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Cycling to Port of Shanghai at Waigaoqiao (58km)

My Felt F1X at Jinqiao, Pudong

Woke up today to a great day, and for Shanghai this means cloudless day (there’s almost always some kind of haze over the city) and at least being able to see a shadow. My usual tennis session has been cancelled, and how can I waste such a nice day. First thing that sprung to mind is to attempt what I wanted to do since I arrived here, to reach the Yangzi River, or at least close, by cycling.

Reaching destination, almost time to turn back...

Google maps showed that the best and safest way is to get over to Pudong and then cycling on Yang Gao Rd as there is a bicycle lane on each side of the road. There are normally some slow bicycles, but as motorcycles also use the same lane, there’s always a way to bypass the slow pokes especially when you cruise at 25kmph to 30kmph.

Continue reading “Cycling to Port of Shanghai at Waigaoqiao (58km)”

Running in Victoria Park, Hong Kong

I now stay just next to Victoria Park in downtown Hong Kong island next to Causeway Bay, and it would be a sin to not run around it. The hotel concierge mentions something about a jogging track that runs 600 meters. I have recently developed this habit of running at night. Firstly, my workplace has moved farther from home so 30 minutes in the morning is out of the question. Plus I feel more warmed up at night meaning that I can achieve longer distances.
So, back to Victoria Park, my Polar pedometer measured the jogging track at close to 700 meters. But it is rather dark so after one round I ventured to the outer track which passes the football field on the inside, then tennis courts, and so on. On the outer circuit, each round is around 1 kilometre which is perfectly perfect.

Cycling in Shanghai…

After a few months off my bicycle, and because of the long long boring weekend in Shanghai, I decided to go out cycling in my playground, Pudong in Shanghai. Definitely had to dust off significant amount of cobwebs on my modified Felt F1X converted into a pseudo road-bike, and a little bit of voodoo with the weather.
Weather looked cloudy today Monday, but the rain looked sporadic from my apartment’s 31st floor window, and could see that in the direction of Pudong, it was starting to clear up at 1pm. At 2pm I was out the door with the bicycle and attached to the handle bar was a Garmin eTrex GPS just in case I get lost in one of the wide avenues in Pudong and my Polar S625X.

The GPS was set on the info screen where I had altimeter, odometer, moving time and all sorts of average speed. I didn’t want to have the map on so that I dont attract too much attention. The Polar S625X was displaying calories burnt and cadence. Usually I have speed on it instead of energy burnt but since I have that on the GPS, there was no need for redundant data.

My typical route consists of riding eastwards towards the Huangpu river, catch a ferry across (1.3RMB one way for bicycle) and then find my way to the main Century boulevard (I think that’s what they call it). There’s a cycle path next to it where you can do a constant 25-30kmph if you’re up to it. I went till a certain distance and had to turn back because of the drizzle (damn weather!).

GPS plots overlay on GoogleEarth Shanghai

And below on the Polar Pro Trainer data plots, you can see that the red lines are the heart rate (top) and the speed (bottom). For the second half of it, the level is a little lower, and that was because the road was starting to get wet and I did not want to get any mud marks on my back, and some parts of the road are tiled up and slippery. Not sure what was on the builder’s mind!!!

Polar Pro Trainer data collected

And finally, an exercise summary for the afternoon. Started at 2:11pm, rode for 3hrs and 3 minutes and burnt 1860kcal. Nice. Had a nice big dinner tonight to make up for the energy burnt.

Polar Pro Trainer exercise summary

Bicycle Configuration:

  • Felt F1X Cyclocross fitted with full 2006 Shimano Ultegra set
  • American Classic CR420 medium profile wheels
  • Michelin Pro Race 2 tires
  • Garmin eTrex Vista GPS
  • Polar S625X Heart Rate Monitor with speed and cadence sensors