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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.

Rising sun...manyak panas woo..

I hope its still not too late to wish a Happy and Prosperous Rabbit Year to all our Chinese friends.

Saturday ride crew @ Kajang Perdana clover leaf

Yesterday I came across an interesting article about diet plan and how recent studies showed that running on strict regime might actually caused weight gain instead of weight loss and even can have negative affects on overall health.

The study concluded that the weight-focused approach to health is unsupported by the scientific evidence and has in fact been detrimental and costly.

Rather than focusing on weight loss, the researchers recommend that people focus on improving their health status.

I find this very interesting as I recently had an argument with a colleague who tried to get me to join a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme's herbal based diet products. The initial package would cost me an “investment” worth RM1500. That’s what they called it, an investment instead of the word “fork-out” or pay. Creative use of words can actually change the way you think and perceive an idea or situation.

Word choice in marketing and advertising is absolutely critical. When advertisers spend millions of advertisements, you can bet they have tested every word they are going to use to psychologically lead you to believe their product is the best, that it will change your life.

This was our first Mantin ride in 2011.  The thing about riding through the LEKAS highway is that it will take the best of us, both mental and physical. The biggest test thus far are the headwinds and searing sun, not so much of the terrain. It's nice and cold in the morning but temperature changes rapidly after 10am.  From a point of madness to insanity, literally.

It was a glorious sunny Sunday morning. I could see the bright orange sun ray brighting up the day creating a spectacular view. This could only mean that it's going to be one bright and hot day. 

For those of us who had had experience riding to Mantin via LEKAS, would know for sure if you went full throttle from the Zero Km to Mantin, it's highly likely that you're bound to bonk at some point during the course. It's to-and-fro, not a one way ride. This rule however doesn't apply to "Gaban".

In total there were over 100 photos taken and 9 videos recorded in HD format. The photos published here are filtered based on time line of the ride mission. I hope to capture the experience to the best my ability and humanly possible to be shared on this blog entry. You'd have to scroll down until the bottom part to view the videos.

A text message woke me up from my much needed slumber  at around 5.15am this morning.  What did this “nutcase" want on this ungodly hour?  Slowly I got up from bed still to check on the phone. It was Zack, checking if I’d ride today. I guess he’s one of those very early or odd hours people, the kind like Batman who fought crime mostly at night...

Anyway, I had problem pinching the alphabets on the touch screen due to my semi-aware state with only 1/4th of my eyelids opened.  Eventually I had to send a second reply when I realised the 1st one was gibberish.

Sourced from VeloNews

We're just few days in 2011, well technically we still are, and news of the new racing team, LEOPARD-TREK is definitely going to spice up this year's Tour de France!


The new new professional road bicycle racing team from Luxembourg led by the brothersAndy Schleck and Fränk Schleck, with Brian Nygaard and Kim Andersen as team managers. Looking from the team's line up, the goals are nothing short of domination in the classics and the Tour de France during the 2011 season.

 Here it is folks, the LTdL 2011 is happening on 23rd Jan - 1st Feb. The race is scheduled to last for 10 days instead of 7 in the previous years. In 2010,  Anuar Manan marked his name in the history to be the 1st Malaysian to win a stage and the 1st Asian rider to win the Overall Sprint Jersey in 15 years since its inception in 1996.