OCBC Training Camp - 27th Jan 2012 to 5th Feb 2012: Part 3

Training Camp Day 3 - 30th Jan 2012, Monday

After yesterday's bashing session, today was suppose to be 4 hours of steady pace/easy ride. We have 2 new riders who join us last night; Nick Squillari (our new Australian counterpart) and our very own Dinah Chan.

As usual, Vincent and I would head out earlier for our usual spin before training ride. Today we did a little less, just about 1.5 hours easy. Vincent's legs were feeling abit heavy, which could be due to the fact that he puked last evening and that might have affected his recovery. Nonetheless, he carried on the ride like he always does. Strong man indeed!

We regrouped and set out for our scheduled training ride at about 8am. It was nice good weather and we were going out easy, nice flat roads to begin with. As soon as we hit the more rural area of Chiangmai, the roads start to head up. Not just up, but long and steep undulating terrain that never ends.

After 2 hours, everyone was feeling it. We declared that this was the hardest easy ride we ever had, and will ever do. We pushed on and kept going. There were some nice descends along the way too, unfortunately, I went down hard on one of them. I crashed and was knocked unconscious for about 3 minutes. Apparently, my head hit the road barricade and my helmet broke. Thanks to our sponsor RUDY PROJECT for saving my life.

In the end, I was taken to hospital for CT scan, X rays and I was cleared. Some physical lesions on the usual hip, shoulder and yes, my elbow had 7 stitches. Thank God I am okay. Bike was not too beaten up. Handlebar slanted, derailleur hanger bent, shifters knocked out of place, front wheel gone and cleats flew out! I fixed them all as soon as I got back and went for a spin to get that cleat in position.

To think back, I felt as if someone was watching over me. As I regain consciousness, a policeman came by in his car and pulled over. He immediately called for help and the ambulance arrived within minutes. Thank You for being there for me and watching me every step of the way.

I look back at why I fell while waiting at the hospital. Perhaps I could have gone into the corner at alower speed, perhaps I could have taken an inner line to avoid the gravel, but ultimately, I have done what I did and lesson learnt. Vincent reminded me that whatever it is, whenever we descend, we have to do it within our comfort zone and never put ourselves in a situation that we may fear crashing or feel out of control.

Asian Cycling Championships is in 3 weeks time. Although this fall may hamper or slow down my preparation towards ACC 2012, I will keep fighting and will not stop. Like Qiqi once told me, I may be a slow walker, but I don't walk backwards.

More to come in the days ahead. Chin up, chin up.

OCBC Training Camp - 27th Jan 2012 to 5th Feb 2012: Part 2

Training Camp Day 2 - 29th Jan 2012, Sunday

Today's training ride began at 5am with an easy ride with Vincent. I could not sleep the previous night because of the road rash and soreness on my right side, so I decided to heck it and just join him for the ride since I was already half awake. It was cold and dark when we came out. As usual, plastic bags are very useful when it comes to fighting the wind. Just a simple plastic bag in the jersey on the chest will do the job. We rolled off and soon after, Psssssssssssssssssst, and Vincent had a flat. We did a quick change and carried on.

The morning ride was really special. Initially there were street lamps along the main road. As soon as we turned into the small road, it was total darkness. You-cannot-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face kind of darkness. Fortunately, Vincent had blinkers for me. To be honest, I was quite scared initially. I could not see s***, but Vincent taught me how to navigate with the white line at the side of the road. Soon enough, I adapted to the darkness and it was actually quite special riding in the dark. After 2 hours, we rendezvous with the rest of the team outside the hotel lobby for the scheduled 7am 'DOI SUTHEP' ride.

The plan was to do 4 sets up and down and I taught it was quite crazy. The first set up I was struggling. I just could not find a tempo but I just stuck to them and tried to find a rhythm. The second half of the climb became better! My legs just came and I could make some good efforts, especially on the steeper sections;). The first set up was 34mins to the temple, pretty descent I must say. The descend was awesome as usual, just tried to get accustom to cornering and taking good lines. The second set up was more torturous as all our legs were getting heavy, but it was still some good climbing with some small accelerations from each of us. I like!

