Interstate 2008 - Another Done on checklist

This year Interstate can be summed up as follows:
Day 1 - Like Roti Puree (with a high ascent) - 131km
Day 2 - Like Roti Nan (With undulations and rolling hills) - 178km
Day 3 - Like Chapati (Flat) - 155km

But if you just go for the Interstate like some of my friends just for the bike ride, then you are actually missing all the fun( Its almost like looking at the trees and missing the forest). You get this from their conversation that only describe the ascent, descent and nothing else. I look forward to the Interstate as a place of self test on rides, enjoying the scenery, enjoying the company and enjoying the food (along the way and end of the road).

It was funny when i was sitting round the table and i was discussing the nice water fall that we stopped by before Bahau and the nice beach that we were at before Kuantan and the nice authentic nasi lemak that was served at a gerai near Rompin. Some of my cyclist friends actually missed this and some even missed the accident that happen near them too.

On the first day, we set off from Kajang early morning and was on to the foot of Peres by about 745. The scenary and mist on Peres was wonderful. Adeline, Senn and me was supposed to set a small peloton to Bahau, unfortunately Senn had difficulties with her contact lens and had to abort the ride. We waited for her for almost 30 minutes before pushing of for Bahau upon hearing that she has gone up the car. At kilometer 90 (Pertang Town), the route took us to a challenging climb and rutted road that was bad on my wrist. There was also a lot of aroma from the bomb that cows had excreted and dodging these bomb are quite mind boggling. Lessons learnt here is never to take two bowls of ABC before continuing on long ride. Otherwise you might just barf. Nearing Bahau, there were quite nice kampong scenary that made me reminisce of times when young. Reached Bahau just before 2 pm.

Second day, the Marshall car lead us out of Bahau (quite a quaint old town) and lead us to the junction that lead us to the Bahau Keratong highway. This road was built to cut across the palm estate and also serve as the security road (air craft can land- so I was told). May Senn, Adeline and me made a small pace line together with one other KOTRT boys and headed for Kuala Rompin. We had to surrender the peloton as Adeline's shoe cleats came off and I had to do some minor adjustment. We pushed off a few minutes later and caught up with Boot (Letuang) and made another pace line until we caught up with PK's peloton.

We worked together until the turn off to Melati at kilometer 51. At kilometer 60, my saddle bag came off and I was debating with myself whether to rectify this and loose the peloton or not. After about kilometer 75, i thot i had better rectify the saddle bag and also refill at one of the support car stop, while PK's peloton continued. Adeline was nice enough to slow down as I caught up with her 2 km later. We also caught up with Boot and work together for another 10km or so (ehem, we somehow lost Boot) as me and Adeline worked until Bandar Muadzam. As I came about just before Muadzam Shah, a smiley face of Joanne greeted me (she is my support car driver) and May Senn was also there (having hung on to PK's peloton, she was nice enough to also wait for me at Muadzam). Went into Muadzam looking for gerai at the Bus stop, where Jeff, Tan Seng Khooi and Terry was just about to finish their lunch. We had the longest lunch ever, having stopped there for an hour.

It was a good time to regroup as the Letuang Boys was there as well. We left off at 12:00pm and worked a pace line until Kuala Rompin. There were nice stops for Water Melon and Coke along the way and we reached Kuala Rompin just about 3pm. Had also a nice Kentucky chicken just before the dinner that nite, somehow Kentucky in the outside of Klang Valley taste different.

Day 3 began with the Marshall car leading us out to the Kuala Rompin Kuantan road which has one of the most beautiful scenery and beaches that I have seen. I also had the opportunity of eating the nicest nasi lemak at km 34 and the nicest nasi dagang at Pantai Lagenda. having being burnt out following the fist peloton for 21km, i set a pace line with clarence and Ivan for another 13km until Clarence wanted to stop for food. We had nasi lemak and pushed of towards Pekan. I survived only another 26km before surrendering the day due to in inflamed pimple near my a**e. My leg and body say ride, but my Ar*e said "U gotta be kidding me, please, please stop".

