Downtime from Riding due to Cold

June 14 - 21, 2006

The Cold I mention is not the weather kind. That could never happen in Singapore. I had a sore throat and running nose that stopped me from doing any kind of training/riding last week. It was very, very good to take a week off, honestly. Even the Boys were sick so we literally just "vegged" out in front of the TV and watched all kinds of things like documentaries on Genghis Khan and Khubilai Khan on Discovery Channel which were recorded on StarHub's Smart TV. Nice little invention this Smart TV. Now I can watch all kinds of programs that I never seemed to be at home for. Even Pauline, who was complaining that the thing is so expensive seems to be using and enjoying it.

The Barbecue with the Lows', the Lims' and the Boses' was nice, small event but the Boys and the rest of the kids enjoyed it. It is a kind of bummer that I cannot drink too much beer anymore since the stopping of Lipitor. But I guess it is good.

I started to ride the bike a little bit. Did a 30 Minute easy ride up and down Hindhede Walk last night. Felt good. Today I thought of going to the Gym but the idea was curtailed by a sudden lunch appointment that brought some optimism to my World. More on this later.

I would like to leave with this thought that someone wrote on their Bike N Blade blog. "Nothing Exceptional was ever achieved EXCEPT by someone who believed that something inside them was bigger than the circumstances they were in". I have been inspired by this and try to think about it when I am faced with challenges.

Treknology Ride
June 13, 2006

Things seem to be happening thick and fast for me these days, in biking that is. It was a quiet day at work so I took off early (6 PM) to spend some time with the kids. The boys were boisterous as usual but at least they seem to be playing better with each other. They only fight about 80% of the time. Rishi sent me off with his usual instructions like "Daddy, you must buy me Masked Rider 555 toy when you come back OK" or something else.

I joined the group of riders shortly before 7:30 at Holland Grove Rd. They guys were busy packing the bikes in for the day. We set off once they were done and headed towards McDonalds at West Coast. I was really surprised to see the familiar faces of Queen Nur, Foo Yew, Desmond and some other BikeNBlade folks preparing to ride. Now we know why Foo Yew is getting so good. He has been doing a lot of "secret training".

I left the Queen and Foo Yew and went with the Treknology group. It was an experience riding with them. I typically dont do any group rides at night mainly because my Kakis Jeff, Sid and Gabe do not believe in cycling under any adverse conditions which includes riding when it is dark or when there is Beer in sight or when there are trivial things like the Ironman or OSIM triathlon to train for!

Anyway, the ride was an experience because the group attacked every little slope they could find and generally rode at about 40 kmph on the way out to Tuas. And this was supposed to be their easy day. I sat behind any wheel I could find and literally hung on to them. It was a huge relief when we made the U Turn at Tuas where the group slowed down a little bit.

Some people split off when we reached certain points along the way to head towards Jurong, Bukit Batok etc. The ride was an eye opener for me because I found that I could ride with a faster group even if it was for a short distance.

Now, the next objective is to hang with a faster group over a longer distance. Why am I doing this? I honestly dont know but it is a fun way to meet new people and explore my boundaries. At least, it is definitely worth going off "Lipitor" that I used to take to keep my cholesterol level down. Here are some maths to prove it:

Normal Lipitor Dosage: Cost $100 per month
Cost of Lipitor for 1 Year: $ 1200
My current age: 38 years
My target age: 80 years
My spending on Lipitor by the time I reach 80: $50,400

This is not considering that the price of Lipitor is probably going to quadruple at least in the timeframe we are talking about.

Now tell me how many jerseys, bikes, Dura-Aces, Campy's you can buy for this much money? Not many I hear but that's OK. It is fun anyway!

Rachna's 1st Month

Rachna is one month old today. A big milestone for a little Girl. She has been sleeping most of the time so far. It is quite normal for babies to sleep a lot at this age according to Aunty Shirley the resident baby expert. She is getting more and more alert lately. This is the first photo we have taken as a Family. Mummy was very happy.



The Brothers have been quite warm to Rachna so far. It is nice to see Rishi and Rabi competing with each other to be nice to Rachna. Now if we could only get them to be nice to each other.

Charity Bike and Blade (Saturday 27 May – Monday 29 May 2006)

Saturday 27 May 2006:

I taught myself to ride a bike when I was 6 or 7 years old using a wall along the corridor to prop myself up and glide as far as I could push or scrape myself on the wall. The earliest bike I had was a really ugly kids bike designed like an old man’s bike, but it introduced me to the fun and freedom of going wherever I wanted to go, faster than any other means within my reach. Riding the streets of Chennai, my range was a 5 km radius around T-Nagar which was the entire world to me.

