10km TT

53:30.

Just under 58 min at last month's biathlon.

Is sub-50 achievable by year end?

Reflections on a Century Ride

June (not her real name) glanced at her watch. 36 kph. The group had been cruising along at this speed for the past hour, 30km into the century ride. “The easy part is over. Here comes the hard part!” June muttered to herself.

The coordinator had cautioned participants about the slopes starting from 35 km. Not real killer slopes like Cameron or Genting, but sufficiently challenging for recreational cyclists such as June.  The group started to break up as the stronger riders climbed with seemingly little effort. The likes of June and a few of her cycling buddies started to lag behind.

“Time to pace myself.”

Ironically, pacing in cycling is no different from pacing in work. June’s thoughts wandered off to her experience over the past five years, in part to take her mind away from the effort and pain. June could still remember her business trip to Denver, what – more than three years ago?

Had it been only three years? Time flew by. So much had happened since then. It was in 2008 that the company acquired a large portfolio from a major logistic company in the US. With hindsight, it was clear that was a good time to buy. The subsequent IPO (initial public offering) of that portfolio was a huge success. The share price jumped 11% on the first day of listing. That made some people a lot of money.

June surmounted the 8 percent gradient climb. Phew. That was hard work.

Hard work, indeed. One’s work is not done after IPO. In fact, being in the public eye poses even more challenges. Quarterly reporting, investor relations, AGMs, corporate social responsibilities. These were new facets of the job that any graduate couldn’t appreciate until he or she worked for a public listed company.

The downhill segments were just reward for that climbing work. Descending at over 50 kph was a rush, to say the least. One of her friends zipped past her. He had a good 30 kg advantage over June. Life’s fair.

Then came the undulating rolling terrain. June did not mind rolling terrain. Just needed a good rhythm. Of course, one needed to be adequately trained as well. Some of her buddies who did not put in enough saddle time would start to pay the price for the lack of training later on, after the 100km mark. June had seen that happened all too often.

The same principle applied to work as well. If there was one important principle June learnt since her university days, it was to over-prepare. Be it for a presentation, meeting with the boss, business partners, board meeting or AGM, it was always better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.

Further on, there was a group of cyclist gathered on the road side. Obviously a crash. Hope no one’s seriously injured. At the water point, June quickly topped up her water bottles and ate a banana. Great support for the event, June thought appreciatively.

Riding was like a debt instrument, June thought. When surging and climbing over long distances, it was easy to go into oxygen deficit if one was not careful. Lactic acid would build up. Without adequate training and hydration, riders would go into muscular convulsions, otherwise known as cramps.

The segment from the third water point due south was with tail wind. The analogy would be good times of low interest rates and cheap equity (before 2008). But as the event coordinator said, “Tail wind on your back means that you’d get head wind on the return.” The financial crisis was the headwind.

Just like some countries used to borrow and borrow more to repay past borrowings. Negative amortization.  Some of these countries are now in financial distress from over-zealous borrowings. Leverage used to be the darling of the industry until the financial crisis. Interesting how deleveraging became all the rage then. The good it did was that companies were now more cautious and prudent in capital management. Today, derisking is the new buzz word.

June silently cursed at the strong headwinds, with her riding speed dropping to the low 20s. The afternoon sun was out in full force. Most riders were now struggling. Some simply chucked their bikes by the road to take a breather under the tree. Riders were digging deep, reaching for their energy gels, bars or salt tablets, looking for that second wind.

Speaking of second wind, June recalled how many companies turned to asset enhancement initiatives to sustain growth in recent years, when acquisition as a growth source became as scarce as hen’s teeth. She worked as the key personnel on one such initiative, managing a team that conceptualized, modeled the incremental cash flows, evaluated the investment proposal, and checking and rechecking the excel spreadsheet, making numerous changes as new information unfolded.

Topping it off, June had to convince the board of the merits of the initiative. Some board directors were tough as nails. Exactly what one needed to grind out the last 50 km of the century ride. By the way, for the uninitiated, this was the imperial century. 100 miles or 160 km. Not the metric century of 100 km. For the faint-hearted.

June was grilled by one particularly nasty director on her choice of discount rate, she recalled. It was fortuitous that she was well trained by her professors on the different risk components that constitute the discount rate. That presentation was probably the most stressful presentation she had ever made.

The last 20 km after the last water point were the toughest – physically and mentally. Mental strength would arguably be more important than physical strength. “What does not kill you makes you stronger!” Yes, June survived that ordeal, and she was confident that she would survive the present ordeal as well.

June’s journal

Kuantan 160

March 25, 2012

Round Island

Remarkable that this was my first round island (RI). 121 km, shortened due to unfortunate incident along EC service road. That was when the C-monster pounced on me and totally consumed me for all of 10 minutes. Not once but twice.

Three contributors. First, hard ride on GF, pulling more than what I should, and with two hard sprints. Second, was trying to stay off salt tables both days, using electrolytes instead. Third, not fuelling up at rest stop. One cereal bar did not cut it. Lessons learnt.

Poor JN had a tumble in dramatic fashion when an inconsiderate driver failed to give the 1.5m clearance when passing. Wishing JN a speedy recovery!

Thanks to EN for pulling me along WCH and viaduct :)