Ride Like The Wind...Not.

Yesterday. I found myself waking up at 5am not because i need to heat up the milk for Ryan, but because i was so excited about being able to go cycling after a long long hiatus...

The excitement from the night before had me fiddling with my car boot space to fit the bike in. Car new mah, so had to take extra care not to soil it la.

The roof rack i bought from a friend's friend (which was OEM for Hyundai Matrix and Trajet) were not used because it was simply too noisy at speed above 80km/h (but i keep blaming the Matrix for having a good NVH factor that the wind noise up above were irritating).

"wah, more excited than when you were dating me ah?", wifey poked at me late Saturday night.

I honestly am telling you that since wifey was at her advance stage of pregnancy and when Ryan came along, the first 2 months of non activities were still bearable, treating the hiatus as a much needed rest for the race battered body (as if i'm some pro athelete! hahahaah!).

But came the 3rd month, everytime the Light&Easy gang mentioned these few phrases, it was enough to make water welling up at my eyes...

"Jom climb this saturday at 730H. Bfast at Bintang7" Doc's smsed a few times over the months.

"lets go for a long distance open water swim at PD this weekend", Steve emailed.

"Bagan Lalang Century ride to end 2006", Bandit asked me along.

"Batu Dam Lover. Unite. Jom Pedal this saturday at one of our favourite route" Bandit emailed a couple of times.

Reading Judge's blog posting didn't help. Neither if i read Bacin's or Faie's. Even reading Azman's blog, i couldn't help it but envy.

How about KLIM 2007? I've not been training for it, really. At this stage i'm going, all i hope for is to finish the 42km run like i did last year. Physical activities wise, i just didn't feel i was on my top form (then again, since when i was?)

I long for the long runs. I long for the long rides. I long for the endless swims.

I do not want to visit BBS (short for Bicycle Buy Sell, a local internet buy sell portal) because friends there will tell stories about their rides and all i got was my daily 5 hourly duty walking to the kitchen to prepare milk.

The only reprieve i get is the gym visits with Wifey where we work out togehter (aiyo, not in any 18sx way la!).

So, it is only understandable that i am excited about the ride in Putrajaya.

Nah, i'm delirious.

Almost orgasmic.

Nevermind the toll increase of 60% to be paid at Sunway and Puchong toll. Nevermind that the sleep i'll get from 5am till 8.30am on a Sunday will be lost. Nevermind if i fall asleep during the afternoon Baptism course for Ryan at the church. The lure to get out and pedal was just too much, too intense, too alluring and too exciting to be ignored.

I reached Putrajaya mosque at 7.30am sharp. Already there were many riders getting ready. I unloaded my bike. Fixed the QR on the front and rear wheels. Adjusted the seatpost.

I climbed onto the seatpost and pedalled. Damn. I miss this so much.

Maybe my expectation was too high yesterday. The ride wasn't as good as i wanted it to be. Infact, it was so boring. Boring. Boring. Boring.

Having 2 groups, detached from each other, the initial plan of riding in a big group in honour of the Late OP Tahir was materialised only by the front group. The back group, had a hard time finding which route the first group took.

Having only cycled for 16 short KM, the most exciting thing that happened yesteray was my Easton Flatboys left pedal coming out from it's spindle. The ball bearings on the outer side must had seen better days, but i suspect it might be from the bad fall i had in Genting a couple of months ago which has caused the already old bearing to jump/break/dislodged from the cup.


I'm really trying very hard to be interested
Edited: just realised i looked damn SH in this pic...


Really lame pic of one of the bridges. Pic taken as i pedal along Istana Darul Ehsan

To add salt to injury, as i was cycling on the wooden walkway from Precint 10 to Precint 8, i slipped and fall as the wooden surface has too much moss growing on them. No cuts or bruises, just swollen knee and ego.

This is so not happening.


The Easton's spindle...luckily not bended


Laser etched brand name which Easton won't pay me for advertising them


But this flatboys are really surefooted and light! Just don't let those sharp screws bites your shin...

And i'm not wrong to say that the pedal malfunction was the most exciting thing that happened for me in the ride yesterday.

Sigh.