Nandi Hills

Date: 4 July 2015

Total distance: 125 Kilometers

Start Time: 1:30 pm

Return Time: 9:00 pm

With: -

Altitude Profile:

Viewed the Cycling and More website and saw that they are planning the Mandalpatti ride on July 18, 19. Checked with Madhusudhan, Madhu, Sushanth whether they wanted to do the ride. They were keen, but needed time to confirm. So we planned to go to Nandi hills as a practice ride since the slopes at Mandalpatti are very steep. Planned to do the ride on Saturday, however none of them were free on Saturday so decided to go alone. The others were free on Sunday and wanted to do Manchanabele on Sunday instead of Nandi Hills. Agreed for the Sunday ride and decided to do the ride on Saturday as well as it had been a while since I had ridden on consecutive days.

Made a mistake here of taking the ride for granted since I had already done Nandi hills earlier and also the Goa trip. I started only in the afternoon at 1:30 pm thinking that it will take only 4 hours to reach the top. Had the time constraint as well, that I had to get back to the highway before dark, so pushed myself to pedal faster than I would normally have done. I wanted to do the hill in my fastest time.

Since I had started after a heavy lunch, by the time I reached Hebbal flyover the stomach was cramping. Continued pedaling with the thought that the body will recover, which it did, but at Yelahanka, the thighs were cramping. Could not stand and pedal, had to be seated. Continued further, but the cramping was getting bad and had to stop at Devanahalli for a rest. Felt better, so decided to continue, took the turn off the highway and had head winds which slowed me down significantly. I did not want the wind and the cramps to put me off, so continued to pedal inspite of making slow progress. Reached the foot hill by 4:30 pm, half an hour behind schedule, refilled on water and continued uphill. The hills were unforgiving, so could not make good progress. Was very slow and had done only over 3 kilometers of the uphill in 35 minutes of riding so decided to stop and turn back as I had to nurse the legs and get back to the highway.

It was disappointing to turn back without reaching the top, but it was a reality check that I was not in shape and needed to work on it. I headed back with intermittent stops to rest the legs. The cramps were only getting worse since the rest stops were not long enough. By the time I reached the airport toll, the cramps were so bad that I could only squat. If I stood, the thighs would cramp. Did stretching exercises, managed to slowly straighten the legs and then parked the cycle and walked to and fro. Walking improved the legs. I could pedal again until the next bout of cramps when I would again park the cycle and walk, get back and pedal again. This was the first time in cycling that I thought that it would have been good to have another fellow cyclist along to help me along with the pain, though I knew that if I made it through it would only make me stronger, so decided that I would not call for help and would stick it through. Once I had crossed the Hebbal flyover things got easier and made it back by 9:00 pm.

Lesson learnt that I cannot take things for granted just because it’s been done before; every day is a new day and also, the fact that the wind speeds in July have to be factored before projecting the travel time to reach the destination. As soon as I reached homeI got back to the volini routine. I took a hot shower and then massaged the ointment into the aching muscles to get ready for the next day.