Well, in a way perhaps I have been. But very much from the saddle of my bike. Yes, my training has begun...
A couple of weeks ago, I contacted my good friend Joe Nathan as he has done the Cycle-around-Malaysia thing as well as a recent ride down from Cambodia. He was very keen to hear more and we met up and talked about Celebrate Malaysia! whereupon he said I should meet a friend of his, Johann, who's been-there-done-that and whose CV includes cycling through the heart of Australia and being at the Mt Everest base camp during the 1998 Everest climb.
Well, we did indeed meet up: Joe, Jo and another of Joe's friends, Reezan, at Mas Ayu coffee shop in Siglap late one evening. Three Teh Halias later (and that was just me), the energy was still buzzing in the air - the guys were full of ideas, advice and encouragement.
In the following week, I brought my trusty run-of-the-mill Wheeler 910 to Uncle Teck at Song Seng Chan in Joo Chiat Road to have it fitted out with a new handlebar, a rack and some other necessities. Uncle Teck is 60-something (I think, and if I've added a few years, I do apologise, Uncle Teck!) and fit, hale and hearty. A ready smile, plenty of good advice and a couple of days later I picked up my bike, now looking much more ready to tackle a couple of thousand kms. The bike at least, maybe not me yet...
A word on Uncle Teck: he's part of a group of guys who meet up early on Sunday morning to 'go cycling'. They regularly do 80 to 100 km and that week I went there, the destination was Johor and the Iskandar Development Region... Most humbling...
During those days, Joe regularly waved a menacing finger at me, insisting I should be out training. As my bike was in the shop, he lent me his, and so started my training. I loaded up the panniers with some weights - two of Mei's 2-kg dumbells in one bag and a 5-litre bottle of some general cleaning liquid I found in our storeroom in the other bag. The first night was about adjustment - me to the bike, my legs to the weight and so on.
It was good and now that I've got my bike back, I've been regularly going out with about 10 kgs in the bags. It's all starting to take shape!
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