Welcome to my blog Jane Hamre aka Jane Chen

Hi sweetie,

Thanks for dropping by to my humble blog........

I hope you do post from time to time. ha..ha....

I'm going to dig our old emails and post a picture of you and Neil here! ha..ha...

Folks, Jane is a very old friend of mine who loves Canada. She's in Burnaby near Vancouver and we've been friends since 1984. Yes, 22 years of friendship.......... We lost contact in between for a few years but managed to keep in regular contact now.

I last saw her in 2004 if I am not mistaken and she's planning to come back in 2008.

I've always wanted to visit her all this while but never got around to doing it for one reason or another. Anyway, if I'm going it will have to be Montana, USA and Burnaby, Canada together.

On top of that I also have a friend called Jackson Wong originally from Sipitang who currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. I haven't seen Jack for about five years now.

I got to know Jane when I was working for Teck Guan Trading in Tawau and we became good friends and colleagues. She was always so helpful and ever ready to lend me her ears (a good listener). She is truely one of my true friends and our platonic relationship has really withstood the test of time.

I remember sending her an email last year telling her how much I missed her and wished that she was nearby so that I could pop in to see her and her hubby Neil with my family and have a BBQ together and chat. The thing about her was that I could relate to her and still be my natural self. No bull shit and she was the sister I never had.

She's happy in Canada and I'm really happy that she found her life partner, Neil. He's one big hunk........ ha..ha......

Take care sweetie and cheers.

Bike Touring?

Well, it seems that I'm in the mood to post in my blog................ LOL!

Anyway, I've this burning dream to do a bike tour with some buddies. This project was conceived in October 2005 while taking the KLIA Express train from the airport to KL Sentral. I called Nick while on the train and he was interested too.

My idea was to fly to KLIA with our bikes and from there either proceed north to Thailand or south to Singapore. In the end we decided to head for Singapore and the tour was planned for March 2006. The group was supposed to be about 6 or 7 people and the only persons that I talked to about this was Nick and Eric from Singapore. Dav, you were included in my original list but I did not mention it you as I called off this project since I had to look after my own business after leaving my former company. Nick even got the maps for me and since I was the chief architect for this adventure, I was supposed to do all the logistics planning etc etc........ I never got around to doing it for reason mentioned above.

My original idea was stay at el-cheapo hotels along the way and it would probably take about a week to arrive at Singapore for some R&R (rest & recreation). Eric had other ideas though...... driver to support us all the way from KLIA so that we could toss our bags into the car and just cycle without a backpack and luxury hotels at each night stop! ha..ha....

It's now March and I realized that I have not fulfilled this dream yet.
Nevertheless, once things at my end have stabilized I will pursue and make this dream a reality. I've always been fascinated by bike touring and roughing it out. Ideally, with just one compatible riding partner.

This ride from KLIA to Singapore was supposed to be my springboard for bigger things to come. Dreams like flying to Bangkok and riding in a foreign country seems most appealing to me. No luxury...........

In the meantime, I'll just let my passion for cycling continue unimpeded .............................

Training regimen

Hi everybody.

It's been some time since I posted on my blog. I know people like Lily, Dav, Shan check my blog regularly. To you I say thank you even though I have not posted anything recently.

I'm not as open as Shan so in order not to tread on other people's toes, I can't be too vocal. There's so much inequality in this world that if I start whining about everything, I would be really spent! ha..ha... If you guys want to know who Shan is, check out her blog www.polarbearshan.blogspot.com . Her language is very colourful and it's one of my favourite blogs. So, mind the language and check out her blog. I've never met her before but I do post in her blog from time to time. She calls me the Whiskey Dude! I don't drink whiskey at all so it must be my ham radio call sign.

By the way, as I'm drafting this, I'm listening to the soundtrack Flashdance. It's got hits like What a Feeeling by Irene Cara, Maniac by Michael Sembello, Helen St. John - the love theme from Flashdance and many others. Refreshing................... it's always nice to hear old songs that I used to hear in my younger days. Now, if only I still had my Tannoy floor stander speakers, Audiolab amplifier and my JVC CD player hifi system....................(the house would rock!) Now, I mainly listen to music on my Dell laptop. I've got a Denon integrated CD player in the family hall upstairs but I hardly listen to it as I hardly sit there even though I have wireless network (wi-fi) at home. I like to spend my time in my study room downstairs.

I've started keeping records my my rides again after stopping in March 2005. I stopped as my Vetta cycling computer does not have infrared (IR) to beam the data to my laptop. I'm now doing about 80 to 100 kms per week and my average heart rate is 135-144 beats per minute (bpm) and my maximum HR is about 170 bpm on the hill climbs.

I'm mostly in the aerobic zone which is 65% - 85% of max HR. I need to improve my pedaling stroke (push/pull technique) and improve my cadence. I'm comfortable at 80 revolutions per minute (rpm) and I want to be comfortable at about 85-90 rpm cadence in order to raise myaverage speed using higher gears.

My cyclo-computer is a handlebar mounted Vetta V100HR which has on top of the normal speed, average speed, ride time, total time has also additional functions like heart rate monitor, cadence. In order to get the hear rate reading I have to wear a chest strap device. I call it my BRA (battle ready armour)! You wear the BRA just below your nipples! ha..ha..... The term 'battle ready armour' came from one of the cartoons that my kids love to watch!

I want to lose some weight this year but I still continue to take supper and smoke ciggies. I need to lose about 5 kgs for health reasons and also to make me a fitter cyclist.

BTW, I'm now listening to Chicago, one of my all time favourites. Fantastic music....especially the song "Hard To Say I'm Sorry".

I've increased the intensity of my rides, by pushing myself a little more harder and trying to break the pain barrier at the anaerobic zone which is 85% of max heart rate and higher where lactic acid buils up in the muscles. No pain no gain!

I have also increased the distance of my rides now that the weather seems much more favourable to us cyclists. My personal target is 100 kms per week over Tuesday and Thursday evenings (group rides) and weekend (Sat or Sun) individual solo ride.

I woke up at 0600 hrs this morning and took a slow ride to Likas Square to meet Dr. Fiona Lim a triathlon athlete. She's a superb athlete and excels in running, cycling and swimming. Super fit and also super healthy! We went for a 40km ride and she left me trailing when she put on a burst of speed at the straights and she also blew me on the hill climbs! ha..ha... Hopefully by riding with her more often, I can force myself with the pain barrier to keep pace with her and improve my stamina.

And lastly, I've been reading a lot on cycling books. Finished Lance Armstrong, seven times Tour de France champion book, It's Not About the Bike, My Journey Back to Life how he over came testicular cancer and survived. The other book is 23 Days In July by John Wilcockson. I'm currently reading The Ultimate Ride by Chris Carmichael and Lance Armstrong Performance Program:Seven Weeks to the Perfect Ride. Thanks to Fiona for graciously borrowing the books.

So, that's it. A long post...................Cheerio and have a great Sunday.

73's and I'll be signing off here.