Aboitiz Tri 2015

September 12

1.5K - 40K - 10K

The Place

Pico de Loro Cove is nice, it's got a long beach with mountains on either side. The cove is pronounced on both sides extending quite far from the shoreline. With modern facilities situated on the the beach it is quite easy to pamper yourself. The ballroom area where registration and briefing would take place is a little bit far from the beach though. I parked near the beach/starting line and walked along the pathways surrounding a lagoon with hotels and condominiums lining up around it. The pathway is part of the run course and walking on it going to the registration area was a good way for me to gauge how hard or easy it's gonna be later in the afternoon. With its lush greenery around the lagoon, calm is everywhere. Peace in the midst of racing; this is gonna feel awesome.

The Registration 

Right outside the ballroom is an airconditioned, carpeted waiting area devoted for race pack claiming and booths from some of the well known brands in triathlon. I received a red transition bag, race numbers and stickers, timing chip, and a red souvenir shirt. But of course I still have to race to get that finisher's medal bleh.

The Lunch

We had lunch on a tent right beside the finish line. It was hot but convenient. It's in a place sandwiched by a beautiful beach in front and a lagoon and mountains at the back. Ah life is good.

The Briefing

After having lunch I rode on a shuttle car going to the ballroom for the race briefing. It was already under way and heard some good tips from the speaker regarding the approach on the race course. This is an afternoon race and one of the benefits is the time to prepare is more relaxed especially for that one last visit to the toilet for race day jitters. The ballroom area is the best place I've seen in a triathlon toilet bar none hah!

The Race

To tell you the truth just by looking at the startlist I was hoping for a podium finish but days before the race I got sick and quite frankly I didn't know what to expect but my ego was still hopeful. The strategy was to go hard on the swim, relax on the bike and run the fastest towards the finish line. I prepared hard for the swim and run and my time trial on both disciplines were actually excellent before I got sick so it wouldn't be a sin to hope for the best right? When it all started it just didn't seem right, the swim took more effort and the second loop was slower even if the field was already thin at that point. I wasn't huffing and puffing but I was tiring going to transition 1. The plan wasn't happening ;( and on the bike course I was able to watch how the gap became larger with each turnaround and the stop watch was ticking way faster than I could imagine. On the run course I was already walking on some parts of the route just to catch my breath. I was 6th in my age group and the third placer was a good 3 minutes ahead of me. Looking back there was really nothing I could do to change the outcome, I was tired and I played the part. Worst thing..? I got a fever after it was over luckily I bought some medicines with me. 

The Thoughts

The field was small and I liked it that way. There were lots of official photographers on the the race course. The place is paradise everyone would enjoy playing in it. The steep uphill on the bike course was challenging. The run around the lagoon made me appreciate the sport even more. Would I recommend Aboitiz Tri? Wouldn't you?

Thoughts For The Next Race

I've been under the weather these past few days with cough, colds and fever that comes and goes. This is a horrible excuse to not workout, not that I don't like to rest but the timing is just too close to my next race - Aboitiz Tri 2015. The first two days were a pain in my back and sinus not to mention how cold it can get when the fever strikes. I skipped five consecutive meals because of this but now I'm beginning to eat normally. I've been drinking some herbal teas to speed up my recovery. Here are the three herbal teas I am currently cooking. 

1. Salabat (ginger) - for my cough and colds

2. Sambong - for my temperature and kidney so I can drink medicine and flush it out completely 

3. Sapang - a kind of wood that is told to be good at normalizing blood values.

As for the remaining days before the race I'm not too concerned about the planned workouts, my thoughts are in ridding myself of the phlegm that seems to choke me and the sore throat that prevents me from sleeping. I'd rather be breathing good than risk not joining the Saturday afternoon event. I was pretty much in good shape before somebody transmitted the virus to me and I'm confident I'll be on the starting line on September 12.

Good luck to all the participants of Aboitiz Tri. Let's enjoy the race and please be safe :)

I was visiting my classmate who's celebrating his 19th anniversary of priesthood when I suddenly fell ill

Body temperature was high upon waking up

A new playground for me - never even been here before ;)

Online Buying

I'm a frequent online buyer of things and that goes the same way with bike stuff. Some stores which seem hard to reach physically are naturally appealing to me for online transactions. They may not have online payment facilities but a bank is always near for bank to bank transactions and although they don't have dedicated websites there's always a presence in Facebook and a phone number to reach them.

2,300 for a pair

Here's how I bought a pair of Kenda Kaliente Pro tires with white stripes from a bike shop in Quiapo.

1.  I googled the shop's phone number.

2.  I called to check if they have what I need and asked for the price, shipping included.

3.  They texted me their bank account number.

4.  I deposited the money to their account and called them.

5.  The bike shop texted me with the tracking number.

6.  I received the package after a night.

Buy from reputable bike shops.

