Cycling: One of the few types of exercise I can do now without my joints and muscles screaming out for mercy. 40km is do-able, so I signed up again for OCBC Cycle Singapore.

Last year, I did the distance in 2 hours 13 minutes, which is slow. This was supposed to be the impetus to train harder and go sub-2 hours.

Naturally, things didn’t go as I planned. My training was limited – mostly by sheer laziness – to three short rides at Ubin – and an attempt at the Kallang Park Connector.

Nevertheless, I managed to achieve my timing goal. This morning, I clocked myself at an hour and 38 minutes. Almost half an hour better.

Not that I can put this down to training. I probably knew how to pace myself better this time round. Perhaps, the earlier start this year helped too. Despite the recent hot weather, it was a relatively cool morning. And with cycling, you always feel a breeze. Although when you’re tired, you feel like the same breeze is conspiring to slow you down.

During the ride, I was looking out for @gadgetygirl and @sivasothi (and friends). While I didn’t manage to spot them, I did bump into a friend from secondary school days. Audrey D’cotta was a prefect I knew from CHIJ (Toa Payoh). She now runs her own pilates studio: The Moving Body.

Meeting fellow foldie-owners is always a treat too. I think I saw a Dahon guy that I saw last year, on his distinctive yellow-orche bike with matching tyres. As we whizzed past me, he hollered, “Go, bro!”. And the support staff are always generous with their cheers for guys on small bikes (read: supposedly inferior equipment).

The ride itself – I preferred last year’s route. The organisers seemed to have switched the start and end sectors, which meant that this year, we headed towards the finish, then headed away from the finish… several times.

All in all, I enjoyed myself. The rest area after the ride was much better too. Last year, there wasn’t much. This time, there were a few booths, the most important of which was NPark’s Park Connector booth. They had maps showing the Park Connector Networks, which included park connectors being built and in planning. Picked up a couple of brochures and got myself a nice PCN cap.

Oh yes, the goodie bag includes items that I might actually use!