One day the scout master at School was looking for people to ride to Mahabalipuram which was about 75 km away. And I volunteered to go along. Since it was part of the scout organization I was allowed to go. I consider this my first day of Bicycle touring. Flashes of the day still live in my memory.

I remember the salt fields filled with sea water which evaporated and left the salt behind which the workers piled into humps like small White Mountains. I remember very clearly the lunch we had in a farm in the middle of nowhere and I guess the deepest impression is of the unearthly time we started the journey and the darkness in which we finished.

Charity Bike and Blade – Day 1

The Start and the crew
The bike and blade event is similar to my childhood journey with the Boy Scouts. Gabe and I left home at 4:15 to pick Fuji up. Poor sleepy Eva tagged along to drive my car back and send Gabe off. We found Fuji waiting and “good to go” when we reached his place.

I must say I have known Fuji for a short time but he has amazed me with his never say die attitude to everything. He got into bike n blade because of some small talk in the office we used to engage in to ease the boredom and stress. Fuji trained as hard as he could (which was honestly not very hard) given his busy schedule and drinking sessions and contrary to many opinions made it to the starting line. My Hat goes off to my “Brother” for that.

We collected our tickets and boarding passes in awe of how well organized the organizers were. They even had plastic ziploc bags for all our stuff. We rolled off sleepily and I rode with Fuji to the Ferry Terminal, it was the easiest of easy rides and I could see that he was not really comfortable and the ride had not even started.

The ferry trip across was smooth and I chatted with Vik, Sid and the others while admiring the beautiful machines made of steel, carbon, titanium and many other alloys. A Cannondale Six 13, a fine specimen of American craftsmanship in red and an even more attractive Specialized Roubaix in Gerolsteiner colours were the highlights for me, of course apart from my understated Cervelo R2.5 which everyone thought was a Taiwanese bike – which it is.

Fuji My Friend
The first few hours I spent with Fuji from Belungkor set the tone for my ride. It made me slow down and increased my enjoyment and saved my legs for the workload to come. This also let me finish off each day relatively strong (strong is a very relative word my friends). Fuji had cramps and bravely suffered the hills and refused to take the bus until he absolutely had to.

Fuji and I are amazed by how well Denise and Sonia were doing and Fuji even mentioned something about him riding slower than the kids. I assured him that it is nothing to be embarrassed about. There is a saying in Golf “No matter how well you play someone will beat you, no matter how badly you play you can find someone to beat”. His spirit showed in the reality that he was there, trying to go the distance, trying to push himself beyond his known boundaries. That is the definition of a Champion in my Dictionary.

We ran into Natasha and Zuhaimi on the way. Zuhaimi is another Champ, ever present when someone at the back needed encouragement, offering kind words, H2O, reminding of food at the end of the ride. It was a pleasure to meet him.

I rode a bit faster after I left Fuji, passing mostly mountain bikers and people who had started out too fast. Somewhere along the way I saw CK who looked like he had just woken up from a nap!

Long lonely ride and Mr. Ramly
The food stop was welcome but I think I stopped too long – none of the riders lounging at the stop was in any mood to leave. Finally a couple of people on mountain bikes left and I followed them without even introducing myself to them. We rode together for a while and I tried to pull them but I guess the pace was not comfortable as they kept asking me to go ahead without them. I dragged myself into Mersing. As I was struggling into Mersing, Gabe called me to find out what was happening. He thought I must have gotten lost or bonked.

The most wonderful thing about Day 1 was that Fuji had taken the bus to ease his cramped legs and as I finished he came up to me and asked quietly “Bro, do you eat beef, I’ve got Ramly Burgers for you”. Best tasting Burger ever!

Ritz Carlton and the perfect roommate
The food and accommodation at Mersing weren’t exactly Ritz Carlton like but we were assured by Sidney and the crew that this was the best Mersing had to offer. I took their words for it as always, got a back massage from the Physio and went to bed.

Gabe turned out to be the perfect roommate. He was sound asleep with the lights on while I removed the extra bottle cages I had been carrying (a testament to the confidence I had in the crew by now). Then I slept as soundly as ever.

Charity Bike and Blade – Day 2

Sunday 28 May 2006:

Another early morning
Gabe woke me up at 6, it felt like noon compared to the first day. I honestly cannot remember what I had for breakfast. It was clear daylight when we got ready to ride and Queen Nur gave out some instructions followed by either John or someone else who said something about staying in groups for safety etc. Everyone must have been as dazed as I was because the biggest group I saw was of 2 – me and Jeff. Luckily Jeff and I hooked up at the beginning of the ride and we planned on riding slowly again.

