All the ‘chi’ and ‘kung’

It is now 09:15pm and here I am once again in front of my computer, getting this article written. How time flies past us so quickly. Was it not only early this morning at 05:45am, when my alarm clock went off and the rain was pouring down heavily outside! I had so reluctant got up from my nice cold room, leg by leg, slowly inching and crawling myself up and out of bed. Right now, my fingers are numb and my back is aching from tiredness and from the torture that I had inflicted upon myself!

After so many months and weeks of off-road riding (mountain biking in the wild), the bike feels so much lighter on road. For once, there was less rolling resistance and the ride was not so bumpy. I remembered someone quoting; Road riding makes you a stronger rider. Now I wonder? Or is it the other way around? Personally, I feel off-road riding (mountain biking) requires more skill and energy as compared to road riding. To those of you who think otherwise, well, remember the saying: To each his or her own : One man’s meat is another man’s poison!

One fact that I must mention here is that road riding does not give you the opportunity of taking more photographs! The reason is because you will just refuse to stop after a while. In fact, it is close to impossible to stop at all as once you do, your legs and your mind will automatically stop working. Then when you get up on your bike again, your legs feel stiff and weak! The body will refuse to start all over again after the short cooling period – even if it was for a mere 1 minute! You would have lost that split second as the rest of the bikers ride past while you slowly focus and click away at the camera. And after having put away your camera, it would seem so difficult to catch up with the rest of the riders again. Do this a couple of times and you will soon be defeated – in your quest to complete a full road ride!

I proved I was really human :-) today ... unintentionally though. Something must be wrong with my ‘upstairs’ this morning.  Firstly, I just could not bring myself to stop to take any photos of the riders coming from the rear. Next, I just refuse to choose the middle ring or even the smallest chain ring. A very tiring ride as I did not give myself any room to relax. No thanks to Louise and Kiat, I had to push myself hard and use mostly only the largest crank! They were really fast and trying extra hard to catch up with them was all in vain. The both of them are very strong riders but today, they were like wild rockets on the loose!

I was going along very fine with all the ‘chi’ and ‘kung’, probably coming from every corner where there is the sound of the water down below the hill. And just when I thought I was at the peak, along came Louise and Kiat. They were riding as if they were on motorcycles and not bicycles! Before Louise could even complete his sentence, “Fol …low …”, both of them were already like a hundred feet ahead of me! Looks like their month of road riding experience must have given them enough training! Or could it be because their ‘chi-kung’ is stronger than mine? Have they conquered the art of relaxing while you are riding? Or was it more like a mind over matter and they had became a part of their bicycle?

As I struggled along, trying to catch up with them, I managed to overtake many other riders who were on the road. It is really a surprise to me that this Mimaland Genting road can be so popular with so many cyclists. And thanks to them, my ego was saved as I ride pass them without much difficulty. At least I am assured that I am not that bad a cyclist after all!

At the end of the road, we met up with another group of cyclists who were resting here. One of them introduced himself as Sunny whom I took literally as Sanny’s brother@! Once again my belief has been confirmed, the mountain biking community is one of the friendliest one around. We were all soon talking away like long lost friends regardless of the conversation that was going on.

Down the road, in less than 20 minutes, comes ‘Coke’! Sheer determination and discipline is what she has! On top of that, she has the guts to follow and complete the ride! Not to mention that she still had that little sign of not fully recovering from her flu bug.The best shocker for the day was when Bernard announced his 46 years of age! How can one ever believe it when he looks more like a 30 year old kid?

The wind was blowing strong here while the surrounding seemed more like somewhere up in the hills. Everyone felt chilly and it was quite a sight watching ‘Coke’ put on a sweater! Not just a sweater but a very brightly colored one too. And before the start of our ride back to our cars, even I had to pull up my cycling jersey zipper, as it was indeed very cold!

Overall, a very pleasant and cooling ride – though I did sweat profusely! More like riding in heaven! I guess there will always be only two (2) road rides that I will always like – today’s Mimaland – Genting Sempah and the Kuala Khubu – Frasers Hill trail. Until the next road ride … if any?