Well, I played support car driver for a while and we raced of to support PK's peloton and reached Kuantan at about 1230. I also had the nicest nasik Ayam and mee maggi sup while waiting for our rooms to be readied. What a memorable Interstate08.

Ok, done all together 380km for 3 days, it was more then my expectation, i am happy. Without any training.

My dream bike

A fren bought this and I have been salivating on it....

I am still waiting.....

Prices of petrol has gone down. Why has the price of my nasi lemak and teh tarik has not gone down yet. In fact, the price of nasi lemak has gone up 10sen this morning....

Lesson learnt to holiday on the cheap in Australia

Sydney is actually a city full of back packers hotel. The room rates ranges between AUD18-30 per nite and depends on the sharing basis. Generally, the rooms are twin bunked double decker which means its 4 to a room. Its quite nice when u think that most of the time you will be out. The best location is to choose a backpackers hotel near the Central station in Sydney.

Running around in Sydney is relatively cheap if you want to take the torist day out. In front of the Central train station (which u can find the Greyhound Interstate service and other Intercity travel options), there is a Sydney Hop on Hop off bus. It cost AUD30 for a days pass, which u can go to 30 top tourist destination at 15 min intervals. U can choose to hop off for ur photo oppurtunity and get the next bus at the same stop. The Hop on Hop Off also has another loop which goes to Bondi Beach. To me, for AUD30 (which works out to RM90) its a nice way to familiarize with Sydney.

Eating however can be slightly expensive if u are depending on 7-Eleven stuff like MARS bar or Crisps. It cost an average AUD3.50 for those. I would recommend to take either take your meal at the Hungry Jacks (Burger King to us Malaysian) , Donor Kebab or Fish and Chips. The meals will set u back an average of AUD7.50. I was more dependent on these kind of meals during my stay in Aussie.

Internet Access in Sydney is realtively cheap. PC terminals which are available almost in every corner of Chinatown is available at between AUD1.50 per hour. U can choose to upload your photographs and news in the eveing when most shops are closed. Sydney shops do close early at about 5:30pm.

Positioning - Where are we ?

a) Strategy is in the positioning.

b) Hubbing or being a hub and Centre of Excellence all points to position where every one finds u as the reference.

c) Hubbing helps a country like Malaysia to boost its economy by the influx of money be it from investor, tourism, spin offs and also letting the money flow from persons to persons

d) Malaysia has been known to want to position itself as a hub in many areas. In the Telco industry, as a tourism destination spot in this region and perhaps a a champion for the third world or muslim nation.

e) To do this, it needs to compete. If it needs to compete, it needs to execute these plans, lest other neighbouring countries execute it first. If we are loose as a none first mover, we ourselves are to be blame.

f) Sometimes, i often wonder, do all of us share this position or are we people who fail to see the big picture. Industry, businesses and rakyat will wonder whether the policies and direction of the country is not clear and consistent.

g) Case in hand - Avril Lavigne concert. I am not a supporter of the concert and neither an opposer. But to cancel it will also mean to position the country as not a destination of interest for entertainment and lo and behold, our neighbour gets the cake. This is taking prosper thy neigbour to the other extereme. To make matter worse, our people will go down south and thus enrich the economy of Singapore.

h) I have nothing against Singapore, but the issue I have is for us not to compete.

i) Even in the F1 scene, our efforts seems lacklustre in the promotion of the event regionally and we are more concerned on the issues of management of the F1, whereby the Night race of F1 is being promoted aggressively by Singapore in Malaysia.

j) To make matters worse, we cry foul when Singapore was bidding for it and competing with us. Why, because we could be scared of the competition.?

h) I am a firm believer of the Microsoft saying, let us evolve internally and make our current software extinct before being made extinct by other outside.

I am getting more confused by the days, as we seem to shooting ourselves in the foot and moving our position from the also ran to the follower and later perhaps as non-relevant. I am very sad.

