I haven't been posting many articles on cycling even though I rode quite a lot while preparing for the Ironman. But among those few articles that I've posted, a couple of them were about bike accidents. One was when my friend Judy Liew had a minor accident, falling off her bike while cycling as reported here. Another was the bike crash I had with the mighty Teo Chen Lung as reported here.
While cycling is a good alternative to running as a cardio workout, it's not exactly a good idea in Kota Kinabalu. Each year, we have several accidents—mostly minor ones, but we've had some serious ones that had resulted in hospitalization. Our roads are just not conducive for cycling, and the drivers in KK are not always eager to share the roads with cyclists. If our roads are safe for cycling, I'm sure many more of my runner friends would take up the sport too.
This morning, it was announced in a Whatsapp cycling chatroom that one of the regular cyclists in KK was seriously injured while riding along Jalan Serusop. I don't know the full details of the accident. All I know was that a bus hit him, and he suffered several broken bones, apart from a punctured diaphragm. Incidentally, I was out running a 15km recovery run this morning, and I saw a group of cyclists on the road. He must have been one of them.
A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised when Mia arrived home one day with her new tri bike. It came complete with the clip-on pedals. I'm not sure what she's planning to do with the bike, but I suspect that she may be entertaining the idea of attempting a Half Ironman race this year, or even a (full) Ironman next year.
Ordinarily, I would be thrilled for her. But not in this case. You see, she's having a bit of trouble balancing herself on a bike; and she struggles to balance herself when reaching for her water bottle while the bike is in motion. She tried getting onto her new bike while leaning on a wall in one of the rooms at home, and it took only a few minutes before JJ and I heard a loud crash. Thankfully, the bike was not damaged. She's planning to ride on the road soon.
Actually, she's not ready to ride on the road yet, but I carefully refrain from stopping her, because that will only provoke her to want to ride even more. After all, she's an ex-St Franciscan girl, you see. Any of you who know St Franciscan girls would know what I mean.
However, she was asking me about a triathlon event in Phuket some time close to the end of this year, and I made a big blunder when I told her that, from what I've heard, that race is too tough for her. I said perhaps if she could run the half marathon within, say, 2:20, then maybe Phuket is worthwhile considering. She struggled to finish the half marathon last Sunday in BIM in 2:37. So now I guess she will be registering for that Phuket race.
In the mean time, I'm not sure when and where she's gonna train for cycling. Perhaps it's a good idea to buy some more life insurance first, because of course people having life insurance won't die so soon. One thing's for sure, she loves her new tri bike!
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