Sat: Balik Pulau Ride/ Sun: Air Itam Dam & Hillturn

Date: 16/1/2010
Riders: Chng, Freddy, CheeWei, Mei Ling, Wai Jia
Route: BJI -> Teluk Kumbar -> Balik Pulau -> Jalan Tun Sardon -> BJI
Distance -> ?
Duration -> 4.5hrs

Easy ride to accompany our new members. Supposed to have few new lady members joining in but only one turn up as the others have last minute commitments. Green Wheelers welcome Wai Jia.

Ride out from Parkview at 7am and stop by Bayan Lepas Waterfall. It was a surprise to see a nice waterfall beautifully renovated with tiles enclosing a big pool. Would bring my family there for a splash day soon.

We then set out to Teluk Kumbar and ascend up the hills towards Balik Pulau for breakfast.
After breakfast we head up to ascend to the View via Jalan Tun Sardon. Not bad for our new member, Wai Jia. She was able to ride quite a distance with not much bike pushing. Kudos....keep it up...

Bayan Lepas Waterfall






















































Date: 17/1/2010
Riders: Chng, Freddy, Ang, Mei Ling & Ong
Route: BJI -> Paya Terubong -> Air Itam Dam -> Hillturn -> Balik Pulau -> Jalan Tun Sardon -> BJI
Distance -> 29km
Duration -> 4.5hrs

Ride out from Parkview at 7am and meet up with Ong at Paya Terubong and head towards Air Itam Dam. Did not take breakfast at Air Itam like we usually do but decide to take breakfast at Balik Pulau Rapid station.

Rest a while with some photo session at the Dam and then ascend up to Hillturn and descend to Balik Pulau town. Stop at Rapid bus station for breakfast before ascending Jalan Tun Sardon to the View.
Met up with brothers, Woei Tong & Woei Chyang from round island ride at the View. Had a little rest, chit chat and some wheelie practice before hitting home.

Am I hitting plateau?

It could due to my recent working pressure and my son start going to school, which required me to sacrificed a lot of my workout time. Weight loss have been hitting plateau since ~2 months ago, maintained at ~81kg. I realized I also start to have lot of "cheat" meals than it should in one week.

So, to get motivated again for cycling and staying healthy for myself and my family, I start watching "The Biggest Loser". This TV show do able to motivate me, when saw some of them go through ~50% weight loss in just 6 months. I also stop taking white rice during lunch and start packing my breakfast. Need to cut out simple carb as much as possible.

I also changing my cycling routine, instead of just short mountain biking, for next few week, I would only doing > 60 km road ride during weekend. Weekdays would just some short "burst" ride typically not more than hour. Let see how this changes work it out after CNY....

29th Jan update: Not able to do any long distance cycling as I initial plan, however, look like less simple-carbo diet work pretty well. My weight right now at ~79kg, whoa, considering I'm not clocking more than 100km cycling mileage for past 14 days.

Time Keeping Round Island Ride

Date: 10/1/2010
Distance: 72km
Route: BJI -> Coastal Highway -> Gurney -> Teluk Bahang -> TitiKerawang -> Balik Pulau -> Tun Sardon
Riders: MeiLing, Ang, Chng, WoeiTong, WoeiChyang

Today we set to do a 4hrs round island (including breakfast at Teluk Bahang) with climbing Tun Sardon at the end of the route. We figured if we can maintain >28 km/hr on flats and doing Batu Ferringgi not less than 20 km/hr. Climbing TitiKerawang not less than 14km/hr and maintain 8 km/hr for Tun Sardon should do the trick.

End result is non of us can do it, all of us almost puncture when hitting Tun Sardon. We reached the View in 4 hrs 20mins. Overall we're missed about 30mins for the whole course. Need to do more hard riding.

Some photos will follow...

Pantai Pasir Panjang

Date: 9/1/2010
Riders: Chng, Freddy, CheeWei, WoeiTong
Route: BJI -> Balik Pulau -> Pulau Betong -> BJI
Distance -> ?
Duration -> 4.5hrs

4 of us set to ride up Gertak Sanggul initially, with Freddy having a quick spin, he need to rush home for work. But end up only left me and Chng in Balik Pulau having breakfast and scratching our head what to do. Chng suggest we go for sight seeing ride where he always wanted to visit Pulau Betong Beach, instead of going in off road. Initially we're having a good time at Pulau Betong Beach.