Snipets of Observations - Aussie style

Olympic Coverage in Australia

One thing i noticed when watching TV in Australia is that the news coverage cover so much about Aussies sports person which is gunning for medals that you would have thought that the Olympic revolves around Swimming and Cycling. You need to switch to BBC World or ESPN to get some other news. I missed ASTRO since we are able to watch a broader spectrum of Olympic coverage since none of our sportsman are potential medalist and Astro would have finished their coverage in 15 minutes if it was to focus specifically on Malaysian sports man.

Public Transport in Adelaide and Sydney

Such is the effeciency of Public Transport in Adelaide and Sydney that within the space of 3 days, I was able to cover and see on average about 60% of Sydney and Adelaide. Armed with a yellow pages and a well coordinated bus route map, I was able to travel from one end of town to another at very little cost. I thought I would have to rely on Taxis, not necessary, buses, trams and trains are order of the day.

Internet Access

Sydney is a metropolitan town where internet kiosk rules the day. There is almost a kiosk with 3-4 terminals every other three shops. Even 7-eleven has internet kiosk. Rate is about AUD1 to AUD2 for every hour use. Unfortunately, the same is not true for Adelaide, being a city with a high older population, internet access is more available in houses rather then on the streets. There are kiosk but not in every corner though and access is slightly higher at about AUD 2- 3 per hour.

Cycling Objectives - Lessons reminded

My recent visit to Australia has reminded me and has brought me down to earth.

The two cities that I happen to visit is Adelaide and Sydney. Both are cyling friendly cities which has dedicated bike lanes and bike facilities such as bike parking spots and bike friendly public transport system.

The cyclist over there are not very hung up on fashionable bikes but cycles with an objective of health and getting to destination. Unlike me, who of late, seems to be drawn to having a nice bike and nice jersey but is horrendous in the art of cycling. Bottom line, I have been adultrated with the wrong sets of culture and values.

Even visiting bike shops, which much to my wifes' disgust, i noticed that the stock of high end cycling stuff are rare. Frames such as Specialized Tarmac SL is a rare thing and Groupset such as Campy Chorus/Record, Shimano Dura ace/Ultegra are kept in jewel case and brought out for select few customers. Bikes that are equiped with the Shimano 105 (for those in the know) are considered high performance equiped bikes.

Wheelsets such as Token are considered highend rims and is kept together with the Zipps and the Reynold. I think, we in Malaysia are spoilt for choice and spend extravagently on cycling without actually looking at the proper objective of cycling (in this case for me, I have lost my values)

My take home is that I should be grateful for what I have invested and lets focus on the sports and not on the bike.

Quotable Quotes

Its amazing that people sometimes give the best quotes while in competition and when they are in pain. While running the last leg of the Duathlon in UPNM, arif was keeping me company. Me in my full running attire and him in his crocs jogs by my side and he quips, "Let me run beside you, I need to justify my plate of nasi lemak afterwards". Talk about the itch to run, him having a torn ligament ;-)

While passing another runner, this girls scream, "arrrggg, why do we do this every time, all this pain from competitive sports, its as painful as giving birth to a child. When u are feeling the pain, u dowant to have a child anymore, but you still have unprotected sex and have more babies."

Another words of wisdom from another friend of mine, "what ever you do, even though you are in pain, don't walk when there is a crowd - run. Walk when there is no crowd"

To all these frens, i salute you and look forward to endure AGAIN all this pain.

The Value of Friendship

Going to race for me is just an objective.I race with myself and no one else. It gives some kind of target for me to continue training during weekdays and sometimes weekends.

It has been quite an eventful 3 weekends in a row, much to the chagrin of my wife who wonders what do i do during weekends. First, there was Century Ride, then there was the PD Triathlon and recently the Malakoff University Duathlon Series. Its not my objective to write race reports all the time, but the recent event caused me to ponder awhile and look at the bigger picture.