Fuji was trying out his new Shimano SPDs and clipless shoes. It was painful watching him wear his running shoes and use his instep to pedal up hills on the first day. So I advised him to use his clipless shoes even though I knew he was going to take a few tumbles. I left him early in the ride to avoid talking to him and disturbing him while he was riding.

The unfixable tube
Jeff and I rode out slowly, Jeff nursing a sore back and I still dazed from waking up so early. Some parts of me were either aching or just screaming from having been woken up so early 2 days in a row. Ronald had a tear in his tire which we tried to fix with old tubing but it refused to stay fixed. So we left him behind and later that evening he told me that he was not very pleased that he had to get on the Bus.

I would have loved to prepare better in the weeks/months before the ride by doing at least a couple of 120km rides. But riding had to contend with family, work and the other multitude of things. As a result, the 100km mark felt like the wall that marathoners run into – there was no more energy or enthusiasm left at this point. My mind and the fact that the sweeper Bus was too far behind were the only things that kept me riding. My feet hurt to a point that I could not put any power on the pedal and had to resort to spinning wildly with little or no pressure to keep me going – try this on the hills between Sedili Besar and Sedili Kechil and see how fast you go.

Pizza
Anyway, after enduring the torture and the rains for a while Jeff and I reached a deserted flat section where we saw Gurmeet and another crew car. Gurmeet said “you are 14.9 kilometers from Desaru” and offered Pizza. I gratefully took a slice because there was no way anything I took was going to hurt any more. Miraculously, either because of the Pizza or because I rested my feet for a while or knowing we were so close to the end, all the energy came back and I was really hauling the mail from there on. We reached the roundabout and Jeff announced “5 more hills to go” while there were only 4, I was counting. We got to Pulai and Gabe had already finished the ride and finished a swim to cool off. The rooms were really nice, the food was great and the beer flowed freely. Sleep was not as sound as the first day but I did not tweak the bike any more.

Charity Bike and Blade – Day 3

Monday 29 May 2006:

Decision time
As usual Gabe was all set and ready to go early in the morning. I told him I was not going to ride when he woke me up. But I jumped wide awake when I heard him leave the room. I joined the group at the lobby and shoved some food down my mouth just to keep myself from bonking later. We flagged off after Jimi led us in Prayer.

The pace was really slow and watching the sun come up without as much as a cubic inch of concrete in sight was spectacular. We took in the scenery, swapped stories of the last couple of days and just enjoyed being there. It was a welcome break from being in Raffles Place on a Monday morning.

We rode 20 km out and 20 km back as we were joined by Jason, Desmond and a couple of others. We had more Ramly Burgers at the food court outside Pulai. We took a break and started riding to Belungkor.

Wrong Train
My plan was to ride as fast as possible and decided to stay with Gabe or someone else faster if I could. About a km into the ride I saw Ronald go past and thinking Gabe can’t be too far behind I jumped on to Ronald’s wheel. It was really fun for a while until Jimi and the others joined in and decided to treat the uphills as flats and not slow down. I got dropped and was picked up by Sidney & Gabe’s peloton after the turn from the road with heavy traffic. Soon Foo Yew and I got dropped by them as well and we rode steadily, helping each other when we could until we reached the Ferry Terminal where Foo Yew lost the sprint to the gate. He now has to drink all the beer I buy him, he refused to drink any Beer on the Bike n Blade. Got to catch up with him on this one. . . . .

Everything went smoothly and we were welcomed by the people from St. Andrews Hospital which I must admit was unexpected and a pleasant surprise. I was touched by them and by the spirit of many others during the trip. Special mention must go to Sidney and Jeff my perennial ride buddies, Gabe - who started riding so recently but has already gotten so far, Nur, Fuji, Nick Chia , the crew and so many others. Thanks for a good trip, hope to see you all again next year. Now, if only we could raise the other 100k as targeted, it would be a nice touch as I think the people who dreamed this up really deserve it.

Pictures from the Zoo last weekend. Too bad did not take the cameras along so took photos on my O2 Mini which is not going to compete with the D70 anytime soon!

Wanted Rabi to take photos with the Snake but the Snake had to rest until 10 PM. Too late for the kids, so we had to settle for the cat instead.

Somehow I had the feeling that the cat was sizing up Rishi for his supper. Being a little Rat sometimes Rishi would have fit the menu quite well.


The owl was really resplendent. One gets the impression from childhood stories and folklore that Owls are scraggly and old but this one was really lovely to look at.

