was blissful, rich with tradition.

Oh lalala.....

Dutch cyclist battling the crosswind

Last weekend wasn't the best of cycling days. First off my old stead started to get grumpy. There was knocking sound coming out from the headset and the left pedal was a little tight. I  had sent the bike for servicing but the pedal problem seemed to be there.  When the bicycle is not at its best condition the ride will turn sour. It turned out the pedal stopper was broken . I was lucky it didn't fall of the bike during the ride.

Secondly, we're missing some of the members. Little birds informed us the some had trouble allotting time to go cycling due to domestic issues, work related-you now the kind of work that is rotation based, some had to spend time with new toys (big boy toys) and there is one who put his road bike in frame and have it hanged on the wall.

Some of the routes are getting very routine if you know what I'm saying. Apart for the CA arena and the long standing PD ride, we might want to consider other routes. Lets' discuss this at "The Joint" this weekend.

I've been a little busy these couple of days with work loads. Anyway, I found this interesting video while searching YouTube for headwinds. Just when we thought that LEKAS headwinds was hell, check this video out and watch a bunch of Dutch cyclist battling the crosswinds.


Abayo!

Image sourced from: http://www.designofsignage.com/

There wasn't much to talk about last weekend cycling activities. Of course there was this "storm in a tea cup" commotion about my little adventure doing white water rafting at Kuala Kubu Bharu just recently.  I've exaggerated the bit about going out doing all these "extreme" outdoor activities just to spice things up. But that's about it, just a mind game, a tease.  I am still a "roadie" and we still haven't conquered PD!

Last Saturday we went cycling at the Sungai Long and on Sunday we're supposed to ride to Putrajaya. But due to domestic challenge, I had to settle for the CA Arena, the shorter route. At first I thought I was going to cycle solo on the SILK Highway until I bumped into  Zack, Syamsul, Zam, Ah Meng and Azmi who were taking a break at the Bukit Kajang toll plaza.  This came to me as a surprise but I guess they too had domestic problems just like me.

After cracking a few jokes and few good laughs, we continued riding through the Sungai Long route up until the the Bandar Sungai Long exit.  Zack, Syamsul and Azmi took the exit to Sungai Sekamat while Ah Meng, Zam and I took the the usual route taking the Cheras Jaya exit and headed to the Joint.

There was another surprised at the Joint. We met with Romzi who apparently cycled here just to have breakfast. Later Saipol joined us for a drink. We had a good catch-up session. It wasn't that all bad.

One word...Awesome! This was my second time doing white water rafting at Kuala Kubu Bharu, Selangor, a beautiful river forest with cool clear water. The white water rapids and invigorating river environment created a fabulous ambience.

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Taman Cabaran, Putrajaya

It’s school break again. The traffic is clear, no “gridlock” as early as 7 am in the morning. It’s going to be a ride in park for next 5 days. I am so going to savour the nice a cozy feeling driving through smooth traffic while enjoying the radio.

Well it has been two weeks since my last blog entry. The truth is I’ve had a couple of very intense weeks. Long winding meetings, trying to decipher gobbledygook business plans and a lot of fire fighting. It’s very tiring, both mentally and physically. Managing change communications is not easy especially when drastic organisational shakedown was involved.

Events with such magnitude created ripples on the timeline and new game changing variables that require change communications and this is not an easy gig to pull.

Initially the plan was to ride to Lenggeng on Sunday. Unfortunately, because of too many couldn’t joined due various domestic problems, it was a unanimous decision to postpone the ride to a later date.

There were few routes discussed last Saturday during the break at our official roti canai joint. The first option was Lenggeng, I was a bit skeptical on this one due to not so overwhelming responses. The second option was Sungai Merab and third was a wild idea mooted by Farizal to explore the new SKVE highway.

I’m always extra worried when it comes to Farizal’s proposals or suggestions. He reminded me the Bukit Antu’s adventure. Even though it happened quite a long time ago in 2008, the event is still fresh on my mind. But that’s another story, so back to Sunday Feb 20th ride.

Since the circumstances had changed, we decided the do the Putrajaya-Cyberjaya-Sg Merab or better known as the outbound route.

Ever heard of this phrase, for every action there’s a reaction? There’s always a flip side of things. Some have heard about it but couldn’t really fathom what it really meant. It’s just a phrase, what does this make any sense? Well it made sense to me after the Sungai Merab Ride not so distance ago.

I’ve underestimated me and the Terror hill. My TREK 5900 has a 53/39 chain set with 11-28 cassette. Out of better judgement I tried to climb the 11-12% steep hill using 39/19 gearing combination. Not only that it didn’t work, it nearly got my knees popped. I had trouble walking for a couple of days due to strained muscle calf and thigh.

I’ve climbed this hill before with much ease and pleasure before. So what did I do wrong?

I realized that I used to be able climb this hill and the rest of the rolling hills because back then I was in a much more better physical condition. I forgot that I had a long break and I need to build back my fitness. I tried to outdo my self and didn’t listen to my body.Halfway climbing the hill I struggled to maintain a sustainable rhythm.

Sunday ride crew and friends at Diplomatic Precinct

Earlier this year, its not that long ago anyway, we agreed to diversify cycling routes for 2011 cycling calendar. Ideally Saturday ride’s route will be Sungai Long, short distance and lots of climbing, perfect route for cadence training. Sunday ride would involve long distance ride mission with minimum 50 Km to-and-fro.

The original plan was for Sunday Ride was the Setul mission. Due to changed circumstances, we decided to ride to Putrajaya. In order to make it a "sweeter" ride, the ride plan had been improvised from the normal Kajang-Cycberjaya-Putrjaya via the SKV expressway to the Kajang-Jalan Ayer Hitam-Sungai Merab-Putrajaya.

The fun part about this route was the rolling hills of Sungai Merab.

I couldn’t recall what triggered the idea to propose this route. The last time we rode through this route was when I tested my USPS- TREK 5900. Back then I had much better fitness level compared to now. But I'm pretty sure we had a lot of "fun".

There are two ways to “enjoy” the rolling hills of Sugai Merab. The first one is the Bangi bound form Desa Pinggiran Putra’e exit and the second one is Putrajaya bound via Jalan Ayer Hitam. To make it simpler, lets just call the first option as Sungai Merab Outbound or SMO and the later as Sungai Merab Inbound, SMI in short.