Happy New Year 2007!!

It's the New Year, which means new things to work on and throwing out old things as well. Due to various circumstances, training and racing was at an all time low last year in 2006. I've made some resolutions (you can read them here), and one of them includes training more - RUNNING and BIKING and some swimming.

You know what, there's no better way to start the New Year than doing some really physical stuff.... like biking up Fraser's Hill!!

Yeah, that's what I did two mornings ago (2 Jan). I met one of CY's friend, Kannan (a triathlete and four time Ironman Hawaii!) who organized this biking trip, and basically had 5 cyclists and 3 runners (with CY being the support car driver). Of course, I definitely expected myself to be the slowest one, and the only fella not being able to complete it. After all, I haven't rode for like months, and my last ride didn't even go past 20km on a flat!

So we met up early in the morning around 6.30am at the Sg. Buloh R&R, and left for Kuala Kubu Baru to ride up to Frasers. As expected, I was the sweeper, as hills is definitely NOT my forte (being the heaviest, fattest of the group)... gravity is something I definitely have no power to fight. I only lasted up 20km from the base, and I had to give up, to avoid hurting myself by over-exertion. We wouldn't want the Desaru incident to happen again! I was in the support car after that.

Meanwhile, at the 20k mark, CY dropped the runners and they continued to run up to the Gap. We stopped at the Gap, that's where the area that is the entrance to go up into Fraser's Hill itself. I thought of continuing by running from the Gap up Fraser's Hill until I saw how STEEP it was going up Fraser's Hill entrance. The signpost says 15% gradient, but I reckon it was more than that... and the other three cyclist went up there!! Just a short distance up, my left quads starting feeling funny. Kannan said it was probably due to weak quad muscles form lack of use, and overstressed from the bike ride Kannan didn't continue as he wasn't feeling that great, so we hung out at the Gap till the rest finished the Fraser's Hill loop. The runners eventually managed to get up to the Gap, and after about half an hour of relaxing, the cyclists (including myself) decided to ride back down to KKB. It was quite a scary, but exhilirating ride down hill, having to maneuver past all the sharp corners at fairly higher speeds. But the ride was made EVEN MORE interesting when it started to rain... HEAVILY!! I was praying pretty much all the time for my safety and I basically surrendered myself to God's mercy, and try to maneuver and brake myself all the way down!

I eventually made it back to KKB, where we loaded up our bikes, changed, and had a nice indian lunch before we all parted ways.

Although I couldn't finish the uphill ride to Fraser's, I'm determined an excited to do it again, but I hope to be a little more trained and stronger the next time I do it!

What a way to start a New Year!

***HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007!***