Rabi looks "sleepy as an Owl", while Rishi's eyes are "as big as an Owl's" in this picture!

This past weekend was nice, actually close to perfect.

Saturday 3 June 2006:

Saturday Morning Ride
Woke up early on Saturday morning and went for a supposedly "easy" ride around Mandai loop. But as luck would have it, caught on to the wheel of a faster rider who had the words "Team Ascender" printed on his jersey who pulled me to Farrer Road. Then caught on to a team of mostly expat cyclists upto Longhouse. Here I tried to recover my lost composure and ride plan that was blown to bits by now. Fortunately for me, I run into JB taking his daughter JB for a slow ride and I stuck to them for the rest of the ride back home. Thanks goodness for JB 'cause I needed to take it easy and I had bigger plans for Sunday.

Sunday 5 June 2006:

The Tribob Ride
I join the tribob ride doing the Reverse Changi and the Reverse Kranji Loops. We set off at about 7:35 AM after waiting for the latecomers. The ride started along Thomson Road taking a right at Yio Chu Kang Road. Matthe's instruction during the ride briefing is to take it easy up Thomson and Hougang and step up the pace as we reach Changi. I chat with Chris, whom I met for the first time and wonder how I am going to keep up when the pace picks up. Chris assures me that I will do fine and I take his word for it.

Matthe has a flat as we reach Pasir Ris and this breaks up the group. Matthe, Chris and Nathalie stop to fix the flat and assure us that they will catch up with us by the time we reach Fort Road. Myself and the rest of the group push on with Mike.

Pulling and sitting in
The group gets further broken up by the time we reach the Coastal Road. The flat road is inviting and a few guys take off. I hesitate to sit in after the lashing someone got at last weekends ride (not with tribob) and try to pull for a while knowing that it is going to take a lot out of me. I am pleasantly surprised about how well I do. Unfortunately only 1 rider follows me while the others decide to take it easy.

There are a couple of lessons here. Not all groups think the same when it comes to pulling. Not all groups care about who pulls and who sits in. A general rule of thumb is that the faster the riders or the ride, the more they care about who pulls. Slower riders can't care less - my kind of people. They are happy to sit in when someone pulls, they are happy to pull when someone sits in. Lesson two is dont pull unless you are really, really sure you can last the distance. There is really no point pulling first and dying out later - then the rest of the group has to really slow down to keep in touch with you. And that is not going to help anyone go faster.

Traffic Lights & Junctions
The ride goes uneventfully through the rest stop at Fort Road where Matthe and his group catch up. Uneventful until we were cruising along West Coast Highway at 30 kph across a red light thinking that it is a T-Junction and we were on the safe side and wham - a car comes out of the left. There is frantic breaking and some sliding but miraculously none of the 10 sets of wheels meet and everybody is safe.

My biggest cycling wish is that cyclists do not jump red lights. But if we have to, be extra, extra cautious - ride slowly, on the brakes and leave some space between each other. A faster pace is nice but no one is going to go very fast for a while when they have broken bones and broken wheels.

Nanyang University
I am supposed to bail out around South Buona Vista to go and play with the kids but I decide to ride on 'cause I am feeling good, we go around to Nanyang University, the hills there are quite challenging. Nice place to do loops in preparation for a hilly ride, maybe even when not preparing for a hilly ride. I try to keep the intensity in control waiting for the torture to come on at the Lim Chu Kang Airstrip but the group decides to turn right towards Old Choa Chu Kang Road and head back towards Upper Bukit Timah Road taking short cuts. We see some senseless drivers and in our defence - we had the right of way but 2 idiot drivers who probably only get their heart rates above 12o by trying to run down cyclists try to run us down. I am sure their resting heart rates are above 100 and they are headed towards Lim Chu Kang soon!

I stop at Springdale while the rest of the group heads towards Bukit Timah Road for brunch at a coffee shop. Since the suggestion comes from Nathalie everybody follows. She once got a croissant on a supposedly 2 minute break.

I cool off on Hindhede Walk - custom built for this purpose. I go home and take the brats "mimming" as Rabi calls it. They really enjoy the water and having Daddy around. I cant wait to get them on bikes and ride around with me. Well, only if they want to!

Night Safari
The Boys and I round off the weekend by going to the Night Safari. Rabi and Rishi are fascinated by the Silat styled dance and the fire eating performances. We take photos with the Jungle Cat and the Owl. Rishi has his favourite Hot Dog at the Bongo Burger Stand. Rabi eats his French Fries and makes sure Grandma and Aunty Tiah are fed too! Then it is home and to bed. I am exhausted and wake up a couple of times feeling too tired!!