The second descend was interesting as I had Vincent filming me! I wanted to follow his line as he can descend much better and I taught I can learn something from there. But he told me to go ahead, with me unaware that he was video-ing the descend! Crazy man descending with one hand filming! Can you imagine?

All in all, it was a good 5.5 hours ride, covered about 125km, with 2 times Doi Suthep. We were all reaching the point of diminishing returns, so we will save the other reps for the latter part of training.

2nd part of training commences at 330pm. We concluded AM session at about 1130am, so about 4 hours of good rest before some fierce motorpacing cum leadout cum sprint session. The plan was to rotate the leadout train and the sprinter. So the motor will bring us up to speed and then we will leadout for 1km for a dedicated sprinter. In the end, we were all tired from the morning training and only did a sprint each, with leadouts for other members. It was good hard efforts and I felt I really need this sort of training to improve my higher end watts. Way to go! The session lasted for about 1 hour 40mins.

Training today was awesome and I really felt that the training camp has started! Looking forward to the rest of the training week.

Now, to the dining table! A plus!

OCBC Training Camp - 27th Jan 2012 to 5th Feb 2012: Part 1

Bonjour all! This blog is alive again after a long long hiatus. The past year had been really hectic, with my final year in university, the final year project, as well as a struggling year of racing and training. I will have lots to blog about in the coming weeks. This includes things like reflections for 2011 which encompasses university life, my cycling life thus far, family, friends and last but not least, God. So stay tune for this as well as my 2012 new year's revolution and my future plans!

Training Camp Day 1 - 28th Jan 2012, Saturday

The first day of training camp was suppose to be an easy ride for acclimatisation and to get over travelling woes and keep the legs fresh for the days to come. A 2.5 hours steady ride was scheduled for us. I went out on an hour's spin before the ride just to check the bike. After an hour, we rendezvous at our hotel lobby and set off. Wisut, a thai friend of Vincent brought us out on our maiden ride. It was nice weather, a little on the chilly side with temperatures around 13 degrees celsius. I just had a base layer and rode in the cold for abit until the body starts to warm up and it got better. The ride started at 10am. After awhile, I realized the air here was dry and it reminded me that I needed to hydrate constantly as I may not feel dehydrated until it's too late!

Halfway through the ride, we met the Seoul Cycling Team, another continental team from Korea. They had about 12-14 riders, did about 3 hours of riding before meeting us. We had 'special' permission to ride with them because apparently, these foreign teams do not usually like other teams to join their rides in fear that we may be dangerous or disrupt their training session. The Seoul Team were really smooth. I did not turn with them as I did not want to disrupt their pace line or intensity. They rode in double paceline, rotating clockwise as each rider takes their turn in front, like an echelon. They rode at about 40km/h, nice and smooth. It was nice to see how a team rode like that and every rider rode in synergy. This made me 'felt good' and I would eventually want our team to be able to ride like that, as a 'Team'. It made me realize that our team is quite fragmented at the moment, but I trust that things will eventually fall into place.

We broke off after about 2.5 hours and carried on to recce some other terrains before ending the ride. Unfortunately, I had a crashed after rubbing Junrong's wheel! He needs to be more aware of what he is doing, but oh well, things happen. Sore hip and shoulder. C'est la vie. I completed about 4 hours of riding, about 125km.

Besides riding, we rest and most importantly, EAT. I love Thailand because the cost of living here is really low, and we get to eat food that are cheap and good (freshly made from the heart). Looking forward to all the nice meals in the days ahead.

My room mate for this trip is Vincent Ang, a great rider and I am looking to learn more about him and from him as a cyclist and as a person. Sprinting and descending would be my priority, and perhaps some 'on the bike' photography skills.

Coming soon.....Training Camp Day 2 - 29th Jan 2012, Sunday, and pictures!