It is true what every Kiara riders says "Kiara will not be the same every time you rides it. This is what makes it challenging".
I arrived earlier this morning at about 7am and sms-ed Rolance. He said the group will be meeting up at 8am at the cross junction. with 30mins to spare, i told myself there is enough time to do the Apollo-2k-Mission trail.
20m into the trail i saw Mike Phoon exiting the trail.
"got fallen tree", he said.
I went to investigate and yeap, the trail was blocked off at three places. So i turned back and went down reverse mission and back.
Pat B's handiwork. He and a bunch of TRAKS heroes and heroines maintained the trails so other can ride.
By 8am, everyone was at the cross junction. Most of them i have not met before and the usual guys are there. Roland, Alex, Jason Phua, Kee Yeow, Stanley Ng, Mike Phoon, Soon- those that i am familiar with. Met a few others such as Kheng Leong (hello! Finally!), Jason Tan and a few others which, again, i did not introduce myself. I seriously know i will be dropped like fly behind these riders.So, first loop was the Apollo-2K-Mission; which met with a premature stop due to the trees. Pat and a few has already started to clear the trail. The rest of us joined in.
Pat came with a chain saw. YES. A chain saw. i just lend a few fast-twitch muscle and cleared some of the wood that was shredded by the saw.
With that cleared, the immortals rode down the trails in breaknecks/breaklegs speed. Not far in front, another tree that need clearing.
With that tree cleared, the guys sped down the terrace. I stopped of course. No point having another tumble down the three-drops on the terrace. More so when i found out (yesterday) that i had the back of my right thighs (hamstring) bruised when i tumbled down on Kiara#5.
Rolance down the triple-drop terrace. Redeeming the fumble he did last Saturday.
Stanley stayed behind with me. He even passed me some samples of Endurolytes. By the way, Stan sells Hammer Nutrition stuff. It is one of the sports supplement that is actually natural and do not have synthetic ingredients. So, if you are interested, either email me at opstupe at gmail dot com (so i can link you up with him) or leave a comment or email him at stanleyn at gmail dot com.
Nothing speaks of the brand better than the current KLMBH HeadBasher!
I exited the ride to the crossroad and the group was then split to three. One decided to end the ride (had enough), one decided to do a shorter ride (Me and Rolance) and the third decided to go LOOONNNG.So, up TwinPeaks - down DirtyDeeds - went along Sungai - reverse LungBuster - part of Karnival - Carpark for me and Rolance. The other groups decided that 220bpm is just theoretical maximum human heart rate and went for the longer route down Kampung.
Uncle Leong scored a 207bpm max. I will be laying down with a cardiac arrest if i followed.
For myself. Kiara#6 makes me hate Kiara. I pushed slightly more than i ride. I did not clear all the switchbacks. I pushed on most downhills. Score now is Kiara 4 - Stupe 2.
But i will be back for more. With tips from Stan and Roland, i am sure it is a matter of time before i will ace the simplest trail - TwinPeaks.
Distance : 12.25km
Max HR : 168bpm
2011 Mileage so far:
Run: 20.6km
Bike:178.28km
thanks for the post. I used to beat up myself for pushing the bike and result in losing motivation to ride off road, of course, broken shoulder blade does not help either.
ReplyDeletebut after reading your blog, i realized that pushing sometime is not a bad thing.
maybe you need to be reminded too.
great post, i have yet to venture into Kiara. balls shrinks to the size too small to see by a microscope to able to ride there :)
Thanks for the plug!! :)
ReplyDeleteStupe oh Stupe, don't worry bro, you're doing just fine. Some of us have bad days even now. Last Sun i almost felt my lunch coming back up while riding with JP, JT, KL, etc. There are days when i feel just absolutely out of it and nothing i do on the ride seems right.
The thing about Kiara is, the more you ride it, the more Kiara likes you, and hence have more mercy on you. Truth be told, Kiara is by no means easy for anyone. We all learn the hard way. All it takes is a little perseverance. And looking at the way you're riding today, you're doing absolutely great. The skills and technique doesn't take much to learn. It just takes a bit more practice (and some blood sacrifice every now and then) to master.
Keep it up and soon you'll be flying faster than most us. Except Rolance of course.
Good ride today, catcha again soon! :)
Stan.
It was a pleasure meeting and riding with you Stupe :) I'll write a post on the max HR achieved soon. They also say that every other trail becomes more rideable after you've done Kiara. Heh.
ReplyDeleteDon't be disheartened bro, like the supreme king said, it's only a matter of time before your technical skills and your athletic base are on par. Just don't forget to leave some skin on the trail every now and then. Hahahah!
We have not met before, but I enjoyed reading your post.
ReplyDeleteThose Endurolytes really do help. And don't forget to try out HEED. Both of these helped me tremendously. Especially when I join the thunder clan for a ride. Those guys are fit, fast and skillful.
But remember, there is only one MAN in the that clan....
SCKhoo - thanks for the add in FB. :) Now can put a face to name. You broke your shoulder blade? bro, that's massive. :)
ReplyDeleteSN - master king sifu guru. thank you. YOu are being too kind.
UnkaLeong - DOnate blood to both organic and inorganic materials bro.
Horrwai - oh yes, the Man is...RoLance?