2019 went by in a flash and here it is in 2020. I looked at my last blog post and realised that one, nobody blogs anymore and blogs aren’t really cool. I guess I got too busy as well since my last blog post was in July 2019 and yes, after that post, I did purchase the Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds which I think are amazing (will write a short review on it).
Resolutions for the year? I think a healthier and fitter me is in order, yes, I have been mountain biking over the past two years, went to Chiang Mai twice and got humbled twice there again. The first time was a complete eye-opener, skill-wise and also endurance it was completely tough on me and I couldn’t complete 3 days of riding (I was walking like a cowboy on the 3rd day). The second time around in December last month, again, endurance was my challenge as I try to maintain going down 8km of trails. At least this time I managed to last 3 days with lots of help to strengthen my knees.
The gang also travelled to Bromo last year and it was a change of pace in terms of cycling.
Why was it different? In terms of the trails, it was more cross-country style (XC) compared to the steep mountain slopes of Doi Suthep. We would cover around 25-30km of trail riding each day with climbs and descents as well as plenty of riding through villages and roads.
In terms of scenery and views, definitely, Bromo was breathtaking. There were just so many places where you could just stare into the beyond and imagine yourself being completely relaxed.
In 2019, I also started using an electric mountain bike (eMTB). So yes, I have two bikes now, a manual bike and an eMTB. What is it? It isn’t a throttled assist vehicle so no, I don’t get up the hills with a push of a button. It is equally hard work as well and if you have a bunch of friends on eMTB, you actually end up pushing a lot more effort on the trails because you are again trying to keep up with them.
Having the two bikes prove useful to me, with my eMTB I can practice the trails as often as I want without the penalty of constantly climbing and with the manual bike I can build my endurance. Here is a recent GoPro video of me cycling down one of the popular trails here at Bukit Kiara.
My goal for this year is to participate in at least a mountain bike Enduro race. In order to train up for it, I decided to sign up for classes at Fuel Athletics which is near my office. The classes there are a little different from the ones I used to take and I like the variety that each day has a different theme to it. My experience with classes back in the Fitness First days were classes like Body Pump and such classes at Fuel was quite refreshing. Yesterday, they made me do up to 320 single jump rope! 320! For a guy who weighs 97kg (yes I started the year at 98kg), I was literally fumbling my way and I still fumble. By the end of the class, I think I can do about 25 non-stop before fumbling.
I got loads to do this year in many aspects of life and hopefully this time around I won’t want five to six months before I start publishing again.
