Cycling

I usually play tennis once or twice a week and it has been more of twice a week sport of late. I have been doing more running every week instead. However, every time I run a moderate distance, roughly 5 to 9km, my knees and my calves will always need 3-4 days to recover. I have tried adjusting my running techniques, wear compression pants, wear knee band, knee brace, proper warm up, proper stretches, ice pack, cold water bath and running on grass. It does seem that the recovery time is getting lesser and perhaps I've grown more muscles around my skinny legs and thighs, but I thought there has to be a better way of exercising with less recovery time.

A friend of mine has been wanting to get a road bike and persuaded me to buy one too. I shopped around for a couple of weeks and eventually had some bicycles in my shortlist. However, the power of impulse buying and an attractive, persuasive and knowledgable salesgirl combined eventually prevailed. I bought a bike that I haven't done a research on but luckily this bike turns out to be a very good one for the money (you cycling enthusiasts may have different opinion).

So here is a picture of my bike, it is a Focus Cayo 4.0 (2011 model):

After buying it, I was so excited of the prospect of using it as my new exercise machine (or machina as what Final Fantasy X characters call machines as). Never in a million years would I thought of using this machina as a mean of transportation. However, I'm fully aware of the dedicated cycleway that stretches for the most part of the way from my crib to the office. Combined with the frustration of sitting in the traffic (thinking about my life, check out other cars, the sky, twiddling my thumb listening to talk show radios and the same traffic reports every morning, I get it, M5 is congested) and horrible public transport as the only other alternative, the thought of exercising while making my way to work is every appealing to the little dude in my brain. Talk about multi tasking!

I'm very well aware that I'm a cycling chobo (noob, for you that are ignorant of the online gaming lingo) and it can be daunting to go on the road. I cycled in front of an Audi S5 coupe just last week and boy, that 354 horse powered car beat my one nerd powered bicycle in a standing start acceleration duel hands down. Unexpected.

I have since installed clipless pedals and started wearing cycling shoes in hope to get the most power out of the skinny legs. In a space of 3 days though, I have stacked myself twice now in very low speed manoeuvres while I was on the kerb (unclip, unclip now, oh crap I couldn't get off the pedals). I should have been on the road in both occasions -_- Damn that irrational fear of being hit by cars and buses!

What do you think of your current mean of transportation to your workplace? Even if your workplace is next to your living room, could there be a better way to get to it? What do you think of cyclists in general? Do they annoy you? Do you want to run them down?