While running back to the finish line (I didn't know that UM is such a challenging course with short hills for both run and bike), feeling knackered, i was accompanied (what I thot was two friends) by three frens, who has finished the run and was concern by my pace. The first (Phoebe) paced me about 50 m in front while the other two (Ihshal and Adeline) ran along side coaxing me to give that extra bit and motivating me to run and not walk. In fact, i even managed to overtake another runner towards the finish line, when i thot i have nothing else to give, such is the power of motivation.

Looking back, to all the race bunnies which had motivated me, the three above, Maysenn and Joanna, it brings new meaning to the word friendship. Its not about the race, its about the willingness to celebrate the joy of victory together. I wud also like to that Sulyna who came to watch.

Weekend Warrior - The PD International Triathlon

What could be my most satisfaction experience to date this year must have been the PD International Marathon. The feeling of euphoria of receiving the finisher medals and then handing it out to my team mates is pure joy although i was in pain and close to dehydration.

How the event unfold was the following:-

Our swimmer was flagged of at 8:20 am and he came in under 30 minutes to tag Chipang our cyclist. Now, normally for a 40km course, one would average about 1 hour 15 to 1 hour 30 minutes. Coming to the 1 hour 30 minutes mark, I received news that our cyclist had a puncture and could be late, it was about 10:45 at that moment of time.

There were only a handful of us left (6 or so runner) and our swimmer walked up to me asking me where our cyclist was, and when would I start running. His subsequent remark made me more panic, when he uttered "Oh, please, please..I need to have this medal after all the efforts I have put into swimming".

I sat there feeling helpless, since if the cyclist came back too late, it would be almost difficult for me to make the run and come back within cut off, and worse still, if he did not have the replacement tubes and pump, we will not finished and not get our medals. That was the most uncomfortable feeling that I had although I had agreed with Cipang that this triathlon was only for fun. I also was not sure how i could help Cipang out there.

15 minutes later, he came back and i rushed to take over the arm band to carry out my run at 11 am. It was blazing hot and some of the water station did not have any more 100+ or were on the verge of wrapping up. Standing down or giving up is not an option, I had to carry on with the run irrespective of the weather. Word of encouragement from fellow runners on the other side of the road encourage me to carry on and as I managed to overtake a few runners, i got to feel better. As I was about to reach the 5 km mark, i saw my close fren Phoebe walking. I slowed down and walk with her coaxing her to take my water as she had cramped. She assured me that she will recover at the next water station and i pushed on.

At the 7.5km mark, i was greeted by an Angel who had cycled to look for me to keep me company. With her coaxing, i had managed to keep a steady pace and managed to catch up with Patsy and paced Patsy to the finishing line. I had made several walking stops and had it not been for the encouragement by Patsy and this Angel, i would not have made good time back under the hot scorching sun of PD. I reached back at the finishing line and was greeted by the medals and a cold towel.

I had not let my team down.........what a weekend.

Century Ride 2008

KRI (Kelab Roadrunners Ipoh) annually organizes the Century Ride. This is my first time that I am attending it together with some of the PCC members. Upon arrival at Casurina Ipoh to collect our goodie bags, we were enlighten with the "ride/race" briefing ala PCC Interstate. The tulips accompanied within the goodie bags also reminds me of the Interstate.

Upon collecting some of the goodies and stuff, we then went out to recce the start point of the ride which happen to be closer to Chemor town (ie 10km from Ipoh). Back we went for rest and pre ride bike check and some carbo loading at Tesco extra Ipoh.

