H2H 2012 - Ride Day xx recap

Dear diary,


I give up. I wanted to do a post for each day, but I just don't have it in me. Perhaps later, once I return, I'll do a more substantial recap of my time, but for now, I'm just going to give you the quick and dirty version of the days thus far. At least, until I'm up to date with the days. I'll try to limit it to 5 photos per day. 


Ride Day 3


Still in Vụ Bản, we start our day by cycling down the road to a grass field for morning stretches. The mud was not kind to me or my bike.

But, ^that didn't matter for much longer. 12km into our ride, fellow pedalphile (I wonder if this word is kosher) Sandra blew out her tire. Other pedalphile Kirsty and I stopped to help. 30 minutes passed by and we were finished. But, by then, my muscles had gone cold and my knees started to give in. Every time I extended a leg to pedal, my knees had the worst, sharp pains I'd ever had. Unfortunately, I couldn't continue. That sure put a damper on the ride. Barely 3 days in and I got injured to the point where I couldn't participate. That was the one thing I, and most likely the others, feared the most.  So, I spent the rest of the ride in the support van snapping photos and napping. 

The view from my comfy seat 

There really wasn't much else about that day. I missed a beautiful, scenic ride. We arrived to our next destination, fixed a few bikes, then that was that. 


Ride Day 4


The next morning, after doping myself up with codeine, paracetamol, ibuprofen, and Salonpas heat pads, my knees were feeling a bit better. Had some breakfast with the crew and then I decided to ride out to our first beach destination. 

After stopping by an alleged bicycle shop (technically, it was, but we were told they dealt in road bikes) to pick up some spare parts (to no avail), we rode onwards! We arrived to the shadiest hotel in Quan Lao. It felt like an abandoned hospital that was converted into a makeshift hotel.

As my legs were feeling the pain from a day's ride, I decided to take it easy and spend the evening recuperating. No dinner, no stairs, no drinking - just 3 episodes of The Wire and ibuprofen. 


It's a quarter to 11 and I am the last one awake. If it hadn't been for the roughest ride we had today, I would have started much earlier to finish this post on time. Tomorrow's gonna be a 112km journey, so I needs my rest.


'Til next!


xoxo,
tinothy