A wooden gazebo for a garden project by my buddy - bought on a whim
A excellently built 'maulawin' set is hard to pass at a right price
An Expensive Ride
Bike rides are supposed to be cheap, right? Just bring some water and 200 pesos and you're good, right? Well sometimes you need more than 200 when you happen to chance upon a bike shop or want to try more than a tapsilog or pancit on ride stops. But this one never entered my mind and it's quite an expensive ride.
My friend Pong saw a wooden furniture maker beside the highway and we stopped over to see their stuff. I immediately fell in love with the sofa set made of 'maulawin' an endangered wood specie and he had his eyes on a gazebo that's a perfect fit for his garden project - needless to say we had it delivered to our address after some haggling.
Run United 2 2013
June 2, 2013
Mall of Asia
Hydration Stations: Excellent. There were enough for the whole 32K. Well manned with plenty of water and gatorade, some stations have bananas.
Route: Flat and a bit boring with Macapagal Boulevard and Roxas Boulevard as the main streets used. Well lit even in places that were supposed to be dark the organizers provided generator sets for lighting.
Cheering: It started too early and I never bothered to wake up my family in our hotel room.
Traffic Management: From my point of view it was superb.
Kilometer Markers: Markers on every kilometer.
Marshals: There were enough at every key areas, even security personnel.
Singlet: Better than most.
Medal: Excellent
Freebies: Unilab Products. Photo booth. Game booths. Concert.
Injuries: None, fortunately.
The Bad: The start is a bit too early for my taste.
Mall of Asia
Hydration Stations: Excellent. There were enough for the whole 32K. Well manned with plenty of water and gatorade, some stations have bananas.
Route: Flat and a bit boring with Macapagal Boulevard and Roxas Boulevard as the main streets used. Well lit even in places that were supposed to be dark the organizers provided generator sets for lighting.
Cheering: It started too early and I never bothered to wake up my family in our hotel room.
Traffic Management: From my point of view it was superb.
Kilometer Markers: Markers on every kilometer.
Marshals: There were enough at every key areas, even security personnel.
Singlet: Better than most.
Medal: Excellent
Freebies: Unilab Products. Photo booth. Game booths. Concert.
Injuries: None, fortunately.
The Bad: The start is a bit too early for my taste.
view from my hotel room beside MOA: I think that building is Solaire
Look Who's On The Cover!
No it's not me, Swim PH's April Cover girl is my pool lane mate Tintin. Don't know how old she is right now but I saw her swam 800 meters in 10 plus minutes when she was 12. Sound fast? Wait til you see her swim her favorite stroke, the butterfly.
My mate on lane 4
On the cover of April 2013 issue
XTERRA Mud Run
draft by camille
May 26, 2013
Filinvest
May 26, 2013
Filinvest
BANG!!!
A helping hand: nice and dirty
Running on single tracks
Bottleneck at the rope
Spiral Crawl at kilometer 5
Extremely muddy and happy
Shower and shampoo
DJ Karen tidying up
Ride to Zig Zag
Using our mountain bikes, we climbed up to Quezon National Forest Park aka zig zag aka eMe. There were four of us riding our mtb's, a pair of 26ers and a pair of 29ers in celebration of my friend Zaldy's birthday. It was a 60 kilometer chillax ride to the top of the mountain where we had breakfast.
Zaldy taking a walk: he's such a newbie :)
My bike on a cliff
One last pose before we descend... burrp
Off Road Duathlon at Hacienda Escudero
May 5, 2013
3.5K-22K-3.5K
For starter, this didn't turn out well. My first attempt at off road racing was a bit of a failure right from the start. Two days before the event I went to the venue for track reading. A fellow named Hermie generously guided me through the track. It was a mix of lots of trail under the coconut trees and some paved roads of an empty subdivision. The trail was flat with turns all over the place and the grass slows the wheel down substantially. I wasn't doing well that day but I already expected that since I'm riding with tires suited for hard pack concrete like roads. I knew I had to use a different set of rubbers and there lies the problem, I didn't change them so I was doomed right from the get go.
The first run started out well, I reached kilometer 1 in less than 4 minutes and second to go inside the transition area. The run course was approximately 3.5 kilometers and only 35 percent of it was off road and is flat as any pancake's bottom.
Then came the bike leg and with 60 psi of inflation I was bouncing hard on the track. Coupled with my lack of skills on trail riding, or biking in general, needless to say the 22 kilometer ride went slow. And as if that's not enough I encountered two more problems first with my rear derailleur so I had to stop and fix it and second by getting lost in the lagoon portion of the track. By this time I was just enjoying my ride and hoping to finish with a smile on my face as the brutality of off road biking put a toll on my butt and triceps. Maybe a 60 kilometer road bike course is easier than this. My speed was definitely 3 times less than my road bike average.