Early morning of Sunday, we pushed of towards the start point and were there much like PCC normal 160km ride. Except rather then the usual 60 odd riders, we were amassed with 400+ officially riders and "unofficial" riders. PCC was well represented with familiar faces such as Adzim, Andrea, Azhar, Chris Milton, Daniel Lim, Lim Yew Meng, Lisa, PK and family (already one small peloton), Terry and William. Other familiar faces were Abu, Fadzil, Jaja, Ihashal, Azmar, Shazly, Stupe, Laif and Wendy (she is so much prettier in real life).
I would say that atmosphere was like a Competitive Carnival kind of atmosphere and the makeshift car park was packed. We checked in and was flagged of at about 7:10 am. The route and Terrain was (as typically described by PCC) described as rolling hills was actually flat downhill for 40km and then short undulating walls of climbs. For those who did not do the full route, it can be described as a mix of two of Puncak Alam Dragon Back, Temple Section before Ijok, Batu Arang and Sungai Tengi all in one ride. It was quite a fast ride for those who manage to cling on to the Peloton but was a lonely ride for me back to the starting point as I suffered severe cramps.

Unfortunately, I have not been heeding the advice that I usually give most people, drink every 15 minutes on long rides – well, I deserved the cramps that hit me immediately after the second water station. I would like to record my thanks to Azmar though for stopping by and dropping a few salt tablets to help me recover. Those bus stops along the Kuala Kangsar Sungai Siput road look very tempting though, for me to stop and have a nap. The weather was, however quite beautiful though, (wonder how KRI manages to managed that as well) so I pulled myself back to start line after 7 hours.

Overall, i would like to congratulate KRI for the enjoyable ride. The Marshalling was excellent, the water stop was very good and that last water stop with the sponge bath really helped me.

Life goes On

It feels as if it was only last month or last year when i was teaching my daughters on their pronunciations of words, such as buah (boo-ahhhh) or abah (AAAA-bahhh) or even mama (Mum-mah). This fond memories was triggered while i was sending my second daughter to INTI Colleague Nilai for her Australian Matriculation, owh , how they have grown.

My first daughter is already in Australia in her final semester doing Mass Communications (funded by her dad), while the genius of the family (IQ-180), the second daughter has graciously accepted a Government Scholarship (she was formally funded by Taylors) pursuing Actuarial Science.

I suppose the inner feeling within me is somewhat mixed and confused. On one hand, you see both your daughter as being independent and flying the coop so to speak, while you try to come to terms with your age - feeling that you are suddenly very-very old. This feeling gets further muddled when you try to pursue a healthy lifestyle of sports and outdoors.

You sometimes feel that most lifestyle goes through the learning, development, operations and later on renew/review (penchant). My life is supposedly on operations, but i now feel like going into the penchant stage.

If i were to review my life, there are so many gaps, that i wish i could have been more adventurous and done better. Moving on, i now try to seize the day while always trying something new. This lifestyle can sometime take a toll on your family, but i sometime feel that time is of the essence and which i might not have the luxury and enough of.

Trip to Singapore - Change of Scenery

Most of my bosses don't want to travel to Singapore and this oppurtunity was presented to me. Having been cooped up in my Office for a year or so, I willingly took this "instruction" happily since i have a major agenda - visit to the Bike Shop in Singapore.

Arrived in Singapore on Tuesday evening, changed my ticket from Sunday to Saturday, since most of my frens wanted to go back to Malaysia early and no one can entertain me in Singapore ;-), which was aefinitely good decision which I had found out later. Singapore is very much different then what I use to remember before, having been posted there in late 1980's to work with the PSA (Port of Singapore).

They put me up at Copthorne King, which i realized was way out of nowwhere (as far as Singapore is concern) near Havelock road. Having to walk 20 minutes to the nearest MRT, thus curtailed my movement. Got me a StarHub prepaid mobile number for me to call some of my Singaporean frens easily, i then roam China Town that night.

Meeting days was full of food from morning till nite much so until i found out that I had put on 7 kilos within that 7 days absense from excercise. On Friday, having pulled a no show at the meeting, I went galavanting with my Singaporean Tour Guide (Dennis & Jeff) to 6 Bike Shop and one Sports shoes shopping complex. This was done in the 10 hours that was available.

The 6 Bike Shops were - Tay Cycle (Specialized & Giant stuff), Bike Haus (Tri suits), Swiss Valley Cycle (BMC, Campy Stuff), Performance Cycle (Italian Bikes and Jerseys), Cycleworks (Pinarello stuff) and Boon Cycle (cheaper loose items). At queensway Comple, got me a running shoes to replace the NB shoes that was a bit undersized.

