Pedaling the Monday blues — 100KMs of cycling

Pedaling the Monday blues — 1000KMs of cycling

The firsts are always the best. Of all the firsts and the ones yet to come, the 100KMs of cycling last week would be the one much remembered for the years to come.

I was kind of the kid who never sprinted never participated in athletic events during school / college. Lack of physical exercise and over abuse of food made me fat and it was the right time when i took up jogging before my tummy would resemble a pokeball 😫

I remember my friend JC Aravind telling me to start with cycling, he himself being a pro endurance rider who has completed Bangalore — Chennai — Kanyakumari — Bangalore , Twin hills circuit (Yearcaud / Yelagiri). He was such an inspiration to inhibit the cycling habit in me. So myself along with my friend Selva Venkatesh bought a “My Bike” from Decathlon for an affordable price of 4500Rs which was the cheapest in the market.

From then on it would be daily routine for us to ride 15KMs daily around the SRM lake , if we found a free time we would extend the ride till Maramimalai nagar. Then we started extending the ride till SP Kovil , Mahindra city and Chengalpattu the latest destination.

Strava is an fitness tracker app that lets you track the ride , run an manu other kinds of sports activities. Once completed the ride, the app would give an detailed analysis of your ride with average speed , segment wise analysis too. The app lets you connect with other clubs and athletes.

I would wait for the weekends eagerly to go long distances , start early as 4AM before the summer heat sets in. The first long ride was to Porur toll plaza which was about 57KMs from Guduvanchery. Then the following weekends was riding to Kelambakkam (57KMs), Besant nagar beach (78KMs) , Marina beach (88KMs), Anna nagar which completed 100KMs of riding in single day journey.

It took me 6hrs exactly to complete the Anna nagar ride via the Outer ring road. So far i hope I have touched most of localities in Chennai / Kancheepuram. Varying from places like Porur, Sholinganallur , OMR, ORR, Tambaram, Triplicane , Chrompet, Chengalpattu, Besant nagar, Marina beach, Thirumangalam, Adyar, Ponnamalle, Guindy, Mogapair, Ambattur etc. For more of some amazing places to visit and explore.

Initially it was all the ride that mattered to me. Once after longing the rides i could see whole lot of new people early in the morning waking upto start their business like the “Puttu making akka” in Besant nagar to juice & tea shop owners making hot vadas at 4AM. The ride widens your views on the society, have seen all the POSH-ness of Anna nagar to pumping of water to fill nearly 30Kodam in slums of Triplicane 😟

I would usually keep myself hydrated all throughout the ride, having about 2–3 elaneer , 4–5 Juices & 2–3 litres of water for the 6hr journey. Safety is most important thing even if you ride a cycle. So i bought myself a most aerodynamic helmet. As I would venture out very early in the morning, in-order for the tailing vehicles to detect me from behind, I got a safety reflective jacket for mere 70Rs from an hardware shop. The same purpose clothing costed 2000Rs from Decathlon. MISER BHARATH .

Read carefully,

One may think the Chennai bypass & Outer ring road are the same ride. But the ORR has far more challenges thrown at you. The bypass wont have any localities near to the road where-else the ORR has many like Mudichur, Kishkintha, etc, etc. So in-order to reach the localities via the ORR there bridges under the ORR , which would increase the altitude of the road which requires much more of torque from pedaling. The same would be repeated for the entire ORR stretch of 50–60KMs or so.

One would be going at the average pace with the wind on the face and enjoying the ride, to a sudden the ride becomes harder due to such high altitude bridges and one should put his everything , to push harder &move on further. Such phases would test you both physically & mentally. For me it was “Come on TARS” from the movie Interstellar which would the catchphrase , howling & giving yourself all in to move on further.

Once you scale to the top, my cycle being an single speed fixed gear would fix at an maximum speed and how much you pedal, the bike wont go to higher speeds , you would eventually be pedaling more & more with no gain to your travel. Under such conditions , it is best advised to be calm , give a break/brake & switch the gear and move with your full potential to move along the adventure 😅

However you interpret the above paragraph😉

So far I have traveled / experienced about 1008KMs in 45days averaging 22.4KMs/day and lost about 6–7KGs with proper diet 😍

Cycling is fun. Cycling is love. Cycling is adventure. Cycling is life.

Adios , for more of Chennai to explore