Dirt, dust & bang on Prez

After the Bagan Lalang ride, I was bogged down to hit another 100km mark on the saddle. Every weekend seemed too exigent be it in time quantum or physical. I decided to cool off from joining the Broga Classic ride the following weekend and opted to accompany a friend newbie on cycling into Langat. It turned out to be a great relaxing and good workout as well.

As usual, the weekdays were none other than the self yoga workout behind steering wheels. I was attending meetings more than I can imagine. The evenings ended up me being knackered to reach my running shoes. The weather was also a bit haywire. It rained most of the days, morning and evening. Cools off the haze & humid from the last few weeks. It even cooled off my gusto to run. Slack.

From too much public exposed and meeting people, I was proned to the outbreak of flu. I was down with fever on Friday. It was a restless Friday. Joints were aching and my solitary condition ended up me being tossing myself on the bed for 8 hours. It was not a rest indeed. I kept reminding my sons not to come close, knowing the power of flu infection. I kept myself disciplined to repeat with antibiotics and hydrations and stayed focus to recover for the Sunday Presidential Ride.

Saturday I felt fine though with still bitter taste from the fever, I thrusted in carbos and fuel up though I was still hesitent for the Sunday event. My son was down with flu pulak. I ensured that he gets the same treatment as I had for fast recovery. Alhamdullillah it did and he was joyfully shouting across the hall by evening.

The annual mtb gathering organised by PCC took place at Univeristy of Nottingham, Semenyih. This would be my first mtb event for 2009. It was greatly anticipated by a few of us since the route would take us through 68km of rolling hills across Broga and Lenggeng. I was a bit cautious as not to push hard on myself considering the recovery rate I'm in.

Turn-up from fellow friends was awesome. It was like a get together ride, especially when we get to meet old friends. A mega weekend ride with the same purpose, to get tired and dirty. 4 loops with 3 checkpoints waiting for us with 3 major hills reaching as high as 236m. We tried to stay together most of the time, just to ensure that we stayed focus & euphoric. As the milage clocked in and fatigue crept, cramps along the trail were a common sight which includes a few of our fellow buddies. They had to pace themselves as not to push harder. Cut-off time at checkpoints gave us the pressure to pursue.

Managed to reach CP3 20 minutes before cut-off time when I decided to call it a day. It was 1.10pm and body gave signals that it was time to take it slow. I've clocked 5 1/2 hours of ride covering about 50km hovering across plantations and forest. Nothing better than to spend a Sunday in dirt, dust & banging on the trails. Just like the old times.

A few of us didn't reached CP3 on time. Another few took up the challenge of the last Loop 4 while some of us pedal off through chicken loop for another 7.5km back to the university on the Broga trunk road.

Our curses and desperation on completing this event will always be an awesome memories, just like the previous years where we can still share every detail of it. Best of all, our laughters and nonsense be it at the parking lots, on the trail and even over late lunch will always be a cure for stress and flu. Looking forward for another ride Mr. Prez.