3rd July, 2010

Thank God for the wonderful weather today, we could step out for a late bike ride. There was no sun when we left at 8.30 am and were hoping it stays behind the clouds. It was actually a bit chilly.

What was also special about today was that we were biking together after nearly 4 months. So it was back to good old days, setting routes, cutting our way through residential colonies, and dodging the trucks and autorickshaws on the main roads.

We had decided to go to Bellandur lake and come back via Sarjapur Outer Ring road. So we cut across the Old Airport road, reached Wind Tunnel road and took the army defence area to reach the Bellandur lake. Once past the Wind Tunnel road, we were away from the city traffic. The entire stretch from Wind Tunnel road to the Bellandur lake is also a very good candidate for morning runs. We wish to come here some day for a long run.

We reached our usual spot around the Bellandur lake near a temple, where we usually stop for some clicks and mid-way rest. Here we decided to give a short visit to Manoj and Pooja at the Sun City. That was going to increase our initial planned time by at least half hour and distance by 5-7 km. The weather was good, so we decided to go for it.

We clicked some pictures. The lake is fast disappearing, being consumed by the water hyacinth. Both the sides of the road running along the lake have been barricaded by high-rise nets.

We reached Sun City. It was a good, short, quick meetup/catch up with the friends. And then we headed back, straight on the Sarjapur Outer Ring road, from Sun City to the K.R.Puram railway station. We had to make a stop at Reliance Fresh on the way to pick some cold drink and a sports bar. It had well been over an hour of ride already and it was important to replenish our energy reserves. It was a good thing that we had had some toasts before starting for the ride.

This time we did not push ourselves a lot, took it easy, rode leisurely. So it was not so taxing as some of the other rides in the past, where we just concentrated on building a good average. This time, we also did some stretch exercises after reaching home.

Great weather, great ride, good fun!