I woke up late in the morning feeling tired (result of 13 eps of Over Drive) and decided to skip AHM training... Decided on a round island ride instead.

The first 75 minutes was ok, able to exert power with each pedal stroke. The winds at punggol / sengkang area were quite strong and I constantly felt unstable on my bike. The roads were often flanked by open fields which provided no wind-shield. Speeds were differing greatly depending on the direction I was travelling. On moment struggling at 31kmh, another moment at cruising at 42kmh. Even though I consciously reduce the gear ratio to maintain a decent cadence while cycling into a headwind, I somehow still tend to over estimate my abilities, leading to blow out... Problems with maintaining my position and applying power. Also a distinct difference in power between legs today due to some fatigue in the right knee. 2 hours later my lower back, shoulders, neck, hip flexors and knees were a little bu xinged... I ultimately gave up and pedalled at sub 30kmh speeds. I had blown already. Aerobars at low speeds (without headwind) are useless and become deadweight... In the end I cut short my route as I realised I was moving way too slowly and had no more purpose on the bike. Estimated mileage of the reduced route around 145kmh in 5 and a half hours....

Destroyed..... Weak... Need more mileage.... Hur hur.

I spent Friday resting and chanced upon this anime on youtube called Over Drive. It's basically about this high school guy who joins the school cycling club and they train for an upcoming road race. Yup, it's an anime about road cycling! The actual race only happens from episode 11 onwards and they basically spend the first 10 episodes on character development and some bogus-looking training.

Here's some lame cycling trivia actively propogated throughout:
- Muscles for cycling and other sports differ so good runners need not make good cyclists
- Long limbs are advantageous
- What's important in cycling is the heart
- There's a saying that crashing makes you faster
- There's this guy who's always visualising gear shifting when off the bike
- All cyclists shave their legs
- It's easier to focus on balance during the learning phase by using the largest gear ratio
- Guys who cycle in the largest gears (the call it "full outer") are sprinters

Hmmmmm, quite bogus and non-technical I say...... The majority of the show is about how the main character pours all his time and energy into cycling as he realises it's a tool he can use to step away from his old self (he was and still is a weird, loser-like guy). And a lot of over-exagerated amusement, passion and awe at cycling etc... Kinda weird. But what's cool is how I can recognise the majority of the equipment being used in the show. Heck, I have some of the parts!