QUICKIE ...

Today i can truly say that we took our riding to a new level. It was just me and Tariq this time and we decided to go out for a quick 24 KM to end the week.

Once again we started from the compound by the national stadium, we then headed towards the Police directorate and up to "BIG BEN" clock round-a-about. From there we took a right towards the BDF Hospital and into A'ali from the back entrance ... we then took a left and got on the main highway to seef mall but we took the first exit to head back towards Isa Town on the Adhari highway ...

We then headed towards Zayed Town to Jasmis Isa Town, up the road all the way to Ministry of Information and down 16 December road to the Stadium and back home.

I'm calling this post "Quickie" because it truly was a quick ride. We covered the 24KM in 1 hr and 17 minutes which i think is quite decent. This was the first time that we really pushed ourselves to maintain a very quick pace throughout the ride. It felt like a spinning session without all the screaming :)

We need to start planning for the Eid trek soon which should be exciting ... If you've got ideas on a route then feel free to drop a line ...

So what is Ironman?

One of our goals is to participate in this triathlon. Find out more below:

"An Ironman Triathlon is a triathlon sanctioned by the World Triathlon Corporation that adheres to specific distances for each part of the event. The Ironman World Championship is an annual triathlon race, possibly the most famous triathlon in the world. It is held in the US state of Hawaii. It features three endurance events: swimming, biking, and running. It is based in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and involves a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometre) swim (across Kailua-Kona Bay), followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometre) bike ride (from Keauhou to Hawi and back), and a 26.2 mile (42.2 kilometre) marathon along the coast of the Big Island (from Keauhou to Keahole Point to Kailua-Kona).

Official qualifying events for the Hawaii Ironman take place annually around the world, in places such as Australia, Canada, the United States, Japan, the Canary Islands (Spain), South Africa, and Europe." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironman_Triathlon

More Links:

http://ironman.com/

40 KM in extreme conditions

First of all i would like to welcome you all to our webpage "Mountain Biking in Bahrain!?!". A site dedicated to narrating the adventures of three mountain Bikers in Bahrain.

I got a call from Tariq last night confirming the 40KM route that he thinks we should attempt. I've been dreading this call due to the extreme weather conditions we've been having for the past few days. My only hope was for Fahad to talk him out of it but it was too late, he got to Fahad before i could.

Before i knew it, i was awake and on my bike at 8:30am. We started from our usual spot, the coumpound in Riffa. The proposed route was to head from the compound to the camping site in the desert around Jabal Al Dukhan (smoke mountain) and back to the compound (Easier said then done).

There isn't much to mention since it was a very smooth ride other then the 30cm deep, 50meter long puddle of water we came accross. Ofcourse being three adventurous mountain bikers we decided to peddle our way through it. Funny thing is the thought of us riding for the remaining 30KM + with wet sox and shoes in approx 12 degrees celius did not cross our minds. Five minutes later we had to stop and squeeze our sox dry in the middle of the street :)

Overall the ride was very fulfilling. We were able to maintain peddling for a very long distance in the desert as there was nothing that came in our way. (This is not usual in Bahrain since roads are very congested and mountain bike trails are limited)

Check out the pictures that i posted, you will see some of the damage from the rain over the national day weekend. The tent we decided to pose next to is flooded with water. Unfortuantely, i was not able to take a shot of the big puddle that we conquered due to adrenalin rush :)


Until next time ... Happy trailing :)