What even surprises me more is the fact that those jokers, changed their mind, to go back that same night to Malaysia. Of course they asked me whether I would accompany them back, me being a compliant and safe person decided not to follow and had to be sent to another friends house to bunk in for the night - (my flight tickets was already confirmed and I dislike trouble). Next morning, not wanting to be imposing on that friend, i decided to "ronda" Sim Lim Complex for some IT stuff. Went back at just after 4 pm to pick my bags and just in time to pushed of to Changi for my flight back.

Luckily I had managed to pack my goodies into Dennis's car much so that i had a lighter luggage when i came back.

Nothing Much to Add

Hah, its been about 3 weeks since I have last visited my Blog, just that there is not much interesting stuff to update, but for the sake of documenting my life, here goes nothing:-

New Balance 15km (18/05/2008)

Went to New Balance 15km run at Padang Merbok, the day before I have to be on duty for IMPACT (International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Terrorism). The usual suspect was there, Adeline, Ariff, Yusran, Zailan, Phoebe and surprisingly my industry friend Shereen. Paced myself normally and survived the first 7.5km in about 50 mins,although the start was a bit lazy and slow affair.

By the time i reached Double hill, i decided to walk up the hill and rest while run downhill again to the finish line. This strategy worked for me before and i did just that. I was accompanied by a lady who was 5 month pregnant and we strike conversation. As I was coming down the hill behind Bank Negara, Phoebe turn up and kept me company back to the finishing line (phobe had finished the race 15 minutes ahead). It was a wonderful gesture and I appreciate it very much. Managed to finish the race in an unofficial 2 hours or there about. Spirits was good, but my tummy wasn't thanking me, felt like throwing up. After about 15 mins rest, and as we were walking to the car park, i decided to donate some baja (from my mouth) to the flowers and grass of Padang Merbok.

IMPACT - Being the Liason Officer (LO) 19-23/05/2008

LiasonOfficer (aka Proffessional GRO) to Foreign Guest coming here for International Conference and being confered status of Country Guest. I was assigned a guy from canada who was not very picky and was very professional. So, I had a good time and job was relatively easy. But that week saw my training regime went out the Window.

Cameron Highland Bike ride (31/05/2008)

How do you celebrate a week off not training but with a long bike ride to Cameron. If it was Andrea, I am sure she would not have done this ride (it doesn't match her rational of bike ride distance should exceed driving distance to the meeting point by 4:1), but Ariff, Kevin Han, Clarence, May Senn, Adeline and me decided to go up to Cameron last Saturday. We drove to Tapah and started the ascent at about 8:30 am. We reached Ringlet at about 11:30 am and really felt spent. But our intention is to climb at least up to the Bharat Tea House to have scones and tea and we reached that destination at about 12:15 pm.

As the weather was not permitting (dark clouds looming), we voted unanimously to go down just after May Senn's parents pick her up from Strawberry Park. They came to pick her up at 2:15 pm and we pushed down trying to beat the rain. There was slight drizzle and we made it back safely to the car at about 4:00 pm. Celebration with Mee Rebus tulang and Nasi Lemak was the order of the day. Went back to KL at about 5:30 after resting and cleaning up. Interesting 105 km ride. Calories used 4500.

A-Farmosa Triathlon - a spectators view

The journey to A-Farmosa in Ariff's car (11:30 to 2:40pm)
A must get is the Garmin GPS Muv which though nagging as it is, is a useful tool. Late in arrival due to highway congestion and we took a detour via old road to Rembau/tampin via Seremban. memories of journey - SLOW.