As I entered the transition area to prepare for the second run there were more than 15 bikes already hanging on the bamboo poles. I was able to overtake 5 or 6 runners on my way to the finish line and placed 11th overall out of less than 40 participants.
Would I do this again? Maybe yes if the participants remain few. I don't think I would enjoy it this much if there were more than a hundred of us battling it out on the trails. Trail riding could easily be dangerous if there are a lot of overtaking but the allure of mountain biking will always be there. Off road racing is too technical you just can't spend time on a trainer and hope everything will be fine.
After the race we went to a resort and spa nearby and enjoyed the rest of the day with good food and massage. Ah... Life is good!
3.5K-22K-3.5K
For starter, this didn't turn out well. My first attempt at off road racing was a bit of a failure right from the start. Two days before the event I went to the venue for track reading. A fellow named Hermie generously guided me through the track. It was a mix of lots of trail under the coconut trees and some paved roads of an empty subdivision. The trail was flat with turns all over the place and the grass slows the wheel down substantially. I wasn't doing well that day but I already expected that since I'm riding with tires suited for hard pack concrete like roads. I knew I had to use a different set of rubbers and there lies the problem, I didn't change them so I was doomed right from the get go.
Early enough to bike through the run route before gun start
The first run started out well, I reached kilometer 1 in less than 4 minutes and second to go inside the transition area. The run course was approximately 3.5 kilometers and only 35 percent of it was off road and is flat as any pancake's bottom.
Then came the bike leg and with 60 psi of inflation I was bouncing hard on the track. Coupled with my lack of skills on trail riding, or biking in general, needless to say the 22 kilometer ride went slow. And as if that's not enough I encountered two more problems first with my rear derailleur so I had to stop and fix it and second by getting lost in the lagoon portion of the track. By this time I was just enjoying my ride and hoping to finish with a smile on my face as the brutality of off road biking put a toll on my butt and triceps. Maybe a 60 kilometer road bike course is easier than this. My speed was definitely 3 times less than my road bike average.
Obviously I won't be stepping on this in the near future
Would I do this again? Maybe yes if the participants remain few. I don't think I would enjoy it this much if there were more than a hundred of us battling it out on the trails. Trail riding could easily be dangerous if there are a lot of overtaking but the allure of mountain biking will always be there. Off road racing is too technical you just can't spend time on a trainer and hope everything will be fine.
Somewhere in San Pablo City
After the race we went to a resort and spa nearby and enjoyed the rest of the day with good food and massage. Ah... Life is good!
Zero!
draft
How did I come to this? Zero race for the month of April. With much of my Sundays devoted to work, I didn't have the time to even join a fun run. This is the first month that I haven't joined a race since the start of 2012. Last year my addiction to the sport led me to join more than 24 events. But this year I don't think that's gonna happen. So does joining races make me faster? Well my answer to that is yes and no. Yes because it definitely motivated me and since my workouts were mostly low mileage and low intensity exercises I treat races as my hard workout days. And no because sometimes they just get me all banged up and put a big hole in my training schedule.
How did I come to this? Zero race for the month of April. With much of my Sundays devoted to work, I didn't have the time to even join a fun run. This is the first month that I haven't joined a race since the start of 2012. Last year my addiction to the sport led me to join more than 24 events. But this year I don't think that's gonna happen. So does joining races make me faster? Well my answer to that is yes and no. Yes because it definitely motivated me and since my workouts were mostly low mileage and low intensity exercises I treat races as my hard workout days. And no because sometimes they just get me all banged up and put a big hole in my training schedule.
One Sunday Morning
My long bike rides nowadays are few and far between just like my planned races for the year so when a reunion was set at Laiya, San Juan, Batangas I was glad to tag along and use my road bike for some 60 plus kilometers of lung busting ride. I started in Lucena City and it took me more than 2 hours to reach Palm Beach which is actually located in Barangay Hugom just after Laiya. It is the beach just next to La Luz Resort where an off road triathlon is held every December.
With my daughter at approximately 100 meters out
After 62 kilometers of solo ride
After a short hike to a hill rock with La Luz Resort as the backdrop
New Balance NB1090: Long Runs, Here I Come!
Here's hoping for longer distances with this pair and a Shuffle
These trainers were on my wish list for some time now, just waiting for the price to go down. Last Saturday I found it at 30 percent off / 3 months to pay so I grabbed a pair in Glorietta and run on it at Bonifacio High Street. My initial impression was that it's light and well cushioned compared to my 10K shoes, the New Balance 1400 which is a lightweight with minimal support. Actually I won't be using these shoes for much of my runs, that privilege goes to my oldest and heaviest New Balance pair, but for longer races which I plan to enter (IM distance perhaps).
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