Sunday, March 7, 2010

12 Laps of Mount Faber

Dad and I did laps on Mount Faber in the morning, with him completing 6 and me carrying on to complete 12. Still, it’s pretty obvious that Genting posed much much of a greater challenge and I expect no less from Cameron Highlands. Mount Faber is too simple and realistically speaking – training there can help a little in honing our climbing abilities but we will never be fully prepared to scale mountains above 1000m (sea level) unless we conduct trainings on-site.

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I still enjoyed pushing my physical fitness to fairly strenuous levels and I would say mental strength is very important on long climbs. There were a number of road bikers doing lap trainings too and I passed them on the climbs. They just had to pressure me and since they were dying for some competition, I obliged.

Reaching the peak which was getting really crowded with tourists and buses, I slowed down for a road bike in my path and moved right only to find my path totally blocked off by two buses. Common sense – I had to stop and wait for the buses to clear but I think this really tired biker hot on my heels rode straight into my rear. He made an annoying protest but shut up when he realised the situation was not in his favour. Come on man, why take it so seriously? Just show a little patience in waiting for the vehicles to clear. No, they had to squeeze through a dangerous gap between the bus and the curb. No wonder drivers get irritated at cyclists.

On one of the laps, a road biker shouted at an old lady (most likely a tourist) in his path, attracting a bit of attention. I found that very rude. He just had to slow, let her move to one side before continuing. Ego gets to the better of our senses at times and this is very dangerous. You do silly things and pay a hefty price later.

Did he really need that few seconds on the descends only to lose it all on the climbs? No offence, but I think they better work on their climbing abilities which clearly is the weakness of many a Singaporean cyclist.

Entrance @ Mount Faber Road – Telok Blangah Road – Kampung Bahru Road: 5.1km
Mount Faber Loop: 1.6km

Total distance: 84.8km
Money spent: $3.10
Participants: LSH, Dad

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