50 KM Night Bike Ride

I wanted to go out on a bike ride yesterday, but was busy with work. So today, after coming home, I went out on a ride. It was about 5:30PM. I came back at around 7PM. It felt really good. I was a bit slower than a few weeks ago, but it was still a good time.

A Metric Century Night Bike Ride

I was way too tired last week to go out on bike rides. I was back at teaching fulltime, around 28 hours a week, on top of that, I was covering some freelance blog posts at Unplggd. That meant that I was going to bed very late and waking up early. My system included a three to four-hour night, a 30 minute noon-time nap, and a 2-hour nap after work. I don’t think this system works well. I totally broke down on Saturday and slept 16 hours.

70 KM Night Bike Ride

Kuota KOM

You may wonder why I keep posting all of these Kuota KOM images. The answer is pretty simple. It’s the bike that I’m trying to get.

So I was supposed to do at least 100 km, but only managed to do 70. The advantage of doing loops is that you have the flexibility of stopping when things get hairy. After 60 km, I started feeling groggy and tired. I knew that I would make a mistake soon. I decided to stop and not go for 100 km.

70 KM Night Bike Ride

Kuota Kom Agritubel team edition

Well, I finally managed to go out and train. Since I came back from Hong Kong last Monday, a typhoon devastated Southern Taiwan and we have been plagued with rain.

So basically, since Tuesday the 4th of August, I have been waiting for the rain to abate. I need to get another training solution so that I can still work out inside. Probably some kind of flywheel thing. I’ll check that out over the weekend.

50 KM Night Bike Ride

My day started a bit late, so I only ended getting ready for my ride at around 6PM. I don’t think that it was a bad idea to wait though, as it was a scorcher outside.

70 KM Night Bike Ride

I didn’t manage to go on a ride yesterday. I felt a bit too knackered to ride. Since I wasn’t working today, I took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep and go out on a bike ride. I had some errands to run in Taipei, so I only went out at about 6:30PM.

50 KM Night Bike Ride

After a nap, I went out for a ride. I didn’t feel very rested, but that wasn’t the point. I knew that I wouldn’t do 70km. My legs weren’t up to that. On top of that, there was a mean cross wind on the Yonghe side of the Xindian River. However, it was almost completely dry, so I didn’t get covered in mud.

70 KM Night Bike Ride

Night riding is dangerous

After taking Monday off, and not getting up early enough on Sunday for my group ride, I decided to go out tonight. I was planning on going out at around 4PM, but it rained, so I had to wait until 6PM. The roads were semi-dry at that point.

50 KM Night Mud Bike Ride

Kuota Kom

Note to self: don’t go cycling after a thunderstorm, you just end up all muddy and covered in water.

Naturally, I went out right after the thunderstorm. I had waited about an hour or so and thought that the paths would be somewhat dry. I was wrong. That didn’t stop me from riding.

One thing that almost made me reconsider was that one of the on-ramps from a bridge was half covered in bathroom tiles. How do bathroom tiles get when they are wet? Slippery, very slippery. Thank God that I wasn’t going fast. I was almost at a standstill when I slipped. I caught myself on the railing. While I continued riding, I debated with myself if I should cut my ride short, for safety reasons. It was already dark and I still had 30 km to ride. In the end, I didn’t but I won’t be attempting that again.

70 KM Night Bike Ride

This is the exact frame they have at the shop

Today I had some time off, so I went to the Giant shop to repair my disc brake. The disc was a little bent. It took about 20 minutes and the service was free, even though the bike was bought in Canada.