Climbing the Church in the Sky at De la Cuesta in Muzon Taytay Rizal, again

Wheels of Happiness

Rizal Philippines
July 15, 2017

Our staff decided to have  the PE for Saturday (physical fitness) today at Church in the Sky, at de la Cuesta, Muzon Taytay Rizal.  Since I arrived early, I tried to climb the church early.  It is always a challenging task to go to the church.  There is the last portion, only 30 meters long, that is steep. The longer portion about 400 meters is long and medium steep.   But the last 30 meters can take your breath away;   the 68 year old man, a former biker himself, says he can ride that portion up.

Well  I rode down to see other colleagues and climbed the hill again.  My gear was  32 x 28.   for the second climb.  For the first climb it was 32 x 36.

The ride this morning was probably 3 km from Angono x 2, 6 and total up and down the church was 4 km.  I sweated a lot from this climb and must have burned plenty of cholesterol, uric acid, and blood sugar

Hard climbs/yesterday and Wednesday

Wheels of Happiness

Rizal Philippines
June 4, 2017

I was not able to ride today because probably of the hard rides I did for the last two days.  Yesterday, I rode up East ridge, trying to climb it at 32 front chain rings.  However before and after Unamonte I had to shift down to 24 and return to 32 before the former SG outpost.   After resting for a while, I rode up to the new guard house and  passing by the MTB riders from Taguig. who had to stop and rest some 20 meters before the summit.  In a conversation, the young riders said they admire me, the senior rider for not stopping.

Last Wednesday, I climbed San Carlos Heights Antenna via the Gate 2 (the more difficult climb, the easy climb is via Tolentino) I also used 32 chain ring.  There were lot of riders last Wednesday.   I did it non stop.    There I met Glen Diestro and Supremo Armin.  Great guys and riders

On those two occasions, I was with new recruits/trainees at the office.  Part of developing sound mind in a sound body

Many mountainbikers at Antenna in San Carlos

Wheels of Happiness

Angono Rizal Philippines  |  September 2014

Thanks Lord that it did not rain anymore today.  So we had our PE - trek to Marian Hills today.

We had it as scheduled  -  4 of our staff and myself.   There were about 20 MTBs who went up to the antenna.   2 had large tires;  I know some of them but the most notable was  Ace of BDO.  It was noticeable that he had fair skin, and Mike Francisco.

There is about 200 meters of road that is paved.  The rest are still rugged and you can still fall if you hit a stone or gravel (if you ride a roadie)

I would have practiced well for our Caliraya ride because I tried going up and down the paved portion 5x.  See you tomorrow..

              Selfie, on the way to water tank from Gate 2

                       With co employees at Marian Hills

I also enjoyed badminton and pingpong as alternative sports in our PE activity

Real Cyclists



Angono, Rizal, PHL   Octobe 27, 2013

We had PE yesterday at the Mormons facility in Angono, Rizal.  We have PE every Saturday to relax, have bonding and team building.

Yesterday, we had badminton and ping pong.  I played badminton with two ladies and it was great way to have them return all the shots.  Now they are becoming better players.  We had long rallies up to 25.   Unlike before they always dropped the shuttle cock early with 2 or 3 returns only.

But I enjoyed most all pingpong.  I have been practicing pingpong (just serving and returning the ball and keeping this in play) for say 30 years.  I have learned some techniques:

1.  Service -  serve with variety of spin:   side spin, underspin and top spin.  For the underspin, serve below the level of the table so that it can be attacked.  The ball bounces low on the other court.  The spin confuses the opponent and makes him commit errors.

2.  Return of serve -  try to return flat;  but when the spin is severe, try to return with the same type of spin that you observe on the server.  And stay focussed on the ball;  sometimes the spin may persist up to the 2nd return.

3.  When you can practice variety.  Try to lob, use top spin.  Return short after long returns so that he will scramble and gasp for breath.  Drill returns to one side then suddenly change direction.  When your opponent is hard hitter, stay away from the table and do chop returns so that you negate his pace.  Insert a spin or two unnoticed as you reurn like side spin.  Throw in you body behind the spin so that it becomes more severe