Tuesday, July 31, 2007

When you have Rambo-ngitis and Alzheimer's...

... you'll waste a lot of water.

The weather was too nice to have a bout of Mat Rempit paranoia. So I went cycling to Empangan Batu. To face my foes. If they are there :)

I wanna eat that uphill stretch up Empangan Batu. Bonked halfway at my first attempt. Bonked with just a few metres to go today. (By the way, bonk is triathlon lingo that means "to reach a state of total exhaustion and sharply reduced ability to perform") Will conquer that hill on my third try.

I'm not sure what it is...

Is it my bike? Maybe it's ill fitted to me. My knees are still bent at an angle even when the pedal is rotated all the way down. Maybe that's why my power output is limited.

Is it the gears? I lowered the gear all the way down, thinking that will make it easier for an uphill climb. Even though less strength is used to pedal, the bike moves at a snail's pace. Maybe I've tired my muscles out for an unnecessarily long climb? Maybe I can make it to the top if I use a higher gear, pedal harder, and get it over with faster before my muscles bonk?

Is it my biking position? Maybe it is easier to climb a hill if I cycle off my seat? But that's one thing I can't do yet.

A skill to learn before I get my new bike: Hill climbing.

Anyway, when I got back, it was already 6 o'clock. I was out for 2 hours. I didn't even realize I was cycling for that long!

I turned on the water filter, and waited for it to fill the jug. The water was coming out really slow. The filter was clogged up. It needed to be cleaned. I've been putting it off for the umpteenth time.

While waiting, I went to my room, turned on the laptop, talked on the phone and checked my emails. I must've been tired. I went to nap.

The nap turned into a 5-hour nap. I slept right through dinner and woke up at 11:30pm. The dinner that I tapao since lunchtime started to smell bad already. And guess what... I left the water running!

Good thing the water filter was clogged up, and the water was coming out real slow. But even so... over 5 hours?? My gosh!

Good thing I wasn't boiling soup over the stove or something.

Lesson learnt: NEVER leave the water running, especially if you live alone. You may drown in your sleep. If the water is coming out too slow, then CLEAN THE FILTER!

Rambo-ngitis and Alzheimer's... A deadly combo.

1 comment:

siehjin said...

if yr knees are still bent at your pedals' maximum downstroke u need to put yr seat higher. u'r right abt that.

err, i'm not sure what the correct technique for hill-climbing is. but wat i'd do is keep going at a high gear as long as i can keep the momentum, and change to successively lower gears as the climb becomes more difficult. just figure out what works best for you la. each gear's efficiency over time can probably be represented as a parabola, and the objective is to change gears to keep it at or near the maximum points of effeciency for the maximum amount of time...if that makes sense.

cycling off the seat would help 'cos your weight assists on the downstroke. y can't u cycle off the seat? it's not very difficult wat...=P