Getting Ready for Ride Around Borneo - RA's Story

Prep for Borneo took me a year - to get back in shape after the lull period of post Sumatra and to get my equipment upgraded or changed. A year was just enough to set everything up, I had thought. Not true. Well, more or less I got what I wanted but there are areas for improvement. Equipment wise, I had about 90% of the gear I wanted with me. No JVC video camera, No Toughbook Laptop, No satellite phone (all these would have been ideal for Ride Around Borneo).

Physical and mental training started way back in April 2012. I began with short distances. I did 10km fun rides on the park connector for a month. Just cycling, having fun and getting the groove back. After Sumatra, I kind of lost a little confidence to be on the road. Next I brought up my ride to 20km around where I lived and getting use to the traffic again. Slowly I progressed to 30km, with climbs, 40km with climbs and in August 2012, I was cycling around the island regularly with regained confidence. I knew then physical alone was not enough to ride around the third largest island, so by September 2012, I include mental training with every ride. One example is once I am done with a pre-planned 60km ride, I would try to convince myself to do another 20km. By December 2012, I was happy to see the results. I didn’t miss or skip much of my training schedule but something else failed -meeting potential sponsors or the lack of it. Team RAB has not secured any sponsors and there was no way we could secure anything this late. I can’t do much but just let friends know that if they know of somebody or any company that wanted to support Ride Around Borneo, get them to contact me. Nothing happened, no one called.

In January 2013, in need of a break, I took my training to Kelantan, Malaysia and rode down to Kuantan (in Pahang, Malaysia) with Abang Dzul and Ken Kassem. It helped to take my mind of chasing for sponsorship and just enjoy the ride. From the Kelantan to Kuantan training trip, I knew where I was in terms of my physical, mental and my equipment and quickly I got into action to get everything sorted. My bicycle was fine, it was just in need of some part upgrades. Physically, I am 80% fit and mentally I am at 70%. It was January and I had two month to peak.

During Chinese New Year 2013, Azman, Katya and I did the Batam to Barelang (Indonesia) route. I thought it was one of the toughest training I had.  We had so much fun though and I truly want to encourage all my cycling friend to do this at least once.

Come March 2013, I was so busy with work I didn’t have the chance to train regularly. Panic set it and I tried my best to squeeze or make time to ride my bike. This was also the month where I decided to change my bike and bought a Surly Long Haul Trucker from Robin Teo. (You can read my review on the bike in later post).

April 2013 came and I was still busy with work, and then suddenly I was in Sabah and getting myself ready for Ride Around Borneo. No doubt this going to be tough but I am going to do this one day at a time.

RA and Surly