Every well informed cyclist knows the benefits of blood doping and EPO, and well, given my one month haitus from cycling due to the exams, and with the looming road trip ahead, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Check out the video above. I'm being injected with a dose of EPO (small cos it's expensive) to stimulate red blood cell production even when I'm dormant. And then many small vials of blood are drawn for on-the-go blood transfusions, followed by one large pack which I will administer just prior to the start of my road trip.

Note the excellent service provided by the signuer aunties. They're aptly dressed in yellow for the event =)

Yah right.

Today shall officially be the last day of slacking. I have only 2 weeks left, with 0% studied. It shall be a one month period of study all the way bah, as much as possible.

With regards to my road trip, turns out Jen's not the only one who thinks I'm suicidal. Yup, pretty much a lot of opposition from my parents. Dad keeps harping on the fact I'm alone in a foreign land, and now my Mom is concerned about December being the rainy season, and my distance being too far. Also, my body has shown signs that it is but a shadow of its former self... Aerobic capacities have been halved, and muscular endurance is also suspect. Especially crampy in my opinion.

Yesterday, after I emerged from about 2 weeks of nonpaddling and flu, it became obvious once again that I'm unable to keep the pace. I tried, but just didn't have it. Could not increase the pace to get onto the back wash when it mattered, and even moderate pace maintenance left me breathless, on the boudary of the anaerobic zone. Didn't help that the enire seat board of the max kayak came out also (sorry to joseph....). And I decided to give myself a refresher on how it felt like to hit the road in such a weakened state, so I did a kranji loop and it was indeed humbling. It was literally cycling on empty. 24kmh on a flat? That's me.

So I have struck a compromise: The journey shall be halved, and Hatyai shall be my end point. A 6 day journey of 1000km bah. Till then...