Registration and check in (2:40 to 3:30)
Slow and chaotic, Triathlon check was ok, but lodging was quite slow. Went back to pick up dinner vouchers as we forgot them at the club house. Muahahahah

SPRINT event (4:00 pm to 6pm)
My first view and experience of the Famed A-farmosa (monkey) lake. Famous quips about the lakes:- "its nutritiously better then PowerGel", "You can go in with white triathlon suite and come out brown","The smell is something like dead fish" and a few other which cannot be repeated on this blog. The kids gets a 5 minutes start while adults start at about 4:05 pm. It was fast race to say the least.
The bike route is a bit sandy in parts but nothing to shout about and so is the 3km run. quite easily doable if urs truly can swim.

Dinner at Cowboy town is interesting (7:15pm to 9:30pm)
had some nice food, and get to meet a lot of friends. Its a good bonding session.

Race Day (6:30 am to 11:30 am)
Race day at monkey lake saw many newbies there, frightful experience for many who have never "smell" the lake and those who were eager to go into the water and had to thread water 5-10 minutes before start. By the time the race start, many are left cold and frantic. nevertheless, the race went on smoothly with very minor casualty. Its amazing to to see people like Mok and Schubert out of water in less then 25 minutes.
On bike leg, the pros did it in about 1 hr and 5 minutes and the run was completed in less then 40 minutes.
What was interesting for me in volunteering as a photographer is this:-
a) To take note of frens timing so that I can get the sequencing of photos right
b) To know where are the critical points so that I can take photos of my frens when they are on swim, bike and run
c) To position myself properly at finishing line to capture their moments of joy.

Lessons learnt and takeaway:-
a) Photography can be tiring if done alone and trying to cover as much grounds
b) Doing relay is not as satisfying as doing it alone, be it sprint. Its better to do sprint, and u have the whole SBR all done by u and ur own effort then to participate in a Triathlon as part of the relay team, though I wud still participate a relay team if there is opportunity, since i dont swim. I have to start learning to swim now.
c) At present moment Duathlon is more my scene, and will do more if opportunity presented itself.
d) I really respect the race with people who races with oneself as oppose to racing with ur buddy, it breeds better character.
e) My hats of to all my triathlete frens who completed the race.

Possibly as Painful as Childbirth - BROGA Classic

I think my wife said, "The pain in child birth is so great that u dont ever want to give birth anymore". But of no fault of hers, she got pregnant again by yours truly and had to endure that pain another three times.

Much like my bicycle ride to BROGA with PCC. I still remember the question by PK and DonChan last week, "Mac, should we follow the P2K boys and MKH to BROGA?". I had to repond "Yeah, it is a good prelude to Interstate...". But alas, the ride to BROGA is typically a ride to endure pain and the pain is excruciating - must be like child birth, and much like child birth, no matter how much pain, we seem to be looking for more pain to enjoy.

Well, yesterday PCC was joined full force by more then 30+ riders (some who has graduated from the Thursday Nite ride) on a trip to BROGA. I tried to pace the peloton out of Tekala at about 26-28km/hr, so that the late riders can catch up and also set a reasonable pace for things to come. But no, after Semenyih, some riders in the peloton lost patience and started shooting out at 32-35km/hr. By Lenggeng, some were already out of breath, while I had a quiet Kopi O Ais and nasi lemak at a shop around the corner.

Ariff, Laif and me decide to push of early, but alas, our intention didn't go unnoticed, a heard of P2K boys swarmed us before the ride up the first hill before Pantai. We were still doing OK until comes Bukit Tangga. After being passed by Sayuti and Bikepro Lim as if we were standing still, my perservarence went thru the window. Receiving a call from someone halfway up the hill also doesnt help.

Made it down Bukit Tangga and sped thru to Kuala Klawang. Caught up with Joanne and one MKH guy and we worked together a paceline of between 30-32 into Klawang. We reached Klawang Petronas at 10:45 am and took our deserving stop there. We then pushed off towards TiTi and Peres at about 11:15am, the peloton was kind enough to wait for me to rehydrate myself.

