Mukhang Guilty’s BLOG

Para madaling basahin… point form nalang:

• PERFECT ROUTE…  it had the right mix of HILLS and FLATS, enough to be a challenge, but not too much for it to be considered a CRAZY race. 
• It was WELL ORGANIZED.. which is a given since it’s managed by Coach Rio. 
• I don’t know how to drink water off a plastic bag
• IT’S FREE, and I love the FINISHER BRACELET (and the packaging that came with it). 
• I GOT CHICKED! (term used by the Bull Runner and DATC)… some girl whooped my ASS and overtook me 10 meters to the finish line.  (I think she placed third) 
• I SAID HI to the Bull Runner for the first time
• NO PR for me in this race, but I think that it’s one of the best 10K races that i’ve ever participated in.

… I did it.. I finally did it.. I got myself a bike I got it the weekend after the Men’s Health All Terrain Race.  

The decision to get a bike was easy, I had a goal in mind (IRONMAN!!), and getting a bike was a prerequisite to achieving that goal.  The devil however, is in the details… What kind of bike should i get? What brands are out there? What’s the price range? 

Being the nerdy geek that I am, I spent roughly around half a day on Saturday to do desktop research to get myself acquainted on the essential bike literature.  From what I gathered, these are the key points:

• There are two general types of racing bikes, ROAD BIKES and TRI BIKES
• The aggressive (body forward) sitting position on a Tri Bike allows you conserve your quads, shifting the pedaling load to your hamstrings… which could save your legs when you run.  The sitting position on a road bike is more upright, this means that you would be burning some glycogen off your quads when pedaling.
• Tri bikes have aerobars that allow you to achieve a more aerodynamic form which will save you some time when biking long distances
• Bike frames can either be carbon, aluminium, or titanium
• Shimano 105 groupset is a practical choice
• Some bike brands out in the market are ORBEA, CERVELO, TREK, KUOTA
• Est. price range would be between 50K to 300K
• TRI BIKES are more ‘maporma’ than ROAD BIKES

Armed with the information above, I ended up getting a MERIDA WARP 5 TRI Bike

Some people have asked me why i never got a bike with a whiz-bang carbon fiber frame, kickass groupset and wheelset, why not go all the way since I am really serious about doing triathlons?.. these are my reasons:

1. How can you appreciate a high end bike if you’ve never tried on an average bike?
2. Being a newbie, i feel that I haven’t reach the performance level to DESERVE an expensive bike
3. And being the competitive person that I am, it gives me great satisfaction to beat someone who is “more equipped” than I am in a race.
4. IT’s not the PRICE of the PACKAGE, but HOW you use your package that counts.

TIME TO START RIDING…. swimming nalang ang kulang.

I have been scouting around for a pair of trainers to complement and eventually replace my soon to be worn out Wave Precisions.  I’ve heard good reviews on Asics, but realized that they don’t have much choices here in the Philippines.  I eventually decided to settle with another pair of Mizunos, since I was quite happy with my current ones. 

I have two beliefs in running:

1) I’ve always believed that running is a techinical sport, there’s an appropriate shoe for a given foot type, a fitting pair of techinical socks to protect your feet and toes against blisters, compression shirts, shorts or leggings to aid in recovery and protect against muscle fatigue.  ENJOY THE SPORT BUT PROTECT YOURSELF FROM INJURY.

2) I also believe that there is a ‘FASHION’ element to it… one can actually ‘LOOK GOOD’ while training for a sport that he/she enjoys. 

After doing my due diligence, I figured that the Wave Creation 9s would best suit my feet type for my long runs.  Having fulfilled the technical requirements of my NEED for a new pair of running shoes… I brought HAPPY along wth me to the Mizuno store at High Street to fullfill the ‘FASHION’ requirement

When we got to the store, I showed HAPPY the shoe, got no GROSS negatives from her, so I went ahead and asked for my size.  The guy from the store said that they didn’t have my size and that the only store that has my size is at the Festival Mall.  SInce HAPPY was a south girl, she offered to pick it up for me.

Two days after, I got the Mizunos from her, and as i was lacing my shoes up, I noticed a note inside the shoe…

… and attached to the note was the money that i gave her for the shoe. 

I thought that was rather sweet of her….

… now I run with HAPPY FEET

This is one of those days when it’s just PCW (perfect cuddle weather)… your mind is asleep even though you are physically in the office with your face staring seriously into your laptop pretending to be responding to very important emails, but REALLY NOW…. your mind is somewhere else… either in bed, thinking about your next vacation, or re-living the last perfect cuddle moment you had with your special someone. 

It’s 9:30 am, after having scoured the net for my usual sites (facebook, inquirer, planet-f1, my fave blogs.. yada yada yada…), I started to fiddle with my POLAR to check my log totals and see how much running i’ve done ever since i got my watch back in February this year.  

I was pleasantly surprised to see that I have logged in more than 1000 kms already   This definitely calls for a reward… A Garmin 405?… or an entry to the Singapore Marathon perhaps?….. NOW ENOUGH SLACKIN OFF…. GOTTA GO BACK TO WORK… bahala na si batman