Cycling is like life. Cycling with no goal is meaningless. What meaning is there cycling in circles? Or living aimlessly? Meaning comes from direction and destination. Join me in my life's journey on a mountain bike :)

Blogging since 2003. Thank you for reading :))

Saturday, November 24, 2007

To buy a fat "peak"

Nov distance travelled: 313 km

To Changi Road, 24 km. To prepare for my furthest, highest expedition ever, I fall sick. It's all the stress at work, home and play. I've caught a cold now but to avoid catching a cold next month, I go to market, to market to buy a fat "peak". A Topeak trunk bag, to be precise, from a bike shop. Too bad I'm too sick to do a road test with it the rest of the weekend. I recall that it takes energy to fight disease, hence the lethargy.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Feeling the heat

To Woodlands, 64 km. I'm so tired, I want to sleep all day but am too restless to do so. I want to laze around at home but have to train. So I cycle at 11 am. The sun is so blazing, my top tube is warm. I head north, cranking up slope after slope and doing some "urban offroad". As my legs crank, my mind churns over higher order and lower order decisions. Is there much point ruing the outcome of lower order decisions when they are the reasonably forseeable consequence of higher order decisions? That'd be like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Unfortunately, who knew about the ice? At the surface, an iceberg looks like an ice floe. Anyway, the ship is unsinkable, no?

Sunday, November 11, 2007

"My baby is loose"

To Kampong Kaki Circuit, 72 km. 11 Nov, 11-hour race. At the 11th hour, I still can't form a team, nor join one. The feeling is like being jilted. So I cycle with some friends to stay sane. I meet a guy who's on his feet and cycling a bit after breaking his thigh a month ago. I meet a girl who's riding in a car to lunch instead of cycling. I ask, "Are you not well?" The reply I hear, "My baby is loose." My mind churns but is unable to process the information. I ask, "What?" Her reply, "My BB [bottom bracket] is loose." Ah. Come to think of it, her bicycle is her baby.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

$1 worth of stress

To Lim Chu Kang Rd, 84 km. Weary, wornout with weighty woes during the week, cycling has become toil but I'm on the road anyway. As my crank turns, my mind churns. I figure out some things but the intractable remain unsolvable. At NTU, I feed $1 into a vending machine. The coin keeps coming out and I keep shoving it in. When it stops coming out, the drink doesn't come out either. Grrrr! I wave to a security guard for help but he goes away. I slot in another coin (throwing good money after bad!) and it comes out alone. I fret, then realise $1 should buy only $1 of stress, no more.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Try a little kindness

To Lim Chu Kang Rd, 69 km. After running my longest distance ever last Sunday (15 km), I'm back in the saddle. The two-week hiatus takes its toll as I huff up the hills of Mandai-Kranji-Lim Chu Kang. A roadie on a Cannondale overtakes me and I draft, keeping a respectful distance away. He signals me to follow. I overtake as I'm embarrassed he's doing all the work. He overtakes me effortlessly and says in a heavy accent: "It's ok you can follow me." With my fat squishy tyres, it doesn't last long. His kindness is welcome after the hard road I've been on. I'm disappointed and tired. I want to stop to eat, but push on until I get home.