Friday, January 29, 2010

First century ride

In any training, there'll always be landmarks or key sessions - measured either by distance or time. Reaching a (metric) century is one such landmark. 102 km bike ride this morning. It took 3:43, average speed of 27.6 kph on Changi coastal road plus Loyang/Selarang - 3 loops in all.

IN and I started off at 3:30 am, completing the first loop (36km) in under 1:30. Met up with KL, JN, SY and HC at NSRCC junction where we proceeded to do another loop. At the end of the second loop, SY and JN were game for a loop, and were only too glad to draft behind fresher legs.

Our speed during the first lap was conservative - about 27 to 28 kph. The second lap was a little faster, and surprisingly, we clocked about 29 to 30 kph on the third lap. On some stretches, we were doing 32 kph.

Other than some animal tales at Changi village - a cat dashed across our path and a dog scratching its bum in the middle of the road, and some friendly hellos from dolled up "girls", the ride was rather uneventful. I ran out of water after Selarang on the third loop and had to stop at 7-11 to get a refill. This was in spite of my regular water bottle and aero-bar water bottle.

On the way home, we were in front of a convoy of heavy vehicles and cars as the other lane was closed. The stretch was more than 1 km long, and picking up the pace almost gave me cramps. What's annoying was this SUV that repeatedly horned at us. Where's the graciousness that SM talked about?

A nice breakfast awaited us at home where MBH cooked up some delicious omelette with some sliced Italian sausages and glutinous rice.

The next landmarks would be 120km and then a real century (100 miles)!

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