Reflections 2013

Time for me to reflect and take stock of the milestones for the cycling year and to look ahead to the new season. The cycling season, at least for me, has but ended with the culmination of Tour de Bintan. I’m sure many are glad to hear this cos, here comes the smelly flower rides haha.

The cycling year began in November/December 2012 around which time the conversion from PCN to regular road cycling began. During this period, I started joining the Joyriders morning 5am rides, which was really timely cos we had started to get real serious into cycling. At that time, most of us were still on foldables and our only serious foray into joining events was participating in LCSG’s annual KOH on November 4 2012. That was perhaps evoLV’s first serious event participation and thus bringing the hobby from recreational to serious cycling.

2012

Nov – LCSG’s KOH. This gave us our first encounter with the Southern Bumps. Learnt much from this event. Hill climbing technique. Cadence vs force on pedals. The spinner vs the masher. Weight as a penalty in hill climbing. Importance of using appropriate equipment and leveraging on technology.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.454388691268966&type=1

http://www.strava.com/activities/26871173

Dec – A recommendation by David Low saw me joining Joyriders and their morning 5am rides from LH.  This greatly improved my weekly mileage and knowledge of riding in a peleton.  The bunch of riders that meet in the early mornings are so highly motivated and willing to train day in day out. Joining these rides really inspired me. The training certainly brought me to another level of cycling. Subsequently, Vincent and Richard joined the rides and were quickly promoted to JR newbie leaders.

Granfondo KL/Ampang. My baptism of fire! Having conquered the previous month KOH, and becoming a regular JR rider, I was brimming with confidence and so decided to join Kaye for a Granfondo event in KL. Wah!..this one suffer haha. I managed to complete the route but was really taxed, during which I had a puncture after riding across a deep and giant pothole while going downhill!! Thankfully I didn’t fall and managed to continue after a quick change of the tire. You can see my strava here à http://www.strava.com/activities/32642817

2013

Jan – OCBC KL. Probably the last time we took the foldies out for an event. We had already registered to take part in this the previous year with foldables. Also at this time, most were still on foldable bikes. This one was a bit of a disappointment as roads were poorly maintained and there were many crashes. Thank goodness we came out of this unscathed. A nice experience but unlikely to go again.  http://www.strava.com/activities/38093586

Feb – CycleFest Guiness World Record at ECP. A total disaster of an event. Got up very early and waited such a long time. Organised by people who weren’t cyclists. Most disappointing event for 2013. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.504262466281588&type=1

During this period, I was still doing my weekday/weekend rides with JR 3-5x/week clocking about 10hours a week. Team evoLV’s  weekend rides also kinda became a regular feature around this time.

Mar – Cameron Highlands with JR. This trip practically made all evoLV members JR members as well lol. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.507701715937663&type=1
We had been preparing for this the past month with rides and loops at Telok Blangah and Mt Faber. http://www.strava.com/activities/41796894
I think David did 15 loops one siao day on his own. This trip leveled everyone up. I was particularly impressed with Francis who overnight became a hardcore cyclist. With the experience of Ampang behind me, I was prepared for this Tour de Cameron and enjoyed the trip. I think the others suffered a bit haha. Experience does matter for cycling!  If no experience, it helps to simulate in training too!
http://www.strava.com/activities/42924336
http://www.strava.com/activities/42924384
http://www.strava.com/activities/42924316

Apr – Barelang. Together with Team Cyclenauts, we made our first trip to the famed 6 bridges. Braving the most severe of thunderstorms, we came back with many stories and well-earned battle scars!
http://www.strava.com/activities/49930433

OCBC Singapore. Prepared for this by doing more trainer workouts to simulate race conditions. The sufferfest videos are great for these. Unfortunately, I went into this race with a gastric flu. After the first 20mins, adrenaline kicked in and felt good enough to finish respectably.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.528764927164675&type=1

http://www.strava.com/activities/51074880

May – Tour de Kulai. The first Team evoLV organised trip. This was a training ride for The Kuantan Century Ride in June. Overall a nice ride despite missing a turn on the way back and having to battle the JB city traffic!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.538822712825563&type=1

http://www.strava.com/activities/55964318

Jun – Highlight for this event was the Kuantan Century Ride. Having trained on Barelang and Kulai, I went into this event comfortable and confident. Enjoyed the ride throughout.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.543868168987684&type=1
Steven Cheng was the star rider at this event. Levelled up by leaps and bound while training for and taking part in this event.