Chng and me suffered big time on our way home due to scorching sun and strong head winds.

Carpet, Tun Sardon, Balik Pulau, Pondok Upeh

Date: 1/Jan/2010 (Friday)
Riders: Ang, Freddy, Ong, Woei Tong & Ch'ng
Duration: 7:00am ~ 11:30pm
Route: Parkview > Sungai Ara Single Trail > Carpet > Jln. Tun Sardon > Balik Pulau (Breakfast) > Pondok Upeh > Carpet > Cherry Blossom > Relau > Parkview

Ong ride up from Paya Terubong to join us at Parkview. We proceed to Sungai Ara single trail to ascend up to Carpet.

Its my 3rd. ride up carpet and I'm still struggling with some pushing to reach carpet. Still got lots of training before I can ride up carpet without pushing. Sigh.....

It's Ong's 1st. ride up carpet, so as with most first time rider up carpet, some pushing is the order of the day.

From carpet, we decide to descend to Balik Pulau but our "captain" Ang was not sure of the trail to use. So, it was more of a trial & error decision.
Fortunately, while deciding if its the correct trail, we met up with Ang's friends who also wanted to descend to Balik Pulau. We were glad to meet Ah Hoo, Ooi and Steven.
We team up with the 3 of them and made our descend thru orchards & farms and exit halfway down Jalan Tun Sardon.

On exiting we met up with some of the trailing end of Malakoff's riders. We join in until we reach the Rapid Bus station where we decide to stop for breakfast.

After breakfast, we moved on to Pondok Upeh and ascend back to Carpet. It was really a tough ascend and Woei Tong, Ong and me actually did more hiking with our bike than riding. Obviously, Woei Tong has not recovered from KAWAT'09.

It was really an energy sapping climb up from Pondok Upeh to Carpet for me. However, Ang, Ch'ng and the 3 new friends have no problem with the climb.
Thanks to Ah Hoo, Ooi and Steven for showing us the trail. This is a new trail for us.
Whether we will do it again in the near future? Well, I will definitely think twice.

From Carpet we bade farewell to our 3 new friends. We descend towards Cherry Blossom while they descend towards Sungai Ara.





























































































































































































































































































































































































New friends....Steven & Ooi...



































That's Ah Hoo....another new friend....don't let the squatting down fool you....he's fast & furious...

2010 First "mini" Round Island

Route: BJI -> Yeap Chor Ee -> Green Lane -> Scotland Road -> Gottlieb Road -> Tanjong Tokong -> Tanjong Bungah -> Batu Ferringhi -> Teluk Bahang -> Titi Kerawang -> Balik Pulau -> Tun Sardon -> BJI
Date: 2/Jan/2010
Distance: 62km
Time : 6 hrs !!!!
Riders : Mei Ling; Chng; Chia Hooi; Freddy; Woei Tong (Ang join in later at the View, Jln. Tun Sardon)
Noteworthy: Chia Hooi first round island and Chng butt no longer in pain after saddle change; instead, he became a more fierce rider now.

Long riding time but very short story to tell, Chia Hooi (I've been persuading her to join our rides for few months now ) punctured big time at Jln. Tun Sardon. Support car is needed. Look at the bright side, she now has her own cycling story to tell. And I know she is a fighter, wait for our report on her second attempt for long distance cycling.


Photos that just showed the good time:































































































































































































































































































































































When your legs are aching, any "chair" is a good chair.


















Result from Oct Cycling For A Lane Campaign:





















New recruited cyclist, at last, Mei Ling have a female cycling partner:



















At our regular breakfast stall








Yummy:






































Chng: "I want 2 big plates, how come you give me small plate ah..."


Candid shot from group shot:




















The professionals






































Freddy's


















Mei Ling's



















Ch'ng's


















Ang's


















Woei Tong's


















Chia Hooi's


















At the View
































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Moments of silence: