I finally did it. I finally joined these guys for a ride this morning. BFG, JN and I met up and then proceeded to LH for the rendevous with the group. There was a bit of confusion with JN and BFG waiting at the bus stop and I was at the petrol kiosk. It was after the 10th chap passed me and hollered( mistaken identity) that I thought I should SMS BFG.
There's this great bubbly girl called Joyce who runs the show( amazing isn't it?) and we have communicated through the email a couple of times in October but I never joined them because of travelling commitments and then there was the training for the SCSM which took me away from cycling for quite a bit.
The joyriders set off at a blistering pace and by junction of yio chu kang and upper thomson road I was falling back fast behind the quick group. Are these chaps newbies?? Joyce pulled up next to me and said we are going by the shorter route which I thought was great. She was great, cracking jokes and generally having a good time while I was nearly cyanosed and panting. I could feel my heart rate climbing. At the edge of seletar reservoir, I expect BFG to zoom past. Right on cue, he powered past me true to script. I started to enjoy the ride at Mandai road and willed my legs to mash down on the pedals. Well, if I were to compare with my level of comfort on the bike at the beginning of this year, I have improved somewhat. I was then averaging 20 km/h and being dropped by 5 Granny's at the park connectors at East Coast with embarassing frequency and occasionnaly forgot I am on clipless pedals and have fallen a few times. Nothing too major in terms of physical injuries but certainly had huge dents in my ego given the high embarassement quotient which I will no doubt one day write about.
We peeled off at bukit timah and then went up RRR again. It had started to drizzle. It was 6 am and the sky was still dark as we started our limb up the road. I practised getting out of my seat to pedal and was wobbling from left to right. Up the road, the road was swathed in pitch darkness; there are at least 2 stretches where there are no street lamps and I could not even see the edge of the road and on the downhill I had to grip the brakes to slow the descent.
It was indeed a new experience for me and I felt great after that.
Ride: 43 km; 1:38.
When all that was done, I still had time to do a short 20 lap swim focussing on drills and some speed(? well RPE 8-9 for me) work at the pool for 30 minutes. All in all, a great day!
Well we will not see BFG for a bit. He is off to the USA to do his marathon( how cool is that?!). All the best friend!
For me, to more climbs and longer distances on the bike
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