BIKING

Saturday, 18 March 2006

Woke up late at 8.30 a.m. Missed my morning run. Decided to try biking in the evening at Taman Aman. I am still a novice in biking. My previous biking experience in biking is as follows:

-February 1997, Pangkor Island ride. Cycled around the whole Pangkor Island in mountain bike in 2 hr+.

-Late September 2003, Sentosa Island. Cycled around the entire Sentosa Island in mountain bike.

-Early October 2003, East Coast Park, Singapore. Cycled the entire East Coast Park in 1.5 hr+ with a mountain bike.

I tried to cycle using a racing bike around the car park area of Taman Aman. My aim was to familiarise myself with the racing bike. When I tried to cycle for the first time using racing bike, I fell down from the bike as I had problem balancing myself. Cycled around the car park area for 6.5 km. Decided to try to cycle in Putrajaya instead of Puchong the next day as it has less cars during the weekend.

Sunday, 19 March 2006

Drove to Putrajaya in at 7 a.m. and arrived there in 45 minutes. Parked my car at the open space parking near Dataran Putrajaya (approximately 2 km away from Dataran Putrajaya). Started my cycling journey with racing bike around Putrajaya at 8.03 a.m. The weather was fine and there were not much vehicles. Most of the road was flat although certain streches consist of hills. At certain streches of the road, I nearly fell down from my bike due to uneven road condition. I was cruising at around 20 km/hr. Luckily, I managed to balanced myself. Total distance covered was 26.75 km in 2 hr 12 min+. Average speed was around 10 km/hr to 20 km/hr. Top speed was 28 km/hr. Had to do 3 pitstops (water break for 2 to 3 minutes) for every 9 to 10 km as I felt the pain on my buttock.

I found myself sweating less in cycling as compared to running. Is my cycling speed too slow ...?

Is it very normal for every cyclist to experience pain on the buttock everytime he or she goes for a long ride ?

After cycling for more than an hour, I also found both of my hands numb when holding the handle bars on my bike. Is it due to lack of salt content on my body or I am not used to riding a racing bike ?

Overall, I found cycling more interesting rather than pure running but I felt the pain on my buttock when cycling on a racing bike as compared to a mountain bike. Cycling uses more on the thigh muscles as compared to running on calf muscles. Hmm...still have a lot to learn to improve myself in cycling.