Punctuality is not a virtue i readily manifest (it is just as well that neither is it possessed by most people, for it is one of those traits greatly undervalued in our culture). Today however, i found myself not only punctual, i was also the first to arrive. But this was not so much my striving to be on time as an incidental occurrence. I didn't know how long it would take me to cycle from home to our meeting place, but my estimation of time turned out to be quite accurate.
When i reached the derelict caltex kiosk I found nobody there, save for an old man who seemed preparing to open business for the day. That got me a little worried: i wondered if the meeting place had been changed or was the ride cancelled. I didn't inform anyone that i would be coming for today's ride. Thankfully Rashid arrived soon after - but not before a group of cyclists in complete cycling jerseys whizzed past me. The sky was slowly getting brighter - it was 630am - and i felt fresh and ready to go, nevermind that only 50 minutes ago i had great difficulty hauling myself out of bed. Keith was the last to arrive. We waited awhile more just in case there are others coming. Five minutes went by, Kenneth got on his bike, took the lead and we (6 of us) rode off.
Good thing the ride started early, for the weather today turned out to be blazingly hot, a far cry from the cold downpour that we cycled in last Sunday. There were no especially memorable moments today, in part because the usual jokers weren't around to liven the mood. However, the ride was certainly much tougher compared to last two weeks. After we turned towards Raffles Marina at Tuas checkpoint, we experienced headwind for most part of the distance to our restpoint at West Coast food centre. But as we had started the ride early it was only 915am when we got there, having clocked close to 70km including the distance that we each cycled to get to the meeting place. No one ordered any food. Instead, for just 6 people, we bought - for the time that we were there - 6 iced milo, 1 teh, 1 kopi-peng, 1 chin chow, 2 hundred plus and two 1.5l of H20 (for refilling bottles) to boot. Quite a gargantuan amount of fluid, but that's quite normal; cyclists need the hydration. My only gripe was that the milo peng wasn't fabulous.
(Which reminds me, the other night some of us went to this shop at the end of South Buona Vista Road to have drinks, as Chin had told us that it has the most orgasmic, powerful milo peng around. It turned out that it wasn't just the milo peng, but the lime juice and barley were also quite orgasmic - they were so ultra concentrated, you could get plain water - which Chin did - and refill your glass a few more times and it would still taste sweet. A pity i was just recovering from illness and couldn't drink any of that. Instead i had to do with the bland heaven and earth green tea while all the rest happily savour their ultra orgasmic drinks.)
When we resumed our ride after that the sun was so strong that it didn't take long before i felt very thirsty again. At Mandai it took me a good deal of effort to keep my cycling constant, especially when going up all those dreadful slopes. Kenneth was already ahead and i felt it was hopeless trying to catch up with him. But when i saw he was stopped by a red light i knew it was now or never. I pedaled hard, caught up with him and drafted him all the way to the end of Mandai road, our end point. I must say it is quite an embarrassment to be drafting Kenneth, who's nearly twice my age. He now rides very fast and his energy doesn't seem to dwindle. I, on the other hand, felt weak from the whole morning of riding. By the time i reached the end stop it was almost noon and i have covered more than 100km - the longest distance in a day i have done for a long time.
We parted ways at the petrol kiosk and i found out that it was customary to shake everyone's hands before leaving.
I looked into the sky and saw no clouds. Then my morale dropped even lower when i realised i had some 13km to cycle to get home. There was no Kenneth in front of me this time, and i was cycling like a defeated soldier worn out from battle. I did want to go faster - the heat was scorching - so that i could get home quickly. But obviously my legs wouldn't cooperate (all right i admit i was half hearted). When i got home i yanked away my clothes and let the fan blow full blast at my body which needed cooling desperately. The cold bath after that was great, though no sooner had i finished bathing than i began to sweat again. ;(
But well, i am glad that i exercised self discipline today, woke up early and joined the ride - I fufilled my training commitment this week.
0 comments:
Post a Comment