Prologue -
The ride -
Phase 0 - the start
5:00 am - started from home with the bike in the car and headed towards JP Nagar mini forest
6:00 am - bike assembled after a small tweak to the front break and we head off towards kanakpura road
phase 1 - smooth as silk (approx 35km - 1hour 45 min)
It was all downhill from Merida junction to Harohalli and we did good time with just one pit stop near guhantara.Reached harohalli @7.45 am after a little bit of searching we realized that the good breakfast place @harohalli had closed down (not sure though) and had breakfast at another hotel. Took off from here and headed down the road which a few other bikers (7-8 of them) had taken only to realize that it was the harohalli-anekal road. No harm done, we backtracked and hit the road to Thally after asking around a little
phase 2 - dog day afternoon! (approx 30 km - 4 hours)
For the first 30 min the road was not very great and was rolling but after that, IT WAS HELL (for a noob like me who hasnt done nandi)
The next few hours made me question the reason why I decided to spend my Sunday afternoon in acute physical discomfort instead of watching bodyguard like most normal people.
Every 10 min, I was reminded of the big bad wolf huffing and puffing to blow the house down...but at the end of the day, the house always wins. Thally was soon becoming shangrilla and I was at the end of my tether. a 30 min break..lots of water, a snickers bar and a couple of banana's made it a lot better.
I began to dread downhills as i knew what was coming at the end of it and the road snaked around the hills (periphery of Bannerghatta national park), which meant I could not leverage the downhill slopes to climb.
The vista was beautiful with swift moving cloud cover and lots of greenery and finally we made it to Thally after almost 4 grueling hours
phase 3 - a welcome break ::(approx 23 km - 1.5 hours)
The first 30 min the road was long patches of very coarse gravel but thereafter it was relatively flat and uneventful.but the leg cramps and frozen hands began to kick in real bad and hence the ride was interspersed with a lot of short breaks to stretch fingers and legs. When we reached anekal, I realized than i am almost there and the fear of not completing the ride began to fade away
phase 4 - snails pace ::(approx 20 km - 2 hours)
We decided to take the Anekal - Bannerghatta road in order to avoid the madness that is Electronic
city.This stretch was probably the slowest that I have ridden on relatively flat terrain (not that i have ridden much!) and the road just seemed to go on and on and on... finally hit Bannerghatta road after a few more stops to stretch fingers and legs.
phase 5 - home stretch ::(approx 13 km - 40 min)
The only thing that was driving me was the fact that I will get to rest my ass on something that is a lot bigger than a loaf of bread! that and the numerous downhill stretches helped a lot!
Postmortem -
a few hours of shut eye and I was back in front of the screen to dissect the ride. I soon realized that my 'mountains' in the harohalli - thally stretch had an average gradient of 2.6% and only 2 stretches (1.2km and 4.4km) were as such 'long'. molehills - mountains...get the picture?
training harder and longer is the only way to increase endurance. period!
On the whole, the ride clearly outlined my shortcomings from both a physical and ergonomic point of view. But it only reinforced the fact that I want to do more and more of long distance/endurance cycling to burn away the flab
Last
week I stumbled upon this http://tinyurl.com/3cb8hww
on facebook and my friend (who btw did manali leh this year) decided to do
route 2 the long way i.e JP Nagar - Harohalli - Thally - Anekal - Bannerghatta
- JP Nagar (approx 120km).
Boy
was I kicked!
The ride - Phase 0 - the start
5:00 am - started from home with the bike in the car and headed towards JP Nagar mini forest
6:00 am - bike assembled after a small tweak to the front break and we head off towards kanakpura road
phase 1 - smooth as silk (approx 35km - 1hour 45 min)
It was all downhill from Merida junction to Harohalli and we did good time with just one pit stop near guhantara.Reached harohalli @7.45 am after a little bit of searching we realized that the good breakfast place @harohalli had closed down (not sure though) and had breakfast at another hotel. Took off from here and headed down the road which a few other bikers (7-8 of them) had taken only to realize that it was the harohalli-anekal road. No harm done, we backtracked and hit the road to Thally after asking around a little
phase 2 - dog day afternoon! (approx 30 km - 4 hours)
For the first 30 min the road was not very great and was rolling but after that, IT WAS HELL (for a noob like me who hasnt done nandi)
The next few hours made me question the reason why I decided to spend my Sunday afternoon in acute physical discomfort instead of watching bodyguard like most normal people.
Every 10 min, I was reminded of the big bad wolf huffing and puffing to blow the house down...but at the end of the day, the house always wins. Thally was soon becoming shangrilla and I was at the end of my tether. a 30 min break..lots of water, a snickers bar and a couple of banana's made it a lot better.
I began to dread downhills as i knew what was coming at the end of it and the road snaked around the hills (periphery of Bannerghatta national park), which meant I could not leverage the downhill slopes to climb.
The vista was beautiful with swift moving cloud cover and lots of greenery and finally we made it to Thally after almost 4 grueling hours
phase 3 - a welcome break ::(approx 23 km - 1.5 hours)
The first 30 min the road was long patches of very coarse gravel but thereafter it was relatively flat and uneventful.but the leg cramps and frozen hands began to kick in real bad and hence the ride was interspersed with a lot of short breaks to stretch fingers and legs. When we reached anekal, I realized than i am almost there and the fear of not completing the ride began to fade away
phase 4 - snails pace ::(approx 20 km - 2 hours)
We decided to take the Anekal - Bannerghatta road in order to avoid the madness that is Electronic
city.This stretch was probably the slowest that I have ridden on relatively flat terrain (not that i have ridden much!) and the road just seemed to go on and on and on... finally hit Bannerghatta road after a few more stops to stretch fingers and legs.
phase 5 - home stretch ::(approx 13 km - 40 min)
The only thing that was driving me was the fact that I will get to rest my ass on something that is a lot bigger than a loaf of bread! that and the numerous downhill stretches helped a lot!
Postmortem -
a few hours of shut eye and I was back in front of the screen to dissect the ride. I soon realized that my 'mountains' in the harohalli - thally stretch had an average gradient of 2.6% and only 2 stretches (1.2km and 4.4km) were as such 'long'. molehills - mountains...get the picture?
training harder and longer is the only way to increase endurance. period!
On the whole, the ride clearly outlined my shortcomings from both a physical and ergonomic point of view. But it only reinforced the fact that I want to do more and more of long distance/endurance cycling to burn away the flab
2 comments:
wish we lived closer by so that I could get all enthused by you and try and reduce some of my midriff fat too. :(
btw - JustSo is your wife's cousin, who has a girl baby :)
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