Saturday, February 22, 2014

Niner to Bentong

Some may feel that this is just another typical cyclist blog. Weekend over weekend, like there's nothing else to do besides cycling the regular route. Monotonous? It depends. Should it is an attempt purposely for training combined with group ride with buddies, then the perspective shall differ. Try it. The view and feeling atop the handlebar is awesome. You'll enjoy the sceneries and suffered under the climate. The typical tropical cycling adventure.

For the past two weeks we still commute the same places. It was a plan to mix between flat and hill rides. Ijok and Bentong. The later was a bit different when I decided to bring my mountain bike instead. I had to conclude with a wider tyres to substitute my phobia of descending those winding roads. Hopefully it helps with boosting confidence.

By the way, a day before Bentong it was wedding trip down south to Malacca. It was so hot, causing some DOMs later in the evening upon arriving home. The mental started juicing out dilemma thoughts of the Bentong idea, adding heavy bike phenomena some more.

All was good throughout the ride from Gombak to Bentong. It was always good for all rides when it was on the way to the destination. Though I had to churn a little bit more effort to catch up with the pace due to heavier bikes, but the 29 inch wheel diameter were able to equalise the rolling coverage. I had the feeling that almost 40% of my energy was used up compared to 30% should I rode a road bike. The difference in tyre width resulted to more rolling resistance, plus the extra 3 kilos weight contributed to that 10%.

I downed a plate of 'nasi campur' in Bentong, making it my lunch, a plan to survive the extra energy required to drag myself and the Niner back up the 30 km climb.

It was decent pace from Bentong but an inch of incline caught a hold of me. I managed to stay with the group until the incline gets steeper after Sekolah Bukit Tinggi. That was where gravity was a downside. I struggled moving the Niner up towards Janda Baik junction and all the way to Genting Sempah. The legs almost felt empty.

The descending back down to Gombak was confident but I had to press hard to catch up with those light road bikes though at a 5% gradient. It was a hard Bentong ride this time compared to a few weeks ago. I chose it. Strength training...konon....blah.

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