I think the body is willing but the mind is weak. I skipped my inaugural Tuesday AHM training interval session. Somehow the thought of it being at Bedok camp formed another barrier to me going. Anyways, I was tld on Saturday this interval session was supposed to mark the end of the aerobic phase.... Right.... I just did my first good long run and it's already the end of the aerobic phase. Think I'm maybe 2 weeks++ too late. And it doesn't seem like I have the time to throw in a make up session and recover before Saturday's run again.

With me skipping the run, I further missed my swim due to laziness. Well, I could have / should have gone for my swim, but dunno, think my body was just lazy. So i spent the evening cleaning my bike. It took me like 1 hour plus just to hose down the bike with water, clean off the grime from the frame, rims and chain, and the lube my chain and steel bolts. Which brings me to talk about why my bike was so dirty...

Yeah, it had to rain on Tuesday morning. I had a bad night's sleep and woke up at 4am and it was raining. At 5am the rain had stopped but as is the case in the mornings there was no wind to dry the roads. So I somehow managed to get myself to go for the ANZA tuesday morning ride. Along the way, I contemplate my fate given the wet conditions. Tuesday morning ride = Mount faber. Mount faber + wet roads = scary experience. Well true enough, at the start line i see only 7 people, as compared to the usual 15 or more.

The descent was quite a harrowing experience. I pretty much was lightly feathering my brakes all the way down, those twisty corners, and the final corner was just plain scary. Once you lean (yes you have to lean) into the corner, the bike just keeps on picking up speed as it spirals down, reaching about 40kmh. I can't see what's around the corner I'm accelerating into, and I don't even dare to tap the brakes given the wet roads. At such speeds sliding out and landing on my knee would probably just shatter it. Anyway, the whole experience with Mt faber proved that my front brake doesn't really work. The modulation is disgusting. Something needs to be done...

Besides the above, I finished the ride at South Bouna Vista Road on a more positive note, moving up at about 33kmh. It's the first time in a long while I rode up at such a speed. Although still somewhat lacking from before. There was this guy who went past me such a large gear and low cadence it was just amazing.

As for this morning, I did the ANZA wednesday ride... I turned up just in time to see the peloton (about 20 large) leaving longhouse, and so I sadly spend the next 20 min chasing. I catch up and start my pacing about 20m behind the pack. Along the way I see this guy Uncle Ben doing sprints behind the pack... He'll basically relax on the downslopes to about 1 lamp post behind the peloton, then on the upslope he'ld bridge up to them as fast as he could. And he just kept doing that for the entire mandai stretch. Pretty insane. Well, as usual I was a little inattentive along neo tiew road and before I knew it the pack was 50+m ahead. I basically spend the next 30 min chasing as hard as I can just not to get dropped... Well, I'm gonna be a bit mean here but it's great to have girls riding the pack, as they bring the speed down when they pull so I can catch up!! If not I think I would have ended up as one miserable soul cycling alone at 630am on the dark windy (wine-dy, not wind-dy) neo tiew roads... All in all I think I'm pretty weak matching sudden accelerations and changes in pace. Yup, and ending the ride up South Bouna Vista road again I get destroyed by the front runners who move at 36kmh, while I struggle to maintain a trailing 32kmh...

Poor Poh Khai pulled his shoulder on Monday... besides that, training has been ok, except the lack of speed, and the crowded plus choppy water conditions. And dragonboating seems kinda hard. Dunno how to twist when I have nothing to kick against...

I hope this blog post isn't too long.