Milo Marathon 21K Qualifier

Milo 21K 2015

Last year my goal for this race was to finish in 1:38 or faster, luckily I did finish in 1:38 and qualified for the marathon finals. This year I have a bigger project for the 39th Milo Marathon qualifier - guide my three buddies to run sub 2:30 and get our respective finisher medals. This is not an easy feat because Milo organizers are always strict on their cutoff times and one of my friends ran a 20K in 2:38 back in February. The idea to run the Milo 21K was just hatched on the early part of July back when the three of them weren't near the pace of 7 minutes per kilometer which is my target goal pace for them. But guess what - they made it and the slowest one clocked in at 2:22, not bad if you're coming from a 2:46er BleH! ;)

We all got our medals - Zaldy 2:14, Pot 2:18, Pong 2:22, Me 2:22

Post race breakfast

Turbo Sprint Triathlon 2015

0.75K - 20K - 5K

Riviera Golf and Country Club

August 16, 2015

After dropping my daughter at ADMU for her guidance counseling session I headed down to my teammate Reggie at BF Homes to get my team's tri kit, cycling kit, singlet, and tech shirt just in time for the Turbo Sprint Triathlon. 

Nice quality shirt

As the sun started to set I said good bye and departed from the metro and on towards Silang, Cavite. I checked in at a hotel near the race venue for a stress free travel on race day.

It's been quite a while since I joined a small race, something unusual since I love small races with its simple procedures. What's not to like in it where race packet pick up, bike check in, transition set up were easy and most importantly there's always an available seat at the toilet :).

Race packet claiming, body marking, timing chip distribution

I wasn't too early but I was the first in line (no line yet) to get my race number. Riviera Country Club was a nice venue except for the road humps, four actually. Everything was happening in one place. Registration, body marking, transition, race briefing and later on finishing and awarding were all done inside a multi purpose building. You can see it from the photo below.

Everything under one roof

Talk about spectator friendly race course: 6 loops in a 25 meter pool, 4 loops of a technical course and a 1 loop run on the same bike route. The ladies went first and you wouldn't suspect that most of them were newbies what with those game faces on. I guess that's what racing give every aspiring athlete; a somewhat tenacious look and you know they're not there to just finish it but finish ahead of someone else.

As the first female was out of the water we were called to position ourselves for the start of our wave. This was the only time I couldn't remember how they got us started, there were no horns or guns that I've heard and guys behind me were still saying 'is it a go?, do we have to start swimming?', it was a time to laugh hard but you gotta swim when you gotta swim.

The swim course was the one thing I missed the most with this kind of race. The maneuvering and the jumping in and out of the pool reminded me of Ayala Alabang Days.

Transition Area

The bike course was a 5 kilometer loop made technical by the U turns, curves, inclines and humps. You'll definitely stop to check on your tires when you hit those humps... promise! And because I am the slowest biker in all of triathlon I got to enjoy the route a little bit more I guess. 

Riviera's other swimming pool area

Since the run route was the same as the bike course with only one loop in it I already knew what to expect. At that point I was wondering how I missed badly on my goal time. Even the worst biker in me couldn't be that slow but of course we all know I was that slow ;(. Well we still have a run to tend to, do we?, and I started running quite good I might say up until a kilometer out where I couldn't hold my form and resorted to using smaller steps and hip movement (it's been happening quite a lot lately and this was the third race I abandoned my usual running form with those long strides).

Turbo Sprint was short and it was over in what seemed like a blink of an eye. Because of my earlier wave start than most triathletes I was the first one to cross the finish line.  Gotta love small races!

Sunday Gym Workout

Here are some photos from my gym workout last weekend. The gym has a lapping pool but I didn't get to swim.

Good morning workout :)

The toilet and bath

The small gym

The treadmill workout summary

The selfie ;P

Strengths and Weaknesses

In triathlon they say you have to work on the sport you're least proficient at and remain strong on the ones you're fast at. If you're good at the three disciplines, good for you, you're one of the few who can swim, bike and run strong. For the rest of us there's always this one or two things we really need to improve upon.

On my first ever bike ride - the mtb wasn't mine and look at them badminton shoes :)

I've been doing this swim bike run thing for quite some time now to know my own strengths and weaknesses in endurance sports. It's easy for me to say that in triathlon I am an average swimmer, an average runner and a slow biker. I did work on my cycling but unfortunately I didn't improve much. Caring for my past knee injury prevented me from going hard on my cycling workouts. For an in depth look of my own weaknesses here are some things I've considered.

My first 10K Run - I trained for 4 weeks and finished in 60 minutes

Training - Strength: structured 

Weakness: workouts are short and I tend to have long lay offs every now and then sometimes it could last for a couple of months. 

Acclimation - Strength: I'm accustomed to heat and there were times temperature on the race course gave me reason to quit but I didn't and learned to love it at times.

Weakness: Rain and cold weather is always a problem for me.