http://www.strava.com/activities/57755708

Jul – Tour de Frasers Hill. Another JR organised trip. I was having a lull in my training program bringing my weekly totals down from 10hours/week to about <5h/week. So I went into this trip a bit less conditioned than I would have liked. Although I managed to complete the tour, I suffered a bit, as Lim Wee How will testify. Arguably, perhaps also because I was pedaling in squares! Haha.

http://www.strava.com/activities/68745792

http://www.strava.com/activities/68745824

http://www.strava.com/activities/68745675

Aug – The lull in my training continued. Training trickled down to 1 ride a week. During this period I put on like 5kg over a month! Lol. No events this month.

Sep – Suddenly the thought of TdB looming up in a couple of months struck me! Started to increase my mileage again and get on the trainer. Boy! Its easy to lose fitness quickly and slow to build it up again. It is said that for every time you lose fitness, it takes double the time to get into condition again.  Good thing I could ride the F1 circuit to motivate me.

http://www.strava.com/activities/83996378

Kulai. Our 2^nd trip to Kulai was a good primer for me to get back in shape. Loss a bit of steam halfway through the ride. Here was where I realized how lacking my long distance stamina had become.

http://www.strava.com/activities/85962179

Oct – Barelang. 2^nd Tour de Barelang for Team evoLV this year. This one fully in-house arranged. Good training for TdB, the elevations and tyoe of terrain correctly simulates TdB. I tried also to put in more long distance rides this month to improve stamina, but I think too little time too late.

http://www.strava.com/activities/89808752

Nov – The climax of the year Tour de Bintan. This event is the closest a non-pro cyclist can experience to UCI like event. It was a difficult race, and I had cramps in the last 35km of stage one, but overall I enjoyed it. Perfect as a end-season race.

http://www.strava.com/activities/94261472

http://www.strava.com/activities/94261379

The Year Ahead

I write the blog to hopefully inspire and motivate those who want but dare not try. It helps when you join events as it levels you up as you train. It is of my contention that, it is the training that you undertake for an event that levels you up and not the event in itself. Anything can happen as you work towards the event, an unexpected injury, a sudden illness, or something even on the event day itself. For example, a crash or puncture that disables you from finishing the event/race. So many unforeseen things can happen, but the training consistency levels you up to fight another day. I personally think cycling is one of the most comprehensive and rewarding hobby you can dwell into. For health! For fun! For gear acquisition syndrome! For technology geeks! For the serious athelete! Unlike many of  the other sports like golf, tennis, football etc where a high degree of skill and talent is needed, cycling allows the ordinary person with the correct aptitude and mental toughness to perform relatively well within the realm of a reasonably structured training programme, as in all endurance sports. Unfortunately, in all endurance sports like swimming and running, the ability to endure some form of suffering, and hence mental toughness, is a hallmark of the sport.

Joe Friel, in his book, The Triathlete's Training Bible, said, "athletes continue to improve for about ten years, no matter what age they start training". Age is not an advantage! Hahahaha...

I haven't given much though exactly about my year ahead yet but some things are pretty much on my mind already. So as a rough estimate, my initial objectives are

1. Tour de Cameron

2. Tour de Taiwan or elsewhere untested

3. One event a month...Kulai, Barelang, Ipoh, Kuantan etc

4. Dualthlon

5. Sprint Triathlon

6. Tour de Bintan

Jan-Mar 

Foundation / Endurance Training. Long steady distance. Training will be progressive and intensity will be low. Objective is to build a strong base to build on. During this period will work on some weaknesses, maybe incorporating gymwork for strength building. 

Apr-Jun

Strength Training. Increasing intensity of workouts. FTP improvement.

Jul-Sep

Consolidation with endurance/intensity workouts. 

Oct-Dec

To be cont'd