While going into Titi, we managed to catchup with the MKH peloton and made it together as a group towards Peres. Peres climb sorted out the man(old man..that is) from the boys. Old man like me tend to drop like flies and on hill climbs just about 1 km before the summit, I didn't have anymore energy. Only the "hand of god" by Vong, William and one P2K motorcyclist help me up to the summit. I had cramped out big time and while making myself back to Tekala, at the foothill of Peres, i was struggling up the hill balancing between pain of cramps and the ability to drive up the hill. Luck was with me and I was joined by Ariff who gave me water to cool down my thighs.

That helped me back from the dead and we worked as a team to get back to our parking area at Tekala. I owe a lot of people this time round, for the push, the water and the buddy spirit. Its the spirit of team work that I am so happy to see out of this ride.

I take a bow.....

PS reminder: Never do a 10km run before a long ride to BROGA the day before

Tiring weekend - Flat and Hill

Thought of light pedaling went right through the windows after 1 km into the Bangi Bagan Lalang ride. Culprit, Adzim and Andrea!!! I knew that phrase flat as pancake is an invite to disaster. These guys was pushing 35km/hr average with meters touching 38-42 km/hr is considered normal. Ah well, we soldier on for the next 96km to and from Bagan Lalang.

Not having enough mileage, was tempted out of bed again by Don Chan's message to ride the Sempah Bentong ride starting at 9 am. It rained heavily that morning and the thots of snuggling in warm blanket did cross my mind 5-6 times. Went off at 7:45 from home and reached Sempah at 8:40 am. Unpacked and was streaming downhill again at breakneck speed until lost a bit of steam near entrance of Bentong town. Came back was torturous, though the draft that wong CC and Lisa oon provided was ok untill the last 15km. Help out fellow rider with puncture and was late back into sempah at nearly 1:00 pm

Total distance this weekend of about 166km. Damn, i use to cover 160km in a day, now it is so damn difficult to cycle 160 km in two day. Better buck up before interstate.

Keep Moving Forward

KL Marathon (10km run)

Ah well, on the happy side, i managed to shave of 15 minutes of Mizuno Wave 10k run, didnt walk at all and kept running all the way.

Sad side, didnt get medal though i was below the cutoff of 1 hr 20min, better luck next 10km run.

My guardian Angel (literally and physically) was there to coax me along. I dont know why, she seems to inject strength in me. I felt pity for her somewhere near Concorde hotel as she was already overheating with the wings on her back and quips by runners passing by. But it was all fun.

Different Kind of Racing in Sepang

One would think that Sepang International Racing Circuit is meant for High Speed Cars and Bikes only. Well, yesterday the SIC wa sopen to about 510 cyclist from all over Malaysia and Singapore. Went there just to meet friends and enjoy the atmosphere, like they say, "Those who cannot cycle, take photograph".

Met a few IronMan over there chilling out

These guys were going to participate in the Open Category and they seem fast even standing still

In actual fact the peloton was very fast and u can see teams from Singapore going head to head with the MSN and continental Teams


Overall, we had a blast enjoying the event and good time with the Letua Team.

Seen any good Movies lately

In my view, Vantage Point has got to be one of the best movies I have ever seen this year. The movie tells a story of what has transpired to the attempt of assination on the US president. Rather then running the story sequentially, the director and editor has chosen to tell the story in various view points edited in a short story method. I can see and hear many people in the theater giving hugh sigh as they may not be used to viewing the story in this manner as it looks repetitive, i however thot its a refreshing approach of story telling.

Its packed with non stop action and the twist and spin on the plot is very interesting. I would definitely recommend people to see this movie.

Other notable movies worth mentioning are Jumper (though I am not such fan of Hayden Christensen) has very interesting special effects but more of X-Men kinda feel to the story. Not much of a story line and i would only rate it average by my books. Within the same week, I also saw Meet the Spartans, which is spoof of the movie 300. Having some serious actor in this movie make the take very comediac and interesting. Thats enough movies for the week - 3 in total.

A friend of mine who saw CJ7 rated it quite high and is worth mentioning.