Mental Toughness - I admire people who could endure the sport in different places, terrains, time and conditions; something which I can't simply do. I can't sign up for a mountain run not because I'm uncomfortable with trails, I'm more than uncomfortable - afraid is more accurate. Night gives me the creeps as proven in my last Audax ride which led me to pass up on Audax 600.

Execution - Strength: I've been to some races and finished them all, I can also go pretty hard on short distances... who doesn't?

Weakness: Inconsistency and my own porta potty issue - always.

Swim - I'm an average swimmer, on a 1.9K course I could finish in 34 to 39 minutes depending on course conditions.

Bike - By now most of you probably know how slow I could go on the bike so definitely this is my Achilles Heel. My last 90K ride on a very easy course was 3:01.

Run - Depending on the distance I could go from average to horrendous. On standard distance triathlon I'm your average runner always hoping for a 43 to 50 split but anything longer than that and I'm seriously a crawler at times, I had a 2:32 run split where I just couldn't fathom how I finished that one but my last run off the bike was 2:01 though.

Note: Since I started triathlon I swore I would only devote much time in running if ever I become a strong biker. But for some reason I never even reached a point where I could consider myself average in cycling. In hindsight I could have concentrated in running and probably become a better runner by now BLEH!

The Grind by Nico Serrano

This is a piece I received from Mr. Nico Serrano from the Facebook page.

The Grind by Nico Serrano: 

Everyday we work towards our ultimate goal, for runners the goal is to finish each race with a better time, beating their previous best at all cost. These individuals put in hard work to get better and get stronger. Behind the grandeur of all the medals and accomplishments is where they build their foundation, what people don’t see are the hundreds if not thousands of kilometers these athletes go through every training day so that they could be better. 

What these individuals have is the understanding of the bigger picture, building habits that lead to becoming a more well rounded athlete and individual. They understand that a 100% commitment to whatever you invest your time into is something important and should be taken seriously.

The idea of creating habits and laying the foundation for the future is something that can be taken and borrowed from these runners. The dedication to better oneself and their vision is a trait that should be paralleled, however most people often neglect it. The habits and the ability see the bigger picture can be adapted to financial planning.
Financial planning and preparation is often ignored by young professionals who start earning, they often don’t see beyond their next paycheck because of the you only live once or YOLO mentality that they often see in the media. Thus, planting the seeds now for a better future isn’t a top of mind ideology but is essential to the future of young professionals.

Though financial planning and running might seem like two totally contrasting behaviors, the drive and commitment needed to succeed in both are more paralleled and intertwined than most people realize. The ideology of building habits, such as waking up everyday at 5:00 am to run 5 kilometers might seem like an absurd and unrelated reality to someone who will start financial planning and saving. However, the all-in commitment of sacrificing now because it will be better in the future is present in both.

The underlining truth is, both undertakings don’t get results overnight. Reaching your goal of finishing a marathon isn’t just a mindset, but an investment of both time and action; a runner has to think of small goals before finishing a full 42-kilometer marathon. Financial planning is an action plan centric activity, where starting with small increments of savings and executable action plans is a key step to achieving the ultimate goal of financial freedom.

All the sacrifice that is put in to bettering yourself will translate to every endeavor that each and every individual will do. Planning for the future might not be as sexy as buying that new phone or that trendy leather jacket, but if you think about it, these items are want items and are not essential items. Sacrificing now for your financial future is making sure that you’ll never go back and say I should have started earlier.

The reality is, financial planning for young professionals is challenging because of the world that we live in now. The world of social media always keeps us connected and when we scroll through it our friends seem to always be having fun, frequently going on trips, partying, and just generally enjoying the now. Nonetheless, undertaking the challenge of financial planning is a must because if you don’t start planning now then when. In the end, running and financial planning both involves giving up some comforts now so that you’ll have a great foundation for the future and win at whatever you choose to do. For runners this involves getting faster, which would result in getting more medals, for young professionals saving some now so that they will have a financially secured future.

Deja Vu

Last Sunday, July 12, I went to a 10K fun run. It was my first 10K run of this year, one where I can guesstimate my current running fitness. The route was an all too familiar up and down, out and back 5K stretch with 90 meters of elevation gain going to the turnaround point. I had run this course more than any other race routes. 

Waiting for Zaldy to cross the finish line

The weather was ideal for running, cloudy that is. The runners were few and familiar. The organizers were the usual running club. The warm up leader was the same person as my first fun run back in 2011. Even the race briefing was done by the same person as my last try here. It was deja vu!

At the Start/Finish line

When it started I jumped like a rabbit, my first kilometer was over in just 3 minutes and 45 seconds. I knew it wasn't my pace so I had to back off significantly.  Before the turnaround point at close to the 5K mark I saw the top four runners were already way ahead of me. Well that's what runners do, they leave me in their dusts. The fun and suffering lasted for 45 minutes.

Hamdesal and Pancake for Breakfast

Around this time of the year in 2014 I ran an easier 10K course in 46 minutes so I guess I'm in a better shape right now but still a long way to go before becoming marathon ready.